Ghost Town Orange

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Ghost Town Orange's Reagan Memorial Post

Turner Classic Movies is showing many of Ronald Reagan's movies on Thursday June 10 and Thursday June 24. I don't remember watching any of them, so I will be programming the VCR to tape a bunch of them; I especially want to see Kings Row. This movie provided the title for Reagan's autobiography: "Where's the rest of me?"

"King's Row"
Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan
1942
Warner Bros.

Photo source: Mptv.

President Reagan certainly could deliver a speech; I have a vivid memory of his address to the nation after the space shuttle Challenger disaster:

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

[Reagan was quoting from the poem High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American pilot serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Magee died in a plane crash in England just a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.]

Here's a list of highlights from the Reagan presidency which I will use to teach my sons about President Reagan (modified from 66 Things to Think About When Flying Into Reagan National Airport by David Corn, [The Nation, March 2, 1998]):

the firing of the air traffic controllers

winnable nuclear war

recallable nuclear missiles

trees that cause pollution

Elliott Abrams lying to Congress

ketchup as a vegetable

colluding with Guatemalan thugs

pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers

voodoo economics

budget deficits

toasts to Ferdinand Marcos

public housing cutbacks

redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement

James Watt

Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals

tax credits for segregated schools

disinformation campaigns

"homeless by choice"

Manuel Noriega

falling wages

the HUD scandal

air raids on Libya

"constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa

United States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers

attacks on OSHA and workplace safety

the invasion of Grenada

assassination manuals

Nancy's astrologer

Drug tests

lie detector tests

Fawn Hall

female appointees (8 percent)

mining harbors

the S&L scandal [remember that President Reagan said "All in all, I think we hit the jackpot" when signing legislation that directly led to the failure of the S&Ls.

239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut

Al Haig "in control"

silence on AIDS

food-stamp reductions

Debategate

White House shredding

Jonas Savimbi

tax cuts for the rich

"mistakes were made"

Michael Deaver's conviction for influence peddling

Lyn Nofziger's conviction for influence peddling

Caspar Weinberger's five-count indictment

Ed Meese ("You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime")

Donald Regan (women don't "understand throw-weights")

education cuts

massacres in El Salvador

"The bombing begins in five minutes"

$640 Pentagon toilet seats

African- American judicial appointees (1.9 percent)

Reader's Digest [this entry stumps me. what is this about?-GTO]

C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed)

200 officials accused of wrongdoing

William Casey

Iran/contra

"Facts are stupid things"

three-by-five cards

the MX missile

Bitburg

S.D.I.

Robert Bork

naps

Teflon

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you."

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
--Psalm 16: 1-2,5,7-8,11
June 9 is the feast day of St.Colmcille

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Not much sunspot activity for the transit of Venus

This photograph of the transit of Venus was taken at the Catania Astrophysical Observatory in southern Italy.
[click for a somewhat larger picture]

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Venus makes pass at the Sun: Astronomers ogle first transit since 1882.

From Nature Science Update: Venus makes pass at the Sun: Astronomers ogle first transit since 1882.

Astronomers are interested in the transit of Venus, but I wondered about why? what is the scientific significance of Venus passing between Earth and the sun? What can we learn about the universe by observing it? For one thing, scientists are testing a prediction:

Today, astronomers hope that transits across other stars will aid the hunt for planets outside our Solar System. They should cause dips in stars' brightness that can be detected by sensitive orbiting telescopes. In a bid to prove this principle, astronomers at the European Space Agency will scrutinize next week's Venus transit for the predicted 0.0076% change in the Sun's intensity.

Unusual accomplishment of the week

From BBC: Dateline- Tizi Ouzou[Maps],[Photos],[Tourist profile: too green], AlgeriaAlgeria cooks up couscous record

The traditional north African dish was made from 2,600 kilos (5,732 lb) of dry semolina, meat from 100 sheep and 1.5 tonnes of vegetables.

Here is a link to another report about the world's largest couscous [from the Independent On-line (South Africa)]

Friday, June 04, 2004

Even more Statue of Liberty images

I'll post some more tomorrow. Visit Ghost Town Orange or be square!

