Editorial Preface: 

In this, Ian Solley’s second contribution to our collective cogitations on our neo-con administration’s internationally-ridiculed errant foreign policy, our British correspondent expands on  problems shared by “democratic” (little “d” for citizens who care about their individual rights and their countries, as opposed to corporations who care about…corporations) citizens of both America and England. Ian’s comments give us grounds and pause to think about the core of all our problems and the distinct probability that at the core of our globe’s problems there is a common calamity and cause….and that peeling the onion of war down to that core will reveal them as being the  Corporation…

And perhaps moreover….. that the corrosive    corollary of that rotten-to-the-core CORE  problem is that the international press corps is not talking about this reality because they (the media)–just as  the politicians–are being capitalistically controlled and corrupted by civilization’s collective neo-con corporate conglomerates. 

Please take the time and compare what Ian Solley is saying from his standpoint in England to what Len Carrier has just written from his standpoint in America. Please read if you missed it-  “Lieberman v. McCain – Tomatoes vs. Tomahtoes…Both Are Brands of Mediocre Goods Canned by Corporate America” posted July 7, 2006 on this website.

This business of blaming the war in Iraq, the fuel and global-warming crises on the Republicans simply won’t wash.  The soulless cyborgs of our global society running the show from every corner of the earth are the transnational conglomerates.  They elect the politicians with their lobby/campaign infrastructures in America, England and their covert country club in Dubai AND EVERYWHERE ELSE…and those politicians, whether Republican or Democrat, will eventually do what they were elected to do… which is to make money for the  Exxon/Mobile oil machines and the Halliburton war machines of the world and to hell with humanity and its unitary, rapidly-dying environment.  

(Speaking of which—our all-important and only environment–I’ll cap this admittedly  frenetic preface with a closing  cameo parable about  microcosmic, second-hand smoke…and the macrocosmic matter of our global environment: 

I went to  a restaurant one a short while ago when, upon entering, the hostess asked my companion whether we would prefer being seated in the “smoking” or “non-smoking” sections of the restaurant.  My companion looked around and quickly observed that the room was essentially an open rectangle, with no dividing walls and a single central  ventilation system.   I think his response was one that applies as much to our global as it does to our local environments.   He responded to the waitress:   “Lady, would you answer for me a simple question?  Her reply: “Certainly, Sir, if I can.”  He said:  “Is there such a thing as a non-peeing part of a swimming pool?”   …..  Sir!????  

I think that poor hostess is still puzzled by that question.  I hope and pray that we are not.

Wishing us all the hope and courage required in order that we can “endeavor to persevere” (Chief Dan George, “The Outlaw Josie Wales”) , and thanks, Ian for the echoes of abiding strength and sanity from the other side of the pool. 

Aloha*,

Dusty    July 9, 2006

PART II

 Thanks, Dusty, very much for posting my letter on Democrats.write.com  and mentioning the e-book – that was a nice surprise!

I don’t think my ideas are particularly  “politically correct”  in the mass media sense – but what are journalism and mass newspaper/media anyway? Just a means to raising large amounts of advertising revenue whilst ensuring the journalistic content is never too critical to offend advertisers. There really is a conformity in content across so many papers.

The most interesting thing about the reporting of the Gulf War(s) is that whilst they always talk in terms of allied casualties,  the number of times  reporters have been allowed to mention the number of civilian casualties as a direct result of allied attacks in the last 3 years can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. Note that they always report the number of innocent civilians that are blown up by “insurgents,” * but rarely the horrific death toll that we have inflicted; what’s more,  there seems to be no consensus on the number of civilian dead….

An interesting thing is that Lierberman vs. McCain article really highlights this phenomenon that has occurred here in the U.K. too and that is the merging of political party philosophy, between right and left. I know Chomsky has highlighted this recent factor. Political lobbying and funding is BIG business now.

We used to have a very diverse spectrum particularly in relation to industry, so you had Labour Govt’s and their socialist ideals and Unions pitted against the Conservatives with their free-market approach and Monetarism. But now with Tony Bliar (sic) and New Labour (who like a lot of my friends we voted in), we have been totally duped! It is very hard to establish a difference in economic outlook and ideals between parties.

We have Private Public Initiatives, e.g. for building new hospitals but it has proved as lucrative for contractors and wasteful as any Conservative Government could envisage. It’s almost as if money and greed have taken over the asylum and to hell with anything or anyone who opposes this view. Bliar’s big talk of carbon emission reductions is a joke – carbon emissions cut by 0.03%! Who’s running the show?

Why has the UK Gov’t allowed the influx of some of the most uneconomical gas-guzzling SUV’s (A.K.A. as “Chelsea tractors” here with mothers doing the school run in them and literally clogging our quaint little roads), whilst still talking Green? They tried to increase road tax on these vehicles but by such a small amount (£40 annually) that it would have no impact on sales. Who has the highest rate of fuel tax/duty in Europe? You guessed it good ole Blighty!

This Gov’t has been responsible for record levels of public spending £30 bn at present and at the same time is allowing artificially low interest rates (we all remember what happened with Japan’s experience of very low interest rates – the economy slumped despite engineered attempts to stimulate it) which have also caused record amounts of private debt. On average each Britain now owes £10,000! There are only nearly 60 million of us!! What a great tax boost to the Exchequer from those card companies. Again who’s running the show? A very precarious situation not least because savings levels have dropped to I think an historical low, and we are living with this artificial sense of financial prosperity. Imagine if they called in the loans!

If this country was a company they’d call it Enron!

Pete Townshend wrote “Meet the new boss same as the old boss” in Won’t Get Fooled Again and that totally sums it up….

The writer, Ian Solley, auditing our site from his home in Great Britain, is both a medical and political scholar and author of an informative (on-line) book on the causes (quite-appropriately,  environmental ) and treatments (other than main-stream medical) of allergies and other  maladies of the human  immune system. His book is available on line athttp://www.thiscureworks.com/allergies/readmystory.html

*“INSURGENTS”

I (Dusty)  have to addend Ian’s piece with a comment on this term of Neo-Con-artistry which perhaps best exemplifies the Machiavellian polemic and propagandistic genius of the Neo-Con Republican spin masters.  When the Fascist Nazi’s declared and waged so successfully their unprovoked and imperialistic war on our (former) ally, France, a sizable and courageous minority of that proud nation refused to surrender and continued to resist their German occupiers. We and the rest of the allied-against-evil world dubbed these brave ,die-hard patriots: “The French Resistance”, “The Underground”, or simply, “the Resistance”.  Please remember, as you review this history, that we Americans entered France and joined forces with the French “Resistance” in response to the unprovoked attack on Germany’s part.

When the Neo-cons American administration and its invading armies bombed and took control of Afghanistan and Iraq, the resident nationals who opposed our preemptive and unjustified invasions of their countries, along with neighboring allies who came to their assistance,  were…quite brilliantly…denominated:  “insurgents”.

 Of course that kind of double-speak conartistry makes quite good sense…way over there…on the peeing side of the pool.

*Aloha

From ancient times, as did our American aborigine, these very earthy, basic peoples thought of themselves as part of (rather than masters of) the earth.  They invented the “Giah” principle–word and concept of the earth as a “single creature” (like the “organum” in Ex Machina) of which we humans are just specialized tissue…and often tissue which becomes cancerous because it doesn’t know when to stop replicating itself and gobbling up all the body’s resources. The Pacific culture knows that they are the land, earth, water and air…just part of it all…and as such, they know how important (essential) it is to share. So, when they say to each other hello and goodbye, or sometimes just to stay and feel–connected with one another and the rest, they say “Aloha”.  In their tongue it literally means “shared breath”.