Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Monday, January 09, 2006
Is that your nightstick…or are you just glad to see me?
What textbooks published within the last 30 years have avoided discussions of the 19th-century periodic depressions? Newer ones certainly don’t avoid the topic. And if anything, older textbooks would likely have focused on it more, as tariff debates were the central issues historians focused upon before slavery, the expansion of suffrage, and nascent labor movements, and day-to-day social patterns assumed a more central position.
Regards,
Kendrick
Posted by Kendrick on from UPenn 01/09 at 07:02 AMThe Cynthia Sheehan quote reminded me I found out recently the word ´human´ comes from ´homage´, the ancient ritual in which one would display fealty or servitude to a lord.
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 01/09 at 07:04 AMthere is an admittedly long but excellent film about stock market crashes and how they are manipulated for the benefit of the few here http://tinyurl.com/9q34r
its called ‘themoney masters’ and u need to scroll down a bit.
also our supposed greatest ever prime minister winston churchill aka ‘murderous bastard’ got the army to beat up the hunger marchers
Posted by michael on from scotland 01/09 at 09:25 AMGood morning all, and a heart shout to JOS with wishes for happiness:
“Cut taxes on the rich while pouring money and blood into the thirsty sands of the Middle East. Decimate our treasury. Rape the environment. Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum”
Sister Cindy makes an excellent excellent point, one I wish we could figure out how to get to more people. Had I the money, I’d pay for printing and mailing a pamphlet to every US household with nothing but an interview by MZ and Cindy in it.
Owen, your point it well-taken. Homage, humility, human and many more come from “homo” or or “like” which was Latin for a human being...note the interesting peek into the Roman mind..."homo" means same and man, so everything relates back to the self as the central point in the Universe. Hmmm, plus ca change...
Michael, it’s an eye-opening film, isn’t it...the cynical manipulation of the capital markets for the benefit of the few super-rich capitalists shouldn’t surprise anyone, but shock and disgust are on the table.
Kendrick (my dead son’s name, that), textbooks from the 1960s aren’t any more likely to delve into revisionism than current ones. The Panic of 1873 gets a mention and is contextualized as an example of events leading up to the Progressive victories of the TR administration, and the social costs are shrugged off then as now. “Widespread misrey and unemployment” in What Made America, from 1968, f/ex. History texts are, of course, limited in what they can conver in depth...Shays’ Rebellion gets short shrift, so does the Whiskey Rebellion, and the ALien and Sedition Act (the 19th century equivalent of USA PATRITOT)...up to about 1820 it’s pretty much a blur, then 40 years of selective coverage, then a blur until the 20th century after the Civil War.
I quibble only with the selections made, not with the fact of selection. If my NEw Utopian Impreium with Empress Amelopsis gets off the ground, history won’t be treated so shabbily. It will be compulsory to read and study the whole of human history and analyze it all one’s life, with monthly tests of proficiency.
Eternal College! No degrees, no rewards, just punishment for failure! >moooohhaaaaahaaaaaaaa<
Mine is an evil laugh....
Gotta go catch up on yesterday. “Race” ya....
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 10:57 AMGood Morning, Mickey, Kendrick, Owen & Michael -
Owen - good to see you, my friend. You, too, Michael.Great page, this morning, Mickey. I often wonder what the police think of when they’re ordered to confront ordinary citizens who are demonstrating against government. Very few “regular” cops are from the elite class - yet, they hammer away at us as if their very existence is somehow threatened by dissent. They must be subjected to very significant “brain-washings,” throughout their training, and thereafter. The military certainly employs a variety of mind-altering techniques to try to keep the “grunts” from ever thinking about what they’re doing. Yet, if the cops just stopped for a moment to consider what they’re seeing when they observe a demonstration, one would imagine that they’d be unable to obey the order to attack the ordinary folks out there in the streets. I just don’t understand how they do it…
Owen - interesting etymology. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the very origins of the word used to describe / define “us,” would place us in a position of servitude and submissiveness. Perhaps the pervasiveness of this general view of who we are plays some part in the process which convinces police officers to attack their own people, when their own people are in trouble…
It really IS good to see you, Owen. How have you been?Michael - that page is amazing! Thank you very much.
