What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
(and remember, you can always e-mail me if you love or loathe anything you're about to read)...


   Monday, April 10, 2006

   GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THAT

Ever since the summer of 2004 -- That Certain Re-Election Campaign -- my friends in-person and here on-line have quietly endured my transition from Rambler to Ranter. I had been driven nearly insane by the lack of any mass political response to the horrors of the Iraq war, the tortures at Abu Ghraib, the illegal wiretapping of US citizens and the outrageously-inept handling of Hurricane Katrina. I've clung to the tiniest shreds of hope that America -- the elephant in the bed -- would regain its sanity. And then, this week, I read this article from Sy Hersh, the New Yorker writer who broke the news of the Abu Ghraib scandal:

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that "a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government." He added, "I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’"

The bombing campaign against Iran would involve "tactical" nuclear strikes. And everyone shrugs. That's how inured we've become to post-9/11 doom-mongering. Blogger Steve Billmon neatly summed it all up:

The U.S. government is planning aggressive nuclear war (the neocons can give it whatever doublespeak name they like, but it is what it is); those plans have been described in some detail in a major magazine and on the front page of the Washington Post; the most the President of the United States is willing to say about it is that the reports are "speculative" (which is not a synonym for "untrue") and yet as I write these words the lead story on the CNN web site is:

ABC pushes online TV envelope
ABC is going to offer online streams of some of its most popular television shows, including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," for free the day after they first air on broadcast TV.

It appears our long national journey towards complete idiocy is over. We've arrived...We’ve already seen a lengthy list of war crimes and dictatorial power grabs sink into that electronic compost heap: the WMD disinformation campaign, Abu Ghraib, the torture memos, the de facto repeal of the 4th amendment. Again, why should a nuclear strike be any different?

Maybe it's just too big an issue. Maybe people can deal with all this foreign policy incompetence as long as their children are safe at home. Oh no, wait -- the Republican clan has screwed up there too, in the most horrifying manner: there's a massive list wandering around the Internet that's a "family values" nightmare:

President of the advocacy group Faith and Family Alliance Robin Vanderwall of Virginia was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the Internet.

Rev. Stephen White a Pentecostal minister in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

Anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling of Anderson, Indiana was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay man from adopting her.

Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter of Boothbay, Maine pled guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy during the Republican State Convention.

Yeah, I think that's quite enough for now but it's only four examples. This site has over FIFTY more examples of child sexual abuse by conservative Christians (three of them Mayors!) who blame gays and lesbians for all the ills of society. I'm not saying that all conservatives are evil or that all Christians are bigots but I wish, fervently wish, that they would look to clean up their own backyard before attacking others. I don't want to keep hearing about how gay marriage is a massive threat to society while child molesters are left to roam free because they say they're Christians and shriek about 'protecting the family'.

And it's not as though this story is new, either (check out this newspaper) -- Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman of Maryland was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old he picked up at a gay bar in 1980, for pity's sake.

No, if there's one thing that ties all this together -- Bush, Iraq, Republican paedophiles, nuclear weapons -- it's the depressing notion that people don't learn. They do what they want to do, believe what they want to believe and the wheels of the bus go round and round. I grew up in the ever-present shadow of a nuclear war between the US and Russia; now the next generation will do the same with the US and Iran.

Ten years ago, I quit a job I loved because the bookstore wanted to carry art books with photos of naked boys in them. I never said a word to the men who bought these books (that would cross a line I agreed to as a sales clerk) but I knew I had to decide what I would willingly be a part of or not. I argued with the buyer, I wasn't listened to, I walked away.

And so it is with this. There's not a whole hell of a lot a thirtysomething Canadian gay man can do to influence a country as insane as America has become. I leave it to more capable people while I go off and tend to my friends, my family, my community -- the people and places I can help. This is me learning.

Labels: Canada, George W Bush, Middle East