Both sides claim victory in war report

Russia was blamed for unnecessary roughness in a war that Georgia started over the South Ossetia region last summer. Both sides said a report commissioned by the European Union backs up their claims about the five day war. While it blames Georgia for starting the conflict, it blasts Russia as having gone "far beyond the reasonable limits of defense." It also said that Russia acted illegally when it passed out Russian passports to residents and recognizing the sovereignty of South Ossetia and Azkaban ... umm Abkhazia. The final tally of the war: 850 dead, 100,000 displaced. The report notes that while the Russian claims of genocide by the Georgians was clearly bunk, it did cite the Russians for ethnic cleansing of Georgians in the conflict area. Cold comfort for the 35,000 who remain displaced in the wake of the conflict.

Blame it on those right-wing Stonecutters

Does it qualify as a conspiracy if everyone knows about it? Led by everybody's favorite, fun-time mad man, former President Bill Clinton is claiming the vast right-wing conspiracy is back and "virulent as it was" when he was in the oval office. They want President Obama to fail he said. A conspiracy also implies coordination, and while the right wing is indeed focused, that's not exactly the same thing. Clinton also pointed out that three things are different now than they were back in the day: 1) the population is more diverse; 2) the GOP had control of the government, got drunk and then wrapped it around a telephone pole; and 3) the Dems aren't engaging in a shooting war with the NRA. He also pointed out that the conspiracy machine isn't good for either the Republicans or the country. On the other hand, spreading propaganda against the democratic president ranks further down the ladder than killing a Italian banker.

Open season on the U.N.

Aside from finally paying the bar tab at the U.N., U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly to open the new session with a "Four Pillars" speech that will probably result in more of the same from the international body. Obama continued to beat the dead on arrival horses of communal responsibility and the need to set aside old grievances. Obama's Fourteen Points ... umm Four Pillars are:

1 - A world without nukes;

2 - The pursuit of world peace;

3 - Addressing global climate change; and

4 - Fixing the global economy to make it better, stronger, more equitable.

When it comes to fixing the world's biggest problems, Obama noted that the world's leaders are coming up short. While pointing out that this is not about him, he noted that even though America can't fix the world's problems alone, the world shouldn't use that as an excuse to do nothing. Which of course, it will, especially after the usual suspects have finished offering their rambling rebuttals on opening day.

The Golden City is a mixed success

There is a scene in the novel "The Golden City" when Gabriel Corrigan reaches the afforementioned locale in the Sixth World, the world of the gods. It is empty. Abandoned. Mostly. Except for the one man Gabriel has been seeking through the course of The Fourth Realm Trilogy: his father. It's a Joseph Campbellian moment of Atonement (at-one-ment) with the Father.

Matthew informs his son that the gods have long since abandoned the city. They are on their own, and this is an opportunity.

"The Golden City" is the final installment in the series by John Twelve Hawks. The series is an exercise in science fantasy. It focuses on the consequences of scientific advances in the contemporary urban world but grounds it in a larger context of the Six Worlds of Buddhism.It tells the story of the Travelers. The Travelers are people who possess the gift to leave their bodies and travel to the other five realms. In doing so they bring back insights which can transform human society.

The central conflict is between the Corrigan brothers: Michael and Gabriel. Gabriel is protected by Maya, a member of the Harlequins. Michael comes to lead the Brethern, the traditional enemy of the Travelers and Harlequins. The root conflict is between the Brethern, working through their public face, The Evergreen Foundation, and their need for power and control, and the resistance and the need for freedom.

Michael's ascension to the leadership of the Bretheran comes to a climax in this novel as he delivers a chilling speech about the economics of control, what may come to be known as 'the cubicle speech.' While "survellance nation" is central to this story, it doesn't necessarily finger technology as the enemy. The resistance uses technology as surely as the Bretheran does.What it comes down to is how we use that technology to shape our lives. Do we allow the "Panoticon" of our survellance technology, motivated by fear and the ideology of dead ideas to shape our lives into a clean, direct line from birth to death? Or do we allow the natural and messy process of the Uncertainty Principle of quantum physics to enrich our lives through the free exercise of choice?

The book ends where the series began, in Los Angeles. Hawks clearly has affection for London and he's done a lot of homework putting this book together. One wishes he had wrapped up the cliffhanger sooner, but this is a minor flaw. The greater flaw is that the book's ending is less than satisfying. That may be in part because despite being an urban scifi/fantasy work he's committed to keeping it grounded in the real world. And in the real world, as Angel put it, "There's no grand plan, no big win." But with the novel's connection to larger mythological themes, one might have preferred something akin to the end of the "Lord of the Rings" where the world is substantially different at the end of the series than at the beginning.