About Dear Winston, yeah, he’s near number one in my top ten reasons to believe that there might really be something wrong with human beings, as such…Kendrick - do you mean High School Text Books?
I asked my 11th grade son if I could browse through his US History textbook, this morning, before he went to school. ( After I read your post. )
He says that the class only has a few books, so the teacher rarely uses them, and, of course, the kids are never allowed to bring them home…Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 11:08 AMHawk, from yesterday: “All I can say is, when we become aware of the cycles that run through our lives, we’re better able to allow them to flow freely; we’re better able to learn the lessons they carry; and we’re better able to avoid pathologizing that which is natural and appropriate. It’s something the ancients knew, and that our modern, de-mythologized culture is sorely lacking.”
Such a giant waste...straight and married. Sad, really, to see such a wonderful spirit trapped in such an unnatural condition. >wink<
When I first encountered Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces in the 1970s, I had a giant “wow” moment when I realized someone other than me felt unmoored ina fnnny way. I finally had a means of describing what it was I was experiencing: lack of guidance! From Campbell to Jung was the shortest of steps. The more closely I adhere to their insights, the happier I am.
And I’m a pretty serious kinda guy.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 11:12 AMMr. Mudge!
Why, you sound like your old self again. You must have asked your doctor about ___________…
( Side effects include evil laughter and a tendency toward the need to acquire absolute power… )Wonderful post, Mudge. Wonderful to see you, once again roaring into the morning air!
And, yes -
a huge hellow to JOS. We miss you, James.Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 11:16 AMsince the word ‘recrudesce’ has recently been recrudescing could i suggest that we deliver panegyrics about the word panegyric?
Posted by michael on from scotland 01/09 at 11:21 AMpanegyric, n. ...2: Encomium; praise bestowed on some person, action, or virtue; as, “epitaphs replete with panegyric.”
So you propose we become panegyrists? If I am to be an encomiast, one must identify appropriate objects of panegyry.
Or is it instead the idea that we should debunk the unmerited encomia of the “Great and Good” who routinely receive them by splashing filth upon them, stigmatizing the praise with the scary, unknown term “panegyric” thus intimidating all and sundry with our superb vocabularies?
Either way, I’m in.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 11:38 AMGood morning all,
Joe’s right Mudge, you sound a little more yourself this morning.
Michael I think this is a wonderful idea!
Pangyric writing will be required in the curriculum of the New Utopia.Pangyricise (I may have just created that new word) about the nature of man. That would pose an interesting challenge. Captcha says “woman”.
Existentialism...I’ve never read any Jung other than exerpts, though it seems he may have plenty to say about topics and ideas that I’ve often considered myself.
Wow. The more I read here from you Expendables, the more reading I find I want to do. Now all I have to do is...do it.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/09 at 11:45 AMHey Joe and everyone-- I’m in the middle of job searching again, which is more time consuming than actually having a job. My thing at Forest City ended the Friday before New Year’s, in fact, hence my being so scattered. Never mind the Frank-cat vet bill damage… and I’m in the process of rearranging my apartment in prep for my ostensible 7 months late housewarming party, though only one person on this board is being pressured to attend (’pressured’ meant affectionately). Though if Joe, Mudge, Helga and anyone wants to show up, I’ll promise a non-flooded apt. with a cat-poo free tub and cat-pee free furniture.
After I was chatting about George Clooney’s movies and other dvds and stuff yesterday, I was about to mention this issue of the Economist I stole from work a few weeks ago. From 11/26, with ‘Why America Must Stay (in Iraq)’ on the cover. Anyone read that for any reason? Economist has often been one of the most confusing mags to me, I instinctively feel irked by it yet often have trouble aruging with its seemingly well-written articles that I know can’t be right yet appear to make perfect sense.
