Monthly Archives: August 2002

Three Poems

For the news stories upon which these are based, see entry below.

1)

Pills to keep us up
Pills to bring us down
We’re the US Air Force
Biggest druggies in town.

2)

“America’s Air Force:
No one comes close”

to their targets
they keep missing
because for some reason
their vision is blurry
their heartbeat is rapid
they’re dizzy and sweating.
It can’t be the drugs.

3)

Now the US Government
has enlisted the help
of America’s Most Wanted
to hunt down terrorists
they should turn to the WB
and see if Buffy
will help them hunt vampires.

Don’t you feel safer now?

The government, and the military are all on drugs! Why do I think this?

I can see no other explanation for this:

WASHINGTON – August 6 – In a development bordering on what the American Civil Liberties Union called “surreal,” the on-line magazine Salon.com revealed that the Department of Justice is forwarding incoming Operation TIPS calls to the Fox-owned “America’s Most Wanted” television series.

“This is like retaining Arthur Andersen to do all of the SEC’s accounting,” said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. “It’s a completely inappropriate and frightening intermingling of government power and the private sector. What’s next – the government hires Candid Camera to do its video surveillance?”

and if that’s not enough, The Toronto Star reveals its not just the US Government who is on drugs, The US military is too, and the military confirms this:

WASHINGTON – U.S. jet fighter pilots, responsible for at least 10 deadly “friendly fire” accidents in the Afghanistan war, have regularly been given amphetamines to fly longer hours.

Then when they return to base, the pilots are given sedatives by air force doctors to help them sleep, before beginning the whole cycle again on the next mission, often less than 12 hours later.

Don’t you feel safer now?

The government, and the military are all on drugs! Why do I think this?

I can see no other explanation for this:

WASHINGTON – August 6 – In a development bordering on what the American Civil Liberties Union called “surreal,” the on-line magazine Salon.com revealed that the Department of Justice is forwarding incoming Operation TIPS calls to the Fox-owned “America’s Most Wanted” television series.

“This is like retaining Arthur Andersen to do all of the SEC’s accounting,” said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. “It’s a completely inappropriate and frightening intermingling of government power and the private sector. What’s next – the government hires Candid Camera to do its video surveillance?”

and if that’s not enough, The Toronto Star reveals its not just the US Government who is on drugs, The US military is too, and the military confirms this:

WASHINGTON – U.S. jet fighter pilots, responsible for at least 10 deadly “friendly fire” accidents in the Afghanistan war, have regularly been given amphetamines to fly longer hours.

Then when they return to base, the pilots are given sedatives by air force doctors to help them sleep, before beginning the whole cycle again on the next mission, often less than 12 hours later.

Five Levels of Pleasure

If I **were** to search for a text to proselytize with, this article on The Five Levels of Pleasure might be where I would start. A very beautiful and inspirational piece, courtesy of Aish HaTorah, a group I respect greatly, but who at times also aggravate me.

Aish HaTorah has become one of the world’s largest organizations dedicated to answering the vital question, “Why be Jewish?”.

“Come explore with us the rich ideas which have changed the world,” is the Aish approach to re-igniting Jewish pride. In doing so, Aish stems assimilation by reaching out and building bridges between Jews of all persuasions.

Reigniting Jewish pride is a very worthy goal, and is definitely necessary in this day of assimilation and secularism. Though they can at times be as persistent, and as aggravating as some Christian missionaries. As a Reform Jew (similar to the Protestant movement in Christianity) I don’t always agree with their teachings. However, their website is a treasure trove of inspirational material.

I’m a strong supporter of “passive proselytizing”. Make all the information available for those who are searching, and let them come to you.

Tower of Babel

Victor Hugo, Notre Dame de Paris:

The press, that giant engine, incessantly gorging all the intellectual sap of society, incessantly vomits new material for its work. The entire human race is its scaffolding. Every mind its mason. Even the humblest may block a hole or lay a stone….It is the second Tower of Babel of the human race.

