Gentrification and the Coming Class War

IN A HISPANIC NEIGHBORHOOD in San Francisco, kids play soccer on a field where their fathers and grandfathers played. Recently, however, due to business growth, property values in this section of town have skyrocketed, and the suits and ties are starting to move in. As the Song says "Scary guys in suits and ties, romanticize free enterprise, and everything that money buys..surprise..surprise.) Suddenly the soccer field is more popular, and young high tech corporate types on the fast track are starting to show up, demanding use of the field, causing conflict, even, at one point, an all out gang fight. At last report, an agreement has been reached, a detente of sorts. Let's hope it holds; our cities have suffered enough in America. In New York city venerable old Steinway Hall is being torn down and replaced by high end condos for the very very wealthy. In teh quaint old college town of Fayetteville, Arkansas, the rustic, cheap bar college town flavor has been replaced by elite, exclusive shops and restaurants; only the college student sons and daughters of the wealthy can afford to spend much time there. It always seems, at least recently, to be a mad rush of contracts and construction replacing low cost housing and entertainment with upper crust blue blooded culture for the wealthy. the wealthy class and the poor class are growing in America; everything in between is vaporizing before our very eyes and backhoes. People who point out these things run the risk of being accused of "class warfare", as if describing the situation is the same as creating it. There is no country in the world, nor has there ever been, in which the interests of the wealthy and the poor are the same. The greater the inequality, the greater the political gap. Eventually, compromise is no longer possible, and violence resolves all questions. In America, we are now near that.

The Gift Rejecting Post Christmas Regifting Blues

THERE HOUSE BURNED DOWN, with everything in it, including their exercise machines. I thought I was being a hero, giving them a "Total Gym" fitness machien for Christmas. I wan't using it much anyway, and they had expressed sadness that theirs had burned up. It was a hassle loading it into my car, driving it over to their temporary home, a storage shed, right next to the pile of rubble that used to be their lovely home. but doing it made me feel good. Isn't that the right reason to give somebody something? Or, is it....a few days later they called and explained that they really couldn't accept teh "loan" of teh Total Gym, becaue tehy didn't have room for it, and anyway, they weren't inclinede to use it just not; they had other things on their minds, like what to do, where ti love, how to rebuild. Simple stuff like that. They went to the trouble of loading the bulky thing up, driving it back over to my house, and unloading it. After it was all over, I felt terrible, worse than ever - for myself. Poor poor me, my grand gift rejected, outright! Well, there goes my good feeling, replaced suddenly by a feeling of empty hollowness. My grand gift had never been anything but a burden for people with far more fundamental, pressing concerns. But maybe a teachable moment for me! A reminder to always look at other people's situation form their point of view, under all circumstances, including gift giving. Maybe we could all shorten the "regifting" lines a bit. Through it all, may our hearts remain ever open and our generous impulses intact!

Marijuana in America: Doing What Is Stupidest

POPULAR COLORADO HAS a shiny new toy, legalized marijuana, and the nearby neighbors Oklahoma and Nebraska, and probably Kansas too, are pitching a jealous fit. All that new money and fun, high in the Rockies. Folks passing as quickly as possible through the relative blandness of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, getting to the party in the Rockies. And guess who's jealous? The three cry baby states claim they have the burden of all that illegal pot passing through their pure and righteous states, the cost of law enforcement, prosecution, and so forth. Their plan is to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging that Colorado's legal marijuana law is unconstitutional, since it is in direct contradiction to federal law, which supercedes all state laws. And, on the surface, if you think about it, it seems like they are right. But word is that the Supreme Court isn't interested in hearing the case, and you can hardly blame them. It could become quite the sticky legal mess, if it hasn't already. And of course, the U.S. supreme court does not have to hear any case it does not want to. It might be better just to sit this one out, because whatever it would decide, no matter what it decides, would upset the applecart much more severely than it already is; perhaps its better to just let the states and their people work it out, and trust that they will. The best way, of course, would be for the federal government, and every state in the union, to legalize marijuana. In Colorado and Washington state, the laws seems to be working very well. And why shouldn't it, anywhere else? However, never underestimate the ability of the American government to do whatever is most stupid. We've all been through that enough times; we oughta know.

