Letters Home From Vietnam

"The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised and we shall be changed...Oh, death, where is thy sting, where thy victory? If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Not too long ago I finished reading the utterly excellent "Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam", as part of my continuing education into that particular war and the lives of the soldiers in it.

It is a collection of letters from a US military personnel that documents the war from the inside-out and it is a harrowing, powerful read that can't help but make the reader transfer his or her thoughts to those that currently serve in Iraq and Afghanistan...never mind the other brewing conflicts around the globe.

After each letter, which may be of the most mundane sort, or uplifting, or terrifyingly gripping, or just plain heartbreaking; you then discover the outcome for the author: whether KIA, WIA, MIA or currently working as a deckhand on a tugboat, or a financial manager for Pacific Bell. This acts as the punctuation and I found myself, as the end of each letter approached, rushing to discover what happened to the writer, hoping that, against all the odds they made it. Often they didn't.

The worst are perhaps those written by new fathers to their new children, not yet met, opening up their hearts with love for their not yet seen children, only to discover a piece of shrapnel ended any chance of father meeting son, or daughter meeting father.

The book goes on to be riddled with passages that level you, whether it be the words of Johnny Boy...

"I want to hold my head between my hands and run screaming away from here. I cry too, not much, just when I touch the sore spots. I'm hollow, Mrs Perko. I'm a shell and when I'm scared I rattle. I', no one to tell you about your son. I can't. I'm sorry."

Or the hard-edged rhyming funnies of PFC Thomas F. Smith...

I love my flag, I do, I do

Which floats upon the breeze

I also love my arms and legs

And neck and nose and knees

One little shell might spoil them all

Or give them such a twist

They would be of no use to me

I guess I won't enlist

I love my country, yes, I do

I hope her folks do well

Without our arms and legs and things

I think we'd look like hell

Young men with faces half shot off

Are unfit to be kissed

I've read in books it spoils their looks

I guess I won't enlist

Or the POW that survived some 6 years in captivity, writing fevered letters to his wife and family and making lists of what he would do if he was ever released, to only kill himself 4 months after being set free.

Amongst all the stillborn children, breastless women, old men stumbling in the dust, soldiers looting bodies, cookies from home, burning houses to the ground, pigeon-breasted fantasies, disowned veterans and dead best friends, there is this truth:

We are your sons, America

And you cannot change that

When you awake

We will still be here  

The last word both here and in the book is given to Eleanor Wimbish, in a letter to her son, as she visits that deep, black gash into the earth that is the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial...

"Dear Bill: Today is February 13, 1984. I came to this black wall again to see and touch your name and as I do I wonder if anyone ever stops to realize that next to your name, on this black wall, is your mother's heart."

Things Should've Got A Lot Better?

Election day is upon us, so it only seems right to have a quick retrospective look at New Labour before the face of British politics is changed forever...again.

Like anyone with a heart, who was not a Thatcherite idiot-savant that is, the morning of 2nd May 1997 was a very good day. On the 1st May I had cast my vote for Vernon Coaker and for the first time since 1983 we had a Labour MP in an area with a long history of voting Tory. 

And what exactly have New Labour achieved in their long residency at Number 10?

Their numerous accomplishments remain, for me, dwarfed by the cruel debacle of the illegal war in Iraq and the humiliating period of 2001-07, where Tony Blair acted as some kind of toothy lap dog to the retarded, Ivy League, monkey king pretender to the world's most powerful country. Iraq looms large, mainly for the huge loss of civilian life, never mind the raft of US and UK military causalities and for what exactly? Talk of war crimes and illegality has faded it seems but in my mind it remains incredibly strong.

Iraq is the distorting lens that leaves much of what the Labour party has achieved looking asinine and pyrrhic but there is much there to celebrate. The social-morality landscape of Britain has changed a great deal, some of this may merely be down to humanity's progress but Labour enacted much legislation to enable positive social reforms for women, ethnic minorities and the gay community; civil partnerships were a thing of dreams for many but now are a crucial reality and a stepping stone to the end of discrimination as we know it. Labour must be thanked for such steps.

Of course, New Labour's vision for electoral reform has not gone as far as I would've hoped but they moved in the right direction, with the House of Lords in better shape and reform ready, the FOI act passed and devolutionary powers to Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland and the current peace are also one of Labour's huge successes, although I do acknowledge it took numerous other parties, agencies and individuals to work together to achieve the situation we have now and although by no means perfect, I am old enough to remember the IRA as a very real threat on the UK mainland and acts of violence and terror a depressing and seemingly regular occurrence.

I am unashamed to say that, although I will not be voting for him, I believe Gordon Brown to be one of our finest chancellors and his stewardship of the UK economy and the measures he took created a far more equal society (the minimum wage being one of New Labour's finest achievements, along with the creation of an independent Bank of England), with a genuine effort to reduce poverty, consistently low unemployment and enabling a move away from crash and burn economics; rather spoilt admittedly by the global financial crisis.

The endless money pit that is our public services have also been transformed and heavily (perhaps too heavily) invested in, so that we are blessed with new schools, hospitals and facilities for social governance, such as Job Centres, Health Centres and Connexions Centres for young people. NHS waiting times have plummeted from 21 weeks under the Tories in 1997 to around 6 weeks as of now and previous lows at around 4 weeks in 2007.

