sparrow chat

The phrase, “War on Christmas”, has reared its ugly head once more. Frankly, it’s boring, repetitive, and hardly in the spirit of goodwill to all men, which, whatever one’s religious bent, is a damned good spirit to hang onto, even if only for a few days during this particularly dark and dreary time of year.

The whole world knows how Americans love a good argument. Nothing is “middle-of-the-road” in this country. It’s a land of extreme views and opinions, all with just one common element – the ability to tear this nation asunder.

Christmas, it would seem, is no exception.

Throughout the land, the debate rages. Should it be called a Christmas tree, or a Holiday tree? Is it right to have a floodlit crib and manger above the entrance to local town council offices? Do children open Santa’s gifts on Christmas morning or Holiday morning?

The country where I was born and raised is a secular nation, yet no-one argues over the naming of holidays. Christmas is Christmas; Easter is Easter, and Pentecost is Whitsun.

You see, America, you don’t have deed and title to Christmas, it’s an international tradition celebrated throughout the world. It matters not if you are Christian, Pagan, or Atheist; Christmas is Christmas. It has been for donkey’s years, and it always will be. So stop arguing about it, and for Christ’s sake just enjoy it!

Neither is Christmas the sole preserve of Christians. Just because they stuck their deity’s name on the front of it doesn’t mean we can’t all celebrate. After all, in America, George Washington’s birthday is a celebrated federal holiday, but while he may have been a cool dude, he was definitely not a god. Most of us who wisely decline to behave in a weird and illogical manner towards Jesus of Nazareth, still consider he was a cool dude.

We’re all aware that the ‘Christ” bit relates to the Christian god, but the festival covers a multitude of other deities, including the Sun, and over the years they’ve all fallen under the general umbrella of Christmas, because the early Christians pinched the date from pagan sources somewhere around the 11th century.

But we pagans don’t object to that. We don’t rise up and insist it is renamed “Sol Invictus mass”, or, “Mithrasmass”, or, “Ishtarmass”. And if we don’t argue about it, America, why should you?

If you truly want to fight and bicker over the names of holidays, why not stick with one of your own, like Thanksgiving. No-one in the US of A rises up in indignation over that name, now do they? Personally, I think it’s a very silly name and hardly in keeping with a nation supposedly secular and tolerant of beliefs. After all, who is an Atheist supposed to give thanks to?

Perhaps it’s time Thanksgiving was renamed. Here’s a suggestion. How about, “Let’s-invite-a-whole-load-of-relatives-around-we-don’t-really-want-to-see -and-stuff-ourselves-so-full-of-food-we-fall-off-our-chairs Day”?

Or, if that’s too long to trip off the tongue, try: “ThanksForWhat? Day” as most Americans I’ve approached on the subject haven’t the faintest idea what they’re actually giving thanks for.

So get the message, America: hands off Christmas. It doesn’t belong to you. You didn’t invent it.

It actually existed long before you did, which means you have less right than the rest of the world to interfere with it.

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL.

Filed under: Christmas cheer

Posted under Sparrow Chat

Whose idea was it to run presidential political nominations over the Christmas holidays? Isn’t it supposed to be a time of “Goodwill to all Men”, and “Peace on Earth”?

How can that be when every news broadcast throughout the nation carries footage of the dross they’ve dredged up as presidential-hopefuls, and paraded like some old has-been’s Ugly Parade, with the grand prize – to live four years in an overly-large mansion and f**k-up even more of the world?

As an observer of American politics these five years – and one with no affiliated axe to grind – the whole concept of party nominations just leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

It’s nothing more than an ego competition. Those with the least controlling egos are rapidly relegated to the back rows, leaving grossly swollen-headed egomaniacs, with equally inflated bank accounts, vying for the prime position.

You don’t have to be an alien sitting on the moon with a spyglass to work out that the only candidate with any degree of honesty and integrity probably only has it because he’s still politically wet behind the ears.

Yet, out of the top three from each party, he is undoubtedly the finest choice – for exactly that reason.

Why is that the case? Because a lifetime of experience in politics anywhere, except perhaps a banana republic, should produce Statesmen of quality, integrity, and honor.

There is not one Statesman (or woman) among the topmost runners for the presidential nomination; not one iota of statesmanlike quality, neither integrity nor honor, emanates from any one of them. Each is blatantly concerned only with their own success, showing only ‘cupboard love’ for those needed to raise them into power, to be tossed aside as garbage once the counts are finally in, in November 2008.

