They Found The Source Of The Swine Flu!!

The photo above was emailed to me by my sister. She’s always sending me jokes through the mail. Everybody knows somebody who’s a good source for a joke or two. Sister Peacemaker is mine. If I was that kid’s parents I’d be mortified to see a photo of my kid licking a pig’s snout circling the globe about a hundred times faster than a swine flu virus.  I bet this kid was thinking about mom and dad eating all that pork in the morning and thought he’d give that pig a good lick and see what he’s been missing.  And that piggy was just too happy to oblige.  I bet that pig will go back and tell the other pigs in the pen how he got his snout licked.

But nevertheless, this swine flu is threatening to bloom into a serious pandemic with the virus spreading farther into Europe. The death of the toddler in Texas adds to the hundred sixty or people killed in Mexico. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the global threat is serious enough to speed up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus. Considering the fact that it would take six months to create enough vaccines to immunize just the United States, an effort to inoculate the world would have to take years. In the mean time, the WHO has upgraded its rating of this threat as a phase 5, the second highest rating on its threat scale, meaning a pandemic may be imminent.

Although the virus is called the swine flu, from what I’m able to understand, it’s actually a mix of bird, pig, and human genetic material. The leading scientific theory is that a few months ago, maybe as much as a year, somewhere in the world a flu virus previously exclusive to pigs mutated enough to make the jump to a human. Once in the human it mutated again into a version that was easily transferable amongst humans, and has been spreading like wildfire ever since. Unlike the bird flu, there is no evidence to support a direct pig to human path of infection with this particular strain. So despite the photo above and its unsanitary implications, there is little chance that this kid may have contracted this particular strain of the flu. Regardless, I still wouldn’t allow my kid to lick pig snout.

Swine flu comes with all the classic symptoms associated with regular flu and spreads like regular flu when people cough or sneeze. While scientist stress it is humans who are spreading the disease and not pigs, sales have tanked for the pork industry. Therefore, pork producers are lobbying hard to get people to stop calling this disease the swine flu. Its new moniker is the scientific name influenza A H1N1. People will do anything to keep corporate America happy.

Stock prices for the nation’s leading pork companies Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods have taken a hit. Hog futures have taken a dip after initial news of the outbreak broke. China and Russia have banned pork imports. The negative news regarding swine impacting the industry could have been prevented had a more accurate name been chosen for the human form of the disease. I guess that’s why somebody preferred to name the disease the Mexican flu. That won’t impact the porkers. It only enhances the image a lot of people already have of people on the south side of our southern border.

Pontiac’s History

My mom’s first car was a beige 1962 Pontiac Catalina wagon.  I don’t remember much about that car except it was a piece of shit that was constantly breaking down.  Mom traded that in on a blue 1968 Pontiac Catalina Executive wagon with the faux wood siding.  It had a front bumper shaped like a battering ram with the Pontiac logo front and center.  It looked like it would make the perfect weapon in a demolition derby.  And I loved that car dearly.  It had a V8 engine the size of Montana and looked like it could have run on dilithium crystals.  I grew up loving Pontiacs.

The next Pontiac that came into the family was my brother’s luxurious two-tone blue 1976 Grand Prix LJ with the richest black velvet interior I’ve ever seen.  My brother kept that car clean.  He let me drive it to my junior ring dance.  It was the only time he let me drive that car.  It may not have been the fastest car in the neighborhood.  But it was fast enough and was beautiful to boot.  While my other brother’s 1974 Gran Torino Elite was a faster car, the Grand Prix LJ was simply a much better car.

Dad eventually bought a 1978 Grand Prix that was pretty run of the mill.  It was silver with a red velvet interior.  This was the first Grand Prix to get the infamous General Motors downsizing treatment that made such notables as the Oldsmobile Omega, the Chevrolet Citation, and the Pontiac Phoenix.  The products from the domestic car makers at this time were so poorly executed that it took a 5.7 liter V8 to squeeze out an anemic hundred eighty or so horsepower for America’s iconic sports car the Corvette.  It was pretty obvious at this time that the domestic carmakers were beginning to be outclassed by their foreign rivals.

Pontiac was responsible for two of my favorite fantasy cars.  The 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that became KITT on the Knight Rider was the car of the future.  It had a video game interior designed by Atari, it could do two hundred miles per hour while in first gear, and it never needed gas.  The fact that it could run errands on its own was tight as well.

My other fantasy car was the 1976 Firebird Trans Am featured in Smokey and the Bandit.  It looked like a run of the mill Trans Am.  But that car had an engine that was the precursor for trans-warp technology.  I bet that car got eight miles to the gallon at fifty five miles an hour.  With the Bandit pressing the go pedal like he was stepping on a mutant cockroach, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t just cruising by many gas stations.

I would’ve been happy to buy a Pontiac Fiero.  But the car General Motors initially produced as their commuter sports car was little more than a warmed over Chevy Chevette.  It was cheap and it was underpowered with a three speed transmission.  And by the time Pontiac got permission to make the Fiero a relatively descent sports car, the decision was made to cancel the product.  It seems that the little Pontiac could not recover enough from its early reputation of lackluster performance.

