Listening: second half of Choirgirl and first of Scarlet's Walk, Tori
Mentally Replaying: News of the past few days
Desiring: peace

First and foremost I have to reiterate I don't listen to local news. It's unfortunate, to be sure, there is much I need to pay attention to. But the local news stations are KFWB 980 and KNX 1070 on the AM. And they make me listen to their godawful commercials.

Sunday I heard a travesty of public address perpetrated by Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow. Holy crap, I don't know if they had a script or not, but I'm hoping for not, since if someone actually wrote that tripe I'd have to vote for shooting them. Essentially the two blondes were trying to convince people not to drive SUVs in an effort to protect the environment and reduce our dependency on foreign oil (which just continues to show off celeb's total non-understanding of where the FUCK our oil comes from) etc, etc. At the point where Cameron was gushing about the high mileage her Hybrid gets I was wishing for death.

Now, I'm very much on board with less SUVs, less gas suckling vehicles on the road, and promoting alternative fuels, but celeb endorsements where they were just shoved into a recording studio and told to just go on...whatever. Ick. It just promotes the stereotype that Angelenos are braindead airheads.

But anyway, local radio is about the only way I can get the skinny on the gubernatorial situation. I still don't entirely understand it since as near as I can figure people are primarily peeved about the blackouts from two summers ago. Since that was early in his term I seriously don't get what the big deal is. 1) The idea to deregulate was his predecessor's, Pete Wilson (aka, damn pigfucker). 2) The State of California was cheated through colusion on the part of out-of-state power providers. This is slowly but surely being proven in the courts and something Gov. Davis was saying two years ago.

Sometimes when you get locked into a contract you can *watch* yourself get cheated and know there is nothing you can do about it. When the cheating is overwith then you can take all your proof to court and maybe, if you're lucky you'll recoup some of your losses. Seems to be the same deal with the government of California.

He's likely lied and given some ground to lobbyists, but honestly at this point I'd be suspicious of any politician who didn't. I'm not necessarily eager to protect Davis, I simply don't understand the seething hatred for him from the other side.

California has economic woes? so do 46 other states, and their leadership is under the gun, too. So why does NPR and Newsweek constantly refer to him as the "embattled governor" and don't use similar wording for other governor. If it's not their bias, then it's because he truly is embattled compared to other governors.

Now, Davis is a centrist Democrat. Which used to mean "someone no one hates enough to keep out of office." Nominees who lean heavily toward one political ideal or another get their party's support but no one else's and so while they battle other hardliners, the centrists are the ones that get voted for by the majority. This is just a natural application of the bell curve, though I can't say it's necessarily good for the state. It's the majority, sure. But I know enough people who make up their minds to vote by finding the nominee that is friendliest rather than trying to determine their personal politics and selecting a nominee who most closely matches that I don't think I necessarily trust the majority of voters.

...But this is why I'm not a Democrat. They're just too *blah*

Anyway, moving on. There is maybe a glimmer of hope. Maybe. Or maybe not. Impeachment at the Federal level really wouldn't work for me, considering who'd take over if Bush were forced out (or even Bush & Cheney).


The news this morning was both depressing and thought-provoking, so I guess it makes for a good news broadcast.

Isreal retaliated on Hammas for their attacks from last Sunday by attacking one of their leaders in his car from a helicopter gunship. And for all this they're trying to say that they still want peace.

Humility and mercy, people. c'mon. I know it's tough, but dying is the easy bit. How 'bout we try something *truly* difficult and attempt to live peacefully together?

But no one knows humility and mercy for what they are anymore, if indeed they ever did. Both look like weakness.

If Palestinians read up on Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr they could maybe see the might that comes with humility. Violence begets violence, but a bowed head and a steadfast heart can beget reason.

Now if only the Isrealis (*ahem* Likud) could just remember what mercy is, and how to employ it. They fear that if they use it, it will be seen as weakness and their enemies will rejoice at its sight. Well, what is good is a stiff neck and pride if you and your children are dead?

