Je ne suis pas Charlie Hebdo

The reaction to the attack on Charlie Hebdo is another instance of our media mischaracterizing a tragedy, similar to Bush's admonition to go shopping after 9/11 and his analysis that "They hate us for our freedom." This is not a matter of free speech, nor are the idiots chanting, "Je suis Charlie Hebdo" anything close to being Charlie Hebdo.
First, free speech is a right limiting a government to not impede free expression, i.e. Lennie Bruce could not be stopped from speaking obscenities. France does not have an anti-blaspheming law yet, and Charlie Hebdo has enjoyed full freedom of expression of all kinds for years. Unfortunately, they pissed off the Muslim world by depicting the prophet, which is blasphemous in Islam. You know the old song, "Sticks and bones may break my bones, but Muslims will never kill me"?
Second, the Charlie Hebdo cartoons are really way out there. They are totally irreverent and blaspheme just about everyone: the Pope, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, French Presidents, Americans; all the cartoons are culturally relevant, but some verge on, well, bad manners. Very, very few journalists, cartoonists, or people outside of asylums have dared to do what they have done. For more about Charlie Hebdo, see a great article on Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/01/charlie_hebdo_cartoons_the_anti_clerical_newspaper_tradition_that_s_as_french.2.html

On another note, Juan Cole's analysis on Truthdig implies the killers' attack was a false flag intended to create the very anti-Muslim reaction that has occurred, all for the purpose of Al Qaeda recruitment. These killers do not care about Islam (they killed a Muslim guard); they only further their cause, although I have not heard much definite about what that cause is lately. Osama Bin Ladin was quite clear in his call to expel the infidels from Saudi Arabia and Palestine, but he is dead.

It is important to understand that the lives of Muslims in France are not so great. French colonialism in Algieria was brutal (see the Battle For Algiers movie), nor did the French behave well in other parts of the Middle East. When the French needed cheap labor, they allowed immigration from their colonies; nevertheless, they really have not treated their immigrants very well. The result is the French Muslims are angry, resentful, and frustrated, perfect conditions for extremist recruitment. It is thus not too far a stretch to foresee more brutal attacks followed by repression, followed by attacks, and so on.

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I finished painting the hull of my pram yesterday and took off the masking tape. So, now the sides are painted 'Seattle Grey' and the bottom is painted with Pacifica Plus black anti-fouling paint, while the transoms and rails are varnished wood. Almost ready to launch!

Torture Works

The essential problem with our current debate about torture is that not nearly enough Americans have been tortured.

Consider John McCain, the only Senator who has actually been tortured and who is adamantly and fiercely opposed to any kind of torture policy. Perhaps a lack of empathy in most Americans allows them to consider torture acceptable; however, compassion and a belief in basic human rights should demand rejecting torture in all its forms. Still, lacking empathy, a bit of experience would go a long way to convince Americans that torture is wrong. I recall that I possess that experience.

I have been tortured, surely not as severe as in a CIA black site, and my tormentors were not interested in information, only punishment and “behavior modification.”

It happened when I was arrested for essentially protesting police brutality in Ignacio, Colorado. Instead, the Ignacio police brutes turned on me. They almost shot me and then proceeded to beat me silly (I later counted 43 separate cuts and contusions), which was really not so bad, but then they threw me in the La Plata County Jail.

What not to do

I got to the jail in the evening and was a less than cooperative prisoner. To punish me (and perhaps “teach a lesson”), two of the guards put me into this specially reinforced canvas jacket with leather wrist and ankle straps and chains, then they tightened the straps and chains, forcing my arms behind me to fasten to my ankles (the straps were so tight that it took almost ten years to restore full feeling in my hands). The jailors, a fat one and a young blond one, placed me on a bench in the cell and the fat one said, “Don’t move from that bench or you won’t be able to get back up.” They then left me alone.



Richard Kuklinkski, cyanide killer

Fifteen minutes later, the two barged into my cell and one of them held some kind of spray can. I said, “What’s that?” The blond one replied, “It’s cyanide. We’re gonna kill you.” They then sprayed the cyanide liberally around the room and rushed out before it could kill them, too. Of course, I leapt (clumsily) from the bench and put my nose to the crack under the door to breathe clean air. After a few minutes, I heard them laughing and noticed that the spray was something like Lysol.

