I was honored to be a guest on the fund raiser edition of the WCBN-FM Ann Arbor radio program called "Here and Now". The show's hosts generously offered me the time to have a little of my music played along with the commentary.
Now thanks to my tech-oriented friend Chris, we can offer you all a chance to listen to the show.
Since it was a fund raising show, there were pitches made for donations to the station. Please feel free to call in a donation if you like it. Although the "Here and Now" program is political commentary, Musically, it is one of the most exceptionally diverse and eclectic stations in the country. You can hear music ranging from Sun Ra to Son Seals, Bill Monroe to Iggy Pop. I encourage you all to listen on line to WCBN.
I invite you to sit back and have a listen to some truly American free speech. For those curious listeners with resilient ears, I have listed some of my original freedom music as well.
Here And Now
February 8, 2008
WCBN-FM Ann Arbor
01 - Media Smear.mp3 (6:48)
02 - Original Struggle.mp3 (4:01)
03 - Aiding a Surrender.mp3 (9:49)
04 - Brilliant Business Scheme.mp3 (10:36)
05 - Introductory Segment.mp3 (2:14)
06 - Pleading the Fourth.mp3 (5:14)
07 - Speaking of Scoundrels.mp3 (6:54)
Music By Dave Dubya
01 Liars.mp3 (1:38)
02 G.W.B..mp3 (2:36)
MisUnderEstimatedProphet.mp3 (2:44)
SCAM.mp3 Stupid Corporate American Media (6:09)
BiggestBrother.mp3 (4:00)
06 - Pleading the Fourth.mp3 (5:14)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Fun With Bush X 3
Our good man Robert over at Left of Centrist has requested some assistance with a project.
Hey everyone, I need your help. Stop by Left of Centrist and get the ball rolling on a new game I've started called Bush X 3. The idea is to come up with as many three word descriptions of GWB as possible. My goal is to hit 100. With your help, I think we can make it easily and far beyond.
Thanks,
Robert
I am only too happy to pitch in. So let's have some fun and send our contributions to Left of Centrist
While there may not have been WMD's over in Iraq, here are a few WMD's I have found in GWB.
War Mongering Dictator
Wayward Moral Deviant
Witless Malicious Decider
Wantonly Murderous Dunce
Willfully Mean Divider
Wicked Mass Destroyer
Warlike Mad Despot
Warped Malignant Deceiver
Wartime Military Deserter
Wrathful Maligning Dimwit
Wrongheaded Monstrous Defiler
Hey everyone, I need your help. Stop by Left of Centrist and get the ball rolling on a new game I've started called Bush X 3. The idea is to come up with as many three word descriptions of GWB as possible. My goal is to hit 100. With your help, I think we can make it easily and far beyond.
Thanks,
Robert
I am only too happy to pitch in. So let's have some fun and send our contributions to Left of Centrist
While there may not have been WMD's over in Iraq, here are a few WMD's I have found in GWB.
War Mongering Dictator
Wayward Moral Deviant
Witless Malicious Decider
Wantonly Murderous Dunce
Willfully Mean Divider
Wicked Mass Destroyer
Warlike Mad Despot
Warped Malignant Deceiver
Wartime Military Deserter
Wrathful Maligning Dimwit
Wrongheaded Monstrous Defiler
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Mass Media, Mass Madness
Here we are again. We arrive at yet another anniversary of Bush’s glorious war. Why are millions of innocent people suffering for so long? His reasons for the calamitous blunder and debacle were far from the stated purposes. He cared nothing for the Iraqi people and had no proof for his WMD and al-Qaeda claims. He wanted war for power, profit, oil, and last, but not least, his insurance as “war president” to win his 2004 re-election.
How long have we been at war in Iraq? Has it been a lifetime yet? Or have we only just begun?
If you are a child about to leave kindergarten and looking forward to first grade, it has been a lifetime. If you’re John McCain, your 100 year war is just beginning to get rolling. That kindergartener will need a job in 12 or 13 years and can look forward to joining in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I’m sure we will still need him to fight the terrorists over there so we won’t have to fight them over here. And while our young American is busy staying the course, I can also imagine how grateful the surviving Iraqi children will be when they greet our young soldier as a liberator, not as an occupier.
