Black Bird Black Bird Singing the Rain

he R

Short boots that do not intersect with her tights – this was diffently not today’s fashion – she was probably mixing and matching – buying a few new items as she could afford them and recycling others from her closet. Today’s fashion requires a new trip to the rack with every change. Grunge had long ago been recycled back to the used clothing shops. This is not the way these upwardly mobile young mothers of this neighborhood dressed – the barista perhaps, but not the women sitting at these tables gabbing. Behind me two heavy set black men in work clothes were politely talking in quiet voices about their personal relationships with Jesus

The clock of history does not turn backward. These recognitions of the reappearance of old elements are really just first, inadequate attempts to grasp the new – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire, 2004  p37

Learning is not a gradual refining but a process of wild gyrations with intermittent boredom

History has no ‘meaning’, though this is not to say that it is obscure or incoherent. On the contrary, it is intelligible and should be susceptible to analysis down to the smallest detail – but this is in accordance, with the intelligibility of struggles, of strategies and tactics – Michel Foucault – Power/Knowledge, 1979 p114

Charitable giving in the US (2009) - $300b  – 70% comes from individuals with incomes greater than $200,000 (individuals and estate bequests):

•          10% to the poor and needy
•         33% to religious organizations
•          13% to education
•            7% to healthcare
•            4% to arts and culture
•            3% to international relief
•            2% to environmental and animal related causes
•      28% unspecified

 Money and politics are a universe of discourse / entrapping physiques. / Abortion’s a little closer – Michael McClure – Star poems, 1970  p55

An authoritarian society has no need for censorship – you can spot an open society by how many times it resorts to censorship – the greater the number of incidents the more open the society is. The State Department has warned students not to discuss Wikileaks on Facebook or Twitter comments on it – for to do so would be indicative of their inability to handle secrets which is an important aspect for federal employment. It is up to those who are not longer fearful of being denied employment (the retired) to be the social critiques – but then most of us have opted for the Tea Party. So I guess that leaves the saboteurs and a few old farts.

I hope the victory goes to those who will have made war without loving it – Andre Malraux – Antimemories

Life is what someone else is willing to pay to tell you that it is. Your value is the cost of the message aimed at your. The most valuable are those who get abducted by aliens

Political theory has never ceased to be obsessed with the person of the sovereign. What we need, however is, a political philosophy that isn’t erected around the problem of sovereignty, nor therefore about the problems of prohibition. We need to cut off the King’s head – Michel Foucault – Power/Knowledge, 1979 p121

Nest no nest

Come to feed

Move about

Brown to gray

Greenish, bluish and

            Creamy white

Polymorphic white-throated

Bogs and coniferous trees

Jet black with red and

            Yellow patches

Widespread and numerous

Will repeat call

Showing off epaulets

In thick stands

Insects during summer

Dense woods with undergrowth

Now is my red roar car! Now is my muscle arm! / Joy that I shall be dead to rest for ten billion tomorrows! – Michael McClure – Star poems, 1970  p104

Its ones right to ownership of what is created by one’s labor that is sold in the labor contract, not the labor itself

Mercantile economy… signifies the accumulation in the hands of individuals, of the legal or moral claim upon, or power over, the labour of others; every claim implying precisely as much poverty or debt on one side, as it implies riches or rights on the other – John Ruskin – The Genius of John Ruskin, 1963 p246

A democratic process cannot exist without constant epistemological enquires at a fundamental level

No one is more eager for glory than an ignorant man who thinks he knows something – Erasmus – In Praise of Folly p161

When ‘having’ is everything ‘being’ is nothing

Liberals have a tendency to think that when the ‘right’ person wins, order has been restored. The idea of permanent trench warfare between liberals and conservatives in an abstraction to them not a call to arms – Jonathan Alter – Liberalism – New York Times Book Review – 10/24/10 p15