Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Surprise parties, Arafat rumors, and good luck to Rosemarie
Good luck, Rosemarie. Are we going to get an update today at some point?
Mickey, I noticed in one of the articles you linked to that people wanted $14 Billion in order to help prevent a catastrophe like what has happened to New Orleans.
Of course they couldn’t get that much.
So far $10.5 billion has been approved for relief and reconstruction in the region and $52 BILLION more has been requested.
On another topic, gas is now 82 cents a liter here in PR, up from 40 cents just a few weeks ago.
I saw a brand new Hummer drive by the other day with a “Se Vende (For Sale)” sign in the back window.
It was the fourth brand new enormous-SUV-tank-like-vehicle I have seen for sale in the past two days.
Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/08 at 09:25 AMGOOD LUCK ROSEMARIE!!
I continue to mojo the bejabbers out of the state Supreme Court on your behalf. I ran across this quote in today’s A Word A Day, and felt it was apropos your (RMJ’s) situation:
In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. -John Stuart Mill, utilitarian philosopher and British economist (1806-1873)
Posted by Richard the Curmudgeon on from Texas 09/08 at 09:44 AMI really enjoyed your piece about Pearl Harbor, Mickey. I recall reading our Mr. Cockburn, some time ago, remarking that, every few years someone was forced to come along and “re-prove” that FDR had foreknowledge of the Japanese attacks.
It’s all pretty simple, isn’t it? Americans have almost zero knowledge of American or world history. And that includes many folks who have studied history in college. Then, when someone writes an honest, accurate piece, such as yours, they are accused of writing “revisionist” history. The fact is, the history we’re all spoon fed in school is revisionist. The history you and Cockburn relate is simply the truth…
The photo / photos of people standing out in the open, up in the WTC, is so very disturbing. I once read an article by a professor at NYU, who lived nearby, and had a telescope set up at his window. He watched the people jump to escape from the blaze. He said people would hold hands, and step off together. The title of his piece was: “One thing I’ll never forget, till my dying day.”
Since 1940, you and I and our parents and their parents have given the US government 15 or 20 TRILLION dollars for “defense.” During that time, we were attacked twice, as far as I know - Pearl Harbor and 9 -11. Even if we pretend that the government had no foreknowledge of either event, we’re left with this stark fact: Twice attacked, neither time defended.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/08 at 09:55 AMGood luck Rosemarie!
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 09/08 at 10:16 AM“One thing I’ll never forget, till my dying day.”
That title is eerily similar to what my uncle said to me on 9/11/01. My wife and I happened to be on a plane at JFK about to take off at 9am that morning. Our plane pulled back into the gate and we rented the last car given before the rental agency closed. We eventually tried to get back into the City, but couldn’t. We headed to my uncle’s house in Croton instead.
When we arrived he was covered in ash and holding a glassful of vodka.
He worked at World Financial Center and while helping people get away that morning he saw and heard people crashing to the ground.
He said that he would never forget that sound until his dying day.
In reference to another one of the links Mickey provided today: I saw the EPA report saying that all was safe in NYC after 9/11.
People are now pumping a lake of toxic sludge the size of New Orleans into the Gulf.
I wonder what “minimal effects” the EPA will describe for us this time.
Speaking of links, here’s a good one from 2004:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=1849
Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/08 at 10:19 AMRemain calm. Return to your homes. Everything is under control.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 10:47 AMHi Mickey and James and Owen and Richard the Curmudgeon -
( Just how does one get to be a curmudgeon? )I guess much of the world must be semi-toxic, at least, by now, James, you know? Hell, the entire surface of Iraq is probably contaminated with low-level radioactive wastes. ( Our tax dollars at work! I’d have preferred to keep a little more money for food and rent, but at least it’s going toward a noble cause. )
In Hegemony or Survival, Chomsky quotes Ernst Mayr, a pretty significant biologist, as saying that the average life expectancy of a species is about 100,000 years. It just so happens that the human race has been around for about 100,000 years. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Galapagos, is a story told by a dolphin, since all the humans are long since dead. The dolphin observes: Human beings were eventually doomed by their big brains. Those big brains got them into all sorts of big trouble.
The Tom Dispatch piece is very good, James. Obviously, the events in the south are but a portion of a huge program to “Katrina” blacks and the poor, everywhere. Meanwhile, the nation naps, and dreams of “that new SUV.” I was also struck by this sentence on gerrymandering:
“The United States is the only country that places the power to draw election districts in the hands of self-interested political actors. The joke is that the voters don’t really choose the candidates; the candidates choose their voters.”
