Some people say...
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07/28/04
Countdown to operation 'tear my hind-most teeth out of my
face.' The day is coming. Saturday. They put me under, affix
a wee oxygen mask over my nose and gouge and slice and rip
and yank at all four of my third molars, and as I go under
with an IV drip tranquilizer in my arm I'll keep my fingers
crossed, hoping I don't drown in a few tablespoons of my own
blood. My last words won't be so much words as the sound that
accompanies Homer's troublesome salivation problem. It'll
be a full moon that night, and I'll be drifting on those spider-web
drug clouds through the wasteland of satellite TV. How many
channels I get I don't know. Something like six HBOs alone
(east/west feeds have something to do with it) but no "Curb
Your Enthusiasm." I wondered why it was never on. It
is an HBO program, but it's only aired on HBO Comedy, a station
apart from HBO and one the satellite service out here doesn't
carry. I can watch HBO Latino, but no HBO Comedy. I like HBO's
clever marketing. HBO Latino! As opposed to simply HBO Espanol.
It's not just in Spanish, it's particularly for Latinos! Maybe
Latinas too, but nobody cared enough to look into it.
So my mouth will soon be a complicated network of pain, and
I'm trying to enjoy these last three days before the agony
sets in. How am I enjoying my days? By eating food! Something
that will soon no longer be part of my life. The luxury of
food eating will be taken from me. Yesterday I made my way
wending across freeways and surface street traffic to Hollywood
where I stood in line for forty minutes to buy a hotdog. Pink's!
Glorious Pink's. Actually, I ordered a Poli-dog and Nacho-cheese
Chili fries. And I was sad to see that the Hotdog formerly
known as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Sausage"
has been renamed to simply "The Harry Potter." No
idea why Harry parted ways with the Sorcerer's Sausage, but
I'm sure it's a tale rife with sorrow and unrequited love.
After my oral violation they'll no doubt have me staggering
about in a dope-fiend's feverish dream world, and also, doubtlessly,
they'll tell me "no drinking while on the medication!"
And it won't only be because it's bad to mix pain killers
and alcohol, but because any number of horrible things could
happen to the gaping holes and dangling nerve endings occupying
the holes my teeth once did if I do drink. Personally, it'd
seem rinsing the stinking abscesses out with a spot of scotch
once and again can't conceivably be bad, rather good, but
I'll probably follow the doctor's orders. I'll do as they
say and abstain from drink. But not tonight. Tonight I open
my bottle of 12 year old Zaya
Rum, pour into a snifter and enjoy 'til toasty. I don't
want my last alcoholic beverage before the operation to be
that can of Budweiser I drank Monday night. Please, god, no.
07/22/04
First, terrifying. The U.S. missed ten chances to thwart the 9/11 attacks. Four with Clinton. Six with Bush. The Dems failed at national security and so did the Repubs. I guess there's only one thing to do. Vote Nader! Or go ahead and vote for Kerry or Bush and throw your vote away.
I'm stuck at home, waiting, waiting for the cable guys to come. I'm not officially getting cable. It's not my intention to subscribe. I'm really only babysitting the cable for a friend while he's between living arrangements. Do I babysit the cable or does the cable babysit me? Either way, I ought to buy a TiVo.The cable installers aren't even courteous enough to give an estimated time of arrival anymore. What I get is, "they'll be there Thursday." Thursday is a long day. No longer than any others I reckon, but every day is too long. 24 hours. It takes an entire season of television to air 24 episodes of "24," and jack bauer gets to do a lot more than house work while he wiles away his full day. And the cable intaller's stratagem is to deliberately keep me trapped at home. It's what they delight in most. That's why they won't show up until nearly five p.m. Maybe I could vacuum the floor again. I wish I had cable TV to watch while I waited.