What kind of insanity has infected our country to the point where we even consider permanent war? If someone told you ten years ago that we’d be in such a quagmire of self-deluded stupidity today, you would have suggested immediate rehab for the poor wretch.
Instead of the poor wretch in need of detox, we now have an entire nation that desperately needs rehabilitation. Something has gone drastically wrong with our common sense and collective wisdom. We are the victims of our own mass madness.
Most of us individually know what happened. We were deceived into an unprovoked war of aggression. The tyranny of a lockstep, neocon Kool-Aid drinking Republican Party, supported by quivering spineless Democrats was the formula for disaster.
We had the Powell Doctrine that would prevent a quagmire from sucking our blood and treasure. Remember the idea of never committing the military without overwhelming numbers of troops and a clear exit strategy? That got blown away when General Shinseki was brushed aside for asserting that doctrine, and when Powell turned puppet for the neocons at his UN charade.
But there was also another essential element needed in order for the foolhardy crusade to be launched. The citizens needed to support it. Dissent needed to be suppressed. An authoritarian driven propaganda campaign needed to be utilized as a tool for the war machine.
Luckily, for the government of, by and for the corporations, they had the corporate media salivating for the chance to patriotically stir up war fever across America. Not only would war be good for the armaments industry and other military industrial complex corporations, it would also prove to be an incredible windfall of profits for the media conglomerates. There’s nothing like a hyped up, sensationalized call to war to get the presses rolling and the TV viewers glued to their living room screens. And once the fighting started the jackpot would grow even bigger.
Once the media climbed aboard the Republicans’ and Democrats’ war wagon the triumvirate of treachery was complete. At first only 30% of the public bought the idea of invading Iraq. Then the scare tactics were applied full force. Saddam has ties to al-Qaeda. He has anthrax. He has biological weapons, poisonous gas, and unmanned aircraft that will bring the mushroom clouds. Remember those scary aluminum tubes?
Soon 70% of the American public would be frightened enough to buy the propaganda. Off to war!
But wait. Wasn’t it the job of journalists in the media to investigate the claims made by the Administration? Weren’t they supposed to research the arguments and tell the public the truth?
How did this vile incestuous relationship happen between the media and the Bush Administration? Weren’t the media supposed to be liberal? Maybe if the media were actually liberal, instead of corporate run, things would have turned out better. Maybe the press once had that obligation, in the land of free speech and democracy. But they sure didn’t investigate anything in Bush’s America.
The first elements of the right wing propaganda machine got its big boost when Reagan’s FCC dismantled the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. It was now open season for conservative radio and Fox News to slant the national discourse to the right.
The press had transformed itself into neocon mouthpieces. Journalism was replaced by Fox style propaganda and Judith Miller stenographers. Remember, it was not only Fox that cheered on the Right’s war mongering. “News” programs deliberately hosted twice as many pro-war advocates than guests who questioned going to war. MSNBC fired Phil Donahue because, according to a leaked NBC memo, he "presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.... At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."
The New York Times’s critical faculties were short circuited by the frenzy for a victorious war that would forever displace the Viet Nam Syndrome. Judith Miller dutifully reported White House claims against Iraq as fact.
However, before this lockstep media chorus sang its war song, something interesting happened back in August of 2001.
CNN began actively courting favor with the Republican Party. According to the August 6, 2001 issue of Roll Call magazine, CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson went to Washington D.C. to meet with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Chuck Hagel, J.C. Watts and others in order to improve relations between the cable news network and conservative Republicans. I guess that went well.
The Republicans also had right wing talk radio and internet bloggers to “catapult the propaganda”. We can thank Bush for that quaint phrase.
Here’s what former Bush insider Dan Bartlett told Texas Monthly about conservative bloggers. “That’s what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.”
