Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Friday, September 16, 2005

Fighting words (plus: vote early and vote often below)

Posted by Mickey Z on 09/16 at 06:33 AM

Good morning, Mickey. You did it again. There is so much to talk about here today that I will not be getting my other work done. Thanks for posting the photo of the girl...and those great quotes. Is anyone following the story about the 3 mice? The list keeps growing...poverty, homelessness,war,famine,floods, and now THE PLAGUE. Not to worry, down at the lab they are saying that we are all safe...a little bit of plaque never hurt anyone. My question is, why the heck were we messing around with that stuff in the first place and how many other labs are working on equally insane projects.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/nation/12657231.htm

Posted by rosemarie jackowski on from Mickey's tavern 09/16 at 07:35 AM

Here is a better link…
http://www.physorg.com/news6533.html

Posted by rosemarie jackowski on from Mickey's tavern 09/16 at 07:40 AM

Quote of the morning: “You have more security at a McDonald’s than at some of these facilities.”

Hi Rosemarie.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 07:41 AM

I’m sticking with The Expendables for my vote, though The Z Team is a good one too.

I have to think about the slogan some more.

That Winston Churchill sure was a major a-hole. The quotes go on and on...I know you have had some of his quotes about bombing Muslims on your site before. Hell, they named one of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan after the guy.

OK...here’s a fun site for slogans:

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi?word=expendables

You enter a word, it comes up with a slogan (for the extremely lazy minded). It doesn’t work to well with Expendables, but with some slight adjustments the best it has come up with so far is:

The Expendables are mightier than the sword.
Love the Expendable you Hate.

and

Crunch all you want, we make Expendables.

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 09:55 AM

more for Z Team:

It’s Not All Z Team, Z Team, Z Team, you know.
A Taste For Z Team.

and one more for Expendable:

Make Someone Happy With an Expendable.

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 09:57 AM

I used some of my imagination on this one:

No One Does Dissent Like The Expendables.

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 10:20 AM

Interesting report which could be related to a lot of the things Sander Hicks has uncovered:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050915/ap_on_go_co/sept11_hijackers

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 10:53 AM

Love that slogan generator, James. I could play all day. I typed in “anarchy” and got: Only Anarchy Can Prevent Forest Fires.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 10:57 AM

Hello all, not to mention sundry:

Rosemarie, plague is not a threat to humans! The CDC is attempting to make it sterile, so it will only kill the INTENDED victims, not US in the USA. And we all know the USA contains the only humans on the planet, right? I mean, decent humans wouldn’t bomb other humans with radioactive materials or chemical hellbrews that burn and burn and burn, right? So therefore, the bombees aren’t human! Just like the plague-ees! (Jeez, I thought Yankees were supposed to be shrewd....)

James, you’re finding too much interesting stuff on the Internet. This could cause a problem here in Bushmerica. Cease and desist, I require you, before we get into trouble. After all, if self-censorship is good enough for the Established Media like the Bennington Banner, it is good enough for us. Stop! You might think! This Is Not Allowed!

MZ, your case is simply impossible to defend, so prepare for the Waffle SSM (Super-Size Me) to knock on the door someday soon...your only hope is, when you appear before the factory-farm investor judge, to plead diminished capacity due to lack of animal protien in your diet. In the court’s mercy, it will start you on a diet of tripl;e-meat bacon cheeseburgers with no lettuce, tomato or onion, but at least you’ll be alive!

For a while.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from A Fog of Fear 09/16 at 11:22 AM

James, in trying the link to the Yahoo! News story, it says it was unable to be found.

Cutting and pasting into my browser bar does bring me to the story, however. May I recommend using TinyURL when links are desirable in posts? They really and truly don’t break. Ever. And the TinyURL is automatically added to whatever browser you’re using’s equivalent of the IE “clipboard” so it can be pasted with no effort.

I love the TinyURL folks and the best thing is the usage is free.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from Texas 09/16 at 11:33 AM

“No Rulers, no Masters”

However I think that is an old Anarchist slogan.

“Universal Freedom Is Now!”

Stony morning showers are great for thinking.

“When one is expendable, everyone is.”

a bit of a twist on the old freedom quote. ;)

If I started posting links for hazardous substances suddenly turned up missing from “secure” areas I would be here all day. ;)
Anyone remember the radioactive contaminants “accidentally” shipped around by fed ex?

