Back to the Garden...

A thread on LATOC, regarding Hippies, has me thinking....someone posted Joni Mitchell singing Woodstock, in Canada...Haunting.
So I'm thinking about the Eternal Struggle...the conflict between Dominators and Cooperators, between Freedom and Control...between the Hope and Despair.
I have always been an Enlightenment Fella...a Renaissance Man. I believe, implicitly, in the Perfectability of Mankind...that We have it within Us to be as Gods....
I still believe that We have this Potential....but, the actual achievement feels out of reach. The Forces of Darkness have been very busy, these last 40 years.
We have stopped thinking and reaching...the Machine has distracted us, confused us, so that we seem stuck on the treadmill.
The 60's represent a time when it all could have changed....but we let Them change the rules....dictate the Foundational Assumptions.
Take Economics.
We treat Economics, Money, as if they are some Natural Law...like Angular Momentum, or Gravity; Unchangeable,immutable.
But, they are Creations of the human Mind, and as such, are subject to our Collective Will.
This is used as an excuse to leave things alone that should be altered...like Poverty, famine, and the Gross Inequality that, increasingly, plagues us.
"We don't have the money"...we are told...for Universal Healthcare, Education, Housing...the whole Roddenberrian Star Trek Ideal.
We must sit idly by while millions starve in Africa, while millions succumb to Malaria, while millions suffer the Horrors of War...while millions go uneducated.
It is curious that we seem to have plenty of money for War and Corporate Profit...for the continued maintenance of the Extravigant Lifestyles of the Obscenely Rich.
All because we believe Money is a Force of Nature...Immutable.
I submit that it is not.
Money is a human creation....when I go apply for a loan at the local bank, the Banker I convince that I am worthy goes into the back, into the Inner Sanctum, and performs some mysterious ritual...and Money is thereby Created. Like Magic.
We Create Money every day.
Why can we not create money to educate the masses? To reorganise our Civilisation into a more sustainable and fair configuration?
"We cannot", we are told, "because it would violate the Inviolable Laws of Economics"...
We hear about "The Invisible Hand", the "Market", the "Profit Motive", etc. as if these were independant Entities, existing separately...without our creating them.
We are, again, Prisoners to our own Creations.
Lies, all of it.
The Lie serves to facilitate the Rape of the Planet, in the service of the Machine...to Subjugate Mankind in the Service of a tiny Minority who have fooled everyone else that they are Worthy....to convince all of Us that it Must Be Thus....TINA!
There was a time that this Lie was on the verge of being Exposed....
when a significant portion of Humanity was poised on the edge of realisation that It Didn't Have To Be This Way....
Instead of direct confrontation, this time, the Machine resorted to Subterfuge.
It coopted the music...made it into an "industry"...it absorbed the Media, the Publishing..Academia...the field of Ideas....and convinced just enough of the young folks of that time that, indeed, TINA....There Is No Alternative.
It is instructive that during this period, the loudest Voices for an Alternative were assassinated. MLK, RFK,JFK, John Lennon...many more were absorbed, or Ruined, by the Machine.
The entire, burgeoning Movement was Ruined...by anomalies such as Manson, Altamont, Patty Hearst.
I don't think this was accidental...indeed, it was much too convenient.
Add to this the introduction of the Meme, "Conspiracy Theory" to the Lexicon...meaning "Crazy"...and it really becomes clear.
The Machine found it's Popular Hero in Ronald Reagan...an actor and Corporate Whore who played on the Fears of those who were already unsettled by this Movement, and it's Implications.
The Fearful Majority rallied to the defense of the Machine...without comprehending it's Nature.
Now, 40 years later, America is hopelessly divided between the Stupid and the Hopeless...and Ruled comfortably by the Greedy Operators of the Machine...who are really just as much Slaves to it as the rest of us.
It appears, to me, at least, that the only Hope in changing all of this is to Hunker Down and wait for the Machine to collapse of it's own excess.
So Insidious is the Mind Poison...it cannot be countered by Reason. It has been inoculated, made Immune to any thoughts of an Alternative Way.
Mankind will only mature when we shake off the yoke of the Machine.
For that, a critical mass must Want To, and believe that it's possible.
Therein lies our only Hope.
'Dropping Out is a Revolutionary Act." (Wulf Zendik)

Yo Fumar.

