FRIDAY FEEDBAG FOR THE WEEKEND AND FOLLOWING WEEK:

Food for your spirit

(Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of traditional period of self reflection, penance, leading to Easter for we Christians):



Food for your mind

About four weeks ago, from January 23, 2009 “Bill Moyer’s Journal” (tivo it, tape, carve this program on tablets, there’s always something valuable he covers) :

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01232009/profile.html

“Bill Moyers sat down with political columnist and blogger David Sirota and WALL STREET JOURNAL columnist Thomas Frank to talk about their expectations for this administration and what they think Obama must accomplish to bring real "change" to Washington.” Watch the show or read the transcript, you choice.

Grumpy’s favorite quote:

THOMAS FRANK: And but exactly what David said. He [Obama] doesn't — maybe he does understand that he has the power, I mean, this is where they teach you the orthodoxy, you know? Harvard, Chicago Law School. I mean, these are the upholders of the orthodoxy, the idea that, no, we can't have an industrial policy in America. The market has to decide. We can't pick winners. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

He now has the power to throw all that overboard. History is demanding that he throw it overboard. The — you know, the orthodoxy is discredited like at no time since, you know, the 1930s. It is, you know, it is in his power to do that. I think he'll rise to the challenge."

Food you should AVOID

How about 1170% of your daily cholesterol per serving sound?

http://consumerist.com/5161202/the-worst-food-product-ever-may-have-been-found

Am I the only one getting a disturbing zombie vibe?

In the beginning was the Word and it was a rant,

Doonesbury



In the past week my local paper, The Dallas Morning News, has published, with little notice or comment, the obits for three young men in our military, two died in Iraq, the third at a state-side base after returning from Iraq. Yesterday, Obama announced that he will be ending Bush/Cheney's policy of hiding the bodies from their two failed wars by their suppression of photos of our war dead.

I wonder if it will make any difference?

During the last election the National Press, NPR especially, ignored, under reported, white washed, forgot (take your pick) the 250,000+ troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, it seems like there's even less coverage.



As someone that can remember Vietnam, it looks like the Pentagon learned its lesson that knowledge is power. In the name of "protecting the privacy of the troops" the Pentagon has decided to keep the US public ignorant of the consequences of war. The compliant US press has not provided the American public with the images like these from Vietnam:






(Photos by David Douglas Duncan, via Harry Ransom Center University Of Texas. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/ddd/gallery/war/vietnam.html Per Fresh Air: "Life magazine has called David Douglas Duncan perhaps the best war photographer since Matthew Brady. In 1999, Duncan received a lifetime achievement award for excellence and bravery from the Marine Corps.")

Gary Trudeau of "Doonesbury" has a blog "The Sandbox" that features posts by our service men and women: http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/

"The Sandbox, our command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is GWOT-lit's forward position, offering those in-country a chance to share their experiences and reflections with the rest of us. The Sandbox's focus is not on policy and partisanship [snip], but on the unclassified details of deployment -- the everyday, the extraordinary, the wonderful, the messed-up, the absurd. "

Be warned, knowledge is a dangerous thing.

As a society we ask our men and women and their families to sacrifice life, limbs, and treasure to protect us. It seems the least we could do is pay attention.

(I will leave the equally distressing issue of civilian causalities for another day.)