I am trying to work and instead
I drip love for you like a honeycomb.
I am devoid of fantasies clean as rainwater
waiting to flow all over your skin. p. 71
Available Light by Marge Piercy
Found in my electronic chapbook.
To recap my thoughts:
1) LeBron–like any other free agent–has the right to play where he wants. Everyone, including me, likes a hometown kid. But I don’t have much regard for owners waxing indignantly at players for making the kind of cold-eyed business decisions which they, themselves, make every day. It’s like watching a serial philanderer vent their outrage after catching their spouse cheating. Whatever.
2) I think the reaction to LeBron leaving would have been a lot different had his camp passed on Jim Gray’s offer. You have the right to break up with your girlfriend. But if you do it on the Jumbotron, don’t expect her to wish you well.
3) Dan Gilbert displayed the kind of insufferable self-righteousness that we all hate in our employers–black or white. That he did it in front of the entire world makes it worse. But drawing a comparison between the twisted perspective of a sanctimonious boss and the twisted perspective of a sanctimonious slave-holder is a strategy guaranteed to generate heat, with little regard to light.
I think anyone who expends more than a second agonizing, lamenting or mourning over the antics of multi-millionaire sports team owners or players needs to get a life.
Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on stretchers next to each other outside the operating room—the first surgeries of the day.
The first kid leans over and asks, “What are you in here for?” The second kid says, “I’m in here to get my tonsils out and I’m a little nervous.”
The first kid says, “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up they give you lots of Jell-O and Ice Cream. It’s a breeze.”
The second kid then asks, “What are you here for?” The first kid says, “A circumcision.”
“Whoa!” the second kid replies. “Good luck buddy. I had that done when I was born. Couldn’t walk for a year.”
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Naked dancing among cacti and brambles,
barefoot over hot razor blades on skittish feet,
how often I threw myself to love
like a piece of meat dropped in a shark tank. p. 68
Available Light by Marge Piercy
Found in my electronic chapbook.
The State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) engineered the faux constitution and the might-happen faux elections to have a very thin veneer of legitimacy while safely excluding any parties that might actually win. Central to that plan, of course, was the walling off of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Her National League for Democracy won the last election in Myanmar in 1990.
Questions have arisen concerning the National Democratic Force, a splinter group from the NLD, which is engaging the generals in the faux election process.
Does this somehow weaken Aung San Suu Kyi’s position? Perhaps, but I don’t think so.
Last evening we had a repeat performance of Socrates Café, the Tremont edition (more at the close). We gathered at the Loop coffee house on West 11th for 90 minutes of discussion on: How should we, as individuals, treat the homeless or those in need?
The aspect of the conversation that I found, upon reflection, to be the most interesting was that the discussion quickly shifted to: how ought we treat poorly dressed people with bad hygiene who annoy us or whose presence makes us uncomfortable? I was close to that realization last evening when I began to talk about my friend Terry Kanago’s blog I See Invisible People. The vast majority of the homeless are not mentally ill, alcoholic or drug addicted men who need a bath and get in our faces asking for spare change.
The vast majority of street people (a term I prefer to homeless) are middle aged and older woman and their children who have lost their spousal safety net due to divorce, abuse, abandonment or other social tsunami. These women are invisible. They are everywhere around us but we don’t see them because they don’t want (our of fear, embarrassment or other factors) to be seen. (See comment in response to Mike Sauka below.)
We ought to treat all people with respect, dignity and kindness. We don’t often do that, wrapped up as we are — and I’m as guilty as anyone — in our own dramas.
Not only do the invisible people hide themselves, we choose to not see them.
(On the matter of the Tremont Edition, after last evenings sessions I asked several members how they felt of making our Westside appearance a regular affair, alternating with our Eastside gatherings at the Lee Road Phoenix. The plan would be to meet on odd months — January, March, May, July, September and November — at the Loop and at the Mayfield Road Phoenix coffee house on the even months: February, April, June, August, October and December. Thoughts everyone?)
I never met Harvey Pekar. However, I mourn his passing. I never met George Steinbrenner either though I can’t say the same for him.
I do remember a telephone conversation with Pekar. He wanted me to write about something, as I remember it, which was out of the range of my local newsletter, Point Of Vi?w. Harvey wasn’t pleased, I remember, and he showed it.
Harvey was Cleveland personified. So was Steinbrenner. In different ways naturally.
Steinbrenner was a man on the make in the 1960s. He started one of those young executive groups called Group 66. Its aim supposedly was to help the city. Mostly, they’re made up of strivers who want to grab some power. As these types do they try to ingratiate themselves with the media as you’ll see below.
In June 1973 I wrote about a poll that the Plain Dealer played big on page one as a “Democratic poll.” It turned out that Steinbrenner, supposedly a Democrat, secretly paid for the poll. The poll said that Mayor Ralph Perk was unbeatable. Steinbrenner had built a relationship with Richard Nixon to get the U. S. Justice Department off his back at his shipping company. A Democratic bigwig said at the time that the leaked poll “looks like some of the methods used by the Committee to Re-Elect the President,” Nixon’s fated campaign group.
Steinbrenner – who I described then as someone “with the appearance of an overstuffed chair about to pop” – was part of a nasty nest of business characters Continue Reading »
I suppose that if Mason City, Iowa, teabaggers were educated, they might recognize the irony of the warning across the bottom of their billboard in Iowa, but they’re not and they won’t. The Tea Party Patriots, however, must be rethinking what it means to have a teabagger wing setting your agenda.