Garth Brooks; Doing It Right

ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE, someone comes along and does something so totally cool, so entirely self sacrificial in service to others, that your only option is admiration. Goethe said "confronted with great merit, the only resistance is love."Ffor those of us who love the sensitive, melodic music of Garth Brooks, its time to abandon all resistance, and so just feel the love. Time to resist the temptation to lament the loss of all the great albums and concerts that Garth could have recorded during the past ten years, when he was instead staying home, raising his family, missing out on millions of American dollars. Garth says staying home with the kids was the best choice he ever made, that doing so purged him of any guilt he might have otherwise felt, but that doing so was among the hardest decisions of his life. But now, he says, he is ready to come back to his art, strong, ready, as he says, to eat mashed potatoes with both hands. (We may assume that he has silverware at hand). A tough decision indeed, trading the glittery limelight for the not so glittery world of diapers and nightlights. It almost seems as if Garth could have had his cake and eaten it too: say, a large recreational vehicle, homeschooling, wife and kids on the road with him. But no, that would have meant a compromise in quality, a forfeiting of the backyard and the precious lifelong friendships kids form in public schools. Above all else, Garth wanted quality of life for his entire family, and he got it. For that , he is a hero. And who knows? Maybe, every now and then, at the breakfast table, or during bedtime story hour, a tune or two came to mind, and a few melodic passages. And just maybe the rest of us will soon savor the new fruit born of ten years of family time, as Garth gears up to hit the recording studio and the open road once again.

Laughing at Sony, North Korea, and Obama

PRESIDENT OBAMA officially acknowledged that North korea is responsible for the recent "cyber attacks" against the Sony corporation, even though sony is a Japenese company (with an American CEO), and even though the word "cyber" is stupid and meaningless, and even though the Sony corporation has already surrendered to North Korea. Obama said he wishes the cheap electronic entertainment dealer had consulted with him first, before turning yellow ( if wishes were horses, etc.), but that, by heavens, he, big bad O, fully intends to do something about it. Precisely what, the President did not say. Options include a full scale Desert Storm" style military invasion of North Korea, or the mere rattling of State Department sabers, the shaking of the fist of the incoming secretary of Defense, or, the most drastic, the flooding of North Korean mailboxes with American print media advertising. The fact that none of these options has any chance of success doubtless will NOT prevent their implementation, as is customary with American foreign policy solutions. North Korea is hardly justified being angry with Sony. Sony is guilty of nothing except maliciously ridiculing the North Korean head of state, who is rather, shall we say, "weird", and fantasizing about said head of stated being murdered, humorously. North Korea might benefit from acquiring a sense of humor: doing so would enable them to take their minds off themselves, at least fleetingly. Ironically, the North Korean dictator is known to be an avid fan of American movies, and is a friend of former basketball star Dennis Rodman, he of the multicolored hair. Any friend of rodman's is a potential savorer of comedy. Couldn't we all just have a good laugh, and move on?

Waiting For Conservatives to Wise Up

COMPELLED BY AN URGENT necessity to induce vomitig due to the inadvertant ingestion of a toxic substance, I turned for surcease of suffering to the ultimate elixer of purgatives, conservative talk radio. It worked like a charm, the poison came back up, and I lived. Which pompous nitwit it was in particular who saved me I neither recall nor care; but whoever it was, the big mouth saved my life, sure enough, merely by spewing the usual brand of hate filled ultra right wing lunacy. And for that I should be grateful. As they say, there is no trash, there is only misplaced garbage. But I do recall the topic of the lunacy. The topic was the extermination of native American civilization by the hordes of land grabbing, gold seeking Europeans who began their conquest in 1492, and never let up. Predictably, the pompous nitwit was all down with the process. The Indians were always fighting among themselves, taking each other's land and squaws away... genocide is normal human behavior... they weren't using the land properly anyway... the United States of America was worth the trade off, and is a much superior culture. You know the line. Same old piously patriotic crap. Needless to say, none of that is true. Of course, nothing on right wing radio is, with but rare exceptions. Sure, the Indians fought, but not genocidally, not with a systematic plan of cultural extinction, and, day in day out, for the most part, they lived in relative harmony, being far more civilized than the European Christian egomaniacs who displaced and replaced them. As right wing bloviator Bill O'Reilly says, yoyu can't justify a wrong by pointing to other wrongs. Hey! A true statement from a conservative talking head! Will wonders never cease! Next thing yoyu know, some right wing idiot will actually suggest that global warming is a bit more than a multi million member liberal hoax, or that the Africans who were dragged to America in chains may have been mistreated from time to time, or that the native Americans wore clothing, had families, and did more than run around in the wilderness acting like wild animals. But don't hold your breath.

