Author's posts
Oct 04 2008
A Riotous Time?
** Now as a consideration for my dear friend OPOL as well..whose excellent essay “They Better Hope We Don’t Wake Up” also burns as truth in my soul.
Cross-posted from the Wild Wild Left
(…this started as a response to Gottlieb’s reply to Proximity1 in Ed’s PROMIS essay but grew beyond what I had to say to him into a general essay on the subject…)
I was going to ask first, somewhat glibly, “Would you then come back & help?”
Then as thoughts of Pandora’s Box came into my mind, it grew into ponderings too large to be ignored, not a subject for glibness or levity.
This may be the biggest decision America has had to face in light of our current conditions and the available technology in which they will be dealt.
So, this isn’t just a reply to his comment anymore, but a thought to those who would say “riot” lightly.
It is also a question for those who are ready, and say “riot” not lightly, but with full intent.
Read on for my thinking. Consider well before you leap my friends, for when we leap there really is no going back. And most of us would not live to see the fruits of our actions.
Oct 01 2008
Go Viral on Your Senators Day!
I KNOW people tire of hearing the same thing 24/7 but I hope the collective will stands with the 200+ Economists from the University of Chicago who explain below just WHY they think it is counterproductive and counterintuitive to pass this shortsighted bill. (bill under the page break)
I hope today you all call and email your Senators and tell them “No way!”
I hope today you remind Congress that a softer reaming is still a reaming.
The doggie will link you to a site that has Congressional and Senatorial links for contacting them.
David Sarota on Huffpo explains the top 5 reasons not to pass it. I strongly suggest clicking over to read his whole article.
Sep 23 2008
We Aren’t THAT Stupid. We’re in Shock.
Crossposted from WWL to Docudharma, Booman, OWL, Station Charon and Never In Our Names.
.
Or:
A foray into when the UNHOLY TRINITY comes back to bite the most indoctrinated, shocked nation in which it has ever been unleashed right in the ass.
As I often am wont to do, I went back to source material when troubled by this * new economic crisis. (* Which of course is neither new, nor could not have easily been predicted by previous models)
I am re-reading “The Shock Doctrine”. I loathe bogging down into economics, but her work is accessible. Normally understanding economics is about as easy for me as swallowing a VW and passing it sorted into its component parts in bags.
Bill Maher had Naomi Klein on this week past. We catch him on the Sunday Morning rerun * religiously. (* She says with full intended irony, being of the same mind that religious people are idiots for the most part)
“They moved the disaster from Wall Street to Main Street…”
I’d almost change my orientation to do this woman she gets it so very well.
“This is socialism for the Rich”
No Shit.
Andrew Sullivan I wanted to bitch-slap. He said exactly what I predicted the neo-cons would say: “Its the poor peoples faults for taking on loans…”
Not the cunning bastards who tricked us into taking loans they swore wouldn’t bubble from 8% to 18%, as they now have. Not the speculators driving up prices on oil. Its the STUPID poor people.
I wouldn’t do him if he was the last diseased prick on Earth and I drank a gallon of Spanish Fly in a post-battery Earth and both my hands were cut off.
I digress. Lets get back to the Real Trinity.
Wanna fear a Godhead? Fear this one.
Sep 17 2008
Why We Vote / The Who & Floyd
What gets you? You know there’s something, something bright and shiny you cannot look away from. Something that thrills. Something that you are like a moth to a flame for.
…..see me…
It may be something as small as recognition, you know that “Good job” or “You rock” you never got as a child. The audience factor, whether at home, work or play. Do you love that moment your spouse says “WOW! You did GREAT!” Do you look to recognition in your community or even something as mundane as ratings online to reaffirm your worth? Hell, you aren’t alone.
…feel me….
What gets you may be connection. That visceral feeling you have towards someone, that feeling of someone you would like to be. Often a celebrity or other you imagine to be “above you” your admiration seems warranted. You forgive their faults without question, for you see in them yours, you see them rising above, as you have or wish you had. You compare yourself to their best, see kindred in their insights, their wit, their logic. They are you, but a better you than you see yourself. A perfect example of familiarity breeds contempt; distance makes the shiny stay shiny.
Sep 17 2008
Why We Vote / The Who & Floyd
What gets you? You know there’s something, something bright and shiny you cannot look away from.
…..see me…
It may be something as small as recognition, you know that “Good job” or “You rock” you never got as a child. The audience factor, whether at home, work or play. Do you love that moment your spouse says “WOW! You did GREAT!” Do you look to recognition in your community or even something as ratings online to reaffirm your worth. Hell, you aren’t alone.
…feel me….
What gets you may be connection. That visceral feeling you have towards someone, that feeling of someone you would like to be. Often a celebrity or other you imagine to be “above you” your admiration seems warranted. You forgive their faults without question, for you see in them yours, you see them rising above, as you have or wish you had. You compare yourself to their best, see kindred in their insights, their wit, their logic. They are you, but a better you than you see yourself. A perfect example of familiarity breeds contempt; distance makes the shiny stay shiny.
Sep 12 2008
9/11: of Use and Abuse
Cross posted from The Wild Wild Left as yesterday’s Open Thread. My husband opined it was “crass” of me to post this yesterday, but perfectly acceptable today. Hence, the delay.
