The Sky Has Fallen... (or was that just the dollar?)

WE all know the American economy is suffering. Just how bad it's going to get is a question on everyone's mind. Turn on the news and see how long it takes for a reminder of our plight. Wait for the latest announcement of huge corporate layoffs. Listen to the terms "stimulus package" and "bail-out". Suffer through the poor attempts at poetry. Check out the Dow Jones Index. If you can make it to the end of the broadcast, kick back for the human interest story. Can they still put a happy face on their product? This is not your father's evening news (unless you are a senior citizen). The fear is palpable, no matter how well-coiffed the news anchor is. This is a bigger security story than "terrorism".

Great. Now you know the truth. We have dug ourselves a very deep hole, and it has widened into a chasm. People are gathered around its periphery, trying to determine if it will be less painful to skirt around the edges or simply dive in headfirst. There is a huge industry devoted to making sure your choice is the latter. Throw a penny into the darkness and find out when it hits bottom. Now try it with a dollar, or a trillion of them. There are hundreds of "experts" and talking heads trying to fathom the depths. Some are nearsighted, and some are the opposite. They will tell you their predictions. They will help you make an informed choice. Maybe they will push you into the darkness.

I know that the picture is far from rosy. It just seems that everyone is trying to outdo each other with their Cassandra calls. Are there going to be people dying in the streets? Will they be expiring from hunger or loss of blood? Will China or India overtake the United States and become the next superpower? Will Bin Laden proclaim his victory over the West? Will your ancestors rise out of their mouldering graves and remind you that they told you so? Will your children stare at you in mute accusation? Do they know that their destiny is one of panhandling and indentured servitude? What compromises will you have to make to feed your family, or pay your mortgage? Will you have to serve fries at McDonald's?

There's just not that much useful information available. Do you have any relatives that are old enough to remember what it was like to live during the Great Depression of the 30's? Don't you wish that you had taken the opportunity to have that little chat? Were you too busy laughing at their strange little habits? Was it the way they ate leftovers? Was it the fact that they never threw anything away? Who would live like that in a time of abundance? Maybe (in high school) you heard about what they had lived through, but it never seemed quite real enough for you, did it? What did it have to do with your life, and your grand prosperous future, and your free markets of infinite growth?

Perhaps it's time to turn off the television, and start thinking about how your life may change. It just may be a time for reassessment. What is it in your life that you cannot lose? I'm already starting to think about ways to ensure my (and my family's) well-being. And I've come to the conclusion that the corporate media isn't helping very much. It's alarmist, which probably reflects the reality of the situation, but they aren't offering much useful information. I've talked to my friends about the things they know well. I've looked at my lifestyle and thought about the things that would be possible to give up. The funny thing is that a lot of what I have cannot be depreciated along with the value of currency. I'm finding it enlightening to gain that perspective.

Opening the Sixth Seal.

Perhaps you are aware that I am not a big football fan. This is a longstanding condition for me, and one that puts me at odds with the majority of Americans. Still it is not an essential discordance because (subjectively) I have a lot of opinions and preferences that nudge me well outside of the mainstream. So I likely wouldn't fixate on my avoidance of watching the NFL (and the college and high school equivalents) if I didn't live in Pittsburgh. Admitting that you don't care about the Steelers is like claiming you don't care about the availability of clean water. It's the kind of statement that invites a combination of disdain, disbelief, and/or outright confusion. I'm well used to it.

One might assume that such a position would be wholly inconvenient. But actually I have found it quite useful as a convenient excuse to screen people completely from my personal life. Whether or not there is common ground to be found elsewhere, our incompatibility is made quite obvious by my almost total lack of concern for the outcome of the preeminent Sunday sporting event. I use this like a defensive barrier, the way that others employ religion (or the lack of it) for similar reasons. I have become quite satisfied over the years with my lack of alignment with this group. It is only occasionally that it becomes any sort of social problem for me, and even in these cases a negotiation is quickly struck.

When the Steelers won the Super Bowl a few years ago, I was overwhelmed by a sense of disgust in humanity. I considered it personally offensive that Burghers would prioritize something that had so little real significance (at least to me). I didn't understand yet how indelibly the team's success was wrapped into the self-identity of its fan base, and (as an extension) the region. Like virtually everyone I have ever met, I'm sometimes willfully ignorant of others, and consumed with myself. I put myself above such "irrational" loyalties, and I suppose I even adopted a condescending attitude toward those that (to borrow a term from a good friend) bought into "the construct".

The truth is that I've come to reconsider my views. I haven't yet decided to actively participate in following this team... but I will admit to having rooted for the Steelers for the first time in my entire life. They represent something to many of my closest friends, and to shit on their love for the team seems flagrantly disrespectful. I want to see my city happy, and if this is what it takes... well then so be it. It doesn't hurt that I have a newfound esteem for individual members of the Rooney family, who unaccountably turned out to share my political leanings. I'll happily disclose that their relationship with Barack Obama over the past year has been something I've appreciated substantially.

When I told one Terrible Towel-wielding fanatic about my change-of heart vis-a-vis the Steeler Nation, he responded that my reason was perhaps the worst he had ever heard. Although I stand by the original justification, I decided that it might be time to expand my rationalizations. Here's what I came up with: each Super Bowl victory the Pittsburgh Steelers win earns them one ring. Each ring opens up another seal. I'm sure you can follow the logic from there. In the mythology of this region, one more victory (by the year 2012) will allow a transmutation of the consciousness along the Three Rivers. I see this in something other than apocalyptic terms. The playing field has been expanded infinitely.

Frederic Baumgartner, "Longing for the End" (1999).

Last week I mentioned that I was reading a book about millenialism (or millenarianism, which is a synonym), called Longing for the End. Frankly, I often found myself in sympathy with the book's title- not because I wasn't interested in its subject, but rather because of the author's exceedingly dry style. Frederic Baumgartner knows his stuff, however I wouldn't characterize him as a particularly adept storyteller. While that wasn't enough to make me put his work down before I finished it, I was certainly tempted to do so on a few occasions. In Baumgartner's defense, I had a lot on my plate while making my way through this modestly-sized book. Still, with the nature of the subject, it could have been a lot more captivating.

Longing for the End starts with a glossary (this probably should have been a red flag) that lists all kinds of words having to do with apocalyptic end-times. Some of my favorites were "parousia" (a Greek word meaning "coming", specifically referring to Christ's return) and "chiliasm" (Greek for "one thousand", used to denote the belief that the savior's thousand year reign on earth is imminent, and that violence is necessary to expedite his arrival). These were appropriate words to seize upon, as Baumgartner's chosen task was to detail the history of eschatology within Western civilization. Obviously the "end of the world" is closely tied to the future activities of God and Jesus within our society.

I was amazed by the length and breadth of this tradition. Since the beginning of recorded history, the faithful have been busy anticipating the wholesale destruction of life as they knew it. This makes an odd sort of sense, because religious adherents are drawn to the idea that the world should be made over in the image of their god(s). If they were satisfied with the status quo, they likely would not be drawn to worship the heavens. In order to get there, some process must be put into play that brings about the massive changes required. There's a quality of desperation in the fanatical that prohibits an embrace of incrementalism. It's really an all-or-nothing proposition. These folks do not work within the system.

