Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Sinner's Swing*
i sinned one time and don’t regret it at all. it was the most culturally insensitive thing i have ever done. it was also boorish and reckless.
nevertheless after what we had just done, i think we deserved it…
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 06:25 AMi didnt mean that the way it came out. i have sinned much more than one time.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 06:27 AMHello Expendables...and thanks, Michael. After days of moving everything but the larger pieces of furniture, today is it. The movers will be here soon and we’re off the races. I’ll check back once I have internet access again. If not, I’ll “talk” to you all when I’m back in NYC on Friday.
Captcha sez: done
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Dubya Land 05/15 at 06:45 AMdoes anyone else something about this picture scarily appropriate?
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 07:34 AMno one around today?
oh well. if you are lurking then turn this up full and enjoy…
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 11:12 AMHello Expendables. A mild day over here in MA.
My first thought was to contest the religious context, but apparently the word comes from the Old English ‘syn,’ for offense, which is a homophone for earlier Gaelic, Old Norse, and Latin roots. Fair Warning is probably the best of the Van Halen records: “Do you remember when that girl used to be prom queen? Oh, man...” Thanks, MZ - gonna spin that at the gym today.
Major Sin: the racism of my hometown of 100,000, which as a child I wasn’t wise enough to see through, and participated in. The first black family on the street faced vicious hostility. To the Perrys, wherever you are: I’ve learned better.
Minor Sins: voting for Bill Clinton in ‘92. Opting out of a trip to the Seattle demo in ‘99. Failing to cause offense when I met Antonin Scalia. An assortment of foot-in-mouth blunders.
JOS (from yesterday): yes, the Red Sox could crash hard if they peak too early. Teams that get hot in the 2nd half often go all the way, like in ‘04. Captcha sez ‘trade.’
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 05/15 at 12:42 PMzen prole…
“Failing to cause offense when I met Antonin Scalia”
how could you?! i am over here and even i know about that.
seriously, good line.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 12:49 PMMZ
IT’S RICHIE… == THE INDEX FINGER TYPIST. I USE TO FLY ON THE KEYBOARD AT 73WPM/NO LOOK...TILL MS DID THE 24/7 TINGLE SHUFFLE ....2 YRS AGO...I ALSO TYPE IN CAPS...EASIER FOR ME TO SITE READ AS I GO....
ANYWHOOOO...C O N F E S S I O N....... WHAT DID WE DO BEFORE THE INTERNET PROVIDED THE “SCREEN” THAT FATHER MURPHY’S MAHOGONEY DBL SIDED TALK-TANK PROVIDED AFTER EACH DAILY MASS AND SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT 3:30??
WELL......WE STOOD IN LINE AT THE BACK OF CHURCH AND AVERTED THE GAZE OF THE ADULT IN FRONT AND BACK OF US…
WE KNEW IT WAS OUR TURN NEXT BECAUSE THE TRIGGERED KNEELER IN EITHER STALL—SHUT THE RED LIGHT OFF == SIGNALLING VACANCY.... WHEN THE NOW WHEIGHTLESS SOUL PRECEDING US == STOOD UP....AND EXITED INTO A BRIEF MOMENT OF PARADISE...on earth....
U HAD TO HAVE GUTZ TO SAY WHAT WE SAID BACK THEN… NO SENSE LYING TO A PRIEST—I MOVED ON IN THE 80’S AND STARTED GOING FACE TO FACE.... YUP == FOR THE UNINFORMED == SEVERAL CONFESSIONAL SPACES IN CHURCH WERE TURNED INTO CONFESSION/CONFERENCE ROOMS… MANO-et MANO.... I FELL OUT OF HABIT IN THE PAST 6-8 YRS…
REASON—EASIER NOT TO—WHAT W/ A BIZZZY LIFE AND ALL ..TRUTH BE TOLD ... I ACTUALLY MISS THE RITUAL… AND AS A RESULT OF MZ’S POST ON THE SUBJECT.... I’M GOING BACK!!MICKEY’S VISIT TO MOM AND DAD........IS BRINGING GRACE—MAMA PRAYS....THE CANDLE HE LIT LAST WEEK IN ASTORIA HAD A 7-DAY BURN LIFE—AND SOMEHOW THE MAGIC IS POINTING ME TOWARD ST PETE’S—AND SOON TO BE RETIRED PADRE L .. A GOOD GERMAN GUY OF 76—WHO WALKS W/ A LIMP .. HE’S SEEN ME BEFORE—
THANKS MICKEY AND ALL FOR GIVING ME THE TIME OF DAY!!
richie
Posted by richie on from st cloud/nft myers fl 05/15 at 01:14 PMHi Mickey, michael, Zen, richie…
Mickey, you got us all examining our consciences today. That is quite an accomplishment. Even Sister Imelda, the school principal, couldn’t do that. I have always believed that it is good to lead an “examined life”, which to me is a lot like examining my conscience, except it doesn’t necessarily have a religious connection. I like the way joe from Maine, and so many other Expendables relate to their fellow beings on the planet.
