So I got nothin'...
Dammit
9.21.2006
Ore : 11:18 AM
Ore : 11:18 AM
Applying for new and sucky, albeit higher-paying job; working on novel; busy at current job; working on essay for contest; getting ready for this weekend's SF trip -- my hands are full.
So I got nothin'...
So I got nothin'...
Today, Nothing...
9.19.2006
Ore : 10:32 AM
Ore : 10:32 AM
So this post is dedicated to Bobby Lightfoot. Just 'cos. (Hope you can do the YouTube thing...)
Everaythang gon' be all right...
Everaythang gon' be all right...
Few Random Thoughts...
9.18.2006
Ore : 10:54 AM
Ore : 10:54 AM
...On this morning's newsiness in re Bush getting caught with his hand in the psychopathic cookie jar:
* George describes the U.N. as a "frustrating" organization, and understandably so. His political antecedents as far back as conservative Republicans in the '30s voiced even more strongly worded opinions; the Imperial Japanese felt very much the same about the League of Nations, as did Nazi Germany.
Better men than Bush made promises to the international community, and, for the most part, kept them over the years. He of course bridles at any suggestion that he confine himself to lawful behavior.
I get that he's part of a school of thought (I'm being generous here) that doesn't acknowledge that there is such a thing as an international community. And in some sense, he's right, inasmuch as when its most powerful members balk at their obligations, it tends to work so poorly it may as well not exist.
* The newsheads' babblings notwithstanding, the Bush administration does not want "clarification." They seek obfuscation -- anything that will muddy the waters so that the stuff they want to do (stuff they've been doing all along, btw) won't come back to haunt them at the Hague.
* John Negroponte "disagrees with the administration's critics." Now there's a hanging-from-the-ceilings-by-your-wrists-naked-in-a-tub-of-water shocker. John Negroponte: the man who never met a Honduran death squad he didn't like. Who'da thunk?
* And of course, right after all the harshness they trot out an appropriately Xanaxed Laura for a little sit-down in soft-toned easy chairs, among immaculate, cut bouquets, ostensibly to talk about her great humanitarian works -- the subtext being, "Don't worry about George. I'll keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't let all that power go to his head." Yeah, uh-huh.
Crimony.
* George describes the U.N. as a "frustrating" organization, and understandably so. His political antecedents as far back as conservative Republicans in the '30s voiced even more strongly worded opinions; the Imperial Japanese felt very much the same about the League of Nations, as did Nazi Germany.
Better men than Bush made promises to the international community, and, for the most part, kept them over the years. He of course bridles at any suggestion that he confine himself to lawful behavior.
I get that he's part of a school of thought (I'm being generous here) that doesn't acknowledge that there is such a thing as an international community. And in some sense, he's right, inasmuch as when its most powerful members balk at their obligations, it tends to work so poorly it may as well not exist.
* The newsheads' babblings notwithstanding, the Bush administration does not want "clarification." They seek obfuscation -- anything that will muddy the waters so that the stuff they want to do (stuff they've been doing all along, btw) won't come back to haunt them at the Hague.
* John Negroponte "disagrees with the administration's critics." Now there's a hanging-from-the-ceilings-by-your-wrists-naked-in-a-tub-of-water shocker. John Negroponte: the man who never met a Honduran death squad he didn't like. Who'da thunk?
* And of course, right after all the harshness they trot out an appropriately Xanaxed Laura for a little sit-down in soft-toned easy chairs, among immaculate, cut bouquets, ostensibly to talk about her great humanitarian works -- the subtext being, "Don't worry about George. I'll keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't let all that power go to his head." Yeah, uh-huh.
Crimony.
Awesome
9.17.2006
Ore : 2:40 PM
Ore : 2:40 PM
Who knew Russia could be so romantic?
I think the outcome would be slightly different if you tried this on the streets of Riyadh or Sugarland, TX...
I think the outcome would be slightly different if you tried this on the streets of Riyadh or Sugarland, TX...
What A Pissy Little Shit
9.16.2006
Ore : 10:09 AM
Ore : 10:09 AM
For shame, SF Chronicle [emphasis mine]:
"Perhaps some in Congress don't think the program is important," Bush asserted. "That's fine. I don't know if they do or don't. I think it's vital."
First of all, that's not an assertion. That's a passive-aggressive, whiny, disingenuous hissy fit. Nobody disputes the program's importance. People dispute its legality, its efficacy, and, most deeply, its morality; more to the point, people believe it fails on all counts. He is like a disturbed child whose parents have forbid him to stick lit firecrackers in toads or to torture cats, and who then mischaracterizes the parents' position in as self-aggrandizing terms as his little brain can conceive: "They just don't want me to have any fun" [pouts, knits brow].
And I just love how every major media outlet seems to be missing the point, which is this: The Bushies were conducting secret campaigns of torture (by definition illegal.) When the secrecy was compromised, they had the gall not only not to resign, but to approach the American people and tell them that they will die if Congress does not pass legislation rendering the White House's past behavior legal (past behavior which they have continued anyway), because otherwise they will have to shut down the program (they won't, by the way...)
The rest of the Rose Garden Temper Tantrum was studded with some lovely, purely conservatarian gems of cognitive dissonance. Take, for example:
The president said he could not send thousands of troops into Pakistan to search for Osama bin Laden -- still at large five years after the 9/11 attacks -- without an invitation from the government. "Pakistan's a sovereign nation," he said.
Bush expressed frustration that the United Nations has not sent peacekeepers to stop the misery in the Darfur region of Sudan. "What you'll hear is, well, the government of Sudan must invite the United Nations in for us to act..."