Regurgitate. Now there’s the operating principle of our pre-war journalism. It’s looking like media regurgitation is a tough habit to kick. We still get it all the time. How about those doctored tapes of the little Iranian speedboats “threatening” the omnipotent U.S. Navy in the Strait of Hormuz? If that had happened a few years ago, we would be at war with Iran for another phony Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Propaganda regurgitation was soon combined with additional merging of government and media. Reports emerged that CIA agents had inserted themselves into news networks. Finally, news reporters were trained to become embedded into military units for the coming invasion.
Now it was onward to victory, with the flag waving, cheerleading media circus in tow.
Let’s take a nostalgic look back at some of the delirious visions and shameless drivel from a few of the nation’s leading media personalities.
Just before the invasion Bill O'Reilly said, "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation; I will not trust the Bush administration again, all right?"
All right, Bill. How’s your memory? We’re still waiting.
After the fall of Baghdad, MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neocons now."
Upon the “Mission Accomplished” carrier landing Mathews gushed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.”
A few critics, indeed.
Then Mathews went totally gaga like a teenage girl with a crush. “We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple.”
Never mind Bush was a privileged coward who was AWOL from the National Guard and refused to take a physical with a urine test. And never mind that McGovern was a real combat pilot in the Second World War.
Joe Scarborough, also on MSNBC, said, "I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians, and Hollywood types."
At least Joe had the insight later to reverse his endorsement of the war, after the insurgency and civil war and all hell broke loose.
I should at least give mention to the one “journalist” who had the courage to speak truth to both the media and the president.
The press and the president got an unexpected and unprecedented dose of mockery at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April 2006. Stephen Colbert gave it to them in his own hilarious style of “truthiness”. He likened the president’s Iraq policy to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The glower on Bush’s face was priceless.
Then, addressing the correspondents directly, Colbert said, "Let's review the rules. The president makes decisions; he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell-check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know—fiction."
Those were the days. The most powerful militarized nation in the world, with a power mad, war mongering president, was intoxicated by mass madness induced by mass media.
********************************************
And for the musical segment of our presentation, we offer Dave Dubya’s “SCAM Stupid Corporate American Media.”
Here are more participants of the March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm.
How long have we been at war in Iraq? Has it been a lifetime yet? Or have we only just begun?
If you are a child about to leave kindergarten and looking forward to first grade, it has been a lifetime. If you’re John McCain, your 100 year war is just beginning to get rolling. That kindergartener will need a job in 12 or 13 years and can look forward to joining in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I’m sure we will still need him to fight the terrorists over there so we won’t have to fight them over here. And while our young American is busy staying the course, I can also imagine how grateful the surviving Iraqi children will be when they greet our young soldier as a liberator, not as an occupier.
What kind of insanity has infected our country to the point where we even consider permanent war? If someone told you ten years ago that we’d be in such a quagmire of self-deluded stupidity today, you would have suggested immediate rehab for the poor wretch.
Instead of the poor wretch in need of detox, we now have an entire nation that desperately needs rehabilitation. Something has gone drastically wrong with our common sense and collective wisdom. We are the victims of our own mass madness.
Most of us individually know what happened. We were deceived into an unprovoked war of aggression. The tyranny of a lockstep, neocon Kool-Aid drinking Republican Party, supported by quivering spineless Democrats was the formula for disaster.
We had the Powell Doctrine that would prevent a quagmire from sucking our blood and treasure. Remember the idea of never committing the military without overwhelming numbers of troops and a clear exit strategy? That got blown away when General Shinseki was brushed aside for asserting that doctrine, and when Powell turned puppet for the neocons at his UN charade.
But there was also another essential element needed in order for the foolhardy crusade to be launched. The citizens needed to support it. Dissent needed to be suppressed. An authoritarian driven propaganda campaign needed to be utilized as a tool for the war machine.