Posted by Luna_C on from a wee little grave, rip little naked rat. 09/16 at 11:34 AM

I’m loving ths one, Luna: “When one is expendable, everyone is.”

Here’s my latest: Like Gumby is bendable, we are expendable.

Or the haiku version:

Gumby and Pokey
are bendable but we here
is expendable

Richard: Yesterday, you told us the secret meaning of “UFO.” Is there also something in “TinyURL” we should know about?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 11:44 AM

>>>Weldon declined to name the employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as “2.5 terabytes” — as much as one-fourth of all the printed materials in the Library of Congress, he added<<<

No wonder the PTB ordered the stuff deleted, the inbox was full! All the intel from the field kept getting bounced back to sender! Suddenly the war on Iraq makes a lot more sense...the Pentagon never got the email from the UN Weapons Inspectors that “ain’t nothin’ in the chicken coop, boss.”

For want of a nail....

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from Texas 09/16 at 11:48 AM

>>>“When one is expendable, everyone is.” <<< Perfect, Luna_C! Thanks!

This gets my vote for sloganhood of the Expendables. Which, in case I haven’t made it explicit, is my vote for team name.

“URL” is “Unbelievably Reeky Loser.” You asked, I answered.

I have no allegiance to the upstart newcomer DH-havin’ AL at all, as I know you’re aware MZ, but the Sawx WILL remain ahead of the Yanks. Cano can but put his finger in the crumbling levee of their decline.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from Texas 09/16 at 11:56 AM

Now thar’s a catchphrase: the crumbling levee of their decline.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 12:00 PM

Richard, I believe your french is better than mine...is this grammatically correct?:

Avez-Vous Un Expendable?

This slogan maker is addictive:

Don’t Be Vague. Ask (for?) The Expendables.

Smart. Beautiful. Expendable.

Top Breeders Recommend The Expendables.

and some more Z Team:

Try Z Team, You’ll Like It.
Z Team Is Good For You.
Have You Had Your Z Team Today?
No Z Team, No Comment.
Nothing Sucks Like a Z Team.

that’s enough of that.

Mudge/Mick...I’ve been wonderwhat this tinyurl thing is...where do I go to learn how to use it?

I’ve avoinded all 9/11 conspricy theories because, well, they were conspiricy theories. Sander’s stuff is the first that has sounded credible to me...and wow, truth is so much stranger than fiction.

Now I am going to have to get Sander’s book and do some research on what he has uncovered...so much to read, so little time.

Mudge, I don’t think I could “cease and desist” if I wanted to...as Mickey knows, interesting, entertaining or just plain dangerous stuff is like a drug to me, its addictive. I never cease to be amazed at what my government is capable of.

Let me officialy submit my votes for name and slogan:

The Expendables: When one is expendable, everyone is.

Go Yanks.

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 12:31 PM

Uh - am I in the right place?
I just came in to pick up a tux for the prom!

Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/16 at 12:39 PM

wow, my spelling is horrible, try cutting and pasting the following in the above comment where needed: conspirAcy, avoided, wonder(space)what...etc. My apologies…

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 12:39 PM

Joe, we love when young people like you come in here and educate us on what’s going down out there in the world...please join in the conversation.

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 12:44 PM

James, the first conspiracy-type 9/11 piece I ever read was called: I Tried To Be Patriotic, by a guy who is, apparently, an engineer. It really blew me away. Here’s an address where it can be found:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/patriotic.htm

This is a wonderful, goofy gab, guyz.
See you shortly.
- Ignax

Posted by joe on from Out in the back 09/16 at 12:47 PM

Save the last dance for me, Joe…

In the mainstream book, “102 Minutes,” there’s a fair amount of info on how the towers were built, corners that were cut, and how the “experts” believed a unique set of circumstances allowed the planes to bring them down. I’m not saying this is “fact” but I don’t take as “fact” that jet fuel couldn’t bring them down. Two primary reasons for that: I don’t know nearly enough about the chemistry and physics involved and, even if I did, there are dramatic exceptions to almost every rule.

Here’s something I wrote in an article last year: It’s easy to imagine that Clinton and/or Bush had more than an inkling that Osama and Co. were plotting something big. Why not? As in the decades leading up to Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was acting as “a clear and potent threat.” It’s equally as palatable to assume that either administration would gladly exploit any attack on the homeland for their benefit and that of their corporate benefactors. Finally, and here’s where the December 7 angle really comes into play, what reasonably objective observer would be shocked to learn that both U.S. regimes never believed that a group of cave-dwelling nomads could pull off anything approaching the success of 9/11? Racism and arrogance ... a potent combination.

