Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Friday, November 17, 2006
re: action
Good morning all. When I woke today, I was thinking about how the whole country, maybe the whole planet is now in “Catch 22”. The Iraqis are damned if they fight back, and damned if they don’t. We, here in the usa, in many ways are also caught in that same dilemma. The usa has created a no-win, no-way-out world. We can’t use violence to achieve peace because violence begets violence but the war mongers only respond to violence.
“...There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” he [Yossarian] observed.
“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed....”Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/17 at 08:59 AMI never read “Catch-22”, but that’s an interesting snippet. Haven’t been around in a while. Busy, busy, busy. Just wanted to stop in and give a shout-out to mi Expendable amigos.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei, Taiwan 11/17 at 10:18 AMFunny you should greet us in Spanish this morning, Jeremy...I found someone visiting my blog in Spanish today.
Hello RMJ…
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 11/17 at 11:18 AMi am having a truly epic bout of writers block at the moment so no work on the book, no blogging, no articles, no short stories,no reviews
NOTHING, ZERO, #### ALL
for ages
been trying to think of something to say about the topic but could only quote something which ties in mickeys post with the writers block…
“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘try to be a little kinder”
aldous huxley
Posted by michael on from exile 11/17 at 11:56 AMHenry Miller said something like if a man really had the courage to act out his thoughts he´d never write a word.
Posted by owen on from schmarcelona 11/17 at 12:08 PMi didnt mean that as a diss to mickey, mahatma or noam
i meant it as a comment about all of us, and the reason i was quoting it was because aldous was one of the best of us
Posted by michael on from exile 11/17 at 12:22 PMHello Expendables. It’s yet another unusually warm November day here.
Welcome back, Jeremy...you’ve been missed.
Michael: I think you hit the nail on the head. Husley’s quote is precisely where my mind is today. The Miller quote that Owen alludes to is also right in line. I think we are all in deep denial and the ony way to recognize it is to accept that our actions express our priorities. Talk is cheap, as they say. What matter is what we do.
RMJ: I have never read Catch-22. I should do so.
Hola, JOS.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/17 at 01:16 PMmickey, you should read catch 22, yes.
also, i absolutely must recommend aldous huxleys book “island”
in fact, i read it the first time when i was 14, 2nd time when i was 30 and the third time this week and i think i should probably suffix everything i say from now on with
“read ‘island’ by aldous huxley”
if at the end of my life i had got a thousand people to read it then that would be a major contribution because in the earlier quote he was definitely being modest.
that book has solutions. some most people would consider to be totally off the scale (including most radicals but definitely all conservatives).
Posted by michael on from exile 11/17 at 01:26 PMmistake,
that should have read “2nd time when i was 23”Posted by michael on from exile 11/17 at 01:27 PMYou know, up until last year, I’d typically read maybe 50-60 books (ore more) a year. In 2006, I got away from that...partly because my eyes are getting worse and I guess I feel self-conscious wearing my cheap magnifying glasses on the subway. In 2007, that must change and I will put Island and Catch-22 at the top of the list.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/17 at 01:35 PMi also just got sent an incredible piece of information
Posted by michael on from exile 11/17 at 01:41 PMNow that is comedy, my friend. I’m still laughing.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/17 at 01:45 PMwhats on anyones stereo…
depeche mode…enjoy the silence
Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Cant you understand
Oh my little girlAll I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harmVows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettableAll I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harmEnjoy the silence
Posted by michael on from exile 11/17 at 02:02 PMI’m listening to Humble Pie..."30 Days in the Hole”
Chicago Green, talkin’ ‘bout Red Lebanese
A dirty room and a silver coke spoon
Give me my release, come on
Black Napalese, it’s got you weak in your knees
Seeds and dust that you got buzzed on
You know it’s hard to believe30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
That’s what they give you
30 days in the hole
RrrryeahNewcastle Brown, I’m tellin’ you, it can sure smack you down
Take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor
It’s got your head spinnin’ round
If you live on the road, well there’s a new highway code
You take the urban noise with some urban poison
It’s gonna lessen your load30 days in the hole
That’s what they give you now
30 days in the hole
Oh, yeah
30 days in the hole
All right, all right
30 days in the holeHow you doin’ boy?
