Apologies for my perennial lack of cogency. Allow me to try to win y'all over again. A wise person once suggested that I aim my critique high; so I call attention to Obama’s current very damnable political calculation. It’s helpful, in this regard, to examine recent history.
For those whose conception of history doesn't transcend the most recent Lindsey Lohan saga, let's go back a few years.
William Jefferson Clinton, our God-Blessed 42nd American President, is a good case to analyse. Clinton successfully “out-Republicaned the Republicans,” on a wide range of issues. He ended “Welfare as we know it.” Clinton declared the era of Big Government OVER. In reality, of course, he massively escalated the Drug War. That led inexorably to a massive increase in prison construction and the rate of incarceration all throughout the ‘90s. “Bill,” as he was affectionately known by many of the Liberals he snookered - and I voted for Slick Willy in '92, much to my chagrin - waged a long and squalid series of “Drive-by wars” in the Third World and the Balkans. Clinton actually carried out a larger number of military interventions than did George Herbert Walker Bush, putting the lie to the bumper sticker slogan, “When Clinton Lied, No one Died.” Total bullshit; many, many thousands died. Madeline Albright proudly told Leslie Stahl that the price of 500,000 Iraqi kids dead from the brutal sanctions regime was “worth it.” You get the idea. From a political perspective, it worked, at least until the American Public learned the name “Monica Lewinsky.”
So now we get President Barack Obama, who appears to be out-Bushing the Bushies. But unlike the Clinton scenario, I strongly doubt Obama will win over hearts and minds among the Right Wing Nuts he now literally panders to. Bubba was a genuine good ol’ boy, his Oxford years notwithstanding; Barack exudes Harvard Law. Obama may emulate neocon policies till he’s green in the face, but he won’t achieve a notable level of support from the Tea Partiers, no matter how reactionary he behaves, for reasons that should be obvious. Well, maybe he can permanently bleach his skin, Michael Jackson style.
But Barack WILL lose the support of those who voted for him. Eventually, his tilt to the right will become so flagrant, so odious, that even those who now continue to rationalize, to obfuscate, and defend him at all costs will be forced from sheer disgust into apathy. An epidemic of indifference among the Dems and Independents who believed in the change Obama touted could prove devastating to the Pres in 2012.
I don’t have the gift of prophecy, but I see disaster at the polls for Obama as a distinct possibility. I guess that would be a negative development in a few specified areas, considering Obama has supported extending unemployment benefits, and come out against Arizona’s “SB 1070.” Remember what happened to Gore ten years ago - and not, contrary to a lot of hogwash spread by Gore-supporters, because of Ralph Nader’s candidacy. Basically though, why should I care if Obama wants to sabotage his own re-election prospects!?!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Snookered Libs, High on Fox
It's totally in character for Fox "news" to accept the misleading video clip as representative of Shirley Sherrod's speech in its totality; I wouldn't expect otherwise. It's not even altogether surprising that Obama's administration was so VERY creudlous, taking the Breitbart video at face value, without even viewing it in its entirety. But I would have expected the NAACP to do a thorough review of the whole address and evaluate it in context. That venerable institution seriously failed its constituency.
Returning to the Obama factor, it's notable how the admnistration has widely distanced itself from the Progressives to whom they owe their 2008 victory; Afghanistan war funding supplementals, for example. But the Administration now gets a great deal of unqualified support from GOP reps and senators. Obama faces the imminent prospect of an understandable rebellion from his own partisan ranks, among "leftists." That's a bad omen for November. The disheartening fact is, Obama has now, across a wide spectrum, gone above and beyond the misdeeds of the Bush regime. But I'm not actually telling people anything they were unaware of, am I?
Taking into account decent, but probably politically inadvisable actions the Pres might take, it would have been more meaningful for Obie to fire Robert Gates than Stanley McChrystal.
Returning to the Obama factor, it's notable how the admnistration has widely distanced itself from the Progressives to whom they owe their 2008 victory; Afghanistan war funding supplementals, for example. But the Administration now gets a great deal of unqualified support from GOP reps and senators. Obama faces the imminent prospect of an understandable rebellion from his own partisan ranks, among "leftists." That's a bad omen for November. The disheartening fact is, Obama has now, across a wide spectrum, gone above and beyond the misdeeds of the Bush regime. But I'm not actually telling people anything they were unaware of, am I?
