Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Monday, June 05, 2006

Haditha and Rumsfeld's Ratio

Posted by Mickey Z on 06/05 at 04:21 AM

“We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all activity, the intolerable labor of thought.”
--Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961)

Merry too-early, Expendables! Sunday’s celebs were De Niro and Demi, eh? The clue about Whoopi Goldberg still baffles me.

I can’t read stuff Rumsfeld says without feeling the sickened revulsion of the sane for the serial killer.

Big Country, from last night: Never having been to the place you’re talking about, I can’t share the creepifyin’ visual of lovely dunes with smokestacks looming in the near distance, but it’s one hell of an image. Where do you plan to put it in your book?

CatLady, from last night: You’ll get a lot more than a pinch if you don’t get to writing. See your gmail box for tangible evidence that Big Brother Is Watching You.

Chris, from last night: “Big” bein’ the operative woid, if youse folla m’drift....

Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 06/05 at 07:38 AM

Today I’m taking proofreading tests at 2 separate staffing agencies then on to my hopefully final dentist visit for another 4 months or so. After that much masochism I’ll probably be in just the right mood for writing. If I can stay awake.

RMJ about yesterday, I’ve seen Mickey eat and no, I don’t think he’s been late for dinner much.

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 06/05 at 08:22 AM

The clue was probably a ref. to the movie Ghost. Gotta rush out…

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 06/05 at 08:23 AM

CatLady #2: “Mood” is piffle and bosh! WRITE. There is no Miss Mary Mealymouth crapola about “moods” in the service of literature! JUST DO IT, as the odious sneaker company says ad nauseam.

“Mood" imagine such dilettante-ish codswallop “mood” HAH what if Proust had a “mood” and ignored that damn cookie oh wait that would have been good what if Knut Hamsun hhad been in a “mood” and never written Hunger or Mikey’d never had the endorphin high that clouded his judgment and led him to create Cool Observer “mood” indeed grumbles off to work

Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 06/05 at 08:59 AM

Will you two get a room already?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/05 at 09:26 AM

He he he…

“Big Country, from last night: Never having been to the place you’re talking about, I can’t share the creepifyin’ visual of lovely dunes with smokestacks looming in the near distance, but it’s one hell of an image. Where do you plan to put it in your book?”

Mudge...I think I will stage my ending there… perhaps a shootout between my protagonist and several big steel company security goons. At one point, my hero will spring up from beneath a pile of sand and deliver a roundhouse kick disabling two guards at once.

But seriously...you may have an idea there...a setting such as that...the beauty of nature and the ugliness of corporate pollution would give the reader a great sense of discomfort...quite useful, I imagine.

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 06/05 at 09:35 AM

Excellent article as usual, MIck...we are supposed to admire as heroes those that drop 1,000 pound bombs, chemical weapons, DU, cluster bombs...and ignore the .01 % (sic) who slaughter innocents up close and personal as bad apples?

I hold those in power responsible first...but I can not give those that volunteer to pull the trigger, push the button or fly the plane a free ride.

I have a second cousin that just got back from Iraq. He was a complete ####-up who was probably going to end up in jail...then he joined the marines (great move). He served 6-months in Iraq then stopped following orders...he stopped participating. They sent him home on a general discharge. I saw him the other night and he had a crazy look in his eyes.

1/3 of all the soldiers that come back from Iraq seek help in therapy. What about the other 2/3’s?

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 06/05 at 09:57 AM

Hi folks & an especial hola to “Big” Mudge ... never doubted it fella!

MZ from yesterday - I’m fine thank you sir, & how’s your good self? Once more fine old graphics, & once more the same old shit in the world. So 99.9% of our troops behave well, do they? Where in hell does that that lying fuckstain Rumsfeld get that from?

Also, what was that weird fucker from some university on about last week? The dude who ended his post with “You all know what you have to do.” I for one have no idea what I have to do. I did briefly look at his website, though - most of it wasn’t there! Is he one of your cyber stalkers, MZ? One of the - what’s the term? Grunters or some such, only more odious. Forget the term, but it was applied (accurately IMHO) to the shit for brains yahoo who did your Wilki entry.

