4 February 2010
4 February 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
Sometimes persistence and perseverance don”t amount to much more than banging the old had against the wall. The immovable wall. There are time, though, when it is demonstrably more important to get something done than to get it done well. p. 100
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
3 February 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff Hess
There is a delicious irony in the story that the State Peace and Developmet Council (aka the military dictators of Myanmar) would be tripped up by their own failure to recognize women in their country as worthy of anything but contempt. There is advantage in being an Invisible Woman.
From New America Media:
A report exposing the spreading opium fields in the north-eastern corner of the military-ruled Burma has brought to light an equally revealing story. It was produced by a team of ethnic women who risked their lives to document the heroin-filled world they inhabit.
“One of the most damning points of this new report is to show the extent of opium being grown in areas under the control of the Burmese military regime,” said Debbie Stothard, coordinator of ALTSEAN, a regional human rights group monitoring rights violations in Burma.
“The regime has tried to give the impression that poppy cultivation continues in areas only under the control of ethnic rebel groups,” she told IPS. “But these women have seriously undermined that picture.”
“What these women have done must come as a rude shock to the regime,” Stothard revealed. “They were able to do so because women have been largely under the radar in how information and intelligence is gathered in the field.”
Yet Stothard admitted that the women involved in the report, ‘Poisoned Hills”, released on Jan. 26, had embarked on a dangerous mission to complete their task. “They took great risks in gathering this information for they know what it means to be seen as an enemy by the junta.”
Some 30 women from the Palaung ethnic community, who live close to the border that Burma shares with China, were involved in the report that took two years to produce, said Lway Aye Nang, co-author of the groundbreaking report. “They were all above 25 years. Some had basic education – middle school, high school; some had gone to university.”
I wonder if it was the panties?
3 February 2010
3 February 2010
ON THAT SUPERBOWL AD…
1140 by Jeff Hess[Update–1140: She who Writes Like She Talks provides an important link. I should have written this earlier, but I this is a perfect example of why we should reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time/Access standard for all, and I do mean all, non-commercial speech on all, again, I really do mean all, forms of electronic media.]
3 February 2010
MY COMMENTS…
1135 by Jeff Hess3 February 2010
WALMART WEDNESDAY…
1030 by Jeff Hess
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.
RED LINING REDBOX… Back in December I wrote about the possibility that DVD Kiosk operator Redbox was sourcing new DVD releases through Walmart to do an end-run around distributor restrictions. Frankly, I didn”t take the threat seriously, but it looks like Walmart (and Target) has. Keep reading…
LI AND FUNG ARE WHO EXACTLY…? I”ve noticed in recent weeks a trend of very short, very esoteric financial news items appearing concerning Walmart”s business outside of the United States. To someone with an MBA or other business/economic degree these pieces probably make perfect sense.
Keep reading…
ARE YOU A TRADE-DOWN WALMART CUSTOMER…? There is a management shake-up at Walmart with the creation of three regional fiefdoms in the United States, each with its own president and management structure. The presidents are: Raul Vazquez, West Rosalind Brewer, South; and Hank Mullany, North. Keep reading…
AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring makemagazine. Keep reading… Note, this was post No. 5,000 for The Writing On The Wal.
FEELING THE PAIN OF WORKING AT WALMART… I worked discount retail through high school and college and I moved a lot of heavy materials, most often lots of 32-pound cases of paint, on a regular basis. I managed to stay healthy and uninjured. The Las Vegas Badger isn”t quite so fortunate. Keep reading…
KISSING THIS FROG CAN KILL YOU… The latest Walt Disney animated feature is The Princess And The Frog, the first such feature for Disney starring African Americans. Producig films and charging admission to theaters is only a part of how entertainment corporations collect money. Keep reading…
NOW THIS WOULD BE FUN…! Back in high school I can remember students paying a dollar a swing to take a sledge hammer to a clunker as a way of raising money for some good cause. I think these folks in Collinsville, Illinois missed a real opportunity. I”d have paid a few bucks for this. Keep reading…
HOW TO SUCCEED IN AMERICA… If you want to be rich, really, really rich in America, the first step is to marry into a wealthy family. Married niece of Sam Walton, check. Next you have to learn how to go on corporate welfare so that tax payers finance your personal wealth. Keep reading…
WALMART, LI AND FUNG… I wrote earlier about Walmart”s announcement that it had agreed to a strategic alliance (don”t you just love the geopoliticalness of that phrase?) with Hong Kong based Li & Fung. More information is coming out as analysts consider the ramifications of the deal. Keep reading…
3 February 2010
WHAT I WROTE…
0733 by Jeff HessDan Moulthrop is WCPN. I listen to the Sound of Ideas every chance I get. Yesterday, as I was driving out to tutor a student in Chardon, I tried to get in on the discussion about the proposed 3C Corridor. Time ran out and I didn’t make it on air, but I wrote the following to Dan this morning.