As someone who used to work with young mothers, the impact of Sure Start cannot be underestimated, and neither should improvements to YOT teams and YIP projects and the transformation of the cranky and dusty old Careers Service into the young person friendly and focused Connexions.

And with regards to the industry I work in, let us not forget that the arts, dying under Thatcher and Major, has been rejuvenated, albeit with a clever and helpful dose of gambling money, which has marginally silenced the right-wing hectoring of what tax payers money is being spent on but rather, quite bizarrely, what gambler's money is being spent on...

In the minus column, aside from the crippling blow of Iraq, is the fact that when New Labour came to power in 1997 some 5 million 'working adults' were subsidised by the state and this figure remains unmoved today and for all the racist arguments of 'immigrants stealing our jobs', they have in reality filled a gap which UK citizens were unwilling to fill. The re-jigging of the benefits system has failed cut down on elements of institutionalised family state subsidy, whilst managing to demonise other claimants. A lose-lose.

A huge negative about Labour was their endless infringements upon human rights and civil liberties, under the overarching catch-all theme of the War on Terror (Copyright. Trademark. All Rights Reserved), which enabled them to pass some awful legislation that is only softened, in my mind, by the fact that Tories would've been far, far worse.

Another downside for me has been the explosion, under Labour, of bureaucratic middle-men agencies, the worst of which are the Regional Development Agencies, monoliths that entrap large swathes of government funding and then deal it out, whilst themselves costing a bloody fortune.

Finally and whilst speaking of bureaucracy, education is another sector I've worked in and has suffered terribly under New Labour. Whether it be the vulgar league table (a blight on many of our public services and a device that only ever leads to fixing the figures), SATS, paperwork of teachers and the ever increasing obsession with the GCSE as a measuring device for our children, whilst harder to measure subjects are sacrificed at the alter of 5 A-C's.

And the perverse, schizoid drive by Labour to increase participation in higher education by opening up glorified sixth form colleges as universities offering God awful subjects, whilst simultaneously bringing in tuition fees, swinging cuts to the grants systems and saddling graduates with huge student loan debts; is one of the biggest errors of its tenureship.

So yes, things should've have got a lot better under New Labour but let us not forget that they did achieve a great deal and more importantly, that the Conservatives would've been so very much worse...

HAPPY VOTING!

Brothers

Some time ago I went with Eva-Jane and her family to the pictures, we were intending to see the latest Clooney effort; "Up in the Air" but it was sold out so we opted for "Brothers", a film I had been sub-consciously avoiding because I knew it's content would leave me in pieces.

You see, oddly enough, I am a constant and fervent supporter of our troops, our armed forces; the men and women that fight and die in our name. Ever since the age of 18 I have given money, whenever I can, to military charities and have developed a deep set interest in all things military.

I'm not sure whether my own grandparents travails in the Second World War, or the image of my great-grandfather, who fought in the First World War and lost a limb there, or the military adventures of my German great-grandfather in the same conflict, or even my father's time in the military under National Service, then voluntarily as a member of the King's Troop; left that deep mark.

All I know is that I respect beyond measure the sacrifice of those that lay down their lives for their country.

Now "Brothers" and I urge you to see it, is a film about the effects of war upon the mental health of soldiers and thus their families, set in the United States, it is incredibly distressing and conjures fine performances from all of the its talented cast. It had me in tears or fighting them back for much of the movie because the impact of war is so vast, so all encompassing and my mind was drawn to the 4,378 dead American warriors and their families, who gave their lives in Iraq and the 1,000 US servicemen who have died in Afghanistan. The ripples from those deaths reach far and wide, never mind the long list of wounded and those left mentally disturbed by what they have seen and suffered.

In the UK we too have had our share of loss, 179 in Iraq and 264 in Afghanistan; lives lost and blood spilt on foreign soil, doing your duty but dying far from home. And this does not include those crippled, whether physically or emotionally.

A heavy toll, a mighty price to pay. We owe them much.

And to think that many return home, damaged, in pain, hurting and do not receive adequate care, attention and support! What kind of betrayal is that? What kind of crime is that?

The charities I regularly give to are listed below, all of these are for UK military personnel but I will be more than willing to link to some suitable US equivalents if my American readers know of any. If you can give then I urge you to do so, for our brothers...

St. Dunstan's: Supporting blind ex-Service men and women for almost a century, St Dunstan’s gives invaluable physical and emotional support to blind and visually impaired ex-Service men and women.

Combat Stress: is the leading service provider in the care of Veterans' mental health and able to deliver specialist, trauma-focused treatment and support to Ex-Service men and women whose problems are chronic, complex and long term. They also provide help and advice to their families.

Help For Heroes: was founded by Bryn and Emma Parry in October 2007 out of a desire to help the wounded Servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. The message of the charity is simple: We are strictly non political and non critical; we simply want to help. We believe that anyone who volunteers to serve in time of war, knowing that they may risk all, is a hero. These are ordinary people doing extraordinary things and some of them are living with the consequences of their service for life. We may not be able to prevent our soldiers from being wounded, but together we can help them get better.

