Friday, December 25, 2009

Supernumerary caribou Once again at this time of year I like to indulge in my improvisational ritual of putting up a small, very small, bitmap image constructed in Mac-Paint, the AppleWorks version of Mac-Paint at least, on some Christmas / Santa Claus related theme. This year reflecting on how rushed everyone seems at this season I decided on a pastoral image. Something away from the bustle and also acknowledging that the Washington DC area had a white Christmas this year. In fact we had about two feet of snow fall down out the sky on the nineteenth of December which is still here five days later. In this picture you see one of Santa's back-up caribou. Placidly he munches on a bit of grass that sticks up through a field of snow here and there. In the background is a Norwegian arboreal forest. Santa, his pack of toys and his train of on-call reindeer exit stage left. On the right we see the Russian Navy in the midst of another Test : Fail!  of a RSM-56 Bulava SLBM  Bizarre Lights over Norway | MetaFilter. The missile its corkscrewing path above the artic circle atmosphere reveled by its main blue jet flume, as half burnt fuel streams at a spiraling right angle to the spinning missile through a hole eaten in the exhaust funnel. An industrial dream-quest for northern lights. Some of the forrest creatures look up and wonder whether the Zarkons have returned, opening up an interstellar jump portal to send their space fleet through. Others have seen this before, and preferred the Alley Cats anyway. 11:55:41 PM    comment [];trackback []; Un Chartered territory   Liu Xiaobo, 53 leading proponent of the Charter '08 manifesto went on trial in this week China Leading China dissident to be tried Wednesday: family - Yahoo! News. This scarcely a month after a trial of an activist, Huang Qi, who was advocating for families trying to get answers for why their children's schools collapsed after last years earthquake in Sichuan Provence BBC News - China activist Huang Qi sentenced to three years. And only a week after the formal arrest of another advocate for ordinary people, Zhao Lianhai, who had been advising parents whose children were sickened in the recent tainted milk scandal. All while Zhang Zuhua the other primary drafter of the Charter '08 manifesto remains under close house-arrest-like observation.    Liu Xiaobo was charged with undermining the authority and natural respect of the state  China opens trial of leading dissident Liu Xiaobo - Yahoo! News. "Inciting subversion of state power" in their particular formulation. These trials are for simply believing in a Chinese democracy. Embedded within this is the idea that state power is the highest good, and may exist for its own sake if it chooses. In reality there is no state, no disinterested harmony-willing entity or spirit. There are only elites and their institutions of control.  Withdrawal of power from the individual is inescapably the withdrawal of dignity from the individual. The authority of the state is dependent on the quality of the power the people can give. If the people's power is robbed of dignity, the state's power will have none either. The steady accumulation of grievance is something that can be suppressed, but not smothered.  At the same time there is a very similar trial for an activist, Le Cong Dinh, 41 in Vietnam In Crackdown, Vietnam Charges Le Cong Dinh With Capital Crime - NYTimes.com.  Subversion again and in Vietnam this is a capital crime. And jail an a trail for an activist in Burma Nyi Nyi Aung, 41 who is an American citizen Little word from U.S. on Nyi Nyi Aung, jailed in Burma - washingtonpost.com.  This raises the question of whether there is any coordination in scheduling this cascade of trials all occurring the the fortnight before Christmas, to overwhelm western media coverage and diplomatic response, at least to apparent circumstance.  What is needed is a clear and unabashed doctrine that the harmony of a people - for whom the state is never more than vehicle or caretaker - is never advanced by trying to steer a separate direction from the principle of self determination that lies at the heart of democracy. Every one of these trials should be cause for increased adaption of the precise language of Charter 08. By western government officials preferably. At least by opinion leaders in the media and else where where too often these events are merely relayed and not remarked upon emptily and perfunctorily. An International standard of response. That would at least attempt to meet the chilling propaganda of these trials on equal terms.  In further contra-demos news the plane full of small arms from North Korea intercepted in Thailand seems to have been headed for Iran through Sri Lanka. At least AP  Weapons-carrying cargo plane headed for Sri Lanka - Boston.com and UPI New North Korean links to Iranian arms? - UPI.com  think so,  the Times  Destination of Arms Seized by Thais Is a Mystery - NYTimes.com is not as willing to commit. Rifles for Ahmadinijhad, a sign that the Iranian revolutionary state has determined their own people cannot be trusted to their opinions and the club wielding thugs of last summer need to be armed with Kalishnikovs and machine guns to properly adjust and fine tune the will of the people  BBC News - Clashes at Montazeri ceremony, Iran opposition says.  I was taken by surprise by the brevity of Liu Xiaobo meeting with justice. It was over before I could finish writing this China dissident jailed for 11 years for subversion - Yahoo! News. A three hour trial on Wednesday, Christmas eve, and the a sentence of Eleven (11) years in jail delivered on Christmas day  Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo sentenced to 11 years on 'subversion' charges - washingtonpost.com.  A Trial as short as the legitimacy behind it. With no member of the foreign diplomatic corp or the press allowed to see it  Leading Chinese Dissident Receives 11-Year Sentence - NYTimes.com. Hallmark of a closed society and an entrenched leadership. One that believes itself unassailable to the rule of law. 9:50:59 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2009 P Bushmiller. Last update: 12/31/09; 9:06:34 PM.