According to National Geographic News,

“The worst of Ike’s damage was caused by its huge storm surge, a mound of water pushed ashore by the storm’s winds.”

Like everyone else out there in TV-land, I can’t help but get drawn into the shadow box.  I watch.

As the old saying goes, “The medium is the message.”, which, loosely translated, means – TV is owned by the winners.

Hurricane season is upon us.

I’ve noticed something else about TV.  It focuses on things in a way designed to inspire widespread use of a few other old sayings -  “God, help us!“, and “What an idiot!“, not to mention, “Kill ‘em all!“.

Oh, yes, hurricane season is always upon us, somewhere in the world.

I lived without TV for years.  Although it has long since wormed it’s way back into my hearth, I notice that my reception of it has been permanently altered by prolonged abstinence from it.

Consider this slice above as an example; the subtler headline, in black text on a white ground, reads, Pakistan Violence.  Appearing slightly beneath it, in white text on a black ground and twice the size, we read, “U.S. strikes have drawn protest from Pakistanis.”

The copy editors who compose these labels for the image-feed choose their words very carefully.  Notice how the word violence is glued to the word Pakistan.  There can be no doubt that the author chose a more abstract noun to describe U.S. actions for a reason.  Notice the bottom line, “protest from Pakistanis“.

A person might just absorb the idea that the people of Pakistan are violent and U.S. strikes refers to some noble American effort that has been met with violence, especially if this image is regurgitated often enough.

Of course, warmongers have always lied.  This is not new.  The high-def cable version of controlling populations is, nevertheless, cold and raw.  The shadow box liars are amazingly seductive.  Their powers of suggestion trample millions, while millions more roll-over and play dead.

America sells Coca Cola and guns and democracy, and the world burns.  We can watch it happen over and over again on CNN. Welcome to North America.

New old sayings and idioms are born every minute.  Storm surge and troop surge are two examples of this, now spreading like wildfire.

Hurricane season is upon us.

This is not a still life.  This is a person that must keep moving.
Where is his table and chair?  Where is his bed?  Winter is coming.

He says; “Please …” and “Thank you.” a lot.  This is his mantra.

We pass by him and he may even be invisible.
We tell ourselves why or why not.
We think we know where we are.
We may even think we know where he is.
We excuse ourselves, get up from our tables and go to our beds.
The truth is – we don’t know what else to do.

In the beginning, there was fire. Much later someone cooked up fireworks. We began to imagine we could scatter our hungry ghosts with the sound of our fury and light up the empty space with our hopes. You might say this is just bad poetry on my part. It is history. The next step was gunpowder. Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

We are all mad scientists. We are all suicide bombers.
How else to explain our nuclear powers?

We don’t need to look for a place to stop.
Wherever we are, before it’s too late, is as good a place as any.