Agh. And I’m still obsessed with my novel project which in part kept me from joining in NaNo. Maybe I’ll talk about it sometime, saturday or whenever. Have a good day, all, with an email on the way later to this guy I know in Texas…
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/09 at 11:48 AMHi Joe...no docs, but a day of being rotten ill with gout and the side effects of the pills that knock gout out.
Honestly, what am I supposed to do other than return to my previous curmudgeonly behaviors...it’s the question I ask myself daily. I can’t come up with any answer except “kie down and die.” That being seriously unappealing, here I am, for better or worse.
Lucky y’all!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 11:55 AMmudge, my favourite word is ‘stramash’ whichis a good old scots word
Stramash - . An uproar, commotion, hubbub, disturbance, a broil, squabble, row (Sc. 1808 Jam.; Per. 1915 Wilson L. Strathearn 269; Rxb. 1942 Zai). Gen.Sc.
from the dictionary of scots language http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/ which is a recognised language and a lot of the words are in everyday usage here. stuff like ‘scunnered’, ‘glaikit’, ‘sleekit’. there are thousands. i did a post about it here (4th one down) http://tinyurl.com/cb5my and there is a wee song about it here http://tinyurl.com/d4k95 (lyrics r on the post) called ‘throw the r away’. i think its up your street and you might pick up some good words.
Posted by michael on from scotland 01/09 at 12:01 PMThe word ´donnybrook´ is named after a part of Dublin just down the road from where I used to live, apparently it was host to one notable stramash in the 19th century.
I´m in good form thanks for asking Joe, enjoyed Ireland and extremely glad to be back here. Think I got a couple of Saturday stories out of it.
P.S: the first thing that came to my mind about the etymology of ´human´ was that it was coined by folk who didn´t consider themselves so.Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 01/09 at 12:14 PMEmpress dear, “panegyrize” or “-ise” is a real verb...has oth transitive and intransitive sense. As I understand your use, it’s intransitive..."to praise highly”...not transitive, “to eulogize.”
Okay, it’s official...I’m a word nerd.
I guess I am more myself because I can’t figure out who else to be. That might be a bad thing, I don’t know...but here I am being plain ol’ me.
Maspeth Man James, blech on job searching. Fie, even. Hiss boo, one might say, with little fear of contradiction. As one who’s been at it for a while, I heap good fortune on your “purpose.”
Obsessing? Who here could POSSIBLY relate to obsessing?! James, you’re a weird Dane indeed. If obsessing and not doing anything about it is the issue standing between you and writing a novel, read a book called Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. http://tinyurl.com/d3btr
I found that book in the 1970s. My mother had a copy from her college days. I read it with the absorbtion of a depressive reading about Prozac. Do exactly what Dorothea says to do, and obsessiveness will finally transmute into action as though alchemically preordained to do so. Swear ta Gawd.
Late for meditations, bye y’all!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 12:22 PMThat explains Donnybrook, but what about ‘brouhaha’? That one’s always got me. Also, not to make light of things, but I’ve never understood gout, either. David Hume used it as a topic in some anecote in of his awful books I had to read in college… took a Hume/Kant class, enjoyed Kant more than Hume for some reason even though both were fairly incompehensible.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/09 at 12:24 PMOh wow, Mudge and I were simultyping-- I actually have that book! I got it at Barnes and Nobles bargain clearance bin for five bucks, read it a little but figured it for one of dozens of other meaningless self-writing-help books. Thanks a lot man, I’ll pick it up again.
Yeah, if no day job soon, I’ll have to do some overnight proofreading, which would mean I’d be sleeping during most of the comments here.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/09 at 12:55 PMVery cool to find a full board of Expendable expression from the Empress and her “boys.” I hope to join in soon...but have to at least finish the laundry first.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/09 at 01:36 PMAnother great post, Mickey! Not just a history lesson - it might interest you and all my fellow expendables (hi to all of you from a not too warm Daylesford!) that there was a depression in Australia in the 1890’s as well - but the usual brilliant selection of quotes, comments and links. And Hugh Thompson really WAS a hero - watched an eye-opener of a program about him quite a few years ago - a BBC program, I seem to remember ..