4th of July,2010....Fell asleep at 7pm...so I woke up at 2am. It is the way of things.
The Barrio is wakeful this morning...probably due to partying...dogs are talking more than usual, more cars, doors and assorted human-related noise.
I'm thinking about Liberty, and smoking....and the overall complacency, mindlessness and slogan-slinging that accompanies this Holiday.
I smoke....for a good example....I have smoked cigarettes and pipes since I was 16.
I tried to quit a few times...then decided that I enjoyed it....and ya hafta die somehow....it does something therapeutic for me...and I don't really require the assent or permission of science, government or society to believe this, and be happy with it. It is my choice.
I have always been conscientious about bothering other folks with my cloud.
I installed an exhaust fan over my bed for winter, so there's ventilation. When out and about, I would be careful to refrain from sending clouds of smoke onto folks that were near me, wouldn't smoke in someone's house if they didn't, put the spent butts in my pocket, etc etc.
I remained in the "smoking section".
Therein lies the rub....there are no smoking sections, anymore.
20% of the population...of the People....smoke....and they are forced out into the rain, sleet or oppressive heat to do so.
Want a hotel room, while you're on the road? One can't hardly find a smoking room.
You are a Pariah....a Second Class Citizen.
And ya hafta pay dearly for the privilege.
Taxes are insane on Tobacco...State, Local and Federal.
Near as I can tell, taxes account for 50% of the cost of major brand ciggs.
This, we are told, goes to pay for healthcare.
(read the rest of my blog to appreciate the Irony, there...)

"But, it's bad for you..."...is the constant refrain, when a Smoker grows weary of this, and complains. As if that excuses the intrusion. Life, itself, is "bad for you"...everyone dies. The food we eat, the Rocket Fuel that is in the fat cells of every human on the planet, the Ozone and other assorted nasties that fill the air, the cars we drive...let alone the wars and other assorted Violence we visit on one another...all of these, and more, will kill you.
And if one dodges these, if one stays in a cocoon of safety, one will still expire, at some point.
The "it's bad for you"-thing is not good enough...it misses the Point.
The Point is, what gives You the Right to dictate what I do, if I ain't harming anyone else?
A very Loud Minority of Busy-Bodies has decided that there Shall Be No Place For Smokers....
And the remaining 75% of the population who doesn't smoke, does nothing to stop that tiny Minority from Lording it over the 20% who do.
It doesn't affect them, they are not Oppressed, or Taxed.
What to do?

I resolve, on this, the birthday of America, to smoke where I please, whether it's legal, or otherwise sanctioned, or not.
If I am not allowed to smoke anywhere, I shall smoke Everywhere.
One hears a lot of rhetoric about the Founding Fathers....
I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would do....he, after all, grew and smoked Tobacco...actually developed improved varieties....
WWTJD?
An Harming None, Do as thou Will...

