Musical Hair's Musings

Larry Harmon, the guy we all remember as Bozo the clown, is no longer credited as the creator of Bozo and thus his plaque is no longer in the clown hall of fame in Milwaukee WI. Instead a Capital Record executive Alan Livingston and some guy that played Bozo on radio-- named Vance Colvig. If not for Larry Harmon Bozo would not be the worlds most famous clown. Maybe these to other guys "invented" the name, but the character and all the wacky words and mannerisms we all know as Bozo came from Larry Harmon.

OK, now I know we all thought the clown museum belongs in a wing of the Capital building in Washington DC, but it is in fact in Milwaukee. Yes, Dick Armee, Bob Dornan, Joe Scarbourough, and Dennis Hastert all should have plaques there, but so should Larry Harmon. I mean outside of Clarabell and Bozo, how many clowns-- the "in make up with wigs" type-- can anyone actually name.

Instead of Larry Harmon we get some record company exectutive, altering clown history in a way Stalin and Bush would be proud of.

Here is the link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5075932/" title="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5075932/" target="_blank"http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5...

if that don't work, here is the article, reprinted here not to infringe on any kind of copyright, but because sometimes linking to MSN sites never actually connect:

Bozo brouhaha forces
rewrite of humor history
Clown Hall of Fame gives
belated credit to creator
Vance "Pinto" Colvig portrays the clown Bozo in this undated file photo.
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:59 a.m. ET May 27, 2004

MILWAUKEE - There are no hand buzzers, trick flowers or balloon animals in this clown story. The issue is who created Bozo the Clown — and the dispute is wiping the smile off some clowns’ faces.

advertisement

For years, promoter and entertainer Larry Harmon claimed to have both created the character and said he was the original.

Now the International Clown Hall of Fame in downtown Milwaukee is formally endorsing a different version: Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston created Bozo for recordings in 1946, and the late Vance “Pinto” Colvig was the first person to play the clown.

On Friday, the hall is posthumously inducting Colvig as the first Bozo.

Lifetime achievement plaque removed
That reverses the hall’s “Lifetime of Laughter Award” given to Harmon in 1990 as Bozo’s creator. The hall has since taken Harmon’s plaque off its honor wall.

Kathryn O’Dell, the hall’s executive director, said the hall was duped to believe Harmon created Bozo and didn’t find out the truth until ABCnews.com columnist and entertainment producer Buck Wolf reported Harmon was wrongly laying claim to the character.

“It was something that was hinted at and hinted at and we started to do research and sure enough the information we were getting from outside sources was true,” O’Dell said.

While Harmon popularized the character since the 1950s, Livingston and Colvig were first to develop it, she said.

Colvig’s voice was used in the first recordings and he wrote some of Bozo’s first songs, made the first live appearances and was the first Bozo on television.

Capitol Records Inc. sold all the rights to Bozo the Capitol Clown, except the masters for the previous records, in the mid 1950s to Harmon, who a few years earlier had answered a Capitol casting call to be a Bozo.

Harmon ended up training more than 200 Bozos over the years and turning Bozo into a character for 156 cartoons that he sold in the United States and around the world.

Harmon denies misrepresentation
Harmon, 79, said from his home in Los Angeles that he’s saddened to have the hall remove his plaque and he denied misrepresenting Bozo’s history.

International Clown Hall of Fame via AP
Larry Harmon, shown portraying Bozo in an undated file photo, says the Hall of Fame has erased his legacy.
“Isn’t it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn’t do anything for the last 52 years,” he said.

He said he has always acknowledged that Livingston created Bozo The Capitol Clown. But he said he created Bozo’s personality and image today as Bozo The World’s Most Famous Clown.

“What I created for the world was me and my image, what I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like, what the costume looked like, with my animation studio,” he said.

Bozo The Capitol Clown had red mop hair and spoke with a drawl. Harmon’s Bozo had bright orange-red yak hair and spoke faster and made up an entirely new vocabulary, like “wowie-kazowie.” The laugh was also different.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


OK, maybe this isn't the most important issue we face today. It is memorial day, I'm not posting something deep and thoughtful. Yes the holiday deserves it, but I want to relax and play my guitar today. I stumbled into this article checking my email and so I found a ready made blog post.

This should be a link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5 14&e=9&u=/ap/20040530/ap_ on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_p ainting_7" title="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5 14&e=9&u=/ap/20040530/ap_ on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_p ainting_7" target="_blank"http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...

That should be a link (I'm batting like .500 on these thing coming out the way they should), to an article about an art gallery owner that got socked out for a painting on display in her gallery. In San Fransisco! If you can't have freedom of speech in that city, imagine if this had happened in Texas or South Carolina.

No one socked out Keith Olberman for shown the actually photos on his news program, but once artists get involved the reactionaries freak out. You know, so much of any art history class is made of studying paintings that make political statements, because some of the best art is political in nature.

El Greco's "A View of Toledo", Fransisco Goya's "The Witches Sabbath" and "The Third of May, 1908", Pablo Picasso's "Guernica, 1937", much of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's art, and many many others are examples of historically significant art that both tackled political statements while transcending them. There are some that feel that all art is political, in that it reflects the world view of the artist and either accepts or condemns the status quo.

Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are the cornerstones of our way of life. To compromise them is to accept tyranny. Compromising the principle of freedom of information is the antithese of democracy. That is "Treason", so don't let those bastards wave the flag as they march with open arms towards fascist oppression.

don't let those bastards wave the flag as they march with open arms towards fascist oppression, pretending their fear of "terror" and there loyalty to empire are not the enemies of our American way of life. Don't let them do it.

I'm 40 today. Luckily I had my mid-life crisis when I was turning 30. Everyone said turning 40 would be tougher, and that if I went nuts turning 30 then I'd be a menace turning 40. That hasn't been the case.

Sorry, this isn't the most political or topical blog. It may be a bit too much like the many very self-indulgent blogs that are out there-- and with good reason, that seems to be the most common use, to be a personal journal or diary on line, not our own attempts to audtion for columnist's jobs--, and not being a very self-indulgent kind of guy I'm really not comfortable just blogging about my birthday. But, I got nothing really prepared and I may as well at least announce my birthday.

So, that's it. I've got to run as I've not even picked up my guitar today and I need to get ready. I want to get my old college classical guitar repetoire in order, and I have a little fund raiser for Dennis Kucinich I'm playing with a small band on Wednesday. This songwriter of very political songs is putting together a little band to play such events and I've always wanted to use my skills to support progressive causes, so this is as good as any. we've hardly rehearsed and I really need to act more professional towards this and get the tunes down.

So, off I go. Happy Birthday, it is 11:30 pm: now get to work.

