Open threat
Nah. Just plain ole German word final obstruent devoicing.

Posted by: Hamburger | Dec 3 2008 20:48 utc | 3

Ob 2) “Junk” is purely relativistic elitism. The ant and bee make things that last only one year, they’ve been in business a couple million years longer than we have.
The “junkness” of modern technology is partly obsolescence, partly longevity elitism, but I think for most people, junk is poorly made crap, hole-in-the-bucket kinda stuff.
A well-made auto that barely exceeds five-year depreciation is still well-made, but a Volkswagen that survives 500,000 miles with multiple engine changeouts is still junk. Third-cylinder oiling:heating problem everyone knew was junk going into production, whereas Datsun modified the junk MG engine design and made it into a masterpiece.

Posted by: Tiber On | Dec 3 2008 22:28 utc | 5

5: Tiber- Yes, but what do you call the product of a company who markets their product not on the basis of longevity, safety and economy, but rather the styling, sound system and electronic gizmos, such as GPS and built-in TV?
I own a Volvo “Brick” that’s going on 18, has about a quarter-million miles on it and gets 27 MPG on the highway and still looks very nice (the paint’s in great condition, as is the interior). It’ll transport a double-bass as well as a tuba with room to spare. I bought it second-hand 8 years ago for $6,000. If this is elitism, it’s rather strange sort.
Why is it unreasonable to ask for 500,000 miles out of an auto?

Posted by: Obelix | Dec 3 2008 23:08 utc | 7

The love of money is the root of all evil, and by chance the largest concentration of evil anywhere resides in Washington D.C.
Speaking of planned obsolescence it’s amazing just how fast a shift key stops functioning these days.

Posted by: James Crow | Dec 3 2008 23:49 utc | 9

Ob 10) The Unicomp version of now obsolete IBM Model M retails for $69. It’s loud, heavy and slow, but apparently will survive longer than the computer it’s attached to. The ?? KBJ-006UB keyboard I use cost $5.95, and although the key names have rubbed off and had to be replaced with silver pen and scotch tape, it’s quiet, good tactile feel, and will clearly survive longer than the inevitable obsolescence of the laptop it’s attached to.
So which is the junk? The $70 brick that outlasts the future, or the $6 version that gets its fur rubbed off, but still outlasts the future?
And that’s an analog for everything, if I’ve ever heard one.
I’ve got German FDick chef knives that are 60 years old an you could hardly afford to buy today at $100 a pop, but my favorite knife is a little white handle jobbie I got for $10 from an online slaughterhouse supply catalog. So which is the junk?
I’d venture “junk”, in all it’s aspects, junk bonds, junk housing, junk science, has at its root “crap”, that is, worthless at any price. Once you’re above that level, then my suggestion as a survivalist is to buy the cheapest useful objects, houses, cars, science you can find, and save the rest of your fortune for cat food, because inevitably, life become junk, nothing but junk, and a simple backpack with cat food and water bottle may be the most useful item in your survival collection.
Not to denigrate your Volvo, you can always sleep in it after it craps out, and really, when it comes down to it, that’s what we’re debating here at MoA. The end.

Posted by: Cher Nobel | Dec 4 2008 1:28 utc | 11

Yeah, I’ve heard that posting song lyrics is teh ghey (sic), but this one hit me hard.

“…in the memory of men the search for happiness has never ended.
But the gates of Eden will ever be closed for those Conquistadors, who are only hungry for power and might.
Because the real El Dorado isn’t made out of diamonds and gold.
It’s the emotional yearning for peace, love and understanding in the hearts of everyone.” ~from El Dorado,Goombay Dance Band

On the face of it, it just seems too simple and too much like crispety-crunchety, feel-good, pop-psychology to have any real weight to it. So where is this stirring resonance inside me coming from? Why is this beautifully simplistic and superficial message so gorram compelling to me?
I have to admit, the archetypes from the western hemisphere aren’t my strong suit. I can go on and on about Myrrdhin and the Earth bear, Vortigern, the transmutation of Avolakitisvara into Kuan Yin, Lailoken, Inari-Kitsune, the corruption of the Aesir-Vanir by Gulveig, and a million others that I have no special relationship with. They’re interesting and they’re safe. I have the distance from them which is necessary in order to satisfy myself that I am having profound insights in noticing what should be obvious. Closer to home, and I’m as clueless as anyone.
Dreams are this way, I’ve found. Dreams are communications and observations, not necessarily earth shattering ones, that your unconscious mind makes. Your conscious mind takes these simple messages and makes them entirely unintelligible. There seems to be an art involved in dumbing yourself down enough to understand what you were communicating to yourself in the first place. We want to make things more difficult and we sacrifice meaning in the process. In sleep or in wakefulness, we will ourselves to miss the point. There are many things in this life which should be pretty obvious, and I am continually impressed with those, like b, who are consistently able to view past themselves.
Uncle $cam once linked to an article about the Chapel Perilous. Here, knights questing for the Holy Grail become trapped until they make peace with the fact that what they are questing for is not what they thought. Some, maybe most, never leave and become trapped in their anguish. It’s not meant to describe a real place; it’s a metaphor for an internal construct. It’s also where the myths of El Dorado, the expulsion from Eden and a million other compelling legends of failed attempts to reach the stars seem to intersect.
However, the North American versions of these basic, universal stories seem especially compelling because we accept that Juan Ponce De Leon actually did seek out a Fountain of Youth and Pizarro, von Hutton, de Quesada, Raleigh and a host of others actually did engage in the futility of seeking out a fabled City of Gold. These morality tales are no mere metaphors to us; they are real because they did not occur in some misty, murky past… they happened less than 500 years ago.
Perhaps I shouldn’t call them morality tales since they did not come to us from Aesop. They are just tiny tragedies of history, which we all know is nothing more than a “litany of villians and victims”. Nothing to see here. Nothing to be learned. Just as nothing will be learned from the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, which are really nothing more or less than another epic tragedy in the classical mold filled with antiheroes blinded by their hubris and greed. Yes, real people suffer and die to give us our newspaper filler from which we will learn nothing. History, both and ancient and modern, is just like dreaming, it seems to me. We are too sophisticated to understand it, and too obsessed by our personal quests to see the world as it is.
This latter point is dramatically illustrated by the Obama phenomenon. Obama the Man is inconsequential. I’ll never meet him. However, Obama the Man is not what people fight about. Since he has not yet assumed office, there is nothing beyond cabinet appointments to discuss. But Obama the Symbol has tremendous importance. He represents to some of us their hopes and to others their fears. The slobbering praise and the angry condemnations would be embarrassing if we were actually discussing a fellow human being. We aren’t, thankfully. We are discussing yet another internal construct.
Anyway, the things going on in the world around us really are not metaphors any more than the Grail Saga or Der Nibelungenleid are simple metaphors. Human nature and history have shown us that we actually do put on blinders of greed and hubris to pursue our own destruction. Our pursuit of what we convince ourselves should be blinds us to the mortal dangers of what is. There are none of us immune to this effect and few of us humble enough to save ourselves.
At the end of the day, the Holy Grail does exist. There is a Fountain of Youth and a City of Gold. There is a Paradise. They exist within us, and they are no less real than any other reality… skyscrapers, telecommunication, cars and airplanes… that we, ourselves, manufacture and place into the reality outside of ourselves. Our internal realities are made corporeal and can nourish or poison the realities of everyone else. So why, then, is it so difficult for us to manifest those beautiful, golden realities and so easy for all of us conquistadores and knights errant to “discover” (and subsequently create) the equally real destinations of Hell, Chaos and Oblivion?
I apologize for the ramble. I’m just touching base here and this is where I happen to be at the moment.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 4 2008 4:19 utc | 13

