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Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 14:40:50
Advice for the New Year - don't be looking for wisdom here, my friend
If you can’t say something nice, at least be entertaining.
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The My God, You Sound Old Award: December, 2008
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for it’s old-fogyish remark about South Park: “If it’s a cartoon, children should be able to watch it.”
I guess the whole world of anime must leave them cowering under their beds.
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Quote of the Day
You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. - Michael Pritchard
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Bad Writer of the Week Award - Richard S. Drake
Yes, I read the editorial in the NWA Times this week before I wrote my blog - “Northwest Arkansas Times and the Ministry of Silly Walks.” I was attempting, albeit in a clumsy fashion, to make fun of the headline used in the editorial.
Good thing I don’t get paid for this stuff, huh?
Then again, it was a silly headline, so I guess we’re even.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 09:36:38
1998: Fayetteville Honors Tibetans
Ten years ago, the Fayetteville City Council honored the brave and beleaguered citizens of Tibet For those who may agree with the recent editorial criticizing such “toothless” resolutions, consider Frank Parigi’s words from this article:
“If we do not take the time to speak out now, who will? How can we say that we care about freedom, or the fate of human beings, if we do not try hard to bring an end to this destruction? We may not be able to change anything standing alone here in Fayetteville, but working with the rest of the world, we can change everything.”
This is another excerpt from my book about Fayetteville, “Ozark Mosaic.”
To Break the Chains
Fayetteville Honors Tibetans
Written by Richard S. Drake
To some extent, Tibetans have been reduced to passive onlookers to the destruction of their culture and national identity. This situation is guaranteed by a violent clampdown on voices that go against Chinese policies and by a pervasive surveillance and control that creates Tibetan fear and distrust toward other Tibetans. But many people continue to protest openly despite the threat of immediate imprisonment and interrogation under torture. They try to encourage other Tibetans to act according to what they believe. And they appeal to the international community for political support. - Anders Hoejmark Anderson, of the Tibet Support Committee, speaking at the “Social Development: A Tibetan Experience” conference held in Copenhagen, March 9, 1995.
On March 10 (the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army) Fayetteville will join communities across the world in declaring solidarity with the people of Tibet, who have lived under the cruel yoke of Chinese domination for several decades. The resolution (“Fayetteville Tibetan Independence Day”) was introduced by Alderman Randy Zurcher, at the behest of Students for a Free Tibet, a local group which is concerned about conditions in Tibet.
Zurcher says, “The most important reason for this resolution is that in one way or another, everyone on earth is connected. If we as Americans sit by while we hear of the atrocities carried out by the Chinese government on Tibet, we are not much better than the oppressors.
“On the other hand, if communities around the nation voice their opposition to these atrocities as the Fayetteville City Council has, President Clinton will no doubt get the message that trade must not be separated from human rights.”
Like many oppressed peoples, the people of Tibet have a story which is rarely heard amidst the tumult of a loud, fast-moving world, especially since China has been so adept at silencing critics of its Tibetan domination (including pressure on movie studios who would present the truth). But if the story is not heard by many more, and soon, there may be no one left to tell their story. Many feel that Tibet, a small country with a culture going back over 3,000 years, is in very real danger of extinction.
As Frank Parigi, of the Fayetteville-based group, Students for a Free Tibet, says, “Tibet is one of the worst examples of human rights abuses in the world today. It is a people and a culture enduring deliberate genocidal attack by the People's Republic of China.”
So far, the Tibetan people and their leader, the Dalai Lama, have relied upon diplomacy and nonviolent measures in their struggle for freedom. Unlike other oppressed peoples, they have not resorted to the use of violence and terrorism, in accordance with their Buddhist belief in non-violence.
Still, without international intervention, there seems no way to stop what may ultimately be the destruction of a way of life which has withstood so much.
Timeline - A journey to Holocaust
1949: Tibet is attacked by 35,000 Chinese troops, as China claims (without legal basis) sovereignty over the tiny country.
1951: Under what is known as the “17-Point Agreement,” China agreed not to interfere with the existing governmental structures, and further agreed to allow the society to go on as it was. Eastern Tibet saw these promises broken immediately, and in 1959, China turned its back altogether on the agreement.
