Benghazi and the Ogallala Aquifer

No, they aren’t really related.  I just wanted to post tonight on two different topics.

Benghazi:  The next time some right-winger starts in on Benghazi, I will say, “You know, I’m really not up on this whole Libya thing.  Could you draw me a quick map and show me where Benghazi is in relation to Tripoli?”

Ogallala aquifer:  Yesterday Thomas Friedman wrote about how he believed the revolt in Syria was connected to an on-going drought in that country.  Men and women from the countryside could no longer make their living farming and moved to cities, where jobs were scarce.  Unemployed young people are a volatile mix.

Today a front-page article in the Times talked about drought in the Midwest.  Farmers are discovering that the wells they have been using to water their crops with their center pivot irrigation systems are bringing up sand.  At places the Ogallala aquifer has been tapped out.  

This is water underlying Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and West Texas that has been there since the Ice Age.  Hydrologists think it takes thousands of years to recharge, and they have been predicting for years that we were taking too much water.  

I don’t think we will see a Syrian-type revolt in Haskell County, Kansas.  What I do think we will see is more and more of these environmental crises.  As a headline in the New Republic put it, the planet isn’t warming, it’s dying.  

How should we respond?  I have it.  Let’s hold more hearings on Benghazi.

Into Darkness

We saw the latest Star Trek film yesterday.  It takes place centuries into the future, of course, but the world envisioned is recognizable.  The scenes set in San Francisco still have cable car running amidst the tall buildings, and the Golden Gate Bridge is visible in a number of shots.

The sea level is about the same and the people look comfortable, so I guess global warming wasn’t the problem we thought it would be.  People on earth look prosperous, but maybe that’s just the Bay Area.  I did notice a lack of street trees and a certain sterility.

The best film set in the future is “Blade Runner.”  A constant rain is depicted falling on a bleak and dirty Los Angeles.  If you rent it on NetFlix, try to order the film shown in theaters, not the director’s cut, which is not as good.

Save your money on the Star Trek film now in theaters.  It is too long and actually boring at times.  Maybe the “Fast and Furious XVII” or whatever we are at now will be better.

Linda in the news

Almost every post I’ve ever done is proofed by Linda, but tonight is an exception.  If she knew I was doing this, she’d veto it.  

She and three other local artists recently did a painting for St. Luke’s Hospital to celebrate the merger of that hospital with Coaldale Miners’ Hospital.  The Times News did a nice article on the artists and the painting.  You can view it at <http://www.tnonline.com/2013/may/18/mural-will-be-chanced-during-black-diamond-event-carbon-art-league-donates-mural-temples>.  Check it out.

37 times and counting

Yesterday the House of Representatives voted for the 37th time to repeal Obamacare, this time by a vote of 229 to 195.  Every House Republican voted for the repeal.  

I do know when the 38th vote is scheduled, but I’m sure it will be before the House does anything substantive.

The National Museum of the American Indian

The building itself is worth the trip, and the cafeteria was fabulous, serving Native American food from different areas of the country.  Linda had a dish featuring goat from  the Southwest counter; I ate a fry bread with buffalo chili from the Great Plains.  

I was disappointed in the displays.  I know a museum can’t cover over 600 North American tribes, but would it kill them to mention the Lenape?  Modern reservation life also received little coverage.  The urban Indians of present day Chicago were the subject of a display, but the Indian casino phenomenon was never explored.

As you might expect, many of the exhibits are depressing. Although Indians have survived and, in some cases, retained language and culture, the history of European-Indian contact is one of almost constant treaty-breaking, violence, and genocide.  I do know what genocide means, and that is not too strong a word.

From teaching American studies I knew about the Trail of Tears, the Navajo removal, the slaughter at Wounded Knee, and other atrocities.  What I did not know is that a band of Chiricahua Apaches, some of whom served the U.S. Army as scouts, were removed to Florida as “prisoners of war” in 1886 and held for 27 years before allowed back to their homeland.  I’m sure today we would have put them in Guantanamo.

On the road, again

We're on our way to see the American Indian museum on the Capitol Mall.  Sandra is feeding the chickens, Helen is watching the house, and I'm hoping the hot pepper seedlings can survive for two days without water.

We stopped in at the Virginia Arboretum.  Varieties of flowers are blooming, and the irises alone were worth the walk.  We also passed through a "rural historic preservation area."  I often think of Virginia as backward, but in many respects it is way ahead of Pennsylvania.

I know I was supposed to post about majority tyranny in Pakistan tonight, but I must make a comment on the I.R.S. targeting the Tea Party groups.  What irritates me more than anything is that the whole disaster diverts attention from real scandal, which is that hundreds of millions of dollars are being deducted from income taxes by rich right-wing Republicans.

If I had been I.R.S. director, I would have targeted groups for review this way.  You start with the ones with the most donations and work down.  O.F.A. would probably be in that mix, but so would Rove's group, the Romney front group, and the Koch Brothers.  These groups are making the whole idea of democracy a delusion, and some idiots from the I.R.S. have now made them look like victims.

Praying at the Western Wall

Last week a group of liberal Jewish women attempted to pray at the Western wall in Jerusalem.  They were met by hundreds of Orthodox men who catcalled, whistled, and threw both water and plastic chairs.  It took 300 police to separate the groups.

The ultra-Orthodox, who depend on Israeli subsidies for their large families and avoid serving in the army, have real issues with gender.  They were the people who spit on an 8-year-old girl for wearing a dress that was considered “immodest.”  

When I taught the “Intro to Political Thought” class, I always included a reading from Theodor Herzl, usually considered the founder of modern Zionism.  Herzl advanced the idea of a homeland for Jews, at one time considering Uganda as a possibility.  The state he envisioned, from my reading, was more secular than religious.  I believe he would have been appalled at people who catcalled women trying to pray.

I’ve often thought how nice it would be if we could put all the “orthodox” believers--be they Jews, Muslims, Christians, Basque nationalists, Serb nationalists, 2nd Amendment wackos, Ayn Rand acolytes, Hindu fundamentalists, militia members, and Ted Cruz--on an island somewhere.  The whole world would be a much nicer place.