Luckily, for the government of, by and for the corporations, they had the corporate media salivating for the chance to patriotically stir up war fever across America. Not only would war be good for the armaments industry and other military industrial complex corporations, it would also prove to be an incredible windfall of profits for the media conglomerates. There’s nothing like a hyped up, sensationalized call to war to get the presses rolling and the TV viewers glued to their living room screens. And once the fighting started the jackpot would grow even bigger.
Once the media climbed aboard the Republicans’ and Democrats’ war wagon the triumvirate of treachery was complete. At first only 30% of the public bought the idea of invading Iraq. Then the scare tactics were applied full force. Saddam has ties to al-Qaeda. He has anthrax. He has biological weapons, poisonous gas, and unmanned aircraft that will bring the mushroom clouds. Remember those scary aluminum tubes?
Soon 70% of the American public would be frightened enough to buy the propaganda. Off to war!
But wait. Wasn’t it the job of journalists in the media to investigate the claims made by the Administration? Weren’t they supposed to research the arguments and tell the public the truth?
How did this vile incestuous relationship happen between the media and the Bush Administration? Weren’t the media supposed to be liberal? Maybe if the media were actually liberal, instead of corporate run, things would have turned out better. Maybe the press once had that obligation, in the land of free speech and democracy. But they sure didn’t investigate anything in Bush’s America.
The first elements of the right wing propaganda machine got its big boost when Reagan’s FCC dismantled the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. It was now open season for conservative radio and Fox News to slant the national discourse to the right.
The press had transformed itself into neocon mouthpieces. Journalism was replaced by Fox style propaganda and Judith Miller stenographers. Remember, it was not only Fox that cheered on the Right’s war mongering. “News” programs deliberately hosted twice as many pro-war advocates than guests who questioned going to war. MSNBC fired Phil Donahue because, according to a leaked NBC memo, he "presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.... At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."
The New York Times’s critical faculties were short circuited by the frenzy for a victorious war that would forever displace the Viet Nam Syndrome. Judith Miller dutifully reported White House claims against Iraq as fact.
However, before this lockstep media chorus sang its war song, something interesting happened back in August of 2001.
CNN began actively courting favor with the Republican Party. According to the August 6, 2001 issue of Roll Call magazine, CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson went to Washington D.C. to meet with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Chuck Hagel, J.C. Watts and others in order to improve relations between the cable news network and conservative Republicans. I guess that went well.
The Republicans also had right wing talk radio and internet bloggers to “catapult the propaganda”. We can thank Bush for that quaint phrase.
Here’s what former Bush insider Dan Bartlett told Texas Monthly about conservative bloggers. “That’s what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.”
Regurgitate. Now there’s the operating principle of our pre-war journalism. It’s looking like media regurgitation is a tough habit to kick. We still get it all the time. How about those doctored tapes of the little Iranian speedboats “threatening” the omnipotent U.S. Navy in the Strait of Hormuz? If that had happened a few years ago, we would be at war with Iran for another phony Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Propaganda regurgitation was soon combined with additional merging of government and media. Reports emerged that CIA agents had inserted themselves into news networks. Finally, news reporters were trained to become embedded into military units for the coming invasion.
Now it was onward to victory, with the flag waving, cheerleading media circus in tow.
Let’s take a nostalgic look back at some of the delirious visions and shameless drivel from a few of the nation’s leading media personalities.
Just before the invasion Bill O'Reilly said, "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation; I will not trust the Bush administration again, all right?"
All right, Bill. How’s your memory? We’re still waiting.
After the fall of Baghdad, MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neocons now."
Upon the “Mission Accomplished” carrier landing Mathews gushed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.”
A few critics, indeed.
Then Mathews went totally gaga like a teenage girl with a crush. “We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple.”
Never mind Bush was a privileged coward who was AWOL from the National Guard and refused to take a physical with a urine test. And never mind that McGovern was a real combat pilot in the Second World War.
Joe Scarborough, also on MSNBC, said, "I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians, and Hollywood types."
At least Joe had the insight later to reverse his endorsement of the war, after the insurgency and civil war and all hell broke loose.
I should at least give mention to the one “journalist” who had the courage to speak truth to both the media and the president.
