Requiescat In Pace

A strange thing happened to me the other day. I think I blew my "outrage" fuse. It was the one that enabled me to care about the fate of another species: man. I'm not quite sure what the catalyst was. It could have been the far right's attack on a 12-year-old boy that was aided by the conventional press, it might have been the discovery that only a couple of weeks after George Bush took office (and a full seven months before 9/11) he was already ordering warrantless searches of people's telephone records, it's possible that it was the fact that the top economics experts are now predicting a crash bigger than the Great Depression, or maybe it was the knowledge that although everyone is perfectly aware that people are destroying the world's climate stability, and with it the basis for civilization itself, no one cares enough to actually DO anything about it.

Perhaps it was just the overwhelming volume of it all, but I've decided that being a bear in a human world just isn't working. I've tried and tried to make sense out of the human race, but nothing can explain the inhumanity I see all around me. So I'm going back to the woods and hibernate for the winter. It might be that when springtime comes and there's a fresh crop of honey in the trees, I'll feel better. But for now, I don't think there's any hope that mankind will grow up enough to stop its headlong rush into oblivion. I don't know if the world will be better off without people, but I do know that it can do a much better job of taking care of itself without them.

After all, I'm only a little bear and even I know you could have done better....

Bullied and cowed...

Ghandi showed the power of peaceful protest when combined with world opinion. By being willing to sacrifice their bodies, and sometimes their lives, Indians shamed the British into turning the government over to the local population. It didn't happen overnight, and it took a lot of people willing to stand up for their beliefs, but it happened. Unfortunately, peaceful protest doesn't always work. The slaughter in Myanmar is highlighting what happens when the government doesn't care what the world thinks. I heard a CNN news reader tonight state that the first thing a dictator does in the face of opposition is to remove hope.

That got me to thinking of our own government, and how it is that in spite of polls showing that over 70 % of the general population wants a change in the direction of the Iraq war, nothing is being done. On top of that, it seems to be a foregone conclusion that the President will invade Iran before leaving office, even though most of the voters don't want this to happen. Why do we allow this? Because we've given up hope.

Just how long are we going to let this group of thugs bully us? Is this the shining example of democracy that we hold as a beacon to the world? What's it going to take to wake you up? Do you actually just not care anymore? We might as well forget democracy if we're going to let the government do whatever it wants.

For goodness sake, I'm only a little bear and even I know we can do better....

Dear Mr. President

Why is it that the people too cowardly to fight are always the first ones to sound the drumbeat of war?

I love logic, part two...

Public opinion seems inordinately swayed by the results of polls. Unfortunately, even the best polls are flawed, and most polls simply reflect the views of the person requesting the poll. All it takes is the right question to get the answer you want to hear. For example: Do you believe that convicted murderers should be allowed to go free on a technicality? Most of us would say no to that. But imagine this senerio: you have been wrongly convicted of a crime, and after sentencing, the real criminal is caught and confesses. DNA evidence supports their story. Should you be set free?

This is a real issue because a court case cannot be reviewed by an appelate court except for technical issues. Even if new evidence comes up, such as DNA or someone else admitting to the crime, the case can't be applealed unless a technical fault can be found in the original trial. Yes, Virginia, in our country, innocence is a technicality.

So the next time you find yourself nodding in agreement to the latest poll numbers, remember: you're listening to them because they're telling you what you wanted to hear in the first place. Stop listening to only one side and stop taking other people's word for stuff. Look up the facts; check it out yourself. At least ask youself: how much can I trust these numbers to be accurate? THINK, for goodness sake.

Come on, folks - I'm only a little bear and even I know we can do better....

Maybe the Egyptians were right...

Maybe God is a dog after all. Why not? A little dyslexia would explain the spelling. Let's look at this logically:

God controlls nature. Nature abhors a vacumn. My dog hates vacumns. Therefore, my Dog is God.

I just love logic...

There are three types of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics....

Or at least that's what 67.125% of the public thinks...

What gives?

After taking the summer off (since there was nothing on TV anyway), I'm back. I'm gearing up for the new fall season, and I don't like what I see: everywhere the Republicans are trying to get their faces plastered all over the screen, interrupting my mindless viewing pleasure. For example...

One of the most dependable hallmarks of the Rove White House has been that bad news is always, underline ALWAYS, released late on Friday afternoon so that it gets reported during the weekend, and hopefully lost in the news shuffle. But Rove and Gonzales both announced their "retirements" on a Monday morning. This guarantees peak coverage. Now with Rove, I can actually understand it - his ego would want peak coverage. But the Gonzales announcement doesn't make sense. Some folks have hinted that it was set to be announced opposite the Michael Vick plea, but I'm not buying it. If that was the case, the announcement would have come at the same time as Vick's announcement, and it didn't - it came earlier. Again, that guarantees peak coverage.

Can it be that after Rove announced he was leaving, that he actually stopped giving advice? Was there something else happening that the announcements were supposed to draw attention away from? I'm stumped - what's your idea?