UPDATE 5 June 2004

Here are the promised images of Lady Liberty!

In January, 2004, French schoolchildren competed in a cartoon festival at Carquefou, France. The theme of the contest was the United States. The editorial cartoonist of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, David Horsey, was a guest at the festival. The other American political cartoonists there included Kal (Kevin Kallaugher) [Baltimore Sun]; Steve Benson [Arizona Republic]; and Ted Rall [Universal Press Syndicate.] Here is Mr. Horsey's description of the children's drawings from his article on the festival:

They drew obese Americans devouring Coca-Cola and McDonald's hamburgers. They drew the Statue of Liberty with fangs or in chains or being run over by a wicked Uncle Sam on a motorcycle. And they drew George W. Bush: Bush riding a tank to war; Bush taking over the world; Bush as a liar; Bush as a monster.

I am most interested in images of the Statue of Liberty, so I was thrilled to find a French web-page featuring Lady Liberty cartoons from this contest:

La statue de la liberte et ses multiples facettes
La statue de la liberte reste une figure emblematique des Etats-Unis. La vision des jeunes des Etats-Unis se traduit par cette statue symbole de la liberte sur plusieurs thèmes : malbouffe, guerre surconsommation, inegalites. Utilisee comme un support pour faire passer un message, c'est une base efficace pour representer les Etats-Unis.

On la retrouve autant chez les plus petits que chez les plus ages. Meme si les autres themes ont beaucoup marque les participants comme les Twins, un theme recurent, nous avons choisi ce theme car il a souvent ete repris par beaucoup de participants et que les representations de la statue de la liberte sont variees et interessantes.

Here is the theme the young artists were attempting to illustrate:

Etats-Unis, entre mythes et realites
Berceau de la liberte, de la democratie, symbole d’un mode de vie, d’un brassage culturel, la realite des Etats-Unis est aussi moins idyllique: inegalites sociales et raciales, sort des clandestins, couloirs de la mort, interventionnisme exterieur, rejet des accords internationaux... Prenez vos crayons et vos couleurs pour nous transmettre votre image des Etats-Unis.

As you can see, the deck was stacked against Lady Liberty, but this is a typical European view of the United States.

Here are some of the cartoons [Each can be clicked to enlarge]:

by Julie Escure

Chercher l'erreur by Emmanuel Sergent

by Romain Guereau

by Audray Blin

Others found wandering this website:

by Pierre-Damien Pays

Go West! by Marina Le Sugou (spelling of name uncertain)

Now, my favorite, a cartoon that gives me hope:

Je veux etre libre comme elle! (I want to be free like her!) by Amelie Chevillard

Adults also competed. Here is an uncredited image from the contest:

by an unidentified adult competitor

If you think that many of these images of the Statue of Liberty are unfair to us Americans and our ideals, try to imagine the reaction of people around the world to these lyrics by Toby Keith:

Hey Uncle Sam
Put your name at the top of his list
And the Statue of Liberty
Started shaking her fist
And the eagle will fly
And there's gonna be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom
Start ringing her bell
And itll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you
--from the Angry American

What poetry! What literature! What a stinking pile of manure!

Events of the past few years have unfortunately given lots of ammunition to our enemies. Lady Liberty used to be a peaceful torch-bearer for ideals of freedom and the rule of law; she was the welcomer of immigrants from oppressive countries all over the world. Now, under the Bush Administration, she has evolved into a jingoistic, blood-thirsty, fist-shaking tyrant with a voracious appetite. Can we Americans bear to look at our reflections in the mirror?

Conservatives used to criticize liberals of being naive utopians attempting to achieve impossible dreams with the power of government. Do they realize they have fallen into the same trap?

By the way, here's a link to a webcam featuring the Statue of Liberty.

A recent shot from the Liberty Cam. The webcam is located in an office building about 2 miles away from the statue. From this angle, Lady Liberty is in front of a busy dockyard. The large cranes in the background unload container ships.

