One is reminded that the Internecine Vampire Wars are in full swing out there in real life, not just in the movies, especially in the political and financial arenas. That all the participants are vampires is a given, that they are all hell-bent on destroying each other while maintaining a facade of cooperation for the cowlike masses is a tad less obvious. An example in point is the McCain/Palin team-up; I am betting that Sen. McCain is kicking himself in his quasi-republican ass just about now for listening to his advisers and picking Gov. Palin as his running mate. The lady is revealing herself, every day in every way, as a political land mine full of dangerous, even deadly, contradictions and extremist, zany zig-zags across the political landscape. It is pointless to repeat any of the many items
cited about her, but it is revelatory to actually inform oneself about exactly who she is (NOT whom she presents herself to be) and what her stances are on various issues. Here are two sites that are quite informative, especially the second for an unbiased look at her POV: 1) Sarah Palin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin , and 2) Issues - http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm . There is also a very thoughtful article by Jay Rosen in the Huffington Post on the "Culture Wars", the GOPs strategy in backing the candidacy of Gov. Palin: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/the-culture-war-option-fo_b_123483.html . Take a look at all three, connect the information to what you may know about John McCain and decide if you really like the idea of this duo ruling the U.S.A. for the next four years. I certainly do not, but then that is already common knowledge if you have read this blog before now. The latest Palin manoeuvre, that of she, her husband and her staff simply deciding to ignore and not cooperate with subpoenas issued in conjunction with the Alaskan political snowstorm of her firing a state trooper (her ex-brother-in-law, by the way) is simply jaw-droppingly incredible. A state governor (governess is not quite right, implying care for children) and candidate for the Vice-Presidency simply ignoring the rule of law - what a concept! Elect this woman to the 2nd highest office in the country? I think not. She is not only staking her party, her running-mate and the rule of law through their hearts, but the voting electorate as well.On the financial vampire front, there is the now-infamous $700 billion dollar bailout that the government wants the people to pay to the largest, most corrupt group of institutions and individuals in the entire world. I heard a
wonderful quote from Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D-Montana : " This is the powerful giving money to the rich." I am perfectly aware that the idea of letting all of these corporate vampires go down in flames (see the video linked to the title bar) is an horrendous idea to the public at large, not because the public has any sympathy for them but because the spectre of worldwide financial chaos and depression looms behind it like an horrible repetition of 1929. On top of which, if letting things crash and sort themselves out, for which I believe the big boys should take responsibility, were to be the outcome, the rich and the super-rich would not really be that affected, they would continue to live in a shimmering sphere of privilege and decadence just as the remaining rich did post-1929. Think of the 1930 nightclub
image and you have the picture exactly - Apple Annie outside the door of the Stork Club, huddled in rags, as the tuxedoed and begowned vampires pass to and fro. Jesus wept, but I sincerely hope that the people will do more than weep, that they will protest and howl to such a degree of fervor that the politicians will have to think twice. I decided to try and reduce that $700 billion figure to a concept that is more understandable - if you spent $1000 dollars an hour, 24 hrs a day, it would take you 79,908.67 years to spend $700B. Eighty thousand years to spend that amount of money - again, what a concept. And they blithely toss out figures in the TRILLIONS for the American national debt. From where do these ideas come, that such sums and figures make sense, that they can be grasped, that they can be PAID? Living on the very last millimeter of the brink of the abyss, people, the very last millimeter.
In a small update to the Zimbabwean financial situation, I see that Zimbabwe (where the vampire Robert Mugabe reigns in becoffined splendor) has replaced the $10 Trillion dollar note (the picture is of a much smaller note, only $10 million) with a $10 note, simply knocking off the zeros. With a rate of inflation of 11.5 Million %, I suppose they do not have much choice - you can only put so many zeros on a banknote before you have no more room. In that same spirit, why doesn't G.W. Bush simply announce that from now on, the USA is going to knock off zeros as well, and the national debt will grow from $7.50 to $14.00 in the immediate future due to his bailout plan? Oh yes, indeed, the insane are waltzing in the marbled 
halls of Washington, D.C. to the strains of "Night on Bald Mountain." In the same diabolical vein, I read this: "KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a U.N.-funded radio station reported Monday." Now, cultural differences aside, does anyone really wonder why the terms "backward" and "ignorant" are used in reference to some African situations? Not that religious snake-handling, polygamist cults and the superstitious awe of money on Rodeo Drive are any better, mind you, it is simply that it seems bizarre to read of witch riots in the Congo and witch burnings in Kenya (yes, still happening), all of which makes one think that there has actually been no progress at all since the Humanist days of the Renaissance. Which, of course, was tossed out the window when the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition and all the rest sprang into malodorous bloom, extinguishing the brief flare of Light in the eternal human darkness.
