Pop Quiz: Who’s My Favorite President?

Man!… Do NOT say Lincoln!  EVERYONE loves Lincoln.  He unified the Idea of The United States.  Before Lincoln every one referred to the nation in Plural… the United States Are…  etc.  After Lincoln that changed and people then said The United States IS…

***

No, I have to admit that I got that from the Nicholas Cage speech in National Treasure.  But that IS really why we all love Lincoln.  Rome should have had the Very Good Sense to Canonize him so we could have a Saint Lincoln in our history.  Well, they had their chance…

No.  It is, unquestionably Thomas Jefferson.  Wow.  What an ASSHOLE!

I say that with all respect.  Here is a man that was self educated at his father’s bookshelf, then his tutor’s, then his patron’s…

The man read… and read… and read…  He questioned what he read.  He articulated it into his every day activities.  I am not talking about Portnoy’s Complaint (yeah, not written yet… shut up!  Stay with me).  I mean some hardcore treatises on Philosophy by Socrates, Plato, Cant and others (some contemporary and even… Forbidden… at the time).  He also read in the original Greek and Latin books I, personally, have never even seen.

He was a driven man.  He was driven to expand his late father’s holdings (not exactly shabby either), to expand the Colonies’ and their territorial knowledge about themselves.  Lewis and Clark had NOTHING on this man for exploration and mapping.

He was a remarkable man.  He was truly a Man Of His Time.  Think about it…  The New World!  The evolving colonies …evolving into Free Men who would shape the distant future.  Yet first they had to know the NOW (at that time, of course).  What BALLS!  What Excellence!

So, No, he was anything but an asshole as we term it today (all except me since I view it as a character to aspire to).  What is funny is that we call him a Patriot.  He was, at the time, a terrorist.  It just goes to show you that the winner gets to write the History Books.

His lessons are plain, however.  He was nothing if not a prolific writer.  He kept journals, diaries, wrote letters, editorials…  He was certainly not afraid to speak or write his thinking.  In another one hundred years do you think our descendants will look upon our works with the same reverence?  Will we inspire them to greatness?  Will we pass our words into the aeons of timeless remembrance?

Or will we lose our right to communicate in the next year or two?

That seems a very real fear.  A very real possibility.  Rumor has it that the very Elite Rich want to wipe 95% of humanity from the globe and leave only serfs without rights to service their comfort.  This is not a discussion of those possible fears.  You may indulge your phantasms by Google Searching:

Agenda 21, Codex Alimentarius or just “Useless Eaters” to discover what the story is.  It is not even a secret.

What I want to point out is that Thomas Jefferson – along with Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin and their fellow conspirators set out to teach us all some very sophisticated lessons and arm us all with weapons that cannot be taken away: ideas.

You cannot kill an idea.  You cannot hold it, contain it, covet it or control it.  You can only embrace it.  You may then turn away from it but FIRST you must embrace it wholly.  Having done so it WILL change you.  For once you have taken an idea in, it is part of you.  You can then deny it, defy it, revile it…

But it is IN you nonetheless.

That is why I love Thomas Jefferson.  Because of his ideas.  Here is one I would offer to you:

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then.”

Recently I vilified the Occupy  movement.  I now see that I was wrong to do so.  Sure, I still think that they need to do more.  But to merely condemn them was wrong.  We Need a little rebellion.  We need to have some folks stand up and say this is the fucking time… not later… Now.

I just wish they would say WHAT it is time for.  I have some thoughts on that.  I think it is time for the Citizens – the People as in We The People – to take control of Government.  We are in perilous times.  There is talk of Genocide, talk of instituted Famine, talk of mass graves being dug, talk of Military Troops bein deployed for US soil actions against its citizens, talk of Questionnaires distributed to young Marines in Camp 29 Palms asking if they would fire upon US citizens while forcibly stripping them of firearms…

There are Bills in the Senate and house of Representatives asking to censor the Internet as a wholesale activity, to let the Military hold and detain US Citizens Without Charge and Without Limit of Duration.

How is it that these people, these Representatives, these Delegate Senators for their Citizen Constituency are Doing OUR Will in these actions? WHO asks for this?  WHO benefits by this?  Who can Stop It?

We can.

You Can.

…and you had better God-Damned get the Fuck On with It!.  The clock is ticking.

Oh, sure, you can be the one that is too busy for that shit.  You can piss and moan that you do not know what to do.  You can cry and shout that you just CAN’T.  Oh you CAN’T!

Well, there is a prefab FEMA plastic coffin already buried to hold you.  THAT you CAN do.  You can fill that role.  When they come to your door and shoot your ass stone dead, under Executive Orders, that is when you CAN’T do anything.

You decide.  Or fail to decide.  those are your only choices now.

For the moment I would advise you start paying attention to what your Government is trying to do.  Subscribe to DemandProgress.org.  At least be THAT little informed.  Your Government sees you as a problem.  They will Solve It in your Absence.

Stop being absent.

Fuck the New York Times

In response to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/opinion/mr-pauls-discredited-campaign.html?_r=1

First, I need to say that I am not a huge fan of the So-Called Free Press. I personally believe that it has been bought and paid for by the Status Quo of special interest politics for a very long time. So it comes as no shock to me to see that the NY Times is seeking to discredit the man, Ron Paul.

What is so far unimpeachable, apparently, are his suggestions on what has gone so very wrong with our nation and what he proposes to do to turn it around before calamity.

He has said simply the that we are broke. We cannot afford to continue our imperialist actions abroad. We cannot pay the cost of being our brothers’ (unasked-for) keeper.

Is there any doubt of this?

No, I am not ready to return to a pure Gold standard. However, I recognize that our current trade policies and activities have bankrupt us. When my wife runs out of money and has checks in her book, she thinks she can print money. The US CAN print money. Do you think that either my spouse or this nation are making sound fiscal decisions?

But let’s address the wanna-be unforgivable Racial statements. These were made 20 years ago. They were published in Ron Paul’s association. The newsletter contained economics essays written by Ron Paul. I understand they also had, on occasion, recipes. Do you think that Ron Paul wrote those?
Or approved them before publication?

Get over it.

How can you take yourselves serious about being a NEWS paper by reporting innuendo on purported 20 year old offenses in face of public statements made in the last month when Ron Paul attacked the judicial process as being slanted to hurt the minorities? He has been the strongest voice in years about minority rights and needs. Your belaboring of ineffectual and biased rhetoric is nothing less than shameful.

For my part, I am okay with it (the publication of rhetoric). I really expected nothing more from your publication. The NY Times continues to lead in lowering the bar for the amusement of the masses. One day I hope they return to reporting News once more.

I am a registered Democrat. I have been for many years – owing to the disgust I feel for the two (three, if you count the Reagan years – and I do) Bush regimes that have stripped us of our civil liberties and pandered to special interest and the wealthy. The GOP would have us believe that “We are Safer Than Ever Before!” Really? So… 10 zealots with guns could not possibly take it into their crazed minds to climb watchtowers in 10 towns and open fire on the citizenry?

Of COURSE they could. And it would be tragic and all the horror you might imagine it to be but the fact is we are NOT safer. The ONLY thing to change is that we have had our freedoms reduced in the name of calculated politicking. Now they want the right to censor the Internet in the name of eclipsing piracy. Yes, the need for stronger tools against piracy is great but circumventing the Judicial process is not the way to get it done. Congress has presented a bill, under the guise of protecting us from terror, to hold American citizens without charge indefinitely – oh, using our MILITARY, not our civilian police. Does that sound right to you? Does THAT make you safe?

As a Democrat I will (un-)happily say that Obama is a failure. If only for his fiscal policies and failure to obey the Constitutional directive to provide jobs. Is it all his fault, no. It does not change the facts, however.