I have a problem not unlike the one that got KO fired. 9/11 gets dragged out and almost celebrated by the fear-mongering right. It is a tragedy that gets relived over and over by a populace that had rarely know large-scale tragedies on its soil. I find the way they use it is abusive, true abuse in both the misuse fashion and the masochistic type.
2,974 dead. I remember my horror, my tears as it occurred.
4,076 Americans dead due to their being sent to invade Iraq for a crime Iraq did not commit.
1,255,026 Iraqis dead. Where is the horror for their deaths, the remembrance ceremonies for those who had their lives taken in retribution for something they had no part in?
It brings to mind what John Trudell said (not just in Thunderheart, but in real life when Leonard Peltier was framed.) “Sometimes they just HAVE to kill us. They have to make someone pay.”
Iraq is the biggest patsy ever created, created mostly for profit.
Sep 10 2008
Reverse Poll-arity
I’m thinking about Reverse Poll-arity this morning.
Honest to God, the addition of Barracuda to McSame’s ticket and the inflated Poll numbers to ease the election fraud makes me MORE likely to vote for Obama than I was a few days ago.
ANOTHER BLATANT LIAR IN THE WHITE HOUSE? ANOTHER FUCKWEASEL WHO DOESN’T EVEN TRY TO HIDE THE LIES FROM THE GET GO?
Random Sidebar:
Yesterday I tried my googlest best to find the lyrics to an old Roy Rogers song to no avail.I just had this riff going about “Palin, you no Pal O’Mine” to the tune of “Palamino Pal o’Mine” and nowhere to go with it.
That song so pre-dates even my old ass, I have no idea why I even know it, and yet I found it hilarious snark, and wish I had been able to parody the lyrics. The refrain is all I remembered.
Ok, back to the wonky shit.
Sep 09 2008
I AM WHO AM
YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO CHANGE MY ESSENCE BY GIVING ME MANY NAMES.
Yahweh, Allah, Jesus, Wakan Tanka, Jupiter, Gaea, Waak, Mithras, Krishna, Odin… so very many, so many attempts to re-create me in the image of your evil.
I AM NONE OF THESE.
Hear my words.
Sep 06 2008
Hell in Haiti – Ike Update in Comments.
Cross-posted from my blog, The Wild Wild Left.
My friend went to The Dominican Republic a few years back. Staying at a Gated Resort, she mentioned how the worst part was getting there. Apparently the tour bus had to pass nearby the machine gun border areas with Haiti, and the driver reiterated how dangerous it was to even go near their border.
Devastating poverty and war lords out of sight, though, she had a marvelous time in a lush resort with huge buffets and plentiful alcohol. When asked if it bothered her, her typical American response was “Not my problem. They obviously fucked their side of the Island up, so why shouldn’t I enjoy the Good Side?”
Much the same American response to how Gustav fucked Haiti like Katrina fucked NOLA, and is now fucked worse from the rains and flooding from Hanna in the area and Ike on its way.
“Not my Problem?”
Aug 21 2008
KO: Heroes and Speeches
Uggghhh. It is a sad day when people on the Left turn against Keith Olbermann for any reason.
KO is one of the sole voices pissing into the hurricane/tsunami of disinformation and neo-con propaganda from the Murdoch Empire and all Minions Fox and elsewhere… and people ask him to stop his Editorials.
Let Kieth be Kieth.
These are the same People who attacked Reverend Wright for speaking Truths in this country.
If Obama stayed Obama, a man who admired Rev. Wright, he would not be losing ground via handlers and media-whores.
Why is it that people are uncomfortable with Truths? Oh they claim to want Truth, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their TV pleasure viewing the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic games, the grandiose hoopla and the shiny young athletes.
America likes its Public Service Announcements snuggled in minute sound bytes during the breaks of their obsessive American Idol episodes… it makes their guilty pleasure of being brainless hedonists ease up a little to be able to yell “Right On” at a commercial that says “Green Power”.. all while turning up their Air Conditioning and keeping the volume on their TV’s cranked up to Prime Numbers.
But WATCH a whole documentary or turn off the TV and read a book about it? Too depressing, man. They don’t want a bowl of whole-grain truths, when they can sprinkle a little fiber on their processed Sugar Puffs.
More about real heroes below.
Aug 18 2008
August 17th
It kind of reads like a bad horror story, but really it isn’t. Its just my life, and for me its pretty much normal now. Not normal as in average, I know it is creepy. I still have a visceral reaction if I notice the date. I don’t always notice the date… some years it slips by without notice. Is it brain block out, or busy Mom life not to notice the calender?
Anyway, someday when I’m gone, I figure my son will want to know more about me, and look up all this babble. If he really wants to know who I am, he has to hear the tale of August 17th.
Lets start with February 2nd first.
Aug 11 2008
Paying For It
Our friend and ally Alexa wrote a piece called Late For The Sky on her blog, NION. She expressed her frustration with John Edwards, understandable that many people feel this way.
Now I have maintained (for the most part) radio silence on this whole non-issue, while most of the blogoshpere drools over it, while saying it is an issue because, get this: People drool over it.
I decided to expand on my answer to Alexa’s essay, and then answer the rest of the blogoshpere’s babble about it below.
Truth be told, the reaction of the Left (in general, not you Alexa) frustrates and disappoints me more than his actions.