HERE WE GO AGAIN, the old imperialistic proxy war arm your puppet state ally routine. Just like world war one, and other wars, before and since. just like viet nam. Russia arms serbia, germany arms asutrai-hungary. United states arms south vietnam, russia and china arm noth vietnam. This eliminates the need for powerful nations to spill their own blood, while advancing their imperial aims, and provides a shot in the arm for domestic arms manufacturers to boot.
This time the proxy war is in the ancient land of syria, where damascus, the world's oldest continuously inhabited city, is being ripped to shreds, along with the rest of the country, in a brutal civil war, which burst into flame in the aftermath of the revolutionary , liberating spirit of the "arab spring" a couple of years ago.
The European Union, that badly organized consortium of twenty seven countries bound together by a desire to compete ecomonically with china, japan, and the U.S.,which seems to be approaching bankruptcy nearly as rapidly as the U.S., has decided to supply weapons to the freedom fighting rebels in syria. Nothing like a healthy arms industry to prop up a disintegrating currency. Just ask america.
And, not quite coincidentally, the Soviet Union, or rather Russia, has indicated an intention of sending anti aircraft long range missiles to the hard to kill Assad government in syria, which doesn't seem to have gotten the memo that its time is finished. Amazingly, none of the weapons soon to be supplied by all these european busy bodies has any offensive capability or intent of any kind! Never.
How long until the U.S of A. joins the hit parade, and starts wheeling and dealing? For all we know, its already happened. The obama administration is proving to be somewhat less than a model of transparent behavior. And don't look now, but israel, never one to miss an opportunity for a bit of saber rattling, warns that if the russian arms transfer actually takes place, they will do something about it. The frightening thing about this is that, sometimes, israel is true to its old testament eye for an eye word.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Catching Up, Slowly
WAL MART, INC., has settled a lawsuit involving the state of california, and the disposal of hazardous waste materials by the world's largest, or perhaps second largest, corporation.
The HAZ-MAT consisted of pesticides, bleach, hair spray, fungicides, and rodentcides, and how damaged containers of these chemicals were being dealt with, which was in violation of the Clean Air Act. Wal Mart will end up paying about eighty two million in fines, will agree to sin no more, and will move on. The usual scenario.
How many times have we been told that the business of america is business, that the corporations are the engines of prosperity, and that government regulation is an unnecessary evil wiich stifles free enterprise, competition, and makes us all, all the poorer. Billions, maybe?
Robber barons like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller built america on the backs of vietual slave labor, importing cheap labor, abusing it, casting it aside without help or hesitation.. Finally, around the beginning of the twentieth century, people started noticing.
In 1905 Upton Sinclair wrote and published the seminal true novel "The Jungle", which opened the eyes of the public, and led to the passage in the same year of the Food and Drug Act, which brought government regulation to the meat packing industry, and began the process of forcing big business to operate, if not humanely, at least sanely.
"The Jungle" should be required reading, if there should be any such thing as requird reading. Usually excerpts are included in high school history books, usually the one about rats and rat poison being ground up, canned, and sold with the rest of the meat and animal by products. This famous passage isn't even the worst part, however.
The worst part is the horrendous deception, enslavement, exploitation and destruction of workers who came to america hoping to find streets paved with gold. WE still haven't quite gotten around to the gold streets, but finally, after decades of violent struggle and belated, teeth pulling action by the federal government, workers are treated with some shred of fairness in this country, and consumers are protected from the worst ravages of corporate greed and brutality.
The united states still has a long way to go before it reaches the level of civilization current in europe, in terms of corporate regulation and treatment of workers, but we seem to be catching up, albeit slowey, at long last.
The HAZ-MAT consisted of pesticides, bleach, hair spray, fungicides, and rodentcides, and how damaged containers of these chemicals were being dealt with, which was in violation of the Clean Air Act. Wal Mart will end up paying about eighty two million in fines, will agree to sin no more, and will move on. The usual scenario.
How many times have we been told that the business of america is business, that the corporations are the engines of prosperity, and that government regulation is an unnecessary evil wiich stifles free enterprise, competition, and makes us all, all the poorer. Billions, maybe?
Robber barons like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller built america on the backs of vietual slave labor, importing cheap labor, abusing it, casting it aside without help or hesitation.. Finally, around the beginning of the twentieth century, people started noticing.
In 1905 Upton Sinclair wrote and published the seminal true novel "The Jungle", which opened the eyes of the public, and led to the passage in the same year of the Food and Drug Act, which brought government regulation to the meat packing industry, and began the process of forcing big business to operate, if not humanely, at least sanely.
"The Jungle" should be required reading, if there should be any such thing as requird reading. Usually excerpts are included in high school history books, usually the one about rats and rat poison being ground up, canned, and sold with the rest of the meat and animal by products. This famous passage isn't even the worst part, however.
The worst part is the horrendous deception, enslavement, exploitation and destruction of workers who came to america hoping to find streets paved with gold. WE still haven't quite gotten around to the gold streets, but finally, after decades of violent struggle and belated, teeth pulling action by the federal government, workers are treated with some shred of fairness in this country, and consumers are protected from the worst ravages of corporate greed and brutality.
The united states still has a long way to go before it reaches the level of civilization current in europe, in terms of corporate regulation and treatment of workers, but we seem to be catching up, albeit slowey, at long last.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Maybe In a History Book
EACH TIME IT HAPPENS, its more depressing that the previous. This time it was in a grocery store, where i had acquired the habit of regaling my favorite cashier, a nice sixty five year old lady, with song. I actually sing "decently", and its usually neil diamond, my favorite. I'm open to requests, however.
My cashier friend gets a smile out of it, and for me, the groceries get sacked, I smile too, and away i go with a full load. Yesterday's concert was attended by a slightly under forty coworker, and here's the depressing part; she said she had never heard of neil diamond.
when i responded that neil is among the best selling recording artists of all time, over many generations, she seemed unimpressed. Meanwhile, my primary target, the cashier lady, indicated that though she listens to country and western, she has certainly heard of neil diamond.
"Isn't he kind of a crooner, like andy williams?" she asked. "no, said I, neil rocks more than andy, a lot more." Not bad, though, for a country western fan, to know about a boy from brooklyn. So it seems to be a generational thing. Lady number two was just too darned young. But wait! Every time neil performs live, the sold out audience is replete with teenagers, generation Xers, baby boomers, and on up. Some folks are better informed than others, it seems.
the incident reminded me of the early nineteen eighties, when one of my college students actually asked me: "so was paul McCartney in a band before Wings?" Oh my. Alas youth. We were all young once. As goethe said "young people would indeed be insufferable, had i not once been young myself." You rock, goethe!
By now that same former student is in ripe middle age, and has probably, at long last, read about the Beatles, maybe in a history book.
My cashier friend gets a smile out of it, and for me, the groceries get sacked, I smile too, and away i go with a full load. Yesterday's concert was attended by a slightly under forty coworker, and here's the depressing part; she said she had never heard of neil diamond.
when i responded that neil is among the best selling recording artists of all time, over many generations, she seemed unimpressed. Meanwhile, my primary target, the cashier lady, indicated that though she listens to country and western, she has certainly heard of neil diamond.
"Isn't he kind of a crooner, like andy williams?" she asked. "no, said I, neil rocks more than andy, a lot more." Not bad, though, for a country western fan, to know about a boy from brooklyn. So it seems to be a generational thing. Lady number two was just too darned young. But wait! Every time neil performs live, the sold out audience is replete with teenagers, generation Xers, baby boomers, and on up. Some folks are better informed than others, it seems.
the incident reminded me of the early nineteen eighties, when one of my college students actually asked me: "so was paul McCartney in a band before Wings?" Oh my. Alas youth. We were all young once. As goethe said "young people would indeed be insufferable, had i not once been young myself." You rock, goethe!
By now that same former student is in ripe middle age, and has probably, at long last, read about the Beatles, maybe in a history book.
Never Going Broke
THE TEASER HEADLINE on the aol homepage screamed "barbara bachman makes stunning announcement!" Composing yourself for anything, perhaps an alien abduction, murder-suicide, or worse, you click on the link, because you have to in order to read the rest of the article.
And then it turns out that the lady conservative congress person from minnesota and former brief candidate for president says that she will not run for reelection in 2014.
Her 2012 tea party presidential bid fizzled, she is losing popularity in her relatively republican minnesota congressional district, and there are investigations ongoing concerning her failed presidential campaing, and its financing, so , it s good time for her to get out of politics. But..scarcely a day goes by without some politician crashing and burning, yet, good ole aol hyped her departure, as "stunning".
as if that's supposed to be the "stunning" announcement. As if members of the U.S. house of representatives don't decide to call it quits every day, which they do. Four hundred and thirty five members, somebody is always coming and going. Best of luck to you, representative bachman, but, really your announcement was not particularly "stunning". Considering the hyperbolic banner, one would at least have expected an alien abduction, or some juicy-nasty tabloid style scandal.
But that's the way the american media works, isn't it? Lead 'em on, get 'em hooked, pause for several minutes of lucrative messages from our sponsors, then we'll be right back...to something or other. <yawn>
The internet outfits, aol, msn, and all the rest of 'em have picked right up on this long standing, and blatantly dishonest standard american solicitation technique. HEY! Listen to this! The world is ending! details forthcoming.... OK, got cha. Now, in just a mere minute, after one more commercial, or with the click of a link, you will be given the complete entree, having tasted the irresistibly tantalizing appetizer.
Always looking for greener hills, we easily seduced american-humans. Just over there, it only gets bigger and better. Barnum & Bailey would be right proud to witness the explosion of promotional techniques on display in the early twenty first century. Bait n switch. Lure and sell. Go get 'em, slugger, the market's wide open, and the suckers are standin' in line, just a waitin' for more.
And we always click, always wait, always stay on our leashes, wading through the ads, because we just cannot resist the allure, nor do we want to, we who are spoon fed as much garbage as our masterful madison avenue corporate media masters can shovel into us, as much a we want, as much as we can consume, and more. It was P.T. Barnum who really understood the game, and said "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the american people."
And then it turns out that the lady conservative congress person from minnesota and former brief candidate for president says that she will not run for reelection in 2014.
Her 2012 tea party presidential bid fizzled, she is losing popularity in her relatively republican minnesota congressional district, and there are investigations ongoing concerning her failed presidential campaing, and its financing, so , it s good time for her to get out of politics. But..scarcely a day goes by without some politician crashing and burning, yet, good ole aol hyped her departure, as "stunning".
as if that's supposed to be the "stunning" announcement. As if members of the U.S. house of representatives don't decide to call it quits every day, which they do. Four hundred and thirty five members, somebody is always coming and going. Best of luck to you, representative bachman, but, really your announcement was not particularly "stunning". Considering the hyperbolic banner, one would at least have expected an alien abduction, or some juicy-nasty tabloid style scandal.
But that's the way the american media works, isn't it? Lead 'em on, get 'em hooked, pause for several minutes of lucrative messages from our sponsors, then we'll be right back...to something or other. <yawn>
The internet outfits, aol, msn, and all the rest of 'em have picked right up on this long standing, and blatantly dishonest standard american solicitation technique. HEY! Listen to this! The world is ending! details forthcoming.... OK, got cha. Now, in just a mere minute, after one more commercial, or with the click of a link, you will be given the complete entree, having tasted the irresistibly tantalizing appetizer.
Always looking for greener hills, we easily seduced american-humans. Just over there, it only gets bigger and better. Barnum & Bailey would be right proud to witness the explosion of promotional techniques on display in the early twenty first century. Bait n switch. Lure and sell. Go get 'em, slugger, the market's wide open, and the suckers are standin' in line, just a waitin' for more.
And we always click, always wait, always stay on our leashes, wading through the ads, because we just cannot resist the allure, nor do we want to, we who are spoon fed as much garbage as our masterful madison avenue corporate media masters can shovel into us, as much a we want, as much as we can consume, and more. It was P.T. Barnum who really understood the game, and said "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the american people."
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Whither Redskins?
THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS, an American american-football team of great fame, has a very big problem. Namely, its name. Not only is it politically incorrect, it is so terribly politically incorrect, so vile, so heinous, so insulting, that it absolutely must be changed.
The name " washington redskins" is no better than the name "detroit niggers', or "san francisco queers" would be, if you think about it, even briefly. By far, its the most insulting nickname in sports. Even now, an increasing number of members of congress are insisting that the name be changed, including a republican congress person from Oklahoma, which is formely indian territory, and steeped in native american tradition.
Members of congress have not only sent a petition to the team itself, but also to every team in the national football lague. That means that they mean business, buddy. If a very conservative republican congress person wants the name changed, then who among us can disagree? After all, never was seen a conservative republican who disliked political incorrectness.
The owner of the washington native american football team is staunchly, absolutely, categorically refusing to change the name; he insits it will never happen. He's wrong, of course; it will happen, kicking and screaming, probably.
The enormous problem is that to change the name is utterly unthinkalbe, not only to fans of the washington native americans, but to NFL fans in general, one suspects. The name is very ,very deeply engraved in football lore, like the new york yankees in baseball, or the bosten celtics in basketball.
but yankees and celtics are not politically offensive. not too much , anyway. The word "yankee" was first used by the british as a condescending insult to americans; but the americans, in true american fashion, embraced it, made it their own, turned lemons into lemonade. This is the genius of america!
Oh, what will ever become of the washigton....er..redskins? Even now the name begins to feel as if it must be whispered only, and behind closed doors. Something will become of them, and whatever it is, they will never be the same again.
The name " washington redskins" is no better than the name "detroit niggers', or "san francisco queers" would be, if you think about it, even briefly. By far, its the most insulting nickname in sports. Even now, an increasing number of members of congress are insisting that the name be changed, including a republican congress person from Oklahoma, which is formely indian territory, and steeped in native american tradition.
Members of congress have not only sent a petition to the team itself, but also to every team in the national football lague. That means that they mean business, buddy. If a very conservative republican congress person wants the name changed, then who among us can disagree? After all, never was seen a conservative republican who disliked political incorrectness.
The owner of the washington native american football team is staunchly, absolutely, categorically refusing to change the name; he insits it will never happen. He's wrong, of course; it will happen, kicking and screaming, probably.
The enormous problem is that to change the name is utterly unthinkalbe, not only to fans of the washington native americans, but to NFL fans in general, one suspects. The name is very ,very deeply engraved in football lore, like the new york yankees in baseball, or the bosten celtics in basketball.
but yankees and celtics are not politically offensive. not too much , anyway. The word "yankee" was first used by the british as a condescending insult to americans; but the americans, in true american fashion, embraced it, made it their own, turned lemons into lemonade. This is the genius of america!
Oh, what will ever become of the washigton....er..redskins? Even now the name begins to feel as if it must be whispered only, and behind closed doors. Something will become of them, and whatever it is, they will never be the same again.
