hippie ET arboreal ecotopia being looted by the rapacious, militaristic colonialism of a starving Earth from "The Word for World is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1972):
Several centuries in the future, humans from Earth have established a logging colony and military base named "New Tahiti" on Athshe, a tree-covered planet whose small, green-furred, big-eyed inhabitants have formed a culture centered on lucid dreaming. Terran greed spirals around native innocence and wisdom, turning the ancient society upside down.
Blend in two parts human beings pantropically (c'mon, you know you love it when I spark up an exotic word fattie and pass it 'round) altered to adapt to an alien environment, only to discover that they love it so much they wanna have its babies, from a story called "Desertion" by Clifford Simak (1944)
In this story, human colonists living in a domed city on the planet Jupiter are put thru a biological converter that converts their bodies into the form of the indigenous Jovian lifeform called the "Lopers". The head director of the domed colony, Kent Fowler, wondering why none of those biologically converted ever come back...
Now add a zillion dollars in special effects, subtract 90 IQ points, and you apparently have "Avatar".
At least this is exactly what occurred to me the minute I saw the movie trailers months ago, which is why I have been in no hurry to blow the price of a decent bottle of scotch on going to see it, and why (other than the fact that "The Book of Eli" sure looks to these tired eyes a whole lot like a radically dumbed-down version of "The Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler [1993], with the protagonist's gender and theology swapped 180 degrees) nothing I gleaned from Susie Bright's delicious multi-movie review:
... I can't remember how long it's been since I was THIS offended by a movie. I wasn't laughing this time! I was yelling at the screen and threatening to leave, only kept in my seat by plotting the scathing review I would write later.
Here's Cameron's plot, which he says he's been dreaming of since childhood:
A seriously patriarchal, "woo-woo" society— who display uncommon physical talents while having a ridiculously child-like view of the world— live in a beautiful forest.
Ugh!
The women are in charge of "being really spiritual." Even though they ride and fight as well as men, they look up to the Big Guys when they get "upset." Daddy knows best!
The reviews that call this place a "lost paradise" have GOT TO BE KIDDING me. At any moment I thought the Blue Girl was going to burst out into a chorus of "I Will Fetch the Water" from Disney's Jungle Book.
CutiePie, the heroine who speaks like Suzie Wong, has a minuscule waist. Her perfect breasts were decorously covered— yeah right, the Blue People are natural prudes and anorexics. (By the way, they are not nearly as adorable and sexy as the centaurs in Fantasia).
Meanwhile, these babes in the woods are about to have their shit blown all to hell by the Facist Insect We Know So Well as "Team America." ...
makes me likely to change my movie viewing plans any time in the near future.
So if I want a mind-altering, immersive science fiction experience, I'll re-read "Faith of our Fathers" in the tub, sipping three fingers of Oban and meditating on how a life-long appetite for good, cheap science fiction and good, cheap cinema has completely -- nay, pantropically -- ruined my palate for early 21st Century big budget blunt-force-trauma Veldt-o-vision feelies.
Meanwhile, this has been another episode of:
"Which of his betters is Cameron ripping off
'homaging' the hell out of with their pants on this time?"
Tomorrow, the former President who was impeached and shouldn't have been and the former President who wasn't impeached and should have been will be on virtually every channel asking you for money for Haiti.
Good on them.
I appreciate them coming together to do this. We are still a Great Power that can cast longer shadows or throw brighter light further than any other nation, and whose leaders -- current and former -- can tangibly affect world events, for good and for ill. However I personally do not require the aid of former elected officials to help me pray, or to focus my meditations on the fragility of life, or the capriciousness of nature. Right now all I need is a way to point my checkbook to the right web page or 800 number, and since this Huffington Post list of aid and service organizations is only a click away:
...
Huffington Post Impact has put together a comprehensive list of links to donate and get involved in relief efforts for victims of Tuesday's devastating earthquake. You can also go to The Goods: Help Send Relief To Haiti, an online store by Causecast and HuffPost Impact, where you can purchase products for organizations that will be directly used on the ground in Haiti.
The U.S. State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747
NOTE: We will continually be updating this page. The best way for you to help right now is to give through one of the organizations below.
•The American Red Cross is pledging an initial $200,000 to assist communities impacted by this earthquake. They expect to provide immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support. They are accepting donations through their International Response Fund.
•UNICEF has issued a statement that "Children are always the most vulnerable population in any natural disaster, and UNICEF is there for them." UNICEF requests donations for relief for children in Haiti via their Haiti Earthquake Fund. You can also call 1-800-4UNICEF.