The prime candidates are already well out of the race. Those who show even a modicum of sensitivity, humanity, and common sense have all fallen, or been pushed over, at the first fence. There is no room in American politics for such as they. God forbid a president should be chosen who refused to bomb Iran for wanting what America has had for sixty years – the ability to run its own nuclear power stations without reliance on outside sources. God forbid the next president should offer the helping hand of friendship to other nations, rather than phosphorus bombs and exploding bullets. God forbid the next president might insist on abiding by the Geneva Conventions, rather than secret CIA prisons and waterboarding.

Don’t be alarmed, America. God will forbid it.

The next President of the United States will continue to utilize phosphorus bombs and exploding bullets. He, or she, will ignore the Geneva Conventions when it suits, and those secret prisons will remain for when waterboarding is deemed necessary.

There will, however, be a noticeable difference between the present incumbent and the next one. Such matters will be dealt with less blatantly, virtually without public knowledge; just as they were before George W Bush took over the reins in 2000.

America will feel better. What the eye doesn’t see, and the ear doesn’t hear, the hearts will not grieve over.

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Men?

Not a snowball’s chance in Hell.

God will forbid it.

Filed under: Death of democracy

Posted under Sparrow Chat

It’s not often Sparrow Chat has much to say that is good about the United States of America. While many of its people are warm-hearted, caring individuals, the nation as a whole has developed a plethora of undesirable habits, and shown a capability for inhumane behavior that stretches back way beyond the vagaries of the present Administration.

Just occasionally, however, instead of continually slipping backwards down the tall, steep, ladder that does eventually lead up to the far-distant objective known as “Civilization”, America manages to make one fumbling step in the right direction, raising hopes that one day – probably far distant – it may just make it all the way to the top.

Today, America – or, at least, that bit of it known as New Jersey – took one of those fumbling steps.

Congratulations to the State of New Jersey.

Today, the State of New Jersey joined North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Alaska, as another state to have finally evolved out of the slime of legalized murder, and onto the verdant shores of “Humanityville”.

Nevertheless, any sense of finality should be tempered with a degree of caution. Flip-flopping over the death penalty, often at the whim of current governors, has become something of a pastime in America over the years.

Oddly, those who cry out most vehemently against abolition are the Christian far-right. Only this evening a New Jersey resident, when asked for his opinion, vigorously stated his support for capital punishment by announcing that he followed the Bible teaching, “Do unto others…..”. Fortunately, he failed to finish the quotation, thus saving himself from the embarrassment of looking totally stupid in front of three million NBC News viewers.

The question on everyone’s lips, then: will the rest of America follow New Jersey’s lead?

It’s highly unlikely.

Take the State of Texas as a prime example. The good people of Texas have much in common with the French revolutionaries when it comes to executions, though state law prevents public access, so the good ladies of Texas are denied the privilege of sitting knitting in the execution chamber – at least, at the time this article goes to press.

Texans are so imbued with the idea of capital punishment it probably ranks as the number one most effective means of population control in the state, outdoing chastity belts and religious abstinence. Abolition would remove four-fifths of Texans’ conversation, leaving only the price of beef and whether George W Bush should eventually be canonized.

So, while some states may follow in the footsteps of New Jersey, it’ll likely be a cold day in Hell before Texas gives up its all-time favorite hobby.

Filed under: Death row tears

Posted under Sparrow Chat

It’s official.

FIVE MILLION CHILDREN ARE NOW ORPHANED AS A RESULT OF BUSH’S IRAQ WAR.

That’s the figure admitted by the Iraq government, even though the actual figure is much higher as some children who lose both parents are taken in by relatives and never registered.

I wonder how many US news media channels are prepared to broadcast that tit-bit to the world?

Consider this: if there are five million children who have lost both parents to the war, how many dead parents does that represent?

To all those Americans who supported the war, and who voted George Bush and his band of war criminals back into office in 2004, the question that must be asked is:

HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?

^{Thanks to Richard at TOB for the link.}

Read more HERE.

Filed under: US warcrimes

Posted under Sparrow Chat

American baseball is in disarray today after George Mitchell published his report into the use of steroids and human growth hormone by professional players. Apparently, the practice is far more widespread than many people cared to admit. Famous names are tarnished; careers may be prematurely ended. Baseball’s governing body has decreed that it will take action.

One question remains: why had it not done so years ago?

The answer is obvious. It matters not what the professional body may be, whether sports, lawyers, bankers…..history has shown over and over that conflicts of interest lead to a reluctance to self-regulate.

