H3ath3n's Fried Meat Shed

And Now . . . The Bigot Weather!

2005-01-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

Translation:

"Golly gee, I'm just all kinds of sorry if I happened to make some sort of inadvertant racial slur while delivering your weather forsecast today. Ya'll prob'ly weren't aware that African Americans experience a whole different weather pattern than all the rest of us, didja? Naw, they got themselves a whole microclimate kinda sitchyayshun goin on down there in the bad part of town, them folks . . . "

(Could it be that Bush's "mandate" is nothing more than a validation of bigotted thought? Call me Anti-American once again, please; this time I'll consider it a complement.)

The Compassionate Conservatives

2005-01-15T13:24:00.000-08:00

I must admit I've only listened to one of their songs so far, Black box Voting, which comes across something like a classic XTC track - a ska-oriented chunk of outrage infused with a healthy sense of humor. Quite listenable and worth the download. They also have an IUMA presence here, plus a blog (by one band member) here. Please give them a listen if you're at all into politically-aware alternative rock music.

Bullies

2005-01-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

This is a good article by Sam Smith on the subject of dealing with bullies. What with a megabucks circlejerk of an inauguration coming up in less than a week's time, this may be the right moment to study up on that breed of parasitic lowlife just a little bit, in the spirit of "know thine enemy."

Yes, for better or for worse, we're all likely to be stuck with a bunch of no-brow thugs at the wheel for the next couple of years, all on account of that mythical "morality" meme. Of course, add a 't' to that word and reality quickly comes stealing back to show us the ugliness of our fatal weaknesses in no uncertain terms. The human ability to adapt to changing circumstances may be the death of us yet.

From Henry Miller to Howard Stern

2005-01-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

In January, 2003 a tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” which has hung outside the U.N. Security Council since 1985, was covered with drapes during the days the Security Council met to discuss Iraq. Someone apparently decided that the painting, showing the wounded and dying civilians of Guernica being slaughtered by Generalissimo Franco’s fascist regime might make the Security Council ponder the human faces of war. God, we wouldn’t want to do that.

Patti Davis

From Henry Miller to Howard Stern

A Random Thought . . .

2005-01-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

When I try to wrap my feeble mind around certain political realities, I find myself snuffling among my own leavings upon the collective trail of our own oblivion, ending up quite disoriented and heading off into the scrub to have my flanks scraped and abused by the twigs of discarded xmas trees and other capitalistic detritus.

Case in point:

Gay marriage continues to be a huge issue within the continental United States of America. Yet we continue to put more nonviolent drug offenders in prison than any other developed nation, where some 250,000 of them are subject to homosexual rape each year, for such "crimes" as drug possession!

Land of the what? - home of the which?

Could you kindly repeat that, please?

But we hate gay sex, or so we claim, crucifixes clutched in our greedy little monkeypaws as we tremble before the neverending pissedoffitude of The Lord, grasping at some Chinese import of meaninglessness as advertised in the local MegaloMart, red-white-and-blue trimmings a given.

Factor in the homoerotic nature of many if not most of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and then garnish the whole thing with this little tidbit, and you have to wonder just where in the hell we are coming from as a nation, and if we have any connection whatsoever with the concept of reality at all.

I have my doubts about that last question, serious doubts.

Prove me wrong if you are so inclined, and can summon an argument in favor of the idea that we don't all wish to be objects of love.

Who? U.S?

2005-01-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

Like the German Nazis of old, who were ignored until they had firmly cemented their campaign of terror, their momentum as ferocious as it was unstoppable, the Amerikan Nazis are likewise being disregarded both in the United States and abroad. Their assault on the world, and the United States in particular, as good people stand idle, doing nothing, has magnified their power, their addiction to greed and their grandiose sense of self. They validate their mission as blessed by a delusional destiny endeared to all rising empires, believing all their frivolous lies, embarking on a road guided by the Almighty itself, content that its powerful yet invisible hand is assenting to the incredible levels of mass murder, suffering, destruction, violence and human wickedness their actions have spawned.

The Rise of the Amerikan Nazis. Part I of III: Birth of Despotism

by Manuel Valenzuela

Help

2004-12-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

Citizen Rampant has put together some excellent information concerning Earthquake and Tsunami Aid for those who wish to contribute to the humanitarian relief efforts. Please give it a look, and help if you can.

Charity Navigator is a useful resource which includes financial information about various charities (CEO salaries, etc.)

"Analcranialinversionitis"

2004-12-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

The Bush administration's handling of this crisis has been inept beyond belief.

An Appalling Performance, Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial

(requires free registration.)

Well what do you expect? This administration has never had to rely on anything approaching competence, even when it comes to achieving its own stated goals:

In 2002, Bush blocked $5.1 billion in homeland security funds, $340 million of which were slated for firefighting equipment and training. Bush also cut the FIRE Act programs from $750 million in 2004 to $500 million in 2005. He cut state and local domestic preparedness funds by $975 million for 2005. And he cut funding for the Urban Search and Rescue Program from $60 million to zero.

Bush's Legacy of Failure and Deceit: A Firefighter Speaks-out on the election, National Security and Iraq

Bruce Monson, Freethought Firefighters Internationa l

Look here for some good information about how you can help provide some relief for the victims of the tsunami.

And regards to Mr. Monson for coming up with the phrase which I've snagged as the title of of this post. The complete phrase was "I'll tell you what this country suffers from - analcranialinversionitis!"

I certainly couldn't have said it any better. Please give the above links a minute or two of your time.

My best to all . . . .

