Los Angeles earthquake

I'm not a prophet, but I play one in my studio. However, the Earth has been moving recently. The odd one in Illinois was followed by an intense one in China. Although estimates at the death toll are being optimistic, there is no doubt that it will rise above 100,000. There have been recent alerts that Los Angeles is overdue for the "Big One", with Charlton Heston and everything. Now there is even the frog omen occurring in Bakersfield. I myself never wanted to move to Los Angeles, as might be expected. I resisted because some voice inside me warned against it. I figured it might be because it was a volatile part of the world, sitting on the edge of a tectonic plate. But also because of the hardened gang culture, where my brother originally came from.

It is the consensus now that the next 5 years are going to see a reckoning of mankind's existence with Earth. Both scientific and holistic predictions concur that we are about to undergo significant changes that will affect both our Earth and our Conscience. The subject of this blog is Metaphor, so just as there is a connection with China hosting the Olympics, it's suppression of religion, and now the horrendous scenes of children massacred in schools that were built unsafe due to corruption. We reap what we sow. The curious aspect of the Olympics causes speculation of what is to come for future host cities of London and Vancouver.

So if we are to accept that Tsunami of 2004, or Hurricane Katrina of 2005, or now the 2008 Cyclone in Myanmar are just Prologue, then perhaps we should brace ourselves for what are likely scenarios.

Some people talk about their escape plan. Finding some place outside of the city. Caves along the river. Maybe the cabin up north. People take pride in being self sufficient. Hunting or fishing their own food. If our basic needs such as drinking water or fuel become scarce, we will have to turn to a more third world type of survival. Perhaps we should see what is making things worse in those parts of the world, and learn lessons to prepare in our part of the world.

Illinois Earthquake & Barack

An earthquake anywhere in the upper midwest is so rare as to be almost non-existent. The presence of an Illinois candidate who is defying all expectations with his ability to transcend normal politics coincides with the seismic event that has Illinois as ground zero.

The persistent tremors emanating from Illinois reverberate through Barack as his force of will permeates the population. Conscious or not, he is tapping into the soul of MLK. There is a parallel to the revolution of the 60's and the seemingly coming age of peace (pulling out of Iraq) that is dawning in the beginning of 2009. There is now a greater acceptance of the consequences of our road to ruin as a western society. We bring it upon ourselves, so our urge to make amends for our trespasses will atone for the disaster that was the Alamo of neo-conservatism.

Man Against Nature Saga Continues

As stated in my blog posted on 12/18/06 that there was to be more of the "Missing Man against Nature" showing up in the news. Here are two new items that occurred since this post:

- Ken Barnes was a missing American off the tip of South America. He was trying to boat around the world by himself. He was rescued by Chilean fishermen

- Eight people were swept up in a massive avalanche in Colorado. CNN had a "Breaking News" plastered up on the screen most of Saturday, with no images or new information. All eight people were rescued with no major injuries.

The Greater Theme of course, is the Global Warming threat (in case of the avalanche - more extreme weather). There was also a coincidence that night as the Minnesota Wild hockey team was playing the Colorado Avalanche.

As for any soothe saying coming this week: It is most definitely the High Noon showdown between the Democratic Congress and Bush over the Iraq Troop Escalation. I believe this confrontation (more like an intervention) with Bush over re-running the Viet Nam playbook will become a central concern with everyone. Bush will probably force people to take sides on the issue, with strong emotions being exposed in the process. Here in Minnesota, the temperature actually stayed below the freezing mark. Yesterday I biked on mostly dry ground; it has been atypically warm for January in Minnesota.

Missing Man Against Nature

Not too long ago, there was some uproar in the blogosphere about the incessant news coverage on the mainstream media about a girl murdered in Aruba, or the Runaway Bride, or so on. All white and seemingly innocent women.

Now there seems to be a new theme, the Missing Man Against Nature. A couple weeks ago, there was a vigil for James Kim, who got lost in a snowstorm in Oregon. Now, the missing man was Kelly James, who got caught in bad weather on Mount Hood, also in Oregon. The third factor here is the weather. It played a part in both situations. Of course, all these events are tragedies for the families involved. But in the grander scheme of things, the MSM (mainstream media) devote too much airtime to this when other more relevant events are not covered as much.

The Missing Man Against Nature theme is serving some underlying message. I can't think of an obvious one right now (suggestions welcome), other than the strange similarity of the names James Kim & Kelly James. But my hunch is that there will be other news to add to this theme.

Stay Tuned...

The Grief Cycle as Applied to 9/11

The 5 stages of coping with grief are:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

We can view our country's collective consciousness as we all experienced the events of 9/11. It has acutely affected us with nearly identical reactions, primarily because the television coverage showed the entire spectacle to everyone almost simultaneously. Similar to the collective reaction our country had when President Kennedy was assassinated or the first Shuttle explosion. In the case of 9/11, we immediately united as a people at the shock of the event. This translated into a unified nationalism. New York City had an abrupt change in personality after that day.