07/19/04 [edited thrice]
Last night I went to a screening of Outfoxed. A nice little documentary about Rupert Murdoch's media empire that closely scrutinizes his FOX news channel. Some of the interviews are telling: a former west-coast correspondent tells the story of how he was sent to reagan library in Simi Valley to cover ex-president Reagan's birthday celebration. There were some helium balloons, one classroom of children taken there on a field trip and made to sing "happy birthday" and a birthday cake. The correspondent was suspended, he said, because he was unable to make the event look like a grander celebration than it was. He said he simply didn't know how to. It wasn't possible, but FOX execs were demanding he up the festivity levels in his report. It may not seem like much, vainly attempting to distort a small birthday event into a swelled celebratory patriotic out-pouring, but if this is how FOX manipulates inconsequential pseudo-news stories, then what the hell are they doing with the real news stories? That's not a real question. Anyone with half a liter full of sense knows. The statistics are mind-numbing. The most frightening of which essentially demonstrates that the more a person watches the FOX News network the more ignorant they become of the facts.
"...a recent study by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy [PIPA] found that Fox News viewers were far more likely to have significant misconceptions about important news facts than viewers of any other TV news channel." link
The world becomes distorted through FOX News' warped right-wing lens that has Saddam heading up Al Qaeda, weapons of mass destruction being found by the truck-load and soon, no doubt, FOX News viewers will believe Iran is behind 9/11. But like they say about smoke and fire, where there's oil to be gained through an act of war, there's Halliburton.
The echo chamber will in no time be trumping a possible Iran-9/11 link. Some people say, it's Halliburton's agenda. Who is going to fight that war? Are we on a march westward across the middle east? Start in Afghanistan, drop that, move on to Iraq, drop that, then go get Iran. Some people say, if Bush is re-elected there is no way the war, his avowed endless war, can continue without the draft. And you know what I say, draft these fuckers first. If they're a big Bush Backer and love what he's doing for the country, then they should put their asses where Bush's mouth is and goarmy.com. Or would they rather run around in the streets with their protest signs like the right-wing version of pussy little hippies that they are? Come on, I'm calling the protest protesters out. If you like Bush, then fight for Bush. The terrorists are waiting for you: in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Iran, in where-ever there's a profit to be made next. Fight! Fight! Fight! And just what exactly is a protest protester? I can only assume one who protests protesting is protesting the legitimacy of this little item...
Bill of Rights
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Durn pesky first amendment to the Bill of Rights. If that could be gotten rid of then nobody would need to waste a perfectly good beer drinking day in front of the tube having to go out and protest protestors. Curses!
"...they crashed anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco, carrying signs that said: ''Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything.'' "
They sure do make clever signs. There's just one problem with their sign, however, I mean two problems, wait, three. er, I mean four. Four problems with their sign. Nazism, for starters, is a fascist government form so it need not be listed since it's simply a subset of fascism. And the three other problems? Slavery, fascism and communism all still exist. Go ask China about communism. Go talk to North Korea about fascism. Have a word with some Sudanese about slavery. And nazism? Well, if you must distinguish it from fascism, then tell me just how exactly did war end it? It still seems to have a following, even here in the United States. If war can end all these bad things, then maybe war could end famine, thirst, disease, cancer, AIDS, the KKK, gun violence, domestic abuse, sexism, racism and prejudice against same sex marriage. Come on! War! It's a cure all, solve all, end to evil! Proven time and again.
Strange I've come to this point, but not unusual. All I wanted to say is Outfoxed isn't too bad of a documentary to check out. It only costs $9.95 so there's absolutely no excuse why your local Blockbuster or similar corporate mega-chain store shouldn't have it in stock on their New release or Hot Flicks shelf.
Aside
for Outfoxed, which clearly illuminates FOX news' conservative,
right-wing bias, Alter-net has a case pending against the
News giant, challenging FOX News' trademark "fair and
balanced," and Britain's
Office of Communications has found FOX News in breach
of several of their articles...
"Fox
News was therefore in breach of Sections 2.1 (respect for
truth), 2.7 (opportunity to take part), and 3.5(b) (personal
view programmes - opinions expressed must not rest upon false
evidence) of the Programme Code." link
Take 'em down, boys.
