walking hand in hand
serendipitous Ireland
love in foreign land

embraced destiny
married to ~myDakini
sweet serenity

my cool wife bought me
an iPhone for my birthday
best gadget ever

economy sucked
got laid off from work
back to Dilbert world

hope is in the air
casted vote for Obama
change America

lame duck, flying shoes
in the midst of recession
stupid wars go on

pure white evergreens
(hyper)streaming the Divine
in 2009

Sarah Palin - photo via Wikipedia

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

- Transcript: Gov. Sarah Palin at the RNC

The first time I laid eyes on Sarah Palin I was still half awake. I just dreamt about her nomination. There I was staring at the TV witnessing a beautiful woman standing by John McCain announcing her candidacy as VP.

Sarah who? At first I thought I was so politically ignorant that I didn’t even know her. It soon turned out that the media people (and some people in her own party) were also scampering to find out who she really is.

So who is Sarah Palin? It depends on who you want believe–the media, the internet, the Republicans, the Democrats, the people around her, or whoever she says she is. But this I know for sure. I have a crush on her. I was overpowered by her allure.

Who wouldn’t? She’s driven, politically savvy, athletic, intelligent, eloquent, charismatic, and an all around super hockey mom who has a big beautiful family with uber-adorable babies. She’s a perfect image of an all-American mom. Even Craig Ferguson succumbed to her “naugthy librarian” charm. I love books. Naughty librarians make me

But what about her experience? Well, she used to be a basketball player, a member of the PTA, mayor of Wasilla and now Governor of Alaska. Beauty, athletics, politics, and brains all in one package. Droool!

And then there’s her historic and infamous acceptance speech. Forget those lowly celebrities. A star is born.

+100 Crush points

Sarah Palin rose to the occasion amidst the unbearable whiteness of the Republican National Convention. The Republican base is energized with a speech full of condescension. People are excited. They haven’t been this excited with John McCain. We’ve got a star in our midst! Screw the issues! We might have a shot at this election after all! USA! USA!

Some say Palin is a willing sacrificial lamb in this election. If she is, then she’s faking it real good. She looks like she’s playing to win. They don’t call her “Sarah Barracuda” for nothing. I’m looking forward to how she’ll charm Joe Biden in the debate. Biden better not look into her eyes for too long lest his foreign policy experience would melt like ice cream on a hot plate.

Hello, world!

But the more I get to know Sarah Palin the more I realize that my crush on her is so fleeting. She’s a projection of my own narcissism. I admire her looks, her brains and her overall packaging. But beneath the surface of her charm, her worldview give me pause and alarm. The reality is, our views are worlds apart. I vote with my worldview and my understanding of issues, and for me, Sarah Palin doesn’t make the cut.

But I couldn’t get myself angry at Palin. It’s John McCain that I look down in disdain for using her and toying with the election in the most powerful nation on Earth. The Republicans are desperate and they know they can’t win on issues. That’s why they opted to play the game of “How low can you go?”

Sam Harris put it bluntly and succinctly:

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the “Who would you like to have a beer with?” poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages — and loses — both necessary and unnecessary wars.

McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work.

Exactly. This is the kind of politics I loathe in my developing country of origin. I’m disheartened to see it happening here in America, yet again.

The sad thing is that there’s a chance that McCain’s ploy might work. But I have faith and I’m optimistic that majority of the American people would see through the cracked character of a once noble politician that is John McCain.

I still have a crush on Sarah Palin. But I don’t love her worldview, her party and her politics. They give good rallying speeches. But their message comes across to me as: Screw your community, Country first, and the hell with the rest ‘em!

As I write this I’m awaiting for John McCain’s acceptance speech, and Barack Obama’s appearance on the O’Reilly Factor. Now this would be entertaining.

P.S. What the f*ck is a community organizer anyway?

However, since most of my legal knowledge is based on watching Law & Order, I’m in no position to confidently judge Bugliosi’s legal assertions (no
matter how compelling and logical they are). That’s why I’m on the lookout for a "legalese" review of this book, preferably with good counter-arguments. Here’s what I found so far (emphasis in the original).

via Skippy Stalin: Enjoy Every Sandwhich

Bugliosi does make a compelling case that Bush seriously misled the
Congress and the people, if not actually lied to them. This is
particularly true of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate
that was, shall we say, “selectively” declassified to omit the
qualifiers from the intelligence community that said “We judge that
Iraq has a continuing weapons program…” to read “Iraq has a continuing
weapons program.” The declassification also pointedly excluded the
dissents from the the intelligence departments of the Air Force and the
departments of State and Energy.

The declassification also didn’t include this vaguely important nugget, “Baghdad
for now appears to be drawing the line short of conducting terrorist
attacks with conventional or CBW against the United States, fearing
that exposure of Iraqi involvement would provide Washington a sronger
case for making war. Iraq probably would attempt clandestine attacks
against the US Homehand if Baghdad feared (that) an attack that
threatened the survival of the regime were imminent or unavoidable.”

