Mickey Z.: Cool Observer: Comments on Mickey Z.’s Dream No. 347

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Mickey Z.’s Dream No. 347

Posted by Mickey Z on 02/25 at 07:34 AM

Good story, MZ. I’ve had a similar thing on a bus when I tried to intervene with some scummy bloke who probably needed the treatment you were day dreaming of. A very uncomfortable position.

Love the gif., too - where is MZ lurking? Reminds me of that Monty Python camoflage sketch.

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 09:11 AM

Can I offer a light story with a chilling (for me, anyway) moment? This is rather cringe inducing, so if you’ve eaten recently you may want to skip this post.

It was about two months ago. Some friends and I were at a rehearsal studio to play through some songs. I was there largely as a passenger, to change strings & listen. Suits me, I love live music & these guys are really good.

However ... the singer (Riki) has the world’s worst cough, a truly rancid affair and lung screwing fury. He usually (& often) would finish a cough by depositing one of the nastiest phlegm oysters imaginable into a can or bottle. A truly nasty thing to watch, but it’s health, so what can you say?

This particular night was a bad one for Riki’s chest. Plenty of lung emptying had been done, much to the (luckily we can joke about it with him) amusement / disgust of everyone there.

Towards the end of the session, Riki and I were discussing this or that over a beer. Riki had been “adding” to used cans all night. He goes back over to the mike, and I take a swig of beer, casually picking up one of the three cans next to me.

One was mine, two were Riki’s - one for beer, the other for “eeew!” purposes. A genuinely heart stopping moment as my mouth received liquid & my brain suddenly kicked in with “oh my god you didn’t look carefully did you?” moment.

The other guitarist looked at me with horror. My face - I can’t describe it. Luckily it was just beer, but for one terrible moment - ugh! Doesn’t bear thinking about.

No moral to this story. Suffice it to say that this horrible moment of dawning / impending doom is still laughed about by those who have seen & winced at the full horror of Riki’s cough. So unpleasant I still feel a sense of relief when I think about it.

I’ve found cigarette butts in cans I was drinking out of, but that would be child’s play next to this. There is, as I say, no moral to this. Maybe a reminder that even everyday things people are used to dealing with in laughter & disbleief can induce the most unpleasant sensations.

Or maybe the moral is, for god’s sake watch what you drink out of. When I was a student I got a spiked drink meant for some girl (we were talking & swapped drinks for taste reasons), no doubt someone was trying to date rape her. I consider the hours of confusion, anger & alarm I felt a tiny price to pay for her avoiding this experience. No idea what the substance was, but it fucked my head up for a while & no messing. Luckily I had friends around to baby sit & reassure.

So next time you drink unguardedly, think of the oysters of Riki, & beware ...

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 09:22 AM

Chris, to put it mildly, I think you’ve established a storytelling standard that none of us can live up to here today.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 09:25 AM

MZ, too kind by far but thank you.

Yesterday’s post on US detainees is chilling. Also, one political program during the week in the UK (forget the name, but Roy Hattersley was on the panel) discussed British detainees. Apparently we were offered them back, but said no ...

Aargh! The trouble is, quite simply, that the UK human rights record is no better. (Torture in Ireland is a good place to start, but this discourse could take in so many countries it’s horrifying). So, we don’t get our citizens out of that hell hole because ... we do it too!

Dark references were made on the show about how MI5 (or whoever) deals with “difficult” elements in our society. They disappear!

Nice to live in a country Amnesty Int. can disapprove of.

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 09:43 AM

love the 12 Haiku poem, Mick. Hate oysters, Chris.

Once, in my college years, I was kicked out of a nightclub on Lansdowne Street in Boston. It was nearly 2AM anyway and a steady stream of drunken fools exited the clubs and filled the sidewalks.

Of course, I was well lit myself and at least twice as foolish as any one of them. As I stumbled through the crowd I noticed a young black man being manhandled by four bouncers. The guy had an amused look on his face and one of the large white men that had a hold of him blurted out a racial slur.

The next thing I knew I spread my arms and tackled the lot of them. An all out street brawl ensued, during the confusion the guy I was supposedly helping landed a powerful right cross flush against my jaw and cheekbone. I had been in some fights to that point, but never and I mean never before had I been hit so hard. I somehow stayed on my feet and yelled, “Hey! I’m the guy who helped you!” He made a half-hearted apology and I decided I had had enough and headed home.

Moral? Only idiots start street fights.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 09:44 AM

JOS, totally agree, but I can’t help admiring you (& that drunken, well meaning courage). Street fights are too unpredictable & can get too scary too fast. The practice of glassing people puts me off completely, even if nothing else would. A guy I was at school with (completely inoffensive feller) got some glass in his eye due to someone else attacking him in a bar brawl he was unlucky enough to be around. Such a horrific thought & a really nice guy as well.

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 09:52 AM

Interesting post by Dahr Jamail yesterday concerning the Mosque that was blown up this week in Iraq:

http://tinyurl.com/qdqbk

The last three paragraphs:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that those who committed the
attack on the Golden Mosque ?have only one motive: to create a violent
sedition between the Sunnis and the Shiites in order to derail the Iraqi
rising democracy from its path.?

Well said Mr. Blair, particularly when we keep in mind the fact that
less than a year ago in Basra, two undercover British SAS soldiers were
detained by Iraqi security forces whilst traveling in a car full of
bombs and remote detonators.

Jailed and accused by Muqtada al-Sadr and others of attempting to
generate sectarian conflict by planting bombs in mosques, they were
broken out of the Iraqi jail by the British military before they could
be tried.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 09:53 AM

Always a danger of someone getting seriously hurt, Chris. Pretty stupid thing to do really...though in my case I was more often on the receiving end of the beatings than the other way around. I never was very good at fighting...I am proud to say I never wanted to hurt anybody (at least not much).

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 10:03 AM

Chris’s story was gut churning to say the least.
The non-consensual, non-sexual exchange of bodily fluids is just nasty wrong.
I do have a fairly pathetic story in the same vein and I do believe I will sign off and write/post it up here. Perhaps I won’t, come to think of it I do not want to turn the Ex-forum into a gross out contest.

Canada at War:
As Canada takes over for the US in Kandahar Afghanistan my heart is broken.
The outgoing American commander yells at the assembled Canadian troops”
“If “the enemy” rears his ugly head I expect you to kill or defeat him!”

Our new Neoconservative “defence” minister is an ex-soldier turned military industrial lobbyist weasel. He has announced the greater militarization of Canada and full integration into America’s war criminal armed forces.
Surprise, surprise a former weapons manufacturer lobbyist wants to spend the Canadian national budget surplus on turning Canada into a purely offensive military nation marching in lockstep with imperialist America.
Canada is becoming a hateful shithole – but there is a ray of light :

In a recent Globe and Mail poll about the Canadian occupation of Afghanistan-
Question: Are Canadians for or against sending troops to Afghanistan:

27 percent for
62 percent against

Of course CTV characterized the sentiment as Canadians are “uneasy” about sending our nation to war. No we are not “uneasy” –we are against it !
The poll got zero play on our national broadcaster CBC and the network that actually ran the poll followed up with some healthy gobs of flag waving propaganda and clips of soldiers on the ground saying they are disappointed about the geopolitical ignorance of Canadians against war and these anti-war people should “read up” on the situation.

One brainwashed gunslinger stood and methodically parroted the famous W. rhetoric:
I am over here fighting the terrorists so we don’t have to fight them in Canada.
What a steaming heap of dog shit.

I expect a 11/09/01 style false flag terror attack in Canada anytime now to galvanize a hateful resolve in the hearts of Canadians.
We just do not hate Muslims and Arabs enough for the warmongers and with the right Neocon puppet in office and Canadians occupying a Muslim nation the “patsies” will be easily identified (without investigation) and our hate and national surplus will be directed appropriately for Neocon desires.
Anti-war Canadians are in the majority and must get organized quickly.
Our new military industrial shill of a “defence” minister is also anxious to get Canadian taxpayers bleeding for America’s multi trillion-dollar missile defence White Elephant that the previous government rightly rejected. This fucking military industrial lobbyist wants Canada to bleed tax dollars for war and a false sense of security behind a “missile shield” that has already been proven a dud. I just want to run outside and start slapping people. aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Anyroad I should be off to write a blog post about this travesty.