I managed to get back on my bench and proceeded to endure the pain of a “stress position.” All night long my hands, feet, ankles, and wrists ached with such intensity that I could only breathe. My Zen training must have paid off, as I managed to breathe through each wave of pain. Pain followed pain. Pain was my world, there was no other.

Finally, about eight in the morning, the lights came on  and the jail doctor entered the cell. He took one look at me and ordered the jailors to untie me. The relief was bliss! Then, at ten that morning, the nice judge mandated me to hospital, and my ordeal was over.

Afterwards, I was ever so polite to policemen and jailors, you bet, yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir, no, I don’t want anymore, sir! So, torture works, folks, absolutamente. However, I must confess that I was not really cured of my inner unruliness, contempt for cruel and incompetent police, and detest of injustice. I just learned to be a bit more circumspect.

Election whoopdee doo!

Gwen Graham Victory Speech

Well, this has been a pretty demoralizing election. At least, Gwen Graham, a vaguely liberal democrat won in Florida's District 2, my district, so I don't have to read the obnoxious ravings of Tea Party Steve Southerland, or argue with his policies on his Facebook page.

I thought she would lose because the substance of her policy seemed to be attacking Steve Southerland (not hard to do). So, the Second District showed some sense in spite of Graham's pusillanimity.

What I find impossible to understand is why these Democrats cannot find the heart to actually stand for something beneficial to ordinary people. I believe that if they actually espoused the genuinely progressive and radical policies that might help us overcome global warming, the security state, the militarists, the corporatists, the racists, the fascists, the woman-haters, the drug-haters, the children-haters, the democracy-haters, the science-haters, the patriarchs, they might surprise themselves and win an election. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders won this way.

I know that that the conservative elites are so invested in their wealth and opportunity and status, that they cannot think clearly and see any kind of progressive policies as threats. not gifts. For centuries, they have dominated women and feared homosexuality, oppressed black people and poor whites, and exploited the environment, and they are unwilling to give all that up, even though their very lifestyle is a threat to their survival. But, what is puzzling is why anyone shy of upper-middle class status goes along with them.

Howard Zinn reported that the early colonial elites invented racism to keep runaway slaves, Indians, and poor whites isolated from each other due to their fear of a coordinated uprising against them, and I believe this kind of mind-poison is still being slung about. Either that, or that the racism developed over centuries has become 'institutionalized' and endemic in a large part of the population. Just as insidious is the belief some men hold of their right to dominate women, and they do not want to end their privilege. Arms manufacturers (and their employees) thrive off war, business thrives off exploitation, financiers thrive off interest. There are lots of reasons to preserve the status quo, even for the exploited, especially for the average man who oppresses his wife and daughters (why any woman would support Republicans is solid proof of the Stockholm Syndrome, but one writ large).

When I was a naïve young Zen student marching across the United States protesting the Vietnam War, I believed I had discovered 'Zen Politics'. A New York Roshi informed me that my 'discovery' was a delusion, and after almost fifty years, I see what he means. Voltaire's Candide ended up pleasantly tending his garden, perhaps waiting for the crazies to die off.

Even in Voltaire's time, change was coursing, and we are now involved in perhaps the most extensive change of the entire span of mankind's existence. Conservatives by their nature, oppose change, but in this case they are monkeys howling against the hurricane. Good sense is not enough, it seems, so like Shakyamuni's horses, we have to be beat to death before following the Way. Good luck!

Golden Ball

the Golden Ball ketch under sail showing the starboard leeboard

My new employer, the Apalachicola Maritime Museum, is restoring an L. Francis Herreshoff design wooden boat, a shallow-draft, leeboard ketch designed for West Florida waters, named the Golden Ball. I have been working on a newsletter article celebrating the boat and chronicling the restoration process and progress. A Golden Ball fan stopped in Apalach for supplies and a look at the work in progress. I interviewed him about experience living aboard and sailing boats of this type.

