George And The Meaning of Life

It seems in the twilight of his presidency George Bush is pondering the meaning of Life, the Universe, and everything. According to this article He has started to invite authors, historians, philosophers, theologians, and other luminaries for discussions at the White house. One can only imagine the topics discussed:

Over sodas and sparkling water, he asks his questions: What is the nature of good and evil in the post-Sept. 11 world? What lessons does history have for a president facing the turmoil I'm facing? How will history judge what we've done? Why does the rest of the world seem to hate America? Or is it just me they hate?

To this I would add "Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?"

When I read the above article, I was struck by the similarity between George Bush and his luminaries and William Lyon MacKenzie King who held seances to speak to his late mother and his dead dog: Neither of them were looking for true guidance, all they were looking for was reassurances that they were doing a good job. The difference is that MacKenzie King, however quirky, was an intelligent man and competent Prime Minister.

The article bounces back and forth at painting a picture of a man who is calm, serene and completely oblivious:

"You don't get any feeling of somebody crouching down in the bunker," said Irwin M. Stelzer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who was part of one group of scholars who met with Bush. "This is either extraordinary self-confidence or out of touch with reality. I can't tell you which."

I would suggest a third option: He is extraordinarily self confident because he is out of touch with reality. Of course George Bush is calm and serene, he lacks the intellect and imagination to even begin to understand the disaster he has wrought both at home and abroad. Any time I have ever seen Dubya on television, he always seems to have an expression that I can only describe as someone who knows that some very important is happening but when it comes to understanding it, has just missed the boat. In other words, George has the tranquility to which only the truly stupid can aspire.

The article goes on and on, in a jaw dropping attempt to present Bush as a "spiritual, thoughtful man" and the facts just are not in evidence. George, over the years, has such a great deal out of being "anti intellectual" that article just does not ring true. Instead, perhaps unintentionally, it paints a picture of a man who has pretty much isolated himself, surrounded himself with "yes men" and fears to step beyond his little circle for fear that reality will leap up and sink its fangs into his ass.

I don't know about you, but this, perhaps, is the most frightening of all:

Much of the discussion focused on the nature of good and evil, a perennial theme for Bush, who casts the struggle against Islamic extremists in black-and-white terms. Michael Novak, a theologian who participated, said it was clear that Bush weathers his difficulties because he sees himself as doing the Lord's work.

Well, Well, George sees himself as doing the lord's work. It must also be pointed out that so do the suicide bombers.

Stevie meets the Terminator.

This week, Ahnold made a visit to Ennui on the Rideau where he met with our glorious leader Stephen - He with the Face like a Refrigerator Door - Harper. There, in the hallowed halls of Parliament, Refrigerator Boy gave his solemn promise to ban camcorders from movie theaters.

Now, I admit that I gave up going to movies in theaters years ago for various reasons: the theaters shrank to postage stamp size, but the sound still remained the same. Promos and trailers for other movies are fine, but I absolutely draw the line at advertisements. If I wanted to watch ads, I would have stayed home and watch the tube. Finally, the price of the ticket, the obscenely priced soft drink and popcorn with genuine imitation greasy butterlike substance on top would easily cover one month's membership in zip.ca where I could watch all the movies I wanted in the comfort of my own home. Not to mention the fact that Hollywood hasn't really made anything original in years; remakes and sequels seem the order of the day, Oceans 13 (sinatra, martin, davis and the rest of the original rat pack must be spinning in their respective graves) and that travesty that was the remake of "The Italian Job" just to name a few.

It seems, however, that Canada is the leading hot bed of movie piracy because our theaters are flooded with people and their camcorders. I have yet to figure out just how they arrive at that conclusion. As stated previously, I don't go to theaters. However, I have many friends who do, and so I asked them if they had ever seen anyone recording the movie. Without exception, the answer given to me was "no". Besides that, I have been told, the quality of such a recording would be so bad as not to be worth the trouble.