UPDATE 2 January 2006

I removed the accents from the French copy above--it was not displaying correctly, and I have forgotten how to get the proper characters to display.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

E-mail in-box: Left Behind

In my in-box this week, two e-mails from very different sources on the same topic: the "Left Behind" series:

Radio Netherlands on this week's Amsterdam Forum

This week Amsterdam Forum focuses on the Christian fundamentalist concept of Rapture and the following "End Time."

In the programme Left Behind co-author Jerry Jenkins explains the key ideas of the Rapture movement and studio guests Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, a professor in theology, and Feike ter Velde, a believer in the Rapture concept from the Dutch End Time group Het Zoeklicht ("the searchlight") debate the pros and cons of this fundamentalist approach.

Listen to the programme in full. (29.30) [RealPlayer required]

Mennonite Weekly Review has an editorial by Robert Rhodes Watching Out For The End of Days. An excerpt:

Several books in the past decade have set out to debunk the “Left Behind” theology of the Rapture and its reliance on what is, at best, an imaginative interpretation of Scripture. At its worst, however, “Left Behind” is nationalistic fear-mongering, for which the war in Iraq and the continuing bloodshed in Israel and Palestine could have been tailormade.

Those who have this kind of Christo-political outlook believe, typically, that the United States is God’s anointed choice to lead the world and make it fit for holy habitation, even if that requires lethal force and violence on the grandest scale. LaHaye and Jenkins don’t exactly extol these anti-virtues outright, but they don’t deny their seductive power, or their pragmatic usefulness, either.

These deceptions are exactly what “Left Behind,” and two companion serials written with political and military storylines, trade in. To look at the leftbehind.com Web site is to see the myth of American triumphalism at its most market-friendly — flag-wrapped, patriotic and bristling with military, and moral, supremacy.

The problem is, none of this has any cogent biblical base. Jesus doesn’t need American-style firepower to prevail over evil. The only means of conquest in his arsenal was, and is, love.

Robert Rhodes includes a link to Dr. Loren Johns' webpage on the Left Behind series. [Johns is academic dean at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana.] Here is an excerpt, in which Dr. Johns criticizes the series' rejection of the Gospel:

At the end of the day, this series is ultimately a rejection of the good news of Jesus Christ. I say this because it rejects the way of the cross and Jesus’ call to obedient discipleship and a new way of life. It celebrates the human will to power, putting Evangelical Christians in the heroic role of God’s Green Berets. In this story, premillennialist dispensationalism meets American survivalism. This is a story about so-called Christian men who never really grew up, who still love to play with toys and dominate others, and whose passions are still largely unredeemed. Love of enemies is treated as a misguided strategy associated not with the gospel, but with the Antichrist. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have the right to offer any kind of interpretation of Christianity and of the end times that they wish. Ultimately, it is not their interpretation of the end times that troubles me so much as their interpretation of Christianity. It is devoid of any real theology, or substantial Christology, or any ethics that are recognizably Christian. This is a vision of unredeemed Christianity.

Mr. Rhodes concludes his editorial:

When Christ returns to this world in glory, he will do so not out of revenge on evil but out of love for his people. With all its reliance on biblical soothsaying and Scriptural sleight of hand, this is one lesson that "Left Behind" seems to have missed.

Fred Clark (Slacktivist) has been reading through the Left Behind books and blogging about these horrible books. Here is a link to an index page of all of his 'Left Behind' posts.

Mennonites and liberal activist Christians aren't the only Christians critical of the Left Behind series. Read Will You be 'Left Behind'? from the March 2001 Lutheran Witness. Or download The End Times: A Study of Eschatology and Millennialism (1989) [pdf file, from the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod] if you want a theologically sound appraisal of End Times stuff.

While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet."' David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?" And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
--Mark 12:35-37

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Persecution of Christians in Vietnam

From Human Rights Without Frontiers Int.--Vietnam 2004-Vietnamese Evangelists severely beaten in police custody

Law enforcement authorities in Vietnam are subjecting house church leaders who confront injustice to relentless harassment, according to sources in Ho Chi Minh City. The renewed pressure is thought to be retaliation for recent incidents where police have had to retreat from persecuting Christians because of effective local and international advocacy.