When you get out of the military after a standard active duty contract, like four years or six for highly technical fields, you don't serve in the reserve or the national guard or whatever. You are on "inactive reserve" for a year. You are required to go to one meeting at your local National Guard Barracks or where ever your area gets sent and they do a brief physical and then try to recruit you back in.

My meeting, back in 1989 was pretty funny. As the part-time warrior stood in front of us tell us how good it would be to re-join and go back on full time active duty or join his weekend warrior club (that is what it was back then), we all laughed at him. Everyone went home at the end of the day and my year of inactive reserve was inching closer to ending like everyone elses.

That little speech seems to have evolved into something else now. They get phone calls apparently from National Guard recruiters. And, during this time of war with an active military force so much small than it used to be-- run by a government that doesn't want to tax the benefactors of the war to actually afford to run the war-- I guess they need to find even more creative ways to get more soldiers.

When I heard about these different local commands recruiting with the threat, I first thought "that sucks", but I've been out of the service for a while now-- like just over 15 years or so. Slowly my memories came back.

When you first join you are told all sorts of lies. "I can get you stationed in Hawaii, doing bikini waxings for the generals daughters" "I can get you right into the Navy Musicians' school", "Great Lakes, Illinios is really nice this time of year", and the "well, we can't put that into the standard contract, but when you get to boot camp tell them what I'm telling you now and they move you right over to ...." where ever the lie said you'd go.

It takes a few weeks at most for everyone in the Navy to realize NAVY is an acronmy: "Never Again Volunteer Yourself". Every sentence out of the recruiter's mouth might be a lie, and when you sign a contract you always sign away any right to descision about your own future. They can need you anywhere, and can send you anywhere. The isn't much the millitary can do to you that would find them in breach of contract. That isn't as "bad" as it sounds, especially when your not in war time, and if your accept your position in the millitary you quickly realize that there is a reason for all this. There is a job to be done-- if you accept the role of the military and your place there, then you realize you submit to the needs of the team. It may not be fun, but it is for four years. Or, five, or six depending the contract you sign.

So, when you get a call saying "re-up now, or I'll put you in a unit going to Iraq, and if you re-up I'll make sure you don't get in a unit slated to go", you know: the first half of the statement may be true, but the second part is pure lie. They can't assure you anything, but you also know this already. He lies to you, and you let it go because lies are what they do to get you to sign. Once you sign they do with you what they want, infact no recuiter makes any descision about anything after you take your oath and start active duty. Out side of travel orders, there is no descision made about what will happen to you until after your active.

Guys always disappear, die, get arrested (military attracts some "tough" people) and otherwise have difficulty makeing it to swearing in. It only makes sense to separate the recruitment from the assignment.

There are some things to do keep a promise about, at least when I was in. The date you ship out, the length of the contract you sign (and I guess if you read the contract, then the terms), and your specialty school which in the Navy is called your "A" school. You take a test called the ASVAB which the use to figure which job your suited for. The "smarter" you are the more options you have, but really the figure which job you should be pressured or tricked into thinking is "cool" based on your score. Without going into too much detail, there are certain jobs when you meet some one in that (or used to be in them) you realize you're talking to a really smart person, or in some cases someone who way of think is just plain out there like science fiction reading mismatched shoes wearing out there-- smart, but .... no common sense usually.

Anyway, while the threats used to recruit might be bad, the reality is that no real promise is being made about what will happen to people that do actually re-up.

Now, be nice, and I'll talk about the "Harmonic Convergance" and some of the very cool people in the military. I also might get around to scanning that phony ad I mentioned over at someone's blog, and I might babble on endlessly about fascism. But I've got to run, I've got some ice skates to buy and some protest songs to play.

Until the recent meager upswing in jobs numbers-- shown to be woefully insufficient over at http://whoisjohngalt.tblog.co... , scroll down to his May 8th entry-- the biggest "strength" in our economy was home sales. This segment of the economy was strong in spite of all the negative factors because of one thing: low interest rates.

"The Fed" kept lowering and lowering interest rates to artificially stimulate economic activity. While no new factories were built, not too many new businesses opened, people did by houses. The homes sales even impacted apartment rentals where in a lot of markets (not New York City, unfortunately) apartments were becoming a tough sell. Landlords resorted to all sorts of gimmicks to get tenants.

Now as interest rates start to rise, we see home sales not just slowing but plumetting. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tm... is a link to the Yahoo! news story about it.

When they say that home sales have not been slower over a month since November, November is a traditionally slow month. People want to get their kids in the new schools so anytime after the beginning of the new school year is a slow time. Spring is when sales start picking up, and mortgage applications go up. Not this year.

That is to be expected due to the way they kept interest rates so low for so long. But, this is the first in what I'm betting will be a new round of bad signs for the Economy under Prince George II.

I've been fascinated by the connection to the words we throw out as personal cliches and the reality they betray. I heard a phsycologist talk about the idea that people that say often "I think I'm losing my mind" or similar things about their own mental state often really do either have such histories in their family or have their own crisises of sanity. Similarly, those that make statements along those lines but about self-defecation had potty-training issues or such problems. I don't want to guess as to what "Don't have a Cow, man" means.

Anyway, we've had words like "bleeding heart" which used to mean a Christian approach to politics before the reactionary racist fascists got religion around the time of the civil rights movement. We've heard about thinking with one's heart and letting emotion cloud rationality. "My mind says no, but my heart says yes", is so cliche. But, is there something more to this seeming mismatch of body parts? The Institute of HeartMath would say yes.

From a very pragmatic point of view, maybe it is this connection that sets us apart from animals-- not that I'm really comfortable with the idea of such a separation. I'm amused by the fact that one by one each thing that makes humans "unique" gets shot down, Chimps use tools, otters for that matter use tools, Whales use language, Bees use sign language, Monkeys in Japan learn new technics from each other (thus from at least one perspective pass down "cultural elements" where if we had 50,000 years to observe might start looking more like "culture" than a new way to keep warm or eat). Primates in captivity teach their young the sign language that primatologists taught them.

Maybe this connection between our heart and our mind is the "human" characteristic. It always struck me how many artists are very progressive and compassionate. Not all by any means, and they all don't start that way either; but the politics of compassion and love seem very at home among musicians. I've met a higher percentage of vegetarians among musicians, a higher percentage of non-mainstream political ideas among musicians, and more open spiritual ideas among musicians than anyother profession I've been involved in. Musicians have to deal with their emotions on very technical terms. We must be rational about how we feel.

This might start a chain reaction that leads us very far from say the path of Dick Cheney. Now, I know Condelezza Rice is a pianist, so obviously I don't mean all musicians. But there might be something to this idea even if the music/heart/mind connection is at best tenuous.