That's right, kids! We are a nation ruled by the brain-damaged.
"Perhaps some in Congress don't think the program is important," Bush asserted. "That's fine. I don't know if they do or don't. I think it's vital."
First of all, that's not an assertion. That's a passive-aggressive, whiny, disingenuous hissy fit. Nobody disputes the program's importance. People dispute its legality, its efficacy, and, most deeply, its morality; more to the point, people believe it fails on all counts. He is like a disturbed child whose parents have forbid him to stick lit firecrackers in toads or to torture cats, and who then mischaracterizes the parents' position in as self-aggrandizing terms as his little brain can conceive: "They just don't want me to have any fun" [pouts, knits brow].
And I just love how every major media outlet seems to be missing the point, which is this: The Bushies were conducting secret campaigns of torture (by definition illegal.) When the secrecy was compromised, they had the gall not only not to resign, but to approach the American people and tell them that they will die if Congress does not pass legislation rendering the White House's past behavior legal (past behavior which they have continued anyway), because otherwise they will have to shut down the program (they won't, by the way...)
The rest of the Rose Garden Temper Tantrum was studded with some lovely, purely conservatarian gems of cognitive dissonance. Take, for example:
The president said he could not send thousands of troops into Pakistan to search for Osama bin Laden -- still at large five years after the 9/11 attacks -- without an invitation from the government. "Pakistan's a sovereign nation," he said.
VS
Bush expressed frustration that the United Nations has not sent peacekeepers to stop the misery in the Darfur region of Sudan. "What you'll hear is, well, the government of Sudan must invite the United Nations in for us to act..."
That's right, kids! We are a nation ruled by the brain-damaged.
Play MST For Me...
9.15.2006
Ore : 10:59 AM
Ore : 10:59 AM
Freedom Fries
Ore : 9:01 AM
What I'm Shaking My Ass To
9.14.2006
Ore : 10:54 AM
Ore : 10:54 AM
This is my first video post. I've avoided embedding YouTube stuff to date out of sensitivity to my readers who have slow connections or can't view these for whatever reason. But what the hell...
Le Disko, "Shiny Toy Guns"
Phoenix, "If I Ever Feel Better"
(View the vid for their new, very good single here)
Asobi Seksu, "Thursday"
(Okay, more so their more recent single "New Years," but I can't find a video.)
CSS, "Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above"
(Super adorable video, n'est pas?)
Thom Yorke, "Black Swan"
(Not sure if this is the official video -- think so, but I yet to see "Scanner..." And can one really shake one's ass to Yorke?)
Le Disko, "Shiny Toy Guns"
Phoenix, "If I Ever Feel Better"
(View the vid for their new, very good single here)
Asobi Seksu, "Thursday"
(Okay, more so their more recent single "New Years," but I can't find a video.)
CSS, "Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above"
(Super adorable video, n'est pas?)
Thom Yorke, "Black Swan"
(Not sure if this is the official video -- think so, but I yet to see "Scanner..." And can one really shake one's ass to Yorke?)
UK Ain't Got Nuthin' On US
Ore : 7:52 AM
In our imperial invasions, we are uncommonly graceful. Our occupations are characterized by class and sensitivity. We achieve unprecedented accord with our puppet governments. And when our proxies prosecute those whom we've deposed: Dignity. Always, dignity.
Beat that, Sharpe! IN YOUR FACE, FLASHMAN!!!
Beat that, Sharpe! IN YOUR FACE, FLASHMAN!!!
RIP Governor Richards
9.13.2006
Ore : 9:48 PM
Ore : 9:48 PM
1933-2006
Texas never did better
(So... Is George going to shun the proceedings, or can we expect him to turn her grave into a pulpit?)
News You Can Abuse
Ore : 7:48 AM
HAHAHAHA!!11!!!1!@! TEH L4M3 5TR<35 4G4\!!!!1!!!1@1
I LUV MSPAINT
So Fascist It Hurts
9.12.2006
Ore : 2:45 PM
Ore : 2:45 PM
"Socialized medicine is not the solution to our state's health care problems," sez the Gov's ghostwriter. Apparently neither he nor Schwarzenegger have heard of MediCal. Is he so allergic to sensible policy? Does he clutch his stormtrooper belt buckle in terror when thinking of single-payer plans -- thinking that from there it is but a very steep, very slippery slope into a California full of comrades in drab olive uniforms festooned with red stars?
Jackass.
If he doesn't have a better solution, he should not have vetoed it. I mean, take a trip down Santa Monica Blvd., through San Francisco's Tenderloin, or through California's poverty-stricken rural Central Valley, and tell me we don't need a fucking healthcare solution.
Send this dipshit a message. I know I will.
Jackass.
If he doesn't have a better solution, he should not have vetoed it. I mean, take a trip down Santa Monica Blvd., through San Francisco's Tenderloin, or through California's poverty-stricken rural Central Valley, and tell me we don't need a fucking healthcare solution.
Send this dipshit a message. I know I will.
GB For W!
Ore : 7:46 AM
Who wants to join me? You can play from home!
Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal.
(PS Rest in peace, Daniel. You were a sweet, smart kid who should still be here.)
Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal. Torturer. Murderer. Miserable failure. Coward. Bully. Criminal.
(PS Rest in peace, Daniel. You were a sweet, smart kid who should still be here.)
Need A Little Help From My Friends...
