An Easter Miracle; a Resurrection of Sorts, Even....(Against Theocracy!)

Blog Against Theocracy; better late than never...

RIP Mrs. Coo (if you're looking for the miracle, read on:)






I just finished watching Religulous, Bill Maher's tour de force on the illogical, scary, and silly world of belief...and now on this first night of remembrance of the passing over of the angel of death, which, as I recall, has some lambs blood and baby killing in the story, Ive got to say that I'm happy to stick to the pagan bunny and the rites of spring that somehow got co opted by some story of Jesus rolling back a rock and rising to heaven.

So, in a Colbert-like over the top, what must have been fraternity hazing, that was passion play and sign of macho all rolled in one, some beefy football hunks from the local Sacred Heart University carried heavy wooden crosses some 25 miles from one church to another, complete with picture of the boys with the crosses outfitted with pillows duct taped onto them in the shoulder area so that they wouldn't actually hurt themselves, though they reported many blisters. All thats missing from that story are the whips!

I'm thinking that Religulous ought to be required viewing for this time of year. With the way things are, as Maher points out, most religious people in this country haven't actually read the bible all the way through anyway, and their belief sets are based on something other than striving for understanding of a spiritual path or where we fit in this world. There is certainly a lack of understanding of other religions and a lack of critical thought about the timing of all of this penance and miracle celebration.

Its at times like this that I wonder how we ever ended up here. Coming down from 8 years of fundamentalist leadership in this country might be, in hindsight, something like picking up the pieces after the inquisition, but we wont know in our lifetimes the full extent of how bad this really is; history will judge this time in a far larger context than we can see from inside this bubble. But its gonna look a little crazy, even if you keep the blinders on hoping that most of this can just move on by and end up under some rug somewhere. Historians are not that forgiving, it turns out; we can only hope.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Colbert's Easter Parade
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Me, I'm clutching my Peeps close to my chest and waiting for the bunny to come hopping down the path with my prayer bear, and pretending that Ive got a basket coming from that rabbit, full of all the fantastic confections that Cadbury, Dove, and the Peeps company can come up with...

So here is my Easter Miracle (tm)...a veritable ressurection of sorts...for this year:

Mrs. Coonie was a rare bantam barred Aracuana that came to live with me via eggbid some time ago. I got her because Coo, my Aracuana roo would like her, or so I supposed. She was cute and cheap and, it turned out, from a fancy line of chickens and pretty special. Well, some 20 days ago, the unfortunate Mrs. Coo passed away due to...well, lets just say that she died laying an egg. The life of a chicken is hard, but the egg thing is what they do, and all I can do is to try to make it more comfortable for them. In any case, after that tragedy, I decided to grab her last egg and the couple that I had in the fridge, along with a couple of others and put them in the incubator just to see what came out. I had expected a hatch tomorrow or the next day but, look what was waiting for me this morning:




if this is Coonie's child it is a fancy bird from which I could perhaps sell the eggs for hatching or lease it out at stud....if its the bastard son of Woostie, or worse, the accidental-frizzle-roo-who-must-go-as-soon-as-he-crows (see, he was originally a hen, then he was suddenly a roo,) then hes a mutt pet. If it is Coonie's kid and its barred, its apparently a roo. If its Coonie's kid and its a hen then it could be any color but barred would be better. If its a mutt then nothing matters except that it keep its mouth shut so the neighbors are not bothered.

In any case, Happy Easter and RIP Mrs. Coo. You did good in a chicken sense of purpose, in that you replaced yourself and provided alot of tiny breakfast eggs along the way. The rest is up to the forces of chicken sex and all that entails....you tell me:

Coonie Aracuana:



Woostie Woo:


Only time will tell....

And since Jill has gone all soft and fuzzy today: c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Its Friday...

