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Recent
Stories
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Rumseld's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
May
28, 2003
David
Vest
DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More
Dave
Lindorff
My Grandfather's Medal
John
Stanton
America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key
Bernard
Weiner
A PNAC Primer
Robert
Jensen
Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party
Ahmad Faruqui
The Oil Business of Regime Change:
the CIA and Iran
Hammond
Guthrie
Disarming Conundrums
Steve Perry
What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?
May
27, 2003
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
May
26, 2003
Franklin
C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated
Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice
Sam
Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home
Stew Albert
The Final Conflict
May
24 / 25, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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June
5, 2003
Line Up for
a Lobotomy
How You Can
be Deliriously Happy
By PAUL DEAN
Good news for all of you anxiety sufferers out
there! Are you are stressed, upset or depressed over the current
state of our democracy? Worried about the complete breakdown
of logic, and the absence of compassion on the part of our government?
Do you lie awake at night, worrying about your job, your future,
your retirement, lack of health care, and permanent war? Do you
fear a worldwide backlash as a result of America's belligerent
foreign policy? Upset at the loss of your civil rights at home?
These worries, and many more like them,
can soon be a thing of the past.
Yes my friends, through an amazing new
application of existing medical technology, in combination with
major advances in control and dissemination of information, you
can completely eliminate all worry about the blatant totalitarian
nature of our government, freeing you to blissfully accept, and
even embrace, the march towards fascism!
Sound simple? It is! How many of you
have hoped and prayed for relief from these well founded and
difficult to suppress worries? How many of you have attempted
to drown those nagging fears by immersing yourselves in ultra-
nationalist patriotic displays? You've tried flag waving and
unquestioning support of authority figures. You've tried to conquer
your own fears by trying to silence and intimidate others whose
questioning of these trends has made you feel uncomfortable,
vulnerable, and frightened.
If you are like many Americans, you have
done all of the things described above but it just isn't enough.
With each new revelation about the inconsistencies, lies, and
disinformation foisted upon us by our government, that nagging
sense of worry returns. Despite your best efforts to ignore the
truth, and to listen only to sources that support your illusions,
you are still troubled by the fact that "news" stories
like the Jessica Lynch rescue tale are now revealed (by
our closest ally and even by our own corporate press) to
be nothing but manufactured lies. You still have difficulty overlooking
your government's multiple violations of international law, resulting
in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. Or perhaps
the fruitless search for the all important, but apparently nonexistent
Weapons of Mass Destruction has gotten you down.
If you, like millions of others, still
suffer from anxiety over these troubling events, the time has
come to take decisive action. You can put all such worries out
of your mind once and for all. At long last there is an affordable
new treatment that utilizes the best elements of medical science,
psychology and corporate engineered mind control. Now you can
achieve guaranteed, permanent results, with very little effort,
and minimal expense. Now, you too can have your very own, FRONTAL
LOBOTOMY!
I can already hear you skeptics out there,
with questions such as: Haven't lobotomies been around for decades?
What's so fresh and new about this idea? Isn't brain surgery
a bit extreme? Since I already watch FOX News and read the New
York Times, why would I need a lobotomy? Wouldn't it be redundant?
Read on, silent sufferers, because this
is the only product on the market today with the power to put
your mind completely at ease. Don't allow your fear to stand
in the way of its cure.
The Lobotomy has been around for a number
of years, but its therapeutic potential has been limited by a
reluctance on the part of practitioners to expand its use to
treat common anxiety. But our cutting-edge research indicates
that eliminating the area of the brain that carries out analytical
functions is the only foolproof way to eradicate the cognitive
dissonance caused by awareness of the huge discrepancy between
reality and pro government corporate propaganda.
Think about it. If you no longer have
the capacity for rational thought, no longer have the ability
to discern fact from fiction, you will be free to live a hassle
free, happy life. You will be unconcerned with the annoying and
petty details of life, free from the burden of having to distinguish
between right and wrong. Only then can you be truly free to wholeheartedly
support unspeakable atrocities committed by your government and
paid for with your tax dollars.
Sure, corporate media is doing its part
to exclude any mention of stories that might disturb your peace
of mind. And in the wake of the recent FCC decision to allow
further media consolidation in the hands of ultra right wing
billionaires, like Rupert Murdoch, you can expect even more disturbing
news to disappear from the headlines. But can you really expect
corporate media to do the whole job?
We maintain that it is too much to ask
that government and corporate manipulation of information provide
you with all of the relief you seek. For insight into why this
is true, you have only to look at a few of the basic assumptions
that they must sell you before you can feel good about your government.
Just look at this partial list.
A. Waging unprovoked, preemptive war
will preserve peace.
B. The world will be a safer place after
America embarks on an expensive new arms buildup, constructs
new nuclear weapons, attacks sovereign foreign nations at will,
and demands that all those same nations that we are attacking,
threatening and arming ourselves against, must immediately disarm.
C. Massive tax cuts for billionaires
in a time of ballooning deficits, while teachers are being laid
off nationwide and social services are being slashed, will be
good for average Americans. The extra cash available to people
with multimillion dollar annual salaries, will be just the money
that inspires these billionaires to start new businesses. The
incredibly large and ever expanding gap between rich and poor,
has left the super rich perpetually just one massive tax cut
below the threshold at which they will suddenly be inspired to
invest in an all-out effort to provide jobs for unemployed Americans.
D. Providing Israel with billions of
dollars worth of weaponry every year and looking the other way
while the Israeli government seizes Palestinian land, destroys
homes and kills civilians, is an essential and helpful part of
the Peace Process.
E. Concentration of media ownership in
the hands of a few billionaires will lead to diversity of programming.
The concept is succinctly expressed by this equation: Monopoly=Diversity
F. Obvious lies are not lies, because
you can trust us to be balanced and fair.
G. Pay no attention to the man behind
the curtain.
Do you see what we are getting at here?
You subject corporate media in America to highly unreasonable
expectations if your hope is that they can convince you that
your government is acting in your best interests. The task, for
them, is no less daunting than it would be for you to attempt
to convince people that pigs can fly.
You have a deeply rooted, even pathological
need to feel good about your country, and this need already enables
you to overlook many obvious inconsistencies. But to really feel
good, you need be absolutely free of worry about the direction
chosen for your country by your leaders.
Sure, you could resort to time consuming,
difficult and frustrating political activism, in an effort to
improve your country to the point where you could feel good about
it. But there is a better way. As the late John F. Kennedy once
so eloquently said, "Ask not what your country can do for
you, but rather, ask what you can do for your country."
The answer to that question, my fellow citizens, is simple. Get
a Lobotomy.
You deserve the peace of mind that only
a Lobotomy can give you. And all you will have to sacrifice to
find that peace, is a small piece of your mind.
Paul Dean
is a writer/activist and bass player with the band Blusion. He
lives in Sebastopol, CA. He can be reached at: blusion@blusion.com.
This article first appeared in Dissident
Voice.
Today's
Features
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
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