The Secret Is out: the phony war on drugs
WHEN LBJ BECAME PRESIDENT, his greatest desire, like most shrewd politicians, was to be all things to all people. Social welfare programs for the liberals, war for the conservatives. And, by golly, he gave us all of the above. He told the joint chiefs of staff "if y'all want a big ole war, I'll sho give yuns one(texas twang).
And he sho did. Those of us to whom he gave this big ole war later ran him out of office for his trouble, because he forgot to win his big ole war, but, what the hell? He tried. But at least Viet nam sucked up a great number of poor urban blacks and po southern white trash, and used them as cannon fodder.
Nixon came to office promising to end the war, and he did it, though much later than we had hoped. He also ended the draft. This created a small problem: what to do about the poor thetto blacks now? You can't just leave 'em on the street, forming gangs, dealing drugs....wait!...that's it!
And thus was born nixon's war on drugs, which is ongoing today. One out of nine african - americans is in prison, mostly for drug related offenses. Whitie boy walks, black man goes to prison. Check it out. You'll see. The war on drugs is a war on poor black people.
One state after another is coming to its senses and legalizing marijuana, which I thought would have happened by 1980, and should have. the pernicious, phony war on drugs is finally coming to an end, in utter defeat for america, like the viet nam war did forty years ago.
We never should have tried to fight either. They both contributed mightily to our current bankruptcy, and the drug war has resulted in a huge percentage of the population being imprisoned, again mostly for drug related "crimes" (aka capitalism)... a bigger percentage than any other nation on earth, including china, iran, north korea; all nations which we americans are supposedly more "civilized" than.
but at least we are pulling out, withdrawing from the war on drugs, just like we did in viet nam. Another thing they have in common: we will never, ever admit to ourselves, or to others, that we lost either, when in fact, my fellow americans, my fellow citizens of earth, america lost both. Now the secret is out...
And he sho did. Those of us to whom he gave this big ole war later ran him out of office for his trouble, because he forgot to win his big ole war, but, what the hell? He tried. But at least Viet nam sucked up a great number of poor urban blacks and po southern white trash, and used them as cannon fodder.
Nixon came to office promising to end the war, and he did it, though much later than we had hoped. He also ended the draft. This created a small problem: what to do about the poor thetto blacks now? You can't just leave 'em on the street, forming gangs, dealing drugs....wait!...that's it!
And thus was born nixon's war on drugs, which is ongoing today. One out of nine african - americans is in prison, mostly for drug related offenses. Whitie boy walks, black man goes to prison. Check it out. You'll see. The war on drugs is a war on poor black people.
One state after another is coming to its senses and legalizing marijuana, which I thought would have happened by 1980, and should have. the pernicious, phony war on drugs is finally coming to an end, in utter defeat for america, like the viet nam war did forty years ago.
We never should have tried to fight either. They both contributed mightily to our current bankruptcy, and the drug war has resulted in a huge percentage of the population being imprisoned, again mostly for drug related "crimes" (aka capitalism)... a bigger percentage than any other nation on earth, including china, iran, north korea; all nations which we americans are supposedly more "civilized" than.
but at least we are pulling out, withdrawing from the war on drugs, just like we did in viet nam. Another thing they have in common: we will never, ever admit to ourselves, or to others, that we lost either, when in fact, my fellow americans, my fellow citizens of earth, america lost both. Now the secret is out...
Toughing It Out, However
THE HUGE TORNADO which devastated Moore, Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago, it turns out, was par for the course. Since 1999, three huge tornados have ripped through the city, and several smaller ones besides.
Moore, Oklahoma, it turns out, is literally in "tornado alley", just as surely as a stream is in a stream bed. When the Homestead Act was passed in 1862, when Oklahoma was made a state in 1907, and when the great oil boom took place from the 1920s through the nineteen sixties, nobody really paid much attention to this fact of nature.
All that mattered was the land, the oil, and the opportunity. Money talks, and in america, it screams. Now, with development and population increasing in Oklahoma like nearly everywhere else, the bill is come due, with regard to cost to oklahomans, cost to society.
the scanario is roughtly the same as what we are witnessing all over the world, with billion of people living on oceanfront property, in hurricane and typhoon alleys, huge cities being built in places where water is scarce, like los vegas and los angeles, huge citeis being built where there is too much water, like new orleans, and huge cities being built where earthquakes regulalry shake the land, like memphis and saint louis.
But you gotta live somewhere, right? Exactly where is a safe place to live, out of harm's natural way? Alaska? hawaii? Not quite, earthquakes and volcanoes... nature has no harm free free enterprise zones, she struts her stuff no matter where we live; just a little more stridently in certain places. In retrospect, it does seem a bit silly to have built a huge city in a desert like los vaegs, but hey, bugsy Siegel was one....determined...man, and the american people? Well...
Interesting is the various reactions of the brave folks in moore, oklahoma. Some are leaving, or have already left, or have announced their intention of so doing. they'v had enough, lost too many houses and friends, and just want a little peace and quiet.
Others are determined to stay, even if it means rebuilding three houses in less than fifteen years.
What they have in common is an undaunted spirit of survival, a determination to endure, and prosper, no matter what. And this, beyond all doubt, is the essence of the american spirit, of the human spirit.
to you brave people of moore, oklahoma, whatever path you choose, your courage is a remarkable, admirable example for us all, good luck whereever your destiny takes you, and may the dear lord bless and keep you.
Moore, Oklahoma, it turns out, is literally in "tornado alley", just as surely as a stream is in a stream bed. When the Homestead Act was passed in 1862, when Oklahoma was made a state in 1907, and when the great oil boom took place from the 1920s through the nineteen sixties, nobody really paid much attention to this fact of nature.
All that mattered was the land, the oil, and the opportunity. Money talks, and in america, it screams. Now, with development and population increasing in Oklahoma like nearly everywhere else, the bill is come due, with regard to cost to oklahomans, cost to society.
the scanario is roughtly the same as what we are witnessing all over the world, with billion of people living on oceanfront property, in hurricane and typhoon alleys, huge cities being built in places where water is scarce, like los vegas and los angeles, huge citeis being built where there is too much water, like new orleans, and huge cities being built where earthquakes regulalry shake the land, like memphis and saint louis.
But you gotta live somewhere, right? Exactly where is a safe place to live, out of harm's natural way? Alaska? hawaii? Not quite, earthquakes and volcanoes... nature has no harm free free enterprise zones, she struts her stuff no matter where we live; just a little more stridently in certain places. In retrospect, it does seem a bit silly to have built a huge city in a desert like los vaegs, but hey, bugsy Siegel was one....determined...man, and the american people? Well...
Interesting is the various reactions of the brave folks in moore, oklahoma. Some are leaving, or have already left, or have announced their intention of so doing. they'v had enough, lost too many houses and friends, and just want a little peace and quiet.
Others are determined to stay, even if it means rebuilding three houses in less than fifteen years.
What they have in common is an undaunted spirit of survival, a determination to endure, and prosper, no matter what. And this, beyond all doubt, is the essence of the american spirit, of the human spirit.
to you brave people of moore, oklahoma, whatever path you choose, your courage is a remarkable, admirable example for us all, good luck whereever your destiny takes you, and may the dear lord bless and keep you.
Choosing to Work, Or Not
APPARENTLY, AFRICAN-AMERICANS retire earlier than european-americans, the average age of african american retirement being fifty-six. Seems rather young. Almost seems like they all must work for the government, or as corporate CEO's. Almost makes you jealous.
strangely , though, the retirement savings for the early retirees tends to be less than for later retirees. This begs the question: how can this be? How do they pull it off? the earliest you can receive social security is sixty-two, correct?
How then do these people, with limited savings and a six year wait for social security benefits, bridge the gap? By living with extreme frugality? No TV, no dessert, no non essential spending of any kind? By relying on working family members for support, or even moving in with adult children?
And what if they live thrity years beyond retirement? Somehow, it just seems that the numbers do not add up, and the numbers appear accurate, being the result of U.S. census records.
WE live in a world of greatly enhanced technology, and thus, greatly reduced work requirements for humans, at least, in terms of physical labor. Factory work is not nearly as demanding as it once was, with machines doing much if not most of the work.
The once interminable work week has been reduced to around forty in america, and even less in europe. The work week has actually lengthened a bit in america, but this is almost esclusively among white collar professions. Lawyers working long days and weeks, keeping up with demand in our legalistic jungle of a culture. Accountants shuffling ever more paperwork, made necessary by computers, strangely enough.
But overall the trend is for longer lives, with some people working longer - I have an uncle who works at the ripe old age of eighty nine, quite by choice - and some working shorter careers. Perhaps the issue is really not how much or how little we work, but creating a work culture in which we have some degree of choice in the matter.
strangely , though, the retirement savings for the early retirees tends to be less than for later retirees. This begs the question: how can this be? How do they pull it off? the earliest you can receive social security is sixty-two, correct?
How then do these people, with limited savings and a six year wait for social security benefits, bridge the gap? By living with extreme frugality? No TV, no dessert, no non essential spending of any kind? By relying on working family members for support, or even moving in with adult children?
And what if they live thrity years beyond retirement? Somehow, it just seems that the numbers do not add up, and the numbers appear accurate, being the result of U.S. census records.
WE live in a world of greatly enhanced technology, and thus, greatly reduced work requirements for humans, at least, in terms of physical labor. Factory work is not nearly as demanding as it once was, with machines doing much if not most of the work.
The once interminable work week has been reduced to around forty in america, and even less in europe. The work week has actually lengthened a bit in america, but this is almost esclusively among white collar professions. Lawyers working long days and weeks, keeping up with demand in our legalistic jungle of a culture. Accountants shuffling ever more paperwork, made necessary by computers, strangely enough.
But overall the trend is for longer lives, with some people working longer - I have an uncle who works at the ripe old age of eighty nine, quite by choice - and some working shorter careers. Perhaps the issue is really not how much or how little we work, but creating a work culture in which we have some degree of choice in the matter.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Openly Proclaiming Our Sexuality...For What?
WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, there is now at least one openly gay bishop, and this is supposed to be some kind of big deal. It is, of course, a really big deal. We have, after an arduous journey, finally arrived at a point in time whereat a biship, at least one bishop, can be openly gay, and not get canned. At least, not yet.
We shall see. And we know that there are many more where he came from, agreed?What we are trying to do, of course, is arrive at a place where all people, of all faiths, genders, and sexual orientations, can be who they are, openly, unopenly, or otherwise, without judgment. We've still a long way to go, but, we are on our way.
but, though we strive to create a tolerant world, must we all announce our sexuality to others? Can't we simply safely assume that everyone has some sort of sexuality, and that whatever it may be, it is perfectly acceptable to be, and leave it at that?
My question is: why should this process include any priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope? why on earth would any priest in the catholic church be openly gay, straight, or anything, pertaining to sex? aren't priests supposed to be celibate, and to devote all of the energy which would have been invested in sexuality, in God? Why should any of us have the faintest inkling of what some priest's, any priest's sexuality is, or, for that matter, anyone else's?
Isn't it supposed to not matter what the sexualtiy of a priest is, and instead only matter the he has no human, worldly sexual life? We know that celibacy precludes not sexuality in human beings, and that everyone has some sexual orientation, one way or another. But why, among priests, be open about it, proudly? aren't priests commissioned to be sexual, but sexually inactive. and..perhaps..merely horny..and accepting of that lot in life?
Hell, many of the rest of us are that way, much to our regret. What's wrong with "don't ask, don't tall, just accept? It worked well for the military, too bad they had to get rid of it, in their zeal to be progressive. I can have whatever interest in sex i want; why do others need to know about it? they don't.
Now of course we know that throughout history there have been sexually active popes, popes who fathered secret children, and all manner of variations of departure from church doctrine. However....
when asked about sexual orientation, shouldn't all priests say" "it really doesn't matter, does it?"
the point here has nothing to do with the agregious pedaphilic molestation scandal which has rocked the church over the past few years. That is another matter. The point is, why is it a big deal that a priest can "come out?" Come out....to what? Priestly celibacy?
What now, do all catholic priests worldwide now feel free to openly declare homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, or what not? Isn't it all, in the end, non sexuality? Can't we all just shut the hell up about ourselves, our self absorbed little selves, for just a minute, or maybe, a lifetime?
We shall see. And we know that there are many more where he came from, agreed?What we are trying to do, of course, is arrive at a place where all people, of all faiths, genders, and sexual orientations, can be who they are, openly, unopenly, or otherwise, without judgment. We've still a long way to go, but, we are on our way.
but, though we strive to create a tolerant world, must we all announce our sexuality to others? Can't we simply safely assume that everyone has some sort of sexuality, and that whatever it may be, it is perfectly acceptable to be, and leave it at that?
My question is: why should this process include any priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope? why on earth would any priest in the catholic church be openly gay, straight, or anything, pertaining to sex? aren't priests supposed to be celibate, and to devote all of the energy which would have been invested in sexuality, in God? Why should any of us have the faintest inkling of what some priest's, any priest's sexuality is, or, for that matter, anyone else's?
Isn't it supposed to not matter what the sexualtiy of a priest is, and instead only matter the he has no human, worldly sexual life? We know that celibacy precludes not sexuality in human beings, and that everyone has some sexual orientation, one way or another. But why, among priests, be open about it, proudly? aren't priests commissioned to be sexual, but sexually inactive. and..perhaps..merely horny..and accepting of that lot in life?
Hell, many of the rest of us are that way, much to our regret. What's wrong with "don't ask, don't tall, just accept? It worked well for the military, too bad they had to get rid of it, in their zeal to be progressive. I can have whatever interest in sex i want; why do others need to know about it? they don't.
Now of course we know that throughout history there have been sexually active popes, popes who fathered secret children, and all manner of variations of departure from church doctrine. However....
when asked about sexual orientation, shouldn't all priests say" "it really doesn't matter, does it?"
the point here has nothing to do with the agregious pedaphilic molestation scandal which has rocked the church over the past few years. That is another matter. The point is, why is it a big deal that a priest can "come out?" Come out....to what? Priestly celibacy?
What now, do all catholic priests worldwide now feel free to openly declare homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, or what not? Isn't it all, in the end, non sexuality? Can't we all just shut the hell up about ourselves, our self absorbed little selves, for just a minute, or maybe, a lifetime?
Grafitti as Art in Germany
IN THE GERMAN DEMOKRATICK REPUBLICK, or the deutsche nation der welt, or whatever its called these days, there is nicht tolerance for graffiti. At least for now. The germans change speed limits with grossten flexibility, and laws, and governments too, so..stay tuned.
Taggers marking up their mass transit vehicles are not, currently, tolerated. And guess what? They are now using drones, that's right, flying robots with cameras, to scope out the colorful, creative, but nasty pop art, report it back to headquarters complete with aerial surveillance-guten prooften, and proceeding from there.
Proceeding precisely where is not yet determined; the question is; how to link flying computer pictures with specific culprits with an adequate degree of certainty. Will the artists please stand, look heavenward, pose, smile, and salute the fatherland, bitte?
the latest report is that air to ground missiles and bombs are not yet being deployed; can it be that the germans have failed to learn the lessons so ably taught by their american cousins, instead of the other way around?