And then Pontiac started developing a penchant for cars with names straight out of a box of Alpha-Bits.  Pontiac began to make cars with T-1000s and J-2000s and 6000s.  Gone were the names that made Pontiac great like Bonneville, Le Mans, Grand Am, and Tempest.  The Lemans went from being the foundation for one of Pontiac’s greatest cars of all time the famous GTO and went to being a little Korean made runabout, while it ran.

And then to run salt into open wounds, Pontiac designers got hooked on plastic streaks going down the side of their body panels like meth heads to Sudafed.  You were hard pressed to buy a Pontiac without some form of god awful body side molding.  It was as if somebody at Pontiac saw the side of a Testarossa as a poker bet, decided to see Ferrari’s streaks and raise it a couple.  Pontiac was putting streaks on its minivan and on that spawn of hell minivan spin off the Aztek.  It was as if Pontiac were doing everything in their power to make the brand go out of business.

The Pontiac car company of the 21st century was a zombie brand looking for something that resembled brains or at least an idea.  The cars of its past were all gone.  The Firebird was murdered back in 2001 and while Chevy was able to revitalize its Camaro, the Firebird was to remain a car of Pontiac past.  The Pontiac stable became a collection of anonymous and unimaginative names like G3, G5, G6, and G8.  What the hell is a G8 anyway?  The Pontiac Solstice is probably the only car the brand sold with any originality that was a true domestic product.

Even though Pontiac was the second most popular car brand in the General Motors fleet, the decision was made to send the Pontiac name to the scrap heap.  The theory is that most Pontiac dealerships sell one of General Motor’s other brand like Buick or GMC.  The cost for the General to pull the plug on Pontiac would have the least impact to the bottom line.  Pontiac will join Oldsmobile in the history books.  It’s a sad end for a car brand with some truly historic nameplates.  Unfortunately for Pontiac, a car company that relies on its history to sell cars will find itself a part of history.

White Woman Married To Black Man…

Forget “black communities” and “white communities!” Have you ever even considered the fact that two people might be IN LOVE?! Of course I notice he’s a black man and of couse he notices I’m a white woman. Our backgrounds and upbringings are so incredibly different but that makes the relationship awesomely interesting. Our daughter is going to have the best of both worlds sice we are both incredibly close with one anothers families. Nobody but hippie RACISTS think about “weakening the black and white communities”. . . come on man it’s the year 2009. I’m not stupid, I know there are racists out there but if someone is racist they aren’t going to be in a relationship with someone of a different race just to “weaken” the other race. hahaha I’m sorry I just have to laugh about this because of how obsurd it is that you think that peoples motive when they participate in an interratial relationship is to weaken it or that they even think about that. Every black mans goal is not to bring up “strong black children.” Some men like my husband want to bring up strong, wonderful, smart human beings that are just that. . . HUMAN BEINGS! Get a grip.

Peace,
whitewomanmarriedtoblackmanwithbiracialdaughter

Thanks for the feedback whitewomanmarriedtoblackman,

You may not be stupid.  Although I have begun to develop an impression of you, I really don’t know if you are stupid or not.  But one thing I do know for sure is that you are incredibly naive to think that the black community is not weakened by black people who abandon it so quickly and easily.  I know nothing about your relationship with your black husband and I won’t pretend to know by trying to pigeonhole the two of you into the stereotypical black/white relationship.  I would like to believe that the two of you share equally in a healthy relationship that respects each other’s culture and history.  But all too often, black people who enter into interracial relationships are quick to kick their black community to the curb.

I don’t know for sure if you’re stupid or not, but I will have to question your intellect if you think my supposition is that racist are getting with black people for the sole purpose of weakening the black community.  That doesn’t even make sense to me and I wonder if you’re even bothering to read anything I write or to think about what is written with an unprejudiced perspective.

But one thing I will say is that many, and please note that does not mean all, white people who date people in the black community are enablers who are quick to encourage black people to transcend their race and join the racially generic dominant community that is predominantly white and abandon or minimize any connection or affiliation to the black community.  There was a time where black people who dated white people remained proud of their black heritage.  Now, black people who date exclusively outside the black community could not care any less about the black community.  Any association with the black community is at best superficial.

A lot of children who come from an interracial relationship where one of the parents is obviously black and another parent is obviously white don’t want to be affiliated with the black community.  Being black is perceived as some kind of anathema.  I can only guess that in this obviously mixed relationship, the parents fail to give the child any positive connection to the black community.  The child’s perspective of the black community will be shaped by a society that obviously thinks black people are of lesser value.