My eyes and ears are wide open on this...but I apply equal skepticism to alternative theories as I do to official explanations.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 01:07 PM

OK, I seem to be behind the curve here. Regardless, I like Fungible but mostly because I like the way it sounds rather than the actual meaning. Dittoheads of the Left? (sorry.)

The tinyurl link only gave me the A-Team wav file; is it a page?

Posted by wordlackey on from New England 09/16 at 01:52 PM

Hi Mickey -
Well, this guy doesn’t offer a theory at all, really. He simply brings his understanding of engineering & chemistry & physics to the events. Or, that’s my recollection of the piece. He’s not a good writer, but his perspectives make for an interesting read.

However, I think, as with the Kennedy assassination, that we’ll never know what really happened. Perhaps the same could be said about “his (and her) story,” in general.

Frequently, when several people witness a “crime,” and tell their stories, the stories differ. They often differ pretty dramatically.
Heck, sometimes, when my kids were younger, my wife and I would take all three of them somewhere, and, afterwards, we’d discuss something that happened. We’d sometimes discover that there were five versions of the events in question.
This refers, to some extent, to my discussion with Infanta, the other day: Who decides which version of history is correct and appropriate - and why? It was Chomsky, himself, who said something like: “Make no mistake. I have an agenda. Everyone has an agenda. Authors are never neutral.”
In political discussions, in the past, I used to employ a quote from a wonderful Russian madman, Gurdjieff: “A full man simply can not understand a hungry man.”

Anyway, about that tux.
That’s a great story, from Kaitlin, Mickey.
Who cares how they get here, as long as they finally arrive?

Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/16 at 02:05 PM

I just got an e-mail from Amnesty International urging me to see this film: http://www.amnestyusa.org/lordofwar.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 02:26 PM

Man, I was about to go see that last night but I changed my mind because I wasn’t sure what type of movie it was going to be…

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 02:58 PM

The reviews I’ve seen (NY Times, Village Voice) were not kind...but, as I always say: The difference between me and the reviewers is that they saw the movie for nothing.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 03:09 PM

Joe wrote: >>>In political discussions, in the past, I used to employ a quote from a wonderful Russian madman, Gurdjieff: “A full man simply can not understand a hungry man."<<<

C’est vrai, comrade. Most of the fat’n’happy hoi polloi here in Murrica couldn’t understand real pverty. We think poverty is not being able to afford a place to live or enough to eat. REAL poverty means nothing to eat. Ever. No water that won’t make you sick. No place to sleep where it can’t rain on you.

And no way to fix it.

People here can go to shelters, charity kitchens, etc, but some choose not to and others don’t know how to get there or have other disabling problems. But these things exist here. These things do not even exist in many, many parts of the world.

I whine about how hard it is to be unemployed for eight months, and have my savings run out, and have to live on charity. I think about Gurdjieff’s statement and I am transported to the favelas of Rio and the reeking dungheap that many Manilans call home...and that’s just the urban poverty, real poverty, that I’ve seen with my own two eyes.

I’m embarrassed I’ve ever so much as had a self-pitying thought.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from Texas 09/16 at 03:35 PM

James, Avez-Vous Un Expendable? is set to become le dernier cri dans les Expendables francaises ou quebecoises.

As to your statement “Go Yankees” I must assume that, since you show no signs of mental, moral or ethical deficiency in other ways, you simply neglected to interpose “straight to hell” between verb and subject. N’est-ce pas?

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from Texas 09/16 at 03:41 PM

9/11: http://tinyurl.com/a2llg

Poverty: http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey12222004.html

That’s my two cents...for now.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 03:48 PM

>>>Top Breeders Recommend The Expendables.<<<

Oh James, James...sexual orientation is a delicate issue and nasty, cruel epithets ought not to be hurled at folks for their failures and defects of imagination and courage. It’s not their fault they’re breeders...I mean, ooops, heterosexual, gosh that slipped out so sorry.

What’s that? You’re what now? Oh.

