August 15, 2009 archive

Docudharma Times Saturday August 15

Calif. wildfires force residents to evacuate  

State of emergency declared for Santa Cruz County

Associated Press

DAVENPORT, Calif. – Fire crews fanned out Friday across a parched California where wind-whipped wildfires have forced hundreds of people to flee their homes and led to an emergency declaration in Santa Cruz County.

In the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Lockheed Fire has blackened 6.5 square miles of remote wilderness and prompted mandatory evacuations of the mountain communities of Swanton and Bonny Doon, which have about 2,400 residents and several wineries.

Inside the Taliban: ‘The more troops they send, the more targets we have’

In the first of a series of exclusive reports in the run-up to next week’s Afghan elections, award-winning correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets a group of Taliban in their mountain stronghold

In the first of a series of exclusive reports in the run-up to next week’s Afghan elections, award-winning correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets a group of Taliban in their mountain stronghold

The Guardian, Saturday 15 August 2009


The provinces of Khost, Paktia and Paktika in south-eastern Afghanistan are dominated by one name: Jalaluddin Haqqani. A famous commander, tribal chief and cleric, Haqqani came to prominence during the war against the Soviets. In more than 20 years of fighting, he built an extensive network of influence that covered eastern Afghanistan and the tribal area of Waziristan in Pakistan, and reached as far abroad as the Gulf states, which he visited often.

Once a minister in the Taliban government, he is now aligned with their leader, Mullah Omar, but has retained independence and control over his men. His operations have struck deep into the territory controlled by Hamid Karzai’s government, reaching targets in Kabul. The movement’s signature attack is well co-ordinated and includes several suicide bombers, who storm into buildings before detonating their bombs.

Famous

So I google myself tonight and I find my DocuDharma entry second only to my Cliffs Notes.

Not only that, but the two top image results are from What’s for Dinner.

Impact is funny sometimes.

What is famous?

Now frankly, I don’t often think of myself as famous.

buhdy is much more popular than I am and while he admires my writing on certain technical levels (or at least has said so).  I don’t like any of it except for particular turns of phrase.

Cheap theatrics I can teach anyone.

Fortunately good writing is the least of your problems if you want to be famous.

Persistence and Regularity

Whatever success I have is entirely due to persistence and regularity.

Well, isn’t that what you expect a writer to say?  It’s as big a cliche as thanking Touchdown Jesus.

Eat some fucking bran if you want to be regular.

Establishing a reputation

C’mon, let’s all take the Poet’s Pledge-

I, [the Poet’s name], do hereby solemnly pledge:

To be peculiar in the most unusual way I can cook up

To write excellently, or more especially to be known to write excellently

To master bards of old and bards anew, or at least never give on that I haven’t

To advance in gestures of my own and not in the stirrings of a majority, except where money is at stake

To be perceived as morally suspect, no matter what the truth

To sniff at adulation and pooh-pooh honors no matter how much I crave them

To obey whim and eschew duty, or at least appear to

To rove ruffian-like across continents of poems with ease, or at least make them think so

To engage in ridiculous arguments, all hot and sweaty for my own position

To be judicious only in the judging of my own merits and mean about the others

To die young, or if I linger, to be ignored and abused well

To write tons of crap for every good poem I do write, and obfuscate the difference with rhetoric

To suck up to important editors with honeyed words, and cuff the assistant editors often

To bemoan the sorry state of poetry in my country and do not one damn thing about it

To speak so incoherently that everyone thinks I am a genius

Oh-

“Batter my heart three-personed God, for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.”

That was my thirteenth diary, not that you should be jealous because like a cesspool only the biggest pieces of crap rise to the surface.

Did I mention that only my Cliffs Notes are more famous than I?

Hornbeck’s character is static. He is as opinionated and iconoclastic, attacking institutions and firmly held beliefs, and he does not change throughout the course of the play. His character is also shallow and one-dimensional.

How do you survive?

Well if people had only understood how much I inhabit my character they would surely have strangled me in my cradle because I can’t dance nearly as well as Gene Kelly.

But stories?  I bang on the keyboard every day.  I average 40+ comments and 4.5 recs per (when I keep track of such things which I never do).

Attempts to silence me fail on the sheer volume of my record.

It also has this additional benefit which is not to be despised-

People know me and are interested.

On becoming the Paris Hilton of the inter tubz

Have you met my dog Frenchy?

