A surfeit of lies
An evening with Michael Gordon
On Friday night we went to the Tattered Cover bookstore to listen to Gordon speak about his book, Cobra II. He struck me as a detached observer of major policy and military malfunctions. And as he generously fielded many questions from the audience, he never once mentioned oil.
In short, this is what I took home with me:
* He was embedded with the allied land command where he mainly was able to observe the decision making process at military headquarters, which included debriefs of Iraqi officers.
* Saddam was most concerned with the Shia population of Iraq, not the US. He was also interested in maintaining an air of mystery concerning WMDs in order to keep Iran, his other main concern, guessing.
*Saddam didn't think the US would go to Baghdad.
* US policy was decided by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and their strategy was to continue the strategy of the last Gulf war. Therefore, they didn't take into consideration the Iraqi fehdajeen that was a decentralized force created by Saddam to control the Shia in southern Iraq after the first Gulf war.
The US strategy was to overcome the Republican Guard, but it was the fehdajeen who provided the greatest resistance and bullets instead of parades and flowers. Also, no Iraqi commander could order the destruction of bridges on the route to Baghdad without direct orders from Saddam. That paved the way for the rapid advance to Baghdad.
* As I understood it, Gordon was saying the major problems associated with the invasion and occupation were: an aversion to nation building, a dysfunctional decision making process, and disbanding the Iraqi army. I believe Gordon is being too generous when he says the administration really believed WMDs were present.
It was an evening well spent with a man of considerable intelligence and no apparent passion.
Harper's Weekly Review
The planet of unreality
"This is not good. The people running this country sound convinced that reality is whatever they say it is. And if they've actually strayed into the realm of genuine self-delusion -- if they actually believe the fantasies they're spinning about the bloody mess they've made in Iraq over the past three years -- then things are even worse than I thought."
Apocalyptic president
"In his latest PR offensive President Bush came to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to answer the paramount question on Iraq that he said was on people's minds: 'They wonder what I see that they don't.' After mentioning 'terror' 54 times and 'victory' five, dismissing 'civil war' twice and asserting that he is 'optimistic', he called on a citizen in the audience, who homed in on the invisible meaning of recent events in the light of two books, American Theocracy, by Kevin Phillips, and the book of Revelation. Phillips, the questioner explained, 'makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this? And if not, why not?' Bush's immediate response, as transcribed by CNN, was: 'Hmmm.' Then he said: 'The answer is I haven't really thought of it that way. Here's how I think of it. First, I've heard of that, by the way.' The official White House website transcript drops the strategic comma, and so changes the meaning to: 'First I've heard of that, by the way.'
Back to the big lie
"Tossed a softball question during Tuesday morning's press conference about whether he should be censured for ordering warrantless wiretapping of phone conversations 'during a time of war,' President Bush fell back on the lie that Americans must surrender liberties -- and the rule of law, itself -- in order to be made safe from terrorism."
Those lies again
"In a nationally televised press conference, George W. Bush repeated some of his favorite lies about the Iraq War, including the canard that he was forced to invade because Saddam Hussein blocked the work of United Nations weapons inspectors in 2003.
"Bush has uttered this lie in a variety of forms over more than 2 ½ years, yet the Washington press corps has never challenged the President directly about the falsehood. He got away with it again on March 21 when no journalist followed up the question from Helen Thomas that elicited Bush’s response."
An administration in deepening crisis: Some reflections on the Bush press conference
"The Tuesday press conference held by George W. Bush at the White House was another display of the banality and sheer intellectual incapacity of the 43rd US president, and of the mounting contradictions which are undermining the most reactionary administration in American history."
An Update on President Bush's NSA Program: The Historical Context, Specter's Recent Bill, and Feingold's Censure Motion
"President George Bush continues to openly and defiantly ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- the 1978 statute prohibiting electronic inspection of Americans' telephone and email communications with people outside the United States without a court-authorized warrant. (According to U.S. News & World Report, the President may also have authorized warrantless break-ins and other physical surveillance, such as opening regular mail, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.)"
Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
"When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers."
Supreme court: Detainees' rights -- Scalia speaks his mind
"But Justice Antonin Scalia has already spoken his mind about some of the issues in the matter. During an unpublicized March 8 talk at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions, adding he was 'astounded' at the 'hypocritical' reaction in Europe to Gitmo."
A throwback to the legal principles of the Inquisition . . . his catholic heritage is showing.
DOJ: NSA could've monitored lawyer's calls
"The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program."
So there you have it
"His lies are so blatant that I must constantly check myself so as not to assume that he is simply delusional or has blocked out whole chains of events from the past."
Bush bombs in Cleveland
"Meanwhile, that old 'central front,' wooly Afghanistan, is now all sewed up, Bush reassures. 'Twenty-five million people are now free, and Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for the terrorists.' Apparently the president missed the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Maples, giving testimony to Congress a few weeks ago that Taliban resurgence now presents 'a greater threat to the Afghan central government’s expansion of authority than at any point since late 2001.'"
State after state repudiates Bush
"According to SurveyUSA.com, which tracks Bush’s approval ratings in all 50 states, Bush’s support in the March readings plunged to double-digit net negative numbers even in some staunchly Republican states: -12% in South Carolina, -17% in Indiana, -18% in Virginia, and -19% in Tennessee. In Bush’s home state of Texas, public disapproval topped approval by 14 percentage points."