Is your heart an extension of your mind? If not, is that "normal", or a personal problem? Is "not thinking with your heart" sort of like boxing with one arm? Maybe my heart just won't accept the conclusion that my mind has arealdy drawn: "No, nothing to see here, move along, no strings connecting the heart and the mind." Maybe I should just listen to my heart. If is so easy to believe that our mind can propell us to greater physical achievment, they why not at least consider the chance that our heart can push our mind further? Think about it--- no FEEL about it.


:D

I can not vouche for these links, as I'm just finding out about this interesting stuff, but be brave and read on.
heartmath institute
http://www.heartmath.org/" title="http://www.heartmath.org/" target="_blank"http://www.heartmath.org/
applied meditation
http://www.appliedmeditation.org/" title="http://www.appliedmeditation.org/" target="_blank"http://www.appliedmeditation....
Russel Targ
http://www.espresearch.com/" title="http://www.espresearch.com/" target="_blank"http://www.espresearch.com/

The first link is really about this idea, the other links might not be, but look around-- everywhere you can-- and think about all the times heart and mind are used in the same sentence. Maybe a lot more than blood is being pumped out of that fist-sized muscle.

I caught the tail end of a documentary about the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas Mexico with my kids. I read the subtitles to my oldest-- the six year old-- when she couldn't keep up. She had a tough time understanding what was going on there. Since she goes to Catholic school, I put in terms she could get: I said that when Jesus talks about the poor people, these are basically the same people that he is talking about. Shortly after that a preist came on the documentary and I guess his words helped confirm what I was telling her.

What we saw focused on people displaced from their villages by the Mexican military. They risked being gunned down as they attempted to return to their homes. The documentarians filmed their attempt to return, but weeks after they left to return the the US about a hundred of the villagers were killed. These indigenous people deserve the chance to live as they always have without meddling of the Mexican government. But this is true all around the world.

It comes down to Imperialism. ultimately these "legitimate" government forces that oppress the various indigenous people around the world do so against the spirit and will of the God they all profess to worship. The Palestinians, the Zapatistas, the various tribes in Columbia on the verge of extinction, the Australian Aboriginies, even the Catholics in Northern Ireland and our own American Indians, all suffer at the will of vastly more powerful, more comfortable, and more guilty "legitmate" forces.

In many of these places, the indigenous people are blamed for all sorts of "terrorism", but they are only acting in retaliation to the numerous unpunished crimes committed against them. The cycle of violence spirals out of control and the poor people always come out on the losing end.

Our place in the world is supposed to be about supporting independence, supporting justice and freedom. And if our leaders are a Christian as they claim, supporting the very poorest of the poor against the engine of Imperialism. Every president since and including Carter has claimed at one time or another to be a "born again Christian". If you can't tell the crucifier from the crucified you can't really be Christian can you.

Instead, we get a new tally for our score card on "keeping score" and a new player. I heard about the Army War College's report on Iraq about a year or so ago, on Democracy Now!-- absolutely the best program for understanding what is going on in the world, please see the link on my side bar. Progressives embraced this as a warning for what would happen in Iraq. Too bad the administration didn't listen to their own military.

This touches on my blog about modern Vs traditional army as the same forces that promote the "new" army are the ones that didn't heed the war college's warning, and the "old" army are basically the ones that produced it.

In their report, they used the word "Imperialism", just so we are clear on this; the army war college's own report speaks of our Imperialism. "After the first year, the possibility of a serious uprising may increase should severe disillusionment set in and Iraqis begin to draw parallels between U.S. actions and historical examples of Western imperialism," the authors wrote. The don't refer to a perception of western imperialism but historical examples.

We need to get out of the business of Empire. It is Unjust, benefits a small handful of criminally rich families, and subjugates whole populations of people as well as the working poor that populate the armies of oppression.

Additionally, just like the Roman Empire, the military that created the empire gets ignored by the increasingly arogant oligarchy that it serves. This is what happened in Iraq. At every step, the "civilian" oligarch authority that commands the millitary ignored the millitary's recommendation and the clusterf*&*k that ensued is a result of ruling class arrogance. Is that one of the factors that contributed to the fall of that Empire? Instead of following the advice of the army war college and the generals, we get an orgy of business and intelligence interests.

What would Jesus do, in deed.

Oh, an updating the score card:

progressive left 2
wacko right 0

new to the game:

Army War college 1
Administration Oligarchs 0

This should be a link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5 19&ncid=519&e=9&u=/ap/200 40522/ap_on_re_us/spy_shi p_reunion_1" title="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=5 19&ncid=519&e=9&u=/ap/200 40522/ap_on_re_us/spy_shi p_reunion_1" target="_blank"http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...

The USS Liberty was a US Navy inteligence ship off the coast of Egypt in international waters that was attacked by Isreal during the 6 days war. Plenty is available to indicate it was intentional, that the attackers knew is it was a poorly defended US ship.

This matter was neither debated in public, nor was the attack ever really honestly inverstigated or the motives questions. The "idea" that the attack was an accident seems good enough to the government, good enough to ignore the deaths of our sailors.

I'm reminded of how Ahmend Chalabi manipulated the US goverment into doing all sorts of things that were not right, for his own aim. Certainly, Bush's own motives are not Chalabi's, but the lies he told served to put a public face on Bush's business goals (privatizing Iraq's oil, which I think is the largest publicly (non-privatized) held oil in the world). I think the US government felt that their relationship with Isreal was too important to jepordize with an honest investigation. It wasn't the first or last time that international politics supercedes the lives of our own people.

An "ally" in the middle east, and a well armed one at that, is more important to our empire than human rights of Palestinians, and the people of Lebanon. Our international policy and our soldiers serve one purpose and have for quite some time: securing the foreign resources exploited by a handful of US families.

Iran's oil I think is not privatized either but their on the hit list already, maybe not this year but their on the list. The main reason I think Syria is on the list is to serve as a conduit for the oil from Iraq, and eventually Iran to get it to the Mediterranean Sea.

Will that diminish Isreal's importance th our Empire as an ally? Only time will tell, but we are talking about long time frames anyway. The Bush empire was built over generations and these peices in it will be addes in segments.

Anyway, as I think of the USS Liberty I also think of other forgotten victims of "our" empire.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in= world&cat=iraq

Now, we need to consider this: a year ago people either said Chalabi was an oppurtunistic thief with no motives beyond his own power, or he was a great Iraqi freedom fighter that we can trust.

Keep score people, history is written as we live it. If we trust he media, we'd not know what happened last week. We each have to keep score to know who is right and who is wrong.
If we start keeping score now (it doesn't matter when we start, but it could be self serving to go back in time), we have:

Progressive Left 1
Wacko Right 0

So, the "fired" Chalabi. Will they seek to recoup the money they gave him, or charge him with any crimes? I certainly hope so.