"The Golden City," like its predecessors "The Traveler" and "The Dark River" is a fast-paced read. Like other writers, such as Dan Brown, Hawks wants us to consider that alternative narratives run their courses through the history of the world we think we know and that larger struggles are afoot. But Hawks also wants us to consider that we are active participants and have a choice in this struggle; that we can resist the steamroller of history; that we can fight with the powers of the exercise of free will, storytelling and compassion; that every life has value and meaning. And to that end, the novel succeeds admirably despite its flaws.

Bend it like Beck

Glenn Beck & Glenn Beck are Back - watch more funny videos

After having struck soft targets in the Obama adminstration Glenn Beck is doing his best Sen. Joseph McCarthy impersonation and looking for a bigger prize. On his list is one Cass Sunstein who will likely be confirmed as President Obama's head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. While advertisers have been watching Beck and reacting accordingly, it seems that the Obama administration's officials haven't done the same. If Geico is prepared to bail on Beck in order to deny him legitimacy, then why did Anthony "Van" Jones grant him legitimacy by bailing out of his post as Green 'Czar.' While Jones made some bad choices, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford made worse ones and Sanford is still hanging onto his office despite a storm of protests. Now Yosi Sergant of the National Endowment for the Arts has been demoted from his position as communications director because of Beck. Beck has rated some hard-earned derision because of his self-contradictory antics. At this point, no one in the Obama administration should be making any decisions based on Beck's call.

Joe Wilson's War

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson (R-Idiot) will forever have a special moment set aside in the DVD box set of "When Congresscritters Attack!" Republican colleagues described the Army reserve veteran and five-term 2nd District representative as "likeable" and "reserved." This isn't the first acrimonious outburst for Wilson though. In 2004, Wilson was called a "chicken hawk" by Former Democratic Senator Max Cleland of Georgia after he demanded an apology from John Kerry for his 1971 remarks about the Vietnam War. Unfortunately Wilson seems to have lived down to the recent standard set by other members of the South Carolina Republican party.

Wilson's outburst during the President Obama's speech on health care also shows how low discourse on the Right has gone. Illegal immigration was the subject of that portion of the president's that resulted in an outburst eerily similar to recent to those in town hall meetings, something not lost on the Democrats. It immediately boosted the war chest of Wilson's opponent Rob Miller. To their credit, GOP congressional leaders -- including The Gentleman from Arizona -- did denounce the outburst and Wilson made an apology. The outburst was a self-inflicted black eye on the party when they need it least.

Bankers' Notes

The Finance Leaders of the world's largest economies took the weekend to consider the question of 'what do we do now?' The G-20 is, among other things, weighing the possibility of putting a cap in the bonuses of bankers. The proponents are the French and the Germans. The opponents are, as always, the US and the UK. The US did offer up a bank capital boost proposal slated for the Sept. 24 and 25 summit in Pittsburgh. The Europeans didn't care much for that. The third issue was stimulus spending, which everyone seemed to agree needed to remain on the table lest the current fragile, egg-shell world economy collapse once again. Unfortunately, wise guidance is in short supply. Divided and clueless, the Ivory Tower theorists are at both a remove and a loss over how to fix the current mess we're in. That has left Warren Buffett to put out a warning that the economy may still because of the aftershocks of the Great Recession. Creating a roadmap to fix the broken economy should be the number one priority of the upcoming summit. But with so many divides over how to do that, no one should expect miracles.

Two revolutions, one destination

Back on Sept. 2, 1859, Internet 1.0 was running on the original nuclear generator. The sun's electromagnetic activity was so energetic that for at least an hour and a half, teletype operators were transmitting without battery power. Well, it was 40 years ago that scientists launched more than rockets to outer space. The Internet was born and laid the groundwork for the communications revolution we experience today and the laying the foundation for an unparalleled expansion of inner space. The homesteading has culminated in the establishment of colonies such as Facebook. It continues to open new vistas of communication, accompanied by moral questions. Yet even as NASA is busy trying to keep its single outerspace colony safe, Facebooking is facing some push-back by the disillusioned. The lesson of the twin revolutions of the last 40 years would seem to be that we are much more prepared to expand our virtual colonies on planet earth than we are to extend our colonies beyond the big blue marble.