I guess that Blacks and the poor need not apply.Our “BIG BRAINS,” at work…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/08 at 12:03 PMJoe, I’m with you. I cannot begin to calculate how many times I’ve quoted from Galapagos. I often say, “It’s all because of these big brains.”
You know, if I compiled all the comments you’ve left at this site, it would out-Vonnegut Vonnegut.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 01:08 PMI keep telling Joe he needs to put his skills to work in his own blog, JoeKnows.net or something...I’d sure as hell visit every day. But, now that I think of it, that might take away from his comments here and I wouldn’t want that.
All this talk of New Orleans made me think of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels...I’ve never been there, but I feel like I know the place because of Burke. Anybody read any of his stuff?
Speaking of race, Joe, I don’t know where you were when the Simpson verdict was read, but I was in the employee cafeteria at Filene’s basement in downtown Boston. That verdict was read and there were shouts of joy all around me. Whites got extremely angry. I mean crazy-eyed mad.
It instantly showed where this country was on the “race problem.”
Did it change anything? I can’t say that it did.
The hurricane put the spotlight on the quality of life of a quarter of a million blacks in and around New Orleans…will it change things? I don’t know, probably not much…but I sure as hell want to try and change things. The problem is…how?
Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/08 at 01:49 PMI love this place, you guyz.
And, I sure love Vonnegut. He’s like our modern Twain, but more lost, more confused - even more human…I’ve not read James Lee Burke, James, nor have I been to New Orleans. I’ve avoided the “deep south,” generally - mostly out of cowardice, I suppose: I see images of “Easy Rider,” and “Deliverance” whenever I think of heading down there, though I know there must be many wonderful people and places. I guess this is an example of where film has served to constrain, rather than liberate…
In the movie “Crash,” a white cop rejects the rabid racism of his partner, then risks his life to save a black guy who is just seconds from being blown away by the LAPD. Later, he picks up a youthful black male hitch-hiker, and they get into an argument. The black guy reaches into his pocket, and the cop immediately pulls his gun and kills him. The guy was reaching for a “dashboard ornament” he was going to show to the cop.
Ultimately, though he consciously rejected society’s prejudices, his “sub-conscious” racism caused him to murder a man because he was reaching into his pocket.
I fear my own “sub-conscious,” in many such ways. Beneath the veneer of thoughtful analysis and sincere concerns for all of life, I’m not quite sure “who” I might be - good? bad? cowardly? courageous? Just stupid? I’m not sure.
( Damnit )Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/08 at 02:22 PMI agree, James, I don’t wanna lose Joe either. Perhaps I’ll have to add a “featuring Joe from Oregon” banner at the top.
Quick replies: Like Joe, I’m a major Vonnegut fan. James, I have not read that author nor been to NO. As for the South, I’ve been all over Florida, made one trip to North Carolina, a bunch of trips to Virginia, and of course, Texas. My accent gets some funny looks.
As to the bigger issue being discussed, I certainly have no plan to challenge racism but a good start would be for all of us to stop pretending things are getting better.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 02:32 PMMy thoughts are with you today Rosemarie.
Posted by Fiona on from San Diego 09/08 at 03:25 PMDick Cheney is told:
“Go #### Yourself”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10196.htmPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 03:35 PMRoght wing radio chimes in:
http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2005/09/listening_to_rw.htmPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 03:37 PMBoy, Mickey, you’re right. Things are certainly not getting better - though, for a time, I was lulled into believing otherwise. What can we do?
I have no idea. It would certainly help a lot, however, if we could aid in the complete destruction of the Democratic Party.Don’t you dare give me a banner, MickeyZ. If you do, I’ll soon demand my own dressing room and a big name hair-stylist. It’ll be all down hill from there…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/08 at 03:50 PMBig Time, Dick.
I forgot to ask if anyone saw the article (NYT’s?) where Barbara Bush said that a lot of “these” people in NO are “better off” than they were before now that they are staying at the Astrodome. Jesus H. Christ.
Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/08 at 03:58 PMWelcome to Cool Observer featuring Joe from Oregon. Our first guest today is the former First Lady, Barbara Bush....who says:
“What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.
“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.”