Ex-UN chief: America has 'lost its moral compass'
"Highlighting the US’s opposition last week to the creation of a new UN Human Rights Council, Mrs Robinson said: 'It illustrates the seismic shift which has taken place in the relation of the US to global rule of law issues. Today, the US no longer leads, but is too often seen merely to march out of step with the rest of the world.'"
A US view: Bush censure far-off in this climate
"It's not merely the media — it's the inability of the average American to use a knowledge base to separate fact from fiction, truth from propaganda. The problem runs wide and deep in the U.S. — from a general distrust of “eggheads” and denigration of 'book learning' and critical thinking, to a belief born of theological manifest destiny — America was anointed to rule the world because God said so."
FBI, police spying is rising, group's allege
"Political activists from New York to Colorado to California report that they believe police and FBI surveillance of their activities has increased markedly since the terror attacks 4-1/2 years ago since Congress approved the USA Patriot Act loosening some of the strictures on law enforcement. They include environmental groups like Time's UP!, peace activists in Pittsburgh, and even a police union protesting for higher wages in New York City."
Court grants request to question Abramoff in SunCruz slaying trial
"A judge has approved subpoenas for ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former business partner to answer questions about the mob-style slaying of the owner of a gambling fleet they bought."
The culture of corruption is wide and deep.
'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills': At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone?
"For the coalition, it has been a catastrophe of its own making. For the Iraqi people, it has been a tragedy. But it is also a financial and political scandal that runs right to the heart of the nightmare that is engulfing Iraq today."
Iraq -- US news media's Waterloo
"Even the nation’s preeminent news outlets, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, were sucked into the fiasco, shattering the trust that many Americans had placed in their 'free press' as a vital check and balance on Executive power.
"By contrast, many poorly funded Web sites did a much better job of standing up to the political pressures, showing skepticism and getting the story right."
US media wallows in amnesia
"Short of calling tens of millions of people in the most wired culture in the world stupid and/or ignorant, how does one explain such a discrepancy between reality and propaganda?"
America's blinders
"Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?"
Bush asks US to look past Iraq bloodshed
"Beginning the fourth year of an unpopular war, President Bush defended his Iraq record on Monday against skeptical questioning. He said he could 'understand people being disheartened' but appealed to Americans to look beyond the bloodshed and see signs of progress."
That is, close your eyes and avoid stepping in the blood.
Global Eye
"For instance, we know that the soldiers who caused the deaths of these children -- either by tying them up and shooting them, an unspeakable atrocity, or else 'merely' by storming or bombing a house full of civilians in a night raid 'with both air and ground assets' -- were sent to Iraq on a demonstrably false mission to 'disarm' weapons that did not exist and take revenge for Sept. 11 on people who had nothing to do with the attack. And we now know that President George W. Bush was given detailed reports before the invasion that showed conclusively that the intelligence did not support the public case he was making for war, as the National Journal reports."
Children bound and shot in the back illustrate the lies Smirk oozes daily. He needs to don an orange jump suit immediately and rot in prison for treason and war crimes.
Radioactive tank no. 9 comes limping home
"The enduring vigorous stupidity of the U.S. military pretends that radiation is one of those things that if you can't see it, it can't hurt you. They are thoroughly delusional, of course. A National Academy of Sciences report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation. Any radiation is bad.
"From America to Iraq and back, these giant radioactive hulks can only sicken and kill Americans. On top of the sheer, unrelenting stupidity of playing with radiation with unsuspecting soldiers, now the neo-con government is involving everyday Americans in their radiation madness."
The Department of Offense is a gift that keeps on giving. And as the dust from Operation Iraqis Oil's depleted uranium munitions settles around the planet, the millions of new cancer victims can curse Saddam for being such a bad man.
Is this a strategy for success? Washington's good news in Iraq isn't quite what it seems
"What it [Tal Afar] is, though, like so many places in Iraq now, is a city increasingly divided along sectarian lines. The neighborhoods we patrolled were largely Shia; those our reporter found barricaded and dangerous were mostly Sunni. 'I'd say that zero percent of Bush's talk about Tall Afar is true,' said Ahmed Sami, 45, a Sunni laborer. 'They turned Shiite neighborhoods into havens, and Sunni neighborhoods into hells.'"
Neocon ambitions and the spectacular disaster of Iraq
"What was to have been a jolly, self-financing little war promoted by pro-Israeli neocons to ‘liberate’ Iraq’s oil has cost over $500 billion so far. That’s $50 billion more than the Vietnam War’s total cost (in 2006 dollars). Clearly, the US armed forces are too expensive to send to a war lasting longer than a few months."
US plans new bases in the Middle East
"The plans, revealed in March 2006 contracting documents, call for the continued storage of everything from packaged meals ready to eat (MREs) to missiles in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, as well as the establishment of two new storage hubs, one in a classified Middle Eastern country 'west' of Saudi Arabia ('Site 23') and the other in a yet to be decided 'central Asian state.'"
Here's a crazy thought; what if the US invested money spent on dreams of world conquest on alternative energy/transportation and education instead?
Impeachment? Hell no, impalement
"I don't know about you guys, but I am so sick and tired of these lying, thieving, holier-than-thou, right-wing, cruel, crude, rude, gauche, coarse, crass, cocky, corrupt, dishonest, debauched, degenerate, dissolute, swaggering, lawyer shooting, bullhorn shouting, infrastructure destroying, hysterical, history defying, finger-pointing, puppy stomping, roommate appointing, pretzel choking, collateral damaging, aspersion casting, wedding party bombing, clear cutting, torturing, jobs outsourcing, torture outsourcing, . . ."