You here for 30 days
Get, get, get your long hair cut
And cut out your waysBlack Napalese, it got you weak in your knees
Only seeds and dust that you got buzzed on
You know it’s so hard to please
Newcastle Brown can sure smack you down
You take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor
You know you’re jailhouse-bound30 days in the hole
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/17 at 02:46 PMI got “Platypus” by Mr. Bungle:
Sleeping geology
On the isolated shore
For millions of yearsExperimental continent
On purpose or accident?Mysterious evolving
Problem solvingA vaudeville? A nation including one superior creation
A vertebra? Inverted...quite unheard of…Orphan in a family
And a sole survivor
He’s a living fossil
Reptillian? Mammalian
He’s a bird-beaked, beaver-butt AustralianAmphibious? Paradox wearing plaid socks
Furry beetle? A bugbear, and a palezoologist’s nightmare
Symmetrical physique of disbeliefThe platypus has the brain of a dolphin
and can be seen driving a forklift in his habitat of kelp
He is the larva of the flatworm
and has the ability to regenerate after injuryNo relation to the flounder.
Someone shipped him to the blokes
Who said he was a hoax
So they cut him to pieces, wrote a thesisA cranium of deceit, he’s prone to lie and cheat;
It’s no wonder—a blunder from down underDuckbill, watermole, duckmole!
Barnacle
Posted by owen on from schmarcelona 11/17 at 03:35 PMSorry I don’t have a good poem like so many of you today but here’s a link for anybody who needs a job.
http://tinyurl.com/y2m2xdPosted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/17 at 05:21 PMI always hated Bob Marley; I associated it with hippy-shit, but lately that has changed. I really dig the music, and the words are hardly advocating pacifism.
I want to start a blog soon and I’m thinking of calling it “Buring all Illusion.” What’ya think?
Check out these lyrics:
This morning I woke up in a curfew;
O god, I was a prisoner, too - yeah!
Could not recognize the faces standing over me;
They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality. eh!How many rivers do we have to cross,
Before we can talk to the boss? eh!
All that we got, it seems we have lost;
We must have really paid the cost.(thats why we gonna be)
Burnin and a-lootin tonight;
(say we gonna burn and loot)
Burnin and a-lootin tonight;
(one more thing)
Burnin all pollution tonight;
(oh, yeah, yeah)
Burnin all illusion tonight.Oh, stop them!
Give me the food and let me grow;
Let the roots man take a blow.
All them drugs gonna make you slow now;
Its not the music of the ghetto. eh!Weeping and a-wailin tonight;
(who can stop the tears? )
Weeping and a-wailin tonight;
(weve been suffering these long, long-a years!)
Weeping and a-wailin tonight
(will you say cheer? )
Weeping and a-wailin tonight
(but where? )Give me the food and let me grow;
Let the roots man take a blow.
I must say: all them - all them drugs gonna make you slow;
Its not the music of the ghetto.We gonna be burning and a-looting tonight;
(to survive, yeah!)
Burning and a-looting tonight;
(save your baby lives)
Burning all pollution tonight;
(pollution, yeah, yeah!)
Burning all illusion tonight
(lord-a, lord-a, lord-a, lord!)Burning and a-looting tonight;
Burning and a-looting tonight;
Burning all pollution tonight. /fadeout/Posted by Brian on from Belly of the Beast 11/17 at 05:52 PMRMJ: The novel I’m writing for National Novel Writing Month takes place as a giant asteroid approaches Earth. Maybe I’m on to something.
Brian: I love that song. But then again, I’m a Marley fan from way back.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/17 at 08:57 PMNothing to add to that one, Mickey! Both ‘contributors’ hit the nail on the head - as do you.
‘Hi’ to Rosemarie, Jeremy, JOS, Michael, Owen (love that ‘Schmarcelona’) and Brian from a sunny Daylesford - a welcome relief after the cold snap earlier this week. I wish you and you, Mickey and Michele, a good weekend,
HelgaPosted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/17 at 10:07 PMChomsky also ridicules anyone who doesn’t fall into lockstep with the official coverup of 9/11 - i.e. acording to Chomsky, the idea that 9/11 was an inside job is as ludicrous as JFK’s assassination being an inside job…
Posted by dragonfly on from Yuba River watershed 11/20 at 12:44 PM
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