My wife and I took our oldest daughter (6 years old) to see Richie Havens saturday night. The baby stayed with a grandma as mommy thought the show might be too loud. Richie Havens is a great singer and songwriter, and he also performs many songs by other artists. He is best know for his 2 1/2 hour set at woodstock, just him his guitar and his voice.

The warm up act was Walter Parks on guitar and vocals and Stephanie Winters on cello and vocals, who sometimes call themselves "the Nudes", but have busy careers apart as well. The mix American traditional styles of music like Blues and Bluegrass to an extent with Jazz, some classical, and rock. Most of the singing was done by Walter in a moan/howl/yodel that most can recall from the music in the movie Raising Arizona.

There are a very original act, and the music was very nice. Very textural, I'd like to have heard more high tempo pieces but that is something lacking in most performances, many performers don't get over 160 or so on the metronome. Even "fast" punk or metal music when we actually talk about tempo isn't all that fast, sub divisions of the beat get used to play very busy over moderate tempos. It is a distinction that may not sound like much but actually does matter in the way the music impacts an audience. Charlie Parker used to paly tunes up around 300 beats per minute-- that is fast. Even if the chords get plunked once a measure the mind races along through the changes and the tune and the tempo is felt. Not a knock on their performance, but something I noticed.

By the time Richie Havens came out my kid was ready to sleep, she may have caught one or two tunes. What a great performer, he told a lot of stories and talked with the audience between tunes and spent a lot of time tuning (bring a few guitars so they can simply be switched, rather than retuned all night).

The audience enjoyed the stories though, as he spoke to members of "his generation" and from my younger perspective pandered to them. His audience was somewhere between being old enough to be my grand parents and my kids' grand parents.

Still his protest songs ring true today and stir the soul as they must have in the 60's. He played great songs by Dylan and Quicksilver Messenger Service and Gary Wright (My Love is Alive was the encore).

Really an uplifting show. Walter Parks sat in with him and looked as bored as I would have on stage while Richie tuned and told stories, but really Walter shined as the lead player. I was very impressed with his playing, both in meeting the needs of the performer-- not to outshine the star-- while really adding depth and nuance to the music tastefully and soulfully and intelectually.

After the show Richie signed autographs and was as gratious as a professional entertainer could be. He welcomed my daughter-- who had reawokened-- and charmed her and everyone else he met. He is obviously, from the moment he walked on stage, a: spitual, deep, and kind man who passionate about both his music and his role in the world as a postive force-- not just in the big picture but moment to moment. You can tell when they guy is just putting on a public face, Richie is a really nice guy.

He tours constantly and still puts out records. Check out these links and reaquaint youself with someone whose talent and performance skills and vast slection of songs makes for a great show.

http://richiehavens.com/" title="http://richiehavens.com/" target="_blank"http://richiehavens.com/
http://richiehavens.com/" title="http://richiehavens.com/" target="_blank"http://richiehavens.com/

http://www.fishnose.com/rhavens.htm" title="http://www.fishnose.com/rhavens.htm" target="_blank"http://www.fishnose.com/rhave...
http://www.fishnose.com/rhavens.htm" title="http://www.fishnose.com/rhavens.htm" target="_blank"http://www.fishnose.com/rhave...

http://www.berkshirecounty.com/rogovoy/concerts/have ns.html" title="http://www.berkshirecounty.com/rogovoy/concerts/have ns.html" target="_blank"http://www.berkshirecounty.co...
http://www.berkshirecounty.com/rogovoy/concerts/have ns.html" title="http://www.berkshirecounty.com/rogovoy/concerts/have ns.html" target="_blank"http://www.berkshirecounty.co...

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20 020723a.asp" title="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20 020723a.asp" target="_blank"http://www.bankrate.com/brm/n...

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20 020723a.asp" title="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20 020723a.asp" target="_blank"http://www.bankrate.com/brm/n...

Abstract

Many factors contributed to the torture of Iraqi prisoners. Most importantly is the possibility that this kind of behavior was allowed at the highest levels. This kind of thing is hardly ever documented, so what ever comes of this, http://story.news.yahoo.com/n..., we should not simply accept the excuses offered up by the usual apologists or their understudies. When the higher-ups expect such behavior, the soldier in the field can not fall back on "refusing to follow an unlawful order" that the pundits keep saying. The kid will be written up for not following the order, and the unlawfulness will never factor into the proceeding. Other factors include: lack of planning for the occupation, lies told by the CIA front Iraqi National Congress, complete disregard for the well being of the population, lack of sufficent troops or logisitical support, and too many mercenaries. Failure in Iraq is Bush's fault, especially if he is out of the loop on much if it. Failure in Iraq will haunt us for years to come unless drastic measures are taken.


Civil Rights

That link spells out some really damning allegations. But, let's not pretend it comes out of thin air. The government has tried to eliminate civil rights right here in the good old US, tried to remove Geneva Convention protections for all sorts of foreign prisoners, and arrested a lawyer for a fragment of a fingerprint found by another government-- instead of first questioning him. Let's not remember the free ride the Bin Laden family got out of here on Sept 12 and 13, and we see that we have rights for friends or members of the oligarchy, and precious few for everyone else. We've arrived at the bottom of the slippery slope of falling away civil rights-- or further than I'd ever want see in my America.

But the terrorists made us do it??? No excuses allowed!! These opponents of civil rights have been calling for these things for many many years now, September 11 only reinforced whatever world view one had on Sept 10. This lack of respect for civil and human rights is at the core of the prisoner scandal.

Unlawful Orders

Ever try to refuse what you think is an Unlawful Order in the military? Well, first you'd have actually had to have served. Then you'd realize that you will be written up for disobeying an order long before you get to make your case that the order was unlawful. You'd never win. If you think FBI whistleblowers have it bad, try it in the military. Everytime you hear a pundit talk about the kids should have refused the order if they thought it was unlawful, there by making the argument that the kids did this without orders from above, you can rest assured that the pundit is lying to you and has no respect for the truth or the American people. One may make many arguments, the "refusing an unlawful order" isn't a valid one.

Lack of Planning for the Occupation

As spelled out in many books and newspaper articles, thre was no planning for post "war" occupation. I don't know if any planning would have been better, because this Bush administration has screwed up everything so bad, and they let themselves be so mislead but bad intelligence that if they'd have planned anything I doubt it would have worked either. But, lack of planning leaves the millitary holding "ten pounds of wet shit in a five pound bag"-- a colorful saying we had in the millitary.

Choosing to believe the lying INC

The CIA created and funded the Iraqi National Congress and named it after the ANC in their typical Orwellian double speak. They propped up Chilabi and he lied every step of the way about an place he'd not even set foot in for like 40 years. Instead of leading a good fight to free his country he was apparently committing bank fraud in Jordan. Rather than extridite him to them, we let him lead us into a bogus war where we will try to make him "president" which sounds better than Shah but will be equally fake. Let's hope he and his cronnies get charged with war crimes.