•Operation USA is appealing for donations of funds from the public and corporate donations in bulk of health care materials, water purification supplies and food supplements which it will ship to the region from its base in the Port of Los Angeles. Donate online at www.opusa.org, by phone at 1-800-678-7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave, Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232.
•Save The Children has launched an emergency relief effort for Haiti. Donate to their fund to provide medical attention and clean water to children and families.
•International Medical Corps is assembling a team of first responders and resources to provide lifesaving medical care and other emergency services to survivors of the earthquake. The IMC previously helped recovery efforts after September 2009's earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, and the massive 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Donate to the International Medical Corps through their 24-hour hotline at 800-481-4462
•Ben Stiller's Stillerstrong campaign will be temporarily diverting all donations to support the Haiti relief effort.
•Partners In Health reports its Port-au-Prince clinical director , Louise Ivers, has appealed for assistance: "Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS... Temporary field hospital by us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us." Donate to their Haiti earthquake fund.
•As a UN Special Envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton appeared on CNN on Wednesday to ask for further assistance in bringing relief to populations on the ground. You can donate through the Clinton Foundation or text HAITI to 20222 to donate $10.
•Mercy Corps is sending a team of emergency responders to assess damage, and seek to fulfill immediate needs of quake survivors. The agency aided families after earthquakes in Peru in 2007, China and Pakistan in 2008, and Indonesia last year. Donate online, call 1-888-256-1900 or send checks to Mercy Corps Haiti Earthquake Fund; Dept NR; PO Box 2669; Portland, OR 97208.
•Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres is now asking donors to give to their general unrestricted fund, to ensure that any surplus donations they receive can be put to good use anywhere in the world. Below is a statement from the organization:
We are incredibly grateful for the generous support from our donors for the emergency in Haiti. MSF has been working in Haiti for 19 years, most recently operating three emergency hospitals in Port-au-Prince, and is mobilizing a large emergency response to this disaster. Our immediate response in the first hours following the disaster in Haiti was only possible because of private unrestricted donations from around the world received before the earthquake struck. We are currently reinforcing our teams on the ground in order to respond to the immediate medical needs and to assess the humanitarian needs that MSF will be addressing in the months ahead. We are now asking our donors to give to our Emergency Relief Fund. These types of funds ensure that our medical teams can react to the Haiti emergency and humanitarian crises all over the world, particularly neglected crises that remain outside the media spotlight. Your gift via this website will be earmarked for our Emergency Relief Fund.
•Direct Relief is committing up to $1 million in aid for the response and is coordinating with its other in-country partners and colleague organizations. Their partners in Haiti include Partners in Health, St. Damien Children's Hospital, and the Visitation Hospital, which are particularly active in emergency response. Donate to Direct Relief online.
•Oxfam is rushing in teams from around the region to respond to the situation to provide clean water, shelter, sanitation and help people recover. Donate to Oxfam America online.
•The UN World Food Programme is gathering all available resources to deliver food to the recently homeless and impoverished in Haiti. Donate now to help bring food to those affected as quickly and efficiently as possible.
•The Baptist Haiti Mission is operating an 82-bed hospital that is "overflowing with injured." Donate online to BHM and 100% of your donation will go to the relief effort.
•International Medical Corps is assembling a team of first responders and resources to provide lifesaving medical care and other emergency services to survivors of the earthquake. Donate online.
•Following the earthquake, Catholic Relief Services made an immediate commitment of $5 million for emergency supplies. They are distributing food and relief supplies, and importing plastic sheeting, mosquito nets and water purification tablets from the Domincan Republic. Donate to Catholic Relief Services to assist in these efforts.
•CARE is deploying emergency team members to Port-au-Prince to assist in recovery efforts. They're focusing their efforts on the health of children, distributing water sanitation tablets, food, hygiene kits and emergency healthcare. Donate to CARE.
•Make your donation count double through Razoo.com. The online fundraising site has offered to match all donations made to organizations, up to a pre-set, un-posted amount.
•Orphans International America reports that they have been able to make contact with their program director in the town of Jacmel, a city about 20 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince that houses OI's hospitals and schools. Orphans International America is attempting to gather food, clean water and emergency medical supplies to Jacmel. You can contribute to them through PayPal.
•The International Rescue Committee is deploying an emergency response team to Haiti to deliver urgent assistance to earthquake survivors and to help overwhelmed local aid groups struggling to meet the immense emergency needs. They will focus on critical medical, water and sanitation assistance. Donate to the IRC Haiti Crisis Fund.
•NetHope is coordinating its response with its NGO member agencies and with the UN's Emergency Telecom Cluster to establish connectivity in Haiti. Seventeen of NetHope's members are already providing aid and deploying resources on the ground. Donate online.