That sort of turns the administration’s rhetoric about “the imminent
threat” on its head, doesn’t it? That might’ve been important for the
American people to know before they committed to war. And that would
ordinarily constitute an impeachable offense. The problem with that is
that Congress had access to the classified NIE and did nothing. Worse,
most of them never bothered to actually read it. If that makes Bush
guilty of murder, it would make the 535 members of Congress guilty of
negilgent homicide. They had a duty to read that classified report before voting to send Americans to war.

In short, based on the above counter-argument, prosecuting George W Bush won’t fly, not because Bush is not guilty, but because finding him guilty would take the entire Congress with him (well, maybe except those who voted against the war). Jeesh. Maybe that’s why impeachment is off the table because the blame runs deep and wide. And while we’re at it, why not throw in big media as accessory too?

Looking forward to more legal debates on this controversial book. It’s so much better than watching Law & Order marathons.

"What is recommended in this book is, as the title says, the prosecution of the president of the United States for murder. Although America is supposedly a free country, with freedom of speech and expression becoming our most cherished constitutional right, a considerable number of establishment people in this country–including many of the biggest and most powerful publishing houses in America–made it clear that even though they completely agreed with what I was saying in the book and recognized its potential in the marketplace, the book was something they did not want to have their name connected with. (Two law professors, liberal at that, were afraid to even look at the book.) In other words, the publishers’ fears trumped money. Having cold feet, their essential position was that the book, as one publisher put it, was "too hot to handle." I understand their position, and I don’t criticize them for it. But that doesn’t mean I’m impressed with them, either.

"Why all the fear? Its because of what this nation has become in the last twenty years, particularly the last eight. A nation whose virulent and dangerous right wing–the most unpatriotic of all Americans, and about whom Barry Goldwater said late in his life, "Don’t associate my name with anything you do; you’ve done more damage to the Republican party than the Democrats have"–have transformed us into a country where many everyday Americans, for the first time ever, do not feel 100 percent comfortable and safe. And most humans yield to fear, even curry favor with those who cause it. When you have a very decent and honorable man like Mario Cuomo being sufficiently intimidated to say, "I respect Rush Limbaugh," an uncommonly loathsome individual (if I may be so presumptuous, Mario Cuomo does not respect Rush Limbaugh. how would that even be possible?), that one example among countless others reflects the shadow of fear, no matter how small, that has now descended on a once great nation.

"Out of this miasma of fear emerged a man, Roger Cooper, the publisher of this book, who loved America enough and had enough courage to step up to the plate and say, in effect, "No matter what, if America is ever to become the nation it once was, this story has to be told.""

I started reading the book last night. The more I read it the more I’m disappointed with current
state of news media, partisan politics, and especially the talking points on the U.S. presidential election debates on foreign policy.

I said this before and I’ll say it again: The debate shouldn’t revolve around the surge. The debate should go back to first principles! And, surely, Obama has the upper-hand on this. As Larry Hunter had exemplified, enough with partisan loyalty and follow your principles and moral compass!

But don’t despair fellow Americans. Our mainstream media may be paralyzed with fear, but the Canadians got our back.

"For Windsor businessman Jim Shaban, investing in a documentary based
on an explosive book by famed U.S. author Vincent Bugliosi could open
the door to Hollywood.

"I jumped right in because this would be the catalyst, this would be the door opener," Shaban said.

"This would get me in the door in Hollywood. If someone is going to buy the book to read this, they’re going to see the movie."

"The book appeared to have everything going for it — author
Bugliosi, who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson and subsequently
wrote Helter Skelter — had three of his 11 books reach No. 1 on the
New York Times bestsellers list. Earlier this year, he won the
prestigious Edgar Allan Poe award for best fact crime book for
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
which is being turned into a miniseries at HBO.

"But since
Bugliosi’s latest work, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
(Vanguard Press), was released six months ago, it has been virtually
ignored by the mainstream media in the U.S, said Peter Miller,
Bugliosi’s literary manager.

"We were blacklisted from the media for about six weeks," said Miller.

"Bugliosi’s
publicists "had arranged originally for Vanity Fair to do a story on
this, and Vanity Fair dropped out," said Miller. "Then Newsweek was
going to do an essay, and at the last minute they dropped out. The New
York Times has not reviewed this book." [read more]

Looking forward to this documentary. Meanwhile, the political media circus in the U.S. rages on…

I didn’t like the cartoon either (who says you have to like a satire?), but it’s no big deal. I agree with Jon Stewart’s hilarious defense of the cartoon.

For me the bottom line is this: The New Yorker and JibJab satire (funny as they are) got more media
hoopla than the real issues that plunged the U.S. into geopolitical
chaos.