So we move on. NPR reported that the U.S. is trying to track down Iraqi military personal, not as criminals but to ask them if they want their jobs back and perhaps to offer medical assistance to those who need it. They have gotten several rosters from officers who had the papers in their homes where they went to avoid the conflict. The U.S. military has stated that it would be easier for the Iraqi officers to do this, but because the U.S. has stated that the Baath party is outlawed and formerly high-ranking members may not participate in the new Iraqi state these officers may not return to their jobs or personally recruit men to the forces.

I think this is a little bit of a mistake. Only a little bit. No one wants to let psychopaths back into a position where they could go back to their old ways. And certainly not with our money. But, as always, this is extremely complicated. Baath party membership was more or less compulsory for those in anyway attached to the government. And it's going to be the Baath party members who know where everything is, from important papers and files to people and armaments. Some former members have agreed to help the U.S. for rewards and to assist their country, but many have them other concerns that can include feeding their families and avoiding lynch mobs. Of the two, I think avoiding lynch mobs would probably be easier.

But it simply comes down to the fact that in a pinch the people with the education, the money and the general wherewithal to run a country are the people who were doing just that right before you smashed that country's infrastructure. We don't even have to look at cases of invasion to see this be borne out. In many Eastern Bloc countries revolutions swept through to rid themselves of their corrupted communist leaders. Though the figureheads were often deposed violently, many other individuals in the government returned when things calmed down and took up new (or the same positions) in the new government. For some that meant returning to the old corrupt ways, and usually the states were so eager to please an international body - say the UN or NATO - that such corruption was quickly found out and removed.

Time can change, but people don't. Or maybe it's that people change, but time doesn't. Maybe?

Either way, the people who know how to make things work were the ones who were running things before. And I'm not sure that it's a good idea to prevent them from ever making sure things run smoothly again.

Moving on. The depressing news was something I knew about already. Over a year ago Newsweek did a story on child soldiers in Sierra Leone. The whole concepts if fairly abhorrent if only because I don't think anyone should be forced to fight if they don't want to. Most folks have an instinct to protect children and to try as long as possible to keep certain things from entering their universes. This tends to include sex and violence, but it gets strenously focused on avoiding that which is forced. I think sex being held as a mystery to children is a fairly new idea since throughout history people in lower classes had to live in homes with one big room. For handmade houses this often keeps being true, so sex isn't much of a mystery to kids, they know exactly where their brothers and sisters came from. But sexual mores are still taught and pre-pubescent kids aren't particularly interested in finding out what it's like personally.

As for violence... anyone with siblings can tell you, kids seem to be born knowing violence. But forcing violence on children seems like a terrible thing to us. Having seen what people who have lived in violence their whole lives turn to, I can't help but agree. fucking with kids has a tendancy to fuck the future.

This morning as I was driving into work NPR had a story about children who were trying to stay away from the "recruiting" bands. Mothers were sending their children on foot to the nearest city, forcing them to spend nights on the street with no supervision. The children apparently congregate wherever they can find shelter - churches, bus depots, etc. In the city they have many other terrors to fight. They must take care not to be noticed until they reach their haven and then they must group together, hundreds in a building. The opportunities of assault, rape and theft are extremely high and only the masses of their numbers can mitigate the danger for any one child.

Members of the city council have taken notes of the bands of children and have taken to going to their sleeping locations to offer what they can in the way of provisions - medical aid, blankets, food. It's never enough. Many school-age children bring their books and struggle to study them in the noisy and dark conditions. They get up before the break of day to go home and repeat this the next night, an hour before sunset.

It packs a punch to think of this. I cannot imagine trying to live through something like this. No single path is a good one for children, but I don't know if it's madness or desperation or both to chase away your children from your home and your arms to some strange streets in order to protect them. When the story ended and I was parked I found myself shaking and trying, uselessly, to swallow the lump in my throat.

The war has been going on for several years and in that time UNiCEF estimates some 20,000 children have been abducted and pressed into military service, some as young as five. In the service they can expect to be whipped into a frenzy of violence through a mixture of chanting and general group-chest thumping, threats of physical punishment, being forced to shoot their own family members, and last, and most definately not least, being held down while a slit is cut in their foreheads and a dose of cocaine is applied. This is the worst I can think of. Boys who have been recovered have recounted plainly watching themselves head jubilantly into battle, killing all they see and taking turns raping girls and women.

It must be hell.