Taking into account decent, but probably politically inadvisable actions the Pres might take, it would have been more meaningful for Obie to fire Robert Gates than Stanley McChrystal.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Barack the Charlatan
I'm no supporter of Obama's. Though it took me a while to come around, the best I can say for him is he is a very educated, charming, intelligent, articulate servant of the most high-level corporate and military-industrial interests. Where to begin in criticizing Barack Obama? Let's see...
1. Obama continued the Bush Regime bailouts of Wall Street criminals (AIG, for example) who brought about the Great Recession.
2. Nobel Prize winning Obama escalated the disastrous Afghanistan War. And "we've" gone back to funding "our" wars off the books, through "supplemental funding bills." The Obamites are using a Chinese credit card to pay for endless war, just like the Bushies did.
3. He has failed to live up to his promise to get the US out of Iraq.
4. The Obama administration weakened the rules against off-shore oil drilling in March, only a month before the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
5. Barack Obama has not only failed to close Guantanamo, as he promised, his administration has bent over backwards to let Bush Regime torturers escape justice.
6. Obama ditched those liberal Democrats who argued for a "Public Option;" his "Health Care Reform" will end up benefitting Big Insurance to the tune of many tens of billions of dollars.
7. Now it appears that Obama has appointed a panel to "study" ways to "fix" Social Security. The commission is stacked heavily with Washington Insiders who favor privatization and investment of social Security funds in the stock market.
Nope, I'm afraid Obama and his administration are not friends of anyone on the Left.
1. Obama continued the Bush Regime bailouts of Wall Street criminals (AIG, for example) who brought about the Great Recession.
2. Nobel Prize winning Obama escalated the disastrous Afghanistan War. And "we've" gone back to funding "our" wars off the books, through "supplemental funding bills." The Obamites are using a Chinese credit card to pay for endless war, just like the Bushies did.
3. He has failed to live up to his promise to get the US out of Iraq.
4. The Obama administration weakened the rules against off-shore oil drilling in March, only a month before the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
5. Barack Obama has not only failed to close Guantanamo, as he promised, his administration has bent over backwards to let Bush Regime torturers escape justice.
6. Obama ditched those liberal Democrats who argued for a "Public Option;" his "Health Care Reform" will end up benefitting Big Insurance to the tune of many tens of billions of dollars.
7. Now it appears that Obama has appointed a panel to "study" ways to "fix" Social Security. The commission is stacked heavily with Washington Insiders who favor privatization and investment of social Security funds in the stock market.
Nope, I'm afraid Obama and his administration are not friends of anyone on the Left.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
"Hello, I'm Merideth Baxter. I'd like to tell you about..."
The application of brute force or the surreptitious ingestion of psychotropic drugs are rather dramatic brainwashing methods. Then there's Advertising; the soft sell, when the actress simply gives a "wink and a nod;" a rising intonation and a certain look in the eye assures you "you're dealing with a great company."
My early political education
Not that it's all that important, but my early political education took place in the mid-to-late 1970’s; it was largely of the confrontational variety. Quite a few demonstrations and much hands-on activism. It often involved some not very pleasant interaction. Back then , I had the privilege of participating, at some level, in an activist community.
Later, after a period of “apathy” from about 1980-1984, I connected with a small group of politicos whose work centered around disseminating real News and Information. I had a kind of re-awakening that coincided with the Iran-Contra scandal’s fallout and 1987’s “Olliemania.” The idea around which our group revolved was that, if the American People had access to unfiltered information about real world events and issues, a critical mass of them might come around, might wake up. And they would petition the government – in whatever manner - for a redress of grievance. That’s how naïve we all were! Still, I’ve got no regrets about that period and our activities.
The people with whom I associated then with were particularly focused on using shortwave radio sources, which were pretty much free, in the public domain. Kind of a pre-internet-age WWW, if you will. Anyway, I’m still influenced by that failed approach, even after all the predictable disappointments I’ve experienced since. Though I’m not nearly so wet behind the ears as I was in the ‘80s. I’ve long ago realized that if one has any chance of appealing to the majority of Americans, one needs to emphasize that dependable (for purposes of politicization) old factor known as SELF-INTEREST. In a hyper-materialistic society like this, you need to keep hammering on ideas like: “A Three Trillion Dollar War is so intrinsically untenable that it will backfire against YOU and ME;” “The Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe is an ECONOMIC atom bomb aimed at all Americans…” “We can’t AFFORD to lock up such a large percentage of the population for non-violent offenses,” etc.
