The Pacha Forum

If Not Us, Who?

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:55:30 -0500

President Obama is currently hosting a big old summit with dozens of world leaders, to discuss the threat posed by ‘non-state’ entities who desire to procure and deploy nuclear weapons. Media fellows are saying ‘is this a real threat?’ Of course it is. Does the Pope protect paedophiles?

It used to be a Republican bromide, to say ‘we’re not the world’s policeman’. Of course President George W. Bush became the world’s preeminent preemptive striker. At some level sophisticated conservatives managed to distinguish this business of being a nuclear deterrent (by threatening aggressive, apocalyptic punishment) from the role of being the world’s policeman, when it became convenient so to do. I suppose that is why the Bush administration so stressed the nuclear threat from the late Saddam Hussein, who was apparently one of history’s great bluffers. And probably the last man for the next several thousand years to be able to unite Mesopotamia.

We’re not the world’s policeman.

Why not?

If not us, who? There are other powers in this world. Which one would you like to be your policeman, instead of us? The job will not stay vacant.

The concept of the police bespeaks the polis, not the empire. It is a civic concept. To be the world’s police does not mean to be the world’s tyrant, or occupying army. It means to serve and protect, and to uphold the law. Why would we not want that job? I think it would be a good experience for our young men and women in uniform, fanned out about the world learning the terrain and its peoples; until they’re ready to settle down back home again.

But the police work under a civic order, and many of us would object to the idea of the United States being subject to some external law. Well, the point is that we have all but squandered our opportunity to write that new world order, before we begin to police it.

There are many of you who would reject the idea that the events of 9/11 were a crime, rather than an act of war. Well, who attacked us? Saudi Arabian citizens. So what are we doing in Afghanistan and Iraq? Is this a joke? When did you ever hear a Saudi admission or apology?

Three high-rise buildings came down one day in New York, all by controlled demolition, into their own footprint. One of them, remember, had been hit by no aeroplanes. That one housed the CIA (New York branch), an outpost of an unconstitutional entity. Please look at the website of architects and engineers who have looked into the matter: ae911truth.org. When you begin to get an idea of the magnitude of the crime of the century—confidently asserted, even though we have just begun this century—you will better understand why we must respond to those events by trying to police a crime in cooperation with other states, rather than wage war. Why do peaceful Afghans have to die in droves in order to kill an alleged bad apple? If we found the perpetrators of the controlled destruction of those buildings in New York that sunny day, we would not find brainwashed, sex-starved Saudi pilots, except in a minor role. They’re only the idjuts who flew the planes. Very few companies on earth know how to bring down skyscrapers into their own footprint.

In America we have advanced experience over the rest of the world when it comes to the question of states’ rights in relation to a federal government. Blood was shed to gain this knowledge. I think in the south, we still feel that our rights come from God. Whereas in the north, we feel that our rights come simply from what we have agreed upon. It is likely an eternal conflict, a civil war of consciousness, a war between the states.

But the only way to end the moral bankruptcy and economic boon of slavery, was for the federal solution to win by force in this country. And when we are dealing with inter- and intrastate enemies, hiding in holes and hovels building cowardly bombs, with a hatred for all the civilisation that has denied them wherewithal and women, we have first to become states, and then unite as states, as Americans did in the 18th Century. These are two paradoxical steps: a state must first become itself, as when it marches with its flag at the Olympics; and then (never in reverse order) it must yield itself so far that the anti-state and anti-social elements within it can be policed from above itself, but in vital cooperation with itself.

So who’s gonna take that job? China?

Finally, we’re the ones with experience! Europe and everywhere else is a new coin. A policeman is the interface between the law and reality—like a judge, but in the field. That’s a job for America, amongst all these confused people. We were born for this job.

To serve and protect ...

—David

The Pacha Plan

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 16:49:56 -0500

Universal health care is as big an idea as ‘Pacha’ itself—at least for the American portion of the human universe. I believe it is well known that most nations, developed and underdeveloped, rich and poor, decent and indecent, already consider this concept central in the doctrine of human rights, as well as the calculus of human expectations. (This is why even unlawful regimes build hospitals.) The ‘moral’ component that the President and others have introduced to the argument is therefore not a call to Americans to stand up and be a beacon to the world. It is, rather, a censure of our inexplicable behaviour as a government and nation in the modern era.