During our talk, his wife, complained about all that welfare money going to drug addicts, how recipients should be drug-tested and denied benefits if positive. I was a bit astounded that a freewheeling, open sky, sailboat person could hold that view (I favor legalization and treatment and an absolute and complete end to the War On Drugs). We went on talking and my new friend turned out to be a War on Iraq and Vietnam War supporter. He actually said that if we had not overthrown Saddam Hussein in 2003 the Middle East would be in a terrible mess today (I wondered if he had skipped reading the news due to long time at sea and just had not noticed ISIS, the civil war in Syria, the disintegration of Libya, the militarization of Egypt. I also wondered if he had not noticed the cozy capitalism now practiced by the Vietnamese). He stated that the Vietnam War was only fought to stop Communism, as if Communism were a deadly virus. I objected, and we argued, then I apologized for my statements explaining that I mistakenly thought he was a working man, and a man of the people, not one of the rich elites that communism might harm. No, he said he had no money, but that he believed in Liberty and Choice, and he feared that some communist government would force him to do things he just did not want to do (maybe like work). He said he knew some Cubans who had told him how terrible their lives were before they fled Cuba for America. I replied that when a country is under constant, vicious attack from a powerful, terrorist neighbor, this kind of 'choice' must be abandoned in order to protect the nation from its enemies. He did not seem to understand my point, nor my thesis that communism in Vietnam was a homegrown response to French Colonialism, not a product of an international conspiracy where "the communists came to Vietnam from Russia (or China, he was not sure)." He also believed that Muslims in general were guilty of attacking 'the homeland', and that 9-11 was not just a criminal conspiracy (while the Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City bombing was). At this point in our talk, he actually threw up his hands and he walked out of the museum, so I guess I lost my friend! It is painful, sometimes, to be right.

I am confounded how these right-wing memes, so false and vile, are so prevalent in the culture and so impossible to dissuade. Neither logic nor facts work to bring forth right thinking in these kinds of peoples. On the other hand, some of our veterans might have committed or at least observed atrocities during their wars, and their sanity depends on a world view that maintains whatever the US does is always right, i.e. "My country, right or wrong." Very sad.

Sunset Cruise

iPod photo, sun setting over Saint Vincent Island

On my new job, I sometimes work as the mate on our cruise boat tours. My duty is to assist the captain and the guests and provide informative comment on the trip. Last night, I got to go on our "Sunset Cruise", a trip out on Apalachicola Bay where we can view a proper sunset, and as was the case October 8, a full moon rise. Nice.

Our little boat community quickly developed a rapport, and it was great to be able to speak frankly with people. One couple was from Kentucky, another from Georgia. We actually were able to politely talk politics and, wonder of wonders, we were in complete agreement. 

Sun almost gone!

Now, the Georgia couple were partaking of a bottle of white wine, which smelled very sweet, and I was offered some. However, as a Coast Guard approved cruise ship mate, I had to decline. They, however, got pleasantly tipsy. At one point, the nice lady lamented the fact that her hill-billy kinsmen voted Republican in spite of their economic and class interests. Naturally, I agreed that wonder was in order and proposed that perhaps wedge issues were to blame, i.e. abortion, gay marriage, whatever Karl Rove dreams up.

Today, I discovered a better answer. The Maritime Museum paid for all us mates and captains to attend a class given at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (now in Eastpoint), and the lecturer spoke of the current threats to Apalachicola Bay system: development, water diversion, pollution, and over-fishing. All but the last occur upriver, and all involve one primary theme, PROGRESS.

So, I think that all those people who vote against their class interests have deluded themselves with the chimera of progress. They believe in it, and they believe the Republican Party stands for it, even though most Democrats are also deluded by progress, although they may not believe in it with the fervor of the true church. Furthermore, they all confuse progress with money and all those other flashy symbols of the Way, i.e. a MacDonald's hamburger franchise setting on reclaimed wetland. They want to go along with that program, no matter that they will end up more poor and more desperate because of their allegiance to The Big Dream, thus dooming the rest of us.

Me, I am happy to do without progress. Oh, by the way, the patriarchy has a sole-proprietorship on Progress. No woman would be so idiotic!

