Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
I know it's not April 15 yet, but...
Whenever I think of Thoreau, I am reminded of his statement to Ralph Waldo Emerson when the latter visited the former in jail (from Zinn’s A People’s History):
“What are you doing in there?” Emerson asked.
“What are you doing out there?” Thoreau replied.
And from Walden:
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Posted by Jeremy on from Taiwan 03/28 at 06:23 AMGood luck out east Michael, didn’t realise you were going so far abroad! That drink is going to have to wait…
The Morning Star ran a story a little while back about a pensioner over here who was cleared out by the bailiffs after refusing to pay for the war, and I don’t think he’s the first. The costs of taking this course of action are clearly made commensurate with the damage it could do to the war-machine; it doesn’t seem to make much sense doing this individually.
Mr.Z, the graphics on the main page, the “Gigantic Mistake” and “NaNo winner” links are red x’s - anyone else having this?
Posted by Mew on from work 03/28 at 07:36 AMGood Morning...Mew, I am not having that problem with the graphics.
Jeremy...Your Thoreau quotes are some of my favorites. I always wonder what all of us are doing out here.
A tax boycott would work but it would be so disruptive in the lives of those who did it. There are also other ways to throw a wrench in the machinery of government that are legal and might be less harmful to the people who did it.
Good luck, Michael.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/28 at 08:19 AMUp early… feeling link-loquacious....
Speaking of taxes… one of the best books I read in the last two or three years was David Cay Johnston’s Perfectly Legal. http://tinyurl.com/mshxh One simply cannot deeply fathom how the top 1% of the top 1% wealthiest people have come to control our government today without checking this book out.
I saw it remaindered the other day at a book closeout… sigh.Thinking of the Beatles and Music Legends…
I really love Ringo’s latest CD: Choose Love. Ringo isn’t into gimmicks (check out his website-- there are a lot of pictures of dogs and flowers).
Sad of course about Buck Owens who “criticized the syrupy arrangements of some country singers, saying ‘assembly-line, robot music turns me off.’” http://tinyurl.com/oqhzf
Merle Haggard, from Bakersfield like Owens, is my favorite country singer. Like Ringo, he stepped out of the world for a number of years to return to it wiser and as creative as ever. I enjoyed his autobiography. http://tinyurl.com/pc9cq
Noticed this morning that the Hag’s website now features a video of his latest hit song Rebuild America First! My favorite song of his is Proud of Who I Am (an anthem for the homeless)... but maybe this song will be my favorite now. http://www.merlehaggard.com/
One last link… noticed that in the new wiki over at Whole Wheat Radio (wholewheatradio.org) way up in Talkeetna Alaska (near Denali)... someone has an unusual dream: http://tinyurl.com/qad6t
Best to all! Peace and Love! Let’s Begin the Evolution and Rebuild America! And Have a Great Day!
Robert B. Livingston
San FranciscoPosted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco 03/28 at 09:35 AMRingo’s website! http://www.ringostarr.com/
RL
SFPosted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco 03/28 at 09:38 AMHi Robert...I think I remember seeing David Cay Johnston being interviewed on C-span’s book TV. It was very interesting.
About rebuilding the USA...do you think that that is the best thing for the planet? Also, do you believe that rebuilding the places around the world that the USA has destroyed should come first, second, or not at all? I am thinking about Iraq, Vietnam, Diego Garcia, etc.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/28 at 10:15 AMRMJ, charity begins at home. Making people who live here wait for their benefits that should flow to them while we spend money outside our borders to “right” some of the grievous wroings we’ve committed as a nation won’t do anyone any good. We can’t make up for bombing people out of existence, or for killing them in unjust wars, by paying them off. If we can do that, if there is some connection between money and human life in value terms, I want it here first, then elsewhere.
Feed OUR people, the rest come second. Else the taxophobes have an excellent argument (which I support) against feeding the money of the honest laboring poor to people we don’t know or care about.
The argument “we should care” is doubtless valid on some cosmic level, but the bulk of the people don’t care about their neighbors, still less the Diego Garcians. Let’s go in steps. Rebuild the shattered Gulf Coast. No one living in those areas should have his/er tax money spent on idiot wars, and certainly not on “reparations” which can’t repair anything at all.
Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/28 at 11:06 AMKids, please. Bring the troops home now. Put them to work---there is a lot to do---rebuilding inner city schools, youth centers, playgrounds and so forth. Let the ones with a love of danger work shifts at Superfund sites. There’s your charity at home, Mudge. Meanwhile, reparations should ABSOLUTELY be paid to the countries we’ve worked so hard to destroy. Where does the money come from? From here, for starters. Then, any citizen caught being the CEO or in upper management of corporations doing violence to people or my planet will be asked to fork over---to pick a random number---20 percent of their net worth, leaving them comfortably ahead of everyone else, but still enabling the places we’ve made to resemble the moon start to look like earth again.
captcha said “ideas”, and it was so.