Government is about regulation. We elect governments to set our laws, ensure the policing of our neighborhoods, and regulate all aspects of our lives. Imagine the anarchy that would ensue if government decided we must police our own neighborhoods. There would be a return to the posse and vigilante days of the old West. It wouldn’t work. Yet the US administration has consistently refused to legislate for the policing of professional bodies.

It is exactly that irresponsibility that has led to a stalemate between America and much of the rest of the world over the most important issue facing mankind today; one that makes steroid use in baseball a mere kiddy’s prank by comparison.

At long last it seems Europe and the rest of the world are waking up to the fact that American climate change policy is non-existent. Delegates at the UN Bali Conference on Climate Change, desperate to agree a set of binding regulations that will reduce global greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently, before it is too late i.e. by 2020, have been stunned by a US delegation determined to thwart the success of the conference at every turn.

So disgusted are the delegates that there is serious talk of boycotting a US-led climate summit next month.

Resounding applause echoed around the hall when Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore, stood on the podium and said:

“My own country, the US, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”

It is generally accepted that George Bush, desperate for some success out of his failed eight-year presidency, is trying to steal the limelight away from the United Nations.

One member of the US delegation told the assembly:

“The United States is happy to lead on the matter of global warming, but to lead, others must follow.”

There can be little doubt in most people’s minds the US has had ample time to show leadership on this issue and has failed. It was not so long ago George Bush was poo-pooing the whole concept of man-made global warming, refusing to take it seriously even when the scientific evidence was overwhelming.

Once asked about regulatory legislation to control greenhouse gas emissions by American industry, Bush responded that industry needed no regulation, they would police it for themselves. After campaign promises in 2000 to force the reduction of CO2 emissions from power plants, this president – once elected – then reversed his decision, under corporate pressure, days before moderate Republicans were set to introduce the legislation.

The result has been virtually no reduction in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions by US industry in the last ten years, except where individual state legislation has demanded it.

George Bush may call himself the Commander-in-Chief, but he is no leader. Instead, he is a puppet of the corporations, prepared to sacrifice the welfare of those he was elected to serve to satisfy the whims of his masters.

Whether the war of words at Bali this week will explode into a full-blown row that sinks the upcoming US summit has yet to be decided. Europe and her partners are finally realizing they cannot wait for the US to lead on controlling climate change. In fact, America is woefully unable to lead on anything right now, given it has no leader. When George Bush finally vacates the White House and retires at his ranch in Texas, to play with his little dogs and his chainsaw, America may decide it is going to elect a true leader, one that believes in the real purpose of government. Maybe then, the corruption that has both infiltrated baseball and set the world’s challenge to reverse climate change back more than a decade, will be properly policed and hopefully eradicated.

Until the American people wake up to the necessity for such a leader, and finally elect one, Europe and the rest of the world will have to manage without any “American leadership”.

Eventually the stigma of sports star druggies will be forgotten. Baseball will go on, as will the planet.

But it’s becoming less and less likely there’ll be anyone left alive on Earth to enjoy either.

^{When George Bush first announced, in June 2007, his intention to hold a series of “international meetings” to discuss climate change, the Washington Post collated reaction to the proposals from media in Europe and America. The resulting article can be viewed HERE.}

Filed under: Bush’s blundering

Posted under Sparrow Chat

Sometimes it’s hard not to react. Though always better to bide one’s time, think things through, decide on a sane and sensible response, sometimes it’s hard not to react.

The president of the United States (I cannot bring myself to use a capital ‘P’ when describing this present incumbent, at least not when describing him as the ‘president’) is the Commander-in-Chief. How frequently has he informed us of that fact?

On his watch, so many people have suffered and died. So many have lost their homes, their jobs, their families. Both in America after Katrina, and in Iraq for the last four and a half long years, this man has propagated suffering on a massive scale.

While the US media plays down Iraq – no mention for days at a time, or, “it’s getting better”, or, well-placed camera shots of apparently crowded streets with happy shoppers enjoying their new found American freedom – in the middle of the night they come, his Nazi-style, jack-booted, servants of death seeking out God-knows-who, spreading fear and killing indiscriminately in their passing: a child here, an old man there, a toddler in a car.

These are the ones who do his dirty work: his ‘Gestapo’.

Read about them from media not in bed with corporate government – HERE.

Meanwhile, back at the Commander-in-Chief’s place, life has been busy. He’s been making a video.

Watch it HERE, but keep a bucket to hand.

You may feel the urge to vomit.

Filed under: Obscenities

Posted under Sparrow Chat