Shalom Dan,
I didn”t manage to make it on as a caller yesterday, but I did want to share my thoughts with you.
I”m a lifelong rail enthusiast, a believer in mass transit and a rabid environmentalist, but yesterday, while I was on hold, I was prepared for a bolt of lightening to come crashing down from the clear sky because I am 100 percent in agreement with Senator Tom Patton.
I understand that the $400 million is probably available only for new infrastructure projects and that Ohio cannot use it for more appropriate mass transit projects like restoring lost routes in Cleveland and other Ohio cities. I also understand that the $400 million means short-term employment for those workers involved in the project. That both of these suppositions are true is part of the bigger problem of governance.
I still think the project is a bad idea.
B’shalom,
Jeff
3 February 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff Hess
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 weather update I present: From My Dad.
3 February 2010
JUST HOW CRAZY ARE REPUBLICANS…?
0621 by Jeff HessThey’re making Ross Perot’s crazy aunt look really good.
Willful ignorance only goes so far.
Which goes a long way to answering one of my favorite questions.
3 February 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
I think there are ways to avoid making a period of inactivity worse. Besides acceptance, I think it”s helpful to avoid letting everything else go to hell along with the writing. p. 98
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
2 February 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessLet me see, the State Peace and Development Council (aka, the military dictators of Myanmar) is holding out the carrot of elections in October. That, oddly enough, is precisely when President Barak Hussein Obama’s proposed $36.5 million budget line item for Myanmar would take effect. Imagine that.
From The Irrawaddy:
The money, earmarked under the US Administration’s “Economic Support Fund,” would be used within Burma but also for programs and activities involving Burmese student groups and other unnamed organizations located outside the country.
The Administration proposes that in addition to aid for Burmese refugees provided under the heading “Migration and Refugee Assistance,” $ 4 million shall be made available for community-based organizations operating in Thailand to provide food, medical and other humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons in eastern Burma.
According to the 2011 budgetary proposals, when implementing activities with funds appropriated for assistance for Burma, the implementing agency shall only support activities that are consistent with the principles and goals of the National League for Democracy in Burma.
The budgetary proposals also reiterate that the Obama administration will continue to oppose at any international forums any loans or financial assistance to Burma.
The stick is still there.
2 February 2010
2 February 2010
ROLDO RIGHTS…
1700 by Jeff HessLet me get this straight. The Cleveland Foundation is now the target of the Cleveland Plain Dealer? You got to be kidding me.
The Sunday assault on the Cleveland Foundation decision to not give the Fund for Our Economic Future much new money suggests to me that the PD”s leadership doesn”t quite know what it is doing. In a front-page article and some blunderbuss from Brent Larkin, the PD slammed an institution that it has never had a bad word for in the past.
Ease into it, why don”t ya?
The “past” is the past at the PD these days Continue Reading »
2 February 2010
INSTEAD OF DEMANDING CENSORSHIP…
1141 by Jeff Hess[T]he line that stuck with me was, “Would you want someone talking about your mother like that?” Now that’s a kind of cliche response to hip-hop’s bitch/ho complex, and often extends from a kind of sexual puritanism that’s no more mature than misogyny it’s critiquing. But Dad had cleared out the puritan angle with his talk about oral sex. What I was left with was not a desire to imagine myself as the product of a virgin birth, but, at 15, to think of someone discussing the only woman you’ve ever loved as a slave. That was good. But what was better was what came next–he popped the tape out the deck, and handed it back to me.
That is called being a parent, as opposed to this poorly educated individual.
2 February 2010
WHAT THEY SAY…
1114 by Jeff HessI ask the words I cannot pray.
I ask again-what is redeemed
by my living?
Always an excellent question.
2 February 2010
MY COMMENTS…
1039 by Jeff Hess2 February 2010
2 February 2010
CALVIN SPEAKS…
0806 by Jeff HessWhile Bill Watterson has not been totally silent, he has taken on a Salingeresque patina since ceasing to publish his ground-breaking Calvin And Hobbes comic nearly fifteen 20 years ago. In this morning’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, writer John Campanelli details his talk with creative genius from Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
Watterson’s response to the first question nails why he is reveared among his peers:
I just tried to write honestly, and I tried to make this little world fun to look at, so people would take the time to read it.
No artist aspires to more.
2 February 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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 weather update I present: From My Dad.