b,
review this: ‘Pakistani Security Consultant Calls Mumbai Attacks A “Botched” False Flag’
(http://www.infowars.com/?p=6336)

Posted by: Al | Dec 4 2008 4:32 utc | 15

nice one, monolycus. for whatever reason, the following passage appeared in my mind:

He was in despair again.
“Dear me – to think that there can be an ostensible Mind that cannot conceive of so simple a trifle as that! . . . . Look here, August: there are really no divisions of time – none at all. The past is always present when I want it – the real past, not an image of it; I can summon it, and there is is. The same with the future: I can summon it out of the the unborn ages, and there it is, before my eyes, alive and real, not a fancy, an image, a creation of the imagination. Ah, these troublesome limitations of yours! – they hamper me. Your race cannot even conceive of something being made out of nothing – I am aware of it, your learned men and philosophers are always confessing it. They say there had to be something to start with – meaning a solid, a substance – to build the world out of. Man, it is perfectly simple – it was built out of thought. Can’t you comprehend that?”
“No, I can’t! Thought! There is no substance to thought; then how is a material thing going to be constructed out of it?”
“But August, I don’t mean your kind of thought, I mean my kind, and the kind that the gods exercise.”
“Come, what is the difference? Isn’t thought just thought, and all said?”
“No. A man originates nothing in his head, he merely observes exterior things, and combines them in his head – puts several observed things together and draws a conclusion. His mind is merely a machine, that is all – an automatic one, and he has no control over it; it cannot conceive of a new thing, an original thing, it can only gather material from the outside and combine it into new forms and patterns. But it always has to have the materials from the outside, for it cannot make them itself. That is to say, a man’s mind cannot create – a god’s can, and my race can. That is the difference. We need no contributed materials, we create them – out of though. All things that exist were made out of thought – and out of nothing else.”
It seemed charitable to me, also polite, to take him at his word and not require proof, and I said so. He was not offended. He only said –
“Your automatic mind has performed its function – its sole function – and without help from you. That is to say, it has listened, it has observed, it has put this and that together, and drawn a conclusion – the conclusion that my statement was a doubtful one. It is now privately beginning to wish for a test. Is that true?”
“Well, yes,” I said, “I won’t deny it, though for courtesy’s sake I would have concealed it if I could have had my way.”
“Your mind is automatically suggesting that I offer a specific proof – that I create a dozen gold coins out of nothing; that is to say, out of thought. Open your hand – they are there.”
And so they were!

mark twain, no. 44, the mysterious stranger

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2008 6:17 utc | 17

& while whole worlds are going mad before our eyes – the common sense & deceny of laing seems more & more appropriate
Indeed comrade, I have often found it telling how we study pathology, and disease, instead of health and vibrancy. I’ve concluded we have a necro fetish. Thus the reason, I have deemed our bipartisan leaders as Necrocons.
R D Laing on the Politics of Psychology
“Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!” As Willy Shakespeare wrote.
Listen Christopher, the world needs people like you, I need you, we need you, now more than ever. Though I have never told you specifically, many times over the years I have been at the point of turning off the lights. And came to this bar to read your biblio therapy, your astute, healing and compassionate words, and they have given me strength to battle on another day. Please be at ease with yourself, my friend and get some rest, and recoup. My thoughts are with you.
Steel..
For me, an area of moral clarity is: you’re in front of someone who’s suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act. -Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer and a recipient of the MacArthur ” genius” grant for his work treating tuberculosis in Haiti.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2008 8:36 utc | 19

wrt catlady’s awesome #20 and DeAnander excellent essay…
I felt obligated to repost this:
Slavoj Žižek on toilets and ideology

From an unknown source. You’ve probably heard this already in some of Zizek’s lectures. German ideology – reflective, philosophical
French – revolutionary, dismissive
Anglo-American – intermediate, passive

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2008 10:10 utc | 21

R’giap. Take care of yourself.
Monolycus (13). Good one. Thank you.

