Author: R J Adams

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

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

I’ve just been decorating the Christmas tree. It’s a ritual. Of course, it’s all artificial; in a box. Fifty weeks of the year it sits on a shelf in the bedroom closet, in two pieces, wrapped away with its 15-watt star and a bevy of glittery, hanging things.

Part of that ritual includes dusting off another item buried at the back of a cupboard since last January. Out comes the CD of Christmas music by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and onto the player it goes, soon to perfume the living room with glorious trebles, rich baritones, and those piquant soprano warblings so characteristic of ‘Kings’.

Every year at this time I ask myself the same question. Why do I so adore this rich, melodic, religious music with its poignant lyrics, even though I have no doubt the stories they portray are, at best, fable?

The answer is not difficult to fathom.

As a young boy I loved musicals. One of my favorites was, “Carousel”. Ever since that time so long ago, the music of “Carousel” has held a special affection in my heart, yet Rogers and Hammerstein wrote musical fiction, didn’t they?

It doesn’t have to be true to be enjoyed, and the King’s College choir provide the added charm of evoking memories of Christmases long gone.

“Carousel” was a charming fairy tale, and so is the story of Christmas. A child, born in poverty in a manger, growing up to realize the problems in his world and teaching us how best to overcome them; through love and fellowship; recognizing everyone as our neighbor, even the poor, the lame, the leper.

Most will be aware of the reports this week from Colorado, of a man refused a bed for the night at a Christian Mission, who shot dead two workers and wounded two others. It immediately raised the thought in my mind, “Hmm, no room at the inn.”

It came unbidden, but I let it linger because, while the circumstances may in reality have had little to do with the Biblical story, Denver is a town that enjoys great wealth, and wealth is a magnet for so-called “Christian” Super-churches.

Sure enough, only hours later the New Life “Super-church” in Colorado Springs came under fire from the same man. This time his luck ran out and he was shot dead by a church security guard.

I wonder how many others, besides the writer, find this whole sordid story distasteful in the extreme?

You see, I can’t get that phrase out of my head: “There was no room at the inn.”

It’s not just that the gunman was turned away. In all likelihood he would have opened fire even if he’d been allowed in. Besides, they probably didn’t have a spare manger.

According to reports, the shooter had a grudge against Christians. I don’t condone that, but I can understand it. At least, so far as the Christians of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, are concerned.

Sadly, the gunman got it wrong. These are not Christians at all. Like many of the religious sects prevalent in America today, they’ve simply hijacked the name to cover up what they are really all about.

The New Life Church has security guards with guns. Jesus would not have approved of that. No, don’t try to convince me otherwise. I know he’d not have been happy with the idea, which is strange because I’m not even a Christian.

And you see, if I – a pagan – know that about Jesus, and the New Life Church of Colorado Springs doesn’t, it stands to reason they can be no more “Christian” than I am. In fact, probably less so.

Pastor Brady Boyd of the New Life Church, Colorado Springs, said after the shooting:

“Our prayers right now are for the people that were injured and their families.”

No prayers for the gunman, or his family, it seems.

Compare that to the truly Christian Amish community of Pennsylvania who, in October 2006, lost a number of their children to a schoolroom shooting. Their immediate reaction was to pray for the killer, and offer help and solace to his wife and family.

Now Jesus would have approved of that.

The “super-churches” of America, run by marketing associations and making $millions for the few in charge at the top, have nothing whatever to do with Jesus of Nazareth, or the religion that spawned from his name; a name that has been ‘taken in vain’; a mere tool for making money.

Perhaps that’s what the gunman was so upset about? We’ll probably never know.

Fables originated as wisdom passed down by word of mouth. As stories, it helped to make them more easily remembered in the time before paper or printing press. Those fables in the Bible don’t end with the Christmas nativity stories. They go on to describe a man who obviously loved and cared for his fellow beings. He only once resorted to violence, when he became so angry and frustrated that the temple of his God was being used for common money-making and marketing by those charged with its care. In a fit of indignation, he drove the priests and marketeers out, whipping and forcing them into the streets.:

“My Father’s house is a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

It’s easy to visualize Jesus taking a similar stance with the New Life Church of Colorado Springs. Today, they’d almost certainly shoot him.

One doesn’t have to be a god to be outraged at corruption. The wealthy gain their riches off the backs of the poor. The American government could teach the Pharisees and Sadducees a thing or two about bleeding the lower classes. It isn’t hard to imagine John Adams, or Benjamin Franklyn, or Thomas Jefferson, striding into Congress with a bullwhip and chasing out the money-grabbing, corpulent, toads:

“This is our American people’s House of Government, but you have turned it into a degenerates den of corruption!”

No, one doesn’t have to be a god, or even believe in a god, to recognize love conquers hate, compassion overcomes prejudice, and our neighbor isn’t just the guy in the house next door.

Unfortunately, calling yourself a Christian doesn’t guarantee recognizing any of those things. Though if you don’t, you’re simply a hypocrite. Probably as much a hypocrite as the “Christians” who fill their houses with firearms and vote unerringly for Republican politicians who believe assault rifles make great Christmas gifts.

Thankfully, I don’t have that cross to bear. I may not believe Jesus of Nazareth was the son of a god, but I can understand and accept the concept, “Thou shalt not kill.”

On the occasions I fail to fully measure up to the words of Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammad, or any of the other great teachers, I can console myself that, after all, I’m only a lowly member of the human species, who enjoys Christmas carols for what they truly are: heavenly music made by magical, earthly, voices.

Filed under: Christmas killings