I remember not too long ago my woman was having this same type of exchange with a man from the black community and a woman from the white community who swore on their children’s heads that they were a loving interracial couple without a single hang up and were respectful of each other’s racial identity.  They referred to the black man as being brown skinned while the white woman was free to be white.  The man scoffed at the idea of being black because if you looked at him his skin was not black, it was brown.  When asked was the woman’s skin actually white and why they didn’t use a more accurate description for her pigmentation, the couple hemmed and hawed about how it didn’t really matter how they referred to each other.  This was a perfect example of the double racial standard that they were more than happy to live with.  Their alleged mutual respect was nothing more than the black man acquiescing to the dominant community way of life and his black community affiliation was rejected in favor of a more racially generic lifestyle that tends to point the finger at black people for saying anything about the continuing racial animosity in this country.

All too often black people looking for interracial relationships or a relationship with someone other than black are black people who have hang ups about their own blackness.  People who fall in love with people who just so happen to be on opposing sides of the racial divide are not the subject here.  Who am I to stand in the way of true love?

But brothers and sisters whose love for non blacks is inspired by a hatred of self or a hatred of the black community should not be given a pass simply because they find a willing collaborator as an excuse to leave the black community behind.  And you are absolutely correct. There are a lot of black people who have absolutely zero interest in raising children with a strong black affiliation. That happens to be the exact phenomenon which leads to a weaker black community and a strong racially generic community that heavily favors white privilege. I believe most people express the obviousness of something like this as, “DUH!”

Lastly, you find my position absurd.  I’m not surprised and the feeling is mutual.  I find many people from the racially generic dominant community like you absurd as well.  But while you are free to laugh because you believe the impact to you and yours is rather limited, the black community is in trouble.  By every social measure the black community suffers the shitty end of comparison.  Whether it is health care, employment, education, wealth, justice, representation or whatever you wish to use as a measure, the black community always comes up short.  Some of us don’t have the luxury of simply forgetting who comes from the black community and who comes from the white community.

Everything I Learned About Torture I Learned From Star Trek

Everything I learned about torture I learned from watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. There was one particular episode, Chain Of Command, where Captain Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, was capture by the Cardassians and was the subject of torture. As captain of the USS Enterprise, the flagship of Star Fleet, the Cardassians figured Captain Picard would play a pivotal role in any military action against the Cardassian Empire. It made sense to the Cardassians that any plans to defend Federation territory, or to attack Cardassian space would involve the Enterprise and Captain Picard. The Cardassians created an elaborate scheme to lure the captain into Cardassian space and interrogate him for the information.

But the captain tried to explain that there were no plans for the Federation to invade Cardassian space. And if there were any plans to defend Federation territory he was not privy to them. However, the Cardassians weren’t buying it. They drugged the captain to get the information. But you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip and even in his drugged stupor the captain remained ignorant. Next, they embedded a device into his chest that generated intense pain by remote control. The interrogator was very devious. He asked the captain how many light bulbs were hanging on the wall. The captain saw four and said four. The interrogator insisted there were five and would push the button.

The first time it happened, the captain screamed and fell to the floor, unprepared for the amount of agony the device produced. As he recovered, the captain tried reasoning with his tormentor. There was a treaty between the Cardassians and the Federation that protected prisoners of war. But technically, the Cardassians and the Federation were not at war which meant that Captain Picard was not a prisoner of war and therefore was not entitled to any protection under the treaty. The Cardassians were free to treat him any way they presumed necessary. The captain admitted he knew nothing of any military plans. The Cardassian interrogator said he didn’t ask about any plans. He wanted to know how many lights were on the wall. The captain replied four. The interrogator said five. The intensity of the pain increased. This torture went on and on.

There was one scene where the interrogator invited Captain Picard to eat with him. A place was set with eating utensils and a napkin and the Captain was given what looked like a huge ostrich egg. When the captain cracked the shell, the egg was raw and uncooked. The captain looked at his interrogator for just a moment and then drank the egg before the interrogator could change his mind. The interrogator smiled and explained that the egg was a Cardassian delicacy. He told the story of how when he was just a little boy growing up hungry in a Cardassian ghetto, somebody broke his arm when they took a similar egg away from him. Captain Picard looked up from his own egg as if he had a sudden revelation. The captain told the interrogator that it must be gratifying to inflict so much pain on another. From this point on he would see the interrogator as a helpless child, weak, and unable to defend himself. This got to the interrogator. Suddenly, he dialed the remote control to maximum and pushed the button. Captain Picard was writhing in pain but was screaming through tears that his interrogator was weak and helpless. I think the captain passed out from that episode of torture.

Eventually, the captain was released. Through a maneuver that put the entire Cardassian fleet at risk the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Jellico, played by Ronny Cox, had negotiated for the captain’s safe return. When the interrogator heard the news that Captain Picard was to be released he tried one last time to break the captain’s will. He told an elaborate story about how the military altercation between the Federation and the Empire was over and the Empire had won. The Enterprise was left adrift with its hull a burnt ruin. The only way the captain could save himself from spending the remainder of his life in a torture induced hell was to acquiesce. The captain was asked one last time, how many lights were there. A few seconds later a couple of Cardassian guards burst into the room. The interrogator told the captain that they were coming for him. The captain had only seconds before his fate would be sealed.