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 03/28 at 12:00 PMI figure since there´s enough money and food to do everyone on the planet many times over it is our natural state to be millionaires.
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 03/28 at 12:55 PMI think the primary thing we can do for places like Diego Garcia, Iraq, North Korea etc etc is butt out. Its not so much throwing money at them, which won’t do a thing while military action and economic exploitation drowns out any beneficial effects, so much as ceasing to damage them. Its acts and omissions, innit.
Of course, stopping such exploitation isn’t cost-free, to the extent that it is unthinkable without (several) revolutions - and would even then necessarily mean a huge cut in material living standards in the US and EU. Can’t have it both ways.Slightly more fun:
http://tinyurl.com/6e2d3
I heart Tom Lehrer. My Most Favouritest Lyric -
“Dark smoke arising,
Darkening the sky,
12 burning McDonalds -
Have it your wayPosted by Mew on from London 03/28 at 01:49 PMMilitary action and economic exploitation are one and the same. When a side loses a war, all that means is the bank won´t lend them any more money to win.
How do you all feel about the Charlie Sheen kerfuffle?
Posted by Owen on from Gyarrcelona 03/28 at 01:59 PMOwen, I like Charlie and I like his father even more. I lost track of how many times Martin was arrested.
Mudge, I knew that you would say that. My answer to you and Owen and Mew is this. I think charity should begin where it is needed most and not be based on geographical location. But even more important than that is the fact that the USA is responsible for the plight of so much of the rest of the world. My point is that whoever is responsible should pay the cost. In the case of Iraq, it was US taxpayers who funded the destruction so it is US taxpayers who should fund the rebuilding. Mew, I agree that the US should butt out, except for the financing of the rebuilding. The Vietnamese are STILL trying to get some reparations for their exposure to Agent Orange. Its not OK to just walk away from the atrocities that your own nation is responsible for. I don’t understand the global view that says “sorry ‘bout that” and turns a back on the victims that they themselves created.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/28 at 02:35 PMHello Expendables. It’s great to have Robert from SF as a new regular.
As for the issue at hand, I concur with RMJ: whoever is responsible should pay the cost. Sure, there’s much that needs to be done domestically but what about all the damage caued by U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-based transnational corporations? In the end, if the military budget was about 10% of what it is now, that other 90% could rebuld at home and abroad without a problem.
As for Sheen and 9/11, I just learned that Sander Hicks will be on CNN Headline News tonight (7:00 EST) to discuss that very issue.
I’ll be back later.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/28 at 02:43 PMHi Keir...I didn’t see you standing there.
Thanks Mickey for the tip about CNN tonight. I will move up my hair washing schedule to be sure to see him. How’s Grandma Helen?Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/28 at 02:51 PM“My point is that whoever is responsible should pay the cost.”
And who’s responsible for the fact that there are homeless and hungry and ill people who can’t make ends meet here? Why should their suffering weigh less than the suffering of the Vietnamese? Why should the absurdly low taxes of this country’s people not be distributed here first? I completely do not understand this.
Posted by Mudge on from Austin 03/28 at 03:09 PMMudge....you make a very good point except that those who are here have to share in the responsibility for their own victimization because they have not come up with an effective way to change their own government. I agree with you that this government victimizes at home and abroad. I agree with you that the victims in the USA also should be compensated. I agree that there is enough wealth to go around. I agree that there should be charity at home. Where you and I differ is that I believe that those in the USA have to accept some responsibility for the world which they have created. Most people in this country vote for Democrats and Republicans and therefore the voters have to accept the results of their action in the voting booth. The USA gives LESS in foreign humanitarian aid than any other industrialized nation and the USA exploits and victimizes and slaughters more than most other countries. Its just not right. That’s why the USA should pay reparations.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/28 at 03:29 PMJust received from Sander Hicks on tonight’s CNN appearance:
My appearance on CNN tonight has been cancelled.
CNN claims they could not find anyone else to argue “the other side.”
Also, the producer said words to the effect of “people are asking me ‘why are you bringing this up’.”
The show is cancelled, or maybe post-poned....Does anyone know someone in the US Gov still willing to defend the official story? CNN desperately wants to talk to you.
Why do I have a feeling that that is not the real issue?
I feel like a heavy curtain just dropped, and I’m on the other side.Posted by JOS on from Chicago 03/28 at 04:11 PMRosemarie, I don’t disgree in the slightest that the billions legally owed to the vietnamese should indeed be paid. And recompense should also go to Cuba, North Korea and other nations where there is a clear economic cost to US policy. But who’s going to do that?
I don’t see a financing problem in the choice between spending billions actively destabilising other nations and spending billions actively helping them, at least not so that it would interfere with helping people in southern US rebuild. The choice there is not between helping poor americans and helping poor vietnamese/haitians/congolese (can you say divide and conquer?) but between spending billions on american billionaires and Israel, Colombia, Turkey and America’s other terror states around the globe.
