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August 2007

August 23, 2007

Alice in Wonderland – Down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass with President George Bush leading the way

America is in trouble. American democracy is in trouble. The country is being led by two men who have proven themselves to be totally unfit for their positions of responsibility and leadership. To the extent that their policies have had any benefit, either by circumstance or design, only a very small group of mainly privileged Americans have any reason to be happy with 7 years of Bush-Cheney. These two men have disappointed and betrayed the public trust in so many varied and serious ways.

If you were to take a look at

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August 18, 2007

Two, four, six, eight, let’s go obfuscate

Obfuscate: To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand
Synonyms:  camouflage, disguise, cloud, obscure

Collateral_damage_cartoon_6

(click image to view full size)

I have always been disgusted by the term collateral damage especially when it is applied to the destroyed lives of totally innocent men, women and children. It is how we sterilize and de-humanize the horror of war. It is how we insulate ourselves from the gruesome consequences of the actions we actively support or facilitate by our inaction. It’s a word that soothes our individual and collective conscience and allows us to sleep at night. It’s how we replace the guiltless yet bloodied and mangled face of innocent death with a false mask of acceptability. It’s the sugar that helps the disgusting medicine of war go down.

In both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars

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August 13, 2007

Be Proud Be Loud

The weekend of August of 4th marked the occasion of Amsterdam’s annual Gay Pride celebrations which have become most known for its unique canal boat parade. In a country which has always prided itself on tolerance and a leading international position in the area of gay rights the parade this year was more political than usual given the rising tide of anti-gay violence and rhetoric on the streets and in the schools.

Those of us who live here are painfully aware of this slow but noticeable increase in intolerance. The many gay and lesbian tourists who visit what once was rightfully considered Europe’s gay capital still labor under the illusion that Amsterdam is the ideal place to be one’s self. This cost the gay American journalist

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