So for the first time since Reagan was running, I am going to vote for ONE Republican. Ron Paul. No, not because I am some Leftist. Rather because I am terrified that even ONE more pork-fat, Old-Boy Politician is all that it will take to finish the concerted work started by the Ex-CIA Director George Bush Sr. to destroy a Free America.

If the US economy falls, the World falls. I cannot see any other candidate today making it plain that we need to fix our problems at home for ourselves and for our global partners.

This is one American’s opinion. For the time being I am able to voice it. Let me remind you all of something that is being sharply down-played in our country:

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism
- attributed to Thomas Jefferson

This, however, I Know he said:
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson

Lately I feel we have come to have much to fear. Therefore I embrace a leader that is unafraid and speaks the unpopular truth.

Vote for an Honest man. Vote for Ron Paul.

The Definition of Hate

This is something of a departure from my usual Rants and Vitriol.

When one (that would be YOU… the whole “One” thing…) reads a blog or forum you sort of have to either suspend judgement or pick a familiar picture of the voice of an article’s author.  I have supplied an image derived from a truly singular Anime: The Ghost In The Shell.  I use the “Laughing Man” sigel as my avatar.  The entire concept of an Avatar has evolved over the last couple of decades.  The simplest definition, in this context, is an image that an author hides behind so that you do not see that He or She is – in real life – unattractive.  In my case this is certainly the fact.  I was never what one (YOU again) might remotely consider attractive.  How I managed to attract a mate defies my sensibilities even to this very day.

You might wonder, and rightly so, why the Hell I care to illuminate the reader on my personal physiognomy and how it may fail to inspire confidence or some form of legitimacy to my being – and my written works – but that is relative to my current topic.  No, not my appearance but rather how I might view myself versus how I am viewed by a particular other.  In this case I am referring to my eldest child. …or Not as it happens.  Permit me to explain that uncertainty:

On October 10, 1987 a female infant was born in Providence Hospital in Portland Oregon to myself and my wife.  The child was, frankly, beautiful.  Oh, I know what you are thinking… every parent says that.  No.  This was not the case.  This infant was Angelic.  Born with a full head of straight and silken dark blond hair.  Penciled eyebrows, pleasing plump cheeks, cherubic rose red lips and piercing blue eyes with long delicate lashes.  She had the required number of digits with perfect nails and formed in flawless perfection.

I was stunned.  I never wanted children.  My exact words to my woman (not then my wife) when she informed me that she was pregnant with what would prove to be the single most life altering experience of my life were – and you may quote me – “You Bitch! You’ve ruined my life!”

…I grew up a bit afterwards… but not immediately.

I was a good father despite the rocky start.  A second daughter followed 18 months later.  A son arrived (unlooked for by anyone other than my wife) a number of years afterward.  I was… and AM a good father.  I have had some practice at it now so I can say this with some level of confidence.  The fact is… we never know.  We get our report card when the children reach adulthood.  I suppose the amount of therapy they require is the modifier that we have to use once the grades are actually computed…

I am screwed.  Somewhere I must have REALLY fucked up.  Oh, not in the traditional manner where therapy involves use of Dolls and “where Daddy Touched Me” sort of stuff. no, nothing like that.  Jesus!  I stopped going to Strip Clubs when my girls were nearing 18…  (I should point out that I made our rent for several years as a club DJ) it was just… creepy… to see women the same age as my own daughters naked.  In simplest terms… Homey not playin’ that game!

So now – and for some time – I drink at home.

Are you starting to get some idea of who I might be?  Not so clean but not so dirty either.  I will keep your secrets and have worse ones of my own…

All I ever wanted was to raise children that were not victims.  No… that is not quite right.  that came a little later.  Originally I wanted to raise children that were not neurotic.  We, my wife and I both, totally failed to do that first goal.  I was raised by a viscous emotionally and physically abusive alcoholic.  I have trust issues and I despise women.  My wife was raised in alcoholism, emotional abuse, and devout Catholicism.  She is bi-polar.  I am a prick.  Our kids were screwed before they were even conceived!

But… they are not victims.  They are the children that scare the fucking Hell out of the condescendi’s brats.  Loud, opinionated, venomously manipulative and hardcore spines the lot of them.  If that sounds like like pride, it is.  But there have been prices to be paid.  I have paid them.  I will continue to.  I count myself fortunate for the opportunity to sell my body’s strength, my peace of mind and even my self image to bleed my best for their benefit.

If you have children you understand this.  If you don’t, see my words [above] to my woman when she 1st got pregnant and get on to other entries…

That inexplicably beautiful infant grew to be a vibrant and powerful woman who hates me in a way that only close blood can.

What is ironic is that I named her for a woman that I would like to not only see dead but see die in horrible and excruciating pain.  I would make popcorn.  Salted and heavily buttered.  I speak, of course, of the woman that raised me.  She was not my physical mother – thank the Gods!  I can harbor fantasies about what a loving mother the womb of my birth might have been.  Still, you can see that this was ill fated from the start.  I made a foolish attempt to bridge my own feelings of loss with a deamon by sharing her name with my first born — and had to win a bitter argument with my wife to accomplish this.  I named her Mary Therese Ruth.  For the record… it did nothing to mend the abiding hate and visceral spite I have for the other woman.  How long it took to fail is unimportant.  It was not a good idea and I just had to find that out day by painful day.

That relationship had nothing to do with the child that was raised by my wife and I.  We loved her, nurtured her, supported her.  True, along the way I (we) disappointed her when fortunes robbed us of all security and we lost our home and pretty much everything else.  A review of the times will reveal many stories like our own.  I will not belabor the individual elements of misery that total loss and disenfranchisement can bring to a family.  It happened.  We survived it and not entirely unscathed.  The price is still being paid… to this very day.

The topic of this entry is Hate.  I will now address it.

So now you know that I am not a Paragon of Virtue.  Somehow I expect common readers to know this already…  I have nothing in my history that would require me to fall to my knees and repent horrific behaviors.  I am just a man.  Imperfect but I do try to fulfill my obligations and acquit myself with honor.  Even so I failed my eldest somewhere along the line.  Somewhere between 12 and 16 I lost it.  The “It” I lost was her respect and trust.  I have my suspicions as to the event horizon that made the inescapable causeway that was traversed between harmony and hatred but now it makes no difference.  I have aged unto Regret and she has fixated upon despite.

How would you define a consummate Hatred?  How might you express it?  I am an imaginative mother-fucker.  Truly.  I have references for the level of debasement that I am capable of when overtaken by my lesser  nature — oddly this differs from the list of my failings (real or imagined) that I surmise my wife keeps in case someone asks me “What the Fuck is Wrong with you?!  That said, I was Stunned to Speechlessness by my eldest’s actions to demonstrate her Hate of me.  She changed her name.  Completely.

Why would one change their name?  The last I checked (and being adopted, I did) I am not a Nazi War Criminal, I am not a serial killer, I never touched her or anyone outside of my spouse in an inappropriate manner (and my wife enjoyed it…).  But skip all of that.  She changed her name and surname.  So, in effect, my wife and I HAVE NO eldest child.  She has become legally null.  When I die – to my eldest’s applause, I suppose – if I leave an estate… she will get nothing.  SHE does not exist unless I specifically name her in my will — for the record, Hell no, I will not.

I revile her usurpation of the gift of Life that her mother and I provided her.  The long years of sufferance and sacrifice we underwent, both selflessly and joyfully, to provide for her she has negated.

There can be no more consummate expression of Hate than this.  Frankly, if I were not so angry for her disrespect of her mother in this, I would be impressed.

Given that she has worked for years to demonstrate her hatred for me — trying to give away expensive jewelry I purchased for her, leaving Christmas gifts unopened, refusing financial help to name only the most obvious — she certainly seems to have no problem assuming my more negative personal attributes as her own.

I am a small and mean creature.  I trust no one.  I have no friends – or rather none that are close.  My eldest daughter is a horrific bitch.  She has a boyfriend that she humiliates and dominates like it is an occupation.  She is spiteful, vindictive and cruel.