The latest incident began on the afternoon of March 2 at the Ho Chi Minh City home of Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, vice president and general secretary of the Mennonite Church, when Quang and evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach discovered two undercover security police spying on them from a stakeout about 200 feet from the Quang residence. The same pair of security police had recently accosted Rev. Nguyen Cong Chinh when he arrived at the Ho Chi Minh City bus station from Kontum province with three minority Christians seeking legal aid.

Quang and Thach took down the license number of the police motorbike and reported the presence of undercover agents to the head of their city ward. When Thach and a teacher named Mr. Hien went to take a picture of the motorbike for evidence, the policemen attacked them and a scuffle ensued. The two undercover agents fled so rapidly on their motorbike that it skidded and fell. When Thach and a co-worker, Ms. Lien, approached to see if the officers were hurt, the policemen struck both in the face.

About 30 minutes later, several dozen officers from Special Unit 113, the district police, undercover police and local defense forces arrived at the scene, along with the two officers involved in the scuffle. Armed with guns and electric cattle prods, they surrounded the Quang home and ordered the 12 Christian workers gathered there -- including Pastor Chinh who had just returned from Kontum -- to remain inside the house.

According to witnesses, police then tried to incite neighbors to attack the Christians. They also produced an unidentified woman to sign a bogus complaint against the Christians for “disturbing public order.”

Police officers then seized a church elder named Nghia and took him to the ward police station.

Later that night, three young evangelists, Pham Ngoc Thach, Nguyen Van Phuong and Nguyen Thanh Nhan, went to inquire about Elder Nghia. Authorities took the trio into custody.

Christians later learned that police beat Thach until he passed out. Afterward, several officers took turns kicking him in the chest, stomach and groin. They also beat Nhan into unconsciousness, attempting to justify their mistreatment of the young evangelists by charging them -- after the fact -- with “resisting an officer.”

According to reports, the three young men are still being held at the police station. It is believed they will not be released at least until their visible wounds, suffered in police beatings, have healed.

Sources say authorities had threatened the leaders of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship with harsh treatment during a meeting on December 12, 2003.

“Any one of you who tries to arrest or identify one of our officers who is oppressing Christians will suffer heavy and swift punishment,” police allegedly announced.

In mid January, authorities in the Central Highlands province of Kontum destroyed a Mennonite chapel and three weeks later tried to prevent a Mennonite pastor from Canada from visiting Christians in the area. Kontum officials have accused Chinh, a leading Mennonite pastor in the province, of being an “anti-government activist.”

According to a church elder, on February 27 about 50 police officers and other officials raided the home of a Bahnar church leader, Brother Athe, while he was working in his fields. The intruders left rooms used for Christian worship in shambles.

Since the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975, many American Mennonites who opposed the Vietnam War have avoided criticizing the government’s abysmal human rights record.
[GTO comment: this is gratuitous anti-Mennonite spin. What ax is this group grinding?]
However, sources have told Compass that some Mennonites outside the country are now considering raising the persecution issue with governments abroad.

For their part, Vietnam’s house church Christians are tired of the constant harassment and are eager to appeal to defenders of human rights in the world community to help achieve freedom to believe and practice their faith, despite the consequences.

Here's a report on this from Mennonite World Conference: Vietnam Mennonite Church Leaders Appeal to Their Government (April 23, 2004) An excerpt:

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Leaders of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam have appealed to the government to release four men arrested on March 2.

In a March 28 - April 1 gathering for encouragement and training, 40 Mennonite Church leaders from many parts of the country signed a "letter of protest" on March 31 and sent it to the Prime Minister and to the Ministry of Public Security.

The letter protested "the entrapment, arrest, interrogation and vicious beating and imprisonment" of four church leaders on March 2 in District 2 in Ho Chi Minh City and the refusal of local authorities to provide any information about the leaders since then.

The letter also protests the actions of local authorities in the central highlands city of Kon Tum, including the January 16 bulldozing of the recently-built pastor's house that was used as a church meeting place. The letter cites instances of security forces terrorizing Mennonite church leaders among the ethnic minorities in the Kon Tum area and ransacking their houses.