I just took the time to type this rant, so I believe I will type out my sicko body fluid story for all to read. If your not tasting bile after the lung butter story I’ll try and get you gagging….back soon.

Posted by Youngfox from warmongering ex-Canada on 02/25 at 10:12 AM

Good for you, JOS. I’m happy to say I’ve avoided fighting almost every time I go out. Honourable cowardice is a fairly apt description.

As to those SAS guys (post 7), the coverage of their “heroic” rescue was broken by the wank news channels (ie most) in terms of delirious admiration. The clear message of what was going on was muddied as per usual; suffice it to say it was all very heroic & not at all cowardly.

Why the hell our media idolises the SAS (et al) is beyond me, apart from the obvious. Why glorify stormtroopers? Papers like The Sun (world’s biggest shitrag in my view, if anyone would insult their arses by putting them into contact with it) make these scum out to be heroes. The ignorance is once again staggering.

On that subject, Thurs night I was out for a meal with friends, & a young father they knew popped into the same restaurant, so we had a chat. Very nice bloke. Turned out he was in the Territorials & had been to Basra for 8 months!

He had a hilarious thing to say (he thought) - he got shot at but didn’t know where from, so he bullshit the other guys he was patrolling with! Where do you start picking that apart? A general cry of “Doh!” seems insufficicent.

Surprising, or not, that the exploits of “our boys” are still depicted as hugely heroic. Not cold blooded murder, sabotage, irresponsible planting of explosives etc etc. What the fuck.

The SAS guys remind me of Eliaz (sic?) Gonzalez, who was “rescued” from his father. Admittedly, his father had done something a little stupid, but did it require stormtroopers? That famous picture of the rescue showed MP5s & one terrified little boy. Poor kid! I seriously doubt his father had done anything anywhere near as wrong as that.

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 10:19 AM

Hey JOS and Youngfox. In light of today’s conversation so far, I thought it’d be prudent to post this.

(Captcha sez: research)

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 10:23 AM

Youngfox, I hope this lobbyist is widely seen for what he is. If Canada joins the fucking stupidity & evil of the US / UK positions, it’s a sad day.

But “steaming heap of dogshit” is as apt & funny a description of the situation as I’ve heard.

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 10:23 AM

Glad everyone likes the Gif! Thanks for the kudo’s Mickey!

Great post youngfox. I hope Canadians haven’t been as bamboozled as there Yankee counterparts.

Peace
Luna

Posted by Luna_C from home on 02/25 at 10:54 AM

Luna, Yep, that is a great GIF of Mickey.

Here’s a story. Has anyone hear heard this one before?
The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan has denied visas to Anwar Kadhim Jawad
>and Vivian Salim Mati. The group CODEPINK issued an invitation to the two
>women to participate in International Women’s Day activities in Washington,
>D.C. on March 8 and then go on a speaking tour to several U.S. cities.
>
>The Embassy gave as a reason for the denial that the two women do not have
>enough family in Iraq to prove that they will return to the country. The
>cruel irony of the situation is that U.S. soldiers in Iraq killed the
>families of both women.

Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 02/25 at 11:08 AM

Hello RMJ. I guess that’s military mathematics. Kill enough of the family and then use those reduced numbers to justify the squashing of dissent.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 11:12 AM

off topic...talk about gays in the military:

http://tinyurl.com/oruwf

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 11:22 AM

MZ, can’t read that link in #11-- at work now (yeah, Sat., sucks but could use overtime pay), and it firewalls me. What is it, I must know.

Was there an armed lefty insurrection last night? If so, I slept through it. And we must know about Mudge’s date. Did you two discuss world events, with lots of hard news and penetrating analysis?

Posted by James from work on 02/25 at 11:25 AM

“Levitan the painter and I went out to the woodcock mating are yesterday evening. He fired at a woodcock and the bird, wounded in the wing, fell in a puddle. I picked it up. It had a long beak, large black eyes, and magnificent plumage. It looked at us in wonder. What were we to do with it? Levitan closed his eyes and begged me, “Please, smash its head in with the rifle.” I said I couldn’t. Levitan kept twitching his head and begging me. And the woodcock kept looking on in wonder. I had to obey Levitan and kill it. And then two idiots went home and sat down to dinner leaving one less beautiful, adored creature in the world.”

Anton Chekhov in a Letter to his friend Suvorin, April 8, 1892.

A good article by Cockburn over at http://www.counterpunch.org begins with this quote.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 11:41 AM

RMJ that story is a heart crusher and all too common these days. We must witness and we must feel. So many are jaded and just switch off.

And Luna/Chris it is too late.
Our fake “liberal” government had sent troops over calling them “peacekeepers” but once there the tone changed to “peacemakers”. Now that the Neocons rule Canada we are officially at war with “terror” and an offensive arm of “Operation Enduring Orwell” in Afghanistan.
They are actively seeking to make Canada an imperialist lackey of the U.S. but they are, after all, Neocons and that is what Neocons do.

Many Canadians just refused to acknowledge that our government had sent men and women “over there” the give gun barrel dictation.
I hope people are waking up to that fact that their need to punish the fake “liberal” corruption by handing our government over the Cheney/Bush lickspittles has resulted in the end of Canada and the beginning of Neoconada.
The majority does not want war but when has that ever mattered to pugnacious murder profiteers?
All the American Neocon weasel terms are now circulating through the corporate media and “support the troops” is especially in heavy rotation. Our media wants the war just like the American media wanted Iraq. After all, the increased ratings are guaranteed.
Our media used to be not half bad but under the Neocon regime they have reduced themselves to the functional role of propaganda parrots.
We are being subjected to the demanded groupthink compliance foisted on America and the accompanying rancorous social divide between those who see endless war as a tolerable accoutrement to their consumer existences and those of us who wish for our country to stand for something good and just.
Well that’s just fucking dog sick depressing but I will next post my fluid story in the hope of generating a laugh or bile gurgle.

Posted by Youngfox from Neoconada on 02/25 at 11:42 AM

Drink Me…

In my younger days I used to hop around from city to city working and renting apartments seeking gawd knows what. Many of my drifting friends would show up on my doorstep in need of shelter. I would always take them in and since most of my pals were guitar slingers it would afford me the opportunity to stretch my vocal chords and write songs in all night beer and hashish laden jam sessions.

In one particular apartment in Ottawa (the nation’s capital) I took in an old friend of mine named Pablo. The dude was a drifter and a wicked jazz guitarist, (probably the best of my talented list of pickers). I could sit and listen to him for hours. He was a troubled soul but the world seemed to be set right when he got caught up in the music.

At this stage of my life I was feeding myself as a legal Crack dealer (aka bartender).
I had secured a cushy gig at a private sports club and was trusted to close the clubhouse on the nights I worked.
With alcoholic mouths to feed at home and a keen desire to never pay for booze I used to save all of the plastic O.J. litre jugs, wash them out and in the silence of closing time fill them with draft beer from the club spigot.
This particular eve I had filled quite a haul and rumbled home laden with swinging litre jugs of draft.
My apartment had a street level front window that I would swing open on many an occasion and often people would gather on the sidewalk in front of our window and listen to us play.
(It was like my window was a puppet theatre)
That evening Pablo was already into the ligger and had managed to snare a couple of fresh young bettys into the spider’s lair via window crooning.
I had just endured a lousy evening of rich drunk’s fishing stories and was looking to inebriate myself. I had no interest in the window groupies and sternly announced the arrival of beer surplus and my intent to slay my brain.
The drinking and smoking began in earnest as one of the young ladies produced a 40 of Southern Comfort from her bag.

I am not one for liquor but began to swill this sickly sweet booze like it was the milk of human kindness. After we collectively drained the forty and my litres of beer our band of mutual drunkards stumbled over the bridge to Quebec and drank and smoked dope till four a.m.
One of the girls was crushing on me but I am a non-sexual drunk and opted for bed sleep. Pablo on the other hand was just a drunk and his “horndoggedness” was only stoked by inebriation.
I congratulated him on having the ladies to himself and grabbed a bottle of apple juice from the fridge and staggered off to my surreal bedroom. I awoke in the middle of the night with a wicked need to urinate. I was so hammered I just grabbed the emptied apple juice bottle, filled it with urine and went back to sleep.

The next morning Pablo burst into my room with his exuberant “tale of two women”.
In the telling of his story he became parched and reached for what looked like a bottle of apple juice beside my mattress.
Before I could say anything the cap was popped and he was taking a hearty gulp of my urine. Needless to say my potent piss was misted all over my room as soon as he realized the “apple juice” had come from the groin orchard.

Covered in my own all I could do was laugh as he ran to the bathroom to wash out his skull hole. Ah, good times…

Posted by Youngfox from Neoconada on 02/25 at 11:50 AM

Bill H. on gays in the military:

“..you never see my attitude in the press, that’s what bugs me. You never see my point of view. For instance, gays in the military. Now, I dunno how y’all feel about it… here’s how I feel about it: Anyone [i]dumb enough[i/] to want to be in the military should be allowed in. End of fucking story. That should be the only requirement. I don’t care how many push ups you can do, put on a helmet, go wait in that foxhole we’ll tell you when we need you to kill somebody. You know i’m sick of hearing military guys saying “The [i]esprit de corps[i/] will be affected, and we are such a moral...” Excuse me, aren’t y’all hired fucking killers? Shut up! You are thugs and when we need you to go blow the fuck outta a nation of little brown people we’ll let you know. Until then… Where do the fucking military get all these morals? “We are the military; is that a village of children and kids? Where’s the napalm? (explosion) I don’t want any gay people hanging around me when I’m killing women and kids. I just dont wanna see it.”

p.s. tomorrow I´m having a recording party at home where we´ll make some music and food and splice recordings of both playing and eating together. So I got a new wok, does anyone have any suggestions for lunch?

Posted by Owen from Barcelona on 02/25 at 11:58 AM

excellent quote, owen. Love this part:

Where do the fucking military get all these morals? “We are the military; is that a village of children and kids? Where’s the napalm? (explosion) I don’t want any gay people hanging around me when I’m killing women and kids. I just dont wanna see it.”

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 12:09 PM

Hello All. I’m wondering what a newcomer here might be thinking. You log on and find two conversations: One centering on gross body fluid stories...the other an intense, outraged look at war crimes.

That’s the Expendables for you…

Captcha sez: freedom (as in freedom to go off topic)

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 12:51 PM

Chris #2, Youngfox #20:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Big Country #7: Ah, Blair...what a goofball. Michael will have things to comment on I feel sure. Glad to see you around this Sacred Grove!

#16: AND THEY DON’T GIVE THE WEBSITE?! Sheeeeit.

MZ #11: Tres apropos. Like the gif, too! Though I admit I miss the pink confection from the previous occupant of the place.

RMJ #14: How depressingly logical, from the military mindset...consider motives for revenge against the people whose military gave them the need for revenge...this despite long track records each lady has of peace activism. >grump<

James #17: Date...? Analysis...? Do I detect a few double entendres in that post? It was a lovely affair, and he drove a LOOOONG way to get here for it. A nice man, too focused on getting and spending...but aware of that, and ready to consider alternative means of (aaaabooooove the waist, CatLady) filling the holes he feels in his life. I was downstairs on a nap-breather when my nephew and his friend came home. Just said hi, and trundled back upstairs for Act II, and he snuck out around 2am. No reason he should have, just that he felt uncomfortable sleeping in the house with two strange men. I suspect he meant THREE strange men, but whatever. He got a room in the motel down the street, and we’re meeting again at 2pm.

Owen #21: Yeah, Bill! Lunch? Noisy stuff. Lobster. Unshucked oysters (err, real ones, of course!). Prawn cocktail crisps in sealed bags. Crisp apples. Good pickles (none of that Branston pickle sludge).

Just “saying”....

Posted by Mudge from Austin on 02/25 at 12:52 PM

A new-to-me quote:
“Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.”
--Jesse Lee Bennett, Murrican arthur (1885-1931)

In the 20s, Maryland native Mr. Bennett wrote books like What Books Can Do For You and On “Culture” and A “Liberal Education” [with lists of books that can aid you in acquiring them]. The Harold Bloom of his day!

Posted by Mudge from Austin on 02/25 at 01:13 PM

Good afternoon to everyone,

Quite a busy morning here. I’ve just spent quite a bit of time catching up on last evening’s discussions, and then today’s.

Bodily fluid stories are generally amusing in that gross uncomfortable funny way - both here adhere well and I’m duly amused and disgusted all at the same time. EEEWWWW is right, and I can only say that I’m glad I heard the ‘Drink Me’ story AFTER I’d met Pablo - or I’d have been distracted with my own internal dialogue rather than enjoying the great guitar playing (-Youngfox is right when he extols the man’s picking virtues).

Mudge you must be by now in the midst of your afternoon date - hope all goes well even though you’re not on a flight to Lithuania.

Fighting - never participated (not suprisingly) but I did narrowly avoid getting into the receiving end once; almost peed my pants, I did.
I can recall witnessing a couple of fights that I perceived as absolutely stomach churning. One ended with one of the ‘victors’ having to remove trophy teeth from his damaged knuckles. EEEWWW to that too.

Mickey I really dig the haiku.

Mudge is finished the whale, Mickey’s in the middle of the whale, who else is into the whale?

Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 02/25 at 02:49 PM

Mudge I meant to say how much I enjoy the new quote. (#25)

Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 02/25 at 02:51 PM

Youngfox, ugh but hilarious.

Posted by Chris Wood from Manchester, England on 02/25 at 02:54 PM

Indeed, Empress. I am just about exactly in the middle of the whale (book). After a somewhat frigid start today, it’s warmed up and I just sat on my stoop in the sun...reading Mowat. My new apt. bldg. doesn’t have a stoop and, well, that sucks.

I’ll be back later. Hope Mudge is halfway to the Baltic by now.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 03:33 PM

MZ sounds like we have similar weather today, but maybe a little colder here. (No stoop? No balcony either?? I wouldn’t be happy about that either! But I suppose in a greater context, there are worse things)

Halfway means you’re now familiar with Aldridge’s Pond...I asked a few days(?) ago but I think it was missed: I’m curious to know if yours, and Mudge’s copies of the book have a map of the region on the inside front and back covers? Mine does, but it’s a very old copy.

Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 02/25 at 03:41 PM

Empress...a balcony? Not in my wildest dreams.

Anyway, yes my book has a map. I have the 1978 Seal paperback edition (very worn and yellowed) and the map appears on a 2-page spread about 2-3 pages in.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 04:45 PM

RMJ (#14) you’ll be happy to know that Amy Goodman reported this on Democracy Now last week, so the story at least has some visibility. Perfect example of how goddamn Kafka this whole planet can be sometimes. How awful. These women obviously deserve preferential treatment.

Owen:
Eggplant (aubergine), onions, garlic, olives, mushrooms. Olive oil, salt, oregano, cumin. Red chilies. Chop it all up and cook it in that wok for a long time. Move it around some. Add water when necessary. My friends used to call this “the thing with the thing” because I cooked it so often but they couldn’t remember what I put in it. A good dish for everyone eating from the wok in the end, grabbing at it with bread of some kind for example.

Posted by Keir from The Hague on 02/25 at 05:21 PM

Owen, here are two stir-fry recipes:

Pad Thai

Noodles and broccoli

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 05:31 PM

Not a stirfry, Owen, but easy and one of my favourites: http://tinyurl.com/z9phr

The thing with the thing will be my next eggplant experiment.

Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 02/25 at 05:53 PM

Looks good, Empress (minus the butter and egg noodles for me)...and Keir’s eggplant thing sounds like fun. Mmmm...maybe we need an Expendable recipe day here?

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 06:23 PM

Keir, Thanks for telling me that. I try to watch Democracy Now every day but I missed that one.

