Tuesday, June 27, 2006
June 27th 2006
What happened to us?
We used to be the good guys. America, the world's cavalry charging in to save some poor SOB's who were being picked on by the big meanie.
Then we began to believe in something called the "Domino Effect" and wham! Vietnam. Noriega tells the CIA he doesn't want to play any more so we toss him into a bottomless pit and forget about him. We sell arms to BOTH sides of the Iran/Iraq war hoping they'll just beat the crap out of each other. THEN get bent when Saddam uses the weapons and the technology we sold him to start the Gulf War...Yes THE Gulf War, those years inbetween George I and George II were an aberration. And to top it off we feel we have the right to imprison and torture those who simply disagree with us.
The most disturbing thing about all this is that the only thing its accomplished is that we as a country have gone from everybody's best bud to the kid from the rich family that nobody wanted to hang out with inspite of the fact that he had a pool, a cool car and a hot sister because he was such a raging asshole.
I worry about the world we are leaving our kids. Instead of bringing everybody together and saying "hey, space is getting tight on this little blue/green ball and we got to get along or there won't be nobody left to shut the door"
We go around pointing fingers at the way other people worship or live or what they have or don't have and tell them that they had better fall in line with us or else.
Now, I undertstand that there is a time and a season for everything, even force. But except for Bosnia and Darfur, it hasn't been the time or the season since 1945.
What the politicos here and the world over don't seem to get is that people are fairly simple; they want to make money, spend money (for both necessary and fun things) and be left alone. Because if left alone, 98 percent of the world's population will go about their happy lives.
The other two percent?
That's when we step in. But it doesn't require a massive military, nuclear weapons, or hideous prisons on small islands that strip away every shred of human dignity.
Just the concern and gentle persuasion of the other 98 percent.
I have signed a petition that Amnesty International has demanding our government close the doors on the most hideous desecration of human rights on our soil since civil rights or perhaps even slavery...Guantanamo
(with much respect and much apologies to Civil Rights leaders, but they were at least charged with a crime when they were illegally arrested and jailed)
I hope you guys do the same.
Peace,
R
What happened to us?
We used to be the good guys. America, the world's cavalry charging in to save some poor SOB's who were being picked on by the big meanie.
Then we began to believe in something called the "Domino Effect" and wham! Vietnam. Noriega tells the CIA he doesn't want to play any more so we toss him into a bottomless pit and forget about him. We sell arms to BOTH sides of the Iran/Iraq war hoping they'll just beat the crap out of each other. THEN get bent when Saddam uses the weapons and the technology we sold him to start the Gulf War...Yes THE Gulf War, those years inbetween George I and George II were an aberration. And to top it off we feel we have the right to imprison and torture those who simply disagree with us.
The most disturbing thing about all this is that the only thing its accomplished is that we as a country have gone from everybody's best bud to the kid from the rich family that nobody wanted to hang out with inspite of the fact that he had a pool, a cool car and a hot sister because he was such a raging asshole.
I worry about the world we are leaving our kids. Instead of bringing everybody together and saying "hey, space is getting tight on this little blue/green ball and we got to get along or there won't be nobody left to shut the door"
We go around pointing fingers at the way other people worship or live or what they have or don't have and tell them that they had better fall in line with us or else.
Now, I undertstand that there is a time and a season for everything, even force. But except for Bosnia and Darfur, it hasn't been the time or the season since 1945.
What the politicos here and the world over don't seem to get is that people are fairly simple; they want to make money, spend money (for both necessary and fun things) and be left alone. Because if left alone, 98 percent of the world's population will go about their happy lives.
The other two percent?
That's when we step in. But it doesn't require a massive military, nuclear weapons, or hideous prisons on small islands that strip away every shred of human dignity.
Just the concern and gentle persuasion of the other 98 percent.
I have signed a petition that Amnesty International has demanding our government close the doors on the most hideous desecration of human rights on our soil since civil rights or perhaps even slavery...Guantanamo
(with much respect and much apologies to Civil Rights leaders, but they were at least charged with a crime when they were illegally arrested and jailed)
I hope you guys do the same.
Peace,
R
Monday, June 26, 2006
June 26th 2006
One of my favorite authors is John D. MacDonald. Those of you who haven't heard of him have probably heard of his work, the most famous of his writing being "Cape Fear". But John D. wrote a series of novels that ended up impacting me greatly, those being the mystery series starring his flawed hero Travis Mcgee. Set in the South Florida of the 60's, 70's and early 80's MacDonald uses his boat bum/"Salvage Expert" character to speak of the Florida he lived in at the time and of the Florida he felt was soon to come.