I have to assume these things she learned from me.  Her mother is none of these things.  I would have thought that the genetic grab-bag would have mitigated at least SOME of my failings in my progeny.  It is a sad commentary that the child despises that which is at the heart of herself.

I can only hope to survive her senseless ire.  But I do not know if I will have that many days…

Hell, do any of us?

Occupy THIS!

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a month old now.  It has, theoretically, spawned a number of ‘spontaneous’ events across the country – including my own Portland, OR area.  The political pundits have lined up on both sides of the extremist aisle to support and condemn the events.

To paraphrase the far left it is a Call to Arms, A Wake-Up Call and outpouring of the working class poor rallying against the ultra-rich and conservative establishment.

- I have not heard or used the phrase “The Establishment” since the 1960′s.  Frankly, I see no reason to revive the term and fail to see any true association between the Peace Rallys of that time with the activities of the present day – unless you count the disturbing lack of personal hygiene common to a large proportion of the participants.

The predominant comment that I hear is the fear that the OWS Message will be usurped by agents of the Radical Left “just like what happened to the Tea Party Movement” – meaning that the Conservative Right Wing overtook what was originally a sensible platform calling for normal folks to take the government back from the grass roots inward.  When Sarah Palin became an anointed supporter I knew that the movement was dead.  I do not think there is a great risk of that occurring.  The reason I doubt this as a possibility is because there is not a unified message or platform beyond a sense of discontent.

On one hand we have people stating their anger that the government is deep in the camp of Wall Street and old PAC Money interests, pandering to the ultra-rich, continuing a long established pogrom of reduction of civil liberties, advancing the Police State and our Imperialist behaviors abroad to the detriment of our economy and ever growing unemployed work force.  I can understand this argument and agree with the sentiments expressed.  I am not a radical leftist or anything but I am bitterly disappointed with my government’s activities for the last …thirty years.

Unfortunately, there are a host of other statements getting quite a bit of press.  While it is possible that the sound bytes I have heard have been cherry picked for their absurdity, they certainly are not lending any legitimacy to the (indeterminate) cause of OWS.  Statements like ‘We need to tear down the entire system,’ ‘the government should pay my school debts,’ ‘we should not have to work,’ ‘we should have free health care and no taxes…’ and the like paint a comic face on the whole movement.

On that note, Is it a Movement?  I, for one, do not think for an instant that this series of events is actually spontaneous.  I do not think they are un-organized, not un-funded.  Just take into account the fact that they have been properly setup with permits.  Stop right there.  Permits mean that someone organized the events and ensured that the government fees were in place – all across the country at the same time.  Are we really that stupid that we are supposed to suspend all critical thinking and believe that this is a true representation of public and popular viewpoint?

For that matter, given some of the ridiculous statements coming out of the media from these protestors, is this same public actually THIS stupid?  Is it a natural conclusion of the failure of our education system that the masses have degenerated into a soft-in-the-head mob?

I do not think that these people are representative of the actual American Public.  Further, I do not think this stunt (and that is really what it amounts to) accomplishes anything except embarrass the lot of us.

Sure, I am about as angry as any American can be.  However, I am not taken in by rhetoric.  I am unimpressed by swelling numbers of (largely) malcontents making spurious demands that cannot possibly be met.  I do not think myself alone in this mindset, either.  Which then begs the question: What is all of this REALLY for?  Moreover, why is it being permitted?

Do you think, for a moment, that New York City cannot put down this mob in a heartbeat?  The cities are NOT hostage to this sort of demonstration.  This is the equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum – and has about the same significance.  So why is it being permitted?  At best it is a possible release mechanism for the energies of an unhappy populace.  But this is not post medieval Europe.  While there can be some argued similarities (a stretch, but they can be made), the overall image of peasants and pitchforks storming the palace gates is laughable, not laudable.

The Radical Right is having a field day with this thing – and they should.  I have no love for the likes of Glen Beck and his fascist-cum-conservative views.  I preferred Rush Limbaugh because he, at least, made intelligent observations on the failings of the Democratic leadership.  Beck is just a demagogue with a franchised microphone.  His commentaries are only thinly veiled promotions for his paid online TV show.  He wraps it up in home-spun platitudes about God, Country and Family and uses our fear of loss of our way of life (ignoring the obvious fact that his beloved Republican Administrations are the reason we have much to fear in the first place).

Frankly, we do not need to feed the machinery of extremes on either side of the American political framework.  OWS needs to get a clear and cogent message from the REAL 99%.  We are dusgusted with the sham being made in OUR names.  Get off our streets and return to your shadows.  You are not our representatives.  WE are not ignorant.  WE are not in need of your vulgar voice.  WE will clean our OWN house thank you very much.

Go Home!

A true day of reckoning is, I think, inevitable.  It will not look anything like what we are seeing.  It will come with a unified voice.  It will have a clear message.  It will have a plan that identifies performance benchmarks.  It will have authentic leadership.

It will have adequate sanitation, I can tell you that for certain!

On that note, I think that there is an overwhelming image that succinctly defines OWS…

Social Networking… Blows!

To paraphrase the Bard…

Oh screw that!  I am not gonna use Shakespeare to try and romanticize my social inadequacies.

I am a prick.  I have always been a prick and am not going to change any time soon.  Oh, yes, I AM thrilled to my core (dank, dusty, smelly and over the years… flabby and no longer able to fit  – even in fantasy – into Chemin de Fleur Jeans) to hear from folks I have not seen in over 30 years.  I LOVE these folks!

Wait… No I do not!

I love the folks I knew!  I no longer know these people.  Who the FUCK are these folks?!  For that matter… Who the FUCK am I to even think about communicating with them?

I’m a TOAD!  I am neither successful nor attractive!  I have TOTALLY failed to come into line with the Ideal of what I meant to be – nevermind that that person was envisioned by a young male that had never even wet his dick in the appropriate place…  Oh, and NOW I would need to stipulate that the “Appropriate” place would involve a Human Female – ok, and to continue the diatribe of cultural mores, the human female would be of White Ethnicity…

(For the record, the 1st White Human Female to so annoint my male appendage came after a series of Asian Female orifices…)

…But you SEE my dilemma, right?  I am SUCH a post-facto hypocrit!  I recall writing in my High School yearbook that I would see all of my (assumed) friends on … what was it… oh damn… I do not even recall.  I want to say K*L*O*S (and who would not!  They are still active and were THE SoCal RockRradio Station) …or whatever.  I never worked for them.

Ok, for my own pride – only a bit tarnished – I DID complete an internship at K*E*Z*Y and work the 12-6 shift for a SHORT time.  But I never worked in professional Radio again.  – Yes, I was GOOD!  I had an excellent On-Air voice and demeanor.  Fate, however, conspired to make it a Flash in the Pan career.  Oh well.  My Point is that I totally failed to become SOMEBODY.

But that is not entirely true, though, is it?

I married.  I have three children.  My life has touched many others (and only on occasion in an inappropriate manner…)

So… what about the lies we told ourselves?  Is it Okay to not be the Rock Stars we promised we would be?  I mean, who said they would be the Senior Support Application Specialist for a small but thriving off-market telecom supplier?  No one.  However, there are likely thousands of customers, over the years, that would gladly bake a pie for that person because he/she saved their phone service during hard times and took the time to listen to their problem…

Where am I going with this?

Nowhere.  Which is where we ALL are.  Sure, one or three “Made It.”  Fuck ‘em.  They vote Republican and think that Sarah Palin should be elected because she is ‘Pert.’  They also want to FUCK the bitch.  As far as I am concerned, the entire lot of them should line up and train chain fuck her and let her speak on abstinence afterwards in bible study.  Wait… was that too harsh?  Not on Sarah, Fuck her, I meant the rest of the class.