Singing To Yourself

IF YOU'RE YOUNG, BLONDE, BEAUTIFUL, female, and facially unblemished, place a microphone within millimeters of your mouth and sing loudly, with an expression of anger on your face. Your chances of achieving celebrity are strong. Self marketing media mogul Taylor Swift is the latest, and most successful manifestation of america's singer-celebrity obsession. She helps herself even more by writing some seductive, sensuous songs. The dirty little secret is, you don't have to rely on Swift, nor anyone else, for your daily recreational requirements. You can do it yourself, in the comfort of your own humble home. Simply stand and deliver! Bellow forth, heedless of utterly irrelevant quality control considerations. Anyone else in the house trigeers the "assumption of risk" doctrine. The point is, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars, and you don't have to further enrich the already rich, and further flatter the vanity of the already overly flatterd vain ones, just to hear a few good songs. You can do it yourself! In America's rural rustic past, families kept themselves amused at the piano with group and singular song singing. Taylor Swift is a brilliant, hard working self promoter and marketer, and more power to her. She is quite right when she says you need an incentive to buy her music. The fact that she, and others like her, spare no effort trying to persuade a gullible public that such incentives exist is much to her entrepeneurial credit. But don't buy it. Consider leaving Taylor Swift on the shelf. There is a do it yourself recording studio deep in your own throat, and its free for the price of admission. Its free for a song.

Crossing the Line With Cuba

AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH CUBA, according to John boehner the bombastic one, should not be normalized until Cubans enjoy "complete freedom". By "complete", the soon to be screamer of the House presumably means either anarchy, or unfettered access to Cuban markets by american corporations. A reasonable blend of cooperative economics and broad based participatory democracy seems difficult for conservatives such as his Bombasticity to grasp. In its sordid history of supporting brutal dictatorships, democracy has never been American priority. Quite the opposite, in fact. Our corporate American government much prefers capitalist autocracy, such as those installed in the many American puppet-client states sprinkled around the world. The more authoritarian the dictator, the better, as long as American corporate capitalism is welcome. Under Batista, Cuba was a haven for American investment, and thus was a "friend of America". Under socialist Castro, who wanted Yankee imperialists out, no dice. No friend, no trade from Norde Americano. Expulsion of American wealth alway trumps human suffering. Politicians never miss an opportunity for a bit of pious posturing, but Boehner's high toned assertaion that the United States of America should suddenly require "democracy" or "freedom" (aka U.S. capital) as a prerequisite for American "friendship" (aka exploitation) crosses the mightly thin line narrowly separating the hilarious from the downright hypocritical.

Doing It the Abraham Lincoln Way

"LABOR IS PRIOR TO CAPITAL, which is only the fruit of labor, and would never have existed, had not labor existed first. Labor is superior to capital, and should always be given the higher consideration", said Abraham Lincoln, who was a rebublican. Oh, that today's republicans were more like Lincoln! Invest the money, establish management team, hire the labor, minimum costs, maximum profit, sell shares, maximum dividends for shareholders, maximum pay for upper level management, our modern corporate business plan. Bad plan, according to old Abe, who hated being called "Abe", and preferred being called "Lincoln". And he preferred workers to corporate profit. Labor-ownership, small scale production and sales, reinvestment, management, shareholders. The Lincoln approach. All business starts small, and the real work begins with worker production. Let the fruit of labor begin with labor, and let it trickle upward, all the way to management and shareholders. Managers and shareholders can wait. And besides, managers and shareholders don't work quite as hard as workers, as Abraham Lincoln knew well.