Lack of Concern for the Population

Lets face it: they secured the oil wells faster than clean water for the people. Creative planning by the museum employees is all that saved some of the treasures from one of the oldest civilizations on earth, where the roots of the Bible can be found. Looting was called democracy by Rumsfeld about a year ago-- that is how much regard these guys have for democracy-- and shows a callous disregard for the people we were supposedly liberating.

Lack of Logistical Support

Our kids are over there with unarmoured Humvees, local communities are pitching in to buy bullet proof vests because they don't have enough over there. My uncle just retired from the police force and got a really nice vest for his son-in-law's brother who will be deployed when NJ's reservists go which will be very soon. You want cruelty?? Half the country's mobsters really are buried in our swamps, I feel sorry for Iraq when Jersey gets through with them. We're very good at anti-social violence.

But, local pride aside: this is bullshit plain and simple. Bush got every cent he wanted for this war. He can't send armored Humvees for these patrols, and he can't send enough bullet proof vests??


Mercenaries

I bet the $1000 a day mercs got vests. But, nothing is really "too good" for Haliburton, is it? See, this will be a 'short' blog.

If instead of giving these guys $1000 a day-- which would be much more than that because I'm sure Haliburton is getting a 15% handling fee, then their subsidary gets another 15%, then insurance fees, per diem etc, and we're closer to $1500 probably-- we should have spent it on bullet proof vests and armoured humvees.

Conclusions

At this point supporting Bush is a character flaw, nothing less. Some months ago it could be chalked up to ingnorance-- God knows the pollsters do. The "undecided" voter mostly are people that refuse to watch or read or listen to any news and refuse to seek information about current events. They might know Derek Jeter's stats from last night, or can talk about the Friends finale, but they avoid things that matter like the plague.

I don't blame them, I'd like to avoid it too. But they then see the advertising and get swayed by that in the final weeks of the campaign. The get fooled by one side or another. This stuff is too serious to ignore and let the most widely distributed info be the only thing to effect one's opinion.

But, things in Iraq might be very different, if: we had sent in enough troops, worked as hard at providing food and drinkable water as we did at securing oil production, protected museums and cultural institutions (of the one of the oldest civilizations on earth, where the roots of the Bible can be found), and prevented looting instead of saying it is part of democracy and freedom. More troops would have made organizing a rebellion tougher. It would have help secure the borders from every unemployed girlfriend-less muslim that wants to see if any of his 72 virgins give reasonable head in the after life. More troops would have made patrols less dangerous-- even with the lack of armoured Humvees, as inexcusable that logisitical faux pas is.

If you hire a security guard and he falls asleep on the job and you stuff gets stolen, do you follow his advice and increase his budget or do you fire him? If you hire a roofing contractor and his roof leaks do you play him twice as much to put up a new roof, or do you sue his ass and get a qualified roofer? Quit accepting excuses from the oligarchy that only wants to create disorder and fear so we'll accept our world on their terms. Seek Peace.

***Note, I edited this for some spelling and grammar and added the second paragraph under Mercenaries.



ADDENDUM

I said this would be my last blog, but even as I was typing this last one the information available to me was pretty imcomplete, when I think of what I learned since coming in after the Richie Havens' concert early Sunday morning. The extent the administration's policy on etracting intel from prisoners is a big factor, the lack of millitary authority in the prison, and apparently the basest of mindsets of the soldiers there were all things I underestimated.

Apparently Lindy English, the girl in many of the photos, says they were having fun. I don't know if the quote is out of context, I don't know what to make of such a statement. I don't know where such behavior comes from that calls it "fun". I can see cruel behavior in the furtherance of a goal-- I'm not condoning it but I can understand it. I can see that there could be a goal-- probably an evil one, but still a goal-- that might be acheived from torture or humiliation, other than just terror for the sake of terror. That I could fit inside my head and imagine.

I couldn't ever imagine it being fun. I could imagine being exceptionally careful to make sure the prisoners never got a chance to retaliate. Tthe kind of guy I am, I'd be focused in on making sure nothing could for even a second turn the tables.

In fact, that stress alone would make it not fun-- the stress in making sure the tables were never turned on me, where one of these victims didn't get the chance to get even. Not fun, horrible work that I'd want to scrub from my body and my memory and might actually send me back to confession to try to clean my soul.

When I was in the Navy, during peace time, I turned my back on a lot of things. You sort of have to, a few things were pretty wrong-- nothing that I regret deeply but things I'd not talk about except with other guys that served. The more I make myself think about this, the more I think I feel bad for anyone there on either side of the camera or pile.

I'd not want to be a guard there because to resist doing what they did would be risky-- of that I'm certain. That is where my head is at. I know that to do what they did is less than what we'd like to call human, but is all to often exactly human and not "animal" at all, but what would have happened to the soldier that resisted the torture? I'm sure that much of the behavior was ordered, the feeling I get inside thinking about it is as a teenage coming upon gang of bigger hoodlums that would beat me up if I crossed them at the place and seeing them staring at me as I round a corner. I don't see a lot of good options there for the soldiers.

Yes the soldiers should be held responsible, not punishment for the sake of punishment but to at least state that such behavior isn't accepted by Americans (except when there's no pictures, or when conducted by graduates of the Fort Bening School of the Americas, or when performed by police on African Americans an other minorities-- really who are we kidding here, we are a pretty violent people). But, let the investigations bring down people further up the food chain. Let's get some of these bastards up on War Crimes charges.

Intro

I went back and forth on this: does the total number of troops sent at the initial invasion of Iraq impact this current crisis? I have to conclude that yes it does. I've mentioned this as a problem in other blogs and in comments all over the tblog universe: that the army's request of 400,000 troops to complete this task should not have been undercut by the President-- and I have always been strongly against this war from before it began. Many of our problems now would be non-existent.

This prisoner scandal is very complicated, but is really just one more very wrong part of a very wrong war going very badly. I'm doing a couple of more blogs on this. This one only talks about the "modern military" vs "traditional". It may not seem relevent, but my next blog will breifly talk about how this impacts the prison scandal. Finally I'll write about all the cover ups going on with this and the myths that are being tossed around like truth. This would have gone up yesterday, but my word processor crashed during a spell check-- how's that for bad spelling.

Two styles of warfare

There are essentially two very different view points on the way to run a modern military within the government, millitary and policy circles. Those that feel technology can and should replace people in the field, and those that feel regardless of technological advances millitary activity is still only carried out properly with lots of people and that the technology can still only be counted on to support the manpower, not replace it. The proponents of either side of this debate have all sorts of angles they approach the subject, and it is a very complex matter-- as much as I want to cast Rumsfeld and his cronies as evil, their arguments with respect to the nature of a modern army must be understood, before they are condemned.