9.11.2006
Ore : 9:06 PM
Ore : 9:06 PM
So I'll be ready to start serializing my novel on the Intertubes in the coming weeks, my plan being to upload two or three chapter sections a week -- sections to be punctuated by the occasional PayPal pledge bleg. My thinking is, my novel is shite, but it can still earn me money and recognition by not being at the bottom of a slush pile somewhere in Manhattan.
But I've got some kinks to iron out, namely:
*Distribution: is Blogspot such a hot idea? Better suggestions, like Moveable Type? Or build a site from scratch?
*Soliciting commentary: Haloscan: bright idea or dim?
*Creative Commons: good enough? Anything else in re copyrighting I should know about?
*PayPal itself: better options?
Questions, comments, suggestions welcome. Thanks.
But I've got some kinks to iron out, namely:
*Distribution: is Blogspot such a hot idea? Better suggestions, like Moveable Type? Or build a site from scratch?
*Soliciting commentary: Haloscan: bright idea or dim?
*Creative Commons: good enough? Anything else in re copyrighting I should know about?
*PayPal itself: better options?
Questions, comments, suggestions welcome. Thanks.
Never Forget
Ore : 8:04 AM
And how could we? We're reminded of it every single day. Every day we watch Bush and his supporters continue to paint themselves into a corner -- on the one hand, convincing America that she'll be safe only with them in charge, and on the other, telling her on a regular basis that she must be continually frightened out of her wits -- without actually getting stuck. No mean feat that...
Anyway, while I certainly don't need reminding, it makes sense to have 9/11 stuff on teevee. I like to observe that day and honor the lives lost on it in my own way. But I see the sense in airing memorials and remembrances. However, watching George W. Bush -- after all we know, after all we've lost, after all he's done and failed to do, as he continues to do Osama's work for him -- get a sloppy, slobbery, deep rimjob from Matt Lauer is a bit much.
I'm trying to keep my breakfast down, people.
Anyway, while I certainly don't need reminding, it makes sense to have 9/11 stuff on teevee. I like to observe that day and honor the lives lost on it in my own way. But I see the sense in airing memorials and remembrances. However, watching George W. Bush -- after all we know, after all we've lost, after all he's done and failed to do, as he continues to do Osama's work for him -- get a sloppy, slobbery, deep rimjob from Matt Lauer is a bit much.
I'm trying to keep my breakfast down, people.
Heterosexual Gentlemen, Start Your Engines
9.10.2006
Ore : 9:16 PM
Ore : 9:16 PM
I'm curious: do these ladies even place with you? And where? How divergent are my tastes, based as they are more on abstract aesthetics and respect for talent (or if not talent, then a certain juh-huh-say-kwah) than on actual, sexual attraction? (And yes, I linked to the movies in which I thought they appeared their best...)
Category: Actresses
Time Period: Mid 80s to Early 90s.
Rankings:
1. Michelle Pfeiffer
2. Joan Chen
3. Mia Sara
4. Iman
5. Sharon Stone
6. Winona Ryder
7. Grace Jones
8. Virginia Madsen
9. Ione Skye
10. Demi Moore
What say you? (And NO! NO ELIZABETH SHUE FOR YOU!!!)
Category: Actresses
Time Period: Mid 80s to Early 90s.
Rankings:
1. Michelle Pfeiffer
2. Joan Chen
3. Mia Sara
4. Iman
5. Sharon Stone
6. Winona Ryder
7. Grace Jones
8. Virginia Madsen
9. Ione Skye
10. Demi Moore
What say you? (And NO! NO ELIZABETH SHUE FOR YOU!!!)
Fridge Note To U.S. Federal Government
Ore : 11:06 AM
I'm the first one to look askance at conspiracy theories, but you make it so hard to combat such bullshit when you do stuff like this. Knock it off.
(H/T Daily Rotten)
(H/T Daily Rotten)
¿Dónde está mis esquileos?
9.09.2006
Ore : 9:35 AM
Ore : 9:35 AM
Oui oui!
Ay puta those bangs are jamming!
Four of her five cars are in the front yard on cinder blocks.
Your boyfriend
Remember: the bigger your hair, the closer you are to Jesus.
On The Subject of Balls
9.08.2006
Ore : 11:31 AM
Ore : 11:31 AM
To wit:
That is all.
- It does not take balls to stand with and cover for the ruling class. It takes balls to tell them they're wrong.
- It does not take balls to defend torture. It takes balls to defend humanity from it.
- It does not take balls to say how brave you'd be in the face of the ultimatum, "convert or die." It takes balls to survive a situation where you may be delivered such an ultimatum.
- It does not take balls to say our strategy should be "to win." It takes balls to note that every successful counterterrorism operation to date has been primarily through law enforcement, not military action -- in other words, to use your brain.
- It does not take balls to seek revenge and to advocate turning an entire region into a "sea of glass." It takes balls to work for justice and peace.
- It does not take balls to abandon the Constitution and due process. It takes balls to stand by your values even in the face of mortal danger.
- It does not take balls to say, "Your civil liberties won't mean much when you're dead." It takes balls to say, "Give me liberty, or give me death."
That is all.
Okay Assholes Before You Even Start
Ore : 6:48 AM
And I know you will. It's inevitable. I don't even have to check. Before you start on Lance Hering, just stop.
I can already hear it. Abetted by the assumptions and jumpings-to-conclusions of cable news networks' Whitman's sampler of candied sock-puppets, who themselves apparently never learned from their whole John Mark Karr fiasco several days ago, every other right-wing blog is going to offer its unasked-for "analysis" of the Hering story. "A coward," they'll say, "a cut-and-runner. Probably voted Democrat." Certain full-chested he-men (and I doubt we need a line-up to finger the usual suspects) are sure to bemoan that, "This is why America will never win the War on Terror/Clash of Civilizations/Crusade. We don't have the nerve," they'll type on their keyboards, fingers still sticky with KY and semen. Anyone with even a modicum of sense knows this is coming.
