Corporate vs. Nature

The exact cause of "colony collapse disorder" may be a mystery but it is certainly no surprise. Let's see, honey bees and plants have been fine tuning their relationship for the past 300 to 400 million years give or take a 100 million or so. To meet corporate needs the honey bees have been bred in a way that diminishes their honey making and increases pollinating behavior. The pollinating season has been extended so now the bees are fed protein supplements along with sucrose and corn syrup. Yet suburban sprawl and lengthy truck rides are listed as possible causative factors for the bee's compromised immune systems.

On This Day in Black History...

Finally, the court has ruled in favor of lifting one foot off the neck of indentured servant, O.J. Simpson. The wrongful death verdict, given more as a consolation prize for white America than a ruling in the name of justice, awarded 33.5 million dollars to Fred Goldman amounted to nothing less than indentured servitude. The white rage has subsided enough to give Mr. Goldman all money generated from O.J.'s previous movies, films and whatnot, the residuals. Future earnings are now out of bounds as it should be. The court's ruling is really saying to Mr. Goldman,"sorry for your loss but you have to let go now." I do hope today's event gives him some peace.

Simpson was acquitted like it or not and that should be that. O.J. reached new unchartered judicial heights, live and in living color in front of everybody. He broke the justice barrier by getting an acquittal the old fashioned way, he paid for it. This is a black "first" how serendipitous that today's ruling should happen while we are celebrating Black History Month, however, this is one that won't go down in the books if you know what I mean.

Somehow it's all related

Barack Obama is already apologizing for telling the truth. This time he tells a crowd that American lives have been wasted in Iraq. Someone is offended and he says he misspoke not only that but he knew he misspoke as it was rolling off of his tongue. Of course I just paraphrased all of that. He told the truth plain and simple. This is a life and death issue, people are dying daily for no justifiable reason, yet we still can't speak honestly about it. When is the time to speak the truth?

And another thing, our soldiers aren't saints, gods or demons. Any critical mention of the war in Iraq and somewhere, somehow, if not actually stating it out right, the idea that you support our troops must be made apparent. The main reason the congress has delayed the passing of a non-binding resolution is because the empty phrase we support our troops was not mentioned or implied clearly enough in resolution. Just like the "required" qualifications when speaking of Saddam Hussein. If you weren't making a clearly negative statement about the man whatever it was you had to say had to start with or end with some variation of at least one of three phrases. "Don't get me wrong Saddam was a horrible man." or, "Saddam did do terrible things." or, "Iraq is better off without him." If you didn't your patriotism was questionable. It's just stupid. I suppose if you had a "God bless our troops" or "Support our troops" magnet on the back of your SUV you were beyond reproach.

This can't be related but I'll bring it up anyway, all this talk of patriotism yet exposing a C.I.A. agent, who gathered intel on the progress of nuclear development of other nations, is treated like a faux pas. The vice president's go to man, Scooter Libbey is on trial for lying to those who were investigating the source of the Plame leak. As time passes more evidence surfaces showing the pre war intelligence was slanted to hasten the occupation of Iraq. As compelling as Colin Powell's testimony before the United Nations, to sell the need for U.S. aggression against Iraq, there was a time when journalists would have double checked Powell's sources and raised a few questions. Newspapers and free lance reporters would be doing all sorts of investigations on their own and undoubtedly new information would turn up just from their efforts alone. This doesn't happen anymore and we're paying the price. Given what we now know and suspect, we still must remain two steps away from the truth. What's the pay off?

Hmmm

John Edward's presidential campaign has received the first of a thousand cuts. The fuss over Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister being recently hired by Edward's camp will undoubtedly alter the blogosphere. I could be wrong... but I'm not. We'll see who sanitizes their blogging entries during the next year or so. Of course these two brilliant women will have to tone it down, which is understandable they have a candidate to sell. But still, knowing the U.S. porn industry makes several billion dollars from domestic sales annually, the idea of words like "fuck" and "slut" being offensive to american eyes is just a little hard to swallow. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Democracy at Work

Just so I'm clear. The spineless non-binding resolution meant to voice opposition to the troop surge, proposed by the democrats, was rejected by the republicans. The republicans propose their own non-binding resolution, not only toothless but spineless as well, to hint at the possibility that they too have opposing views regarding the troop surge. The democrats, eager to make a statement, agreed to the weaker (republican) non-binding resolution. Next came the time to debate the resolution and after the votes were counted the republicans voted against debating the resolution. Included in the republican "nay" column were the very republicans who drafted the resolution. The republicans blocked the resolution, preventing it from even being discussed. Without discussion it can't be voted on. Okay. Now the republicans, many of the same who voted against the non-binding resolution, are saying they will do what is necessary to open debate about the resolution/Iraq war. I don't understand. What did I just say?

Something Old and Something New...

Senator Joseph Biden's "articulate" statement falls under the something old category and although it is worthy of a long winded comment I'm not going to, well not now. Why? Because it's sooo old it takes a full night of sleep and a bowl of Wheaties to muster up the necessary energy to discuss it.

The something new is Boston's "LiteBrite fright." Not just the local reaction but the national response and the media coverage. Turner has apologized. Some how marketing campaign and bomb hoax have become synonymous when referring to this cartoon ad. It's a post 9-11 world, don'cha know?