Ciao,
HelgaPosted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/09 at 02:38 PMAnd re the police: did not Rosa Luxemburg say that they were ‘proletarians in uniform’? Maybe they think of themselves as superior to same proletariat once they are in uniform ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/09 at 02:42 PMMudge - we wouldn’t WANT you to be anyone else. And, `round here, “WordNerd” is quite a good thing.
Owen - yeah, I’ve been wondering who / “what” coined the word. You know, here in the States, we have a syndicated cartoon called “Calvin & Hobbes.” Calvin is a very little boy, with a stuffed tiger. They hang out and get into amazing trouble, together. It’s brilliant work!
We bought my son a bunch of beautifully bound books for the Solstice: “The Complete Calvin & Hobbes.” I can’t keep from sneaking upstairs to browse through them. I read a few, recently, in which Calvin dresses up in a “superhero” suit with a big “S” across the chest. I thought he was pretending to be “Superman,” but, actually, he’s pretending to be STUPENDOUSMAN!
Since my introduction to STUPENDOUSMAN, I think of him whenever I see Bush or Chaney or Rumsfeld. I see them in their little STUPENDOUSMAN outfits, parading across the world stage, fighting the Axis of Evil, and raping and looting the world for the common good.
Somehow, this image has made life better…Em. Amelopsis:
There’s no time to read, you know?
It must be stolen.
We must be the dirty thieving scum who steal back some precious moments of our own lives…Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 02:46 PMThanks for the invite, James from Hell’s Kitchen! Wish Mr and Mrs Helga could visit NYC again but the chances of that are very slim at this moment in time, to say the least.
And Mudge, it is good to see that you are your old self again.
Amelopsis, you are spot-on - so many things to read when one visits the ‘cool observer’s’ site - all one has to do is to actually go ahead and READ.
New Year Resolution from a writer in the ‘Guardian’: ‘to actually read all the books I buy’. I suppose it would be a start ..Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/09 at 02:49 PMJoe, I’ve noticed myself slowly but surely reading less and less as the last couple of years has gone by. I know that I must simply insert more books in front of my face and commence! Tempus fugit ‘s faster every year and I must get back into the swing of page flipping again.
Let the thieving scummery begin!Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/09 at 02:55 PMHelga, that’s an excellent insight - about the police. In fact, it reminds me of a line from the film “BladeRunner.” M.Emmet Walsh, the police captain, said to Harrison Ford, who was thinking of resigning from the force: “Remember, pal - if you’re not cop, you’re ‘little people.’”
He did not resign.James, I sure hope you find a sweet job.
Nothing in the world, in my experience -
nothing…
is more difficult than what you’re about. Vast, vast good wishes and a doublewhammy of good hope out to you immediately, my friend.( Aint it fucked that it’s so impossible to find a job in which one can actually get paid to do something “good?” When I was younger, I used to try. Either you need a masters or doctorate, or you need to volunteer…
However, if you want a job killing people, you could easily get hired today. They have some folks in Times Square waiting for you, right now. )Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 02:55 PM“Let the thieving scummery begin!”
Somehow, that sums up almost everything.
We can all turn off our computers and go, now.
The last word has been written.Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 03:02 PMMudge #6:
Thanks for the kind words, even if I am straight and married...!