From The Associated Press:
The co-founder of the roughly 200-person group said the billboard was intended to send an anti-socialist message. But Bob Johnson admitted Tuesday that the message may have gotten lost amid the images of fascist and communist leaders.
“The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals,” Johnson said. “The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism.” He said he didn’t know of any plans to remove the sign.
But others in the Tea Party movement criticized the sign.
“That’s just a waste of money, time, resources and it’s not going to further our cause,” said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. “It’s not going to help our cause. It’s going to make people think that the Tea Party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that’s not true.”
Really Shelby? Will you be sanctioning Bob Johnson and the other like-minded teabaggers? Or will you, like Republicans in Congress, continue to egg them on?
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 8… Of course workers can benefit from lower prices for the necessities of life, but only if their wages do not go down at the same time. But workers in the U.S. are getting poorer. Keep reading…
ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 9… But another way the bosses can get more surplus value, without making the workday longer, is to lower wages. However, wages have to be high enough to keep workers Keep reading…
ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 10… For example, suppose a worker on a production line producing shoes adds $500 a week in new value to the shoes on which he or she works. That comes to $100 a day Keep reading…
ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 11… Most auto workers know, because they see the prices of the cars they work on and they know how many come off the assembly line, that their labor produces vehicles worth Keep reading…
ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 12… The bottom line is that Walmart’s low prices are at the expense of the low wages of their 1.2 million workers, as well as the expense of the millions of workers in the United Keep reading…
COST-EFFICIENT CHEAPEST LOCAL SUPPLIERS…? India is the second largest retail market and the largest unplanned economy in the world. India’s shoppers represent nearly four times the potential of the United States in terms of shoppers. Walmart yearns to be one with everything. Keep reading…
MOST WEIRD INDEED… Walmart security on the take? Gangs with inside help? Bike thefts and vehicle break-ins ignored? The pharmacy acting as a drug conduit? Is a perfect storm of crime engulfing the Walmart at 151 East 5th Street in Long Beach, California? Keep reading…
ETERNAL DAMNATION NEVER FELT THIS GOOD… I love when people notice, photograph and post Walmart bloopers. Given Walmart’s connections with people who really, really worry about special numbers and signs, you’d think the company might put a block in the pricing computer. Keep reading…
From The Days Of Black And White Television…
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
Sometimes being a good person just isn’t enough.
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
to fly and mate at last. Sometimes
we get just what we want, and it alters
us ever after, neither better nor worse
but clearer, with different blood and face. p. 62
Available Light by Marge Piercy
Found in my electronic chapbook.
While I’m in the mountains of North Carolina, I’ve gone back to take a look at some of the websites dealing with Myanmar that you may not be familiar with. This morning I offer a story from the All Burma Federation Of Student Unions on: Five Years Added to Student Leader’s Sentence…
Kyaw Ko Ko made three dramatic escapes, but his luck finally ran out in 2008, when Burmese authorities arrested him for his role in the 2007 Saffron Revolution and he was sentenced to three years in prison for possesing illegal videos.
[W]ith his first sentence set to expire in one year, the junta tacked on an additional five years for illegal asociation and subversion.
Rahul Kyaw Kyaw Maung, alias Kyaw Ko Ko, 28, is the son of school teachers in Rangoon’s Tamwe township. In 2006, he was in Rangoon studying for his masters degree in economics when he was recruited by former political prisoners to engage in political activities.
“Though he received some influence from other individuals, he himself is well-read, calm and disciplined,” recalled a political activist who met Kyaw Ko Ko a few years ago.
What is your favorite website for information from Myanmar?
The cash kitty for MMPI has gone over the $100 million mark as of the end of June. MMPI will build and control the County Medical Mart and Convention Center.
The increased sales tax has now brought Cuyahoga County $100,869,497.79 in tax revenue. Almost all is committed to MMPI. The $100 million comes via a quarter percent increase in the general sales tax in Cuyahoga County. It was voted, of course, without consultation or vote of the residents. The County began collections January 2008.
Presently, the Plain Dealer, Steve Litt and MMPI are seeking to extend the tax – my reading of the PD stories on the Group Plan panel – to expand or extend the tax originally voted by the County Commission for development of the Medical Mart, a private business, and the Convention Center, under MMPI of Chicago.
The drum beating has begun. The panel is to advise on future development associated with the Med Mart. So a tax proposal will be following.
Will the lame duck County Commission do the dirty deed? Or will our new REFORM government show who runs the reform?
Cuyahoga County voters also have to worry about added taxes Continue Reading »
Back in the day when international best seller Richard Montanari and I spent our lunch hours fragging each other through the various permutations of Doom, Rick was having his first book edited by Michael Korda. Nearby in the Simon & Schuster offices was Chuck Adams. At the time, Adams was editing one of my favorite writers, Kinky Friedman.
I didn’t know Adams, but I had seen the difference between Friedman’s first four books, which were not edited by Adams, and the hilarious post-Adams novels coming out of S&S. I mentioned this to Rick, and the next time he was in New York he passed along my observation to Adams.
In a perfect example of how frail we all are in the publishing business, Adams listened to Rick’s comment and then asked: Well, he thought it was better, right?
Yes Chuck, I thought it was better, nearly astronomically so.
Which is my round about way of saying you could do much worse than spending an hour listening to what Adams has to say.
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