Spending money is something of a concern for me lately as I am finally having my teeth extracted in preparation for dentures. I am lisping these days like a FOX news anchorperson and, speaking French, it does not help a great deal. I find speaking English to be less lisp-prone than French but that option is very limited here in the DHOSF. To be truthful, our dentist is a highly capable and gentle man and I have experienced no pain during the extractions - but afterwards, when the anaesthetic wears off, well, let me say I am very glad for the pharmacy next door to our apartment building. Once again I shall beat the drum for the French healthcare system (#1 in the world) where, even though I am not a French citizen, I am fully covered because my wife is French, therefore my prescriptions are free and all of this dental care will cost me a mere fraction of what it would cost in the USA. Yes, yes, there are many problems with a socialized state medical system, but when you are paying the bills, you are indeed very glad that it is there. On the subject of personal health, I recently recovered from something very 
odd - fat feet. For whatever reason, my feet had swollen with oedema until they resembled Alsatian sausages. As I stated in a previous blog, Fang Wong, our upstairs neighbor, concocted a homeopathic remedy, hamamelis composé, an extract of witch hazel, to help with the problem which it did, to a certain degree, but not entirely. I suspected it was an onset of that peculiar Tudoresque condition of gout, but there was no pain. Then, when the extractions began, the condition entirely disappeared overnight, leaving me to bemused meditation on the connection between decaying and genetically insufficient teeth and podiatric health. I suppose that the connection is in the same vein (horrible pun) as the connection between earlobes and other bodily parts and in general the art of acupuncture. I tried 
a course of acupuncture once at a Chinese clinic in the USA and was quite dubious about its efficacy when the diagnosis of my general state of health was conducted entirely by looking at my tongue. Those of my readers who actually know me may imagine my mental comments on that form of diagnostics. There followed several sessions of laying on a table, stuck full of long, gaily decorated needles looking like some exotic form of porcupine for twenty to thirty minutes at a time. After several rather pricey sessions of this "guess what I'm going to stick next?" treatment, apparently my tongue was looking much better but, sad to say, I felt no appreciable difference, so I stopped treatment and took up again with the invasive, cruel and barbaric practices of Western medical techniques, for which I am endlessly thankful.Constructing a link between Western medicine and Western science, I notice that the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) at CERN, (Geneva, Switzerland) raised itself up in much publicity and ballyhoo for its trial run a short time ago, and like one of the Acme gadgets in a Wiley E. Coyote & Roadrunner cartoon, promptly fizzled out. This was explained as being due to a "broken part." What leading light of the particle physics community came up with that brilliant, succinct explanation? This was later clarified to state that the broken part had resulted in a hydrogen leak. Again - ??? Apparently they are looking for the Higgs-Boson particle, sometimes called the God particle, a mysterious subatomic entity that gives mass to 
every other particle in the universe. At any rate, it seemed God did not want His particle to be revealed before a gaping crowd of the scientifically vampiric prurient, thus the "broken part." You have to love His sense of humor - disabling the scientific paparazzi by pulling out a few wires on their giant Vespa scooter. The latest update is that the LHC will not be ready to try again until the late spring of 2009. Um hmm, we shall see.Remaining in the realm of the metaphysical, divine, what-have-you, I have received several visits from the SpiderWoman spirit in the last month or so, much to my surprise. If you are unfamiliar with the SpiderWoman spirit, look her up on the Web (ahaha - my unintended puns are worse than usual this time around). She is a figure from Southwestern American Indian mythology, a
mother goddess, a creatrix of all that is and her emissaries are, naturally, spiders. I noticed this one day when in the course of normal web-browsing, I was startled, but not fearfully so, by the sudden image of a small troupe of small black spiders scurrying over my desktop, the keyboard and my hand. I was not frightened as I knew they were not there yet the image was quite distinct and in general I am not used to visits from female deities, other than Devi. Why SpiderWoman chose to visit is still a mystery, and as she has visited twice since that original apparition, I presume she has something to tell me that I have as yet to grasp. She is, of course, welcome in our home, and I shall continue to pay particular attention to her visitations (that sounds a bit like the Virgin's image on a tortilla, but I cannot help that).Writing of female deities, Devi and I are enjoying a particular period of harmony and calm in our marriage. We normally do, of course, both of us being averse to drama, upset and contention in our marriage, but