I find it interesting that believers invest much more time imagining the exact qualities of the period leading up to salvation than the conditions they expect to be rewarded with once it has passed. Most millennial thinkers are vague about what "paradise" will look like once all the sinners have been removed by fire. Perhaps there is just something infinitely more compelling about suffering. After all, it isn't that interesting to describe complete satisfaction and bliss. Humans are more interested in the horrific specifics of revenge and hell. The tribulations that many predict to precede the savior (as outlined most notably in the Biblical book of Revelations, with its accompanying wars and holocausts) are often lovingly described. I guess it's like staring at a fatal accident- one can't look away.

There were plenty of formulations and figures within Longing for the End that I'd be interested in learning more about. Baumgartner's volume is a survey, and many of the passionate personalities he wrote about were sketched briefly and with little detail. I'd like to explore the story of John Nelson Darby, who the author identifies as the founder of the modern fundamentalist evangelical millenarian movement. It would also be interesting to hear more about the human scale of these influences. What was it like to be a follower of a prophet that turned out to be essentially mistaken? How did devotees process their disappointments? I'm feeling a further compulsion to dig deeper into modern-day parallels. Perhaps I'll have time before the apocalypse arrives.

More Pleasant Diversions.

The other day I mentioned that my cultural diversions have trended recently toward the darker side of life. I'm reading a book about religious scenarios for the "end times". In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit to having a long fascination with apocalyptic situations. I didn't do much reading when I was in high school, but one series of books I did read was called (something along the lines of) the "Ranger Series". It was decidedly not highbrow literature. It was more the type of thing that a kid would read before moving on to Soldier of Fortune magazine. In fact, that accurately describes the path I took after reading this pulpy crap. From the little that I remember, I guess it was about a mercenary trying to make it in a post-nuclear war world.

Naturally the guy at the center of the story was tough and resourceful. Still, he also had some heart, and I guess that's what made the books "suitable" for children. I don't recall the details, yet I imagine they were pretty sordid. I was fascinated by the idea of surviving in those kinds of conditions. The typical everyday concerns melt away, and one's attitude is colored by an "every man for himself" mentality. The question is whether or not some core of morality is preserved, and how it is articulated. I guess I'm still interested in similar material, albeit with a more sophisticated shell. I loved Albert Camus' The Plague much more than I even enjoyed The Stranger. How people act in desperate times reveals their essential character (and blah,blah, blah).

Not too long ago I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and all of a sudden my obsessions returned with a vengeance. If there is any such thing as an essential work within the apocalyptic genre, it is that title. And given the fact that it earned a Pulitzer Prize, I don't have to feel particularly self-conscious about admiring it. Hell, it's "Art". Not too long from now, the film version will come out- it's directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition), and stars Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. I expect to enjoy it a lot. It was even filmed in-and-around Pittsburgh. I haven't been this excited for a film in a long time, so I'm almost certain to be disappointed.

Anyway, I couldn't just wait for that movie to get my visual fix. Last week M. and I decided to start watching the complete Jericho series. It originally ran on CBS between September of 2006 and March of this year, and evidently flew under the radar for most American television viewers. Most people that I mention it to have never even heard of the show. It did run for 29 episodes though, so someone must have been watching. Like almost everything else worth watching nowadays, it is a serial- so you have to keep up with it to understand what's going on. That puts a natural limit on viewership, as many simply aren't willing to commit to following along faithfully. In this case, that was a significant loss.

The premise of Jericho is that someone has managed to smuggle powerful barrel-sized nuclear bombs into several major US cities. It tracks the lives of the residents of the titular town, somewhere in Kansas. They appear initially as stereotypical small-townsfolk... the kind of "Real Americans" that Sarah Palin is so enamored with. But just as in reality, the characters turn out to be a lot more complex than you first expect. If it were any other way, then the show wouldn't be compelling. And after 12 episodes, we are hooked. In fact, I'm getting a bit of crap for taking a break to write this post. If I don't wrap things up, I'm liable to disappoint someone... so, more details later.

The Stuff of Dreams.

We are now several weeks into the President-Elect's administration. Doesn't that sound exceptionally weird? This is the first time in my experience that a newly-elected executive seems like the head of state a full two months before officially assuming office. When Clinton was in his last months, I remember people dreading his departure. No doubt that had much to do with the fact that the 2000 election was contested, and it wasn't clear who Clinton's replacement would be. A lot of folks certainly had a bad feeling about the idea of another Bush in office. Still I think few had any idea just how disastrous his first term would be. Anyway, there is a wide consensus that it's a good thing he's leaving.

I feel entitled to a couple of months of self-delusion. Can't I simply bask in the dream that we will be put back on a brighter path? Actually, the answer seems to be a resounding "No"! Despite the impression I have of Barack Obama as a resourceful and thoughtful man, if I'm really honest with myself, I have to realize that the problems are almost incomprehensibly vast. The economy is tanking, and the fed is "injecting" so much additional currency into the system that it will almost certainly overdose. This is a paradigm shift. After 9-11 we were promised that "the nation will never be the same again". I think that might have been overstated at the time, but it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Every time I consider the trillions of dollars that our government is spending to forestall the greatest crash in US history, I get that much more sick to my stomach. How could anyone have a plan to help us escape the mess? It appears that the best we can hope for is to reassure foreign investors that the entire edifice isn't built on a pile of shit and wishes. How long can we fool the rest of the world? If we are successful at this task for another few years, what are the chances that we will correct our course in the interim? Perhaps the essential human flaw comes down to a limited perspective at the core of our beings. It doesn't seem like foresight is an essentially well-developed quality of mankind. Nobody really wants to suffer for a better future.

The only thing I can do for a break is to let my cultural obsessions overcome my political ones. I need to distract myself (if only for a bit) for the sake of my own sanity and health. I promise that I won't let it go on too long, as that would mean I'm only contributing to another fundamental problem within our populace. But I feel like I deserve it. So I'm spending more time reading a book about the history of millenarian thought, with a special focus on Judeo-Christian traditions. If you're not aware of this theme, I would describe it in very simplistic terms as a belief that the world is coming to an end, and the accompanying concern with the details surrounding preparation for, and the significance of, Armageddon. If you are still unclear about the subject, have a look at the Biblical Book of Revelations as a reference point.

I'm aware of the irony of my choice. Why would I feel like turning to this type of stuff for the purpose of escapism? The answer may sound contradictory. I think that "escapism" is the appropriate descriptor for the application of imagination to "apocalypse". For as long as history has been recorded, there have been thinkers dreaming up "The End". Interestingly, they tend to twist it around into an ultimately positive scenario. Sure, you've got to go through hellish tribulations, but if you are able to come out the other side, you are in for a treat of 1000 years of peace and happiness. You see, the truth of the matter is that there is no escape. Society is (and always will be) as flawed as the individuals that make it up. Embrace that reality, and rely on dreams only whenever you find them absolutely necessary to get by.

What the Hell Was That?

We had a looming crisis this past week in our household. To be honest with you, I wasn't even going to post about it because of the stigma involved. But because we got lucky, I feel free to write about it now. A few nights ago, M. woke me up at about 3:00AM. I was naturally dazed, and couldn't figure out why I should have been roused from a deep sleep at that ungodly hour on a school night (which illuminates my pervasive lack of grace, as M. has been interrupted multiple times nightly for the past year by Baby E.). It turned out that M. had been feeding the kid, and she looked up to spot what she believed to be a roach on the wall. She made an effort to crush it, but she believed that it got away. She wanted me to search the wicker laundry basket that was below the scene of the attempted murder.