Alex in my Room

I feel Hurricane Alex like it's in my room with me...like a pile of river rocks on each of my joints.
The eye of the storm(950mb) is more than 700 miles away, we're getting the outer bands...in addition to the Tropical Layer that was already here, and the weak cold frontal boundary that moved through a few days ago....5 days of rain.
5 days of Pain.
As usual with these things, I initially thought it was due to overwork...I've been pushing to get the Library floor in.
But the pain is so much more than can be accounted for with careful labor alone.
I have learned to pace myself...not to try to do too damn much.
And I think, visualise, before hand...so that I am extraordinarily efficient in my labor.
A slow, but steady, Glide...
I amaze everyone with what I get done....they don't see the consequences.
Wife and Children see them, but don't know the extent.
My jaw muscles and teeth hurt from the clenching...an unconscious mechanism for holding my carcass up.
2-3 hours of work...then all day in bed.
Yesterday, the first portion of Obamacare went into effect...High Risk Pools for Folks with preexisting Conditions.
One of the criteria for eligibility is to have been denied insurance in the last 6 months.
So I spent the day trying to apply for insurance....so I can be denied.
It'll cost $30, nonrefundable "filing fee", plus $170,refundable(eventually) first month's "premium".
This is for a "policy" with a $10,000 "deductible". (!)
Before they know of my numerous issues....which will be caveatted right out, of course.
The Government Insurance will cost, as near as I can tell, $600 per month.
This is an incredible improvement in that it will cover the Preexisting stuff...I can get a hip,etc.
But $600 is 2/3 of our monthly income.
There are provisions for the desperately poor....but there's a problem.
My Mom got some inheritance....around $15k, so far.
She put it all into my savings account, which has had $2 in it for 10 years....to hide it from her soon to be Ex Asshole.
There ain't gonna be a box to check for that situation...
Government will believe that it's all mine...ergo that I can easily afford $600 per month.
Sigh.
Can't win for losing.
Best option still remains Cuba.
When my Grandma's place sells, take $20,000 and make my way to Havana...by way of Mexico...
I intend to e-mail Michael Moore, today, for advice on how to do this.
I maintain that this is the Magical Free Market at work....best estimate I can get from the "local" hospital is upwards of $100,000 to do all that I need done.(they are not forthcoming on cost estimates).
Cuba, as near as I can tell, will charge $18,000....
What would Exxon do?

Five years I've been trying to navigate the American System...in increasing Pain, decreasing mobility...
And all for nothing.

NOP,6232010

I'm up at 4 AM, as usual...some kind of family curse. My Mom has it, my Grandma had it...my oldest Son has the beginnings of it.
Doesn't matter what I do, how late I stay up(rarely past 10 PM)...I wake at 4.
Sometimes earlier,very rarely later.
I have accepted this...it's better than 1:30.
There are benefits.
I have constructed a place to hang out, in the back yard, with this earliest of rising in mind.
Porch, fences, plantings and the placement of the Smithy, and other outbuildings to afford maximum privacy...
I prefer Nakedness...which is problamatic in Town.
The Cowboy Pool has been moved up close...skinny dipping at 4:30, by torchlight, or starlight....
Wake and Bake....(smoke a joint)...coffee and cigarettes...
This is My Time...the Familia is asleep.(Eldest is inconsistant with his manifestation of the Curse, as yet)
I read....red headlight...or write....or just sit, and listen to the dogs, cows...a donkey, somewhere to the east....
My ducks wake up at 4:30, rooster at 5:30, geese around 6:30...unless I venture out there and disturb them.
This is when I can Think.
The construction of Infrastructure is proceeding apace, consistent with the Vision I had during the first month or two here.
I Visualise it's continuance.
Of late, thanks to Facebook, and the resultant finding of me, I think about my Life...remember.
MAS is on my mind, this morning...I am to meet up with her in Dallas in a few weeks.
Lots of forgotten emotions,there.
Forgotten experiences.
Pain, heartbreak...and good times.
Now, with 20 years since I last saw her, I realise that I loved her.
Terribly and unrequitedly..
We were the best of friends, true...we shared all manner of deep, dark things...
But I always wanted more.
I was putty in her hands...to my later regret.
Should be an interesting trip to Dallas.