But the two guards ignored Captain Picard. They turned to the interrogator. The interrogator was berated for not getting the human ready. The Cardassian turned to Captain Picard and apologized for any misunderstanding and that if he would just come with them they would escort him back to Federation space. Before the captain left he looked at his interrogator and yelled at the top of his lungs and in his most belligerent voice, THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

When Captain Picard finally returned to the Enterprise he took Counselor Deanna Troi to his ready room for a confession. The captain told the counselor that when he was ready to tell his interrogator that there were four lights on that wall. The counselor tried to put his mind at ease saying that anyone under such pressure would submit. But what was most surprising was when the captain told the counselor that when he was asked how many lights he saw, he confessed that he actually saw five lights when he knew there were four.

The fictitious Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise is one of my favorite role models. He is the epitome of integrity. The idea that such a man could be convinced that it was in his best interest to appease his interrogator for nothing more than the sake of ending torture was troubling and yet understandable. I know if I was being tortured, I’d fold faster than Superman on laundry day. The first time I was told that I saw five lights I’d be more than happy to tell you there were five lights. I wished I had just a smidgen of the veracity of somebody like Captain Picard.

But even the good captain of the Enterprise has his limits. We all do. It is just a matter of applying just the right pressure at just the right point to break anything. Constant pain, starvation, sleep deprivation, and/or sensory deprivation would break even the strongest will. So when I hear stories of people being tortured in the name of the United States, I have the sinking impression that the pain being induced to keep us safe is nothing more than somebody’s retribution for being hurt back in the day.

Threaten me with pain or with pain on one of my loved ones and I’ll sign whatever. I’ll confess to being Jack the Ripper if I had to. Just make it stop. All you want to hear is that there are five lights when there are really four? I’ll make it six if that’ll make you happy.

Using God To Hate

Not too long ago I made a comment about Miss California Carrie Prejean’s comment about opposite marriage being the only acceptable form of marriage in her country and in her family.  What I wrote must have been an invitation for people to hate because I got a lot of comments from people who questioned my intelligence, my patriotism, as well as my sense of spirituality.  Because Ms. Prejean was being honest about the way she felt and how she stood up for the sanctity of opposite marriage she was going to get a heavenly crown from god.  Who the hell was I to give my honest opinion about someone giving their honest opinion about people who were honest about their sexual orientation enough to have their same sex relationship sanctified by the state?

Ms. Prejean and her peers believe that god loves people who hate the idea of homosexual marriage.  It sounds like a lot of people believe that they will be in god’s good graces if they hate in the name of god.  God doesn’t like gays and lesbians and therefore, to get a holy crown, I’ll hate gays and lesbians.  And how do we know that god hates same sex marriage?  It says so in the bible.  It says so in the book of Romans 1:24-27 and the First book of Timothy 1:10 and the First book of Corinthians 6:9-10.

It’s funny because these same Christian bible books also mention the hatred god has for adulterers but nobody ever says that people who commit adultery should not be allowed to marry in the name of god.  These books also talk about sexual perversions and unnatural sexual acts.  While that might include some same sex acts, I know a few heterosexual acts of sex that might cross the line of perversion.  I’m not going to go into any detail here but I spent nearly my entire adult life learning a few sexual perversions in order to help satisfy the woman in my life.  I know for a fact some of the things I do wouldn’t pass a lot of people’s idea of conventional sex acts.

But that’s okay.  If god is going to judge my spirituality based on how prudish my peers think my bedroom life is I seriously doubt that god understands my spiritual nature at all.  My god doesn’t judge me based on what you might think.  In all honesty, my spirituality has absolutely nothing to do with my sexuality.  As long as I respect myself and respect my partner and respect my family and respect my community, as long as I do what I can to be the best person that I can be, how does my private sex life interfere with that overall sense of respect?  Why would god put such emphasis on what I do for good, healthy sexual relationship?

Honestly, I don’t think god cares.  And since I’m talking honestly nobody can condemn me for what I say and I should be getting my heavenly crown any day now.

God is not a voyeur looking into my bedroom for sexual deviation.  The idea that the creator of the universe wants to condemn me to hell because of my extracurricular sexual activity is an idea that doesn’t sit very well with my psyche.  If the only people who go to heaven are the people who stick to orthodox sex without perversion, it doesn’t look good for me.  I will definitely be disqualified at the pearly gates.  But then again, if the heavenly bound are people who are so rigid that they cannot accept those who are different, then I would have to say, even if I was so inclined to stick with nothing but missionary sex with my partner, heaven would not sound very heavenly to me.

I have family members and friends who are part of the gay and lesbian community.  The idea that they are not welcome because god doesn’t like the fact that they are honest enough to follow their true sexual nature, their true sexual spirit, is not one that sits well with me.  If this is the nature of the Christian god, then hell sounds a lot more appealing than heaven.

