BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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Fear is a Liar
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-29-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune

He was a young physician, totally dedicated to healing.

But he came to my door proselytizing mindless hate.

The otherwise-enlightened Mormon doctor was circulating the Nevada anti-gay marriage petition a few years ago. It has now cemented official bigotry into the Nevada Constitution.

Based on such recent evidence, a wide swath of dingbat Nevada voters could arguably support a properly worded initiative reinstituting slavery or removing womens' right to vote, especially if supported with enough TV commercials selling the proposition.

I was tempted to ask my doctor-neighbor how he might treat non-heterosexual patients. I chose not to. At the time, he had two children with one on the way. He now has six and will most probably have several more.

The odds thus increasingly favor his siring a child or two that he and his lovely wife will birth into second-class citizenship. Then he's going to have to re-evaluate how he wants his babies treated. The circle of fear can thus be broken.

This past week brought a story regarding recent nefarious activities of U.S. Catholic and Mormon churches, along with moonhowling preachers Pat Robertson and Rick Warren.

They are funding front groups throughout Africa to promote bigotry against those of alternative procreative proclivity.

In recent years, such interests have pushed Uganda, which Winston Churchill once called "the pearl of Africa," to make "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offense.

I wonder what constitutes non-aggravated homosexuality over there in pearlyland.

The Taliban, soon to return to power in Afghanistan, are again stoning men and women to death while funding their religious wars selling opium. I guess it's OK to sell to the infidels if you follow your religion and don't inhale. Back to the good old days of the 12th Century,

For U.S. women, who comprise 53 percent of voters, the central political issue of 2012 is arguably birth control, not the economy. Back to the 19th Century, ladies. Didn't your mother teach you how to properly use aspirin?

As I explained to my doctor-neighbor, the remedy for so much that afflicts us lies in economic opportunity (and thus not in queer-bashing). We would have far less time to dwell on whom we hate if we were busy in the pursuit of a bright future.

I have said for years that executed Oklahoma City mass-murderer Timothy McVeigh might not have gotten into bomb manufacturing had he a good job waiting after he was mustered out of his beloved army.

Fear is a very sellable commodity. A Nevada politician stated the obvious: "People respond to threats." Fear works.
And so we are surrounded by fear as a marketing tool. Fear of queers and criminals, blacks and browns, ragheads and potheads.

Former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, famously groused that nothing gets through Congress unless it contains some combination of "fear, guilt, money and racism."

Nazi leader Herman Goering once said "naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country," Goering noted.

A friend placed a photo on my Facebook page last week, a stark black-and-white shot of huge letters painted on a tunnel wall: "Fear is a Liar."

Which states in four words why we went to war in Iraq and escalated in Vietnam, among countless other depredations.

In the wake of the Aurora, Colo., massacre, Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine" director Michael Moore said "we are an easily frightened people and it is easy to manipulate us with fear. What are we so afraid of that we need to have 300 million guns in our homes? Who do we think is going to hurt us? Why are most of these guns in white suburban and rural homes? Maybe we should fix our race problem and our poverty problem (again number one in the industrialized world) and then maybe there would be fewer frustrated, frightened, angry people reaching for the gun in the drawer. Maybe we would take better care of each other."

Wise man George Carlin used to close his shows with the admonishment "take care of each other."

We don't seem to listen to wise people these days, opting instead for banalities like "common sense."

Fear sells with lies and sells us out.

President Franklin Roosevelt famously said "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Alas and alack, fear still moves more mountains than faith.

ONE-LINER OF THE YEAR: "Never trust a politician who believes it should be harder to vote than to purchase 6,000 bullets off the Internet." (From a Keith Knight cartoon about voter i.d. laws in the current Reno News & Review.)

SUPPORT THE NEVADA CITIZEN TV PROJECT to re-establish a non-corporate people's channel in these parts.

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Thank you.

Be well. Raise hell.