I couldn't find the carcass... not that I especially wanted to. I've had my experiences with these nasty bugs. My dorm complex in college was rife with them. One day I heard a high-pitched screaming coming from the bathroom area, and I rushed over to see one of the freshman football players, clad only in a towel and just out of the shower. He was pointing in horror to what was then one of the biggest insects I had ever seen in my life. With its antennae, it was about six inches long and several inches wide. The backup quarterback was there too, and he was hocking big thick loogies, and launching them on to the back of the monster. It was truly a surreal site. To see these big dudes quivering like schoolgirls was entertaining, but this thing really was horrific.

Years later I went to Tampa, FL and came across "palmetto bugs" that hopped around an outdoor shower. So yeah... I don't like cockroaches. In my heart of hearts all I could hope for was that this pest in the baby's room was an isolated incident. M. was more proactive however, and made an appointment with an exterminator for the next day. I was leery, as I always suspect companies that agree to come to your house for free no-obligation inspections. I speculated that some guy would show up and drag roach eggs into our place on the bottom of his shoes. If we weren't already infested, we would be soon. Still M. couldn't be budged. She was not willing to risk a full-scale invasion.

When the man with the poison juice showed up, he guessed that what M. had seen was a stowaway from one of the large cardboard boxes that E.'s diapers regularly arrive in. He was actually reticent to spray with a nursing mother and child under the age of one. He left with a promise to come back and look at the bug, should we ever find its maimed body. And today M. found the thing. She identified it as the original perp through the extensive damage she had exacted on it. Wonder of wonders, the exterminator was true to his word and agreed to come back to have a look-see at the remains. We waited for him to show up and give us a verdict on the shell of a creature that was now preserved in a plastic sandwich bag.

Our joy was not to be contained when he gave us his conclusion- it wasn't a cockroach after all, but rather a brown marmorated "stink bug". Apparently these creatures often seek shelter indoors once temperatures begin to fall. Fortunately they do not reproduce as quickly as the species they resemble. We were told that we didn't have a problem. They don't come in bunches. Ours was a lone visitor. Before the man left, I asked him what health hazards cockroaches present. He said that an allergen associated with them can cause asthma, emphysema other lung ailments (especially in children) and that the federal government is actually paying exterminators to go into low-income developments and do preventative spraying. We dodged a bullet.

Ding-Dong, the Witch is Dead. Now What?

There have been a lot of theories tossed around during the last several months to explain the economic crisis that has finally hit the United States. Perhaps it's because the effects of the long-brewing situation intensified during a presidential election, but it's notable just how political so many of the explanations have been. So many citizens are curious as to how the arcane manipulations of the system are going to hit them. For too long, otherwise intelligent and informed folks have taken it for granted that the markets work themselves out over time. There was no great perceived need for the populace to follow along too closely. I am certainly guilty of giving the workings of the economy little consideration.

It's become imperative that I drop my personal distaste for the details of the economy. Everyone seems to agree that we are in for a long period of tumult, and many are sure that we are entering a period of depression. How is that going to affect me and my family? How can I ensure the value of the money I have saved over a period of years? What is my life going to look like if shit really hits the fan? No doubt there are a lot of people asking themselves the same exact questions nowadays. But where can someone with little background in economics turn for substantial answers to these questions? It stands to reason that anything that has been said in the midst of a presidential election should be viewed with skepticism.

I do have recourse to a couple of friends that have been paying attention to the markets for a long time. These individuals have developed perspectives that go beyond the simple conclusion that we are "screwed". They offer insights into what may happen over the next several years. Still, it's obvious that no one can say for sure. People can't even agree on the reasons why we are in this terrible position in the first place. If you've been paying attention, you have no doubt heard from some "free market" capitalists that it's actually the fault of what little regulation has existed in the housing markets over the last decade. These guys are still pimping 80's-era mythology. The last refuge of the ideologue is denial.

Yet there are still "conservatives" that will blame the entire Wall Street debacle on Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and the Community Reinvestment Act. The blame (under this theory) rests solely at the feet of low income (minority) borrowers that got in over their heads with mortgages that they could never afford. If you research the numbers, you discover quite quickly that this is a smokescreen. The percentage of subprime mortgages that were mandated by the CRA is minimal. There were people from all over the class spectrum taking out loans that exceeded the amounts that conventional wisdom dictated as prudent. Who was responsible for perpetuating the myth that housing values would increase by exorbitant amounts forever?

Naturally there were others (besides Clinton) identified as culprits. Alan Greenspan refused to raise interest rates despite the cautionary warnings that observers were delivering. Greenspan, a disciple of objectivist Ayn Rand and true believer in the "free market", failed to recognize the housing bubble until it was much too late to stave off the crisis of its resounding burst. As late as 2004 he was still encouraging prospective buyers to take out adjustable-rate mortgages. Greenspan's love affair with derivatives extended to mortgage-backed securities as well. He absolutely refused to entertain any regulations concerning these unproved and shaky financial instruments. Such tools have been identified as a further compounding cause of today's perilous economy.

Despite the fact that Greenspan was still trying to defend his outmoded libertarian views as late as this past April, he finally admitted his culpability on October 23, 2008, in testimony to Congress. In his dotage, Greenspan finally had to admit the fallibility of his lifelong commitment to "free market" ideology- "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity -- myself especially -- are in a state of shocked disbelief." Always admired for his qualities of understatement, when asked whether that meant his views had been wrong Greenspan responded, "Absolutely, precisely”. Little good that does us now. We'll pay the price of for his faith. But now that the "free market" witch is finally dead, what happens now?

Fright Night and the Polls.

Whoever decided that election day should be held in the first week of November had a very cynical sense of humor. If the prospect of change in the political realm isn't frightening enough for many people, the celebration of the darker side of life that occurs on the weekend before the polls open should help raise anxiety levels. I have always loved Halloween. The holiday is the one throwback to the wild Pagan festivals that history suggests were so much fun. From early childhood I have learned to expect the offering of either tricks or treats. There is the sense that anything is possible. The same dynamic applies to politics. Strong opinions abound, and some will find their hopes met, while others will find them thwarted.

So in the spirit of this special day, I'd like to ask the reader about what they fear most on this coming Tuesday. It should come as no surprise that voters all along the spectrum have plenty of nightmare scenarios to choose from. Obviously they range from the realistic to the perverse. For some reason this cycle has presented us with an inordinate amount of speculation regarding worst-case situations, regardless of who wins the presidency. From my biased position, I would suggest that the McCain campaign has worked harder to stoke fears on their side. Like it or not, he occupies the establishment position during this contest, and so he has been forced to paint his opposition as the manifestation of particularly scary change.

Some of the predictions emanating from the Far Right are so breathless that they seem absurd. I've seen and heard multiple accounts of how Barack Obama will change the United States into a Socialist Republic. He'll make rich people cede their wealth to welfare recipients, and no one will have any incentive to make money anymore. Among the Christian Right, a common sentiment is that the Senator from Illinois will reveal his secretly-held devotion to Islam and make Christianity illegal forever hereafter. The Christian Reformationist Dr. James Dobson (founder and leader of Focus on the Family) predicts "hardship," "persecution" and "suffering" for Christians if Obama becomes president.