In short, I no longer believe that most people in the USA can be reached by means of altruistic entreaties. I don’t DISREGARD the suffering of the rest of the world, particularly the “underdeveloped” (overexploited) world. But if you ask me, most Yankees don’t really give a rat’s ass about the American Underclass, let alone the “Third World” and its sorrows. Most North Americans regard people who DO care as quaint, irrelevant throwbacks at best – maybe as hysterical do-gooders, if not worse. So I’ve firmly adopted the cynical strategy of appealing to their selfishness, self-centeredness and vanity. Try to convince them their PERSONAL survival is at stake, if they even care about THAT. Try to pass along some useful information, maybe shock them a bit, in the hope they might get agitated.
I'm not holding my breath, but is life livable with no hope at all? I suppose so… I guess so… but I’d rather NOT go on like that!
Later, after a period of “apathy” from about 1980-1984, I connected with a small group of politicos whose work centered around disseminating real News and Information. I had a kind of re-awakening that coincided with the Iran-Contra scandal’s fallout and 1987’s “Olliemania.” The idea around which our group revolved was that, if the American People had access to unfiltered information about real world events and issues, a critical mass of them might come around, might wake up. And they would petition the government – in whatever manner - for a redress of grievance. That’s how naïve we all were! Still, I’ve got no regrets about that period and our activities.
The people with whom I associated then with were particularly focused on using shortwave radio sources, which were pretty much free, in the public domain. Kind of a pre-internet-age WWW, if you will. Anyway, I’m still influenced by that failed approach, even after all the predictable disappointments I’ve experienced since. Though I’m not nearly so wet behind the ears as I was in the ‘80s. I’ve long ago realized that if one has any chance of appealing to the majority of Americans, one needs to emphasize that dependable (for purposes of politicization) old factor known as SELF-INTEREST. In a hyper-materialistic society like this, you need to keep hammering on ideas like: “A Three Trillion Dollar War is so intrinsically untenable that it will backfire against YOU and ME;” “The Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe is an ECONOMIC atom bomb aimed at all Americans…” “We can’t AFFORD to lock up such a large percentage of the population for non-violent offenses,” etc.
In short, I no longer believe that most people in the USA can be reached by means of altruistic entreaties. I don’t DISREGARD the suffering of the rest of the world, particularly the “underdeveloped” (overexploited) world. But if you ask me, most Yankees don’t really give a rat’s ass about the American Underclass, let alone the “Third World” and its sorrows. Most North Americans regard people who DO care as quaint, irrelevant throwbacks at best – maybe as hysterical do-gooders, if not worse. So I’ve firmly adopted the cynical strategy of appealing to their selfishness, self-centeredness and vanity. Try to convince them their PERSONAL survival is at stake, if they even care about THAT. Try to pass along some useful information, maybe shock them a bit, in the hope they might get agitated.
I'm not holding my breath, but is life livable with no hope at all? I suppose so… I guess so… but I’d rather NOT go on like that!
Friday, July 9, 2010
2003 Essay written in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Friends, adversaries, and those who plain just don't give a piss, I wish to thank you all. For many weeks and days I have sat around drinking too much coffee here in soporific, strip mall, Sun Belt malaise, doing a little yard work, getting on the computer from time to time, but ABOVE ALL afraid to contemplate the awful fact that yes, I may just own an ounce of originality. You know, the kind of thinking that one may occasionally engage in during the wee hours of the night. Well, i hereby resolve to take this manic episode and render it a continuum of creative insanity, wary of the consequences but nevertheless unafraid to be labeled fuckin' nuts, all the while mindful that were Van Gogh to be born during the last half-century, he would never have lost that ear of his. They would have him on Haldol, Thorazine, Prolyxin, Prozac, and maybe a little oxy-contin just for sadism's sake. His own sake, I mean.
For too many long, arduous, alienating weeks I have laid about feeling sorry for myself, or contemplated getting the kind of job others attribute to a responsible course of action, acclimatizing themselves to the tedium that has been transformed, in their warped opinion, from a necessity to a virtue. When I turned 40 years old recently, a gnawing, searing sense of inadequacy began to fester in the back of my skull. It was especially pronounced, I noticed, in the company of those retrograde thinkers and their accompanying "conservative" values, whom i was somehow compelled to "admire." Force of habit I guess, and SOCIETY REALLY DOES MAKE ME SICK!
