"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren..."

Jesus was a radical, too:

We believe it is time to shine light on the hypocrisy of politicians and pundits who expound on the freedom of religion for their chosen sects while seeking to tell our Muslim brothers and sisters where they can and cannot worship. Using a political podium to bully a religious community threatens one of our most fundamental freedoms.

Not hatred.

Hatred & opportunism go down to defeat at Ground Zero

Ground Zero, where the Towers fell on 9/11, is--ought to be treated as--as sacred site: a place where we are all to be reminded of the pointless loss and human suffering that hatred and political opportunism can create. It was thus particularly contemptible when Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin, and a raft of hateful right-wing nutjob political and media hacks, campaigned against the building of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero: as if no Muslim suffered and died in the Towers that day! What arrogance!

So I was really, really happy to get this note from the J Street folks who are working to create more effective interfaith dialogue [redacted].

The best part?

The embrace.

Dr Coyote --

Yesterday, J Street New York City supporters and I delivered over 10,000 of your signatures in support of the Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan to a critical hearing of New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The response by our community to our call to action on this issue was overwhelming and demonstrated that J Street supporters clearly understand that tolerance and religious freedom are not only essential values, but that sacrificing them weakens us in the fight against extremism.

And I've got great news -- despite the outcry against the project, the Commission voted 9-0 to allow it to proceed.

Yesterday, after the vote, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a stirring defense of the project and religious freedom on Governor's Island with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

Mayor Bloomberg was joined by a group of interfaith leaders as he gave his remarks in front of the Statue of Liberty:

Every local official I spoke with at the hearing truly appreciated our support for the project.

I also had an emotional moment with the Community Center's lead developer -- Sharif El-Gamal -- who couldn't help but give me a hug, even though we'd never met before!

For those of you that stood with us, thank you so much. Our voices are so needed in the national political debate and within the American Jewish community.

If you would like to support J Street financially, allowing us to keep standing up for our values, click here to make a gift.

Until next time,

- Isaac

Isaac Luria
V.P., Communications and New Media
J Street
August 4, 2010

"Music is the weapon of the future" --Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti said that. In this performance, the great Hugh Masekela, who wrote the song for the magnificent stage show Sarafina!, about the children-led protests of the Soweto Riots, proves it.

I was playing this song, with my brother-in-music Dr Jolt, in Bloomington IN, in Jif & the Choosy Mothers, the night that Nelson Mandela walked out of prison, after twenty-seven years.



As Andy Irvine said, "You all have to sing very very loud, because fascists are very very deaf."

Gandhi said: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."

And, to paraphrase the great Emma Goldman, we going to be dancing all the way.

"The collective intelligence of a wine flask"

Marc Ambinder nails the Republican "leadership":

The Republicans want to be mayors of crazy-town. They've embraced a fringe and proto-racist isolationist and ignorant conservative populism that has no solutions for fixing anything and the collective intelligence of a wine flask.

No great surprise there. It's the same thing they did in '56 and after in attempting to shut down the Civil Rights movement. Equally stupid as a long-term policy, but in the short term, it led to lynchings, bombings, and a whole lot of needless suffering.

Probably will this time, too.

Nostalgic in all the wrong ways: blowout-preventer edition

The Deepwater Horizon spill--probably the most catastrophic environmental disaster of the past 50 years, excepting possibly Chernobyl--was apparently caused by failure of one of these:

This is a blowout-preventer, a massive hydraulic-powered valve used for sealing an oil well and regulating the flow. They are

When I read, two days ago, that the spill was caused by one of these failing, a mile down, I was chilled. I used to repair these, for Cactus Drilling Company in Midland, TX, in 1979-80.

A blowout-preventer is subjected to huge pressures, as well as to highly corrosive acids, salts, and other outflow from a well. It doesn't come up as only crude: there are all kinds of other substances in such a flow. So the blowout-preventer can only be used for a relatively short period of time, before the well has to be temporarily shut down and the preventer replaced.