Creating Moral Clarity

YOU'RE A GOOD, GOD FEARING heterosexual, frequently randy, always up for a good romp with your churchfully wedded spouse, at least, most of the time. Cut from the cleanest Christian cloth, you just know that homosexuality, that unspeakably off-limits-to-the-righteous lifestyle, is a sin of hellish proportions. The sodomites, you are certain, shall surely get theirs in the hereafter. But there's just one nagging, annoying problem. Sometimes, your minister mentions Jesus christ, and his hard to adhere to doctrine of universal love and unconditional forgiveness. Then too, vague memories of those damned do gooder political correctors and their vaguely similar (to Christ's) message keeps seeping in. A touch of moral incongruity, perhaps? So, you find a solution, a very convenient, clever one, so you think. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Perfect! Case closed, all traces of moral hypocrisy vanquished. Back to church, back to bed. But can we, with intellectual integrity, so easily separate out the sin from the sinner? Just how deeply imbedded within you is your own spousal love and lust? Deeply, perhaps? How deeply embedded is anyone else's, straight or gay? As deeply as your own, likely. Don't look now, but here comes the advance guard of that qwful moral incongruity you thought you had forever vanquished.

Looking In the Mirror

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney said "some people think there is a moral equivalence between what we (the American government) do, and what the terrorists do, which is simply not true". Quite right, Mr. former V.P.. There is no moral equivalence. What the United states government is doing, and has done for a long time, is far more immoral. The U.S. government (not the American people) has murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of innocent civilians during its history. Forget about the genocide of the natives. In 1898 the boiler room of an American warship exploded in Havana harbor, sinking the ship. The U.S. govt blamed the Spanish, declared war, conquered cuba, conquered the Phillipines, and murdered 800,000 Phillipinos. Can we say "Viet Nam napalm"? Then too, more recently, there are the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.The preceding list is only partial, and may never be complete. The terrorists hate the American government because the American military occupies what the terrorists consider Holy lands, and this inspires people to become terrorists. And to think, people like Cheney, people like Reagan, Rumsfeld, Bush, and Bush have the unmitigated audacity to call other countries names like "the evil empire", and the "axis of evil". Boys, how about a quick look in the mirror? If you like what you see, look again.

Naming

I RECKON A MAN'S GOT A RIGHT to name himself, Davy Crockett could've said. "A man goes far to find out what he is", Theodore Roethke actually wrote. Jesus of Nazerath was named "Joshua son of Joseph" by his father. Ask any Christian historian. We can assume Jesus respectd his father, and his father's name. HIS name was translated from Aramaic to Greek to latin to German to English, with stops in between. Beijing, we used to call "Peking", until we finally decided to get it right. "I-vun" is now "E-Von'". Bach is now "Bah". "E-vuh" is now "A-vuh". But Joshua ben Joseph is still "Jesus", a Latin distortion of the Roman Empire written in stone by a religion which refuses to acknowledge and correct any and all error. "Only by errors which really irk us do we advance" said Johann Wolfgang von goethe. Let the self correction begin!

Eating Pizza and Protesting at Harvard, and Elsewhere

HARVARD IS THE WORLD'S wealthiest university, but at the beginning of the third millennium, (which was 2001, not 2000 as widely believed), janitors and cooks on campus were being paid minimum wage. You can't live on minimum wage in Boston. You crowd into small apartments or trailers, live in your car, or go homeless on minimum wage. Harvard, like nearly all American universities, is a bastion of intellectual, do gooder liberals. In 2001 a group of do gooder student activists presented a petition to the Harvard powers that be, asking for a living wage for workers. The petition was ignored. Out came the people, placards, and pickets. Another rebuff from the elite, above on high. Not to be denied (never let it be said that Harvardians are quitters), the teeming mob entered the University President's office, and stayed, with friends passing pizza through the window. Soon the hallowed halls and manicured lawns were inundated with swarming complainers, chanting, singing, snacking. UP showed Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Harvard alums. Up showed the news media. Game on, fun just beginning. The scene become an embarrassment for the ruling aristocracy and its billionaire benefactors, who finally caved. The older I get, the more convinced I become that something similar must transpire across the fruited plain, in order to save the country, if America is to survive the crushing burden of pervasive racial and economic inequality which will, if not addressed, result in far worse consequences ( worse than protesting); it will result in societal collapse. In 1932 thirty thousand World War One veterans, American heroes, walked into Washington D.C. and occupied Wall St., aka Pennsylvania avenue, hungry depression plagued heroes demanding payment for their service to country. President Hoover called them "communists" and "traitors", and did nothing, in typical conservative fashion. Officers Patton, MacArthur, and Eisenhower shot at them like dogs and drove them out of town, and Franklin Roosevelt said to Mrs. Roosevelt "I will be the next President, whether I bother to campaign or not". So, it can happen, and very nearly has. In the election of 1932 FDR did indeed landslide over Hoover, while one million Americans voted for communist and socialist candidates. Typically thoughtless conservatives think, or pretend to think, that those who describe social injustice are the cause of it, or are imagining it. This attitude is either denial, or downright evil. We need to conserve little of the current system, and we need to liberate most of it, by whatever means necessary. And if we do not, to Quote Bertolt Brecht: "there shall remain of our cities but the wind that blew through them". To quote the French Revolution: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

