Oh shit! I forgot my reading glasses – I’m sitting here in the truck waiting for 7 O’clock when the café will open up and I’m trying to read this book – which I am able to do so long as I squint. When the Café opened I got out and there they were in the front left pocket of my shorts – the same pocket in which I keep my wallet. Good, one less thing that I shall need to buy – another pair of reading glasses. Every time that you discover that you really don’t need to buy that, will that is a bonus, sort of like earning a couple of bucks on a scratch card. Later I bought a microwave oven and a collander instead.
Out of boredom, we warm ourselves / By a bonfire. Perhaps centuries will pass, / And the kind hands of blessed women / Will gather up the light ashes – Osip Mandelstam – Tristia, 1987 p57
Arizona is a trendsetter – forget about the troubles of California when it comes to stupidity. A bankrupt state wants to loan out its law enforcement to the Federal government for free – to save $25 million in salaries it will forgo $175 million in tax collection. The first reaction to hard times is to create problems that you can deal with and divert attention away from anything that reallly counts. And here I had though that California was crazy for spending half a million dollars to incarcerate a man for stealing candy worth a $1.99. Arizona wants to joint the fight against terrorism by eliminating “gun-free zones where there’s absolutely no one who could defend themselves if a terrorist incident happened.” Yes Arizona is the new reality, inventing a non-reality in order not to have to face up to a reality that contradicts its vision. And if Obama wants to run for re-election he must show his birth certificate to Arizona state officials. And wouldn’t that present an interesting court case if he were struck from the ballot of that state – the publicity might even help his re-election bid. And if he negotiates a green-gas emission treaty or implements an emissions program – that would also have to be approved by the state legislature - it is the law in Arizona. . So now they are calling for the military on the border – I don’t think I’d want the military occupying my state if I was insisting on flaunting it's constituting authority – that is just plane stupid. “We don’t want to be owned by the EPA or the drug cartels”. We no longer need to look to California for our entertainment, now we have Arizona.
“Less is more” has its adherents in architecture, design and fashion but not in technology – try buying a car without electric windows or a cell phone without a camera. The demands of less affluent customers in developing countries may be changing this (not so much by their own demands as much as the need to expand the consumer base).
Class is not… a system that forces people to become schizophrenic. These divides in self [that occur in a class structure] are rather a response that occurs because men are greater than the system they live under – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p210
Although you man pay dearly for it, like love, authenticity cannot be bought
An historian who would convey the truth must lie – Mark Twain
Market Socialism – faith in the invisible hand of Adam Smith – the believe (faith) in the self-corrective effect of the aggregation of individual decisions in free markets – it is the one incidence in which the capitalists also proclaims theirs belief in socialism – this may be changing, capitalism is expected to increasing find a ally in socialism (a type of socialism which I call neo-capitalism – winner take all except when there is a lost and then put your hands out and expect government to pail you out). Socialism will become capital's savior (Lord and Christ) - a tolitarian union of capital, the state and religon with capital holding the trump card.
You see, casseroles can shout too. Everything can – Pablo Pacasso
How much are you willing to sacrifice to achieve a state of normalcy when normalcy is only that which you have become accustomed to – is it the fear that you have more than you justly deserve?
A sort of laughing sound came out of his throat, the kind of sound you make when you don’t know whether to laugh or cry or get sore – Jim Thompson – The Killer Inside Me, 1991 p171
Homo sacer: the one excluded form the civil order who can be killed with impunity – Al Queda’s number three man (along with his family) killed by a drone attach in Pakistan. “Strange Fruit” sang Billy Holliday.
People should go where they are not supposed to go, say what they are not supposed to say, and stay when they are told to leave – Howard Zinn
It’s not just what you’re buying. It’s what you’re buying into – Starbuck ad campaign – Talk about truth in advertising!
Only 19% of Americans know all of their neighbors by name and 28% don’t know the name of a single neighbor (24% know the names of most of their neighbors and 29% know the names of some of their neighbors). Less than half of Americans talk face-to-face with neighbors about community issues – it makes no difference as to where they live – urban, suburban or rural, but education and income do make a difference – the higher their education and the higher their in incomes the more likely they are to have thses conversations.
Possession of the qualities of a “good” worker is inversely related to years of schooling – Richard Sennett – The Hidden Injuries of Class, 1972 p177
Everyone lives in a community – many don’t realize it and many refuse to acknowledge it
During the lull in conversation, a hand-painted China plate explained, “You suffer the trials and transformations of middle age. Yes, there are annoyances and betrayals. Yes, love falls away. That doesn’t mean you give in.” For several minutes an atmosphere of gravity and forgiveness seemed to prevail in the kitchen. Pink and black peppercorns nattered happily in their grinder, “We who are about to be pulverized salute you.” – Amy Grestler – Dearest Creature, 2009 p17
Family intimacy ratings (percentage or respondents who said they had an intimate relationship with their:)
Dog 94%
Mom 87%
Cat 84%
Dad 74% - Happy Father’s Day Dad
The incessant pressure to choose involves not only ignorance about the object of choice, but, even more radically, the subjective impossibility of answering the question of desire – Slavoj Žižek – First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, 2009 p63
Yes you can survive anything, a parachute jump, a winter of starvation, a war, a concentration camp, even a disastrous love affair, survive anything, it’s a matter of stubbornness, but do you bring up that dead past afterward, no, you simply allow it to be, how shall I say, to be the central unspeakable event that changes your life and your work emotionally, but without going into the sordid details – Raymond Federman – The Twofold Vibration, 1982 p51
The populist revolt includes attaching small blue buckets resembling sirens to the tops of automobiles and driving down the center median and filming your encounter with the police – to turn a populist re-action into a revolt requires astute performance art – (better yet strap the blue plastic bucket to the top of your head and run amok in the traffic) - to keep it reactionary, prop up your feet and watch your tv. The revolution will not be televised – it will be Utubed and Tweeted and Wikileaked. It only makes any sense if you’re a Muscovite. Otherwise you must discover your own territory of counterpower. All re-action is local while revolution is global unless it too can fist be co-opted.
All we can salvage from our passage through adult consciousness is irony or sarcasm – Raymond Federman – The Twofold Vibration, 1982 p60
Ten o’clock time
For the church folks
To be arriving
And they do and they
Get into their queue
The distance between our bodies / Are as great as those between our souls / Alone / Alone / Alone – Vicente Huidobro – The Selected Poetry of, 1981 p95
By a count of BISs (bodies in pews – more commonly called butts in seats) only 18% of Americans regularly attend church.
Non-Christians rank Evangelicals just above Prostitutes form a list of eleven groups in regards to respect
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