Rawrahs... Shouting into the Abyss

Titles From The Draft Folder -OR- Distracted? Who Me?

2012-04-17T04:20:00.000-05:00

Figure It Out -OR- Around & Around We Go. Where We Stop Nobody Knows

Are You Occupied? -OR- Are We Just Being Jobbed?

Wither Thou Goest -OR- Hey, You! Tread On Them. Over There. See `em? THOSE people!

Perseverant Bastards -OR- Paved Paradise, Put Up A Monument To STOOPID.

Crossing Thresholds -OR- What's In A Number?

Bozos & Their No-Nos -OR- Selling Shit

Still Waiting -OR- Memory Holes

I can't seem to flesh out, or finish, a thought these days. Four years and 1000 posts have evidently taken a toll. So, for the nonce, I'm going to slip back into the restraints and observe the fluffy clouds as they drift across the sky. I'm going to immerse myself in abject obliviousness to the newsfotainment assaulting my tenuous grasp on sanity.

The above titles are variations on a theme that stretches all the way back to ~~2008~~ 1968. The world's never gonna yield to my way of thinking. I don't control a lever that large. I remember. These days, that's a HUGE disadvantage. After forty-five years, I'm a "tween" again. The cool kids still define how things shall be. They were shallow and scary then. They still are.

Titles/lyrics in the relational database:

"Five to One Baby, One to Five..."

"There's just you and me and we just disagree"

"We may never pass this way again."

"Said the straight man, to the late man. Where have you been"

Fear not, odds are something will catch and hold me. In the meantime, there are projects and stuff to occupy my days. Hmmm, occupy? Why does that sound so familiar?

See you in the streets...

And I Ask Myself, How Did I Get Here? -OR- Do We Owe Our Soul To the Company Store?

2012-04-05T16:20:00.000-05:00

Rats in a maze? All you are is Rats in a maze?

Sure seems that way sometimes. When we stop to think on it at least. Whose idea was this?
Who came up with the game? Who came up with the rules? How have the rules been changed? When were the rules changed?
WHO changed them? Or are things the same as they ever were? Same as they've always been? Who arbitrates which rules apply to what and when they do or don't apply?

It seems to me that the things we should rightfully point to with pride, are things we did together. Sure, some people got rich along the way, but we accepted that as a tolerable cost to pay in the pursuit of happiness; towards a more perfect union. And sure, the rich have always needed to be shamed into doing the right thing, though now they seem to have developed an unhealthy shame-resistance that might even be deemed short-sightedly arrogant, but REALLY? They keep the Gold Mine, we get the shaft?

So what happened? Could the Mayans' ominous prediction of a planetary flip-flop have been more metaphorical than scientific? We're talking pre-Columbian Mesoamerican timekeeping here. Without benefit of leap years and accounting for other variables, mightn't the date for this phenomena been off by a mere 30-50 years? Isn't that well within the margin of error for projections spanning seven or eight millennium? Did they simply see the apocalypse as a societal occurrence wherein Up was Down, Good was Bad, War was Peace and Pizza was a vegetable??? Welcome to Opposite World.
Crab a chair, set a spell... See the game as it is.

The signs of opposite world are everywhere. This guy used to be the symbol of conniving sloth attached to shiftless and lazy ne'er do wells. Now he's the poster-dude for the Gordon Gekko set. Yeah, okay, a little thin, but what did you expect. When I saw this Crazy Train leaving the Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Roundhouse, I withdrew a sensible philosophical distance to watch the madness unfold. Outside; looking IN. Now that Wimpy's the character most like the ruling class, it's only a matter of time before he gets his inevitable comeuppance. Probably not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but it's undoubtedly nearing the tipping point. The incongruity, just like the Dude, cannot abide.

While I admit that this approach will likely come back to bite me in the ass, the hide back there is thick with experience, so I'm not too worried. That too shall pass. I have some skills. They were once even marketable. Except for job related minor injuries over the years, I've not over-burdened the health care system. My entanglements are few, my needs are small. I have some and I'm prepared to do with even less. Frugal? Short-sighted? Poor planning? That I have not amassed a medium-sized fortune to perpetuate a certain, approved lifestyle? Yeah, that too.

I feel good. Much better than I look to some. I take amusement from the sturm und drang that drives the masses. I don't fear much. I know the outside and it's a relatively comfortable environment. I risk. I scoff at those who think the future can be bought, or that their place in it is a sure thing. Odds are much higher that you are one of us. If not today, then soon. The excluded. You think it won't happen to you? Because you're playing by the rules? Whose rules? Do you have them in writing? Are they worth the paper on which they're written? Really? Have you not read much history?

"Don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

Bll Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Tucker Carlson & Andrew Breitbart Sat Down to Dine? -OR- Incongruity? Only $2500.

2012-04-02T04:20:00.000-05:00

Breitbart's Last Supper?
Who knew? Andrew Breitbart, Tucker Carlson and other Carlson invitees sat down to dinner, prepared and served by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Prof. Ayers details the circumstance, process and experience for posterity.

I'll admit that I haven't looked for Wingnuttia's stammering clamor for a special prosecutor to indict Bill and Bernadine for "wet work", but I can't imagine they wholly passed on the opportunity.