Memes, Slings, and a New Job

Whoopie Sling on the left, eye sling on the right

 I have been making 'Whoopie Slings' and 'Tree Eyes' out of a fantastic new rope called Amsteel Blue, made out of Dyneema (both registered trademarks), rope that is stronger than steel and lighter than water.
Campers use whoopie slings for hanging their hammocks and arborists use both slings and eyes for hoisting their trees. Of course, the size (and strength) of the rope varies with the application. I started using 7/64" Amsteel I bought on eBay for use around the boat. This rope is very thin and light, perfect for hammock-hanging whoopie slings because it weighs almost nothing. The idea is to fasten slings on either end of the hammock to trees, then adjust the slings to fit. Once weight (or tension) is applied, the sling will not move because one end of the rope passes inside a section of the rope like a Chinese puzzle, forming a loop. Due to the nature of the braid, when tension is applied, the loop becomes rigid, but without tension, the loop is easily adjustable.
I learned to use a piece of thin wire to pull one end of the rope inside of itself, forming a fixed loop on one end and an adjustable loop on the other. The first whoopie sling took me about two hours, and the tenth took less than half an hour. I made them and sold them on eBay until I was out of the 7/64" material.
Then, I wanted to replace the lower lifelines on Sunrise. The old ones were made of 1/4" nylon 3-strand rope, which was degraded in many places from chafing. I bought some cheap 5/32" Amsteel on eBay for the lifelines, but then I was asked for a whoopie sling out of the 5/32" rope and the customer was willing to pay extra, so I was back in the sling business. In order to not be overwhelmed, I kept raising the price until I reached $16, but I ran out of material. I still needed rope for the lifelines, but when I went to buy more, I found that the previous eBay prices were exceptionally low, and I ended up buying some 3/16" Amsteel (much better for lifelines) for 75 cents a foot, more than three times the previous price! I did sell one 3/16" whoopie sling for a higher price, but that was to an arborist. On the other hand, the new lifelines are exceptional!
In retrospect, 1/8" Amsteel might be the best choice for whoopie slings. It is still fairly inexpensive (36 cents/foot), very strong (almost one ton safe working load), and easy to work with (12 strand braid and sized so my splicing tools fit), but it weighs slightly more than 7/64". I have sold several so far.

I can leave my cottage industry behind, though, because on Monday, 8/11, I go to work for the Apalachicola Maritime Museum! It is a part-time, minimum wage job, funded by a Department of Labor program for us older people, but I will still end up with enough extra cash to be able to live and maintain my boat-maintenance habit--I need a new anchor. On the job, I will be a mate on the museum tour boats, man the front desk to greet people (like a Wallmart greeter), book tours, write for the newsletter, and help curate the museum.

That leaves memes. I have noticed that the US media, including Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, has settled on the narrative that the massive influx of Central American children at the border is the result of Obama's limited amnesty for the Dreamers, children who came to America with their parents at a young age. Thus, immigrant children can also expect amnesty. Unscrupulous 'coyotes' have sold this fantasy to parents in order to make money. The conclusion of this narrative is that the cause of the migration is greed on the part of the coyotes and delusion on the part of the parents. All Obama has to do to end the problem is to inform Central America that no such amnesty is available.

Of course, there is probably a grain of truth in this idea. Coyotes will make money. The 2008 Anti-Trafficking Law does provide some protection of child migrants. Perhaps the Dreamers policy did get wrongly interpreted. Nevertheless, there is ample evidence that conditions in Central America are driving the children to flee their homeland. See Running For Their Lives--The Child Migrant Crisis. Ignoring root the causes of immigration problems allows the administration and legislators to apply band-aid, symptomatic solutions that are both cruel and inhumane. True solutions, of course, such as ending CAFTA and NAFTA, the War On Drugs, and support for right-wing kleptocracies in Mexico and Central America are out of the question.

Next to consider is the Ukraine. It has been well documented that the US State Department and NGOs such as the NED were instrumental in causing the coup that literally chased Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych out of office to exile in Russia. It is also known that many of the people forming the new Kiev government are extreme nationalists with a decided Russian-hating, neo-nazi, fascist bent. Kiev lost Crimea and fomented civil war in Eastern Ukraine precisely because of its dedication to the EU bankers with their austerity programs and US militarists with their NATO, new Cold War, program. Putin's rejection of this government is entirely rational in terms of both protecting the Russian state and supporting ethnic Russians who want nothing to do with Kiev. Yet, Putin is reviled in the US press (and maybe the European), as the warmonger fomenting violence in Eastern Ukraine and he has been both blamed and punished for all the ills in the Ukraine (even the Daily Show adopts this meme). Putin is certainly not so wonderful a leader, but all this mess in Ukraine is the direct result of US and EU meddling, not Russian.

