Rumsfeld: Don’t call it an ‘insurgency’
My first thought on reading this is a quote I saw the other day.
“You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you’re doing is recording it.” — Art Buchwald
My second thought? GW, Laura Bush, and Rumsfeld all made the news today, all highlighting Iraq, all with precise and rosy language. This is really the PR equivalent of a blitzkrieg. Whereas Clinton stayed on the strategic defensive at many times, the Bush Administration seems to favor a more heavy-handed approach; swamp the media with a carbon-copy message and flood out the competition. It’s brilliant, really, and it has worked remarkably well for remarkably long. They have been able to put an excellent public face on quite a few serious and seriously impolite issues; torture, intelligence skewing and outright failures, the UN ambassador (Who seems to have been made impotent by the controversy surrounding his appointment), the mounting number of casualties, the lack of a clear plan in Iraq, the failure to catch bin Laden (who has killed many many more Americans then Saddam did both times we invaded HIS country), the injustice treatment of the Guantanamo prisoners, et cetera.
We forget that economic prosperity and and a democratically elected leader are not shoe-ins for the moral high ground. History is full of corrupt leaders put in place by a willing voting population who prospered under the new régime, Hitler foremost among them. The ‘right’ line is a thin line, and many before have failed it, but a leader must recognize that might often makes wrong.
Needless to say, the real losers in this story are the Iraqi people. What can these press releases read like to them? It must be a sick joke for many and a cruel dream for the rest. Sixty-two percent of the American public now disapprove of the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq and I can only imagine that the numbers in Iraq are higher (I’m sure they mind being killed much more then we mind killing them.) Make no mistake, I am no revisionist; Saddam was terrible. But what have we done to show we’re better? I agree with the ‘You break it, you bought it’ sentiment.
Unfortunately, the ‘you’ is US.
I was just about to grab a beer and get in the shower, when the Z Master sent this little jewel down the line. An alternative view of Jesus, if he drove a cab and smoked cheap cigars, just another immigrant with a twisted perspective and delusions of adequacy. Makes us all pine for the good ‘ol days of religion, when it was fresh and new, when the lie wasn’t so ripe and you could still get caught in the fervor, have a religious experience without being born-again. Nowadays, the thinking man has cat-like reflexes against anything resembling a deity, but back then, to get in on the ground-floor of a world-changing movement, that was the genesis of cool.
Jesus was just a kid with a tumor who heard voices and could guess your weight at the carnival. He had a secret club and a symbol, and pretty soon everyone wanted in. Add a quick dose of modern perspective and it all seems so passè. There hasn’t been anything exciting since Luther lay down his hammer. (As an aside… does that hammer still exist? I should like to own it. And I also think that Luther needed a good editor. 95 theses? Its just excessive. Way to beat a dead horse, Luther)
What churches should have, however, is a Suggestion Box. But can you imagine?
Hindu : “I think the Vishnu needs more arms.“
Jewish : “But really, what are we waiting for?“
Christan : “But, it really does look like a big ‘t’.“
Islamic : “I like the new mullah but, he really isn’t much to ululate about.”
Just remember: Religion needs a god to exist, but a god does not need a religion.
I’ve always considered God as more of a DC comics fan. I mean, look at Superman, he could have written that entire story himself.
Comes from the heavens. Where he is the son of a powerful leader that no one listens to anymore.
Super powers similar to Jesus. He brings Lois Lane back from the dead… very Jesus-esque.
Constantly saving the Earth. And he’s the only one who can.
Lois Lane/Mary Magdalene. The divine’s concubine.
Jimmy/Peter. Always messing something up, but heart in the right place.
And Starring Lex Luthor as the Devil. The Devil is always making himself into an Angel of Light. Or puts on a nice suit with diamond cufflinks.
However, Jesus’s skin could be pierced. That’s the main difference.
Joseph Cambpell would be with me on this one, I’m sure. Superman is a clear modern paralell to the story of Christ. With the “God of the Gaps” quickly disappearing, and Nietzsche famously wrote his/her obituary, our culture has evolved to address the need for the the hero epic with science — and science fiction.