Besides which Tucker Carlson survived? More fuel for replicant theorists?

Breitbart podcasted about the occasion: “We were exposed to the two most sophisticated dinner party-throwers in the world…This was their battlefield and they couldn’t have been more charming…I think I’m going to try and reach out to Bill Ayers and try and figure out if I can maybe do a road trip across the country with him—him and me—and he can show me his America, and I can show him my America, and maybe we can film it and let people decide. Because I’ve got to be honest with you, I liked being in the room with him, talking with him.”

That road trip was never a likely prospect, but it’s no longer even a distant dream or a far-out possibility—a few days after our dinner Andrew Breitbart died suddenly outside his home at the age of 43, too young.

Life—short or long—always ends in the middle of things.

Trudat!

Driftglass goes there. The squishy middle?

Anticipating the fallout from the Centrist Circle Jerk Panel held on April Fool's Day's Press The Meat w/ Joe & Mika, DFB, Captain Obvious and the Norman Lubloff Choir...??? WTF???
TV Guide: Panel: Joe Scarborough moderates with Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Jon Meacham, Fmr. Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) and Mika Brzezinski.
Such an auspicious, objective, clear-headed, fact checked bunch eh? It was probably stellar Sunday Morning Fare. I really shouldn't piss all over it since I could not bring myself to watch it. Then again, I've no wish to watch looped reruns of MSNBC's Lean Forward spots either which made watching UP with Chris Hayes such a tedious balancing act. I've opted to not watch it LIVE anymore, so I can now FF past the urge to run a metal skewer between my ears.

These are the folks who are going to "help" us answer the question of what has gone so terribly, horribly, no-goodly, very badly wrong?

TimeFuckin' Out Already!

I mostly feel like I live in an occupied country. My life and activities take place in some gray zone of detachment; and I PAY for the privilege? Outside the bubble. A sometimes amused, mostly incredulous place. I wave my arms, scream and shout at the folly, but it neither notices nor heeds the warnings.

Maybe I should start holding dinner parties for the bubblers too? Nah, I have those damn metal skewers and don't resist temptation well.

Hypocrisy and Irony, Together In Perfect Harmony -OR- You Too Boys!

2012-03-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

"Hey folks, trust me I'm a historian! This is YOUR BRAIN on our brand of politics..."

Dulcid, haunting melodies for the terminally tone-deaf, A.D.D. addled suckers referred to as the average Reproblican voter?

When Mr. Frothy Lube and Mr. Serial Adulterer are indignant that Willard's reviser-in-chief would say that Reproblican voters are easily manipulated chumps who are more than willing to disremember anything that conflicts with the latest revised talking points? When that pure hypocrisy gets dutifully glossed over by the alleged LEFT-WING National Media who report it as a legitimate opportunity for questioning Willard's conservative bona fides? When the underlying lying of the last thirty year's ~~opportunistic parasites shilling for their Sugar Daddies~~ conservative movement's shilling to cover up the wholesale looting, liquidation, pillaging and "creative" destruction of this country's commonweal and freedoms?

The Reproblicans have relied on the etch-a-sketch memories of their voters since 1968. Forget that Tricky Dick was a McCarthy cheerleader and serial LIAR. Accept that he was a reformed Rat-fucker who had moved beyond his criminal predilections. Cambodia and Watergate NEVER HAPPENED! Forget that St. Ronnie ran on the premise that Carter's budget and spending were OUT OF CONTROL and that he ALONE could get rid of the fat and waste! Accept that tripling the size of government and debt made Reagan a fucking saint and the greatest preznit EVAH!

To be a good reproblican you have to accept that everything that has happened since Reagan put the pedal to the metal and scrapped the brakes and safeties, has been what is GOOD. The bad is STILL because of the Dirty Fuckin' Hippies.

Shake, shake, shake.

Give me a fucking break. Will ya? We've never been TOO liberal. Everything blamed on the liberals was gutted, twisted and transmogrified long-prior to delivery. All the creamy filling sucked out and diverted to deserving loyalists, apparatchiks and the underwriters of the faux causes. Designed and operated to provide the least societal benefit for the greatest privatized profit. The shared sacrifices and lifetime patriotism of generations, pilfered by the "right" kind. The erudite class who "earned" it the old fashioned way, by buying ~~off~~ the referees.

When they're always so busy, eagerly pointing fingers, to distract their etch-a-sketch brained sycophants from their empty rhetoric and personal uglinesses. You do not need to believe them. Take them at their word? Yeah right.

Small Town Charm -OR- Primary Day in Paradise

2012-03-21T04:20:00.000-05:00

Here in these inner-ring suburbs of Chicago, Proviso Township, Crook County, Illinois, life is good. The lights are on, the heat works, there's food in the fridge, pantry and freezer. There's some money in the bank, our mortgage isn't underwater and there's an abundance of stuff to do. We have two grown children who are mostly self-sufficient, self-reliant and self-confident. They're in no rush to give us grandchildren. The list of blessings goes on to include great neighbors, a cadre of good friends that includes tolerable, even likable, relatives. I certainly can't bitch about my life. Today will be the seventh glorious weather day in a row with temps near or above 80°. Flowers are blooming everywhere and everything is greening up nicely.