Another possible solution would be to simply allow the graffiti to stand upon its own merit, and call it "art". It would save the time required to waschen it off, and, who knows, western civilaztion might discover some new teutonic picasso.
This approach, that of living, let living, and leaving alone, was tried in the new york city subway system a few decades back, and to many it seemed to work perfectly. The old trains became positively festooned with modern squiggly art, the trains still ran on time, approximately, though no less bumpily, and really, no one seemed to mind.
Then, along came rudy guliani, the fun stopped, and back to droll, boring, gestapo normalcy the big apple went. Maybe the germans, after a few drones crash land on a few houses, churches, and public buildings, will arrive back at this simple but truly ingenious attitude. But do not count on it; though highly ingenious and creative, german culture does have a healthy dose of, shall we say, good ole american style puritincal nayensayen.
Taggers marking up their mass transit vehicles are not, currently, tolerated. And guess what? They are now using drones, that's right, flying robots with cameras, to scope out the colorful, creative, but nasty pop art, report it back to headquarters complete with aerial surveillance-guten prooften, and proceeding from there.
Proceeding precisely where is not yet determined; the question is; how to link flying computer pictures with specific culprits with an adequate degree of certainty. Will the artists please stand, look heavenward, pose, smile, and salute the fatherland, bitte?
the latest report is that air to ground missiles and bombs are not yet being deployed; can it be that the germans have failed to learn the lessons so ably taught by their american cousins, instead of the other way around?
Another possible solution would be to simply allow the graffiti to stand upon its own merit, and call it "art". It would save the time required to waschen it off, and, who knows, western civilaztion might discover some new teutonic picasso.
This approach, that of living, let living, and leaving alone, was tried in the new york city subway system a few decades back, and to many it seemed to work perfectly. The old trains became positively festooned with modern squiggly art, the trains still ran on time, approximately, though no less bumpily, and really, no one seemed to mind.
Then, along came rudy guliani, the fun stopped, and back to droll, boring, gestapo normalcy the big apple went. Maybe the germans, after a few drones crash land on a few houses, churches, and public buildings, will arrive back at this simple but truly ingenious attitude. But do not count on it; though highly ingenious and creative, german culture does have a healthy dose of, shall we say, good ole american style puritincal nayensayen.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Against Stupidity...
SOMETIMES, IT GETS A BIT FRUSTRATING. Not too often, and not too terribly, but still...or as a wise person once said "the fools would be humorous, were they not in such deadly earnest". Or, as another wise person once said "against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
Conservative capitalistic christians. The jesus guns and money crowd, as the late great gore vidal called them. Followers of christ, and followers of adam smith, (the father of capitalism) simultaneously. the republican conservative christian money changers.
And just why is this always the combination in affect? schizophrenia?? or, is it that conservatism is that philosophy which staunchly defends the status quo, and capitalism and christianity, strange bedfellows that they are, ARE, in america, the status quo? yes, that's got to be it. Otherwise, its schizophrenia, or denial,or stupidity.
jesus christ, aka joshua ben joseph (they won't even call him by the name he called himself) quite obviously was a socialist. render unto caesar, give unto the poor, and all that. he was not a profit seeking capitalist. OK? Sorry folks, but its true.
and the same folks who preach that socialism is evil, the bane of mankind, never mention, or perhaps fail to understand, that every city and water and sewer system, every bridge, every highway, every road in every town is an example of socialism, and a rather well functioning example, if you ask me, or if you ask anyone else who has ever taken a shower or a shit in america.
Not to mention social security, medicare, medicaid..which most of us have no dispute with, except for the inefficiency with which they are handled. Privatize them? who will administer them, as for profit enterprises, voluntarily? and lest we forget the postal system, which has worked well enough for hundreds of yearas but probably ought to be privatized now, only because it is no longer necessary.
that's the key; everything in life that is absolutely necessary is and should be and must be socialized, except for food, clothing and shelter. And, other than food clothing, and shelter, there are many many necessities in life, such as water and sewer systems, highways, bridges, roads, and so forth. Capitalism can cover the rest of it, things like entertainment, and, um....
And when you make these simple facts known to the jesus guns and money folks, they never, ever ever have a response.....they gloss over, and move right on, on to their bible study and bank statements. meanwhile, they ridicule liberals and socialists, as if by so doing they establish some sort of superiority. superiority of narrowness of mind, if nothing else. Against stupidity, the gods themselves...
Conservative capitalistic christians. The jesus guns and money crowd, as the late great gore vidal called them. Followers of christ, and followers of adam smith, (the father of capitalism) simultaneously. the republican conservative christian money changers.
And just why is this always the combination in affect? schizophrenia?? or, is it that conservatism is that philosophy which staunchly defends the status quo, and capitalism and christianity, strange bedfellows that they are, ARE, in america, the status quo? yes, that's got to be it. Otherwise, its schizophrenia, or denial,or stupidity.
jesus christ, aka joshua ben joseph (they won't even call him by the name he called himself) quite obviously was a socialist. render unto caesar, give unto the poor, and all that. he was not a profit seeking capitalist. OK? Sorry folks, but its true.
and the same folks who preach that socialism is evil, the bane of mankind, never mention, or perhaps fail to understand, that every city and water and sewer system, every bridge, every highway, every road in every town is an example of socialism, and a rather well functioning example, if you ask me, or if you ask anyone else who has ever taken a shower or a shit in america.
Not to mention social security, medicare, medicaid..which most of us have no dispute with, except for the inefficiency with which they are handled. Privatize them? who will administer them, as for profit enterprises, voluntarily? and lest we forget the postal system, which has worked well enough for hundreds of yearas but probably ought to be privatized now, only because it is no longer necessary.
that's the key; everything in life that is absolutely necessary is and should be and must be socialized, except for food, clothing and shelter. And, other than food clothing, and shelter, there are many many necessities in life, such as water and sewer systems, highways, bridges, roads, and so forth. Capitalism can cover the rest of it, things like entertainment, and, um....
And when you make these simple facts known to the jesus guns and money folks, they never, ever ever have a response.....they gloss over, and move right on, on to their bible study and bank statements. meanwhile, they ridicule liberals and socialists, as if by so doing they establish some sort of superiority. superiority of narrowness of mind, if nothing else. Against stupidity, the gods themselves...
Straightening Out the Pope
THERE SEEMS TO BE a bit of a bad taste in the wine and wafers of salvation. Pope francis, not exactly your prototypical screeching liberal, recently made quite a liberal sounding comment. He said that if a person spends his or her life doing good works, he or she will go to heaven, regardless of faith, or lack thereof.
Maybe he should have considered his words a bit more carefully. Such unchristian tolerance is bound to inspire a spate of righteous outrage from conservative catholics throughout the world, and in a church with a billion plus members, that could add up to quite a lot of wailing and gnashing.
The spate was launched in high fashion by a direct assistant/spokesperson of the pope, who declared categorically that his spiritual father is dead wrong, that not only does one need to be a christian to enter unto the kingdom of god with salvation, one must, absolutely must, be catholic. Lapsed catholics are, presumably bound for hell as well, even if they spend their entire lives rescuing people from fires and floods.
Will the papal assistant survive to see tomorrow's sunrise? Pretty gutsy, you have to admit. If I'm gonna argue with the pope, I sure as hell aint gonna do it in the vatican, or anywhere close. Talk about entering into the lion's den...rumor has it that the two men will square off in the sistine chapel, in a special WWE style event, at a time to be announced, to be braodcast live on CBS (catholic broadcast system), and that one christian warrior will walk out, and the other will receive extreme unction. Smart money is on the pope, at about three to one, though his adversary obviously has spunk and scrap.
this sudden , unexpected outburst of papal spiritual liberalism is indeed shocking, considering how conservative the pope is, politically and economically. On both those topics he sounds just like rush limbaugh; you know the drill; all government is bad government, socialism is evil, and antithetical to the teachings of christ - the free market, with its freedom of choice, provides for everyone a perfect opportunity to chosse wealth over poverty, and anyone who becomes impoverished in a free market has only him or herself to blame... the whole nine yards.
by the time this has all blown over, el papa might wish he had listened to jerry falwell and oral roberts, along with rush limbaugh. They could surely straighten him out, and eliminate this tolerant, blasphemous crap right away. Of course, it would have to be translated into catholic terms, but, a litle scaramental wine, a few wafers, and some good robust signing of the cross, and the holy father pope francis the whatever number he is should be right back on track.
Maybe he should have considered his words a bit more carefully. Such unchristian tolerance is bound to inspire a spate of righteous outrage from conservative catholics throughout the world, and in a church with a billion plus members, that could add up to quite a lot of wailing and gnashing.
The spate was launched in high fashion by a direct assistant/spokesperson of the pope, who declared categorically that his spiritual father is dead wrong, that not only does one need to be a christian to enter unto the kingdom of god with salvation, one must, absolutely must, be catholic. Lapsed catholics are, presumably bound for hell as well, even if they spend their entire lives rescuing people from fires and floods.
Will the papal assistant survive to see tomorrow's sunrise? Pretty gutsy, you have to admit. If I'm gonna argue with the pope, I sure as hell aint gonna do it in the vatican, or anywhere close. Talk about entering into the lion's den...rumor has it that the two men will square off in the sistine chapel, in a special WWE style event, at a time to be announced, to be braodcast live on CBS (catholic broadcast system), and that one christian warrior will walk out, and the other will receive extreme unction. Smart money is on the pope, at about three to one, though his adversary obviously has spunk and scrap.
this sudden , unexpected outburst of papal spiritual liberalism is indeed shocking, considering how conservative the pope is, politically and economically. On both those topics he sounds just like rush limbaugh; you know the drill; all government is bad government, socialism is evil, and antithetical to the teachings of christ - the free market, with its freedom of choice, provides for everyone a perfect opportunity to chosse wealth over poverty, and anyone who becomes impoverished in a free market has only him or herself to blame... the whole nine yards.
by the time this has all blown over, el papa might wish he had listened to jerry falwell and oral roberts, along with rush limbaugh. They could surely straighten him out, and eliminate this tolerant, blasphemous crap right away. Of course, it would have to be translated into catholic terms, but, a litle scaramental wine, a few wafers, and some good robust signing of the cross, and the holy father pope francis the whatever number he is should be right back on track.
Looking the Part
PRESIDENT BARRACK OBAMA does a wonderful job looking the part, the part of the consummmate american commander - in - chief. Not that he doesn't acutally fulfill the job admirably, or anything like that, but...he does a great job looking the part. Says all the right things, proclaims the proper platitudes, attends all the ceremonies, shakes the right hands, waxes eloquent, at the right time, the right places, with the right patriotic, meoldramatic words. His salute could use a little work, but, hey, he was never in the military, so we'll cut him some slack on that account.
this year's memorial day address from mr president had to do with the proper level of appreciation of the american people for the sacrifices made by military personel on their behalf. His message, to wit: since today's military is all voluntary, and that since therefore many americans do not know anyone in the military and are therefore not directly touched by any one serviceperson's death, it follows that these americans, the ones who are not aquainted with any member of any american armed service, simply do not fully comprehend or appreciate the sacrifice, the sacrifice of life, when the sacrifice is made. But..now...wait...
My understanding is that there are just as many armed service members now as always, roughly, and that, over the past few years, just as many of them have given their lives for their country as at any other time, save perhaps during one of our major wars, one, two, or civil. So how can it be, then, that fewer americans are affected by our recent losses, merely because those who were lost were volunteers, rather than conscripts?
Can it be that people who enlist voluntarily have fewer friends and family members per capita than past service personel who were drafted? Really? Is there some hidden, complicated sociological phenomenon wherein volunteers are loners, from small families, an draftees are from large families, with huge circles of friends? It seems hardly likely.
More likely is that president obama, in his zeal to look the part, simply listened to the wrong speech writer, took the wrong approach, from a logical, mathematical point of view, made the wrong associations, and thus uttered words which, when given a bit of consideration, are absolutely and perfectly ludicrous. It seems the president could use a little demographic knowledge, perhaps a course or two in statistics, and maybe some hard time inside a text book on logic, and reason. That, and a bit more editing beforehand of the words he intends to use, while looking the part.
this year's memorial day address from mr president had to do with the proper level of appreciation of the american people for the sacrifices made by military personel on their behalf. His message, to wit: since today's military is all voluntary, and that since therefore many americans do not know anyone in the military and are therefore not directly touched by any one serviceperson's death, it follows that these americans, the ones who are not aquainted with any member of any american armed service, simply do not fully comprehend or appreciate the sacrifice, the sacrifice of life, when the sacrifice is made. But..now...wait...
My understanding is that there are just as many armed service members now as always, roughly, and that, over the past few years, just as many of them have given their lives for their country as at any other time, save perhaps during one of our major wars, one, two, or civil. So how can it be, then, that fewer americans are affected by our recent losses, merely because those who were lost were volunteers, rather than conscripts?
Can it be that people who enlist voluntarily have fewer friends and family members per capita than past service personel who were drafted? Really? Is there some hidden, complicated sociological phenomenon wherein volunteers are loners, from small families, an draftees are from large families, with huge circles of friends? It seems hardly likely.
More likely is that president obama, in his zeal to look the part, simply listened to the wrong speech writer, took the wrong approach, from a logical, mathematical point of view, made the wrong associations, and thus uttered words which, when given a bit of consideration, are absolutely and perfectly ludicrous. It seems the president could use a little demographic knowledge, perhaps a course or two in statistics, and maybe some hard time inside a text book on logic, and reason. That, and a bit more editing beforehand of the words he intends to use, while looking the part.
Honoring What We Could Become
ON MEMORIAL DAY, we honor the brave americans who gave their lives, fighting to try to serve america. May the dear lord bless and keep them. I do not say that they died for freedom, or anything else, other than national survival. Sometimes they died trying to split the country in half, sometimes they died trying to prop up dictatorships, because those dictatorships were capitalistic, rather than socialistic.
sometimes they died while roaming around the world looking for terrorists who were hard to find, and might not even have been in the country in which our brave americans were fighting, serving, and looking. Freedom is relative, perhaps everyone who has ever died in war has, in a sense, died for freedom; for the freedom of his or her country to continue being a dictatorship, an empire, or an incubator of terrorists.
Nonetheless, memorial day is a fitting and proper way to honor the brave ones who died, for america.
But should we not also have a holiday, a big, important holiday, honoring the cause of peace, and the high ideal of abolishing war from earth? Isn't that a sufficiently worthy cause to commemorate? And on this hypothetical holiday, shouldn't we come clean, and acknowledge that all warfare is, on a higher level of thinking, needless and destructive, and a momunent to our continuing barbarity as a species?
