I thought of doing some snark with Snarly, Ms. Lice and all the others sitting around, drinking coffee and soda pop, deciding how many slaps, how much water to pour on a fella's face, how long to hang some poor bugger from his arms behind his back -- and then hear them say, "We don't torture -- we decided to call it intensive interrogation..."
But it's too sick -- this is not my country, this is not the Lady of Light and Liberty. This is not the "City of Light upon the hill"
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Codpiece himself drawls, "Why shore, I knew, I approved, sheet, I thought it was kinna cool."
Meanwhile, the Bankers of Illusion yawn and get down to the serious news, did Bulimo Charisma turn down a cup of coffee and ask for orange juice?
Meanwhile, Mad Kane, the media darling and prime candidate for Supreme Hole after Rexona, the First, continues to babble, confusing Sunni and Shia -- but hey, if you are a straight talker, a manly man, who needs to know anything except where the button of power is?
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Subtlety of Reality...
[I lurk around a bit over at the UCC Forum (you can see the link to the right under, "United Church of Idaho...") In fact, I sometimes post what might seem to some as incomprehensible ramblings of muddled mentality.
A couple of people over there responded to a story I told about a man and his dog with stories about loved ones who spoke of seeing people coming to meet them as they were sucking their final breaths. This was my reply]
It's surprising the number of people who can come with anecdotes of this order, ranging from dreams to the so-called out-of-body episodes some have reported.
This is mine: The last time I was to visit an aunt to whom I was very close, I had almost deliberately put off the date to November. The night she died in September, I saw her in a dream, she told me she was sorry, but she was soooo tired. My sister called me the next morning and told me she had died that night after a coma of some 10-12 hours. My first feeling was a recognition of how selfish I had been.
Besides their value to the one who experiences them, do they prove anything? No, I don't think so, at least not in the normal meaning of proof.
On the other hand, I think that they strongly indicate that Reality has a deepness and a subtlety we generally overlook in our daily lives and that we are connected to one another and all that lives in ways we barely begin to imagine when we speak of things like Heaven.
A couple of people over there responded to a story I told about a man and his dog with stories about loved ones who spoke of seeing people coming to meet them as they were sucking their final breaths. This was my reply]
It's surprising the number of people who can come with anecdotes of this order, ranging from dreams to the so-called out-of-body episodes some have reported.
This is mine: The last time I was to visit an aunt to whom I was very close, I had almost deliberately put off the date to November. The night she died in September, I saw her in a dream, she told me she was sorry, but she was soooo tired. My sister called me the next morning and told me she had died that night after a coma of some 10-12 hours. My first feeling was a recognition of how selfish I had been.
Besides their value to the one who experiences them, do they prove anything? No, I don't think so, at least not in the normal meaning of proof.
On the other hand, I think that they strongly indicate that Reality has a deepness and a subtlety we generally overlook in our daily lives and that we are connected to one another and all that lives in ways we barely begin to imagine when we speak of things like Heaven.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
If Boats Were on Land...
When the English surrendered at Yorktown to the American insurgents they played a song which begins:
If boats were on land, churches sea.
If ponies rode men and grass ate the cows
And the verses end with the coda:
Then all the world would be upside down!
Well, I just read that farmers in Helmand province in Farawaystan are planting wheat instead of poppies -- that's kind of upside down, don't you think?
The reason is that because of the rise in staple foods prices (and the fall of the price of heroin on the street), wheat has become the more profitable crop!
That would be cool if it wasn't because there is something more serious going on here. Serious in the sense of not only going to bed hungry, but starving to death.
In a sort of bow echo effect, climate change, the price of oil, the production of bio-fuels and other factors, the price of wheat, rice, maize, soya and other staples are rising because of shortage in production.
Compounding the effect is the fact that exporting nations are restricting if not forbidding export. India has forbidden export of all rice export the basmati sort which brings a high price. The Philippines are strapped because they are finding it hard to find the millions of tons they need to import. There have been demonstrations in Italy over the price of pasta and deadly riots in Haiti where the poorest are being reduced to eating mud cookies.
If you think about it a moment though, the world ain't upside down -- it's wobbling along like it always has. The upside, if you can call it, that is that the hunger won't go unreported or denied like it was during the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.
Potatoes were exported to England under armed guard during the height of the hunger and I suppose things like that, or worse, will happen in our more modern and humane world.
