Farewell, George

Comedian George Carlin died of heart failure Sunday night at the age of 71. Carlin will forever be remembered as a comedic legend but was far more than a comedian. He was a deeply intelligent man who never stopped reminding us that sometimes the only difference between comedy and abomination depends more upon us than it. Unlike most comedians, George's success on stage could never be measured by an audience's laughter or silence - only in the potency and perspicacity of his words.

He will be missed.

Bush v. Nature

George W. Bush, whose conscience is as polluted as the planet he intends to leave future generations, has struck again. He has asked Congress to lift a 27-year ban on drilling for oil in US coastal waters. According to BBC News, Bush called the ban (and, by extension in my opinion, overall consideration of our planet's wildlife and health) "outdated and counter-productive". This came after reiterating his interest in drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. As someone who doesn't believe the Earth exists strictly to be liquidated into capital, I'm almost offended by Darth Dub'ya's words beyond the ability to respond with the rational use of language. Therefore, I will keep this short and try to avoid saying the obvious and oft-repeated.

Along with American and corporate global hegemony, Bush appears determined to establish himself as the most anti-environmental, anti-democratic and least ethically engaged leader in American history. If Homo Sapiens evolve into a more enlightened life form, that life form will undoubtedly remember George W. Bush somewhat similarly to the way we remember the Roman Emperor, Caligula. Like Caligula, depictions and illustrations of Curious George will have to employ the use of caricature. Nothing else will sufficiently convey the dramatic degree to which he exhibits utter environmental disregard, despotic global policy and a stunning lack of integrity. To be fair to Caligula, however, his respect for the animal kingdom far surpasses President Bush's. He was rumored to have made a favorite horse of his a consul. Bush, on the other hand, will most likely mourn the loss of coastal habitats and wildlife (such as the threatened Polar Bear) the way the virtual slave owner of a Brazilian commercial soy farmer mourns the loss of the Amazon Rainforest - sleazily and greedily grinning at its edge with cash overflowing his pockets and indentured servants and corporate toadies clinging to his coattails.

Thoughts on the 2008 Presidential Race...

As the 2008 race to the White House (symbolically, a giant white structure built entirely by underfed, overworked black slaves) surges toward November, I feel more apathetic and disinterested than I've ever felt toward an upcoming Presidential Election. On the surface, this year's race promises to be among the most exciting in American history. This is primarily due to the fact that, if a democrat is elected president, the United States of America is guaranteed either to have the first non-white president or the first female president in its history. So why does this leave me somewhere between ennui and dread rather than somewhere between hope and elation?

It's really quite simple. If, in fact, the Republican party is sent packing from the "house that slaves built" to be replaced by a black man or a woman for the first time in American history, many Americans will view such a change as a significant step in a radically new direction. They will be utterly deluded by the luster of this purely cosmetic revolution, smile with satisfaction and turn their collective attention back away from the political sphere again until 2012. This inevitable ignorant expectation that a change in sexual genitalia or skin pigmentation will translate to a dramatic change in ideology or domestic and/or global policy has me downright dumbfounded. In fact, part of me would almost rather Darth Dub'ya just went ahead and declared himself Lord of the American Empire. Perhaps such a perspicuous conveyance of BushCo's true intentions would wake people up a little. Perhaps even more people would pick up a book and learn that our real political authority isn't even our Federal government (which is quickly disappearing thanks to outsourcing and privatization) but our Orwellian, Friedmanism funding puppeteers at Halliburton, Bechtel, the Carlyle Group, the IMF and the World Bank. Yeah, those guys. The ones with all the money. Aw, well. What is one to do? I guess, with all that said...

...I'll just have to cast my November vote for the man with the dark skin pigmentation now that the person with female sexual genitalia has bowed out. Unless, of course, the person with light skin pigmentation and male sexual genitalia who wrote the book and made the documentary about global warming decides to jump in and make it interesting.