A monumental rant.
New York Times details secret US military torture operation
"Based on new interviews with military and government officials, the Times piece (“Before and After Abu Ghraib, a US Unit Abused Detainees,” by Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall) provides some additional information about the unit, particularly with regard to its widespread practice of torturing Iraqi prisoners. However, the newspaper does more to conceal than to reveal the real significance of TF 6-26, which has been closely integrated with a policy of torture and assassination approved at the highest levels of the American government To this day, TF 6-26 continues to operate, but in an even more secretive environment than it did during the period covered by the Times article."
War is peace; torture is freedom.
US casualties stay high
"Over the past month, the average rate at which U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq has significantly fallen, the but the rates at which they are being wounded have dramatically increased."
What ever happened to Congress? A Tomdispatch interview with Chalmers Johnson (Part 2) [Link to Part 1 in introduction]
"The military is out of control. As part of the executive branch, it's expanded under cover of the national security state. Back when I was a kid, the Pentagon was called the Department of War. Now, it's the Department of Defense, though it palpably has nothing to do with defense. Hasn't for a long time. We even have another department of the government today that's concerned with 'homeland security.' You wonder what on Earth do we have that for -- and a Dept of Defense, too!"
What's good for corporations and their congressional representatives has little to do with what's good for the country and its citizens.
Diebold Inc. sued over California voting systems
"'In certifying the Diebold machines, the secretary has sidestepped his duty to deny certification to voting systems that violate state and federal standards,' Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America and plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. 'Diebold systems have failed in security tests and in communities around the country.'"
Life's diversity 'being depleted'
"The other indicators point to an accelerating decline, which has seen the rates of species extinctions surge to their highest levels since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago."
Meanwhile, Pombo (R - demented) is happily gutting the Endangered Species Act.
Oil gushes into Arctic Ocean from BP pipeline
"Across the frozen North Slope of Alaska, the region's largest oil accident on record has been sending hundreds of thousands of litres of crude pouring into the Arctic Ocean during the past week after a badly corroded BPO pipeline ruptured."
Inuit see signs in Arctic thaw
Fish and wildlife are following the retreating ice caps northward. Polar bears are losing the floes they need for hunting. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are hauling up on islands to give birth. Robins and barn owls and hornets, previously unknown so far north, are arriving in Arctic villages.
Carbon cloud over a green fuel
"The trend, which is expected to continue, has left even some ethanol boosters scratching their heads. Should coal become a standard for 30 to 40 ethanol plants under construction - and 150 others on the drawing boards - it would undermine the environmental reasoning for switching to ethanol in the first place, environmentalists say."
I was taking with a fellow at a party a few years ago, and he held a patent on the production of ethanol. The problem, he said, is that it takes more energy to produce ethanol than the ethanol is able to provide.
Ceres releases first-ever ranking of 100 global companies on climate change strategy
"A growing number of leading U.S. companies are confronting the business challenges from global warming, recognizing that greenhouse gas limits are inevitable and that they cannot risk falling behind their international competitors in developing climate-friendly technologies. Some U.S. companies, such as General Electric, are catching up and joining DuPont and Alcoa in leading their industries. But many others are still largely ignoring the climate issue with 'business as usual' strategies that may be putting their companies and shareholders at risk."
General Motors in crisis talks to cut 35,000 jobs
"General Motors is trying to stave off the possibility of collapse by thrashing out a last-minute job reduction plan with its former subsidiary and now major parts supplier, Delphi, and the powerful United Auto Workers union.
"The plan on the table is believed to involve offering up to 35,000 employees in both companies cash incentives of up to $35,000 (£20,000) to take early retirement."
GM, Delphi, US autoworkers' union agree to massive job-cutting program
"The 'Special Attrition Program' announced Wednesday provides retirement incentives and buyouts aimed at moving out of the plants an older generation of autoworkers who have attained wage levels, benefits and working conditions that Wall Street and the auto executives consider luxurious and uncompetitive. The goal of the corporations and their financial advisors is to create a much smaller, younger and more highly exploited workforce that will be paid lower wages, enjoy no job security at all and lack any guarantee of a pension or medical benefits upon retirement."
I remember when a GM slogan was "What's good for General Motors is good for America." Now it will be, "What's good for General Motors executives is bad for America."
15 million Brits losing savings in Blair's supposed safe bet
"About 15 million British citizens who were forced to invest in the domestic bond market are losing their savings, and the government is telling them: Too bad!"
Will your job survive?
"As Blinder believes that all those manufacturing jobs are offshorable, too, the grand total of American jobs that could be bound for Bangalore or Bangladesh is somewhere between 42 million and 56 million. That doesn't mean all those jobs are going to be exported. It does mean that the Americans performing them will be in competition with people who will do the same work for a whole lot less."
UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar
"A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros."
Quotes from www.bartcop.com and others:
"It shows how dangerously incompetent he is." -- Harry Reid, on Monkey saying troops will stay in Iraq as long as he's president, Link I think what Bush meant was America will stay in Iraq until he sucks it free of every drop of oil.
"I knew that the farther we got away from September the 11th, 2001, the more likely it would be that some would forget the lessons of that day." -- America's Giggling Murderer, Link Hey Monkey, YOU forgot 9-11 when you called of the hunt for Osama so you could invade Iraq and steal their oil, ...ya lying bastard.