ON that as yet nonexistant holiday we should perhaps fly no flags, for are not flags ultimately symbols of the separation of humanity from itself, the pitting of nation against nation, army against army, soldier against soldier?
come, let us together honor peace, on a worldwide planetary holiday, in which we honor not what has been, but rather what we strive for, and what we could become.
sometimes they died while roaming around the world looking for terrorists who were hard to find, and might not even have been in the country in which our brave americans were fighting, serving, and looking. Freedom is relative, perhaps everyone who has ever died in war has, in a sense, died for freedom; for the freedom of his or her country to continue being a dictatorship, an empire, or an incubator of terrorists.
Nonetheless, memorial day is a fitting and proper way to honor the brave ones who died, for america.
But should we not also have a holiday, a big, important holiday, honoring the cause of peace, and the high ideal of abolishing war from earth? Isn't that a sufficiently worthy cause to commemorate? And on this hypothetical holiday, shouldn't we come clean, and acknowledge that all warfare is, on a higher level of thinking, needless and destructive, and a momunent to our continuing barbarity as a species?
ON that as yet nonexistant holiday we should perhaps fly no flags, for are not flags ultimately symbols of the separation of humanity from itself, the pitting of nation against nation, army against army, soldier against soldier?
come, let us together honor peace, on a worldwide planetary holiday, in which we honor not what has been, but rather what we strive for, and what we could become.
La Mer
IT WAS LIKE SOMETHING out of an annette funicello movie, only annette herself wasn't there, regrettably. Quite a few other folks were, however, there on the beach in swimwear, with cookout fixins, on the sands of the westport connectucutt shore, mid summer. Some pleasant young gentleman who actually looked like tony curtis had a hobiecat sailboat. I never got to ride; of course, I don't look like annette, or ann margret. A joint got passed around, and everyone felt fortified.
It being my first time opportunity to wade out into the ocean, I did so, and found it extremely pleasant. The water was warm and calm ancd clear, and I must have walked, i swear, half a mile into the water and it was still no deeper than my waist. I started to wonder if i could get maybe halfway to germany. Between me and the beach were sailboats, and folks on the shore looked like miniatures.
Thirty years later, the clarity with which i remember that day is in part a testimony to the alluring power of the beach, and the ocean. Still, I wouldn't want to live there. Not enough green hills, not enough trees. In fact, hardly any. Personal taste.
Something like seventy percent of the world's people live within striking distance of the ocean, and it almost seems as if the other thirty percent would like to, to hear them talk. People move from the ozark hills to be near the sounding sea, but i never would.
If we wait a few years, we might all have a chance to live close to the ocean, and at long length we might not have much choice about it. Sea level has risen about eight inches in the past one hundred years, and the process is not going to stop. People with land on chesapeake bay report that their land is noticeably "sinking". Islands in the south pacific are vanishing.
How long until maimi, new york, and thousands of other cities are bailing water, then building huge sea walls, then bailing out? Sitting on the sand, looking out at the water to the horizon is a beautiful experience, but one which i need not enjoy everyday, or even very often. No hills. No trees. I think I'll stick to my land in arkansas. After all, it may one day become quite valuable.
It being my first time opportunity to wade out into the ocean, I did so, and found it extremely pleasant. The water was warm and calm ancd clear, and I must have walked, i swear, half a mile into the water and it was still no deeper than my waist. I started to wonder if i could get maybe halfway to germany. Between me and the beach were sailboats, and folks on the shore looked like miniatures.
Thirty years later, the clarity with which i remember that day is in part a testimony to the alluring power of the beach, and the ocean. Still, I wouldn't want to live there. Not enough green hills, not enough trees. In fact, hardly any. Personal taste.
Something like seventy percent of the world's people live within striking distance of the ocean, and it almost seems as if the other thirty percent would like to, to hear them talk. People move from the ozark hills to be near the sounding sea, but i never would.
If we wait a few years, we might all have a chance to live close to the ocean, and at long length we might not have much choice about it. Sea level has risen about eight inches in the past one hundred years, and the process is not going to stop. People with land on chesapeake bay report that their land is noticeably "sinking". Islands in the south pacific are vanishing.
How long until maimi, new york, and thousands of other cities are bailing water, then building huge sea walls, then bailing out? Sitting on the sand, looking out at the water to the horizon is a beautiful experience, but one which i need not enjoy everyday, or even very often. No hills. No trees. I think I'll stick to my land in arkansas. After all, it may one day become quite valuable.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Being Able to Be Yourself
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO featured a program about liberace, and the new book just out about him, which evidently details the glittery superstar's life as a closet homosexual. From earliest childhood he exhibited stereotypical gay behavior, preferring cooking and clothing to football, which motivated his contemporaries to taunt him, probably for being a sissy.
IN the nineteen twenties calling somebody queer was unthinkable, unless the desired outcome was giving the greatest of all possible insults to arouse the greatest of possible reactions, so, the taunting was usually "sissy", not "queer"."Queer" was the term used back then ,and indeed until the nineteen seventies, the word "gay", in that context, had not yet been "invented".
throughout his life liberace adamently denied being gay; people born before world war two simply could not come out of the closet. Young people today might not realize how very recent open homosexuality is in american culture. Indeed, on at least two occasions, he filed lawsuits against people for merely implying that he might be gay, and he won them both. Ironic, because he lived long enough (he died in 1987) to safely come out of the closet in our newly liberated world, but, no, he was just plain born too early, and old habits are hard to break.
through all the pink, glittery, tight fitting costumes and effeminate mannerisms and marriagelessness, he denied his true self, and, for the most part, got away with it. Some suspected, but none verified, and other female stars, friends who knew him well, like betty white, covered for him by acting as dates. Ms white confirmed, after his death, his gayness. Then, in 1977, at the age of fifty seven, he met a seventeen year old gay kid, and began a five year relationship, illicit in more ways than one.
As cover, the kid served as liberace's chauffeur. they broke up in 1982, and soon thereafter the kid, now 22, sued the piano master for something called "palimony", which presumably is a desire by a jilted gay lover to extort money from a wealthy gay jilter. The lawsuit was for one hundred and twenty two million dollars, which liberace could have afforded, but they settled out of court for a mere ninety five grand. The plaintiff relented, so the story goes, knowing of liberace's failing health.
Liberace died in 1987 from AIDS, straight as an arrow to the bitter end. too bad, really, he might have had more peace by having the courage to be himself, everywhere. The fact that he attacked people in court for even insinuating his homesexuality, considering that the insinuations were true, says much about his character.
He never denied that money was his great passion; his favorite expression was "I laughed all the way to the bank". He used this to deflect ctiticism of his ostentatious style, and perhaps as a reaction to his insecurity about his hidden sexual orientation. Many people, myself included, felt that his masterful piano playing would better have stood on its own merit; but, hey, nothing wrong with a little, or even a lot, of showmanship.
I have never liked gay people. Not because they are gay, but because those I have known have never been particularly friendly to me. Surely this must be nothing but coincidence, but, what can one do other than evaluate people according to personal experiences with them? Gay men have always been either too pushy to this hetero dude, or too cold and aloof, and lesbians...well...insufferably mean, would describe it. Again, its surely all just bad luck; gay people are known for their warmth, and that is undoubtedly true.
It is to be hoped that liberaces of the future, if there are any, - and how could there be - will spend their lives feeling comfortable in their identity, and that the rest of us will take them, and love them just as they are. One thing is certain, we seem to be trying.
IN the nineteen twenties calling somebody queer was unthinkable, unless the desired outcome was giving the greatest of all possible insults to arouse the greatest of possible reactions, so, the taunting was usually "sissy", not "queer"."Queer" was the term used back then ,and indeed until the nineteen seventies, the word "gay", in that context, had not yet been "invented".
throughout his life liberace adamently denied being gay; people born before world war two simply could not come out of the closet. Young people today might not realize how very recent open homosexuality is in american culture. Indeed, on at least two occasions, he filed lawsuits against people for merely implying that he might be gay, and he won them both. Ironic, because he lived long enough (he died in 1987) to safely come out of the closet in our newly liberated world, but, no, he was just plain born too early, and old habits are hard to break.
through all the pink, glittery, tight fitting costumes and effeminate mannerisms and marriagelessness, he denied his true self, and, for the most part, got away with it. Some suspected, but none verified, and other female stars, friends who knew him well, like betty white, covered for him by acting as dates. Ms white confirmed, after his death, his gayness. Then, in 1977, at the age of fifty seven, he met a seventeen year old gay kid, and began a five year relationship, illicit in more ways than one.
As cover, the kid served as liberace's chauffeur. they broke up in 1982, and soon thereafter the kid, now 22, sued the piano master for something called "palimony", which presumably is a desire by a jilted gay lover to extort money from a wealthy gay jilter. The lawsuit was for one hundred and twenty two million dollars, which liberace could have afforded, but they settled out of court for a mere ninety five grand. The plaintiff relented, so the story goes, knowing of liberace's failing health.
Liberace died in 1987 from AIDS, straight as an arrow to the bitter end. too bad, really, he might have had more peace by having the courage to be himself, everywhere. The fact that he attacked people in court for even insinuating his homesexuality, considering that the insinuations were true, says much about his character.
He never denied that money was his great passion; his favorite expression was "I laughed all the way to the bank". He used this to deflect ctiticism of his ostentatious style, and perhaps as a reaction to his insecurity about his hidden sexual orientation. Many people, myself included, felt that his masterful piano playing would better have stood on its own merit; but, hey, nothing wrong with a little, or even a lot, of showmanship.
I have never liked gay people. Not because they are gay, but because those I have known have never been particularly friendly to me. Surely this must be nothing but coincidence, but, what can one do other than evaluate people according to personal experiences with them? Gay men have always been either too pushy to this hetero dude, or too cold and aloof, and lesbians...well...insufferably mean, would describe it. Again, its surely all just bad luck; gay people are known for their warmth, and that is undoubtedly true.
It is to be hoped that liberaces of the future, if there are any, - and how could there be - will spend their lives feeling comfortable in their identity, and that the rest of us will take them, and love them just as they are. One thing is certain, we seem to be trying.
Living Forever, Through Our Art
IN THE RELAM OF ARTISTIC ENTERPRISE, especially writing and music, the supply is greater than the demand. And maybe this is a good thing; it shows that, in america, the streets are flooded with creative, talented people, writing books, writing and playing music, sitting on street corners with guitar case open, hoping for a little encouragement and sustenance.
the writers don't hang out on street corners. they slump behind solitary computer keyboards, typing rambling blogs, composing poetry, finishing up that next novel, the one that will propel its author onto the best seller list. After leaving the street corner or the college pizza bar, the musician goes back yet again into the studio for another session of laying down and mixing. The new CD, all twenty copies, will arrive by UPS in a few long weeks. The studio time was terribly expensive, and the hours filled with monotonous, repetitive, tedious drudgery, but in the end the music seems to work, and the CDs will be stamped out at a fairly reasonable rate. If nothing else, they can be given out free of charge, to friends, and anyone willing to listen at least once.
Tens of thousands of writers and musicians, and only a handful of connoisseurs, willing to experiment, willing to gamble on some new unknown. and did I mention painting? What college town in america is without its hordes of canvas artists, each with a unique style, each with a hero, maybe picasso, maybe monet or renoir serving as idol and role model. Every artist has a role model, a hero. Hayden had Bach, Mozart had hayden, beethoven had mozart, tchaikovsky had beethoven, and even more, mozart..always mozart.
Let's not even talk about the art of acting. Who among us does not have at least one good friend who is a damned good actor, and struts and frets convincingly upon some remote stage in some small town community theatre? Anyone who does not know someone like this has not lived. Your friend will someday appear on broadway, or in hollywood. Have faith.
somebody down the street right now has bob dylan for inspiration, or eminem, or britney spears, (if you can imagine such a thing.) And the thing is this; by and by, day in day out, these hordes of writers, painters, and singer song writers are really very very good! Many of them are every bit as "good" as those who make it to the top, gain worldwide recognition, and make millions.
But, back to simple economics and facts of lie. There are so very many of them, and so little time, and so few opportunites in this busy world for the rest of us to do much more than pick out a select few, usually whatever is handed to us by our corporate media masters, and stick with the ones who become our favorites.
But for all you struggling starving artists, all is not lost. We all agree that the joy of creating is in the act of creation, not in the response we get from the world. And besides, you never know; anything can happen. Some fine day your book, or song, or painting may be read, heard, or seen by somebody who is wiling to take a chance, and put the money up front to show the world...you. Far stranger things have happened. Mozart was always in and out of fashion in his own time. Van Gogh was ignored. NObody read charles dickens, at first.
And above all else, someday you will be dead, and when you are, your artistic creations will not be. They will live forever, in somebody's heart and soul.
the writers don't hang out on street corners. they slump behind solitary computer keyboards, typing rambling blogs, composing poetry, finishing up that next novel, the one that will propel its author onto the best seller list. After leaving the street corner or the college pizza bar, the musician goes back yet again into the studio for another session of laying down and mixing. The new CD, all twenty copies, will arrive by UPS in a few long weeks. The studio time was terribly expensive, and the hours filled with monotonous, repetitive, tedious drudgery, but in the end the music seems to work, and the CDs will be stamped out at a fairly reasonable rate. If nothing else, they can be given out free of charge, to friends, and anyone willing to listen at least once.
Tens of thousands of writers and musicians, and only a handful of connoisseurs, willing to experiment, willing to gamble on some new unknown. and did I mention painting? What college town in america is without its hordes of canvas artists, each with a unique style, each with a hero, maybe picasso, maybe monet or renoir serving as idol and role model. Every artist has a role model, a hero. Hayden had Bach, Mozart had hayden, beethoven had mozart, tchaikovsky had beethoven, and even more, mozart..always mozart.
Let's not even talk about the art of acting. Who among us does not have at least one good friend who is a damned good actor, and struts and frets convincingly upon some remote stage in some small town community theatre? Anyone who does not know someone like this has not lived. Your friend will someday appear on broadway, or in hollywood. Have faith.
somebody down the street right now has bob dylan for inspiration, or eminem, or britney spears, (if you can imagine such a thing.) And the thing is this; by and by, day in day out, these hordes of writers, painters, and singer song writers are really very very good! Many of them are every bit as "good" as those who make it to the top, gain worldwide recognition, and make millions.
But, back to simple economics and facts of lie. There are so very many of them, and so little time, and so few opportunites in this busy world for the rest of us to do much more than pick out a select few, usually whatever is handed to us by our corporate media masters, and stick with the ones who become our favorites.
But for all you struggling starving artists, all is not lost. We all agree that the joy of creating is in the act of creation, not in the response we get from the world. And besides, you never know; anything can happen. Some fine day your book, or song, or painting may be read, heard, or seen by somebody who is wiling to take a chance, and put the money up front to show the world...you. Far stranger things have happened. Mozart was always in and out of fashion in his own time. Van Gogh was ignored. NObody read charles dickens, at first.
And above all else, someday you will be dead, and when you are, your artistic creations will not be. They will live forever, in somebody's heart and soul.
