Cheaper, stronger, longer

Shocker, Americans are being short changed yet again. Angry Bear deals the dirt on healthcare in countres that have a single payer system (read, "socialized healthcare") compared to the USA. While not all countries have lower costs, have better results, and shorter waiting times - not all do. In fact quite a few countries have nationalize health care, spend less per capitra, have lower infant mortality rates, have citizens who on average live longer, and spend less of their lives in poor health and they have no significant wait for treatments.

On Filibuster

So some Kerry and Kennedy hasve pledged to filibuster against Alito's Supreme Court nomination. Not being an American and having only recently become at all interested in politics I thought I should look up exactly what a filibuster is. It turns out that the Senate website has a nice background article on it, and the related "Cloture", a two-thirds majority vote that can cut off a filibuster debate.

It doesn't ellude the record for number of times various parties have used the filibuster which is unfortunate, because I have a feeling that Republicans, fond that they are for threatening to "go nuclear" and pass rules to outlaw filibuster completely, are actually those most likely to use it. If I come across such statistics I'll let you know. However the Senate article does highlight the record holder for the longest filibuster in the house:

The record for the longest individual speech goes to South Carolina's J. Strom Thurmond who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Way to go Strom, I bet he must have been proud of that record to his dying day.

Gore on Bush

No, this time not Al Gore, but Gore Vidal. Here is his article on how Bush is like Jonah, bringing bad luck on our good ship USA, and needs to be tossed to the whale so we can remove the hex. My favourite part is his tirade against Bush's penchant for faith based nationhood. Quoting Morris Berman:

"If a nation is unable to perceive reality correctly, and persists in operating on the basis of faith-based delusions, its ability to hold its own in the world is pretty much foreclosed."

He also includes a handy summary of increasing American ignorance of anything that happened more than five minutes ago, or going on in reality - that world right outside their TV window, if they'd only care to take a glance:

Meanwhile, millions of adult Americans, presumably undrugged, have no idea who our enemies were in World War II. Many college graduates don't know the difference between an argument and an assertion (did their teachers also fail to solve this knotty question?). A travel agent in Arizona is often asked whether or not it is cheaper to take the train rather than fly to Hawaii. Only 12% of Americans own a passport. At the time of the 2004 presidential election 42% of voters believed that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. One high school boy, when asked who won the Civil War, replied wearily, "I don't know and I don't care," echoing a busy neocon who confessed proudly: "The American Civil War is as remote to me as the War of the Roses."

Finally on the dimishing role of freedom in Bush's America, Vidal cites the "State of the First Amendment Survey" conducted by the University of Connecticut in 2003:

Meanwhile, the indoctrination of the people merrily continues. "In a 'State of the First Amendment Survey' conducted by the University of Connecticut in 2003, 34 percent of Americans polled said the First Amendment 'goes too far'; 46 percent said there was too much freedom of the press; 28 percent felt that newspapers should not be able to publish articles without prior approval of the government; 31 percent wanted public protest of a war to be outlawed during that war; and 50 percent thought the government should have the right to infringe on the religious freedom of 'certain religious groups' in the name of the war on terror."

Which nicely shows that people really are succefully being indoctrinated to the belief that "freedom" in America really means you're free to do anything you want, just so long as its support by the whims of the government d'jour. As one reader of LDTT points out "This country is so brainwashed and poised for dictatorship, it just seems inevitable. Hang on that British passport!! Wish I had one meself."

However I have to say that even my British passport may not be quite the get out of jail free card it looks like. At a party of the New Years I was harangued by a fellow countryman her on vacation, who bemoaned my lost English accent and implored that for the new year I resolve to return to Britain "because she needs you". The poor chap, sozzled though he was seem quite put out by the state of the United Kingdom and its continued butt-sniffing attitude to everything American. Which reminds me that I am actually also a member of that set of people known as "Europeans" and my British passport give me free reign to reside, work and play in any one of its 25 nation states.

Lunch is up!

Lets just say having watched this video collage (oh it sounds so arty!) aptly dubbed "birth control" I'm filled with shock and awe. Clearly George Bush has figured we don't need an army to defend ourselves against terrorists, we just need more projectile vomiting babies on the front line.

Another brick in the wall for peak oil theory

Apparently Petroleum Intelligence Weekly has said that Kuwait is about to halve its estimate of remaining oil reserves, thus knocking 5% off world oil reserves remaining.

Read it and weep

The Big Picture says Joseph E. Stiglitz says the war (read unilateral invasion) in Iraq will cost America around $2 trillion. You could say "its only money", but do ever think anyone would have got behind Bush's little power play with that kind of price tag?

Many Americans thought "kicking ass" in Iraq was some kind of pay back for 9-11, but what if someone told you the cost of the pay back would be $700 million for every person who died that day? Or almost $7,000 for every man, woman and child in the country? Does anyone seriously think that Saddam Hussein or Osama bin-Laden could have inflicted $2 trillion of economic damage on the USA single handed? Thanks George - you really helped them oops I meant US, out.

Not to mention if you put $2 trillion as the price tag on three thousand American lives, what is the cost you put on 30,000 or more Iraqis who have died courtesy of the civil war you brought down on in their own country? At some point you will no longer be able to claim you are causing less deaths than Saddam was, that is the day you become the evil dictatorial leader who needs to be deposed.

So George, next time you have a bright idea, why not just stay home and clear some bush? I've heard its hard work, just like being President.

Interlude: White men can jump!