Interestingly, religious leaders have also been enflaming the fears of Jews who are still undecided about who to vote for. They have made repeated attempts to link Obama to supposed "associates" who have been perceived as vehemently anti-Israel. No matter how many times the candidate has reasserted his support for our Middle Eastern ally, wingnuts like "Joe the (Tax-Dodging) Plumber" continue to issue grave and unfounded warnings. Obviously such tools of the Republican Party get their marching orders from the top. John McCain's fear-based politics have been intentionally crafted to bring out the very worst paranoid delusions in his followers. I could fill up at least a hundred posts with more examples.


Even if John McCain were to mount an increasingly unlikely comeback, some of his supporters fear a widespread uprising and riots among African-Americans. On the opposite side, McCain's detractors worry that the Arizona senator might die in office, leaving the nation in the hands of his singularly unqualified running mate. Others are afraid that he will signal his approval for Israeli air attacks on Iran, which would likely lead to World War III. My own horror involves McCain prevailing and giving an acceptance speech that culminates with him tearing his own leathery face off, only to reveal that he is actually George W. Bush. Finally, the only prospect of an Obama presidency that provokes my anxiety is the small minority that may wish him harm.

Robert Baer on NPR's Fresh Air, Part 3.

Note: Please read Parts 1 and 2 of this series before proceeding.

What would happen if, as John McCain and Sarah Palin have both advocated, Iran's nuclear facilities were bombed? Ex-CIA agent Robert Baer offers an unequivocal answer to that question- the Iranians would light the Persian Gulf and Saudi oil facilities on fire. Baer knows many of the old school Revolutionary Guard Iranian generals by name. He has learned about their collective temperament and understands their willingness to employ devastating tactics in order to protect their nation's territorial integrity. As Baer points out, these sober-minded men believe that the Persian Gulf has that name for a reason. Its rim consists of a population that is over 90% Sh'ite, and it will be defended at all costs.

If Israel launches air attacks (with or without American support) the Iranian government will almost certainly respond by shooting Silkworm missiles at every tanker in the Gulf, thus disrupting the international oil markets, causing an international Great Depression that will make the Wall Street crisis look like "a walk in the park", and setting off the first round of World War III. What sane politician would offer unconditional support for such a move? We do not have the financial resources, nor the will necessary to carry out such a massive operation for 30+ years. It shouldn't even be considered a realistic option. Yet we still hear the McCain/Palin ticket continually insist that they aren't willing to sit down with Iranian leaders, and that we can't "second-guess" the policies of our ally Israel.

The fact is that our current situation reflects the waning of the American Superpower. For better or for worse, the world recognizes that there is a fundamental shift occurring. The US dollar is flagging, and legislative efforts to avoid a complete economic collapse have not gone unnoticed by the rest of the globe. Yet our national politicians seem committed to a purported "War on Terror" that is steadily draining our resolve and treasure. Our adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq are becoming increasingly unpopular and untenable. Meanwhile Osama Bin Laden hasn't been heard from or seen in years. Robert Baer believes that he is dead, and suggests that the majority of his CIA colleagues agree with him.

Baer points out that fighting a war against an opponent whose leadership has been neutralized does not make any sense. Furthermore (like a growing proportion of the American citizenry) he is frustrated that there is no specific ultimate objective that would define victory in this amorphous conflict. The only final conclusion that seems consistent with reality is that we need a significant change in our longterm strategy. There is a growing awareness that the United States must dedicate itself to energy independence. We will not be able to afford this imperative if we continue to trick ourselves into believing that we can "democratize" the Middle East. Our goal must be to demilitarize that region.

I agree with Robert Baer's final conclusion. In order to preserve some relevance on the international stage, we must initiate a nationwide "Manhattan Project" to accelerate the development of sustainable alternative energy. In the meantime we may need to ensure that a steady supply of oil flows from the Middle East. No matter what McCain and Palin believe, this cannot be accomplished with a diplomacy relying on bombs and threat. We must sit down with the true power players, regardless of how we feel about them. That is the only way to avert the catastrophic path that the Bush Administration has placed us on. There is much more at stake here than Wall Street, federal taxation, corporate subsidies, and partial-birth abortions.

Naomi Wolf's Coup.

A friend of mine sent along a video for me to watch yesterday. It featured Naomi Wolf, a "Third Wave Feminist", who famously accused Howard Bloom of sexual harrassment (decades after the fact) and called Al Gore a "beta male" when she was supposedly working on his campaign. Her latest book is called The End of America, and it concerns her formulation of ten steps that a nation can take to assume control of its citizens' lives. Apparently she studied Hitler and Mussolini, and their rise to power, and came up with a step-by-step "how to" guide on fascism. Obviously she makes the point that the United States is well on its way to replicating the conditions that she describes.

There is no doubt that the Bush Administration has taken a number of extraordinary steps to consolidate the power of its executive office. Using Wolf's words, they have indeed "invoked a terrifying internal and external enemy", "created secret prisons where torture takes place", "set up an internal surveillance system", and "engaged in arbitrary detention and release". Her argument that the cabal behind the president is ramping up its efforts to clamp down on our essential freedoms is therefore somewhat persuasive. Her concerns are certainly not unjustified given the prologue of the last eight years. Where she begins to lose me, however, is when she claims that a coup has already taken place in the United States, and calls upon her listeners to find a local district attorney who will arrest President Bush.

Her argument involves the suspension of the long held principle of posse comitatus. For those not familiar with the concept, it was firmly entrenched as the citizenry's protection after Reconstruction. In basic terms, the statute generally "prohibits federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress" (link). The problem is that Bush/Cheney and Co. eroded this crucial check on their power by attaching a rider in the Defense Reauthorization Bill of 2007. While Congress tried to redress that overstep in 2008, Bush issued a signing statement which basically demonstrated that he wasn't that concerned with prudent governmental limits.

There have been two events in recent weeks that have set off Naomi Wolf's internal alarms. The first was actually what seemed to be a minor indiscretion committed on the floor of the US House of Representatives. Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) cited unspecified sources who reportedly told him that there would be an imposition of martial law if the bailout bill was not passed (he ended up voting "no"). The second omen was the announcement of the deployment of the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team within the borders of the United States "as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." The mission is expected to be a permanent one.

While the presence of a 3000-troop strength active military unit in the homeland is indeed disturbing, it's difficult for me to make the logical leap that this deployment means that a military coup is officially underway. It doesn't seem like enough men to subdue any potential insurrection should the election be cancelled. Still the potential uses of the force are a bit worrisome- "they may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack." On one hand it does seem understandably proactive for the federal government to prepare for a bit of back-up during this particularly tumultuous election cycle. But alternatively, it reinforces a vague paranoia that seems to be spreading amongst the populace.

Technical Difficulties.

Last night I had a bit of a surprise when I checked my e-mail. There was a message from the folks at Blogger.com with a prominent header- it cited my URL and warned that there was "ACTION REQUIRED". When I opened it I was informed that Serendipity had been tagged as a "potential spam blog". I was instructed to respond by requesting a review, and cautioned that if I didn't do so my blog would be deleted in twenty days. Obviously this got my attention. After more than two years of continuous blogging, I would be devastated to learn that it was gone forever. My father has started cataloging my posts on paper, but he is still at the beginning stage of the process. I couldn't ask him to finish the job in the next two and a half weeks.