In any event since war is simply about killing and securing territory and resources and trade lanes and power, I should first acknowledge that war is an evil business brought about by evil circumstances, and will always have an evil outcome that must later be mitigated or war will only breed more war. The debate about troop numbers and the nature of a modern army isn't about a less evil way of doing war, it is about every other aspect of war: cost, public acceptance, media interference, and the ability to mobilize quickly in multiple directions. Only peace and justice promote peace and justice. I pray for the day that Jesus' sermon on the mount replaces "The Prince" and "The Art of War" and every other guide on tactics and power. This kind of more peaceful approach to victory and ?power? might be related to ideas in a recent book called "Soft Power". A recent blog talked about this-- I believe it was our own esteemed Dr. Forbush that worte it.

Troops

Troops require: initial "basic" training, health care, pay, maintenance, constant refresher and more advanced training, recruitment (even during draft times), and so much logistic support. To conduct war with troops: the troops must be psychologically prepared to fight the specific people the will meet in combat, the folks at home must be to some extent sympathetic to the goals and the means of the war, the troops must be mobilized into the region the war is conducted, and support systems must be put in place to keep the troops supplied. We should remember the complicated routes our air craft had to follow when striking various targets over the past couple of decades due to international concerns. Logistics is a complicated business in war.

This gets very expensive. The CIA has always maintained many journalists within virtually every media outlet in our country and many others, primarily to make the public more receptive to the military aspects of our imperialism. This is one of the reasons the government is in bed with the largest media corporations in their consolidation of the industry. Larger and fewer media companies are easier to infiltrate and manipulate. This issue of media consolidation has gone back to the first chains of newspapers before even the time of radio.

Moving troops from place to place takes time, the more troops the more time. Troop ships are not the fastest ones in the fleet, air craft can only carry so much, and their fuel is more expensive. So, conducting a war with troops is expensive before we even conduct a war. This is why the lies are transparent each time masses of our troops move half way around the world, like we did prior to both gulf wars, and our Bush says they've not determined to go to war and still want to negotiate peace. It is too expensive to move that many troops to a "hot spot" and not use them. If they weren't certain about war they'd not mobilize them.

To actually use them we see is exceptionally expensive. Then they must be gotten home safely, and they'll have health care issues when they get back. The conservative can cut VA spending when people aren't looking, and they can massacre protesting veterns like hey did to the bonus marchers at the dawn of the great depression only so often. A soldier is a great financial burden on the government and take a cut out of what gets kicked up to the ruling class.

Troops are in fact limited in number. This is complicated by the fact that our empire needs troops stationed around the world: Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, and so many other places. Regardless of any of these wars we fight now, our presence must be maintained in all the parts of the world or ... something ... will ... happen-- well I don't really know what would happen, the sky would fall, democracy might flurish, some really big corporation might suffer a strike by it's foreign workers, United Fruit might loss a couple of mangos, bad bad stuff from an imperialist perspective. If two problems pop up around the world requiring millitary action, then these troops get spread even thinner, and the logisitical costs go up.

Then hiding the bodies when they come home, or public opinion might turn against the war. They can only make some many movies like the one were Gary Cooper or one those guys plays a good Christian country bumpkin that must be taught why the war he must go fight is a good Christian thing to do (why do we look at others propaganda with disdain and turn a blind eye towards our own?). Dead bodies are always anti-war, and a by-product of fighting wars with people.

The Modern Technology Centered Military

Rumsfeld is one of many "cleaver thinkers" that thinks thre is a better way. Missles mobilize much cheaper and faster than troops. Spy planes and intelligence analysts can replace field operatives. Spent shell casings and missle delivery systems can be replaced and will never be missed by family. Showing their "deaths" can be entertaining like so many lemmings were lead to believe during the first gulf war. A US missle blowing up is much more nice to see than a US soldier blowing up. Missles don't eat or need training or health care.

Replacing missiles is part of the benefit. The relationship between the administration the defense contrators and the millitary commanders has been getting more and more incestuous since Eisenhower's time. Everytime money changes hands between these parties power is consolidated. No doubt about conducting war with technology instead of the masses is better from a lot of view points.

Our empire stretches across the entire globe. We are the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. To exact control over the world's economic activity to maintain our standing, we must be able to act decisively and quickly. The better our millitary can do this, the more secure our ruling class' hold on world events is. Missles have struck all around the world demonstrating the global reach of our millitary. They provide no target for insurgents like soldiers do. When used like they did before the start of the first gulf war they can provide a kind of terror that can't be imagined: non stop ear shattering noise, earth constanly shaking, lights everywhere. Victims of this kind of warfare are left with hardly any will to fight for quite some time. Blitzkreig perfected, empire perfected.

Caveats to this Kind of Modern War

But, devastating a country is not the same as controlling it. Getting people to do what you want is not the same thing as defeating them. Troops, it seems, are still the only way to get a population to under control enough to meet the needs of the empire. To get the people of some place to stop what they were doing and reorganize to meet the needs of the conquering empire, a force of occupation is needed-- and that is assuming they were defeated.

Technology isn't perfect, and the intelligence gathered to use the technology in warfare isn't perfect. Thus, civilian buildings get hit like Chinese embassies, Aspirin factories, children's hospitals etc. Mass bombings of that sort are almost garranteed to generate civilian casualties, so there is an ethical problem with this kind of war as well. One can't honestly say they've made an effort to prevent civilian casualties when embarking on such a strategy. It seems running the risk of being accused of war crimes is part of the problem in modern warfare.

How this Impacts our Current Wars

Both the Afghanistan war and the Iraqi war were examples of modern warfare. Robots patroling the caves looking for terrorists in Afgainistan, dividing our troops from away from that task to invade Iraqi with less than half the requested number of troops, and the blitzkreig that started both Iraqi invasions. The escapes of Ossama and other Al Qaida leaders through just slipping past or bribing our "allies" is one of the problems modern war can't solve yet. But our assist in the assasination of the rebel Chechen leader using cell phone tracking was a "victory" if you call helping one empire maintain control over a more backwards population victory. (That one was on Clinton by the way.)

There is no way of know if increased troop presence in Iraq would have prevented this current scandal, they almost seem unrelated. But in my next Blog-- a very short one--, I'll point out the connection that I see.

I'm doing a hit and run. I'm not spell checking or anything. I just want to put out an idea and see if it gets picked up, or brings this very bogus debate into more rational territory.

"It's a breakdown in family values" is a cliche trotted out by fundamentalists to address teen problems, such as teen pregnancy as dealt with in a recent highly-publicized study in the British Isles.