Celebrating Everything, All the Time

"BLACK HISTORY MONTH" is February, and don't look now, but, that isn't very far away. Like Einstein said: "I don't think much about the future. It comes soon enough". Soon enough indeed. But what's the point? When tracing "black" history, one simply cannot swing a dead cat without hitting "white" history head on. At least you can't in America, and neither can you, tragically, in Africa. Alas, the scourge of white-imposed European colonialism, slavery, and bigotry. History can be reasonably divided into categories geographically and chronologically, albeit a bit arbitrarily, but dividing history by race or gender, particularly considering the widely distributed and interactive nature of races and genders, creates categorical difficulties, and is dubious at best. Men, women, blacks, whites, so intermingle that to separate them in time, space and history is, at best, like taking salt out of saltwater; at worst, like removing Merry from Christmas. Affirmative action was intended to be a solution to a societal problem of long standing persistence, the shoving of racial equality down the throats of the American people, and it has had a positive impact, whatever one's attitude towards it. Sometimes one must be force fed for one's own good, medicinally. Black history month, granted, is also intended as a solution, an enhancement of cultural appreciation. But affirmative action and racial quotas are tangible solutions, and black history month is an abstraction, and runs the risk of distorting historical understanding. May we forever celebrate all twelve months, and may we forever study history and learn from it, as a whole, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender.

Torturing, Doing Our Jobs

The Director of the CIA solemnly swears that "Enhanced Interrogation techniques" (EIT) are successful in rendering a bountiful supply of information vital to the apprehension of terrorists and the foiling of terrorist plots. this, in the spite of the fact the people who have been tortured, and people who have tortured others, disagree. "Enhance Interrogation Techniques" is a very clever substitute term used by people like former President Bush and the CIA Director who lack the courage and integrity to call a spade a spade to call it what it is: torture. Can any of these people say "sodium pentathol"? " How about "truth serum"? The congressional study recently released which belies the CIA's claim of effective torture was conducted mainly by Democrats, with Republican John McCain, because the other Republicans took their ball and went home, doubtless crying and teeth gnashing. The CIA claims that they thwarted a terrorist attack by torturing an individual terrorist informant. But there is a problem with this claim, an inconsistency. the alleged terrorist plot was foiled in 2002; the terrorist informant who allegedly spilled the beans was tortured in 2003. The CIA contends not only that torture works, but that those who disagree must prove otherwise, and that even a single instance of proven successful torture, or that if even a single instance of alleged unsuccessful torture remains unproven, then all disagreement with the CIA is invalid. Very clever. Nice try. Force 'em to prove a negative! But, no dice. the CIA is not privileged to establish the rules of evidence by which its behavior is judged. that must be left to the American people, acting through their elected officials and courts of law. Is the CIA lying, or concealing? It is paid to do both.

Denying The Truth in the Rain and Heat

FIRST, CALIFORNIA experiences a severe three year drought of record proportions. Then, just as all seems lost, in comes a superstorm with 75 MPH winds and ten inches of rain. A cyclonic superstorm. Extreme weather, if ever there was. Precisely the forecast of all those thousands of ivory tower, out of touch, egg headed, know nothing pseudo scientific biologists, chemists, and physicists who dwell within and dominate academia, and their socialist liberal conspiratorial sponsors, of whom there are millions, meeting in ivory towers, conspiring. Our conservative comrads, meanwhile, attribute current California weather to flukedom, something ordinary to be expected in nature, sunspots, or the wrath of a vengeful God. For the right wing religious, anything will do, except logical truth. To paraphrase Bertolt Brecht: "in the earthquakes (or superstorms) to come, it is to be hoped that I shan't allow bitterness to quench my cigar's glow". the question is: where in the world will future cigar tobacco be grown? Antarctica?