1959: The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader, flees the country. 100,000 Tibetans leave as well. The Tibetans rebel against the Chinese. By Chinese accounts, 87,000 Tibetans are killed. By Tibetan accounts, 430,000 are killed during the uprising and the following 15 years of guerilla warfare.
1950-1984: It is estimated by many exiles that 260,000 died in prisons and work camps during this period.
1998: There are still Tibetans, so desperate to leave a land laid to waste by their Chinese oppressors, who brave the 19,000 ft. Nanga-La Pass, below Mount Everest. But once in Nepal, all too often they are turned over to Chinese authorities. Torture is used on a regular basis against political prisoners. Many of these prisoners are given little food, and forbidden to speak. 3,000 are estimated to have been imprisoned since 1987. Their offenses range from writing letters, distributing leaflets or talking to foreigners about the situation in their country.
A majority of prisoners (with sentences averaging seven years) are monks or nuns. The number of female political prisoners has tripled. Independent observers are barred from attending the trials of the accused.
And then there were none?
China has encouraged many of its people to relocate to Tibet, especially into major urban areas. It is said that in eastern Tibet, Tibetans are outnumbered by three to one. In 1994, China announced plans for a railway linking China and Tibet. Besides speeding the influx of Chinese immigrants, the railroad project will deplete valuable resources.
The official language of Tibet is now Chinese. In public schools, all references to an independent Tibet have been excised.
Perhaps 6,000 monasteries and shrines have been destroyed, and after release from prison, nuns are forbidden from rejoining their orders.
India is concerned, since there are signs that three nuclear missile sites, along with 300,000 ground troops, are now located in Tibet.
Throwing a Lifeline
In Fayetteville, Students for a Free Tibet is one group determined to help make a difference. Member Frank Parigi says, “The primary focus of this organization is to educate people about the Tibetan cause, and to create ways to further the goal of Tibetan independence.”
But, he adds, it isn’t all grimness. “Tibet is a very spiritual culture, and since boundless joy is one of the great spiritual treasures a person can receive, Tibetan culture can also be very joyful.”
Parigi says that though the official name of the nationwide grassroots organization is “Students for a Free Tibet,” that should not be taken to mean that only students are invited to join. Rather, anyone who wishes to help, or merely learn more about Tibet, is invited.
At the Fayetteville city council meeting at which this resolution was introduced, Alderman Donna Pettus pointed out that during the holocaust in Germany, no one made the effort to oppose the terrible mass destruction that the Third Reich was bent upon.
Frank Parigi says, “Today, Tibet is undergoing a holocaust just as horrifying. If we do not take the time to speak out now, who will? How can we say that we care about freedom, or the fate of human beings, if we do not try hard to bring an end to this destruction? We may not be able to change anything standing alone here in Fayetteville, but working with the rest of the world, we can change everything.”
Ozark Gazette - March 9, 1998
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 14:08:26
Northwest Arkansas Times and the Ministry of Silly Walks
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
Words fail me.
Oh, I know that folks will be be aghast, and will write thousands upon thousands of words - some entertaining, some pretentious - about today’s editorial, asking the plaintive questions, “Where were they? Does Congress care more about people than about businesses?”
Interestingly enough, the second question never actually made it onto the paper’s website edition.
Wiser heads prevailed, perhaps?
As to whether or not Congress care more about people than businesses?
I was having breakfast this morning with a friend at Village Inn. I passed the editorial in question to him, and after reading the headline, he laughed. I’ll bet he wasn’t he only one in Northwest Arkansas laughing this morning.
That’s comment enough, I think.
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Quote of the Day
The value of an idea has nothing to do with the success of the man who expresses it. - Oscar Wilde
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The Inimitable Coralie Koonce
On January 10 (10am), at the Bentonville library, the AAUW (American Association of University Women) will hold it's regular monthly meeting. The guest speaker will be Coralie Koonce, author of “Models, Myths and Muddles: Thinking Toward Survival."
Coralie is familiar to many in Northwest Arkansas, not only for her books, but for her many letters to the editor. Her message is that we must develop our critical thinking skills if we're going to survive as a free nation and as a species.
Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 00:01:32
Still think Hillary Clinton was the first woman to run for president?
I discovered this letter from Fayetteville writer DeLani Bartlette, while reading through the Summer issue of Ms. magazine this week. I suspect that many of us recall Shirley Chisholm, who ran for president in 1972, but I had no idea that so many women had run for president - some even before women were even allowed to vote in federal elections. I’m grateful to DeLani for giving me permission to reprint her letter here.
And yes, it was the Summer issue of Ms. Sometimes I get behind on my reading.
One of Many
I love your magazine, but I have to point out a couple of errors in the [Spring 2008] issue. First, in her letter “Flower Grandma’ Voter,” [Jenna] Lennon-Dorn erroneously states that Hillary Clinton is “our very first female candidate.” Second, in “Backtalk,” [Donna] Brazile makes the same erroneous assumption: “Let’s take all these steps now to make it easier for the second woman . . . to run as a serious candidate for president” (italics mine).
Ms. Clinton is most definitely not the first woman to run for president; that honor goes to Victoria Claflin Woodhull, who ran in 1872 and again in 1892, well before women could even vote in federal elections. Depending on the standards used to determine candidacy, Ms. Clinton is anywhere from the 31st to the 66th to the 100th female candidate. Every one of these female candidates was just as “serious” in her candidacy; Ms. Clinton is simply the first female candidate that both the media and one of the “official” parties have taken seriously.
DeLani Bartlette
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Quote of the Day
The least interesting people were the ones who seemed to start with identifying themselves as "conservatives" and then tackled the issue with those blinders on. I've met plenty of uninteresting liberals who do the same thing. - John Moe, "Conservatize Me: How I tried to become a Righty with the help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky"
Saturday, December 27, 2008 - 10:49:09
Things that go bump - well, kinda bump - in the night
Sometimes late at night we’ll watch this dreadful British show, Most Haunted. featuring the real-life adventures of a gang of ghost hunters. It’s an absolutely hideous show, yet once you start watching, you almost can’t pull yourself away from this group of professional cowards as they stumble through the dark, cowering and screaming at the slightest creak in the floorboards.
At some point you have to wonder:
How many ghosts have actually killed anyone? How many ghosts have actually dismembered anyone? How many ghosts have actually stolen anyone’s credit card, and gone on a shopping spree?
Yet these buffoons cower and moan like there’s a gang of spectral bikers about to descend upon them at any moment.
My favorite parts are when they ask the ghosts to give them a sign that they are there. I’d turn their cars over; there’s a sign they wouldn’t soon forget.
I actually heard someone ask once, “If you don’t want to talk to us, please give us a sign.”
Or, the ghost could simply ignore them, if they don’t want to talk to them.
It turns out, however, that our stalwarts may be faking some of their adventures. Several years ago there was an expose on them, and the story wasn’t very flattering, but reading it confirmed my deepest suspicions about them.
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=54055
Yet the show still has high ratings. I guess P.T. Barnum was right, after all.
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Quote of the Day
There's nothing people like better than being asked an easy question. For some reason, we're flattered when a stranger asks us where Maple Street is in our hometown and we can tell him. - Andrew A. Rooney
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I’ve already told Tracy how I’ll contact her from the next life
This is how I’ll contact Tracy - she’ll see a Twinkie hanging off the end of a balloon. Not only will it bypass the usual cliches that most mediums will throw at you, but she can have a snack, too.
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The most offensive psychics I have seen on TV yet - I really am drawn to cheesy “reality” TV, aren’t I?
A few months ago I saw a show where three “forensic psychics” were set loose in the house where JonBenet Ramsey was murdered. The three stooges wandered around the house, picking up impressions of the killer, telling the viewer what was going through his mind as he was laying in wait, and where he was waiting. It was all very intense - and highly offensive, too.
They seemed to to know so much about the killer - except what direction he turned in once he left the house.
I guess their psychic batteries were running out of juice . . .
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If I were a rich man . . .
I really could see myself shooting out my TV about three or four times a week, between jokers like this, and the increasing Ted Baxterization of the news.