"One of my jobs is to constantly remind people of the lessons. The first lesson is, is that oceans can no longer protect us." -- America's braindead Monkey, Link Hey Monkey, ever heard of Pearl Harbor?
"When I was coming up in the '50s in Texas, it seemed like we were pretty safe. In the '60s it seemed like we were safe." -- America's ignore-the-PDB Monkey, Link
"You couldn't sit in that press room day after day. Every time, every time it was mentioned by Ari Fleischer or Scott, they would say in one breath, 9/11, Saddam. 9/11, Saddam. I don't blame the American people for thinking there was a [connection.]" -- Helen Thomas, a member of the press we can respect, Link
"The most powerful man in the world tells bald-faced lies that result in the death of possibly hundreds of thousands of people and the mainstream media pretends it hasn’t happened. It keeps happening, and nobody seems to think it’s a big deal. Well, I do. The WaHoPo found the president’s press conference to be 'sometimes blunt, sometimes joking and sometimes unpolished' but 'sounded authentic,"I found it to be 'lying.'" -- Eric Alterman, Link Wolf the Whore was worse, going on and on about how "relaxed and commanding" Bush was at his lil' whore press conference. Sure, if you never answer a question it's easy to put on a performance that looks authentic. The White House press treats Bush like Playboy bunnies treat Hugh Hefner.
"Stupidity is the basic building block of the universe." -- Frank Zappa
"She seems like she hates him - in fact, she seems like she burns with hatred. Her smile is just a little bit too, well, wide. It's more like a grimace." -- comedian Margaret Cho, on Pickles
"I've got a 45-second commute to my office. The food is pretty good. It is a -- I've enjoyed every second of the presidency." -- Oil Boy, who stole $127,820,000yesterday, Link
"Saddam aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda." -- Dubya, SOTU 2003, Link
"Saddam and al-Qaeda in the same sentence separated by seven words. Who does the President think he's f-ing kidding?" -- Keith Olbermann, on Dubya's lying about 9-11 and Saddam Hussein, Link
"Imagine an enemy that says: We will kill innocent people because we're trying to encourage people to be free." -- Dubya, press conference, Link He understands those words, probably. He knows how crazy it sounds, but he can't understand that they apply to him.
"I didn’t say that there was a direct connection between 9-11 and Saddam." -- Dubya, Link
"The Iraq invasion may be the single most misguided, dishonest and counter-productive expenditure of our nation’s blood and treasure in its history. And almost all of this was evident from the start to anyone who cared to look." -- Eric Alterman, Link
"Yesterday marked three years of war in Iraq -- but not to Bush. To Bush, it was 'the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq.' Bush's avoidance of the word 'war' in the context of Iraq is the rule, not the exception. In the carefully chosen lexicon of White House speeches, that particular word is almost exclusively reserved for the 'global war on terror.' So there is no war, except for the war that never ends, and we're winning." -- Dan Froomkin, Link
"There is a perception that's created because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad. It's not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces." -- Dick Cheney, Link
"You know, Cheney's right. Why do we focus so much on the 9-11 attacks and not all the work that went on that day in 49 other states?" --ntodd, Link
"This will be no war - there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention. It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on." -- Christopher Hitchens, Jan 28, 2003, Link Hitchens loves Bush more than Pickles.
"We're all neo-cons now." -- Chris Matthews, April 9, 2003, gushing at and cheering for Bush, Link
"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?" -- Alan Colmes, whore in sheep's clothing, April 25, 2003, Link
"He looked like an alternatively commander in chief, rock star, movie star, and one of the guys." -- CNN's Lou Dobbs, on "Mission Accomplished" May 1, 2003, Link
"The war winds down, politics heats up...Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific." -- PBS's Gwen Ifill, outright worshipping The First Monkey on "Mission Accomplished", Link
"If we named presidents the way we do historical figures like Richard the Lionhearted or Ivan the Terrible, certainly today what you saw was George Bush the Passionate." -- Bob Schieffer, worshipping at the BFEE's altar for money Link
"Mr. President: Did you ever hold conservative notions and assumptions on the issue of spending? If so, did you abandon them after the trauma of 9/11? For what reasons, exactly? Were you always a liberal on spending?" -- Peggy Noonan, attacking Bush more than the Democrats, Link
"Taking care of all Iraqi business in the time it takes to watch 'Two and a Half Men'." -- Jon Stewart, on the 30-minute first session of Iraq's parliament
Audio adventure
A lady bought a new Lexus. Two days later, she brought it back, complaining that the radio was not working. "Madam", said the sales manager, "the audio system in this car is completely automatic. All you need to do is tell it what you want to listen to, and you will hear exactly that!"
She drives out, somewhat amazed and a little confused. She looked at the radio and said"Nelson." The radio responded, Ricky or Willie?" Soon, she was speeding down the highway to the sounds of "On the road again." The lady was astounded. If she wanted Beethoven, that's what she got. If she wanted Nat King Cole, she got it.
Suddenly, at a traffic light, her light turned green and she pulled out. Off to her right, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small sports utility vehicle speeding toward her. She swerved and narrowly missed a terrible collision. "Asshole", she muttered. And, from the radio............"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States. . . ."
Thinking
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking...""I know you've been thinking," She said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors... They didn't open. The library was closed.To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.
Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a Poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster; which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.
I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. The road to recovery is nearly complete for me. Today I made the final step: I registered to vote as a Republican.