God toppled the first Tower by dividing the world in several tongues. The Second Tower of Babel, the printing press, arguably still stands, and has been augmented by the Internet. But there are many threats to the internet….perhaps one of the biggest is spam. It seems innocuous enough…but when half of the mail one gets is spam, one begins to tire of email.

quote – boudoir morality

“What do Americans know about morality? They donít want their presidents to have penises but they donít mind if their presidents covertly arrange to support the Nicaraguan rebel forces after Congress has restricted such aid; they donít want their presidents to deceive their wives but they donít mind if their presidents deceive Congress–lie to the people and violate the peopleís constitution! … boudoir morality takes less imagination, and can be indulged in without the effort of keeping up with world affairs”

— from John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meaney

proselytizing

a fascinating article from beliefnet that requires some thought.

Apparently there are some Jews who wish to return to the ancient practice of proselytizing. Active proselytizing, such as going door to door, or placing selections from the Talmud in hotel drawers, I feel, would be wrong. Judaism’s tolerance for other religions is one thing that sets us apart from the other Abrahamic religions.

As there is no belief in Judaism that those who don’t believe are going to burn in punishment for not believing, there is no pressing need to convert. But that doesn’t mean God’s commandments aren’t beautiful. It also doesn’t mean one’s life wouldn’t be blessed if one followed God’s commandments

(note: Following God’s commandments doesn’t mean adhering to all 613 to the letter. One can follow at a distance, but still be considered following. God is forgiving.)

I know it bothers me that the only place that local synagogues advertise is in the local Jewish newspaper. This bothers me though, not because it fails to attract possible converts. This bothers me because it fails to attract the attention of lapsed, secular Jews who aren’t likely to read the local Jewish newspaper. It is them we need to focus our attention on. We need to find out why they have wandered off the spiritual path, and help them find it again.

Polygraphs

The FBI wants to give congressmen lie-detector tests regarding leaks of documents.

The Public, according to a CNN poll, seems to overwhelmingly desire this too. Perhaps as a means of punishing all those congressmen we don’t like.

It’s somewhat ironic to hear the senators and congressmen arguing that polygraph tests aren’t accurate…as nothing has been done about the FBI’s reliance on them over the years. And that is one of the duties of both houses – to act as a check on the powers of the other branches. And now their negligence comes back to bite them.

While it’s ironic, they’re right. Polygraph tests aren’t accurate.

“Even Attorney General John Ashcroft has admitted that polygraph tests have at least a 15 percent false positive rate. That means a significant percentage of truthful individuals will be falsely labeled and investigated as drug users, terrorists and spies, oftentimes without any opportunity to respond. “

Music and Cell Phones

At the top of the charts is an album by Country singer Toby Keith expressing the US’s desire to kick some ass:

And you’ll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass
It’s the American way.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the charts, is Steve Earle’s new tune John Walker’s Blues which investigates the mindset of US Taliban John Walker:

I’m just an American boy, raised on MTV,
And I’ve seen all the kids in the soda pop bands,
But none of them look like me.
So I started looking round, and I heard the word of God.
And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word
of Allah, Peace be upon him.”

It’s obvious to me why everyone loves Toby Keith, but hates Steve Earle. We don’t wish to understand our enemies…we just want to blow them up. For by blowing them up, we don’t have to spend the energy it take to understand them.

***

In other news. Cell phones are having major social/political effects on society. Both good and bad

Excerpts:

At the University of St. Andrews, where he studies art history, the royal hottie Prince William can’t even go out for drinks with friends without being tracked electronically by a pack of wired women.

“A quite sophisticated text messaging network has sprung up,” an “insider” told the Scottish Daily Record. “If William is spotted anywhere in the town then messages are sent out” on his admirers’ cell phones. “It starts off quite small. The first messages are then forwarded to more girls and so on. It just has a snowball effect. Informing 100 girls of his movements takes just seconds.” At one bar, the prince had to be moved to a safe location when more than 100 “lusty ladies,” so alerted, suddenly mobbed the place like cats responding to the sound of a can opener.

and

Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, accused of massive corruption, was driven out of power two years ago by smart mobs who swarmed to demonstrations, alerted by their cell phones, gathering in no time. “It’s like pizza delivery,” Alex Magno, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, told The Post at the time. “You can get a rally in 30 minutes — delivered to you.”