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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Shiny Happy People Holding Hands

Michael Moore must have been on to something when he chose the song "Shiny Happy People" for the Fahrenheit 9/11 scene showing the cozy visits with the Bushes and the Saudis. This week, G.W. was shown holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. I think it’s hilarious, because you’ve got Republicans fighting human rights for gays, Saudi cultural customs of kissing and hand-holding, and kick-ass grizzled rednecks here in the homeland that don’t take kindly to those kinds of pansy-ass shenanigans. Better get used to it, because the price of oil is going to keep going up.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Ouster in Ecuador good or bad?

I’m concerned about this ouster of Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez. Whenever there’s a coup in the works, we should be asking ourselves if this is a good guy or a bad guy, and if the U.S. had anything to do with it.

Yahoo says there was alleged abuse of power, corruption and repression of peaceful protests.

FTW at the end of 2002 said he could be part of a left-leaning block with Brazil and Venezuela. As I understand it, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a good guy.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Pope John Paul II and Mark Lombardi

I think the consensus in the liberal community is that Pope John Paul II leaves a mixed legacy. While he spoke against war, reached out to the Jewish faith, and made the college of cardinals more racially diverse, he failed to embrace liberation theology, condoned the population explosion, and didn’t do more to crack down on the wide-ranging pedophilia scandal.

The Vatican may have also had a financial scandal. I’m not saying I believe it or agree with it, but I respect the source. The book Mark Lombardi Global Networks, which I reviewed March 02, 2005, had this to say about the Pope and his predecessor:

"The extraordinarily liberal Pope John Paul I discovered the corrupt dealings of the Vatican bank soon after being installed as pope on August 27, 1978, and immediately asked Cardinal Jean Villot, papal secretary of state and head of the papal Curia, to begin an investigation into the Vatican’s financial operations. John Paul died a month later, the morning after informing Villot of the proposed far-reaching changes he would be announcing the next day, including the ‘resignations’ of Villot and other members of the Curia implicated in the scandal, as well as the head of the Vatican bank. In flagrant disregard of Italian law, which does not permit embalming less than twenty-four hours after death, John Paul I’s body was prepared for burial less than twelve hours after he died, and none of his blood or organs were removed, as is customary in Italy, an act which over the years has helped to feed rumors about the possibility of his being poisoned. As the next residing pope, John Paul II (1978-[2005]) might have instigated the thorough review of the Vatican bank that his predecessor intended, but he chose instead to disregard rumors of foul play, thus leaving Sindona to continue his operations for several more years."

Friday, April 15, 2005

Star Trek episode

I enjoyed tonight’s Star Trek Enterprise episode, about these women who visit the ship and secrete powerful pheromones that impair the judgement of the men on the ship. For a TV series franchise with a long history of progressive social thought, I felt the show could have taken a much more feminist approach to solving the problem. It would have been so easy for the captain to hand off control of the bridge to his female second-in-command. If he was alert enough to interrogate the visitors, he should have been alert enough to temporarily check into sick bay.