Dark,dark,my light; a soul, buzzing
FIRST, I WAS nearly killed in a tornado which killed a hundred sixty one of my fellow joplin missourians. then, after three weeks digging through rubble in scorching heat, I decided to comfort myself by increasing my already considerable exercise regimen. Overdoing it, I severely strained a hamstring, which kept me off the running trail for almost year, and seemed to exacerbate my depression, rather than alleviate it which i had intended with exercise.
Nothing helped. I got out of shape, and started spending much of my time in bed, never finding a comfortable position for my leg, never finding curcease of my sorrow for my lost neighbors and town. The depression started affecting my behavior. i noticed that my short term memory, never very good since about the age of twenty five, had altogether vanished. Also, I began to suffer from "analysis paralysis; I couldn't make even the simplest decisions.
I wondered whether this might have something to do with my horribly wrong decision to go jogging while the tornado sirens were sounding. A fear of consequences, perhaps? At the supermarket, I wandered aimlessly around the store, unable to decide what to buy, staring at the shelves interminably, putting things in my basket, taking them back out, putting them back in. Am i a vegetarian, or am i a carnivore? Flip a coin! It doesn't matter! Sometimes I walked out of the store realizing i had accidently shoplifted; -a small item of food had ended up in my pocket, in the midst of indecisive limbo.
Fragments of poems stuck in my mind. One by
Bertolt Brecht, on the left, and one by theodore roethke, below
I make friends with people. And I wear a derby
On my head, as others do. I say; they are strangely
stinking animals. And I say; no matter, I am to. - B Brecht
dark, dark my light, and darker my desire
My soul, like some heat maddened
summer fly, keeps buzzing at the sill.
Which I is I? A fallen man, I climb out
of my fear. The mind enters itself, and
God, the mind, and One is One, free
In the tearing wind.
---Theodore Roethke
Finally, a good psychiatrist told me that, no I am not a bi ploar mainc depressive, i just had a little post traumatic stress disorder, and besides that, a healthy dose of depression,which i should regard as a perfectly normal reaction to some of life's unavoidably unfortunate circumstances. I would get over it. Life would go on, pleasantly, productively , as ever. Mental injuries, and hamstring injuries, do, at length, heal. At least I learned one valuable lesson; no matter how often tornado sirens sound meaninglessly throughout the course of one's life, always assume that this time this one is not meaningless.
Nothing helped. I got out of shape, and started spending much of my time in bed, never finding a comfortable position for my leg, never finding curcease of my sorrow for my lost neighbors and town. The depression started affecting my behavior. i noticed that my short term memory, never very good since about the age of twenty five, had altogether vanished. Also, I began to suffer from "analysis paralysis; I couldn't make even the simplest decisions.
I wondered whether this might have something to do with my horribly wrong decision to go jogging while the tornado sirens were sounding. A fear of consequences, perhaps? At the supermarket, I wandered aimlessly around the store, unable to decide what to buy, staring at the shelves interminably, putting things in my basket, taking them back out, putting them back in. Am i a vegetarian, or am i a carnivore? Flip a coin! It doesn't matter! Sometimes I walked out of the store realizing i had accidently shoplifted; -a small item of food had ended up in my pocket, in the midst of indecisive limbo.
Fragments of poems stuck in my mind. One by
Bertolt Brecht, on the left, and one by theodore roethke, below
I make friends with people. And I wear a derby
On my head, as others do. I say; they are strangely
stinking animals. And I say; no matter, I am to. - B Brecht
dark, dark my light, and darker my desire
My soul, like some heat maddened
summer fly, keeps buzzing at the sill.
Which I is I? A fallen man, I climb out
of my fear. The mind enters itself, and
God, the mind, and One is One, free
In the tearing wind.
---Theodore Roethke
Finally, a good psychiatrist told me that, no I am not a bi ploar mainc depressive, i just had a little post traumatic stress disorder, and besides that, a healthy dose of depression,which i should regard as a perfectly normal reaction to some of life's unavoidably unfortunate circumstances. I would get over it. Life would go on, pleasantly, productively , as ever. Mental injuries, and hamstring injuries, do, at length, heal. At least I learned one valuable lesson; no matter how often tornado sirens sound meaninglessly throughout the course of one's life, always assume that this time this one is not meaningless.
Keeping Us Off the Streets
THE LADY IN NEW YAWK, teaching seventh grade spanish, use the word "negro", pronounced "naigro", meaning "the color black", in class, somebody precocious, pernicious little shit tattled to the gestapo, oops, I mean "principal", and said lady got fired. Who needs vocabulary drills in a foreign language class!
All that, in a country which calls itself "civilized', merely because it no longer enslaves people whose skin pigmentation is dark brown, but now instead refuses to notice the color of anybody's skin. Color blindness as a virtue, suddenly. How cleverly convenient, how drearily reactionary of us.
By the time this blog is posted the school board will beyond doubt have regained whatever vestige of sanity it had prior to its inexplicable abandonment thereof, reinstate the lady, (whose skin is dark),
apologize profusely and sincerely to her, then give aforementioned trouble making little shit a stern lecture about the needless stupidity of making trouble for the sake of making trouble. Or not.
Conservatives, who themselves indulge in a bit of reactionary lunacy from time to time, are forever telling us that we live in a culture of political correctness run amok. And just as surely as conservatives generally call greed compassion, and war mongering peace making, they have a point, in this rare instance.
Listen to a baseball game on the radio. You form an image of the game in your fertile mind, freed from the dull hypnontic tyranny of television, and the feeling is transcendant. A batter comes to the plate; Big, srtong guy, says the announcer, a strapping six two, two twenty five, bats left, power to all fields, a good RBI man with good plate discipline. But wait! What about the obvious, the unanswered question; is he black, white, or hispanic? We will never know, because the announcer can never tell, can never divulge to the faithful listeners any information whatsoever which might even remotely be offensive to....whom?
But back to our lady of the darkened classroom of hair trigger sensitivities, in the land of the melodramatic, hyperbolic token gesture of feinged good intent. She will either do time in punitive community service, promising erstwhile to never again mention the spectrum of light in any institution of truth and learning, or....or a swarm of bellowing sign wielding attention seekers will descend on the school's parking lot, show their earnest resolve to get justice in the land of the ostentatious, and force the administrators that be to turn darkness back into light, by sheer force of numbers.
Ah, america, america! how we grieve for your lost sense of perspective, but how we marvel at your unrelenting inability to leave us free from the grasp of manufactured, artificial, needless, but entertaining acrimony. Well, if nothing else, it keeps us off the streets, and, precisely.....where?
All that, in a country which calls itself "civilized', merely because it no longer enslaves people whose skin pigmentation is dark brown, but now instead refuses to notice the color of anybody's skin. Color blindness as a virtue, suddenly. How cleverly convenient, how drearily reactionary of us.
By the time this blog is posted the school board will beyond doubt have regained whatever vestige of sanity it had prior to its inexplicable abandonment thereof, reinstate the lady, (whose skin is dark),
apologize profusely and sincerely to her, then give aforementioned trouble making little shit a stern lecture about the needless stupidity of making trouble for the sake of making trouble. Or not.
Conservatives, who themselves indulge in a bit of reactionary lunacy from time to time, are forever telling us that we live in a culture of political correctness run amok. And just as surely as conservatives generally call greed compassion, and war mongering peace making, they have a point, in this rare instance.
Listen to a baseball game on the radio. You form an image of the game in your fertile mind, freed from the dull hypnontic tyranny of television, and the feeling is transcendant. A batter comes to the plate; Big, srtong guy, says the announcer, a strapping six two, two twenty five, bats left, power to all fields, a good RBI man with good plate discipline. But wait! What about the obvious, the unanswered question; is he black, white, or hispanic? We will never know, because the announcer can never tell, can never divulge to the faithful listeners any information whatsoever which might even remotely be offensive to....whom?
But back to our lady of the darkened classroom of hair trigger sensitivities, in the land of the melodramatic, hyperbolic token gesture of feinged good intent. She will either do time in punitive community service, promising erstwhile to never again mention the spectrum of light in any institution of truth and learning, or....or a swarm of bellowing sign wielding attention seekers will descend on the school's parking lot, show their earnest resolve to get justice in the land of the ostentatious, and force the administrators that be to turn darkness back into light, by sheer force of numbers.
Ah, america, america! how we grieve for your lost sense of perspective, but how we marvel at your unrelenting inability to leave us free from the grasp of manufactured, artificial, needless, but entertaining acrimony. Well, if nothing else, it keeps us off the streets, and, precisely.....where?
Of supply closets, Board Rooms, and Clean Latrines
THE NEWSAPER HEADLINE in a renowned college town announced: "university system to see tuition increase". Well, OK then, so be it. A smaller caption right below it said "board of regents unamimously votes to increase university president's salary from $335,000.00 to $455,000.00".
At that point, a light went on, and a red flag went up. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, perhaps. Or, perhaps, something.....something....indisputably, the president of any unvierstiy deserves to make a decent living. After all, only a select few citizens are even capable of negotiating the vast labyrinth of bureaucratic entanglements that comprise a university system. Maybe.
Everyone who works, and provides an essential service, like athletes and entertainers, deserves a decent income. Enter the classic conservative, capitalistic argument: anyone can be a janitor, but hardly anyone can be a university president or a good actor or ballplayer, thus, in such rarified regions of achievement, it is the actor or chancellor or ballplayer who should, and thus does, get the gold.
Enter the liberal socialistic argument; we all need about the same things, in terms of food, clothing, and shelter, and the janitor provides a service as important as the president, so, pay them equally. See how well the president functions with a filthy office and latrine!
The nuts and bolts is: given that some jobs are more difficult and rarified of skill sets, just how extreme in difference should income levels be? Does the university president really need or deserve such a huge pay increase while the poor students and their parents are forced to scrape together ever more to pay for an education? Would, say, a salary increase of a mere fifty grand per suffice to clean the prez's latrine?
Your call. Suffice tho say, at socialistic public universities across the fruited plain, the capitalistic, pyrimidal argument prevails, usually unanimously. Prestigious, usually wealthy members of boards of regents across aforementioned fruited plain invariably take the free market approach, and render wealth unto thte top dog far in advance of the little guy, after the fashion of a corporate board of directors, and CEO's, and assembly line workers. After the fashion of american government, and government employees, and lower ranking government employees.
Even in a socialistic structure, capitalism prevails, the pyramid is erected. One might wonder why on earth, or in supply closets, loosely knit groups of bottom feeders don't hang out, gather together in barns, and discuss things a bit. They might even decide to form their own club. but perish the thought. Next thing you know, the top brass would be confronted with something called "worker's unions", which would undoubtedly be nothing but a rabble rousing bunch of trouble makers, determined to grab a bigger piece of the pie, giving even greater headeaches to presidents and CEOs and boards of directors, in their shiny offices, and clean latrines.
At that point, a light went on, and a red flag went up. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, perhaps. Or, perhaps, something.....something....indisputably, the president of any unvierstiy deserves to make a decent living. After all, only a select few citizens are even capable of negotiating the vast labyrinth of bureaucratic entanglements that comprise a university system. Maybe.
Everyone who works, and provides an essential service, like athletes and entertainers, deserves a decent income. Enter the classic conservative, capitalistic argument: anyone can be a janitor, but hardly anyone can be a university president or a good actor or ballplayer, thus, in such rarified regions of achievement, it is the actor or chancellor or ballplayer who should, and thus does, get the gold.
Enter the liberal socialistic argument; we all need about the same things, in terms of food, clothing, and shelter, and the janitor provides a service as important as the president, so, pay them equally. See how well the president functions with a filthy office and latrine!
The nuts and bolts is: given that some jobs are more difficult and rarified of skill sets, just how extreme in difference should income levels be? Does the university president really need or deserve such a huge pay increase while the poor students and their parents are forced to scrape together ever more to pay for an education? Would, say, a salary increase of a mere fifty grand per suffice to clean the prez's latrine?
Your call. Suffice tho say, at socialistic public universities across the fruited plain, the capitalistic, pyrimidal argument prevails, usually unanimously. Prestigious, usually wealthy members of boards of regents across aforementioned fruited plain invariably take the free market approach, and render wealth unto thte top dog far in advance of the little guy, after the fashion of a corporate board of directors, and CEO's, and assembly line workers. After the fashion of american government, and government employees, and lower ranking government employees.
Even in a socialistic structure, capitalism prevails, the pyramid is erected. One might wonder why on earth, or in supply closets, loosely knit groups of bottom feeders don't hang out, gather together in barns, and discuss things a bit. They might even decide to form their own club. but perish the thought. Next thing you know, the top brass would be confronted with something called "worker's unions", which would undoubtedly be nothing but a rabble rousing bunch of trouble makers, determined to grab a bigger piece of the pie, giving even greater headeaches to presidents and CEOs and boards of directors, in their shiny offices, and clean latrines.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Margin For Error; our infallible pope
BEFORE BECOMING POPE, cardinal bergolio of agrentina did an interview with chris mathews, which the friend who sent the transcript to me claimed was a resounding affirmation not only of christian values, but also of capitalism. After reading the transcript, it seemed otherwise. It seemed that the cardinal was arrogant and misguided , a bad predictor of his own behavior, as well as one who does not respect the will of God.
He is adamant in asserting that the pope is always chosen by god, but that he (bergolio) would not be chosen by god, and that if elected, he would not serve, due to his involvement in the secular world teaching people that to render unto caesar is contrary to god's plan. The papacy is a spiritual position, not a political one, and i am a soldier, declared he. Considering all the pronouncements of a political nature made by popes over the centuries, and considering the collaboration of the church with hitler's nazi germany, this assertion is highly debatable.
cardinal bergolio then proceeded to trumpet the merits of capitalism over socialism. Evidently when one renders unto casear, one must do so voluntarily if at all. It requires capital to build churches, schools, and hospitals, and thus capitalism is the way. No mention was made as to whether socialists believe in spending money to build any of these.
Government, not corporate exploitation and greed, is responsible for the persistance of poverty, said the cardinal, while emphasizing that his understanding of politics and economics is comprehensive. He never mentioned andrew carnegie, cornelius vanderbilt, or j d rockefeller, who hired thugs to assault striking workers, hired desperate workers , and provided no job security, health care assistance, or living wages. Bergolio further declared that all economic transactions are voluntary, and omitted mention of desperate starvation as a motivation to seek employemnt for starvation wages.
Poverty is the result of evil politicians enacting welfare programs for the sole purpose of reducing the mases to dependency on the government, and rendering them debt ridden. this sounds vaguely remindful of american conservatives. No mention of whether the meat packing industry in chicago early in the twentieth century aided in the process of worker debt, hunger, of dependency on employer. Perhaps the pope should read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
The cardinal must have told mathews ten times that he and the pope are catholics, and that by virtue of a promise jesus made to saint peter, anyone who becomes pope becomes infallible. Either he assumed that mathews is an idiot, or wanted to convince himself of his devotion to his own faith. Its too bad that the papacy is not a political office, and that bergolio had to give up his conservative capitalist activism to enter the papacy; he would have made a helluva conservative republican capitastic politician. But, since his two predecessors both admitted to being fallible, pope francis at least has some margin for error.