A lot of scenarios ran through my mind. When I first opened the e-mail, it occurred to me that it might be some type of Internet scam. You have to be on guard whenever a message tells you that there is "ACTION REQUIRED". Maybe there is some sort of problem with your credit card, and they need your social security number and bank account information. Perhaps they forgot what your password is and need a simple refresher. Variations on this theme are virtually endless. I was told that I could get the necessary review by "filling out a form" at a prescribed link. I was leery about even clicking on it. What if I got some kind of virus? Truly my "Spidey-sense" was tingling.

It didn't take me long to realize that this problem was on the level. For one thing, it was a page from the official Blogger site. I have to give these guys credit for breaking down everything into easily digested particles. Quickly I was brought up to speed regarding Blogger's commitment to eliminate spam. Apparently they search for this annoyingly intrusive data distribution technique with something called an "automated classifier". In their own words, "Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy." The assumption is that if their "ACTION REQUIRED" message is responded to, then they have likely made a "false positive". They were quick to point out that they "sincerely apologize for this error".

My first thoughts were that this would be a tremendous inconvenience (if not a tragedy should they decide to erase my blog). If you are a regular reader, you are no doubt aware that I attempt to post every single day, and that I rarely miss a post. I was preparing to skip (at least) the entire weekend, because they said that it would take two business days to conduct their review. I vainly wondered how that would decrease my traffic. Yet I must admit that at some level I felt like it would be a reprieve from having to get something written for this weekend. It turned out (obviously) that this wouldn't be an issue. My blog privileges were restored approximately 14 hours after my request for a review.

I also have to admit that I suspected personal sabotage. For a moment I thought that someone had attempted to do me in. I guess that sort of paranoia is just typical of the age we live in. When I noticed that I couldn't post to the Digging Pitt blog, I suspected a coordinated effort to undermine the local arts scene. But with the assistance of an e-mail from Susan over at oranje, I determined that a lot of blogs were affected at the same time by Blogger's overzealous robots. Anyway, Sus told me that the online community is furious about it, and considering jumping ship. I still don't understand exactly why it happened to me (perhaps it's because my recent posts contain a lot of links to other sites), but I've invested too much to change to a different service. So Blogger-dudes, I hope you know that you're stuck with me.

Our Decadence Will Be Our Undoing.

Carnegie Mellon University is once again in the news for its research and development of cutting edge technology. This time the story is about autonomous driving technology. For those of you challenged by tech-speak, what that means is "driver-less cars". It turns out that General Motors and the university have announced a five-year partnership, entailing $5 million in funds earmarked to make this strange sci-fi proposition into a reality. This shouldn't be much of a surprise to those of us on the local scene. We all well know CMU's obsession with everything robotic. In fact many of us even recognize that the vast bulk of their student body is made up of robots- or at least individuals with a similar capacity to relate to human beings.

Anyway, the car company and the tech school certainly see something promising in the idea of taking the driver out of the vehicle. Just consider the words of Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and Strategic Planning- “Imagine being virtually chauffeured safely in your car while doing your e-mail, eating breakfast and watching the news.” Naturally we would all like to see the day come when we spend so much time in our cars that we can accomplish all of these tasks in transit. Actually the solution for that type of freedom seems to be staring us in the face in today's reality- it's called public transportation. And much of that infrastructure is already in place, although it is being slowly eroded by neglect.

But as in many things in our modern society, we like to go beyond the simple answers. If there is one skill-set that humans appear to excel in, it is in their capacity to make things infinitely more complex and confusing. So we search for the proper way to set up a contrived "system", while a natural one already exists. However we first need to iron out all of the pesky details. What if the computer that pilots your self-directed machinery goes haywire? What if it blows an electrical fuse? How does the digital guidance system account for and adjust itself to the random qualities of ordinary human error? How will the driver-less car respond to an alien abduction? These are all questions that the eggheads down at CMU need to work through.

On one level I have to admit that there are elements of this idea that attract me. There is indeed something enticing about removing a bit of the American personality from our road systems. I'm sure you've noticed that the particularly aggressive nature of our citizenry seems to manifest itself most easily behind the wheel of the automobile. People automatically gain six inches of height and fifty pounds of muscle when they are encased in a couple of tons of hard plastics and metal. Surely the engineers over in Oakland will decide to keep these troublesome inclinations away from their programmed personalities. And it would be great if something would take over for those fools who already try to eat breakfast or do their business while driving.

Yet with all the potential benefits of "autonomous driving technology", I can't help but wonder whether we are truly addressing the most pressing concerns of society. Is it really appropriate in this day-and-age to be investing huge sums of cash into figuring out a way that commuters can sort through their e-mail in their SUVs? How did US car manufacturers identify this as an important objective in the current economic climate? Wouldn't it be more appropriate and useful to actually develop, build, and market American-made vehicles that get decent gas mileage? What about making cars that we will be able to afford to drive in the coming years? I think it says a lot about the personality of the nation that they have made driver-less cars a priority.

McCain's Bold Strategy for Saving America.

Here's a good indication of the type of longterm vision we should expect if John McCain gets elected- he proposes to end the ban on offshore drilling. Obviously this very issue has not originated with John McCain. In fact, in the 2000 election McCain was clear in his stance that he opposed an extension of drilling. He actually stood up to Bush and a previous Republican Congress to help thwart such a move previously. Nonetheless it is no longer politically expedient for John McCain to exercise any kind of consistency in his energy policy. Right now it is all about oil prices. The American citizenry (by-and-large) doesn't give a shit about a continuing dependency on foreign oil. They only want to see prices decrease at the pump. It's in their immediate interest to have more of the crude extracted from the Earth, no matter where it happens.

So why shouldn't we go ahead and do it? Well, for starters, it's simply a short term solution to the biggest global crisis we face in the 21st Century. The United States has been putting its trust in the oil industry for more than four decades. Its representatives have reached the zenith of their power in the George W. Bush Administration. The entire executive branch is determined to hold on to the fossil fuel energy paradigm as long as they can continue to increase their wealth. They simply don't care what happens to the rest of us. We've been investing obscene amounts of taxpayer dollars into military adventurism and government subsidies paid out to the oil companies- and the current situation is a direct result of this mismanagement of the nation's resources.

Obviously it is time to wake up and re-evaluate our approach. Is offshore drilling going to lead to immediate relief at the pump? Absolutely not. By the time those platforms are online and producing (estimates range from 7-10 years for their optimization), gasoline will have gone up exponentially. It won't make a dent in world oil prices. And unfortunately, American oil companies are not going to reduce their prices just for the USA. This is strictly international business. Meanwhile they will continue to pollute our environment and distract us from the ultimate task at hand- developing and utilizing alternate energy. Until we make a concerted and organized effort to exploit the technology that is already available to us, we will continue to see economic hardships and anxiety.

