Botox promoters promise to wipe away wrinkles, the signs of aging-the signs of time passing. Such "eternal youth" potions metaphorically help erase the very notion of time itself. In a phony world, increasingly dependent on smoke and mirrors, it is no wonder we look at elected officials like a cheap circus act. Saul Landau travels in and out of America, from the stress-filled cultures of Southern Californian businesspeople and poor towns in Texas, to the wildly booming streets of Hanoi and temples of Angkor Wat, to muse on just how low we have sunk.

The book explores the ironies of a time in which science explores the genetic code and masters the physics of instant global communication technology, while bible thumpers and talkers to Christ advocate medieval crusades to spread their order to infidels. Gore Vidal provides a scabrously funny introduction to a book by an author he says he "loves to steal ideas from."

Saul Landau is an internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker. He has won many awards, including the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, the George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting, the First Amendment Award, and an Emmy.

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From Botox to Reality...

When the planes hit the twin towers in New York on 9/11, I was in shock, like most people, but once I realized there was not a terrorist around every corner, or anthrax in my mailbox, I stopped checking my computer to see if we were on yellow, orange, or red (terrorist) alert and began looking into government and politics. I wanted to know the answer to that famous question, "why do they hate us so much?"

I read books, watched documentaries, looked for articles on the Internet and asked questions. The more I learned, the less I trusted Bush, and by the time we were bombing Iraq, I was so angry with him that I could no longer be silent.

Our soldiers were dying and the civilian casualties in Iraq were horrifying. I saw pictures on the Internet of dead babies and small children with missing limbs, and I could not comprehend how a Christian could order such a massacre.

I referred to my Bible, which told me to respect and pray for our leaders, but I could only muster prayer, not respect, for Bush. The fruits of his labor looked rotten to me. Where was his compassion? Where was his love for others? What about God's command, "thou shalt not kill"? What kind of role models kill to show that killing is unacceptable?

All I could see was Bush's lust for war and it made me sick. I could not believe the man had the support of so many Christians. No matter how I looked at it--Bush was wrong to take us to war, and we were wrong to let him. Could others not see this, too? Obviously not, he was re-elected in 2004. Either God's people are in absolute denial, or the election was a set up. I'm not sure which, but I do know one thing--life as we know it became surreal somewhere along the way. It truly is, as Saul Landau's book title reads, A Bush & Botox World. God help us!

March 25, 2007

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