•World Vision has more 370 staff in the country. Staff members from less-affected regions of Haiti are mobilizing, and World Vision's global experts are expected to arrive in the disaster zone as soon as possible. Donate to World Vision.
•Friends of the Orphans will use donations to meet the needs of first responders such as first aid supplies, shipping of necessary materials to assist in efforts, and treating the injured. Those interested in helping the relief effort can visit www.friendsoftheorphans.org, or call 888-201-8880 to make a donation.
•World Concern's staff is almost entirely composed of Haitian nationals and will be tapping into private as well as U.S. government supplies to help in the relief effort it hopes will soon be supplemented by cargo ships. Donate to World Concern.
•Merlin USA is sending an emergency response team out to the region and have subsequently launched an emergency appeal to bring urgent medical aid and assistance to those affected. Donate to Merlin USA.
•The Salvation Army has staff on the ground and already the organization has set aside $50,000 in direct aid to the country but the organization is in need of additional donations. Donations can be made online or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY.
•AmeriCares has pledged $5 million in aid in the wake of the catastrophe and is sending an emergency shipment with $3 million worth of medicines and supplies for earthquake survivors. Donate online or call 1-800-486-HELP.
•Handicap International will provide care to those injured by the earthquake and its aftershocks, including support to hospitals for essential post-surgery and rehabilitation care, as well as emergency shelter, emergency basic needs and food distribution for at least 5,000 people initially. Donate online.
•Episcopal Relief & Development has committed to providing Haiti both long and short-term support in the wake of the disaster. Donate to the Haiti Fund or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.
Also tomorrow, Republicans Mitch McConnell will be on Fox News right after the former Presidents to explain, presumably, how evil Liberals are, and possibly to propose that what Haitians really need are more tax-cuts and fewer unions.
And if you think I'm kidding, just remember that, as Iraq was going up in flames, the Cheney Administration's All Purpose Neocon Playbooks solutions were:
1. Let the country be looted.
2. Disband the Iraqi military and turn hundreds of thousands of suddenly unemployed, armed men loose into the chaos.
Flat tax system imposed on Iraq U.S. administrator orders 15% rate By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus The Washington Post updated 1:48 p.m. CT, Sat., Nov . 1, 2003
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 - The flat tax, long a dream of economic conservatives, is finally getting its day — not in the United States, but in Iraq. It took L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Baghdad, no more than a stroke of the pen Sept. 15 to accomplish what eluded the likes of publisher Steve Forbes, former representative Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), former senator Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) and former representative Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) over the course of a decade and two presidential campaigns.
... “It’s extremely good news,” said Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and a Bush administration ally. Bremer’s vaguely worded edict leaves open the possibility that Iraqis could face different levels of taxation below 15 percent, but “they told me it’s a flat rate and it appears as though it’s a flat rate,” Norquist said. The tax fighter added: “It might be a hint to the rest of us.” ...
Because there is no catastrophe so great or failure so bloody that Conservative Christianists won't see the Invisible Hand of Avenging Republican Jesus in it, and that Conservative Disaster Capitalists won't exploit for personal profit and to advance their global feudal social engineering projects.
Then again, Haiti has no oil to steal, or plum reconstruction contracts to plunder to enrich Dick Cheney's cronies, so maybe not.
Elsewhere, several people will ...sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the death of kings giddily panty-sniff a certain 2008 campaign burn book
Taking advantage of recent breakthroughs in wireless technology which allow "people" to talk into "microphones" and be heard through the "air", the inimitable Blue Gal and I have decided to try and get liberal ideas scorned and ignored in an entirely different venue.
This is our very first effort, glitches and all (for example, the podcast timer reads 43 minutes, while the actual run-time is just over 23) and there are still lots of details to work out (Where do the Cheetohs go while we're "broadcasting"? Which twin has the Toni? Who is Kaiser Sose?) but we're going to try to make this a regularly scheduled offering.
Now where is that kid with my latte!!
UPDATE: Welcome DKos Readers. Give us a listen and let us know what you think.
– Chuck Todd: “Rush Limbaugh I think lives in South Florida. … Very large Haitian community in South Florida. You would assume he’d have a little more compassion about all of this.”
– Joe Scarborough: “The insensitivity is stunning, the words are deplorable. … [It's] indefensible.”
– Pat Buchanan: “They’re deeply insensitive, no doubt about it. I think the President of the U.S. speaks for the country when he stands up there. … I think Rush’s comments were cynical.”
... The man who race-baits on a regular basis responds to a woman caller by telling her she has tampons in her ears. Now remember that Limbaugh is one of the de facto leaders of Roger Ailes' Republican party. An enthusiastic supporter of torture and of the abuse and murder of innocent prisoners at Abu Ghraib, he is nonetheless worshiped by a theocon like Kathryn Jean Lopez. ...
