Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Reality bites
Good morning, Mickey and all to arrive shortly…
Reality, that’s between 2 and 3 MILLION slaughtered Iraqis since we started the bombing in 1991.
Reality, that’s what the voters get after every election. They get what they vote for. It is denial and irresponsibility to blame Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc. The ultimate responsibility rests with the voter.
Reality, is that the usa will kill many innocent civilians today and life will go on almost unaffected in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Reality, is that the usa is the most destructive terrorist organization that has ever existed on the planet. Just count the bodies.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 08/15 at 08:17 AMOK, where is everybody?????
I’ll just have to carry on alone.
Reality, is accepting the fact that 9/11 was blowback.
Reality, is a child in the usa dying because he was denied dental care.
Reality, is receiving a call from the hospital and being asked to sit with dying patients because otherwise they would die all alone.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 08/15 at 01:05 PMhello everybody, hope all is well
in my absence i have discovered a new level in stating the bloody obvious…
Posted by michael on from scotland 08/15 at 01:09 PMHello Expendables. To borrow from Michael’s link, reality means: the ecological effects were “considerably greater than previously assumed”.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/15 at 01:34 PMReality in bleak time:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1844670228?&PID=25450Posted by Toby Dammit on from 08/15 at 01:40 PMGreat fiction book on Chernobyl:
http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Dogs-Martin-Cruz-Smith/dp/0684872544
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 08/15 at 02:34 PMthanks for the good links.
there is so much pro-nuclear power propaganda at the moment.
there are several kinds… the ‘green and clean’ kind (wrong)
the ‘solution to looming energy crisis’ kind (non-starter - from mining to decommissioning the nuclear process currently uses way over 50% of the fossil fuel usage as do -ahem- traditional pwer sources)
or the ‘nuclear waste is not so bad’ kind
firghtening stuff really.
Posted by michael on from scotland 08/15 at 03:12 PMHello RMJ, 1, 2, and everyone. The word reality confuses me, I am uncertain about how this word is perceived.
Reality, we don’t need politicians and oppressive governments.
Reality, we don’t need the fear of gods and man-made religions to keep us in obedience to oppressive governments
Reality, we don’t need Monsanto’s products or anyone else’s products.
Reality, I am not afraid of any other government but the one in D.C. We don’t need an atomic military.
Reality, we don’t need an education system that fills our heads with bullshit and never once enables a glimpse into any true or of real value imparting wisdom.
Reality, we need to individually and collectively move beyond this bad, false passage of history.
Reality, this passage of time of history is up
Reality, some people need to accept they have been had, duped, lied to for 250 years and move on.
Posted by joe of maine on from 08/15 at 04:35 PMAuthor Chuck Palahniuk sez: “Reality means you live until you die...the real truth is nobody wants reality”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/15 at 04:43 PMThe reality/respectability continuum makes me think of Groucho Marx, maybe because the secular priests of the left have their own hangups to deal with and are in desperate need of deflation.
One for the movement (sic):
“In Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom.” - G. MarxA quick, worthwhile book: “The Deserter’s Tale” by Joshua Key, with Lawrence Hill. Rich details of a life trajectory from intense poverty to rejection of country. Key is in Canada awaiting judgment on his refugee status.
Chernobyl: This photo essay made the rounds years ago, but is worth another look. There are some newer works, but I haven’t viewed them.
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 08/15 at 04:53 PMThanks, Zen. More from Groucho here.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/15 at 05:04 PMHello everyone. My sister was here and we were reading the comments from yesterday. My sister thinks Joe is so funny and she really laughed at your age joke. Would you like to meet her? I rarely read Noam C as he’s so dry and analytical. Give me some music or novels anyday. Child is sleeping better tonight so I’m getting a touch of sleep. Just thought you’d like it that someone laughed with you Joe. And for Rachel: what exactly did you mean re men breaking out of cultural pressures or gender norms? Same old gender stuff?
Posted by Sasha on from london 08/15 at 08:51 PMSasha,
Happy to explain.
I think that our society places a great deal of importance on maintaining mainstream gender definitions. I think Hillary’s struggles as a presidential candidate are emblematic of the pressure—how her cleavage and her clothes are somehow worthy of political analysis, and her gender inspires questions about how well she will be able to protect America from terrorists.I also believe that there is a lot of pressure on men to perform their gender in a certain way. By performing gender, I mean that they dress, act, and talk in a way that expresses their masculinity to others. Cross-dressing is inverting society’s expectation of gender-performance for men, because the men are performing feminine, not masculine.
For some people, gender roles extend to sexual acts. In my experience, there are some men who are very threatened by the way a woman acts during sex, and they interpret her actions as masculine or playing the man’s role. I will refrain from examples here, and you can e-mail me privately if you want some examples.
When men act like women—meaning that they perform actions that our society interprets as feminine or womanly—they are breaking out of gender norms. Doing this in public can have serious consequences in a man’s life, because others interpret breaking gender-performance norms as threatening to other norms, or their worldview, or whatever. The fact that you seem to attract men who are comfortable bending gender norms around is a significant indicator of your own commitment to treating individual humans as the precious and beautiful beings that they are, regardless of gender norms.
I enjoy conscious gender-bending, because it satisfies my need for transgression and play. As you say, gender is just one expression of an individual’s being, and it is certainly not the only or most defining expression.
Peace and Play to all!
Posted by Rachel on from San Francisco, CA 08/22 at 04:24 PM
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