Get me to that parallel universe

I was just reading about the news that the Artic ice is now at an all-time low and melting at an astonishing rate, much faster than anticipated. I started wondering, again, about that 2000 election. Would Gore in office have made a difference? Or was it already too late? Or maybe he is making a better, more global impact right where he is?

Don't you wish sometimes that you could get to that mythical 'alternate universe' where life is good, everyone is taking care of the planet... and we are at peace? You know - the one in the SNL skit:

When hope melts

The good shine from afar
Like the snowy Himalayas.
The bad don't appear
Even when near,
Like arrows shot into the night.
-Dhammapada, 21

So what does it mean when the 'snowy Himalayas' melt?

Will the good (still) shine from afar? Or will 'the good' also pass away with the glaciers? Will all hope melt with the pure, white Himalayan snows?

There is a danger in knowing too much. There is an old mob saying: "You know too much; I'm gonna have to kill ya." I sometimes think that knowing too much will kill you anyway. Eventually, it kills your spirit.

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."
- Frank Zappa

Does anyone really want to know how 'low we can go?' How corrupt, how greedy, how devoid of any empathy our government, our corporations and their 'think tanks' really are?

Aren't we raised to believe in the American myth; America, the 'good guys?' The 'land of the free, home of the brave?' Are we really ready for the truth?

Ron Paul has amassed a staggering number of devoted followers - I heard them in action on Bill Maher - because he tells the truth. But can 'truth' get elected? Or are the powers that run our nation just too strong now? They certainly own both parties in our two-party system. They appear to now own the courts, including the highest court in the land. They own the media, outright. Do they also now own the minds of the people?

A Guantanamo detainee committed suicide yesterday. Soldiers in Iraq just want to know when they can come home. Cindy Sheehan gave up the peace movement in despair, saying that "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months." Meanwhile prominent neocon Norman Podhoretz wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he 'hopes and prays' that President Bush will bomb Iran.

And still it goes on. This violence, the war lust, the greed, the insanity. Nothing changes.

There is a theme here. Loss of hope.

I share in Cindy Sheehan's recent loss of hope. I am searching for it everywhere, but it escapes me. The glaciers are melting (US federal government won't lift a finger to do its part, in spite of a grassroots effort to bring about this change.) The seas will rise. Democracy is dying and Lincoln's greatest fear has come to pass: corporations have been 'enthroned.'

So many Americans are still asleep. What will it take to awaken them -- and do they really want to be awake? Mainstream media works 24/7 to lull them into a dormant trance; a trance in which 'don't worry, be happy' is directly tied to 'buy this product, it will solve all of your problems.'

I honestly don't blame folks for escaping into 'American Idol.' Who would want to know all of this... devastation really exists, this heart of darkness beneath the surface of the American experience?

Requiem for baby harp seals

It appears we won't have to boycott Canadian seafood again this year to 'encourage' Canada to halt their brutal, annual seal hunt. Most of the baby seals have drowned.

"The conditions this year are disastrous. I've surveyed this region for six years and I haven't seen anything like this." said Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with IFAW. "There is wide open water and almost no seals. I only saw a handful of adult harp seals and even fewer pups, where normally we should be seeing thousands and thousands of seals."

You see, there is no ice. A mother seals give birth on ice, and apparently it is on that ice that the off-season fisherman come to club these newborn, baby seals to death. No ice... no mothers giving birth, no babies being nursed, no seal hunt.

This is a terribly sad, depressing story. I wish it were the only one. Depressing, horrific stories are popping up all over. Better get used to it.

And mail them all to Senator Inhofe.

Sir, you cannot stop us

Senator Inhofe, you are a joke. Your small-minded petulance is sad at best, and useless now against this tide. Its far too late to stop the momentum, turn back the clock, or put back the genie.

The truth is out: you cannot make this truth into another lie.

Thousands of multi-national scientists attest to the warming of our planet, and the role we humans have played in this damage to our climate. Record breaking temperatures for the past 10 years have underlined this crisis - and this 'winter' was ridiculous.

A wave of anti-warming activity is sweeping across this nation - and you dare to call our Live Earth concert at the Capitol, a 'partisan event?' And you - of all people - a republican talking to us about partisan!

Entire communities across the length and breadth of this nation are planning Step It Up rallies for April 14th... I suppose every one of these communities is 'partisan' as well. If so, then we are partisan to life, sir. Not oil... life. Not greed and politics. We'd simply like to live. If you don't care - that is your choice. But you will never make that choice for us.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, the first word is LIFE. It is pretty hard to have the rest, if you don't have the first.

Get over the Al Gore thing already - its pathetic. Why so threatened by Al? Is it that you just can't stand it... that he gracefully exited the political stage and did something meaningful with his life, rather than take a high-paying lobbyist job (as you no doubt mean to do when you retire, or finally get tossed out of office.) Al is that goody-two-shoes who makes the rest of you rats look bad... is that it? Or are you... pardon me for using your words... simply unable to let go of your 'partisan' antipathy towards him because he is a Democrat?

Sir - I hate to break this to you, but we do not care what you think. You may block the concert at our Capitol with your connections and your pull. But you cannot stop us.

Your oil lobbyists cannot stop us. Exxon cannot stop us. Shell cannot stop us. The coal companies cannot stop us. The White House cannot stop us.

We will rally in the streets, we will rally in town squares, we will replace light bulbs, we will hold concerts, we will plant trees, we will sing, we will write letters, we will cut emissions and our carbon footprints, we will make our cities Kyoto cities, we will eat locally grown food, we will install solar panels, we will carpool, bicycle, and walk -- we will do whatever it takes to save our planet and ourselves... and you sir, and your army of oil men... you cannot stop us anymore.

You are irrelevant. Your damage here is done.

Mr Gore, please move the concert to the Lincoln Memorial. I think Mr. Lincoln would enjoy the show. That Capitol no longer belongs to the people of this nation; men like Mr Inhofe have locked the doors against us. But Mr. Lincoln's temple stands open to the air, the wind and to all citizens. Mr Lincoln will always be ours... and 'We the People' will always be his.

Al Gore: Global warming testimony before Congress

Added March 21, 2007 to YouTube By Politicstv