Of course, that doesn't stop me from worrying, contemplating and angering over the shrinking and wanton destruction of this habitat. We have it good. Timing is everything? We settled. We live within our settlements. Our needs are modest, our ambitions aren't overreaching. I feel that our expectations are realistic, but far from realized or assured.

The assault on this way of life has kept things interesting for sure. The incessant demands that we should be doing this and thinking that, supporting this and opposing that, and that not doing so constitutes an unacceptable non-conformity that violates some unwritten code to which all the "cool kids" dutifully conform? Well that's just stoopid on face, completely ludicrous thinking in general, impractical and unenforceable in practice, but the assault still escalates. More often than not resembling Jr. High for pettiness.

The primary election was held yesterday. For the first time in decades there was not a Lipinski on my ballot. Instead, I was able to cast a vote for a non-blue-dog democrat or his hopeless challenger. Not that it would matter, or be needed by Congressman Danny Davis, who cruised to an easy win, it still felt good.

The race for our state representative (IL-7th), twelve hours after the polls closed, is still too close to call with just two precincts left to be "fully" counted. Technical glitches prevented the electronic counts from being counted. The race, between Emanuel "Chris" Welch and Rory Hoskins stands with Welch holding a THREE VOTE LEAD. I'll be checking "MY" voters again today. First to verify that they did indeed cast their ballot and secondly to get feedback on their experience going to the poll.

As small-town politics sometimes does, this race got ugly. Early and often. Welch is currently the president of our High School district school board. Hoskins is a village commissioner. Welch is slick and smarmy. Hoskins is quiet and un-flashy. Welch touts connections and clout, his homegrown roots and his "experience". All of which were put under the microscope by a local newspaper of the Sun-Times News network. Their series of articles disclosed that Welch is THE stereotypical Crook County politician who used his position to play the stereotypical Crook County games.

He hired friends and relatives along with the friends and relatives of other power politicians. He played up his "experience" running a large urban school district while downplaying that district's place at the bottom of the academic pile. He had signs everywhere. He even put Barrack Obama's name and the 'O' logo on his signs to give the impression that he had the President's endorsement. He passed on appearing at candidate forums organized in by various community and civic groups in the district. He conducted his "campaign" with glossy direct mail fluff pieces and conveniently timed mailings from HIS school district.

Mr. Welch contended that the negative press he was receiving were "hit pieces" aimed at a popular black man. The paper reported on his cronyism, fund raising, "legal" activities, his use of clout and connections to project and protect his image.

In a district of 100,000+ registered voters, 11,875 (so far) votes have been counted and Emanuel "Chris" Welch is ahead by THREE votes. Provisional, Absentee and Military ballots remain to be counted.

Welch and his "machine" failed to deliver. All the power players who lined up for "their guy" failed to deliver.
They may have, once again, fooled just enough of the people for just long enough, but I have to say that this race has helped restore my faith that change and progress CAN compete with the Proviso Way. I sense that even if this turns into a victory for the status quo, they've lost far more than they can possibly gain by backing continued smarm, corruption and licentiousness over competence and non-entrenched loyalties.

In the final analysis, this is a huge day for progress, win, lose or draw.

Outside Looking In -OR- Keep On Knocking. Keep On Rocking. Keep On Truckin'.

2012-03-08T04:20:00.000-06:00

I'm weary. Oh so weary. I can't keep a coherent sentence, let alone string several together to form an argument for or against anything. Nothing but spittle and foam form. There's just too much debris. The wreckage is piled up, loose, shifting and unstable. As much as I'd like to talk of better ways and better days, I can't focus for the storm. It sucks up and spits out everything in its path.

I feel sadness for my species. We cannot afford to keep getting dragged away from our common interests to argue over the same old repackaged, reformulated or reframed bullshit that has always halted progress. And make no mistake, that's what's going on.

The wedge issues being driven never change. What has changed is the wedge manufacturing industry. What has changed is the number of people who derive their living from wedges. It's 2012 and we're seeing and hearing "serious people" debating women's reproductive rights, women's privacy rights, corporate "personhood", public education, the RIGHT to organize and bargain collectively, child labor, immigration, who we should bomb next, whether "too big to fail" was a Dem or Rep enabled scam, whether the New Deal and Great Society programs were necessary? Went too far? Whether voodoo economics ever happened? Really? Why? Because it's good for the newsfotainment affiliate of the wedge industry.

Most of all, we suffer the complete lack of any mention whatsoever that the actual Left, in general, and the Dirty Fuckin' Hippies, in particular, have been correct all along. Instead of EVER admitting such a thing, every manner of distraction is called on to avoid truth and any hope of reconciliation.

War, whether "shootin" or cultural or mythic, really IS unhealthy for children and EVERY. other. living. thing. Peace IS the answer. Peace is strength. Peace is stable. Peace is cost-effective. It's called Civilization for a reason folks.

You wanna discuss that? You wanna debate that? Sorry, it doesn't sell soap. It's got no pop. No snap. No sizzle.
It's not naive. It is a core pursuit of every decent society. So what does it say of this society that it's not up for discussion?

People all over the world are taking to the streets for PEACE and Justice. Spring is here. The streets await.