The press and the president got an unexpected and unprecedented dose of mockery at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April 2006. Stephen Colbert gave it to them in his own hilarious style of “truthiness”. He likened the president’s Iraq policy to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The glower on Bush’s face was priceless.
Then, addressing the correspondents directly, Colbert said, "Let's review the rules. The president makes decisions; he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell-check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know—fiction."
Those were the days. The most powerful militarized nation in the world, with a power mad, war mongering president, was intoxicated by mass madness induced by mass media.
********************************************
And for the musical segment of our presentation, we offer Dave Dubya’s “SCAM Stupid Corporate American Media.”
Here are more participants of the March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Report Card
If you ever wanted to check on your senators' and representatives' records on how much or how little they represent the middle class, the good folks at themiddleclass.org have given us a very useful tool. They compiled a report card on all of them. Every senator and every representative now has a performance grade on his record from 2003 to 2007. There is also a percentage ranking of their support of legislation that was intended to benefit the middle class so far this year.
This is an excellent resource to evaluate your representation, or lack thereof, in Babylon on the Potomac. The legislative categories are limited to domestic issues, and apart from trade agreements, don't evaluate their foreign policy positions. We still need to do SOME homework.
So, have a go at it. It's enlightening and interesting. Be a responsible citizen and voter, and check your senators' and representatives' Report Card.
This is an excellent resource to evaluate your representation, or lack thereof, in Babylon on the Potomac. The legislative categories are limited to domestic issues, and apart from trade agreements, don't evaluate their foreign policy positions. We still need to do SOME homework.
So, have a go at it. It's enlightening and interesting. Be a responsible citizen and voter, and check your senators' and representatives' Report Card.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
What Recession?
During last week's press conference Bush assured us we're not headed for a recession. We all know what that means. Here's a look at a few articles for a glimpse of the reality Bush denies.
Market Watch — The nation's private-sector employment rolls dropped by 23,000 net jobs in February, according to the ADP employment index. Employment in the service-producing sector rose by a net 47,000 jobs, but employment in the goods-producing sector lost 70,000 jobs, the ADP survey showed. And factory employment fell for the 18th straight month, dropping a further 40,000 jobs. Private-sector sheds 23,000 jobs in February, survey shows
CNN Money — Personal bankruptcy filings climbed last month to their highest level since 2005, when Congress enacted laws aimed at discouraging such filings, and experts predicted more than a million Americans will seek bankruptcy protection this year. Home foreclosures are driving the increase in personal bankruptcy filings, because by the time homeowners face foreclosure they've borrowed all they can, and spent all their savings. money.cnn.com
Market Watch — Housing is in its "deepest, most rapid downswing since the Great Depression," according to the the National Association of Home Builders, and the downward momentum on housing prices appears to be accelerating.marketwatch.com
Market Watch — The buck stops here: This is Bush's recession, his legacy. It could be a chapter in a future edition of Jacob Weisberg's "The Bush Tragedy," with new comparisons to "Henry V" and other great Shakespearean tragedies. In a few sentences, the opening lines could highlight why this is now Bush's recession, and his alone.
Last week Bush told reporters: "I don't think we're headed to recession." But when one tried to puncture the denial, mentioning that America's energy analysts were predicting $4 gas, our oil-man president stopped him: "Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?" No, Mr. President, experts are. "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."
Once again, as in a classic tragedy, crucial facts never quite make it to the king's chambers in time, setting the stage for a fateful turn of events, propelling the plot to its tragic climax.
Indeed, the next 12 acts of this tragedy have already been written. And though many folks are in denial, the consequences are painfully clear. Last week we forecast a global recession.
The tragedy of this recession is its bad ending is already penned
Fear not, lest we lose our cheerful optimism, we just need to take comfort with this "good news".
In 2007, the CEOs of America's top 500 companies made a total of $7.5 billion, or $15.7 million apiece. The average compensation of a CEO in 1980 was about 42 times that of the average worker in the company; in 2005, it was about 411 times.