They used to come into the repair yard where I worked, with the huge rubber gaskets in rags and most of the heavy-duty lead-based sealing paint corroded off (for scale's sake, the BOP pictured above is a "small", and is substantially taller than a man). We'd sand- and water-blast them, paint them with an acid-based paint-remover (which you had to keep off your skin, as it would burn you), break-loose the giant bolts that seal them: bolts as big as my arm, often rusted solid--I still have a big dent on my right shin from where a 12-foot "cheater pipe"--additional lever arm--shattered while we were trying to open a bolt.

Then we'd take them completely apart, wash all the components in an acid bath and discard any that seemed unrepairable, replace the parts and gaskets, re-paint 'em, and stick them on a hydraulic test-bed, where we'd crank up to a pressure as high as 1 ton per square inch (we were supposed to stand outside the steel-reinforced room as we did this, but often didn't). Then, when we'd confirmed that the repairs were complete and safety-secure, we'd call the truckers and they'd come pick up the BOP, to store in the yard until re-used.

When I read, two days ago, that the spill had been caused by a BOP failure, Dharmonia said "yeah, I read that a while ago but I didn't want to tell you"--which was smart, because when I saw it, I nearly fainted.

I would not want to be one of the crew who might have sent that particular piece back out to the platform.

Eleven guys died. BP and Halliburton (Dick Cheney's butt-buddies--the same people who betrayed American soldiers in the Iraq theatre on a daily basis) may well have killed the Gulf Coast--permanently.

Some corporate crime ought to carry capital penalties.

You miserable racist fucks--GET OUT OF MY HOME TOWN!

NY weekly shows Obamas as 'Sanford and Son' actors

A weekly newspaper photo depicting President Barack Obama and his wife as characters from the TV sitcom "Sanford and Son" was intended as political satire and not a racist commentary, the publisher said Wednesday.

Phillip Sciarello, publisher and part owner of the Smithtown Messenger on New York's Long Island, defended the decision to publish the photo, but added the newspaper would run a retraction in its next edition for anyone who might have been offended.

Phillip Sciarello, you dirty little cowardly punk, my direct patrilineal ancestor founded this town. My great-great-great-great-etc grandfather was an illegal immigrant, a miscegenator, a political radical, and a warrior, and his offspring fathered children with black mothers and, eventually, granted them all their freedom.

And he would have chewed you up and spit you out like the worthless little piece of trash you are. Claudius Smith, the "Terror of the Ramapo," wouldn't have bothered to hang you in your chimney--a waste of good rope--but he would have horsewhipped your gutless little ass on Main Street. I'm only sorry that I'm 2,000 miles away.

Get your racist garbage, and your racist garbage self, out of my town.

AZ joins the Third Reich

Presumably yellow (or maybe "brown") stars are not far behind:

Dear Governor Brewer:

I am shocked and appalled that you should have signed into law SB1070. The potential for egregious, arbitrary, inconsistent halt-and-questioning of people on the street violates the spirit of the protection against unjustifiable search and seizure. More to the point, the law itself, its intentions, its likely execution, and your own official ratification of it, are deeply, deeply un-American. I will never spend another dime on or in Arizona, I will urge all friends, relations, colleagues, and business associates to likewise boycott the state, and I will actively seek to bring about your defeat in the next election, unless and until this law if repealed.

You should be ashamed of this action. Please act to rescind.

Sincerely,

Dr Coyote

If you lie down in a dunghill...

...you're going to smell like crap:

I am shocked and appalled that ZeroWater would advertise on the Fox News program of Glenn Beck. Mr Beck, a cynical opportunist, preaches hatred, practices misinformation, and works actively to erode democracy and free speech. Any association with Mr Beck tars ZeroWater with these same crimes. Please remove any advertising or other sponsorship between ZeroWater and Mr Beck at your earliest convenience.

Until such time as you do, I will actively advise friends, relations, and colleagues to avoid any ZeroWater products.