On Friday night we went to the Tattered Cover bookstore to listen to Gordon speak about his book, Cobra II. He struck me as a detached observer of major policy and military malfunctions. And as he generously fielded many questions from the audience, he never once mentioned oil.
In short, this is what I took home with me:
* He was embedded with the allied land command where he mainly was able to observe the decision making process at military headquarters, which included debriefs of Iraqi officers.
* Saddam was most concerned with the Shia population of Iraq, not the US. He was also interested in maintaining an air of mystery concerning WMDs in order to keep Iran, his other main concern, guessing.
*Saddam didn't think the US would go to Baghdad.
* US policy was decided by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and their strategy was to continue the strategy of the last Gulf war. Therefore, they didn't take into consideration the Iraqi fehdajeen that was a decentralized force created by Saddam to control the Shia in southern Iraq after the first Gulf war.
The US strategy was to overcome the Republican Guard, but it was the fehdajeen who provided the greatest resistance and bullets instead of parades and flowers. Also, no Iraqi commander could order the destruction of bridges on the route to Baghdad without direct orders from Saddam. That paved the way for the rapid advance to Baghdad.
* As I understood it, Gordon was saying the major problems associated with the invasion and occupation were: an aversion to nation building, a dysfunctional decision making process, and disbanding the Iraqi army. I believe Gordon is being too generous when he says the administration really believed WMDs were present.
It was an evening well spent with a man of considerable intelligence and no apparent passion.
Harper's Weekly Review
The planet of unreality
"This is not good. The people running this country sound convinced that reality is whatever they say it is. And if they've actually strayed into the realm of genuine self-delusion -- if they actually believe the fantasies they're spinning about the bloody mess they've made in Iraq over the past three years -- then things are even worse than I thought."
Apocalyptic president
"In his latest PR offensive President Bush came to Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday to answer the paramount question on Iraq that he said was on people's minds: 'They wonder what I see that they don't.' After mentioning 'terror' 54 times and 'victory' five, dismissing 'civil war' twice and asserting that he is 'optimistic', he called on a citizen in the audience, who homed in on the invisible meaning of recent events in the light of two books, American Theocracy, by Kevin Phillips, and the book of Revelation. Phillips, the questioner explained, 'makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this? And if not, why not?' Bush's immediate response, as transcribed by CNN, was: 'Hmmm.' Then he said: 'The answer is I haven't really thought of it that way. Here's how I think of it. First, I've heard of that, by the way.' The official White House website transcript drops the strategic comma, and so changes the meaning to: 'First I've heard of that, by the way.'
Back to the big lie
"Tossed a softball question during Tuesday morning's press conference about whether he should be censured for ordering warrantless wiretapping of phone conversations 'during a time of war,' President Bush fell back on the lie that Americans must surrender liberties -- and the rule of law, itself -- in order to be made safe from terrorism."
Those lies again
"In a nationally televised press conference, George W. Bush repeated some of his favorite lies about the Iraq War, including the canard that he was forced to invade because Saddam Hussein blocked the work of United Nations weapons inspectors in 2003.
"Bush has uttered this lie in a variety of forms over more than 2 ½ years, yet the Washington press corps has never challenged the President directly about the falsehood. He got away with it again on March 21 when no journalist followed up the question from Helen Thomas that elicited Bush’s response."
An administration in deepening crisis: Some reflections on the Bush press conference
"The Tuesday press conference held by George W. Bush at the White House was another display of the banality and sheer intellectual incapacity of the 43rd US president, and of the mounting contradictions which are undermining the most reactionary administration in American history."
An Update on President Bush's NSA Program: The Historical Context, Specter's Recent Bill, and Feingold's Censure Motion
"President George Bush continues to openly and defiantly ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- the 1978 statute prohibiting electronic inspection of Americans' telephone and email communications with people outside the United States without a court-authorized warrant. (According to U.S. News & World Report, the President may also have authorized warrantless break-ins and other physical surveillance, such as opening regular mail, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.)"
Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
"When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers."
Supreme court: Detainees' rights -- Scalia speaks his mind
"But Justice Antonin Scalia has already spoken his mind about some of the issues in the matter. During an unpublicized March 8 talk at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions, adding he was 'astounded' at the 'hypocritical' reaction in Europe to Gitmo."
A throwback to the legal principles of the Inquisition . . . his catholic heritage is showing.
DOJ: NSA could've monitored lawyer's calls
"The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program."
So there you have it
"His lies are so blatant that I must constantly check myself so as not to assume that he is simply delusional or has blocked out whole chains of events from the past."
Bush bombs in Cleveland
"Meanwhile, that old 'central front,' wooly Afghanistan, is now all sewed up, Bush reassures. 'Twenty-five million people are now free, and Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for the terrorists.' Apparently the president missed the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Maples, giving testimony to Congress a few weeks ago that Taliban resurgence now presents 'a greater threat to the Afghan central government’s expansion of authority than at any point since late 2001.'"
State after state repudiates Bush
"According to SurveyUSA.com, which tracks Bush’s approval ratings in all 50 states, Bush’s support in the March readings plunged to double-digit net negative numbers even in some staunchly Republican states: -12% in South Carolina, -17% in Indiana, -18% in Virginia, and -19% in Tennessee. In Bush’s home state of Texas, public disapproval topped approval by 14 percentage points."
