Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Long Live Tony Soprano

Posted by Mickey Z on 06/10 at 06:20 AM

Mickey, I have one Mafia name to offer: Alan Dershowitz. This academic hitman has been successful in getting Norman Finkelstein’s tenure denied. As I deeply admire Finkelstein’s scholarship, I’m extremely upset about the whole thing.

Ehtesham.

Posted by Ehtesham on from Canada 06/10 at 07:16 AM

Ehtesham.1...Wasn’t information suppressed/destroyed centuries ago that the result has lead us to the limited understandings of living and coexisting that we experience today, enabling authorities to negatively exploit the planet and all things, creating man-made divisions between people?

Manipulating information and definitions are very scary since communication and learning can be so difficult.

Posted by joe of maine on from 06/10 at 10:01 AM

I hadn’t heard about Dershowitz’ recent success. Despite this, Finkelstein will continue to be barbed wire in the Zionists’ flank.

Last night I watched the doc “Jesus Camp,” which wasn’t as dramatic as I expected. It’s about evangelicals brainwashing their already-homeschooled kids into ... um ... evangelizing. The brief exchange about the nature of education vs. indoctrination was interesting, but the baseline was Christianity so critical thinking didn’t factor in. The ironic part was that the summer camp was called “Kids On Fire,” which made me think of napalm and Vietnam. (I’m sure Jebus signed off on that little adventure, too. Buddhist kids don’t go to heaven!) Included is a segment with the now de-queered Ted Haggard.

My mafia name is “Ready-Mix,” ‘cause I’ve always got a bag in the trunk.

Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 06/10 at 10:51 AM

Call me “Cosimo Screwball.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/10 at 01:05 PM

Mickey.4...Okay, Cosimo Screwball

I never saw the Soprano’s TV series...however, I am 3/4 Italian and have fired a Sten...never at people of course, only at sticks floating down the stream. Even with a 40 round clip, I can’t hit the side of a barn from the inside! [hey Cosimo...we need to fill the space]

Posted by joe of maine on from 06/10 at 01:51 PM

Hellos to Mickey, joe, Zen, Ehtesham, and all who have not yet arrived.
I have to admit that I have never seen a whole episode of the Soprano’s but I am always facinated because of the setting. I like New Jersey. I might be one of the few to openly admit that. I enjoyed your childhood tale on the front page. It brought back a lot of memories for me. When my grandparents came here from the “old country” (Poland) they came to work in the coal mines of the anthracite region in northeastern Pennsylvania. One of my grandfathers died at an early age, possibly from black lung. My other grandfather decided that there must be a better option. After working hard and saving some money he quit his job in the mines and opened a saloon. In those days saloons were really the meeting place for the miners, factory workers, etc. Women were not allowed in the bar area, but had a separate entrance. Young boys always hung out in the bar and solicited business for their shoe shining enterprises.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 06/10 at 02:13 PM

Hello RMJ.6 You have a pleasant story...my father worked in the coal mines of Central Pennsylvania also.

Children started working in coal mines as early as 13 years of age...brutality...for many people, there was no other work to be had in the immediate vicinity.

Posted by joe of maine on from 06/10 at 02:24 PM

RMJ, I just tried it out and your Mafia name is “Sarina the Bookie.” Joe, you’re “Smooth Alphonso Santorini.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/10 at 03:53 PM

Ehtesham = “Jack Gallo”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/10 at 03:54 PM

Mickey.8...a lot of work to type it, but it has a nice tempo!

Posted by Smooth Alphonso Santorini of Maine on from 06/10 at 04:02 PM

Thanks, Mickey. I like my new name. It is so exotic.

joe...where in Pennsylvania? Yes, the brutality was often talked about when I was a kid. I remember the stories about how the mining companies would just pull up with a horse drawn wagon to a miner’s house and toss out the dead body of a miner who had been killed in a mining accident. In my little town, there was street where all of the houses were painted green. We called it Green Dolphin Street. The houses were company houses. You mention the children who worked in the mines, the breaker boys. The female children also worked hard in factories. My grandmother had her hand mangled when she was a young girl working in a textile mill.

Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 06/10 at 04:05 PM

For my first and last name:
Marco Whatshisface

For Cat Lady: Mario Rizzo

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 06/10 at 04:11 PM

RMJ..11..I think Robertsdale, Pennsylvania...general region, Mt. Union is another town in the area, brick yards. I never really got stories about mining from my father. Not much communication of any kind in my...family?