If boats were on land, churches sea.
If ponies rode men and grass ate the cows
And the verses end with the coda:
Then all the world would be upside down!
Well, I just read that farmers in Helmand province in Farawaystan are planting wheat instead of poppies -- that's kind of upside down, don't you think?
The reason is that because of the rise in staple foods prices (and the fall of the price of heroin on the street), wheat has become the more profitable crop!
That would be cool if it wasn't because there is something more serious going on here. Serious in the sense of not only going to bed hungry, but starving to death.
In a sort of bow echo effect, climate change, the price of oil, the production of bio-fuels and other factors, the price of wheat, rice, maize, soya and other staples are rising because of shortage in production.
Compounding the effect is the fact that exporting nations are restricting if not forbidding export. India has forbidden export of all rice export the basmati sort which brings a high price. The Philippines are strapped because they are finding it hard to find the millions of tons they need to import. There have been demonstrations in Italy over the price of pasta and deadly riots in Haiti where the poorest are being reduced to eating mud cookies.
If you think about it a moment though, the world ain't upside down -- it's wobbling along like it always has. The upside, if you can call it, that is that the hunger won't go unreported or denied like it was during the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.
Potatoes were exported to England under armed guard during the height of the hunger and I suppose things like that, or worse, will happen in our more modern and humane world.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
A Prophet in Plastic on a Pedestal...
When Martin Luther King's birthday (April 4) was made a holiday, part of the effect if indeed not the intent was to encapsulate his legacy in a plastic cube and soften the edges of his often fiery and always intelligent rhetoric.
King, particularly in his last year, was a challenge and, to some, a threat to the arrogance of American Exceptionalism and its accompanying and growing militarism.
That is to say he was beginning to speak to America's bad conscience, warning the Lady of Light and Liberty that she was in danger of becoming Madam in a Fat Car, Bitch of Babylon.
Everyone has heard and remembers, "I have a dream...".
But how many have ever heard, let alone remember, "The choice is not between violence and nonviolence, the choice is between nonviolence and nonexistence."?
I've thought and written about this phenomenon before and I wish I could coin a term for it:
King, particularly in his last year, was a challenge and, to some, a threat to the arrogance of American Exceptionalism and its accompanying and growing militarism.
That is to say he was beginning to speak to America's bad conscience, warning the Lady of Light and Liberty that she was in danger of becoming Madam in a Fat Car, Bitch of Babylon.
Everyone has heard and remembers, "I have a dream...".
But how many have ever heard, let alone remember, "The choice is not between violence and nonviolence, the choice is between nonviolence and nonexistence."?
I've thought and written about this phenomenon before and I wish I could coin a term for it:
When prophets cannot be silenced, when they are dead, as much truth is drained off as can be gotten away with without making them look completely bloodless.
What remains is diluted with trivialities.
Then they are sealed in plastic, placed on a pedestal and, if needed, their birthday becomes a national holiday.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Listen to the Night Winds Wail....
On the early morning news here in the Happy Little Kingdom, they talked about the missle base being built about 100 miles from where I live -- it's part of the "Missle Defense Shield" boondongle which is advetised as a defense against a rocket from Iran.
The Russians for their part say they'll target such bases with their rockets. I can't, for my part understand why -- don't they trust our good intentions?
Time out for a little sad song...
I lie upon my bed at night
and stare into the light.
These sights I see, can they really be
what's causing our misery?
Perhaps it serves no real use
to explain it all to you,
but it's the things that
we all do that are
tickling the Dragon's Tail!
It's kind of strange don't you think,
our world totters on the brink
of global catastrophe and
endless, Total War…
But how is it we all react?
We go out and shop for more
of them Shiny Things that
glow in the Dark and
tickle the Dragon's Tail!
If we keep on going down the road we're on,
there won't be no turning back!
Pretty soon the tarmac will crack
and the zeroes will attack!
The world will go down to the shade
when the roses all fade,
We'll all sleep
in the bed we made
by tickling the Dragon's Tail!
There are those who say a better day
will come if we only pray.
The "Lord" will come and kiss our thumb
and smile and wipe our bum.
I swear by hope and faith and love
and by the Lord Above:
that it ain't a-gonna happen
because we've all been
Tickling the Dragon's Tail!