The Sinister Spewings of El Rushbo

RUSH LIMBAUGH IS the New York Yankees of radio broadcasting; the most loved and the most hated among a conservative pack of like minded hate spewing long winded talkers. A former drug addict who went deaf listening to himself speak, he has executed a brilliant business plan: preaching to the choir, which consists of several million hard right wingers, the Jesus, Guns, and Money community, which displays a sycophantic attachment seldom seen - to a voice on the radio. Limbaugh's inflated, overbearing ego has so far driven off three wives, and counting. Wife number four is apparently hanging in there, but her days as Mrs. Limbaugh may also be severely limited. How can any emotionally healthy woman endure long in that situation? Its quite a feat for a man of Limbaugh's wealth, about which he so enjoys bragging, to drive off three wives, but Rush has a special talent for repulsion. I've been listening to El Rushbo for twenty years, waiting for him to say something - anything - on the air which isn't preposterous or dishonest. I may wait a good deal longer. He shows no sign of deviating from unreasonable hatred. Limbaugh was a geeky, unpopular kid in high school, a bow tie among blue jeans and T shirts. He spent two semesters in college, where, according to his mother, he flunked everything. Yet, inexplicably, he calls himself A 'GENIUS". His constant spewing of right wing hatred attracts similar minded mediocre minds, much like Hitler's oratory. He fancies himself an intellectual and a historian, while telling his audience that the Magna Charta was signed "in the 1500s". (King John II signed it in 1215). His spewings include a pompous, self righteous patriotism of the sort often heard among scoundrels concealing their sinister intentions. But that's no surprise. His hero is Ronald Reagan, who used similar techniques of disinformation, and had his own set of cognitive dysfunctions.

Torture Is About Us

A MAN STANDING NAKED in a cold room for days on end, with Snoop Dog blaring continuously and a sharp object inserted up his rectum, is decidedly unlikely to answer questions accurately about his whereabouts and activities on some certain long ago day. Thinking becomes confused. Responses become solicitous, garbles, and erroneous, impelled by an urgent necessity of pleasing the compelling inquisitor, at whatever cost, especially truth. Senator John McCain, a rare sensible republican politician, understand this intimately, firsthand. McCain also understands that the United States of America is a great and good country, or one which could be, and is, or ought to be, superior to and above torture. Two wrongs don't make a right, and one does not justify bad behavior merely by pointing to the bad behavior of one's enemies. The other republicans, the God-fearing ones who pompously proclaim America's superiority with such fervor as to raise questions of motivation, don't seem to agree, not surprisingly. The right wingers who cherish the Lord and america's superiority of purpose seem to condone, even advocate, torture. Behold the superior moral standards of America' super patriotic Christian patriots! The United states of America is simply too good to condone or to use torture, aside from the universal illegality of it. (United Nations agreements, the Geneva Convention). As Senator McCain simply, eloquently stated: " torture is not so much about our enemies, its about us".

Eating Crackers, Drinking wine, Killing children

EINSTEIN ONCE SAID "the world is a madhouse". He may've had a point. Roughly two thousand years ago a great guy had a dinner party with a group of friends, for the last time. Allegedly there were twelve participants. Rumor has it that a thirteenth guest showed up, uninvited. Bad luck. We don't know for sure whether the uninvited guest was turned away, nor, for that matter, whether this dinner party actually occurred. Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story, said mark Twain, roughly. but anyway, out came the wafers and the wine, and everyone had a snack. It is alleged that the great guy wanted to be cannibalized, symbolically, to enhance the memory of himself, and to share himself intimately with his friends. give credit where credit is due; this guy knew how to share himself, and how to attract attention. To this very day millions of people engage in a reenactment of the symbolic eating of flesh and blood known as the "Eucharist", for whatever reason. Is it possible that the word "eucharist" translates from the Latin as "the consumption of Christ"? The madness does not end there. Not only does the Bible seem to encourage symbolic cannibalism, it explicitly instructs parents to kill their children when the rug rats disobey or argue with their parents. Christians universally refuse to condemn this arguably barbaric passage in Leviticus in admirably amazing and creative ways, having to do with historical context and translation. To defend the indefensible is indefensible, or something like that. however, considering the barbaric nature of human history and the state of the current human condition, little wonder that the barbaric rantings of an angry god still hold sway over millions of primitive primates.