Posted by: beq | Dec 4 2008 12:37 utc | 23

b – had a laugh with that one
Uncle$cam – You had me going with that fake Bush video. Gee – they can do some real shit-hot CGI Graphics these days …

Posted by: DM | Dec 4 2008 13:15 utc | 25

Nothing like work to lead a guy to goof-off and post a comment ☺
It seem inherent in our world view that most of us are pretty pessimistic, but we also must have a skunk’s stripe of hope or we wouldn’t be reading drivel such as this website.
We’d be off doing what ever the rest of the flock does while the shepard is sharpening his knife…
That said, this is the finest vintage drivel I’ve consumed in quite sometime. I snuck in the back door via whatreallyhappened.com and have been sucking out the dregs of bottles all ya’alls left. Damn those cigarette butts!
For hope, read Richard Bach’s book Illusions.
For truth, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s A diamond as big as the Ritz.
To really freak yourself out, place yourself and five televisions in a room about six p.m. Then turn-on all the televisions to different evening news programs, shut your eyes and see if you can figure out which is which.
DON’T DO THIS ON ACID!
I shouldn’t have to explain why
The craziest thing about being self-aware, and creating a “language” to go with it is how important our species can feel because we can “communicate.” I cry bull feces about the importance of language and everything that goes with it.
Language does wonders for leaders, nothing for the led.
Another interesting book that will take your mind off this interesting moment of modern human history is by a fellow named William Calvin; the book is called The Throwing Madonna and is a collection of his essays on the brain.
http://williamcalvin.com/bk2/bk2ch1.htm is his website-good feces.
I really want to thank everyone who has posted on this site—if the MSM was promoting this depth of dialogue imagine how much better informed everyone would be.
Our perception is our reality and we inhabit that reality alone. It is this realization that drives the poets mad.
Just remember we are alone, TOGETHER! YeeHaw!
Dave da FreAk

Posted by: David | Dec 4 2008 14:41 utc | 27

Why is it so easy to scare people these days?
In a way, the fear is ersatz fear, a superficial, exploitable thrill, something ppl know they are supposed to exhibit, to support their Gvmt, etc. It is TV show, TV news, acted out on the ground, in lovely homes with green lawns, 3 bathrooms, and 4 TVS, and with more (or no) conviction in poor homes…There are layers of pandering and pretense…
You know the terrorist came in through Canada the border is not safe we have to be careful…watch out.. there can be terrorists all over, you have to come home right after school
Some ppl in other countries hate the US, they hate us for our freedom, those ppl are crazy but they might use an atom bomb, but don’t worry, Daddy will keep you safe, he is fighting for America
(real quotes, shortened)
and so on.
I.e. many ppl are not scared at all but understand that fear is to be exploited as a justification of aggression, following Bush, etc. and think that is just fine. They understand, if you dig in, that the US has an energy problem, and that is it is not right or fair that the ME – despots, dictators, ppl who don’t respect the rights of women (etc.) *sand niggers, Islamic terrorists*, have the power the hold the US over a barrel (sic.) Very dispiriting.

Posted by: Tangerine | Dec 4 2008 17:16 utc | 29

There’s something wrong with an economic system where making and selling junk is rewarded, but making carefully-crafted long-lived products is penalized.
For the change in heart — see GM’s ownership of SAAB. Who was just seeking free Fed money for designing intentionally short-lived low-value vehicles? Was that GM?
Naaaah. Couldn’t be.
Does anyone ever bother questioning whether materialistic capitalism is sustainable, WITHOUT cheap-shot reference to Marx, Lenin, Communism or Socialism?

Posted by: micah pyre | Dec 4 2008 18:09 utc | 31

It is true. Language and the control of language is what controls our perceptions. And it is true disenfranchised people have found ways to express themselves outside of the accepted norms of communication and this has given language its glorious breadth and depth.
For the physical truth I think animals have it better than we do–sniff a butt and you know how your buddy is doing. Forgive me, but I drove dogsleds for many years and because of this I have an anal fixation about what truth really means.
For animals it is easy because they really can get most of what information they need from smells and their wacky sixth sense. This is fine if the most complicated group activity you engage in is hunting. Building pyramids and civilization requires a conceptual depth much deeper than rectal secretions and it probably needs something more than a sixth sense too. Of course I might be wrong about this and animals haven’t created anything like man because maybe they’re just smarter.
I admit I wrote what I did partially for arguments sake and also to try and cheer-up a discussion so full of the depressing truths. Yes, that is a big civilized screwing we’re all getting. And it has been going on for as long as there have been enough brain cells to realize it is better to gather food and store it than it is to go hungry during times of hardship. Humans are wired like any animal for survival and that is exactly how we act trying to insure we will.
As long as the western world is the upstairs maid to the NWO (or what ever name you give the elites) we won’t do anything about anything. Humans are socialized to believe they’re getting screwed and it is what we’re used to. As long as we are allowed to occasionally eat from the masters table and wear the master’s old clothes we won’t change a thing. Because we can see what it’s like to be one of the whores lower-down on the pecking order. They get gang-raped and still have to scrub the toilets.
A funny thing about language is that you can tell someone they’re great and if you do it enough and with enough sincerity they’ll believe you and start acting this way. Unfortunately for humans, in order for you to be great, someone has to be less great and too often this is the distinction we end up focused on.
Why does it seem throughout history 15% of the population is the only sane wedge between the dumb and the angry?
It is so much easier to make a monster than a miracle.
Dave da’ FreAk

Posted by: David | Dec 4 2008 18:25 utc | 33

David: “…animals haven’t created anything like man because maybe they’re just smarter.”
Douglas Adams certainly felt that way. At least about dolphins.
As far as I am able to prove, the only thing unique about humans is that we might be the only species that is able to formulate the question “Am I happy?”… and merely posing this question is enough to change the answer.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 4 2008 18:34 utc | 35

Of course I might be wrong about this and animals haven’t created anything like man because maybe they’re just smarter.
meet the bowerbird

