Was It Something I Said Or Did I Forget to Take a Bath

Hi. I’m an Amoeba. I heard that the Rock wrote a piece in here about how great it was to be a Rock [Editor’s note -“This Could be of Biblical Proportions Or Maybe Not”]. I haven’t read it because by the time I had, I’d have gotten gobbled up. So, I’ll say my bit anyway before I get eaten by a brother (or sister – they are all the same – it could be a mother/father – they’re the same too. I just can’t understand Freud). I Amoeba, therefore I am. Gotta move on now. Can’t sit still or I a goner – ha, ha – that’s a pun, a little one maybe, but I’m a little one too. I just thought of a funny line, “Feed the family”. I must Amoeba on if I don’t want to feed the family, ha ha. (I’m a real comedian). But before I go, I wanted to say, being an Amoeba is just fine by me. Wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m off to meet my maker,  another pun or did that one fly by you too. They say the pun is the lowest form of humor and I’m certainly a low life, ha ha. [Editor’s note – I wish something would come along and gobble him up quickly (and in his case very very slowly) as he’s an awful arrogant little bastard, no pun intended].

This must be spring break – so many campers are staying through Monday. I’m not used to having any neighbors. Trail Dog is excited about all the dogs in camp. The wind is too strong to go out fishing. Golf carts are becoming camping necessities like a satellite dish and the boat. A little boat you can pull behind the RV. Either that or a trailer in which to haul a motorcycle. But for a bass boat you need another truck. Toy-haulers are popular with a their big tailgates, and you can use the space after you download the ORVs to set up bunks. I’m sure that up-north they use them for ski-mobiles but it was cold enough this winter in the south. For jet-skis you need a trailer that you can back into the water because you can’t drive them down (or up) the ramp. You don’t want to back your RV into the water.

We forget what we say much more that what we hear, what we write more than what we read, what we send much more than what we receive, that is why we barely count the insults we hand to others, unlike those dealt out to us – Javier Marias – Fever and Spear, 2005 p199

16% of American men pay for sex. 28% of the men who patronize prostitutes and nearly half of those who employ call girls are frequent customers. Two-thirds of the frequent customers repeatedly use the services of a particular prostituted more than 50 times. A quarter to those use her (or it could be his) services more than 100 times.

The new does not occur within time, true time is newness itself, the eternal production of transformation – Clair Colebrook – Gilles Deleuze, 2002 p63

In Latin American the informal (meaning – off the books) economy employs 60% of the workforce and supplies 80% of the new jobs. Worldwide the informal working class is about one billion strong. This ‘informal sector’ was not even on the academic radar until 1973. This informal workforce is not as some wishful thinkers claim, just ‘oppressed extralegal small entrepreneurs’, this is the rapidly expanding class of an ‘oppressed legal proletariat’. There is no mobility for this class. It is not simply a problem of redefining slums as “strategic low-income urban management systems”.

Women and children comprised 40% of the US manufacturing workforce prior to the Civil War.

Jesus, tell my father

          I’m wearing clean underwear

Tell him, don’t let me shout in vain

          Don’t leave me along the highway

Let my automobile go speeding on

         Without me

Jesus, tell my father

          I want to be among that number

And Lord I am constantly scolding the kids

          To keep their assets clean

The fundamental project for economics based on the concept of the individual is to rid itself of any actual individual

The best road to happiness goes right though Stupidity. Then turn left. It’s paved all the way. You can’t miss it. It a well traveled highway.

89.7 FM – Bluegrass all the time – this is Kentucky – Bluegrass country. Jesus – born of the spirit. Washed in his blood. This is my story. This is my song.

The other person is not just like us, with a few character difference. The other is another possible world of difference – Clair Colebrook – Gilles Deleuze, 2002 p83

Any solution that does not solve the cause of the problem makes the problem worse in the long-term – such as geo-engineering solutions for global warming and non-fossil forms of energy. Less energy, less pollution – that’s the solution. But who would buy it?