Some Pictures For The Weekend Sir?

I stumbled upon these, they are a mixed bag of images from Magnum, the international photography co-operative and they are all pretty damn awesome.

Something for the weekend sir?

Have a good one!

Chicago, USA, 1966. Muhammad Ali, boxing world heavyweight champion, showing off his right fist

Harlem, USA, 1963. Fire hydrants are opened in the summer heat

Illinois, USA, 1955. Marilyn Monroe resting

London, UK, 1964. The Beatles during filming of A Hard Day's Night

New York, USA, 1955. James Dean walks in Times Square

North Carolina, USA, 1950. A man takes a drink during the era of segregated water fountains

Omaha Beach, Normandy, 1944. The first wave of American troops lands at dawn

Washington, USA, 1963. Martin Luther King at the climax of his I Have a Dream speech

America Will Always Kill It's Own For Better Ratings

Endless small towns
Full to the brim with American flags and bad food
All that time and all that television
This is the real America
Where the American slow death plays itself out over football seasons
And raking the leaves
All that heritage
Depressed shells of the American Dream (copyright) they tried to be
No one told them it was a joke
The joke was on them and that the American Dream (all rights reserved)
Is only for the few and that the rest can just chase it
Serve their time chasing in the tortured land of beautiful fugitives
Proud suppliers to the American Machine (trademark): soldier boys, food, patriotic air, good sturdy racism and a raging separatist spirit

America is a nomad
A bastard
A criminal
Cut loose in their own vast country to wander and wage war
Always lost
Always homeless
Come and go
America never notices: body bag or
Business class.

Hide My Ass Because I'm a Coward

The old adage of normal person+Internet+anonymity=asshat (don't forget the other version of that equation which is: damaged, lonely person+Internet+anonymity=deeply, deeply disturbed borderline psychotic obsessive asshat) is of course horribly true and one of the things that makes the Internet a drag at times.

But I had an epiphany just the other day, which is that anyone who uses a fake identity, anonymity or any other method of hiding who they are really cannot be taken at all seriously. If you are not able to put your name to your ideas, words and concepts; you really can't hold them with that much conviction and strength. It's either that or you are ashamed of them.

That doesn't mean of course that you can't hold stupid, backward and idiotic ideas if you put your name to them but at least you have the courage of your convictions, a willingness to stand by your ideas and vice-versa, not all writers that hide behind anonymity are fools but there is only so far I think you can go with them.

Of course, anonymous cowards when faced with this fact cry about their identity being on a 'need to know basis' which is a terrible justification for being an intellectual weakling and for me means that the nonsense they write is on a need to know basis and I really don't need to fucking know.

The funniest thing to me is that I get these freaks visiting my site hiding behind a web proxy, something that disguises where they are visiting my website from and their IP address and whatnot. This is funny for two reasons: firstly that they are so cowardly that they have to cloak who they are (no doubt justifying their cowardice with some James Bond fantasies and delusional concepts about the preciousness of their identity) and secondly, that for all their protestations of loathing for me, they just can't stay away from me.

Bible Study: A Very Confusing Book Indeed

Bible studies finished last week with humanity prostrating itself before the Bible in awe at how ruddy bloody amazing it all was. This subservience to the text meant that any queries about an odd passage of writing, or laws that were already out of date, could be dismissed with the idea that puny human language had splintered under the divine impact of God’s power. Reading the Bible literally was like looking at just the face but not the heart, seeing a flat land but ignoring the majestic mountains that surround it.

And if that didn’t work, a quick clip round the ear with the command to stop bloody thinking so much and get prostrating yourself before it.

All this interpretation and prostration led to, naturally, some odd interpretations to please God, such as Europe’s first act of communal cooperation as it crawled out of the primordial Dark Age sludge: the First Crusade. Quoting Jesus as literally as you possible could: “anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” the crusaders, in a bizarre act of love for their God, hacked a few thousand Jews and Muslims to pieces.

Jews in the meantime, when not being attacked by eager to please Christians, were struggling with the two concepts of a God: one who walked, talked, sat on a throne, got jealous, angry and changed his mind…often and without much warning; with a god that was timeless, impassable, didn’t care about mundane events (such as prayers and other tedious business), didn’t create the cosmos because the cosmos and God were eternal.

A struggle that anyone who has contemplated the Abrahamic God will be more than familiar with.

Then came Martin Luther and the noble if not controversial idea that has shaped much of our religious landscape: sola scriptura, the idea that scripture alone is the guide to God’s will and in turn that the Bible can be digested alone, without guidance by anyone else. This gave everyone the right to interpret the ancient and complex documents how they saw fit, which in turn led to the vast raft of Christian sects we now have (there are some 20+ main branches of the faith but each of these has many offshoots), this religious liberty is indeed problematic

Sola scriptura is about the reader making annotations in the margins, erasing the traditional divine gloss and making it a living, breathing, personal document. At first, this method spearheaded by Martin Luther was Jesus-centric to an absurd length, famously leading to his ninety-five theses nailed to church doors and the rift with Rome, the word of the Bible versus sacramental tradition: “a simple layman armed with scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it”. Humanity no longer is looks up to the Bible but stands side by side with it, a comrade in life’s battles and a fundamental switch in how the Bible is perceived and used; it is now the tool of the many.

