The Freedom Exchange Online

George Carlin died yesterday around 6:00 pm (PST) at St. John’s Hospital, Santa Monica after being admitted for chest pain. It’s always sad when someone as brilliant and insightful as George Carlin passes.

Just five days ago Carlin was notified he was this years recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

“In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzmann said in the announcement of the award. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”

Carlin is reported to have replied, “Thank you Mr. Twain, Have your people call my people.”

Here’s one of my favorite Carlin routines – it’s hard to pick one as he has so many but this set is still so spot on. Carlin’s humor is timeless, as this video proves. I do have to warn you the language is uncensored, if that offends you don’t watch.

A memorial service was held Saturday for award-winning writer and peace activist Makoto Oda, who died of stomach cancer on July 30 at age 75.

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe, novelist and playwright Hisashi Inoue, critic Shuichi Kato, and Takako Doi, a former leader of the Social Democratic Party, were among 800 people who gathered at the Aoyama Sogisho funeral hall in Tokyo’s Minato Ward.

Later, about 500 mourners marched to a nearby subway station carrying banners declaring, “We will take on your wishes for anti-war movements” and singing “We Shall Overcome,” a protest song popular in the 1960s.

At the memorial service, philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi compared Oda’s influence on events to that of John Manjiro, who served as an important bridge between Japan and the United States as Japan opened its doors to the world toward the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867).

Oda formed the Beheiren, an anti-war citizens group, in 1965 with other activists, including Tsurumi, to protest the Vietnam War.

PRESS Release:
Thursday, April 17,2003
Make Love Not War in San Francisco
from the Butterfly Gardeners Association

On a bright Spring day on a San Francisco nude beach, the latest Baring Witness peace action took place, with over 100 men and women lying naked in the sand to form the words Make Love Not War.

The participants gathered on Baker Beach, near the Golden Gate Bridge as beach-goers and National Park police looked on. After an inspirational ceremony in a circle, the organizers, Alan Moore and Nicole Savage, arranged the men and women into the letters as several photographers and videographers recorded the event.

Moore organized the event with Nicole Savage to occur on Saturday, April 19 to mark the one month anniversary of the US incursion and start of the war in Iraq. Nicole’s website at sfheart.com was the first to chronicle the
‘Naked4Peace’ events that Baring Witnes began.

The organizers said that while the war in Iraq is winding down, there is still a need to head off future military action around the world. Other participants said that the world’s violent history has reached a point where the only sustainable, survivable future is one in which peaceful solutions to political differences are found.

“It’s really not about the war in Iraq, it’s about the fact that the conditions that breed war are still here,” said Alan Moore, director of Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace, which organized the event with Baring Witness, a peace group based in Marin County. “Our organization is about creating and preserving the peace.”  Read more... (614 words, 1 image, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Rich Whitney, Green Party candidate for Governor of Illinois did well in the heartland of Illinois. In Peoria county, home of the giant multinational corporation Caterpillar, Whtney was awarded 15% of a usually strong union Democratic vote. While just across the river in the industrial towns of Pekin and East Peoria 15% of those voters also approved of Mr. Whitney. In Woodford County, a traditional Republican stronghold, 16% of the voters there turned out for Green Party candidate Whitney. Just north of Woodford County sits Marshall County, a rural farming area of the state where 16% of the votes went to Mr. Whitney. For a Green party candidate to do so well in the heartland of Illinois in such disparate political arenas is an indication of the level of dissatisfaction ordinary Americans have with their government.

In a 2002 Columbia Law School Survey on the public perception of attorneys the only profession thought less honest than lawyers were politicians. It would seem Illinois politicians take pride in that fact. Three of the previous seven governors; George Ryan, Dan Walker and Otto Kerner have all been convicted of white-collar crime. Two of the previous seven were indicted (but not convicted) and the present governor is under investigation. He was reelected. If you are wondering how that could happen you need look no further than his opponent – Judy Topinka. She was a close associate of George Ryan, the previous governor who is now serving time in the Illinois State penitentiary. I think voters have had enough. I know I have.

AP – Kenneth Lay, the founder of Enron Corp. who ascended to the pinnacle of American business only to tumble into disgrace, died of a heart attack on Wednesday. He was 64.

I know I should feel sad when someone dies. But I don’t feel anything. Had Mr. Lay not been wealthy and well connected he would have died in jail. Instead he died on vacation in Aspen Co. The closest many Americans will ever get to Aspen is watching Dumb And Dumber. Kenneth Lay was neither.

Kenneth Lay was a shrewd calculating ‘businessman’ who laid waste to the savings of thousands of hard working American citizens. While the people he conned struggled to get their lives back Mr. Lay, instead of sitting in a jail cell was vacationing in a ski resort.

He continued to protest his innocence, even after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy for lying to employees and investors about Enron’s financial health. Ironically enough Lay was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 23 – my birthday. I was going to have a party. I think I still will.