stark ranting

The bengal tiger steps cautiously into the river, eyes alert, on the prowl. The sun hanging low in the afternoon sky casts an orange glow over the tiger's lean body. Stripes shifting with each step of its powerful legs, the tiger's focused yellow eyes look for prey on the far side of the river.

Does the tiger know boredom? Does the tiger ever grow weary of feeding on deer? The life of the tiger contains no ambiguity, no uncertainty. The force of instinct driving it forward never wanes. Each day spent satisfying its simple needs. Feast, procreate, rest. Genetic imprints refined over millions of years.

Life is not so simple for homo sapiens. We satisfy the same needs as the tiger, but we place our focus elsewhere. We focus on our work, or our hobbies. Things to pass the time. Marking days off on the calendar. Is it tomorrow yet? When will it come and will it be any different than today? I want the life of the tiger. Purpose intertwined with instinct.

Posted by stark at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was talking to someone recently about bug bites and other itchy sores. The question came up of whether it's better to scratch them for the instant (albeit temporary) gratification, or better not to scratch and allow it to heal. I fall firmly on the side of not scratching. It's a mentality that affects many of the choices I make. Food is one example. When we choose what to eat we have to weigh the taste and satisfaction gained against the potential downside, such as negative health effects. McDonalds is betting that people will go for the instant gratification without regard for the associated damage to your heart, and for the most part they're right. But that's not what I want for my life. I don't want to make tradeoffs that I'll regret later. And in the end not scratching can be just as rewarding, because it gives you a greater sense of control over your destiny. The bite heals on its own soon enough.

Posted by stark at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Salon's War Room has a painfully funny translation of a press release from Rep. Ike Skelton. This is the original:

"We need a new national security strategy ... It should include an effort to create political conditions of stability in Iraq ... such a strategy must also address the transnational challenges at the root of global terrorism and should include many enlightened nations with the same goal ... Such a strategy would combine military capabilities with diplomatic and economic strategies in recognition that this confrontation is ultimately a battle of ideas. Without such a comprehensive vision jointly embraced by enlightened nations we will find ourselves where we are today, slogging it out without a light at the end of the tunnel."

Michael Scherer's translation:

"Bush has made Iraq a mess. If other nations help us, then we can win."

"The war sucks. I wish I knew what to do. I will use words like 'enlightened,' 'strategy' and 'transnational' instead."

"I need to respond to the Bush press conference, but I don't know what to say. Help me."

Posted by stark at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reuters: Northwest advised workers to see treasure in trash

The No. 5 U.S. carrier, which has slashed most employees' pay and is looking to cut jobs as it prepares to exit bankruptcy, put the tips in a booklet handed out to about 50 workers and posted for a time on its employee Web site.

The four-page booklet, "Preparing for a Financial Setback" contained suggestions such as shopping in thrift stores, taking "a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods" and not being "shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."

I've got my own suggestions. Don't be afraid to sleep around if you think you can get a free dinner out of it. If you're unfortunate enough to have kids, encourage them to sleep over at friends' houses. And if you need medical attention, show up at the ER and act like you're having a stroke, because they can't turn you away if you have a life threatening condition and no health insurance.

How do you like them apples middle class America?

Posted by stark at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a brilliant piece of performance art by a group called Prangstgrup. I've often wondered why people don't spontaneously burst into song like they do in musicals.

Posted by stark at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you missed it, well, they'll replay it a couple times before tomorrow night so you best be gettin' your ass in front of the TV. And 30 Days tonight was about an atheist living with a Christian family; an hour of awkward moments and unanswered questions, loved it.

Crooks and Liars has some of the Daily Show video.

Posted by stark at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AP: Iraqi Shiites chant 'Death to Israel'

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.

Posted by stark at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the pillars of the Bush Doctrine is the idea that democracy will alleviate instability in the Middle East. Democracy is equated with freedom and liberty, which is equated with security and stability. The validity of that logic is obviously suspect after witnessing the chaos unfold in Democratic Iraq and elsewhere. The flaw lies in the assumption that oppression is the engine that perpetuates the Middle East conflict. Oppression is certainly a cause for concern; something that should be decried and dismantled, wherever it exists in the world. But the Middle East conflict is much deeper and much older than one oppressive regime. It's a conflict our own country has played a role in, and history cannot simply be erased by enfranchising the people who store its memories. In point of fact our actions exacerbated the conflict by our failure to understand it.

The second problem with democracy is one that manifests itself here at home. Namely that democracy as we practice it does not bring us closer to the truth. We (as a country) lack a critical understanding of the relationship between our goals, our actions, and our results. Instead we (the people) choose elected officials to represent our interests, and those elected officials decide a course of action based on a gut feeling of how the world works, no matter how far removed it is from the truth. It provides no accountability. No verifiable results. The only feedback occurs at the ballot box, when we the people decide once again how well those elected offials are representing our interests. The scientific method is a much more useful model of how one can arrive at a practical understanding of cause and effect. Establish a hypothesis, design an experiment and predict results, run the experiment and verify the results. If the results contradict your predictions, well then maybe you didn't start with a solid foundation and you need to rethink your worldview.

Posted by stark at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by stark at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I ran across the most accessible (and sobering) account of life inside Iraq I've read to date. A blogger named Abu Khaleel shares his viewpoint on the ongoing suffering in an extremely honest and thoughtful way. These words for his son resonate with brutally raw emotion.

Goodbye my boy.

May the Goddesses of Safety, Happiness and Good Fortune blow gently in your sails.

I hope you forget all your agony and your lost childhood, leave the pain behind, make new dreams and forge ahead in a world of hope and achievement.

In another post he provided an English translation of another Iraqi blogger's feeling of desperation.

Shalash’s new essay has a different flavor. There is nothing funny or sarcastic about it. It is entitled “A Desperate Letter!” the essay is written in long paragraphs! I have taken the liberty to segment it and tried my best to retain the original flavor but I cannot do that with the style.

"We have had enough. The fearsome nights are stifling us and we now have come to hate the Fall [of Baghdad]; we hate Liberation; we hate Sunnis; we hate Shiites; we hate turbans and sidaras [Baghdadi head gear – a reference to Adnan al-Dulaimi a ‘Sunni’ politician]; we hate Jihad and Jihadists, resistance and resistors; we hate concrete; we hate streets and sidewalks; we hate the Ministries; we hate Establishments; we hate news channels and news and communiqués; we hate the Parliament that has now become a venue for swearing-in ceremonies and nothing else; we hate songs; we hate commercials; we hate newspapers; we hate cars and car-depots; we hate conferences; we hate ‘surprise visits’; we hate neighboring countries; we hate the ‘multinational forces; we hate the night; we hate the day; we hate Summer; we hate the sun that sends hell; we hate sleep; we hate water and electricity; we hate petrol and corruption and theft; we hate sectarianism; we hate sectarian ‘allocations’; we hate Reconciliation; we hate the government of national unity; we hate committees and Commissions of Integrity, Trash, Rehabilitation and Silliness; we hate [political] parties and organizations; we hate assemblies, demonstrations, banners and chants; we hate laughter; we hate crying; we hate work; we hate study; we hate each other. And we hate ourselves. But (and this is our problem) we still love something that was called Iraq. Will you save what is left of this Iraq?"

What have they done to this country? Is this what they mean when they say “Freedom is messy”?

And yet… I still have hope. It is people like Shalash al-Iraqi who, despite all their suffering, have not lost their humanity and have not lost their compass… that give me that hope.

Posted by stark at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)