Joe, come out of that damn trailer and talk to the lady, will ya?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 04:02 PMJoe: “If you do, I’ll soon demand my own dressing room and a big name hair-stylist. It’ll be all down hill from there…”
I’m nauseated with envy that you have enough HAIR to warrant a stylist. You young’uns today, bein’ all snarky to yer elders and betters.
As to becoming a curmudgeon, one simply sees the world as clearly as Rosemarie does, and lacks all vestiges of the glorious and beautiful optimistic spirit she shows with her protests against the horrendous wrongs committed in her name. One is de facto a curmudgeon at that point. Even esteemed MZ’s veganism, as wrongheaded as it is (a dinner plate bereft of a dead factory-farmed animal is an affront to the serious diner), deomnstrates that same sense of the world as redeemable. I lack this sense and that spirit. Ergo I am curmudgeon, hear me grumble.
Posted by Richard the Curmudgeon on from Yew know whar 09/08 at 06:36 PMRichard, for you: http://tinyurl.com/34j6x
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 07:34 PMI can’t work like this! I’m stressed already, and now I’ve got curmudgeons! I need an assistant! James & Keir have assistants. Who am I, Mr. New Orleans, here? Oh, I’m verklempt, and I’m not even Jewish!
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/08 at 08:48 PMIf you pull this one off, Joe...I smell “corner office.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/08 at 09:10 PMI sure do love this place, Mickey. Thanks for keeping the doors open and allowing people like me to wander in from time to time…
By the way: I just read Barbara Bush, and your link from “post 14.”
Mrs. Bush’s remarks, and those of right-wing radio, are just impossible to comprehend. The hatred and horror which erupt during civil wars must originate in the sorts of feelings I experienced while reading. There is a sense of encountering attitudes and behaviors which simply seem impossible from someone of the same species. And, if they’re not of the same species, they must represent some lower form of being - a “sub”-something. They’re not just “different” than me, but entirely “other.” It must be these sensations which make civil wars possible.
I guess that, in a way, we ARE at war with these people. Or, at least, we’re at war with what they think and what they do. They blindfold us and then penalize us for being unable to see. They torture us, and then punish us for screaming. They take away what we love most and
then laugh and sneer at our sadness. They steal our food and water and health - then they cite our debilities as good reason to exclude us from “reasonable, healthy, normal society.”I refuse to hate them, and refuse not to loathe all they stand for, all they hope for, all they struggle to achieve. These are human beings, but human beings who think and behave like monsters. Words and phrases like “Elites,” or “Ruling Class,” don’t reflect much of the truth. A better phrase might well be “Predator Class.” They are predators, but predators without any of the beauty or excellence of those amazing creatures found in the natural world. This is more the predation of parasites or diseases, or of the broken minds and hearts of murderers and torturers. And these are the people who run almost the entire world.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/09 at 12:25 AMThanks, Joe. “This place” wouldn’t be “this place” without folks like you.
(The trouble with the term “Predator Class,” though, is that it describes us all. Every single human.)
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/09 at 07:35 AMThat’s absolutely true, Mickey. It’s one reason not to hate them, but to focus on what they do.
Sometimes I feel so much anger and frustration, I become afraid it will take me over, you know? Anger can be a useful and powerful servant, but a real psycho, dangerous master…
I want that fire in my heart - but I don’t want to get burned up.Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/09 at 11:25 AMHi everyone,
I just wanted to call in here and express my support for Rosemarie Jackowski in her stand of protest regarding the Iraq War.We here in Australia are partners in the ‘coalition of the killing’ and the site I help run is tackling such issues from an Australian perspective. Everyone is welcome to join the discussion.
Our motto is : Encouraging discussion of the U.S. - led trend of arrogant nationalistic foreign policy, and searching for non-violent ways to resist it.
Rosemarie is a regular visitor to http://www.resist.com.au and has encouraged us to visit here at mickey Z.
Keep up the good work - I hope we can collaborate in some way in the future.
Regards
Posted by Ed on from Australia 09/10 at 07:09 PMWelcome, Ed. We love Rosemarie here and welcome you and anyone else you send our way. I’ll post a link to your site here to encourage some cross-visitations.
(Be warned, however...some folks here use words like “fantods.")
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/10 at 07:18 PM
Next entry: 50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed To Know (win a free copy)
Previous entry: War in two Gulfs, liberals who can't resist a uniform, Sander Hicks & 9/11, and who rules who?
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
