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The last week has seen me laid low with a stomach bug. Happily, I’m on the mend, but the accompanying lethargy resulted in an unusual pastime for me – TV watching, and in particular, CNN.

I was keen to see if TV news has changed at all since I gave up viewing a few months ago. Not that I expected it had. I was right.

Take this morning, for example. At first glance all seemed well. CNN was running a lengthy slot on healthcare reform. It appeared very fair and balanced – ooops, sorry, wrong channel.

Sorting truth from myth was high on the agenda, and various websites were publicized where viewers could ascertain the facts about this much debated drama. For example, whether its true that forced euthanasia for the over-sixties was on the cards, or not.

I was just becoming lulled into a false sense of security with CNN, when they paused for an advertising break. The very first to appear was – this:

This cute little clip is put out by a group calling themselves the “Sixty Plus Association” – “a non-partisan seniors advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors issues”

The real truth is this “association” is backed and funded by the health industry and right-wing Republican lobby groups.^[1]

In one minute, it cleverly negated the whole program segment.

CNN – the most trusted name in news?

^{[1] “Rachel Maddow Exposes More Health Reform Fear Merchants” The Osterley Times, August 11th 2009}

Filed under: Healthcare – who cares?

A major headline this morning, both on the TV and the BBC website, proclaimed the [probable] death of Baitullah Mehsud.^[1]

At the announcement, it was not hard to imagine twenty million people worldwide staring perplexedly at each other, and asking, “Who?”

So, the Americans may have got lucky and assassinated a Taliban leader on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, from their control center in Arizona, or Texas, or from wherever it is they coldly sit and direct their pilot-less drones. Is it truly so big a deal as to warrant ten minutes discussion out of a half hour news broadcast? No doubt Mehsud’s second-in-command is ready to step adroitly into his shoes.

There’s something terribly menacing about a group of people sat in an underground bunker somewhere, calmly picking off individuals from any point on the globe they wish to direct their hellish missiles.

It smacks of the worst kind of science fiction. Yet, we now accept such news over our morning cornflakes without batting an eyelid. Well, they’re the enemy, after all, aren’t they?

And that’s the problem. As soon as we rate them as “enemy”, they stop being human beings and metamorphose into some ugly, stinging, insect we have no qualms about exterminating. Even when the methods we use to do so are far more inhumane than they are.

We, the people, are to blame. We will readily believe in the necessity for war, so long as our politicians tell us it’s just, but let one member of the military get hurt, or worse, and we give our leaders hell. Can we blame them, then, for developing remote-controlled technology that can assassinate the enemy from thousands of miles away?

Millions of men died in the last two world wars. That sacrifice helped humanity comprehend the God-awful futility of war. It took generations for whole nations to recover from their loss – the winners as well as the losers.

The only way to end war is by generating unacceptable sacrifice. It’s why each of the world wars was labeled, “The war to end all wars.” And they may have been, if technology had not intervened.

Like most species on the planet, we need to feel suffering before taking action to alleviate it. Remember the last time you were ill? You’d do anything to feel better. Once the malady had run its course, however, it was as though it never really existed. One can’t imagine ever feeling ill again – until the next time.

It’s the same with war. When we suffered, when our menfolk died by the millions, we’d do anything to stop it happening again. Now, we have a vaccine against war. We really don’t suffer anymore. By comparison with those dead millions, hardly any of our military are killed or maimed in wars today, and because of the technological advantages held by America and its dubious allies, the outcome of war is rarely in serious doubt.

We’re losing our humanity to the pilot-less drones.

Today, we can hear the news that Baitullah Mehsud is dead while eating our cornflakes, and with bored indifference switch channels to something more titillating.

SOMETHING MORE TITILLATING.

A 26 year old Greek woman is in custody on the island of Crete today after setting fire to the genitals of a British tourist, according to a BBC report.^[2]

Apparently, she poured alcohol over his nether regions and ignited it.

Good.

British tourists are the most disgusting, badly-behaved, depraved individuals on the planet. This woman deserves a medal. The Greeks have suffered too long the invasion of their homelands by drunken British marauders intent on causing mayhem for the purpose of their own selfish pleasure. Frankly, the only reason the Greeks don’t lock them up and throw the key away is because monetary interests in the country won’t let them.

This man exposed himself repeatedly and harassed the woman sexually. Hopefully, he’ll be in intense agony for days. Personally, I hope his balls drop off.

There are times when my countrymen shame and disgust me.

NOTE: If you doubt this latter story is more interesting to the world than the death of Baitullah Mehsud, please note that on the list of most popular stories shared by BBC website readers, the flaming Brit ranks number one, while the deceased Taliban leader fails even to be listed.

^{[1] “Pakistani Taliban leader ‘killed'” BBC, August 7th 2009}

^{[2] “Woman ‘torched Briton’s genitals'” BBC, August 7th 2009}

Filed under: Drones and fiery penises

The ugly face of America is once more in evidence as politicians head off for their summer break and the traditional ‘Town Hall’ meetings prevalent at this time of year.

Already reports are coming in of organized intimidation by far right activists who, at the behest of corporate lobbying companies and the health industry, are only too happy to swamp the public meetings of pro-health reform politicians, barrack and heckle the speakers so they can’t be heard, and threaten any who dare stand up to them.^[1]

Is this democracy in action? Certainly not. The Great Power, so keen to spread its doctrines around the globe, acts surprised when those on whom it attempts to force its ideals rebel with fury and outrage. Is it any wonder? American democracy is a failure for all but a relative few of its citizens. The only winners are the rich and powerful corporates, able to dictate terms and manipulate masses to achieve their lucrative ends.

Foreign governments may bow the knee to US imperialism, aware of the wealth benefits to be accrued, but to ordinary folk the only reward is the obliteration of culture and enslavement to a foreign power.

Hardly surprising, then, that rebellion against the US produces factions such as al Qaeda, al Shabaab, and Hezbollah.

9/11/2001 was only ever a matter of time.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright almost cost President Obama the election when he spoke of ‘America’s chickens coming home to roost’. The public outcry, nationwide across the whole spectrum of media, was deafening. US citizens were, as always, quick to defend their glorious nation – even against a naked, obvious, truth.

Democracy is a great and just concept, condemned to fail by homo sapien fallibility. Like every other system of government ever invented on this planet it falls victim to man’s inherent greed and lust for power over his fellow beings.

In the 21st century America controls that power. How much it is abused varies depending on the powerbase of the moment. In the first decade of this new century a single terrorist attack caused an outbreak of rampant imperialism under Bush that Obama will never fully counter, even if he manages to equal Bush’s two terms.

The damage is done. Iraq won’t go away and if there is ever a ‘victory’ in Afghanistan it will be, at best, equally inglorious.

Meanwhile, the ugly face of America continues to turn outward as left and right draw further apart over irreconcilable issues, previously only ever settled by the gun.

How long before someone in a Town Hall meeting somewhere resorts to that inevitable course?

^{[1] “Health Industry Sabotages Town Halls” MSNBC, August 4th 2009}

Filed under: Democracy in action