Moving on.

http://tinyurl.com/

It’s pretty much self-explanatory, but to get you familiar with the concept: One copies a URL in the accustomed manner; opens a new browser window to TinyURL; pastes the long, copied URL in their identified box for same; clicks on the “make tiny” button, and the resulting tiny URL is automatically saved onto one’s browser “clipboard” for pasting into a post or email or whatever.

The link thus created is completely unbreakable, no matter how many times an email is forwarded or a post is copied and sent elsewhere. I love it because with a small, small extra expenditure of effort I prevent emails from my address bookies complaining that they can’t follow a link.

Posted by Mudge the UFO on from Texas 09/16 at 03:54 PM

From MZ’s counterpunch piece:

“...[W]e’re trained to perceive hunger and malnutrition as virtual acts of god...This reaction to Third World misery ignores the role America plays...the role WE play. NAFTA, WTO, World Bank, IMF...I can’t say what any these mean to you but you can be damn sure they mean an awful lot to those 70% [of its 8.6 million inhabitants liv{ing} below the poverty line] in Bolivia...and literally billions elsewhere.”

You research these subjects, digest the knowledge you discover, apply critical thinking faculties and analytical tools to that digestion, and the epitome of same is clear, cogent and logical...and you are not, to all appearances anyway, sapped of all hope for humanity and unable to lift your head from your marital couch to greet each fresh dawn.

I am not understand, o Guru. I want to open my veins with despair for the evil coueurs mechants of my species about ten minutes into each day and I don’t even KNOW about this stuff until you tell me about it.

I need whatever it is you’re snorting/injecting/rubbing into your baldness just to go on. Gimme! Gimme!

Oh sorry, my inner Murrican was coming out.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from A Different Kind of Brothel 09/16 at 04:22 PM

We have many poets of prose (and poetry, I suspect) here among The Expendables...including our Mr. Z of the Z Team.

Mudge, I thought you were from Texas? Why the Red Sox?

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 05:00 PM

James, the Red Sox are simply fulfilling my basic requirement for any team: They Ain’t The Yank-mes.

I care nothing at all for them as a team, and as for that damnfool curse crapola, fine by me, never leave Beantown, whatever.

The National League, home of actual baseball played by real players who have to >gasp< go to bat even if they suck at it because that’s what a {i}baseball player[/i] does, contains my team...the Mets. I feel some residual love for the Cubbies because my mother’s mother, a terrible abusive woman in many ways, was also a huge baseball fan whose fandom dated from seeing the 1908 World Series games when she was 16. We shared this passion (my dad was a Giants fan from the mid-1930s and raised me on trips to Candlestick Park which was still brand-new, so I have baseball on every side of the family tree) and were safe talking about it.

Please, please say you’re not a Yank-me fan.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from National League Fandom 09/16 at 05:26 PM

Scary right-wing zealot whose career I keep track of out of sheer perverse love of the insane:

“The single most important truth here, though, is that all 100 senators sit in office under a law that does not exist. The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was never ratified – an indisputable fact that cannot be denied. It’s most unfortunate that there aren’t enough real men in any of the 50 state legislatures to challenge this fraud.”

Those Judging the Judge, WorldNewsDaily
http://tinyurl.com/drh67

She rails against Chief Justice nominee Roberts’s liberalism because he worked on the Romer v Evans case and argued that poor faggots and dykes couldn’t help themselves, they’re genetically flawed; this woman thinks faggots and dykes are instead immoral evil monsters. She’s such a shining example of Christianity! (No sarcasm, she really is, in all its repulsive hatefulness.)

Posted by Richard the Curmudgeon on from Texas 09/16 at 05:49 PM

Mudge, what a disturbing site! How can comfortable, “well-educated” people come to be filled with such filthy, frothing, alarming hatred? I’ve got to go shower - for about 11 years…

Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/16 at 06:50 PM

Mudge, sometimes it’s not hope I feel...just anger.

Where’s Harry been lately?

(I hope you’ll all check in over the weekend to wish (a very clean) Joe happy b’day and engage in some more interactive highjinks on Sunday.)

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 07:28 PM

Mudge - I was born a yank-me fan...born in NYC, I’ve been going to the stadium since I can remember and suffered through the 80’s (only decade they didn’t win it all at least once) and early 90’s when all we had was Donnie Baseball to offset the evil George S.

Often, my brother and I would receive box seat tickets from my dad, travel to the South Bronx by subway and scalp them in order to enjoy the game properly among the bleacher creatures singing horribly offensive songs about opposing players mothers and demanding recognition of our importance from each Yankee player starting with then right fielder Jesse Barfield during “roll call.”