Freak Radio

2004-12-28T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here is a (net) radio station that you’d do well to check out. These people see a turd and call it what it is without dressing it up in the usual fake patriotic/fake christian drag for mass consumption. Please do give them a listen, and read about the FCC raid on their station here.

FBI should investigate Blogs?

2004-12-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

Get this: the Lone Ranger has no opinions, he only has convictions. This from someone who states:

I've been a broadcast journalist for 30 years. I've lived and worked all over the world and am presently writing for an international news agency based in Washington, DC.

La di freakin' da!

And we wonder why our media has had its collective nose lodged so deeply up Bush's cash-stuffed ass for the last four years? Let's face it - it's all about pandering to wealth and family connections; if the sucker had to get by on job performance alone (which most of us have had to do) he would be hosing the regurgitated remains of Happy Meals off the surface of a McDonald's parking lot somewhere in the DC area, even as we speak. We may in fact be looking at the shit-smeared south end of a north bound braindrain, when you get right down to it.

But let's define our terms here. The entry for conviction in my ancient and battered paperback copy of the Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary is as follows-

n 1 act of convicting or state of being convicted; 2 act of convincing or state of being convinced; 3 strong belief || SYN persuasion, opinion (emphasis mine.)

Kinda like tryin' to split hairs with one of them Mexican Hairless, Innit?

One of The Lone Ranger's (no doubt deeply-held) convictions is:

FBI profilers would do well to check out some of these blogs. I'm sure they could find more than a few serial killers.

Yeah, just don't touch any of the rightwing, fascist-friendly blogs. Them's all good ol' boys - Bush voters all.

By all means, go and read the Lone Ranger's post concerning ebonics, if you dare. Yes, the English language is evolving - and in many cases devolving - all due to that national security threat from several years back - ebonics!

Word.

To be sure, all us white folk know how to talk goodish, despite the fact that our "president" (lower case intentional) can hardly complete a single sentence without resorting to some autistic version of King Tut Talk, or that many of our most economically-successful corporations rely upon a phoneticized form of English just so us salt-of-the-earth dumbed-down types can understand where to go to pick up the latest copy of the Weekly World News so's we can read all about the latest exploits of Batboy while we're puttin' two bucks down on those Support The Troops ribbon magnets (most made in China, of course - that bastion of freedom.)

Well, I haven't been a broadcast journalist in Washington DC for the last thirty years, but I have been a living thinking human being for at least that long, and that should count for something. I also happen to believe that the Lone Ranger should be able to say whatever he wants on his blog - or anywhere else, for that matter - without fear of being investigated by the FBI or other alphabet thug agencies, who have better things to do such as terrorizing aged nuns at airports and whatnot.

And I proudly profess to holding genuine opinions. The nice thing about opinions is that they can change and grow and nourish themselves on the flow of available information as time goes on, becoming better and more effective in the process. Convictions? Sounds like the very meat of terrorism to me.

Besides, I always pictured Tonto riding off into the sunset with a freshly harvested scalp and a silly Holloween mask hanging from his loincloth, happy as shit, and proud to be doing the world a favor.

In a Sane World This Would Only Be Another Tasteless Joke

2004-12-26T18:53:00.000-08:00

But this is not a sane world.

Exhibit A . . .

Anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps has announced intentions to erect a monument to Matthew Shepard the gay college student brutally murdered five years ago near Laramie.

But, the monument will be no memorial. Phelps says the monument would be 5 to 6 feet tall and made of marble or granite. It would bear a bronze plaque bearing the image of Shepard and have an inscription reading "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

Screw Leviticus - can you imagine how Matthew Shepard's family must have felt upon hearing of this? It figures that a mind as warped, twisted and compassionless as that of "Reverend" Phelps would think up such an obscenity. What a sicko.

I used to hear a lot of cheery talk from Christians about the joy that they felt having accepted Jesus Christ as their "personal saviour." Odd how often that joy is translated into the basest of human impulses, over and over again: bigotry, plain and simple.

But then George W. Bush is said to have been re-elected on the basis of "morals."

If I live to be a hundred I'll never figure that one out.

Christianity has lent itself with amazing facility to cruel distortion . . . and has brought an infinity of anguish to innumerable souls on this earth.

Joseph Conrad

Happy Whatevermass

2004-12-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

In a few short days the feeding frenzy will have been consummated once again, the conditioning will have long since kicked in, and Americans everywhere will obligingly engage in yet another mindless orgy of consumerism in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ who - according to the version of the bible that was forced down my own throat as a boy - would be thoroughly appalled and disgusted by the whole thing, having allegedly thrown some money changers out of a certain temple at one time in the distant past, and in a locale that would probably be the testing grounds of our new-and-improved armaments today (come to think of it . . . )

Well, the money changers are still present, in greater numbers than ever, and it would seem that there is precious little space left in the temple for anything other than shopping carts these days, most of them having at least one wheel that refuses to point to the intended aisle, of course.

“It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven,” the man is supposed to have said (I paraphrase from a rapidly-dimming memory here.)

I haven’t cracked open the good book in decades, but that little nugget has stuck with me for some reason. Apparently, the bible has been heavily rewritten in recent years, with extensive editorial input from the likes of Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and similar pickfuckers, various and sundry, who possess the fat bank accounts and shortage of empathy typical of their kind, usually referred to as Republicans, but who could just as soon be described as pragmatic Democrats, if I’m not missing something, which is only too possible.

So be it, then.

