Fair Reporting is a Hostile Act?

Hearings began today in North Korea for the two American journalists accused of entering the country illegally to engage in “hostile acts.” It was on March 17 that Laura Ling and Euna Lee, Current TV reporters, were arrested somewhere near the North Korea-China border. You can read more about the story HERE, but I just need to throw in my three cents on the situation. I’m going to assume that the government of North Korea is not familiar with the programming on Current TV, which can be accessed on their website as well as on cable. Personally, I am a big fan of Current TV. I enjoy this media outlet because they report on a wide variety of topics from all over the world, and they tend to do so in an objective manner without the political or corporate bias that has tainted much of our traditional media. Current TV is a lot of things, but one thing it is not is “hostile.” If anything, their reports usually promote tolerance and understanding of differing views; anyone familiar with their programming would most likely agree. Despite this, Ling and Lee are being detained and will probably be used by North Korea as negotiating pawns (“Leave us and our missiles alone or we’ll throw your reporters in a labor camp” – you know, something like that). I’m not judging North Korea’s policies or their creative definition of the word “hostile,” I’m just saying it’s bullshit and I hope Ling and Lee are allowed to come home safely soon.

* UPDATE – 6-8-09:  They were sentenced today to 12 years of “reform by labor.”  Sometimes I hate to say I told you so.  Now the negotiations can begin…

Green: the saga continues…

I haven’t posted here in a while, mostly because I’ve been busy making and promoting a new album.  I am a writer and a musician but only one man, so my time gets divided between projects.  The last blog that I posted was about going green, still a hot issue since very little progress has been made.  To kill two birds with one stone, I decided that I would stay on the subject and plug my album at the same time.  Somebody’s got to do it, and this is my blog.  So, here are some of the lyrics to my song “Green,” which is relevant to the topics I often bring up in this blog.  Enjoy.

Fake tree hugging – nothing short of money grubbing.
It’s their wallets, not the earth, that they’re loving.
Half of them are more fake than a tanned Caucasian,
And the other half are getting squashed by corporations.
Supposedly, we’re pushing for cleaner energy,
But the biggest profits still go to oil companies.
Political ties keep Washington paid,
But they still want a bigger cut of what you made.
And the system of bullshit pulling these stunts
Wants to call you a criminal for smoking a blunt.
While they weave a web of lies and send troops out to die,
They want to incarcerate people just for getting high.

You want green jobs? Then legalize pot.
It could be another regulated, taxable crop.
Instead of filling jails and prisons with minor offenders,
Stimulate the economy – that’s got to be better.
All the money they waste, locking cell block doors,
And they still want more for their fucking drug wars.
Invading nations, building torture prisons,
And we got the nerve to accuse them of terrorism?
On the home front, it’s a different fight:
With all these debates, we can’t seem to unite.
Do we save the earth or the American dream?
We choose our actions through different shades of green.

From the album Be Middle Class or Die Trying by D-O-E (my artist name): more info @ sykophunk.com

Green is the New Everything

I’m not normally one to jump on a bandwagon, but I do support the idea that our future must be “green.” There really is no other option. And in order to have a green future, everyone (I repeat, everyone) needs to jump on this bandwagon right now. The human race has done immense damage to the planet and its environment; few would dispute that. Even if you don’t agree with the vast majority of scientists around the world that climate change is real and greatly affected by people, you have to admit that cleaner energy is better. Pollutants are harmful by definition and therefore should be regulated for the benefit of the planet and its inhabitants. There should be no argument here. You want a practical, financially sound reason to go green? Fine. How about the two million jobs that can be created from the funding of green projects as part of the economic stimulus plan just approved by the House? See, going green is even good for the economy and can help to fight against our increasing unemployment rates. President Obama has already spoken on his intentions of helping the green movement move forward. Let’s encourage him to stay on the path. Send him a letter expressing your concerns. Since the population shows no signs of shrinking any time soon, it is imperative that we all get involved in the push for clean and renewable energy. The kind of energy that doesn’t poison the environment and start wars. The kind of energy that is helpful rather than harmful.

White Christmas

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas… and it’s a nightmare. In my dreams, I find myself living out the memories of my ancestors. The pale-faced Europeans, equally intrigued by and afraid of the so-called “barbaric” pagan tribes, their brothers. A fearful respect so powerful that they drove the tribes away, slaughtered many of them, stole their holidays, reduced their gods to one, and gave faith a mortal name. The same light-skinned people that burned their own sisters, wives, and mothers at the stake while proclaiming freedom of religion. The same blue-eyed devils that decided all men were created equal and then put into place a social system designed to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. A system that gradually commercialized those stolen holidays, stripping them of their spiritual significance, in the name of profit for the already wealthy. A system saturated in greed, monitored by a false sense of security, destined for an inevitable collapse.