Here is a link to latest attempt, inspired by some of the comments here (Keir and others).
http://tinyurl.com/25g7gePosted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/15 at 01:39 PMvery nice RMJ.
one thing, i know you are talking usa but please add the bLIAR to your list.
oh and helga, if you read this, i did not come up with the bLIAR thing. its been doing the rounds for years.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 01:57 PMHello everyone…
Nimmo just fell a bunch of notches in my book. Though he is correct that any effort by the UN or governments in general will most likely hurt rather than help, to say that global warming is a scam is disturbing as hell:
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/15 at 03:57 PMHi JOS...not only Global Warming, which has been challenged by some, but it seems to me that the issue of pollution in general should be addressed. There is no question about the toxic industrial pollution in the human body.
michael...you are right, bLAIR and also what about Howard (do I have his name correct - I am talking about the head of Australia.).Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/15 at 04:58 PMnimmo seems to be falling for the deception that it isn’t happening.
i am not a climatologist. neither is nimmo. most of the people he quotes in his article are geologists - not climate scientists.
reputable science is done in peer reviewed journals. none of the stuff in his article seems to be.
i also said to mickey a while ago, if anyone sends you a copy of the film ‘the great global warming swindle’ it is a load of shite from start to finish
take your pick...i could put many many more if people want them
here is a sample from the first link…
“Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”
http://tinyurl.com/2udvt7
http://tinyurl.com/2u3qcj
http://tinyurl.com/2yxlkg
http://tinyurl.com/c4emk
http://tinyurl.com/ywl24x
http://tinyurl.com/ytb55p
http://tinyurl.com/2aaxsa
http://tinyurl.com/375n4z
http://tinyurl.com/32a79tPosted by michael on from scotland 05/15 at 05:00 PMJOS, Alexander Cockburn is also writing that human-instigated global warming is a scam. George Monbiot and Justin Podur challenged him on it, and all he did was repeat the claims. (It’s all at ZNet, but I can’t search the links right now.) So it goes. I didn’t read the Nimmo thing (I find a lot of his stuff questionable) but there is one thing Cockburn is getting right, at least: the “scare” is being used by certain known entities to ratchet up our reliance on nuclear energy, ethanol, and other unnecessary and dangerous sources of power. I like what William McDonough has to say about nuclear energy (I’ve quoted it here before)...
Don’t get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It’s just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there’s an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it’s wireless!
If you want impeccable writing JOS you’re gonna have to stick with our very own RMJ, who hit the nail right on the goddamn head, once again. (Michael, you ain’t doing too shabby yourself these days either...)
Posted by Keir on from the hague 05/15 at 05:52 PMSorry MZ didn’t forget you or the original post. Just that I don’t have anything to confess, except for the, you know, always being a coward thing. I am not fishing for compliments. I don’t live according to my own stated and secret convictions. But then: who does?
(...I know who. They are the people that Rosemarie says should get the Nuremberg treatment. They are the people who Paul Street says should shoot themselves in the mouth. They live by their convictions...)
Posted by Keir on from the hague 05/15 at 05:59 PMI have sinned many, many times but .. is there a worse sin than launching an immoral and illegal war? My last confession must be more than 40 years ago (full disclosure: I am 56 years old and was raised a Catholic).
Michael #13, I wonder whether you have this piece by Alexander Cockburn where he takes on the IPCC - wouldn’t have expected that from someone like Cockburn:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05122007.htmlHello, my expendables Michael, Zen Prole, Richie, Rosemarie, JOS and Keir (you mention Cockburn’s piece in #14) from a quite wet Daylesford. We need every last drop of that rain, though.
And I hope all is reasonably well in Texas, Mickey.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 05/15 at 06:27 PMMichael #10: thanks for the heads-up on the term bLIAR. Remember Tariq Ali being interviewed during a writers’ festival in Melbourne some years ago, and he said that on the occasion of the anti-war demonstration on 15 February 2003, he spoke about ‘Blair-faced lies’.
Oh, and I love your piece ‘To Impeach, or Not to Impeach’, Rosemarie! Well done.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 05/15 at 06:59 PMI haven’t been to confession since Grade school. Recent events have caused me to rethink that and maybe I should get back.