But I know for a fact that god doesn’t judge people on such trivialities.  My god doesn’t award heavenly crowns to bigots.  My god doesn’t smile down and love small minded people because they hate in his name.  The god that I have come to know and develop a relationship with is the type of god that would not think to judge others no matter what.  God doesn’t need people to hate in his image.  My god is big enough, strong enough, and capable enough to hate all by himself.  People who revel in hate should learn to stand up on their own and hate on their own.  Quit putting petty bigotry on god’s shoulders.

Planet Earth With Stupid

It’s Not Too Late To Stop These Witch Hunts

A few days after he lost his bid to be President of the United States, Arizona Senator Republican John McCain faded back into something a lot closer to not being the President.  Mr. McCain made an appearance at an airport in Arizona after he disembarked from a plane.  His McCain Express entourage had dwindled down to practically nothing.  There were probably a half a dozen reporters around him to hear his plans for the future after spending the last few months before the November election sharing the center stage of the world’s attention with his opponent Illinois Senator Democrat Barack Obama and even his own sidekick the co-maverick Alaska Governor Republican Sarah Palin.  I remember thinking how far the mighty has fallen.

Mr. McCain has been kept in obscurity as Mr. Obama’s star continues to shine and capture the enthrall of the world.  Mr. Obama gets a dog and the world goes gaga.  Mr. McCain had a number of dogs for years and can’t get so much as a thank you card from the local PETA branch.  Mr. McCain tried to make an issue over the fact that as President, Mr. Obama would be the recipient of more than two dozen state of the art military helicopters from a wildly over budgeted military contract.  Mr. Obama agreed and scaled the project back significantly getting credit for saving the country billions of dollars.  Just what exactly does a former presidential contender have to do to garner some kind of attention in this pro Obama political environment?

In his latest attempt for relevance, Mr. McCain warned that any attempt by Mr. Obama’s administration to prosecute the Bush era lawyers who wrote memos signing off on water boarding and various forms of torture, euphemistically referred to as enhanced interrogation techniques, would start a witch hunt that would only hurt the country.  Mr. McCain said that if you criminalize legal advice to the President it will have a terribly chilling effect on any kind of advice and counsel that the President might receive in the future.

Well duh!

If a lawyer is telling the President that the executive branch of our trifecta government doesn’t have to follow the principles set forth in the United States Constitution one needs to wonder why this person is a lawyer for what many believe is the most powerful man in the free world.  If a President acts on bad advice from a lawyer then the President, sworn to uphold and to defend the Constitution as part of his oath so help him god, needs to be held accountable for acting on bad advice.  Holding people accountable for knowingly giving bad legal advice, legal advice that would appear questionable to an advanced five year old, would have a chilling effect on people who think they have carte blanche to disregard law and tell their client whatever the hell they want to hear.  Hopefully, it will have a very chilling effect.

If the average lawyer told a client that he or she can ignore any law on the book, pick up an assault rifle and pump his or her neighbor full of lead in a preemptive strike, chances are we would want that lawyer prosecuted.  It wouldn’t be a witch hunt.  It would be an act of justice.  The same rule applies in this situation as well.

The Bush era torture memos released by the Obama administration are full of jaw dropping suppositions for what is and for what is not torture.  Simply saying that torture is not torture does not make it legal.  It isn’t a quasi or somewhat confusing or nebulous ruling of legal interpretation.  The torture memorandums used to support this wrongful activity have been judged by many legal experts as nothing more than gibberish.  To the layman, most legal writings are legal gibberish.  But we’re talking about people who should know better.

The witch hunt isn’t the one that is trying to determine who may have broken laws.  The witch hunt was the one that had so many people working so hard to root out any information from Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians in places like the prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq and the military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  People who had no affiliation with any of our opponents in the war on terror were brutally assaulted in the name of freedom in a witch hunt for information they did not have or confessions to activities they did not do.

The witch hunt we should be trying to stop is the one in the future that would run along similar lines in a so called hunt for terrorist or anybody who would do this country harm because a future presidential administration decides to employ lawyers who would rather work hard to hand their client a less than clever way to circumvent law instead of upholding law.

Mr. McCain might consider this little more than a witch hunt.  Considering the partisan way the witch hunt for information and/or confessions was originally handled I’m not surprised to see Mr. McCain push for letting yawning dogs go lie down.  Let’s just bury this whole thing under some pretense that tries to convince people that this is just a learning opportunity.  But real learning comes when people are held accountable for their poor decisions.  I guess Mr. McCain suddenly felt a real need to demonstrate once again why he was not the best candidate for the job of protecting the United States Constitution.

Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions

I find it ludicrous that the United States and Israel continue to adopt a policy of attacking any Middle Eastern country that is suspected of working towards nuclear ambitions.  The only country that has dropped an atomic bomb wants to dictate to others who can and cannot have a nuclear arsenal.  And to reinforce this stance, the United States stands ready to block any move by the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for any of the over the top military escalations it makes towards any of its neighboring countries.  Israel used the excuse of rocket attacks to pulverize the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.  Israel attacked Syria under the claim that Syria was developing a missile complex for the sole purpose of attacking Israel.  Israel has attacked Lebanon and Iraq.