I came across this Russian video which dispells the myth that white men can't jump. And I always thought that climbing up walls by bouncing off them thing was a movie special effect... The question is are these guys human chimps or just out of work Olympic gymnasts?

UPDATE: thought I'd add this mid-air dancing movie just for kicks. I love it when the guy in the middle falls to the ground and rolls around laughing.

Peak oil evidence starting to appear?

Interestingly this week produced evidence that one country at least either hit a major glitch in the oil production or reach that previously mythical status of "peak oil". Of course one country reaching a peak does not a world peak make - that was figured out in the seventies. But one wonders just how much longer the Kingdom of Saud can continue to "keep it up" and pretend its actually got lots more oil production capacity in reserve.

Tree huggers 1: Tree Killer 0

This article goes to show, if there's one thing people can't stand more than smelly hippy tree huggers - its squeaky clean white collar tree killers.

Good night and good luck

I watched "Good night and good luck" last week and like many I was just enthralled to realize the parallels you could draw between the media then - too cowed and timid to speak out against McCarthism - and the media now - too sold out and dummed down to speak out against Bushism.

If you felt the same, whether you saw the movie or not, you might enjoy reading The Failures of Post-9/11 Media an interview with Kristina Borjesson the author of a new book called "Feet to the Fire". Her comments are at once inciteful, enlightening and occasionally hopeful. That there are still a few principled reporters out there on a quest for truth is good to know, that someone like Borjesson is working to promote their work is even better. Now if we could only actually see some of these people in the "mainstream" media, but unfortunately by very definition until the mainstream picks itself up by its collective shoestrings and hauls itself out of the quagmire of mediocrity, propoganda and just plain bold-faced lies. Just don't hold your breath waiting for that day...

In the mean time I enocurage you to go seek the good stuff direct from the source wherever you can find it. One such source which actually miracuously makes it into the NYT, is Paul Krugman. I have to say I hadn't heard of him until reading the Alternet article - but now I have. Unfortunately you'll need an NYT subscription to read his columns that dish the dirt on Bush's economic war on sanity, you can however buy his book "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century" recently updated in paperback. Also recommended is Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog on the Middle-East, history and religion.

Middle class angst

Check out the article 'Strapped' for Adulthood - not the article itself, but the comments. Here's real evidence of that 50% of all Americans who are worse off in real terms than they were in 2001.

A dysmal prediction to start the year

I had this vague notion that perhaps 2006 could be better than 2005, then along came Clusterf**k Nation. It's a magnus opus of predictions of doom and gloom from James Kunstler pretty much along the lines of current "peak oil theory" predictions. As I've mentioned before I'm generally a believer in that theory even though there is a growing number of people claiming its basically a conspiracy by oil companies to drive up prices while they sit on vast untapped reserves.

My usual response to conspiracy theories (including 9/11 related ones) is "its a possible but not probable theory - they could only wish they were smart enough and organized enough to pull of such a stunt in complete secrecy". I think that pretty much applies in this case but it doesn't rule out, as in the 1970's oil crisis, an as yet undiscovered reserve or set of reserves being taped to fill the gap.

However it'll be interesting to review Kunstler's predictions a year hence and see how many he got right. If, that is, I haven't sold out and headed for a log cabin in the woods north of the border (Canada).

Follow your dreams - the smaller the better

I used to think that sailing across an ocean, not even single handed, would be a fun kind of adventure. Being in the middle of an ocean, hundreds, if not thousands of miles from land, surviving on just what you have with you... well something about that appealed to me and I actually thought I might do it one day. Then I actually did some sailing and got my ass slammed around a bit in the swell outside of the Golden Gate (admittedly notoriously rough even without bad weather) and that dream went out the window like a piece of gum from a speeding car. Swooosh!

It wasn't actually the sea sickness (I think I'm above average in resilience to that malady - but certainly not immune), more the feeling that at any moment any one of the pieces of the boat could spontaneously fail (as they often do) and leave me alone and helpless. Add to that actual bad weather, towering seas, freezing cold and the odds really start to stack against you. I have no doubt that surviving such conditions would be "character building stuff" of a "the journey is the reward" type, but lets just say when it comes to wind, waves, freezing cold and daily risk of drowning without a chance of rescue (which I've almost done twice) I'm chicken shit.

So it goes without saying that while I'm envious of those who have actually followed their dreams and made such a voyage I'm also not about to follow in their footsteps any day soon. If you could transport me to the middle of the ocean, guarantee benign conditions, maybe even warm seas for a swim and good food and company I'd be up for it in a flash. Until then I'll stick to more trivial pursuits and perhaps a bit of day sailing on the Bay where a nice chastisers rescue vessel is just a radio call away.

However I can report that Sebastian Naslund wins my prize for ballzy adventures on the ocean. He built his own 14-foot boat and sailed it across the Atlantic from Norway to South America, up the US Atlantic Coast and back again. If don't know much about sailing let me assure you that a 14-foot sailboat is a tiny vessel. It helps that it's built like a lifeboat but lets just say I'm "dead impressed" with what he did. In fact there is even a name for it - "microcruising". Although the photos of Sebastian's voyage are impressive they don't quite win the all time prize for microcruising shock and awe.

That prize goes to Ashley Coulston who sailed the 8-foot G'day-88 4280 miles on the Tasman sea between New Zealand and Australia. After being dismasted he actually abandoned ship on the initial W-E crossing but G'day 88 later washed ashore and it was refitted and sailed back E-W some 2705 miles in 65 days. Bizarrely Coulston was later charged with the execution style killing of three people in Victoria and is now serving a life sentence for the crime.