Question of the Day -OR- Don't Ask; Don't Tell Realms

2012-03-03T08:07:00.001-06:00

Just purposefully walking along, minding my own business, on a minor hunting/gathering expedition when I was confronted by a clipboard wielding question asker.

"Sir, Today we only have one question..."

I walked by. Purposefully

"Sir? We only want to know one thing. What is your favorite instrument?"

Slowly I turned...

Medieval Mace!

Be thankful that I left mine at home today...

Wait! What? -OR- Me and Bobby Magee

2012-02-22T14:49:00.002-06:00

Some Greeks Might Have to Pay for Their Jobs @ The Atlantic Wire.

If you didn't see this (or something like it) coming, then you should be required to repeat elementary school and become a lifetime subscriber to Highlights for childen with special emphasis on their logic puzzles.

It's not incongruent to be living in a home on which you owe more than is worth or worse, still paying for a home you no longer own or live in. Driving a car on which you owe more than the trade-in value. Paying $4.00 per gallon for gas while Oil Companies are setting new profit records (even after graphically obscene executive compensations and bonuses.) In a country that has granted citizenship to CORPORATIONS while purging voter roles. Personhood to embryos while railing to outlaw contraception and abortion. WTF, we have right-to-work taking over, why not pay to work? I'm sure when the financial crisis has passed, and our wars have all been started and won, there will be better days and more equitable distribution of the load.

This is the logical finish line of the ~~market, service, consumer~~ debt-driven economy. All the risk of the last 30 years fully amortized and socialized across the 99%, so that the 1% can be free to create jobs that you can pay them to work at. If you didn't risk and distance yourself from the great unwashed, it's your own damn fault.
If you didn't think they would finally find a way to destroy the societal safety net that enabled their rise to the 1% just so they declare a winner in their little game of who's got the most? Because what held them at bay has been incrementally and systematically shifted, switched and shafted so that WE no longer have the inviolate equity share that was part of the last treaty?

Happy Daze is here again!

Do I feel validated that my decades of trying to point out the inevitable is proving out? Who the fuck cares?
Here's the deal. The 1% may find out that they don't have enough money to pay enough of us to keep the rest of us from gleefully dancing on their street dragged and emulsified remains. No enclave gated enough. No walls high enough. No politicians pwned enough. It'd be chaos. All those survivalists who've been rehearsing for SHTF days? Outnumbered too.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

"It will not happen here? We're too civilized?"

The Greek ruins didn't always look like ruins. They were once symbolic of the mightiest, most civilized nation/state on the planet Earth.

Humanity has survived Dark Ages before. It will again. Maybe this time, we'll get it right?

The talent and skills remain with the workers. While it would be better for everyone not to relive the birth of the modern labor movement, we no longer own that either. We're still on the precipice of just how ugly it can get and the 1% still think they have the upper hand.

There's just no teaching some people.

Orwell In Action -OR- Small Town Charm

2012-02-17T10:26:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned before that I live in a thrice strange place, that does thrice strange things for thrice strange reasons. It certainly wasn't like this when I settled here. Times were very different then. It was Brigadoon, existing out of time and place, in proximity to the vast resources and amenities of Chicago's metro region, but content being apart from the dysfunction of big city life. When it re-emerged in 1999, a new attitude took over. It was silly to have our location and not fully capitalize on it..., so the trade-offs began. Those who wanted to maintain the comfortable, laid-back attitude were caught flat-footed. The place was ripe for the plucking and the pluckers took over.

The intervening years have been an almost laughable -Bad-News Bears-esque-, exercise in ineptitude, deception and loss.
Hype and marketing! "If we build it, THEY will come! It'll be great!" For this braintrust, the ends always justify the means. They employ a hybrid of the Jedi mind trick to dispel any notion that they're not self-serving pricks to their very core. Under the commission form, they act as legislators and administrators giving themselves a broad range to run their business as they see fit. While we are blessed to have a local newspaper. Its ability to report is dependent on information sources that have been brought under the Mayor's Office of Information. Some might call it a gag-order. Our mayor calls it a safeguard against ~~having his authority questioned~~ inaccuracy. Especially when he is being quoted; verbatim.

Watch the video in the link and see what passes for "public discussion" on new policies about village employees who surf the web and interact with internet social media.
No Reason; Just Policy.

Three beats two. Suck on that!

Spring Fashion Chicago Style -OR- Mrs. O'Leary's New Milk Cow

2012-02-15T00:01:00.000-06:00

What the well appointed Cops will wear

Being a social type, I'm looking forward to May's fashion week in Chicago. It's shaping up to be THE place to be.
Historically, Chicago has a special place in American impolite society.

Clearly somebody in the city event planning division has an appreciation for non-textile fashion and geographic, historical irony. Great-grandsons and great granddaughters who've lacked an official organization on par with the DAR will, no doubt, find our fair city as welcoming today as their ancestors did.

The prevailing sentiment among rank and file patrol officers, once past the "Geez, We really don't need this shit!" groan, is an anticipation normally observed in tiny tots with their eyes all aglow. Indeed, some are finding it hard to sleep. They know that G8/NATO's on its way. Loading up with lots of toys and goodies for the fray.