He is adamant in asserting that the pope is always chosen by god, but that he (bergolio) would not be chosen by god, and that if elected, he would not serve, due to his involvement in the secular world teaching people that to render unto caesar is contrary to god's plan. The papacy is a spiritual position, not a political one, and i am a soldier, declared he. Considering all the pronouncements of a political nature made by popes over the centuries, and considering the collaboration of the church with hitler's nazi germany, this assertion is highly debatable.
cardinal bergolio then proceeded to trumpet the merits of capitalism over socialism. Evidently when one renders unto casear, one must do so voluntarily if at all. It requires capital to build churches, schools, and hospitals, and thus capitalism is the way. No mention was made as to whether socialists believe in spending money to build any of these.
Government, not corporate exploitation and greed, is responsible for the persistance of poverty, said the cardinal, while emphasizing that his understanding of politics and economics is comprehensive. He never mentioned andrew carnegie, cornelius vanderbilt, or j d rockefeller, who hired thugs to assault striking workers, hired desperate workers , and provided no job security, health care assistance, or living wages. Bergolio further declared that all economic transactions are voluntary, and omitted mention of desperate starvation as a motivation to seek employemnt for starvation wages.
Poverty is the result of evil politicians enacting welfare programs for the sole purpose of reducing the mases to dependency on the government, and rendering them debt ridden. this sounds vaguely remindful of american conservatives. No mention of whether the meat packing industry in chicago early in the twentieth century aided in the process of worker debt, hunger, of dependency on employer. Perhaps the pope should read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
The cardinal must have told mathews ten times that he and the pope are catholics, and that by virtue of a promise jesus made to saint peter, anyone who becomes pope becomes infallible. Either he assumed that mathews is an idiot, or wanted to convince himself of his devotion to his own faith. Its too bad that the papacy is not a political office, and that bergolio had to give up his conservative capitalist activism to enter the papacy; he would have made a helluva conservative republican capitastic politician. But, since his two predecessors both admitted to being fallible, pope francis at least has some margin for error.
ONLY in America: beauty as a impediment
THE LADY featured on the aol homepage has a problem. She is just too darned good looking to have a job, or so she says. She is thirty three years old, and, for truth, is a real stunner. A classic raven haired, slender limbed, curvacious angel faced beauty.
but, so what. Aren't we all? How many hotties on average do you see in a crowded big city, or a college town, or a college or high school hallway? Answer: a bundle. No matter how well a person does anything, sings, dances, plays tennis, writes blogs, looks good, one need only go around the corner to encounter someone who does it just as well.
Unemployed, the lady says that at her workplace all the men constantly chased her and the women shunned her out of jealousy, even when she wore scrubs and no make up. And there is certainly no reason not to believe her, or is there?
Depends on where she was working. Was it a factory, a body shop, or a bar? In such cases, it might be said that its her own damned fault. She lamented that everyone overlooks her professional credentials and capabilities, whatever those might be.
If shes'a professional, well educated, has she ever considered teaching in an elementary school? A great majority of teachers, particularly in grade schools, are women, and in many if not most of america's primary level school buildings are some real knockouts. Teachers tend to be youndg adults, almost as if public school teachers get burned out by middle age, if you can imagine such a thing.
Has she ever considered becoming a binge eater, or undergoing disfiguring plastic surgery? or perhaps just a touch of dog poop across the cheek. There has simply got to be an acceptable solution of some sort for this poor unfortunate soul encased in surpassingly visually pleasing meat and bones.
Most of us regard physical beauty, as well as intelligence and athletic and artisitc ability as postive attributes. But you can see the storm clouds building. Unemployment and disability roles, (which in america is really another form of unemployment insurance) swelling with distraught job seekers whose disabling factor is "I'm too good looking for the job market", or, "I am too talented to be employable."
You just know its coming, now that the precedent has been set. If it seems impossible, consider the culture in which you live, and remember the old cliche, "only in america".
but, so what. Aren't we all? How many hotties on average do you see in a crowded big city, or a college town, or a college or high school hallway? Answer: a bundle. No matter how well a person does anything, sings, dances, plays tennis, writes blogs, looks good, one need only go around the corner to encounter someone who does it just as well.
Unemployed, the lady says that at her workplace all the men constantly chased her and the women shunned her out of jealousy, even when she wore scrubs and no make up. And there is certainly no reason not to believe her, or is there?
Depends on where she was working. Was it a factory, a body shop, or a bar? In such cases, it might be said that its her own damned fault. She lamented that everyone overlooks her professional credentials and capabilities, whatever those might be.
If shes'a professional, well educated, has she ever considered teaching in an elementary school? A great majority of teachers, particularly in grade schools, are women, and in many if not most of america's primary level school buildings are some real knockouts. Teachers tend to be youndg adults, almost as if public school teachers get burned out by middle age, if you can imagine such a thing.
Has she ever considered becoming a binge eater, or undergoing disfiguring plastic surgery? or perhaps just a touch of dog poop across the cheek. There has simply got to be an acceptable solution of some sort for this poor unfortunate soul encased in surpassingly visually pleasing meat and bones.
Most of us regard physical beauty, as well as intelligence and athletic and artisitc ability as postive attributes. But you can see the storm clouds building. Unemployment and disability roles, (which in america is really another form of unemployment insurance) swelling with distraught job seekers whose disabling factor is "I'm too good looking for the job market", or, "I am too talented to be employable."
You just know its coming, now that the precedent has been set. If it seems impossible, consider the culture in which you live, and remember the old cliche, "only in america".
Religion of Exploitation
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is the wealthist nation on earth, in terms of sheer national gross wealth. Simultaneously, and ironically, it is a very poor nation, with tens of millions of people in poverty, a super wealthy elite class, and a continuously shrinking middle class. The structure is remindful of a third world country, but with somewhat larger numbers.
In america the poor aer encouraged to hate themselves, almost as if it is a crime to be poor, in a nation which produces the poor as inexorably as a flood produces leftover mud. Americans mock the poor, and venerate the wealthy as idols. Other cultures create folk lore from the poor, the virtuous, admirable, honest poor; americans scorn the poor as failures.
If you are poor in america, you must either be stupid or lazy; exploitation, bigotry, and institutional poverty created by high living costs and low wages is never mentioned. So incessantly berated and brainwahsed are the poor with this hogwash that they themselves see themselves as inferior, and the wealthy as a superior class of being.
Among the insidious misconceptions perpetuated in america is that it is easy to make money and get ahead, if only one works hard and makes good decisions. Hardly anyone acknowledges the simple truth that it is usually very hard to make money in america, or even ascentd to the middle class. most categories of work simply do not pay well enough, in a country where the minimun wage law is a tragic anachronistic joke.
By blaming the poor exclusivley for their own plight, the wealthy evade responsibility for giving them meaningful help, and instead praise themsleves for their token, tax deductible assistance. And thus the poor are trained to blame themselves only, and to respect the corrupt system of limited privilege and institutionalized inequality which is the real root of their plight.
Throughout history nations have attired their lowest soldiers in splendid, dignity enhancing uniforms, to lure them into service and to motivate them. In the american military, the poor among the lowest ranks are dressed in drab business like suits, or plain looking work clothes which appear to be hand me downs from officers who have moved on to better things.
And in america, the poor are taught to hate each other, rather than unite for a sinlge cause of mutual advancement. Any mutual love among the poor in america might lead to that most horrible of all possibilities; the emergence of a truly potent united labor force, on a level playing with with their elite wealthy masters.
In a society which truly believes that all men are created equal exploitation is mitigated and discouraged, but in america, exploitation of all things is a religion, and we americans certainly love our religion of exploitation.
In america the poor aer encouraged to hate themselves, almost as if it is a crime to be poor, in a nation which produces the poor as inexorably as a flood produces leftover mud. Americans mock the poor, and venerate the wealthy as idols. Other cultures create folk lore from the poor, the virtuous, admirable, honest poor; americans scorn the poor as failures.
If you are poor in america, you must either be stupid or lazy; exploitation, bigotry, and institutional poverty created by high living costs and low wages is never mentioned. So incessantly berated and brainwahsed are the poor with this hogwash that they themselves see themselves as inferior, and the wealthy as a superior class of being.
Among the insidious misconceptions perpetuated in america is that it is easy to make money and get ahead, if only one works hard and makes good decisions. Hardly anyone acknowledges the simple truth that it is usually very hard to make money in america, or even ascentd to the middle class. most categories of work simply do not pay well enough, in a country where the minimun wage law is a tragic anachronistic joke.
By blaming the poor exclusivley for their own plight, the wealthy evade responsibility for giving them meaningful help, and instead praise themsleves for their token, tax deductible assistance. And thus the poor are trained to blame themselves only, and to respect the corrupt system of limited privilege and institutionalized inequality which is the real root of their plight.
Throughout history nations have attired their lowest soldiers in splendid, dignity enhancing uniforms, to lure them into service and to motivate them. In the american military, the poor among the lowest ranks are dressed in drab business like suits, or plain looking work clothes which appear to be hand me downs from officers who have moved on to better things.
And in america, the poor are taught to hate each other, rather than unite for a sinlge cause of mutual advancement. Any mutual love among the poor in america might lead to that most horrible of all possibilities; the emergence of a truly potent united labor force, on a level playing with with their elite wealthy masters.
In a society which truly believes that all men are created equal exploitation is mitigated and discouraged, but in america, exploitation of all things is a religion, and we americans certainly love our religion of exploitation.
Friday, May 24, 2013
One Poem, One man; the Task Before Us
OPERA, AND POETRY. What do they have in common? they have both been consigned to the scrapheap, as the two dying art forms of the twenty first century. And yet, somehow, in a world of reality TV and sound byte sensationalism, they yet survive, if only by fingernails at cliff's edge.
But remember the radio! Doomed to extinction by the invention of television, said the doom sayers. And remember the book on paper! Condemned to the dumpster,with the proliferation of computer reading, many argued, And that still may happen; books are just too darned expensive, there are just too darned many of them being written, and a library can only build so many annexes. Meanwhile, computers keep getting cheaper...and cheaper..and easier to use, and more portable. A formidable combination of attributes against which books made from trees must contend.
So surely somebody somewhere will always want to hear the perfect voices demanded of and supplied by opera. And surely the beautifully intense use of words inherent in good poetry will always draw an audience of some sort, assuming there will be people willing to read anything. The average american, is has been calculated, reads one book per lifetime beyond high school, and illiteracy stalks the world like some philistinic spectre...
If only everyone could but pick a favorite book, a favorite poem, a favorite libretto, a favorite opera, and cling to it like a smudge on a table of contents. Have you ever read just one poem that moved you so that you wanted to read it again and again, to the point of rote memorization? If you have not, you could, you know. for everyone, there is a poem, a perfect poem, begging to be read, again, and again. One man, one poem.
Consider the great novel "Fahrenheit 451, by ray bradbury. In a world where books are altogether banned, a secret society springs into being, in which every member is assigned the task of commiting to perfect memory one, just one book, to be chosen, if memory serves, by the memorizer.the function of the fire department in this nightmarish future society is not to extinguish unwanted fires, but rather, to seek out and burn books.
Let ushope that our real world never comes to something that appalling. But it almost has before, and could again. Our task is to see to it that it never does.
But remember the radio! Doomed to extinction by the invention of television, said the doom sayers. And remember the book on paper! Condemned to the dumpster,with the proliferation of computer reading, many argued, And that still may happen; books are just too darned expensive, there are just too darned many of them being written, and a library can only build so many annexes. Meanwhile, computers keep getting cheaper...and cheaper..and easier to use, and more portable. A formidable combination of attributes against which books made from trees must contend.
So surely somebody somewhere will always want to hear the perfect voices demanded of and supplied by opera. And surely the beautifully intense use of words inherent in good poetry will always draw an audience of some sort, assuming there will be people willing to read anything. The average american, is has been calculated, reads one book per lifetime beyond high school, and illiteracy stalks the world like some philistinic spectre...
If only everyone could but pick a favorite book, a favorite poem, a favorite libretto, a favorite opera, and cling to it like a smudge on a table of contents. Have you ever read just one poem that moved you so that you wanted to read it again and again, to the point of rote memorization? If you have not, you could, you know. for everyone, there is a poem, a perfect poem, begging to be read, again, and again. One man, one poem.
Consider the great novel "Fahrenheit 451, by ray bradbury. In a world where books are altogether banned, a secret society springs into being, in which every member is assigned the task of commiting to perfect memory one, just one book, to be chosen, if memory serves, by the memorizer.the function of the fire department in this nightmarish future society is not to extinguish unwanted fires, but rather, to seek out and burn books.
Let ushope that our real world never comes to something that appalling. But it almost has before, and could again. Our task is to see to it that it never does.
Art, Purpose, and Worth
WHILE VISITING the nelson art gallery in kansas city, a friend and i stood before a painting by picasso, which consisted on only a few careless looking abstract brush strokes on a rather small canvas. My friend said "I just don't understand. I coulda done that."
My reply was: "that's the point. You didn't do it, he did." what else could I say? But still, i understand what my friend meant. I also understand that the art world is a free market, and that anyone who wishes to jump in is perfectly welcome to do so, and that the world will soon enough let any artist know how it feels about any artist, or artwork.
the idea behind art for centuries was that the object of any painting was to render as great a likeness as possible to the "real world", almost in the manner of a photograph. Whether in portraits or landscapes or city scapes or whatever, the purpose was to render "reality", to make the art look just like the object being depicted.
then came the twentieth century, and the question arose: "what, preciesly is 'reality', and who's to say that it is the same for everyone?"...and from there, the question became "why must all art attempt to accurately reflect reality, to the exclusion of all other concepts and purposes?
the invention of the camera in 1840 led to the questions above being asked, since now photography gave the art of painting pictures a new, and unbeatable competitor. So, art turned in other directions, toward surrealism, impressionism, which are but subjective expressive distortions of reality, to symbolism, toward abstraction, with various styles, one of which, cubism, was picasso's attempt at tearing reality apart, and putting it back together subjectively.
And thus we have modern art, which often seems to consist of paint smeared haphazardly across a canvas. Abstract art, in short, attempts to represent nothing excecpt itself. Look at a painting by jackson pollock. He was actually influenced by thomas hart benton, which is a fact of art history seemingly incomprehensible, owing to their obviously vast differences in style. But I am sure pollock could have explained the exact nature of benton's influence.
the next time you're standing in a world class art museum, looking at some red or yellow stain on a canvas, it might be helpful to consider that all forms of art are, above all else, an attmept by the artist to give the world something new, different, and, so hopes the artist, worthwhile.
