tidal change

A friend of mine said she had mixed feelings about the victory of the Lebanese people against the Israeli army because of the Hezbollah’s more backward views.She thinks the Hezbollah victory will have a negative political effect on the Lebanese people .But I think the Lebannese people will have a positive effect on the Hezbollah.
The victory in Lebannon was only clinched when the half million Lebanese refugees in Syria decided to go back home to destroyed villages and towns and did so despite the Israelis or the UN or the Lebanese government and probably even despite the Hezbollah
It was not just an act of desperate courage but an act based on a high level of political consciousness, a decision they made on their own for themselves .
It seems the masses world wide,after twenty years of betrayal and terrible defeats, are beginning to once more take an active role in the shaping of history

tip sheet

Here’s the titles of actual lectures being held in Montreal listed on the Gazette ‘Tip Sheet’ page for September/October

“The Shapiro Years:Bernard Shapiro McGill University’s 15th Principal and Vice-Chancellor 1994-2002”
-known affectionately to staff and faculty as “The Slasher’

“The Art of Forgiving Yourself and Others”
-no fucking way

“An Emergency Room Primer:How To Visit the ER and Survive!”
-learn to hold your breath for forty minutes

“Self-Help Against Depression”
-instructions on how to climb the security fence on the Jacques Cartier Bridge

“Re-inventing Mental Illness:The Revolution that Promises to Change Everything”
-put the hospital administrators on the street and the patients back in the hospitals

“The Truth About Psychic Attack,Spells and Curses”
-they don’t work otherwise Stephen Harper would be dead

“Sea Monsters Unmasked”
-my dentist

-And finally, my personal favorite-

“Indexing the Dead:A Journey through Edwardian Montreal Death Data”
-X-rated

I Can't Believe That Doris Day Got Old And Died

I know and remember her as a reactionary cliché,the prototype American suburban blond,but then seeing her by chance in a late night rerun has me realizing there’s a bounce and edge in Doris Day that distinguishes her from her present day impersonators,the aging BarbieDoll wives of right wing Republicans
They may have modeled themselves on her style but Doris Day was not one of them
She was the product of a more liberal smalltown America that never would have voted for George W. Bush
You can see that in her smile
They’ll never get the smile right

Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth

“Whoever wants to fight lies and ignorance today”Brecht writes,”whoever wants to speak the truth must surmount at least five difficulties.”
1.He must have the Courage to speak the truth when it is everywhere stifled
2.The Intelligence to recognize it when it is everywhere hidden
3.The Art to make it manageable like a weapon
4.The Judgment to choose those who will know how to understand it.
5.The Realization that these difficulties can only be surmounted by engagement

right or wrong

As a writer you have to tell the truth as you understand it because otherwise the words come out dead on the page
You can't find your own voice if you’re not being honest to yourself
But to artists who are activists telling the truth is also a way of finding out what went wrong so we can fix it
“The truth”Trotsky said,”is the trigger of Revolution”

A cruel arithmetic

A Cruel Arithmetic
Going through my September 2004 notations and there I found my first recording of American military casualties in Iraq at 981 with the CNN poll approval vote on Bush’s policies at 51%.
The casualty rate now stands at 2,670 and the pro Bush approval vote fluctuates between 31% and 34%
A cruel arithmetic
The more American soldiers die the more likely we are to see a pull out of troops in Iraq
The pull out of American troops will result in the saving of thousands of lives in Iraq
That’s why I count the American dead