I Didn't Hear the Whole New Set But Still

I didn't hear all the newest material, but some of the other "outrageous" stuff from the Reverend seems quite natural to me. Passionate, thought-provoking commentary, which we should be free to enjoy as we wish. The words are his, not his parishioner's. He's a great speaker, so sorry, I listened to a few of his talks. Will I be going to hell, then? The pushing of "the Wright issue" was sustained by the HRC camp. Had her troops allowed Obama's excellent talk on race to stand in all its beauty and left the Rev alone, he wouldn't have felt so galled that he needed to shout out in such a public way. But the Tanya Harding strategy required that Team HRC keep flipping the topic around, getting friends to keep dissing the Rev to taunt Obama. Had she already conceded, only the Wingnuts and Faux Newsies would be railing against the Rev, and he's used to that. But with Team HRC so concerned, saying "Gosh, he's got that Reverend problem and I don't know if the voters will accept that..." and stimulating media commentary in the topic, can you blame the Rev for wanting to cry out? It is quite repulsive to see that being done. HRC attacking her own party. Purely to win at all costs. And when she's going to lose anyway, it becomes all the more vomitocious.

Rev Wright at Detroit NAACP

The Reverend is a linguistic scholar (M.A.) and used that as a central theme in his speech to the NAACP dinner tonight in Detroit. Beautifully presented how we all need to learn, study and understand more of how different does not mean deficient. Blended left brain learning vs Right brain in his speech itself. He demonstrated thought constructs as well as musical thinking patterns. Showed us how we think differently. Invited us to look again at our differences and understand that different is not deficient. Tied that theme in with the NAACP dinner theme that A Change is Going to Come. He presented powerful examples of discriminatory, limiting educational labeling that resulted from left brain dominant people evaluating all others per their own Euro-centric paradigm. He showed that those so labeled actually had vast stores of their own knowledge, and ample brain power, just manifest in different ways.

His speech had lots of humor. But the talking heads are approaching it as a political instrument rather than a national sermon. That is awfully sad. To me it was more like a sermon on the topic of national values in a multicultural nation. Anyone who isn't an American Indian in the room right now is an immigrant.

I can understand Obama's attraction to the Reverend Wright's sermons. I also love excellent oratory and listen to all kinds of speakers I don't completely agree with. Even though I'm not a Christian or theist, I enjoyed the speech immensely.

Frozen Chicken -- Micro-catatonia

Begin brave, then regret was how I was characterized in a divination of sorts over 30 years ago, and dang me if it still don't hang true. Jump in, then skeerdy-freeze. Can there be degrees of catatonia? and darling, do I have the "in" new disease then? Do tell.

Well, as regards divination, that there Chinese dominant star thing, with the Unlucky in Love star formation appearing six times? (Perhaps just three.) Check. Done. Been there too. Great wealth in middle age? Pends on who's counting. Rather enormous in many respects; delicious ramshackle bohemian wonders. Check.

But decidedly cloistered. So disclosing this blogging is daunting and I may have jumped the gun. But lord have mercy one hopes it is but a canaryish call into the collective sea of dialogue swimming in a universe of shared sentiments and could be pictured as such, a byte of dust in a swirling universe of webs. Let it go, let it swim.

So what the shux, just keep on. Return to core -- that which I love and why.

Best GD Country

Tempest in a teacup, ridiculous ruckus raised in the corporate media over the Reverend Wright saying GD America in a sermon one day. Sorry folks, it is racist to be outraged at a reverend expressing anger toward a nation that enslaved the great-grandparents of many of his congregation. Is not a nation's official sanction of slavery outrageous and to be condemned?

And how about the many Americans who replied to my critiques of US foreign policy by blaring that the USA was the Best Goddamn Country in the World ? Their GD is just fine?

This here "best GD Country" has families going bankrupt due to medical expenses. In addition to its masses of historical offenses on a global scale.

Show me your McCains -- Moulting Penguins? Scrubbed down Oil Slick Ducks?

4/24 -- Discovering live comedy again has been great ! We are lucky to have so many cool venues and creative people sharing excellent material on life and our times. .. Have already seen and loved Tom Rhodes, Joe Klocek, Paul Mooney, and more -- Robin Williams tomorrow. Comedy Against Evil on Friday... Hope to see some McCain stuff trotted out -- I think of him like an odd penguin or Donald Duck's uncle or maybe that Leghorn cartoon. Some kind of paltry poultry...

4/25: Still hankering to see more Creepy Grampy McCain and issued a request to Comedy Against Evil -- described Grampy as a moulting penguin... perhaps a duck who's been severely scrubbed down after an oil spill... He does kind of waddle as he walks. Perhaps he has a bionic spine?

But let's not forget Grampy's salad days -- Hair slicked back, ruffled white shirt, turquoise satin blazer and black slacks-- on stage with the Keating Five. Can we do up the right doo wop tune, fellas? Something about loving bundles of cash, or bailing out my buddies behind the village bank?

Dazzling Robin didn't do much on Grampy last night... Is that just far too creepy a subject? -- Torture doesn't lend itself to laughs. I deeply flinch at casual Gitmo jokes. As a nation, we have dived (done dove) so far down that the cynics' buried idealism can't squeak out of the mountains of blood and guts piled up over the past 7 years. Too damn grimy... Habeus Corpus, my friend... How do we joke about that?... But shouldn't we ask Cainy, oh, I mean McCain, whether he was "coercively interrogated" or just plain tortured when he was a POW... Did he have water forced down this throat or was it more gently poured? How do you transition off of this bit ? ... Onto his disregard for the needs of veterans? Gee, that'll be fun...

