Articles by JMG
Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay.
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Vader, Cheney, same same
The brilliant series of pieces on Dick (Vader) Cheney continues with the latest installment about destroying salmon runs for partisan purposes, making the western U.S. look like a pincushion punctured with drilling rigs, and unleashing the hounds of hell (snowmobiles) throughout Yosemite.
Dick Cheney -- truly an execrable almost-human being.
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Remember when stupidity was something to be ashamed of rather than a point of pride?
The saying goes that during one of his bids for the White House, a woman told Adlai Stevenson "Not to worry, Senator, all thinking people are with you," to which he replied: "But I need a majority!"
Not only was Stevenson smart and quick-witted enough to make that story plausible, it suggests that the smartest candidates have always had to do a little bit of hiding their lights under a bushel.
But now we live in what Vonnegut called the ultimate scary reality show: C-Students from Yale. The blog called The Daily Howler does a superb job, day in and day out, showing how the press has gone from chronicling our decline into demanding it, as the so-called liberal media positively makes intelligence into a disqualifying trait for leadership.
The relevance here is this: managing our multiple serious environmental challenges in the context of a world with diminishing resource availability and rising population (and poverty) is going to require the sustained application of intelligence of the first order. But rather than consider the intelligence of Bill Richardson a possible asset for a president, Dana Milbank speaks of the burden of having to listen to an erudite speaker drone on. Far more refreshing and relaxing to listen to the malapropisms that come tumbling out of Bush's mouth, perfectly reflecting the dysfunction and chaos behind his dull eyes.
From today's Howler:
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Films should change your perspective
The trailer alone beats an entire Bruce Willis movie. Can't wait for the flick.