As Carl Hiassen mentions in his forward of the Fawcett Crest paperback series:
"If a cypress swamp got plowed to make way for another shopping mall he (MacDonald as McGee) took it personally: "This was instant Florida, tacky and stifling and full of ugly and spurious energies." Every McGee saga guarantees such splendidly mordant commentary. The customary targets are greedhead developers, crooked politicians, chamber-of-commerce flacks and the cold hearted scammers who flock like buzzards to the Sunshine State."
MacDonald began describing Florida like that 40 years ago, imagine how it is now, having grown to the point of seam busting with such people.
I have gotten a bit of flack for my anti-Florida comments, and as such, by no means want to encapsulate all of the residents of the state, merely the ones who deserve it.
I do miss my friends and the moments of beauty that Florida still manages to provide, mostly the memories of fishing out in what remains of the Everglades.
But I don't miss the people whose greed will be their legacy, nor the traffic, nor the ignorance, nor the lack of culture.
And those qualities seem to be the building blocks of the future for Florida.
RW
One of my favorite authors is John D. MacDonald. Those of you who haven't heard of him have probably heard of his work, the most famous of his writing being "Cape Fear". But John D. wrote a series of novels that ended up impacting me greatly, those being the mystery series starring his flawed hero Travis Mcgee. Set in the South Florida of the 60's, 70's and early 80's MacDonald uses his boat bum/"Salvage Expert" character to speak of the Florida he lived in at the time and of the Florida he felt was soon to come.
As Carl Hiassen mentions in his forward of the Fawcett Crest paperback series:
"If a cypress swamp got plowed to make way for another shopping mall he (MacDonald as McGee) took it personally: "This was instant Florida, tacky and stifling and full of ugly and spurious energies." Every McGee saga guarantees such splendidly mordant commentary. The customary targets are greedhead developers, crooked politicians, chamber-of-commerce flacks and the cold hearted scammers who flock like buzzards to the Sunshine State."
MacDonald began describing Florida like that 40 years ago, imagine how it is now, having grown to the point of seam busting with such people.
I have gotten a bit of flack for my anti-Florida comments, and as such, by no means want to encapsulate all of the residents of the state, merely the ones who deserve it.
I do miss my friends and the moments of beauty that Florida still manages to provide, mostly the memories of fishing out in what remains of the Everglades.
But I don't miss the people whose greed will be their legacy, nor the traffic, nor the ignorance, nor the lack of culture.
And those qualities seem to be the building blocks of the future for Florida.
RW
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
You just never know who you are going to run into on the streets of NYC. I was leaving a building downtown after having picked up the keys of the office of a couple of friends with whom I am working, when walking in at the same time was Bishop Desmond Tutu. Flabbergasted at meeting one of the world's truly good people, I managed only to turn down his offer to let me out of the building first and defer to let him enter. After our moment passed, I immediately wished that I had said something profound that he would recall in a later speech, something in the neighborhood of "Hey Bishop, that Jesus was a hell of a fella."
I think sometimes we allow the conservative Christians way too much leeway on the whole getting the word out thing. As it is with zealots of every religion, it is the fringe element, propelled by their fears of virtually everything good and great in the world that makes the most noise, making all of the rest of their fellow believers to come across as just as nutty as they are.
I love watching the various televangelists work their magic. Perhaps because I worked in infomercials, which are in essence the love child of carnival barkers and televangelism. The televangelists move their crowds with the same format I used to sell diets and kitchen gadgets: scare the viewer into action by telling what they are missing by not having whatever it is that I was selling. Usually they were missing a happier more fulfilled life; they could free up more time to spend with thier families by buying the Quick Cooker, they could spend more quality time with their kids by losing weight with The Firm, they could live longer and healthier by juicing or using the magical non-stick surface of the Perfect Pancake.
The sad truth is born out by the huge number of people willing to believe that these products, or any product for that matter is going to be some sort of Panacea for a better life. People who by and large purchase the miracle, but have neither the energy nor the true belief that the magic in the Magic Bullet is going to do anything to make their dismal life any better.
Creating that need in people to believe in something was one of the best and worst parts of the job of writing infomercials and the part of the job I had the most trouble coming to terms with.
The same goes for those that sell religion on television. They prey on the spiritual shortcomings that run unchecked through a spritually bereft and largely unhappy society. They feed off of the uniquely Christian fear of what will become of us in the afterlife, using that as their bargain, their Today's Special Value. Their method for getting the masses into spritual shape is the bible. Televangelists treat the bible as if it were the instructions for building a model car, where all of the pieces are numbered and all fit the same way. One book, one interpretation, one solution all for one low price, your complete and utter devotion.
Fortunately, God is a lot smarter that Benny Hinn. He made sure that we would develop different outlooks and beliefs. And while we all may have similar fears, our fears affect us all differently, hence our solutions will all be different.