Well listen up, you little Ace of Spades-and-Protein Wisdom-reading, Reagan Dime-buying Fleshlight pumpers: The sooner you yourselves fly to Iraq and get blown in half by an IED, or more likely, blow your own face off with that homemade letter bomb you were going to send to your "demoncrat" congresscritter, or, likelier still, simply die of sheer stupidity, the better off America will be.
You are nothing but cowardly, bed-wetting, Cheetoh-stained, Risk-playing wastes of flesh. First Amendment notwithstanding, you have no business making assumptions about Hering's motives, or casting aspersions on a man who is at the center of a case so new that not even the police know what the fuck is going on, or hitching your thumbs in your suspenders, puffing up your chest, and telling us what you'd do if that yellerbelly were in your company a-hur, a-hur, [bantam-scratch, bantam-scratch].
Just shut the fuck up already, and spare us any more examples of why you aren't fit shine his boots, let alone sound off on the issues of the day. And for that matter, leave Steve Powers out of it, too. Just don't even start.
(Yes, for the record, I did wake up too early today. Fucking elk. But my points stand.)
I can already hear it. Abetted by the assumptions and jumpings-to-conclusions of cable news networks' Whitman's sampler of candied sock-puppets, who themselves apparently never learned from their whole John Mark Karr fiasco several days ago, every other right-wing blog is going to offer its unasked-for "analysis" of the Hering story. "A coward," they'll say, "a cut-and-runner. Probably voted Democrat." Certain full-chested he-men (and I doubt we need a line-up to finger the usual suspects) are sure to bemoan that, "This is why America will never win the War on Terror/Clash of Civilizations/Crusade. We don't have the nerve," they'll type on their keyboards, fingers still sticky with KY and semen. Anyone with even a modicum of sense knows this is coming.
Well listen up, you little Ace of Spades-and-Protein Wisdom-reading, Reagan Dime-buying Fleshlight pumpers: The sooner you yourselves fly to Iraq and get blown in half by an IED, or more likely, blow your own face off with that homemade letter bomb you were going to send to your "demoncrat" congresscritter, or, likelier still, simply die of sheer stupidity, the better off America will be.
You are nothing but cowardly, bed-wetting, Cheetoh-stained, Risk-playing wastes of flesh. First Amendment notwithstanding, you have no business making assumptions about Hering's motives, or casting aspersions on a man who is at the center of a case so new that not even the police know what the fuck is going on, or hitching your thumbs in your suspenders, puffing up your chest, and telling us what you'd do if that yellerbelly were in your company a-hur, a-hur, [bantam-scratch, bantam-scratch].
Just shut the fuck up already, and spare us any more examples of why you aren't fit shine his boots, let alone sound off on the issues of the day. And for that matter, leave Steve Powers out of it, too. Just don't even start.
(Yes, for the record, I did wake up too early today. Fucking elk. But my points stand.)
So Really, What's The Subtext Here?
9.07.2006
Ore : 7:24 AM
Ore : 7:24 AM
"This is a man who is supposed to be someone you can respect..."
And just why can't you, Mrs. Mills? Spell it out for me.
IIRC, there was a problem a few years ago with some Tenderloin SFPD who, on paid time, filmed themselves in pornographic scenes, sometimes in public places. They got fired, as they should have. They betrayed the public trust, as they had engaged in inappropriate activities on the taxpayer's dime.
This is not such a case. One wonders why he's the one in trouble if his wife was doing this. What exactly was his crime? Should he have divorced her? Knocked her around a bit until she submitted to the average Snyderan's liking? Why is he responsible to for her private actions to such an extent if we do not accept that a wife is nothing more than an extension of her husband, that she is somehow his property, and he must be held accountable for her actions?
How ironic that these arguments ostensibly against pornography are founded in so much sexism and misogyny.
And its doubtful the situation would be much better had the couple's roles been reversed: She would have been cast as a victim of her dog of a husband, and the people would have been just as vocal in their objections to having a victim (a weakling, a person they perceive as having been used) in the office of Chief of Police.
There's something really off about small-town Oklahoma IMO...
And just why can't you, Mrs. Mills? Spell it out for me.
IIRC, there was a problem a few years ago with some Tenderloin SFPD who, on paid time, filmed themselves in pornographic scenes, sometimes in public places. They got fired, as they should have. They betrayed the public trust, as they had engaged in inappropriate activities on the taxpayer's dime.
This is not such a case. One wonders why he's the one in trouble if his wife was doing this. What exactly was his crime? Should he have divorced her? Knocked her around a bit until she submitted to the average Snyderan's liking? Why is he responsible to for her private actions to such an extent if we do not accept that a wife is nothing more than an extension of her husband, that she is somehow his property, and he must be held accountable for her actions?
How ironic that these arguments ostensibly against pornography are founded in so much sexism and misogyny.
And its doubtful the situation would be much better had the couple's roles been reversed: She would have been cast as a victim of her dog of a husband, and the people would have been just as vocal in their objections to having a victim (a weakling, a person they perceive as having been used) in the office of Chief of Police.
There's something really off about small-town Oklahoma IMO...