It’s hard to imagine anything more contradictory than Christmas, 2004 – at least for me. Let’s all celebrate the birth of Christ seems to be the message. Forget about his teachings, those just simply don’t apply in the current political reality – embrace the illusion, drink the Koolaid, and assume the position (gimme da butter.)

In a few short months your children’s new toys will be occupying the local landfill, fodder for future archaeologists to wonder over, understandably confused about the true nature of our fine culture.

As for Jesus, I can only say that I’ve never had anything against the man, though many if not most if not all of his self-professed followers leave one hell of a lot to be desired, in my opinion.

Patterns

2004-12-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Augusta, a fanatically religious woman, was determined to raise the boys according to her strict moral code. Sinners inhabited Augusta's world and she instilled in her boys the teachings of the bible on daily basis. She repeatedly warned her sons of the immorality and looseness of women, hoping to discourage any sexual desires the boys might have had, for fear of them being cast down into hell . . .

Crime Library - Ed Gein

I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism.

Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 8-16-93

__________

sociopath
n : someone with a sociopathic personality; a person with an
antisocial personality disorder (`psychopath' was once
widely used but has now been superseded by `sociopath')
[syn: psychopath]
. . .
Former designation for a person with an antisocial personality type of disorder.
antisocial personality
A personality disorder characterised by a continuous and persistent pattern of aggressive behaviour in which the rights of others are violated.

__________

He added, "The actions of the people in that prison do not reflect the nature of the men and women who wear our uniforms. We've got brave souls in Iraq sacrificing so that somebody can be free, and helping the Iraqi citizens be free. ... Our soldiers in uniform are honorable, decent, loving people."

Bush to Jordan's King Abdullah II
CNN.com Friday, May 7, 2004 Posted: 12:24 PM EDT (1624 GMT)

__________

. . . Augusta was a domineering and hard woman who believed her views of the world were absolute and true . . .

However, no one took the stories seriously until Bernice Worden disappeared years later. In fact, people would often joke with Eddie about having shrunken heads and Eddie would just smile or make reference to having them in his room. No one thought he was telling the truth or maybe they just didn’t want to believe it was true.

__________

For weeks, Fallujah was under a siege by US troops as reports emerged of a massacre of Iraqis at the hands the US military. US aircraft and artillery reepeatedly bombarded the town. Doctors there say at least 600 people were killed and over 1,000 injured. Local hospitals have reported the majority of the dead are women, children and the elderly. More than 60,000 women and children fled the city during a brief ceasefire but the US blocked any men of military age from leaving. Dozens of bodies have been buried in the city's soccer stadium after US forces blocked roads heading toward the cemetery.

Democracy Now

__________

During the late 1940’s and 1950’s, Wisconsin police began to notice an increase in missing persons cases. There were four cases that particularly baffled police. The first was that of an eight-year-old girl named Georgia Weckler, who had disappeared coming home from school on May 1, 1947. Hundreds of residents and police searched an area of ten square miles of Jefferson, Wisconsin, hoping to find the young girl. Unfortunately, Georgia would never be seen or heard of again. There were no good suspects and the only evidence police had to go on were tire marks found near the place where Georgia was last seen. The tire marks were that of a Ford. The case remained unsolved and wouldn’t be opened again until years later when Eddie Gein was convicted of murder.

__________

I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

George Bush

__________

The stunned searchers also uncovered a soup bowl fashioned from skulls, a shoebox full of female genitalia, faces stuffed with newspapers and mounted like hunting trophies on the walls, and a "mammary vest" flayed from the torso of a woman. Gein later confessed that he enjoyed dressing himself in this and other human-skin garments and pretending he was his own mother.

__________

There are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence towards prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman," he said. "There are many more photographs and indeed some videos. Congress and the American people and the rest of the world need to know this.

Certainly since this firestorm has been raging, it's a question that I've given a lot of thought to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Needless to say, if I felt I could not be effective, I'd resign in a minute. I would not resign simply because people try to make a political issue out of it.

Rumsfeld also expressed his "deepest apology" to mistreated Iraqis at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison and said he took "full responsibility."

It was inconsistent with the values of our nation, it was inconsistent with the teachings of the military to the men and women of the armed forces, and it was certainly fundamentally un-American, Rumsfeld said.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, May o4, 04

__________

Question: In your latest book, Soon, there was a very graphic scene involving death in a napalm canister.

Answer: I've always been fascinated with napalm ever since I heard about it as a teenager during the Vietnam War. Since I'm a lover of words, I was fascinated to hear people talk of napalm as a jellified gasoline—it triggered thoughts of every other kind of tasty jellified items I knew about, having to do with bagels and toast and doughnuts. But gasoline jelly? That's just horrible to think about.

Jerry Jenkins on Violence in the Left Behind Series
posted 2/11/04

__________

According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped, and then killed. For his part, Calley was said to have rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a fury of machine gun fire.

PBS

__________

BUSH: "GOD TOLD ME TO KILL"
by The Moscow Times • Saturday June 28, 2003 at 07:18 AM

Here are Bush's exact words, quoted by Haaretz: "God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

__________

You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!

Ted Bundy

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/4077/quotes.html

__________

In all of the samples, we found that anti-life tendencies were significantly correlated to political positions that supported increased military power and favored repression against dissenters. The following priorities were considered most important by individuals who have dominant anti-life tendencies: tighter control of rioters, tighter enforcement of anti-drug laws, winning the war in Vietnam, controlling subversive groups, strengthening the police, and fighting communism throughout the world.