Sincerely,

Dr Coyote

The greatest television ever made

All praise to The Sopranos, Northern Exposure, Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Corner, Six Feet Under, etc, etc,

but this is what demonstrates what that incredible idiom can accomplish:

Don't bother me with facts, my mind's made up!

As someone who grew up in a place where Dr Franklin's sectioned-snake flag is actually history rather than cheap political bullshit-where people died to try to create independence from what they perceived to be tyranny--I am profoundly offended by the gutless, ignorant drones, many of them on one form or other of government paycheck, whose selfishness and cowardice leads them to scream bloody murder only when they think that "someone else" (typically someone who works harder, owns less, came from elsewhere, and has six times as much guts and work-ethic as they) is getting something that they're not.

This cartoon captures it.

Another "terrorist fist-jab"

On Jun 8 2008, in the wake of Michelle & Barack Obama's celebration of his nomination as Democratic candidate for the Presidency, the vapid Fox "News" talking-head bimbo E. D. Hill notoriously referred to that celebration as a "terrorist fist jab". The hysterical absurdity of the accusation--and the lily-white racist subtones which underlay it--reveals the hysterical terror which Fox seeks to inculcate in its low-information, mostly elderly, mostly ignorant listeners.

Well, guess what, E. D. Hill?

He's the President now. And the people in the US armed forces, the people who actually put their bodies in harm's way, for your safety, you gutless talking-head bimbo, those people know he is their President.

You Tea-bagging imbeciles? Get used to it. It's a new age.

And about damned time.

Not here. Not now. Never again.

Billings, Montana stands up. "Not in our town."



You hear that, Randy Neugebauer, you cowardly incompetent mob-mentality sheep-brained phony? As the General put it: "only a coward and bully yells anonymous insults from the midst of a mob of his friends."

Try it again, Randy. Try it in person. Say it to our faces, and see how far it gets you.

Not here. Not now. Not any more. Never again.

Changing the channel on Sarah Palin

Palin's Fox Channel program tanks, even on a network only preferred by terrified, delusional, ignorant fools who want to be lied to.

The money quote?

At least 1 out of every 5 viewers who started out watching the show changed the channel or turned off the set.

Kinda explains the 2008 Palin/McCain campaign in a nutshell. Americans actually don't like greedy, lying, bigoted, murderous, phony yahoos.

"To conquer them with love, stand up now, stand up now..."

Gunn High School (Bay Area) gets word of the arrival of the Westboro Baptist Church (psychotic Baptist anti-gay hate group) cowboys up, sets up a Facebook group, surrounds them with love, and forces them to surrender.



You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now.

Waterloo?

"Waterloo," Jim DeMint, you psychotic asshole?

Yeah, it is, you fucks.

Yours.

Van Jones goes after Glenn Beck, Beck pees himself with fear...

Incredible speech from Jones, who Beck character-assassinated right out of the White House "Green Jobs Initiative" post:

Jones instead had kind words for the Fox News host:

Last thing I want to say is this: To my fellow countryman, Mr. Glenn Beck. I see you, and I love you, brother. I love you, and you cannot do anything about it. I love you, and you cannot do anything about it. Let’s be one country! Let’s be one country! Let’s get the job done!

Beck won't be able to handle it--any more than a cockroach running from the light--but Jones has hit on the best possible way to hit back at the toxic opportunists and psychotic fanatics of the modern "conservative" movement. Or, to quote Gerrald Winstanley:

To conquer them with love, Stand up now, stand up now,
To conquer them with love, Stand up now
To conquer them with love, As it does you behoove
For He is King above, No power is like to love
Stand up now.

Gassho.