...and after such a harrowing week, there is something to be said for laughing babies (guaranteed to brighten the day of even the most hard assed criminals out there:)



Another reason to be cheerful is the return of Bill Maher tonight at 11PM EST on HBO, complete with the little online after show. Oh, I know that he is one of the most hated personalities in Hollywood, but lets give him his due as someone who never shrunk away from the serious controversy of the Bush era. This guy spoke his mind even if it meant that he lost his job. And though I don't always agree with him and I wouldn't date him or even want to know him with a 10 foot pole (so, stop calling me, Bill!! The answer is still no!!,) he has stated some very important truths in public that needed desperately to be said; for that, I am thankful.
So, I will be there tonight with bells on...for those of you who hate him for personal reasons, I would suggest that you avoid him on the party circuit, cancel the dinner party invites, and any of those big HBO projects that you have in the pipelines, and tune in. As long as hes not beating up Rhianna, I for one will be very interested to hear what he has to say about all that's happened since we last spoke.

c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Bill Maher's New Rules for August 29th, 2008

Bill Maher's Real Time Returns to HBO Tonight, Fridays at 11PM Eastern!

...and not a moment too soon! I love that little nasty misogynist with his array of big boobed wimmin' and his matter of fact schtick covering all the crimes and incompetence of this administration; but more than that, he skewers the unfathomably quick decline of this culture. Say what you will about the guy, but he has stated much of what has needed to be said over these nightmare years, from his infamous declaration on his late lamented Politically Incorrect that the 9-11 hijackers were alot of things, but they weren't "cowards," having flown those planes directly into buildings, to his ongoing disagreements with 9-11 Conspiracy Theorists, to his clear opinions about organized religion, which will be available for all to see in what is being called one of the most sacrilegious movies ever made.
Welcome back Bill...And I for one, am anxiously waiting to see the movie...."Religulous."

Cornell West on Bill Maher: The "Elitism" Label

I'm cleaning out the drafts folder left over from a week of dismay and complication, so bear with me:
According to Cornell West on Bill Maher last week....

In order to call someone an elitist we have to define what we mean by "elitism." An Elitist is either someone who knows more than you in the face of relative ignorance, or it's someone who is "arrogant, condescending, or haughty towards everyday people..."


So, according to West, we are watching the spin on something that can be manipulated either way.

In my horrible paraphrasing and limited understanding, (in good company because Maher was pretty blown away too,) which is apparent from the clip below, and which I hope everyone will watch:
What standards have we got concerning the concept of truth?
If understanding truth is considered actually allowing suffering to speak,
then understanding justice is what love looks like in public.

And...Then,what suffering voices did we hear in this primary debate?
what questions and concerns about justice are manifest in the debate? Understanding this includes the questions askedand the answers given....
So according to West, and regarding Obama;
Is he smart enough?
Is he dumb enough?
When we accuse anyone of being too elite are we asking if maybe they don't know just a little too much? And if that's the case, then don't we want someone who knows a bit too much? Or is that an attitude problem?...and where do we hit the "uppity negro" concept?
Isn't this whole thing, tearing the party apart, some incarnation of a deep feeling of "how dare he aspire to the highest office in the country!"




Is there compassion informing our expertise? Because expertise without caring is empty. And at this point, I'm trying to figure if who the candidate is, isn't the very thing that might make it possible for America to get back on track.



c/p on Brilliant at Breakfast

I Love Bill Maher!

This week Bill Maher attacked religion, in more ways than one...I know that some of you out there are not all that fond of Maher, but even the real haters have to admit that he does have his moments. I love him most of the time, if he is doing politics...and boy, did he do politics this week. I only wish that this episode had been longer.

Here Maher interviews Richard Dawkins on his book, the God Delusion (check my Amazon Widget for information on the book):


And a particularly fantastic New Rules:

Bill Maher's New Rules!

Superfreakonomics!

Another Debate, Another Halloween....

Its Halloween...Boo!...and I'm listening to Marc Maron filling in for Randi Rhodes. Its almost like the old days except that he wont be on again tomorrow.