Today on C-span I happened to catch one of my favorite orators. He was doing a great job of describing the government. He had the audience really fired up like only he can do. Then he said, “...If you don’t have the testicular fortitude to stand up and say what needs to be said then sit down...” The entire audience was roaring with enthusiastic support for “changing” the government. It was amazing to watch.

If I told you who was making the speech you probably would not agree with him. So should I let his statement stand alone in order to avoid ad hominem attacks on his statement? Most here would agree with his message but I always get in trouble when I mention his name.

Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 02/25 at 06:28 PM

You’ve got me curious, RMJ.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 07:35 PM

RMJ #36: Ooo, is it President Bush?! >snerkle<

Thanks for wondering aloud, folks, round two was lots of fun. Baldur the Fiery was all shy and stuff, which is a little silly given the events of the evening before this. It was also very endearing. He drove off about a half-hour ago, wondering aloud if he’d be welcome to make another visit to Austin...he left with no doubts.

How many three-hour drives he’ll want to make remains to be seen. I don’t have a lot of expectations, long-distance things don’t do that well in my experience.

Posted by Mudge from Austin on 02/25 at 07:50 PM

Mudge, will you be needing a chaperon down there? I can be on the next plane.

The C-span speech was by Louis Farrakhan. It was very interesting. Cornell West also spoke and sort of disagreed with Louis. One of the things that Louis said was that the brothers should not be going off and fighting the people in Iraq.....black people, killing tan people, to benefit rich white people. Louis also spoke in support of poor Hispanics and poor whites.

Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 02/25 at 08:08 PM

I’m back...what did I miss?

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 08:41 PM

Mudge got lucky.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 08:45 PM

Only because I didn’t make it to the airport in time!

Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 02/25 at 08:47 PM

nice...congratulations, Mudge.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 08:49 PM

RMJ: You reminded me of this quote from Malcolm… summing up the Vietnam War: “Here lies the yellow man, killed by a black man, fighting for the white man, who killed all the red men.”

Interesting:
http://tinyurl.com/rhdta

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 08:50 PM

RMJ, what happened to the blossoming romance between Mudge and yourself? Don’t tell me it has waned…

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 08:52 PM

Mick, your link hits the same topic as today’s post on my old blog:

http://wdthu.blogspot.com/

something called to my attention by Dahr Jamail that I commented on earlier this morning.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 08:55 PM

oh, and here is something else from Dahr that came out today:

Al-Arabiya TV reports that on February 22rd, the day of the bombing at
the Golden Mosque in Samarra:

?Al-Arabiya Television has lost its correspondent in Iraq, Atwar Bahjat,
with two other colleagues. Atwar gave the last live dispatch to
Al-Arabiya Television at 1500 gmt yesterday. Atwar disappeared after
that. The Iraqi Police today confirmed that she and two other colleagues
were assassinated in Samarra… The three journalists were covering the
attack on the shrine of the two Shi’i imams, Ali al-Hadi and Al-Hasan
al-Askari, north of Baghdad.?

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 08:56 PM

Mickey, I like that MX quote.

JOS, It has not waned on my part. My heart is broken. It seems that I cannot keep up with my competition. What’s a girl to do…

Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 02/25 at 08:58 PM

This will be my last keystroke. In view of my lost love, I will now down my cup of hemlock…

Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 02/25 at 09:07 PM

You’ll find your Romeo, Juliette.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 09:10 PM

Maybe this will do for now, RMJ:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339419

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 09:13 PM

The awesome monument loomed above us, the faces each frozen in a solemn gaze. I marvelled at the achievement and wondered about the men whose images were graven into the mountain. The men, like their likenesses, seemed larger than life.

A sign talked about “George Washington, the Farmer”. George Washington, the farmer. I wondered how befittig a description that was, having conjured up the image of a man working in the field. I wondered if it was honest. The picture next to the paragraph explaining Washington’s love for his farm was a bit more candid. It depicted Washington in his gentleman’s attire standing by majestically whilst a black person, doubled over, performed the labor required to keep Washington’s farm productive. “George Washington the Slaveowner” I commented out loud, giving my own, more accurate, version. Only my mother, reading the sign alongside me, heard. She glanced up at me momentarily, unaffected, and turned to move on without finishing reading the sign. I wondered if my version was too unpalatable for her.