Thankfully (?), there's no shortage of distractions and diversions for opposition efforts to make May a watershed month in the long slog toward progress. Still, there is a vibe brewing among the splinter groups that Chicago may once again become a unifying location of disparate grievances. Opportunity to ignore the wedges, stakes and claims and rise up together in common purpose.

Then again, it might just be much ado about nothing?

Is there a Vegas line on the outcome?

Hamburger Hill -OR- Same As It Ever Was

2012-02-14T00:01:00.000-06:00

"I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition."

100 years ago Eugene Debs ran for President in a four-way race (Look it up!). He got 6% of the vote. He ran again in 1916, then once more in 1920 from his prison cell. Eugene Victor Debs was a dangerous man. He spoke out for peace and justice. He spoke against the draft. He encouraged dissent.

He was a real person. Not some novelist's hero. Who sought a fair deal. Without expecting to be dealt with fairly. He understood that the hope and change, for a fair deal, were not gifts that could be bestowed by benevolent leaders. He knew that our nation's capitalists were not particularly concerned with the plight of the average person. He preached rugged individualism and personal responsibility enjoined to achieve a collective, common goal.

"Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means....

I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul....

Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own."

100 years removed, without a Eugene Debs, a labor movement, without the vast manufacturing labor pool or a reliable counter-balancing media? With Super PACs and Media Consolidation and Must See TV? Progress? Really? Economic Apartheid? We haven't come all that far. Is an alternative to this insanity any more insane? Someday if we look back, how will this period be viewed? How that in the span of a few decades, hope and change were brutally slain. Prospects rolled back to the pre-anti-trust levels of economic servitude? But it's all good because we can tweet about it? If it's just a cycle, it's not a particularly tolerable one.

2012-02-10T19:57:00.002-06:00

empty; not running

Why Right-To-Work Is Wrong -OR- 16 Tons

2012-02-09T18:14:00.002-06:00

From the autobiography of Oscar Neebe 1850-1916

One day my boss told me: "Oscar, I have a good situation for you where they manufacture milk cans. You can make more there than what I can pay you for work you can do. I can get along with a boy and I cannot pay you what you are worth. You can commence Monday." On his recommendation I started to work the next Monday. It was a new place. A new patent milk can. In a short time the business increased and there were fourteen workmen. We could make each from 25 to 30 cans a week, but some of the workmen were too greedy; that was not enough. They worked harder and made from 35 to 40 cans a week, and that was too much to pay a week, $35 to $40, to a workman by the company who worked said patent can, the price was reduced to 75 cents apiece, but the selling price was increased from $6 to $7 apiece. . Now the workmen worked to their utmost strength, so as to make the same wages as before, and I told them they would, by doing so, reduce the price of wages furthermore. A short time after that the price was reduced to 65 cents apiece. A friend of mine, Barny Collins and I were appointed a committee to consult the company and let them know that the workmen would not make a can for that price. Collins and I went to Mr. Sheppard and laid the resolution of the workmen before him. He laughed, and offered to bet that the others would work for 65 cents. We told him no. He offered us two, as we were his oldest and best hands, to give us 75 cents. We told him we and our comrades would not do so, would rather stop than to make those cans less than 75 cents; he went to one of the workmen and asked if he would rather stop than to make the cans for 65 cents. He said Yes, if the others would, he would, of course. Through their cowardice and breaking their word, Collins and I left. It was the first time I saw skilled workmen, who were wanted and needed, back down. It was in 1871. I heard later that the price was reduced to 45 cents. Mr. Sheppard got to be a wealthy man and his workmen poorer and poorer through the cowardice of the workman.

I commenced work in another factory where they made oil cans and tea-caddies. That was the first place where I saw children from 8 to 12 years old work like slaves, working on machines; most every day it happened that a finger or hand was cut off, but what did it matter, they were paid off and sent home, and others would take their places. I believed that children working in factories has for the last twenty years made more cripples than the war with the south, and the cut off fingers and mangled bodies brought gold to the monopolies and manufacturers. How often has the sweat of a poor man or child paid for the silk dress of a kept woman of these men, whose only desire is "to have lots of fun and a good time.

It's taken 100 years to get back to where we started? Who are the pushers of right-to-work, killing Health Care, demonizing teachers and perpetuating conflict appealing to to elevate their chosen candidates into positions of power and control? You and me? They're going to act in MY best interests?

I know exactly how Mr. Neebe felt.

Whack-A-Mole -OR- Floor-Flopping Temper Tantrums

2012-02-07T07:15:00.002-06:00

"When I was a child I spoke as a child..."

As a parent, the four words that steeled my spine were "Dad, Can I have...?"
If you are a parent, you're only too familiar...a pony, a puppy, a hamster, a few hundred F-117 Nighthawks, a new bike, that old twenty dollar bill in your wallet, a tax exemption for my profitable enterprise, a happy meal, repeal of Roe v Wade, the complete set of Harry Potter Action Figures, your ATM card and pin number, another $200 Billion for my war machine?

Any parent can testify to the perseverance of a child's mind. When they get locked into a want, things can get a bit trying. Kids have strong skills in survival and staging a scene. There are many, many times when you simply cannot reason with them.

Kids don't know from limits. They must be taught. They'll wail and moan about the unfairness of it all, but ceding to their unreasonable demands is not a viable plan. It's a recipe for incremental, escalating torture.