Last night I watched another democratic debate on MSNBC, and this one was notable in its horrible format and questions...and also in the poor moderating by Brian Williams, who was stiff and counter-intuitive. The light moments were the lightening round, which was basically the candidates talking in fast forward like Alvin Chipmunk, and Biden's comment about Rudy's "noun, verb, and 9-11" structure for every comment he makes.

The word today is that Barak Obama crashed hard, and I saw something that I find annoying in ...well, anyone, much less my President...He is not right on point... he says ummm alot and looks around too much. I think that he has his moments of real shining presence, but I find him to be sort of soft when it comes to the need for some sort of combative message to the people.

We are in what might be described as a serious crisis in this country. We are in trouble, and I don't want to feel like the man who wants to be my President doesn't have a strong sense of urgency. And its true also that when I saw them all debate live at Yearly Kos 2, Obama sat, leaning forward, looking to the side at the moderator rather than at the audience, and seemed almost young and sort of lacking in the kind of polish and presence that enables someone to go confidently into negotiations with world leaders; someone who goes in and kicks ass. I think that he is a gifted orator, but I don't know that he can really command the dyed in the wool politicos that have to be dealt with in this job. By this debate I can see clearly that he is green and he does need seasoning. Obama is just not ready yet....(notice that I say yet.)



Meanwhile, Hillary has been touted by the press as the one, and we are basically being told to pack it in and head to the polls and pull her lever...but the same press that is telling us who to vote for and sizing up the big show as a Hillary vs. Rudy game, were tremendously quick to jump on her when they felt like she had made a big slip in saying that she believes that illegal immigrants should have access to drivers licenses. This is a hot button issue, and its one that is being skirted by most politicians; embraced by others....And Hillary made the mistake of stating a position!! Well, we can't have that, for Christ's sake!! I guess that its silly to note that all the candidates agreed with her except for Dodd. This is the crack in the veneer that they were looking for.

It dawned on me, much to my delight, that if Obama is looking young and green, and Hillary showed a hairline fracture, Edwards is only one mistake away from being the guy...and let me tell you, Edwards shined last night.

John Edwards is a man who has been through this ringer as the different apparitions that advisers and handlers will create at the big show. He has clearly straightened out, in his own mind, what his life is about and what his campaign is about. I think so anyway...Its impossible to ever truly trust any politician, but I've seen him up close, and I bought his line; hook, line, and sinker. I really think that he is the guy...and that if its not for President this time round, its to do some really important work on this country and whats wrong with it. Like Al Gore, he might actually be able to do more good while not being president.

What I love about this process, which is a much more open-format and full debate schedule than the Rovian Bushies would ever permit, is that the field is fantastic and varied. I'm not wishing that the field would narrow all that soon, mainly because I'm acutely aware that things are being said over and over that have needed to be said for years. And though its true that the corporate media has their own manipulated spin on what is being said, in their drive to make Hillary be the candidate, sound/YouTube bytes are being created that are bound to make their way out of that lock on information that is hanging heavily in the air on network TV, radio, and in the papers.I want everyone from the media powers-that-be to the bloggers to pick this stuff apart until its dust. I want the conversation about how horrible Bush has fucked us up to go on and on.

I keep remembering driving around here as the war began and as the first part of the attempted destruction of the constitution began, and the first horrible mistakes started to become apparent...and this is such a different atmosphere, even if we end up with the repugnant Hillary Clinton, (with her questionable ability to beat even Rudy Giuliani,) at least the things that needed to be said were, for the most part, said. All that is left is to try to understand why the House and Senate are not on board with what the country clearly wants....and where the corporate media thinks that they are getting off in distorting things so much. I love this stuff, even if it is gut-wrenching and heartbreaking most of the time.

Last weekend, I had a garage sale here at the Chicken Ranch , and due to my ever present Impeach Bush sign, I was treated to a day long running conversation about the extreme disappointment that people are feeling about the current majority rule and their lack of balls in getting us out of Iraq one way or another.