recently it has been more harmonious even than usual. For an unfathomable reason, Devi enjoys it when I sing to her - I say unfathomable because I am not noted for my singing skills, although my voice has improved with age and I myself am a bit pleased that I can carry a tune and follow a lyric. We continue in our normal, habitual way together and I do not share the opinion of many who declare that habit is the death of a relationship, I find it to be quite the opposite. That, of course, has a great deal to do with the fact that we are satisfied with what we have with each other and are not restless, dismayed or unfulfilled, writhing in the grip of dissatisfaction and disaffection. After 50-odd years of bachelorhood, having a woman who enjoys cooking on a daily basis and thoughtfully considering my needs and desires as well as her own continues to be a delight (as I do for her, I devoutly hope). She calls her cooking "simple French country cuisine," which it is, but for me it is a gesture of love as well as a healthy regime. Perhaps once a month she may order a pizza but that is simply to gratify my Americanism, as she does not enjoy it very much. If I want the exotic, I generally do that myself, such as Camelhump Roast, a Moroccan speciality that is quite tasty. Take one camel hump (Arabian racing camel is preferred, although one can use mid-Asian Bactrian two-hump if necessary, which can
be handy if you are feeding a larger party) and secure with cooking twine as if securing a pork roast. Set hump on a large piece of aluminum foil, and proceed to shove as many deseeded dates as possible under the twine, next to the depelted flesh of the hump. Bring the foil up to cup the hump, and cover any remaining open areas with more dates. Cup the foil even closer and pour in a generous amount of honey, being sure to coat the entire hump. Sprinkle 1 tsp of ground cardamom over the honey, then 1 tsp of Ras-el-Hanout, a pinch of salt, then close the foil envelope being sure to seal quite tightly. Place in a roasting pan and cook for one hr at setting 7 (220C° - 425F°), no longer. Remove from oven, vent foil VERY slightly, let sit 15 minutes. Transfer to platter, sprinkle with blanched, crushed almonds, surround with the roasted dates and serve, preferably with French green beans and Moroccan bread. If camel hump is unavailable where you reside (which is a shame, speak to your butcher), then substitute a large-ish pork roast, but it is just not the same. I have it on good authority that the Czech ambassador who died in the recent bombing of the Islamabad Marriott was eating Camelhump Roast just before the tragedy. 
As in all such bombings, this was another exercise in cruelty, barbarism and hate that serves no good purpose other than to fan the flames of racial and religious bigotry and extremism. I simply cannot enter the mindset of someone who straps on a 40 kg vest of explosives, or sits in a car carrying hundreds of pounds of it, and proceeds to suicide/murder in the hope that this act will somehow further eventual peace and tranquility after the "foreign devils" are driven away, on top of which they generally end up killing their own population rather than said foreign devils. On a side note, if I were the Marriott people, I would certainly consider simply writing off Islamabad and not rebuilding - whatever for, after all, when it will just 
be a target once more?My Tarot card for today's meditation is the High Priestess. Here is the rundown as given on a typical Tarot site or in a book: "Dont do anything impulsive. Drawing the High Priestess encourages you to put reflection ahead of action, to look within yourself to identify your deep-seated motives. There's no better time to see things clearly and take good decisions, for your mental health as well as in practical terms. What fuel does your engine need to run most efficiently, dear friend? What emotional input do you need to get the best from your love life? Take the time to ask yourself such vital questions this Thursday, even if you can't answer them at once. Its important to stop for a while to take stock of whats going on inside." So thus shall I do for the remainder of the day, as it is a good time to reflect and consider exactly the things I am counseled to consider. I counsel you to do the same. Please visit the poll at the bottom of the page, and until the next,
Leducdor
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment