4 October 2007
4 October 2007
WHAT THEY SAID…
0658 by Jeff HessHere are three basic things that are important to me, as a straphanger:
1. Schedules? What schedules? I want to ride buses and trains that don’t require carrying around a wad of paper schedules. I want to walk to the bus stop or train station and know that something will be coming within five minutes. I have no use for buses that run twice an hour or three times a day.
2. Attitude. RTA will be an outstanding public transit system when the average Clevelander stops thinking that public transit is for poor people. When your friends don’t offer to pick you up “so you don’t have to take the bus.”
3. Transit-oriented development. Too many rapid transit stations in Cleveland just function as sad little park-and-rides. Tear up the vast parking lot at Triskett and put in some apartments and street-level retail. Christine Borne
4 October 2007
4 October 2007
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff Hess
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke.
I wanted to forget about the Melancon brothers and the Rochons and Sidney Kovick, but I couldn”t get Father Jude LeBlanc off my mind. Regardless, I hadn”t brought up his name with Betsey Mossbacher. Why? Because the honest-to-God truth is law enforcement is not even law “enforcement.” We deal with problems after the fact. We catch criminals by chance and accident, either during the commission of crimes or through snitches. Because of forensic and evidentiary problems, most of the crimes recidivists commit are not even prosecutable. Most inmates currently in the slams spend lifetimes figuring out ways to come to the attention of the system. Ultimately, jail is the only place they feel safe from their own failure.
Unfortunately, the last people on our minds are the victims of crime. They become an addendum to both the investigation and the prosecution of the case, adverbs instead of nouns. Ask rape victims or people who have been beaten with gun butts or metal pipes or tied to chairs and tortured how they feel toward the system after they learned that their assailants were released on bond without the victims being notified.
I don”t believe in capital punishment, but I don”t argue with the prosecutors who support it. The mouths of the people they represent are stopped with dust. What kind of advocate would not try to give them voice? But what could I possibly do for Jude LeBlanc? He had volunteered for the Garden of Gethsemane, hadn”t he? Everybody takes his own bounce.
Those were the kinds of thoughts I walked around with in the middle of the day. p. 136
4 October 2007
4 October 2007
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Time management is the act of controlling events. Understanding the real nature of events going on around you is essential to prioritizing them appropriately and bringing them under control. As you secure control of events, you make proper adaptations, and your self-esteem grows. Self-esteem contributes to productivity, and productivity to self-esteem. p. 13
4 October 2007
FREE BURMA…!
0000 by Jeff Hess
Today, 4 October, has been declared International Blogger’s Day For Burma. What does that mean? Near as I can tell, not much. The website associated with the day is very light, like non-existent, no any real information about who the organizers are and what they’re actually doing. Feel free to sign up, but I advise doing as I did:
Give a fake spam email address to protect your inbox.
3 October 2007
3 October 2007
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff Hess
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is The 27 most important rules for keeping your house in order.
3 October 2007
3 October 2007
COVENTRY TO BURMA: THE NEO CONNECTION…
1215 by Jeff Hess
This morning while listening to the every excellent Sound of Ideas, I learned of our own local connection to the Cinnamon Revolution in Burma/Myanmar: a community of some 150 Mon Buddhist that live in Coventry Township near Akron. They are part of about 600 Burmese refugees that live in Northeast Ohio.
3 October 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
CAPT Benjamin Tupper: The day was hot./ Offensive./ Inhospitable.// Now the night arrives./ Cooling breezes./ Scents of a dry earth…pungent hashish…warm flatbread…lamb and beans./ All woven and mixed together with each inhalation.// The air’s gentle waves pass through my uniform, soaked in sweat./ Now it feels dry, new, fresh…washed clean…
3 October 2007
3 October 2007
WHAT THEY SAID…
1138 by Jeff HessOn Oct. 11, 1991, I testified about my experience as an employee of Clarence Thomas”s at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
I stand by my testimony.
Justice Thomas has every right to present himself as he wishes in his new memoir, “My Grandfather”s Son.” He may even be entitled to feel abused by the confirmation process that led to his appointment to the Supreme Court.
But I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.
In the portion of his book that addresses my role in the Senate hearings into his nomination, Justice Thomas offers a litany of unsubstantiated representations and outright smears that Republican senators made about me when I testified before the Judiciary Committee – that I was a “combative left-winger” who was “touchy” and prone to overreacting to “slights.” A number of independent authors have shown those attacks to be baseless. What”s more, their reports draw on the experiences of others who were familiar with Mr. Thomas”s behavior, and who came forward after the hearings. It”s no longer my word against his. Anita Hill
3 October 2007
DEMONKING…
1052 by Jeff HessIn an attempt to lessen the influence of the monks in Burma/Myanmar military has resorted to the age-old tactic of forced conversion; not to a faith, but away from it. Forced conversions didn’t work in Spain in 1492 and it’s not working in Burma in 2007. From the Democratic Voices of Burma via Global Voices via Andrew Sullivan.
Some 300 monks who were arrested a few days ago were delivered to a garage just out side of Insein GTI College. The soldiers are reported to be trying to force the monks to ” give up the secular life, to disrobe – become a layperson and no longer honour the ethics of being a monk.”
[Snip]
…soldiers ordered the “most senior monk in Insein” to come over and read pali scriptures that will begin the process of “shaming the monks” to make monks change into laypersons. However, the monks, who are supposed to repeat the pali scriptures read by the senior monks, refused to repeat them and after a while, the senior monk said that he can’t convert them into laypersons and that it just won’t happen and refused and supposedly left.
Make time this weekend to march. On this morning’s Sound of Ideas, Dan Moulthrop’s guest invited people to come to the Akron’s main public library at noon on Saturday, 6 October to take part in a rally and march. The details aren’t posted yet, but I’ll get them up as quickly as I can.
3 October 2007
WAL-MART WEDNESDAY…
1000 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, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
PEANUT BUTTER IS JUST A START… Watch…
WAL-MART WORKER SPEAKING TOUR… PART 2… Recorded on 28 February 07 at the University of Washington. Watch…
WAL-MART WORKER SPEAKING TOUR… PART 3… Recorded on 28 February 07 at the University of Washington. Watch…
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 Extopher. Watch…
IF ONLY BBC AMERICAN HAD FIELDED THIS… We all hear (or have persnonal) horror stories from Wal-Mart”s customer service desk that rival those told by BBC American, but here”s a reverse twist from one customer. I have to wonder why security wasn”t called since it had to be a scam. Right? Keep reading…
WE LOVE OUR ASSOCIATES… REALLY… WE DO… Watch…
SENATE BILL WOULD MANDATE MEAT RECALLS… Freshman Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced S. 2081 – The Food and Product Responsibility Act of 2007 – yesterday. The bill would grant the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to require mandatory recalls of meat, poultry, and egg products. Keep reading…
3 October 2007
FROM MY DAD ON THE RIGHT…
0800 by Jeff Hess
My dad sent me a clipping from the Marietta Register containing a review from Barking Dogs Books And Art of the book Deer Hunting With Jesus. I mention this because here in Cuyahoga County we forget that the rest of the state is not like us; that there are intelligent, rational, good people who don’t agree with our world view.
Illegal Immigrants
I cross ocean,
Poor and broke,
Take bus,
See employment folk.
Nice man
Treat me good in there,
Say I need
Go see Welfare.
Welfare say,
“You come no more,
We send cash
Right to your door.”
Welfare checks,
They make you wealthy,
Medicaid
It keep you healthy!
By and by,
Got plenty money,
Thanks to you,
Taxpayer dummy.
Write to friends
In motherland,
Tell them
‘Come, fast as you can’
They come in turbans
And Ford trucks,
I buy big house
With welfare bucks.
They come here,
We live together,
More welfare checks,
It gets better!
Fourteen families,
They moving in,
But neighbor’s patience
Wearing thin.
Finally, white guy
Moves away,
I buy his house,
And then I say,
“Find more aliens
For house to rent.”
In my yard
I put a tent.
Send for family
They just trash,
But they, too,
Draw welfare cash!
Everything is
Very good,
Soon we own
Whole neighborhood.
We have hobby
It called breeding,
Welfare pay
For baby feeding.
Kids need dentist?
Wife need pills?
We get free!
We got no bills!
Taxpayer crazy!
He pay all year,
To keep welfare
Running here.
We think America
Darn good place!
Too darn good
For white man race.
If they no like us,
They can scram,
Got lots of room
In Mexico and Pakistan.
3 October 2007
UNLIKE THE STREETS OF BEIJING…?
0752 by Jeff Hess
3 October 2007
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff HessMy name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from So, You Want To Write by Marge Piercy.
I can give you three rules which if not golden are certainly useful. Do not confuse the beginning of the story with the beginning of events in the story. Never confuse the beginning of the story with how you begin to write it. No matter how cute or compelling or chic or gripping your beginning may be, if it does not lead to your story, be prepared to scrap it rather than distorting the entire book in the service of a good start. p. 37
3 October 2007
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: When you are faced with an event that you think you cannot control and you”ve tested and checked in every way to see if you might control it and conclude that you can”t, you must adapt. Adaptability is the most appropriate action. p. 10