I found myself once again emulating those fatheaded, authoritarian bozos and ultimate ideological traitors as role models! Propelled as it was by a philosophy of inferiority and self-effacement obtained by this author, I was often astonished upon discovering that I felt a need to acquiesce to their stringent requirements of conformity and death-dealing BOREDOM! Who the hell cares how, when or why it was obtained - fom here on that pathetic little habit of trying to fit in at all costs will be mercilessly quashed by a rigorous program of natural-born weirdness!
Be it fucking RESOLVED: I'm gona tear the cyber-joint apart, not be timid about making a goddamn fool of myself, because I don't have to - i HAVE that luxury, I Have the time on my hands, waning as it may be in light of my achieving this point in time. Because "everyone" is so cool, collected, mature, together, with someone now, in the dream relationship that they always prayed or hoped or dreaded would someday come about, and I'm not. Most decidedly not, for various neurotic reasons, but again who the fuck cares about that ol sap opera? This boy-man, notoriously immature and appalingly underfunded is here to stay, blissfully obtuse. Oblivious and immune to the scorn of those mentors who once mentored him to a razor-sharp hatred of this that and the other, to the point where above all he hated himself. To the point where he scoffed at Che's famous maxim "At the risk of sounding ridiculous..."
God or Satan or Elmer Fudd has bequeathed upon me a talent, of this I am sure. The talent of missing the spirit i, in my silliness and naiveté am convinced existed in the hyper-romanticized '60's, the talent of being absolutely bonkers by the reckoning of a society grown so sterile I can TASTE the dead air and it's vicious lack of hope, compassion and a certain I don't know what, the theme song to the Mary Tyler Moore (YEEEEEEECH) show said it best I suppose. Love WAS all around once, far away, but a man who doesn't work a cursed 9-5 is therefore, in the morbid and moribund view of all my sell-out friends from long ago, (another life it seems) unworthy of love, not to say sex, romance and all of that claptrap. I'm talkin about the love deep within an acid trip, the love of a good snowball fight, the love of senseless and sensible abandon.
So go ahead, stick your (their, my) switchblades of sarcasm deep within me, who ain't scared no more to be pigeon-holed as the weenie, the freak, the jerk, the loser, the loner, (I AM PROUDLY ALL THOSE AND MORE, i INSIST) and all the other put downs you (we) use to justify your (my) arrogance and back-stabbing DECEIT. Ooooh we're soooo cynical and sooo cool. Fool.
That's the real reason I wanted your opinion about my writing skills, and whether you have witnessed any improvement therein.
Thanks a bunch,
Dan
For too many long, arduous, alienating weeks I have laid about feeling sorry for myself, or contemplated getting the kind of job others attribute to a responsible course of action, acclimatizing themselves to the tedium that has been transformed, in their warped opinion, from a necessity to a virtue. When I turned 40 years old recently, a gnawing, searing sense of inadequacy began to fester in the back of my skull. It was especially pronounced, I noticed, in the company of those retrograde thinkers and their accompanying "conservative" values, whom i was somehow compelled to "admire." Force of habit I guess, and SOCIETY REALLY DOES MAKE ME SICK!
I found myself once again emulating those fatheaded, authoritarian bozos and ultimate ideological traitors as role models! Propelled as it was by a philosophy of inferiority and self-effacement obtained by this author, I was often astonished upon discovering that I felt a need to acquiesce to their stringent requirements of conformity and death-dealing BOREDOM! Who the hell cares how, when or why it was obtained - fom here on that pathetic little habit of trying to fit in at all costs will be mercilessly quashed by a rigorous program of natural-born weirdness!
Be it fucking RESOLVED: I'm gona tear the cyber-joint apart, not be timid about making a goddamn fool of myself, because I don't have to - i HAVE that luxury, I Have the time on my hands, waning as it may be in light of my achieving this point in time. Because "everyone" is so cool, collected, mature, together, with someone now, in the dream relationship that they always prayed or hoped or dreaded would someday come about, and I'm not. Most decidedly not, for various neurotic reasons, but again who the fuck cares about that ol sap opera? This boy-man, notoriously immature and appalingly underfunded is here to stay, blissfully obtuse. Oblivious and immune to the scorn of those mentors who once mentored him to a razor-sharp hatred of this that and the other, to the point where above all he hated himself. To the point where he scoffed at Che's famous maxim "At the risk of sounding ridiculous..."
