(Politics) Leslie Graham on gun bill: Why Republicans are about to square up against 90% of the country

Republicans have gained a well-earned reputation of  being the ‘party of no’  to its detriment and with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham stating his opposition to universal background checks , it may be become terminal.

Graham and indeed the GOP voting or filibustering universal background checks represents bad political strategy and near assured political suicide as according to a poll carried out by CBS and the New York Times, “ninety-two percent of Americans favour background checks for all potential gun buyers”[1]. The support for universal background checks is widespread crossing “party lines” as  “89 percent of Republicans and 93 percent of Democrats and independents were in favor, as well as 93 percent of gun households and 85 percent of those living in a household with a member of the National Rifle Association.”[2]

There is rarely, if ever, this extent of agreement on any issue in American politics or anywhere else in the world but the GOP look set to fight the Democrats and indeed the nation as universal background checks will be part of a gun bill to be introduced to the senate this month a number of Republicans have already stated their intent to oppose.

Graham stated the reason behind his opposition to the widely popular gun control measure on CNN citing that he thought that current laws in place were not being “enforced” thus the introduction of new laws buffering them would be unnecessary[3]. Graham also revealed his preference for further debate regarding “improving the system” but in light of pain still fresh from the sandy hook massacre that took place at the tail end of last year, many feel the time for talk has met the water’s edge of substantial legislative action[4].

While Gun control legislation will grip Washington this month, the larger debate that will have to take place is why a major political party is prepared to take on over ninety percent of Americans and answer is simple, there is a lot of money to be made in the sale and distribution of guns.

With the US gun industry being worth $33 billion and the employer of an incredible 220,000 Americans, Guns are going nowhere anytime soon as along as it has a demand so high the world’s largest gun manufacturer (United States) has to import guns to meet it[5]. If these numbers weren’t enough spell out why the GOP are prepared to stand against the whole country is that guns are more cultural artefact than anything else. It is hard to imagine an America were guns are properly regulated as even supporters of a gun control solution own guns as well as their opponents.

In sum, while Republicans will be committing political suicide by squaring up against the democrats and the majority of the country on universal background checks, The GOP can take solace in the fact that the proliferation of guns in America will continue whether they are against gun control or not.

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[1] S.Dutton et al, 2013,  9 in 10 back universal gun background checks, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57564386-10391739/9-in-10-back-universal-gun-background-checks/

[2] Ibid

[3] J.Easely, 2013, Graham:senate gun bill ‘going nowhere’,

 http://thehill.com/video/senate/291103-graham-senate-dems-gun-bill-going-nowhere

[4] Ibid

[5] G. Hall, 2013,  Stubborn Facts: The Gun Industry employs twice as many Americans as GM (and that’s just the beginning), http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/26/nr-draft-how-important-are-guns-to-the-u-s-economy-for-starters-the-firearms-industry-employs-twice-as-many-americans-as-bailed-out-gm/

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(Interview) War and cultural destruction: the carnage report interviews Fernando Baez

The Carnage Report recently caught up with celebrated writer and award winning essayist Fernando Baez, author of the bestseller 'A universal history of the destruction of books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq' (2002). We were lucky enough to seal an interview with the international authority on cultural destruction and below was the result. Enjoy!

1.    What drives you to write?

I write because I feel like I must. I'm always drawn to either write down my ideas or imagine being in a different time or place.

2.    Have any writers influenced your work?

Yes. I read without following manuals, card catalogues, guides, critical anthologies, books labeled “classics,” or recommendations for weekend reading.

3.    Who are your favourite writers, if any?

Rafael de Nogales Méndez, George Orwell, Noam Chomsky, Borges, Hemingway.

4.    Your most of your work has focused on the theme of cultural destruction, what interests you most about this theme?

I was four or five years old and lived in an honorable state of poverty, which had granted me as a last refuge the public library building in my hometown. My father was an honest–that is, unemployed–lawyer, and my mother, born in La Palma, in the Canary Islands, had to work all day in a notions shop weaving and unweaving, like the wife of that great traveler Odysseus. Which meant they had to leave me in the house that constituted the library in the old town of San Félix in storied Guayana, Venezuela. There she got discrete assistance from a widowed aunt related to her by marriage who for a time was the establishment’s strict secretary. So I spent whole days under the indifferent protection of this kind woman in the moth eaten stacks among scores of volumes.