Erich Fromm: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

__________

The scattered remains of an estimated fifteen bodies were found at the farmhouse when Gein was eventually arrested, but he could not remember how many murders he had actually committed. The discovery of these Gothic horrors sent shock waves throughout Eisenhower-era America. In Wisconsin itself, Gein quickly entered local folklore. Within weeks of his arrest, macabre Jokes called "Geiners" became a statewide craze. The country as a whole learned about Gein in December 1957, when both Life and Time magazines ran features on his "house of horrors.

Advice to an Immigrant

2004-12-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to America. Enjoy your stay. There are a few things you have to understand about the place, though. For one thing, we’re a "capitalistic society." This means that you can fuck over your dearest friend or your own mother, if it will put a dollar in your pocket, and nobody will fault you for it. Just try to stay on the right side of the transaction, at all times.

Also, a religious pose never hurts. You don’t actually have to practice any of the teachings of Jesus or anything - don’t get me wrong; just say his name every once in awhile. The media will pick up on that and discuss it endlessly, providing you with the cover to pursue your real objectives: money, power, influence, political butt-licking - business as usual, in other words.

Kiss a baby for the cameras (see below.) Pretend that you’re "just plain folk." We can’t get enough of that shit here - drive a pickup, wear a Stetson, express a righteous outrage at things you couldn’t care less about, such as a celebrity’s exposed breast, or gay marriage. You’ll go far, pandering to ignorance in the United States.

Never forget about the sucker factor, for this looms large in American life. We’ll sacrifice our own children to your cause as long as you tell us what we want to hear. Always groom your efforts toward being the suckee rather than the sucker. We have an overabundance of the latter, and they're always anxious to swallow.

Oh, and do get rid of that troublesome conscience. It’ll only be a burden to you here. We have long since dispensed with such trifles. A conscience may have been an advantage back when we lived in actual communities, peopled by actual human beings, but is of little use in the here and now, where a meat shed in New Jersey looks exactly the same as one in California, and much the same can often be said of the populace.

Never rely on rationality. Never make any connections between reality and the American dream – that would be political suicide. Watch some old John Wayne westerns. Yes, it’ll be painful, but will prove highly instructive. You’ll be glad you did.

Stay away from pretzels, for they are a tool of the devil, and the devil awaits behind every bush, hungry for your precious soul.

Whatever else you may do, always talk about supporting the troops, regardless of what they do. Speak frequently of freedom and democracy, free trade. Choose your enemies well, for America is a land defined by fear. Always give your enemy a swarthy complexion. We dislike brown people here. Always have. Never forget who your true god is. His name, by the way, is not Jesus . . .

His name is money.

Kissing One Baby . . . Killing Another

2004-11-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

I recently happened upon one of those obscene and disgusting images that tend to infest the internet like parasites infest Washington D.C: a photo of George W. Bush kissing a baby. The "leader of the free world" clasped the infant in predatory talons accustomed to the counting of dollars and planted an assaultive embrace upon the poor child. The next frame, censored no doubt, would have shown the kid projectile-vomiting a nice semi-digested spew of tooty-fruity chunks upon the usurper-in-chief's smirking countenance. Once again, the media lets us down. Under these conditions the imagination must kick into gear, supplying us with the images that are otherwise denied us by the mouthpieces of power. So I visuallized a baby-warmed shower of vomit raining down upon Bush as the only logical outcome of such an affrontery.

Baby-kissing has been a tried-and-true tool of political miscreants for eons. The question in my mind is: what does the kid get out of it? Hopefully, perhaps they are simply too young to remember the molestation, but we really have no clue as to the long term effects of such injuries to the subconscious. For this reason alone, the practice should be outlawed as a form of child abuse. The baby only wants access to the nutrition offered via his mother's breasts and regular changing of his diapers - leave him alone you pervert! He can't vote, and you and your henchmen have rendered voting a masturbatory fantasy now anyway - you sick bastards.

I found the image of George W. Bush kissing an American child nearly as disturbing as the photos of Iraqi children slaughtered by American troops in the pursuit of Bush's sociopathic policies: children who have done nothing wrong other than to be born into a land that has possession of something that Bush wants for himself and for the corporate interests he is dedicated to enriching at any cost. Hardcore porn is a palate-cleanser when compared to any of these images. To my mind, the one image completes the other, telling the story better than a whole regiment of Aaron Browns or Brit Humes could conceive of, in all of their groveling "professionalism."

(originally written 04/09/03)

2004-11-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

You Are Screwed, America

Veterans

2004-10-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Citizen Rampant has posted an article about the suicide of Marine veteran Jeffery Lucey here.

My cousin returned from Vietnam missing his left arm and part of his right hand. He had a hook fitted to the stump of his arm, and would dare us younger kids to stick our fingers between its jaws. His injuries involved a grenade as well as a tank, but beyond that the details are vague for me now - It has been over thirty years by this time, and I was just a standard-issue snotty-nosed kid back then.

I've long since lost contact with my cousin, though I understand he's still around somewhere. I'll never forget that hook of his, though, or the condition he was in when he came home from that war.

We're going to have a whole new crop of such mangled men and women returning home from Iraq once the powers that be finally decide that democracy is in place there (a code word for "The markets are in place, and the money is rolling in.")

These occasionally-celebrated heroes will be mangled in mind and body, poisoned by the accumulated toxins of warfare, many unable to quite get a handle on the niceties of civilian life once again. There will be an increase in birth defects, suicides and violence in general. Families will splinter. American society will either have to face up to, and deal with, the byproducts of its imperial campaigns, or decide simply to continue ignoring them. Recent history doesn't bode well for the right decision being made. If it isn’t, we’ll all have to pay the price. Well, not all of us - Bush and his cronies will be paying neither in blood nor hard cash for the casualties of their business venture. Quite the contrary.