The came John Calvin, who sought a middle ground less fundamental than Martin Luther, one based on the concept that the large swathes of the Bible that didn’t mention Jesus were just as important, a re-connection with the Old Testament. Less edifying stories were seen as steps on a long path and did not have to be explained away with allegory and exegesis. Calvin also pushed the idea that the ever-burgeoning field of study called science was not contrary to religion but an extension of it. And if you seek scientific knowledge, you do not turn to the Bible but to scientific thought.

The world’s galloping modernisation was progressive and empowering but with it came an inbuilt intolerance towards religious extremism, so in 1620 a party of English settlers travelled across the Atlantic. The English puritans, radical Calvinists, were following the exodus mythology in the Bible, finding a mandate in the bible to repress the Native Americans, all the while seeing their exodus as a precursor to the last days…which so far haven’t come of course but more on that in the final edition of Bible Study.

What was established, in what became the United States of America, sums up many of the contradictions of the Bible. A single text that can be interpreted to serve diametrically opposed interests, from African slaves embracing the same exodus narrative of liberation against their Christian owners, who in turn claimed the Bible’s lax attitude towards slaves as justification for their actions. And from this Biblically justified rising up of the slaves against their owners came one of the most distorted Christian cults, the Klu Klux Klan who used the Bible to justify lynching.

"If it Wasn't for us You'd all be Speaking German!"

When debating some Americans online, especially those that cling onto the right-wing mindset at all costs, as if battening down the hatches against the perfect storm that is reasoned discussion; the aforementioned debate will, at some time or another, descend to them confusing a dissenting voice with the dreaded bigotry that is being anti-American.

"YOU HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS!" they cry, which is usually followed by sharp insinuations that you are some kind of liberal, fag, Jew, Commie American-hater who may or may not support such conservative America bete-noires as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. After this, the more idiotic amongst these twats, the true uber-gits will then bring up World War II and make it very clear that us Brits would all be eating Frankfurters, speaking German and goosestepping about the place if it weren't for the brave intervention of the Yanks.

Septicisle over at the ever-excellent Obsolete turned me on to the following image, taken from the Life magazine archive and shares the data from a poll taken of Americans before their entry into WW2. It makes for interesting viewing...

(click on the image to make it bigger)

Thankfully, they backed us regarding who they wanted to win but the other stats make for quite disturbing reading, especially the 29% that were willing to sell goods to both sides.

You see, whenever you encounter a blustering American boosting of their nations involvement in WW2 to justify themselves and their country (after they've successfully constructed the strawman that you hate America and its precious freedoms), you may just have to remind them that Roosevelt dragged the American people kicking and screaming into the war, against popular opinion and after doing a nice piece of hoodwinking at Pearl Harbour.

That and the fact that many had no issue with selling stuff to the Nazis...

"People Are Jumping Out The Windows...They're Jumping Out The Windows, I Guess Because, They're Trying to Save Themselves...I Don't Know"

It was eight years ago today...

For some reason this anniversary of the terrible 9/11 attacks is playing a lot on my mind. Last year I was immersed in the world of Zero, a play no doubt inspired by the acts of torture triggered by 9/11, the year before that I was consumed by the archaic process of trying to purchase a home, while in 2006 I was more concerned about Iraq which has besmirched the idea of 9/11 and demeaned it to a mere precursor of war and excessive loss of human life. 2005, I didn't even mention it all, so preoccupied was I with yet another house move and the impending tour of Bouncers.

Before that, I'm ashamed to say, I had always been rather glib about 9/11, even pedantically referring to it as 11/9 and making noises about correct formatting of the date, like a monstrous tit. The reason, as I have inferred above, is that we were not allowed to hold onto 9/11 as a terrible crime against the United States and a device by which we all pulled together as humans against acts of cruel terror.

Because just as the dust was settling, it was a seemingly perfect excuse for Bush and his cohorts to unleash a period of eight hellish years, that have included human rights infringements, the awful mire that is the war in Iraq and the endless process of bringing peace and stability (and of course an acceptable regime to the West) in Afghanistan; at massive loss of civilian and military life...never mind the terrorist attacks around the world inspired by America's approach to the problem.

And now I come to think about it, the number of odious off-shoots is endless: we have the increase in fundamental and violent Islam activists, which in turn has led to a polarisation of the world's religions and the bracketing of Islam as evil, which further exacerbates it's militarisation and has become something of a culture war.

This polarisation has leaked into our politics with retarded 'with us or against us' thinking; black and white solutions to grey problems and a lack of a middle ground where most solutions are offered. All this adds up to a tarnishing of 9/11 as the instigator of this God awful mess, when in reality it is the Bush regime's response to 9/11 that has changed our world for the worse; ably supported of course by a whole raft of idiots on both sides.

I stumbled upon the famous video today of Bush at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School, the moment when he is told: "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack" is at one minute in...



I suppose my feelings of sadness at this anniversary have partly been due to a maturing in my attitudes to the events of that day and the volume of powerful 9/11 documentaries that have featured on British television in the last week or so, including the excellent '102 Minutes That Changed America' and '9/11: The Falling Man'...