My exposure to Joseph Campbell didn’t occur until his PBS interviews with Bill Moyers happened during the late 80’s. I immediately drove from Moses Lake, WA (where I had my “mistake” marriage and a karmically-damaging job as a chemical operator at a Union Carbide plant) to Spokane, and bought out the entire selection of Campbell’s books from a place called Auntie’s Bookstore and Cafe (down on Riverside). I ordered everything else that was in print at the time, and picked those up a couple weeks later. I then read them straight through, pausing only long enough for bowling league and my torturous rotating 12-hour shifts at the plant. The impact was so great that, when I finally escaped my mistake marriage in 1991, I moved to Boulder and became a certified Jungian Archetypal Psychotherapist (though I’ve never put my shingle out—I found out too late that I don’t believe in the psychotherapeutic model for healing). Carl Jung, for all his faults, was a modern alchemist whose works continue to revolutionize lives as we crawl through a spirit-less age.
Somehow, I knew you’d have a background in all this....
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 01/09 at 03:23 PMTo all Expendables:
Regarding Fight Club... I finished reading it this morning, and am ready for our group discussion whenever that happens.
I got an email from Hawk Sr., and he just ordered the book and won’t get a chance to read it until this coming weekend at the earliest. I don’t know if we’ve arrived at an actual schedule for discussing it, but hopefully we’ll have another week or so for everyone who hasn’t had the chance to get started.
By way of a preliminary comment: Boy, they really did a good job in replicating the book on film. I sort of wish I’d read the book first, but, then, how can I know whether that would’ve been better than the way I’m reading it now?
I’ll save the rest for when everyone who wants to read it gets a chance to do so....
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 01/09 at 03:27 PMBook club first: how about we sttle on a date not too far away, say next Saturday? Simultyping being the bane of our group expression, what shall we do to avoid this as much as possible? When the scullery maid-cum-host returns, perchance we can get him to make a suggestion or two? Even set up a rule? Once the “process” is agreed, it needn’t be a huge burden to reinvent each time!
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 04:10 PMHello again, everyone. Good idea to “use” this time to work out some details, re: book/fight club. I’ll post something tomorrow that asks for input (and a roll call). I think it might work to start our group discussion two weeks from tomorrow: Tuesday, Jan. 24.
Not sure if sumultyping will such a big problem, Mudge, but if anyone has suggestions on how to avoid it, it’d be welcome.
Btw, my favorite Jung quote is: “Most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/09 at 04:30 PMJames #16: Gout’s a metabolic disease. My body produces too much uric acid, which strips calcium out of me as it whips around through my blood; the result is, since both uric acid and calcium are heavier than blood, the substances deposit in the thinnest places in the bloodstream: Corners and low points. Joints get the deposits of acid crystals and calcium, and over time the deposits, which abradr the joint below then. dissolve the bones and cause what one might describe as “discomfort” as this process continues. I’ve lost a toe and a kneecap to the ravages.
#17: Go forth and examine thyself in Dorothea’s mirror. Thou shalt emerge a changed lad.
Helga #22: Thanks, dearie! Nice to be back in form. Oh, and the 1890s was a time of economic depression in a number of places. The proposed solution, a worldwide gold standard, came from the Euopean powers who had maintained relative prosperity by a currency agreement based on a gold standard. The UK relied on Imperial markets and a sterling standard. The USA almost joined the gold standard, probably would have except for William Jennings Bryan’s “Thou shalt not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” speech during the 1896 elections. Didin’t win him the election, but scared the oligarchs enough to stop the march toward a world currency.
Where is our present-day Bryan?!
Empress #23: “I know that I must simply insert more books in front of my face and commence!” Yeup. Only way to do it is to do it.
Hawk #26: “Thanks for the kind words” You’re welcome!
“...even if I am straight and married...!” Too depressing to contemplate. Let’s just ignore it.“Carl Jung, for all his faults, was a modern alchemist whose works continue to revolutionize lives as we crawl through a spirit-less age.” I contend no age is spiritless. It’s just this age has so many false avenues that seem to promise moral guidance: religion, psychotherapy, pharmacology, veganism, costly cat-worship, the list goes on and on...and yet the practicioners of these things fall short of what they’re looking for, and need more and more discipline to make it through this meaningless slog of de-spiritzed nonsense.