I noticed in myself a sense of defeat in terms of how the terrorist attack broke the peace of our secure US mainland. Hijackings were a thing of the past, the social compact was now broken. People feared to visit their local grocery store, unsure where the hidden enemy would pounce. The fear has finally subsided as no notable acts of terror have occurred on US soil for over 5 years. Along with letting go of the fear, these recognisable signs of coping with 9/11 are evident:

Denial. This can be displayed by the ongoing conspiracy theories about 9/11. These include claims that a missile hit United 93, or a missile hit the pentagon, or that the World Trade Center was felled by explosives planted within the building. Also, the Bush Administration was also in denial that they were warned very strongly to take action on the threat of Bin Laden striking within the US. Bush and Cheney continue to this day to be in denial that invading Iraq was "The Right Thing To Do". This is also evident with the title of Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial".

Anger. This was displayed by the swift entry into Afghanistan, and more prominently in Iraq. Most soldiers in Iraq have been indoctrinated with the idea that they are in Iraq because it was involved with 9/11. There were also instances of angry passengers refusing to fly with a group of Arabs onboard. This anger also found it's way into bitter partisanship during the 2004 election cycle.

Bargaining. This is the willingness of some Americans to give up their rights for protection against another terrorist attack. The support for controversial measures such as warrant-less wiretapping, removal of habeus corpus, and torturing suspects, was in part because of this rationalisation.

Depression. This is what has been occurring lately since 2005. Since the government's poor response to the Katrina hurricane, there has been a steady loss of support for the President's agenda. The slow realisation began to include the poor effort in stabilising Iraq, and finding Bin Laden. This turnabout of support for the President is all the more striking because of the quick collapse from his re-election just months earlier.
Update 1/30/2007: Another sign that our country is in a general state of depression is the increased weight size of our population. Obesity has been on the rise, and a possible source is depression over the fear of terror. One way people avoid depressing situations is to focus on food. Binging on chocolate or the like is a chance to make your stomach happy while you are depressed about life.


Acceptance. This was illustrated by the mid-term election of 2006, where the majority of our country has come to terms with the fact that we have lost thousands of Americans in the last few years without any victory. We don't have Bin Laden, we have lost the war in Iraq, and our country's integrity has been lost because of poor foreign policy. This acceptance means that all the hatred directed at Democrats has passed, and the misguided views of the neo-cons have been rejected.

Metaphor: Bush has no Exit Strategy - Can't Open Door

On Sunday, November 20th, 2005, George Bush was in China. At the same time, there was a bit of an uproar over a recent call for withdrawing troops from Iraq from members of Congress. They had also recently passed a bill requiring that the Bush administration provide a report detailing an exit strategy.

This cloud was hovering over the entire Bush Asian trip, and captured more media attention. The attempt by Bush to quickly walk out of a press conference caused a miscue when he tried to open a locked door. The moment has been replayed on mainstream news channels as well as being prominently displayed on the New York Times.

This metaphor was not lost on Bush's critics. It has a demonstrative connection to a presidency that has become seriously off track. Public discontent with Bush as president and Republicans in congress was continuing to grow. A high profile war veteran and military supporter in congress raised the call for the troops to come home. This is a challenge to Bush's leadership, and his administration's response has been especially harsh.

Bush damaged his image as a leader in charge by being caught in a stumble before the eyes of the world. He comicly made a goofy face, and told the press that he had failed to try to escape from them. He was ushered to another door within seconds.

But the images are now commonplace, and the incident represents part of the poor performance by Bush on many issues.

Metaphor: US is keeping choke hold on the new Iraqi Government

From Reuters
An Iraqi lawmaker accused a U.S. soldier of grabbing him by the throat and shoving him to the ground Tuesday after he parked his car in Baghdad's Green Zone.

``I don't speak English and so I said to the Iraqi translator with them, 'Tell them that I am a member of parliament,' and he replied, 'To hell with you, we are Americans,''' Sheikh told parliament, fighting back tears as he recounted the story.

The U.S. military said it was investigating the incident.


Reports from some Iraqi citizens and politicians say that they are afraid that the US won't really hand over control to Iraq, and US will try to dictate how the government will be run despite the official handover of power last year.

This incident, which may be as simple as a soldier being touchy because of potential car bombs, nonetheless signifies the rough handling of Iraq's sovereignty. This could harden peoples perspective of the US as callous when it comes to respecting human rights. The Abu Ghraib scandal already has made a piercing blow to the image of the US in Arab countries. Recently, there was an insurgent attack on Abu Ghraib that injured 44 US Soldiers. Shortly after the photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib surfaced in 2004, Bush stated that they would shut down the notorious prison . This would be seen as a gesture to the Arab world that this type of abuse was not acceptable. Nearly 1 year later the Abu Ghraib prison is still in use.

What's the Message

What can we learn from this incident?

These are possibilities:
-The New Iraqi government will be suspicious of the US.
-Sovereignty in Iraq will be limited.
-Further skirmishes displaying US authority over Iraqi's sovereignty will occur.

Some things seem certain:
-It is doubtful the US soldier who grabbed the parliament member will apologise.
-The US military will have another investigation to add to it's already huge list, including the attack on an Italian Journalist and her rescuers.
-The US media will not play this up, as the new pope will dominate headlines for the next few days.

Stay tuned as other recent events may tie into this.