Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Musings: Enough is Enough


It started with stars, which I haven't seen in the morning for a while, due to the thick cloud cover, then it turned into streaks of scarlet before the sky went all dandelion yellow and up came the sun, rising from the sea well before 6 a.m. and making it all sparkly and shiny, even as the gray started to pile up again on the horizon.

I've been hearing reports from friends and family about the Midwest heat wave and drought that has ripened peaches 10 weeks ahead of schedule and caused corn, which is typically knee-high by the 4th of July, to shoot up to waist level already. Yet here, it feels cool for the end of May, though the ocean isn't too chilly, even for dips at dawn.

Still, I wonder when it will warm up enough to coax the camphor trees that shade my yard into flowering, providing food for my bees. I never gave much thought to such things, but now as I move through my neighborhood, I look at all the foliage in terms of its ability to sustain bees.

Meanwhile, literature mounts on the — duh! — toxic effect that pesticides have on bees, with scientists reporting that exposure to even “safe” amounts of a specific neonicotinoid known as imidacloprid can cause bees to become picky eaters, ignoring perfectly good nectar they would normally feed on as they seek out sweeter stuff, to the detriment of the hive.

Yeah, screw the blossoms. Gimme some of that high fructose GMO corn syrup! Amazing, now we're even turning the bees into fricking sugar junkies. 

Meanwhile, we're getting the first official reports of radioactive seafood showing up off California, with scientists attributing it to — duh! — the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. As one researcher observed: “That’s a big ocean. To swim across it and still retain these radionuclides is pretty amazing.”

Yeah, just think — everything really is connected! But the big message: no worries! The elevated levels are still well below the U.S. government's regulatory limits.

And you just know the government is always looking out for your best interest.

Like the way the Obama Administration has so thoughtfully and helpfully asked a judge to reverse her ruling on the super scary National Defense Authorization Act. Seems she barred enforcement of one provision — the part where the government can order indefinite military detention of anyone considered to be a terrorism suspect, anywhere in the world, without charge or trial, including U.S. citizens — as un-Constitutional. As Reuters reported:

The judge said she was worried by the government's reluctance at the March hearing to say whether examples of the plaintiffs' activities - such as aiding the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in the case of Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of parliament in Iceland - would fall under the scope of the provision.

Of course, such a move isn't really surprising from a president who, as the New York Times reports, personally oversees a "kill list" of folks targeted for assassination, a list that includes U.S. citizens and teenage girls. As the Times reports:

It is the strangest of bureaucratic rituals: Every week or so, more than 100 members of the government’s sprawling national security apparatus gather, by secure video teleconference, to pore over terrorist suspects’ biographies and recommend to the president who should be the next to die.

This secret “nominations” process is an invention of the Obama administration, a grim debating society that vets the PowerPoint slides bearing the names, aliases and life stories of suspected members of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen or its allies in Somalia’s Shabab militia.

William M. Daley, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff in 2011, said the president and his advisers understood that they could not keep adding new names to a kill list, from ever lower on the Qaeda totem pole. What remains unanswered is how much killing will be enough.” 

Oh, that's too easy. In a nation where weapons are the number one export and death can be doled out from air conditioned rooms by remote control, no amount of killing will ever be enough.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Obama entered the scene to push out Bush and filled many with ʻhopeʻ that the reign of terror would end then proceeded to ʻsay he would vetoʻ the various toxic bills/actions that came along (but always 2 days later taking no action) and continuing Bush policies with more zeal than Bush...for all these things we have been in a hopeless state of mesmerization, maybe sometimes believing it isnʻt so or isnʻt what it appears to be. If it was Bush it would be easier to recognize the wrong.

Well, try this trick with your mind: When an issue such as hit lists, indefinite detention, etc. is on the table and being approved by Obama, try closing your closing your eyes and imagining it is Bush doing it.
Then you may realize how the image of the messenger has been changed and we are being entranced. Someone figured out they can proceed the same way and succeed by using a different dummyʻs face.

Anonymous said...

....and you just figured that out? It's called business as usual.

Anonymous said...

No, I had 2 thoughts on him.
As said above and second that he is really sincere about the constitution and doing what is right but every time he tries to do that, someone will gently remind him that his daughter(s) may not come home safely.
Probably both.

Anonymous said...

I would have to agree with you on this one.

Just about anything having to do with the federal government is a lost cause. If it isn't a intimadated prez, it's a bunch of stupublican-dummycrat legislative
battles.

Unless they get rid of paid lobbyists,the song remains the same.

Anonymous said...

Got to keep in mind, Michelle is probably as decent as she appears to the public. She would not have married the ʻotherʻ Obama. He is showing signs of rapid aging. I think he had no idea what he was getting into, I mean the real extent.


Recently FERC Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled against KIUC stating they were attempting to "claim jump" and that the land and area in question is not under the control of the United States.
I wouldnʻt say ʻeverythingʻ is a lost cause. They came through on this one without the expected rubber stamp.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Empire! It's all a War Game! Beat the drum, toot the fife, it's time for World control! And, yes, that drum major is, gasp!, that Punahou grad Barry Obama! Let's drop the big one now!