07/16/04
At one time we supported Saddam Hussein and his actions even though he was killing off his own people (well, saddam didn't think of them as his own people; they differed from him politically and/or ethnically so, you can see where he's coming from there, right?). Saddam was (is) a bad guy. No doubt about it, and now we have a new guy in power in Iraq. A guy we directly put in power and gave the fancy title of prime minister all by waging a pre-emptive war, and toppling saddam's leadership so we could install a new government. That new guy is Iyad Allawi. And days before we put him in power he shot six men in the head. They start small. Rumor is Saddam tortured small animals in his youth much like George w. Bush either participated in or cheerfulloy observed the torture of applicants to his DKE frat. I don't mean to imply that the torture of human beings and of small animals is on the same level. Of course, what Bush did, or stood by allowing, is a bit worse. Old habits are hard to break. I'd say Allawi is off to a good start. I figure after this Bush we'll have eight years with a democrat in power, then, who knows, Jeb can start a war to topple the dangerous regime of Allawi. Afterall, we already have a just cause at hand "he killed his own Peeeeople!" And he's most likely trying to get some WMDs and a tasty loaf of lemony yellow cake. Are you ready for 2013? Let's rock!
07/15/04
Are you hearing things about a rebounding economy? I've read things, heard things, even read one right-wing scoundrel claiming the rebounding economy has liberals angry because it makes Bush look good. I want to know where he received evidence of liberals upset with an economy on the upswing. Wish I had a link to that particular article, but I saw it some time ago, and didn't think much of it at the time since right-wing nastiness and name-calling is just one big echo-chamber. If you can show me a single liberal angry with a rebounding economy, point him out. I'll sell her a smack on the head. If the economy does better and better with Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy and priveleged elite, I'll retract every negative statement I ever made concerning the pea-brain's classist tax break scheme. (of course, I still wonder where the money for the war is coming from with these generous Bush tax cuts. Borrowing, I guess. Those damn borrow and spend Republicans. Wonder how the economy will do when that needs to be paid back?)
A new Walgreen's is opening in my neighborhood. That could be indicative of an upswing in the economy. You know, construction, new store opening, new store employees. They wouldn't build a store if they didn't presuppose a demand right? Right! That's correct. All true. But why did over 500 people turn in applications for a job at Walgreens? Either they hate their current job, have no job and need one, need a second job to make the ever tightening ends meet or the Walgreen's job pays more than their current job. But 500 applicants for the opening of one store? Good grief. I can't cut it into shape in my head. 500 applicants. 500 people wanting a new job or needing a job, but the economy, the economy is improving?
This article, about the slip in industrial production goes so far grasping at non-Bush related excuses for the slip as to claim national mourning over Reagan may have been to blame. And it's not even a punch line! Mourning for Reagan? If your a friend or family member, then I can see it. So unless Nancy, Patti, Maureen, Michael and Ron jr. were responsible for .3% of all industrial output we need a new assessment of the decline.
It boggles. It really does. Blame Reagan for the economy? Why... it's the LIBERAL MEDIA!!!! The buggers.
The right-wing and their cheer-leaders: Rush and David Limbaugh, FOX News, 70% of the rest of the news on TV and any Christian televangelists still weaseling their way onto the tube have a slippery grasp at best on what the "liberal" is exactly. They need to believe that liberals, somehow, secretly worship at the turgid fount of Bill Clinton. It's the rights primary way of claiming leftist indignation over Bush's lies are completely insincere since they (the leftist hordes) praise the father of all lies (no, not the devil, but Bill "am I happy to see you or did I just put a canoe in my pants?" Clinton). As a liberal liberal (not a neo-centrist compassionate anything!) I object. Clinton is no more "my man" than Bush is a rugged cowboy who pulled himself up by his own boot straps. It all comes down to what you like better on your hamburger. Tasty, thick and rich all-American Heinz ketchup or foreign-terrorist harboring, aiding and abetting Saudi Oil. Cast your vote conservative dogs! Punch your hole all the way through this time you liberal nose-pickers.