God or Satan or Elmer Fudd has bequeathed upon me a talent, of this I am sure. The talent of missing the spirit i, in my silliness and naiveté am convinced existed in the hyper-romanticized '60's, the talent of being absolutely bonkers by the reckoning of a society grown so sterile I can TASTE the dead air and it's vicious lack of hope, compassion and a certain I don't know what, the theme song to the Mary Tyler Moore (YEEEEEEECH) show said it best I suppose. Love WAS all around once, far away, but a man who doesn't work a cursed 9-5 is therefore, in the morbid and moribund view of all my sell-out friends from long ago, (another life it seems) unworthy of love, not to say sex, romance and all of that claptrap. I'm talkin about the love deep within an acid trip, the love of a good snowball fight, the love of senseless and sensible abandon.
So go ahead, stick your (their, my) switchblades of sarcasm deep within me, who ain't scared no more to be pigeon-holed as the weenie, the freak, the jerk, the loser, the loner, (I AM PROUDLY ALL THOSE AND MORE, i INSIST) and all the other put downs you (we) use to justify your (my) arrogance and back-stabbing DECEIT. Ooooh we're soooo cynical and sooo cool. Fool.
That's the real reason I wanted your opinion about my writing skills, and whether you have witnessed any improvement therein.
Thanks a bunch,
Dan
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Rhetorical Questions to "Libertarians," RE:Bill Gates
Some people say there should be no government. If that were the case, it goes without saying there'd also be no need for progressive taxation. We wouldn't want to "rob" the super rich, now would we? Let THEM rob the world's resources, through violence and extortion carried out both by governmental military and corporate police forces. Through massive environmental criminality. Let Bill Gates accrue a $100 billion fortune - he obviously "needs" it, right? An individual obviously "needs" a billion dollars while at least a billion people go hungry tonight, is that it? Above all, the filthy rich must not be inconvenienced.
That's Laissez Faire Libertarianism for you; truly "compassionate".
I deny the moral equivalency of a man who, while billions go hungry every day, many actually STARVING, has a 52-car garage in his 45,000 square foot Uebermansion on Mercer Island Washington. Protected by PRIVATE security up the wazoo and motion detectors as well. How many Haitians, newly homeless from the Janaury earthquake, and many homeless before, might he feed if Bill Gates really wanted to?
So I'll just ask you - do you feel there should be ANY limit whatsoever to the process of self-enrichment and self aggrandizement that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and George Soros engage in every single day? Or are you one of those Ron Paul lovers who wants to do away with the Federal income tax for EVERYONE, making no distinction between the couple hundred billionaires among us and the 50,000 a year librarian?
Because what you people propose is virtually impossible in 2010 America. You would need to:
1. Boycott the public library
2. Keep your kids out of public school (if you have kids - I have none)
3. Never use the Post Office
4. Never drive or bicycle on the public street or highway.
5. Never flush the toilet if it's connected to the Public Sewage system.
7. Never walk on an urban sidewalk, unless in a private, gated community.
8. Refuse all emergency services, including EMT and Fire Fighters.
Are you beginning to see what I'm driving at? As an ideal, I can see why you might want to believe you are truly an "Island", a Man or Woman unto yourself. But in the Real World, in practice, I think you know better. The ultimate conclusion to your Ayn Randian, "Objectivist","Selfishness is a virtue" creed would be to kick the children out of the house by the age of three. Those freeloaders! Put the elderly out on the ice, the useless, burdensome old trolls!
So-called Primitive Cultures were right when they regarded selfishness as a major drawback, not a virtue. They understood that survival is a collective goal which transcends individual self-interest. It's modern, "Western", and above all American society that has glorified the maxim: "Greed is good."
That's Laissez Faire Libertarianism for you; truly "compassionate".
I deny the moral equivalency of a man who, while billions go hungry every day, many actually STARVING, has a 52-car garage in his 45,000 square foot Uebermansion on Mercer Island Washington. Protected by PRIVATE security up the wazoo and motion detectors as well. How many Haitians, newly homeless from the Janaury earthquake, and many homeless before, might he feed if Bill Gates really wanted to?