We would drink beer and eat hot dogs to our heart’s content from the profits gained after purchasing admittance for two to the bleachers for $4.50 each with the proceeds from selling our free “capitalist pig” box seat tix.

We would laugh heartily after chanting “jump, Jump!” in unison to any tourist peering down at us from the upper deck. We would break any attempt at a ridiculous “waves” by the rest of the stadium by sitting steadfastly in our seats as they reached us. If anyone dared wear a cap from ANY other team other than our beloved yanks we would pull it from his head and burn it.

Most games a good three or four of us would be forcibly removed for our raucous behavior...and any of us who martyred ourselves in such fashion would be cheered wholeheartedly by all the creatures and treated as a god at the next home game.

Mind you, this was a long time ago (my brother and I were teenagers), and as the Yanks regained their championship form the rules changed and became stricter with each sell out. They don’t even sell beer in the bleachers anymore and our beloved bell player (who led us in our chants and songs) died long ago...his son replaced him, and just doesn’t have the same rhythm. Still, our team in ‘96 will go down as the greatest group of hardworking (non-all stars) I ever saw play.

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 07:30 PM

Now that’s a “storytelling Saturday” yarn, James. One day, I have to post my memories of sneaking into Shea when the Jets played there (to see Namath play). Plus, I saw Mantle hit #536 (his last) at the Shrine...I mean, Stadium.

Completely unrelated: A cartoon from al-Jazeera:
http://tinyurl.com/4ncgm

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 07:45 PM

Wow. Seeing Mantle play must have been amazing.

Yeah, I should have saved it for tomorrow, but richard “yank-me” curmudgeon brought out my yarn spinning flow. Mudge, believe it our not, I don’t think I’ve heard that one (yank-me), even I had to laugh at that.

Great cartoon...isn’t funny (not) that al-jeezera knows us better than most of our population?

I’ll check back in later tonight...yeah Harry, where are you?

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 07:53 PM

A fine story, James. For a few minutes, I could almost smell the city, hear the crowds, taste the beer. Nice work. Thanks.

Interesting cartoons, Mickey. Strange & sad.

BTW - I spent (too much, duh!) time, today, reading a review of major military & political alliances during the 19th and early 20th century. What an amazing kaleidoscope of krap. Nation-states are like huge, fetid globs of pure self-interest, in a constant quest to rape and dismantle the entire world, for profit and power: While they exist, anywhere, everyone will be in danger - everywhere.

Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/16 at 09:48 PM

James, when I downloaded tiny url, it put a TinyURL! button on the same toolbar as the address bar.When I’m on any web page that I want to create a tiny url for, all I have to do is go up and click that TinyURL! button, and it instantly takes me to a page that provides the tiny url right in the middle of it. It shows the original, long url, and then the tiny url that was created, and then I can just right click on that tiny url, click on Copy, and then go paste it wherever I’m hoping to provide that source. Seems a little easier than Mudge’s method, anyway. Hope that helps.

Posted by bc on from 09/16 at 10:14 PM

thanks mudge and bc on the tinyurl info....

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/16 at 10:30 PM

Geez, I just got paged to come over and I haven’t got a sensible thing to say. The TinyUrl button is a simple javascript bookmarklet(sensible ?) If you ever need a permanent link to a NY Times article, there’s another button like it on this page. I do like The Mix @ Mick’s, but the only slogans I can come up with right now are all ludicrous.

Posted by Harry on from 09/16 at 11:08 PM

Didn’t mean to rush you over here, Harry. We just miss you...and the NY Times link will come in handy. Hope you’ll stop by tomorrow for Joe’s b’day…

It’s well past my bedtime...evening, all.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/16 at 11:14 PM

Just back from a lovely evening that was NOT runied by going to see The Brothers Grimm. It is only the company that kept it from being completely intolerable. Movie stinks bad, but I didn’t have to pay and I’m fond of the young cinephile. My choices this evening were going OUT to see the ghastly movie and staying in to watch Born Into Brothels and I am not up for depressing docs just now. Tomorrow.

James. Oh well. The story was delightful. I loathe, despise and abominate the Yank-Mes, and have since 1962 when the concept “team” made it into my mental furniture. My father’s AND grandmother’s disdain for the DH rule influenced me in the 70s, but it was Mamaw saying “I root for teams that EARN pennants, not BUY them” shortly before her death that crystallized my revulsion. Prior to that it was inchoate, a feeling without form.