Ex-UN chief: America has 'lost its moral compass'
"Highlighting the US’s opposition last week to the creation of a new UN Human Rights Council, Mrs Robinson said: 'It illustrates the seismic shift which has taken place in the relation of the US to global rule of law issues. Today, the US no longer leads, but is too often seen merely to march out of step with the rest of the world.'"
A US view: Bush censure far-off in this climate
"It's not merely the media — it's the inability of the average American to use a knowledge base to separate fact from fiction, truth from propaganda. The problem runs wide and deep in the U.S. — from a general distrust of “eggheads” and denigration of 'book learning' and critical thinking, to a belief born of theological manifest destiny — America was anointed to rule the world because God said so."
FBI, police spying is rising, group's allege
"Political activists from New York to Colorado to California report that they believe police and FBI surveillance of their activities has increased markedly since the terror attacks 4-1/2 years ago since Congress approved the USA Patriot Act loosening some of the strictures on law enforcement. They include environmental groups like Time's UP!, peace activists in Pittsburgh, and even a police union protesting for higher wages in New York City."
Court grants request to question Abramoff in SunCruz slaying trial
"A judge has approved subpoenas for ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former business partner to answer questions about the mob-style slaying of the owner of a gambling fleet they bought."
The culture of corruption is wide and deep.
'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills': At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone?
"For the coalition, it has been a catastrophe of its own making. For the Iraqi people, it has been a tragedy. But it is also a financial and political scandal that runs right to the heart of the nightmare that is engulfing Iraq today."
Iraq -- US news media's Waterloo
"Even the nation’s preeminent news outlets, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, were sucked into the fiasco, shattering the trust that many Americans had placed in their 'free press' as a vital check and balance on Executive power.
"By contrast, many poorly funded Web sites did a much better job of standing up to the political pressures, showing skepticism and getting the story right."
US media wallows in amnesia
"Short of calling tens of millions of people in the most wired culture in the world stupid and/or ignorant, how does one explain such a discrepancy between reality and propaganda?"
America's blinders
"Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?"
Bush asks US to look past Iraq bloodshed
"Beginning the fourth year of an unpopular war, President Bush defended his Iraq record on Monday against skeptical questioning. He said he could 'understand people being disheartened' but appealed to Americans to look beyond the bloodshed and see signs of progress."
That is, close your eyes and avoid stepping in the blood.
Global Eye
"For instance, we know that the soldiers who caused the deaths of these children -- either by tying them up and shooting them, an unspeakable atrocity, or else 'merely' by storming or bombing a house full of civilians in a night raid 'with both air and ground assets' -- were sent to Iraq on a demonstrably false mission to 'disarm' weapons that did not exist and take revenge for Sept. 11 on people who had nothing to do with the attack. And we now know that President George W. Bush was given detailed reports before the invasion that showed conclusively that the intelligence did not support the public case he was making for war, as the National Journal reports."
Children bound and shot in the back illustrate the lies Smirk oozes daily. He needs to don an orange jump suit immediately and rot in prison for treason and war crimes.
Radioactive tank no. 9 comes limping home
"The enduring vigorous stupidity of the U.S. military pretends that radiation is one of those things that if you can't see it, it can't hurt you. They are thoroughly delusional, of course. A National Academy of Sciences report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation. Any radiation is bad.
"From America to Iraq and back, these giant radioactive hulks can only sicken and kill Americans. On top of the sheer, unrelenting stupidity of playing with radiation with unsuspecting soldiers, now the neo-con government is involving everyday Americans in their radiation madness."
The Department of Offense is a gift that keeps on giving. And as the dust from Operation Iraqis Oil's depleted uranium munitions settles around the planet, the millions of new cancer victims can curse Saddam for being such a bad man.
Is this a strategy for success? Washington's good news in Iraq isn't quite what it seems
"What it [Tal Afar] is, though, like so many places in Iraq now, is a city increasingly divided along sectarian lines. The neighborhoods we patrolled were largely Shia; those our reporter found barricaded and dangerous were mostly Sunni. 'I'd say that zero percent of Bush's talk about Tall Afar is true,' said Ahmed Sami, 45, a Sunni laborer. 'They turned Shiite neighborhoods into havens, and Sunni neighborhoods into hells.'"
Neocon ambitions and the spectacular disaster of Iraq
"What was to have been a jolly, self-financing little war promoted by pro-Israeli neocons to ‘liberate’ Iraq’s oil has cost over $500 billion so far. That’s $50 billion more than the Vietnam War’s total cost (in 2006 dollars). Clearly, the US armed forces are too expensive to send to a war lasting longer than a few months."
US plans new bases in the Middle East
"The plans, revealed in March 2006 contracting documents, call for the continued storage of everything from packaged meals ready to eat (MREs) to missiles in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman, as well as the establishment of two new storage hubs, one in a classified Middle Eastern country 'west' of Saudi Arabia ('Site 23') and the other in a yet to be decided 'central Asian state.'"
Here's a crazy thought; what if the US invested money spent on dreams of world conquest on alternative energy/transportation and education instead?
Impeachment? Hell no, impalement
"I don't know about you guys, but I am so sick and tired of these lying, thieving, holier-than-thou, right-wing, cruel, crude, rude, gauche, coarse, crass, cocky, corrupt, dishonest, debauched, degenerate, dissolute, swaggering, lawyer shooting, bullhorn shouting, infrastructure destroying, hysterical, history defying, finger-pointing, puppy stomping, roommate appointing, pretzel choking, collateral damaging, aspersion casting, wedding party bombing, clear cutting, torturing, jobs outsourcing, torture outsourcing, . . ."