Novel Excerpt: More Poor Exposition
9.06.2006
Ore : 3:49 PM
Ore : 3:49 PM
Bear with me here:
So I had snatched the temporary Section 4 airlock codes from some evil Agartthan fag who should have known better. It didn't take bravery, or strength. It took cowardice, a willingness to let him fuck me and pass out, to wait until he snored, and to, in my stimmed-out wakefulness, snatch the palmcon from his back pocket. I delivered it into her fleshy hand, and from that point forward, she did not hate me.
"You did good, kid." She called me "kid." Despite the fact that I was easily three to six years older than she.
For two years she served as my guardian angel. There was no reason. For almost a month I was sure she wanted something tangible from me, and that once she snatched it, she'd leave me to the goons, or the Diaspora, or to some Agartthan with rapacious, barely human appetites. But that never happened.
She had not hair but a clot of thin strips of semi-tough yellow plastic. The rest of her, however, was all woman. And I mean all woman: like everyone else on Illyria, white lesbians tend to be soft, effeminate. But she was a Rube, as hard and powerful as any man. Her eyebrows, though shaped, were her own. She suffered no welding, no tendon-bracing or plating. Her nails were natural, as were her teeth. I doubt if she even had a duralport. And she had no more than two tattoos, both simple and ink-and-needle-made, dedicated to bitches who had left her and who had died, respectively. More than anything else about Chord-A, I remember her unique synthesis of hardness and softness.
The day Chord-A lost her life: He had pushed her down, but she had popped up, ready. I remember her healthy sneer and her aquiline glare, which willed sure pain as she assumed her fight stance, as though she had been waiting for this since birth. I remember the tan, radiation-induced freckles that spangled her taut breasts, which themselves were a combination unique to the young of muscle and fat (she could not have been older than 18.) They bounced tersely as she brushed the soil off of them, and threw her punches like any other hormone-driven great ape.
She had a romantic streak. She believed deeply in the greater things: equality, tolerance, an enlightened discourse among many, a tub of tofu in every pot, days when you didn't wish yourself dead because you actually had the time and wherewithal to treat yourself to a nice dinner or an hour of high-quality tamasha programming. But she would never see any of it manifest.
She died defending me. He, by The Code, was right to do have killed her, of course: he wanted to make me his bitch, his fuck-slave. I balked (I did not at the time understand in the context of Ruby my own strength, born as it was of an accident of genetics and geography, and was afraid of him. I was alone, in a tiny world that did not know me and that I did not know, and I feared him.) She had called him out. I survived, but lost her -- he had broken her neck. The community did abide.
Unless I wanted to lose my life to the mob, and thus impugn her memory, I had no business getting revenge on her and my behalf. I must continue to suffer his existence.
His name is Dante Solder.
So I had snatched the temporary Section 4 airlock codes from some evil Agartthan fag who should have known better. It didn't take bravery, or strength. It took cowardice, a willingness to let him fuck me and pass out, to wait until he snored, and to, in my stimmed-out wakefulness, snatch the palmcon from his back pocket. I delivered it into her fleshy hand, and from that point forward, she did not hate me.
"You did good, kid." She called me "kid." Despite the fact that I was easily three to six years older than she.
For two years she served as my guardian angel. There was no reason. For almost a month I was sure she wanted something tangible from me, and that once she snatched it, she'd leave me to the goons, or the Diaspora, or to some Agartthan with rapacious, barely human appetites. But that never happened.
She had not hair but a clot of thin strips of semi-tough yellow plastic. The rest of her, however, was all woman. And I mean all woman: like everyone else on Illyria, white lesbians tend to be soft, effeminate. But she was a Rube, as hard and powerful as any man. Her eyebrows, though shaped, were her own. She suffered no welding, no tendon-bracing or plating. Her nails were natural, as were her teeth. I doubt if she even had a duralport. And she had no more than two tattoos, both simple and ink-and-needle-made, dedicated to bitches who had left her and who had died, respectively. More than anything else about Chord-A, I remember her unique synthesis of hardness and softness.
The day Chord-A lost her life: He had pushed her down, but she had popped up, ready. I remember her healthy sneer and her aquiline glare, which willed sure pain as she assumed her fight stance, as though she had been waiting for this since birth. I remember the tan, radiation-induced freckles that spangled her taut breasts, which themselves were a combination unique to the young of muscle and fat (she could not have been older than 18.) They bounced tersely as she brushed the soil off of them, and threw her punches like any other hormone-driven great ape.
She had a romantic streak. She believed deeply in the greater things: equality, tolerance, an enlightened discourse among many, a tub of tofu in every pot, days when you didn't wish yourself dead because you actually had the time and wherewithal to treat yourself to a nice dinner or an hour of high-quality tamasha programming. But she would never see any of it manifest.
She died defending me. He, by The Code, was right to do have killed her, of course: he wanted to make me his bitch, his fuck-slave. I balked (I did not at the time understand in the context of Ruby my own strength, born as it was of an accident of genetics and geography, and was afraid of him. I was alone, in a tiny world that did not know me and that I did not know, and I feared him.) She had called him out. I survived, but lost her -- he had broken her neck. The community did abide.
Unless I wanted to lose my life to the mob, and thus impugn her memory, I had no business getting revenge on her and my behalf. I must continue to suffer his existence.
His name is Dante Solder.
Prepare To Be Appalled
Ore : 7:20 AM
The cover shows a bracing dusk shot of the New York City skyline from the Chrysler building. The headline reads "What We Lost."