Market Watch — The nation's private-sector employment rolls dropped by 23,000 net jobs in February, according to the ADP employment index. Employment in the service-producing sector rose by a net 47,000 jobs, but employment in the goods-producing sector lost 70,000 jobs, the ADP survey showed. And factory employment fell for the 18th straight month, dropping a further 40,000 jobs. Private-sector sheds 23,000 jobs in February, survey shows
CNN Money — Personal bankruptcy filings climbed last month to their highest level since 2005, when Congress enacted laws aimed at discouraging such filings, and experts predicted more than a million Americans will seek bankruptcy protection this year. Home foreclosures are driving the increase in personal bankruptcy filings, because by the time homeowners face foreclosure they've borrowed all they can, and spent all their savings. money.cnn.com
Market Watch — Housing is in its "deepest, most rapid downswing since the Great Depression," according to the the National Association of Home Builders, and the downward momentum on housing prices appears to be accelerating.marketwatch.com
Market Watch — The buck stops here: This is Bush's recession, his legacy. It could be a chapter in a future edition of Jacob Weisberg's "The Bush Tragedy," with new comparisons to "Henry V" and other great Shakespearean tragedies. In a few sentences, the opening lines could highlight why this is now Bush's recession, and his alone.
Last week Bush told reporters: "I don't think we're headed to recession." But when one tried to puncture the denial, mentioning that America's energy analysts were predicting $4 gas, our oil-man president stopped him: "Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?" No, Mr. President, experts are. "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."
Once again, as in a classic tragedy, crucial facts never quite make it to the king's chambers in time, setting the stage for a fateful turn of events, propelling the plot to its tragic climax.
Indeed, the next 12 acts of this tragedy have already been written. And though many folks are in denial, the consequences are painfully clear. Last week we forecast a global recession.
The tragedy of this recession is its bad ending is already penned
Fear not, lest we lose our cheerful optimism, we just need to take comfort with this "good news".
In 2007, the CEOs of America's top 500 companies made a total of $7.5 billion, or $15.7 million apiece. The average compensation of a CEO in 1980 was about 42 times that of the average worker in the company; in 2005, it was about 411 times.
Friday, February 29, 2008
A Thought for February 29th
We know how much the Decider likes to frame his permanent war as “the defining struggle of the 21st century”. He tells us he is defending freedom from “Islamo-Fascism”.
Osama Bin-Laden also believes it is the defining struggle of the 21st century. He is defending Islam from the infidels.
The real defining struggle of the 21st century is between ignorance and consciousness.
Both Bush and Bin-Laden are on the side of ignorance.
Osama Bin-Laden also believes it is the defining struggle of the 21st century. He is defending Islam from the infidels.
The real defining struggle of the 21st century is between ignorance and consciousness.
Both Bush and Bin-Laden are on the side of ignorance.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Ignorance Is Strength
Who says the national obsession called “American Idol” provides no redeeming intellectual qualities? One of the finalists of the singing competition show was featured on another TV show recently. Kellie Pickler, a very sweet, good natured and down to earth young lady, was a guest on a game show called “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
The geography question was, “Budapest is the capital of what European country?” She was stumped. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. When she learned Budapest is the capital of Hungary, she responded, “Hungry? That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”
I don’t want to be harsh with our dear little Kellie. She may have come from a disadvantaged backwoods upbringing, and is not to blame for her education.
What worries me is this. She represents the rule, rather than the exception, regarding our level of general knowledge in this country.
According to the February 27th edition of the New York Times, “Fewer than half of American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey knew when the Civil War was fought, and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750, not in 1492.”
I thought they even had a nursery rhyme for that one. What else did this study reveal?
“In the survey, 1,200 17-year-olds were called in January and asked to answer 33 multiple-choice questions about history and literature that were read aloud to them. The questions were drawn from a test that the federal government administered in 1986. About a quarter of the teenagers were unable to correctly identify Hitler as Germany’s chancellor in World War II, instead identifying him as a munitions maker, an Austrian premier and the German Kaiser.”