This post's title is a direct quote of an eyewitness, whose testimony I saw live on television and was so moved by it, I hunted down the audio file as a reminder of the terror and horror of that awful day.

In honour and loving memory of those that lost their lives on that fateful day.

I Don't Accept the Premise of the Question

Much to Eva's rightful chagrin, I argue far too much with people on the Internet, I have quite a bit of time on my hands at the mo; so more than usual I am exchanging verbals with idiots.

From such practice I have discovered one way of cutting back on the sheer volume of crap pointlessly exchanged in a virtual format, it is to use a technique mentioned by Leo McGarry in the seminal TV show The West Wing: if you don't accept the premise of the question then don't answer it.

Although I find this frustrates the hell out of the goons you're debating with it saves a lot of time, it also means that you don't end up validating the question's premise with the dignity of a response; which is usually based on personal prejudice and has no basis in fact, or getting into a mess arguing against something that it isn't even true. Rather like the premise that you should never argue hypotheticals, one I always try and stick to, again to the frustration of cretins.

Sticking to these rules is easier said than done though, a recent debate I was having about Fascism was a point in hand, there was no point me arguing about whether it stemmed from the Left or not because the premise of the question; that Fascism is from the Left, is total fiction, the premise in itself is wrong but by arguing it, I gave it credence.

It's like arguing about the Earth being flat, or there being a God, or those birther twats that think Obama isn't a US citizen...no point doing it; the premise is flawed and thus, arguing with someone using a flawed premise is pointless because they are obviously an ignoramus.

Come back next week when I explain that having the last word doesn't mean that you've won an argument, it just means that you've had the last word.

My Struggle

This week I completed my epic journey through Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, which is perhaps the hardest book I've ever had to read.

Not for the reasons you'd think, indeed it is not a grim read and you get strangely used to everything being the Jew's fault and if it's not the Jews it's the Marxists (who are all Jews anyway) and if it's not either of those two's faults then it might possible be a German's fault but not a real German, a German who is a Jew loving Marxist.

This will all sound oddly familiar do anyone who has had to "debate" daft racists on the Internet.

Anywho, the reason the book is difficult to read is that it is, as Winston Churchill said: "a turgid, verbose and shapeless affair" that runs to some 600+ pages and aside from the opening chapters that are an autobiography of sorts (and are actually quite humorous in parts, although I'm not sure if Hitler was trying to funny...probably not knowing him), the rest is a bombastic call to arms for anti-Semites across the globe.

The level of puffed-up self-importance is staggering and although it is clearly justified, the man built up a new political party from eight people (himself included) to over a million strong force of Germans through sheer force of will, I don't think we need five pages of flowery, earnest verbiage as to the thought process behind designing the Nazi flag and how long it took him to get the white circle that surrounds the swastika the right bloody size.

What was most interesting for me was reading about how Christian he was, I knew Hitler was a Catholic but religious types always bring up Hitler and Stalin as examples of atheism going terrible wrong. Which makes me laugh, as if Hitler or Stalin are epitomes of atheism when they invest so much in building up a God head via the cult of personality...I digress...

Hitler was a Catholic and a big fan of Christianity, he saw Jesus as an Aryan slaying the Jews, forgetting that Jesus was a Jew (many Christians seem to do this) in the process; in fact much of Hitler's religious views are selective and self-serving but let it not be said the man was an atheist.

Anyway, what caught my eye in Mein Kampf regarding religion was that Christianity was a template for Hitler's beliefs, in the way that it crushed all opposition to it with ruthless force and power and that intolerance is a good thing in order to create stability. Hitler's reference point was paganism and witch hunts but it made me think that organised Christian faith provided Hitler with his final solution ideology.

Also, Hitler talks about how the Catholic churches' then blind faith and utter adherence to its teaching and principles, meant a total denial of any and all scientific and rational evidence that contradicted it (please see the United States and for it's current incarnation). Thus, in such dogma and immovable attitude Hitler sees, rightly so, that all strength is bound and that as soon as you tolerate or compromise by fitting in other's ideas, in the churches' case science and the advancement of human knowledge, you weaken and fall away.

I'll leave you with this comedy video of Hitler.

OMG! The White House is Gay!

I understand that the previous eight years of Bush set the bar for even a slightly left-of-centre White House very, very low indeed.

Basically the bar is flat on the ground, perhaps even slightly submerged in the soil...it's a gimmie.

In my links you'll see the official White House blog, I visit every day and check in on what the Obama administration is up to, reading policy and watching videos.

The brief time that Obama has been in charge has already shown sweeping changes, this is a very different administration to the last one but I think that the sheer weight of change is being underestimated. Three things have happened of late that have rejuvenated and re-reminded me of what a changed White House this is; with attitudes that have the power to pervade deep into American society; perhaps even repairing the damage of the last eight years.

27th June: Obama and his wife had an AIDS test in order to encourage all to do so, bearing in mind that one in five Americans with AIDS don't know they have it and to see their leader doing so (not for the first time, he did something similar in 2006 in Kenya) may help to remove some of the stigma and sends a global message. Can you see any previous President doing this?

