Panglossian Notes

Why I'm still traumatatised

by what was happening as I was born and also why I'm appalled by Israel today:

Woman from ghetto.cached

I can't resist

putting up a couple of Mr. Fish's latest digs at the outside world:

Amusing?

What happened to transformational?

I read Rabbi Michael Lerner's latest article, Why Have the Democrats Lost Popular Support?, before going to bed last night. It's from the September/October edition of Tikkum and also available at Commondreams. I woke this morning and replayed my iTunes copy of an interview the Rabbi gave to Phillip Adams, on ABCs Late Night Live, in November 2009. As the Tikkum article indicates, Rabbi Lerner has not changed his mind about Obama as POTUS since the interview in Australia.

The article nicely lays out a detailed framework, referred to in the interview "as building a new consciousness", that could have been used by Obama if he'd been sincere about change in his build up - see Audacity of Hope - before entering the POTUS race and during the primary and actual run for the office against McCain. Too bad about being genuine, I guess.

One of the most politically impractical but humanly saddest of all circumstances, I think, is considering lost opportunities some time in the future and wondering "what if?". But considering squandered opportunities likely requires a particular type of self-reflective personality along with brutal honesty if the reflection is to change anything ever. The road not taken by Obama seems now, already, to be justified by him being within a "secret society" of those that know but having to deal with those who don't know the secret and thus are malcontent. I can't wait for the Obama new staff appointments following the Summers et al departures. Will the new appointments ensure the wooden stake is finally driven through the spirit of excitement that got Obama elected?

A short clip from the Phillip Adams interview of Rabbi Lerner where they chitchat about Lerner's earlier meetings with Obama:

Michael Lerner on Late Night Live Nov 2009

Politics

So what's with Obama?

Yeah, so what is with Obama, eh?

He's shifted to his schoolmarm role of scolding his supporters for maybe not being his support any longer. "You know folks, this change and hope gig takes time to implement. You have to do things in chunks." Old Biden has even got into the act. This means, obviously, of course, that the Whitehouse brain trust have considered that maybe trying to shame potential voters into supporting local candidates - it is only some House and Senate types up for consideration after all - will help contain potential house cleaning come the day after All Saints Day.

We'll all see shortly if this approach is reasonably successful, I guess. In the mean time, not everyone is buying that the usual Obama MO of being earnest, but a day late and a dollar short, is motivated by anything but a self-regarding sense of personal omniscience which must be maintained and protected at all cost. This is what, I think, Jane Hamsher at FDL sees in the Obama approach when she writes about "Hectoring the Base: It’s Not About GOTV, It’s About Laying the Blame".

In the same vain, but for broader purposes, Rotwang at TPMcafé is of the opinion, I think, that the setup of progressive no-shows, as the villains in any electoral day massacre, will be used to ward off threats to the entrenched Democratic Party establishment. Gads, the jackasses apparatchik would never want a movement of fairweather malcontented, goldbricking whiners forming a version of the Republican based Tea Party hullabaloo within their official barnyard. If that happened the world would have stood still and that could only mean the apocalypse from the perspective of the entrenched.

Politics

The Ballad of the Long Gun -UPDATE

Thankfully, I'm hoping, our latest Canadian gun saga will be over this afternoon with the vote in the House of Commons on the private members Bill C-391. I'm pretty much tired of the seemingly endless media coverage of the matter and would like now, if we can as a nation, to move on to some other peccadillo to worry to death.

I know who's for repeal and who's against it: hunters, farmers, aboriginal Canadians (hey they are exempt), Canadian libertarians (a strange animal), generally the rural & remote category of citizens want it repealed; and the generally urban citizens, particularly strong in Quebec and the banana belt in Southern Ontario want it kept on the books.

I think I know the 2 sides of this issue. Those for it say: it's an infringement of their freedom, it's not needed for public safety, the program costs too much, urban people don't know or understand the culture or problems of remote & rural people, etc.. Those against it say: it's a legitimate public regulatory measure in a large modern mainly urban society, it's an effective public and police safety measure, the ongoing operating costs are very small, it has an extremely minor impact on any remote and rural culture or tradition, etc..

I think I know how the close vote will come out this afternoon (fingers crossed): repeal will be defeated by votes from the: Liberals (whipped to vote no in order to give cover for rural members), Bloc (gun registry measures introduced because of Quebec shootings), NDP (Layton not having them whipped - trying to look like who knows what - but some members shamed by progressives mocking them about what their party really stands for). Conservatives will vote yes for repeal, en masse, because they were ordered to by Harper, though a secret, likely there was never any discuss in what they call their caucus as to how the party should proceed.

I know what I want: defeat of the Bill.

The aftermath of this rather silly drama, not much. Mainly more BS (spin, manipulation, propaganda, whatever you'd like no matter the outcome) from Harper et gang to play in the rural & remote places of the nation - "we keep our promises, we tried to dump the registry, we were blocked (if it fails) by the evil ones who are progressives, leftists, separatists. Vote for us, please vote for us." The Harper spin will conveniently leave out, if they lose, that they used a private members Bill to keep their promise and it wasn't a confidence matter thus ensuring them maximum triangulation shenanigans potential.