For them EVERY SINGLE thing is an all or nothing proposition in a ceaseless list of things they want whether needed or not. "If I don't get that new I-Phone with unlimited text and data, I'll just DIE! You just don't understand how important this is. Dad, you can walk to work and skip lunch for a month. That's not asking too much, after all I'm the most important thing in your life! right? You wouldn't want to crush my will to live now would you?

There it is! Welcome to the P.O.G.'s winning strategy. Act like bratty, petulant children, don't take no for an answer. Ask again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Sooner or later, they'll wear down and say Fuck it and then we win! And that's all that matters. When it all goes to shit, it'll be them that gets blamed for what WE do!

Bottom of the Ninth -OR- Crushing Defeat

2012-01-28T18:47:00.002-06:00

It's been 20 years since I had my "Reggie Year" playing 16" No-Glove softball around Chicago. 30 years since I had my "Mr. October" moment. In the title game. Extra innings. In the top of the ninth (Softball plays 7 innings)the opposing team pushed across a run. The season rode on us coming up with at least one in the bottom of the inning. I was due up third.
The first two batters singled bringing me to the plate with the winning run at 1st. I hit a line drive with eyes (shot!) between short and second. The short-center fielder made a spectacular diving catch, jumped up, ran to second, tagging the runner coming from first base while stepping on the base to complete an unassisted. triple. play. I ended our season?
Half way to first base, I saw the catch and knew I was out, but the rest of the weirdness had nothing to do with me, all I could do is watch as our season ended.
I was dumbfounded.

Oh well, great game? One for the ages?

Old news. Spilt milk. Water under the bridge? So imagine my shock when a neighborhood bar had a championship reunion night for the teams in the league.
A good friend played on the opposing (winning team) and called me from the festivities. "Hey, getcher ass over here! We're sitting here watching your triple play!"

"Say What?!?!? You mean there's actual footage of my nightmare?"

"Yep!"

I raced right over. I didn't get to watch it myself, but I'm assured that it does indeed exist and the guy who brought it has promised to burn it to a DVD for me.

I will finally be able to prove that what happened was not my fault. There is joy in Mudville!

In the grand scheme, it's but a distant memory, but as moments go it was a singular experience.

When I get the DVD I'll figure out how to post a youtube of the play and let the intertubes decide for themselves.

Influence Back-Peddling -OR- Fool Enough Of the Pig People For Long Enough

2012-01-23T07:01:00.003-06:00

H/T Mad Magazine

It's been clear to me since 1968 that a wormhole had opened and deposited Opposite Worlders in our midst. I've watched in bemused horror as they laid out their agenda. I admit to giggling openly as they bumbled, stumbled and seemed completely alien to this planet. Those halting, stuttering first salvos of Barney Fife "Law and Order" versus Dirty Fucking Hippies spewage seemed harmless enough since they were so at odds with the reality for most Americans.

Their efforts were feeble, their rhetoric was over-the-top, their double-standards and faulty logic were transparent. They were clearly a solution in search of a problem. So full of distrust, fear and ugly, there was no way they'd be able to find quarter in this country. Unless conditions changed they would never be more than an annoyance. Certainly would never be put in charge, or allowed anywhere where they could put their inane world view into practice.

But these sowers of sour were nothing if not industrious and perseverant. When simply laying out their "plan", they were roundly laughed at and ridiculed. Their dire predictions were baseless. In the end, the only nightmare force that was "out to get us", determined to destroy the American way of life, was the conservative movement. People, in general, understood the concepts. Good versus Evil. They were sold something completely different. Marketing and advertising were brought to bear to change the conditions. Power and influence were used to alter the script. Silent steady encroachments were exploited until defects could be built it and/or added to our daily diets.

Our lives are hopelessly interconnected. We live on a large, very sensitive web that can transfer unease from seemingly unrelated distant points.

Nobody shakes the web better than Newticles. Nobody shifts the fault lines with greater dexterity. Nobody is more cravenly convinced that the scam can be fulfilled without detection. President Gingrich? Who better to pull the final switcheroo then "save us" from ourselves?

Nobody embodies the long con of Opposite World with Newtie's deeply flawed understanding and mitigations. You ALWAYS know where you stand with him.

In the way!

Reproblican Motto: If At First You Don't Succeed...

2012-01-19T09:32:00.003-06:00

LIE LIE AGAIN!

It's 2012 and the "question" of Reproblican FAIL is still subject to debate? Bravo! Got to hand it to the skeevy bastids. No matter how early and often their ham-handed, say anything brand of populism is exposed as fear-driven, self-serving and destructive, they remain on message. Despite the redundancy of their blatant hypocrisy and disdain for America and average Americans, they claim their path is righteous and Christian to the core. While displaying all of the characteristics of the pure sociopath, they insist that eliminationism will unite us? Purging, cleansing, incarcerating anything that gets in their way.

If they can just imprison, marginalize and exclude enough, their illusionist's majority will survive and the greatness of what was once America will be theirs to control? Isn't that exactly the time loop we've been repeating for decades now?

What sustains and expands their agenda is the perpetuated notion that what they've done is NEVER enough. Not that it was wrong, addle-pated, against the treaties and agreements hammered out over a couple of centuries and change that lent opportunity and stability to our lives. That somehow, those filthy bleeding heart liberal hippie scum sabotaged their plans?