Privilege. F*ckin' privilege

Too many West Texans have seldom if ever consciously encountered a functional, non-dismissible adult human who they are prepared to admit has better-informed opinions than their own. Addicted to the paranoid propaganda of Fox "News", they believe what they believe--a mish-mosh of childhood programming, corporatist lies, and a deeply-unexamined, internally self-contradictory and hypocritical set of "small town values"--in the face of any empirical, factual information to the contrary. And when challenged to rationally defend their convictions, they default to one of two positions: they respond by parroting the latest, most simplistic talking points spoon-fed to them by the Right-wing noise machine; if that fails, if they actually see that their points fail in the face of logic, they retreat to an obstinate, know-nothing stance of "well, you might think that 'cause you've got all this information, but I believe what I believe because those are the values I was raised with"--because, in their world, "values" trump, and can be held in the face of direct contravention by, objective factual reality.

Case in point: sitting in the breakfast room of the TMEA hotel, a place very popular with conferencing students and tourist families as they'll supply cots, trundle beds, wireless, breakfast, and a watered-drinks happy hour, all free of charge; some of these folks are obviously making 2 meals a day off the self-serve waffles at breakfast and the chili dogs at happy hour.

Sitting at breakfast, alone at a table for four as I wait for Dharmonia and the General and the Sergeant to make it down from the room, I'm approached not once but twice, by two different spherical white ladies laden down with stacked plates of the waffles whose self-serve status they've obviously exploited, and asked pointedly, "excuse me, are you here by yourself?"

And when I reply, "well, no ma'am, I'm actually waiting for three people who are just about to join me," instead of being satisfied with that response--precisely, of course, the response they would give themselves if the situation were reversed--they look visibly displeased, even resentful, before reluctantly turning and waddling elsewhere. And you think, "why on earth are they resentful? You'd think they'd be more pissed-off if I said 'actually, no, I just prefer to sit here by myself'".

And you realize that this resentful sense of entitlement results from a pre-existing conviction, unsupported (because considered unnecessary) by any factual empirical evidence, that the large long-haired person in black with the earrings, sitting by himself at a table drinking coffee and eschewing the carbs, can't possibly "deserve" to have a table "to himself" when Good Christians like themselves can't find seating for their double-wide asses and their stacked plates of waffles. And even though they would say precisely the same thing, if the situation were reversed (or even if they were in fact by themselves, but didn't want to share), in the face of outward contradictory reality, their inward sense of entitlement still shapes their view of the world.

In the event, when the plan has changed and my party is ready to leave, and a Hispanic gentleman with friends at the next table says, "Excuse me, sir...do you mind if I take one of your chairs" so he can pull-up to his friends' table, I say "well, sir, I'm just getting ready to leave. Please do feel free to take this table." And--as often happens in this part of the world when Hispanic folks have to interact with Anglos---he goes out of his way to say profuse thank you's, and adds "well, I don't want to run you off," and I say "Oh, that's okay...I been run off out of better places than this!" and we both laugh and part friends.

In this city--the very city where a bunch of Anglo claim-jumpers and soldiers-of-fortune tried to found an empire based on the premise of slaveowners' rights--I'll quote the great James Gandolfini ("Tony Soprano"),

I hate privilege.

...in the woods?

Some days you eat the bear. And some days the bear eats you.

Some days you feel like you're making progress, slowly slowly incrementally moving your own corner of the universe just the slightest couple of degrees in the right direction, as Gary Snyder would say.

And some days you feel like you're fucking treading water, just barely keeping ahead of the meltdowns, forest fires, SOS's, and just plain silly-ass behavior from people who oughta know better.

Oh, and by the way? Massachusetts fucking knew better in 1972. "I'm from Massachusetts, don't blame me", remember that?

But, as one of Dharmonia's Buddhist teachers put it, results are not the goal. The effort, the right action, the right intention, that is the goal.

"You have to show up for the impossible."

Ayn Rand was an adolescent fantasist

...and Digby nails her (and John Stossel):

Any person over the age of 21 who discovers Ayn Rand and takes her seriously is automatically disqualified from ever being taken seriously again.

Snap!

...a very bad feeling about this...

They don't call it the "Graveyard of Empires" for nothing. What makes us think we can reverse 2000 years of failed imperial policies?