Listen to the night,
listen to the night,
listen to the night winds wail!
The Russians for their part say they'll target such bases with their rockets. I can't, for my part understand why -- don't they trust our good intentions?
Time out for a little sad song...
I lie upon my bed at night
and stare into the light.
These sights I see, can they really be
what's causing our misery?
Perhaps it serves no real use
to explain it all to you,
but it's the things that
we all do that are
tickling the Dragon's Tail!
It's kind of strange don't you think,
our world totters on the brink
of global catastrophe and
endless, Total War…
But how is it we all react?
We go out and shop for more
of them Shiny Things that
glow in the Dark and
tickle the Dragon's Tail!
If we keep on going down the road we're on,
there won't be no turning back!
Pretty soon the tarmac will crack
and the zeroes will attack!
The world will go down to the shade
when the roses all fade,
We'll all sleep
in the bed we made
by tickling the Dragon's Tail!
There are those who say a better day
will come if we only pray.
The "Lord" will come and kiss our thumb
and smile and wipe our bum.
I swear by hope and faith and love
and by the Lord Above:
that it ain't a-gonna happen
because we've all been
Tickling the Dragon's Tail!
Listen to the night,
listen to the night,
listen to the night winds wail!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The Price of Peace is Soxcess
Success is a funny thing -- a lot depends on how you define it. As a matter of fact, a lot depends on how you spell sugcess!
But no one can deny that Wudda-Wreck and the Battle(s) of Body-bag have been a sucksass beyond our wildest expectations!
Who could have known that the grateful citizens, as we waltzed around our cakewalk, would throw that many flowers at our brave soldiers? Who could have foreseen that four thousand would be smothered to death in all those petals?
It was tragic, but tragedy is sometimes the price of peace!
But no one can deny that Wudda-Wreck and the Battle(s) of Body-bag have been a sucksass beyond our wildest expectations!
Who could have known that the grateful citizens, as we waltzed around our cakewalk, would throw that many flowers at our brave soldiers? Who could have foreseen that four thousand would be smothered to death in all those petals?
It was tragic, but tragedy is sometimes the price of peace!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Cucumber Time...
There is a phrase in the language spoken here in the Happy Little Kingdom which roughly translates to: "Cucumber Time". This refers to the silly season during the summer when there really isn't any news and you get "man-bites-dog" stories blown up as Great News.
Of course, I give little credence to the misinformation and psuedo-science which purports to "prove" the "global warming" hoax. It is sufficient that our Dear Leader thinks little of it and I would trust Him with everything, except my life, bank account and honor -- not necessarily in that order.
However, "Cucumber Time" has fallen upon us here in the Happy Little Kingdom -- and it isn't even April Fools Day!
A fellow in a major political party here, Jesper Cowfoot got himself what we used to call back in Poosah City a "piece of ass". Indeed, he got the tenderloin, in fact if it had been in the United State of Arrogance, he would be finding himself on the way to jail. The sweet lady in question was what we called back then as San Quentin Quail -- she was only 15 years old...
However, in the Happy Little Kingdom the age of consent is 15 -- so, there is no scandal, let alone a criminal case there.
But the Tabloids! The headlines were almost as tall as Jesper's little soldier, when standing at attention.
Wow!
This World Class News was followed up the next day by informing us that he had not used a rubber and the little girl had to take a pill to exclude the possibility of pregnancy.
Geeze, I'm not a prude and to be rude, if a 15 year old girl, assuming it wasn't in a place like Georgia, offered to grace my old age with some sweet sweet sugar -- well, I'd have to say, wait and see what I would do.
Of course, I give little credence to the misinformation and psuedo-science which purports to "prove" the "global warming" hoax. It is sufficient that our Dear Leader thinks little of it and I would trust Him with everything, except my life, bank account and honor -- not necessarily in that order.
However, "Cucumber Time" has fallen upon us here in the Happy Little Kingdom -- and it isn't even April Fools Day!
A fellow in a major political party here, Jesper Cowfoot got himself what we used to call back in Poosah City a "piece of ass". Indeed, he got the tenderloin, in fact if it had been in the United State of Arrogance, he would be finding himself on the way to jail. The sweet lady in question was what we called back then as San Quentin Quail -- she was only 15 years old...
However, in the Happy Little Kingdom the age of consent is 15 -- so, there is no scandal, let alone a criminal case there.