Pffft!  Get thee behind me stupid cunts!

Okay, now that THAT is over…

We are ALL coming of age in one way or another.  My children (yea… I spawned… God Help You All!)… are college age.  One is literally working her way through college.  For the record, No, she is NOT stripping.  Frankly… no one would hire her.  [SHUT THE FUCK UP!  A father knows the difference and knows when to keep his fucking mouth shut.]  Ahem.  My other daughter has gone heathen.  For her benefit: Wicken.  For my benefit: Stupid.

I will DEAL with her later.

But my point stands… the world is a miasma of misconceptions bourne of false expectations and usurped by agents of (what can only be described as) Evil Intent.  So it comes as little surprise that we all feel a little lost.  If you do not feel lost… get the FUCK off my blog!  This is for those that have retained a strong sense of Americana and know what we have had raped from us.

So let me define MY audience – a little late but please apply your finger to the moral pulse beat.  You are my intended audience if:

• You recall when the “Moral Imperative” WAS in fact Moral – whether or not you agreed
• You believe that Justice may be blind, but should at the very least be Present
• You laughed a George Carlin’s jokes against Richard Nixon but now regret it
• You know that Bush Jr put us into an illegal war and THAT is why our economy is fucked NOT because of Obama’s efforts to un-fuck the situation
• You recall that the MPAA/IRAA lost their case before the Supreme Court and should be pro-scripted from trying to force legislation in their favor that circumvents the Judicial Process of Law
• You have at least a room temperature IQ and a mind of your own

If you do not fit the above and are still reading… God Bless you.

Moving on…

Times, and WE, change.  I used to abhor Capital Punishment.  Now I am not only in favor of it, I want young adults to be required to witness it.  Why?  Because I want them to bear witness the extreme failing of getting along.  Simple as that.  Oh, I do not mean Lethal Injection… no no, I mean something wholly spectacular that they will NEVER forget!  Draw and Quarter, Guillotine, Pressing – oh fuck me… how about simply being whipped and scourged to death?  Lots of blood and fluids!  Show me ONE wanna-be gang-banging mutha-fuckah that can watch a man get disemboweled and butt-fucked by a goat at the same time without coming to a whole new way of thinking!  They are out there… and they’ll make excellent press when the time comes.

Public Executions…  Bring ‘em back!

But first, let’s get our Bill of Rights repaired.  Let’s fix the last 30 years of erosion to the Constitution.  Let’s take responsibility for our government.  You want to get Link-In… Link into your own country!  Why do you spend billions of hours collectively searching for one another when you should be searching for the value of your own nation?!

I do not know the numbers, personally, but I suspect that there are at least 20 million Americans participating in Facebook, Link-In, Twitter and YouTube.  Why?!  To show how funny your fucking Cat is?  Hey, I LOVE my Cat!  I made a pact with God to care for her(him).  But I love my Nation and my People more!  I am BEGGING you all to wake up and smell the stench of our nations decay!

You spend SO much time on Facebook, Twitter (and all of you that do Twitter at work need to be Bitch-Slapped!) and the like.  How much time do you spend on DemandProgress.org?  How much time do you spend on wikileaks?  How much time do spend on BBS news looking at how the rest of the world views your own country?

No!  I am NOT the man I expected myself to become.  No!  I am not Cool.  No! I am NOT a powerful person… I am not a Captain nor a King.  I am just a man.  A father.  A husband.  A loyal American!  I am… You.  I am the minimalist of humanity but I Care and I am ANGRY!

Raise your head and look around.  Are YOU “Proud To Be American?”  If not, DO some Fucking Thing about it.  Run for office.  Assemble and Speak Your Mind.  Buy, care for and USE a Firearm.

It is your right.

It is true that the Articles of Confederation came from the Slave Owning states.  You should thank your lucky stars (and Stripes) for the vast number of Men (because women could not yet vote) who spoke the word ‘Nigger’ on a regular basis.  Those ignorant bastards forced the Bill of Rights into our Heritage.  But between them and the likes of Thomas Jefferson we forged… THEY forged… a legacy of FREEDOM that is being robbed from us by degrees almost every day!

I was born a Free man.  My children less so.  What will your great-grandchildren be born to?

“Like” this on Facebook dumb-ass!

Whose greed is it anyway?

So I have been following – via a malcontent’s subscription to the pulse of Congress – the various iterations of an Internet Blacklist bill presented for action.  I want to say, right up front, that I participate in torrent downloads of copyrighted videos.  Do I know it is wrong… yes.  I have my reasons for doing so – those of us that do it all have ‘reasons’ and some are better than others.  It is fundamentally wrong.  However, I would also like to make a few things very clear on why this whole Blacklisting idea is an even greater evil.

A number of years ago, I am not certain how many but Kazaa was still going strong so figure it out for yourself, the MPAA and IRAA went before the Supreme Court of the United States and tried to stop torrenting and distributed private networking of files.  They lost their case.  The Supreme Court handed down a ruling that stated, in essence, What Private Individuals Do For Their Own Purposes and Without Deriving Monetary or Other Capital Gain… is between them and no one else’s business.

Ok.  So that’s it, right?  Oh no my friends, not in the least…  Within a week Kazaa, Napster and a number of other popular services were deluged with crap files — files with the names of popular music and movie files of reasonable size and file type names that were, instead, corrupt and void content files.  They appeared in the MILLIONS.  While it is not my place to point fingers, let me say that I am not a big believer in coincidence.  What I maintain to be true is that these agencies committed, or caused to be committed, mass acts of internet piracy and vandalism the likes of which had never been contemplated.  Within a few months the services – that were free to the user and made their living off of ancillary advertising through legal channels, failed utterly.

No one sheds a tear for those dis-enfranchised business owners who were conducting a legal form of commerce.  The MPAA and IRAA count this as a Win.  I count it as an uncharged federal crime conducted across international boundaries with the malicious intent to do harm.  The fact is, they got away with it.  The result, so far as distributed networking and torrenting is concerned, is that the communities closed ranks and began improving their security and going private.

Now the Boys are back.  They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the campaigns and elections of otherwise ignorant Senators and representatives.  They have began to push for legislation to block the otherwise Supreme Court sanctioned traffic of media files.  Remember now, I admit that the practice is wrong.  I did not say, however, that it is illegal.  But if you were raised to know the difference between right and wrong… then, yeah, it IS wrong.  For my part, I download media to amuse my family during times of economic distress because I cannot afford to take us out to the movies or blindly buy a DVD or Blu-Ray disk in hopes that it will play more than three times in 5 years.  For the record, the “good” stuff, movies that I notice they  (my family) watch semi regularly, I purchase.  So I assuage my conscience by telling myself it is a trial version.  [I am fooling NO ONE... but I do try to do the right thing once finances come online.]

Anyway… the MPAA/IRAA have financed legislators – and I HAVE to assume they have targeted those that would not know a floppy disk from a limp dick given the laws they want to enact.  I will explain my thinking there later.  They now are demonstrating the foolishness of permitting Big Business to buy our government.  The “Laws” they wish to enact have one very important and common thread – and mind you this idea has been presented in three previous guises; the bills they present CIRCUMVENT DUE PROCESS OF LAW.

Maybe this is because their case has ALREADY been heard and rejected by the Judicial branch of the United States Government.  So they feel that they, having the massive financial capability to do so, must plead Poor-Mouth to our lawmakers and connive… er, Convince them to believe that their cause is so just that it need not be proven before Justice.  I suppose if they have enough money they can convince our government that they are losing money on the lawful practices currently in place today on the internet.