My reply was: "that's the point. You didn't do it, he did." what else could I say? But still, i understand what my friend meant. I also understand that the art world is a free market, and that anyone who wishes to jump in is perfectly welcome to do so, and that the world will soon enough let any artist know how it feels about any artist, or artwork.
the idea behind art for centuries was that the object of any painting was to render as great a likeness as possible to the "real world", almost in the manner of a photograph. Whether in portraits or landscapes or city scapes or whatever, the purpose was to render "reality", to make the art look just like the object being depicted.
then came the twentieth century, and the question arose: "what, preciesly is 'reality', and who's to say that it is the same for everyone?"...and from there, the question became "why must all art attempt to accurately reflect reality, to the exclusion of all other concepts and purposes?
the invention of the camera in 1840 led to the questions above being asked, since now photography gave the art of painting pictures a new, and unbeatable competitor. So, art turned in other directions, toward surrealism, impressionism, which are but subjective expressive distortions of reality, to symbolism, toward abstraction, with various styles, one of which, cubism, was picasso's attempt at tearing reality apart, and putting it back together subjectively.
And thus we have modern art, which often seems to consist of paint smeared haphazardly across a canvas. Abstract art, in short, attempts to represent nothing excecpt itself. Look at a painting by jackson pollock. He was actually influenced by thomas hart benton, which is a fact of art history seemingly incomprehensible, owing to their obviously vast differences in style. But I am sure pollock could have explained the exact nature of benton's influence.
the next time you're standing in a world class art museum, looking at some red or yellow stain on a canvas, it might be helpful to consider that all forms of art are, above all else, an attmept by the artist to give the world something new, different, and, so hopes the artist, worthwhile.
Our tiger, by the Tail
THOSE BARBARIC EUROPEANS! Always fighting among themselves. thank heavens we americans are separated from them by a vast pond, otherwise we might be dragged into their senseless wars.
That attitude was typical of a patriotic american before world war two. Its amazing how littlw we americans used to love war. Our army and navy used to be small in times of peace, and we used to brag about their smallness, and our love of peace. Believe it or not, it was standard, before world war two, for the united states to maintain a small army and navy. Now there are no times of peace; america is permanently at was, with somebody, somewhere, anywhere will do, our war of the month.
Then came 1950, and Harry Truman's decision to keep up the size of the military leftover from the war, and the National Security Act of 1950, and the national security state we have had ever since. Senator Vandenberg of michigan said to Truman "if you sant to spend all this money on the military, you'd better scare the hell out of the american people." And thus we did, and still do.
"The Russinas are coming! The Russians are coming!" went out the hue and cry, the alarm sounding from the hallowed corporate halls of washington, to the most remote regions of the fruited plain. Hint; the russians never were coming, never could come, and never thought to. IN 1945, with twenty million dead, all cities and factories badly damaged or destroyed, they had to stay where they were, in the vacuum of eastern europe, to rest and rebuild. That takes a while. They're still doing it today. Don't hold your breath, the russinas will never get here. We can come out from beneath our wooden school desks now.
Top military brass used to have little influence in the nation's capitol. Corporations which manufactured the weapons of war were often called "merchants of death". America was a peace loving nation, with a memory, and a conscience.
Now, the arms industry is one of the few which makes really big profits. they profit so greatly that they can afford to purchase political office for people who, when elected, keep their promises to scare the hell out of the american people, and to increase public expenditures for weaponry. These weapons are not yet paid for; we have decided to permit our grandchildren the honor.
The corporate controlled media feeds us fear and violence, to seduce and frighten us into accepting and embracing a permanent wartime economy and security state. Throw in enough sex to make sure the violence and weapons seem plenty sexy. that always works.
At heart, the american people are tired of the mighty global empire they have had handed to them, but they know what to do about it, other than to turn on television, and turn off all thoughts about the tiger thay have by the tail.
That attitude was typical of a patriotic american before world war two. Its amazing how littlw we americans used to love war. Our army and navy used to be small in times of peace, and we used to brag about their smallness, and our love of peace. Believe it or not, it was standard, before world war two, for the united states to maintain a small army and navy. Now there are no times of peace; america is permanently at was, with somebody, somewhere, anywhere will do, our war of the month.
Then came 1950, and Harry Truman's decision to keep up the size of the military leftover from the war, and the National Security Act of 1950, and the national security state we have had ever since. Senator Vandenberg of michigan said to Truman "if you sant to spend all this money on the military, you'd better scare the hell out of the american people." And thus we did, and still do.
"The Russinas are coming! The Russians are coming!" went out the hue and cry, the alarm sounding from the hallowed corporate halls of washington, to the most remote regions of the fruited plain. Hint; the russians never were coming, never could come, and never thought to. IN 1945, with twenty million dead, all cities and factories badly damaged or destroyed, they had to stay where they were, in the vacuum of eastern europe, to rest and rebuild. That takes a while. They're still doing it today. Don't hold your breath, the russinas will never get here. We can come out from beneath our wooden school desks now.
Top military brass used to have little influence in the nation's capitol. Corporations which manufactured the weapons of war were often called "merchants of death". America was a peace loving nation, with a memory, and a conscience.
Now, the arms industry is one of the few which makes really big profits. they profit so greatly that they can afford to purchase political office for people who, when elected, keep their promises to scare the hell out of the american people, and to increase public expenditures for weaponry. These weapons are not yet paid for; we have decided to permit our grandchildren the honor.
The corporate controlled media feeds us fear and violence, to seduce and frighten us into accepting and embracing a permanent wartime economy and security state. Throw in enough sex to make sure the violence and weapons seem plenty sexy. that always works.
At heart, the american people are tired of the mighty global empire they have had handed to them, but they know what to do about it, other than to turn on television, and turn off all thoughts about the tiger thay have by the tail.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Avoiding National Embarrassment
IN MANY CONSERVATIVE, southern, disunited states, state legislatures have passed laws greatly restricting abortion rights, and every one of these laws is clearly unconstitutional. The question is:"why"? Why pass the unpassable? Strangely enough, many, if not most of the conservative legislators who promulgated this lunacy know damned good and well that they are indeed unconstitutional, you have to hope so. they aint stupid, are they?
They acted out of sheer spite. Roe vs Wade allows abortions until fetal viability, which is defined as the end of the second trimester. Conservatives have always regarded roe v wade, perhaps properly so, the epitome of barbarity, and gleefully remind us over and over again, to vindicate their disgust, that since january 1973 fifty million american babies have been murdered.
Still unsatisfied, they have flouted the constitution, state by erring state. Arkansas, as southern conservative as they come, has outlawed abortions beyond the first trimester! A federal judge has alrady set this ludicrous law aside, essentially saying that since it will never pass constitutional muster, why bother?
All these new state anti-abortion laws will eventually work their way through the appellate courts, will be struck down, and at last one of them will be decided by the supreme court, thus deciding them all.
The current high court, though at least half conservative, will almost certainly uphold the appellate courts in strinking down these laws, because really it has no choice, so certian is their blatant unconstitutionality. the vote might even be something other than five four; surely at least one conservative justice will come to his or her senses, as they sometimes do, and must in this instance.
But again, you never know. it aint over, until...whenever...you never know when, where, and how inanely the murky vicissitudes of conservative thought will take this great nation of diverse ideals.
Another case in point: the U.S. house of representatives recently repealed obamacare, if you can believe it, which perhaps you cannot. the senseless, useless futility of this spiteful group temper tantrum is reflected in the fact that nobody noticed it, nobody cares, and the vote was only briefly mentioned in the media, not because of any liberal media bias, but because our discerning media mercifully wishes to avoid national embarrassment before the entire world. <whew>
But pouty, juvenile , vindictive behavior never entirely fades from the human psyche, even in advanced, alleged adulthood. I plan to use the following excuse: our country is young, and is still learning, as are our political leaders. That sometimes worked when I was in trouble as a child, and maybe it will this time. One can hope.
They acted out of sheer spite. Roe vs Wade allows abortions until fetal viability, which is defined as the end of the second trimester. Conservatives have always regarded roe v wade, perhaps properly so, the epitome of barbarity, and gleefully remind us over and over again, to vindicate their disgust, that since january 1973 fifty million american babies have been murdered.
Still unsatisfied, they have flouted the constitution, state by erring state. Arkansas, as southern conservative as they come, has outlawed abortions beyond the first trimester! A federal judge has alrady set this ludicrous law aside, essentially saying that since it will never pass constitutional muster, why bother?
All these new state anti-abortion laws will eventually work their way through the appellate courts, will be struck down, and at last one of them will be decided by the supreme court, thus deciding them all.
The current high court, though at least half conservative, will almost certainly uphold the appellate courts in strinking down these laws, because really it has no choice, so certian is their blatant unconstitutionality. the vote might even be something other than five four; surely at least one conservative justice will come to his or her senses, as they sometimes do, and must in this instance.
But again, you never know. it aint over, until...whenever...you never know when, where, and how inanely the murky vicissitudes of conservative thought will take this great nation of diverse ideals.
Another case in point: the U.S. house of representatives recently repealed obamacare, if you can believe it, which perhaps you cannot. the senseless, useless futility of this spiteful group temper tantrum is reflected in the fact that nobody noticed it, nobody cares, and the vote was only briefly mentioned in the media, not because of any liberal media bias, but because our discerning media mercifully wishes to avoid national embarrassment before the entire world. <whew>
But pouty, juvenile , vindictive behavior never entirely fades from the human psyche, even in advanced, alleged adulthood. I plan to use the following excuse: our country is young, and is still learning, as are our political leaders. That sometimes worked when I was in trouble as a child, and maybe it will this time. One can hope.
Playing the Spy Game, For Fun
IF PRESIDENT OBAMA ISN'T CAREFUL, he's gonna have the entire american corporate media complex after his national security obsessed self. Even the New York Times is up in arms, and if they want his hide, then any other newspaper or television network or radio station in the land of free speech could soon follow suit.
Its no secret that the united states government keeps all kindsa cute little secrets, with a great deal of incompetence; thus we all know about them: new weaponry, terrorist tracking, captured extraterrestrials and their spaceships, plans to infiltrate and disrupt domestic anti war organizations, and such like. Have we left anything out? Probaably, the entire gamut is difficult to run.
The problem is the incompetence part. Uncle Sam never met a secret he couldn't fabricate or spill; uncle sam likes to talk, uncle sam is as leaky as a sieve on a shallow sea shore. And this sieve-i-ness pisses off obama, majorly.
Liberal democrats are so cute when they try to behave like conservative republicans in order to prove that they are tough on crime, strong on fefense, and all macho and stuff. But, tapping phone lines of reporters and rummaging through the file cabinets of media executives might be just a tad over the line, dare we say, "nixonian?".
Obama, according to his sister, couldn't get mad at a copperhead in his P.J.'s, but he sure looks funny trying, and after all, what is politics but amusement and entertainment? His attempt at righteous outrage is as feigned and shallow as martha stewart at a drive thru taco bell, and the whole national securty mess is as deep in the mud as a heifer in a horse pond, to borrow a line from the inimitable davy crockett, the greatest of all politician-entertainers.
But its all good, as they say. Hint: any country with more military might than the next twelve countries combined hardly needs to keep secrets of any sort, but hey, we all seem to enjoy it, and, truth be told, it does keep a lotta potentially self harmful people off the streets, and gives the rest of us something to smile about over coffee and bagels, hidden in sunglasses behind the morning paper.
Its no secret that the united states government keeps all kindsa cute little secrets, with a great deal of incompetence; thus we all know about them: new weaponry, terrorist tracking, captured extraterrestrials and their spaceships, plans to infiltrate and disrupt domestic anti war organizations, and such like. Have we left anything out? Probaably, the entire gamut is difficult to run.
The problem is the incompetence part. Uncle Sam never met a secret he couldn't fabricate or spill; uncle sam likes to talk, uncle sam is as leaky as a sieve on a shallow sea shore. And this sieve-i-ness pisses off obama, majorly.
Liberal democrats are so cute when they try to behave like conservative republicans in order to prove that they are tough on crime, strong on fefense, and all macho and stuff. But, tapping phone lines of reporters and rummaging through the file cabinets of media executives might be just a tad over the line, dare we say, "nixonian?".
Obama, according to his sister, couldn't get mad at a copperhead in his P.J.'s, but he sure looks funny trying, and after all, what is politics but amusement and entertainment? His attempt at righteous outrage is as feigned and shallow as martha stewart at a drive thru taco bell, and the whole national securty mess is as deep in the mud as a heifer in a horse pond, to borrow a line from the inimitable davy crockett, the greatest of all politician-entertainers.
But its all good, as they say. Hint: any country with more military might than the next twelve countries combined hardly needs to keep secrets of any sort, but hey, we all seem to enjoy it, and, truth be told, it does keep a lotta potentially self harmful people off the streets, and gives the rest of us something to smile about over coffee and bagels, hidden in sunglasses behind the morning paper.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Recovering From the Cruelest Month
APRIL IS THE CRUELEST MONTH, asserted T.S. Eliot in his epic iconic poem "The Wasteland". I humbly nominate may, in the american midwest, the month of tornados. The good people of joplin, missouri "celebrate", if you can call it that, the second anniversary of tornadic cruelty today.
Those of us who survived barely survived, and should indeed celebrate, quietly. I was jogging in the monstrous tornados's soon to be path when the sky turned black and bumpy, and the sirens of despair sounded.
Never again will I ignore storm warning sirens; it almost cost me my life. In fact I payed great heed to them yesterday, when they announced another tornado's imminence to my tiny northwest arkansas town. In a tornado, a basement beats a jogging trail.
After the destruction of most of joplin, nearly a quarter million beautiful americans, including president obama, came to help. A great deal of rebirth can occur in a mere two years, and joplin is reinventing itself with amazing rapidity. I recall standing amid the ubiquitous rubble, convinced there could be no recovery, that my hometown would never rise again. but it has, and happily i eat my previous words of despair.
By now it should be obvious to everyone that the annual mid american tornadic onslaught is likely to resume every may unto the unknown future. Basketball star kevin durant contributed a million dollars to a ssist in recovery from our latest, but surely not our last, version of yet another climate change debate stopper, in oklahoma.
Billions more are needed, and trillions will be needed for future cruel days of may recoveries. An american aircraft carrier costs about a million dollars a day to operate. By reducing our armada from the current thirteen flat tops to, say, ten, we could save a cool billion a year for reinvestment in future tornado recovery. We'll need every penny of it.
A ten ship nuclear carrier armada would surely be sufficient to maintain america's vast emperial supremacy, and the savings generated by operating three fewer of the behemoths would help rebuild a few houses and schools in the bargain.
And, as a concession to our big military small government conservative colleagues, we could keep in service the magnificent warship commisioned most recently, and christened the "ronald reagan".
Those of us who survived barely survived, and should indeed celebrate, quietly. I was jogging in the monstrous tornados's soon to be path when the sky turned black and bumpy, and the sirens of despair sounded.
Never again will I ignore storm warning sirens; it almost cost me my life. In fact I payed great heed to them yesterday, when they announced another tornado's imminence to my tiny northwest arkansas town. In a tornado, a basement beats a jogging trail.
After the destruction of most of joplin, nearly a quarter million beautiful americans, including president obama, came to help. A great deal of rebirth can occur in a mere two years, and joplin is reinventing itself with amazing rapidity. I recall standing amid the ubiquitous rubble, convinced there could be no recovery, that my hometown would never rise again. but it has, and happily i eat my previous words of despair.