Locking up 2.5 million Americans didn't make us safer, happier, more secure? That's only because it should have been ~~10, 20, 30 million~~ anyone who bitched? The S&L fiasco that distracted, derailed and shook our trust, that enriched overwhelmingly "conservative" reproblican interests? The clear answer is more deregulation and allow the whole financial industry get in on the fun. When that craters, blame the welfare system?

When the billions pooled in 401Ks are replaced with counterfeit securities and IOUs, and this occurs cyclically, almost predictably? It's not the market being manipulated and enabled to steal, it's not that our Congresscritters couldn't resist the pitchmen and flim-flammer's shimmering lures that promised prosperity for all, it's because brown people hate us for our Christian freedoms?

Funding for this ongoing criminal conspiracy has been labeled free speech. Protected.
They tell you that what's bad for you is really good for you. They tell you that there are two sides and clear choices. I don't know about you, but the only sides I can discern are inside and outside. Upside and downside. They tell you that both sides are equally to blame. The arsonists for setting fires and the victims for living in a place that an arsonist might target? They should have known better?

The ONLY "sides" who seem unconvinced that the game's rigged are the riggers, their Congressional beneficiaries and their media stooges. Their vistas are clear and tastefully decorated and wrapped up in Jebus bows. People forget? They disremember? Driftglass calls it strategic forgetery. I'm not so sure. They remember. They're full-blown nostalgic for the memories. What they seem to forget is how it was lost.
Or at this point, what IT was in the first place, because as long as I've been aware, this warped and twisted domination of defining good and bad have been wrapped in a flag and carrying a bible. We've always been on their slippery slope, engaging in their desired discussions and looking at what/where they've been pointing out our "problems". It's now the only thing on the grocery shelves. The argument is now how authoritarian and punitive things have to get before we all submit to the grand design.

The infamous bridge to nowhere may be somewhere in Alaska, but the reproblican's Ronald Wilson Reagan memorial bridge to nowhere is Nation Wide and it's all been accomplished by lying and stagecraft.

Yep, got to hand it to the skeevy bastids. Thanks to their vision and cleverness, our future's so bleak, we've got to wear blinders just to bear the loss. After 1001 reproblican candidates' dog and pony lie-fests where the argument is over whether grabbing one's ankles is the proper position to assume for receiving the next dose of reproblican solutions. But hey, this time they MEAN it! That other stuff? That's the old reproblican way. Get ready for the new stuff!

When they've successfully contaminated or destroyed the last remnants of our glory decades, you can thank them as they feel entitled to be thanked.

Honesty? It never had a chance. Too many skeletons to hide and sins to eat. In Opposite World, honesty is poison.

Right? Right? Nothing Left!
Always remember, This time it's because teachers and cops and firemen are being paid too much!

2012-01-18T06:06:00.002-06:00

2012-01-18T00:01:00.001-06:00

Laugh Out Loud Funny (And So True!)

2012-01-13T14:10:00.000-06:00

Running On The Record -OR- Crawlin' From The Wreckage

2012-01-10T07:39:00.002-06:00

Over the objections and obstructions of rabid conservatives, protectionists, projectionists, racists, strict constitutionalists, fundamentalists, elementaryists, secessionists and full-blown batshit crazy loons, it was American Socialism that dragged this country from the depths of the Great Depression, put it back to working together, secured the freedoms, propelled the American economic boom and fulfilled the "toward a more perfect union" foundations. It was American Socialism that "won the war", that united our common goals and ideals, that fully embraced the concept that we are in this together. Publish or perish.

We went on record with our beliefs that freedom and opportunity and determination of a determined nation is the most powerful force known to man. The Atomic Bomb may have shortened the war, but American Socialism WON it.

Success did not dissuade the above mentioned from their disproven beliefs. They didn't join up. They didn't unite. Throughout the war they continued their opposition. American Socialism forced them, grudgingly, to contribute to the effort and actively tempered their greed and profiteering through public humiliation and confiscatory penalties for their breaches of trust. Power they had abused was stripped from them and transferred back to the people. They were allowed to keep the bulk of their wealth, but were forced to pay fairly for their privilege.

That is our history. That is our legacy. That is what the conservative movement has co-opted and corrupted. They didn't change with the times. They didn't admit they were wrong. They looked for ways to profit. They actively recruited ambitious wannabes for the cause. While most of the country went back to work, married, had children, raised families and built communities, they remained focused and loyal to their disproven scheme and made it pay off.

Using position and power they systematically set out to rewrite history and make themselves the heroes of our story. They were roundly laughed at by anyone who remembered, but they persisted. They made little inroads. They incrementally influenced how the public was informed. They carried out acts of sabotage upon the workings of government, diverting and redirecting its attention through hyped up fear and their carefully crafted fictions. They maintained their history parallel to ours.

They built an army and over time, we forgot enough of our own history that it became blurred with the fiction. It happened incrementally. It happened while what was said and what was being done were diametrically different. It happened by using the combined efforts of all against us, for the benefit of the few. It was fueled by liquidating the shared assets of our nation. The whole time saying "Trust us, we know what we're doing. We're saving you from evil socialism."

