Death and Destruction with Dignity

i don't think that any death should be met with cheers. 


same goes for war, "victory", "glory". 


the existence of the evil is what should be mourned, and one should learn from it, avoid it. the fact that it exists is a tragedy. getting past it, by military "victory", death of your "enemy" etc should it seems be met with relief, but cheers seem inappropriate. 


war is not a football game. our nations aren't teams that are meeting to win on the field. death wins. tragedy and evil win. we need to get past it all, to peace, thru negotiation, diplomatic adjustments, cooperation etc. our energies, monies etc should be saved more for that instead of military industrial complex, empire, world police etc. 


everyone talks big about peace. peace is tougher in many ways than dropping bombs. peace is active and to work towards it takes labor. it's not all doves, kids, fields, holding hands. 

Old/New Egypt/America

non violent action 

ancient world/new techniques/good results: Egypt  changes their regime in less than a month thru peaceful means, advanced communications and stealth and action


new world/old techniques/awful results: the U.S. bombs the shit out of  the Arab world/Libya etc, how many innocents killed? weaponized  Arab insurgencies against us, much popular discontent, years of war, humongous costs in lives and funds


yet we're supposedly the "greater" nation, right (wing)? 

The Weakness of Violence

stand up for peace

a government shows weakness by doing violence. this shows that it cannot stand up to  words, rhetoric, arguments, and acts.  instead it acts as a bully with a bigger rock to throw at the more intelligent. we can see this in Libya now. Iran in past. many dictatorships that crack down with the military. freedoms of speech, assembly, media etc are threatening to those in power and brings out  simple, mindless, blind force. 


though i still believe that it is similar with the death penalty. that rehabilitation or the possibility  of innocence  is out of the question so we simply kill the offender. again a government overstepping its rights. 

Peaceful Action in the Mid East

non violent street fighting men

notice that these  actions are  being done by Middle Easterners themselves, people stereotyped to be setting bombs off left and right. 


a lot of that stereotype comes from Americans, the people who usually overwhelmingly support military force upon innocent people like so many that were killed in Iraq. 


but in Egypt for example,  instead of using overwhelming force to push change in their home, they are using peaceful means: communicating, protest, the non violent action of people. not bombs, assassinations, diplomacy with dictators. 


. they do not have to be invaded by a larger more armed power to do it. 


how many innocents were killed to remove Saddam Hussein from power? how much money did it cost, how many Americans were killed, how much damage was done etc? now compare those numbers to the Egyptian removal of Mubarak. 

Democracy and Egypt

yes we should all be pressing for regime change in Egypt from that dictator. however regime change at the hands of crowds is actually mob rule. 


now if elections were to happen soon, fair ones that are approved internationally, great. democracy. 


and whoever is elected, including a Muslim, should be welcomed internationally.  s/he shouldn't   have flags of caution thrown in her/his  face from nations like the US. we were thrilled with the Tunisian uprising. very cautious in Egypt. couldn't be because there are so many Muslims in Egypt, could it? 

Gun Control in the USA

when the bullets pierce even the wall

i would almost be comfortable with double the amount of guns in our country, as long as the psychos and criminals and kids  can't get their hands on them. 


the guns used in crimes, do they come  from areas (states) that have weak gun laws? NYC has strict ones,  where do the used weapons  come from? 

When You're Right (wing), You're Right! part 2

"no more body armor!"

when the left supports big business,  they're doing it with  bailouts,  socialism, etc. when the right wing supports corporations with tax breaks, trickle down economics etc,  it's good business, trickle down economics, "the business of this country is business" (Coolidge) 


when the  right invades nations under false pretenses, war profiteers, kills tens of thousands of innocents, and rips a nation apart, they're  spreading democracy, keeping the world safer ("the purpose of the war is peace"--GW Bush), keying in on American interests  


the right attacks a supposed enemy without direct provocation, under false pretenses, with overwhelming force. if one of us attacks someone we don't like without provocations, under false pretenses, with overwhelming force, we're  arrested. 