Posted by Ludavicio Scarfiotti of Maine on from 06/10 at 04:18 PM

Jack Gallo? Holy crap, Mickey! Wikipedia describes Gallo as “Trump-like Jack Gallo.” Now I’m gonna be identified with Donald Trump then...oh..no..lol

joe of maine, you are right. Based on the limited knowledge I have, I think two major systems are responsible for “man-made devisions between people” among other things: one is the irrational belief system called religion, the other is the state system or nationalism that leads to nation-states.

Cheers.

Posted by Ehtesham on from Canada 06/10 at 04:35 PM

hello eevryone

no one really posting a story?

i have been out all day at the glasgow festival thing. quite good fun but its all done now.

need to think of a story.

ok, got one, any objections to a long one?

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 05:15 PM

ok. i have never written this story up before and i am doing it now. it may appear in print in adapted from elsewhere because i am just working it thru as i do this…

i always wanted to write but at the time this happened my journalistic antennae were not very sharp. in fact, they still aren’t now, the things that amaze me are rarely the things that get into the papers. this is only one of many many things that happened when i was there.

so i was in nepal doing volunteer work, building a school in the village in this picture (12,500 feet around 4000 metres)...

at the time the civil war in nepal was in full swing. the army/royalists are bastards. the maoists/rebels arent a great deal better.

the standard thing that happens is the rebels turn up in your house at night and demand your rice and food and pressgang any children you may have into their army. however, there are spies on both sides in every village street or town. so two weeks later the army turn up and arrest you for helping the rebels even tho you had no choice in the matter. they are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea in that country.

i made a point of trying to interview some of the rebels. not many westerners had got to speak to them. it took a lot of work but i managed it. they came to speak to me and a friend.

it was very strange, the guy was about the same age as i was at the time (about 25) but i could see cold murder in his eyes. he was telling me how 75 of his friends had been killed by the army and by god was he going to take revenge. he meant it.

part 2 coming.....

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 05:48 PM

so the rebels are supposedly maoists. but they are not supported by china in any form. they have more to do with some of the factions in india but they are still autonomous and don’t have a great deal to do with them either. and they arent really maoists they are straight up communists.

interviewing the 25 year old guy, he also had his henchman with him, or better put, his henchboy. a 14 year old pointing a rifle at me the whole time i was speaking to him. for the first 10 minutes or so this completely freaked me out but after that i got a hold of it and figured he wasnt going to shoot me unless i gave him a reason to and i certainly wasnt going to do that.

when i was talking to the guy i was trying to ask him interesting questions but every answer i got back was a textbook marx communist party manifesto answer...example…

Q. 35% of the maoist soldiers are women. that is very unusual in a hindu country like nepal. why?

A. the revolution is here to save everyone regardless of class, gender etc etc et fucking cetera

so after the initial shock of the gun thing i actually started to get bored. i kept telling him that i had read the communist party manifesto and that i wanted to know what he thought and not what that said cos i already knew what that said....

part 3 coming....

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 05:59 PM

as intimated, i am only telling part of this story.

after about half an hour of this i was bored cos he had decided he didnt trust me and he wasnt going to say anything so i decided ok, last question, #### it - go for it.

what is the last question you would expect a group of guerillas like that to answer?

i asked it.

Q. where do you get your guns?

and he told me! straight up.

rebel dude - “they’re british”

me - “huh”?

it turns out that in the interest of fairness britain sells guns and weapons to india AND pakistan. some people there want to make a quick buck and so out the back door people in both armies are happy to sell to whoever comes calling and the nepali rebels obviously wanted guns so they were able to buy them.

now the morals of this stroy are completely up in the air and the morality of the civil war in that country is completely up in the air too but if i was a bastard i could have made a career for myslef from that story (BRITISH GUNS RACKET etc) but i didnt.

every word of this is true.

the story could have been a great deal longer too.

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 06:08 PM

oh god, what a stupid spellling error. in the first one it should sat ‘adapted FORM’ not ‘adapted fRom’

Posted by michael on from s 06/10 at 06:12 PM

too much silence. what have i done? i have a few other stories of simliar craziness..

http://tinyurl.com/222zh9
captcha is living

damn right. i was living there in a way i hadnt been before or since

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 06:18 PM

Michael, your Mafia name may be “Anemic Jack Gravano” but this tale was far from anemic. Talk about mixed emotions: being subjected to Marxist cant while a child aims a rifle at you. Will you eventually write something about the flow of weapons into Nepal?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/10 at 06:29 PM

i would like to but who cares? no oil no toil right?

i have been to 11 countries and i still think nepal and scotland are the best 2 in no particular order. i like mountains.

