Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
MMF “Astral Weeks”
The United States of Torture
From today’s Jon Carroll column:
I have heard the arguments in favor of increased prisoner abuse. This is a new kind of war with an enemy that kills civilians without mercy. This enemy has bombed the World Trade Center; it bombed nightclubs in Indonesia when the discos were crowded; it bombed subways in London at rush hour. It has bombed busy intersections and markets and even mosques all over Iraq. Its own record of prisoner abuse is horrible; it even kills its own people if they fail some ethnic or religious litmus test.
This week’s suicide at Guantanamo has given the Bush barbarians another opportunity to display their pathological personalities, calling it “a good PR move” and an act of “asymmetrical warfare.” The collective narcissism, the sociopathic self-interest, and sheer inhumanity of these bastards becomes more manifest every day. Not only are they incapable of admitting error, they are incapable of recognizing the ugliness and immorality of their souls.
A** C****** and Michael Savage are not as extreme as we’d like to believe; I fear they are expressing the true souls of the administration. I feel increasingly desperate for a way to make the sleeping middle of America awaken to the viciousness of the leaders they elected. If we don’t turn this around soon, it will be too late.
More from Jon Carroll:
I do not think we should be fighting the war in Iraq; I’m not sure there would even be a war if we had not declared it; still, I loathe the tactics of the militant extremists. I loathe the tactics of the militant extremists so much I want to make sure my side, the one supported by my money and representing my country, does not fall into the same pit of barbarism.
Torture — and let’s call it by its right name, because that’s what the Defense Department wants: the freedom to torture — does not just harm the tortured; it injures the torturer as well. If you listen to interviews with the men and women who were at Abu Ghraib, they were stunned by what they had done. They felt at though they had been reduced to beasts.
Debra J. Saunders, in today’s Chronicle, parses carefully the words of Al Gore and attacks his character in an attempt to sidestep the overwhelmingly persuasive facts adduced in An Inconvenient Truth:
Gore was wrong in 1992 when he wrote that 98 percent of scientists agreed with him on global warming….
Now he is wrong when he argues in his movie that there is a complete consensus on global warming today. As proof Gore cites a 2004 study that looked at 928 climate abstracts and found none that refuted global-warming dogma. That says more about the researcher than the scientific community.
There are a number of well-known scientists who don’t believe that global warming is human-induced, or who believe that if it is, it is not catastrophic.
How has the compassionate, liberal America I grew up in become such a vile, destructive (and ultimately self-immolating) hell? How is it possible for so many to remain willfully ignorant of reality and actively hostile to humanity?
Is there a way out of this lethal spiral?
Back to Jon Carroll:
Restraint and generosity do not seem to be hallmarks of this administration. Already, after unrestrained bombing in the early days of the war in Afghanistan, we were pulling troops out and reneging on our promises to rebuild Afghanistan so it no longer has to rely on the opium trade. We’ve decided, heck, let ’em grow it; we’ll handle the problem later when the refined product gets to our borders. Yeah, that’s worked.
Oh, wait, there’s another difference between then and now. During World War II, war profiteers were frowned on. It was not considered cool to make billions off misery and death. Today, war profiteers run the country. One might make the case that this administration is so busy figuring out how to reward its friends and campaign contributors with pieces of the war pie, it hasn’t spent all that much time coming up with innovative plans for fighting a war of attrition in a desert half a world away.
It seems pretty obvious to me that war profiteering is the number one motivation here. It is not a coincidence that the oil industry and Halliburton are the principal beneficiaries of this administration’s policies.
From the LA Times:
A rule designed by the Environmental Protection Agency to keep groundwater clean near oil drilling sites and other construction zones was loosened after White House officials rejected it amid complaints by energy companies that it was too restrictive and after a well-connected Texas oil executive appealed to White House senior advisor Karl Rove….
In 2002, a Texas oilman and longtime Republican activist, Ernest Angelo, wrote a letter to Rove complaining that an early version of the rule was causing many in the oil industry to “openly express doubt as to the merit of electing Republicans when we wind up with this type of stupidity.”
“Supidity” = “affecting my profits.” Fuck everyone else. Fuck the planet. GIMME!!!!!!
Church Sign Generator
I’ve been seeing these things for a couple of years, and I should have figured out by now that they were artificial. Sent to me this morning by Ric Findlay:
And Ric also told me where he got it: The Church Sign Generator, of course!!
Gans in the Rex Foundation spotlight!
In case you haven’t visited lately, the Rex Foundation’s web site has been quite active. And there’s a “Musicians Spotlight” feature on me up there now – an interview by a fine young writer named Casey Lowdermilk.
Says musician, songwriter, and producer David Gans: “I like Rex’s commitment to grassroots, direct-action humanitarianism. In a world that is often weighed down by the excesses of the blockbuster mentality, Rex has seen to the creation of a thousand small wonders.”
Take a look at the interview – I’m quite proud of it! – and visit the rest of the Rex site, too. Rex will be part of several musical events this summer, including two where I’m performing: GratefulFest at Nelson Ledges in Ohio, and Gathering of the Vibes in Mariaville, New York.
The Rex Foundation has been “Fostering the power of community, service and the arts” for more than 20 years now. Important work done by great people.
Phil Lesh on Vince Welnick
Phil Lesh’s statement, posted at PhilLesh.net:
The period after Brent’s death, when Vince first joined the band, was one of one of my most difficult years with the Grateful Dead. Jill and I had become quite close to Brent and his wife Lisa and we spent many happy hours hanging together. I was devastated when Brent died, and I still wonder if there was anything I could have said or done to help him.
In hindsight, it would have been better for everyone concerned, especially Jerry, if after Brent’s passing we had simply cancelled the fall 1990 tours; we needed some time to mourn Brent. Grateful Dead Production’s huge monthly overhead kept us from taking time to absorb our loss.
Vince helped us more than he knew; not only the speed with which he learned the music, but also that he took to the music and the scene like a kid at the beach. His energy and enthusiasm helped rekindle our own excitement with the music – at least it did for me.
Vince was a generous spirit and a class act; I’ll never forget his first gig as our sole keyboard (Hornsby having moved on) – as we walked out on stage, some folks in the audience on Vince’s side of the stage were holding up a big sign which read “Hey Vinnie- Welcome, Brother†– which almost moved me to tears, not least because of the contrast to Brent’s reception eleven years earlier. I was so glad that the Heads had accepted Vince that quickly.
After Jerry’s death when I started up PLF as a band, Vince was one of my first “Friendsâ€, and we played a goofy, glorious, fun gig at the Fillmore. We tried to get together again later that year, but he had other commitments. I have nothing but warm memories of Vince and I am forever thankful for the grace and enthusiasm that he brought to the Grateful Dead.
I will remember Vince as a man with a soft voice and a sweet smile who openly adored his wife Lori, who came into the Grateful Dead with the utmost respect for the band, the music – and most of all, the fans.
-Phil
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
– Wordsworth