August 14, 2009 - Coffee Break - 54th & Troost - Kansas City Missouri

I finally found Benetti’s after much driving around. The Google map was upside down with south at the top. The extension of Blue Ridge Blvd was unmarked and went along 63rd St and turned left onto Raytown Road before diverting off to the right and Blue Ridge Blvd is not the same as Blue Ridge Cutoff. I only knew that if I followed 61st St that I would encounter it but 61st street did not cut through and I found myself in a lot of residential loops. I passed the same spots several times – I know, I know – it would have been easier to stop and ask directions (there was a big QT at the corner of 63rd and Blue Ridge Cutoff and I thought about it), but a man is proud of his orientating skills and didn’t I find it anyhow. And when I got there I had a political discussion with a Nazarene theologian and he didn't mention God or Jesus once. You don't sound like any theologian I know (and I didn't know many not any in fact)? A lot of my fellow theologians think the same thing. He had riden his bicycle to Benetti's as his car was in the shop getting its annual safety inspection.

In the Ford era, superstitious dread of lawyers and stockbrokers as potential sources of financial ruin had not been superceded by fear of failing banks and outlandish hospital bills, as in the present, Bush era – John Updike - Memories of the Ford Administration, 1992 p.278

Real mathematics is so unlike that stuff we were taught in school – sometimes like with Einstein it helps to not be such a good student: come to think of it most of what I learned in school I have spent a lifetime unlearning. It would have been easier if I hadn't been such an avid learner, but then I might still be working on the assembly line (will probably not with the current economy).

Over time, maintaining safety requires a substantial capacity to influence both the factor and the activity in a particular space – Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh – Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, 2006 p80

If tea-bagging is what it is

Then the object being tea-bagged

          Would be a tea-bag, right!

My scrotum or yours – Green, black
           Or monkey picked
Don’t pass out or you’ll be tea-bagged
Is Dick Armey on the march
            Stay awake tonight
                     Be careful of what you
                           Put in your mouth
Is this what now days to called debate?

Long term safety involves protecting oneself from further retaliation as well as securing immediate comfort – Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh – Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, 2006 p.85

Faith in machines is inversely proportionate to faith in men

Decrypts yield their real value – not so much in juicy secret messages, but in giving a general knowledge of the enemy mind – Andrew Hodges – Alan Turing: The Enigma, 1983 p192

There is new “Health Industry” raising its ugly head –It is For-Profit Education that is finding government backed student loans a lucrative form of cash flow. This sector of educations has grown rapidly and will probably continue to do so as state governments continue to cut their funding of higher education. Although they account for only 7 percent of the undergraduate enrollment they account for 16 percent of the federal Pell grants. The median debt load for a student in a certificate program at such an institution rose 30 percent in the last four years while the debt of those enrolled in bachelor degree programs increased 23% to $32,653. For private and public four-year institutions the debt load for bachelor’s program participants rose only 5 percent to $22,375 during the same year. The For-Profit sector exploits the student loan process to a much greater extent than do public (two and four year) and not-for-profit private – overall only 38.5 percent of students are obtaining loans (for an average amount of $7,100) but for the For-Profit section that rate is 91.6% (average loan amount $8,100).

The For-Profit student body is overwhelmingly independent householders with incomes of less than $26,000 who are taking on debt to get certification for low paying technical and clerical positions. It would be interesting to see what their default rate is these loans that the recruiters at For-Profits have prompted them to obtain and what it the yearly and lifetime return for their certification. And the College Board is disingenuous when it crows that 30% of all students getting certificates and degrees accumulate no debt at all – most of these are the graduates of local community colleges (dependents living at home) where only 13.2% of the students take out student loans of which the median amount is only $4,100.


Butit  is misleading to blame individuals, when the real source of error lay in prevailing doctrine. It was the power of ideas that ordained failure, not the shortcomings of individuals – Robert J Samuelson – The Great Inflation and its Aftermath: the past and future of American affluence, 2008 p71

People coax and drag one another into the next big thing – Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh – Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, 2006 p147

When a revenue stream is secured, dependencies grow around it like a oasis in the desert – mortgages, a wide screen TV, premium channels, a few more thousand square feet, a night out on occasion – nothing major at the beginning – latter on a bigger factory, a few hundred employees, a more prestigious location, some new equipment – month by month transactions increase, stock prices rise – nothing major at first but over time dependencies arise – cash flows are the most addictive drug known – it becomes life threatening to slack off and there is never enough.

Ruin in its worst form is inevitable if our national life brings us nothing better than swollen fortunes for the few and the triumph in both politics and business of a sordid and selfish materialism – Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

The very fact that I’m a poet / suffers my eyes / to be filled with vermilion tears – Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara, 1971 p186


Many myths… survive because they contain a kernel of truth and because they are politically and intellectually convenient – Robert J Samuelson – The Great Inflation and its Aftermath: the past and future of American affluence, 2008 p15

Ambitions of wealth always trump commonsense every time

History deals rudely with the pretensions of those who presume to determine its course – Andrew J Bacevich – Commonwealth, August 14, 2009 p13


And the other half / of me where I master the root / of my every idiosyncrasy / and fit my ribs like a glove, // is that me who accepts betrayal / in the abstract as if it were insight? – Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara, 1971 p187

From the Journals (#2 – January 20, 2004 – Royal Ground – California & Fillmore – San Francisco, California)

Three young professional type women at the corner table are discussing corporate affairs planning. They are not discussing having affairs at work but the management of corporate social functions. They critique caterers and menus. They discuss the possibility of having a bar that can be rolled around the room – that should be included in the caterer’s function. “That is everything - we have run it trough the gambit - any changes made will probably bring the price down - its so refreshing, when most caterers want to raise the price - for a sauce over the entry for which they want a one dollar more - it sounds great - yes $7,000 is very reasonable - dancing in the barn – the bar - walking around – the catering station – the shape of the tables –Yes, I think one bar will be enough - but you need one bartender for every fifty people - How many tables? – Do the tables they seat ten - no, they are eight person tables – what will busing requirements be?”

Last night after the jazz, Leslie and I went for hotdogs at the Berkeley Top Dog – She and I are proclaiming “I’m pink and I’m proud” and raising our clenched fists. See how ridiculous that sounds. If we all began to refer to ourselves as ‘pink’ instead of ‘white’ a lot of the clout of our position would be eroded – it hard to maintain one’s position at the top of the heap, if one is pink – like baby rats or naked moles.

“I love this guy Petal – he’s thinking ahead – thinking ahead is good“, The lady with the pink knit scarf says. I have re-thought my hypothesis as to the nature of their discussion. They appear to be planning a wedding reception. One of them is getting married and that is similar to a corporate affair (I have read that over fifty percent of the couples now meet at work). “Dave [he appears to be the groom] is not doing anything” “Let me think about this and see what I can do to make this fun for you.” “Yeah, I will probably be traveling in April for work. I don’t want things to fall apart at the last minute.” “I don’t! I’m wouldn’t be saving a dime because the vendors all see me coming and are saying ‘fresh meat here’. Its my second wedding so we don’t have to make this too much of a princes thing” They are now ‘oohing and aahing’ over pictures of the bides dress.

In May 1975 Michael Foucault made first visit to California - Power does not suppress desire it produces it – Foucault. Pierre Klossowski suggests to Foucault that thirty very handsome young men armed with sticks would immobilize the police, who would be struck by their beauty. Beauty and the Police.

The wedding planners part with hugs and kisses all around - the bride stays a bit longer to pack away her planning paraphernalia. She finally departs with a cup of coffee in hand. Pink power! Pink power! I shout.