Deconstructing BushSpeak
John Chuckman
strikes again:
The name War on Terror is itself perhaps the darkest example of Bushspeak. You cannot have a war on ideas, or a war on religious beliefs, or even a war on people's feelings of grievance and injustice. The War on Terror is code for belligerent interference in the Middle East. It is also code for the suppression of dissent in America, something dear to the kind of people with which Bush surrounds himself, people who lie, cheat, and profit from billions of dollars being squandered. And all this crashes over us as a result of what the intelligence community calls blowback from bad policies and neglect of years ago.
The above is the final paragraph of this article, which literally deconstructs an entire recent speech by George Dubya. Essential reading for those who are easily mystified or are lulled to sleep by BuShite rhetoric....
Dreamspace addendum
More on the dreamspace thing. I mentioned that some dreams I have are significant to me. The measuring stick of this significance is not so much the plot of the dream, but more the feeling I have after having experienced the dream.
There are times when I wake up, knowing that the dream that has already begun fading from my memory is significant, and that I'd better remember it.
The dream the other night was one of those.
Dreamspace
For as long as I can remember, I haven't regularly remembered my dreams. Much of this is due to some sleep difficulties I've battled over the years, but these difficulties are largely behind me. Yet, I still don't often remember my dreams. I wish I had more of these memories; there is a rich, millenia-old tradition of dreams and dream interpretation enhancing one's spiritual experience. But every once in a while, I have a doozy that I remember with vivid detail, they are like small gifts, crystalline images punctuating my spiritual reality.
Last night was one of those dreams.
One of the keys to active work in dreamspace is to learn to trust the dreams, and to trust your interpretation of said dreams. It similar to the development of psychic awareness/abilities; we all have these abilities, it's just a matter of learning to tune into them and trust one's perception of them.
Yet I find myself in a quandary. I have the dream; its meaning, at least on the surface, is very clear and very vivid, and the plot of the dream very pleasing to me. Yet, I am hesitant to interpret the dream literally because the contents of the dream aren't just about me. It could easily be wishful thinking on my part about the behavior of others. So I'm in that space where my rational mind is rejecting the immediate, literal interpretation on ethical grounds (no power-over, no asserting my will without regard to the will of others involved), and I haven't yet found an alternative interpretation. There could be a serious disconnect between meaning in this dream, and meaning in everyday life. This difficulty is further complicated by the fact that another person -- one of the main characters in this dream apart from myself -- is also very active in dreamspace.
So yes, keeping this grounded, and looking at it from as many different angles as possible is in order here. I'm sure the meaning will become clearer to me over time.
Alive in Baghdad
A friend of mine pointed me to
Alive in Baghdad, and wow. It's a radical journalist doing the site, which "was formed with the intent of making the world, and particularly the United States, aware of the Iraqi experience."
A must read. Start at the bottom and work your way up.
government pushing the limits
I've thought for many years that the function of Republican administrations, in general, is to push the limits as far as possible, maximizing benefits for corporations and private interests at the expense of the people, and that the function of Democratic administrations is to preserve the gains so that the outrageousness of these gains will be normalized in the minds of the people, a sense of relief and calm between Republican offensives against the rights of the people.
This seems to be happening now.
For example, gas prices have gone back down; I've seen gas at $2.39 per gallon recently. A year ago, people would have been outraged to pay these prices, but now, after being over $3 per gallon for much of the summer, most people are delighted to pay $2.39.
This pattern seems to be reasserting itself again with the Supreme Court nominations. I just read that Harriet Miers has officially withdrawn her bid to be on the Bench. I think she was nominated because she represents someone utterly unqualified, a completely outrageous example of cronyism at its worst.
So now that she is out of the picture, many people will be glad to get some experienced, right-wing, hardcore redneck judge who is "qualified" yet holds many of the same political positions as Miers. It was a win-win scenario for the BuShites: if accepted, she'd be a friend in a high place; if rejected, they could come up with another horrendous nominee that people would feel glad to get -- New Nominee X isn't as bad as that Miers chick.
Watch and see....
Samhain 2005
Today was pumpkin carving day with my daughter:
I don't often underestimate my daughter, but she did far more to help today than I thought she would. The rind on this pumpkin was particularly thick, about 1.5" on average, 2" thick in places. So she didn't quite have the hand strength to do the actual carving, but she made the dotted lines by sticking the tip of a nail through the template, so I'd know where to carve. I thought she'd maybe do a few and get bored, but once I got her started with this she did it all, finishing it by herself! It was very cool. She also did the bulk of the pumpkin-de-gutting.
It was fun and, of course, messy. Perfect for a dad and an 8-year old.
Freakwitch.net reimagination
The
Freakwitch.net reimagination is underway. We have new artwork brewing. Watch that space. There is also a demo recording available there, a 7:20 montage of a half-dozen songs from recent rehearsals.
We live in America.... where we're told we're Free(tm)
This is a must read; a friend of mine (actually a friend of a friend, he doesn't qualify as a friend because we've never met...yet)
was refused admittance to an ATA flight as a security threat because he wore a T-shirt claiming that Bush is an international terrorist.
Does anyone actually still have any illusions that this is a Free(tm) country, or that the Constitution and Bill of Rights actually apply?
The Cabin
I was walking through the woods, and I came across a cabin. It is deep brown wood, old but still sturdy and dense. The land around the cabin had once been cleared, but decades of overgrowth have taken its toll. The trees are fully grown but not huge; the underbrush is thick. Yet somehow the cabin appears to be in good shape. Incredibly, 2 or 3 cords of wood were neatly stacked near one of the well-maintained doors. There were no lights on. It looked abandoned, and somehow incredibly welcoming.