Wait… what did I just say?  Sorry, that just does not make sense.  And then again it certainly does.  Now is not the time for me to step up onto THAT particular podium — you know, the one where I rant about the fact that good Government is found where you can purchase it…  [if he is no longer in office, is it still a crime to say FUCK BUSH?]

moving on…

So, Yes, I think that I am doing wrong – despite the Supreme Court Ruling.  However, I am not ready to say that ANY form of legislation should be enacted that summarily takes the Justices out of the the Judicial Process.  Who would become the watchdogs and guardians of Internet activity?  Hopefully not the morons that have become the puppets put up by the MPAA/IRAA!  What the Hell do these people know of our own age of Digital Information?  Frankly, I, myself, am no expert.  I am astounded by the ease with which Junior High School kids are creating incredible animations and hysterically funny (and, oddly, CLEAN) humor clips and serial comic books of quality that more than rivals Marvel and DC.

While we are on about the cause… what about Wikis?  What about the whistle-blower wiki sites?  WikiLeaks has put the public on notice about hundreds, maybe thousands of (often horrific) activities conducted by our own government as a matter of policy.  In the absence of Justice, censorship will prevail.  If a complaint alone suffices to blacklist a site from ALL of America… exactly what is to occur?  Who makes the decisions?  Who decides who those deciders will be?  How many ways can you spell CENSORSHIP and once you let it occur… how do you come back?

You don’t.

Hey, I am the first (well, fuck me, hardly even in the first one million, but let me take a little license here…) to say that Censorship Works!  Don’t take my word for it… Ask Hitler, Stalin, Castro… Hey, don’t look into the history books, look in TODAY’s news and ask CHINA!

Do you need me to beat you with it?  I will, no problem…  Or not.  If you are reading this then you obviously have enough brain pan to figure it out.

So who are the participants in this Great Stupidity? Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).  Hatch has a history of pre-paid legislative stupidities.  Leahy was a bit of a surprise… until you take a look at his major campaign contributors.  Guess who?  LOL, go look.  Now it would be inappropriate for me to try and quantify their Digital Age ignorance.  It is also beyond the scope of this discussion.  What I can and do suggest is that it is shameful that ANY lawmaker would volunteer to shit on the Constitution and present a piece of legislation that says ‘ No, the Law need NOT apply in this case.’

When is it that the LAW should Not apply to ANY question before the legislative body?  Obscenity?  The LAW applies.  Abortion?  The LAW applies.  Heresy?  Ok, you got me there… But even the Papal Ligation has its own Canon of Law.

So who do we apply to to make sure this shit stays off the books as Legislation?  — Man… You gotta give me a moment to give Props the The Man!  Ron Wyden.  I do not know or care if he is Democrat or Republican (Ok, I know but I do not want to poison the Partisans).  I have voted for this man for over 20 years.  Why?  Because he does the job.  He does His job.  He serves his community, his State…his People – The People of The United States of America.  I have recently read the bills he has presented before Congress – and you had best thank your stars for the fact that THAT information is not currently censored!  He has championed bills for modest amounts to rebuild tired and failing business districts in Portland, OR. (oh, he is the Senator for the State of Oregon, where I live).  I am wholly familiar with the benefits his actions have had in my community.  My favorite bill involved a Mom & Pop shop that was having difficulty.  I know the place and its owners.  I know that they wrote about the troubles they had to Ron Wyden’s Office.  I know that Ron Wyden took action at the Federal level to assist these folks and others in their situation.  I know I am not giving details but they mean nothing.  What is important is that he is accessible to ALL his constituents.  I would have to research for some little time indeed to find another like him.

For the record, the folks involved did contribute to Ron’s campaign.  They sent him $50.00 because that was what they could afford.  Leahy and Orrin received millions of dollars to their campaigns from the MPAA and IRAA.  I wonder what $50.00 would have motivated them to do?  I want to say that Ron Wyden has a VERY long history of caring for the citizens of the United States and for the residents of Oregon.  I do not, for an instant, want to suggest that he is motivated by anything other than his desire to protect the Citizens of the United States from its enemies – especially from those that reside here.

It should come as no surprise to you to know that Ron Wyden was instrumental in striking down the previous iteration of the Internet Blacklist Bill.  He cannot do it alone.  Wake up and smell the censorship!  This is not the simple case of Larry Flynt showing pubic hair and vaginal lips in Hustler.  This is a very real and very dangerous pre-emptive strike against ALL internet traffic.  They will wrap it in copyright infringement and child pornography but that is not HOW THE BILL IS WRITTEN.

Please, for the Love of God and Country!  Urge your lawmakers to accept the bill but ONLY with the Rights of Due Process of Law.  Sure, they will weaken the laws and fuck the system up… but if you give them free license… you will even see THIS site banned.

(FUCK BUSH!)

<that last bit was added to ensure that I get banned too when the illicit Axe falls.>

A little louder please, Mr. Jefferson!

Yes, I am a son of a bitch…

I have references.

If folks ever ask me “What is Wrong with you?!” I can assure them that if I cannot answer the question to their satisfaction…  my wife maintains a list!

I am in good company, I think.  I have known a number of Sons of Bitches… most of them have been pretty forthright folks.  I got on with them well… I suppose that it is normal enough that like kinds do get on well.

So what does it mean to be a son of a bitch?  Well, I think that one’s Maternal lineage has, in fact, little enough to do with it.  The fact that my own maternal influence was negative enough notwithstanding, I think it is an acquired point of view that prevents becoming pathologically involved with… pretty much anything not of our own choosing that is the defining point.  Mind you when I say Pathologically, I mean that in the most literal sense… I fail to become emotionally invested in things without them passing through my personal subjectivity filters.

So what comprises my filter?  I am not fully certain to be perfectly honest.  Not that I think it is possible to BE perfectly honest.  I think that we can be honest about what we feel when we are afraid not to be…  Or when it is wholly convenient to be – like when we are in the midst of an argument spawned from being wronged by someone who is emotionally invested in ourselves… and we think we can get something out of it.

You begin to see what I mean, I think.

[whatever I thought I was going to write here has been deleted twice.  So I am probably lying my ass off from here on...]

We do that, you know.  We censor ourselves in other forms of communication.  The Hell of it is when we FAIL to do so and hit SEND in our email and THEN come to our senses and realize that we should not have said whatever emotionally charged statement we just made to an otherwise unsuspecting audience.

I just did this, actually.  I sent a set of viscous and emotionally charged statements to a friend that I have not heard from in … oh … 30 years.  But fortune smiled upon me and I actually sent them to oblivion by virtue of having mis-spelled his email address.  <Whew!>

Lucky me.  It is one thing to be a Son of A Bitch… it is quite another to beat an old friend with the fact when only recently having become re-acquainted.

The truth is that I suspect that he, too, is a Son of a Bitch.  MY KIND of Son of a Bitch.  It seems likely.  He appears to have traveled the same formative pathways…  But you never know.

Perhaps he has not listened to the same head-banging music long enough to have slammed open the neural pathways that been forcibly hammered open as in my own brain?  Maybe he has been massaging his aural pathways with Lawrence Welk…?

I kind of doubt that.

Oh I do not mean to impune the ages old musical legacies of Mitch Miller or Lawrence Welk…  I do imply that they are best relegated to folks who might be sucking up spud suds (that would be Potato Beer) and loving it…

I prefer a bit more… tang… in my spice.  [and if you think I mean the Orange drink... I would slap you if it were possible]

What I am saying is that I have become more willing to assuage the effects of aging on the ambient perceptiveness that I have left to me by inputting new and emotionally charged musics into my skull…

I would find it difficult to communicate with anyone that can listen to The Crystal Method’s music without them having a visceral reactivity to it.  I am not saying that they must suddenly act the fool when they hear it… but damn it all… they better at least give up a little head nod or two…

Oh shit… I digressed.

I am actually discussing what it means to be a Son Of A bitch today.

I find it a little hard to nail down.  I mean… it is a way of life.  One does not elect to become one.  One simply awakes to the reality after the fact.