As for Expendable writing month, I’m editing the novel I wrote last year. Will that do? The sad fact about writing is that writing ain’t enough, you have to reread, consider, edit, weigh up and ... oh god I’m tired just thinking about it.

I am writing a silly story, though (titled “Sherlock Holmes & The Hidden Turd.” It’s VERY deep). And I hope success favours all your pens!

Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, odd wet lovely Manchester 06/05 at 10:00 AM

“One of the - what’s the term?” Trolls, Chris.

One more of many, many murderous incident by “our” 99.9% good-hearted military:

According to accounts given by Hashim’s neighbors and members of his family, and apparently supported by photographs, the Marines went to Hashim’s home, took the 52-year-old disabled Iraqi outside and shot him four times in the face. The assault rifle and shovel next to his body had been planted by the Marines, who had borrowed them from a villager, family members and other residents said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400797_pf.html

Posted by JOS on from Chicago 06/05 at 10:07 AM

Okay okay okay. Now I almost hope the cavity-filling hurts especially much tonight. That would probably get me the literary clarity I need so much.

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen, NYC 06/05 at 11:17 AM

Hello Writing Expendables (is that anything like the Flying Wallendas?). My troll infestation has been handled behind the scenes and, as a result, my Wiki page is as generic as most.

As for the main post, I’m just trying to put forth the concept that we’re shouldn’t be concerned about whether the war is being perpetrated in the right (sic) way...it’s more about recognizing that war itself—and the violent society that spawns it and accepts it—is the issue.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/05 at 01:24 PM

What can I say, Mickey: another excellent post! As for Rumsfeld’s comment: words fail me almost every time I hear him.

And ‘hello’ to Mudge (the first on this thread and many others!), James, JOS and Chris Wood.

‘ .. it’s more about recognizing that war itself—and the violent society that spawns it and accepts it—is the issue.’ Precisely, Mickey.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 06/05 at 03:34 PM

Very good piece about the Rumsfeld doctrine in the latest issue of ‘London Review of Books’:
http://lrb.co.uk/v28/n11/bace01_.html

What an evil man - and he has German ancestors like yours truly.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 06/05 at 03:38 PM

James #2 and Mickey: I hope I can invite you both for dinner in NYC one day. That would not happen before 2016 or so unfortunately - unless we win Tattslott.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 06/05 at 03:40 PM

Hello Helga. I am assuming Tattslott is an Aussie lottery of some sort, right?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/05 at 03:44 PM

This is just nuts:

by Brendan O’Neill

Brad, Angelina and the rise of ‘celebrity colonialism’

What gives two Hollywood actors the right to shut down an African nation so that they can have a special experience?

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/327/

Posted by JOS on from Downtown Chicago 06/05 at 03:57 PM

Greetings, all. Clearly war is the issue, in particular this war. War, done “properly” or not, gives the same result.

And now for something completely different.

“Changing the definition of marriage would undermine the structure of the family.”
-G.W. Bush

How?

“Marriage between one man and one woman does a better job protecting children better than any other institution humankind has devised.”
-Senator Bill Frist

Ouch. Humankind devised marriage? Goodness, I think this fellow just took God out of marriage. Someone tell Pat Robertson! We have to protect our children from...gay marriage?

http://tinyurl.com/lek7g

Posted by Cart on from near Warshington DC 06/05 at 04:04 PM

This is FUCKING nuts:

MISSISSAUGA, Canada (AP) - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police itself delivered three tons of potential bomb-making material to a group that authorities said wanted to launch a string of attacks inspired by al-Qaida, according to a news report Sunday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5865178,00.html

........

All day all I have been reading in the news is that the “terrorists” in Canada had THREE TIMES the amount of manure it took to blow up the Oklahoma City feederal building. YEAH...the cops BROUGHT them all of it.

I think the sting was initiated in a chat room. Cops/Agents set them up. Sure they are idiots...but would any of this have actually happened if it wasn’t for the sting operation.