The city of Kinshasa with a population of ten millions has no waterborne sewage system at all. The slums of Nairobi have only one working pit latrine per 4,000 people. ‘The Scud Missile’ is one way of disposing of the waste. Put it in a plastic shopping bag and sling it on top of a building. At least they are practicing recycling. Less than 10% of the homes in metro Manila are connected to a sewage system. Only 17 cities in India have any kind of primary sewage treatment. Private sanitation efforts are encouraged by aid agencies. Use of a private for-profit toilet would cost an average worker 10% their earnings. That’s expensive shit.

We might … worry about whether mainstream economics can be about human individuals… One thing that we can say… is that mainstream economics has certainly been applied to human individuals – John B Davis - The Theory of the Individual in Economics, 2002 p42

Saturated fat consumption is not correlated with coronary disease risk. Unsaturated fat is, if thickening agents are used in it, as for example margarine. Eggs have almost no effect on blood cholesterol. There are a lot of erroneous food myths build into health recommendations because ‘industries’ have arisen around them. An industry is a vested interest. Expert advise generally conforms to the political norms.

Billionaires squaring off against each other isn’t remotely a democracy – Robert Reich

Infant males (both human and primate) choose toys that related to skill development for hunting and mate selection. Such toys as can be propelled though space and promote rough-and-tumble play. Infant females (both human and primate) tend to select play objects that hone the skills they will one day need to nurture their own young. This is the hypothesis and there is some evidence to support it. We come out of the womb with some cognitive sex differences built in.

This Could Be of Biblical Prorportions Or Maybe Not

It’s not that Little People will always lie to you; it’s that they are indifferent to our concept of falsehood and the truth. They wouldn’t know what to do on a true or false examination. They can’t comprehend the concept. They’d make no stab at marking an answer. It wouldn’t do any good to stand them in the corner (they keep complaining that we have a tendency to treat them like children). You’ll have to admit that it is strange, this concept of ‘truth’. It doesn’t exist in anything except for  mathematics. History conforms to established facts; science is based on hypotheses. Religion confuses truth with belief. They make you swear in court to “tell the truth and nothing but the truth,” but what they mean is ‘don’t lie’ and ‘not lying’ and ‘telling the truth’ is not the same thing. So except for mathematics ‘truth’ is indicative of a desire or a willingness to believe. I believe that answer ‘A’ is true. But ‘B’ might also be true, I’m unsure. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The Little People don’t have any mathematics ( what I mean is arithmetic – adding and subtractions, they have a geometry, a concept of shapes)). They can’t even count. If you hold up your hand and ask how many fingers am I holding up, they will respond with “a handfull”. Or they may hold one of their little hands up and say, “this many”. It is true, that a lie has meaning but a lie is not always a falsehood. It could simply be a non-appropriate response. I chose not to chose either ‘A’ or ‘B’ (and that is the truth). Little People try not to disappoint us. They will generally respond with an answer but it may not relate to the question that we ask them but to what they think we want to hear. Later we will examine their comprehension of the concepts ‘real’ and ‘imagniary’. And that is why (because they have no mathematics, I mean arithmetic – or at least not one based on the concept of numbers) it is said of them that “there may be more and there may be less, but there is never only one,” for there can never be a specific number of them, only a relative number (more or less). It is always possible for there to be none of them. I am thinking about writing a book called “Little People for Dummies”. That is if the word ‘Dummies” is not copywritten, which I suspect it is (Posted – Private Property). The title ‘Little People Made Simple’ wouldn’t make any sense, but the title “Americans Made Simple’ would. And that’s a fact because Americans are. Someone has already done it, someone has already made them simple. By the way Little People make fantastic economists because they are unable to distinguish a real individual from an abstract individual.

More than one-million people are killed in road-accidents each year in developing countries. The economic cost of this slaughter is greater that the total economic assistance provided to these countries. 250,000 Chinese were killed or injured in the first six months of 2003 in road-accidents alone.