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Conspiracies most foul
If there is one thing that British television has always excelled at, it is the creepy, the bump in the night, the feeling that something just out of sight is watching and waiting. And unlike American television, with its obsession for happy endings, British programmers don't particularly feel honor-bound to let us down off that meat hook at the end of the show.
Long before "X Files" there was "The Omega Factor," a show which enjoys cult-like status - mainly because so few people have actually seen it. After the original ten episodes were shown on BBC in 1979, it was never shown again. But people remembered it, and the legend grew, as people gathered around their video campfires and told the tale of this neat little exercise into paranoia and the paranormal.
Now, thanks to the BBC, the episodes have been collected on DVD.
The premise of the program was simple. Journalist Tom Crane, following the death of his wife, goes to work for one of those mysterious British intelligence organizations, Department 7. Along the way Crane and Department 7 investigate cases of astral projection, poltergeist activity, and demonic possession.
But Crane soon begins to suspect that there is something else - another, more sinister, organization - pulling the strings behind Department 7. Of course, he is right, and that's where a lot of the fun lies.
It's all pretty grim stuff; there is very little that can be considered "light-hearted" about the series. Viewers spoiled by modern-day television shows may sneer at the special effects, which may remind them of "Doctor Who." But despite the lack of glossy special effects, the direction is pretty good, and there are some genuinely scary moments to be found.
Those who stick with the series will be rewarded by a program that doesn't insult the viewer, and makes the assumption that the person watching is pretty smart to begin with.
Of course, that can't be said for all of the original viewers. Many were repulsed by the occult themes of the program, including the infamous Mary Whitehouse.
For a long time, Whitehouse, of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (a British version of the Parents Television Council ) had had her steely eye on British entertainment. This was the woman, after all, who had once dismissed "Doctor Who" as "tea-time brutality for tots."
Naturally, there was much that Whitehouse found to criticize in "The Omega Factor." And while many regarded her as part of the lunatic fringe, some saw that her organization had a lot of influence.
It wasn't just Mary Whitehouse; other viewers seemed to dislike the show. One passionate person told the BBC, "I hate this damned program." One must pity the poor soul who has lost the ability to change channels, or - horrors! - actually might pick up a book to read if they don't like what is on television.
When the initial order of ten episodes ran its course, the BBC declined to renew the series. Still, the series made enough of an impact to keep viewers talking about it for decades, until it was finally released on DVD.
It can only make one wonder - as long as other series are being remade, and "re-imagined," can "The Omega Factor" be far behind?
Friday, December 26, 2008 - 10:41:35
Will Google affect how city employees find new jobs?
I’ve been thinking about the exodus of Coody folk, seeking jobs elsewhere before Lioneld Jordan takes office in January. I wonder how successful some of them might have been if their new employers had Googled their names, and seen what some in the public have had to say about them and their job performance.
For example, not to be terribly crass, since it is the day after Christmas, but suppose a potential employer Googled a former Public Information Officer from an unnamed Arkansas city, and found the many negative posts written by members of the public. Might that have hurt the job applicant’s chances?
So essentially, what that means is that bloggers, and people who post on blogs, unwittingly become job references, for good or bad.
More and more, employers are looking at the Internet, which is sparking a lot of debate. Folks are even checking out places like MySpace, and Facebook, to see what you are up to in your spare time.
Those interested in reading about some of these debates can check out:
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=257
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_13/b3977071.htm
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Quote of the Day
Mark how we realize the beauty and blessing of life itself only in rare, inexplicable moments, and then most keenly. It comes to us like a sudden blare of trumpets in the wind. - J.B. Priestley
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Farewell, Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter dead. That’s a lousy way to end Christmas day.
UK playwright Harold Pinter dies
Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who had cancer, died on Christmas Eve aged 78.
He wrote more than 30 plays including The Caretaker and The Birthday Party. His film scripts include The French Lieutenant's Woman.
His style was so distinctive, "Pinteresque" entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
His wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, said: "He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years."
He had been due to pick up an honorary degree earlier this month from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London but was forced to withdraw due to illness.