We caught up to the group again as the ranger stopped to talk about Teddy. As I meandered past the group, I listened to his story. He spoke admiringly about the man, and of course didn’t fail to mention the Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill in Cuba “after war broke out with Spain.”

After war “broke out” with Spain? We continued on, leaving the group behind, as I again observed out loud, “War didn’t just ‘break out’ with Spain”. My brother appeared irritated by the comment.

“How would you describe it?” he asked, as though I wouldn’t be any better able to explain it than the ranger had done.

“I’d say ‘we declared war on Spain’” I shot back. I’d say we declared war on Spain after falsely blaming Spain for the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in order to have a pretext to invade Cuba to prevent the Cuban people from gaining their independence. I wanted to continue with my explanation, to say this, but he was noticably irritated, so I added, “War didn’t just ‘break out’, like some sort of inexplicable natural phenomenon” and left it at that. No need to push anyone’s comfort zone today.

I bought a pocket Constitution in the bookstore. Walking outside, I flipped through it. “Man, it doesn’t have the preamble to the Bill of Rights!” I complained out loud. Most copies of the Constitution I’d ever read didn’t have it, but I’d heard it existed and verified that this was so.

Again, my brother became irritated by my comment. I continued expressing my complaint. “Why wouldn’t they print the preamble? Why would they want to censor it?”

The choice of words, “censor”, upset him even further. It’s a pocket version, he explained, they were trying to save space. Save space? I asked. It’s a small paragraph. There’s plenty of “space” to print the preamble to the Bill of Rights. It’s like they don’t want people to know it exists, and it works, because most people don’t!

He was growing more disturbed. Now I was talking conspiracy or something, and he didn’t have the patience for it. It’s not a big deal, he asserted. I shouldn’t make such a big deal over nothing.

It is a “big deal”, I retorted. This is the US Constitution, the supreme law of the land, and they’ve cut a part of it out as though it never existed in the first place. That’s a “big deal”. I was speaking to his back now. He didn’t want to hear it. So he turned and walked away while I was still speaking. Conversation over.

Posted by Jeremy from Taiwan on 02/25 at 09:33 PM

excellent story, Jeremy. I have had similar conversations…

love the mudge boy link, Mick. I wasn’t able to post a comment there for a while but I guess it’s working now.

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 09:41 PM

Hey Congratulation on enjoying yourself, Mudge, and helping others to enjoy themselves as well. Sounds like a very effective diplomatic mission so far. I understand about the 3-hour drive/ long distane issue. To deal with Lithuania, Bayonne, New Jersey must be dealt with, and even that trip across the river feels like too much headache. I think I need to devise an exit strategy from my Baltic mission anyway. Maybe sanctions are in order as a first step.

So much intriguing reading here even besides Mudge’s adventures…

Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen on 02/25 at 09:53 PM

Jeremy, remind me to never go sightseeing with you. Just kidding...I commend you for speaking up. Too often—in fact, all the time—I’m faced with similar situations and it’s tough to discern which battles to take on.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 10:00 PM

Sorry, James...simultyping. Bayonne, huh? Makes me think of Chuck Wepner. Anyone remember him?

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 10:02 PM

I looked him and for some reason, no-- Bayonne has not made me think of him or Stallone or boxing and all that. Which is probably for the best…

Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen on 02/25 at 10:08 PM

Yeah, I know...it’s just that the nickname “Bayonne Bleeder” popped into my head. On that odd note, I’ll sign off.

Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 02/25 at 10:14 PM

just looked him up...he looks like a bleeder. night…

Posted by JOS from Chicago on 02/25 at 10:16 PM

All so, so inappropriate… considering what time of the month it is… ouch.

Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen on 02/25 at 10:45 PM

This is pretty old news isn’t it? Who cares anyways..

Posted by Kimbo Slice from Miami on 04/21 at 06:55 PM

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Posted by tech decks from on 07/14 at 12:25 PM

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