Balderdash

[Lightning Rod]

"Don't you worry 'bout a thing."

Balderdash
for release 09-12-05
Washington D.C.

by Lightning Rod

Every now and then even Lightning Rod gets a little mushy. You know, all optimistic and gullible and touchy-feely? I know it's hard to believe that a chronic skeptic like me could lapse into a Pollyannaish malaise and wax rhapsodic about how wonderful things could be if only, if only. But we all have our moments of weakness I suppose.

I was listening to CNN tonight and the newscaster was rambling on about "the NEXT hurricane or the NEXT terrorist attack or disaster." And just for a moment, just for a fleeting moment, I allowed myself this fancy: Suppose there was NO next catastrophe. Suppose no more hurricanes or earthquakes or terrorist suicide bombings or murders or robberies or looting or fraud occurred--ever?

Suppose everyone was nice to each other and there were no epidemics or computer viruses or danger from prescription drugs, telephone solicitors or jihads or West Nile virus or global warming. Suppose AIDS mutated into a harmless virus or that mosquitos quit transmitting malaria or that seatbelts and airbags worked every time or they just didn't need to work because nobody tried to drive while drunk or on a cell phone.

Suppose politicians told the truth and were really interested in serving the public good.

Slap! Slap! Ok, let's get back to reality, Lightning Rod.

Shit happens. Life is a series of hazards. You could catch the avian flu or be hit by a bus or eat a bad shrimp and die tomorrow. You could slip in the shower and impale yourself on your Teledyne Waterpik. You can't avoid hazard. Oh, you could avoid hurricanes by moving to Kansas, but they have tornados there. Wherever you go on this earth, nature has something to remind you of your ultimate vulnerability.

As much energy and money as our government has spent trying to convince us that they are keeping us safe from terrorism or disease or disaster, the fact is that there is no protection from the unexpected. About all you can do is minimize your risks. For the past four years, this government has hung its political hat on the hook of, "We are protecting you." Oh yes, they say they are protecting us from suicide bombers and Bic lighters on jet airplanes and Osama bin Boogie Man, but it is becoming apparent that the only thing from which our government is really protecting us is the truth.

I must admit that I'm puzzled. I can't decide how to interpret what my senses observe. I don't know if the suits in our government really believe the things they say are true and they are just that deluded and living in a different world than the rest of us or if they are diabolically clever and devious and know that they tell lie after lie and do it on purpose.

Lies like: "You are safer," because we have stirred up a wasp's nest in Iraq and created the perfect boot-camp for terrorists, and "You are better off economically because of our tax cuts," when you are paying a hundred bucks to fill up your SUV, and "Your healthcare has been improved," because we have entrusted it to the profiteers in the drug and insurance companies. And I'm not even going to mention aluminum tubes, WMD's and Yellow Cake from Niger.

The Poet's Eye would like to see a little more truth in advertising. The corporate slogan of BushCo should be "PR over Policy every time." Spending a couple of million on a staged photo-op in New Orleans is more important than fixing the levees and repairing the wetlands.


Troubled world
Ain't it sad
Famous Bastards
We've been had

Sons of whores and thieves
step up, receive.

Obesity in the breadline
Mad monologorhymists
all mumbling their formulas
if only, if only, if only.....

----Barry Gremillion
Listen to The Joy Urchins performing Famous Bastards

[Dave The Dov]

Should we see it coming or act oblivious to it all???? Should we put our trust into them or should we rely on ourselves instead????
_________________
u.s. recessions

[stilltrucking]

Karen Hughes, remember her? She has just been sworn in as our Ambassador Of Public Relations.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4534916

This whole public relations industry started with Freud's nephew, he is called the father of the PR industry. Or have I mentioned that before.

http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q2/bernays.html

He took long walks with his uncle Siggie and he listened well.

The objective for Bernays was to provide government and media outlets with powerful tools for social persuasion and control. As a matter of fact, so impressed was he with Bernays’ early works Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels relied heavily upon them for his own dubious inspiration in the 1930s. Apparently, that Bernays was a Jew mattered little to Goebbels....
http://www.accd.edu/pac/lrc/bernays.htm

Not to sure about the links, but it is true that Goebbels had a couple of his books on his shelf.


Everything so dam clean and antiseptic at the white house these days. Not one dead black corpse getting eaten by rats in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave.

Going to listen to the music now.

Good stuff clay better than what I read on the editorial page of the local Hearse News Paper every day.
"You got eyes buddy" Raymand Chandler, The Big Sleep

[jimboloco]

I must admit that I'm puzzled. I can't decide how to interpret what my senses observe. I don't know if the suits in our government really believe the things they say are true and they are just that deluded and living in a different world than the rest of us or if they are diabolically clever and devious and know that they tell lie after lie and do it on purpose.

I think that they conveniently believe in their delusions. What kind of dysfunctional defense mechanism it it? Surely one or more of the several basic ones we all should know about. Cheny inspecting the military installations in the Gulf (of Mexico) where his company, Hellburntown, is contracted, is a perfect example. Well stated, hombre. There is something reassuring about seeing a statement like yours, succinct and yet inherently very real; it assures the dissaffected everybit as much as hearing the dude saying "fuck you" to Cheny on Democracy Now.

Disavowal Level: Defense mechanisms in this category try to keep unpleasant or unacceptable stressors, impulses, ideas, feelings, or responsibilities out of awareness.

•Denial involves dealing with stress by refusing to acknowledge some painful aspect of reality or experience that is apparent to others.

•Rationalization involves dealing with stress by concealing the true motivations for a thought, action, or feeling by using elaborate, reassuring, and self-serving (but incorrect) explanations.

http://www.ar.cc.mn.us/biederman/course ... fenses.htm

[jimboloco]

The other side of the coin occurred to me this afternoon whilst working outside. I remembered, flashed on some of my co-workers, a minority, thank goodness, who are so sincere, yet Bush lovers. Man, I do what I can to enlighten them.