I think it is one of those things that creeps up on you.  My first evidence of it came when I had my 1st child.  I looked at my wife and told her, prophetically as it turns out, that there were now two classes of people that we would no longer get along with:  Other people’s children and other children’s parents.

Oh Shit!  That most certainly became the fact!  I do not care who you are or where you are from… you cannot completely agree with any other child rearing other than what YOU perform.  And, if and when you tell yourself the truth, you are not all that keen on your own!

When my wife and I were imminent to have children, I recall we made a simple pact; we would not raise neurotic children like ourselves…

We failed.  And so did You if you have children.

There is just no fucking way to raise “normal” kids!  I can prove this to you easily enough… Define what a “Normal” child is…?

You cannot.  No one can.  so how the fuck can we perform this “simple” task?  We are, from the very beginning hypocrites!  And we teach our children this first among all things!

So I abandoned this ridiculous idea very early.  And, yes, this is but one step of becoming a Son Of A Bitch.  I decided that, if I could not raise non-neurotic children, I would raise up little people that would not be Victims.

If you examine the motivations here you may be able to agree that this is both reasonable and practical.  Only an idiot will try to raise children that do not misbehave or make mistakes.  Their result is more likely to be a Serial Killer than a Leader of Men.  (let’s leave the similarity in those two definitions strictly alone for our discussion herein…)

If based solely on the movies, we know what the rules are to not raise victims…

There is never actually time for ‘One Last Kiss.’
If running for your life… do NOT look back!
Do not leave your post for ‘just a moment’ to examine whatever the fuck it is you see…

These are pretty self evident, I think.  But we now know a huge list of other things that we should not HAVE to know… Like don’t go with Father Donoghal into the back room… oh shit…  I am just ill at the idea of itemizing all the new ways that children can become victims…

Suffice to say that not raising victims is the keystone to raising successful people!  I never asked my children to not do wrong.  I figure it is their job.  Instead I cautioned them against doing a wrong that they would get caught at.  To not do a thing that they could not stand up for… that is what I taught them.  When they got caught doing something wrong… they got punished.  Yeah, for the moral bads I got on them for that.  The worst was for lying.  The rest… was for not thinking it through and getting caught.

I have done plenty of things that do not appear in my resume.  You have similar things I am sure!  But you should teach your children right and wrong… and how to get things done when neither apply.

And it exactly this that I am discussing now.

It is when there are no clear demarcation lines between right and wrong that we have to make evaluations based from different experiences.  This is when we find out who is a Son of A Bitch and who is… dead.

I am still very much alive.  Do you know how an Old Dog gets Old?  He survives his mistakes.  I think that that is how we become old dogs… sons of bitches.

We survive our mistakes.

We also know a bad thing when it it is still on the horizon.

Well… there is a bad thing coming.  I can smell it.  I see the seeds of evil and can scent their fruition…

I do not think that I am alone.  I think that a lot of Sons Of Bitches out there can sense the very same thing.  So I say to you the following thing;

You have teeth.  Use them.

Comments on an ‘American Tune’

[...]

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it’s all right, it’s all right
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

[...]excerpted from Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” © 1973

When I revived my love for this particular song – after an interval of some 25 years – I wept bitterly.  The tone was, I feel certain, not meant to be prophetic but it has proved to be that in spades as the saying goes.

When I look around myself today I see the words above as a cancer that has pervaded the entire fabric of my nation.  I see an America that has been systematically degraded and made to lose its identity… she is drowning in a morass of corrupt materialism that has been fed us, like a faint poison, over time and generations until it has now reached a near lethal concentration.

When I was young America knew her heart.  We The People loved her and cherished her ideals and spoke her name in Pride.  It is, I think, a function of having been raised by the WWII generation that I grew up knowing what it means to BE an American.  I spoke the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer with equal conviction at the start of every day.

America has, it would seem, outgrown the need for God.  This according to the efforts of recent Administrations.  It is a good thing, too…  Our recent Presidents certainly would not want to be responsible to God for their works.  They, similarly, have not wanted to be made responsible to the People either.

When did commerce replace the common good?  How did money become the symbol of character?  Who is the beneficiary of an Imperialist America?  Why are we ALWAYS in some form of armed conflict?  What happened to replace the “Moral Imperative” for war with a nebulous veil of hypocrisy that sends our young citizens into aggression against other Peoples that do not require our intercession?

I have often pondered how this State of Affairs has come into being?  How is it that there is so much fear in our People?  Why do We fear our government?  Thomas Jefferson stated it plainly enough when he made it clear that the Government should fear the People.  As far back as 400 B.C. this has been the rule…  Those who Rule do so by Consent of the governed.  Plato knew it, Caesar knew it…  Our founding fathers taught that lesson harshly to the British monarchy.

I pledge allegiance to America and the Republic for which it stands…

The Republic…  I do not see the interests of Americans being Represented.  I see the interests of Big Oil and Arms Dealers…  but not those of Granny Fulbright or little Susie Alscott.  Even in the aftermath of 9/11 I have yet to speak with anyone who is in favor of our activities in the Middle East.  If Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan… why are we not there in numbers and yanking his ass out of the caves?  I heard a General on T.V. say it would take a million men to get him.  I think we can get one million citizens to volunteer for that duty specifically.  At fifty years of age, I would go.

They need a better argument.

Don’t get me wrong, I know we have enemies.  My point, however, is that our government is in the business of making enemies.  We have a long and bloody history of forcing our interests abroad.  For nearly a decade we have been paying the price of George Bush Jr.’s war.  It is bankrupting our nation.  Our enemy is still at large.  But at least George’s profiteering buddies and Texas made some money out of it…

Our foreign policies are, perhaps, not meant to be considered by the commonality of Americans.  I’ll grant that.  I do not agree with it, but with respect for those that are in harm’s way I will move off the topic.

I think one of the greatest sorrows has been that our “free” press has – for some time – been anything BUT Free.  Let me give you an example; Lyndon LaRouche.  Here we have a man whose credits include engineering the SDI for the Reagan administration.  He is a sharp politician, a talented (if daring) economist and one-time candidate for the Presidency.

While seeking office the first time, he was imprisoned for tax fraud. After the election it was “discovered” that it was all a mistake.  But during the publicity over his condition every report, on every channel, labeled him “Political Extremist” Lyndon LaRouche.  His name was never stated but that it was not prefaced with this label.  Not once.

In short, America was told a lie.  It was told this lie at every opportunity.  When he ran again… they dusted off the label once more.  He, again, was jailed.  …and released after the election.  I am not one to believe in such coincidence.

What was Lyndon’s crime?  What made him such an Extremist?  Simple…  He proposed to abolish the income tax and establish a consumption tax which credited the poor instead of the wealthy.  Okay, it sounds a little tough to pull off but okay… let’s go with that.  He also proposed to stop supporting our gas prices at the pump.  This would have immediately put our gas to about $5/gal.  It would also have freed up billions of Tax dollars that we currently pay to Big Oil (presumably to “offset” their loss at the pumps).

Do you think that if we had to pay more for gas that we might have, already, more efficient passenger vehicles?  Do you think that OUR vehicles might be selling more competitively?  I do.  I also think all that money saved would look really good in our Schools and in our Infrastructure.

But no.  THAT was going too far Lyndon!  You would take money out of pockets that, apparently, mean more to this country than the country itself.

Think on this (if poor Lyndon is just unknown to you)…  Did you ever notice that CSI and all these cop shows show our ‘heroes’ being thwarted by the damned law!  Have you noticed that the heroes shit on the constitution and the fans cheer?  Have you noticed that the ‘news-current’ topics coincide with changes in legislation that have systematically eclipsed our civil rights and weighted our Justice Process far heavier on process than Justice?

In other words, as long as they move enough papers, they can convict the innocent and sleep well after a job well done.