We are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist and a hundred other faiths all acceptable, all valid. Televangelists want everyone to believe in God the same way, they demand of it as if it were an undeniable truth and place scorn upon anyone who fails to measure up to their version of Christianity. In doing so they themselves are denying the reason for Jesus in the first place, the reassurance that as long as a person had faith in God and loves their fellow human, there is always a place at the table.
In infomercials, federal regulators force sellers to take back any product within 30 days of purchase, this is the 30 day guarantee that each infomercial brags about, with no questions asked. You don't want that Rotato after all? Just send it back.
Televangelists and conservative Christians have no such guarantee, their pitch is more decepetive and the cost a lot higher.
Peace.
R
You just never know who you are going to run into on the streets of NYC. I was leaving a building downtown after having picked up the keys of the office of a couple of friends with whom I am working, when walking in at the same time was Bishop Desmond Tutu. Flabbergasted at meeting one of the world's truly good people, I managed only to turn down his offer to let me out of the building first and defer to let him enter. After our moment passed, I immediately wished that I had said something profound that he would recall in a later speech, something in the neighborhood of "Hey Bishop, that Jesus was a hell of a fella."
I think sometimes we allow the conservative Christians way too much leeway on the whole getting the word out thing. As it is with zealots of every religion, it is the fringe element, propelled by their fears of virtually everything good and great in the world that makes the most noise, making all of the rest of their fellow believers to come across as just as nutty as they are.
I love watching the various televangelists work their magic. Perhaps because I worked in infomercials, which are in essence the love child of carnival barkers and televangelism. The televangelists move their crowds with the same format I used to sell diets and kitchen gadgets: scare the viewer into action by telling what they are missing by not having whatever it is that I was selling. Usually they were missing a happier more fulfilled life; they could free up more time to spend with thier families by buying the Quick Cooker, they could spend more quality time with their kids by losing weight with The Firm, they could live longer and healthier by juicing or using the magical non-stick surface of the Perfect Pancake.
The sad truth is born out by the huge number of people willing to believe that these products, or any product for that matter is going to be some sort of Panacea for a better life. People who by and large purchase the miracle, but have neither the energy nor the true belief that the magic in the Magic Bullet is going to do anything to make their dismal life any better.
Creating that need in people to believe in something was one of the best and worst parts of the job of writing infomercials and the part of the job I had the most trouble coming to terms with.
The same goes for those that sell religion on television. They prey on the spiritual shortcomings that run unchecked through a spritually bereft and largely unhappy society. They feed off of the uniquely Christian fear of what will become of us in the afterlife, using that as their bargain, their Today's Special Value. Their method for getting the masses into spritual shape is the bible. Televangelists treat the bible as if it were the instructions for building a model car, where all of the pieces are numbered and all fit the same way. One book, one interpretation, one solution all for one low price, your complete and utter devotion.
Fortunately, God is a lot smarter that Benny Hinn. He made sure that we would develop different outlooks and beliefs. And while we all may have similar fears, our fears affect us all differently, hence our solutions will all be different.
We are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist and a hundred other faiths all acceptable, all valid. Televangelists want everyone to believe in God the same way, they demand of it as if it were an undeniable truth and place scorn upon anyone who fails to measure up to their version of Christianity. In doing so they themselves are denying the reason for Jesus in the first place, the reassurance that as long as a person had faith in God and loves their fellow human, there is always a place at the table.
In infomercials, federal regulators force sellers to take back any product within 30 days of purchase, this is the 30 day guarantee that each infomercial brags about, with no questions asked. You don't want that Rotato after all? Just send it back.
Televangelists and conservative Christians have no such guarantee, their pitch is more decepetive and the cost a lot higher.
Peace.
R
Monday, June 19, 2006
Monday June 19th 2006
It is a beautiful, hot day here in NYC and I am parked between writing segments for a kid show and figured I toss a little something onto the blog to serve as my second entry.
I wonder a lot about this society. Not obsessively mind you, but what the hell, I'm surrounded by it so I give it a whirl every now and then. Mostly I muse about how we as a people managed to become so incredibly shallow over such a short period of time. Look at it, we have only been in existence for roughly three hundred and fifty years and yet in that short amount of time we've been able to grow into one of the least likeable peoples on the earth.
Now, I know you are going to say:
"Your assesment of us as a people is not entirely fair since you spent so much time in Florida and everyone knows that if culture, decency, respect and the willingness to bestow our fellow man with dignity has a black hole where there is no ability to escape, it's Florida."
I know you're going to say that and to some respect you are right. Living in Florida, dealing with the type of folk that tend to over populate that state with their need for swallowing whole all sense of what is good about us as a species, has to some extent affected my view of our society as a whole. But, examples of crappy behavior are beginning in Florida and working as a human version of the African Killer Bee by spreading northward at an alarming rate.