The simple fact is that our entire foreign policy is wrapped around the "stabilization" of oil markets. The Republicans are driving the federal government into financial insolvency in order to profit an increasingly shrinking upper class. The neocons (and theocons) have been multiplying our enemies worldwide with their efforts to control politics in the oil-rich regions. But those that benefit from the current perilous conditions couldn't care less about what is happening to the middle and lower classes. As long as there is a market somewhere in the world for them to exploit, they are well satisfied. If Americans can't afford rising gas prices, they will sell the oil to China or India. If the oppressed in oil-producing nations rise up, they will be bombed into submission. And we (the citizenry) will pay the price.

The current legislation under consideration by Congress is a very cynical strategy put in place by the GOP to narrow Obama's current campaign advantage. Who is spearheading this proposal? Simply identify those characters that are loudest in their support of the bill- John McCain and George W. Bush. McCain has taken great pains in the past to separate himself from his would-be predecessor's failed policies. He has tried to curry favor with environmentalists, but what is his revolutionary plan to change the direction that the country is heading in? Bomb Iran, maintain a permanent military presence in Iraq, increase offshore drilling, and promote nuclear and coal energy... all misguided extensions of activities that have helped put the United States where it is today- slipping into a third-rate, former-superpower status.

Life In Space.

There's been some recent news about activity surrounding the International Space Station. Apparently the Japanese have been working with NASA for a couple of years with the intention of attaching a lab to the ISS. The operation has made me think about life in space. One of the recent tidbits of news to come out in the media regarding the ISS is that it is equipped with just one bathroom. To make matters especially dire, this sole facility was 'out-of-order' for awhile. This has to make life inconvenient for the three longterm residents of the station. You'd figure that an object that is reputed to be the most expensive man-made item in history (at an estimated cost of $158 billion) would include more than one place to take a crap.

Eventually it is going to require additional facilities to accomodate the full six-man crew that will be working at the ISS in the future. After all, it's a joint venture between the US, Russia, Japan, and the European Space Agency (with Brazil and Italy being limited partners). It's clearly a rare project in its scope of international cooperation. Indeed it makes a lot of sense for these nations to have combined their separate plans for space stations, considering the astronomical individual costs. So far the vast majority of the astronauts staffing the ISS have been citizens of Cold War opponents Russia and the US. The German Thomas Reiter became the first resident from a third country, although many have visited.

Perhaps in the coming years the ISS won't be the only option for folks that want to spend a bit of time in space. A company called Bigelow Aerospace has already launched a test inflatable habitat module, and plans to put up a prototype space station as early as the end of this year. By 2010 they believe that they can launch and successfully operate the first commercially viable space station (tentatively named the Nautilus). They have launched a contest called "America's Space Prize", which promises $50 million to any company able to create a reusable craft with the capability of shuttling tourists to and from the proposed Nautilus. As fanciful as this sounds, there are companies with even grander plans.

There is an organization called Space Island Group which predicts that it can build and maintain a "Space Island" with a capacity of 20,000 people by the year 2020. Of course this sounds unlikely with the economy in the toilet and gas prices on the rise. Who would be able to afford a leisure trip to space? Believe it or not, there have already been five space tourists- four Americans and one Brit. All of them were separately conveyed to the ISS on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz. They arranged this through the Space Adventures travel agency, and each paid in the neighborhood of 25 million bucks. That's an exorbitant amount of cash for a "vacation". Not to worry- opportunities for suborbital space flights are ever-expanding.

If you have a lot of disposable income, your opportunities to play 'spaceman' are only going to increase (barring a global catastrophe, of course) throughout this century. Perhaps one of your friends or family members will experience microgravity conditions within your very lifetime. As for me, I'm not that interested in space travel. I can't think of a compelling reason why I would spend exorbitant amounts of money to be stuffed in a small, cramped metal hulk... only to be vaulted outside of the Earth's atmosphere, with no guarantee that I will be returning safely. I'm sure the view is quite spectacular. Additionally it might be both liberating and/or terrifying to do a spacewalk, but I wouldn't want to have to wait to take a piss.

Biting Off a Thick Chunk of Obvious.

Indulgence is a strange thing. It has addictive properties that sneak up on you, especially if you grow up with means in the United States. In third world nations citizens rarely get to indulge themselves- so it's likely such a practice would be entirely a conscious decision. You'd have to save up for weeks for something that we in America take for granted. Certainly you wouldn't have to worry about becoming addicted. To actually get addicted to one of the things we use too much of, it would require effort similar to holding down a full-time job. The problem is that much of the world's population already has to work overtime just to acquire the basic necessities. Even then they often fall short.

So what sort of things do our citizens overindulge in? Well, we definitely use more than our share of the world's nonrenewable energy resources. If you spend five minutes on the net, you can find some reasonable estimates. We make up about 3% of the Earth's population, and use about 25% of the energy. That shouldn't be a surprise. Take a jaunt on the US Highway system, and head out to the exurbs. You'll see that a majority of the vehicles on the road are minivans and SUV's. Many of these drivers will justify their extravagance by explaining that they want to keep their kids safe. Even if you do an analysis of the safety ratings, and their particular model performs well- it's beside the point. Because 9 out of 10 drivers that you pass are riding alone.

Of course we find ways of wasting energy at home too. We leave lights on in rooms we aren't currently occupying. The television emits its mind-numbing waves even as we fall asleep on the couch. In Winter we heat our homes all day, even at the times when everyone is at work or school. Folks turn on their central A/C as soon as the first drops of sweat bead at the crests of their brows. People get in their cars and drive 300 yards to the corner store. And other energy-consuming resources get wasted as well. Homeowners water their lawns, and then expend more electric units mowing them. Food is prepared one portion at a time, and packaged in layers of plastic and cardboard. Most of the food itself is made from corn- the most inefficient crop there is.

We also divert our resources into meaningless contests of sport. Instead of participating directly, we do so from at least one remove. This is merely another indulgence. If sports aren't our thing, we while away our leisure hours shopping for unnecessary items. There must surely be more collectors in the US than in any other country. We collect everything- sports memorabilia, porcelain trinkets, guns, holiday decorations, fashions, video games, dolls, trophies... pretty much anything we can stow in our cars and fit in our living spaces. Sometimes we even exceed our physical limitations, and rent lockers or other storage capacity for the overflow. Imagine how all of this excess is perceived abroad.

Or don't worry about it. Because that's another one of our indulgences. We have an infinite amount of justifications for our greed. In fact we are told that "greed is good". Consumption is next to Godliness. It's the American Way. This sounds like satire, but it's difficult to overstate the role that indulgence plays in our society. Consider this with me as I try to digest the donuts, corn chips, Coca-Cola, meat sticks, fried chicken and buffalo chicken dip I consumed today (before noon)- if we stop indulging ourselves our economy will enter a crisis. Capitalism requires perpetual growth, which requires increased consumption. No wonder concepts like 'sustainability' are so roundly rejected. It is indeed a threat to the system. Quit thinking about it.

What it Means to Be a World Leader.

Do you know what a cluster bomb is? It's a type of munition (typically dropped from an airplane) that ejects a bunch of smaller submunitions (or 'bomblets') before hitting the ground. The very first cluster bombs were created and used by Germany during World War II. At the same time the United States, Russia and Italy also developed their own versions. They are currently produced in 34 countries, and used by at least 23. When they are dropped, the resulting explosions within the 'target area' are small and scattered. Observers liken them to the effect caused by lighting an entire packet of firecrackers at once. Of course the damage wrought by each individual bomblet is magnitudes stronger than a firework.