-- when a long-time Conservative stalwart like Rush Limbaugh sets up a shop in the middle of a global tragedy to picnic on the misery and horror of the dead, the dying, the maimed and the dispossessed?
How dare anyone pretend that any of this is new. How fucking dare anyone pretend that any of this is surprising.
Long ago Conservatism dropped even the most vestigial pretext of being anything other than a race to the bottom of a sewer that has has no bottom, and for over 20 years Rush Limbaugh has been the pace car in that race. He has never been anything other than a perfectly constant bigot, a reliable liar, a relentless fear-monger and generally a giant, moral dumpster fire that has been the illuminating beacon of the entire Conservative movement.
Rush's vision of Heaven is heaps of suffering and dying brown people stretching off in every direction as far as the eye can see.
Rush's vision of his place in that Heaven is sitting on top of a mountain of gold, smirking, as Republican politicians lick his ass and 30 million Pig People applaud his every utterance.
Rush lives every day in that Heaven, which is why his vision of Hell is someone, somewhere daring to lift a compassionate finger to stop it.
Conservatism is a disease that comes in only four, mix-and-match flavors: moral cowardice, outright depravity, self-righteous ignorance, and opportunistic parasitism.
America is a land where Conservatives like Limbaugh get rich selling hate to imbeciles, and where teevee clowns renew their Serious Media credentials by feigning shock over it once a year.
And as long as this remains the American status quo, we're screwed.
Just as Rudy Giuliani simply asserts that there were no terror attacks on the US under Bush, so Peggy Noonan gives us this view of Obama's first year. She argues that the only focus of Obama's attention was the health insurance reform bill which she says proves he is a leftist president, not a center-left president:
It was not worth it—not worth the town-hall uprisings and the bleeding of centrist support, not worth the rebranding of the president from center-left leader to leftist leader, not worth the proof it provided that the public's concerns and the administration's are not the same, not worth a wasted first year that should have been given to two things and two things only: economic matters and national security.... [Obama] had frittered his attention on issues that were secondary and tertiary—climate change, health care—while al Qaeda moved, and the system stuttered.
So Obama put health insurance reform before the economy and national security. She writes this in a newspaper. She states this as fact. But it is not fact. It is patently false in every single respect.
The following is indisputable. Obama's first act was increasing national security by ending the torture program, and pledging to remove the biggest recruitment tool for our enemies: Gitmo. His second focus was a stimulus package, which, according to AEI, added four points to economic growth. His third focus - how soon they forget - was on rescuing the banks. Before health insurance reform passed, he initiated and completed and implemented a total overhaul of the Afghanistan war. He maintained rendition and the Bush time-table for Iraq withdrawal. He tried (and failed) to restart the Israel peace-process but was stymied by Netanyahu. His policy toward Iran has seen the regime more vulnerable than at any point in its history. His success at finding and killing many Qaeda operatives, his dispatch of Somali pirates, his intense focus on drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan: these are also simply facts of history.
And the health insurance reform has no public option, pledges to cut Medicare, and will reduce the deficit, according to the CBO. It brought 30 million new clients for the private drug and insurance companies. This is leftist.
Noonan's column is a fantasy, a dream, a weird incantation of a thesis that is merely how she feels, without any substantive relati0nship to reality. Well, at least she understand that the GOP is offering nothing - nothing - substantive as an alternative except oil drilling and torture and more bellicose rhetoric toward the rest of the world because that worked out so well under Bush. ...
(Of couse, flensed all its fancy-dan alibi-words, what Mr. Sullivan is really talking about is that single, one-syllable Anglo-Saxon word that so many in the media have such trouble using. "Lie". Sully is deriding Conservatives who lie by dancing frantically on the heads of forests of linguistic pins to justify the unjustifiable and excuse the inexcusable.)
I do not favor firing some random person. I favor firing those who failed to see the clear data in front of them and take appropriate action. Blaming the system if it fails while exonerating those who enabled and didn't challenge the system even when something this obvious, this well-flagged and this dangerous comes on the radar is a cop-out.
And you end up with this clear statement of principles which admits no other interpretation: that virtually every conservative and pusillanimous Villager/centrist journalist and pundit who has been presented with the brutal, ugly facts about Conservatism and has chosen to lie, obfuscate, or otherwise deliberately fan-dance around those facts (and in the process get almost everything spectacularly wrong) for the last 20 years should be be fired.
I could not agree more, and so, on on behalf of Liberals everywhere, I await word of his honorable resignation from "The Atlantic" as a trail-blazing demonstration of his willingness to lead by example and back up all of his clever words with a single, substantive deed.