my experience is that your average nepali dude hates the army 100% and the rebels 99%. they are both bastards.

when i go to protests here and i see people handing out fliers with support the nepali rebels info, the first thing i do is speak to them in nepali and they say “huh?” and i say “exactly” cos if they had any idea they wouldnt be doing it. i hate the kind of rent-a-cause protestor.

specifically, the way weapons flow into nepal isnt particularly different from the way they flow into anywhere else.... good documentary on the subject…

http://tinyurl.com/2ts986

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 06:42 PM

maybe they are not online at the moment but i would love to know what joe or rmj make of all that

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 07:08 PM

Michael..23 That’s an intense story. An experience I would not want. If someone decides to shoot me, all I ask is shoot to kill...I cannot deal with pain and suffering

Michael, what got you to Nepal? I like your spirit for life a lot!

Joe

Posted by joe of maine on from 06/10 at 07:32 PM

I haven’t got a mafia name, Mickey aka ‘Cosimo Screwball’ - and I admit I have never watched a single episode of ‘The Sopranos’ either. Of course I am open to suggestions regarding an appropriate mafia name.

Could not agree more with your choice of Alan Dershowitz, Ehtesham #1 - and he has been successful in denying Norman Finkelstein tenure? I have been an admirer of Finkelstine for a long time - his book ‘The Holocaust Industry’ contains one of the most accurate and fairest descriptions of political events in 1920’s and early 1930’s Germany, as they unfolded.

And hello, Joe of Maine, Zen Prole, James, Michael (quite a story there and I hope to visit both Scotland and Nepal before I die!) and Rosemarie. I’ll be wandering off now to do some shopping and walking the dog.

All best to my expendables family.

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 06/10 at 07:35 PM

Helga, according to the link in my main post, your Mafia name is:"Stammering Carlotta Giordano.”

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 06/10 at 07:41 PM

That’s right, Helga, and he’s been trying to accomplish this for the last three years according to what I know. Ample perseverance for destroying people..eh.

Posted by Ehtesham on from Canada 06/10 at 07:53 PM

Michael #22, your ‘rent-a-cause protestors’ reminded me of an experience (not quite a story) I had with a colleague in the early 1990’s: she wore an ‘Amnesty International’ badge one day, and the next day she spoke rather loudly in favour of, you guessed it, the death penalty. Obviously the man or woman who sold her that badge did not enlighten her on what Amnesty International was actually was all about. Could one call her ‘rent-a-badge protestor’?

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 06/10 at 07:53 PM

Mickey #26: ‘Stammering Carlotta Giordano’: you might not believe this but when I was in my teens, I went through an extended period of stuttering - to this day, I stil stammer on the odd occasion, so that’s quite an appropriate name.

And Ehtesham #27: ‘Ample perseverance for destroying people’ - indeed! And for advocating torture ..

Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 06/10 at 07:57 PM

helga - yes, thats exactly what you should call her.

joe, what got me to nepal was that i volunteered.

having done it and having been president of a volunteering thing i know fine well the limitations of such a thing.

strict answer to the question, i had the choice of a few countries and i went to that one because it was phyiscial work in terms of building something.

the other projects are mostly aids awareness and prevention all of which should be done and i became president of the charity so i obviously supported those things vociferously.

i just like mountains. i am not going to apologise for it.

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 08:05 PM

actually, regarding mickey, i know he is having a tough family time at the moment but many of us are.

i think his writing is superb but a good dose of himalaya or scottish mountain could inspire him to new heights.

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 08:08 PM

welcome to scotland

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 08:20 PM

i am only saying that cos i want to ask mickey an open question.

you travel from new york to texas for reasons you have intimated previously. however, i want to posit the woody allen clause.. all of his films are about being depressed and neurotic in new york. this begs the question.... if it upsets him so much to live there, why doesnt he go and live somewhere else?

answer…

cos for him its so damn interesting.

fine

but there are other places in the world

Posted by michael on from scotland 06/10 at 08:24 PM

Michael..32 The photo of the water meeting the mountains is beautiful. I have a close friend who grew up in Colorado, near the Estes Park system.

The mountains are his back yard also. Maine is visually gorgeous as you know. I never get inland to the beautiful lakes. Maine has no high peaks...I can’t get away from the ocean. The vastness of the ocean, the vastness of the mind...I guess that’s what’s happening?

For many years, Michael, Ireland had some spot in my consciousness that I have never been able to explain...that feels correct...and, I guess it’s not necessary, perhaps someday I will have clarity about this?

Posted by joe of maine on from 06/10 at 08:45 PM