Why do I like John Edwards so much? He is very clear that if we are to continue on this road that we need to understand that we are going to have to sacrifice and take responsibility for the position that we are in. This isn't just Bush's mistake or something that politicians have to handle; we are all there in the thick of this thing and as time goes on it will effect us in much more palpable ways...so, don't look to the authority figures in this thing to get us out of it; they are every bit as helpless as we all are. This thing is going to take some real work to dig out of, and its not going to be easy.



By far, the most interesting person at the sale was the last guy, who was a local pump guy on his way to an emergency call. He wanted to get some toys for his grandchildren...and upon seeing my Impeach sign explained to me that he is a vet and that as far as he can see, that this is a fascist government.... then he went on to lay out every point that I had ever thought or had heard from the likes of Seder and Maron, the prophets out there, and my favorite blogs....not to mention what had been going around my head for all of these years. This is an older local guy who is not on the internets at all, and who is getting by listening to a local black liberal station which is supposedly available up here at 95.5 FM.

He reminded me of myself before AAR came out of nowhere and reminded me that there are sane voices out there somewhere...and he was so happy that he found someone who agreed with him. Sometimes it seems like we are out here rattling round in our own heads, and at some point critical mass has to ensure that there is some movement in the direction that we are mandating. They work for us, don't they? I mean, I guess that if Hillary gets into office, it will be the equivalent of more of the same lite, so you cant be too careful. But when are we gonna get so mad that we remove these people from power? What has to happen? How bad does it have to get before we demand that the networks even actually report on the demonstrations that we are marching in?

Garage sales are strange in that they cross personal barriers...who is buying what?...and who understands what? Many immigrants came by and they bought alot of my old sneakers at 50 cents a pop....I lowered the price for things like that, in that these are the people doing most of the heavy lifting around here. The Hispanics were the best hagglers, but I started to get a little tired of it all in that I was making the prices super low to begin with. I began to pull items back from even being on sale because I felt like...it was almost embarrassing to fight with an older Mexican woman about a jacket from Banana Republic or something, that was new, and that she wanted for a dollar...but that I could sell on eBay for $15...I was saying basically that I live uptown here in this beautiful place and that I have a computer to sell my fancy things, (actually my sister had given it to me as a present and I had never worn it,) and I was somehow torn between giving the stuff away and pulling it back...but I didn't want to haggle down to some silly price. Maybe I was losing my mind...maybe I had been in the garage too long. It was an odd sensation and it reminded me of why I usually just give stuff to the Salvation Army and let them sell it.

Maybe that I was just getting sick, which I was, but a whole day of discussing the extreme political distress that is going around out there, on top of going through all of my kid's baby stuff, my past, and seeing so many neighbors and people who came up from downtown to go through the "rich people's" stuff, frazzled me.

No doubt that I am frazzled and burned out anyway. I don't quite know what to do about it, because its not like I can shut off politics, or my kids, or my life...and even if I do, it goes round in my head until I can research the ideas and spit 'em out here or there...I don't know what to do. But something that I find heartening in all of this is that this guy, John Edwards, is really speaking the truth; and its not just a truth about the current situation. Its a truth about life in general and how we move around on this planet, what we can expect from our interaction in this society, and what our responsibilities are in life...towards each other, our families, our friends, and the larger world. The disconnect has to stop here...we must find our way back from becoming so disconnected. If we don't, we cant hope for much besides a fast food, cardboard, empty world, with a couch and a TV remote....
So let the debates continue, and maybe, just maybe, some little bit of information will get out there and into the popular psyche enough to wise us up...lift us up...

The 9-11 Conspiracy Theorists and Me....and Maher!...

I've got a couple of friends who entertain 9-11 conspiracy theories...constantly...and they send me email crap all the time. When I try to reason that we need to choose where to spend our time right now, they say something to the effect of that I just don't understand that there really is no government in this country, no choice, and that everything is preordained, so I am actually wasting my time by looking at the politics that are shown to me...here in the Matrix....