I still think you’re a nice guy with a good sense of humor, just musta been dropped on your head a few too many times early on. Like MZ. Where are all the gay leftist NL fans? I can’t get the youngster to stay awake through an actual game at the ballpark, still less a televised one. BC’s TinyURL toolbar button is less cumbersome indeed! Won’t work on my version of IE, drat it.

Joe, you’re a genuine joy to have around! I love this statement: “Nation-states are like huge, fetid globs of pure self-interest, in a constant quest to rape and dismantle the entire world, for profit and power: While they exist, anywhere, everyone will be in danger - everywhere.” Sometime soon read Collapse by Jared Diamond...if you haven’t already...for its chapter on China. My b-i-l and I had a horrified discussion of the slo-mo environmental and economic collapse happening there, one in the making since China began its quest to become a “real nation-state” in 1911. >eep<

Yeup, WorldNetDaily is really really creepy, ain’t it? Tip: Water doesn’t get hot enough to slough off the lingering oilies of Devvy’s thoughts. It’s chemical peel time. If you’re feeling really happy and upbeat one day, and need to be squashed, look at her archives.

MZ: I know you’re angry, I have actually spoken to you face-to-face, but that’s not all that comes through in your rabble-rousing work. Somewhere there is always something good and fresh and positive, even in the 9/11 piece you’ve had such criticism for...or that Pat Tillman piece you about got lynched for. You are fundamentally operating out of the great love Che identifies as the motivator for real revolutionaries. I just don’t know how you find it in you every day. I’ve been accused of being funny (and it’s not nice to discuss a man’s looks where he can hear you), but it’s the laughter that comes from oxygen deprivation as the decomposing bodies I sit atop here in the Land of the Freely Used Death Penalty breathe their corpse-breath on me.

I want to be more like you, and Rosemarie...truth-tellers with passionate conviction who still believe something, SOMETHING can make a difference in this insane theme-park ride of a country.

Posted by Mudge the Expendable on from The Fetid Glob of Texas 09/16 at 11:56 PM

Forgot two things:

1) Hi Harry!

2) MZ, who the hell is Hilfiger? The silver fox in the pic? I am not understand again.

Posted by Richard the Curmudgeon on from Headed for bed 09/17 at 12:06 AM

Hi Harry & James & Mudge & Mickey & BC -
Harry, being without a sensible thing to say has never stopped me from saying it anyway… Or, something like that. Good to see you.

James - I was thinking about your story. I could almost feel your happiness. I used to have a great many joy-filled days like those you mention. I realize, now, that I always took them for granted. They’ve been gone, now, for a very long time. Not that I’m unhappy - far from it. But, those days which just shivered and shimmered with freedom and friendship and delight, those days seem gone. You captured them well.

Mudge, I’ve not read Collapse, but I’ll go take a peek, right now, at Amazon. And, I should add -
the very next time I’m feeling happy and upbeat and feel the need to be squashed, I certainly WILL know where to turn. Oh, yes, this site will come in handy, as I’m frequently overcome with quite uncomfortable levels of delight… Thanks.

Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/17 at 01:22 AM

It might look like I am up at the crack of dawn here on a Saturday morning, but we do not believe in daylight savings here in PR, so it is actually one hour later and I have the most enjoyable task of bringing my automobile to a garage to find out what sort of new problems it has and how much money I will have to borrow to fix them. Anyway…

Those were joyous days, Joe. My brother and I are white and grew up as part of the “upper” middle “class.” We went to P.S. (Public School) 84...my experience there as one of the only whites shaped my life in a wonderful way.

The Bleachers were filled with Creatures...in other words, people considered expendable by those in the box seats (rich and white)...but we ran sh*t in that stadium for a while. I mean even George’s storm troopers were fearful of us.

And for two white boys like us...well, we were glad and proud to be accepted among the expendables...we felt at home. Besides…

It was a hell of a lot more fun than attending our catholic boarding school in Connecticut!

Posted by James on from Puerto Rico 09/17 at 06:27 AM

G’morning, Expendables. Time to make Saturday’s post.

(Mudge: Hilfiger a way popular designer. “Born into Brothels” is an excellent doc.)

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/17 at 07:06 AM