07/13/04
What can I do all before eight in the morning? I can do a jumbo load of laundry down at the laundromat (carrying it there and back again). I can vacuum every carpeted surface in the house, mop every linoleum surface in the place, and do all the dirty dishes with limited breakage, then clean out both sinks, make the bed and be on my way to the cafe for the day's writing which went very well, 5 easy pages, came out with no unnecessary head-pummeling or wall-kicking. The key, lately, is to push all politics out of my head. To forget that George "Dubya-panzee" Bush and his fascist (that's right, fucker, I'm using the fucking f-word: FASCIST) cohorts are looking into any way possible to delay our democratic elections by using the big T-word as their justification. I get ill thinking of the possibilities. What kind of mind-set does it take to justify delaying the United States' democratic elections? I guess the same mind-set that drops Al-Qaeda to go after a non-threat like Saddam (and lie, lie, lie through their rotten Republican teeth to garner the people's support). The same mind-set perhaps that thinks torture is perfectly hunky-dory? That'd make sense. It is those guys again, afterall. They can tear apart the constitution all they want; they're Republicans; they're looking out for the American peoples' best interests, unlike those liberals, the rats! Again, imagine if Clinton had considered delaying elections in case of some unforeseen emergency. Do you think the Limbaughs and O'Reillys would rationalize it for bad boy Bill? Nope. And look at all the right-wing hollering when an alleged "liberal" does something hateful like calling a little ol' innocent Marine, fresh back from Iraq, a few bad names.
The
story got national attention when a Seattle Post-Intelligencer
column published Friday appeared on the popular Web site Drudgereport.com.
It's believed that millions of people log onto the Drudgereport
Web site each day. Linked to by Drudge! How shocking! And then it gets national attention! Holy bananas! If a Republican called a liberal a "baby killer" because that liberal was pro-choice would the pope shit in the woods? Would Drudge link it? Would the national attention span pop a Ridilin? The answer, baby-doll, is a resounding, ever-resilient, fathomless, "NO!!!" Republicans are such consistent fonts of hateful rhetoric that it doesn't even register anymore. Rush has been calling feminists "nazis" for years, but dare to call some of the tendencies of the Bush administration "fascistic," and holy howls of derision from the right! Better look out, better make a list, wouldn't want to miss a single precious "liberal" outburst of something that might be able to be construed as hate. Just watch and wait, eventually you'll hear something hateful, then write your Democratic senator and tell him to go fuck himself.
07/12/04
[Now Playing | Lene Lovich - Be Stiff]
[Now Reading | Harry Crews - Car]
[Now Typing | All around my neighborhood are fat guys in white tank tops. Fat guys in tight white muscle shirts. With no muscles to show. All I have to do is look out my window and I'll see one, walking slowly down the street, slowly, so slowly, down the street, lifting up his two-sizes too small shirt and rubbing his distended belly. I'll take a look right now and see if I see one. I didn't, but I saw a bony old woman in a gray tank top. Not what I was expecting, but it did involve the expected tank top.
I grabbed this excerpt from some news website. I can't remember which, but it's telling...
"...the indictment of the former Enron chairman was unlikely to impact [Bush's] campaign in any meaningful way."
What would effect (excuse me "IMPACT") Bush's campaign in any meaningful way what-so-ever? It seems most Republican's just can't be thrown off their horse. It has two broken legs, the jockey's hemorrhaging, all the other horses crossed the finish line yesterday and are going on to the Preakness, but the Republican's are still placing twenty dollar bets on their horse (well, they were told it's a horse, but in fact it's a mongoloid zebrass and shouldn't have even been allowed into the race to begin with). I'm hoping Schwazenegger might be willing to answer a few questions about his meeting with Kenny-boy before becoming governor of the very state that Enron and kenny-boy really swindled. Even if he's not willing, drag his Austrian ass in and put the screws to his thumbs. Time for the liberals to play Spanish-inquisition style with these Republican aiders and abetters and outright committers.
On a less political note, I have a water cooler. It sits in the corner and cools water. Cold water! Can you imagine? It comes just in time too since the sun decided to start acting like the massive flaming gaseous ball it is and heat this place up to unbearable degrees. But with my water cooler and air conditioner (it sits in the window conditioning air) I'll bear up against the horrible pain the near-star delivers.]