Posted by: b real | Dec 4 2008 18:45 utc | 37

micah pyre: “What about (1) voting record as a US Senator; (2) sources of funding; (3) known advisory team; (4) demonstrated perspectives; (5) educational background; (6) work history?
These are inconsequential, is that what you’re saying?”
I had considered his voting record after I had already posted, yes. I was typing as I was drinking my morning coffee and getting ready for work, so I was writing a bit hastily and not especially coherently. I would also grant that your #2 is a fairly reliable diagnostic. I would say your #’s 3 and 4 are not clearly diagnostic at all since the nature of modern politics is to conceal rather than to reveal. Your #’s 5 and 6 are entirely irrelevant and nit-picky.
None of that changes my basic observation. We are not discussing a human being here. We are discussing a memetic. Like you, apparently, the symbol of Obama does not represent my hopes as much as my fears, however I’m not prepared to base lengthy debates upon prognostications. I’ll condemn when there is something concrete to condemn.
At any rate, the Obama phenomenon was just an illustration of another point entirely. I apologize if it struck a personal nerve and derailed you from what I was actually discussing. I do tend to digress. I’m working on it.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 4 2008 19:08 utc | 39

“…projection is paramount!”
Apparently. I was simply answering your question. No incivility was intended and I’m not sure after reviewing my response where you picked that up from.
I’ll forgive your interpretation that I was denigrating if you forgive my interpretation that you’re just looking for a fight here.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 4 2008 19:34 utc | 41

Monolycus: i have alway enjoyed your articulations. obviously someone is trying to pick a fight. damn trolls.
Joe: there is more going on in Alaska than any of us probably realize. Sarah Palin won’t be leaving the national stage any time soon.

Posted by: Lizard | Dec 4 2008 20:26 utc | 43

So I’m a troll if I wonder why Monolycus is a shape-shifter in his responses to me?
That’s an interesting theory. I guess I needed to know the Clubhouse Handshake to have Monolycus behave more appropriately toward my insouciant questioning of his ultimate authority.
That, my friends, was sarcasm. Dripping, weeping sarcasm intended to convey ironical observation of a strange about-face in Monolycus’s posts in response to my innocent question about why and how to judge ANY politician, with Obama as exemplar.
Sorry if you’re unprepared to deal with sarcasm or irony. Better luck next time to all of us, eh?

Posted by: micah pyre | Dec 4 2008 22:14 utc | 45

It is amazing that I could own a priceless plate for $19.99. I wonder if by priceless they mean no value. I suppose a can of Spam would fit nice upon it–perfect for Christmas/Kwanzaa/Chanuka/Solstice celebrations this year.
Dave

Posted by: David | Dec 5 2008 0:48 utc | 47

from a very young age i understood deeply the maxim that,He who speaks of revolution without living it in their daily life speaks with a corpse in his mouth
other than marx who stays with me still – there are only the work especialy the last two books by david cooper, the letters & passages of walter benjamin, lettres à franca of louis althusser – that explain the world to me & that explain me to me
uncle, there are nights where your researches have hrld me closer to the ground because even besieged i will not relinquish it. struggle is to sacred & beautiful a sense & word to diminish. enemies of one kind of other have for 30 years sought my end, desired it – to sanitise & apologise for their own – my understanding of that is so strong that i will go only when the body ceases, the breathing can no longer continue
when i read here i am aware of all the other brother & sister soldiers down the line who need each other & their works too much – to submit to the sqalid submission of dominant ideology or soiled social relations. i will never do that & from the force i feel from your posts, i know you never will

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 5 2008 1:28 utc | 49

Incidentally, Karl Rove believes financiers are significant… and would fit right in here with his bemoaning of the “broken” system of campaign financing.
I can’t argue with such an indisputable authority as this, even if I’m not entirely able to follow his line of reasoning. He states that the travesty of the Republican loss was due to a tantamount purchase of the White House by the Democrats, bemoans the fact that money rules elections, and concludes that the remedy is to remove all spending limitations. That’s just not the kind of cognitive dissonance I have a place for in my personal reality, but it will naturally be brought up that I am not qualified to in the first place. (although, yes, the message behind the message is to establish a federal database so that the DHS can track who is sending how much to whom. I get that.)
snippiness…

To diminish criticism, Mr. Obama’s campaign spun the storyline that he was being bankrolled by small donors. Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, calls that a “myth.” CFI found that Mr. Obama raised money the old fashioned way — 74% of his funds came from large donors (those who donated more than $200) and nearly half from people who gave $1,000 or more.
But that’s not the entire story. It’s been reported that the Obama campaign accepted donations from untraceable, pre-paid debit cards used by Daffy Duck, Bart Simpson, Family Guy, King Kong and other questionable characters. If the FEC follows up with a report on this, it should make for interesting reading.
Mr. Obama’s victory marks the death of the campaign finance system. When it was created after Watergate in 1974, the campaign finance system had two goals: reduce the influence of money in politics and level the playing field for candidates.
This year it failed at both. OpenSecrets.org tells us a record $2.4 billion was spent on this presidential election. And with Mr. Obama’s wide financial advantage, it’s clear that money is playing a bigger role than ever and candidates are not competing on equal footing.
Ironically, the victim of this broken system is one of its principal architects — Mr. McCain. He helped craft the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform along with Sen. Russ Feingold in 2002.
No presidential candidate will ever take public financing in the general election again and risk being outspent as badly as Mr. McCain was this year. And even liberals, who have long denied that money is political speech that should be protected by First Amendment, may now be forced to admit that their donations to Mr. Obama were a form of political expression.
It is time to trust the American people and remove limits on how much an individual can donate to a campaign. By doing that, we can design a system that will be much more open by requiring candidates to frequently report donations in an online database. Technology makes this possible. Such a system would be easier for journalists to use and would therefore make it more likely that fund raising would be included in news coverage. That would give voters the tools they need to determine if a candidate is getting too much from unattractive people.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 5 2008 4:32 utc | 51

From AGAINST FORGETTING: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness, edited by Carolyn Forche.
Nicanor Parra was educated in Chile, England, and the United States, imparting to his poetry a quality of multiple estrangement. Trained as a physicist, with strong leftists leanings, Parra refused to leave Chile after the coup that brought Pinochet to power. Instead he established himself as a voice of dissent within the university and within Chile itself.