Alas he has passed to a 72 coke bottle fucking paradise.

You can try Pooty Pics.

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

Karzai legalizes rape, sells out Afghan Shia women for votes

Human Rights Watch has discovered that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has allowed a regressive law to come into force that strips away women’s rights that are enshrined in Afghanistan’s constitution in order to win votes.

The law gives a husband the right to withdraw basic maintenance from his wife, including food, if she refuses to obey his sexual demands. It grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers. It requires women to get permission from their husbands to work. It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying “blood money” to a girl who was injured when he raped her.

The law was written in secret by a hard-line Shia cleric and backed by conservative Shia members of the Afghan parliament in March. When the law was made public in April, there was a loud international outcry of protest. President Obama said the law was “abhorrent” and made U.S. objections known to the Afghan government.  

F*** You and your F**king Wars

I address this to all of those to which this applies.  Those in the government who advocate, initiate, enact, or tacitly ignore, those citizens who support or tacitly ignore, and those in the media who spread the propaganda, Fuck you.  

I really don’t give a shit anymore.  I’m a retired federal government employee, Vietnam Era Vet, with good health insurance and a lifetime pension, at least until Uncle Sam goes broke, which won’t surprise me.  So I’m not worried about myself and I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me anymore.  Therefore I’ll call out those I want when I want.  

I’ve seen enough war to know that innocent civilians get killed.  I was going to say “too many innocent civilians” get killed, but what is too many?   Five days ago, on a last trip before college, four teenagers were killed in a car accident on a highway to the coast.  The small town of Ridgefield, Washington is emersed in grief and confusion over the loss of these four kids.  Laments such as “They had so much to live for”, and “They were beautiful kids who loved life”, are all over the local blog boards.  Condolences and sympathies have been non-stop since the event.  And rightly so, it is a very sad thing to see a life cut short.

I see all human life as equal.  Maybe some kind of subliminal messaging I took to heart after learning about our Constitution.  So I really don’t differentiate from the four kids from Ridgefield, Washington getting killed in a car crash from the four kids who were killed in the drone attack in Afghanistan.  A life cut short is a life cut short, and it hurts all the same. Who’s to say who’s life is more promising?

Casualties of War?  That’s assuming war is necessary.  I don’t believe war is necessary, but just to focus on the current wars, no, these wars aren’t necessary.  The Iraq war is actually a criminal war, an aggressive war based on lies and deception.  I can say that because most agree by now.  But the Afghanistan war is no less criminal.  That’s harder for me to say because so many still believe the lies about that war.  Mainly because they saw the planes fly into the buildings.  The war on terrorism was a propaganda ploy by Dick Cheney and friends to commence the next steps in U.S. imperialism.  Do you agree with a war started by Dick Cheney?

There are people in the know stating we’ll be in Afghanistan until 2020.  That’s almost twenty years.  The pullout from Iraq appears to be bullshit.  The U.S. does not want to give up it’s bases in Iraq.  We appear to be in a perpetual war state.  The only question is what else is on the horizon?

So fuck all of you who support these wars.  I don’t care what you think any more.  My mind is made up, no changing it.  These wars are evil, are killing innocent people, are enriching the rich, and are waged solely for the rich and powerful.  

DISTRACTIONS

Hey I`m ahead by a day this week.

Yesterday & today I was the one distracted.

Yesterday, I spent many hours with two of my little friends, but the best part was coaxing Niki, who is not yet three, to handle a quite rare snake.

This snake, which for people not familiar with snakes, may be confused with the dangerous Coral snake.

This snake is a Santa Monica Mountain King Snake & is found solely in my local mountains, the Santa Monica mountains.

After mastering the snake handling, Niki would in no way handle another local animal, the Black Tarantula.

They are harmless if not aggravated, so just don`t piss them off.

Then today, I got “Distracted” again when learning the two nicest words in the English language.

I will tell you what those two words are in my first comment, but I did want to show you a series of shots I took today of our future.

These images are the subjects of why I`ve always been a loud yelling, no backing down, agitator.

So for this week`s Distractions, I`ll first present a child of this world, one of my granddaughters I shot today.

She was not harmed.

If you wonder how I get her to smile, I scream & shout at her, something that usually terrifies civilians, but my “girls” know me.

Here we go.

DSCN9194

Writing under constraint: and why it rocks.