I was watching a program about US home architechture and furniture design in the 1950's recently. A statement leaped out at me during show. That one aspect of homes designed in the 1950's during the big boom in home construction was that the homes reflected a change in the nuclear family becoming the dominant occupants of a home. Before this, they said, homes were occupied by multi-generational families. Grand parents or uncles and aunts, moms, dads, and kids often lived in the same home before the fifties. The nuclear family seems to be a product of the nuclear age, in a manner of speaking.

This fits nicely with information I learned in a radically liberal cultural anthropology class I took in college. That humans fully expect to live past their reproductive years, to become grand parents. There is the concept of a "viable" species where two creatures aren't really assessed or judged to be the same by their ability to reproduce kids, but on the ability of such kids to reproduce again. Two creatures are able to considered members of the same "viable" species if they can become grandparents. If I'm wrong or mistating something here, please correct me in the comment section-- but bring facts and not rhetoric please. Anyway, we as humans use culture as one of the ways we adapt to our environment. Grand parents are a primary conduit of our culture, it may be the "reason" we live past our reproductive ages from an evolutionary point of view.

Anyway, in most societies family units are much larger than nuclear. If the assertion on the program I was watching is true, that home building in the 1950's reflected a change in the relationship between the home and the family unit, then maybe changes in the family should be judged in that context. Even if this "change" isn't really a change at all, one thing is true. Grandparents and uncles and aunts liver further away from each other than they used to. People don't have historys within the neighborhoods they live in like they used to. The community trust that used exist and hold neighborhoods together does seem to be less deep and solid than it used to be. This isn't social conservatism, many leftist families have opted for "simplified" lifestyles and co-housing communitys and other adaptations to societies pressures.

Parents feel pressure every where they turn. People drive further and longer to and from work. Two job families are being replaced by three job families. Kids are shuttled around from arrangement to another and the time for: home work, cooking, working, exercise, particpating in society (news, voting, meetings), shopping, home maintainance, vehicle maintainance, etc is shrinking.

The nuclear family may have been a product of the very job-rich post ww2 economic boom. Since those days are over, why do social conservatives and fundamentalists cling to the idea of the nuclear family like it is unit uniquely suited to meet the needs of it's members? It looks to me like it is severely inadequate.

Really, anyone with insight into any of this-- history of the nuclear family, communities, building design, adult members/household rations over time, distance from work/over time or anything else-- please chime in.

Our media, and the democratic party are focusing on their target: the guy that should "fall" for what is going on in Iraq. Senators are calling for his resignation, I've even heard that impeachment papers are being drawn up. All-- what are we down to 5-- of the media outlets are beating the same drum very precisely: should Rumsfeld resign? Let's not confuse this manufactured consensus' precision with accuracy.

When one makes a series of measurements of the same event, or repetitions of identical events like an experiment in a lab, we use the word precision to refer to the variation (or hopefully, lack of) in the measurments. Precision has to do with the reliablity of the method of measurement. One thing I've learned is that the centrist reactionary wing of the democratic party, and the media are very reilably precise. They can never get anything right, out of fear of pissing off their corporate ruling class masters, but they can all get it wrong in lock-step. It is this precision that helps convey the illusion of accuracy.

Accuracy is very different, it has nothing to do with the range of variation, but that the variation centers around the actual right value. The JFK assasination is a perfect example. The Warren commission came up with the conclusion that the mainstream media has drummed along to ever since, where as conspiracy theorists have drifted all over the map in seeking who is to blamed. Those that blame Lee Harvey Oswald are very precise, but it seems that even a majority of Americans believe they precision conceals their inaccuracy. As time has gone on the conspiracy theorys have converged-- like good scientific ideas in a lot of ways-- and together paint a complex but compelling picture that never would have appeared if we stuck with the very precisly targeted body of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Now, we have a prison scandal in Iraq. Regardless of how we interpret it, the focus of a lot of the discussion is on Rumsfeld. Why not Bush? I had the misfortune of hearing excerpts of Bush's stump speechs from his failed election campaign against Al Gore, and he was tired of a lack of integrity and accountability. Accountability, a bunch of catch phrases aimed at the fundamentalists, and "compassionate conservativism" were his campain-- besides all the dirty tricks thrown at John McCain.

The guy that truely stands for Accountability says "Hey this is on me. I dropped the ball, I'll set it straight." We never get that from this weasel. He may have recognized a lack of "accountability" in Clinton's gang, but he can't admit any thing he's screwed up. As I know, it isn't politically advantagous to stand up and list one's own faults. But, we can't confuse political suicide with the kind of candor that I think would encourage confidence that problems are being addressed.

One thing I do know: Rumsfeld Rumsfeld Rumsfeld is doing his job really well-- sheilding Bush from being held accountable from his mistakes. Let's expect the media to their jobs for once.

I've got a follow up to the blog below, but I'm still finishing it and spell checking it and fact checking ... -- OK, I'm just kidding about that last one :D , I've got no budget for fact checking, but neither does anyone among the fascist chicken-hawk blogger or pundit community.

But, I found this and thought is was cool.

http://www.bongonews.com/layout4.php?event=1058" title="http://www.bongonews.com/layout4.php?event=1058" target="_blank"http://www.bongonews.com/layo...
http://www.bongonews.com/layout4.php?event=1058" title="http://www.bongonews.com/layout4.php?event=1058" target="_blank"http://www.bongonews.com/layo...

This should be an article at Bongo News, a parody or satire web site. The movie reviews are pretty good over there, also.

How could I not blog about this. This is so indicative of so many other problems, they all kind of unite together to show just how far off course we are.

First off: the debate in the media between the right and the propped-up center does a disservice to our people in the military, to the Iraqi people, and to the informed debate that is the cornerstone of our form of government. This isn't an issue of a few bad soldiers, or an out of control command-- such assertions are completely and obviously false. Two of the soldiers charged are prison guards in their civilian life, the idea that they don't know how to handle prisoners is transparent. The general in charge-- why does this administration always hide behind women, or blame women-- was a special forces commander for 10 years. She knows all about handling prisoners. The prison was inspected and every report made public or leaked indicate that the guards were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. They were supposed to humiliate the prisoners and "break" their will. Remember Bush's speech about 'because we acted, Sadaam's torture chambers are closed', well I also remember the Who song I sing with my kids as we drive around with the line "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Of coarse they're the same: this is about totalitarianism, and how much variation is there in totalitarian regimes? None.

