Notley Nails Lukaszuk

Quite an energetic exchange between Rachel Notley and Thomas Lukaszuk from yesterday's legislative session.  I can't seem to embed it, so here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8gHD9t14A&feature=youtu.be

THAT Was a Good Idea

Today we find that the NSA has obtained perhaps unfettered access to Google data.  Tell me again why the Gmail switch was such a good thing.  I'm not even sure it saved any money.  But it did take our e-mail out of the University's control.

Song of the Week: Be Here Now

"Be Here Now" is a concept first popularized by Baba Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert).  Essentially, it states the yogic principle of living in the moment.  As one who is prone to a wandering mind, I find this concept important and difficult.

George Harrison released a song with this title in 1973.  However, I wish to present a different song, though with the same title, by the New England-based singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne.  His second album, Till the Sun Turns Black, was moderately successful, and spawned a minor hit in the UK, "Be Here Now."  The minimalist arrangement with breathy vocals are very effective in creating a mood, and the lyrics are interesting:

Don't let your mind get weary
And confused you will be still, don't try
Don't let your heart get heavy
Child, inside you there's a strength that lies

Don't let your soul get lonely
Child, it's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you that's where you'll find kindness

Be here now, be here now
Be, be here now, be here now

Don't lose your faith in me
And I will try not to lose faith in you
Don't put your trust in walls
'Cause walls will only crush you when they fall

Be, be here now, be here now
Be, be here now, be here now

Here's a video of a live version:

Preach It, Chris

I have had a number of "Songs of the Week" and "Movie Fridays" I wanted to post about, but it has been an intense first month and a half of the term.  Perhaps I'll resume later this month.  In the meantime, I wanted to share this excerpt from a recent column by Chris Hedges regarding the impending collapse of the American empire, and the farcical goings on that distract citizens from their imminent demise.  If you replace certain names like "Ted Cruz" with others whose initials are TL, AR, IS, MFP, etc., you might find some analogy to our current situation.

The final days of empire give ample employment and power to the feckless, the insane and the idiotic. These politicians and court propagandists, hired to be the public faces on the sinking ship, mask the real work of the crew, which is systematically robbing the passengers as the vessel goes down. The mandarins of power stand in the wheelhouse barking ridiculous orders and seeing how fast they can gun the engines. They fight like children over the ship’s wheel as the vessel heads full speed into a giant ice field. They wander the decks giving pompous speeches. They shout that the SS America is the greatest ship ever built. They insist that it has the most advanced technology and embodies the highest virtues. And then, with abrupt and unexpected fury, down we will go into the frigid waters.

The last days of empire are carnivals of folly. We are in the midst of our own, plunging forward as our leaders court willful economic and environmental self-destruction. Sumer and Rome went down like this. So did the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. Men and women of stunning mediocrity and depravity led the monarchies of Europe and Russia on the eve of World War I. And America has, in its own decline, offered up its share of weaklings, dolts and morons to steer it to destruction. A nation that was still rooted in reality would never glorify charlatans such as Sen. Ted Cruz, House Speaker John Boehner and former Speaker Newt Gingrich as they pollute the airwaves. If we had any idea what was really happening to us we would have turned in fury against Barack Obama, whose signature legacy will be utter capitulation to the demands of Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex and the security and surveillance state.