MODERN TIMES
These are calamitous times we’re living through
you can’t speak without committing contradiction
or keep quiet without complicity with the Pentagon.
Everyone knows there’s no alternative possible
all roads lead to Cuba
but the air is dirty
breathing is a futile act.
The enemy says
the country is to blame
as if countries were men.
Accursed clouds circle accursed volcanoes
accursed embarkations launch accursed expeditions
accursed trees crumble on accursed birds:
it was all polluted to begin with.

and here’s something i stumbled across the other day: tip your glasses back for Brecht!

THE GOD OF WAR
I saw the old god of war stand in a bog between chasm and rockface.
He smelled of free beer and carbolic and showed his testicles to adolescents, for he had been rejuvenated by several professors. In a hoarse wolfish voice he declared his love for everything young. Nearby stood a pregnant woman, trembling.
And without shame he talked on and presented himself as a great one for order. And he described how everywhere he put barns in order, by emptying them.
And as one throws crumbs to sparrows, he fed poor people with crusts of bread which he had taken away from poor people.
His voice was now loud, now soft, but always hoarse.
In a loud voice he spoke of great times to come, and in a soft voice he taught the women how to cook crows and seagulls. Meanwhile his back was unquiet, and he kept looking round, as though afraid of being stabbed.
And every five minutes he assured his public that he would take up very little of their time.

and for what it’s worth, god damn it, here’s my contribution:

NEXT LIFE
It builds until it doesn’t
then it ebbs.
Play another card until
you bust.
What else is there
friend?
To build, to play,
to end.

Posted by: Lizard | Dec 5 2008 6:25 utc | 53

Hannah K. O’Luthon, regarding your #54
As above so below, as abroad so at home:
VC2: Convicts on Fire

We’ve all heard about the firefighters who have come from all over to help fight the California wildfires that have been raging for over a month, but there are a large group of firefighters that we haven’t heard much about, and they are the main ones fighting the fires.
Prison inmates have been taught firefighting skills and are working in great numbers to contain all of these fires that are breaking out. These low-security inmates are getting obvious confidence and joy from being given a chance to contribute positively to the community.

Don’t let the stagecraft here fool you. This is pure emotional prop-agenda of the prison indust complex capitalizing on privatized expendable slave labor.
Compare and contrast this w/#54.
Anyone want to wager on when the necrocons implement debtors prison?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 5 2008 8:05 utc | 55

Hey! Oil seems poised to fall back into the $30’s/bl this next week. (25% of where it stood in July)
How about another Peak Oil thread?
Or why not one about the value of NPR’s reporting, who spent an hour covering experts who predicted $250 oil the very day it peaked at $147 (I knew it was time to short, but when you’re broke, who cares what you know?) Anyway a thread about the value of supporting public radio might be in order.
Or why not one about the Miracle of the Marketplace and how it allows Democracy to flourish by letting the ordinary investor have a say?
We certainly don’t want a thread about intentional demand destruction under Capitalism — that reeks of conspiracy theory!
And this is a democracy, after all, where informed people like ——— —– continue to make a difference in our world.
We must feel we have some control. To admit we have none is too scary for most people — even on this blog — to admit.
More to the point — “Breakaway” nations like Russia, Venezuela, Canada (which still thinks of itself as an independent nation) and even Maliki’s Iraq have seen their earnings disappear and face the prospect of domestic unrest, in addition to new heavy oil projects becoming unsustainable below $50-60/bl.
There once was a school of investing called value investing, where one analyzed the underlying value of a corporations assets. Is there any connection between stock price and value anymore? Or has it been manipulated away to force more financial transfers to corporate entities?
When people are in the service of capital, rather than the other way around, sometimes we end up in Bizzaro world.

Posted by: Malooga | Dec 5 2008 16:52 utc | 57

great post, did. But aren’t there blogging systems where the user has more control over comments than typepad? Joomla, drupal, plone, etc? This is a death by slow cuts. Surely there are blogs with longer more involved posts? Typepad, WordPress, and blogger — as per the dictates of concentration capitalism — are behaving like coke, pepsi, and….. — well, they’ll get down to two eventually.

Posted by: Malooga | Dec 6 2008 3:33 utc | 59

Monolycus’ thoughtful post touched on the internal construct that mediates what Obama is to various people. I suppose I have seen, in the recent campaign, our American Swan Song of Enlightenment values. It may come to nothing. But I have said to friends that the Obama administration is pretty much the tipping point, our last chance to think our way out of the problems and obstacles, that seem ready to sweep our social structure into the ashcan.
Beq and annie were telling us at the end of the campaign that it was the empowerment of ordinary people through the extraordinary grassroots effort, that was the important thing, not Obama himself. When we were moved to tears or we felt as though we were on Cloud Nine on election night, and experienced a colosal, nationwide sense of release and elation, when thousands of gallons of endorphins were rushing through the body politic; we were meeting any number of our myths head on.
But the vulnerability of an increasingly inelastic system, when it comes to fault lines and fracture, cannot be ignored. With all the aglomerated powers of the presidency, Obama may assume the form of our last great Emperor, an American Marcus Aurelius, fighting the modern day incarnation of those old Germanic tribes. Decline is assumed in a system like that.
Obama might even possess real political greatness. Many of us in this country have thought of that; but the pitfalls in this system have the capacity to wear down and destroy integrity in office. He may really pay a price, if his goal is to save the Republic.
What is harder for the hopeful to accept is a break with hope. A break with our unsustainable way of life. A break with outmoded automobiles that no one can afford to buy. A break with carrier groups prowling the world’s oceans. A break with empire handed over to tidy, and more or less, virtuous administration.
Harder for me to grasp is the kind of institutional betrayal, or charge of betrayal, that is pointed at the memetic Obama; it is the suffocating belief, fatalistic in type, that we can’t think, or vote, or campaign, or organize our way, out of our predicament. That we might as well forget trying to separate man from chimera.
Whether a hope is a patient one, or not, it is not certain to survive an encounter with real diaster.

