Dakota: Still sick

January 06, 2006

Still sick

As you can see by my sinuses, I'm still sick. The elderberry syrup cure has failed. I have resorted to Dayquil. This morning, I made a Caesarish Salad for breakfast, because it contains raw garlic and lemon juice, which I didn't have the fortitude to swig straight. (I am not including the recipe, which is divine and simple, because to do so, would smack of the mundane, repetitive feminine, instead of the sacred, to which I aspire -- if you need it, you know where to contact me).

I'm a little worried about the state of my immune system, especially in light of the fact that there are now reported deaths from the avian flu in Turkey. Of course the children who died are said to have been playing catch with the heads of dead chickens, so it couldn't happen here, right?

Some other things that are making me sick.

. Pat Robertson's comment that Ariel Sharon's stroke was "divine punishment for dividing God's land"

. The obsessive focus on Sharon's medical condition in the media. Let's face it, the damage is extensive and permanent. Saving his life under these conditions is not an act of mercy. It's such a shame to lose him. just when he had turned a corner and was trying to forge a peace. Yitzhak Rabin's assassination was equally untimely. I admired him more.

. Bush's meeting with the "old guard" ostensibly to break the bubble and get a bit of sound advice on the Iraq War from his elders. Here's the part that made me sick (in case you are thwarted by the Boston Globe gatekeepers):
"The hourlong [a most generous allotment of time for 13 prominent figures to express themselves fully] meeting was also an opportunity for Bush to ask for their help in maintaining support for a mission all agreed must succeed because the United States has so much at stake in Iraq. Cohen, who is also a former Republican senator from Maine, said Bush asked the group to speak out about the importance of the Iraq mission during their foreign travels and to use their business contacts to help enlist support for investment in Iraq's shaky economy. The meeting was cordial, according to participants, but not without its share of dissent." Right. And from the Seattle Times "While Bush was challenged once or twice in the meeting, according to participants, White House aides believed they accomplished their twin goals of portraying a more solicitous president and underscoring the broad bipartisan agreement that a speedy withdrawal from Iraq would be unwise." A President who's really open to dissent and suggestions, just as I suspected. If I were an elder statesman, I think I'd feel used.
Addendum: it was even worse than I thought

. The death of twelve miners in West Virginia -- the poor and the environment, once again sacrificed to the corporatocracy. Coal mining is profitable again because, environmentally damaging as it is, coal is in demand as an energy source -- after all, we're at war. Therefore, the coal industry is sending men to dig deeper into more dangerous territory because it's profitable. In addition, "the appointment of officials with close ties to the mining industry to the industry watchdog had resulted in a rollback in safety regulations." Couldn't some of those West Virginia mountains use windmills, and the miners fresh air and sunshine. There wouldn't even be objections from the rich about spoiled views, I bet.

. Flagrant flaunting of the antitorture bill by our President. From Rosa Brooks at the LA Times: "The media announced this as a victory for McCain, his congressional supporters and the large majority of Americans who tell pollsters that torturing terror suspects is not acceptable. But the president still had a bit of mischief up his sleeve. When he signed the legislation, Bush issued a signing statement saying he planned to construe the McCain amendment's absolute prohibition on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment 'in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the president to supervise the unitary executive branch and as commander in chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective … of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks.' This may seem like so much legalistic gobbledygook, but it's more sinister than that. It refers to the administration's astonishing claim that whenever the president asserts that he's acting in the interests of national security, he's constitutionally permitted to violate any federal laws he finds inconvenient. Translated, Bush's statement says, "I'll sign a law prohibiting cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, but because I'm president, I can ignore it." As blogger and Georgetown University law professor Marty Lederman notes, Bush's signing statement was 'the commander-in-chief version of 'I had my fingers crossed.' "

. Ditto for government surveillance. As John Dean says: "Well, it does happen that we are a government of laws. And....theoretically, at least. And why do we need a PATRIOT Act if he has all these powers? If the....if anyone reads the Article 2 the way Bush does, Cheney, his former counsel, David Addington, and John Yoo do, there are just no powers they don't have in the name of defending the country against terrorism, and terrorism is an indefinite threat. Therefore, they can do anything indefinitely that they wish. That isn't what I think the Constitution contemplates." Sickening.

.. A new study that estimates the cost of the war in Iraq will be between 1 and 2 TRILLION dollars. "The study expands on traditional budgetary estimates by including costs such as lifetime disability and health care for the over 16,000 injured, one fifth of whom have serious brain or spinal injuries. It then goes on to analyze the costs to the economy, including the economic value of lives lost and the impact of factors such as higher oil prices that can be partly attributed to the conflict in Iraq. The paper also calculates the impact on the economy if a proportion of the money spent on the Iraq war were spent in other ways, including on investments in the United States." And they aren't even including the cost of the damage that can be done in the future by so many furious Muslims. But then again, Halliburton stock is up 50% for the year.

If I want to perk up my immune system, I shall have to fork off to more positive thoughts..

Photo note: Sickly, skinless, self portrait including sinuses and thoughts, some of which might do better floating in a martini,.

Posted by Dakota at January 6, 2006 09:32 AM