The employer-based system that has prevailed is a disgrace to intelligence and humanity. Here at Café Pacha a barista recently suffered a serious injury while on the job. Hey, you don’t expect injuries in coffee retail, and our margins pretty much made it impossible to carry workers’ compensation. The result has been a great burden for us which could have been catastrophic. (Our barista is recovering well and back behind the bar; and we appear not to have been bankrupted.) The notion that employers be mandated by government to pay other companies (who peddle private insurance), at their doctored asking rates, to cover the American citizens who happen to be their employees, is inhuman and illogical at every stage of its progress. Perhaps it is needless to say that Mother Pacha, Inc. is itself too small to be subject to the mandate; but we are arguing for the principle of the thing. And why should it be that because we are small-scale, our employees have no health insurance? What if we were a small-scale health clinic? Let employers go about their business, which is business! And let government take care of the potential employees among its citizens, just as they do with public education, with universal health care.

But there is of course a bigger picture. Pacha is a concept that embraces the whole of things. Universal health care is least of all for the employed! It is for those who are too sick, too weak, too old, too young, too incompetent to be employed. It is for people who cannot vote. It is for my severely autistic brother, who is middle-aged and has never been able to go to school, let alone get a job. Isn’t that obvious, once someone says it? And then isn’t it also obvious that the rest of us need to pay for the whole ship, progressively according to our wealth? This is because in a decent society, worthy of the name ‘society’, health care is a right. Perhaps if we called it ‘societism’, there wouldn’t be the same stupid and irrational reaction to European ‘socialism’. Everyone I know who has actually experienced health care over there, like us, is for reform—for ‘single payer’, or, more accurately, ‘free choice of your doctor’ reform. Privileges are things that require a license—like driving on the roads, or serving as a doctor, or making money off of others in our country. Health care is not a privilege.

The whole notion of insurance for health care makes no sense. What does it even mean? We are all dying from the moment we are born. The only insurance people may choose to buy is religion. What we need is a national plan to care for the ailing and dying, and perhaps also a megaphone to promote what we do know about ways of maintaining good health—such as eating the bitter melon that Okinawans eat, or drinking the four glasses of wine a day that are part of the Mediterranean diet. The plan needs to be paid for by American taxpayers. Now isn’t that simple?

In a recent interview, Bill Maher was asking his interviewee for a metaphor, and he mentioned the popular conservative saying, that a ‘rising tide raises all boats’. Bill Moyers’ response was ‘we’re all in the same boat’. The latter bromide is, I think, a way to apply the Pacha concept to human things.

‘And God remembered the ark ...’

—David & Marjorie

Food, Inc.

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:46:02 -0500

Dear Friends of Pacha,

please go see this film, and take your friends. Apart from other more important things, you will understand feelingly why Café Pacha commits its dollars to organic, fair-trade and sustainably raised food and drink. We encourage you to do this as well, whenever or wherever you shop. Choosing organic food actually works, because even mega-retailers desire to give the people what they want. This is the way to bring prices down. The film is very well-written and made–a page-turner, so to speak. The human stories are compelling, and some of you will see images of our food-growing industry that you have never seen before. The movie’s official (and very useful) website is here.

Buy organic, and vote with us and your dollar against corporate, corn-based food. Let us campaign to eliminate these products from school lunches. And as we always say, meet the farmers at the Austin Farmers’ Markets. It is not just some pious matter of the planet’s or our children’s future. It is a matter of our present profit from this time on earth.

Things don’t have to be this way. The changes in the way we grow and distribute food are recent. The Cold War was once forever. Blacks were second-class citizens. The future was nuclear power. When there is a will, things change. Things don’t have to be this way.