NOP,6222010

Naked on the back porch at 4 am...
Coffee, cigarettes and night-sounds.
Chillin' in the wheelchair I keep there.(I find them quite comfortable, as they are designed to be sat in full-time...(sigh.))
After much pain and suffering and effort,(and a lot of help from wife) the Smithy is almost finished....
all that's left is the East Wall and the electrical.
If I can procure a cheap crackle-box welder and the smaller Oxy-Acetylene tanks, I'll be set.
Much still needs to be retrieved from the Old House, but that can wait a little longer.
The Library is next...needs a floor, a couple of windows, and perhaps a French Door.
My Grandma's place has yielded a great pile of tools, furniture, and assorted knick-knacks pertaining to the History of Us....Pop's Elk Horns, souveneers from the south Pacific, during the War...and from their many travels...
Finally, I'll have a place for my Books, and all that stuff.
All that's left, as far as Infrastructure goes, is Insulating the House (waiting on the compressor from G-Ma's)...and building Drunk Uncle a Shack.
He's been in the Fire Hazard RV, last Fall and this Spring....he won't be back till next Spring, so I have plenty of time,I reckon.
So, it's Library, then all the moving (out of the Old Place)...then a long break from construction.
Which is much needed.
On Memorial Day, I was drunk, in the Cowboy Pool...there is, apparently, a different species of algae here, in Town....I slipped, and tore two muscles in my right thigh...tumbled into the mud. I was certain that I had finally broken my dead Femur...and since no one was answering my shouts and frantic phone calls, I called the ambulance....crawled/limped up to the house, shouting curses with every movement....(I'm very Tenacious)...and waited...
Adductor Magnus and Quadracept, Torn.
Wheelchair, full time, for 4-5 days....peeing in a damn jug(ugh!)...
I have resolved to stop drinking....
...which entails finding the Root of the Reason why I drink in the first place...
...Which is the purpose of this Rambling, anyway.....

Port Huron Statement, Revisited

"We regard men as infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom, and love. In affirming these principles we are aware of countering perhaps the dominant conceptions of man in the twentieth century: that he is a thing to be manipulated, and that he is inherently incapable of directing his own affairs. We oppose the depersonalization that reduces human beings to the status of things -- if anything, the brutalities of the twentieth century teach that means and ends are intimately related, that vague appeals to "posterity" cannot justify the mutilations of the present. We oppose, too, the doctrine of human incompetence because it rests essentially on the modern fact that men have been "competently" manipulated into incompetence -- we see little reason why men cannot meet with increasing skill the complexities and responsibilities of their situation, if society is organized not for minority, but for majority, participation in decision-making. Men have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity. It is this potential that we regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority. The goal of man and society should be human independence: a concern not with image of popularity but with finding a meaning in life that is personally authentic: a quality of mind not compulsively driven by a sense of powerlessness, nor one which unthinkingly adopts status values, nor one which represses all threats to its habits, but one which has full, spontaneous access to present and past experiences, one which easily unites the fragmented parts of personal history, one which openly faces problems which are troubling and unresolved: one with an intuitive awareness of possibilities, an active sense of curiosity, an ability and willingness to learn.
This kind of independence does not mean egoistic individualism -- the object is not to have one's way so much as it is to have a way that is one's own. Nor do we deify man -- we merely have faith in his potential.
"-from the Port Huron Statement,SDS,1962

I started here: http://www.alternet.org/story/147109/poor_americans_are_drowning_where_are_the_lifeboats?page=entire
...and wandered around a bit, on Wiki and such....till I ended up here:
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html

I have, in my time, kind of naturally been drawn to the Left....it just fit with my personality, my sense of self and the obvious, if intuitive, Truth I felt in the things of the Left.
I didn't get any of this from the Right...there was always something missing...a wall that one would run up against, beyond which one was supposed to suspend critique...much like religion. I instinctively rejected Orthodoxy.
Today, I am astounded that, after a lifetime of study, I have only now discovered this document. ...which, at first glance, articulates the stance I've been flailing at for 30 years.

How has this eluded me? Has it been so well hidden? Or was I a victim, despite my best efforts, of the Right Wing's propaganda campaign against All Things Left?
I remember reading about SDS, a few times, when learning about the 60's...but there was no depth to the information I found. In retrospect, I dismissed them...along with the Weather Underground and Leary's Bunch, as Utopian Radicals, whose ideas were cool, but who lacked appreciation for Reality.
Turns out, this is what the Right has been preaching all along...
Through my wife's job, I can access current History and Social Studies books that our local High School is using, both currently and in the recent past (going back to 1985,or so). SDS is given passing mention, and (sure enough) is implied to be of the same importance and ilk as Manson and the Weathermen. It is implied that one equals the other, with no nuance.
Overall, the Sixties are equated with Drugs, in their Modern Context...and the implication is that the entire 60's Movement was a Failed One...losing out to the Rational, Free market, Radical Traditionalism of the New Right.
This document is nowhere mentioned, let alone quoted.