That happiness was abruptly interrupted because the Caroní River, one of the Orinoco’s tributaries, overflowed its banks without warning and flooded the town, carrying off with it the papers that constituted the object of my curiosity. It took away every volume. So I was left without my sanctuarity and lost part of my childhood in that small library, all washed away by the dark waters. Sometimes on the nights that followed, I would see in dreams how Stevenson’s Treasure Island sank while one of Shakespeare’s plays floated.

 5.    In an article by the Asia Times, you stated that the United States had a duty to protect the cultural heritage of Iraq. Do you think a nation at war can really protect the cultural heritage of a nation it wages war against?

Yes. U.S. troops were responsible for violating the Hague Convention of 1954 by not protecting cultural installations during the seizure of Baghdad.

6.    In the same article you stated that the worst enemies of book were intellectuals, to which there is some truth. Are there any other enemies of the written word you can name?

In totalitarianism, politics and ideology are at the service of rituals that seek to reinvent history by the most brutal ways: the collectivist temptation, classicism  the formation of millennial utopias, and precise, bureaucratic, servile despotism, the rejection of the other’s memory. Even democratic societies can become totalitarian when they reduce their identity by accusations of sedition, and become exclusionary.

7.    While you have documented the destruction of books and other cultural artifacts  do you think, in the final analysis that culture that is practiced will always take precedence over culture that is recorded?

In 1984, George Orwell describes a totalitarian state where an official branch of government is dedicated to finding and erasing the past. Books are rewritten, and the original versions destroyed in secret furnaces in order to save society from the enemy. There is one determining aspect here: Control is not established unless there is a conviction involved. There is no religious, political, or military hegemony without cultural hegemony. Those who destroy books and libraries know what they are doing. Their objective has always been clear: intimidate, erase motivation, demoralize, enhance historical oblivion, diminish resistance, and, above all, foment doubt.

8.    Last question, do you have any new projects in the works or books soon to be released?

 Yes. “Lost wonders of the world. A Brief History of Civilization's Greatest Cultural Catastrophes” (2012):http://www.schavelzon.com/en/libro/las-maravillas-perdidas-del-mundo/

Thank you very much, Fernando.

Check out Fernando Baez's site here

you can buy Fernando Baez's Magnum Opus   'A universal history of the destruction of books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq' (2002) here  

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(Book Review) Milo Moon: Milo Moon demonstrates Why Derek Haines is one of the better writers around

When reading Derek Haines' Milo Moon two things become clear within` the next three chapters, that Derek Haines is one of the better writers around and Milo Moon is one of the better Sci Fi books you’ll read. Milo Moon is a hot-potch of ideas that are hardly original yet executed well enough for you not to notice with shades Philip K Dick’s Lies, Inc. and Michael Bay’s The Island. Milo Moon touches on  so many genres it’s hard to place this piece in any clearly defined niche.

First off we start with Milo Moon, a unremarkable man leading an even more unremarkable life, when ARC (Alpha Reality Control) employee George Smithe (with an ‘E’) takes Milo on a ride (which we later find out was more psychedelic than anything else) . After such a ride Milo lands and finds out he’s part of the biggest conspiracy that could bring the EU and a number of other organizations with them. However, what’s most interesting is the philosophical and political implications of Milo Moon .

There seems to be message that two heads are better than one and one can live a better when one consciousness is continuous dialogue rather than a one sided, severely critical internal monologue. For example, Milo Before meeting George Smithe or being one part of a mind meld with Michael Fischer was a rather unremarkable man with very few achievements to pin to his name, seemingly drifting through life with no real purpose with his only friend in the world, Cindy, his cat.

However as the story progresses, Milo become fulfilled the moment he mind melds with Michael Fischer, a character with which Milo shares a mind and body. Milo Finds that being part of a consciousness is better as he doesn’t have to make every decision and can take turns living life which is best described in the book with milos interaction with Michael’s Wife Claire. However, even in the mind meld with Michael he still finds that he has little purpose despite finding life much easier to manage.

This view is confirmed further by Milo’s utter despair caused by Michael share of consciousness whittles away into nothingness which leaves Milo, once again, to deal with life on his own. Milo Moon provides a healthy critique of psychoanalytic experiments that took place not too long after the Second World War where the CIA and other governments around the world did their best, unsuccessfully, to master control over others through the use of drugs or experimental psychological methods.

In Milo Moon, we see the stories of the CIA’S mind control experiments in the 50’s from the perspectives of the victims rather than through the eyes of doctors who prove once and for all that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In sum, Milo Moon is a well written book by an author with a knack of writing for the reader making his books easy to pick up and a real challenge to put down.