Sunday, March 16, 2008

Relaxing with the Sunday paper: It's the news, stupid

How astonishing that only 40 percent of Americans know that nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq so far. If that is the case I imagine far fewer know that over a million Iraqis have died, mostly civilians, and four million have been displaced. Or that returning soldiers have huge suicide rates and are refused treatment for PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder for you dummies). Or that to the rest of the world the United States is synonymous with torture and unilateral aggression against other sovereign nations.
Ya ya, Fox news is a Repug mouthpiece and the MSM parrot the Bushcos. But, even an ordinary reader of the Sunday paper should know how many soldiers have died in Iraq. Even dummies ought to figure out that the Iraq war was a disaster which will also cripple our children's generation with debt, and that the impending war of aggression with Iran orchestrated by our nutty right wing neocons who welcome the Apocalypse will ignite a new world war with superpowers Russia and China against us. What IS it with you, amigos?
Hmm, reading on in the new Strib Lite, there's a story about how folks are leaving their houses behind so they can make their car and credit card payments. Say, what? Isn't that deja vu Depression all over again? Why aren't people asking that question? If you can make your own house payment, do you just blow it off?
Another story, about Tibet:
The repressive Chinese government is blaming the victim, not to mention killing them and rounding them up into jail. The Chinese regime has refused to acknowledge Tibetan Buddhism ever since their 1951 coup and takeover of this small country in the Himalayan mountains. The Dalai Lama, the holiest person on the planet, who now "rules" his worldwide constituencies of faith from Dharamsala, India, is being blamed for the violence perpetrated by the Chinese. Buddhits devotees and monks are imprisoned for their nonviolent protests. Look more closely at the photos: the monks are in pain on account of the "violence" by the Chinese police with their night sticks and guns.
People will rise up when their deepest beliefs are subjugated (except in the modern-day US of A where the pioneers have morphed into limp wimps who cave at the bogey "terrists"). This is sorta mentioned in the LiteStrib story but like everything else the MSM reports it favors the party line. In this case, the Chinese party line.... And who will stand up for the peace-loving Tibetans in the press? So far, nobody. Not even the groupies who reverently attend appearances by the Dalai Lama around the world, and who listen to his wise and loving message of peace to all beings.
Soldiering on, as we move into the afternoon and toss the junk pages that could have saved a couple acres of rainforest: Readers learn how fed reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is "improvising" and making "bold moves" to save the U.S. economy. Hmph. Jumping ahead: On Monday it appears that the latest bold move bails out Wall Street mega-giant Bear Stearns to the tune of billions, just a little blip, while children go without health care, our infrastructure crumbles and collapses, and people don't have jobs. Even AP reported this news but maybe you missed it on Fox.....
We get the government we deserve. True admits it is harder to get the real news now but it is the duty of us citizens to try. You just have to actually read the paper and skip front page which might as well be what we used to call the "Women's Page," back in the day.
The people divided will always be defeated. The people, stupid, will always be conned.
True

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