Apparently, the losses include any sort of editorial sense or connection with reality. One feature is a retrospective written a quarter of a century from now (a retrospective from THE FUTURE!!!) of our times, of the first few years following the attacks. It is written by such a font of wisdom as smug boarding-school bottom and uncreditable imperialist Niall Ferguson, primarily to couch his reheated noodlings that that was the day "America fell to Earth," and that it behooves us now to assume the diadem of Rome and of Britannia, lest the wogs win, yadda-yadda-yadda. But here, he bemoans nothing; he is optimistic! His crack (or should I say cracked?) projections assure us that everything works out peachy keen: George W. Bush knew what he was doing all along, and the 2030s find the American Spirit™ "alive and kicking" just fine, thank you very much. (No word if the kicking is a reaction to hypoxia suffered during a botched force feeding at a secret detention center...) And then there's Max Boot (AFAIK his real name, meaning we simply must take him seriously), a man who lacks the accuracy even of a stopped clock -- every prediction and analysis he's offered since September 11, 2001 has been so thoroughly wrong and gleefully malicious I half expect Donald Rumsfeld to start taking notes glossed with bunches of gosh gollys and gee-willikers -- dons his most reasonable, least blood-spattered party hat (one must assume for the benefit of the 61% of Americans who aren't nuts and who realize we've been had, for one thing, on Iraq) to inform us in reasonable, somber tones that while yes, although everything Bush has done so far seems to be a failure, we just haven't given his freedom agenda enough time and breathing space. He's kind of like Tom Friedman with a sneer and less mass in his frontal lobes.
Go ahead. Pick it up. You will be disappointed.
PS If there's any schadenfreude to be found here, it's that some full-chested, manly-manly ones find Time's tepid and limp attempt at wingnuttia as pathetic as I do, if for rather delusional reasons...
Apparently, the losses include any sort of editorial sense or connection with reality. One feature is a retrospective written a quarter of a century from now (a retrospective from THE FUTURE!!!) of our times, of the first few years following the attacks. It is written by such a font of wisdom as smug boarding-school bottom and uncreditable imperialist Niall Ferguson, primarily to couch his reheated noodlings that that was the day "America fell to Earth," and that it behooves us now to assume the diadem of Rome and of Britannia, lest the wogs win, yadda-yadda-yadda. But here, he bemoans nothing; he is optimistic! His crack (or should I say cracked?) projections assure us that everything works out peachy keen: George W. Bush knew what he was doing all along, and the 2030s find the American Spirit™ "alive and kicking" just fine, thank you very much. (No word if the kicking is a reaction to hypoxia suffered during a botched force feeding at a secret detention center...) And then there's Max Boot (AFAIK his real name, meaning we simply must take him seriously), a man who lacks the accuracy even of a stopped clock -- every prediction and analysis he's offered since September 11, 2001 has been so thoroughly wrong and gleefully malicious I half expect Donald Rumsfeld to start taking notes glossed with bunches of gosh gollys and gee-willikers -- dons his most reasonable, least blood-spattered party hat (one must assume for the benefit of the 61% of Americans who aren't nuts and who realize we've been had, for one thing, on Iraq) to inform us in reasonable, somber tones that while yes, although everything Bush has done so far seems to be a failure, we just haven't given his freedom agenda enough time and breathing space. He's kind of like Tom Friedman with a sneer and less mass in his frontal lobes.
Go ahead. Pick it up. You will be disappointed.
PS If there's any schadenfreude to be found here, it's that some full-chested, manly-manly ones find Time's tepid and limp attempt at wingnuttia as pathetic as I do, if for rather delusional reasons...
A Little Strawberries & Cream
9.05.2006
Ore : 11:42 AM
Ore : 11:42 AM
To tide you little perverts over on your unwelcome Tuesday back at work:
There's more than one reason to love Queens of the Stone Age...
There's more than one reason to love Queens of the Stone Age...
Have A Labor Day
9.04.2006
Ore : 1:39 PM
Ore : 1:39 PM
Okay, this was gonna be a quick linky-poo, but in my best Jerri Blank howl, I got something to say (an angry liberal! Imagine!): Granted, I've been paying about 3/4 attention to the TV today -- lots of watering and laundry to do -- but I've been seeing a lot to be ashamed of. Or rather, there's a lot that isn't on that should be. (I'm in fact posting so late as I wanted to give the idiot box a good-faith chance...) Yeah, it's a great day for the Bitchuation Room, Steve Irwin (looks like Bob is gonna keep his extremities that much longer; a silver lining, that) and Dark Angel reruns. But I'm especially disappointed in the History Channel and DiscoveryTime. What do they have on? A history of the AFL-CIO? Stories of dockworkers and garment makers? No: Ancient Almanac. Hitlergasms. Hell, we can't even catch Norma Rae on AMC. Fuck this shit.
The labor movement in America was the ultimate brains and the real backbone behind life-saving regulations, much of the Civil Rights movement, and a big chunk of New Deal thought itself. We owe these men and women, who lost their pay to scabs, who faced down skull-cracking union-busters and rapacious capitalists, who gave us so much of what is just and fair in modern America, much, much more than pre-scripted interviews with Joe Lieberman's droopy mug.
If we can give scads of airtime to remembrances of the Civil War and the history of Doritos and Osama and Katrina, surely we can make a little room, if just for Jimmy Hoffa.
At this point, I'm not expecting anything even from PBS.
Crikey.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming: Just a little sum'n-sum'n 'bout my hometown. Now, this Web site requests visitors don't just snatch their text to republish elsewhere, and I respect that. Suffice it to say that so much of what made Richmond, California great -- a smart, politically aware, almost entirely unionized black community; Rosie the Riveter; Black Panthers; many of the greatest threats the Grand Old Plutocrats have ever faced -- is due in no small part to the following: Ladies and Gentleman, I give you C.L. Dellums of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Go on, now. Get yourself edified.
