Gyroscope

Kevin at the Washington Monthly's Political Animal is wondering why conservatives are deniers of global warming. Indeed, he notes, it seems as if denial is making a comeback.

What is interesting is WHY this has become a signature issue for the tinfoil brigade. They could easily take the view that global warming means more jobs because there will be different lands to plow and new houses to build on top of wildlife, and so on. Lots of business opportunities in global warming for people who already have money.

My best guess is that it is the same dynamic that leads conservatives to oppose energy efficiency. First, their view of manhood requires that you destroy and plow under and generally "conquer" nature, and both energy efficiency and changes to mitigate warming are imply that you will be listening and responding to the needs of the environment rather than bulldozing it.

Secondly, I think they suspect that concern about global warming is a stalking horse for an anti-capitalist view of the world. Global warming is a concern of people who have, in the past, also been concerned about animal rights, poor people, Palestinians, and the like; people who suggest that you can live happily on less rather than more, more, more and people who are unlikely to become day-traders. These are not people who like capitalism, or at the minimum, not people who worship capitalism. Thus, if THIS crowd supports concern about global warming, the wing nuts have to be against it.

Posted by John Nordin at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global warming – even oil company execs admit it is real, heck, even George Bush admits it. Our dependence on imported oil and refined gasoline – big problem. So, now would be one of those great moments when the inspired leadership of our auto manufacturers could step forward, take the lead and capture the imagination of a nation by embracing, no – proposing new and higher standards of efficiency for cars, SUVs and light trucks. And, of course, the Democratic leadership, eager to signal a change of direction could get on board with it.

No, forget that. The New York Times reports (June 7, page c1) that auto execs have landed in Washington to oppose a proposal to make a 27% improvement in gas mileage over the next 13 years – which works out to about a 2% a year improvement. 2% a year would “gravely damage” the industry. 2%. And this after years of mileage actually going down – so it’s not is if this effort comes after some Herculean effort.

Gosh, I guess the US automakers must have the most incompetent engineering staffs in the entire world – if they haven’t laid them off already. They can’t manage 2% a year improvement.

No wonder the world is eating them for lunch.

Posted by John Nordin at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
-- George Orwell

Posted by John Nordin at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The French philosopher Michel Foucault thought that making sexual expression and behavior more public would make our inner lives more easily subject to control and exploitation by the capitalist consumerist complex.

So writes Ken Johnson in the N Y Times, July 7, 2006, p. B23. (No original source given.)

At last Foucault says something I agree with. More and more, sexual lives are not private, not the domain of the councilor and the priest, but the domain of products and advertising. Of course going back to the 50’s suppression (to say nothing of the particular suppression of women) would not be progress, but it would be nice if we noticed that making sexuality something we treat like we treat a choice of tires for the car means that it is not sacred, and not core to our being.

And as it is removed from sacredness it is removed from having power. To make it a commodity makes it banal.

Of course, all generalizations about sexuality must be qualified. I think we still know remarkably little about how people think of sex – what we have is public discourse about sex which is not the same as actual practice.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The quote below refers to a slightly different context, but it is a remarkable description of Bush and the neo-con view of American Empire.

In 1858 or 59 (sources vary), Abraham Lincoln captured this picture of the person who wants American to expand

[The expansionist] is a great friend of humanity; and his desire for land is not selfish, but merely an impulse to extend the area of freedom. He is very anxious to fight for the liberation of enslaved nations and colonies, provide always, they have land, and have not any liking for his interference. As to those who have no land, and would be glad for help from any quarter, he considers they can afford to wait a few hundred years longer.

Lincoln’s reference to ‘those that have no land’ was clearly invoking the situation of American slaves, but now one thinks of Darfur or any country with land but without oil.

Posted by John Nordin at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I yield to no one in my contempt for G. Bush or regarding the war as counterproductive. Therefore, for that reason, and that I am from Kansas, it is particularly important, I think, that I need to get on the record on this.

The New York Times today has an article about Fred Phelps’ latest twist in his protest. The Topeka, Kansas “preacher” rose to infamy by protesting at funerals of homosexuals, most notably Matthew Shepard, the student beaten to death because he was gay. Phelps and his crew go to funerals and hold up signs and chant that the deceased was now burning in hell for his sin. You want to see more, go to his cheerfully named “God Hates Fags” website.

Now his crew is going to the funerals of SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ and protesting on the theory that their death is caused by God punishing America for not being opposed enough to homosexuality.

You may have to read that twice to get it - I know I had to read the story twice before my brain could register this. As opposed to the war as I am, I’d never do anything at a military funeral other than solemnly pay my respects. Protesting the war by protesting a funeral would be offensive, counterproductive, a sin and rude but would at least follow logic consistent with other human stupidities.

But Fred’s miserable excuse for a “church” stand within sight of the funeral party, at their time of profound grief and vulnerability and hold up signs that say “Thank God for IED’s”, “God Blew Up the Soldier”, or “Thank God for Dead Soldiers”. As he writes on his website: “No one talked about the fact that God was spreading these dead bodies all across the war zone. Let alone did anyone speak of the sinful lifestyle of the deceased. Instead, people puffed out their chests, thumped them long and loud, waved that dishonorable ignoble filthy fag American flag, and screamingly demanded that God bless them.”

This is nonsense on top of offensiveness on top of stupidity. I won’t even spend time pointing out the many ways this is ridiculous because I don’t want to detract from the emphasis on the obscenity, the arrogance, the twisted perversion of religion, the exploitation of free speech and the general stench of this useless idiot.

Fortunately laws are rapidly being prepared to give the same protection to funerals that was rightly given to abortion clinics: people do have some rights to not listen to some particularly offensive words and that can be done with no meaningful restriction on freedom of speech. And a gang of motorcycle riding Vietnam Vets is prepared to show up at funerals and drown out Fred’s chants with that two-stroke snarl. At any other place than a funeral, I tell them to go for it and ask if I and my bike could join the fray.

As a Christian, as an American, as a Kansan, I am offended. I’m offended I can’t come with more extreme words to describe how pissed off I am. Fred has a right to express his opinion. And I have a right to tell him how twisted it is.

Posted by John Nordin at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Father Jon de Cortina of El Salvador passed away last December, aged 71.

I met Father Jon twice. The first time was in the village of San Jose Los Floras in the northern hills of El Salvador. He’d come to celebrate the New Year’s Eve mass. We started outside the church in the darkness, lit only by a few light bulbs and some candles. Using a bullhorn he led a ritual of setting fire to a paper figure of a person representing the death of all the year’s sins. Then we went inside the church for mass. He spoke in his homily of God working for justice - a theme that seemed very real in that village in the middle of a civil war, since for a week we had been listening to stories of government oppression of peasants, of farmers being forced off their land, of children conscripted into government army, of helicopter gunships spraying villages and children dying in the “collateral damage.”

Continue reading "In memory of Father Jon de Cortina" »

Posted by John Nordin at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is the newly revived Gyroscope. It is reappearing as a full-fledged blog. One big improvement from my point of view is the chance for all of you to comment on the entries. Welcome, and I hope you like it.

Posted by John Nordin at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)