Posted by: Copeland | Dec 6 2008 5:05 utc | 61

always informative, mahmood mamdani has a new essay on the socio-political history of land redistribution/reform in zim @ london review of books – Lessons of Zimbabwe

Posted by: b real | Dec 6 2008 5:46 utc | 63

Copeland, lets hope Fredrick, Marcus, Paul, Malcom, and Martin whisper into Barack’s ear when he’s asleep at night.

Posted by: anna missed | Dec 6 2008 10:05 utc | 65

Mass hypnosis I doubt it, I expect that the ability to exterminate ‘outsider’ members of our species – every last one of outsider men women and children, conducted by nearly everyone within the society, is an evolutionary hangover, one that can only be triggered under certain quite specific circumstances and unfortunately there are those humans within every group who make a study of such things and who for their own ends set about creating the circumstances necessary for their group to reach ‘killing point’.
I mean would we really be surprised if the zionist communities on the West Bank of Palestine suddenly rose up and slaughtered every Palestine man, woman and child they could find?
There have been many smaller sparks – gangs of these ‘settlers’ made up of men and women of all ages descending on some ancient Palestinian village then attacking anyone they kind find – usually the elderly that were too slow to get into hiding. The official reaction used to be denial that such a thing had occurred but now since there is a project putting video cams into every village to film this animal violence, has caught the israeli govt out a couple of times, the new method is to blame the victim while confiscating cameras as espionage items.
‘Rogue’ zionists have descended on mosques with automatic weapons and killed every living person they can find and the Israeli society has acted ‘shocked’ but the penalty handed out to these massacrers hasn’t been as bad as say, what a Palestinian kid throwing a stone would cop, so we know that the zionist approbation is purely for the cameras – deep down many agree with the exterminators.
One of these days some sociopath zionist loon will succeed in rousing a large group of fellow zionists to slaughter hundreds of Palestinians, (probably tear them limb from limb after ripping their faces off first) the classic way other primate tribes deal with outsiders when in a massed rage.
When it happens it won’t be because of any sort of group hypnosis it will be because humankind hasn’t come nearly as far socially or psychologically as we like to imagine.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 6 2008 20:14 utc | 67

hell to pay
Observations on what happened in Hebron
Each person has his own style, and this was illustrated today in the coverage or otherwise of the pogrom by Jewish fanatics against Arab residents if Hebron, described in detail in this Haaretz piece.

An innocent Palestinian family, numbering close to 20 people. All of
them women and children, save for three men. Surrounding them are a few dozen masked Jews seeking to lynch them. A pogrom. This isn’t a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word. First the masked men set fire to their laundry in the front yard and then they tried to set fire to one of the rooms in the house. The women cry for help, “Allahu Akhbar.” Yet the neighbors are too scared to approach the house, frightened of the security guards from Kiryat Arba who have sealed off the home and who are cursing the journalists who wish to document the events unfolding there.
The cries rain down, much like the hail of stones the masked men hurled at the Abu Sa’afan family in the house. A few seconds tick by before a group of journalists, long accustomed to witnessing these difficult moments, decide not to stand on the sidelines. They break into the home and save the lives of the people inside. The brain requires a minute or two to digest what is taking place. Women and children crying bitterly, their faces giving off an expression of horror, sensing their imminent deaths, begging the journalists to save their lives. Stones land on the roof of the home, the windows and the doors. Flames engulf the southern entrance to the home. The front yard is littered with stones thrown by the masked men. The windows are shattered and the children are frightened. All around, as if they were watching a rock concert, are hundreds of Jewish witnesses, observing the events with great interest, even offering suggestions to the Jewish wayward youth as to the most
effective way to harm the family. And the police are not to be seen. Nor is the army.
Ten minutes prior, while the security forces were preoccupied with dispersing the rioters near the House of Contention, black smoke billowed from the wadi separating Kiryat Arba and Hebron. For some reason, none of the senior officers of the police or the army were particularly disturbed by what was transpiring at the foot of Kiryat Arba. Anyone standing hundreds of meters away could notice the dozens of rioters climbing atop the roof of the Abu Sa’afan family home, hurling stones. Only moments later did it become apparent that there were people inside the home.
I quickly descend to the wadi and accost three soldiers. “What do you want from me? The three of us are responsible for the entire sector here,” one said, his hand gesturing towards the entire wadi.
“Use your radio to request help,” I said. He replies that he is not equipped with a radio.
A group of journalists approach the house. A dilemma. What to do? There are no security forces in the vicinity and now the Jewish troublemakers decided to put the journalists in their crosshairs. We call for the security guards from Kiryat Arba to intervene and put a halt to the lynch. But they surround the home to prevent the arrival of “Palestinian aid.”
The home is destroyed and the fear is palpable on the faces of the children.One of the women, Jihad, is sprawled on the floor, half-unconscious. The son, who is gripping a large stick, prepares for the moment he will be forced to face the rioters. Tahana, one of the daughters, refuses to calm down. “Look at what they did to the house, look.”
Tess, the photographer, bursts into tears as the events unfold around her. The tears do not stem from fear. It is shame, shame at the sight of these occurrences, the deeds of youths who call themselves Jews. Shame that we share the same religion. At 5:05 P.M., a little over an hour after the incident commenced, a unit belonging to the Yassam special police forces arrives to disperse the crowd of masked men. The family members refuse to calm down. Leaving the home, one can hear a settler yell at a police officer: “Nazis, shame on you.” Indeed. Shame on you.

more at links @ badgers
driving me crazy

Posted by: annie | Dec 7 2008 0:25 utc | 69

anyone know more about this?
96 NATO trucks torched in Pakistan
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=77724§ionid=351020401

