Saturday, October 12, 2002

Good Potus - Bad Potus QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND "One of the most basic principles for making and keeping peace within and between nations. . . is that in political, military, moral, and spiritual confrontations, there should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat." - - Jimmy Carter CARTOON OF THE WEEKEND http://click.topica.com/maaazzLaaTTXubakka4b/ RHINO HERE: Seems like a rough weekend to be humorous. From the sniper killings in Maryland, to the House and Senate war votes and the thought of shrub & company's champagne celebration, kina makes me nauseous. The good news is their party was deflated when they learned that former Potus Jimmy Carter, the soft spoken good hearted intelligent ("turn your thermostats down & put on a sweater") Democrat, the only U.S. President thus far to use that office as a stepping stone to doing something significant, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to creating peace between Israel and Egypt. http://www.cartercenter.org To have some laughs this weekend if you're in New York or Los Angeles, while not forgetting the sorry state of the union, I recommend seeing Michael Moore's new film, Bowling For Columbine. As a documentary filmmaker myself, I love the way Michael is able to make me mad and laugh at the same time. If you haven't read (or heard the audio version) of his book, "Stupid White Men", it's more relevant than ever. http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/ Last Monday 10/7, three hundred and fifty DC Metro rail cars and one hundred "T" stops in Boston began displaying a unique advertising campaign developed by Avenging Angels, Inc. of NYC. The ads compare the Star Wars Ballistic Missile Defense Program with Enron. Dubbed "Enron in Space" the ad campaign features a graphic showing 3 pink pigs blasting through space with the caption, "The same greed, dishonesty and deception that shocked America in the Enron scandal is rampant in the $238-billion Pentagon Pig-Out called National Missile Defense." You can see the ad at: http://www.peace-action.org/enroninspace/index.html Lastly, on the question of whether things are too dire to laugh without guilt, below is an excerpt from a Mother Jones article written by political satirist, Will Durst. Have a safe weekend, especially you folks in Maryland. 8:05:44 AM    comment

It's Okay. You Can Laugh Now Mother Jones, October 2002, By Will Durst Comedy is defiance ... a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. Which is why humor can help us get us through this unspeakable mess... ...(After 9/11) Bush-bashing was put on hold, and not even a hint of a whisper of American culpability would be countenanced, as Bill Maher belatedly discovered. Comedy needs a target. For the lazy or the angry, that aim is often directed at the big, easy target. The slow moving. Thinning of the herd, as it were. Then, on a fateful Sunday in January, alone on a couch watching football, the President choked on a pretzel and all bets were off. The Dauphin became fair game again. His extended honeymoon had just witnessed an entire place setting of china thrown at the wall. Of course, I didn't believe the pretzel bit. Why would his staff let him look that ridiculous, unless what really happened was even more ridiculous -- or freaking crazy? My theory: W was taunting his dad about how much better his war was going, and Bar hit him in the head with an empty gin bottle. Just a theory. So, here we find ourselves in October. The economy sucks, we're going to war with Iraq and Bush is President. While we weren't looking, Sherman set the Wayback Machine to 1991. We can only hope this doesn't also mean we have to live through another whole spate of Pauly Shore movies. We're heading for another war -- what we perpetually suspicious types would characterize as a very conveniently timed war. But this time around, the national comedic voices aren't falling into lockstep behind the administration. I doubt those voices will be muffled again. At least not to the degree they were post 911. Cynicism has kicked patriotism out of the house of humor, reclaiming the seat it has held since the height of Vietnam... READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2002/41/we_138_01.html Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law ( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ). All copyrights belong to original publisher. "RHINO'S NEWS BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. Feedback is encouraged and can be emailed to him at: rhino@kifaru.com RHINO'S WEB SITES: http://radio.weblogs.com/0103207 (RHINO'S NEWS WEBLOG - PRESENT & PAST) http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Tell a friend about this weblog, or if you know someone who'd like to join the Rhino's News Blog mailing list, drop a line to rhino@kifaru.com. 8:00:51 AM    comment

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