Awaken me from this dream! Let it snow for days, let it be one of those Hollywood blizzards. Let it snow, let it snow, not no. Mine is not a white Christmas. My Christmas is transparent, one in which we can see through the history of contradictions, corruption, and commercialization. A Christmas in which we are actually sincere about the sentiments through which the holidays are marketed. Peace on Earth and good will towards all men, women, and children. Or, in more realistic, modern terms: follow your heart, treat each other with kindness, and fuck the system.

Level the Playing Field

Our current financial crisis has not put me in a panic. I am not afraid of the possibility of an upcoming economic depression. This is probably partly due to my cynicism of what the media tells me, and partly due to my supposed social status; I am far from the top bracket of income receivers greatly affected by stock crashes and market failures. But there is another reason that all of this economic distaster talk doesn’t bother me: I believe that a recession will be good for the United States. It will put everyone on a level playing field.

Sure, it sucks that many working class families will have a harder time making ends meet in the coming years. But we were already struggling, and the struggle has been getting more difficult for decades, long before the government admitted that it was mishandling our money. It’s no secret that the gap between the rich and poor has been expanding. In our current age in which information travels at the speed of light, we learn about the follies of our corporate masters more quickly. But we always knew it was happening. The 9-11 attacks gave our government the “right” to wage war in the Middle East, which was the pre-cursor to the economic armaggedon we’re facing now. Some conspiracy theories are just healthy paranoia, but many are based out of true accounts that we are now seeing the repercussions of.

There is hope on the horizon for our suddenly fragile capitalist society of free marketing. That is, hope for the rich to stay rich. Notice how quickly they came up with the billions of dollars needed to begin correcting the errors of their ways. We’re still fighting for proper health care and better schools – the government can’t afford to help us there (even though we pay them for those things), but when it comes to war and Wall Street the money just seems to magically appear.

They can’t lie to us anymore, for we are now seeing the truth manifesting itself. The money is there. It always has been. It was there less than a month after the collapse of the World Trade Center to begin the vendetta (I mean, the war on terrorism). It’s there now to let our government start buying up failing banks in a pathetic attempt to cover up their own mistakes. The money was there when you couldn’t get out of your shitty neighborhood because you couldn’t go to college. That time you were out of work for six months because of that unexpected car accident. They could have helped you out, but they didn’t. They were too busy spending money on monumental failures.

Redistribution of wealth is socialism, huh? Well let’s change our name then. I think the top dogs of our corporate and political sectors have proven that they are inadequate, at best, to handle money. The moral of the current financial crisis is that the people who contributed the least to the problem, the working poor, are the ones least affected by it. It sucks for everyone, certainly, but we were already poor. We already know how to survive on a limited budget. While the former elites are writhing in agony at the loss of their iPods and Starbucks visits, we’ll be hustling and grinding like we always do. So that money that you say you don’t have – give it back to the people who actually appreciate the value of what they have when they get it.

Consumed by Consumerism

I know, you love your stuff.  Your new clothes and fresh pair of sneakers.  Your laptop, iPod, and cell phone with wireless headset.  Your three lattes a day.  Whatever, you’re just enjoying life’s little luxeries like everyone else, right?  It’s normal for our society; we’re consumers.  You probably rarely even give it a thought.  Maybe that’s the problem.
The consumer mentality is harming our way of life and our planet in so many ways.  The manufacturing of toxic and disposable plastic products poisons the environment and uses up a massive amount of natural resources.  Most of these products quickly become “obsolete,” so say the fashion and/or technology gods, and are improperly disposed of rather than recycled.  So the big corporations got you constantly buying new things, generating money for them and trash for the planet.  This also generates more debt for you, just what you need in an increasingly failing economy.
This is just the tip of the ice berg.  The problem is huge, the whole system is screwed.  But there are numerous small things we all can do.  Start by watching The Story of Stuff, a very interesting and informative video about the entire process from the production to disposal of your stuff.  Also, read this fact-filled article about consumption and consumerism.  And invest in Tivo or DVR.  I’m serious.  I couldn’t possibly suggest that Americans stop watching television, but if you can fast forward through the commercials then you won’t be tempted to buy a bunch of crap destined for obsolescence that you didn’t need in the first place.

Roll Back on Corporate Manipulation

First the news was that Wal-Mart was holding meetings with its store managers and supervisors to basically persuade them not to vote Democratic. Wal-Mart fears possible federal laws changes that would make it easier for employees to unionize the companies they work for. Today in the news, McCain took the lead over Obama in the polls for the first time. Now, I’m not suggesting that Wal-Mart is solely responsible for this shift, but I think it does display a dangerous potential for large corporations to unfairly influence the political opinion of its employees for their own profit or benefit. And in this country, we have a little thing called the Federal Election Campaign Act which prohibits such actions.