Y'know, I'm probably one of the first people who would believe anything at this point...I have no doubt that there is information out there that points to shadow governments and secret cabals....murderers and area 51 housing aliens in jars.... But I also can't live in an action film....If those things are true, I don't think that Kiefer Sutherland or, better, John Cusack, is gonna crack the plot and blow up the warehouse where the warhead codes are stored....or come and arrest Bush and Cheney and sent them straight to jail....for blowing up the WTC! Even if that were true, the lack of hard evidence would mandate going with a lesser charge to get a conviction....if that were even possible at all. Don't you see? They would just pass a law or point to a wartime law that would get them off. I'm not saying not to believe what you believe, but get your priorities straight!

I have to go forward, as I always have in my life, doing what I can with what is in front of me and I can guarantee any of you conspiracy "nuts" out there that the thing that someone is going to jail for is not the explosion or implosion of a building, but hopefully for something like the outing of a covert agent who was working on weapons of mass destruction in IRAN!! Now, that is something that we should all be able to sink our teeth into....and something that has become a runaway train for this administration...and it may be something with some real emerging evidence, that this administration would prefer that we would not look at.
And...really guys...the logical left, who want to reclaim some semblance of what this country was before this mess started, have so little accessible airtime, and so few opportunities to have someone like Bill Maher comment on what is happening now and what we can really do something about, why oh why would you want to interrupt that and make you and your co-nuts look worse than you already do?

In my opinion, the 9-11 conspiracy theory is one of those last refuges for cowards and lazy folks...It is much easier to sit around and try to unravel a mystery that doesn't really put you in the line of fire. Easier to theorize and extrapolate than to have to take a hard look at the cold disappointment and despair that rolls out of DC, along with every revelation, every day, day after day.... Its easier to be a nut-case and written off, repeating the same theories over and over....and where is the theory...the truth... that Rudy Giuliani had enough fuel stored in the buildings to blow up blocks? What about the fact that the radios didn't work? And what about the slack cut to the Port Authority?...what about our friends who were told to go back to their desks, that everything was under control...even when bodies were falling by the windows? Is that conspiracy or just plain old boring low bid cronyism?

Why not go after the very real things that have to be brought forward? This guy, Rudy Giuliani, who is responsible for alot of what went wrong that day, (not to mention before that for a long, long time in NYC,) could be your next president! Isn't it more important to ensure that the democrats have a toe hold at least, before we halt all discourse and focus on this one thing?

The real conspiracy here is that which would have any of us take our eye off the ball for even a second to watch the shiny things that the neocons are throwing our way. Its hard enough to stay focused and not to slip into despair, without people who go around like nuts talking about stuff that is only designed to distract us from the necessary work that we have to do right now. lets agree to revisit this thing in a few years, OK?

Oprah's Bone-dentity, Petraeus and the American Public, and New Rules...

Americans have grown so frighteningly apathetic that as Petraeus gives his report on the Iraq Surge, there will be a mechanical background hum of daily life as gears grind and stock tickers tick in the gray world...and in some sort of 1984 Macintosh commercial, the big screen in Times Square will show a picture of the uniform with the mouth moving, as if in an Olbermann/Letterman/O'Brien/Snuffleupagus weekly funny. Why do I feel so numb about this report?...even though I've waited for it, painfully aware of every death reported since we were put off through the summer...

According to...well, just about every major news outlet, pollster, and blog out there, the majority of the American people feel that this report is full of shit and that Petraeus is less than trustworthy when it comes to his view of the success of the surge in Iraq. Though it does appear that everyone is going off the same wire report for the percent of Americans who are disgruntled, I still believe it holds true across the board.

Even Petraeus himself seems to be trying to get a coded message out by frantically blinking his eyes in Morse:

In a letter to US troops ahead of his testimony, Gen Petraeus conceded that the ”tangible political progress” expected from that the surge was supposed to spur had ”not worked out as we had hoped”.

