What are we to make of Obama’s eagerness to amp up the death pit of Afghanistan, which foreign-policy-wise was America’s aboriginal Iraq? Historians know that the idea of “winning” there is a joke. No colonial power has ever come close. Over the centuries, all of the expensive attenuated military attempts to steal the Silk Road away from its native defenders have ended in humiliation for prouder empires than our own. Each had to drag their sorry asses and state-of-the-art armaments home with their tails between their legs.… click here to continue reading.
Archive | January, 2009
Ecstasy and Apostasy
I don’t begrudge America for its over-the-top bliss-fest yesterday after eight hideous years of degradation any more than I’d begrudge a Gitmo survivor a vacation on a tropical isle. But after several pina coladas, even the most exultant celebrant will get a headache. And though I risk sounding like a crab, at best, and a traitor, at worst, allow me to declare here and now that I am not wondering how to cop an inaugural coffee mug.… click here to continue reading.
It's about Palestine, Mr Obama
We are now making our way towards the climactic Full Moon of January tenth.
Our much-beloved Obama is focusing heatedly on the economy right now, harried the while by the embarrassment of his lone Latino cabinet member being caught up in a (dare we say it?) less-than-shocking pay-to-play scandal. In between these troubles he has been embellishing his photo-op standing with domestic tableaux surrounding the move from Chicago to Washington.
In regards to the global unanimity demanding that Israel end its seige on Gaza, from which the United States has been the lone dissenter, the President-elect has been as silent as the tomb.… click here to continue reading.
Ground Invasion
(This is a post script to my New Moon posting, below.)
I watched the quarter Moon in the darkening sky as the speakers’ voices rang out. Tonight we marched again down the streets of San Francisco in support of the besieged people of Palestine, this time to protest the ground invasion that had just begun. It has been seven days, a clean quarter cycle, since the ominous New Moon of 12/27.… click here to continue reading.
January 2009
The Dream that Fades Upon Waking
Now that Pluto is in Capricorn to stay (for the next 16 years), and approaching an exact opposition with the USA Venus and Jupiter, it is appropriate that Americans should be obsessing (Pluto) about their values (Venus). This most materialistic of nations is facing ugly truths that would be much less distressing to a culture that cared less about money.
The transit upon us is making America look at its mania for possessions, especially those that have acquired iconographic status.