Gotta start somewhere!
captcha says “move” as in Move On.
Posted by David on from Louisville KY 05/15 at 07:18 PMa strange day here in glasgow.
our city of about a million people has been invaded by about 40,000 spanish people in the last two days.
why?
i will keep this as brief as i can…
if you know anything about football (soccer) the best competition (in terms of quality if not fun) in the world is not the world cup but the champions league. this is a tournament whereby the best 2 or 3 teams in each countries league in europe play each other every year. its called the champions league. then there is a tournament where the third or fourth best teams in each country play called the uefa cup.
the final of the uefa cup is in glasgow tonight (we had the final of the champions league in 2003) so all the spanish have come over for the game and are jumping about the town singing in the fountains etc etc. good laugh actually.
they decide where the final is in way in advance so there was no way of knowing that two spanish teams would qualify so thats why its not in spain.
finally, the two teams are Sevilla (from seville) and espanyol (from barcelona). my friend paul m from scotland informs me we should all be supporting sevilla because…
“Spanish Civil War....rivalry with a political dimensions. Espanyol comprised mainly individuals from the Castille Diaspora and it was representative of the right wing militarism of General Franco’s party.
Espanyol fans today still identify with Real Madrid [General Franco’s club] and the two sets of supporters enjoy a rosy relationship. Whenever the two clubs meet each other, there is no segregation, as a matter of fact, in December 1995, the two teams linked arms before the match in the centre circle while the fans, Real and Espanyol alike sang anti-Barcelona [ a catalan club opposed to franco] songs in unison.”
Ok, i am off to join some seville fans and drink wine and jump around in fountains and so on.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/16 at 06:32 AMsorry for all the scottish news today but we have our new version of a prez too…
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/16 at 09:18 AMmichael/Keir, thanks for the Global Warming info/links and comments. I saw that thing going on at Cockburn’s site. I think Nimmo is sometimes to quick to suggest a conspiracy theory, though on the mark most of the time and then he starts in on this subject and I was amazed.
As for sins, I too had my first and only confession when I received my confirmation in my freshman year at high school. I was face to face with a priest I had never met before. I didn’t know what to say because even in my catholic church brainwashed mind I didn’t feel like much of a sinner (at that point). So he took me down the line of ridiculous sins...then he got to the sins of the flesh. What 14 year old boy wasn’t masterbating? The guy grossed me out pretty bad and I lied to his (and I guess His) face.
Anyway, I carried that sin for a long time in the bag of guilt a catholic upbringing requires you lug around.
The only other time that comes to mind is one time when I was a young man and was still debating religion in my mind...I looked up at the night sky and said, “God, show me a sign if you want me to go back to church.” At that very instant a wonderful shooting star blazed through the darkness in the exact place that I was looking.
I still didn’t go back.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/16 at 11:10 AMThis is interesting (Paul is Ron Paul):
“Have you ever read about the reason they attacked us? They attacked us because we’ve been over there.”
“We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years,” Paul went on. “I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us.”
Giuliani suddenly turned the polite debate on its head when he jumped out of turn to respond to Paul’s shocking comments.
The former mayor tore into him for blaming Americans for 9/11.
“That was an extraordinary statement, as someone who has lived through the attacks of Sept. 11th, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq,” an indignant Giuliani responded.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11th.
“I’d ask the congressman to withdraw the statement and say he wasn’t serious,” Giuliani added to rousing applause - the loudest of the night - at the debate sponsored by Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party.”
----
Fuckin’ Giuliani.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/16 at 11:18 AMHi everyone… Thanks Keir and Helga.
JOS...I saw that last night. I believe that Ron Paul actually used the “B” word, “Blowback”. Giuliani’s reaction was amazing but the audience reaction was even more so. It proves, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the usa population, including its candidates for president are dumber than whale s#%t when it comes to usa history and usa foreign policy. 9/11 WAS BLOWBACK !!!!!!!!And then there is this little tidbit...the N.J. National Guard has set fire to New Jersey. I call that collateral damage. I feel sorry for the people there (I used to live near the evacuated fire zone), but I wonder how many will make the connection that this is part of the price for living in a militarized country....He who lives by the sword....
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/16 at 12:28 PMI forgot to say, Thanks, michael.
Also my soul needs cleansing after that Republican debate last night. Ward Churchill always works for me.