What we all need is a good myth.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 04:38 PMI’m afraid that I know nothing about Jung, but, in response to Mudge’s point about needing guidance through a shitty age (sorry to paraphrase so inelegantly), I find music usually does the trick. So wonderful just to drift away from the mooring of any stresses or strains & find some wordless lyricism.
Re post 28 - you do realise that now I have visions in my head of MZ in a French maid’s outfit ... ah me!
Re post 27 - I agree about the film being an excellent job of adaptation - one of the best in recent years that I’ve seen. But I think seeing the film first is usually best as the book is generally better. The ending of Fight Club, for instance - we should discuss whether they did the right thing in the movie, as the book actually makes sense (in a circular, anarchist / idealist ying yang kind of a way).
Re post 24 - damn right, Joe - I hate to think how much more easy it is to find a job with a rifle (or a shitty McDonald’s hat) than a real purpose. Things like that make me quiver at the thought of the future! Or will we always see the recent past as better than now, & the future as seeming darker? At least in respect to certain things. When it comes to social values, I wonder if things are getting better? Some things give me real optimism - the healthy distrust of the young today is, I’m sure, more pronounced than it was in my day (puts on doddering old fart tone of voice ... “ee, in my day houses cost tuppence and you could leave your front door open” etc etc).
Hope everyone well & funky.
Captcha says “west”.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 01/09 at 05:46 PMBTW the excellent article of MZ on Hugh Thompson calls to mind the biggest argument against the military (IMHO): having to open fire on orders. Who wants a politician’s logic making such weighty moral decisions? Ugh, I have to go & shudder for a while.
Captcha says “southern”. I’ll have a full compass soon! (you can make your own damn jokes about that!)
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 01/09 at 05:50 PMQuick look in to see the late afternoon’s discussions…
Mudge is keeping physically active something that improves the problem? (Nosy thirst for knowledge - feel free to stop me)
I have resolved to aquire my copy of Fight Club on the morrow’s eve; loan or purchase if need be since the 2nd hand stores are scarce and not generally fruitful unless you want to buy a child a corporately branded cartoon or colouring book or of course I’m sure I could find Fabio on a few hundred covers.
James best of the good mojo on the job search. In my experience it works out best when the situation becomes most desperate and I’ve still gone with what I found I wanted the least NOT to have to do. It definitely helps when the options available are ones you’ll enjoy at least some aspect of, of course.
How’s that for a pragmatic application of principles? Honesty just isn’t pretty sometimes, but it’s the best place to start for me; providing a good deal of principled self “respect” is providing a solid counterweight, I think you can’t go wrong.Hi to All the Expendables, and a good night.
apologies for subjecting you to run ons and poor grammar!
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/09 at 06:51 PMGreetings all Expendables. It’s been three weeks, I think, and I have to tell you I have only the vaguest idea what has happened in the world. When last I checked in on the news a man was shot dead at Miami Airport, Poland was revealed to be allowing the CIA to torture people on its soil, and the news had not yet broken that---gee, get this---they’re spying on us.
I missed my daily dose of Expendable banter and so forth but I had other stuff to do and no computer nearby. It was nice.
So if anyone wants to give a brief summary of what has gone on here or out there in the past three weeks, I’m all ears.
Mickey, I missed the Hugh Thompson article in November and I’m glad to see it now. Good stuff.
As for Joe’s comment (#24, I think) Aint it fucked that it’s so impossible to find a job in which one can actually get paid to do something “good?” [...] However, if you want a job killing people, you could easily get hired today. ...check this out!
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 01/09 at 07:00 PMMudge - though I’ve understood gout for a long time, your description makes me angry, and it makes me ache to somehow do something to help you rid yourself of such a scourge. I’m sorry you have to suffer like this… My father had arthritis in his hands. He was a master woodworker - he could build anything, with an almost breathtaking excellence. My mother told me that, once, during his last several years, when he was building a small cabinet for the bathroom, she went out for breakfast with some friends. When she returned, he did not hear her. She peeked into the bathroom, and found him sitting on the edge of the tub, crying. He just could not use his hands, anymore - and they were his whole life.
