Jenna Orkin
"This is your garden," God told Man,
"To cultivate." (Was that Voltaire?)
Man looked and said, "In my opinion
it is good, this, my dominion."
But Paradise soon lost its charm
as Man grew restless and ambitious.
Striking out, exploratory,
he sought ever greater glory.
And it was also good as he
plumbed sea, tamed forest, so he thought
they partook of Infinity
and having been, must always be.
His cities grew and towers rose.
Man was fruitful, multiplied.
He said, "In order to stay Master,
I must build more, higher, faster."
The prophets railed, those wild-eyed fools,
"What about the Pygmy Owl?
Arroyo Toad? Bluecrested tit?"
Man shrugged, said, "Never heard of it.
Eat, drink, be merry. Seize the day
for it is yours. The time is Now.
Can't you see the only thing
that matters is that I am king?"
While far away, beneath the seas
the fish were gone. In desert, wood,
without a sound, a word or tear
ten thousand species died each year.
The earth grew warm and oceans rose.
Birds and plants died off til as
in tales of Midas told of yore
there was no kingdom anymore.
Because money and power are all that matters to "leaders."
ReplyDeleteThe latest issue of the CounterPunch newsletter, just out, contains another debunking article on 9/11, dealing of course with the physcial evidence. Two points: (1) The other side will always produce its own "experts" to debunk ours, and since there's virtually no physical evidence, this is a waste of time. (2) It's a red herring to bait the 9/11 truth movement because it does essentially nothing to address the question of complicity by US elites. I'm not even going to bother reading it, although I know that millions will jump on it, foaming at the mouth.
ReplyDelete"A US `invasion' of Korea"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/08/a_us_invasion_of_korea/
A peek at the workings of a desperate empire. As a person who grows rice, the destruction of rice fields for base expansion seems particularly criminal.
I always say the earth will get along just fine post-humans.
ReplyDeleteThe Sad State of Logical Thought at CounterPunch, and a Lesson Learned
ReplyDeleteToday saw the conclusion of an exchange of emails on 9/11 between Alexander Cockburn and me. To get right to the conclusion, he won't be moved to examine anything but the physical evidence.
If you haven't seen the diatribe in the latest CP newsletter, you haven't missed anything. One glance is enough to see that it's essentially a replay of the Popular Mechanics campaign to muddy the water with a lot of technical talk about non-existent physical evidence.
I pointed out that arguing about the physical evidence is futile for either side, and explained why. Then I invited him to turn his attention to the war games, the contradictions in the official story, the connections with drugs and oil, and the money trail.
To make a long story short, he would have none of it. The thrust of his argument is that the analyses of twin tower collapses by "experts" including the one he produces prove there was no complicity by US elites. When I pointed out that these analyses prove nothing one way or another about US complicity, and that wasting time on the towers detracts from an investigation of the evidence I advanced, he said this "proves [his] point" that we are all nutcases. Apparently he believes that in my case, I was bringing up this hard evidence as a subterfuge to gloss over his "proof." I twice recommended that he read "Rubicon," but the probability that he will is probably zero.
This reminds me of the story of the journalist (posted on FTW) who ran up against a brick wall when appealing to other journalists, who insisted there is "no evidence."
Although this post has gotten long, with Jenna's indulgence I would like to draw a lesson from this, which is that the 9/11 movement has brought this on itself by harping on the physical evidence, and hardly using the powerful circumstantial evidence at hand. The TV generation is enamored of photos and videos, and people disdain reading anything longer than a few paragraphs and thinking logically. People want to think they are professional image analysts, when in fact they don't know what to look for, and further, in many cases we don't know the provenance or chain of custody of the still images and videos. Many of them may be only as reliable as the CIA's UBL videos. This makes the physical evidence argument all the more unreliable.
In sum, Mike has done most of the work for us already. That's what we should be using.
"Russia snubs European firms in Arctic gas project"
ReplyDeletehttp://euobserver.com/9/22597
Resource nationalism on the march.
Threats to Iran unacceptable: Russia foreign ministry
ReplyDeleteChina and Russia concur
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061008&articleId=3419
A Logical Fallacy of 9/11 Argumentation
ReplyDeletehttp://ricefarmer.blogspot.com/2006/10/logical-fallacy-of-911-argumentation.html
Eat, drink, be merry. Seize the day
ReplyDeletefor it is yours. The time is Now.
Can't you see the only thing
that matters is that I am king?"
After reading "East of Eden" from the Oct. 9th news stories, I have to wonder, "why not party like there's no tomorrow?"
I meant "The End of Eden"
ReplyDeleteNice to see Rice Farmer posting on his blog again.
ReplyDeleteMomo, you are quite right, though as a dog, I think you should reconsider your interdendence with humans.
Gazprom strategy change
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kommersant.com/p711628/r_1/Gazprom_without_foreign_partners/
As a teacher of literature, I wish I had your talent for writing poetry. I still believe, too, that art has the power to move. Maybe I'm just being optimistic and/or romantic.
ReplyDeletethank you giddocliff!! i'm just happy you explored the blog this far back!
ReplyDelete