A monumental rant.
New York Times details secret US military torture operation
"Based on new interviews with military and government officials, the Times piece (“Before and After Abu Ghraib, a US Unit Abused Detainees,” by Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall) provides some additional information about the unit, particularly with regard to its widespread practice of torturing Iraqi prisoners. However, the newspaper does more to conceal than to reveal the real significance of TF 6-26, which has been closely integrated with a policy of torture and assassination approved at the highest levels of the American government To this day, TF 6-26 continues to operate, but in an even more secretive environment than it did during the period covered by the Times article."
War is peace; torture is freedom.
US casualties stay high
"Over the past month, the average rate at which U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq has significantly fallen, the but the rates at which they are being wounded have dramatically increased."
What ever happened to Congress? A Tomdispatch interview with Chalmers Johnson (Part 2) [Link to Part 1 in introduction]
"The military is out of control. As part of the executive branch, it's expanded under cover of the national security state. Back when I was a kid, the Pentagon was called the Department of War. Now, it's the Department of Defense, though it palpably has nothing to do with defense. Hasn't for a long time. We even have another department of the government today that's concerned with 'homeland security.' You wonder what on Earth do we have that for -- and a Dept of Defense, too!"
What's good for corporations and their congressional representatives has little to do with what's good for the country and its citizens.
Diebold Inc. sued over California voting systems
"'In certifying the Diebold machines, the secretary has sidestepped his duty to deny certification to voting systems that violate state and federal standards,' Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America and plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. 'Diebold systems have failed in security tests and in communities around the country.'"
Life's diversity 'being depleted'
"The other indicators point to an accelerating decline, which has seen the rates of species extinctions surge to their highest levels since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago."
Meanwhile, Pombo (R - demented) is happily gutting the Endangered Species Act.
Oil gushes into Arctic Ocean from BP pipeline
"Across the frozen North Slope of Alaska, the region's largest oil accident on record has been sending hundreds of thousands of litres of crude pouring into the Arctic Ocean during the past week after a badly corroded BPO pipeline ruptured."
Inuit see signs in Arctic thaw
Fish and wildlife are following the retreating ice caps northward. Polar bears are losing the floes they need for hunting. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are hauling up on islands to give birth. Robins and barn owls and hornets, previously unknown so far north, are arriving in Arctic villages.
Carbon cloud over a green fuel
"The trend, which is expected to continue, has left even some ethanol boosters scratching their heads. Should coal become a standard for 30 to 40 ethanol plants under construction - and 150 others on the drawing boards - it would undermine the environmental reasoning for switching to ethanol in the first place, environmentalists say."
I was taking with a fellow at a party a few years ago, and he held a patent on the production of ethanol. The problem, he said, is that it takes more energy to produce ethanol than the ethanol is able to provide.
Ceres releases first-ever ranking of 100 global companies on climate change strategy
"A growing number of leading U.S. companies are confronting the business challenges from global warming, recognizing that greenhouse gas limits are inevitable and that they cannot risk falling behind their international competitors in developing climate-friendly technologies. Some U.S. companies, such as General Electric, are catching up and joining DuPont and Alcoa in leading their industries. But many others are still largely ignoring the climate issue with 'business as usual' strategies that may be putting their companies and shareholders at risk."
General Motors in crisis talks to cut 35,000 jobs
"General Motors is trying to stave off the possibility of collapse by thrashing out a last-minute job reduction plan with its former subsidiary and now major parts supplier, Delphi, and the powerful United Auto Workers union.
"The plan on the table is believed to involve offering up to 35,000 employees in both companies cash incentives of up to $35,000 (£20,000) to take early retirement."
GM, Delphi, US autoworkers' union agree to massive job-cutting program
"The 'Special Attrition Program' announced Wednesday provides retirement incentives and buyouts aimed at moving out of the plants an older generation of autoworkers who have attained wage levels, benefits and working conditions that Wall Street and the auto executives consider luxurious and uncompetitive. The goal of the corporations and their financial advisors is to create a much smaller, younger and more highly exploited workforce that will be paid lower wages, enjoy no job security at all and lack any guarantee of a pension or medical benefits upon retirement."
I remember when a GM slogan was "What's good for General Motors is good for America." Now it will be, "What's good for General Motors executives is bad for America."
15 million Brits losing savings in Blair's supposed safe bet
"About 15 million British citizens who were forced to invest in the domestic bond market are losing their savings, and the government is telling them: Too bad!"
Will your job survive?
"As Blinder believes that all those manufacturing jobs are offshorable, too, the grand total of American jobs that could be bound for Bangalore or Bangladesh is somewhere between 42 million and 56 million. That doesn't mean all those jobs are going to be exported. It does mean that the Americans performing them will be in competition with people who will do the same work for a whole lot less."
UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar
"A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros."
Quotes from www.bartcop.com and others:
"It shows how dangerously incompetent he is." -- Harry Reid, on Monkey saying troops will stay in Iraq as long as he's president, Link I think what Bush meant was America will stay in Iraq until he sucks it free of every drop of oil.
"I knew that the farther we got away from September the 11th, 2001, the more likely it would be that some would forget the lessons of that day." -- America's Giggling Murderer, Link Hey Monkey, YOU forgot 9-11 when you called of the hunt for Osama so you could invade Iraq and steal their oil, ...ya lying bastard.