Posted by Mew on from London 03/28 at 04:46 PMMew...You ask “who’s going to do that?” The US taxpayer should be held responsible...at the top of the list should be the corporations who profited from the wars.
About the southern US...instead of rebuilding, I think that the money should go to the individual people who suffered the losses. Usually in a natural disaster (or unnatural as in the failure of the levees) the corporations take the money and run and the people get very little or nothing. Many of those who were insured were not compensated. Many people, including one southern member of Congress, are party to a lawsuit against their insurance companies, last I heard.
Back to the reparations question...I don’t know if there is enough money to go around. The just claims for compensation should go back to 1492.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 03/28 at 05:48 PM63 times Martin Sheen´s been arrested Rosemarie, according to Wikipedia (sorry MZ).
Posted by Owen on from Gyarrcelona 03/28 at 06:18 PMIf Wiki says it’s 63, Owen, well...it must be true.
Mudge, to follow up: I never said efforts shouldn’t be made to help domestically. I said that the U.S. can’t “butt out” when it has ruined so much of the planet. There’s enough money to help everyone.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/28 at 07:10 PMAnd RMJ, Grandma Helen is not doing well. She’s losing her spirit.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/28 at 07:10 PMI completely agree with RMJ on making reparations for grievances we have caused other peoples. Vietnam is a good example. As is Iraq. Diego Garcia is mostly a British tragedy, but we had a big hand in it. Iraq is the largest most recent example.
The American people are responsible for it. The American people should pay to make amends for the grievances we’ve caused people around the globe.
That’s just an elementary moral and judicial principle.
Yes, there is suffering at home, too. But to say our tax dollars should only go towards the American people when the above situation exists is to turn our backs on the grievances of so many for whose troubles we have been responsible.
Take Iraq. When the American people are so apathetic, indifferent, deluded, and/or ignorant that they allow or encourage their government to wage a war of aggression against a foreign nation, then they have surrendered their “right” to have their tax dollars work only for them. In such a case, their tax dollars should rightfully go to make reparations for the damages caused.
If you walk over to your neighbor’s yard and smash his car in with a baseball bat, you can’t just walk away and say “My money should go towards my family first!” You have a moral and legal responsibility to make reparations for the damages you’ve caused your neighbor.
If that takes food off your kids table, you should have thought about that before you decided to destroy your neighbor’s property (or his life, as the case may be).
Posted by Jeremy on from Taiwan 03/28 at 09:16 PMDead on, Jeremy. Bravo.
G’night, all. (Tomorrow will be my last post until the move is completed.)
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 03/28 at 09:18 PMThanks for the earlier kind words--
can’t say that i’m regular enough to know everything that’s going on-- but I certainly like the karma here.
Love that Cows With Guns animation-- first learned about Dana Lyons at Whole Wheat Radio-- he even had a live concert himself, up there in Talkeetna.
Buckminster Fuller was one who convinced me that we have plenty to go around to help everybody lead productive lives (9 Chains to the Moon). Also an old book by Lucien Pye called Rice and Man-- over twenty years since I read it, but it made a big impression on me.
I am really into this Evolution vs. Revolution thing. An inspiring interview: http://tinyurl.com/g4f98
We can all play a part: Haggard, Starr, Mickey, You, Me-- What matters is that we evolve toward Life and Love!
I get my facts a little skewed-- Haggard’s song is: I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am. (Early in the morning, couldn’t quite recall all the lyrics.) I’d put a link up-- but you’d all get hit by pop-ups!
Still waiting for a freeware search alternative to Google… I’d make it, but I can’t even get any of my socks to match!
Best,
RL
SFPosted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco 03/28 at 10:20 PMhello everyone. the picture does notcome up on this PC so i don’t know what it is you are saying to me. anyway, in this time away from home i plan to be going visiting lots of places so it will be be michael from exile and not michael from korea
Posted by michael on from exile 03/28 at 11:50 PMok, it came up now
thanks
Posted by michael on from exile 03/28 at 11:51 PMThe point Rosemarie and Jeremy make should be considered in connection with Mickey’s “(More than) Malice in Wonderland” post a few days ago. Though the aggressors are culpable for their crimes, there is a big chance they will feel “wronged” by being asked to be responsible, financially, for the actions of people they consider “political” or even “spiritual” abberations. If the blame for Iraq, say, is placed solidly with the (evil?) people who “acted"---Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest---then the taxpayer won’t accept his/her responsibility. But the failure of the citizenry to prevent what they knew to be a tragedy was the greater, more horrendous action.
I just thought of interwar Germany, and what harnassing taxpayer frustration can lead to. But there, the population was held responsible for the whole of WWI, to the exclusion of the rest of the war’s participants even though, to borrow Jimmy Carter’s disgusting line about Vietnam, “the destruction was mutual”.
Wishing you and Grandma Helen strength, MZ.
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