when anyone wants to mess with the military and keep excellent personnel out, they are seen as anti American, hurtful, not supporting our troops, putting them in harms way.  when the right excludes excellent gay personnel  from the military, they're etc. when the right keeps gays out of the military, they're   keeping morale high, not messing with the military, going with the wishes of our troops

TOnight RIght Will Be Wrong

best health care in world right (wing)? 

terrific. let;s see what happens

• when a semi segregationist like Rand Paul (nice name) wins a national office. Strom Thurmond resurrected (he is dead right?)
• how much the media will spout endlessly about the Tea party kicking ass (which is o.k, but the coverage of Obama in 2008 was liberal biased media im sure), even though the Democrats were close to winning the Senate by 9:30 pm Eastern time
• i wonder when everyone will realize that the Tea partiers are more affluent  than the average American and it may be that they just  want lower taxes for themselves, and couldn't  care less about less government when the gays become discriminated against or when they themselves  want the Constitutional right of freedom of religion abolished for Muslims 
• again we'll "see" how much the problems now have nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with Obama. oh i left (left!) out Clinton, everything bad now is his fault too. 
• when we again ignore facts like the ones that support state supported health care in Europe being  better than our "best system in America" that ranks 35th in the World Health Organization's rankings

When You're Right (wing), You're Right!

middle of the road!

when the left protests, they're "unamerican"," unpatriotic", "fanatics"
when the right protests, they're "Americans exercising their freedom of speech", "frugal", "disappointed"


when there was bad news  in the 2000s, it was mainly Bill Clinton's fault
when bad news happens in the 2010s, it's mainly Obama's fault. 
 the right gives something like  AMNESTY  to the Bushes.


when the left want to have universal health care, they're "socialist", "big government"
when the right wants to make  abortion illegal  even for rape victims, they have "family values", "honor the sanctity of life" 


when the left increases taxes for the rich, balances the budget, stay relatively peaceful, govern over prosperity, they're "tax and spend democrats," "weak on foreign policy".
when the right wages 2 endless and illegal wars, lessens taxes for the rich, increase the deficit by unbelievable amounts, increase the amount of poor and uninsured, they're "patriots",  "real Americans", "strong on defense", "fiscally responsible" (!!!). 


and Republicans are going  to win seats back this Nov? 

Once and Present Thoughts: Sept 11

Arab neighborhood

after the 2nd 110 floor  tower went down the early suggestion were to go out and give blood because many  thought that there would be many injured. i went out and walked towards i think Elmhurst hospital. i was living in Astoria Queens near the Tri borough bridge. at our side  is one of the busiest intersections in the city: 31 st, Grand central parkway, the  bridge, interstate, maybe more. it was at a stand still at this time though:  no one getting  over the bridge because of security probably,  cars everywhere.

 i went  to the hospital but they had so many donors that we were turned away (and folks complain about rude NYers). one guy on line  had a big turban, bearded, medium toned skin.. i talked with a nice guy and a girl. . we went walking to another hospital. Queens is very diverse and  we  thru what i think was an Arab neighborhood. much of it quiet that day  like many neighborhoods in the city.

 but me and the guy remarked, that it would maybe be  the beginning of a blast of hatred  against Arabs. it was assumed quickly  that bin Laden and the other terrorists were responsible, and ignoramuses would render Arabs guilty by McCarthyist association.

what we didn't think was that the bias  would still be alive 9 years later.seemingly more hateful than times closer to the tragedy.  Fox news, right wing bigots (redundant?), book burners,  hateful protesters that want to "bombard" the Islamic center in lower Manhattan. ii thought there would be an earlier expiration date but no.

