Motley Moose – Archive

Last night, I watched the much-awaited documentary Hubris, narrated by Rachel Maddow, which laid out for us all how the Iraq war was sold to the American public. I had to watch this show, not to help me make more sense of a war that has deeply and probably permanently affected/afflicted me, but to fill in some of the blanks, and there are many, because I was very disinterested in politics at the time I was deployed. I was just a happy Reservist, enjoying my Microsoft career and my weekend drills (along with the special interpreter missions that occasionally sent me to France, ooh la la!).

After 9/11, everybody knew we’d be going to war. I was just as surprised as my Microsoft teammates and managers when I showed up for my next shift — we all kinda suspected that anybody in the military would be immediately ordered to duty or something. But that’s not how it happened — I know now that Bush and company needed time to prepare their lies case for invading. And I just wasn’t paying attention to all that. I knew I’d be proud to serve my country in that way if called upon, but all that politics stuff was boringgg, and I trusted that those in positions of power were doing the right thing, protected by all the checks and balances our wonderful system of government puts in place. I didn’t even own a TV set, only listened to contemporary French music, not radio, got all my news via the Internet, but glossed over anything pertaining to Congress, the President, all those people up there doing Very Important Work.  

It is now 2009.  We have come so far in the past eight years that – even if you pay really close attention – the speed with which we have grown as a species in knowledge and capability is so ferociously fast as to be virtually invisible.

In 2009 you can buy a 1 Terabyte disk drive for your computer for $95 (this much storage would have cost you $4,000 in 2001).

Between 2001 and 2009 – following the old saw about “Human Knowledge doubling ever year” – we as a species had acquired 256 times as much knowledge about the world around us than we did between the dawn of humanity and 2001 (when we already thought we were pretty bright, and we were).

The policies that George Bush and John McCain have pursued have finally resulted in World Peace and harmony between the United States and Muslim extremists.

Today in Yemen, Islamic Jihad celebrated the New World Order of tolerance and understanding by exploding a “car gift” outside the gates of the US embassy in Yemen.

The GOP and it’s leading spokespersons (well, Rush Limbaugh, but if it’s all you got…) are all ready to make a huge fuss over the stage at Denver’s Invesco Field.

Apparently there are columns in the backdrop.  Oh my.

What kind of hubris it would be to use columns in the background of a US electorial speech?  How assuming, how arrogant, gosh, how un-American can you get?!?

Here’s a sneak preview:

We Sure Are Going To Miss This Guy…