If you work for Wal-Mart, stand your ground. Go to the meetings, nod and say yes, but do not let them choose your presidential pick. This is an important election that needs to reflect the best interest of the American people, perhaps more so than ever in the past. We don’t need another botched election – we will decide for ourselves this time. Let’s not allow corporate America to shadow the hard working people that they depend upon. Remember, companies like Wal-Mart would be nothing without people like you, and that gives you the power in situations like this.

By the way, unions wouldn’t be a bad idea for Wal-Mart, considering their history of poor working conditions. Visit wakeupwalmart.com for more information on these issues as well as some ways you can speak your mind and fight back.

Dependence Day

Wake up, have a cigarette and a coffee, take your medication, spend almost $5.00 a gallon on gas, go to work, come home and watch television, have a beer.  And then you realize that it’s Independence Day.  You should celebrate… if only you weren’t so dependent on your lifestyle.  But if you think about it, the whole holiday is already ruined.  How can we celebrate independence when our government insists on leeching off of foreign oil and continues to dig deeper into debt with other nations?  How can we celebrate freedom when we’re forced into a life of servitude in a capitalist culture with a failing economy?  The oil and drug companies work with our government and media to ensure that we are dependent upon them.  It’s a vicious cycle, though, as they are dependent upon us to continue to live as we do so that they can profit off of us.  Most people seem content with that – they’re lighting off fireworks outside as I type this, dependent upon tradition and consumer habits, slaves to the system.  I guess it sort of makes sense: our nation was founded upon double standards (slave owners who wanted to be free, killing people off to build communities, burning witches while proclaiming freedom of religion).  I’m an American, give me a firecracker.

This Week in Bullshit

Here’s the thanks our troops get for looking death in the face for their country and government: Despite the fact that an estimated 40,000 of our currently active troops have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in addition to an estimated 150,000 past combat veterans, Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake says the concern over this condition has been “overblown.”  He basically implies that going to war is about as stressful as playing football.  I’m sure all of our veterans are relieved that such a knowledgable medical expert was appointed to this position.

In other astonishing-yet-strangely-not-surprising news, the Bush administration released a climate change assessment report on Thursday.  The verdict: global warming is real and some of it’s our own fault.  Wow, those guys are so smart!  This even in the shadow of a crazy NASA cover up conspiracy.  For the record, Bush owed us this report four years ago according to the Global Change Research Act, but four years ago he thought global warming was about as real as evolution.

In a recent press release, GE (the third largest corporation in the world) actually admitted that CO2 is a possible contributing factor to climate change – those guys are so smart too!  By the way, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told Forbes magazine in 2005 that the company’s “Ecomagination” campaign is little more than a sales pitch. “It’s primarily that,” Immelt said. “In its essence it’s a way to sell more products and services.”  I know, so shocking.  This is the company that dumped 100,000+ tons of chemicals into the Housatonic and Hudson Rivers since 1947 and is the fourth-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, releasing more than 4 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air every year.  To find out they’re not really as “green” as their advertisements claim… scandelous!

For more on these stupendously bullshit-ridden stories and others, click HERE.

Decline of the Oil Age

Human history is organized by chunks of time named after the resources people used to advance their civilizations (stone age, bronze age, etc.)  By that standard, we currently live in the oil age.  This age may be coming to an end sooner than we think; the changes have already begun.

Whether you believe that the Peak Oil theory is just a description of natural market fluctuation or a sign of the coming apocalypse, the fact remains that oil is a non-renewable resource.  Fossil fuels such as oil take millions of years to be created.  According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA),  “Worldwide, the rate of [oil] reserve additions from discoveries has fallen sharply since the 1960s. In the last decade, discoveries have replaced only half the oil produced. Nowhere has the fall in oil discoveries been more dramatic than in the Middle East, where they plunged from 187 billion barrels in 1963–1972, to 16 billion barrels during the decade ending in 2002.  The EIA also predicts that world oil consumption will increase by 1.5 million barrels per day in 2008, leading total consumption to hit around 87 million barrels per day.

Basically what’s happening is a growing global population with an increase of demand for a product that is limited in supply.  This is simple economics; it doesn’t work.  And our entire economy relies on oil, including the way we produce, process, and distribute our food.  So if our oil situation is all screwed up, what’s that foretell about our future food situation?

For extensive & interesting information about the peak oil theory and the expected consequences & possible solutions to this dire situation, check out Life After the Oil Crash.