— David
(on behalf of Pacha consciousness)

Seniors Are People Too

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:04:42 -0500

That man has Alzheimer's, therefore he doesn't know that I am pitying him. That woman lost her sight with her years, which must mean dementia has also set in, and she doesn't need to be treated with the fullest respect, she can't tell the difference. A woman I knew died last week, yet she was 95, so I really have no reason to be sad. Let's just assume the easiest way for us with all of the above examples and then some. While we're at it, why not hold anything they say or do against them, especially since they're a product of another generation with different norms. If they hurt us, they are only doing it out of spite. So it is, many think.

I met a woman named Maggie. Maggie was 92 when I met her. Maggie behaved in ways that would hurt me if someone my age did the same. Many around her assumed the worst of her character, and treated her accordingly, as much as they were allowed. For some reason, Maggie's expressions and mannerisms drew me closer to her. When Maggie behaved roughly, I over compensated with an extra shot of love and attention. Though she had some bad days, for the most part, Maggie came out of the shell that the innocent little girl snuck into over 85 years ago. She returned at the very end of her life to the uncorrupted soul that the world took from her. Maggie died at 95. I loved and lost, which is better than, well, you know the rest.

It's easy to assume the worst for the minds of those who function less than you or I. That way, we can just blow them off. However, as long as a heart is still beating, someone very real, very human, and very beautiful potentially lies inside for us to seek out. Too bad so many are afraid to.

—Aaron ‘Smokey’ Arnold, Pacha regular
‘Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff’

The Earth Is Cooling! No Kidding.

Fri, 29 May 2009 12:27:32 -0500

We are in the midst of a significant global cooling. Since about the beginning of the last Bush administration. You think that’s some sort of joke you’re supposed to get? I don’t blame you. Even the Bushies caved on global warming. But sorry folks: what I mean is what I said: the earth’s mean temperature has been decreasing through this decade. I’m guessing you did not know this. The reason you haven’t heard is that it makes a mockery of every possible ‘climate change model’ that has been publicized by ‘environmental journalists’ in recent years. It would take a lot of man, wouldn’t it, for Al Gore to say, ‘Sorry ya’all, I misled you; here’s your prize money back.’

But he really did mislead us, not excepting a liberal like me. Please set aside an hour in your day, and watch this video from Channel 4 in the UK:

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=288952680655100870&ei=ozQeSvfAI5bYqAOux5DKAQ&q=global+warming+hoax&hl=en

I am not a Republican. I am not employed by an interested multinational. I’m a Classicist with a café. How is it that we all got suckered into this ‘global warming’ thing? I think that from the left, it was a breath of real fresh air finally to have some leverage over corporations, with this ‘carbon footprint’ guilt-trip. All those years railing against polluters seemed finally to have a payoff. But here’s the thing: CO2 is not a pollutant! It is not the cause of cancer, autism, heart ailments, asthma, you name it—all our post-War ills. But corporate and industrial pollution very likely is. If you were a polluter, why wouldn’t you sign on to this global warming hysteria, or even fund it, so as to promote your responsible actions toward CO2 emissions, while the real pollutants in your business were let loose into the world; and dumb-ass liberals hugged each other, hung up pictures of Al Gore, and looked the other way?

If we could see with X-ray or UV eyes, we would understand that we live near a variable star. Variations in global temperature correlate closely with the sunspot cycle, not with levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (most of which comes from the oceans and rotting vegetation, not from human development and cow farts). Note that sunspots are measurably cooler than the rest of the sun’s ‘surface’. How can a cooler sun spike temperatures on earth? Sunspots are in fact the vast tornadic storms that accompany intense electromagnetic radiation. It is known that such radiation interacts with the earth at its poles, unlike the sun’s heat, which is most overhead in the tropics. How this radiation affects or creates global currents and temperature is not yet understood, but only, in my view, because it has not been studied; while billions (yes, billions) of dollars each year go to fund climate studies based on models that do not even take this form of solar radiation into account!

You know I could not make this up.

Here is an article by physicist Wal Thornhill, which I link to whenever I get the chance:

Global Warming in a Climate of Ignorance

So enjoy your next midnight drive to the 24-hour market for a hot dog or a pint of milk or a beer. Or your next ‘long haul’ vacation. You’re not really doing anyone any harm. Get to know this world: it suits us.

Cheers—

David