[Now Ending | This Update]
07/09/04
There is a Naked Aggression show tomorrow. I make note of that first. Not that anyone reading this (if there is anyone reading this) is within striking distance of the show, but just on the off chance, I mention it anyway.
I've been diligently focused on getting back into my writing habits. No evidence of said habits here in the journal, but there's proof in my notebooks. The book is coming along well and by the end of the year I hope to have rejection letters pouring in. I covered a lot of ground today. Taking to the bus and riding downtown to the central library. I needed books. Grabbed one by Tito Perdue and one by Harry Crews. I spend most of my time writing my own words, but there comes moments when a man really needs another man's words. There were no problems today, aside from the nasty aroma of baby shit that filled up the bus en route home. I thought about jumping off and waiting for the next 181 to come by, but I calculated a probability of even fouler odors lurking on the next one to come by. So I stayed it out, hoping that pungent shit stink wouldn't work its way into my pores or the fabric of my cotton/linen shirt. The obese woman sitting next to me wasn't much help in the pleasant aroma department since she seemed to believe enough baby powder would cover up her sweaty stench, and she was right. The baby powder did its job, but it also commingled with the baby crap scent to make me dread ever having children and living with such noisome air in my own home. The large gal was the sort of large gal who thinks she is ungodly sexy and likes to let the flabby rolls roll out. I'm not being size-ist. Or maybe I am? But can't she keep the unsightly rolls of wobbly flesh unsighted? Had the same problem with a guy on the way to the cafe. He wore a shirt three sizes too small and let it ride up to the top of his gut's vast curve outwards. It was a medicine ball of a gut. An enormous hairless thing lunging out from under a worn yellow t-shirt and over denim cut-offs. "Don't look if you don't want to see it!" people will say, but I can't help it, my eyes are drawn and with a single glance, like janet jackson's second and a half titty shot, the damage is done. Where's the bussing industry's equivalency of the FCC's morality police?
As I sat at the cafe, head bowed, pen to paper, scribbling furiously to get the ideas and words down, I was interrupted by a rather flamboyant looking chap in a top hat, purple clothes, big Santa Claus beard who wanted to know if I'd buy a book of his poetry. It was bound, chap-book style, and his picture was on the back. I politely muttered "no" and tried to get back to my train of thought, but the fucker had thrown me off. He screwed my words. A fucking poet! He should know better than to interrupt a writing man. I'm sorry, just because I don't look like a god damned freak doesn't mean I'm not also trying to do something with writing. Did I say there were no problems today? I was wrong to say so. It was that Reagan-esque optimism hitting me there. If you ignore everything, then nothing's wrong.
07/06/04
No! No! Please, dear God NO!!!!!!
07/02/04
What if it's strategy? What if there's a plan beyond political obsequity to the big multi-nationals? What if the war on Iraq really is about the oil, but in a way we haven't yet been told? Oil is necessary to wage war. 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. 18% of U.S. oil came from Saudi Arabia in 2003. Would it be possible to wage war against our chief supplier of oil without first obtaining Iraq's massive oil fields to fuel the war? Is the goal here to over throw the Saudi government and free the United States from their vast and powerful influence? Who better knows their influence than the current wagers of war against Iraq, the Bush family, with their intimate business ties to the House of Saud? Could this be what they're really up to?
Come
back every week for more tantalizing conspiracy theory speculations.
Have a Happy 4th. Bim! Bam! Boom! United we make a lot of
explosions under god with liberty and gun powder for those
who stop by the fireworks stand with a few bucks. Black cat.
Black hawk. For some reason I can buy a gun but sparklers
are illegal. Oh well, I can always toss a fork into the microwave
and get my sparkly rocks-off display that-a way.
An astute review of Fahrenheit 9/11. The site wants a username and password, but never fear Gore Vidal is here. Just enter gorevidal in both spaces and your in like the new Iraqi regime.