In Binh Phuoc province, powerful economic groups wanting to develop rubber plantations have seized property belonging to the Mennonite believers of the Stieng ethnic group.
[GTO comment: Isn't it interesting how the forces of greed and racism join hands to promote 'revolutionary development'?]
They have farmed the land for several generations. The letter protests the confiscation of this land which has forced many from their homes, leaving them with no means of livelihood.

"We strongly protest these actions of the security police and local authorities against us. We request that you exercise your responsibilities to stop these actions against our Church," the church leaders' letter concluded.

Robert Rhodes of Mennonite Weekly has more on the December incident mentioned above. He reports on the Hazards of Christianity Abroad (January 24, 2004) [link found at Third Way Cafe.] After Mr. Rhodes tells about the persecution faced by Christians in Colombia, he turns to Vietnam:

Meanwhile, also in December, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Mennonite pastor Nguyen Hong Quang escaped an apparent attempt on his life by a communist police officer - part of a long succession of incidents that have plagued Vietnamese Mennonites and other burgeoning house-church movements in that country.

Truly, these believers who face such perils walk right alongside the suffering Christ and need our prayers, but also our understanding of what they do and why. Most of us shrink before the prospect of personal danger, and yet people like these and so many others live day and night beneath the curse of often great peril.

Perhaps as we pray for those who face danger, and for the families of those who fall prey to this cruelty, let us ask ourselves whether we also feel called to enter such a narrow way.

The witness of these brothers and sisters holds a mirror to our lives and our churches. More than our sympathy, they need our companionship, in spirit and in body. Shall we stand with them?

Here's a link to the section on Vietnam in the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2003.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom includes Vietnam in its list of 11 Countries of Particular Concern (February 10, 2004)

Then they sent to Jesus some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?" But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it." And they brought one. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Jesus said to them, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were utterly amazed at him.
--Mark 12:13-17 (from today's Sacred Space)

I Have Met the Enemy...

Read Patricia Kneisler at Common Dreams--I Have Met the Enemy...

For the first time ever in my life, I had someone threaten to kill me tonight. He was nearly apoplectic with rage, screaming curses, his finger right in my face, his eyes slits of venom. Ex-Navy lifer, I gathered. Probably in his late 50’s. Beer belly. A person so devoid of humanity I was stunned.

What did she do to provoke a death threat?

All I did was exercise my duty as a very concerned citizen in what I thought was America. I stood silently out on the sidewalk in my California town with a sign in each hand. One sign showed a tally of the number of Iraqi civilian dead from the Iraq Body Count website … the other the number of coalition soldiers dead to date. This is my regular Thursday night gig, something I’ve done every week for 14 months now.

You can imagine the heated exchange between the peace activist and the ex-Navy man. (or if you can't, follow the link.) It concludes with this lovely threat by the sailor:

Bush will win in a LANDSLIDE. And if he doesn’t, WE know where to find you. WE can take care of you. WE can make sure you don’t EVER f**k with this country again.”

I used to think that the men who serve in the military were better than this. But a conversation I had today with an acquaintance has me convinced that there are a significant number of soldiers or ex-soldiers out there that will want to take matters in their own hands if 'a lying liberal Jane Fonda like John Kerry' becomes President.

Where I live, I don't think it wise to reveal my political opinions in public; I just shut my mouth and listen. I hate to argue politics anyway. It's especially unpleasant to speak to people who openly fantasize about how they'd like 'traitorous liberals' to be 'taken out.' It is chilling how these people fantasize about the competence of trained killers. A choice quote from today's conversation:
"This is the age of mercenaries."

[as if that's a good thing!]

Prediction: liberals will be accused of "stabbing the troops in the back" [Dolchstoss]and losing the war in Iraq. "It wasn't incompetence. It wasn't a flawed war based on a flimsy premise. It was the damned liberals." Can we go down the road of Hitler's Germany? Does anybody remember the Nazi's campaign of intimidation and assassination that started in the 1920s?

Ghost Town Orange

Wednesday, June 09, 2004