Eric Garner, the Cigarette Salesperson

FOR 246 YEARS, (1619-1865) , Africans were kidnapped (until 1809, when kidnapping Africans and selling them as slaves was declared illegal) in Africa and enslaved in America. Although they had a pricey marked value, they were often mistreated, much like people, cars, houses, and public restrooms are frequently mistreated today, despite their high value. Although slaves in the south generally "enjoyed" a higher standard of living than free laborers and indentured servants in the north, they nonetheless tended to dislike being slaves. Slave revolts en masse were common, as were attempts by individual slaves to escape to freedom. Until the 1830s, by which time the Indians had been driven from the south, slaves escaping plantations in large numbers went to live with the Indians throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Much like the hordes of early American white settlers, mostly indentured servants, who fled to live with the Indians beginning in 1607, former slaves often preferred the harmonious life on native culture to the oppressive inequities of European-American culture........................................................ When he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared that "one hundred years is long enough", referring to the one hundred years of systematic segregation, discrimination, exclusion, isolation, and impoverishment of the "free" blacks which followed the civil War. In practical terms, the several civil rights acts signed in the late fifties through the mid sixties have done little, or at least too little, to improve the situation. To some extant, behavior can be modified through legislation, but attitudes cannot. Repeated verified studies clearly confirm the persistence of racism in America, it having assumed more subtle, less overt, more insidious forms. All this is well known, in general terms, in essence, to our contemporary African-American "community". To deny that prejudice against African-Americans remains prevalent in America is to deny reality. This does not justify crime, or resisting arrest, but it does, at least in part, justify the widespread suspicion among blacks that white police officers are especially heavy handed when apprehending black law breakers. The officer who restrained the cigarette salesperson on Staten Island with what rather resembles a "choke hold" around the neck could just as easily have threaded his arms under the perp's armpits, then over the perp's shoulders, then locked his hands together, thus forcing Eric the perp's arms into an upraised position, suitable for hand cuffing. Better yet, write the man a ticket, with a summons to appear in court at a later date. Better yet, leave him alone, in the spirit of free enterprise. Obviously, a less excessive, more reasonable level of cigarette taxation would reduce black market incentives. A pack of cigarettes which costs 13 to 15 dollars per pack can be resold, one ciggie at a time, at one dollar per, for a tidy profit. The prohibition of pleasant commodities creates black markets, as we have seen with alcohol and marijuana. Likewise, the exclusion of human beings from society engenders generalized resentment, and incites resistance and violence.

The Pursuit of American Excellence

IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to become a member of the United States Marine Corps band. All sorts of paperwork, background checks, and innumerable auditions. A recording of one playing one's instrument must be submitted. One must audition in person, with judges hidden behind a screen. One must play a piece of music, perfectly, at first sight. Those few chosen are exempted from boot camp, given the rank of staff sergeant, with the pay grade of E6. The U.S. Marine Corp band performs flawlessly, and it is a great honor to be a member. The pursuit of excellence is an American tradition. To appear on television, one's teeth must be perfectly straight and paper white, one's complexion flawless. In academic circles, students are given some slack academically, but none whatsoever athletically. At the highest level of college football, scholarship athletes must perform at the highest possible level, or else. Or else risk public censure, ridicule, contempt, and even revocation of scholarship. The common denominator is entertainment. We Americans expect to be entertained at the highest level, are willing to pay top dollar for the privilege, and the market responds accordingly. American exceptionalism is the capacity to entertain Americans exceptionally well. One can scarcely imagine the impact on American society if American political and economic processes were held to such high standards.

Prosperity, One Person At A Time

JUST IN TIME for the holidays, I have a new hobby, one which I recommend to all good Americans, and to all good people everywhere. It all started at Wal Mart. I was looking for a bottle of "Cholestoff", but couldn't find it. An associate was helping me look, but, after about ten minutes among thousands of bottles of various vitamins on the shelf, I gave up, thanked her for trying, and went on my merry way to the cash register, disappointed. Just as I was about to pay for my less than complete basket full of items, aforementioned associate came running up, and handed me the nutritional supplement I so desired. She was out of breath, but hadn't given up. My spirit soaring, I drove home, clicked on my cell phone, and called the store, asking to speak with a manager. I told him the lady's name, and insisted that she be given a raise, because she had ensured my patronage for life. Now I was on a roll. Next day I got a great sandwich from my local "Subway" from a smiling lady, went home, made my call. Now I have decided to make it a habit. Whenever I receive good service from a low wage worker - BOOM! - out goes the "give her a raise" phone call. I've done it at "Sonic", "McDonald's", all manner of corporate entities. One person at a time. Worker by hard worker, we can change the world, we can transfer wealth from the top of the pyramid to the bottom, thus creating a new market of the minimum waged, a bottom of the pyramid explosion of purchasing power, rapid fire trickle down economics, and soon, or at least at long length later, the bottom of the pyramid rises up, joins in the economy of disposable income spenders, and the economy takes off like a rocket. More people capable of investing in the market, bigger market, stronger economy. seven billion prosperous people! From my comfortable middle class home to yours; HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Life Is Perception