I’ve mentioned this in a few comments already, but I thought a broader discussion of the topic of constraint was worth having, and dovetails nicely with the Writers’ Jam Fest.

(If you want to skip to the fun stuff, move on to parts three and four of this essay, Examples and Assignments.)

1. What is a ‘constraint’?

Simply speaking, a constraint is a formal rule that you set for yourself at the outset of writing.  Constraints can be broad (All my protagonists will have names beginning with ‘A’) or unproductively narrow (I’ll only use punctuation to tell my story), but they help set parameters for your work.

Now maybe you’re looking at that and thinking, “Meh, that’s too artificial.  I prefer to write from inspiration.”

But there are other ways to look at it, too.  Imagine I gave you the following assignment: “I want you to write a poem about whatever topic you want, but you have to limit it to exactly 14 lines.  Oh, and every line has to be in iambic pentameter.  Also, I want you to alternate rhymes for the first three sets of four lines, and you have to treat the remaining two lines like a rhyming couplet.”

Sounds stupidly artificial?, but that’s your recipe for a Shakespearean sonnet.  

It may seem counterproductive, but the paradox of constraints is that they actually foster creativity rather than limit it.  By having to meet a predetermined set of rules, you’ll find that you explore paths you normally wouldn’t.

Woodstock, 40 Years Of Peace

Saturday August 15 will be the 40th anniversary of the first day of Woodstock.

The next best thing to actually being there, here is a time machine.

“Woodstock: The Lost Performances”

1 hour and 8 minutes of Peace and Music.

A 1991 compilation of outtakes from the 120 or so miles of film taken at the festival

with

The Band, Joe Cocker, Canned Heat, Paul Butterfield, Arlo Guthrie, Blood Sweat & Tears, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Sly and the Family Stone, Tim Hardin, Melanie, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Janis Joplin, and Richie Havens.

Bear with the awful 1 minute intro – the performances are great!

Friday Night at 8: Cool Shades

The only way to view the political circus nowadays is to put your shades on first.

Photobucket

Seriously!

Don’t want anyone to recognize me!

My mama told me to stay out of places like that.

And it’s worse than she said!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

All I can say is it’s a damned good thing we didn’t get health care legislation passed before the August break!  Look what we would have missed!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

How can something so utterly serious be impossible to take seriously?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The circus has come to town ………………………… hall.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My political commentary for the week.  It’s fucking Friday and I’m gonna put on my cool shades and go prowling down some particularly fine back alleys.  Hope all is well with Dharmaniacs everywhere and Happy Weekend!

Some music to prowl by …

… it’s coming up to that time of year again.

From YouTuber maedgen’s notes on this tune:

Filmed in mid-2005, this is a glimpse into life on the French Quarter’s lower Decatur Street before Hurricane Katrina.

Originally written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, this track is performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring Clint Maedgen on vocals with a guest appearance by the New Orleans Bingo! Show in the video.

That’s It! Obama’s Sell-Outs and Give-Aways To Health Care Lobbyists Are the Last Straw

Im mad as Hell and getting madder and madder.  The sell out continues.  Don’t get me wrong. I like Obama.  I’m in love with his wife and daughters.  Despite all his likability, however, his actions to endorse and support corporate elites continue and make a joke of his promises of change.

The recent disclosures of deals made between the White House and Big-Pharma/Insurance are particularly disconcerting.  It is, for me at least, the Last Straw.  

After a week of denials that there had been any quid pro quo offered for Big-Pharma’s gift of $80 billion, a memo obtained by Huffington Post reports favors detrimental to the consumer.  Why wasn’t I holding me breath?

The memo… lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

…snip…

…the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada — and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: “Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.”

Let’s slither below the fold for more lubricating slime…

Chew On This, teabaggers

Chew on this teabaggers.

I’m A Tea Bagger

Going against violent rhetoric and attempted violent actions towards our elected officials and the President of the United States.

Friday Philosophy: That’s so gay!

So we’re still moving and certainly not in Pittsburgh with all the cool people.  Because of the moving, my brain is pretty much on the fritz as to anything momentous to write about.  There just hasn’t been enough continuous time to sit down and piece something together about the things I’d like to write about…even if I could really delineate what those items might be.

So let’s go to the news and see what we can find.

I haven’t seen any mention of this item here:  Radcliffe supports gay group with ‘generous’ donation.  Yes, the Harry Potter star is anti-homophobia and believes in the work being done by the The Trevor Project to combat teen suicide.

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