Whatever, really let's get on with something of substance for a change, please.

UPDATE: Bill C-391 defeat by 2 votes. Harper, per usual, vows to fight on. Most Canadians: "move on please sir or do a compromise as suggested by both Liberals and NDP". Not likely from the little Albertan who would be King or something.

Mostly hot air, Politics

A market opportunity?

Criticism of Obama for his failures, apparent broken promises and his, seemingly, general ineptitude as the chief executive of the USA mount as his second summer in office is about to slam shut. He himself finally seems to have recognized that all is not well with his particular Brand as the customers that helped push his sales to record heights, just 2 years ago, have noticed the shoddy quality of the product being turned out by those he has surrounded himself with, in the president's office, and his workers in the congress plant.

The complaints have mounted sufficiently that he has been caught whining to some of his major shareholders that the customers don't know how good they have it with his Brands of politics, policy and public goods. As he told these sympathetic shareholders: 'half baked is better than unbaked health care and besides the soggy mess will be well worth the price the customer will be forced to spend to buy it'. He went on: 'our jerry-built financial reforms have finely tooled and expertly crafted loop-holes, for our dealers, but can be recalled later when they fail depositors and little investors and besides we've appointed someone to help consumers with Latin so they know what caveat emptor means. He finished his shtick, to rounds of applause and howls of laughter, by wondering aloud about the brand's motto: "War is Peace." 'How the customer can be confused by our beloved slogan baffles me! Jeez, even dumb Norwegians understand it and gave me a peace prize.'

Following the reporting of the comments loyal brand followers, upset by POTUS's distress, wagged fingers and scolded those who had been previously sold on the potential quality of the products to be sold under the Obama Brand label for their disloyalty

Some overheard comments from finger waggers:

"Grow up, be realistic, Obama Brand is the best product that can be produced given the inputs and the manufacturing facilities available in D.C.."

"You know a complete retooling is required in order to produce a new product model and that will take more time and more of your money."

"If you are going to intelligently consume politics you have no choice but to consume Obama Brand."

"Consuming the [only] other Brand has been toxic in the past."

"Consuming the [only] other Brand could be toxic for you and the nation if you buy it in November."

"Everyone has to adjust to the fact of life that what's delivered by the Brand is not what was shown in the catalogue and there is a no return, no refund and no complaining policy."

"If you are not going to consume Brand Obama you are no progressive, have no empathy, and are likely apolitical."

I know it seems almost to much to suggest but doesn't it seem like there is really a market opportunity for some innovator to develop a new Brand that would be consumed by those that actually want what appears in the catalogue and isn't toxic.

__________________________________________________

Me chit-chatting with a Wagger

Wagger: That's stupid and childish. No one gets what they want. They get what they're given."

Me: Ah, I didn't know.

Wagger: The start up costs are too high for any really new Brands.

Wagger: And, there are real barriers to entry in this market.

Me: Anything else?

Wagger: Adults like shoddy, toxic Brands. It's human nature.

Me: Sorry I didn't know.

Goofing around

North Star

I like the flag of Alaska. I'd not really been aware of it 'til the Arctic Winter Games of 2002 which were held in Iqaluit NU, CA & Nuuk Greenland. I was an official for the kid's mushers competition and sat in a window van at the extreme end of Frobisher Bay a stop watch in hand with other officials from Alaska, the Yukon & the NWT. The stop watch I used to record the kid's times is still upstairs in a drawer and used only now when my son is home & wants to time one of his runs. The time in the van is memorable to me now only because of near frozen feet & the time I had to chitchat with the woman official from Alaska. She gave me an Alaska flag pin and she didn't seem to me to be American, least not like the Americans I know or knew or relatives, aka aliens that had lived in the lower 48 for most of their lives. I guess she was really more a Northerner than an individual connected to one of our modern nation states.

Whatever, the flag is, I think, just great with it's panel of blue and the Big Dipper and, of course Polaris.

Now it is with Polaris I've some concerns about, eh.

Hey, you should talk Nunavut's flag also has the a fixation with the "guiding star". Yeah I know & we've no excuse other than pandering to Southerners views of the real North and they ultimately were the ones that made the flag.

Hmm, quite the statement. Yes I know.

Guess if you're between 23.5 North & 45 North Polaris is a meaningful guide to maybe where you are going, assuming you are not GPS addicted & with lots of electricity or batteries. But as you drift North the "guiding star" becomes - though it's visible - not much help, eh. John MacDonald of the Nunavut Research Institute notes in his book The Arctic Sky:

"The role of Nuutuittuq (Polaris) in Igluliningmuit navigation calls for separate consideration. ... this European metaphor for constancy and reliability - Shakespeare's star of "true fix'd and resting quality" - takes on a questionable reputation in the high Arctic .... "

So what to make of Sarah Palin adopting the nom de plume of North Star. .

If you are really in the Arctic and lost and depending on the "North Star" it can mean you are only really going in circles, eh.

For the challenged look up. A star above you, which is fixed means what?

It means nothing. It means I'm lost.