Posted by: Rick | Dec 7 2008 7:24 utc | 71

Tangerine: “My orig. point was in the opposite direction…”
Yeah, I had read you that way the first time through, but that implies that people are making conscious decisions to surrender their rationality, so I thought I must have been mistaken.
I do go back and forth on this one, though. I was convinced for years that the participants in daytime and reality television must be trained actors because it seems to me statistically impossible to cull from the bottom-of-the-barrel so regularly without depleting that resource. I am either selling the majority of my fellows short in my appraisal that they could not play these roles willfully with such mastery, or I’m giving them too much credit for basic sapience and self-awareness. I can’t decide on which side of this equation I am more comfortable erring.
Honestly, I don’t know. I think that on some level they actually have to be True Believers in order to fulfill the roles and behaviours that they do. It is difficult for me to imagine a single individual who is cognizant of how cartoonish, hyperbolic and misplaced their ostensible responses are, that would still be willing and capable of playing the part. The tiniest inhibition or scrap of self-awareness would derail these otherwise flawless performances.
Most of the people I know can’t get through the premise of telling a joke without subtly revealing their intention by the tiniest of twinkles in their eye, but those who embrace the roles of panicky idiots never so much as give their audience a knowing wink or gentle nudge with an elbow.
A few years ago, I actually heard the phrase “If we hadn’t gone into Iraq, we could all be speaking Muslim right now!” escape the lips of a fervent Bush enthusiast. I can’t accept that the speaker had the sheer brilliance necessary to make such a preposterously absurd statement and deliver it with an impeccable stony face in any kind of premeditated way. I could never in a million years have spontaneously crafted such a gem as that one without first stripping myself of all conscious inhibition and fully embracing the role of the two-dimensional tool. That is but a single example of the twaddle that those who embrace The War Against Terror produce daily, and it’s never done with any indication that they know any better. I don’t know of too many people so secure that they could play the buffoon so comfortably without giving some small indication that they are aware of themselves and that this is just a social role they are playing.
I think George Orwell dealt with precisely this sort of thing at the end of 1984. It is not simply enough to mouth the slogans, you do actually have to believe it or none of it works. Hearts and minds, or at least what’s left of them, can in fact be won in this hideous way.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 7 2008 7:53 utc | 73

#72, ”If its true, it sounds like a new Pearl Harbor. I guess we’ll just have to go in and straighten things out.”
Whose is “we”? I ain’t going. If you mean the U.S. or NATO by “we”, it sounds like “we” is already there.

Posted by: Rick | Dec 7 2008 13:21 utc | 75

well typepad works wonders – got another double post trying to fix a preview.
Last post was meant to look like this-
#72, ”If its true, it sounds like a new Pearl Harbor. I guess we’ll just have to go in and straighten things out.”
Who is “we”? I ain’t going. If you mean the U.S. or NATO by “we”, it sounds like “we” is already there.

Posted by: Rick | Dec 7 2008 13:27 utc | 77

@Rick:
I agree. I catch myself accidentally typing “we” for US imperial policy many times a day. I slipped up and you caught me.

Posted by: Malooga | Dec 7 2008 15:29 utc | 79

#78
from david to lizard: “As a kid I’d tortured lizards.”
..: this is bloging poetry, folks!
lizard, the Aimee Rosen poem is amazingly touching, almost, how can i say, unbearable..

Posted by: rudolf | Dec 7 2008 17:18 utc | 81

annie #82,
Yeah, I think animals plan in some basic ways to “be happy”. Of course, the best plans of mice and men…

Posted by: Rick | Dec 8 2008 3:10 utc | 83

[b – i have a post from around 7 or 8 hours ago trapped in the spam filter. thanks!]

Posted by: b real | Dec 8 2008 5:37 utc | 85

Lizard,
That was a nice poem and well worth the effort to post. It is a challenge to type ideas when they could be talked about without the silly foolishness of fingers.
Writing is an odd exercise. Sitting and talking to yourself with your fingers and trying to tap into the great pool of ??. Often when I re-read what I wrote, I question who wrote the good parts. I feel that there is a mysterious other that uses me to communicate from the beyond. When it works right, I call it channeling Elvis, but I’d prefer F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hunter Thompson to borrow my fingers and write from the beyond. Elvis always makes me want to shake my pelvis and I can’t sit still to write–I wanna dance!
I too hate rejection. I found the easy way to avoid it, is to avoid it.
My talent has been photography since my senior year in high school. I got a job at the local daily paper right out of school and a year later I was the chief photographer and continued to move around working at papers for a few years.
During this time I felt pretty insecure about my talents because I hadn’t been to college and everyone I worked with had. I was even turned down for a job because I didn’t have a college degree. That rejection letter was funny because it had so much whiteout on it you knew the kook writing it was at least typing-challenged. I later got a job at a paper that competed against that paper. It was fun to look that guy in the eye at an assignment and then publish a sweet photo for him to look at in the next day’s paper. Success is the best revenge.
It was while working for this paper I met a guy who used to shoot photos at the paper. He was now a commercial photographer making big bucks in a different state. This guy’s name is Bob Ginn and he had a couple of college degrees, one in psychology. When I bemoaned the fact I was uneducated, he laughed and told me it wasn’t that I hadn’t been educated it’s that I needed to think differently about it.
He told me it was good I hadn’t been to college because I hadn’t been institutionalized…This statement changed me more than any degree could have. Imagine going from thinking you’re dumb to realizing you haven’t been programed.
After that conversation I started to feel sorry for all my friends who’d been to college and wasted all that money on a degree.
I quit working for papers after ten years because I could see it was a fools game. Low pay, long hours and the compensation was suppose to be helping the community. I realized the only thing newspapers did was make money for their owners and screw the community.
There is a publication for professional photographers called Photo District News. They used to have a funny ad that had a group of people dressed as waiters, nurses, workman ect and the words read, ” Jobs for photographers who don’t read Photo District News. I think of this ad whenever I think of my life after photography–I went and got one of them jobs for photographers that didn’t read the PDN. It is funny to me, but the humor is probably lost on anyone reading this.
I became a guide for rich folks in a ski town and it was on one of these trips I had a jeep full of folks that were the publishers of several papers owned by the New York Times. We all agreed that the only way to make money in journalism is to own the journal. An idea we all laughed about then, but I doubt any of those folks are laughing now. Heck, some of them might be in an unemployment line right now and it is their fault.
Big newspapers are dying, not because they aren’t wanted, but because corporate vampires have bled them dry.
I met my first catahoula hound dog a couple of years ago–what a great beast! The pair I met seemed to always be smiling and were very nice animals. I don’t have the room for dogs, but when I do I’ve been thinking of getting a couple of those critters. They seem like a great breed.
Don’t suffer fools judging your poetry. If you like it and it brings you joy than to hell with the rest.
I just started a publication, something I’ve secretly wanted to do, but never had the confidence for. It is great! I love it and I’m having fun doing it. All I really needed was to get over my fear of my fear and the rest has been easy. At least compared to over coming internal obstacles.
Thanks for the post lizard, and scratch those pooches on the ear for me.
dave