When I’d visit, I always reflexively reached out to shake his hand. He’d instantly withdraw his hands in obvious horror. It was terrible to observe - especially so as, then with him and now with you - I’m powerless to do anything particularly useful to help…
You’ve obviously been “through it,” Mudge, yet you continue to approach life with great humor and great courage. Bravo, my friend.Hi Chris -
About politicians making “weighty moral decisions.”
I was watching some cop movie a few months ago, and the cop said to some “criminal” - “It’s the LAW! You’ve broken the LAW!”
As if the guy had just kicked Jesus in the balls, and was now yucking it up with some of his drunken buddies…
Hell, the LAW is always written by politicians. What a dark, ghastly truth, eh?
And, of course, since they’re all forbidden to do anything truly useful for ordinary people, they spend their time passing one loathsome law after another, hoping to delude us into thinking that their “work” is necessary.Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 07:02 PM“In January of 1874, a parade of demonstrating workers was diverted from City Hall and ended up at Tompkins Square where police told them they couldn’t hold a meeting.” i had to re-read this sentence at first I read City Hall as City Hell I was thinking that’s an interesting name for what i thought was a town. so reading it as City Hell this is what came to my mind.
http://tinyurl.com/cqrjvBosses from Hall: http://tinyurl.com/ctwbq
The Homestead Strike: http://tinyurl.com/atcns
“Who can stand in the way/When there’s a dollar to me made?"-Midnight Oil
Posted by tm on from in a grove 01/09 at 07:11 PMKEIR!
Great to see you.
I’ve been theorizing that you began a note on your sax, sometime last month, and were still with it, into the new year. Say it’s so, and I think I’d believe it!
Grim stuff in that Harper’s piece, Keir. I bet most of them are working, now, however. Bless `em. Without them, the US would be taken over by thugs and gangsters hell-bent on world domination…
I don’t think I can summarize events here, Keir, except to say that the blab goes on…
It’s really good to see you, Sir. Welcome back.TM -
Thanks for more amazing links. You, Sir, are the Soverign!Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 07:37 PMjoe, i’m not a sir.
Posted by tm on from in a grove 01/09 at 07:46 PMHello Expendables. Welcome to those who’ve arrived since my last visit (Chris, TM) and welcome back, Keir. I agree with Joe, it would be hard to recap the past three weeks except to say we’ve had some great new additions to the crew (have you met Chris, Hawk, Amelopsis?) and have come up with the wacky idea to all read Fight Club and then discuss it here. Whaddya think? You in?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/09 at 07:57 PMChris #31: “When it comes to social values, I wonder if things are getting better?” Need you even ask? The answer, I feel sure oyu already know, is “nyet.”
Joe #35: “You’ve obviously been “through it,” Mudge, yet you continue to approach life with great humor and great courage. Bravo, my friend.” Thank you very much, Joe. I spend hours a day of “down time” that I’d as soon not spend so as not to wake the beast. I’ve had a few issues to deal with this go-round n the karmic wheel, but honestly I can’t think of a reason to feel the victim...it’s a self-reinforcing torture, and I can do nicely without it, thanks.Amelopsis #33: Regrettably, activity is the enemy. I have severe tophaceous gout, the kind where the crystals precipitate onto joints and are agitated back into their horrid blood-polluting state by activity. Three surgeries later, I have 40% the crystal load from before, but it’s more than forty times the load the average gout patient has. No, diet is not the determining factor here. The docs long ago discarded the theory that I eat wrong, because I’d have to eat 5-6lbs red meat and drink at least 750mL red wine a day to account for this level of disease. I assure you that, even at my hungirest teenhood, that was outside my capabilities.
All the drinking I did all those years helped not a whit, certainly, but it couldn’t have CAUSED the problem because I had my first attack back when I was 21. Wasn’t even drinking back then. So it’s just a weird weird thing, according to the docs. I say it’s genetics, because I have a sister who has it and a mother who had it.