And lately, Israel has been eyeing Iran with a great deal of suspicion.  Why, because Iran is working to develop nuclear energy.  Israel claims that Iran is actually working to develop a nuclear bomb and will use that bomb against Israel at the first opportunity.  And thanks to America’s recent history of preemptive strikes when there is a less than reasonable suggestion of an attack, Israel can use just about any old excuse to justify its own preemptive attacks.

Israel is quick to say that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon they are sure to use it against Israel therefore Israel must strike Iran first.  Why, because Israel’s such an aggressive bully of a country that the leadership there surely knows that it will have its comeuppance.  It’s just a matter of time.  And if a country acquires nuclear capabilities it will surely use them against Israel.  If the way Israel responds to a few rocket shells that have a little trouble hitting the ground is any indication, any country with plans to use a nuclear device against Israel is surely tempting fate.

With all the warmongering and finger pointing at Iran and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it should be noted that Iran has never attacked another country.  Iran never attacked Iraq.  Iran never attacked Israel.  Iran has never attacked the United States.  Why on Earth would that country now develop nuclear weapons for the purpose of attacking Israel now?  The fact that Mr. Ahmadinejad threatened Israel is not enough to invite a third World War.  Hell, how many people in how many countries have cried death to America?  If that’s all it took to bust a cap up some country’s ass then the United States would be the busiest warmonger on Earth.  Well, even busier than we are today at least.  No country would be safe from one of our machines of utter death.  Reasonable people know it takes a lot more than saying death to an enemy to launch a war.  Unfortunately, all too often it is unreasonable people who call the shots.

As far as I know there has only been one country ever attacked by nuclear weapons.  Japan is the only country on this planet that was attacked by a nuclear powered aggressor.  Not just once but twice.  And Japan continues to exist very well.  This is not to say that a nuclear attack just rolls off a country’s back like water on a duck’s feathers.  Japan is still suffering from the effects from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki drops.  But the idea that all it takes is a well place nuclear bomb to destroy an entire country is lunacy.  The idea that a country can get away launching an unprovoked nuclear attack on another without any worldwide reprisal is truly ludicrous.

But advocates of Israel will hold fast to the rather weak claim that anyone who is so bold to make a threat against Israel must be watched and destroyed at the slightest opportunity.  The fact that Israel is free to actually use illegal weapons and rain incendiary white phosphorous in the destruction of civilian populations is not enough evidence that American leadership needs to rethink our position as an enabler in Israel’s foreign policy.

Israel is entitled to defend itself.  So is Iran.  If Israel feels the need to protect itself from a perceived aggressor, imagine how Iran must feel against a country that is proven to be an aggressor that has already threatened to commit an actual act of war.  Israel promises to launch an air assault against Iran if Iran gets too close to its nuclear ambitions.

Yes nuclear power can be used as an energy source and is used as an energy source for most countries with nuclear technology.  But the idea that Iran will be the second country to use nuclear weapons, the first country to use nuclear weapons in well over sixty years, against another country is a risk Israel just cannot afford to take.  The paranoid belief that Israel will be destroyed if Iran obtains nuclear technology just doesn’t wash in the real world.  Israel is the far greater danger in this high stakes game of nuclear weapon equipped cat and nuclear energy ambition mouse.

Un-Opposite Marriage And Miss America Pageants

Who continues to watch crap like the Miss America Pageant? Who, other than people who work for Mattel or who own Mattel stock, likes to watch these Barbie shows brought to life. With big perky boobs and long legs as if off the same assembly line these Stepford Wives wannabes come from a very narrow definition of what it means to be beautiful deeply rooted in an appreciation for Caucasoid standards of beauty. I have to admit I watched this horse and pony show about four decades ago. I couldn’t even tell you who was strutting her stuff across that stage then.

I have to admit that I was as surprised as anyone else when Vanessa Williams won the pageant all those years ago. I also have to admit that I was disappointed but not surprised to see Ms. Williams attacked for the nude photos spread in Penthouse Magazine and subsequently pressured to resign her title. No surprise that she is probably the first person most people can think of when asked to name a former Miss America. But even Ms. Williams comes from a narrow definition of beauty that is more Caucasoid than Negroid.

So Miss America as an institution that represents America’s value of beauty has long ago been kicked to the curb in my humble opinion. It serves as a testament to a bygone era of white privilege and insensitivity that will eventually dry up if given enough time. Considering the amount of money it takes to continue to produce this precursor to the modern day reality show it’s only a matter of time before the plug is pulled on whatever life support that continues to keep this show going. But right now, it comes back every year like a bad Halloween movie.

Last night I watched an excerpt of the latest edition of this program on MSNBC. Miss California, Carrie Prejean of San Diego, came in second for the national title and people were asking did her answer to the question should all fifty states legalize same sex marriage. The following is Ms. Prejean’s somewhat less than thoughtful reply.

“Well, I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what? In my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be, between a man and a woman. Thank you very much.”