That's the record. That's the lie. That's the ONLY truth that can salvage what was built by pure American Socialism; providing shared resources for the benefit of ALL.
All the rewriting,lying, shift, switch and shaft takings falls in the light of truth.

Their topsy-turvy revisionism can't stand up to REAL scrutiny. They had it all declared LEGAL? The CHANGED the laws? Do you really think that can stand up in a court of Law? Isn't about time we filed suit to find out?

Wedges and Levers and Strings Oh My! -OR- To Be A Fly On The Wall...

2012-01-06T04:20:00.000-06:00

THUD! Ah, there's that other other shoe. Is it a sensible conservative black wingtip? A Jackboot? or just a red velvet slipper type of thing?

Chicago's Francis Cardinal George, speaking for his archdiocese's millions of Roman Catholics, taken at his word, considers "Gay Activism" to be comparable to the KKK?
"You don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism," the Cardinal said.
Removed of the irony of robes and pointy headwear, Cardinal George has exposed his undeniable Chicago roots, intolerance, sensibilities and upbringing. In a vast metropolis whose areas and neighborhoods are still deeply identified by in which parish/church its residents reside, turf battles are nothing new.

The Chicago Gay Pride 2012 parade controversies have ramped up several notches. An earlier start time, a different route and several other negotiated changes have kicked off a very public pissing match. Because of the change in route, the parade will now pass directly in front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, on a SUNDAY, at NOON, in the Lakeview neighborhood. The church is worried about traffic problems?
Its parishioners will not have convenient valet parking? It's not as though OLMC is
a revered shrine, or that there aren't alternate Catholic churches within spitting distance in any direction, so it must be OLMC's weekly collections that is at risk?
Surely there could be an internal archdiocese auditing credit that would ease the cashflow crunch? Maybe the parish could erect skyboxes and premium viewing platforms for attendees? In years past, with a 2 pm parade start on Halsted Street, the church's parking was packed like sardines and used to generate income. Maybe it's that loss that is being lamented?

Chicagoans with their vague, candy-coated fears and loathings are frantically trying to keep up with 2012 scheduling challenges. A relatively mild winter so far has left the local media with time to fill. Instead of storm watches, field reports of road conditions, accidents and the annual "saving of the parking space with lawn furniture" dibsies olympics, they've filled the time with details on 2012 scheduling. By all reports, road construction is not the big worry this summer.

In fact, Chicago is emerging, once again, as an epicenter for the airing of grievance. Occupy Chicago is already here. Wobblies, Anarchists, Socialists, Communists and hundreds (thousands) of National SIGs have Chicago offices.
Groups are mobilizing for The G8 and NATO summits in May. You may want to either give this area a comfortably wide berth or make your plans to join in the festivities. It is shaping up to be quite the exercise in advanced citizenship. What could possibly go wrong?

To that, Mayor Rahm and his top-cop have upped their game too. Plans, contingency plans, emergency plans, response plans, intelligence, surveillance, free-speech rules and zones...

Call your travel agent. A landslide of Chicagoans already are. They've done the math.
Disorder will be preserved! Another perfect storm is gathering. Come to Chicago to be heard? herded?

From the distal reach of the 'L', it'll be a easy commute.

Dr. Strangelove Redux -OR- Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drone, Drone, Drone...

2012-01-04T06:50:00.006-06:00

Appealing to the repellant? The density of matter? The pitter-patter of closed minds?
The rejection election?

So far, the only trend on display in the 2012 POG Goat Rodeo is the extent to which large swaths of our democracy have failed to thrive. Has the scorched earth strategy upon which the Party of God ascended finally run out of earth? Will they ever say "Oops, Nevermind"? Oh Hell no! Drill baby drill. Dig baby dig. Hate baby HATE!

The job's not done? What job is that? What is the lofty dream of shared toil and sacrifice that's not been shot full of holes? Which lie has not been belied?

This insane dismantlement, fueled by the life savings of millions, for the short-sighted, short-term greed of a bunch of petty, jealous, vindictive sociopaths has reached its logical end. The chips are down, the cow is empty. The only remaining ready fuel are the bodies of the undeserving.

The strange thing is either the belief that this result is somehow good and natural or that a solid 17.3% of the "base" don't recognize where they are being led. They don't seem to mind that their candidates are completely devoid of workable solutions.
They've gotten exactly what they've voted for in successive elections, but somehow the ultimate goal is still out of reach?

Yeah, that's a winner!

What's In A Name -OR- Why I Call It Opposite World

2012-01-03T04:20:00.002-06:00

h/t: Ronald Reagan Was A Horrible President
How did I miss this site until now?

History. Teachers, Period. -OR- When Will We Ever Learn

2012-01-02T04:20:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year. Happy Leap Year. Happy Election Year.
Buzz...Click...Reset...
Hey, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute. I've seen this crap before.
Null signal...
The whole point of recycling is to keep USEFUL stuff out of the landfills.

Does anyone actually still believe that the nightmare we're living is the result of some liberal dream world run amok? That is...besides the people who think humans and dinosaurs lived harmoniously in the same gated subdivisions?

Use your elementary skills. These two pictures represent 44 years of our "leadership". How are they alike? How are they different?

Which of these represent a liberal point of view?