The labor movement in America was the ultimate brains and the real backbone behind life-saving regulations, much of the Civil Rights movement, and a big chunk of New Deal thought itself. We owe these men and women, who lost their pay to scabs, who faced down skull-cracking union-busters and rapacious capitalists, who gave us so much of what is just and fair in modern America, much, much more than pre-scripted interviews with Joe Lieberman's droopy mug.
If we can give scads of airtime to remembrances of the Civil War and the history of Doritos and Osama and Katrina, surely we can make a little room, if just for Jimmy Hoffa.
At this point, I'm not expecting anything even from PBS.
Crikey.
* * *
Back to our regularly scheduled programming: Just a little sum'n-sum'n 'bout my hometown. Now, this Web site requests visitors don't just snatch their text to republish elsewhere, and I respect that. Suffice it to say that so much of what made Richmond, California great -- a smart, politically aware, almost entirely unionized black community; Rosie the Riveter; Black Panthers; many of the greatest threats the Grand Old Plutocrats have ever faced -- is due in no small part to the following: Ladies and Gentleman, I give you C.L. Dellums of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Go on, now. Get yourself edified.
Exhibit H...
9.03.2006
Ore : 4:18 PM
Ore : 4:18 PM
...In the case of Reality v. The Guy Who's Too Stupid To Know How Stupid He Is:
There is an implication bandied about by many on the right that multiculturalism is some sort of coherent socioeconomic policy, the proponents of which (one imagines a shadowy cabal of college professors, Stonewall activists and Black Panthers huddled over a war map, passing a bong -- always to the left! -- in the dusty basement of MoveOn.org's headquarters) are engaged in a continual and often successful struggle to impose it on everyone. But until this definition is supported by facts, posts like this one by our favorite JismSmoothie will continue to fall apart in your fingers like so much goo that used to to be your best friend's face.
Multiculturalism -- as an "ism," a stupid construction as it implies it has its own supporters and think tanks and exegeses and gibbering Beltway hairdos -- exists only insofar as it is a tacit acknowledgement of the reality that this world allows for many different ways of being human. Some of those ways are ours (Americans'), some of these ways are enviable, and some of them are repugnant.
We live in a country where the "tenets of multiculturalism" manifest themselves thusly: The citizens of the city of San Francisco may empower their government agencies to publish election ballots in Chinese, Tagalog, and Spanish; a militia goon who takes it upon himself to firebomb a synagogue or a mosque or a Planned Parenthood office will probably be tried for arson, attempted murder, and maybe a hate crime (a subset, btw, of terrorism); the ACLU will defend Rush Limbaugh's right to make racist bloviations on public airwaves; the man who performs a clitoridectomy on his daughter will get busted for assault, child abuse and endangerment, and maybe even (laughably, but oh well...) for attempting to practice medicine without a license, among other charges; a woman whose ancestors hailed from Harbin Province may by virtue of her qualifications rise to become the fire chief of her hometown; a white man denied housing because of his race may sue his prospective landlord; a public library in Dearborn may very well offer a variety of Arabic reading materials and videos; a major corporation may freely choose to offer benefits to the de facto spouses of their gay employees; and a private university that receives no federal money may proscribe interracial dating among its students.
All of these cases have exactly one commonality, no more: each happens or exists in accordance with the rights of individuals and duties of government enumerated in the founding documents of this country -- documents that tend towards tolerance for the former and take a dim view of unfettered power held by the latter.
In other words, there are no "tenets of multiculturalism," no "principles of a multicultural worldview." There is no there in Goldstein's "there!" There is just a country, a society constantly in flux, mucking through as best it can -- and where that mucking-through involves the law, we tend to defer to our time-honored, tried-and-usually-true legal system, predicated as it is on Roman jurisprudence and English Common Law.
To be sure, there are things with which we Americans tend to be happy (empanadas, porn, curries and Margaret Cho's commentary on being a chubby Asian woman in American entertainment), things some or all of us are squidgy about (eminent domain, the travails of Paris Hilton and Flava Flav and Missing White Women as infotainment, Parker and Stone's "Team America," and Bible study), and things the majority of us despise (theocracy, misogyny, Sharia Law, and long lines at the multiplex.) And much, much more. Moreover, these things change through time in the push and pull and uplift and tramplings underfoot that flavor our particular, sometimes unappetizing stew of humanity -- many more of us are comfortable with gay marriage than we were ten years ago, and the same can be said of Dominionism.
In short: I have no idea what the fuck he's yammering on about. And I'm not sure if it's comforting that he doesn't, either.
PS Oh, okay, maybe this is an explanation...
There is an implication bandied about by many on the right that multiculturalism is some sort of coherent socioeconomic policy, the proponents of which (one imagines a shadowy cabal of college professors, Stonewall activists and Black Panthers huddled over a war map, passing a bong -- always to the left! -- in the dusty basement of MoveOn.org's headquarters) are engaged in a continual and often successful struggle to impose it on everyone. But until this definition is supported by facts, posts like this one by our favorite JismSmoothie will continue to fall apart in your fingers like so much goo that used to to be your best friend's face.
Multiculturalism -- as an "ism," a stupid construction as it implies it has its own supporters and think tanks and exegeses and gibbering Beltway hairdos -- exists only insofar as it is a tacit acknowledgement of the reality that this world allows for many different ways of being human. Some of those ways are ours (Americans'), some of these ways are enviable, and some of them are repugnant.
