Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Friday, December 09, 2005

Cindy Sheehan reads me, I read Ward Churchill, & a bunch of other stuff you're gonna like

First things first: Yesterday, Expendable Michael, the notorious Tub-Thumping Scotsman, placed a certain book with the number “50” and the words “American Revolutions” in the title into the hands of a certain high profile anti-war activist named “Cindy.”

(Photo by Sacha Lecca)

It also seems Ms. Sheehan had heard of the book.

Mi-chael...Mi-chael

How about a nice Expendable standing ovation for our boy in Glasgow? (And a plug for his blog: http://thumpingthetub.blogspot.com)

(I might even start calling soccer “football” now.)

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We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

I just received a review copy of Ward Churchill’s latest book, Since Predator Came (http://tinyurl.com/bf7h3)...and thought it would be useful to offer occasional excerpts here. First installment:

“Before October 12, 1492, the day Christopher Columbus first washed up on a Caribbean beach, North America had been long endowed with an abundant and exceedingly complex cluster of civilizations. Having continuously occupied the continent for at least 50,000 years, the native inhabitants evidence a total population of perhaps 15 million, cities as large as 40,000—resident urban center at Cahokia (in present-day Illinois), highly advanced conceptions of architecture and engineering, spiritual traditions embodying equivalents to modern eco-science, refined knowledge of pharmacology and holistic medicine, and highly sophisticated systems of governance, trade, and diplomacy. The traditional economies of the continent were primarily agricultural, based in environmentally sound farming procedures which originated well over half the vegetal foodstuffs now consumed by peoples the world over. By and large, the indigenous societies demonstrating such attainments were organized along extremely egalitarian lines, with real property held collectively, and matrifocality a normative standard. War, at least in the Euro-derived sense the term has today, was virtually unknown.”

"By 1890, fewer than 250,000 Indians remained alive in the United States."

Kill one and you get lethal injection. Kill millions and you get a goddamned holiday named after you.

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March of the Wooden Soldiers: A new perspective

This past Thanksgiving, I went to the gym in the morning and found myself watching March of the Wooden Soldiers as I pedaled on the LifeCycle. Viewing this 1934 film was a Thanksgiving tradition in my family...but it had been years since I’d seen it and this was the first time I trained a critical eye on the particulars. All I say is: Yikes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Laurel and Hardy but March of the Wooden Soldiers essentially tells the tale of an idyllic white community being threatened by dark bogeymen from deep inside the bowels of the earth. Just when it seems the dark ones—who, by necessity, are led by an evil white man—are about to not only take over the white town but also kidnap the pure little blonde girl, Laurel and Hardy choose the military option and unleash legions of soldiers to save the day.

Another fine mess...

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She’s not a liberal, she just plays one on TV
http://tinyurl.com/8zv7l

As Gore Vidal sez: “Of course, it is possible for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions.”

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Do you believe in Bigfoot?

http://tinyurl.com/7r7dv
(I wear size 11-wide myself...)