IN ANY GIVEN YEAR, there are several times more "whites" shot to death by cops than "blacks" in America, and since the number of whites in America is more than several times the number of blacks, blacks are disproportionately gunned down. So, what of it? The rate at which blacks are imprisoned, impoverished, and rejected for jobs is also disproportionate, but again, what of it? Racism, discrimination, and enslavement are worldwide phenomena, but, as Bill O'reilly points out, wrongs cannot be justified merely by pointing to other wrongs. Richard Wright's novel "Native Son", published in 1940, is relevant to today's racial situation. Whether in reality or imagination, the African-american community seems, on the whole, to believe that racism is alive and well in america. Life is perception.

Working In Harmony

TO PRIVATIZE, TO CORPORATIZE, or to not....Adam Smith, considered the father of modern capitalism, wrote, in his book "The Wealth of nations", that human economic activity, if left alone and untinkered, is a natural force, like the wind and the tides, wherein an"invisible hand-like" force produces natural harmony and balance in the economic realm. Then, he qualified it a bit. He said that government action on behalf of business owners was never justified, but that government assistance to workers was always justified. Adam smith, the closet socialist. Enter Milton Friedman, the twentieth century giant among economists, who, with his "Chicago school" comrads at the U. of Chicago, beginning in the nineteen fifties, proclaimed the supremacy of the Smithian free market bible, and the supremacy of the free market, unfettered by such distorting annoyances as government welfare, minimum wage laws, and environmental protection regulation. Presumably, Dr. Friedman also opposed corporate welfare, but this is less clear. Friedman's antithesis, John M. Keynes, advocated government spending to stimulate recession plagued economies. The new deal, versus reagonomics. Today, the United states is privatizing everything, including prisons, support services for the military, the military itself. Off in the corner, chastised and berated, stand Obamacare, a meager indicator that socialism is not yet dead in America. Of the top ten richest countries in the world, per capita, the United States ranks about ninth, while Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, bastions of socialism, all rank in the top five. The wealthiest nation? Little Luxembourg, unburdened by military spending. It may be that both socialism and capitalism both work just fine, and better yet, when allowed to operate in harmony.

Heading in the Right Direction

AFRICAN-AMERICAN members of the U.S. Congress entered the House chamber yesterday with their hands up in the "don't shoot" position. According to the grand jury in St. Louis, his hands were never up, he never tried to surrender. Another American divisive debate. We seem somehow to survive them. A young black criminal tries to harm a police officer, and gets killed by the officer acting in self defense. Whether the story should end there, it doesn't. The black community thinks, feels, that racism is a component. Racism adheres, whether it played a part in the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, Missouri. Vast amounts of empirical observation confirm the tenacity of racism, black and white. No culture in world history has been as racist as American culture, flat out. People who point this out are not fanning the flames, they are not creating the racism by commenting on it, they are pointing to the fire, urging that it be put out, not fanning it. We will not end racism by pretending that we have already ended it. We have merely decreased it somewhat, and it has assumed more subtle, less visible forms. But if we believe we are heading in the right direction, maybe we will be.

Whatever Works

THERE IS STILL hope that black Friday and cyber Monday will not overtake Christmas Day itself as the most prominent day during the Christmas season. Capitalism and Christianity continue their strange but effective entwinement, as only Americans can achieve. Joshua ben Joseph was probably born,oh, when...'long about the first week in April? Even as holidays evolve, they serve the same eternal purpose; to provide inspiration, community, and organization to the herd. So, add an evergreen tree, move the birth date, throw in some online shopping, and the net result, the basic idea, remains. One can even enter a Catholic or an Episcopalian church, and take communion, and one can tell one's self that the communion is of the soul, of the mind, and not of the blood and body. Whatever works.