Author's posts
Mar 17 2010
“Explico Algunas Cosas” por Pablo Neruda
A poem that still speaks to so many struggles today…one in particular.
—
“I’ll Explain Some Things”
by Pablo Neruda
You’ll ask, Where are the lilacs?
And the philosophy dreamy with poppies?
And the rain which kept beating out
Your words, filling them
With water-specks and birds?
I’m going to tell you everything that happened to me.
I lived in a neighborhood
In Madrid with church bells
And clock towers and trees.
From there you could see
The dry face of Castille
Like a sea of leather
My house was called
“The house with the flowers” because around it
Geraniums exploded. It was
A beautiful house
With dogs and kids.
Raúl, do you remember?
Frederico, do you still remember
Under the ground?
Do you remember my house with the balconies
Where the June light soaked your mouth with
The taste of flowers?
Brother! Brother!
The market place of Arguelles, my neighborhood
With its statue like a pale inkwell among
The fish stalls.
It was all
Loud voices, salty commerce,
A deep rumble
Of feet and hands filled the streets,
Meters and liters,
The sharp essence of life,
Fish stacked up,
The texture of roofs in the cold sun in which
The weather-vane grows tired.
Fine, crazily carved ivory of potatoes
Lines of tomatoes to the sea.
Then one morning flames
Came out of the ground
Devouring human beings.
From then on fire,
Gunpowder from then on,
From then on blood.
Bandits with airplanes and Moorish troops
Bandits with gold rings and duchesses
Bandits with black monks giving their blessing
Came across the sky to kill children
And through the streets, the blood of children
Ran simply, like children’s blood does.
Jackals that a jackal would reject
Stones that a dry thistle would bite and spit out
Vipers that vipers would hate!
I have seen the blood
Of Spain rise up against you
To drown you in a single wave
Of pride and knives!
Generals
Traitors
Look at my dead home
Look at broken Spain –
But from each dead house
Burning metal shoots out
Instead of flowers.
From every shell-hole in Spain
Spain will rise.
From every dead child a rifle with
Eyes will rise.
From every crime bullets will be born
Which will one day find a place
In your hearts.
You ask “Why doesn’t your poetry
Speak to us of dreams and leaves
Of the great volcanoes of your native land?”
Come
See the blood along the streets
Come see
The blood along the streets
Come see the blood
Along the Streets!
Mar 06 2010
“Be the Kidney You Want to Have in Your Lower Back”-or Create Your Own Public Option Instead!
Are you sick and tired of just sitting back as the Democrats intentionally sabotage any possibility that you might be able to afford health care one day?
I’m not just talking about the “blue dog” democrats. I’m referring to the whole putrid lot of them, including that wild-eyed crazy “radical” Nancy Pelosi, who promised a fellow Democrat that she would allow the House to vote on his amendment for a single-payer system… and then weaseled out of it at the last minute. I’m talking about the Dali Obama, who ordered George Miller, chairperson of the House Committee on Education and Labor, to oppose an amendment by Kucinich that would have allowed individual states to easily create state-level single-payer health care systems should they chose to do so. Mr. Miller was a good dog and obeyed our War Criminal-in-Chief’s orders, and the amendment went down in flames. I’m talking about Obama, who likely ordered Pelosi to keep the same amendment from ever getting back into the bill.
Or maybe you are just sick. I mean literally sick. “Sick” as in you need to go to the nephrologist right fucking now for that expensive dialysis treatment you’ve been putting off to pay for luxuries like canned peas and rent. Have you been unable to afford dialysis for so long that people have started calling you Frosty the Yellow Snowman because of that 4 inch layer of Uremic Frost covering your whole body?
I can only imagine how pissed (no pun intended) you must be! After all, you did exactly what you thought was right. On November 4, 2008 you stumbled half dead into that voting booth, cast your vote for Hope and Change, and promptly collapsed into a yellow heap right there on the floor of your local precinct.
