Now is not then.  Now the revolution is us against us.  And we are fighting in a burning house with no exits.  

If I did not have a dog in this fight (I'm that dog dudette) then I could stand back and predict disaster, world wide suicide.  But my survival and all I care about is in this fight.  

I am a fireman, a journalist, and I have seen hot action with the Empire (a lot of action).

A credulous public would not believe what my eyes have seen.  But this is not about me or any person, it is about the future or not.

Corporate political activity (fascism) should be a crime punishable by the death of the corporation.

Now is not then, except for the notion that we do not need a new king, we need a new form of government removed from the corruption of money.

Declaring independence from a fascist government is a source of happiness.

Declaring independence from fossil fuels is a source of happiness.

Happy Independence Day!  

    I was thinking about the Iraq war.  How few protests (relatively speaking) there really are.  How small and disorganized the anti-war movement is.

    (It feels like, well, we went to one demostration, our conscience is clear, time to do something else.)

    It's not only that all of these bad things are happening, but that the American public either accepts them with faint protests (hey, shouldn't do that) or buys in (great!  kill the spotted owls).

    There is something happening there....

    And independence means being entertained and stuffing oneself with hotdogs....

    Of course, there were new polls from England saying that the British find Americans to be "cruel and vulgar", and those are our friends!

patrick

The subject title being from Jim Morrison's The End.  The remarks here sounds like 1966 and Jim Morrison, John Lennon, and Robert Zimmermann.  Only now it is not just war, capitalism, and the fascist government that has linked the two.  No, now it is about the end of cheap oil and climate change, coupled with the potential lost of cheap labor and other dangers.

This is probably a time of change as great or greater than what I sense many of us have experienced forty years ago when the Vietnam war and its favor began to come into question when enough to make a difference began to ask why are we there?

Kevin Phillips back in 1966 spoke of the changes that were coming based on his studies of the cycles of change in the United States.  He is saying that changes are due once more.  William Strauss and Neil Howe speak today of trends that reach back to 1584 also target the next ten to 14 years as times of great change, on par with WWII.  On top of that I hear more talk today of the second coming of Christ, the end of Mayan calendar, and something called "the quickening" that all have an end of the world theme.  And on top of it all, I got at work today "Pocket Guide for Preparing for Pandemic Flu"

Mr. Roberts you are not the only one that is seeing less than happy times ahead, and probably not a lot of independence for a while as well.  I suspect there are dangerous times ahead.

I acknowledge your mood and share it.  Well the holiday is over and it is time to get back to the day to day work of keeping this planet together.  I suspect the Internet will be an important media instrument of this era, as TV was in 1966.  

This isn't where we intended to be ... "  (Evita, on her death bed.)

Thanks for the Morrison lyric, Ffletcher.  I feel the sentiment.  But frankly, respectfully, the Doors are probably the most over-rated group of all time.

Patrick, you are so right.  Little disappoints me more than the weakness of interest in activism, including demonstrations.  I hate looking like a bedentured, cranky old white-beard, shaking my feeble fist at the Disgraceful Youths of Today, and so I hope there is lots more going on in those pretty little heads of theirs than what Common Opinion might suggest: that all they are interested in, really, is getting good grades in their business majors, and pumping up their re'sume's, on the one hand, and doing as much partying and hooking-up, from Thursday to Monday morning, on the other.

(On hot-dog-eating, which I do maybe once a year, at most twice, when I am visiting my parents when they are having one of their notorious cook-outs: there was a cute article in the NYTimes yesterday on "organic" hot dogs, and other allegedly healthful possibilities, including hot dogs from pasture-fed cattle in Uruguay, and a San Francisco-based company called Let's Be Frank.)

(I rather like hot dogs, actually.  But I like striving towards veganism more.)

As for Mr. Roberts, he is entirely right to point to creeping authoritarianism -- nay, leaping and bounding and tugging at the lead -- as one of our most significant reasons for fear as we go ahead.  What he has to say about the fate of journalism is especially valuable.  The idea of a "Department of Censorship" is crazy, no?  And yet, we must understand, there are lots and lots of Americans, who believe that they are the best kind of American, and who believe that the defense of America is in their hands, who have no appreciation for investigative journalism, and who would probably cotton on to such an abominable idea as censoring the media.

Sorry, Sunflower, I overlooked you earlier.

In fact, you capture the gist of the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence very nicely, that Enlightenment masterpiece.

When the people running our lives are clearly doing so in an abusive manner, with countless abuses against our well-being to be counted against them, has the time not come for us to rise up, and throw off their shackles?

What a Dickensian send-off, when your former employees are celebrating and having parties!

I was wondering about the matter of justice for those whom he shafted.  I think it was the ABC News reporter last night who said that his estate can indeed be sued, on the one hand; but on the other, that is not where the real money is.

Is it known yet if W will be sending a flower to the funeral?

Amazing, I love this:

<<Those who learn from history are doomed to watch others repeat it.>>

On another matter of justice ill-carried: The New York State Supreme Court this morning disappointed those of us who think our families are no less deserving of legal recognition and protections than are the families next door.  At least the Chief Justice, in the minority, wrote a powerful dissent.  Still, I cannot be optimistic.  Same-sex marriage will never get off the ground if it depends on the will of a majority of voters, or of legislators.  Our best hope at this point, I guess, is Eliot Spitzer, who will probably be the next governor: Will he be as good as his word, and continue to support same-sex marriage once he is in Albany?

Meanwhile, there are promising sounds from Washington State (!), as well as from dysfunctional New Jersey.

Journalists cause global warming and should be censored.  

I expect another court ruling that journalists should not be married to themselves.

As Woody Allen, and other sages in his tradition, remind us, marriage to ourselves can result in pleasures that are often underestimated.

It is indeed disconcerting that journalists pop up in distant places (e.g. ABC's Dan Harris last night, that hot dog/cutey pie, in Seoul!) after lengthy plane rides, contributing to global warming and global dimming and the depletion of the petroleum supply.  But the solution is not that they should be censored.  The solution is that they should be leashed, and kept at home; and that a strong corps of local or regional reporters should be cultivated in many countries around the world.

There is a steady sortie of war planes flying high altitude from California and over the polar ice cap.  They fly single file every 90 seconds, 24 hours a day, for the last two years.  I do not begrudge Hersh reporting on the air war in Iraq and Iran.

I am contributing to global warming with this computer.  But I did not create global warming awareness.

From a political perspective journalists create global warming by making us aware of it.

That makes them the Enemy of the State (on a very short leash from corporate assignment editors).

     Too late for the fourth, but there are veggie hot dogs, and you can slather them with mustard, ketchup, onions, pickles, sauerkraut and veggie chili to your hearts delight!

     (For future summer holidays.  I haven't had one in a number of years, but I recall that they were pretty good.)

     Same Sex marriage will come about slowly, as the older generation dies off, the younger is not as  opposed to it, and it will become just another flavor of life....

     (not soon enough, of course, but it is still a sea level change that once won, will never be rolled back).

      The MSM generally does not deserve to be called journalists.  They are an insult to society and to all of us.  They should be ashamed of themselves.

patrick

"I love this:"

Now that's a compliment!  Coming from  my very favorite modern day classical philosopher.

Condolences on the recent court decision.  Trogloditic and tragic.  Fight the power!

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