In an attempt to stem this apparent epidemic, Warner Brothers announced earlier this month that they would cancel all their preview screenings of their "summer blockbusters" in Canada. It was then I found that I am not the only one who finds such things as Spiderman 28 and Rocky 42 extremely tedious as this news was greeted with howls of joy from all and sundry. Of course, I can bet that in less than 24 hours after these previews are shown, DVD quality copies of the movies (not grainy camcorder versions) will be available for download on the web. One thing is certain though, they won't be from Canada. I wonder who Hollywood will blame then?

Oh.. those Sneaky Canadians.

Once upon a time, a couple of American Defense contractors (whose names have never been disclosed) came to Canada. Upon their arrival, they found that they had been "tagged" by a suspicious looking coin; one of which had been found in the cup holder of a rental car. It was plainly obvious that these coins "were filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology". The worried contractors filed confidential espionage reports.

The confidential accounts led to a sensational warning from the Defense Security Service, an agency of the Defense Department, that mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors travelled through Canada.

And the Panic was on.


Remember folks, these are the people who swore Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction.

Nemesis - the Last Days of the American Republic

Chalmers Johnson is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute & professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, has written numerous books on Japan & Asia including his classic "Miti & the Japanese Miracle"&"Japan: Who Governs?" He was also, for many years, an advisor to the CIA.

From his publisher:

The long-awaited final volume of Chalmers Johnson''s bestselling
"Blowback" trilogy confronts the overreaching of the American empire and the threat it poses to the republic. In his prophetic book "Blowback," Chalmers Johnson linked the CIA''s clandestine activities abroad to disaster at home. In The Sorrows of Empire, he explored the ways in which the growth of American militarism and the garrisoning of the planet have jeopardized our stability. Now, in "Nemesis," he shows how imperial overstretch is undermining the republic itself, both economically and politically. Delving into new areas--from plans to militarize outer space to Constitution-breaking presidential activities at home and the devastating corruption of a toothless Congress--"Nemesis" offers a striking description of the trap into which the dreams of America''s leaders have taken us. Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail just what the unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war economy are likely to be. What does it mean when a nation''s main intelligence organization becomes the president''s secret army? Or when the globe''s sole "hyperpower," no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders, becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all times?
In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America--a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation

Johnson was interviewed on The Current - April 18, part three. If you have realaudio, and half an hour to spare, I suggest that you listen. I think I will be picking up those three books.

In the interview, Johnson points out that one can either have a domestic republic or a foreign empire, but not both. Further, that the only way to have the empire is through a military dictatorship.

As one standing on the outside of America, Johnson's premise and prediction have a frightening ring of clarity - the constitution is effectively eroded, the influence of congress has all but disappeared.

If the price of Liberty is eternal vigilence, The USA is asleep at the wheel.

Cowboy Nation

I wrote earlier about the recent massacre at Virginia Tech perpetrated by one lone man who besides being off his rocker, had extremely easy access to guns; access made all that more easy by the very lax gun legislation of The Commonwealth of Virginia. These laws (or rather lack thereof) make it possible to purchase any gun one would ever want with out permit or waiting period. In effect, in Virginia it is more difficult to adopt a cat from the local animal shelter than it is to get semi-automatic weapons.

As to be expected, the Gun Lobby claims that guns would have prevented this massacre. It seems that the Gun Lobby believes that as soon as this lunatic began firing, the students would have magically morphed into Bruce Willis and saved the day in a blinding flash of gunfire and testoserone. OOOOOOOkay.......

It is hard for one not of The Excited States of America to understand the American love affair with guns. To be sure, the right to bear arms is enshrined in their constitution. However, that said, I can't imagine that the founding fathers with their muzzle loading muskets could even conceive of the guns used by Cho Seung-Hui when he killed 32 people. Likewise, I don't think that they could envsioned in any way the carnage that happened at Virginia Tech. I believe that if they had any notion of what this amendment would have led to, the wording may have been drastically different.

I also can't figure this out: No one is asking for a ban on guns. All they want to know is who has them and waiting period to do a criminal/mental health check on the person who is buying it. That's it. No one wants to take their precious phallic symbols away. Now, that said, their government has carte blanche to tap their phones, it is even tracing the library books that people read, and they have their collective knickers in a twist because someone wants them to register their firearms.

I'd say they have a few larger problems than registering guns. But then, I'm Canadian.