Why is it that our Judges no longer have any power in their own courts?  Why are we having mandatory sentencing for first time offenders?  How is it that the rescitivism rate from our prisons is 95-97%?  I mean… do 97 out of 100 people that get out of prison REALLY decide to go back?  Or is it that their lack of rights and recourse in an indifferent Justice System is socially engineered to make it next to impossible to stay out?  Ever heard the statement about the “Criminal Mind?”  Among the things that betokens this state of mind is the insistence of innocence.  So… what if the poor bastard IS innocent?  Why should his outrage and insistence of his lack of criminality be used to as reasoning that he is guilty?!  What sort of circular thinking is this shit?

[as an aside: It has been said that a Democrat is just a Republican who has been to jail.  I am, by this definition, a Democrat.  I have also witnessed, first hand, the tragic state of our courts and juris process]

I will not belabor my own experiences here.  That is not the topic (but I am sure I will get to it eventually elsewhere…).  I will say this, however, Justice should not be a profit-making enterprise.  Think about that for a moment.  If the System of Justice profits by the incarceration of “criminals,” then it follows that they MUST find criminals to continue to profit and continue to keep the prisons at capacity – and more.

Try this on for size…  The State of Oregon put to the vote a bill to borrow money for the institution of a State Lottery.  The stated reason was to use the profits for 1.) Education and supplement for schools, 2.) The improvement of roads and freeways (Oh My God!  We Really had terrible roads back then!), 3.) Parks and Recreation and then… other projects around the State.  It seemed reasonable to me and to the rest of us… it passed.  The expected pay-back was, I think, three years.  Well, it was paid off in record time!  Once the obligation bonds were paid, the State then offered us another Proposition.  This one asked if the State might borrow funds from the lottery for “other projects” around the State.  Again, seemed reasonable and it also passed.  The State then borrowed 10 years of profits ahead of time and built 8 prisons.

Oregon’s schools have no Arts, no sports, no non-essential educational programs.  Art Literacy is taught by parent volunteers.  Similarly missing programs are performed by parents that can make the time.  The text books are woefully out-dated.  Computer literacy is virtually absent.

But our prisons are full.

Ever since then I have voted down EVERY bill that provides funds to Law Enforcement, the Justice Department or any connected agency.  It appears that I am not alone.  The State has tried to hide the funds by wrapping them in other bills… When all else fails, they pass funding in closed sessions.

And the machinery of Justice continues to roll over the citizenry – literally.  From what I have heard from friends in other places, this is the norm not the exception.

This is how you teach the People to Fear government.  Then you further stratify them financially by inducing poverty.  You destroy the Middle Class and all you have left is the wealthy and the poor.  And that is what is happening.

I do not think it a coincidence that IT is a failing industry of labor currently.  Think about it…  The wealth of corporations has become dependent upon the skill and creative talent of database and software application engineers.  An entire layer of American labor became elevated to semi-affluence.  I believe the IT labor crunch is an artifice.  How is it that the Department of Labor projected that we did not have enough computer software talent to cover our needs for this decade and yet we have so many professional developers out of work.  Completely dis-enfranchised!

In 2001 the It companies misused the h1-B Visa program and used American taxes to purchase labor from other countries, bring them here and give them houses, cars and OUR jobs.  Poor fuckers… THIS time they are not able to get away with that shit.  We are watching.

But it is not enough to dis-enfranchise an entire segment of the labor force.  The objective is to devalue our education and years of work and relegate us to Blue-Collar wages.  We do not deserve to make it.  Our children do not deserve to flourish, to live well and have hope for the future.  No, not if the Executive Board cannot continue to vote themselves higher wages and better benefits.

Nike.  Fujitsu.  Intel.  Epson.  These are among the major offenders.  These corporations brought workers in from India to take our jobs.  We lost our homes.  We went homeless with our children.  We watched while the interlopers gained a foothold in our communities – and looked down on us as if we were too stupid or too lazy to work.  I will burn in Hell before I give these companies another dollar.  You do what you like.

But to return to the topic…

These are just symptoms of a greater ill.  America has been led by those that could purchase their way into office.  They have separated us with avarice and want in either hand.  They have diminished us by degrees and made our Name a curse among our neighbors.  They have told us what they want us to hear in our news media.  They have brought our industries to ruin by cutting our workers’ benefits and putting up barriers to advancement.  They have brought our public school system to a crippling level of inadequacy – and assuring that fewer poor children will ever see college.  They have embraced our internal enemies and now propose to forgive them for robbing our public resources for generations.

Enough!

I served honorably in the Marine Corps.  Upon my admission I swore to “Support and Defend The Constitution of the United States Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic.”

I was never relieved of that oath.  I am coming to the belief that we have Domestic Enemies that are far more dangerous than al-Qaida.  They are ourselves.  When we turn away from injustice we are the Enemy.  When we permit our Nation to be used as the private piggy-bank of evil men we are the Enemy.  When we stand idle in the face of deteriorating education for our children and the children of our neighbors… we are the Enemy.  When we fail to exercise our Liberty and Civil Duty we are the Enemy.  When we permit the perfidy of the past to advance unchecked into the future we are the Enemy.

The Poor are not criminal because they are poor.  They deserve the American Dream too.  Money is not a substitute for character.  Avarice is not commerce.  The White House is not a commodity or piece of Real Estate for sale.

Our government has long since failed to be a body By, Of and For the People.  We need to fix that.  We are running out of time.  America is not the Land of the Free any longer.

I want to die a Free Man.

The Devil Is In The Details.

I am, as some of you may know, a ‘Recovering’ Catholic.  What that means to the rest of the class is that I was raised to appreciate the devotion and structure of a different age. Christ’s worship was voiced in the accepted translation of its own day (Latin from Joseph of Aramathia’s version).  The Holy Mother Church was a steadfast icon of theological and sociological security.  When it changed, when it abandoned the mysteries in order to conform to the expectations of the populace – and thereby gain a larger (often illiterate or otherwise indifferent) following I lost my purely orthodox Faith.

Over the years it, my Faith, has returned to me and I have decided that Faith is better than Belief.  Faith gives us a platform from which to withstand the tides of the world around us.  Beliefs give us cause to take up arms in their defense and to insist upon their Righteousness…  Fuck that!

Not since the Ark of the Covenant has God sat on high while we slaughtered one another and said… “Them’s MY Boys!”  I figure that if God wants to support one, and only one, viewpoint he can damned well come down here and do it in Person.  Until then I think we can extend a little courtesy to one another and lay down our broad swords…

But that is not what I wanted to say.  That was just a preface to a far simpler tale.  It begins with a little Catholic upbringing and a dose of Faith that there IS a Creator and that Divinity DOES occasionally lend a hand.  Not in the way that we would expect and far less often with the results that we anticipate.

Therein lies the basis for this little story.

Being Catholic has had, actually, little enough influence in my life.  Faith, on the other hand, has had only brief instants of control but they have had far-reaching effect.

I am not one of those people that will offer prayer for every little thing.  I wonder at those that say to me that they will Pray For Me.  Why?!  Is my personal welfare of such monumental impact that another needs to poke Divinity in the side on my behalf?  If I am somehow that all-fired important surely the notification would be redundant?

Another thing that has always given me trouble is the whole Saints thing…  Oh sure, I get the How To Become a Saint part… 3 miracles and all that.  No, the part I wonder over is the idea that we, well.. the Catholics, will pray to the Saints.  Correct me on my Catechism here but I recall that God – in his Burning Bush period – made it very clear that we should have NO Gods before Him.  So, um, the whole prayer thing… is that not God’s province?  Or is it okay because the Saints are some sort of supernumerary hierarchy, a sort of Holy Bureau of Affair?  If that is so… perhaps we CAN take it with us when we die… and better if only to be prepared for the Eternal Revenue Service!

Okay, so you know my position on Saints.