Cluster bombs are commonly used against tanks, runways, electric power grids, and people. Their charges can be incendiary if the intention is to start wild and out-of-control fires. These were used in the WW II bombings of Dresden and Tokyo. The anti-personnel version employs fragmentation to do as much damage as possible to 'soft targets'. Millions of them were dropped on Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam during the 60's and 70's. Then there is the US Area Denial Artillery Munition- a weapon capable of dispersing numerous land mines that deploy their own trip-wire mechanisms. In fact the US has invented other particularly insidious cluster bombs, including a type that delivers chemical weapons.

The problem with this kind of bomb is twofold. For one thing- it is very non-specific in its aim, and is often responsible for horrible 'collateral damage'. A single cluster munition can affect an area as large as two or three American football fields. One anti-cluster organization (Handicap International) conducted a study that showed that 98% of over 13 thousand recorded casualties of this type of bomb were civilians. And unexploded ordnance has the potential of killing many, many more. Unfortunately cluster munitions have a relatively high 'dud' rate, ranging from 5-23% of the total charges. Despite efforts to color the bomblets in bright tones, they remain dangerous. Children often mistake them for toys. In Afghanistan the US compounded the problem by dropping airborne aid packets in identical colors.

So why am I choosing today to write about this subject? This past Thursday 110 nations meeting in Dublin, Ireland unanimously voted to ban these bombs. The United Kingdom trumped a promise they made last March to prohibit their own use of 'dumb' cluster munitions, and committed to abandoning their entire stockpile of all versions of these weapons. The international coalition dedicated to eliminating cluster munitions worldwide includes key NATO allies such as Germany, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. This treaty went further than most observers expected- all existing supplies of these bombs must be destroyed within the next eight years. It is a truly historical agreement.

Unfortunately citizens of the United States need not celebrate this achievement. Along with similar malcontents like Russia and China, the US refused to even attend the meetings. Our government remains dedicated instead to the continued use of cluster bombs. The current administration feels that they play a crucial role in the nations' military arsenal, and contends that it would be endangering the security of the country if it were to go along with any such ban. They also claim that it would hinder military cooperation between the US and foreign states, as such joint operations with nations employing cluster munitions are discouraged under the new treaty. The current State Department has even threatened the curtailment of future humanitarian aid efforts. Truly we are a shining beacon to the rest of the world.

Iain Banks, "The Wasp Factory" (1984).

Iain Banks is a Scottish writer who has written both 'mainstream' and science fiction novels. These two pursuits are distinguished by the addition of his middle initial (M.) when publishing the latter. While he will admit to enjoying writing the genre fiction more, he says he gets slightly more reward from 'literature'. That's because (in his words) he feels he has "achieved more having had to wrestle with reality as well as with (my) imagination." And this struggle with 'reality' extends to his external life as well. After a long period of acquiring sports cars, he recently sold his entire collection and bought a Lexus hybrid. He has also vowed only to fly in "emergencies". These decisions are the result of his political views.

After Tony Blair committed the United Kingdom to partnership in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Banks threw in his lot with a group of British politicians seeking to have the Prime Minister impeached. He even cut up his passport and mailed the remains to Downing Street. Banks has a very defined and elaborate vision for the future of society, and it apparently doesn't glorify aggressive militarism. His futurist works take place in "the Culture", a place where advanced technology and pacifism combine to form a sort of utopia. Banks is not ashamed to dwell in such an imagined world- he has repeatedly stated he would like to live in this world of his own creation. If he can't do it within our contemporary times, he has at least achieved this residence in his head.

Banks is deeply secular and humanistic, but oftentimes he creates the opposite in his characters. In his first novel, The Wasp Factory, the author introduces us to a 17-year-old kid named Frank- a manifestly unsympathetic creature. Frank has a penchant for weaponry and black magick, and he's not at all afraid to exploit these interests in a manner that creates great harm to others. The reader learns directly that Frank has no compunction about having killed repeatedly. He's offed a half-brother and a little cousin with little concern for the feelings of his family. As far as he's concerned, his malicious deeds are only further proof of his own cunning and innovation. The methods by which he has achieved such dastardly deeds are indeed darkly artful.

Judging from his everyday activities, one need not be surprised by his occasional outbursts of extreme mayhem. Frank lives on an island off the shore of a resort town, and guards his territory with diligence. In fact he has accumulated a serious arsenal. He has devised all manner of bombs that he stores in a backyard shed. He's created booby traps and death-dealing kites. He has murdered a variety of small animals, skinned them, and mounted their skulls on poles to serve as sentries against possible invaders. While his father has wisely prohibited him from buying the firearms he desperately covets, he has managed to attain a lethal skill with a weapons-grade slingshot.

Frank's maneuvers and preparations are only interrupted by the impending return of his older brother, who has just broken out of the madhouse. As he anticipates the eventual arrival of his sibling, he realizes that he is on a collision course that will change his highly-ritualized life. He has received signs of this encroaching danger from an elaborate death trap called the Wasp Factory that he has built in his private loft. As if this weren't enough, similar signals are being sent out from a macabre altar he has constructed in a nearby abandoned concrete bunker. Unfortunately Frank is unable to pinpoint the exact nature of the coming transformations. Banks leaves the reader to work his way through the foreboding sense of dread.

Greg Bottoms, "The Colorful Apocalypse" (2007).

There's something about half-crazed, backwoods, fundamentalist Christians that lends itself to making imaginative claims about looming apocalypse. Sometimes such self-styled ministers have intense visions and decide to commit them to canvas in the form of paintings. Fortunately for a lucky few, we happen to be living through a particularly millenarian age- when even those who can be called nominally 'sane' have their dark moments of terror. This means that there is a growing audience for artwork by these folks. In fact there is even a cultural apparatus evolving to deal in such works. There are galleries, journals, and even museums where you can see it. There's even a formal term to refer to it- "Outsider Art".

Certainly people have their disagreements about just what is, and what is not, Outsider Art. There are some that would suggest that artists who create work outside the mainstream count as members within this category. Others would assert that these creators are, by necessity, driven by mental illness. Greg Bottoms, an English professor, impulsively decided to explore whether or not some of the more famous Outsider Artists were particularly afflicted. Instead of going to the institutions (mental asylums, prisons, etc.) from where much of this body of work originates, he chose to travel to the Deep South and the Mid-West, to meet a few of the most famous Christian Visionary painters of the day. He resolved to keep journals and other recordings from this journey, and eventually worked them into The Colorful Apocalypse.

Bottoms was too late to meet Howard Finster, as he had recently passed away. He was able to meet Finster's sister, who was struggling to preserve her brother's land (called Paradise Gardens) in the face of financial difficulties. After riding around with her for a bit, the author decided to venture forth and meet William Thomas Thompson- an eccentric ex-millionaire who experienced a torrid vision of the end-times, and subsequently devoted his life to depicting harrowing portrayals of Christian horrors. Through lengthy conversations Bottoms was able to get Thompson to expound on his conspiracy theories, and his strident criticism of 'False Christians'. He also managed to wrangle an introduction to Norbert Kox, Thonpson's friend and sometimes collaborator.

