EF writes:

”Pity poor John Karr, who now finds himself in the lonely position of Pluto. Once heralded as the confessed killer, he is now to be dropped and forgotten, a mere amalgamation of cosmic waste. So much for champagne, roast duck and a business class flight. Will he be able to return to his teaching position in Thailand? Perhaps he could become an official scapegoat, and take credit for other horrors. Maybe he could take responsibility for Iraq, wiretapping, or interfering with FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The administration may let him have those…

And Bush made it down to New Orleans to commemorate the one year anniversary of New Orleans. I had thought, at least to keep it historically accurate, he would be a couple of days late. The weather in Crawford must be bad.

Lynne writes:

“Sam Gardiner’s comment on today’s blog is not surprising when put in context of Mike Smith (London Times) who recently revealed part of the Rove strategy for the November elections. The plan apparently is to start pulling troops out ahead of the elections: “Under [Gen. George] Casey’s plan the withdrawals will begin next month in a move believed to be timed to coincide with the mid-term elections.” Aren’t there any Democrats who can challenge the chess game Rove plays?”

http://timesonline.typepad.com/mick_smith/2006/08/are_we_staying_.html#more)

Shebar Windstone also writes about Rove:

While reading this piece on Rove, I recalled the piece about Cheney, & suddenly it occurred to me that such reportage is the equivalent of the ways in which, during the Cold War, Sovietologists used to study seating arrangements & gather other details to figure out who was in power or who was doing what to whom in the USSR. & how Americans still try to understand Chinese government. We don’t really know who isin power in the USA — we only know that it’s not us, the people, or anyone who truly represents us!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6045017,00.html

Bradley Laing on Katie Curic:

”Let’s assume that ten years from now, Couric retires from CBS News at the top of her game, clearly financially successful.

Two comments seem inevitable:

“She really grew into her role as America’s Anchorperson.” and /or

“How did television news turn into this “news lite” bin of trivialities, mishandled by Couric, for the past ten years!”

“John Kenneth Gailbraith wrote in 1967 that each corporation maintained the fiction that the head of the company made it a great success, when in fact it was the committees below the head of the company that led to the success.

“If she fails in the ratings, and is pushed offstage, it won’t be her reporting that will be blamed, it will be her bosses failure to win a mass audience. It will be their decisions, not hers that will be blamed.

If she succeeds, it will be either her genuine talent, or her personality, or the mass audiences insufferable appetite for maudlin tripe that will be credited.

Those are the choices: the successful individual who fills the minds of the mass audience, or the failed attempt by a corporate management to win a mass audience.

After all, Couric is supported by a committee, isn’t she?”

Melanie Turner Miller writes on Kahil Gibran:

”Thank you for your story and Gibran poem.

I just found this site recently…I don’t consider myself labeled after any political party…however, this feels closer to what’s true. Just as Las Vegas doesn’t care who wins or who loses…the house takes theirs off the top…so, it seems to be with politics in the world.

There is a way of thinking in the world that’s “either - or,” as in, “eggs are good for you” then “eggs are bad for you…”coffee is good for you” then “coffee if bad or you.”

When I first began thinking about this, I felt there was a different way of thinking and being, and if we were talking face to face, I would be showing you this with gestures, right to left, in a linear way.

I would show with a vertical gesture, (rather like a yoga move,) the feeling of the different way of thinking.

One day, while visiting friends in New Boston, New Hampshire, I went to church in a monastery in the woods, outside of that town, and the priest or monk (I’m not Catholic, either,) used the word that describes what I’m trying to say.

I had never heard the word before…spelled something like this …”hermeneutic”…I just spell-checked it…supposedly, correct.

Loosely speaking, it means a deeper interpretation of something…an idea, or whatever. (The accompanying gestures would be helpful, wouldn’t they?!

We are learning to think in this different way…we are experiencing the tipping point, critical mass, AND the World is only APPEARING as it is at the moment. Or, as the title of the book say, “It’s Hopeless, But Not Serious.”

All of this is to say, more simply, thank you for what feels like a breath of fresh air, and I invite you to join me in a new practice.. being a calming influence on the planet. That’s right…it’s a “practice.”

Like trim-tab on a ship: the ship off-course isn’t wrong or bad, just off-course, and with a slight trim-tab adjustment, get back on course. Like a practice. Like practicing the cello orpainting, or whatever one is practicing.

Being a calming influence on the planet, just a practice, like flossing your teeth. I appreciate very much your story and Gibran poem and I am moved, touched, and inspired.”

PROFESSOR SEEKS POLICE PROTECTION

The Independent reports: “A Princeton University professor has been placed under police protection after saying that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, was indictable for war crimes.

Richard Falk took part in the BBC program Panorama, which caused a storm in Israel last week for publicly accusing Mr Sharon of playing a leading role in the 1982 slaughter of 800 Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Chatila camps in Lebanon.

Since the broadcast, Professor Falk, who is Jewish, has received threatening telephone calls including a specific physical threat to him and his wife, he said

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REVIEW OF MY “IN DEBT WE TRUST” ON CARDRATINGS.COM

http://www.cardratings.com/creditcardnews/2006/08/in-debt-we-trust-documentary-exposes.html

HANGING IN

Doing these dissections seems quite a long march sometime, trying to make sense of the madhouse that our planet is being turned into. My only consolation is that someone is out there, reading, listening and paying some attention. Thank you.

Share your comments with us: Dissector@mediachannel.org