By now it should be obvious to everyone that the annual mid american tornadic onslaught is likely to resume every may unto the unknown future. Basketball star kevin durant contributed a million dollars to a ssist in recovery from our latest, but surely not our last, version of yet another climate change debate stopper, in oklahoma.
Billions more are needed, and trillions will be needed for future cruel days of may recoveries. An american aircraft carrier costs about a million dollars a day to operate. By reducing our armada from the current thirteen flat tops to, say, ten, we could save a cool billion a year for reinvestment in future tornado recovery. We'll need every penny of it.
A ten ship nuclear carrier armada would surely be sufficient to maintain america's vast emperial supremacy, and the savings generated by operating three fewer of the behemoths would help rebuild a few houses and schools in the bargain.
And, as a concession to our big military small government conservative colleagues, we could keep in service the magnificent warship commisioned most recently, and christened the "ronald reagan".
Playing the Game
THERE IS A GRAND new tradition in the stellar realm of american celebrity-dom, and why should you, of all people, have to wait until the next episode of "america's most clever celebrity comments", or "smarting off with the stars" to get the grime?
The usual pattern goes something like this: rich, beautiful and famous celebrity "A" makes crass and inappropiate comment about rich, beautiful and famous celebrity "B", gets caught, the tabloid press (is there any other kind in the U.S. of Advertising?) makes much ado of it, celebrity "A" apologizes melodramatically, gushingly, and everybody goes home even more famous and happy. Its a formula that seems to work for us all, especially in the profit columns of corporate paparazzi nation.
Among the more attractive targets is the ubiquitously soap operatic Tiger Woods, the undisputed prince of melodramatic personal interatcion. And why not? He's black, beautiful, rich, famous, prone to displays of emotion, and, the piece de resistance, he's a pretty fair week end golfer to boot.
It was in 1997 that good ole white boy "Fuzzy" Zoeller made an unsavory comment about, yo, Tiger's dietary habits, suggesting, that after Tiger won his first masters at that lily white citadel of southernly gentitlity, THE masters of augusta, he might wish to choose, oh, what, something like possum stew and collard greens, or whatever "they" eat, for the following year's traditional victors dinner, a traditional prerogative of the prior year's winner.
And yes, the cute scenario played completely, precisely on script, with the requisite mea culpa.
And here are are, and mere sixtten years later, but blink of the eye in the world of traditionally stately gentlemanly golf, and enter sergio garcia, and, again, but of course, el tigre.
The hispanic gentleman and the african american "brotagonist" (implicit racism a priori) do not get on swimmingly, so the stage is set, and the script is prepared. This time the menu is "fried chicken", and the apology sufficiently dramatic, if a tad understated. How we americans gobble up the repeats and leftovers in our intellectually deprived but star studded celebrity saturated "culture", to use the term generously.
And that'll have to do for today's bill of fare, folks. Hope everyone is satisfied, but not to worry; another offering will surely appear on tomorrow's menu of spicy media entrees; this is america, and we wouldn't think of missing the titillating daily special.
The usual pattern goes something like this: rich, beautiful and famous celebrity "A" makes crass and inappropiate comment about rich, beautiful and famous celebrity "B", gets caught, the tabloid press (is there any other kind in the U.S. of Advertising?) makes much ado of it, celebrity "A" apologizes melodramatically, gushingly, and everybody goes home even more famous and happy. Its a formula that seems to work for us all, especially in the profit columns of corporate paparazzi nation.
Among the more attractive targets is the ubiquitously soap operatic Tiger Woods, the undisputed prince of melodramatic personal interatcion. And why not? He's black, beautiful, rich, famous, prone to displays of emotion, and, the piece de resistance, he's a pretty fair week end golfer to boot.
It was in 1997 that good ole white boy "Fuzzy" Zoeller made an unsavory comment about, yo, Tiger's dietary habits, suggesting, that after Tiger won his first masters at that lily white citadel of southernly gentitlity, THE masters of augusta, he might wish to choose, oh, what, something like possum stew and collard greens, or whatever "they" eat, for the following year's traditional victors dinner, a traditional prerogative of the prior year's winner.
And yes, the cute scenario played completely, precisely on script, with the requisite mea culpa.
And here are are, and mere sixtten years later, but blink of the eye in the world of traditionally stately gentlemanly golf, and enter sergio garcia, and, again, but of course, el tigre.
The hispanic gentleman and the african american "brotagonist" (implicit racism a priori) do not get on swimmingly, so the stage is set, and the script is prepared. This time the menu is "fried chicken", and the apology sufficiently dramatic, if a tad understated. How we americans gobble up the repeats and leftovers in our intellectually deprived but star studded celebrity saturated "culture", to use the term generously.
And that'll have to do for today's bill of fare, folks. Hope everyone is satisfied, but not to worry; another offering will surely appear on tomorrow's menu of spicy media entrees; this is america, and we wouldn't think of missing the titillating daily special.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Freedom From Corporate Responsibility
THE UNITED STATES SENATE is taking a look at the Apple computer company, and is having the audacity to suggest that possibly the giant high tech inc. is playing games with its money in order to avoid paying federal taxes. How shocking. How surprising. How dare the united states government do anything other with an upright righteous american corporation than turn a blind eye to all its endeavors, especially those having to do with finances.
Are not american corporations veritable paragons of virtue, who, as legal individuals, not only pay their fair share of taxes, but do so gladly, willingly, with only the best interests of the american people in mind, even to the detriment of profits and executive incomes? Perish the very thought that any mega corp would ever attempt to short change the rest of us in any way whatsoever.
First the american government, a vile wing thereof, has the indecency of paying close attention to that stalwart of righteous virtue, the self proclaimed charitable public service oriented Taxed Enough Already gang - and now this. One can already hear the wailings and gnashings of conservative capitalists all across the land of the free to get rich by any and all means.
apple's CEO, obviously deeply hurt by this malicious insinuation, delcared with no uncertainty that his business, with a one hundred and forty five billion dollar stash of cash on hand, not only employs a great number of american citizens, but indeed does pay its fair share. As if he would or could ever say anything else.
Pretty clever, mister CEO. Nobody is suggesting that your firm does not pay its fair share, but rather, that by keeping profits overseas, particularly in Ireland, you are greatly decreasing, by this clever gimmick, the amount which constitutes what that fair share actually totals, after all the money juggling changes the fair share taxable total by lowering it, substantially.
By keeping the money in the air, over the atlantic ocean, the money is nowhere, and is thus legally taxable nowhere, either in europe or the united states. Doesn't the CEO's cleverly evasive, technically true simplisitic response that "we pay our fair share" thus constitute de facto dishonesty, and therefore, contempt of congress?
In a country which worships at the sacred alter of wealth, idolizes the wealthy, and hates the poor, we can expect to see nobody going to jail for contempt, but we can expect to see the billionaire owners of apple continue to fly high above the rest of us, out over the atlantic, back and forth, money safely stashed away in personal pockets, free from all social responsibility to america, or anyone else, save themselves.
Are not american corporations veritable paragons of virtue, who, as legal individuals, not only pay their fair share of taxes, but do so gladly, willingly, with only the best interests of the american people in mind, even to the detriment of profits and executive incomes? Perish the very thought that any mega corp would ever attempt to short change the rest of us in any way whatsoever.
First the american government, a vile wing thereof, has the indecency of paying close attention to that stalwart of righteous virtue, the self proclaimed charitable public service oriented Taxed Enough Already gang - and now this. One can already hear the wailings and gnashings of conservative capitalists all across the land of the free to get rich by any and all means.
apple's CEO, obviously deeply hurt by this malicious insinuation, delcared with no uncertainty that his business, with a one hundred and forty five billion dollar stash of cash on hand, not only employs a great number of american citizens, but indeed does pay its fair share. As if he would or could ever say anything else.
Pretty clever, mister CEO. Nobody is suggesting that your firm does not pay its fair share, but rather, that by keeping profits overseas, particularly in Ireland, you are greatly decreasing, by this clever gimmick, the amount which constitutes what that fair share actually totals, after all the money juggling changes the fair share taxable total by lowering it, substantially.
By keeping the money in the air, over the atlantic ocean, the money is nowhere, and is thus legally taxable nowhere, either in europe or the united states. Doesn't the CEO's cleverly evasive, technically true simplisitic response that "we pay our fair share" thus constitute de facto dishonesty, and therefore, contempt of congress?
In a country which worships at the sacred alter of wealth, idolizes the wealthy, and hates the poor, we can expect to see nobody going to jail for contempt, but we can expect to see the billionaire owners of apple continue to fly high above the rest of us, out over the atlantic, back and forth, money safely stashed away in personal pockets, free from all social responsibility to america, or anyone else, save themselves.
Control, and Freedom
FROM THE DAY I WAS BORN, i, like everyone else, was entirely under the control of other people. And perhaps for all of us life is partly a process by which we gain, incrementally, a certain, yet limited degree of self determination.
First come the parents, of course, and if we are lucky we have good ones. Then comes school, followed by employment, all under the direct supervision of some form of government, which, if we are lucky, again is a good one. "good" in the sense of inflicting minimum harm and providing at least some modicum of positive benefit for the governed.
That might explain a lot of things in my life, a lot of my decisions, and the same may be true of others, depending on personality type, resistance to or acceptance of external control, the extent to which any individual functions harmoniously with others.
Although I became a very good tennis player, and greatly enjoyed the game, I never enjoyed playing in tournaments, even though when I did, I often fared quite well, even winning a few. For me it was always more fun choosing my opponents and partners, choosing my own tennis dates, times, and places.
And with so few opportunities for true freedom in this world, when given the choice, I always chose the greatest amount of freedom.
Marriage has always been out of the question for me, though I greatly respect the institution, and indeed I consider it a primary foundation of civilization. With no desire to either control or be controlled, even compromose, which is a combination of the two, seems undesirable.
that's why blogging is made for me, is for me, heaven. No editors. No boss. No money, true, but, well, if one likes to write, shouldn't one enjoy it for its own sake, rather than for the sake of money, fame, or status? We all know the answer to that.
Unless we commit suicide, we don't even get to choose the manner or time of our death. Maybe that's partly why some people commit suicide: one last experience of complete freedom. It is the exception which proves the rule, as they say. I can live without the final freedom.
First come the parents, of course, and if we are lucky we have good ones. Then comes school, followed by employment, all under the direct supervision of some form of government, which, if we are lucky, again is a good one. "good" in the sense of inflicting minimum harm and providing at least some modicum of positive benefit for the governed.
That might explain a lot of things in my life, a lot of my decisions, and the same may be true of others, depending on personality type, resistance to or acceptance of external control, the extent to which any individual functions harmoniously with others.
Although I became a very good tennis player, and greatly enjoyed the game, I never enjoyed playing in tournaments, even though when I did, I often fared quite well, even winning a few. For me it was always more fun choosing my opponents and partners, choosing my own tennis dates, times, and places.
And with so few opportunities for true freedom in this world, when given the choice, I always chose the greatest amount of freedom.
Marriage has always been out of the question for me, though I greatly respect the institution, and indeed I consider it a primary foundation of civilization. With no desire to either control or be controlled, even compromose, which is a combination of the two, seems undesirable.
that's why blogging is made for me, is for me, heaven. No editors. No boss. No money, true, but, well, if one likes to write, shouldn't one enjoy it for its own sake, rather than for the sake of money, fame, or status? We all know the answer to that.
Unless we commit suicide, we don't even get to choose the manner or time of our death. Maybe that's partly why some people commit suicide: one last experience of complete freedom. It is the exception which proves the rule, as they say. I can live without the final freedom.
Uncluttered Openness
SITTING IN MY HIGH CHAIR, staring out the kitchen window, chowing down on my daily gerber. A refreshing pop up summer thunderstorm is in progress, sacrament of heat and humidity. Mom, puttering around, notices that my eyes are bigger than saucers, as I gaze transfixed in utter disbelief.
"What's wrong with that kid?" she says to dad, who is immersed in the morning newpaper and coffee. Mom, more nurturer than behavorial analyst. Dad, the analytical lawyer, replies sleepily: "he's never seen it rain before, dear."
And, fifty eight years later, I can still only avert my eyes from rain with some degree of difficulty. I miss those mid summer fifteen minute showers we had routinely in the nineteen fifties and sixties; global warming has its advantages, like short sleeves in december, but I would rather float stick boats in gutter races than watch my lawn turn crispy brown every summer.
We all selected and shaped our twigs, then let 'em rip. The races sometimes lasted for two or three blocks. By that time, somebody had usually pulled away, the sun was back out, and the sandlot had dried enough to resume whiffle ball.
Forty years later my beautiful black and silver german shepherd experienced the same joy, during a jog in the woods. He stopped, transfixed, and I followed his gaze across the valley to three unwitting deer.
Wolfgang glanced at me quickly, and said "you've been holding out on me. I had no idea there was anything this cool out and about." And he streaked off in hot pursuit, which no command from me could have prevented; he was out of his head with excitement. Fast as he was, the deer were twice as fast, gone in a flash, hopping without concern over a chain link fence and bidding farewell.
I hope I live long enough to experience something like that again, either directly, or vicariously, it doesn't matter. The overwhelming joy of the uniquely mundane. Just once more I want to be a saucer eyed infant, and I want to see a beautiful fellow being experience some moment of epiphamy.
Maybe its merely a matter of waking up daily with a certain attitude of uncluttered openness.
"What's wrong with that kid?" she says to dad, who is immersed in the morning newpaper and coffee. Mom, more nurturer than behavorial analyst. Dad, the analytical lawyer, replies sleepily: "he's never seen it rain before, dear."
And, fifty eight years later, I can still only avert my eyes from rain with some degree of difficulty. I miss those mid summer fifteen minute showers we had routinely in the nineteen fifties and sixties; global warming has its advantages, like short sleeves in december, but I would rather float stick boats in gutter races than watch my lawn turn crispy brown every summer.
We all selected and shaped our twigs, then let 'em rip. The races sometimes lasted for two or three blocks. By that time, somebody had usually pulled away, the sun was back out, and the sandlot had dried enough to resume whiffle ball.
Forty years later my beautiful black and silver german shepherd experienced the same joy, during a jog in the woods. He stopped, transfixed, and I followed his gaze across the valley to three unwitting deer.
Wolfgang glanced at me quickly, and said "you've been holding out on me. I had no idea there was anything this cool out and about." And he streaked off in hot pursuit, which no command from me could have prevented; he was out of his head with excitement. Fast as he was, the deer were twice as fast, gone in a flash, hopping without concern over a chain link fence and bidding farewell.
I hope I live long enough to experience something like that again, either directly, or vicariously, it doesn't matter. The overwhelming joy of the uniquely mundane. Just once more I want to be a saucer eyed infant, and I want to see a beautiful fellow being experience some moment of epiphamy.
Maybe its merely a matter of waking up daily with a certain attitude of uncluttered openness.
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