But it's such a small 600-pound gorilla!

NPR’s Guy Raz did a sneaky thing with statistics on Morning Edition. He noted that the U.S. defense budget is at a historical low, only 3.7 percent of gross domestic product. “We actually spend significantly less on defense today than we did at any point over the past sixty years,” he reports.

The trick is the comparison. If you stand next to an elephant, you’d seem pretty small, too. Putting the very large defense budget next to the vastly larger GDP makes it look small, but in terms of dollars, it’s at a historical high. According to Congressional Quarterly, “total national defense spending is larger now than at any time in history,” and “Bush’s request for fiscal 2008 stands historically large.”

U.S. military spending, Wikipedia notes, “is larger than the military budgets of the next fourteen biggest spenders combined, and nearly seven times larger than the official military budget of China. The United States and its close allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the US is responsible for the majority), and spend 57 times more than the six front-defying nations combined (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria).”

Federal military spending is over 50 percent of the total budget. Even before the so-called war on terror that percentage was similar. That sort of militarism harms our government, our democracy, our culture and each of us personally. But perhaps we are addicted to the money because it “accounts for the majority of federal spending in nearly every state.”

Don’t let Guy Raz’s sneaky diminution of military spending fool you. Listen to this old hippie instead. (Edited 03/28/07 to remove annoying Flash.)

Cooper Manor Pics, Competition for Morning Edition and World of Warcraft

A few things to blog about today.

First, check out the set of photos I took at Cooper Manor last Monday night. Kenny and The Flesh opened, followed by Black Helicopter and Brooklyn’s manic noise merchants Magik Markers.

To the left is the Markers’ Elisa Ambrogio playing her metallic red Strat with a Maker’s Mark whiskey bottle. The noise she generated was astounding. Click and look close at her eyes. That’s not “red eye.” That’s the Rock and Roll devil spirit shining out. The Markers summoned Papa Legba.

Kenny and The Flesh elevated the violence level. Eric, pissed at his malfunctioning drums, destroyed his whole kit in the middle of the show. He slammed, beat, slashed, poked and kicked and that was the rhythm section. You don’t know what to think when you see a band like this. There’s always going to be a surprise.

Black Helicopters were a nice surprise. They played loud drone rock from back in the day, reminding me of my old outfit, Chevrolet Stegosaurus, and also Too Many Douglasses. Just good straight-ahead rock with no frills.

I enjoyed all the bands. I missed Green Milk From The Planet Orange and Yip Yip last night, but I had seen Green Milk before. Tonight at Cooper Manor, 122 E. Dalzell, you can catch Church Of The Snake from Hot Springs, AR, and Clipd Beaks from Oakland, CA.

Competition for Morning Edition

There’s good news for public radio listeners looking for alternatives to corporation-friendly, über-branded NPR News: PRI And WNYC(R) Radio Announce New Morning Drive Time News Program For Public Radio.

Essentially, Public Radio International, WNYC, New York Times Radio, The BBC World Service and WGBH, all stalwart names in public broadcasting and journalism, are teaming up to create a morning news show to “reinvigorate morning drive time with a dynamic and lively new two-hour national news program.” How tasty does that sound?

Here’s more:

The program will represent an entirely new sound in public radio’s morning drive time. Departing from the highly-packaged format -- with pre-recorded interviews and long features -- that has become the medium’s hallmark sound, it will bring a wholly live, open, and unprecedented personality-driven format to public radio's renowned news and information programming. Up-to-the-minute local, national and global news will be delivered by a charismatic host – to be announced later this year --- and a vibrant team of national and international contributors. The breadth and unique capabilities of the show’s media partners will allow in-depth news coverage and live reports from the field from within the US and around the globe, with BBC reporters and analysts joining in on the discussion. The show will launch as a multi-platform program, and will be interactive and engaging, inviting listeners to respond immediately to news and participate in editorial decision-making, as well as to build a significant online community around the broadcast.

I particularly like the multi-platform approach which means it will be available over this new medium, the Internet, hopefully both streaming and as a podcast. And though it’s way too soon to speculate how listeners will participate in editorial decision-making as claimed, I think it can be a real exercise in participatory democracy.

Can you imagine stuffy NPR doing something like this? Me either. I also think it’s a safe bet that Red River Radio won’t carry it, despite the fact it could save them beaucoup coin by not paying for the increasingly tiresome Morning Edition.

The new show will be produced in Manhattan and is scheduled to launch in 2008.

I first heard about it from this NPR Check post. People are looking for alternatives, which is a good thing.

World of Warcraft

Here’s my latest World of Warcraft character, Anchovy, a dwarven hunter, and her pet, Charlotte, a green recluse from Duskwood. She also has a wolf from Dun Morogh named Pellegrino. The realm is Muradin. You got some Horde? Bring it, bitch!