But the Tabloids! The headlines were almost as tall as Jesper's little soldier, when standing at attention.
Wow!
This World Class News was followed up the next day by informing us that he had not used a rubber and the little girl had to take a pill to exclude the possibility of pregnancy.
Geeze, I'm not a prude and to be rude, if a 15 year old girl, assuming it wasn't in a place like Georgia, offered to grace my old age with some sweet sweet sugar -- well, I'd have to say, wait and see what I would do.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Mars Rover
Disgusted?
Well, yes, in fact pissed off in a number of ways.
Didja know, we put 800 million dollars into a project to put a couple of things on wheels called Mars Rovers on the surface of, yeah, Mars.
Okay, you might disagree and say that was a lot of money to spend for what.?
On the other hand, the damn things on wheels have been there for three years -- and they only figured they would run three months!
They have given us an amazing real time amount of information about Mars, not the least that there has been running water on the planet. In fact, they are damn close to being able to tell us if there has actually been LIFE there -- this is the goddamn ontological question of the millennium!
It costs some 20 million a year to keep the buggers running, considering that they have continued to work ten times what was planned along with the amazing information they have given us about this sister planet, 20 million a year is peanuts.
HOWEVER, since the Bush (mal)administration has spent one trillion dollars on an military escapade which no one has yet been able to explain, NASA must cut costs, and so, to save 4 million, they will turn off one of the Mars Rovers. When they turn it off, they will not be able to turn it back on. The other Rover will be put on standby and will, perhaps, maybe, be capable of being restarted.
It's a small thing, I guess, compared to the other shit the Codpiece Admin has pulled, but, somehow, it seems to me to be an archetype of their shit.
Well, yes, in fact pissed off in a number of ways.
Didja know, we put 800 million dollars into a project to put a couple of things on wheels called Mars Rovers on the surface of, yeah, Mars.
Okay, you might disagree and say that was a lot of money to spend for what.?
On the other hand, the damn things on wheels have been there for three years -- and they only figured they would run three months!
They have given us an amazing real time amount of information about Mars, not the least that there has been running water on the planet. In fact, they are damn close to being able to tell us if there has actually been LIFE there -- this is the goddamn ontological question of the millennium!
It costs some 20 million a year to keep the buggers running, considering that they have continued to work ten times what was planned along with the amazing information they have given us about this sister planet, 20 million a year is peanuts.
HOWEVER, since the Bush (mal)administration has spent one trillion dollars on an military escapade which no one has yet been able to explain, NASA must cut costs, and so, to save 4 million, they will turn off one of the Mars Rovers. When they turn it off, they will not be able to turn it back on. The other Rover will be put on standby and will, perhaps, maybe, be capable of being restarted.
It's a small thing, I guess, compared to the other shit the Codpiece Admin has pulled, but, somehow, it seems to me to be an archetype of their shit.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A Quote from "Arrogance is Run By Gangsters"
[One of my favorite on-line writers is a fellow named Joe Bagent. This quote is taken from the end of his answer to a reader's letter to him "America is Run By Gansters"]
If there is to be so much more misery in the world, I'd rather be among those alleviating it than causing it. We all make choices. There's no high fallutin' moral stuff involved in such a choice. All things considered, it's just easier in the long run to help our fellow man than to fuck him over.
Which proves, at least in my case, there is some moral advantage to being lazy.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Five Years and Four Thousand
Five years and four thousand -- and for what purpose?
Whatever, the leader says it was worth it -- and that victory will be ours...
"Little man, I'm telling you
you'd better figure it out pretty soon
why they bleed you."
"Hail Mary, full of hate,
your sons are soldiers and heads of state,
they hide behind armor and steel plate,
cursed is the fruit of your womb..."
"And the question keeps pounding in my brain:
How much longer must we wait
while others decide our fate?"
"And the answer is always the same:
Peace now -- or pieces later!
Whatever, the leader says it was worth it -- and that victory will be ours...
"Little man, I'm telling you
you'd better figure it out pretty soon
why they bleed you."
"Hail Mary, full of hate,
your sons are soldiers and heads of state,
they hide behind armor and steel plate,
cursed is the fruit of your womb..."
"And the question keeps pounding in my brain:
How much longer must we wait
while others decide our fate?"
"And the answer is always the same:
Peace now -- or pieces later!
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