There is a woman whose ex-husband was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, and has suffered from severe medical problems ever since his last tour of duty there. The woman, a veteran herself, is very devoted to her husband, but had to divorce him so that he could continue receiving his full Veteran's benefits. The United States government felt that his benefits added to her wages amounted to just a bit too much for a former hero and his wife to subsist on, and wanted to trim that income back to fit in with their budgetary priorities. And since that same government has consistently denied that this ex-soldier was ever exposed to Agent Orange in the first place, they see fit not to include medical expenses in their calculations. The medical expenses are astronomical, needless to say; the couple’s combined wages and benefits can’t hope to keep up.

This woman has little use for Bush. In fact, she spends much of her time reading about the Bush gang's dealings with veterans. She reads from a wide variety of sources, anything that might offer her husband and herself a little help, a little hope. The term bleeding heart rings so hollow, thinking of this couple. Only a cretin could mistake empathy for weakness.

If the United States wanted to support its troops, it would put a moratorium on the manufacture of weapons of war, yesterday. National defense is one thing; having to defend ourselves from enemies we were unaware had been made on our behalf by entrenched business-interests is another. Stockpiling weapons like Montana militiamen just so the Friends of Bush can continue reaping hefty profits from their contracts is a loser's hand for all but the select few. Ask Niel Bush, or pretty much anyone who shares his last name.

Obviously, Uncle Sam loves his medals and bumperstickers, flags and ribbons: they’re such a cheap commodity, shipped from China in bulk as they are, and such an effective marketing tool with the Wal-Mart shoppers. Actually giving a good goddamn about the vets? That might just cut into the profit margin.

The words and icons of patriotism come too easily for too many of us, at the expense of empathy, which is much more important, but requires more of an effort, and is therefore more scarce throughout our collective mental Mayberry. The emphasis on patriotic imagery is a smoke screen, intended to cover up governmental weakness of character and a consistent lack of judgment. It feeds no one, and heals nothing, nor is any of that its intent.

Further Reading:

Dishorable Discharge

WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT WAR

Cannon Fodder Day?

Support the Warrior Not the War: Give Them Their Benefits!

Cuts in veterans’ programs included in Bush proposed budget

What Bush and the GOP REALLY think of our veterans!

Victims of a War They Never Saw

Depleted Uranium Blamed for Cancer Clusters Among Iraq War Vets

Why I Missed the Debate

2004-10-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have an allergy to George W. Bush. I can’t handle being exposed to his face for more than a few seconds at a time. He strikes me as a spoiled and obnoxious punk whose means outweigh his character to an astronomical degree. As for his words, I have never heard or read anything he had to say that amounted to anything more than the cheapest sort of sloganeering, tailored to appeal to the mentally-challenged, so I’ve taken to hitting that little “m” button on the remote whenever the television networks decide to grace us with his wisdom. The “m,” by the way, now stands for “maggot” in our house.

Gagging on Oil

For these reasons, I decided not to watch the first Kerry-Bush debate. Besides, there are too many people out there with more critical acumen (and stronger stomachs) than I, who can do the debate more justice. One of them is The Red Wolf, who has written Debatio Delicioso-Vintage 2004, an entertaining and balanced vulpine take on what appears to have been more of a twin campaign speech than a debate in any real sense of the term (this was another reason I didn’t bother to watch, deciding that it would be just as well to watch the watchers instead.) It can be found here.

The Wacko File: Land of the Grinning Idiot

2004-10-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Mrs. H. was showing me a photo of Laura Bush in some glossy trash mag yesterday, and we were both laughing. Laughing at the woman's prim-and-proper pose, her vapid, bland phoniness. Laughing at her filtered flesh and fake smile. Just who's impressed by this crap, anyway?

"Welcome to the land of the grinning idiot," Mrs. H. remarked.

How true. Too many people buy into manufactured illusions of wholesomeness that have been carefully developed by teams of marketing experts for the purpose of exploiting the consumer impulse, so successfully cultivated in the America people; people who have been conditioned to remain ignorant of the rot festering behind the pretty facade, even as it gnaws at the very foundation of their own wellbeing.

But I'm not concerned with pandering to the fantasies of dupes. That's what Washington D.C. and Hollywood are for. I'd say they're both doing a swell job.

Of course, to openly question or criticize such media creations as George W. and Laura Bush never fails to call down the wrath of such dimestore patriots as Judson Murphy, who recently sent this email:

I SUPPOSE YOU THINK KERRY AND THE DEMOCRATIC /SOCIALIST/ ANTI AMERICAN POLICIES ARE THE ANSWERS?
ALL THE COMPLAINING IN THE WORLD DID NOT MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT. GET OFF YOUR DEAD ASS AND DO
SOMETHING FOR OUR VETS, TRY SUPPORTING OUR COUNTRY. WHINEY CRY BABIES WHO THINK KERRY IS THE
ANSWER, IF SO WHAT WAS THE QUESTION? DO YOU WANT WAFFLES WITH YOUR SPINELESS SENATOR. TOOK A
REAL HERO TO SHOOT THE BOY IN THE BACK. BY THE WAY WAS HE IN CAMBODIA OR NOT? DID HE REALLY
VOTE FOR THE DEFENSE BILL BEFORE HE VOTED AGAINST IT? WAFFLE WAFFLE. WHAT A FAKE. WE WANT
ANSWERS NOT WHINING. KERRY FADING FAST. THANK THE LORD!!!!!!