My wife is Catholic.  Note the Capital letters here… C-A-T-H-O-L-I-C.  Any questions?  We obviously have good sex.  Otherwise I doubt that we would have lasted the 30-odd years we have spent together.  I should say HAD owing to an injury a while back but that is a different tale entirely.  In any event, she is the Religious bellweather against which I measure my behaviors (when it seems a good thing to do).

Although I do not actually pray – which is not to say I have Never done so, only that I do not think that it is something that should be necessary at every turn – I do have conversations with God from time to time.  Yes, they are one-sided for the most part. But even these minor monologues have demonstrated that Someone is listening.  And so, in face of first hand evidence in support of some of the things that I was raised to think as Truths I have come to regard some of the less obvious things as more than just probable.

So I actually do believe that I am made in my Creator’s image.  So, for ME… God is a slightly balding, near-sighted guy with a crooked nose and deliciously wicked sense of humor.  I have proof of this, too.

As I said, I don’t often talk to God.  I suspect that I am SUPPOSED to do it more often and that He delights in reminding me of my place in the Big Picture of things by giving me what I ask for…  but in His own way.

And it is because of this that I learned that – should you speak to God – you Really need to be careful what you say.  The reason is that you are likely to get what you ask for!

For example… I am not positive, but I think that it is highly likely that at one point or other in my youth I may have asked God for a Bi wife.  Oh… I got one alright.  My wife is Bi…  Bi-Polar!

See what I mean?!  You gotta be careful.  Specificity is required.  Otherwise God – my version of God at any rate – will definitely fill in the missing particulars in a manner that is sure to tickle His sense of fairness.

But this, too, serves only to set the stage for a simple tale;  How I got my cat.

I have a small black cat.  At the time of this writing she is just a year old.  She is actually a neutered male but she has the voice of a female cat, and she dotes on me in what can only be considered a maternal manner.  Unlike most felines, she is devoted to me and only to me.  It is a rare thing and I treasure her.  She also keeps me on a very short leash.

I did not mean to have a cat.  I had, in fact, two ferrets at the time.  In truth I had no business with ferrets since I could no longer take them out to parks and walk them and do any number of activities that they deserved to have and expect.  So I had no need to acquire another animal.

Conversely, my wife sort of needed a cat.  Oh we HAVE other cats.  But they belong to our children – which is to say that they live with us and really could not care about anything past a full belly and place to sun themselves.

A long while back we had a family of black cats.  They were my wife’s and they were quite affectionate to her.  We had to give them up due to a long move and the restrictions on our residence where we were going.  It hurt my wife in a way that a loving husband will not forget.

Sometime around Mother’s Day last year our neighbor was selling his cat’s kittens (presumably to avoid having them go to folks that would not actually care for them).  The litter had three left when I looked in on them.  One was a coal black puff-ball.  I called my wife over and presented it to her – wondering at the time if this was a good idea…  She absolutely melted in tears of joy and hugged the little thing.  Score one point for the loving husband.

(Fast-Forward a year and note that Baghira is probably the single-most destructive and agile cat we have ever had – he likes to climb tapestries and tear the hell out of my wife’s hand painted – by Her Own Hand – wallpaper off the walls!  However, he also cuddles with her and makes her about as happy as I have seen her in a decade or so.  I call him Tarzan – not always in the nicest of tones…)

So… we got a kitten.  Fine.  4 ferrets, 2 cats and a kitten.  That is enough for any house to hold.

About three weeks later, in June, we had 100 year record breaking heat.  The local store sold out of fans several times.  It was unbelievable.  One afternoon my daughter came to me to say that there was a kitten crying in the parking lot and keeping her awake at night and annoying her otherwise.  I should point out that I have labored, along with a couple of neighbors, to rid our immediate area of feral cats (I have the scars to prove my commitment).

I was not too concerned.  I figured it was one of the neighbor’s kittens.  I was wrong.  I heard the cries the next day and went out to investigate.  It took a while to locate the source.  Fortunately, every time I spoke… it spoke back – well, cried.  I finally found the kitten – which is what it was… a really tiny black kitten – sitting up on the differential of a pick-up truck in our parking lot.

I ran through a spectrum of emotions before I settled on furious.  What had happened was that the kitten was taken by a neighboring mexican family and they had turned it out.  They abandoned it entirely.  I trust that there is a special Hell reserved for this sort of person.

I decided that I would capture the poor thing and get it a proper home.  Yeah.  Right.  The kitten had a good start of becoming feral and wanted no part of me.  I spent several days providing the kitten with (high grade) food and clean water.  This was not as easy as it might seem.  Sure, the poor thing was hungry and parched… but so were the other homeless adult cats that resided nearby.

It was quite a challenge to feed the kitten three times a day and chase off the intruders without alienating the kitten.  I am a student of Life Sciences, I am patient, and I am a pretty good shot with a rock.  I was successful for the most part but I was not getting the kitten to come close enough to grab.

After four days of this I resolved to employ more aggressive means.  I mean that I decided to employ human intellect and a trap.  I do not own a trap.  I could not afford to purchase one.  The local authorities no longer rent them – they also no longer come out and get animals themselves, either (and I had already PAID them to take a feral cat and her kittens the month previous).

I decided to use the time-honored Box, Stick and string rabbit trap method.  I took the top from a travel cage and set a food/water dish under the ‘box’ while holding up one end with a stick from the yard.  I had a piece of yarn tied to the stick and waited approximately 10 yards away.

My neighbors were in their windows – laughing – to observe my efforts.  I waited patiently.  Finally the kitten came up and, eventually, went under the cage to eat.  I yanked the stick out and the cage came down.  The kitten was trapped… for about 8 seconds.  What I had not taken into account was that the animal would be sufficiently strong to ram the cage bottom up and escape – which it did.

I was devastated!  All my credibility and trustworthiness was shot with the kitten!  It would NEVER trust me now!  Over the past few days I had come to care quite a lot for the little thing.  I was inconsolable.  I took my ‘trap’ back into my house and went into my bedroom and alternately raged and emotionally beat myself up.  How could I screw this up so badly?!  What the Hell Am I To Do Now?!  Finally, I decried my situation to my wife, the Catholic.  “Say a prayer to St. Francis,” was her solution.

I thought about that.  I’m Catholic, technically I am ‘One Of The Boys.’  I can do that.  All my previously described concerns aside, I could take that route…  And I really had no other intelligent options.

So, that evening, when I took the food and water out in hopes of regaining some measure of favor in the kitten’s eyes I think I did say a prayer to Saint Francis.  I say I think I did because I was not particularly rational at the time so I am not really 100% sure what I said.

uh-oh.

Well, I sort of remember saying that I wanted to be able to capture the kitten and that I would take very good care of it all the rest of its days.

Recall, if you will, the whole ‘Specificity’ concept.  I failed to be specific.

The next morning my neighbor’s children were banging on my door.  They reported that the kitten had been injured and was lying out in the grass.  I immediately assembled the travel cage, went downstairs, gathered the kitten into the cage and drove to the only veterinarian open on a Sunday.  I proceeded to empty my checking account to obtain care for the animal. They would have cared for the animal for free and sent it to the animal shelter if I was willing to just give it up…  But that was not the deal I made.

I spent the next 14 days nursing the kitten back to health – which included about 6 days while I was suffering the swine flu and completely incoherent and hallucinating.  We convalesced together it seems.  I had set a 12 hour alarm – for her antibiotics – and (reportedly) did not miss a dose even when I did not know what I was doing or even where I was…

I named the kitten Samadhi which means Enlightenment in the hopes that I will attain it in her company.  She has not left my side in almost a year.  She follows/precedes me from room to room and seeks my arms to hold her.  She flees any other person (she cannot stand my wife’s voice).  I am her one and only human.

So I got what I asked for…  You must admit that an incapacitated animal is far simpler to catch and requires the best of care!

Her plush bed, sitting in an open desk drawer

The moral of the story:
When you ask for something from your Divinity, be specific because you probably will get exactly what you ask for…