P.S. Screw the mainstream news media. I’m gonna watch myFORA – http://fora.tv/myfora/c4chaos

Anyway, I’m glad to say that we have this feature on Gaia, with privacy settings of course. It’s called Gaia activity. You can check out my Gaia activity here — http://coolmel.gaia.com/activity. As you can see, I’ve got nothing to hide

However, the more I use FriendFeed, the more I realize that FriendFeed has become the ultimate Troll Kolektor™ I’ve been dreaming of. With it’s cross-service aggregation, rooms and search feature, it has exponentially increased its value as a social media go to site. Not only I can aggregate all my activities from different sites, but more importantly, I can search my own activities and my friends’ activities.

For example, if I want to recall all my bookmarks, tweets, comments, and posts about "post-american" stuff, I can simply search my own page.

http://friendfeed.com/search?q=post-american&who=c4chaos

And if I want to check out what my blogging buddy Bill is reading about neuroscience, I can simpy search his page.

http://friendfeed.com/search?q=neuroscience&who=wlh

Very cool.

Serendipitously, there’s a post on Mashable asking, Could Social Media See the End of Google’s PageRank? Interesting. But I prefer to see these services developing in parallel rather than replacing the other. Yet some people already made FriendFeed their homepage.

As for me, I rarely click the home button but I do have a FriendFeed button on my browser. Same banana. This just means that I’ve grown to love FriendFeed.

The bottom line: If you’re into social media and you’re still not using FriendFeed, you’re missing out BIG time. That said, feel free to add me. I still love collecting trolls

"OTTAWA, June 30 (Xinhua) — The U.S. Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama surpasses Prime Minister Stephen Harper to
become Canadians’ favorite politician, according to poll released Monday.

"The survey, conducted by the Strategic Counsel in the
United States and Canada, showed that in Canada, Obama was more admired than
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and any other national leader." [read more]

And this is true not only in Canada but also in Germany. And I would guess in other European countries as well. In short, Obamamania is a worldwide phenomenon. From a geopolitical perspective, this should count for something. That’s why McCain and Obama are campaigning abroad too.

"The McCain-Obama matchup is “not a traveling roadshow to be shared with foreigners,” said David Ignatius in The Washington Post,
but the world “cares passionately about where America is heading,” so
maybe it should be. The two candidates should consider Dubai’s offer to
host a presidential debate. Iraq, Iran, and Mideast policy are a big
part of this election, so why not debate them in the region?"

Exactly!

This positive image of Obama is proof that he is looking more of a fit leader (at least image-wise) in a Post-American world. Of course, delivering on his image as a post-american president is another story that we can only look forward to.

To all my Canadian buddies, Happy Canada Day!

"The Political Brain is a
groundbreaking investigation into the role of emotion in determining
the political life of the nation. For two decades Drew Westen,
professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, has
explored a theory of the mind that differs substantially from the more
"dispassionate" notions held by most cognitive psychologists, political
scientists, and economists—and Democratic campaign strategists. The
idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing
the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works. When
political candidates assume voters dispassionately make decisions based
on "the issues," they lose. That’s why only one Democrat has been
re-elected to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt—and only one
Republican has failed in that quest.

"In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins.
Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace
filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving
oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role." [read more]

Exactly.

Here’s a key excerpt from the book:

"What a voter needs to know most in deciding
whether to vote for one candidate or the other are four things, roughly
in this order: First, do they share the values that matter most to me,
and do they care about people like me? Second, can I trust them to
represent me faithfully? Third, do they have the personal qualities
that lead me to believe they’ll do right by my values and interests,
such as integrity, leadership, and competence? And fourth, if there’s
an issue that really matters to me (e.g., the Iraq War), what’s their
stand on it, and can I trust them to think about it and make decisions
which I would probably make if I had all the information they’ll have
as my elected representative?" [read more]

Now check out this video of Drew Westen driving his point across.

Then watch Obama’s "Country I Love" TV ad and McCain’s "624787" TV ad. Between the two candidates who moves you more? Who do you think moves the electorate more?

"We’ve made great strides in the past century towards understanding
the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive brain function, and I
will briefly present an overview of some of the major conclusions of
that work. In short, though, what we have are sophisticated molecular
regulators and sensors and effectors and modulators that generate
patterned impulses in pathways throughout the brain, and the mind is
ultimately reducible to highly organized chemistry—there’s no room for
ghosts, souls, or spirits, and no need for them, either."

Here’s the first part of the video. (second part here)

I have high respect for PZ Myers. I enjoy reading his Pharyngula blog where he makes fun of religious fundamentalists. But when it comes to the topic of consciousness, Myers is too biased with objective reality. And he’s proud of that too. Somehow I think even Sam Harris would be baffled my Myers’s assertion. Atheists need not be materialists nor reductionists. Go ahead and watch the video and see if my knee-jerk reaction is justified.

In the meantime, check out these links that treat mind/consciousness as more than "highly organized chemistry".

Misreading the Mind – If neuroscientists want to understand the mystery of consciousness, they’ll need new methods.

Ken Wilber: Guest Blog: Physicists and Mystics

P.S. Check this out too: An Integral Theory of Consciousness