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Followed by a moon shadow TRAVUS T. HIPP, 1937-2012 ADIÓS, COMPADRE — Our friend Travus, 75, passed away peacefully between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. PDT on 18 May 2012 at his home in Silver City, Nevada. The sun is in eclipse as I write this at 6:30 p.m. on May 20. CHANGE OF VENUE (5-22-2012) — Adiós in Silver City, Nevada, Saturday, May 26, 2012 —> Updated 5-27-2012 — > The auld church where Travus lived and died proved too small for the expected multitude, so gathering, gnoshing and remembering commenced at the Silver City Community Center, 385 High Street, at 10:00 a.m. PDT. The graveside memorial service began at High Noon. Travus was buried next to his rock star companion Lynne Hughes, a short walk away. My remembrance of Lynne from the 3-21-1993 Daily Sparks Tribune has been linked to Travus' formal obituary at this website. All memories accepted for permanent posting hereat. Stay tuned for pictures and stories of the appropriately rainy day. Thanks for all your kind words. Keep up the good work and the good fight. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Barbano Barbano remembers the artist Reno Gazette-Journal 5-25-2012 NEW — Travus' life story and obituary Travus' last column in the 5-20 Daily Sparks Tribune Debra K. Reid photo / Sparks Tribune Jan. 4, 2009 Travus T. Hipp & Tales of Nevada's Futures Passed Expanded from the 6-3-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune      At bottom, he was an artist who used his voice to soar and slice, a tenor for the tenor of our times. Many of his mourning California listeners talk about the vocal spells he wove, how he soundly organized the noise of daily life into music that entertained, engaged, enlightened, educated, enthralled and occasionally enflamed. [From the saga of Travus T. Hipp and contributions by The Barbwire to the May 25 Reno Gazette-Journal and May 26, 2012, Daily Sparks Tribune.] POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary including random samplings of the wisdom of Travus T. Hipp Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced. HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo Economist: This is a true depression Elliott Parker Guest Editorial / Las Vegas Sun / 11-27-2011 The plight of the paper pushers The great recession made bashing public workers a national sport Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011 Bury the Bad News with Rose-colored Reporting How urgent can economic troubles be if leaders say things are getting better? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011 Fact-free nation: Inside the lie machine Mother Jones Magazine May-June 2011 / Cover story and in-depth analysis Bill Moyers: Welcome to the Plutocracy Money fights hard and it fights dirty Speech delivered at Boston University on 29 Oct. 2010 Part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Cabellyup.com From clear-cut forests to dirty Gulfstream waters, this land belongs to old BP TOLJASO LONG TIME AGO BP/ARCO: The greasy root of our evils Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune 9-10-2006 The awful truth — Read it and weep, fellow suckers Labor Day 2009: Rise of the Vampire Corpobots Expanded from the 9-6-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Angry Americans and Freudian fraud Using war to market cigarettes Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune BARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing Barbwire 8-14-2005 Donate to the cable ratepayer legal defense fund at our PayPal-enabled ReSurge.TV Consumer War Room Phillips, Kevin; Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know Harper's Magazine; May 2008; page 43 Phillips has authored numerous books on history and politics over the past 40 years. His most recent, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, was published by Viking on April 15, 2008. NAOMI WOLF: Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today. Alternet 5-20-2007 Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007. I love it when heavy hitters validate what I've been saying for years in the tiny Sparks Tribune. Barlett, Donald L. and Steele, James B.; America: What Went Wrong? (1992); America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? (1994); America: Who Stole the Dream? (1996) ; Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate. Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Propaganda in the US and Australia The Orwell Diversion by Alex Carey Excerpted from the book available below ORDER Taking the Risk Out of Democracy Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty By Alex Carey Edited by Andrew Lohrey Foreword by Noam Chomsky University of Illinois Press      SEE ALSO: Lapham, Lewis H.; Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A Brief History; Harper's Magazine cover article; September, 2004, page 32.      By one conservative estimate, the corporate right has spent about $3 billion over the past three decades manufacturing public opinion to suit big business goals. Lapham's number covered the early 1970's to the present day. Alex Carey noted that by 1948, anti- New Deal corporate propaganda expenditures had already reached $100 million per year, not adjusted for inflation, for advertising alone. (Carey, ibid; page 79)      Adjusted for inflation, that 1948 $100 million becomes $801,659,751.04 in 2005 dollars. Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa As Wal-Mart struggles to rebut growing criticism, it has discovered a reliable ally: conservative research groups. New York Times 9-8-2006; Free registration may be required.       BARBWIRE: Labor Day '94: People vs. corporate con job, 9-4-94 Chilling forecasts from Alex Carey       BARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97 A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchy The sands of time do not cloud the long memories of the sheiks of Araby Barbwire 9-10-2006       Rinfret, Pierre A.; Peace is Bullish; Look magazine, 5-31-1966

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Copyright © 1982-2012 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.

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