Kox was an Outlaw biker from Wisconsin whose revelations came by way of a very bad acid trip. He decided to abandon his wife and child, and his motorcycle body shop, and enter into a decade-long retreat in the woods. There he built an elaborate shrine documenting the visceral sufferings of the crucified Christ, and intended to serve as a tour guide and missionary to visitors. He also painted several hundred paintings along similar lines. Philosophically, Kox and Thompson share a lot of the same obsessions. They are both concerned with the political influence of the Masons, the false teachings of Catholicism, and the impending final judgment. Kox has been 'discovered' by the legitimate art world, and has shown his work in galleries across the US and Europe.

Much of The Colorful Apocalypse recounts the interaction between Bottoms and these artists. The author is clear about not being an expert in the field of art history. And while that is not enough to invalidate his insights, it does provoke an inevitable question- just what is Bottoms motivation for writing this book? Apparently he has had personal experience with madness, and he wants to understand its nature. His brother is a schizophrenic who has embraced fundamentalist Christianity. This is problematic as it suggests that Bottoms is clearly biased in his assumptions about Christian Outsider Artists. While he has crafted an entertaining journal, he has also made himself vulnerable to a disproportionate amount of criticism for such a slim and innocuous book.

Dark Days A-Coming.

I'm not very shy about the fact that I have contempt for radio hack AM Glenn Beck. Most of what he says is tremendously easy to write off as right wing propaganda. Generally I feel that you could take the opposite of what he says, and embrace it as truth. Still there is one obsession I have that I share with this asshole- the coming collapse of the American economy. Beck is certainly not the first figure to warn of bad times ahead. Roger Waters, bassist and songwriter for the band Pink Floyd, predicted the implosion of the Western economy in the 1970's. His numbers were off, but not by much. Before the debacle of George W. Bush's administration, such concerns seemed alarmist. Now they just appear merely realistic.

So what's my response to this type of noise? How do I confront the fears of an impending depression? I mostly try to push it to the back of my mind, and prepare to enjoy the ride the best I can. After all... how long did the Great Depression of the 1930's last? A couple of decades, perhaps? Can that still happen here? Look at oil prices. Doing that very thing made me take the step of creating a personal household budget the other day. I went to fill up my foreign sedan, and noticed that prices have exceeded $3.50 per gallon. This is becoming the single biggest drain on my finances. I drive about 1600 miles a month, and the costs of refueling certainly add up quickly.

I decided that I would get a taste of the future by adding up all of my expenditures, and including gasoline at an anticipated cost of $5 per gallon. I thought that maybe my salary could absorb such a price, and still allow me to save a few bucks. When all was accounted for, I found a shortfall of about $300 per month. This reality sent my mood into an immediate tailspin. I began to realize just how close I am to the margins of insolvency. My prospective budget did include a fair amount of wiggle room. If I quit smoking cigarettes (which I really ought to do anyway), I can save about $130 a month. I can go out less on the weekends and cut another hundred out of my loss column. I could cut down on the number of iced mochas I buy every week.

But there are some expenditures that can't be negotiated. Having a kid is very expensive- more so than I had expected. Between household necessities (non-food) and stuff for regular maintenance of the baby, my wife and I are spending about $900 a month. And that number is only as low as it is because we are getting a tremendous deal on daycare. We will be paying out this money until E. is in kindergarten. Also my mortgage and car payments will remain stable. And the price of food (for which I budgeted $300) threatens to rise dramatically with the increase in oil prices. Utilities are also subject to fluctuations in the oil market. Perhaps I could get a better deal on car insurance (if I have a better driving record for a few years), but I can't count on that either.

What's especially scary is that my prospective budget does not take into account emergencies or unanticipated costs. I didn't figure in car maintenance- like inspection, oil changes and new tires. There is no accounting for clothing purchases. I didn't figure in the cost of giving gifts to family and friends. I didn't include money for replacement appliances, should something break around the house. No cash for vacation, for art materials, for art... no DVDs, music, or books. No eating out. Absolutely no luxuries. And when I look at my salary, I know that it is above average. It makes me wonder how the bulk of America is going to weather a steep economic downturn. This is going to be a very different country in the next several years. If you don't believe me, make out a budget for yourself, and see how your own life is likely to change.

Random Acts of Intentional Violence.

Last Friday night I finished reading the book I was currently working my way through, and I thought I'd go out for a drink and relax a bit. I couldn't identify any friends to meet me at my favorite nightspot, and so I was hoping that the bar would not be jam-packed with tourists and suburbanites. There was an outside chance that I would be able to find a seat, since it was before 10:30PM. I parked in my usual spot and walked up the sidewalk to the front entrance. I could see through the front window that it wasn't too crowded. I was heartened to find an empty stool near the corner of the bar, with no one on either side. I settled in, received the usual sterling service that befits a regular, and sipped my cocktail in peace. It felt good to be out in a quiet and clean place with breathing space.

Fortunately I had remembered to bring my camera with me, and I decided to try to capture a bit of the magic of the night. At this point in the night the bar was so empty that I had a chance to talk to some of the staff as I worked. This particular pub has plenty of visual stimuli and a multitude of varied and interesting light sources. I enjoyed working in that atmosphere, and quickly lost myself in phenomena that most observers would find mundane. I really can't sufficiently praise the Canon G9. It has enough in-camera features to provide hours of diversion. I was able to accumulate a number of compelling, show-worthy images in the short time I sat at the bar. Later a friend came in and I chatted superficially with him about mild topics.

I had no intention of making it a long or costly night out. I felt quite satisfied as I donned my jacket and left for the drive home. It had been time well spent, and I congratulated myself for my moderation. As I approached my car, I realized almost immediately that something was wrong. My driver's side mirror was hanging by its internal electrical wires from its mounting. The faceplate was shattered in many pieces. It struck me initially that this was incredibly inconvenient, as I had to get home in the dark without its aid. I quickly discerned that the mirror on the passenger side was also destroyed. Over the past year I had parked in this little convenience store lot almost every time I visited the bar. The store was closed and I figured it was fair game. I've never had even the slightest problem with this practice.

It began to sink in that someone had come by and done this deliberately. This was no accident- it was quite clear because both sides were smashed. I wondered who might have done such a thing. There was another car next to mine that had not been vandalized... but it hadn't been there when I arrived. Apparently some ne'er-do-well figured that my little banged-up foreign vehicle was an appropriate target. He (or they) decided that they would add a particularly damaging exclamation point to my evening. Why did they do it? Perhaps they were kids, amped up and showing off to each other. Maybe they were inordinately drunk and carousing. Going wildin' on a weekend night is a long-honored tradition among adolescents. I'm sure they gave the whole affair little thought. I was simply left to deal with the consequences.

I suppose this kind of thing happens week in, week out, across the nation. People seem to invest so little energy into thinking about what their actions cost others. This is an anonymous protest against an unknown individual. I certainly didn't feel that I knew the perpetrator. I don't believe that it was anything personal. Anyone could become the recipient of such malice on any given night. This is the nature of random violence. You could go weeks, months, or years without anything like this ever happening to you. Or it could happen on subsequent days. But it makes me question our society. Do we teach its members to have this little respect for their fellows? Is there something in our culture that reinforces such behavior? Is it a natural consequence of our difficult and chaotic times? How much worse can it get? I slept fitfully and woke up sore.