He's supposed to be yelling. Get it? Very impressive. Too bad he didn't actually have a point to make, or any idea of how to make one. Notice the desperation in his message?

The Wacko File

I feel a certain amount of pity for such people, those who can't imagine that someone might criticize George W. Bush without necessarily buying into John Kerry's act. Let's face it: they're doomed to a lifetime of suckerhood, neither intelligent nor aware enough to realize just how deeply they're being screwed, or even who's putting it to them.

Grinning Idiots.

The Grinning Idiot knows all the right phrases to spout in order to convince himself that he's a good American patriot, but when it comes to defending the very principles this nation was supposed to have been founded upon - freedom of speech, for instance - he shows himself for exactly what he is: absolutely and consistently anti-American in every way that truly matters. A good little German, wrapped in his flag and born to follow the leader right off the edge of the cliff.

So long, sucker . . .

Pretty ironic when you consider that accusing others of anti-Americanism (THE DEMOCRATIC /SOCIALIST/ ANTI AMERICAN . . . ) is without a doubt the Grinning Idiot's most favored insult to hurl at anyone who questions the plastic gods he so eagerly kneels before. As insults go, it's a pretty meaningless one. All of the Grinning Idiot's insults are, because they lack a core of truth and the benefit of imagination.

WHINEY CRY BABIES? You're the only one here, Mr. Idiot, sir. Suppose all you want. Knowledge is better than supposition any day of the week, and you very obviously don't know squat. In any case, I'll say what I want to say, and whether I'm right or wrong on any given issue, I'll be right or wrong under my own power, not because I've been brainwashed by George W. Bush, John Kerry or anyone else's high production budget. There's nothing noble about allowing yourself to be used as some political hack's prison punk. But I'll answer one of your questions: I'll take the WAFFLE, please, just because it's better than the outright lies and deceit and predatory corruption of the Bush administration. I got my new voter card yesterday, and I intend to use it. That is my right, and you'll just have to live with it.

Now go back to your reality TV and stop trying to think - you might hurt yourself.

I showed Mrs. H. Judson Murphy's message. She just shook her head: she's long since learned to expect all manner of Grinning Idiocies from certain Americans - those who get their worldview from the likes of Fox news and Rush Limbaugh, and their mentality from the kindergarten playground. People like Judson Murphy, who's message now resides in The Wacko File, right where it belongs.

2004-09-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Corner Fire

Fighting Words: Liberty Fried

2004-09-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

My wife has taken a lot of heat from American citizens since 911 - from highschool teachers, from volunteers at the local library where she now works; we’ve actually lost track of all the star-spangled mental midgets that have indulged themselves in a lack of basic civility at her expense, due simply to the fact that my wife happens to be French.

The insults take on predictable forms: “done any surrendering lately?” one soon-to-be-prion-riddled imbecile demanded of her at work one day. Another - the teacher - went on a lengthy diatribe against the French that was full of self-righteous anger seemingly directed at my wife, personally, as if she herself was responsible for world events.

It should be stated that these are people (and I’m including the teacher here) whose understanding of the basic facts of history, not to mention current political realities, leave a lot to be desired; people who have swallowed the official government take, hook, line and sinker - but who have yet to consider the possibility that now may be a good time to think about spitting out the bait.

Patsies, in other words - pissed off little pseudo-patriotic, sexually-frustrated consumers of GM products, avid listeners of the far right-wing drivetime hatemongers; Ritalin dispensing, Viagra-dependant, monster truck rally-attending, reality TV-addicted marks on the marketing experts’ charts.

It’s not like my better half had anything whatsoever to do with the attacks, of course - but merely that she remains a citizen of France, and that the French government wisely chose not to rubberstamp the Bush administration's calculated assault on Iraq following the attacks on the WTC. Why the hell should they? They’ve already experienced the joys of fascism, and may be just a bit better at recognizing it when it appears than we are.

Figure One: Small Minds in High Places

But forget about the inconvenient fact that my wife has raised three sons as American citizens, all of whom have served in the armed forces of the United States; forget about the fact that she has been a legal resident here for the last thirty-plus years, that she has contributed to the wealth of this nation in the form of taxes paid during that time while being legally barred from participating in our so-called “great experiment” (taxation without representation - ever heard of it?)

Yes, let's just overlook all of these things, and while we're at it we can also remain happily oblivious to the fact that my wife is a genuinely fine human being, by any sane standard - one who practices true kindness and empathy toward her fellow men as if it was nothing more than what is right and vital to the very heart of the concept of decency; or that she has spent years of her life as a caregiver to Americans, looking after the health and welfare of young and old alike, doing it well, and with very little in the way of fair compensation for her efforts. And she has yet to surrender a damned thing, by the way, other than her love.

Let's forget all of these uncomfortable facts. Let's rename our artery-clogging hog slop instead. Let's just pretend that our recent little cultural snit over the French stance on Iraq amounted to a brilliant move, one that made some kind of real difference for the better, somewhere, for someone - this would be so much more in keeping with our American fantasy world than the dreaded prospect of having to stand back and take a good long look at the ugly truth:

that our national addiction to convenience has made us fat and stupid and subject to emotional manipulation by hack politicians (see figure one) and other dimestore bigots, of which we seem to have an endless supply.

As for my wife, I have consistently discouraged her from seeking American citizenship, and will continue to do so - I just don’t see much of a future in it, to be honest, and she deserves better.