To read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7799708.stm
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Gotta love a persistent scammer
It seems that from the very first day I got an email account - all the way back in the 20th Century - I have been inundated with email scams. Some have been more interesting than others. Some, like the ones that promise Bill Gates will send you money if you send along a particular piece of email to, oh, something like 157 other people, are just stupid.
But others are more complex. They usually involve moving millions of dollars out of a country, and that they have been given your name as someone they can trust. Yet, oddly enough, they never seem to actually know your name.
Another intriguing thing about such letters is that those writing them always claim to be devout Christians - yet they are trying to get you involved in elaborate financial scams. Go figure. I understand from watching the news, though, that quite a few people every year get conned by these folks, always sending some money to them to grease the wheels, or giving them access to their bank accounts.
Silly people.
Since the invasion of Iraq, a new version has emerged. “Sgt. Robert King” urges folks to check out a BBC News website, and then contact him. It turns out he has some of Saddam Hussein’s money, and would like your help in getting it out of the country.
If you don’t respond, he’ll write back - again and again. This week I got his third letter to me. It read, in part:
I am writing just to share something's that are on my heart. Always I'm staying in my orations, and my confidence in God. I am trying not to allow this fear and pain subdue my confidence due to this entire transaction.I would never put you in this kind of predicament. However, what I am saying is it is completely unfair to me that after sharing such vital trust and classified information with you, you are not treating me in such a manner. To be very honest with you, I can no longer deal with the fact that you seemingly do not understand what I am going through to see this transaction to this last level.
No it is not your problem that I may lose my life here, court marsshall and the list goes on.
I finally wrote back, suggesting that someone who was actually in the United States military would know how to spell “court martial.” I’ll let you know if the good “sergeant” ends me another email.
Who knows? I may have a new pen pal!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - 00:50:55
Is Rick Warren Obama's Sarah Palin?
Is Rick Warren Back Obama’s Sarah Palin moment? If so, let’s hope it’s just a blip on the radar.
Obama, in an effort to be “inclusive” - which is a good thing - doesn’t seem to have vetted the pastor of Saddleback Church very carefully. From his interview with Steven Waldman, which probably most people in the known universe have seen by now:
Rick Warren: But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage. I’’m opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.
Steven Waldman: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?
Rick Warren: Oh I do. ……
And that, it seems, it just the tip of the iceberg.
I believe that the president is the president of all of us, and that it is only right and proper to invite conservative Christians to the White House. But someone like Rick Warren, to deliver the Invocation at the Inaugural? That’s not just an insult to gay and lesbian supporters of Obama.
It’s an insult to all the intelligent, tolerant people in the United States, gay or straight.
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The World Turned Upside Down: Ted Baxter has suddenly become Walter Cronkite
We were watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show last night, and it suddenly occurred to me that bombastic newscaster Ted Baxter (played to perfection by Ted Knight) has suddenly become the norm in cable news.
From the proudly-sycophantic Wolf Blitzer to Mike Sanchez on CNN, to the buffoons on FOX, to the ever-emoting anchors everywhere on the dial, American TV news has reached the bottom of the barrel. Well, I say that, but I suspect it could get even worse.
Ted Baxter suddenly seems wise compared to the inmates who are currently running the asylum.
One anchor on MSNBC recently began one item with, “This story just breaks my heart.”
“I don’t care,” I snarled back at my TV. “Just tell me the damn story.”
*****
Mike Sanchez - idiot?
I got 44,500 Google results when I typed in “Mike Sanchez - idiot.”
He’s not a well-loved man.
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Quote of the Day
True friendship is like phosphorescence - it glows best when the world around you goes dark. - Denise Martin
Congressman Dan Coody?
C.A.T. Contract: Leveling the playing field?
401k plans - myth versus reality?
Clap 'em in Irons!
Fayetteville's Annual Telecomm Report: A question I probably should have asked last year
World shifts on its axis - workers refuse to accept role as collateral damage
Employee Free Choice Act: Yeah, I should really put my faith in the Chamber of Commerce on this Issue, shouldn't I?
Nothing like cold steel, eh, Holmes?
March, 2009: Good news for all who still miss the old Women's Conference and Festival
Fayetteville makes international headlines - sorry, Lioneld, it ain't you . . .
Matthew Petty: Dude, where's our alderman?
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