So I'll just ask you - do you feel there should be ANY limit whatsoever to the process of self-enrichment and self aggrandizement that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and George Soros engage in every single day? Or are you one of those Ron Paul lovers who wants to do away with the Federal income tax for EVERYONE, making no distinction between the couple hundred billionaires among us and the 50,000 a year librarian?
Because what you people propose is virtually impossible in 2010 America. You would need to:
1. Boycott the public library
2. Keep your kids out of public school (if you have kids - I have none)
3. Never use the Post Office
4. Never drive or bicycle on the public street or highway.
5. Never flush the toilet if it's connected to the Public Sewage system.
7. Never walk on an urban sidewalk, unless in a private, gated community.
8. Refuse all emergency services, including EMT and Fire Fighters.
Are you beginning to see what I'm driving at? As an ideal, I can see why you might want to believe you are truly an "Island", a Man or Woman unto yourself. But in the Real World, in practice, I think you know better. The ultimate conclusion to your Ayn Randian, "Objectivist","Selfishness is a virtue" creed would be to kick the children out of the house by the age of three. Those freeloaders! Put the elderly out on the ice, the useless, burdensome old trolls!
So-called Primitive Cultures were right when they regarded selfishness as a major drawback, not a virtue. They understood that survival is a collective goal which transcends individual self-interest. It's modern, "Western", and above all American society that has glorified the maxim: "Greed is good."
First Job
Do you remember your first ever Job? I remember mine, at least my first "above the table" gig; it was May, 1984, doing minimum wage janitorial work in a "fancy" bar and restaurant. Told the boss I definitely DIDN'T want to do dishwashing - busting suds literally busted my back, it was so stressful, arduous and painful. I got stuck, fairly frequently, "helping out" the dishwashers when they were too busy, during holidays or one of them was sick. Despite making it CRYSTAL CLEAR I had applied for the janitor job,not dishwashing.
So much for the wonderful, hypothetical Dream World of "strictly voluntary association." Doesn't work that way in present day America, or anywhere else on this troubled planet. Of course I could have refused, or quit, both of which I eventually did. And gotten a better job, which I eventually did. But in the short term, I would have faced eviction 26 years ago. And had to go back to shoplifting food at the supermarket, with all the accompanying risk and possible incarceration.
"Earth to Utopians... Come in please?"
So much for the wonderful, hypothetical Dream World of "strictly voluntary association." Doesn't work that way in present day America, or anywhere else on this troubled planet. Of course I could have refused, or quit, both of which I eventually did. And gotten a better job, which I eventually did. But in the short term, I would have faced eviction 26 years ago. And had to go back to shoplifting food at the supermarket, with all the accompanying risk and possible incarceration.
"Earth to Utopians... Come in please?"
Dirty Words
Hello Fellow ADULTS. NEWSFLASH: The United States' Federal Communications Commision (FCC) lists SEVEN BANNED WORDS. In the interest of DECENCY, they are: Sh*t, F*ck, C*cksucker, C*nt, Motherf*cker, *sshole and Tw*t. Just thought you all should know. So let's all try our very best to keep things squeaky clean. Thank You.
P.S: I'm just not sure about the following: "Turd," "CodPiece," "Collateral Damage," "Armpit," "Mustard Gas," "Throbbing Manhood," "Snot," "Beef Medallion," "Strontium-90," "Booty," "McCain," "Cucumber," "Dreck," "Dink," "Dork," "Dong," "Dork," "Dookeyshine," "Goddamn," "Queen Elizabeth," "Beaver," "Prince Charles," "Schmuck," "Methyl-isocyinate" "Fartknocker," "BP," "Ronald Reagan," "Poop," "Deepwater Horizon," "Titties," "General Petraeus," "Toxic Waste," "Mound of Venus," "Wee-wee," "Pee-pee," "Poo-poo," "Ca-Ca," "Chernobyl," "Sarah Palin," "Wang," "Wong," "Willie," "Weenie," "Margaret Thatcher," "Bunker Buster," "Mel Gibson," "Gonads," "President," "Barf-bag," "Cops," "Butthole," "Donny Osmond," "Luscious Glory," "Johnson," "Merde," "Country-Western," "Gunshot Wound," "Ponocha," "Televised Violence," "Puke-bucket," "Knockers," "Cooties," "Poontang," and "Englebert Humperdinck."