The combined commands of the Army, and the CIA wanted exactly what they got in terms of prisoner treatment. They just didn't want pictures sent home. To pretend otherwise is just not right. Now we know why our government always insists on being beyond international law. If this were anyone else we'd be preparing internationally run war crimes trials. Will we hear in the media any debate along these lines? No, debate on TV or most radio is false debate created to give the false sense of democratic procees with out the messy truth that real debate uncovers. This is as it has been my entire life and longer: right vs. center, with the truth and the left standing out in the streets.

I love how the machine trots out "investigative" journalists from the past, Bob Woodward is an apologist for Bush and he goes on all the TV shows as though his information is ammunition against Bush. The he gets "balanced" by Karen Hughes or some on directly speaking along Karl Rove's talking points.

This prisoner scandal was "sat on" my the major media outlets like the times, because they don't want to discredit the president (so much for a liberal media). Only after they found out that the British press was going public with the story did the American media act on it. The whole way the faux-debate is rigged up shows the media's reluctance to really expose it for what it is.

I'm going to blog on this from another angle next, returning to a familiar theme: the number of troops requested by the army. There may be a third blog on this issue as well. This blog was supposed to be published yesterday but I had troubles with my connection-- sorry.

Abstract

Indigo Children, or now, adults are a wave of births that are supposed to be: intelligent, rebellious, creative, occasionally filled with anger, and often filled with depression. They often seek out the underlying reasons for everything they're required to do, and thus often end up in adversarial relationships with employers and authority figures. They hate stupidity and hypocrisy, and their purpose is to tear down old and unjust orders. Crystal Children are a wave of births that began around 7 years ago and are peacemakers meant to lead the future of mankind to a better existence. There are parallels that can be found to this idea in science-fiction writing, and various religions. None of this stuff may be true, but it certainly makes for something to consider: that each generation has a task, which paves the way for the next generation's task.

preface

I'm taking a chance on losing any cred I have among my fellow politically orientated bloggers, and risking being labeled completely insane. I've got a real interest in conspiracy theories, supernatural/paranormal stuff, and all sort of spiritual, mystical, religious or theological ideas. While poking around at www.meetup.com to see what kinds of organizations are around my area (I found a music composers group, the Dean Democracy for America group, the Dennis Kucinich group, and many others), I stumbled into a group called "adult indigos", and couldn't figure out what they were. This is blog is what I found. This isn't the big researched blog I mentioned doing somewhere else, this is new stuff.

Intro

If I have a cynical side this is it. I've learned to doubt anything that tells me what I want to hear. Things that "explain" why I'm so whacked out, or tell me that I'm right on course or seems like blowing smoke up my ass. This falls right into that category. It is either confirming something I thought or it is exploiting those feelings and observations. I don't know which, but I will try to figure this out.


Indigo Children Or Adults, Crystal Children

There seems to be some looseness with respect to how these terms are used, but it seems that "Indigos" are mostly aged 8-25, (but plenty are older, perhaps as old as in their 50's) and have an "indigo aura". Tearing down old broken orders that are failing to make a safer and more suitable cultural environment for the the "crystals" who are supposed to full of empathy for everyone, caring and loving and significantly more intuitive or psychic. The Crystals are generally aged 7 or younger. They have an opalescent aura.

Personally speaking I think psychic ability is either largely misunderstood or pure BS, I don't believe in "mind reading" anyway-- remote viewing, visions of past or future maybe but separating the real for the nonsense is too much effort IMHO. I don't know anything about chakras or auras, but they're related to some alternative health ideas.

Parallels to other things in history or culture

Here is where this stuff interests me. In Hinduism apparently there is the Creator, the Destroyer, and the Re-builder. The Destroyer might better be understood to be the pruner or the gardener that gets hired way to infrequently to be called a gardener and better is called the destroyer. Are the Indigos the destroyer and the crystals the re-builders.

Also, isn't it believed that John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus? In this sense, is John the Baptist an indigo while Jesus representing the Crystal energy?

Since my blog got all fouled up and my left column squeezes out my text, I've written a bit about the concert I took my kids to: Jefferson Starship. The concert centered around some very specific material written by Paul Kantner. Paul is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (BFD; but hey, he is the real deal), great songwriter, co-founder of Jeffeson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, (not "Starship" of "We Built the City") outspoken advocate of the left in the 60's, and big science fiction fan. Airplane was the most revolutionary band of the 60's politically. Paul wrote a lot of that material.

He also wrote two albums centering around the idea that a bunch of young people would hyjack a space ship to leave earth to find a new home and escape oppression here. That was the material they performed when my kids and I saw them. The music is great, the lyrics are great and filled with little catch phrases that haven't left my mind since I first heard them. Believe me when I say such a wacked out premise makes for some great music. It won a Nebula award which usually goes for books or short stories, Jerry Garcia and bass legend Jack Cassidy played perhaps the best lines of their lives and the vocals between Paul, Grace, Joey Covington, David Crosby and Grahm Nash are haunting.

Anyway, these records were inspired by a novel or short story about a group of kids like the next generation of humans born with psychic ability and get hunted by the government. The book was called Rebirth by John Wyndham, but was later revised and renamed The Chrysalids.

Why am I into this. Well, with out going into detail I think descriptions of Indigo adults make the best summary of me I've ever seen, and my oldest kid (6) looks a lot (not entirely) like a Crystal child. Since she was born I saw my role as cutting down obstacles so she could achieve whatever it is God wants he to do. I've taught her wisdom and insight and things that make her wide beyond her 6 years by a lot. She is smart in ways I've still discovering. I've been telling her all her life since she was first born that she is the future and she will lead us once she is old enough-- yeah I'm putting pressure on her, but she mostly steps up to it in a good way.

Here are some links:

The Chrysalids
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue248/classic.html" title="http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue248/classic.html" target="_blank"http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issu...
Paul Kantner
http://www.kweevak.com/rd_art_2003_06_01_pau l_kantner.htm" title="http://www.kweevak.com/rd_art_2003_06_01_pau l_kantner.htm" target="_blank"http://www.kweevak.com/rd_art...
http://www.airplane.freeserve.co.uk/paul.htm" title="http://www.airplane.freeserve.co.uk/paul.htm" target="_blank"http://www.airplane.freeserve...
Blows Against the Empire
http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-1B15-117C 6905-39EA28DE-prod5" title="http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-1B15-117C 6905-39EA28DE-prod5" target="_blank"http://www.epinions.com/musc-...
Indigo Childern and Adults
http://www.metagifted.org/topics/metagifted/ind igo/adultIndigos/areYouAn AdultIndigo.html" title="http://www.metagifted.org/topics/metagifted/ind igo/adultIndigos/areYouAn AdultIndigo.html" target="_blank"http://www.metagifted.org/top...
Crystals and Indigos
http://www.thecrystalchildren.com/crystal.html" title="http://www.thecrystalchildren.com/crystal.html" target="_blank"http://www.thecrystalchildren...