Mike Malloy Sings My Lullabies

As our country slipped deeper and deeper into the destructive darkness of the Cheney administration's wanton war profiteering, Mike Malloy's rants became my lullabies.

I was reeling against the Bush candidacy from the beginning because I knew Mr. Cheney from before. I knew he pushed Trickle Down and War Up. Secretary of Defense pushes privatization of the military, then serves as head of the main contractor, and then, well I declare, there he is-- up for VP, so I was too chicken to vote Nader, even in our safe state.

Yet the nightmare came to pass, the USA chose the Frat Boy over the Geek because of the Beer Factor. Well, actually, I agree with Michael Moore that there was an arrogant coup d'etat and we were there -- spun and hoodwinked to the max. No US major media ran Greg Palast's reports on Florida vote caging before the election of 2000. Jeb told CBS the story wasn't true, you see...

So thank god Mike Malloy came onto my airwaves at bedtime on Green 960 (not called that at the time). He recommends War is a Racket by Smedley Butler. Love that title. I also still remember a talk by Seymour Melman on the Permanent War Economy, decades ago. Dear Mike Malloy saved my sanity as the Cheney administration pushed the country from horror to horror. Getting softie Dems to cave to the old cons-- golly ya gotta be bipartisan and such. As I was reeling and squirming and repulsed, Mike was too -- he knew I wasn't crazy having flashbacks-- dangerous criminals were definitely returning to seats of power and we should indeed be screaming. His ranting under my pillow was necessary and cathartic as our country violated each one of the tenuous bounds of civility it still upheld.

Mike remembers the cast of characters we have been watching for years. Excellent historical knowledge as a long time newsman informs all of his commentaries. Those who've been life long news junkies like me (Wanna come see my tapes of the BCCI hearings?) will appreciate his contextual awareness and come to love it.

Life Expectancy Falling -- Let Them Eat Cake

NOT A BIG SURPRISE -- WHEN MEDICAL CARE IS A FOR PROFIT INDUSTRY--
Push snacks and joke about boring vegetables and make sure consumers know that they deserve sweets. Snack and drive your cars to the gym and snack and golly why is there an obesity problem and snack and have some fries and a milkshake and some chips and some soda and discuss why your kids are fat and have some dessert (you deserve it). The snacks come with an added bonus-- more consumers for your prescription drugs. And they are a really special new group of consumers we call patients. Make 'em special, make 'em feel connected to their special subgroup with an up close relationship with their diseases-- gotta take care of MY cancer, MY diabetes, like their pets. Aw, have a snack. Have some soda. The country needs you. Gotta have more sick people. Make sure all the chemicals in our daily lives are evaluated separately-- then we can call them safe. Generally Recognized As Safe, GRAS, is the term. Avoid measuring interactions. Just process more and more food to make it more convenient-- "chop and drop into crock pot" was way too complex a recipe it seems, so now we have frozen, preserved and bagged crock-pot-ready concoctions to spare us that tedious chopping and thinking. And let's cram more chemicals into our skincare products too. Rub 12 chemicals with a dab of cucumber onto your skin to keep you young. Then you've got a great toxic soup that could lead to all kinds of conditions that we can prescribe a whole bunch of new pills for and then we can make pills to counteract the side effects of those pills and and and. Medical care is an exciting profit center and growth area (not just the tumors!) -- we can build the market base by feeding them cool super-seasoned easy food and drink and they're gonna pay for it all ! Heck, we even convinced them to use aluminum byproducts in their toothpaste and slather aluminum on their armpits to stop that nasty sweat-- what's a little brain damage if you've got those pristine teeth and dry armpits, eh? And as long as we keep conducting studies so aluminum toxicity is still "under debate," we'll be fine. Golly gee, if people like sugar and hate fiber, let them have it. That's the free market at work, building the medical consumer base. Gotta keep growin' the sickies, so let 'em eat cake before they serve society by taking their insulin shots for their diabetes. And hey, let's offer them free syringes.

Pennsylvania -- Grammatical Attack !

Lord Have Mercy -- HRC issued a grammatical challenge to us all -- changing Yes We Can to Yes We Will -- for God's sake !! Ay Caramba you gotta be kidding ! Let's all lie together -- Yes We Will Yes We Will -- I declare. Sounds tough and macho indeed but hey, what if what you all will just doesn't happen? Si Se Puedes says we still can, as long as we work together. I hope even more people will be drawn to join Obama to give Si Se Puedes the respect it deserves-- the dignity of Si Se Puedes, a beloved expression. Yes We Can -- a continually evolving dedication to results-- far more collaborative and creative than the bulldozing Yes We Will. Si se puedes if we all continue working together. Senator Obama says that in his speeches and has dedicated his life to that. Yes We Will is in the future. Yes We Can is an evolving now.

Dear Jim Hightower

Has the best book titles -- The Only Things in the middle of the Road are Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos -- was a previous favorite, and now it seems, he's got a new one that says Even a Dead Fish can Go With the Flow... The Hightower Lowdown was fun to receive and I should probably renew my subscription. Love Jim for taking time to point out success stories and the few battles that regular people win... http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/

I think it was Jim Hightower who sent me in search of colorful Southern expressions a few years ago. Right now the only one I remember is "Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit !" as an alternate for Well I declare.

Public Financing of Elections in Japan

Glad to hear that nerdy political posters are still up in Japan. Public financing just gives each candidate a standard sized poster for face photo and statement. Plain color background. Fences in certain areas are plastered with the posters around election time-- just geeky who's who. Not slick marketing and smear ads. Glad to know that is still the norm.