daBlog by goddess101

Roodman Rising

Rudi’s been doing some interesting writing lately, particularly on Jim Kunstler’s blog, Clusterfuck Nation and on LiveJournal, Semper Ubi Sub Ubi. Rudi spends a lot of time surfing the net, which is filled, as we all know, with interesting articles, entertaining videos, celebrity news, cute images, and several other distractions. Rudi, on the other hand, uses the internet as a tool to uncover many “truths” that most choose to ignore or actively look away from.

Civilian Casualties

cilibrar turned me onto this documentary about Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS13, considered to be the largest and most dangerous gang in the world growing fast.

MS13 apparently started out on the streets of Los Angeles, by a bunch of immigrant kids who needed to protect themselves from established gangs in the area. They got into trouble, went to prison, and returned to society wiser but badder than ever. Those who were illegally in the states were deported back to El Salvador, where they started a following there too. Now MS13 is 100,000 members strong, terrorizing locals and rival gangs all across the Americas.

Beginning with an image of MS13 members flashing their gang sign, here is a collection of other images that came to mind after watching the documentary. They may at first seem unrelated but have an underlying connection.

Devils horns, gang sign of MS13

Black Power fists from 1978 Olympics

Nazi gathering

Klu Klux Klan pledge ceremony

Children pledging to the flag

American Military Salute

8-year old Afghan girl

Are we seeing images of unity or divisiveness?

Out of Gas

A historic event is taking place this Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis 500. For the first time in the event’s 91 years, the race will feature 3 female drivers, one of whom has a decent chance at actually winning. Now, before I start breaking into the first verse of Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman”, I do have one question: in a world facing a fuel and energy crisis, as well as rising gas prices, why is this something to celebrate? How can the Indy 500, Formula One, NASCAR and any other form of organized motor racing continue to exist?

NASCAR estimates 6,000 gallons of fuel are consumed during a single NEXTEL Cup (a NASCAR racing series) weekend. With 36 points races, that is approximately 216,000 gallons of gas used for a NEXTEL season. NEXTEL cars are also known as inefficient gas-guzzlers, getting only 2 to 5 miles per gallon. NASCAR vehicles could quite possibly be big-time polluters, because they are not required to have mufflers, catalytic converters or other emissions control devices. In addition, the use of lead additives pose huge health risks to anyone exposed to car fumes.

So, why oh why doesn’t motor racing just screech to a full stop already?

Here’s the answer. Formula One is a massive television event, with millions watching in 200 countries. NASCAR has grown to become the second most popular (read profitable) in terms of television ratings inside the U.S., ranking behind the NFL. The Indy 500 is one richest motorsport events in existence, having the largest attendance and one of the largest radio and television audiences of any single-day sporting event worldwide.

Well, so what, you might be thinking, in the grand scheme of things, is auto racing really that bad? You have a couple of dozen cars driving around a race track for only a few hours at a time. Annual gas consumption is in the 10s of billions in America; NASCAR cars represents a tiny smidgen of that. Well, just as a kid is more likely to pick up a football after watching the Super Bowl, we probably are more likely to shop for a new car, more likely to drive those few miles to the grocery store than take public transportation, more likely to go for a drive than a walk when we’re feeling stressed, and more like to buy accessories for our cars or slap on a new coat of paint or purchase a new pair of driving sunglasses—cuz you know what? Driving is so damn cool! Isn’t it?

I haven’t driven in approximately 3 years. I walk nearly everywhere I go, even if it will extend my trip an hour. I don’t worry about car payments. I don’t worry about insurance rates. I don’t worry about parking tickets. However, I do worry about the price of gas going back down, cuz in the end, is there anything else that will make us lay off the gas pedal?

Colbert Roasting Bush

There’s a great video on the internet, which cilibrar and I just viewed, featuring Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert totally laying into President Bush at the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner. Definitely worth taking a look. Here’s a good place to start for more info and links to view the video.

There are a couple of interesting things worth noting about this event. First of all, the audience’s reaction. The crowd consisted mostly of White House reporters and celebrities, who, although the speech was filled with rather scathing jokes about the guest of honor, laughed uncomfortably the entire time. Reminds me of the very last line of the book I finished a few days ago, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death:

For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.

Secondly, media coverage of Colbert’s speech was barely touched on. Most news reports talked about Bush’s lampooning of himself with a Bush impersonator (I need to check out the video myself!), and only mentioned Colbert in passing or described him as “not funny” or that he “bombed badly.”

I could go on about their (non)reaction to the speech, but I think Salon’s Joan Walsh put it more eloquently:

Intimidated, coddled, fearful of violating propriety, the press corps that for years dutifully repeated Bush talking points was stunned and horrified when someone dared to reveal that the media emperor had no clothes.

An Evacuee's Point of View

Much has been said about the disastrous rescue efforts (or lack thereof) of Hurricane Katrina’s victims. Here’s a moving account from an evacuee whom I think should be sainted. requires Windows Media Player