"In the Long Run…

…We Will All Be Indian"

Jamal Mecklai

Keynes was wrong. Darwin was right.

Keynes famously said, “In the long run, we will all be dead.” Of course, he was speaking just of himself and people around him. I am speaking of all humankind. Darwin, too, was speaking of the species of man, and he famously recognized that diversity is the basis for sustainability – something that environmentalists have been trying to sell the world’s populist leaders on.

Last week, I met an interesting gentlefella – American, venture capitalist with Sand Hill Road pedigree and investments in many diverse parts of the globe. His first time in India, though, and he was curious about several (to me) very obvious elements of the culture. Being men – all right, boys – we, of course, talked about women. He told me that he was amazed that when he (and his wife) had asked an Indian woman to take their photograph, the woman took his camera and handed it to the man with her, who, smiled at them and took the photograph. In America, he said, any woman would have taken the photograph thinking nothing of it. Even in China, where he had spent a lot of time, this would not have been an issue. He was surprised and curious, and wanted to know more about the difference between the sexes in India and whether it was different in the case of Hindus or Muslims and so on.

Fired Up in Texas writes:

You Make Me Join The Minutemen

You people are supporters of terrorism... I wouldn't support you if you held a gun to my head!

You should be ashamed of yourselves. Have you ever heard of entering this country legally? You have just compelled this household to join the Minutemen.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Under the Shadows of Terrorism"
Mathew G.H. Toll

The 7th of July terrorist attacks which set off four bombs throughout the London public transport system have murdered 56 and injured 700 people. This is the worst bombing Britain has seen since Pan Am Flight 103 bombing on December 21, 1988.

With theses attacks on London and the British nation a leading member of the "coalition of the willing." This event forces those of us who aren’t taking in by Tony Blair’s much loved “stoicism” to ask a few questions.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Bush in a Bottle"

John Chuckman

There have been rumors of Bush taking to the bottle again. Since alcoholics are never cured, this is possible. The stress of having his ineptitude so publicly displayed as it was in New Orleans and of having his every major policy collapsing before his eyes would certainly tend to push him in this direction.

There are also rumors of very ugly behavior towards associates and especially anyone bringing unwelcome news.

These rumors have sparked stories of the dangers of a drunken President, but I think these stories are misguided. If true, Bush's drinking is a development we should welcome. There is, in fact, less danger from a drunken Bush, and his return to drinking would provide one of the most fitting possible outcomes for his destructive, miserable time in office, a political version, if you will, of time wounds all heels.

His handlers will not allow him to do anything truly dangerous. Neo-cons are moral ciphers, but they are not suicidal. Remember the precautions taken during Nixon's last days in office when he was gulping whiskey by the tumbler? Not only will a Bush back on the bottle effectively be side-lined, but all his ghastly entourage will be forced to spend their remaining time trying to hide the facts.

In the meantime, I think it would be helpful, as well as a fitting political statement, for all concerned Americans who can afford the cost to send a gift bottle of Bourbon to the White House. Who knows, it might just speed things along?

First Responders Urged Not to Respond

Here's an interesting list that paints a very curious overall picture of government ineptitude, or worse...

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck

FEMA turns away generators

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"

That last one is also real — not satire, but straight from FEMA's website.

Phil Rockstroh writes:

"Levees Made of Lies:
Rage, Grief, and the Chimera of the American Dream"
Phil Rockstroh

An entire American city has become an uninhabitable mire of fetid water, sodden ruins, and toxic sludge. Moreover, the destruction will not end there: the financial, political, and psychological spill-off, incurred by the deluge, will cause our nation to sink further into a morass of debt, denial, and despair.

How did it come to this? How did we come to buy this worthless plot of swampland known as George Bush's America?

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Lessons From Hell"

John Chuckman

Amid death and destruction, Bush not as Nero, but as Caligula's horse Incitatus

If he is alive, Osama bin Laden surely is enjoying some hearty laughter. Nothing he could imagine, short of the virtually-impossible task of obtaining a tactical nuclear weapon and detonating it in an American city, compares to the damage just inflicted upon the United States by its own President.

Ten thousand dead is the estimate of New Orleans' mayor. A morticians' emergency measures organization is ready for forty thousand corpses. We won't know for weeks, maybe months, as attics, basements, sewers, canals, and dumpsters are searched. The economic damage is nothing less than colossal.

Phil Rockstroh writes:

"Listen Up, You Christo-Fascist Bullies,
You Apostles Of Perpetual Psychosis,
It's High Time Somebody Called You Out"
Phil Rockstroh

"If he [Hugo Chávez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop." — Pat Robertson

"Muslims want to rule the world. They want to take over the whole world. That's their evil purpose ... Most of them are very harsh. There's no tenderness or love...." [Where do you get your information about the war?] "The Bible and the 700 Club. I also listen to preachers who know what's going on. Pat Robertson." — Mary Fowler, 54, Oklahoma Housekeeper, excerpted from Rose Aguila's "Stories in America"

Listen up, Reverend Robertson, Mary Fowler — every last one of you Apostles of Perpetual Psychosis — it's time that you were called out.

The time is long past due the rest of us ceased our cowering and stood up to you Christo-fascists bullies.

The hour has come round that we look you straight in your bulging, true believer eyes, and told you that we've had it with your smugness, with your blood-drenched crusades, with your victim mentality — and with the madness begot by this cracked-brain belief system of yours, which all began (according to your sacred delusions) more than two thousand years ago, when, at the behest of a wicked cabal, a mob of mammon-worshipping, blood-lusting rabble went on a cosmic killing-spree and murdered your god.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"All Bush, All the Time, for the Rest of Your Life"

John Chuckman

A group of Republican legislators proposes to rescind the 22ndAmendment to the American Constitution. This is the Amendment, passed after four terms of Franklin Roosevelt scared the bejesus out of Republicans, limiting a President to two terms in office. The legislators apparently believe that with continued Republican gains in Congress, they may be in a position to change the Constitution by 2006, in time to extend Bush's benevolent work.

Robert Smigel Animation

When the President needs help diverting a scrutinising but manipulatable press, there's just one man to call: Divertor