Compared to notable conservatives like anybody in the Republican Party leadership, Ms. Prejean’s reply sounds virtually gaffe free. Opposite marriage is a Ms. Prejean reference for heterosexual marriage I’m sure. But it also shows the hypocrisy of people who think America is so great and wonderful and free and the come right back and say that their personal beliefs are the only beliefs that should be allowed to be exercised. We believe we are the freest country in the world and then we promote concepts that are designed to discriminate against people who don’t share our values.

This is a country where some of us believe god has given us the right to decide what god and doesn’t like. These are the same type of people who back in the day would go around saying that god doesn’t want black people to be free or the equal of white people so America has to keep institutionalized slavery. And now, these people have turned their standing as hateful mouthpiece for god to the issue of homosexual marriage. God is all powerful and all knowing and will punish those who disagree with him but in the mean time we have to do god’s work because we know god is a procrastinator who all too often doesn’t work fast enough for our taste.

America is great and America is wonderful and in America you are free to be anything you want to be except for gay or lesbian and married in an un-opposite kind of way. Such is the way of social conservatives. In America you are free to be a hypocrite as long as you are a hypocrite for god.

But like most things of a socially conservative nature that are founded on baseless assumptions of what god wants and/or what is good for our country, the idea that marriage as an institution is under attack because people who have a different sexual orientation than most want to marry will past. It will fade away to the reality that homosexuals marrying will make no difference to the vast majority of people who live here. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say it will make no difference to anyone’s god. The only difference will be that when we say we are a country that respects people’s freedom, we will be a little closer to being something those words accurately represent.

Ms. Prejean is a throwback to an era that is quickly coming to past. In that respect, she is the very epitome of the Miss America Pageant, a program that has long outlived its relevance as a standard in the American way of life.

Lex Luther Learns What’s Not Important

Lex Luthor is Superman’s number one nemesis. In most versions of the Superman / Lex Luthor saga Mr. Luthor hated Superman from the moment he knew he existed. Superman represents truth, justice, and the “American way” (whatever that means) while Lex Luthor represents narcissism, profit, capitalism, and every despicable component of corporate institutions. If anything Lex Luthor appears to be the epitome of the American way. But most versions of the Superman story has Lex Luthor making the assumption that in his pursuit of whatever he wants, Superman would be a hindrance to his plan.

As the chief executive officer of the high technology defense contracting conglomerate Lex Corporation (think Halliburton on steroids), Mr. Luthor is a seriously powerful individual in the comic book world. The scientist and engineers and communication specialist and mercenaries at his disposal can do nearly anything the boss wants. And they do it all without question or objection. Let’s say that Lex Luthor wants to develop an AK 47 that shoots kryptonite tipped shells. Such a weapon has only one application, to kill Superman. In the comic book world kryptonite is Superman’s Achilles heal. But the employees will put that weapon together in record time. And Lex Corp develops a lot of weapons. But somehow Superman and his associates who do what they do without payment are usually able to thwart Lex Luthor and his profit driven enterprise.

Nevertheless, Lex Luthor is powerful enough to have nearly anything he wants. He is the king of his domain. The problem is he wants to be the king of everyone else’s domain. Despite all his power Lex Luthor wants to be in total control. Superman represents a lack of total control. He thinks more socially.  He doesn’t rescue people because they are willing to buy rescue.  He does what he can because with great power comes great responsibility.  Thus, Superman is just one of very few thorns in Lex Luther’s side.

In the version of the Superman / Lex Luthor saga played out in the cartoon series Justice League Unlimited, Lex Luthor forms an alliance with another one of Superman’s nemesis, Brainiac. Brainiac is the supercomputer android built by Superman’s father Jor El. Brainiac played a significant role in the destruction of Superman’s home world Krypton. Brainiac was able to escape the destruction of the planet and used technology and knowledge to study and gain as much information as possible from other planets throughout the galaxy. Brainiac knows the significance of information and knowledge. And to make the knowledge more valuable it must be kept secret. Others must be prevented from gaining access to the knowledge. Therefore, once Brainiac has studied every aspect of a planet, it will destroy the planet in order to keep others from gaining the knowledge.

When Brainiac set his sights on Earth and discovered Jor-El’s son Kal-El, AKA Superman, AKA Clark Kent, Brainiac salivated with the idea of a twofer, destroying the sole survivor of Krypton and all of Earth in one fell swoop. Superman was able to stop Brainiac. But Brainiac was able to survive by embedding a copy of his intellect inside Lex Luthor’s brain.  The Luthor / Brainiac hybrid had the benefits of Brainiac’s access to information from across the galaxy combined with Lex Luthor’s imagination, cunning, and arrogance. The Justice League defeated the Luthor / Brainiac hybrid and in the process was able to separate Brainiac from Lex Luthor. This time, Brainiac was utterly destroyed.