It was cool and moist walking through the woods. The leaves have started to fall, and there is a lot of moisture everywhere. The ground is cool and damp. Colors are everywhere, but faded; the wet leaves look like an old, faded quilt that had been lying on a dirt floor for years.
I went to the door of the cabin, turned the knob, and the heavy but well-balanced door opened with a click and swung inward. I was greeted by clean air that had the most amazing, complex smell; it registered as pumpkin, yeast, baking bread, bonfire smoke, and sage all at once. It wasn't overpowering, there were just subtle hints of scent in the clean, dry air.
There is a large, stone fireplace in the middle of one wall, with plenty of space to stack wood and keep the tools to tend the fire and cooking gear. There was a sturdy stone table, a large fluffy chair, and a futon.
I first went and built a small fire, not enough to be an inferno, but enough for some warmth and to enhance the smells in the cabin. I went over to the futon, laid down, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep, knowing somehow that I was perfectly safe and free to enjoy the comfort and the tranquility of the deepest draught of peace I've had in a long time.
OpenOffice.org 2.0
OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been released. Go get it now. I've said it before: if you are a writer, you owe it to yourself to check out OpenOffice Writer. It's light years beyond Word, especially for larger documents. And, it uses the new OpenDocument format, which ensures that your writings will always be available to you, without dependence on Microsoft.
Microsoft: Africa doesn't need free software
Now
this is just stupid:
In response to a question on the role of open source software in Africa, Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that cost is not important, even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only $160 (£91).
"It's easy to focus on cost and say how much is a product, but at the end of the day it's the total impact that's important. You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it," he said.
Now, this argument -- that expertise is only available in the Microsoft world -- is just stupid. The whole point of Free software is that you can go as far down the rabbit hole as you want, increasing your expertise, all the way down to learning the source code.
Free software empowers people to use computers in a way that helps them; Microsoft makes people dependent on and subservient to a profit-seeking enterprise.
Pretty straightforward.
When the rain won't stop
When the rain won't stop, I don't walk as much. Wet isn't so bad, neither is cold, but wet and cold don't go together well.
When the rain won't stop, I miss being outdoors with friends. Moving through the woods, with an axe, getting things done, working outside.
When the rain won't stop, I become more aware of just how sacred my space is.
When the rain won't stop, I miss the stars, though their light is uncountably old. I miss knowing which phase the moon is in. I feel like they are so many friends I've lost touch with...
When the rain won't stop, I like to cook pans full of rich, savory foods.
When the rain won't stop, I am thankful that I live at the top of a hill.
When the rain won't stop, I like to go to new beaches, walking across the sand to an island that only becomes so at high tide. The waves are large and crash into the rocks with particular intensity, a beautiful fury, unrelenting and without remorse.
When the rain won't stop, it makes sitting in an office building for twelve hours at a time somehow more tolerable.
listening, typesetting, hanging
I worked all last weekend, and this week I've been listening to Freakwitch demo recordings and working on the typesetting gig. I've also been trying to spend more quality time with my daughter.
Not much else to report....
Dead Can Dance
I saw
Dead Can Dance tonight. The show was quite good. It was the 2 main people in the band,
Lisa Gerrard and
Brendan Perry, along with a half-dozen backing musicians. There was a synth player, 2 percussionists, and 3 multi-instrumentalists.
The seats were amazing. We were literally 5th row center, right in front of the stage. I was close enough to watch the contortions in Lisa Gerrard's throat as she sang. It was incredible; this woman is a genetic wonder with considerable training and practice. Turns out she is sick; this explains the few bad notes I heard from her tonight. I felt bad for her; her energy seemed off, she looked like she was in pain. Even her smile was strained. She has an incredible voice, and tends to get a lot of the press for Dead Can Dance.
But Brendan is one of my favorite singers, very underrated with a haunting baritone. And he was spot on tonight. One of the first notes he sang tonight was a bit off, but he just wasn't loose. Once he settled in, he didn't miss a note the rest of the night. A strong, strong voice. He also is a great acoustic guitar player, and quite proficient in drums, bass, and several other hand instruments lying around. A solid performance.
Thanks to my friends who hosted us and acquired the tickets. Masterful job in ticket acquisition! A great night.
Busy Busy Busy
Man, it's a busy time. I've been working some extra hours at my weekend gig, my band is rehearsing more regularly than ever (with great fruit just waiting to explode from the branches), the book I was hired to typeset 9 months ago finally got out of the copy editing stage, and I get to go see
Dead Can Dance tomorrow night at the
Orpheum Theater in Boston.
I like doing this typesetting thing. I think I'd rather be doing that for my job than wageslaving. For this book, if I had 1 or 2 of these gigs per month, I could afford to quit my job. Something to think about....
The Mysteries of New Orleans
The authors of
this piece interviewed dozens of people in the New Orleans area, and came up with a compelling list of 25 questions that need to be answered. These questions are a reflection of concerns the locals have in the aftermath of New Orleans' destruction. A must read; normally when people bitch about the government (myself included) it's in the abstract, but these questions are very specific.
when I wasn't looking...
...fall arrived. Yesterday began with blustery winds, literally blowing our trash can off our porch. Whoosh. Then the rain came, and when we were on our way out of Portland, we could see the edge of the storm, a long front, a line of clouds straight as a ruler as far as the eye could see, looking like a huge blanket inching up to the horizon.
But then the sun sank below the edge of the front, and I saw the most vivid rainbow I've seen in years. They truly are majestic illusions. At one point, I was driving down a 2-lane highway through a forest; the trees were tall and right up on the edge of the road. The road was straight on this particular stretch, and rising up from the edge of the road on the horizon was a very wide and vivid rainbow, curving up and just to the left.
For the past few days, the low temperatures have been in the 40s and 50s. All that wind the other day blew summer away.
I'm glad autumn is my favorite time of year...