We live in a country where the "tenets of multiculturalism" manifest themselves thusly: The citizens of the city of San Francisco may empower their government agencies to publish election ballots in Chinese, Tagalog, and Spanish; a militia goon who takes it upon himself to firebomb a synagogue or a mosque or a Planned Parenthood office will probably be tried for arson, attempted murder, and maybe a hate crime (a subset, btw, of terrorism); the ACLU will defend Rush Limbaugh's right to make racist bloviations on public airwaves; the man who performs a clitoridectomy on his daughter will get busted for assault, child abuse and endangerment, and maybe even (laughably, but oh well...) for attempting to practice medicine without a license, among other charges; a woman whose ancestors hailed from Harbin Province may by virtue of her qualifications rise to become the fire chief of her hometown; a white man denied housing because of his race may sue his prospective landlord; a public library in Dearborn may very well offer a variety of Arabic reading materials and videos; a major corporation may freely choose to offer benefits to the de facto spouses of their gay employees; and a private university that receives no federal money may proscribe interracial dating among its students.
All of these cases have exactly one commonality, no more: each happens or exists in accordance with the rights of individuals and duties of government enumerated in the founding documents of this country -- documents that tend towards tolerance for the former and take a dim view of unfettered power held by the latter.
In other words, there are no "tenets of multiculturalism," no "principles of a multicultural worldview." There is no there in Goldstein's "there!" There is just a country, a society constantly in flux, mucking through as best it can -- and where that mucking-through involves the law, we tend to defer to our time-honored, tried-and-usually-true legal system, predicated as it is on Roman jurisprudence and English Common Law.
To be sure, there are things with which we Americans tend to be happy (empanadas, porn, curries and Margaret Cho's commentary on being a chubby Asian woman in American entertainment), things some or all of us are squidgy about (eminent domain, the travails of Paris Hilton and Flava Flav and Missing White Women as infotainment, Parker and Stone's "Team America," and Bible study), and things the majority of us despise (theocracy, misogyny, Sharia Law, and long lines at the multiplex.) And much, much more. Moreover, these things change through time in the push and pull and uplift and tramplings underfoot that flavor our particular, sometimes unappetizing stew of humanity -- many more of us are comfortable with gay marriage than we were ten years ago, and the same can be said of Dominionism.
In short: I have no idea what the fuck he's yammering on about. And I'm not sure if it's comforting that he doesn't, either.
PS Oh, okay, maybe this is an explanation...
Kitty Kattwood VS Kitty Farmer RAW SMACKDOWN!!!
Ore : 6:26 AM
Kitty Kattwood: "Do you even know who Graham Greene is?"
Kitty Farmer: "I think we've all seen Bonanza."
Kitty F bursts in the door and all but rushes the front desk, brandishing a book that isn't due for another two and a-half weeks. On its cover are the words, in big red letters "Safe Sex for Teens." "I can't believe you carry this filth -- and give it to kids!"
Kitty K smacks the offending paw out of her face. "Excuse me, is that yours? Did you check it out? If you don't like it you don't have to read it."
"You checked it out to my daughter!"
"Which means you signed the card application form."
Kitty F backs down slightly, settling into a hard, baleful simmer, "Well you have no business carrying this bullshit. A lot of us are real Christians, you know, and this isn't right, teaching kids how to fornicate. It's disgusting."
Kitty K narrows her eyes. She also makes a mighty fine nostril-flare. "What don't you get about the word 'library'? The sign out front doesn't say 'Mechanics' Library' or 'Baptist Library.' There's no qualifier there. It's a library. We carry everything. And anybody with a library card is entitled to check out whatever materials they want.
"If you want to keep your kid so in the dark that she turns into such a little idiot by the time she's on her own that she gets killed by a dangerous, uncaring world, that's really none of my business -- although I have to say I feel sorry for her. But this has nothing to do with us. You want to shelter her? That's your job. I am not your goddamn personal V-chip. Now you either check something out and leave me the hell alone, or I call the sheriff -- and I can guarantee you whose side he'll take."
Kitty K then turns back to her duties: "Leovardo, get out of his grill and wait your turn for the computer. He still has 10 minutes."
Maybe this counts as a counterpoint to the recollection of past cowardly behavior...
And really, go visit them. They're nice boys. And I think at least one of them might be not-hungover...
Okay, One Teensy, Little Thing
9.02.2006
Ore : 8:39 PM
Ore : 8:39 PM
Regarding the David Warren pile-on, the following can be found as item 97 on his insufferable "about" page [emphases mon]:
As few understand, I am in fact a Tory, in politics; not a "libertarian" nor even a "conservative". My understanding of liberty is a Tory understanding. I am not just a little behind the times, but by the standard of today, almost heroically backward.
A Canadian Tory -- in other words, Adam Yoshida on a fistful of barbituates. And honestly, "heroically backward"?
In a better world, people like this would be getting paychecks only from the dole. What a sad, sad, lonely man.
As few understand, I am in fact a Tory, in politics; not a "libertarian" nor even a "conservative". My understanding of liberty is a Tory understanding. I am not just a little behind the times, but by the standard of today, almost heroically backward.
A Canadian Tory -- in other words, Adam Yoshida on a fistful of barbituates. And honestly, "heroically backward"?
In a better world, people like this would be getting paychecks only from the dole. What a sad, sad, lonely man.
Enjoy Your Labor Day Weekend
Ore : 9:25 AM
Freedom Camp | Blogger Templates by layoutstudios.com and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Learn how to Make Money Online at GeckoandFly