Their merger was a brief one but Lex Luthor had a taste of power and knowledge beyond his wildest dreams. He no longer wanted to rule the world. He wanted to rule the galaxy. Brainiac had access to information that would make gods envious. It was as if the superintelligent android had given the man the ultimate form of cosmic crack leaving him instantly and hopelessly addicted.  Luther had to get Brainiac back. Luthor had remembered that Brainiac had an asteroid filled with technology that everyone assumed was destroyed by Superman with the help of other members from the Justice League. Luthor had surmised that his best chance to rebuild Brainiac was to find some remnant of Brainiac’s technology in the cloud of debris from the destruction of Brainiac’s asteroid. However, when he was able to implement his plan, all Lex Luthor did was resurrect a third Superman nemesis named Darkside, the ruler of Apokolips. Darkside was killed when Brainiac’s stronghold was destroyed by Superman and the Justice League. His consciousness floated through the debris cloud waiting to be reactivated.  The ressurrected Darkside was pissed and Earth was about to pay big time.

Luthor made it back to Earth to help the Justice League battle Darkside’s invasion. Luthor was pissed because Darkside destroyed his last chance to revive Brainiac. Lex Luther’s Legion of Doom and the Justice League were fighting side by side. But Earth was being destroyed in the battle. Metron, a benevolent godlike being, was fascinated by Darkside’s resurrection and Earth’s destruction. Earth would only be the first world to fall before the angry Darkside. Metron another super being who prefers not to interfere, stopped by to watch the battle, especially the toe-to-toe between Darkside and Superman. Lex Luthor caught sight of Metron and convinced the entity to tell him how he could stop Darkside. Out of some uncharacteristic sense of benevolence, Metron decided to grant Luthor’s wish. In a blink of an eye Metron and Luthor went to the edge of the universe in order to find the Anti Life Equation, the one thing that Darkside wants more than anything else. Metron takes Luthor as close as he dared to keep his humanity intact. However, Lex Luthor who had every desire to rise above his humanity, to improve himself more than his humanity was ever designed to do, rushed in where Metron feared to tread. And with an inhuman scream Lex Luthor gains understanding.

With the Anti Life Equation in hand Lex Luthor is instantly returned to Earth. After having his ass served to him on a silver platter by Superman, Darkside invokes an agony beam tuned to Superman’s physiology. Darkside is standing over Superman with a knife of light generated by the power of kryptonite. Darkside promises to be merciful when he cuts Superman’s heart out and puts him out of his agony. However, Lex Luthor interrupts Darkside’s soliloquy. Furious over the intrusion Darkside turns his full attention on Lex Luthor. But Lex Luthor is eerily calm. His costume as part of the Legion of Doom is replaced with his conservative but highly tailored business suit. He apologizes for the interruption but then shows Darkside the Anti Life Equation. Darkside is mesmerized. As he reaches for what is in Luthor’s hand the two men are embraced in a field of light and disappear together in a huge explosion. And Earth’s crisis is over.

Throughout the story it was interesting to see Lex Luthor’s character change. Although he had by far more than most people could imagine he always wanted more. Initially, when we meet him for the first time, all he wanted was more money. Already a billionaire he was looking around for his next billion. Money was the only measure that mattered. But when he meets Superman he sees an individual more powerful than him that eschews finances. Superman does what he does out of his social conscience. So money was no longer the ultimate form of power.

The power to destroy Superman, a symbol of power, replaced the need for to accumulate the power of money. In order to develop the ability to destroy Superman a variety of power had to be developed, financial, political, and technological. As a mere corporate mogul, Lex Luther had made a bid for political power and used the power of the press to promote his charitable donations and his change of heart to the public. But even with the power of politics and money Lex Luthor made a realization that he needed more. He became part of the Brainiac / Luthor hybrid and learned a taste of power on a galactic scale. No longer caring for the petty pursuit of money or global domination Lex Luthor now needed something bigger. Lex Luthor needed the ultimate. He needed godhood.

Godhood was virtually achieved when Lex Luthor found the Anti Life Equation. But instead of using his new found power to subjugate the galaxy he uses his power to save Superman, a planet, and the galaxy. I like to think that Lex Luthor actually learned that the petty pursuit of power and domination is just that, petty. Real power doesn’t come from the control of others. Power comes from the control of one’s self. It’s nice to be in a position to be financially secure. But financial security doesn’t come from having a number of bank accounts with a high number of zeroes in the balance. Power doesn’t come from ruling a planet or a galaxy. Sooner or later just having that financial and political and military and technological power is lost as soon as someone else comes along with anything that can threaten that power. The powerful will constantly consume more power in order to stay the powerful. The powerful will constantly subjugate the weak in order to remain powerful.

True power comes not from forcing people to your will. True power doesn’t come from manipulation or from deception. True power comes when others have gathered all the facts and have made the conscious decision to make the best decisions for the benefit of the community. True power isn’t about one’s self. True power is about the community and the future. There isn’t much of a future when it benefits a single individual. There is a world of possibilities when the future is for the welfare of an entire society. Individual power is petty.  Community power is enlightening.  At least that’s how I’d like to imagine it.