Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

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.

Late in the night I pay
the unrest I owe
to the life that never lived
and cannot live now.
What the world could be
is my good dream
and my agony when, dreaming it,
I lie awake and turn
and look into the dark.
I think of a luxury
in the sturdiness and grace
of necessary things, not
in frivolity. That would heal
the earth, heal men.
But the end, too, is part
of the pattern, the last
labor of the heart:
to learn to lie still,
one with the earth
again, and let the world go.

Awake At Night, p. 55

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Sherry Chandler posted some thoughts from David Biespiel about poets and politics lamenting the minimal presence of poets in American civil discourse. That is not a concern in Myanmar where fearless poets go to prison and continue to write from their dark cells.

From The Independent:

When Burmese authorities sentenced the popular comedian and artist Zarganar to spend 59 years in jail, they must have hoped to silence a man known for criticising the junta. Yet, though the man celebrated for his films, plays and poetry was dispatched to a jail far from his family’s home in Rangoon, it appears that life behind bars has not reduced either his creative powers or his willingness to speak out.

In recent weeks, a newly crafted poem – brief but powerful – has been smuggled out of jail and passed to friends of the 49-year-old artist. It reads:

It’s lucky my forehead is flat
Since my arm must often rest there
Beneath it shines a light I must invite
From a moon I cannot see
In Myitkyina.

The poem, which hints at the hardships endured by prisoners in Myitkyina jail in the far north of Burma, was received by Zarganar’s friend Htein Lin. The Burmese artist, a former political prisoner who now lives in the UK, not only translated the poem into English with the help of his British wife, but also produced a compelling illustration to accompany his friend’s lines. The striking image suggests his friend at the bars of his jail cell, his head pressed into his forearms. It is set against a backdrop of hands, reaching upwards.

I don’t think the challenge in America is that our poets don’t engage in civil discourse. I think the challenge is that our general population simply can’t be bothered to read poetry.

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.

WALMART HAS GOTTEN TOO WEIRD FOR HIM… I”ve written before that you really can”t fault Walmart for all the reports of murders, assaults and other crimes committed on its property. When you have retail space the size of Manhattan, shit happens. But it has all just gotten too weird for Peter Chianca. Keep reading…

FLIP FLOP… FLOP FLIP… Maybe everyone in Chicago is too busy paying attention to the opening moments of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich”s trial to spend time on Walmart issues, but Chicago”s city council zoning committee has again postponed a Walmart vote. Keep reading…

AND OBESE PEOPLE SHOP AT WALMART…? Climbing right over The People Of Walmart, the results of a University of Washington at Seattle study will surprise no one who follows food trends and Walmart, but having real data to back up what we might conclude anecdotally is encouraging. Keep reading…

FASHION…? WALMART…? HUH…? Jonathan is in New York City so I”m glad he left me this story to report on from the fashion section of New York Magazine. The headline alone: Wal-Mart Is Terrified of Selling Clothes, Especially Fashionable Ones, is a hoot. Why in the world would that be true? Keep reading…

TURNOVER, TURNOVER, TURNOVER… I read the headlines this morning about Walmart CEO Mike Duke”s statement at the annual meeting that Walmart: plans to hire a half-million employees over the next five years. Sounds good, doesn”t it? Think about what Duke said and what it means, however. Keep reading…

WHAT ARE THE CANADIANS THINKING…? Perhaps the decision is the result of group hate, perhaps the move is a throw-the-bums-out dynamic. Perhaps Canadians have simply lost their minds. I can”t tell, but now Canadians are going to start loaning money directly to Walmart. Keep reading…

WELCOME TO THE REPUBLIC OF WALMART… For many reasons, in many arenas, Texas stands alone among the 50 United States of America. As goes Texas, so goes the nation holds more true than those of us in the rest of the country feel comfortable contemplating. Now we”ve got one more reason to toss and turn. Keep reading…

WALMART OPPOSES COLLECTIVE ANYTHING… When you”re the 260-pound bully in the school yard, what you fear more than anything is that all the shrimps will organize and bury you under their collective anger. Walmart, meet your competitors, and they”re not handing over their lunch money. Keep reading…

ARE THE LIGHTS IN THE TUNNEL GOING OUT…? If you were to do a search of phrases on The Writing On The Wal, I would expect that no phrase has been repeated more times – specially by me – than cheap plastic crap from China. Well, guess what, the run may be going dark. Keep reading…

MAKING STOCK SCARCE… Last year, in an attempt to make its stock more scarce and drive up share prices, Walmart bought back $10 billion of its own stock. That didn”t work. This year the company will buy back an additional $15 billion, but Wall Street is not impressed. Keep reading…

MIKE DUKE”S SPEECH… On Saturday I wrote about reports that Mike Duke told the Walmart faithful that the company would hire 500,000 workers over the next five years. I was not impressed because the reports were ambiguous as to whether the were replaced or new jobs. Keep reading…

CAN CLOTHING MAKE THE STORE…? Walmart and clothing is like Walmart and the Internet. The company just doesn”t get it. Maybe it”s the customer base, maybe it”s an internal prejudice, maybe it”s just flat out ignorance (fixable) or stupidity (permanent), or a bit of all-of-the-above. Keep reading…

SUICIDE PAYMENTS…? No, the suicides at Foxconn do not directly involve Walmart, but I cannot help but suggest that the global race to the bottom to make sure Americans have ever cheaper toys they don”t need is part of the greater culture of which Walmart is the retail icon. Keep reading…

REALLY MARK? REALLY…? One refuge of the innumerate is the tired phrase: there are lies, damn lies and statistics. The headline reads: What Illinois Can Learn from Texas About Wal-Mart and offers a dramatic chart reporting: Employment: Texas vs. Illinois, Jan. 1995 to Apr. 2010. Keep reading…

DID BOB, JONATHAN AND I DODGE A BULLET…? Could be: An international visitor to… the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting may have brought in a infectious disease. The Arkansas Department of Health reported Tuesday that a visitor from out of the country had shown symptoms consistent with measles. Keep reading…

Awesome: Israeli students trying to organize flotilla to Turkey

This is the way you respond to objectionable speech.

Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

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.

Wherever lovely women are the city is undone,
its geometry broken in pieces and lifted,
its streets and corners fading like mist at sunrise
above groves and meadows and planted fields.

-from The Mad Farmer In The City, p. 49

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

Being locked up sucks. Being Myanmarese and locked up really sucks. Being Myanmarese, locked up and not in Myanmar really, really sucks. More than 5,000 Myanmarese migrants are held in camps in Malaysia and embarrassing the State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators).

From the Democratic Voice Of Burma:

The issue of Burmese migrants has been a sore point for the Malaysian government; last year it was revealed that senior Malaysian immigration officials had been complicit in the trafficking of Burmese nationals.

It is estimated that around 5,000 Burmese men, women and children migrants are being held in detention centres across Malaysia, often in poor conditions and with only sporadic access the UN officials.

Last week five Burmese children, one as young as 12, who had been held in a Malaysian camp for nearly a year were deported back to Burma. They were trafficked out of their country in July last year after their parents were tricked into handing them over to men who had promised them jobs in Rangoon, and were forced to beg on the streets of suburban Kuala Lumpur.

But a crackdown by police on beggars in the capital landed them in detention at the Tanah Merah camp, close to the Thailand border.

The Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur refused to finance their return to Burma, but a Burmese businessman reportedly offered to cover their travel expenses back home, and they left on a Myanmar Airways International flight on 5 June, according to Kyaw Kyaw of the exiled National League for Democracy-Liberated Area, who saw them leave.

“They seemed happy to be sent back home although I felt sorry for them because they looked really tired after just coming out of the [detention camp],” he said.

[Update @ 1842 via Andrew Sullivan:

Any time people feel required to suppress their real views for whatever reason, untruths fester without the disinfectant of sunlight. That’s why I’ve always tried to raise some difficult issues – racial differences in IQ, or the impact of testosterone on gender, or the sexual orientation of a possible Supreme Court Justice – as a way to get them on the table. In this, I’m a liberal and always have been. Which means I’m against the cult of journalistic objectivity – which often means simply never asking the questions that really do need to be talked about.]

Via Keith Knight, Gentleman Cartoonist…

They said we’d have our first black president when pigs fly!

And in his first 100 days: BAM!

Swine flu.

Previously…

0659: The sky is falling . . . again

Roldo Bartimole writes:

The City of Cleveland has refinanced Browns Stadium bonds to the tune of $183,856,270.35 in two refinancing deals.

Did Randy Lerner say thanks? I don”t think so.

And because I know no one will report this: The City of Cleveland from its deflated general fund also had to pay $850,000 into the Browns Stadium capital fund this year. And it has to do the same next year. And the next year. And the next year.

Not to bore you, the draining city will do the same until 2020.

You might think the city then is off the hook. No, no.

In 2021 the city”s contribution rises to $5.9 million; in 2022 it will be $6.3 million; in 2023 it will be $6.7 million; in 2024 it will be $7.1 million; in 2025 it will be $7.5 million.

In case you don”t have your calculator handy those general fund payments total up to $42.8 million rounded off. It actually was more because in earlier years the city had put away $710,909 in the capital repair fund.

Would you like a beer, Mr. Lerner?

But then from 2026 through 2028, the city pays Continue Reading »

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

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.

The winds of her knees shake me
like a flame. I have risen up from her,
time and again, a new man.

-from Earth And Fire, p. 47

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

In the United States, and generally among other nations, a poor economy does not bode well for the sitting government just before elections. In Myanmar, for some bizarre reason (in a country where bizarre can be normal) the State Peace and Development Council seems intent upon trashing Myanmar’s economy.

From The Irrawaddy:

Two detailed studies of Burma”s economic health paint a grim picture on the eve of promised parliamentary elections later this year.

One study said the country is suffering from “misguided economic policies” which have “deprived the economy of the basic foundations for sustainable improvements.”

Most of the economic data published by the military regime is unreliable or simply a fiction, concluded a United States Institute of Peace think tank report.

The other study, from Australia, warned that Burma”s economy is being pillaged by the military regime and its business cronies and is “unbalanced, unstable and largely without the institutions and attributes necessary to achieve transformational growth.”

Policy making in Burma is “not just ill-conducive to sustained economic growth, but is actively destructive of Burma”s prospects,” said the Australian report, Dissecting the Data: Burma”s Macroeconomy at the Cusp of the 2010 Elections.

Are the generals just tired of running the country and planning on retiring to Switzerland?

Let me explain the problem science has with religion. The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand. “You”re a Christian, aren”t you, son?”

“Yes sir,” the student says.

“So you believe in God?”

“Absolutely.”

“Is God good?”

“Sure! God”s good.”

“Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”

“Yes”

“Are you good or evil?”

“The Bible says I”m evil.”

The professor grins knowingly. “Aha! The Bible!” He considers Continue Reading »