Author: jameswagner

blessed are the vintners

Yes, I know there is a drama and perhaps a real tragedy being played out in Moscow as I write this, but I read this item about the beleagured wine industry in Chechnya this morning before the news about the hostage taking. I still much prefer to think about one of mankind’s most benign occupations, that of the vintner, than to dwell on the evils still being done in the name of nationalism, greed and power.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 began a tumultuous decade that left Chechnya’s wine industry, like much of the republic, in shambles.
Some here say the industry’s decline began earlier, with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign in 1986, which resulted in thousands of vineyards across the Soviet Union being tilled under.
But it quickened, all agree, when Chechnya’s first president, Dzhokhar Dudayev, declared the republic independent and began to restore Muslim traditions. His government stopped supporting the wineries.
… Of all the factors, though, fighting has caused the greatest toll. The two wars in Chechnya — the first from 1994 to 1996, the second from 1999 and still grinding on — destroyed thousands of acres of vineyards and several wineries, including the main one in the capital, Grozny.

It’s all so very very sad, and so unnecessary.

they still ain’t got no religion

Geesh, these people must think we’re all really stupid!
New York Republican neanderthals have finally decided to let the New York Senate vote on gay rights, but only in order to secure more votes for Republican candidates in November.
The Democratic candidate for governor said it best.

Asked about [Senate Majority Leader Joe] Bruno’s promise, [Carl] McCall replied, “If that’s true, these people really have no principles, do they?”
“For eight years, George Pataki has been promising it, Joe Bruno has been stopping it,” said McCall, the state controller. “Now, what, two weeks before an election … all of a sudden Joe Bruno and George Pataki come up with a little gimmick to try to buy off an endorsement? Most of the endorsements they have, they bought.”

But we shouldn’t get too excited yet, since they are telling us that the vote will come after the November elections.

quite a Big Lie

Weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 without U.N. approval in a predawn evacuation on the orders of their chief, Richard Butler, hours before American and British attacks on Iraq. Butler had been advised by Washington of a possible U.S.-led bombing attack, but the official explanation given for the withdrawal was that Iraq was not cooperating with the inspectors.
Since 1998, the media, which had originally reported the facts basically as described above, has totally revised the story into one which features Iraq throwing inspectors out of the country.
Does anyone need further proof of the media’s collusion with the White House junta?
I have been talking about this for months, and lately I have heard this quite Big Lie repeated even by sources usually critical of Washington propaganda, like The Nation and WNYC’s Brian Lehr.
If the sources of our information are so corrupted, and if even the sceptical are so easily hoodwinked (or become so vulnerable because of just plain laziness), how can we possibly survive as a democracy?
Want more on the story of the “weapons inspectors?”

[from the NYTimes in a 1999 story] WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 — United States officials said today that American spies had worked undercover on teams of United Nations arms inspectors ferreting out secret Iraqi weapons programs.
Iraq has long condemned the inspectors as tools of American intelligence. In October it issued a statement saying it would never cooperate with United Nations teams riddled with ”American spies and agents.”

in so many words

I’m borrowing a direct quote from ZNet email message, because it’s so succinct:

The U.S. propels a war on terorism in
order to pursue its entirely different agendas of redistribution at home
and solidifying empire internationally — not least solidifying control
over Iraqi oil — and of course the predictable horrific increase in
terrorism is then used to fuel additional terror war policies and
responses.

Resist!

still making a fuss!

These are our children!
Activists demonstrated inside and outside of the UN General Assembly yesterday, where they shouted, “No war in Iraq!”
These good folks, knowingly or not, were following in the footsteps and the soundbites of generations of worthy progressive protestors and innovative interlopers, most notably and most recently those spawned by AIDS activism.
Until they close down the world altogether, activists will always find a way to speak.
But I suppose the NYTimes will also always find ways to distort the news and the message. What’s with their gratuitious statement, “The protestors were apparently not armed or carrying any unusual items.”?
One more humble question, this one for the City of New York: Why were six people arrested outside on the street, apparently only for speaking?

sigh

It’s a fucked-up country.
Sexphobia and religion encourages AIDS
Ever bigger, tanklike SUVs protect us from each other
Bombing is regularly employed to maintain peace
Health care is made a commodity
Incumbents are honored when terror strikes on their watch
The environment is converted into theme parks
Public schools must be supported by donations
–or replaced by private schools
History has been turned into a costume party
Violence is conventional
Drugs are regarded as more dangerous than a drug war
Democracy is rejected in favor of gossip
Populism is regarded as class war
Guns are absolutely the law of the land
Taxes are a duty for all but big business and the rich
Intelligence is always suspect
Corporations abjure tax obligations
–but compete to throw money at government
Theocracy is regarded as the ideal polity
Suburban villas keep us as far from each other as money can manage
Using public transportation is regarded as shameful
Morality must always be religious morality, and it usually means sex
Almost everything means sex

“Welcome to New York,” Mr. Trump said.

Asshole Trump essentially embodies the worst aspects of the New York of the last few decades. Stupidity, greed, the appetite for power, horrendous taste, insensitivity, waste, and just plain vulgarity, with absolutely no redeeming social value.
He is an embarassment for a city almost impervious to embarassment.
Why hasn’t he been run out of town yet?