i also want to remind those  politicians that don't believe in big government but are using this tragedy  as a political jack pot, and those out of towners that are against the Islamic center: if im not mistaken, the majority of folks that died hat day were NYers.   and it is in OUR  city that the center is being built. as far as the loved ones of the deceased, they were more likely to be here.  it was us going all over town and standing in huge lines to be turned away to give blood. it was us that had to smell the stink of burning as far north as the 60s  (up town, miles away). it was us that had to walk miles home that day.

  i know it was an attack on America and a lot of non NYers died.  and the center is going up (i hope) in our city, and it is our business literally. you ever hear of "think global act local?" we live in this city, with Muslims, Arabs etc, we mostly  live together, in peace, prosperity etc. we don't need opportunistic politicians or bigots from out of town telling us what to do with a  property in our city that peaceful, lawful people want to use.

Doublespeak, Bigotry in Lower Manhattan

law for all groups

"Away from sacred ground" =Not In My Back Yard. a  sacred ground with strip joints (as i mentioned i used to work at one),  Wall street sociopaths, and a pre WTC  mosque 4 blocks away


. so let's send the  new Muslim center  to parts of Staten island, California, Tennessee, Wisconsin. just not the parts of those states that have protested against having the second biggest religion in history worship in peace. 

"Compromise" =Discrimination against a religious group. compromise means holding them to different standards than other legal groups, religious or otherwise. anti First amendment. (im sure their god forbids any treading on the 2nd amendment!) treat them differently because they're different (than American Christian white hegemony). 


Opportunistic and Hypocritical Politician: "It's disrespectful, offensive" etc. . real meaning: im using this political football to score political points. usually the same politicians that bitch constantly about big overreaching  government. 

Is the American RRR (Reactionary Radical Right) becoming too Mainstream?

o.gs: old gangster organized crime:   torture, black sites, extraordinary renditions, the highest office in the land  ignoring the highest law of the land, illegal war, crapping  on habeous corpus,  most Americans not giving a shit how many tens of thousands of innocents are killed by our military and government (support the troops!). that's was off the top of my head.

Right (wing)  and Might gives them  the Right?:

• the second largest worldwide religion being run out of one of the most diverse cities in America because of clear and present bigotry
• the Tea party, which is supposed to be more educated and affluent than the "average American", has 30 percent  of it's membership believing that the president is foreign born, clearly because he's black
• even the NY Times is running a front page article on a radical anti Islamic book burning preacher
• most Americans not giving a shit how many tens of thousands of innocents are killed by our military and government (support the troops!). 
• the defense, in public Congressional hearings, of BP by, surprise, a Republican Texas Congressman (probably with oil ties). 
• more don't mess with Tex: history being written by politicians instead of historians, 

i know that we still have high unemployment, trouble in other lands, differences, problems. but we can't have the extremists take such a mainstream position. that leads to even more danger: McCarthyism, internment camps, more war crimes, more war. 

wasn't it Bush himself that said that he couldn't believe he beat prosperity and peace in 2000, and then systematically and unbelievably destroyed so much of it? 

Strip Joint Run ins with Haiti's Future President (wink)

years ago when i started to live in NYC, i was supporting myself for a while in a job at the Flashdancers chain of strip joints, as a men's room attendant. contrary to what you may be thinking now, no, as far as i could tell there wasn't any masturbation in there (not that i would want to know). there was however a lot of cocaine snorted, almost like there was an extra pipe in there that flowed white powder into the stall. 

i worked at one of them down in the Financial district. actually pretty close to the World Trade center before... interesting, a location that;s so "sacred" (not the WTC, which is, but nearby?), yet i think there are 2 nearby titty bars and even worse, Wall street parasites everywhere, yet folks that practice the world's second largest religion are given a hard go.

Wycliffe john and the i think some of the other "Refugees" i suppose  were out looking for some of man's basics of survival,  and our club seemed to be an oasis. keep in mind i was only there a couple times a week tops. at least as an employee (just kidding, no need for a busman's holiday, wink). but  i would see them pretty often. at times  i would talk to Wycliffe when he was pissing, didn't usually do that, hope i didn't bother him too much. not  a big tipper maybe because of that--one time he actually tipped me with a guitar pic. if it was one of them from "Gone til November' maybe i would've been more impressed.


yes i know i should write more of the strip joints later.