"One of my jobs is to constantly remind people of the lessons. The first lesson is, is that oceans can no longer protect us." -- America's braindead Monkey, Link Hey Monkey, ever heard of Pearl Harbor?
"When I was coming up in the '50s in Texas, it seemed like we were pretty safe. In the '60s it seemed like we were safe." -- America's ignore-the-PDB Monkey, Link
"You couldn't sit in that press room day after day. Every time, every time it was mentioned by Ari Fleischer or Scott, they would say in one breath, 9/11, Saddam. 9/11, Saddam. I don't blame the American people for thinking there was a [connection.]" -- Helen Thomas, a member of the press we can respect, Link
"The most powerful man in the world tells bald-faced lies that result in the death of possibly hundreds of thousands of people and the mainstream media pretends it hasn’t happened. It keeps happening, and nobody seems to think it’s a big deal. Well, I do. The WaHoPo found the president’s press conference to be 'sometimes blunt, sometimes joking and sometimes unpolished' but 'sounded authentic,"I found it to be 'lying.'" -- Eric Alterman, Link Wolf the Whore was worse, going on and on about how "relaxed and commanding" Bush was at his lil' whore press conference. Sure, if you never answer a question it's easy to put on a performance that looks authentic. The White House press treats Bush like Playboy bunnies treat Hugh Hefner.
"Stupidity is the basic building block of the universe." -- Frank Zappa
"She seems like she hates him - in fact, she seems like she burns with hatred. Her smile is just a little bit too, well, wide. It's more like a grimace." -- comedian Margaret Cho, on Pickles
"I've got a 45-second commute to my office. The food is pretty good. It is a -- I've enjoyed every second of the presidency." -- Oil Boy, who stole $127,820,000yesterday, Link
"Saddam aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda." -- Dubya, SOTU 2003, Link
"Saddam and al-Qaeda in the same sentence separated by seven words. Who does the President think he's f-ing kidding?" -- Keith Olbermann, on Dubya's lying about 9-11 and Saddam Hussein, Link
"Imagine an enemy that says: We will kill innocent people because we're trying to encourage people to be free." -- Dubya, press conference, Link He understands those words, probably. He knows how crazy it sounds, but he can't understand that they apply to him.
"I didn’t say that there was a direct connection between 9-11 and Saddam." -- Dubya, Link
"The Iraq invasion may be the single most misguided, dishonest and counter-productive expenditure of our nation’s blood and treasure in its history. And almost all of this was evident from the start to anyone who cared to look." -- Eric Alterman, Link
"Yesterday marked three years of war in Iraq -- but not to Bush. To Bush, it was 'the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq.' Bush's avoidance of the word 'war' in the context of Iraq is the rule, not the exception. In the carefully chosen lexicon of White House speeches, that particular word is almost exclusively reserved for the 'global war on terror.' So there is no war, except for the war that never ends, and we're winning." -- Dan Froomkin, Link
"There is a perception that's created because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad. It's not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces." -- Dick Cheney, Link
"You know, Cheney's right. Why do we focus so much on the 9-11 attacks and not all the work that went on that day in 49 other states?" --ntodd, Link
"This will be no war - there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention. It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on." -- Christopher Hitchens, Jan 28, 2003, Link Hitchens loves Bush more than Pickles.
"We're all neo-cons now." -- Chris Matthews, April 9, 2003, gushing at and cheering for Bush, Link
"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?" -- Alan Colmes, whore in sheep's clothing, April 25, 2003, Link
"He looked like an alternatively commander in chief, rock star, movie star, and one of the guys." -- CNN's Lou Dobbs, on "Mission Accomplished" May 1, 2003, Link
"The war winds down, politics heats up...Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific." -- PBS's Gwen Ifill, outright worshipping The First Monkey on "Mission Accomplished", Link
"If we named presidents the way we do historical figures like Richard the Lionhearted or Ivan the Terrible, certainly today what you saw was George Bush the Passionate." -- Bob Schieffer, worshipping at the BFEE's altar for money Link
"Mr. President: Did you ever hold conservative notions and assumptions on the issue of spending? If so, did you abandon them after the trauma of 9/11? For what reasons, exactly? Were you always a liberal on spending?" -- Peggy Noonan, attacking Bush more than the Democrats, Link
"Taking care of all Iraqi business in the time it takes to watch 'Two and a Half Men'." -- Jon Stewart, on the 30-minute first session of Iraq's parliament
Audio adventure
A lady bought a new Lexus. Two days later, she brought it back, complaining that the radio was not working. "Madam", said the sales manager, "the audio system in this car is completely automatic. All you need to do is tell it what you want to listen to, and you will hear exactly that!"
She drives out, somewhat amazed and a little confused. She looked at the radio and said"Nelson." The radio responded, Ricky or Willie?" Soon, she was speeding down the highway to the sounds of "On the road again." The lady was astounded. If she wanted Beethoven, that's what she got. If she wanted Nat King Cole, she got it.
Suddenly, at a traffic light, her light turned green and she pulled out. Off to her right, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small sports utility vehicle speeding toward her. She swerved and narrowly missed a terrible collision. "Asshole", she muttered. And, from the radio............"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States. . . ."
Thinking
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking...""I know you've been thinking," She said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors... They didn't open. The library was closed.To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.
Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a Poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster; which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.
I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed...easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. The road to recovery is nearly complete for me. Today I made the final step: I registered to vote as a Republican.
posted by Jerry | 8:22 PM
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