Staging the News

In its presentation on the Syrian government's alleged use of sarin gas to fight anti-government forces, CNN provides a stage that includes a horizontal surface to depict the spread of a gas they have said is invisible and, behind its presenter, a triptych that features Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (left), a packet of gas vials (centre) and, in a shape similar to those vials, five medium-to-long-range missiles (right).

Chemical Enlightenment

Googled "antonym for weapon" this morning and the first thing that came up was from Yahoo! A single vote has it that "[a] weapon is an instrument of war and destruction. So an antonym would be an instrument of peace -- perhaps a "treaty' or a 'flag of truce'?"

When considering this antonym in relation to the chemical, could LSD be a "treaty" of sorts, a negotiation within the self towards an inner peace or enlightenment, as opposed to ongoing conflict and destruction?

Agent Orange

Is Agent Orange an American chemical weapon (a dioxin also known by its benign-sounding name, 245D), or merely a herbicide, as Monsanto would like us to believe?

Chemical Weapons in America

This week the United States government expressed outrage over the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons on its people, yet the United States government has used chemical weapons on its people routinely since the 1960s, whether to train its soldiers (see above) or to quell its dissenters (see below).

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Water Purification

A survivalist demonstrates how to purify creek water.

"You Don't Miss Your Water"

When at Banff or the Banff Centre, one thing I do not miss is the water, which remains good and pure, like the mountains it comes from.

In yesterday's post I provided a coy link to the Byrd's version of Cindy Walker's "Blue Canadian Rockies", via the word "peaceful." In today's post, a "live" 1968 recording of the Byrd's version of "You Don't Miss Your Water", written by Don Bell and, in this instance, sung by the Byrd's then-newest member, Gram Parsons.