29th June: the anniversary of Stonewall is celebrated on the White House website, what sea change is this? From an administration that was openly hostile towards the LGBT community to one that marks the anniversary of a seminal event in their civil rights movement.

30th June: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host the White House's first LGBT event, with remarks that acknowledge how far America has come but outlines the vast array of work that still needs to be done. Clearly under Obama's watch, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender people will not be burning in hell...

What a welcome change this is to the hate and horror of Bush.

Then, this morning, my very good friend Wendy turned me on to this great piece of journalism by Johann Hari.

Johann Hari provides context to Stonewall, and how it stands as a pivotal moment in the LGBT movement. He also reminds us that homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon and part of the great tapestry of nature:

...about 2 to 5 per cent of human beings prefer to have sex with their own gender. It occurs at the heart of nature: only last week, Professors Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk, of the University of California, concluded in a study: "The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive – many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes."

His piece reminds us of how far we have come in the West, although acknowledges that gay teenagers are still six times more likely to commit suicide than their straight counterparts. In other parts of the world he flags that India are on the brink of de-criminalising homosexuality and that China had it's first Gay Pride march.

Johann Hari then outs those parts of the globe that are still in the dark ages when it comes to the human rights of LGBT people: the Muslim world and the Caribbean.

The fact that the Muslim world is a bastion of vile homophobia is of little surprise, the book that guides that faith is twisted and turned (sometimes with plenty of assistance from the book itself) so that homosexuality is punished by jailing, torture and death sentences. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even denies there are any gay people in Iran, but is happy to have them executed in public squares when some crop up.

The fact that the Caribbean is also a hunting ground for LGBT slaughter is perhaps not so surprising, it is a culture infested with the macho and phallocentric and thus is actually quite flimsy and weak, paper thin ideas of strength and masculinity that run rampant in many parts of Africa also (see my piece here on the raping and killing of lesbians in South Africa); so that 'men' (and I use the word very loosely) feel threatened and challenged by lesbians who are not enthralled by the penis and by gay men who are equated as women and thus lesser than man.

Irony is perhaps not the best word for the sexual violence that these gay men have to endure at the hands of the 'straight' men. Is is clear that these 'straight' men, emasculated and impotent due to unemployment, life style choices and a lack of purpose; can only confirm their own stupid existence through sexual terrorism.

It is clear, as Johann Hari points out, that these communities need our support in defining their human rights as LGBT people; just show me where to sign to beat back these vulgar bigots...

The Horror of Iran

I have kept silent on the terrible situation in Iran because, quite frankly, I don't have an answer, or a 'take' or really an idea of what should be done and the best way for us, as in the West, to respond.

Should we merely make vocal claims of support, shouting across the Elburz Mountains to be dismissed as interfering Westerners, sowing seeds of selfish regime change and perhaps scuppering the chance for some level of reform? Or should we engage in diplomatic tit-for-tats, discuss sanctions and shake our heads disapprovingly at the way the protesters are being suppressed so violently, when we ourselves struggle with handling public displays of disaffection?

I have no idea but I do know that any Western involvement will only cause harm and even without it, those in power in Iran use the West as a whipping boy to terrify and galvanise it's followers.

Regime change is not our place, even though watching the protesters being killed, beaten and treated so terribly makes me feel desperate to do something to help them, makes the fire of indignation rise up...but surely Iran must go on it's own journey and be all the better for it. Intervention will not bring lasting change (see Iraq for reference).

I don't even know to what degree the election was fixed, I have a feeling that some of it was hashed but I also know the West has underestimated the lack of appetite for reform in the vast majority of the country, which for all intents and purposes is quite conservative.

I wasn't even going to blog on it, until the crisis in Iran got it's media martyr in Neda Agha-Soltan, it's very own YouTube horror story, a young female protester who was shot dead and whose last moments; as the blood runs from her mouth and nose, were captured on film, a document of the very real cost of protesting in Iran, a crushing and heartbreaking reminder of how high the stakes are to many Iranians and what thousands are willing to risk in order to voice their pain at this stolen election.

Oh the horror, oh the utter horror...

4 ALL TEH HATERS

Seriously, the Internet should have restrictions on using it if you are the following:

• An idiot
• A racist
• Mentally ill
  
• A homophobe
• All of the above put together in one terrible human mistake
  

Let's leave it with the ODB to put ya'll straight...

"Science is Just One Gene Away From Defeating Religion"

Here's hoping...

Read the article here.

Peace.

Last Post About Bush I Swear (Unless He Dies)

Here is Bush in some of those gosh darnit number-type things and all those folks...

Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing “George W. Bush” and “aura of inevitability”: 206

Amount for which Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500

Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads: 1984

Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400

Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42

Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98

Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy: 2

Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, at the time she became foreign policy adviser: 1

Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02

Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records: 0

Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6

Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9

Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed: 9/13/01

Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182

Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0

Number charged with an immigration violation: 762

Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0

Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20

Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075

Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39

Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism: 2 in 5

Rank of Mom, Dad, and Rudolph Giuliani among those whom 2002 college graduates said they most wished to emulate: 1, 2, 3

Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an “ironic death”: 1

Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000

Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100

Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0

Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02

Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1

Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing “regrettable bad judgment”: 25

Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s mansion: 2

Number by then–New York Times reporter Judith Miller: 1

Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6

Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120

Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6

Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4

Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35

Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4

Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677

Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003: 9

Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony: +295

Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05

Years since his acquittal that O. J. Simpson has said he is still looking for his wife’s “real killers”: 13

Minimum number of close-up photographs of Bush’s hands owned by his current chief of staff, Josh Bolten: 4

Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland: 6

Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400

Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3

Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25

Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500

Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8

Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200

Date on which USA Today added Guantánamo to its weather map: 1/3/05

Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007: 897

Number on shows during the previous seven years: 110

Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada: +79

Number of the thirty-eight Iraq war veterans who have run for Congress who were Democrats: 21

Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington: 62

Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10

Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40

Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4

Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4

Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000

Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172

Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15

Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9

Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121

Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006: 5

Number of times they met with industry representatives: 113

Amount the Justice Department spent in 2001 installing curtains to cover two seminude statues of Justice: $8,650

Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196

Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890

Number of White House officials in 2006 and 2007 authorized to discuss pending criminal cases with the DOJ: 711

Number of Clinton officials ever authorized to do so: 4

Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130

Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92

Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466

Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60

Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4

Number of total additions made to the U.S. endangered-species list under Bush: 61

Average number made yearly under Clinton: 65

Minimum number of pheasant hunts Dick Cheney has gone on since he shot a hunting companion in 2006: 5

Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1

Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4

Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/4

Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the storm: +153

Rank of Nevaeh, “heaven” spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000: 1

Months, beginning in 2001, that the federal government’s online condom fact sheet disappeared from its website : 17

Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000

Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000

Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +88

Average annualized percentage return during that time in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively: +11, +15

Number of feet the Ground Zero pit has been built up since the site was fully cleared in 2002: 30

Number of 980-foot-plus “Super Tall” towers built in the Arab world in the seven years since 9/11: 4

Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 “road map” to a Palestinian state was to have been reached: 2005

Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions of the first phase that have yet to be completed: 12

Number of times in 2007 that U.S. media called General David Petraeus “King David”: 14

Percentage change during the first ten months of the Iraq war “surge” in the number of Iraqis detained in U.S.-run prisons: +63

Percentage change in the number of Iraqis aged nine to seventeen detained: +285

Ratio of the entire U.S. federal budget in 1957, adjusted for inflation, to the amount spent so far on the Iraq war: 1:1

Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 (see page 31)

Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bush’s presidency: +31

Percentage change during Reagan’s and Clinton’s, respectively: +16, +0.3

Ratio in 1999 of the number of U.S. federal employees to the number of private employees on government contracts: 15:6

Ratio in 2006: 14:15

Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000

Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000

Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4

Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000

Minimum number of copies sold, since it was released in 2006, of Flipping Houses for Dummies: 45,000

Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 5

Estimated value of Henry Paulson’s Goldman Sachs stock when he became Treasury Secretary and sold it: $575,000,000

Estimated value of that stock today: $238,000,000

Salary in 2006 of the White House’s newly created Director for Lessons Learned: $106,641

Minimum number of Bush-related books published since 2001: 606

Number of words in the first sentence of Bill Clinton’s memoir and in that of George W. Bush’s, respectively: 49, 5

Minimum number of nicknames Bush has given to associates during his presidency: 75

Number of associates with the last name Jackson he has dubbed “Action Jackson”: 2

Number of press conferences at which Bush has referred to a question as a “trick”: 14

Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable”: 149

Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1

Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37

Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

As a big fan of Keith Olbermann, I was glad when Hack alerted me to this wonderful piece by him that is an at times overwhelming wall of upsetting information regarding, quite possibly, the worst President of all time (you heard that right Warren G. Harding). We are within touching distance of Bush's passing but this is a timely reminder of the sheer weight of damage he subjected America and the world to.



And as the Gaza conflict grinds down into a no doubt brief faux-ceasefire, a wonderful piece by Jewish-British comedian Paul Kaye is most definitely worth your reading time; as he talks about the shame he feels at Operation Cast Lead, the urge to fight against revenge instincts when his wife's' mother was killed by a bomb and where he makes a very good case for a solution to the problem I share: an end to settlements and a return to the 1967 borders.

A dark fog has enveloped us indeed...

America's UN Resolution Abstention

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert getting Bush in a headlock to make sure the US abstains from the UN Resolution on a ceasefire in Gaza

Bush needed no convincing after Olmert shows him pictures of dead Arab children

Bush then looms behind Condoleezza Rice in order to humiliate her into abstaining from something she was going to support

The world demands it's free motherfucking cupcake!

I've done my level best to not blog on the current conflict in Gaza, mainly because I don't feel I can bring much to the debate in a blog format, when the issue at hand is so immensely complex and one false move can have you labelled an anti-Semite/Zionist.

And posting pictures of dead Arab children is exploitative and crass.

Having said that, my feelings on the issue can be best summed up by the fact that both Israel and the people of Gaza elected really awful people to represent them and they are reaping the dividends of those choices, as the two elements duke it out and the civilians get caught horribly in the middle.

My solution: Israel goes back to the Internationally approved 1967 borders, stops making illegal settlements and takes down the bizarre wall; then (the hardest bit) it has to bite it's tongue as Hamas (or whatever idiotic 'wipe Israel off the face of the map' political party is in charge) tries to provoke them into lowest common denominator battle. If Israel took the moral high ground and did all the things asked of it by the world, Hamas would still attack but then Israel would have the backing of the globe in its destruction. It's a win-win for them but all it takes is a long view and restraint, something Israel has lacked since its inception.

