to copy and paste your latest update because it's so obvious to any thinking person--which is to say, I now think we need sledgehammers to inform the general public

It's worth noting that, almost invariably, the people who beat the drum for endless, debt-creating wars and a bankruptcy-inducing imperial foreign policy love to parade around as "fiscal conservatives" and "deficit hawks" when it comes to providing actual services to Americans. They support constant war and occupation which burns trillions of dollars and turns us into a debtor nation, and then run around lecturing everyone on the need to restrain spending.

These people. It's difficult enough for me to understand that there are demagogues in this world (and I really mean that; I don't see how a man or woman can sell themselves like that--for what? Some sort of material thing, whatever that might be. I really do not get that) without having to acknowledge that there are "people" who'll gladly slaughter tens of thousands, millions, of their fellow humans.

I really don't get this.

Have I said this before?

Am I being repetitious? (probably)

Forgive me--I think I must be like the Man Who Fell to Earth. (If only I had a voice like Bowie)

not that this fact will come as a shock to anyone.

The only event that would be news is if a group of people drawn from that "community" ever did anything other than endorse more war [and in the few instances where one hears war hesitation from them, it's always on strategic grounds ("we may not be able to achieve our mission") and never on legal, moral or humanitarian grounds ("it's really not morally or legally justified to slaughter enormous numbers of innocent human beings under these circumstances or bomb, invade and occupy a country that isn't attacking us or even able to").

I mean, Christ, this is who we are. I used to say stuff like, "Is this what we've become?" But that's pretty much meaningless now. This is a nation of murdering, torturing, oppressive (and I suppose I could think of a great many more--but won't bore the readers) "people" who, as you say, routinely take it out on the next victim.

I feel such shame to be an American. I really do.

Our history is not one of logical flow from one paradigm to the next, but generally abrupt, sometimes even shattering changes from one thing to the next before we're actually ready to move on.

It's very difficult to get a handle on this. We know, for example, that the Virgin Mary cult drew its initial impulse from the cult of Isis and other (mainly Greek, I'd guess) goddesses.

And of course to this day the Roman Catholic Church celebrates Mary in this way.

So this is a sort of continuity--but, as you note, we (humanity) don't seem to be learning anything from this. This is really bizarre to me. Wouldn't you think there was a mechanism in the human brain that would essentially encourage this language: "You were a child. Now you are an adult. It is time to grow and learn more--and this is a good thing, to learn more."

Huh, a mystery for the ages, I suppose.

Honestly, what the fuck are you people complaining about? You run the show even when you supposedly OUT of power.

How it pains me to agree with you here. Jerks like BRA-whatever are simply maniacs.

You know, I'm reading a book right now titled The Closing of the Western Mind which deals with the suffocation by early Christian fanatics of various modes of learning and the plenitude of avenues of knowledge.

That, in a nutshell, is what Fox"News" and that BRA--whatever creep seek to perpetuate.

I wonder--will we humans ever get beyond this stupidity? I really do not know the answer.

As Glenn Greenwald's been consistently observing, that publication sold its soul long ago (although I don't know if a newspaper can have a soul--but, well, you know).

But I do believe it's important to call out an entity like Fox"News" when they, daily, pull this stuff. If not sites like Salon, who else will do it?

When MSNBC does, people shrug and say, "Well, you know, they're a competitor of Fox," thereby suggesting that Fox is an actual news source rather than some weird, fascistic propaganda outlet.

I'd bet a goodly amount that Orwell himself would be astounded at the very existence of that organization; he'd think someone was pulling his leg.

Pit Viper--enjoyed the acidity of your comment.

that gedicht uses words like tertiary, corollary, and deign, as well as stuff like this--

It was not common knowledge on the Georgetown cocktail circuit that everyone knew where I worked.

Goodness! That Georgetown cocktail circuit! Well, you know, attending such things forgives a multitude of sins, grants the attendee special knowledge, and-generally speaking--gives the participant access to information that is simply unassailable for the likes of us stooges here at GG's blog.

Frankly, I've had similar thoughts when I've been sipping Martinis at various high-falutin' gatherings; things like,

huh, huh, er, um, what do you think the plebeians are doing tonight, Buffy? Perhaps watching, erm, Survivor, or maybe--what else is popular among the cattle?--say, erm, Oh, wait! Aren't the Emmys on tonight? Heh, huh, huh, well, who was it that said, "Let them eat cake"? Duncan Hines, if I remember correctly.

God Bless Betty Crocker's husband.