“...What I want is for civilization to stop killing my people’s children. If that can be accomplished peacefully, I will be glad. If signing a petition will get those in power to stop killing Indian children, I will put my name at the top of the list. If marching in a protest will do it, I’ll walk as far as you want. If holding a candle will do it, I’ll hold two. If singing protest songs will do it, I’ll sing whatever songs you want me to sing. If living simply will do it, I will live extremely simply. If voting will do it, I’ll vote. But all of those things are allowed by those in power, and none of those things will ever stop those in power from killing Indian children. They never have, and they never will. Given that my people’s children are being killed, you have no grounds to complain at whatever means I use to protect the lives of my people’s children. And I will do whatever it takes...” -Ward Churchill…
The government keeps saying that it has all options on the table. Maybe Churchill is telling us that we need to have ALL options on the table in order to stop the killing. RMJ
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/16 at 01:10 PMHello Expendables. It warms my cynical little heart to see so much conversation going on while I toil in the hot Texas sun. I’ll try to join in soon or at least make another jaded, pessimistic post.
In the meantime, David: Good luck with your current trials and tribulations.
Captcha sez: “mother”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Dubya Land 05/16 at 01:11 PMDavid...yes, we are all here for you.
Mickey...How’s your Mom? How are you?Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/16 at 01:24 PMHi RMJ...is there hope for Americans yet, even Fox viewers?:
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/16 at 02:05 PMJOS...that is a surprise. Ron Paul leading the Pack. I don’t know what to say except that I still think that there is no hope. All hope died in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act. As long as there is a Black Budget, the planet is doomed. Secret men, with secret black budgets, running secret prisons, waging secret wars. Yep, the end is near; therefore, ALL of OUR options should be on the table.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/16 at 03:40 PMNEWS is reporting that Wolfowitz is resigning from the World Bank. I bet they find someone just as bad as a replacement.
Also, the Senate just rejected a bill to stop funding the war. All of the Expendables can now say, “We told you so”, to those who celebrated the last election.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/16 at 04:00 PMi am very annoyed. i visit this website every day and discuss american business, after all we live in the american empire and we are deluged with it.
for one day i gave you an option to look at something else....our new arsehole leader in another little country… you could have looked and gave an opininon.
it seems though, that although we all think all these little countries matter only when they suit our topic of conversation for the evening.
seriously. i am annoyed.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/16 at 04:55 PMhey michael...I apologize, you’re right. I know you mentioned it already, but that is great that he is pro-independence. Interesting that you met him as well.
Those anti-independence arguments sound very familiar to me. I heard all of the same arguments when I lived in Puerto Rico...especially, that there is no way PR could survive without the US.
The difference is that is Scotland the people actually voted for and elected a pro-independence leader. In PR the Independence Party regularly receives less than 5% of the vote.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/16 at 05:11 PMthank you for your humanity JOS
it is just a different set of situations entirely when you live in a country of 5 million people compared to a country of 300 million. not better or worse either way but i think people should acknowledge and find out about that before they start putting the world to rights in american terms.
we are a small country and therefore we are a little closer to our supposed leaders, therefore we can throw rocks at them. thats the good thing.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/16 at 05:26 PMit rarely helps tho
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/16 at 06:35 PMEvening all.
Missed the Sevilla-Espanyol match (the local decided it would make them more money to show a certain long-running british soap-opera), but it sounds like it was a doozy. Viva Sevilla! (or Vive? I can never remember.)Its a strange thing - I know very few scots, all of the ones I do know I know on the web, and all except michael have been very how shall I put it, luke-warm about the SNP’s victory. But then I saw Alex Salmond’s ‘victory’ interview with Paxman (the BBC’s ‘hardman’ anchor) on Newsnight. Hmm. I think Paxman’s words - “So if Scottish voters reject independence in a referendum, we’ll hear no more of this nonsense for a generation” sum up Officialdom’s bile-raisingly arrogant attitude.
For the record, I wholeheartedly endorse Chomsky’s view that Ireland was/is the first European colony, and that Scotland & Wales didn’t follow long after that. If there ever was a moral imperative to decolonise Africa and Asia (but not America, gosh no), there remains one to decolonise the British Isles too.
I’ve been thinking about guilt recently. Mainly this is a result of reading the rightwing/middlebrow paper they take at the Indian takeaway near my sisters. In those pages I’ve learned of thing called Green Guilt - a powerful argument against doing things which harm advertising revenue for rightwing/middlebrow newspapers. Apparently if an alternative way of doing things (going on holiday, eating, working)exists which makes advertising targets feel guilty about their consumption, that alternative must be dismissed out of saintly concern for the targets mental health. Its almost theological in its idiotic perfection.