Keir #34: Welcome! Glad to have you back! Amelopsis and I are Emperor and Empress of the New Utopian Imperium (NUtI for short); please learn the proper obeisances.
MZ made a resolution to shed his know-it-allness; stay tuned for reports of his success.
I’ve suffered several crises, none of them particularly interesting.
Hell’s Kitchen James has suffered a kitty crisis, his companion Frank’s been expensively unwell twice now; plus that whole jobless thing.
JOS, late of Puerto Rco, shared with us he’s returned to Chicago to seek help with depression and recrudescent addiction issues. If you happen to be the first person to post on any given day, please offer a greeting to JOS so he, when he finds time to visit, will see that we’re all supporting him.
Have you met Hawk, Hawk Sr aka Hawk’s dad, and Chris Wood the Mancunian?
I’d go on, but I have to leave for a grocery shopping trip...no Imperial minions within reach, dagnabbit.
Gonna make like [Carmina Burana[/i] and be Orff.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/09 at 08:01 PMGlad to know this is officially an Empire, I’ll know how to dress. Not so thrilled to hear about JOS’s state of mind or Mudge’s state of blood. I’ll hold my thumbs (a Polish expression) for the two of you. As for Fight Club, I’ll check if it’s available in Engels in the local library. I don’t do much buying of new books (otherwise I’d have already reported to Mickey how much I enjoy my own copy of 50AR) but I will try to keep up. Right now reading “Society Under Seige” by Zygmunt Bauman, no small task for this little brain.
Joe, not much playing in the last few weeks. I was in Poland, and holiday season means horrendously bad music played by a small clique of pseudo-entertainers on garish, kitched-out television extravaganzas. The horror. Shuttling between cities--Krakow, Nowa Ruda (a little mining town near the Czech border where we took daily walks in snow up to here) and Legnica (the last Polish city to play host to the Soviet army), where I did in fact have a gig a few days ago. Now here’s something strange: local news was on the scene, filmed part of the concert, and interviewed us afterwards. The next day they showed a ten minute excerpt of the performance followed by the interview on TV. Right afterwards, on the six o’clock news, they did a short feature on the concert. It was ridiculous: that urgent, quasi-earnest, mesmerizing news tone that anchormen use to describe automobile accidents and natural disasters applied to “free improvisation” which (said the anchorman while staring into the camera) “means the music is never. Played. The same way. Twice.” Anything to avoid talking about that pesky CIA-torture thing, I guess.
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 01/09 at 08:17 PM“Since” it’s 10:00 on a freakishly warm January night in Astoria, I’ll sign off. G’night, all…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/09 at 10:00 PMHello Mudge - what’s this? You’ve gone orff to face monstrous, meaningless Fate?
Oh, OK. Well, have a good time.
Keir - I recently finished a brief excerpt from “Modernity and the Holocaust.” Very insightful, very well written. Have you read it? This was my first encounter with his work - I’ll be back for more.
Let me know what you think about “Society...,” OK?So, news shows the world over are paced and “acted” in the same way, eh? Scary. It’s as if, all round us, people are being “body-snatched,” and the new personality is another corporate-clone, devoid of self-insight, devoid of imagination, devoid of every hint of rebellion or “living-ness.”
And, yeah, though it’s great that you guys got some free air time, the situation was probably the result of their not wanting to discuss US renditions in Poland. Hell, much of the local news everywhere, now, is a sort of health-entertainment mix. They present some corporate health research publicity pieces, disguised as medical news, then go into sports and goings on about town. They’re forbidden ( but, by whom? ) to speak the truth about almost anything of real significance, so they have to “manufacture” news to fill the time…
Your group began the evening as musicians, and ended it as “info.”Really good to have you back, Keir.
G’Night, Mickey Z. You’ve been pretty busy, eh?
Hope you’re well and happy, my friend. C U Soon.Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/09 at 11:28 PM
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