2004-09-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

Looking Out

First Wives

2004-09-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

Guest commentary by Mrs. H3ath3n

The aesthetics of campaign comportment wear thin after two consecutive intensive months of pavement pounding: images of first runners clinging onto the arms of their mates grate onto the watcher’s soul. Lithe and proper Laura Bush, cocking a quasi myopic side glance at the incumbent president, pushes the viewer to question the pose, the origin of that practiced look. While the plucky petite Teresa Heinz-Kerry, heiress of much and pretender to nothing entertains and puzzles the other white majority.

In modern conservative countries the importance of the conjoint is seen, a priori, in political terms, a business asset, then lastly, perhaps as a suitable moralistic influence. In less developed nations the primo female may be an appendage slung over the left arm throwing staring daggers at the undeclared consort on the right. Monarchies keep the title clean by parading the regal consort only on protocol approved occasions; royal soulmates prove to be most valuable to the person in charge.

In America the emphasis seems to be on appearance: a carefully orchestrated set of behaviors, performed for the potential voting public; that is you! the so-called public has been fed reams of rags, miles of tape, and megabytes of sound on the mediatic highways between work and play. So saturated is the satellite world that it may well collapse onto itself after the US. election. This is why a first lady, one of genuine character, is so badly needed.

After a cold (albeit smart and resistant) cracker such as Hillary Clinton, Laura B. must be strong as well to live through and within close proximity to Mr. President. She smiles a softly condescending lip stretch for the cameras. She holds tightly onto the enigma that life with Bush must present, and we are told she can follow recipes too! Prettier than Mamie Eisenhower, cuter than Barbara Bush, the incumbent lady of the Big House can hold a powerful candle to her predecessors, but she does not inspire the freethinkers with her pecan pie, and she surely scares the thinkers who know those white teeth never touch it. Laura B. appeals to the predominantly Southern Christian woman, that active group mind awash in tragedy from 3 devastating storms, that devoted voter troupe which exponentially multiplies at every Sunday meeting and every anxious factory inservice or PTA potluck.

Kerry’s wife is much less comfortable a prospect: She is unsettlingly real. Teresa has the spine and the essential intuition. The country needs someone with her fortitude and savvy: she is imbued with the femininity to carry Kerry. She calls it like she sees it - she tells on faux reporters, bounces a spirited ball and confronts issues, no coating necessary. If choice of a lifemate can be viewed as a barometer of character, then Senator Kerry has chosen wisely. He has passed the test of taste, he is not fearful of cohabiting with lively intellect, and avoids paltry pleasantness. Teresa H-K as well as Laura B. has lived in the shadow of big government, she knows the halls and the deceptions therein; however Teresa is not deterred from basal truth, nor is she shy of opinion if such will serve the greater good. The pernicious media may paint word portraits in the worst light, but the petite’s pioneer spirit transcends pettiness with ease in order to reach her full potential effectiveness.

The scales are tipped: this week, to one side, next week, to the other. The first poseur today, the runner-up next. Both camps should be aware that quality counts, not perfect makeup, not scripted speeches and seemingly spontaneous laborer lingo. But the snake has not yet shed it’s skin and it cannot see till winter, whatever the mirror won’t reveal till too late. Wallpaper pastels and potted ferns aside, you know the staged sit-ins with first graders evoke a sigh of nostalgia among nursing home cronies. Grannies and kindergarten teachers melt at the generous promises; forgive them folks, for they cannot remember other times, much less the last supper!

Afghanistan or Atlanta, no matter. If a woman allows herself to be just another photo-op, is she worth the office of first servant? Is she true to self and gender? Is she only a lady in waiting for Christ to appear? Or is it for the next “appearance allowance” from the tax- supported beauty budget, thousands of dollars allocated just to make one person look pretty? Cleopatra eat your heart out - here comes the lady of the American south! Anthony is in the wings, rolling up sleeves and sweating till November.

Meanwhile Teresa H-K may climb a cherry tree or roughouse with the dogs without worrying about her fat hair, her fresh face or the free casuals she wears. She has millions of women of all colors and ethnic backgrounds to foster wellness on this planet, she has the eye of the supportive conscience which concerns itself with empowerment rather than entitlement. She knows the difference between equality and equanimity, sympathy and empathy, arrogance and confidence. A quiet revolution lives in her eyes which peer right to the core, undaunted.

Standard mannerisms dictate a modicum of self control, of course, but Americans impress deceptive social tricks on their chosen leader’s wives as if external appearance improved the status of the country. I could name a few Nations whose ladies in seat would not enhance the fatherland spirit by their sheer looks or good manners. Are voters so devoid of individuality or substance as to let their aesthetics win over their national reasoning? There can be no pride without investment of self. It is time to tally the results on the big board of life in these United States. Choose: Polyanna, or Pandora? the ATV, or the sewing machine? The credit card, or the sensible budget? Let us live within our personal means and harvest a crop of mature decision makers who listen to the responsible women, those who speak from the collective consciousness of experience, the ones who know the terrible cost of selfishness and find the flaws in the perennial warrior’s armor.

Trees breathe in the stunting darkness. Seniors die in the halls of neglect. Soldiers inflict untold pain abroad to grow new enemies. Nascar dads ignore brats and guzzle beer and gas, they blame unemployed bums and foreigners for their lack of benefits. Soccer moms poke generic fun at welfare whores and yell at the kids, they blame 9/11 for their downsizing. We live in a disparate country where numbers precede letters in importance, cars belch pollution on Pennsylvania Avenue; all that while we hold our breath to see the faux veneer crack behind the incumbency’s grin.

Are you going to cast your vote depending on the sweet record of a befitted proper first lady, or on the beliefs of another thoroughly thoughtful individual femina?