Posted by JOS on from Downtown Chicago 06/05 at 04:06 PM

What gives two Hollywood actors the right to shut down an African nation so that they can have a special experience?

Maybe they’re just superior to us.

Cart: Don’t bother Pat Robertson at the moment. He’s too busy doing his leg presses: http://www.cbn.com/communitypublic/shake.aspx

JOS: Hey, at least the Canadian police stopped short of blowing something up themselves and then blaming the Muslims, huh?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/05 at 04:34 PM

1,000 lb leg presses, huh? What, is he training to jump into heaven and kick God out?

Posted by Cart on from near Warshington DC 06/05 at 04:51 PM

What would Jesus bench?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/05 at 05:03 PM

A very large amount, seeing as he was single and human, so I guess his arms got plenty of working out. Heh heh.

Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, odd wet lovely Manchester 06/05 at 05:15 PM

Chris #22: Single? Jesus?? Not unless he was a fag, not in that day and time. Besides, what rock have you been hiding under? Dan Brown’s explained the whole thing to us groundlings in The DaVinci Code!

(Movie stank, BTW...Punkin and I went to see it, neither of us liked it.)

Cart #17: Letting people the Christers hate at least partially for promiscuity enter into a contract that, in part, is designed to DISCOURAGE promiscuity is a Bad Thing. Very Very Bad. Because...because...well, just BECAUSE goddammit, no need to bring up the ick-factor revulsion at the idea of what the fags DO to each other, ew ew ew. (Forty-three percent of married women report being asked for anal sex by their husbands. Ew?)

Big Country #18: Dear God, please beam me up, I’m done with the idiots, okay? Please?

#6: It’s too good not to use somehow. If not this book, another. But it’s compelling! Excellent eye for spotting it!

CatLady #10: Clarity? That’s what writing GIVES not what gives writing! Heavens sake alive, spoiled little man aren’t you?

Hi Helga! Don’t forget us when your Tatslott ship comes in!

101F on my back porch for a high. Ew.

Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 06/05 at 06:56 PM

Great article on Rumsfeld, acceptable war crimes and unacceptable war crimes.

Mr. Robertson’s weights are probably just foam with 1,000 lbs stamped on them.

nice to see informing always keeping up with technology Web users to ‘patrol’ US border http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5040372.stm

I have nothing else to add so here’s an Ode by Pablo Neruda:

Ode To a Lemon
Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium

Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation’s
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.

Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.

So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.

Posted by TM on from 06/05 at 06:58 PM

Now there’s an idea:

“but, in classic corporate style, perhaps we should outsource such inventory work.”

Posted by Fiona on from 06/05 at 08:28 PM

I’m not sure about spoiled with this level of financial anxiety, and I feel like such hell now. Can’t these dentist visits just end already? They’re just not helping, I’ve had enough, enough enough. Well I mean they’e helping my teeth, but not my literary productivity. If it were just the pain it’d be one thing, but the anxiety and fatigue… next time should do the trick, in about 2 weeks.

Today’s post was about Donald Rumsfeld, right? And I got really lost with the reparations discussion again. Did I miss something, or does it basically not matter? I mean, they’re not going to happen anyway, right? The U.S. gov’t gives substantial money to *neither* people who need it here, or overseas, right? So it’s all just a theoretical discussion, isnt it? Which is fine of course, I just wanted to be sure I didn’t miss something.

Okay good night.

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 06/05 at 08:45 PM

Topping the “I love CatLady, Reason Why” list:

“And I got really lost with the reparations discussion again. Did I miss something, or does it basically not matter? I mean, they’re not going to happen anyway, right? The U.S. gov’t gives substantial money to *neither* people who need it here, or overseas, right? So it’s all just a theoretical discussion, isnt it? Which is fine of course, I just wanted to be sure I didn’t miss something.”

Sleep well, my prince.

Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 06/05 at 08:53 PM

See, I told you I wasn’t ganging up on you. Okay, too much double entendre potential there, so good night for real.

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 06/05 at 09:01 PM