I'm more interested in the weight of power that Israel and Olmert seems to be able to exercise over Bush and his pals.

Rice it seems was all willing to vote for the ceasefire UN resolution, which would've made it a clean sweep of all 15 votes and total condemnation of Israel's activities from even it's closest allies. And on that note, I'll hand over to Olmert:

"When we saw that the Secretary of State, for reasons we did not really understand, wanted to vote in favour of the UN resolution...I looked for President Bush and they told me he was in Philadelphia making a speech. I said, 'I don't care. I have to talk to him now'.

They got him off the podium, brought him to another room and I spoke to him. I told him, 'You can't vote in favour of this resolution.' He said, 'Listen, I don't know about it, I didn't see it, I'm not familiar with the phrasing.' He gave an order to the Secretary of State and she did not vote in favour of it, a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organised and manoeuvred for. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged."

And lo, it came to pass that the US abstained on the UN security resolution with the White House overruling the State Department (yet again), fighting to the very last day of their miserable existence, to perpetuate their unconditional backing for Israel.

The official line from the White House is: "We've seen these press reports and they are inaccurate." So either Olmert is lying and posturing like the corrupt old toad he is, or the White House is lying...again...and again...and again.

A Dull Roar

Bush's last press conference (aside from some final address type shit, no doubt from his bunker...) made me wonder.

It made me wonder if the US troops look up from their food, to their TV screens in the mess hall and realise they were sent to Iraq by a sissy rich kid who doesn't know what he's talking about? I wonder if they know they were sold out by an underachiever frat boy who never had to put himself on the line for anything? I wonder what they think when they see fat fucks in America at a hog dog eating contest stuffing their faces? I wonder what they think as they get wheeled into the hospital top find out if the doctors are going to be able to save that leg while Paris Hilton could sell her piss for a thousand dollars a teaspoon?

It also got me wondering, via reading the Constitution, about the ooze of Christianity into the American political spectrum, brought on by Bush and his cohorts and the subsequent retardation of America via the sheer anti-human nature of evangelical Christianity. These petty mini-tyrants, amateurs and cowards that make up the Christian Right should get out of America (there work is done...) and try to set up a church in Iraq and convert Shia and Sunni Muslims to Christianity.

But that would mean actually putting their life at risk for their faith, just as the Christians in Iraq do.

I think America missed a trick with the Intelligent Design debate, they should offer it in all schools and see natural selection at work right there. All the stupid kids will choose ID and all the ones with brains will go for Darwin. This will leave the stupid children to fill all those jobs vacated by illegal immigrants after some terrible Brownshirt legislation has been passed, they'll eat shitty fast food, smoke and drink. They'll be too illiterate and ignorant to make good choices and will destroy themselves. God will not save them.

Or, we could let all the red states offspring only have a diet of ID, Irreducible Complexity, School Prayer and Abstinence-only sex education. This would generate a gene pool so fucked-up we'd have enough cannon-fodder to fight a thousand war on terrors.

No need to thank me...

Hitler's Bunker is a Car Park

Berlin was as riddled with pivotal world history, as it was with bullet holes and shrapnel scars; reminders not only of Allied bombing but also the terrible Battle of Berlin.

And I couldn't help, as we wandered about, seeing the sights, but imagine my grandfather and his father and his father's father playing, living and walking these very same streets we were.

There are perhaps too many highlights to bang on about, the best thing you could do is just visit Berlin itself but the site of Hitler's bunker is one of the stranger and more compelling, whether it be the bizarre mundanity that envelops the place, or the sheer evil that was present here.

Eva-Jane and I debated whether the car park should be marked with something other than the small sign, or whether indeed the small sign was too much of a marker for the final resting place of evil; why is it okay to remember victims as a spur to never letting the thing happen again (having said that, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe reminded me of the stacked up coffins of Srebrenica) but the instigators are erased from history?

Speaking of erased from history, Eva and I went off the beaten track to pay our respects at Garnisonsfriedhof, a neglected military cemetery that contains German war dead from the First and Second World Wars, some of their graves had fresh flowers and candles, some didn't.

It struck me that Germany is a nation that can't celebrate it's war dead but rather has to hide them away, like Hitler's bunker or the elements of architecture destroyed to cover-up the past; Berlin itself has three small man-made hills that surround it, they are made up of the mounds of rubble that Berlin was reduced to.

And then there was the Berlin Wall, looming, long and ominous; slicing the city into an odd shaped half, crappy concrete bits popping up here, there and everywhere, a marker of Communism drawing a line in the sand and a reminder that the idea of building walls never goes out of style...

Of course there was more, the lovely people, the huge array of architecture, the serious lack of jay walking, the great beer and marvellous but heavily pig-based food of which we had our fill. I mean, Currywurst is a fucking brilliant idea.

It felt in someway home, my surname was common (even streets were named after me...) and Eva and I felt that this is a city we could live in if ever London and the UK became too much...or we both got a part in a German soap opera.

Here's to Berlin, past, present and future.