I think perhaps this is because Florida remains a catch basin for the detritus of the nation. When the Midwest and Northeast shower, the dirt runs down the drain to be deposited in the sewers of two bedroom two bath condos and gated communities between West Palm and South Beach.
I know this seems like another Florida rant and to some extent I think so, but remember, people are moving to Florida in stupid numbers. Something like a million new residents every six weeks or so if not faster. And these new people are coming from to Florida all over the country, hence I feel justified in the latitude taken to say that our society in a whole is in trouble.
All I really look for from other people is for them not to act as if they are the only ones walking the planet. Which is not a whole lot to ask, unless of course you happen to be in Delray Beach, Florida. The ground zero of the "New America". The obnoxious, America that bitches about the poor in the street as opposed to reaching out to help. The America of spending more time worrying on their dogs, their dog's hair, their dog's diet and so help me God, their dog's separation anxiety than they do the people who share the planet with them.
I'm not saying we all have to go out and volunteer to save Darfur. I'm just saying we need to develop some sense of place with our fellow travelers. Some kind of connection that doesn't include bitching and moaning about every other race of people walking the planet execpt for those who are American, white and have money.
PS:
I know that these particularly snobbish and selfish folks are all over the country, but in the end, I guess I do love picking on Florida.
It is a beautiful, hot day here in NYC and I am parked between writing segments for a kid show and figured I toss a little something onto the blog to serve as my second entry.
I wonder a lot about this society. Not obsessively mind you, but what the hell, I'm surrounded by it so I give it a whirl every now and then. Mostly I muse about how we as a people managed to become so incredibly shallow over such a short period of time. Look at it, we have only been in existence for roughly three hundred and fifty years and yet in that short amount of time we've been able to grow into one of the least likeable peoples on the earth.
Now, I know you are going to say:
"Your assesment of us as a people is not entirely fair since you spent so much time in Florida and everyone knows that if culture, decency, respect and the willingness to bestow our fellow man with dignity has a black hole where there is no ability to escape, it's Florida."
I know you're going to say that and to some respect you are right. Living in Florida, dealing with the type of folk that tend to over populate that state with their need for swallowing whole all sense of what is good about us as a species, has to some extent affected my view of our society as a whole. But, examples of crappy behavior are beginning in Florida and working as a human version of the African Killer Bee by spreading northward at an alarming rate.
I think perhaps this is because Florida remains a catch basin for the detritus of the nation. When the Midwest and Northeast shower, the dirt runs down the drain to be deposited in the sewers of two bedroom two bath condos and gated communities between West Palm and South Beach.
I know this seems like another Florida rant and to some extent I think so, but remember, people are moving to Florida in stupid numbers. Something like a million new residents every six weeks or so if not faster. And these new people are coming from to Florida all over the country, hence I feel justified in the latitude taken to say that our society in a whole is in trouble.
All I really look for from other people is for them not to act as if they are the only ones walking the planet. Which is not a whole lot to ask, unless of course you happen to be in Delray Beach, Florida. The ground zero of the "New America". The obnoxious, America that bitches about the poor in the street as opposed to reaching out to help. The America of spending more time worrying on their dogs, their dog's hair, their dog's diet and so help me God, their dog's separation anxiety than they do the people who share the planet with them.
I'm not saying we all have to go out and volunteer to save Darfur. I'm just saying we need to develop some sense of place with our fellow travelers. Some kind of connection that doesn't include bitching and moaning about every other race of people walking the planet execpt for those who are American, white and have money.
PS:
I know that these particularly snobbish and selfish folks are all over the country, but in the end, I guess I do love picking on Florida.
Friday, June 16, 2006
2.26p 6/16
Infomercials
Yep. That's where the "But wait..." comes from. I wrote and directed a lot of those muthas for five years. Five years of crappy kitchen gadgets and useless weight loss machines, pills and gurus. Except for Billy Blanks. The man has a big heart and a good soul and a hot daughter.
The worst part of the whole gig was living in Florida. I don't wish for bad things to happen to folks so when that great big ol' storm rushes in to rid the planet of The Sunshine State I'm hoping most can escape to more civilised and politically forward places...Seeing as how Fla is the bottom then Texas, Alabama and Mississippi come to mind for starters.
I say most because, God help me, I fled the state with a bias against old people that I have yet to reconcile. They take up the best seats in the bars from 4p to whenever they feel the need to go home and call their children and complain about how fucking hot it is in a state they moved to to get away from the cold.
Alas, I blew out of Florida in a haste last year, getting away from old people, old girlfriends and infomercials.
Gotta run, I feel a country song coming on.
Peace.
R