The less the bureaucratic subservience, the greater the authority of leadership – Leon Trotsky – My Life, 1930 p280

Gang violence is the least

            Obscene of our systematic

            Violences

It is neighborly

            As a matter of fact

            Quite mundane

On the other end of the spectrum

Is civilized warfare

Precision targeting

With munitions that have eyes

And with or without collateral damage

            It Doesn’t matter

If you have misidentified the target

            Drive by or fly by wire

A bunch of kids playing

            Childish pranks

Stand aside and let the professionals

Have at it and we will show you

            How to do it

On your wide-screen entertainment

            Center tonight

Stay inside, watch it on the big screen

            The predator. Hey that’s

My house

            A lot of fun, reality TV

            The elimination round

Is under way in high definition

It’s only 5:30 but this place is already full. As Bukowski would say, “I like women that no one wants to come near: those who want to know how they are going to get their next drink, and even more importantly how soon.” Flesh up against flesh. It’s the essence of humanity (and of mole rats). Willingness is what counts. Hair of the Dog – I still have a hangover from last night. I slept most of the day. I had done something last night that I regret. I’m not proud of it. But finally I did get up. The later I stay abed the later I’ll stay up tonight. I don’t need to do that again. Go home before you get wasted.  I’d already slept half the day away. “I’ll tell you. Do you have five fucking minutes?” “I don’t have five fucking minutes,” I replied. He was wearing a yellow rain suit. It had not rained all day. It had not rained for at least a week. Nothing in the forecast either. All the tables are occupied. There’s an empty stool at the bar. It’s next to me. It’s a rule on the LA freeway, don’t leave an empty space between you and the car in front of you. Empty space attracts the crazies. An empty bar stool has the same significance. “This seat is taken” I say. A red-head walks in. She’s not in the same league as Donna Pension but not bad given that I’m only on my second beer. Maybe she’ll occupy may vacant space. She doesn’t. She’s meeting someone. She see’s him, a man with mutton-chop whiskers. He’s a dweeb but not crazy like Captain Ahab who sent on his way. He motions her over. She sits down opposite him at his table. They talk. There is golf on the TV. The bartender’s name is Paul. Then my neighbor gets up and puts three dollar bills on the bar and departs. Just my luck. Another empty spot. There is a big tall man with a gray beard with his long hair pulled back in a ponytail. He’s wearing a fake leather coat. “Hey Big Daddy.” “How you doing Paul? Moved in with that girl yet?” “Not yet.” They come and they go, bedmates and barmates. Sometimes they are the same, but not tonight. I leave and catch a bus. I’ll go home and watch some TV. Don’t make the same mistake two nights in a row.  Check for any diseases and get to bed before midnight. Tomorrow night I’ll be in better shape and maybe I’ll have better luck. Here’s hoping that I don’t.

In Jan 2005 the Justice Department informed a watchdog group that copies of the departmental files involving court proceedings against 1200 immigrants arrested and confined since 9/11 without trial would be provided to the group at a total cost of $400 million in accordance with their FOIA request.

Oh lucky Rimbaud

To have the experience of war

First hand at seventeen

Just to have watched it

It was glorious

To have been a boy

            Or to an old man

What didn’t have to fight it

But that was before TV

           

Drug cartels have consistently favored neo-liberal policies

Climate change is a collective problem demanding collective action the likes of which humanity has never actually accomplished. Yet it entered mainstream consciousness in the midst of an ideological war being waged on the very idea of the collective spear – Naomi Kline – The Guardian, May, 2014

You might think that life for a rock would be dull, but it is not. It’s a Marxian state that gets smaller and smaller until it weathers away. Ha, ha – that was a pun. You see, rocks have have a good sense of humor, unlike a lot of other things. Rocks can have fun. A good day (or a good decade for that matter or even a good millennium) is when a human comes along and stubs his toe on you. It’s funny how they hop about on one foot and holler. If you have to wait for nature to take its course – freeze/thaw, frost heaves, a good deluge – that can be dull. But life forms can tickle you – lichens inching along on your face or roots wiggling underneath. You’re never alone. The older generations come by to visit ever once in a while – blown in on the wind. You’re born in the bosom of the earth. Get uplifted and split off of a cliff face. Then tumble down into the valley. Gee, that was fun. Now I’m just sitting here in the sun. I havn’t been just waiting here for you to come along and stub your big toe on. I was once so big that God couldn’t pick me up. Now I’m just a little pebble. Soon I’ll blow away in the wind or wash down the gully in a storm all the way to the sea. Then its time to pick all the pieces up and start over again – difference and repetition – or so the philosophers say. It’s done all the time. If I only had a brain. And if I had an arm to scratch that goddamn lichen with. But then I’d be no better than a human. Got to roll along or I’ll gather moss.