There are many more instances of American propaganda, memes that distort our understanding of the world, too many to easily recount. There are many people like my neighbor, Al, who constantly proclaim that the US has done more 'good' in the world than any other country in history. I am sure that the people in Iran appreciate the goodness of the CIA when it unseated Mossadegh and installed the Shah in 1953. Then there was the goodness of the Jimmy Carter policy to support the mujaheddin in Afghanistan that so threatened the Afghan government that they appealed to the Soviet Union to send troops for support. Not to leave a good stone unturned, the CIA continued to support the mujaheddin with (good) arms to fight the (bad) Russians, a bit that leads directly to Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and the goodness of 9/11. Although the litany of American policy blunders is much to long to list completely, the upshot is that none of these efforts ever, ever, has a good result and most cause humanitarian disasters. The list continues today with Obama's good policies of drone assassinations and public spying, which only broadens Al Franken's condemnation of Stupid White Men to include any brand of stupid American. I should really point out to neighbor Al, who hates Obama, that white men do not have a monopoly on stupidity.

Visitations

Sunrise, a 31' Southern Cross cutter built in 1976

I got a visit! Well, actually more than one. First, some lovely young students from Auburn on a Christian mission in Apalachicola came to see me--I don't know if they came for my soul or for my wisdom, but I liked them. Then, Sylvia, the wife of my great friend Martin Lamarque came with Sara Smith and her daughter Sara Elena. I got to show them the sights of Apalachicola, which really is a sleepy fishing village with an overlay of tourists (just like Mexico). Lots of fun! I got a good photo of the boat from the deck of Up The Creek Raw Bar.

My son Adam and his partner, Dana, came to visit several weeks ago and we took the boat out on the river. Almost to the railroad bridge, we anchored for a swim. At the bow with the anchor let out, I told Adam to juice the engine in reverse, thus 'setting' the anchor. When we went to leave, I wanted to motor up to the anchor instead of winching all the way. The engine ran, the transmission spun, but the propeller did not! Evidently, going into reverse was the last turn for the nut holding transmission and propeller shaft together--it spun off and we were dead in the water. So, we had to sail home, which was really lots of fun.

I bought a new nut for $8, then I had to buy a special, low-clearance socket for it in order to put the boat back into working order. Getting all these parts took weeks, but finally I put it all together. I finished just before Sara, Sylvia, and Sara came to visit, but they did not want to take a little cruise. At any rate, I am ready for hurricane season!

The notions on my mind these days are the madness in Ukraine and the cruelty in Gaza. It seems that everyone wants to blame President Putin of Russia for both the civil war and the downing of the Malaysian airplane. It is clear to me that our State Department, with the aid of European financiers, helped engineer the coup that eventually instigated the separation of the Crimea and the intended separation of the ethnic-Russian Eastern Ukraine. Those people did not want anything to do with the Kiev government, and considering rhetoric at the time, anti-Russian language edicts, anti-Russian hate speech, who can blame them? One of the secret elements of the pact that created the Kiev government (or kleptocracy) was a clause allowing the Ukraine to join NATO. So, it is no wonder that Putin would seek to protect his seaport and his borders. What else would these geniuses expect? So, World War III might be just around the corner, a boon to American neocons and arms dealers, well, at least until we all blow up in a nuclear holocaust!
As for Gaza, the chutzpah of the Israelis is remarkable. They are practicing genocide on a small scale, but they practice it all the time, year after year. They claim self-defense, but that is pretty hollow. Somehow, they excuse their own evil by referencing the Holocaust, which makes no sense to me. I believe the true aim and strategy of Israel's Likud government is to drive all the Palestinians away or kill them all, whichever comes first. And, I find this reprehensible and unacceptable. The fact that our government gives them so much support disgusts me.

Tomorrow evening, Gwen Graham, the Democratic candidate seeking to unseat U.S. Representative Steve Southerland is appearing at a town hall meeting (literally in the town hall). I plan to attend and ask some gad-fly questions. These Democrats for the most part are too timid to tell the truth, although I believe that with some truth they could win.