The tragedy is that once you've sold your soul, that's it. Its not like Petraeus and his ilk cant go on to write their books and make their speeches.... but forget the legacy and respect that might be due a guy like this. I just don't believe that a career officer can deliver these dummied up talking points, while clearly trying to backpedal here and there, and not be somehow haunted by it forever.


I dont even have hope that the senate will surprise us with a major smack down, and yet we know that what he is going to say is likely to put a positive spin on a grim situation. This is the kind of thing that would have made me salivate back in the days of hope, but the realities of such a close majority in the Senate, and the tendency of people in office to have a troubling amount of respect for the uniform, (which I understand, but which also must be questioned in a situation like this,) makes it almost certain that this may be a flat reading of a White House script, written weeks and months ago by the Rovian spinners who are no doubt still in the office finishing up the architecture job for the boss.

Ill be watching most of it with interest, if for nothing else, for the psychological implications of this time in history, and the arrested development of our country.

Bill Maher had a fantastic show last night, and all I can say is that if you've got HBO on demand, have a look at it. If not, check out the HBO page and look at the videos there, as well as YouTube. I also watch AfterHours online, streaming from the HBO page. That also turns up on YouTube. But in the meantime here are this week's New Rules, just for a little of the funny before a hard week to come:



Oprah Winfrey....hmmmm...
I don't much go for the overly black girlfriend thing that she does sometimes, and even though I respect her and what she has done, I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see her corralling Hollywood and throwing down for a guy who is inspiring but ultimately not experienced enough to WIN. I'm not saying that I wont vote for him if he is the nominee, but I doubt very much that he will be the nominee. I also feel like he puts on certain airs, and I'm not 100% sure what it is that he stands for exactly. I say this from a place of having seen him debate live and watched him on TV alot...and Ive also read most of his site from the beginning because I find him somewhat compelling in a futuristic sort of way.












In any case, I appreciate that Oprah wants a black guy as president, and that women want a woman...I don't take it very seriously right now, because I am so pleased with our field...but I do wish that she had thrown her formidable power behind the democratic nominees in 2000, and in 2004. In the world of life and death that the Bush administration has created for us, it seems to me that in the past she donated money but remained largely above the fray, because she was trying to be a news person. I'm glad to have her voice out there...but wary at the same time. Oprah Winfrey is a cultural phenomenon, who has certainly tried , against all odds, to raise the level of the culture. But we don't really know what she stands for, and she wields quite a bit of power.


Jezebel has a lighter view of Oprah's huge splash into the pool of presidential campaigning:

The woman, the black, the black, the woman, the woman, the black... OMG IT'S LIKE A REALITY DATING SHOW. We like Hillary and all, except we kind of don't want to vote for her, and neither, it turns out finally, does Oprah Winfrey, who after extensive focus-grouping and analysis of the candidates' respective adherence to the Law of Attraction (i.e. coin-flipping) yesterday , finally decided to come out and endorse Barack Obama. (UPDATE: Okay, so she had endorsed him already, but then she decided to start raising serious bank for him yesterday, and that's the important part.)...and Barack is black, and Oprah's black, and Oprah's from Chicago, but so are Barack and Hillary, but Hillary left, so that must have been it, right? Because it's not like you'd vote for somebody based on a thorough evaluation of their policies, priorities, voting records and level of beholdenness to various entrenched interests? We don't know, because we lean towards Obama, but some of us are fairly Caucasian. So what did to black women have to say? We searched far and wide for two undecided black women voters who would speak their minds.

And upon asking around:

Which settles it. Identity politics are over. It's all about bone-dentity politics. Personally, we're leaning towards Obama, but only by the transitive property of being hot for Ludacris.

C/P from RIPCoco

Bill Maher's New Rules!

I need a little of the funny right around now...and thankfully Bill is back!