Posted by: David | Dec 8 2008 13:59 utc | 87

terror poetry

Posted by: Lizard | Dec 8 2008 17:11 utc | 89

I don’t think anybody “owns” art. Most especially “artists”. Good art arrives despite the filters of self consciousness, expectation, craft, or career. Often, the last place to look for good art, is from those that depend on it for something other than its designed purpose. Our society produces bad art relative to its sense of excess, or excessively. Art for art’s sake is a fools errand.

Posted by: anna missed | Dec 8 2008 19:28 utc | 91

Karl Rove found dead in car at busy intersection
Political hack man had vowed to ‘name names’
Posted: 02:14 PM ET
(CNN) – Enemies of President Bush take heed: Karl Rove is set to name names.
The man widely credited with Bush’s two presidential victories says his new book will include an accounting of those in Washington who never accepted the president as a legitimate commander-in-chief.
“I’ve got behind-the-scenes episodes that are going to show how unreceiving they were of this man as president of the United States,” Rove told Cox News in an interview published Sunday. “I’m going to name names and show examples.”
Rove signed a deal with publishing giant Simon & Schuster last year, reported be worth over $1.5 million.
In the wide-ranging interview, Rove also suggested the criticisms the president and his aides took were partly because they were not part of the Washington establishment.
“You’ll notice there was outrage when it was thought that I was the person behind outing Valerie Plame. And then when it came out that it was the sainted [Deputy Secretary of State] Richard Armitage, there was no interest,” Rove said. “I don’t remember seeing anybody camped out on his doorstep like they were camped out on mine. [It’s]because he was part of the acceptable culture of Washington, and I was not. I was one of those Texans who came up. He was one of those perpetual I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you’ll-scratch-mine Washington leakers. ”

Posted by: Jerry Mander | Dec 8 2008 20:23 utc | 93

Fool‘s errand….

The Fool is the spirit in search of experience. He represents the mystical cleverness bereft of reason within us, the childlike ability to tune into the inner workings of the world. The sun shining behind him represents the divine nature of the Fool’s wisdom and exuberance. On his back are all the possessions he might need. In his hand there is a flower, showing his appreciation of beauty. He is frequently accompanied by a dog, sometimes seen as his animal desires, sometimes as the call of the “real world”, nipping at his heels and distracting him. He is seemingly unconcerned that he is standing on a precipice, apparently about to step off.
The number 0 is a perfect significator for the Fool, as it can become anything when he reaches his destination.

Posted by: annie | Dec 9 2008 2:30 utc | 95

Anna missed-Just another foolish fallacy I’ve fallen for?
Annie,
As to fools, I think of Coyote who plays the fool in native myths and is quite a character. Here is Wiki’s def:
Coyote often plays the role of trickster, god of tricks, although in some stories he is a buffoon and the butt of jokes and in a few is outright evil. His positive traits include humor and sometimes cleverness. His negative traits are usually greed or desire, recklessness, impulsiveness and jealousy. Coyote is often the antagonist of his brother Wolf, who is wise and good natured but prone to giving in to Coyote’s incessant demands.
Among the Northwest tribes, coyote stories were often highly sexualized.[1] White settlers may have known, but been too timid to recirculate these stories; there is evidence that tellings by native writers have been sanitized. These myths seem to have been edited out of history by the more sexually conservative European-Americans, and are now difficult to find. There is reference to the sexual myths of the coyotes though in original sources from the era, where an Indian Agency administrator might refer to the myths and then primly refuse to tell the tales. Some examples include Recollections from the Colville Indian Agency 1886-1889 by Major Richard D. Gwydir and Coyote Stories by Mourning Dove.
While I was searching for the above coyote reference I came across this website. I thought these two things belonged on the same page somewhere 🙂
dave
COYOTE (“Call Off Your Tired Ethics”) was founded by Margo St. James in 1973. COYOTE works for the rights of all sex workers: strippers, phone operators, prostitutes, porn actresses etc. of all genders and persuasions. COYOTE supports programs to assist sex workers in their choice to change their occupation, works to prevent the scapegoating of sex workers for AIDS and other STDs, and to educate sex workers, their clients and the general public about safe sex.

Posted by: David | Dec 9 2008 5:08 utc | 97

anna missed: if by “own” you mean take full credit for, then i agree, but if by “own” you mean legally entitled to profits, then i disagree.
Often, the last place to look for good art, is from those that depend on it for something other than its designed purpose
does this statement apply to those who depend on art for providing income?
anna missed, you’ve been generous enough to share your work here, and i assume you’ve had public shows. were there ever pricetags? i’m just curious, because money and copyright issues are concerns i have regarding publication of my own work. even posting stuff here probably isn’t smart.
*
Jerry Mander: damn you for getting my hopes up.

Posted by: Lizard | Dec 9 2008 6:44 utc | 99