Some of the above aren't banned, but probably should be.
However, Penis, Screw, Pussy, Snatch, Dick, Testicles, Cock, Vulva, Prick, Balls, Ass, Crap, Fart, Bitch, Fag, Dyke, Nosebleed, Slut and Wanker are all perfectly acceptable.
Last night, and well into the wee hours of the morning, I examined my own motivations. It was probably less of an investigation into why I wrote such an “outrageous,” profanity-laced “essay,” than why I had for so long denied my strong desire to do so. The following conclusions, some obvious, others less so, are listed in less-than-perfect order:
... See More1. I have observed a kind of restlessness, a hankering, a yearning within me. While the nuts and bolts, very grave social and political conditions of life on 2010 Earth do preoccupy me, it would be dishonest to claim that other phenomena escape my rapt attention and profound interest. Continually, constantly and exclusively limiting oneself to posting “respectable,” “orthodox,” “acceptable” links, important as they are, gets downright boring. It would be a lie for me to maintain that the ironies of the “Culture War” aren’t at least equally fascinating. The stark conflicts proliferating within American Society today are based largely in an outdated, two-faced and increasingly irrelevant sense of “morality.” That very “morality” has been historically based on religious systems I personally disdain. Such morality is so fraught with irony and contradiction that it (still) needs to be confronted openly. But outmoded as it is, that “moral imperative” remains extremely powerful. I desired to confront it head-on, despite the fact such morality keeps its grip on me, in much the same way it affects others. As I already observed, it was not easy for me to enunciate such examples of “Obscenity” in the way I did, possibly to be noticed by several hundred people. And why is that? Why the inhibition? Why would I potentially lose sleep over giving “naughtiness” explicit expression? All of those individual epithets, profanities, curses, call them what you will, are ultimately composed of random phonemes. And a “potty-mouth” writer like me merely assembles a series of morphemes that don’t by any means DIRECTLY represent the items and concepts they “stand for.” To a large degree, arbitrariness rules the day.
2. I make no false claim to any real originality of conceptualization. At best, I’ve managed to display a bit of innovative authorship. Think of the Late Great George Carlin and the battle he waged – a truly pioneering struggle that earned him real legal consequences, but also real recognition. Consider the actual hardships experienced by Lenny Bruce, Jim Morrison, Wendy O. Williams and others. They paved the way. Yet here we find ourselves, thirty, forty, even fifty years later, confined in the proverbial Prison House of Language. The Massachusetts Bay Colony still persists in America’s collective unconscious.
3. It is in my nature to shock people. I suppose this is connected to my need to get attention. That’s not a very mature motivation, I’ll admit, but I wager it’s one I share with many Facebookers. I believe it would have been very beneficial for me to have “completed” my “Higher Education.” A deeper, more comprehensive understanding on a wide range of topics would probably have obviated the need to put myself in the spotlight. Still, I have no overwhelming sense of shame or regret for having done so. This attempt to rationally examine the motivations for and implications of my act have put my mind largely at ease.
Another interesting self-analysis I have accomplished: Focussing obsessively on issues of severe gravity has had an undeniably leaden impact on my mood. Try as I might, the ceaseless preoccupation with America's endless wars, the world's economic injustices and environmental calamities, and a plethora of other human-made tragedies never fails to immerse me in a negative state of mind. Sometimes I need to lighten up, and giving expression to the ridiculous double standards that abound in our culture has been, to put it plainly, a bit of fun. Fun that conveniently raises the serious issue of whether the First Amendment is still in force in these Disunited States. I believe it is, to some extent anyway. Otherwise the Gestapo would have already dragged me off.
The Bill of Rights - use it or lose it.
