Ma is seventy-eight. She is also the primary care giver for Dad, 84. Dad has an attention span of about 30 minutes. I help Ma stay in the home they raised their kids in from the next town over. It ain’t easy and it ain’t simple.
January 17, 2008 archive
Jan 17 2008
Poem
Here’s a poem. Doesn’t have a title.
america don’t want
strange rough
citizens who are
not heroes
of quiet obedience
nor bold leaders
of commerce,
nor within the
golden human realm
of fame and fortune
winners we
have picked
in serious
societal
beauty pageants
of morality
and virtue
and high esteem
the drinker and
the smoker
are suspect
and excess
is eyed dubiously
the wild glee seekers
are no longer
indulged in
such dark
times
drifters and prowlers
appear superfluous
among digital phenomena
and naked exposures
and citizens
so hip
their thoughts
slice like ginsu knives
outsider status
now reserved for
enemies of the state
alone,
and our own
mad Rimbauds of
deranged senses
ignored, eclipsed,
as they wield
their shaking
pens.
Jan 17 2008
Did Robert Gates Order Iran Speedboat Provocation?
The story of the Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz that supposedly threatened U.S. warships has been pretty thoroughly debunked by now. Now Asia Times has an article that details how the disinformation was created and spread by the Pentagon, as the Pentagon planted stories with the press, starting with CBS and CNN. Even though the encounter at sea was “not that different from many others in the Gulf over more than a decade,” the Pentagon timed the news about the supposed provocation to a trip by Bush to the region.
The key line in the Asia Times piece is right at the beginning (my bold emphasis):
Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the January 6 US-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran’s military aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.
Jan 17 2008
No Matter How Long the Darkness Lasts
According to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, “Assessments of the current state of the nation are grim as Americans have begun to choose who will vie to be the country’s next president. 75% of Americans think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number ever recorded in the CBS News/New York Times Poll.” These results are echoed in the latest ABC/Washington Post poll, which reports that 77% of Americans believe America is on the wrong track, the most scathing indictment of America’s “leaders” ever recorded by ABC/Washington Post pollsters.
Well, it looks like Morning in America isn’t as popular as it used to be. In 1980, Americans were so impressed with the former host of Death Valley Days and his happy grin that they elected him President of the United States. They empowered a clueless cowboy to lead them to a brighter future, but he led them into Death Valley instead.
Go figure.
As millions of low income and middle class Americans trudged back and forth across Death Valley for 28 years, looking for some way out, Reagan/Bush globalization expanded corporate control over national governments, the global economy, and the media to such a pervasive and destructive extent that permanent residency in Death Valley is going to be the fate of most of humanity if we don’t get up off our knees, empower ourselves, and give our oppressors a taste of Death Valley to see how they like it . . .
Jan 17 2008
Visit With A Villager……now with bonus Monkey!
From Harry Shearer’s “My Damn Channel” a little unfiltered glimpse of news anchor Katie Couric during the New Hampshire primary. Fun behind the scenes stuff. Nothing earth shattering, but don’t you wish YOU could go to cocktail parties with people like this and help decide the American political and societal narrative over spritzers and canapes?
via videosift.com
What do you think, is Katie pro-impeachment?
Jan 17 2008
Pony Party… Bye Bye Bear
my boy died this morning. he was a sweet soul. kind. abiding the silliness of us humans.
mae west in drag.
bouncing dog. always wanting food. was known to raid the kitty litter.
kind. really kind. gentle. funny. he loved me. i loved him.
strange. how it happened. last night at my aunt’s house (we were house sitting), he seemed not to be able to see. and i was down on the floor with him, trying to understand what had happened… that it had happened. the seizure was next. i found the animal hospital… we did xrays and full blood screen. nothing detectable, except he had no platelets… not good. not good at all. i left him there at 3am, sedated. i got up at 6:30am and he had done well the tech said over the phone. i was getting ready to leave and not five minutes later the vet called and said i should hurry… he had taken a turn for the worse.
he was gone when i got there. i wanted to be with him when he left this life. i went over to him on the steel table. they had covered him. and he looked peaceful… they said he went easy. and i was so grateful for that. but i wanted more time. i didn’t see this coming. and now he’s gone.
he saved me so many times. my humanity. my sense of humor. my sense of belonging. there is something eternal in the love of a dog. life makes sense next to them.
i miss him. i came back home. i had to. but it’s so quiet… so still.
i love you Bear. Bear-Lo. Smuppy. Silly dog. Sweet dog.
The sun came out and it’s a bright day this day. Like when the cosmos gets back a really really special soul… it can’t help but to light up.
- 1
- 2