Bigotry: "Ground Zero" (Tolerance) Mosque

"O.K" Mosque: Malcolm X's

 i live in Harlem and i've driven thru Brooklyn many times. i've been near  many mosques. i've never heard a bomb go off, never read about it, seen it, etc. surprise: this recent bigotry is not really against Muslims (keep in mind the nation with the most of them is Indonesia, an Asian nation). it's against  Mid-easterners. so it's literally (at least in Iraq)  double barrelled bigotry. 


how many of my brethren  of Irish decent have condemned the mosque? when the Irish  came to this nation en masse, the natives were saying the same about us: go back to where you came from, we don't need Catholics here etc.

FANATICS killed innocents on Sept 11.  how many "patriots", "god loving Americans", "simple folk", "freedom fighters", "regular folk", etc have killed TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MUSLIMS OVER -SEAS!!!????

the Financial district is right near ground zero too. you know, the place that ruined so many lives of Americans during the financial crisis which blasted out in  fall 2008. any calls to get them out of the area because of their awful practices? when in comparison the organizers of the mosque are pretty damn  innocent.

of course it's terrible to have big government and "heartland politics" overreaching their jurisdiction to another area, except in this case, it's perfectly o.k for some local politician down south to act  and involve himself in our local politics, right right?

US Diplomacy: Straightening Up, Flying Correct?

from Hiroshima Peace Park

at least after Bush and his right wing: illegal war, unilateralism, ignorance of international treaties, ignoring our own Constitution when dealing with foreigners, staying clear of international treaties. you know: dark ages of American internationalism. and im not 100 percent pro Obama, but as soon as he was inaugurated, improvements on the diplomatic front.

• today was the 65th anniversary of a day that really should live in infamy: Hiroshima's bombing. finally, finally, America sent a representative, an ambassador i think. 
• Obama's administration has been much more open to countries like Cuba,  Russia, and tougher on some nations that have it coming like Israel.   not just conversing with oil producers. i still have in my head Bush literally holding hands and going along with some big shot  from Saudi Arabia i think.  one of Earth's worst regimes.
• more open to European methods like  health care
• more open to limiting nukes. .
• the above while having to clean up after Bush's awful wars, cowboy diplomacy, isolationism, chauvinism, hypocrisy

as i said there's much im not happy about: Guantanamo, American hypocrisy with nukes, American build up of troops in Afghanistan (after winning the Nobel peace prize). but again, progress after one of the worst administrations in our history

America the Backward

closed prison

do we realize how much,  in this "greatest god given nation in the history of this earth" or whatever the asshole Sean Hannity says?

• most of the industrialized world (Europe, Canada, etc): free health care, higher quality of life, more peace, cheaper higher education, higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, more time off from jobs. America: at times violent opposition to health care, huge differences between poor, rich, middle, biggest military industrial complex in history, exorbitant prices for college, higher crime rates, struggling middle class.
• again most of the industrialized world: more gay rights for marriage and military service. that includes much of S America. gays can also openly serve in places like Catholic Ireland, Italy and Spain,  Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation_and_military_service
• America often builds up the reputation of the rich, putting people like Trump, Paris Hilton, asshole athletes, "successful" criminals like Charlie sheen, up on a pedestal, saying that they deserve their money, their success, they've worked hard etc. the poor are often seen as lazy, stupid, uneducated, McDonald eating, smoking, welfare sponging. in Europe etc the percentage of people that think that the poor's lot is their own fault is much lower. hence more of a safety net, more views that more problems are social diseases like drugs.
• side note: New York City has had drops in crime since the early 90s like most other American cities, but the prison rate is also dropping. not true for other cities and the nation which builds prisons more than any other nation. e.g in Brooklyn near borough hall there's a closed jail. again if lower level, less violent criminals are not locked up as much, where their problems can be seen as social problems, and they are given more access to rehab, crime rates and [prison populations can go down. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/nyregion/11jails.html?scp=1&sq=New%20york%20prison%20population&st=cse