P.S: I'm just not sure about the following: "Turd," "CodPiece," "Collateral Damage," "Armpit," "Mustard Gas," "Throbbing Manhood," "Snot," "Beef Medallion," "Strontium-90," "Booty," "McCain," "Cucumber," "Dreck," "Dink," "Dork," "Dong," "Dork," "Dookeyshine," "Goddamn," "Queen Elizabeth," "Beaver," "Prince Charles," "Schmuck," "Methyl-isocyinate" "Fartknocker," "BP," "Ronald Reagan," "Poop," "Deepwater Horizon," "Titties," "General Petraeus," "Toxic Waste," "Mound of Venus," "Wee-wee," "Pee-pee," "Poo-poo," "Ca-Ca," "Chernobyl," "Sarah Palin," "Wang," "Wong," "Willie," "Weenie," "Margaret Thatcher," "Bunker Buster," "Mel Gibson," "Gonads," "President," "Barf-bag," "Cops," "Butthole," "Donny Osmond," "Luscious Glory," "Johnson," "Merde," "Country-Western," "Gunshot Wound," "Ponocha," "Televised Violence," "Puke-bucket," "Knockers," "Cooties," "Poontang," and "Englebert Humperdinck."
Some of the above aren't banned, but probably should be.
However, Penis, Screw, Pussy, Snatch, Dick, Testicles, Cock, Vulva, Prick, Balls, Ass, Crap, Fart, Bitch, Fag, Dyke, Nosebleed, Slut and Wanker are all perfectly acceptable.
Last night, and well into the wee hours of the morning, I examined my own motivations. It was probably less of an investigation into why I wrote such an “outrageous,” profanity-laced “essay,” than why I had for so long denied my strong desire to do so. The following conclusions, some obvious, others less so, are listed in less-than-perfect order:
... See More1. I have observed a kind of restlessness, a hankering, a yearning within me. While the nuts and bolts, very grave social and political conditions of life on 2010 Earth do preoccupy me, it would be dishonest to claim that other phenomena escape my rapt attention and profound interest. Continually, constantly and exclusively limiting oneself to posting “respectable,” “orthodox,” “acceptable” links, important as they are, gets downright boring. It would be a lie for me to maintain that the ironies of the “Culture War” aren’t at least equally fascinating. The stark conflicts proliferating within American Society today are based largely in an outdated, two-faced and increasingly irrelevant sense of “morality.” That very “morality” has been historically based on religious systems I personally disdain. Such morality is so fraught with irony and contradiction that it (still) needs to be confronted openly. But outmoded as it is, that “moral imperative” remains extremely powerful. I desired to confront it head-on, despite the fact such morality keeps its grip on me, in much the same way it affects others. As I already observed, it was not easy for me to enunciate such examples of “Obscenity” in the way I did, possibly to be noticed by several hundred people. And why is that? Why the inhibition? Why would I potentially lose sleep over giving “naughtiness” explicit expression? All of those individual epithets, profanities, curses, call them what you will, are ultimately composed of random phonemes. And a “potty-mouth” writer like me merely assembles a series of morphemes that don’t by any means DIRECTLY represent the items and concepts they “stand for.” To a large degree, arbitrariness rules the day.
2. I make no false claim to any real originality of conceptualization. At best, I’ve managed to display a bit of innovative authorship. Think of the Late Great George Carlin and the battle he waged – a truly pioneering struggle that earned him real legal consequences, but also real recognition. Consider the actual hardships experienced by Lenny Bruce, Jim Morrison, Wendy O. Williams and others. They paved the way. Yet here we find ourselves, thirty, forty, even fifty years later, confined in the proverbial Prison House of Language. The Massachusetts Bay Colony still persists in America’s collective unconscious.
3. It is in my nature to shock people. I suppose this is connected to my need to get attention. That’s not a very mature motivation, I’ll admit, but I wager it’s one I share with many Facebookers. I believe it would have been very beneficial for me to have “completed” my “Higher Education.” A deeper, more comprehensive understanding on a wide range of topics would probably have obviated the need to put myself in the spotlight. Still, I have no overwhelming sense of shame or regret for having done so. This attempt to rationally examine the motivations for and implications of my act have put my mind largely at ease.
Another interesting self-analysis I have accomplished: Focussing obsessively on issues of severe gravity has had an undeniably leaden impact on my mood. Try as I might, the ceaseless preoccupation with America's endless wars, the world's economic injustices and environmental calamities, and a plethora of other human-made tragedies never fails to immerse me in a negative state of mind. Sometimes I need to lighten up, and giving expression to the ridiculous double standards that abound in our culture has been, to put it plainly, a bit of fun. Fun that conveniently raises the serious issue of whether the First Amendment is still in force in these Disunited States. I believe it is, to some extent anyway. Otherwise the Gestapo would have already dragged me off.
The Bill of Rights - use it or lose it.
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