We are sitting in a park in Interlaken, Switzerland. I pulled out the IPad to make some notes and on the screen popped up a message that an Internet signal was available. That happens sometimes in the US. In Denver there is public Internet, but the signal is weak and undependable and once you negotiate the pages and the word-barf contract to log in you find that they want your credit card and $10. Here the signal is part of the commons.
Imagine! A public utility offered without lining the pocket of some investor!* **
Anyway, the news and blogs are alive with Obama’s triumph in Libya, the usual. Another conquest. Soon the ports and harbors will be alive with ships arriving with loot, and there will be parades where military heroes are taken down the streets in large golden chariots. Perhaps Gaddafi will be pulled down Wall Street in a cage pulled by elephants so that he can be jeered and derided. Man I love this country!
Here’s Glenn Greenwald with his usual insight:
First, I’m genuinely astounded at the pervasive willingness to view what has happened in Libya as some sort of grand triumph even though virtually none of the information needed to make that assessment is known yet, including: how many civilians have died, how much more bloodshed will there be, what will be needed to stabilize that country and, most of all, what type of regime will replace Gadaffi? Does anyone know how many civilians have died in the NATO bombing of Tripoli and the ensuing battle? Does anyone know who will dominate the subsequent regime? Does it matter? To understand ho and premature these celebrations are in the absence of that information, I urge everyone to read this brief though amazing compilation of U.S. media commentary from 2003 after U.S. forces entered Baghdad: in which The Liberal Media lavished Bush with intense praise for vanquishing Saddam, complained that Democrats were not giving the President the credit he deserved, and demanded that all those loser-war-opponents shamefully confess their error. Sound familiar?
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*We have not seen a police officer or weapon today. At the train depot we stored our carry-on and a backpack in a locker. Tha sort of thing was long ago outlawed in the US due to the fear factor. Life is awful, just awful, under socialism.
**I noticed a couple of years returning from Canada tha the atmosphere changed on crossing the border. As soon as we entered the US, a cashier at a gas station tried to rip us off on the exchange rate foe loonies. He said he bank would only give him 80 cents even as we knew the exchange rate was even. It was ugly, like we had reentered a casino. I think it has something to do with personal security. These people all habve health care and pensions and so are not desperate to grab on to every last cent that they can in a day. It creates a peaceful atmosphere.
Piece of Mindful 