Posted by Mew on from clophill 05/16 at 06:57 PMmew dude… how shall I put it? i am tremendously lukewarm about an snp victory. i think i made that very clear in the links i provided.
we don’t like snp but we will have independence. to some extent, the snp are the reason it hasnt happened already. the steps made this week dont mean its coming sooner but it is coming soon
the entire weight of the british empire has been on us far more directly and regularly than anyone else. it is a difficult thing to fight, especially when you are outnumbereed 10 to 1 and when so many arseholes in your own country go along with it.
there has never been such a thing as the united kingdom.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/16 at 07:24 PMmichael, you did indeed make clear your ambivalence about the SNP, I was just trying to convey that many of your “arsehole” countrymen seem to have bought into London’s propaganda (understatement being the sole English talent and all that.) I should point out that the non-michaelular scots I know, I don’t know through any political route, and they are for the most part not arseholes
Posted by Mew on from clophill 05/16 at 07:46 PMOne last whack at the human vs. naturally produced CO2 problem: Does this bear suspicious resemblance to the “debate” about (so-called) depleted uranium? Whether DU is radioactive or not, it is lethal. So why (I thought to myself) are people wasting their time on this discussion?
Even if there is a natural reason for higher CO2 levels, that doesn’t change the hyper-multifaceted fact that the biosphere is collapsing under stress.
Each of these cases (and we can throw in 9/11 so no one feels left out) proves something about the Left, if little else.
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 05/16 at 09:41 PMPEOPLE:
MY NEPHEW TAMAS IS AFGHAN/SCOT VIA BIRTH IN AUSTRALIA.. TAM’S PARENTS MET IN AUSTRALIA. I NEED TO GET HIS TAKE ON THE CURRENT POLITICS OF HIS MOTHER’S SCOTTISH HOMELAND. HE IS A CPA/FINANCIER. TAM MET MY NIECE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, WHERE BOTH WORKED FOR KPMG PEAT MARWICK. (MICHAEL.....I HEAR YOU......) RMJ ==
WADE CHURCHILL == READ THE BELLECOURT BROTHERS == CLYDE AND VERNON S’ TAKE ON WADE… AND WHERE THE LINGO HE BORROWS COMES FROM.... OJIBWE = LAHOTA ..CROW.. etc TRANSLATIONS == AS WADE TENDS TO PARSE THEM TOGETHER W/ A VARIETY OF OTHER INDIAN COUNTRY ORAL HISTORIES .. AND CLAIMS THE WORDS AS HIS OWN....... IF WADE IS TO LEAD ANY REVOLUTION ... LET IT BE ON A TURNTABLE .. SPINNING RECORDS AT 78 RPM......... I’VE WORKED WITH CLYDE AND SERVED AS A RESOURCE TO THE MPLS RED SCHOOL HOUSE. MY SON TAUGHT FOR TWO YEARS AT FOUR WINDS SCHOOL IN MPLS, WHERE ORAL HISTORY WAS SHARED BY TRIBAL ELDERS IN FREQUENT SCHOOL POW-WOWS. FUNNY THING....THE HISTORY OF THEIR STORIES PRECEDED WADE’S BIRTH BY SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS.. FOR AN ANGLO FROM MICHIGAN - WADE CERTAINLY HAS VALID CREDENTIALS TO “WAX POETIC” FOR “HIS” “ADOPTED” PEOPLE…
OK.........I’M DONE DONE GRUMBLIN’ FOR THE NIGHT......
Posted by richie on from st cloud/nft myers fl 05/17 at 02:09 AMJUST CALL ME MR MALAPROP === WARD .... NO NOT CLEAVER == WARD CHURCHILL—SILLY .......NOT W A D E CHURCHILL .. GOOGLE/HOLICS...........WADE SPINS WARD REFERENCES ... AS QUICKLY AS WARD.... THEY MUST BE BROTHERS FROM ANOTHER MOTHER...== MY APOLOGIES TO RMJ ... MY INITIALS ARE RJM == AND RMJ == MAMA NEVER SAID NOTHIN’ ABOUT US BEING BLOOD BROTHERS.......BUT BLOGGER BROTHERS........ FOR SURE !!! PEACE OUT........SAY GOOD NITE DICK......GOOD NITE DICK!!!!! ( i was never referred to as dick ... until i took my first job… and the moniker stuck.... i was lil fat richie as a kid.... richard to my mother.........dickie to my latter year friends.... and richie to my adult/retired self...and bride.....and numerous nephews/nieces.........and their children............YUP == GOOD OLE 6’2” == 305 LB......UNCLE RICHIE.....)
Posted by richie on from st cloud/nft myers fl 05/17 at 03:26 AM
Next entry: Critical Math
Previous entry: Our shared legacy
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