Double Standards: Po' Folk, and the rest

• when po' folks have books, magazines etc collected, they're called pack rats, obsessive compulsive, queer
• when the middle class and up have the same stuff and it's leather bound, it's called a library
• 
  
• when the poor speak up and ask for a fair share or defend their neighborhood, lives, health etc, they're whiny, complaining, welfare seekers
• when everyone else does it, they're assertive, politically astute
• 
  
• if a European hyped up to be an "artist" splashes paint on a wall of your neighborhood, it's public art
• if an inner city teen does it, he/she is a gang banger and it's an eyesore, urban blight
• 
  
• if you're drinking one can of beer on your way home on the subway after a long day on the job, you're a criminal in opposition to the "broken windows'" anti crime policy
• if you're an alcoholic on the suburban trains drinking beer that they sell you AT THE TRAINS, and you're going home to, say, beat your family, you're still probably seen as hardworking, dedicated family man

More Definitions

TAGers: much worse than when the gang bangers usually get this title: Typical American Greed. oil companies getting tax breaks. sociopath banks and financial institutions like Goldman Sachs getting bailed out by the government. face facts all: America is not a true democracy, it's a plutocracy in many ways.

POE awards: not for mystery writing, but Process Of Elimination Awards: e.g. Super Bowl MVPS usually going to the quarterbacks like when Peyton Manning won. also:

A.A. meetings: Automatic Awards. knee jerk picks. like the 1996 NBA finals when the Rodman played brilliantly, Mr Jordan played well but not outstanding (at least for his standards, like in 1992), yet media baby Jordan gets the MVP, "bad boy" Rodman misses. kind of like when they would pass over him for the all star games, or when a knee jerk off like Karl Malone is rated higher than him when Rodman would consistently outplay him in the most important games of his life

Why do they Die: Memorial Day

i would like to thank the soldiers who protect our country as well. but how much of it is protection, how much other reasons:

• 370,000 of them maybe permanently deployed to over 150 nations, mostly in rich ones like Germany and Japan
• a military industrial complex worth the defense budgets of the next 20 nations combined
• empire building
• spending so much on a war on terror when other nations don't, and we haven't even found bin Laden
• illegal wars, and war profiteering
• increasing our nation's deficit when the war was to "pay for itself"
• killing more Americans than were killed on Sept 11 in waging a war under false pretenses
• killing tens of thousands more innocents than were killed Sept 11
• increasing anti American sentiment world wide and increasing anger, self defense, insurgency against us

To the Past Darkly: where the Right Wing Takes US

• excusing and practicing torture as being o.k when americans do it
• disbelieving science that has overwhelming evidence like evolution and global warming
• getting paid to believe in abstinence only education like Sarah palin's teen preggo daughter,
• practicing indefinite detention
• attempting to turn America into a Christian republic (yet it's horrible that Iran is an Islamic republic)
• attempting to write discrimination into law with the bullshit "'defense of marriage" act written by whore-lord David Vitter, a married Catholic with 3 kids who believes in abstinence only education
• using might makes right in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, 150 nations where we have troops
• voting in favor of more bombs, weapons etc while voting vehemently against health care, without even discussions about the subject
• attacking Obama for being black (you really think if his name was Joe smith and he was white, it would be believed that he's foreign born by one third of tea party folks?)
• advocating bullshit trickle down economic theories which clearly increase nation deficit, increase income differences between the rich and everyone else
• politicians like Rand Paul arguing that discriminating against for instance blacks at private establishments is o.k, and the equivalent of not allowing guns into private businesses. he also equates it with infringement of freedom of speech