Blake's bell curve

A comment I made to hopefully settle my discussion regarding Obama not fundamentally changing anything about America

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Written to my friend Andrew Londre on facebook.com

Andrew, 

I really like you man, even if I make your blood boil, actually especially if I do. That being said.

Your use of exaggeration and hyperbole really undercut the power of your argument. While I agree that military force has been misused your vague “thousands of times over” is more a rhetorical device than a display of an understanding of Imperialism and violence.

I do not necessarily agree with your point regarding World War Two. I defer to Ghandi who said that ultimately non-violence could have defeated Hitler which ultimately may have shifted the paradigm we live within. 

To get to the meat of the debate lets focus on the deployment of more troops in Afghanistan. First 30,000 troops does not just mean people who are signed up to be in the armed forces will go serve further for our country. It means that we will continue to pump tax-payer money into a nearly nine-year old war that many experts say is completely futile. Being that the anger of our “enemies” is fueled by our presence it seems that we are going to have a lot of trouble rebuilding an infrastructure that we destroyed of the last 8 years.

The decree to deploy 30,000 more troops also normalizes the extenuation of the Executive Power which was so heavily abused during the Bush administration. It seems to me that if we are referring to this as a War we should have a proper declaration and being that President Obama does do such a good job in most other areas allowing Government to function in the way it is prescribed in the Constitution it worries me that he has not legitimized this war.

In regards to your Die-In, I applaud you for doing real action where it matters, on the local level. Getting people to change the way they feel and think about issues is the only possible way to truly affect lasting change. I am not in support of the direction that I see the Health Care Bill going, but that is an aside for a different conversation.

The thing that bothers me most is the continual rhetoric regarding 9/11 and its justification for what we now know as post 9/11 policy which is essentially an unveiling of the neo-Imperialist doctrine laid out by the plan by the Committe fora New American Centrury. Something every person who cares about the well being of themselves should familiarize themselves with. I am not anti-American, I am however fed up with Americans who are unwilling to acknowledge that our place in the world has long been to exploit the rest of the planet and it’s people for our blind consumerism and self importance. It is in light of this that I say, the 3,000 lives lost on September 11th are of little relevance to me at all. I care more about the 16,000 children who die in the world from hunger related causes when the American Armed forces still drop cluster bombs that look like food aid. 

It seems to me that instead of change in doctrine and policy we got a change in figurehead. It is a kinder gentler war that I can feel better about because my leader seems to care, (which I add to your disliking us assuming to know how you feel I think it is arrogant to think you have any idea how Bush or Obama truly feel) and can articulate an oppressive policy so it seems nice that I am supposed to return to my peaceful slumber as the lie that is the American Dream crumbles leaving little but ashes of an Empire. 

Instead I am going to continue to inform my friends, my community, my loved ones of all the ways that we can separate ourselves from the actions of our government and free ourselves of the needless trapping of modern life. Together we will see through the impending crisis and I count on the fact that with nothing to bind us to a false sense of nationhood we will take up our survival as humanity as the call of the future. A cause which I hope you and I will work together on beyond what differences we may have regarding this National distraction. 

Basically, I’ll see you in the garden. :)

La Crosse Common Council needs to pass resolution in favor of The National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009

This is a copy and pasted email I got from WISPIRG today.  Thanks to the hard work of their staff I hope that our city can get behind the future of transit.

Hello Friends,

Do you feel passionately about 21^st century modes of transportation like high speed rail and public transit?  Do you want to see a reduction in the use of cars in our culture?  How about lowered carbon emissions?  If your answer is yes, read on!  This is an opportunity to advocate locally for a new transportation future at the upcoming city council meeting—and do call your council member and email the council!  Names of council members, district numbers, and telephone numbers are at end of this e-mail as well, as a link you can use to email the council.

Please call and email your Common Council representatives and urge them to action! (information below).  The National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009 will put the United States on track to support alternative transportation (walking, biking, rail, public transit) and reduce the number of miles traveled in single occupant vehicles. Ron Kind is NOT a co-sponsor of this bill.  WISPIRG is urging people in La Crosse to lobby the city council to pass a resolution in support of the bill in hopes it will move Ron Kind to co-sponsor and support. (bill summary here:
http://t4america.org/blog/2009/06/10/tell-your-representative-to-support-a-national-vision-for-transportation/)

In a vote earlier this week, the Judiciary and Administration Committee of the Common Council passed a recommendation for this transportation resolution, but there are still two more votes to win on before the resolution is passed altogether.  On Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. the Committee of the Whole will hear public input and discuss the resolution.

If you can, please attend this meeting to urge the council to pass the resolution!  Jessica Klinge (jlklinge@wisc.edu) (608) 343-1495 is with WISPIRG and has been keeping everyone informed about local developments. She also has more info about the bill.

The following council members are in favor of the resolution and will vote yes:

Richard Becker (9^th district)
Jai Johnson (4)
Eric Schmidt (5)
Robert Seaquist (8)
Audrey Kader (11)
Richard Swantz (17)
Doug Farmer (10)

These 7 yes votes are not enough to pass this critical resolution.  The following 5 people are undecided as to how they are going to vote, and if they vote yes, the resolution will pass!  That’s why these people need to hear from you:

Chris Olson (3)                              (608) 386-6540
Andrea Richmond (1)                    (608) 781-4174
Mike Larsen (7)                             (608) 784-8741
John Satory (6)                              (608) 782-1041
Bernard Maney (13)                      (608) 784-2758

Please please please call your council representative and tell them to support the National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009.  If you can, attend the public hearing on December 8^th and speak in favor of the resolution.

Also, send an email to the whole Common Council!   Even if you don’t live in one of the above districts, you can still act by emailing the whole Council.  You can contact the council here:http://www.cityoflacrosse.org/forms.aspx?FID=62.  Attached in this email is a sample letter (NTO Resolution Support Letter…) which you can send to council via the previous link.  Feel free to copy and paste the letter in its entirety, or modify it to your liking.  If you have a few minutes today, please click the link and send the letter!  Your input on this issue is invaluable in terms of moving the Common Council to pass this forward-thinking resolution.

Again, please email or call Jessica if you need more info about attending the council meeting in support of the bill.  And be sure to forward this email to other supportive people!

Thanks for your time.

With care,
Shannon

————
Shannon Nelson
Program Associate
WISPIRG
(608)268-1656
www.wispirg.org

Recent expansion

I jokingly said that I am trying to develop myself culturally when I put in this DVD “To Play and to Fight”.  I had heard it being plugged during the WPR classical station fundraising drive, and decided to get it from the Library.

I was excited to watch a documentary in Spanish because I have recently started trying to speak a little Spanish everyday in an effort to learn it.  I was also excited to hear people play music passionately, especially in a genre I usually thought was filled with stuffy old folks.

This movie was amazing and I have totally developed a love for Classical Music.  I had to call my friend Carl in for some advice about what I should be digging.  He was forthcoming with me about the eras of “Classical Music”.

So here is his list

Baroque

Bach

Handel

Romantic

Mozart

Beethoven

Brahms

More Recent

Stravinsky

Ravel

Prokofive

Strauss (Rickart) *apparently he was a Nazi sympathizer.