As the paramedics carried you away–ignoring your desperate pleas for them to “get the fuck away from me you motherfucking bastards I can’t afford a goddamn ambulance ride and another ER bill because I’m almost out of canned peas you little bitches, your father sucks cocks in hell“–you slowly started to lose consciousness with visions of affordable dialysis dancing in your head. “Everything is going to be fine now because Change is coming,” you thought right before you fell into a coma that lasted three months.
After waking up in an alley somewhere in Cleveland to the odd sensation of a rat gnawing on your earlobe–the hospital dumped you there after 2 days once they discovered you had no insurance–you were feeling mighty low. You pulled what you hoped was a hospital needle out of your right hand and began aimlessly wandering the streets, trying to figure out what city they had dumped you in this time, and that’s when you saw it!
Mar 04 2010
Obama and the Democrats as “Pussies”: A Dangerous Meme
“Why are Obama and the Democrats so incompetent/such wimps/such ‘pussies’? They control the White House and both houses of Congress, yet they haven’t even managed to [insert embarrassingly modest and/or reformist liberal/progressive goal here, e.g., “pass health care reform that includes a public option”, “end the Iraq war”, “enact strict regulations on Wall Street”, etc.]! Obama needs to ‘grow a pair’ and start acting more like the Republicans did when they were in power! You know, like a man. I mean, Bush never cared about bipartisanship and consensus-building when he was president. He was willing to use his power to enact his agenda, and he did so without giving the Democratic opposition in Congress a second thought.”
The Left’s™ persistent broadcasting of variations on the Democrats-as-incompetent-“pussies” (Bill Maher’s word, not mine) meme reeks of a highly sophisticated and finely-tuned advertising campaign. The corporate owners of Brand Left™have so thoroughly saturated the nation with this message that even Apple’s marketing department has started taking notes.
Of course, it is unsurprising when Brand Left’s™ corporate mouthpieces help spread such a patently false characterization of Obama and the Democrats. The Leftists™ that have been anointed by our capitalist dictatorship — Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, Ariana Huffington, and Bill Maher (to name a few)- have each done their part to perpetuate this dangerous lie about Obama and the Democrats. One should expect nothing less of such a distinguished cadre of amoral hypocrites.
Despite their faux-leftist rhetoric, they are cut from the same rotting, moth-eaten corporate cloth as Certainly Not News and Fox. The plutocracy has allowed them to express their “left wing” convictions for one primary reason: A few advertising firms conducted focus groups to figure out what kind of programming would best attract a coveted demographic to various media sources where they could be subjected to target marketing (i.e., mostly white limousine liberals who constantly reiterate their love for National “Public” Radio whenever they are going for progressive realness). Likewise, The Jersey Shore was created so that advertisers could target an equally repugnant demographic.
Mar 02 2010
Pancakes, Prayer & Genocide: Obama & Uganda’s “Final Solution” For Queers
I’d like for you to try a little experiment for me.
It’s a very simple experiment, one that doesn’t involve stoichiometry, Bunsen burners, p values, test tubes, or access to hydrochloric acid. It’ll be fun, I swear.
Ready?
Fantastic! Let’s begin.
Mar 02 2010
An Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Obama Musical Interlude
This is not a typical post for me.
Instead of writing a blog post and further destroying my wrists in the process, I figured I’d try something a little different.
Below you’ll find a video that I cobbled together from pictures I found online and designs created by my partner, a talented graphic designer who was kind enough to take a few moments to indulge me. I am not a film director, nor do I desire to be one. It shows.
The song, however, is one that I think many people here will enjoy. It’s called “Money Machine”, and it was recorded live at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta. The album is entitled Jeff’s Last Dance, by Kahler & Mullins. I was at this show. It’s just two guys singing, one of whom plays the hell out of the congas. I suppose my affinity for this song results from the fact that I do possess an inner hippie (shhh!). The song is all about corporate greed & US militarism, but it actually manages to not sound cheesy. In fact, it happens to rock. I hope you enjoy my amateurish iMovie editing, which was intended to convey visually the sentiments expressed in the lyrics (with a bit of snarkiness). Even if you dislike the editing, I hope you’ll enjoy the tune.