Some believe that the limits imposed by the “No Child Left Behind” law account for much of this gap. This is probably true to some extent, but there’s reason to suspect the roots of the problem lie deeper.
Author Susan Jacoby is also worried about our people’s lack of global awareness. According to her book, “The Age of American Unreason,’ our college level students don’t seem to be much more aware of the outside world, either.
Astonishingly, after over three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map. (Isn’t that about the same percentage of Americans who didn’t buy into the Iraq War hysteria back in 2003?)
A 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important to know where countries in the news are located.
Ms. Jacoby stopped in a bar on September 11, 2001 and overheard two patrons dressed in suits discussing the day’s events.
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
That was the moment Ms. Jacoby decided to write her book.
Along with our failing educational system, she notes another aspect of our culture. Surveys show that nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution.
Good God! Not only does our nation ignore geography and history, but thanks to the pervasive brain rot of fundamentalism, we also hate science.
The dumbing down of our country is proceeding as if it were the work of a deliberate conspiracy. We know the Republicans hate public education and are doing their best to undermine it. And their zealous exploitation of fundamentalism is limitless. Are they really adopting the Orwellian “1984” slogan, “Ignorance is strength?”
Before you stop me and tell me how far I’ve left the sandbox, let me just point this out.
“War is peace,” is another of Big Brother’s mottos. What kind of doublespeak is that, you may ask?
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." That was George W. Bush on June 18th 2002.
It doesn’t look like we need the Washington punditry to explain to us why Bush was re-elected. Ignorance is their strength.
The geography question was, “Budapest is the capital of what European country?” She was stumped. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. When she learned Budapest is the capital of Hungary, she responded, “Hungry? That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”
I don’t want to be harsh with our dear little Kellie. She may have come from a disadvantaged backwoods upbringing, and is not to blame for her education.
What worries me is this. She represents the rule, rather than the exception, regarding our level of general knowledge in this country.
According to the February 27th edition of the New York Times, “Fewer than half of American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey knew when the Civil War was fought, and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750, not in 1492.”
I thought they even had a nursery rhyme for that one. What else did this study reveal?
“In the survey, 1,200 17-year-olds were called in January and asked to answer 33 multiple-choice questions about history and literature that were read aloud to them. The questions were drawn from a test that the federal government administered in 1986. About a quarter of the teenagers were unable to correctly identify Hitler as Germany’s chancellor in World War II, instead identifying him as a munitions maker, an Austrian premier and the German Kaiser.”
Some believe that the limits imposed by the “No Child Left Behind” law account for much of this gap. This is probably true to some extent, but there’s reason to suspect the roots of the problem lie deeper.
Author Susan Jacoby is also worried about our people’s lack of global awareness. According to her book, “The Age of American Unreason,’ our college level students don’t seem to be much more aware of the outside world, either.
Astonishingly, after over three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map. (Isn’t that about the same percentage of Americans who didn’t buy into the Iraq War hysteria back in 2003?)
A 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important to know where countries in the news are located.
Ms. Jacoby stopped in a bar on September 11, 2001 and overheard two patrons dressed in suits discussing the day’s events.
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
That was the moment Ms. Jacoby decided to write her book.
Along with our failing educational system, she notes another aspect of our culture. Surveys show that nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution.
Good God! Not only does our nation ignore geography and history, but thanks to the pervasive brain rot of fundamentalism, we also hate science.
The dumbing down of our country is proceeding as if it were the work of a deliberate conspiracy. We know the Republicans hate public education and are doing their best to undermine it. And their zealous exploitation of fundamentalism is limitless. Are they really adopting the Orwellian “1984” slogan, “Ignorance is strength?”
Before you stop me and tell me how far I’ve left the sandbox, let me just point this out.
“War is peace,” is another of Big Brother’s mottos. What kind of doublespeak is that, you may ask?
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." That was George W. Bush on June 18th 2002.
It doesn’t look like we need the Washington punditry to explain to us why Bush was re-elected. Ignorance is their strength.
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