The Haitian Patient

I just want to celebrate another day of livin'
I just want to celebrate another day of life
--I Just Want to Celebrate, Rare Earth

They disguise it, Hypnotize it
Television made you buy it
--Hypnotize, S.O.A.D.

It's amazing how fast the world can go
from bad to total shit storm
--Zombieland (2009)
_________________

Ranger wonders why he is unaffected by the nonstop newsfeed of death and suffering in Haiti after last week's earthquake.

The barrage of painful imagery is ceaseless, yet the pain and suffering do not even register on my personal Richter scale. My mind completely blocks out and disregards the entire incident. I don't care. The only question is, WHY?

The event falls under the general rubric, "Act of God", when actually it is simply a natural disaster, a geological phenomena known as strike-slip fault, an event which was predicted last year. No gods at work here, though there sure are a lot of dead people.

Are we to mourn such natural events, resulting in large casualty rates paraded incessantly by our eyes, inhabiting our television sets? These events are unavoidable and predictable, and only good national pre-emergency planning could have alleviated the post-event suffering.

Meanwhile, the television in my living room has been disgorging catastrophic photos of an elective earthquake called the GWOT since 9-11-01. This discretionary disaster delivers daily death and destruction which cuts scythe-like through Afghanistan and Iraq, yet we cheer on and praise this deadly endeavor. Our movies are often violent death-oriented orgies paralleling our real life. Death has become our constant companion.

We have killed, wounded and destroyed as much as has this earthquake, but we revel in the glory of it all. We -- the U.S. -- are portable earthquakes awaiting our next victim.

This must be why my humanity is dulled, and nothing advertised during the news breaks will alleviate this fact. The man-made earthquakes in Afghanistan and Iraq have blunted the trauma and zombiefied my soul. This must be why the zombie movie is making such a fantastic comeback today.

We are the zombies, and Ranger is their leader since he feels nothing and doesn't even care. The Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) has sucked me dry.

Catch-22

You know, that might be the answer --
to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of.
That's a trick that never seems to fail
--Catch-22, Joseph Heller

There is no such condition as 'schizophrenia,'
but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event
--R.D. Laing
_____________

Like Lithuania, Ranger moves for a name change for the U.S. -- something like the U.S.S.A [United Secret States of America];the 4-letter acronym would also symbolize our kinship in the secrecy realm with the U.S.S.R. of yore.

The Supreme Court recently declined a challenge to the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program because the plaintiffs could not prove they had been spied upon.

The ACLU brought the suit on behalf of a group of lawyers, writers and political organizations, which said the eavesdropping interfered with communication with clients and overseas contacts.

"But Bush's lawyers successfully invoked two legal doctrines making it difficult to challenge the government's anti-terrorism policies.

"First, they said, challengers must show that they had their phone calls or e-mails intercepted. Otherwise, they have no 'standing' to sue because they have no injury to complain of. Second, the government said, the entire program was secret, and under the 'state secrets privilege,' plaintiffs cannot obtain information on whether they were targeted for surveillance. When combined, the two doctrines make it almost impossible for most challengers to win a hearing in court.

"'They say you need certain information to proceed. And that is exactly the information the government won't give you,' said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Program (Supreme Court Dismisses Challenge to Bush's Wiretapping Policy.)"

In rejecting the suit, the Supreme Court is saying secrecy and spying trump the Bill of Rights and the legal process. If you think about it -- something not recommended in this Brave New World if you wish to preserve your sanity -- their stance is to construct of you a paranoid schizophrenic. However, because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you; they may be out to get you, you just can't prove it.

The Phony War on Terror (PWOT©) is being fought versus the corpus juris which used to protect the rights of the U.S. citizenry.