In Thrall

2004-09-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Who was it said that it is time for all good men to come to the aid of their country? Hell, I don’t know, but he might rephrase the thing today. Might end up more along the lines of it is time for all good rats to desert the sinking ship. Something like that. Reflects the zeitgeist a little more accurately, no?

Well, then consider the practice of corporations moving operations overseas in order to avoid paying taxes or a minimum wage in this country. Corporations that are only too willing to grace their product brochures with star-spangled designs. Corporations that seem to be, by and large, contributors to the Bush reelection campaign. Consider these same corporations sending American jobs to third-world nations so that they can increase their profit margins by paying less in wages and employee benefits, and by neatly circumventing those pesky environmental regulations that the Bush administration has yet to undermine.

And yet, to listen to their ubiquitous ads here in the U.S. you would think that love of country is high on American corporation’s list of to-dos. Lots of Americans probably do still believe this (blame it on the simultaneous failures of both the media and education in this country.) Corporations do, after all, have the budgets to hire the composers to compose the bombastic ditties that Americans have been conditioned to associate with a sense of national pride, a sound that conjures a nice, wholesome (though ultimately empty) feeling within the avid heart of the average consumer; they have the budgets to engage computer graphics specialists in the creation of illusions featuring eagles flying majestically over pristine mountain ranges, and, even now, the specialists are taking their checks to the bank. Big ones.

You don’t see accurate depictions of oil slicks and strip malls in Wal-Mart ads, now do ya?

So let us admit, just for the sake of honesty if nothing else, that we are, as a nation, in thrall.

In thrall to an illusion that is more pernicious than any drug addiction, and just as pervasive as the very poisoned air that we breathe. And the majority eats it up and asks for more, or so the pundits would have us believe. I have my doubts about the polls - serious doubts. Can there be that many idiots running around across the fruited plain?

Yes, there is certainly something to be said for the self-made man, and it is this: that more often than not he is the most wretched of bastards; one who has given over his conscience in favor of the bottom line. This is, in human terms, the worst form of poverty imaginable because the human spirit has never been very proficient at having itself reduced to the status of what was once referred to as chattel, and is now known as resource. Nasty things proceed from such a scenario, without fail.

Things such as the phenomenon known as “terrorism,” nothing more than a reaction against invasive hubris, a family-killing defiance of decency by any sane estimation, but one which many of us seem to be utterly and devastatingly blind to.

Yes, the self-made man - a testament to the value of well-dressed barbarism and entrenched self-deception. God bless us all, each and every one. God is money, and money God.

But the illusion is there for a reason: to keep us forever isolated and incapable of influencing the forces that shape our own fates. It has no other reason for being than that - no other function, and no other purpose. To be in thrall means to be under the influence of something, to be in a kind of trance that dispenses with such concerns as self-preservation or self-determination. Or freedom, in any meaningful sense of the word.

And what form does this illusion take today? - packaging.

Everything today is shrink-wrapped for us, pre-digested and irradiated, sanitized and stamped with the seal of government approval, scanned for foul language, depictions of the sex act or scenes of casual drug use. I once attended a couple of Narcotics Anonymous meetings (insert the sound of a horrified gasp here, if you must.) Always on the lookout for the double-meaning or the unintentionally comic, I spied, on a wall of the meeting room, a poster that declared:

Substance-Free America.

I can think of no better description of our current condition than that. Lacking substance, ever-fearful of the needs of the flesh - perceiving the devil behind every tree, and having finally run out of trees, seeing the full-blown visage of Satan himself in each and every one of our neighbors, or, at the very least, his long, dark shadow.

The illusion is a wall that can only be taken down one stone at a time, for that is how it was built. The first step is a simple recognition and acceptance of our own true needs. Such things as shelter from the weather, an ability to meet nutritional requirements, and the freedom to live and to love unmolested by ideologues of any stripe. These things are the essentials without which no other glories can ever hope to find a place from which to bloom. They are finding little room to breathe in America today.

The second step might be the ability to identify the uselessness of the goods that are thrust into our faces at every minute of the day; the brightly-colored lures of commerce whose expense is mostly hidden within the distractions of daily life. Only much later, if at all, do we understand the real costs of trinkets and baubles, and those costs are much more than we knew.

I sometimes wonder if there was a particular point in time when we, children of the Pilgrims, became vulnerable to the seductions of scam-artists, or if we developed the affliction over the course of time, in the manner of a low-grade infection. Maybe we just brought it to the new world on our backs, neatly packed away among the other seeds we just couldn’t imagine ourselves doing without, unheeding of its devastating legacy over the course of time.

In the end we might stop to consider the artifacts that our Archaeologists have unearthed - those traces of civilizations that have come and gone over the course of geological time. Civilizations that all considered themselves to be the height of modernity, no doubt. Never producing a shaman that accurately predicted their downfall - or one who was able to exert influence over those who occupied the seats of power, at least, in order to change the course of history, which arrives so much sooner than expected.

Today, once again, we have too many men with too many empty hands - a thousand years ago or more they could have told us that this was nothing but an invitation to trouble and strife, which we call crime, but some might label dysfunction. Empty hands tend to reach first for weapons, because the blame is always placed elsewhere.

Our technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds when it comes to new and better ways of killing; but we have advanced very little when it comes to living, or understanding the essence of life.

So, the bloodletting continues, unabated; and the illusion still stands. A vote cast for any member of the established elite will be a vote for more of the same, but the idea of voting for the lesser of two evils has taken on a more vital significance today.