I believe it should be read and disseminated far and wide...if our institutions are too compromised by the prevailing Right Wing Ideology to do so, then we must.
The Right won the Culture Wars....as evidenced by the recent Text Book Mullah's activities in Texas, as well as the continued (and rediculous) association of "Liberal" with "Soft Headed," and the looking down the nose, with paternalistic disdain, at anything that would contradict the Conventional Wisdom.

The mere fact that this document has been so well obscured, even to someone like me, is an indicator, perhaps, to it's Power....and the power of the Dominant Right to dictate what is "important", even without appearing to do so.
Witness the history Channel, PBS, etc...every "documentary" I've seen regarding the 60's ends with a lamentation about Manson, Altamont, Heroin and Aids...as if these were the inevitable result of the behaviour and Ideals of the 60's.
In fact, the Ideals of the 60's are entirely glossed over, in favor of manner of dress, Free Love and, of course, Music.
The History of this era is a commodified shadow, an eviscerated carcass...devoid of consideration, save by escapists and malcontents.
Is it any wonder that the state of the world, for all our technological wizardry , and our perceived affluence, the state of the world hasn't changed...and that this document is as relevant now, as it was then?
The "Enemies" have, somewhat, changed...we now are to fear "Terrorists", instead of the Evil Empire (which collapsed under it's own rusty, ossified weight); "Communists", and"Socialists", are still unthinkingly lumped together...but joined, now, by Queers, Atheists, and Brown People...
Nuance, Grey Areas, are still suspect...as is Intellectualism, Academia and Thought, in general.
While Environmental concepts are mouthed and, perhaps, embraced in principal...the Economic Orthodoxy prevents any real Alternatives to the current Paradigm....
The role of the Corporation, in which Family I include Think Tanks and Foundations. has grown exponentially...consolidating and expanding it's Power...over not just the physical aspects, but the minds and emotions of it's subjects.
Everything is for Sale!, and subject to crass manipulation...

It is high time for what's left of the Left in this country and world, to revisit foundational documents such as this...and begin to secede, mentally, emotionally, philosophically and physically, from the Dominant Paradigm...which has left a trail of destruction and sadness in it's wake, while enriching so few.
The Left has been parasitized by "Centrists".
A New New Left must open it's eyes, and stand up...for if the Right's Machine is allowed to continue, Darkness can only follow.

Memory

I recently learned, after 20 years, that I had a head injury….in addition to all the other injuries from my Big Wreck.
I have always known that the Wreck marked a large blank spot in my memory...a dividing line, kind of....I have no memory of the wreck itself, or of the few days on either side of it.All I know about it is what I pieced together, afterwards. I attributed this to the trauma, and then the morphine haze I woke up in....
Turns out that at first, the EMTs were less concerned with my legs than I had thought.
They were worried about the cloud on the X-ray of my head...right around the base of my skull, where it attaches to the spine. :"Water on the Brain", they called it...
It went away by the time I was done with the helicopter ride from Tomball to Hermann....
I'm wondering , now, just how much of my memory haze....before, and immediately after the wreck....is due to this.
With my discovery of Facebook....and the resultant end of my Exile...I've been remembering many things I had forgotten. Mostly things before the wreck...a few things from after.
For a few years after, I had lost my mind.(again, how much is due to head trauma?)
I had this almost instinctual Urge to "Suck the Marrow Out of Life."...this is how I learned to walk so quickly....(that Tenacity is still very much a part of me.)
I drank, ran around looking for Experience....jumped out on the Road.
I call this period my Wild Years....and I only remember a broad outline, punctuated by specifics.Drink and Drugs and a kind of Mania...I was channeling Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady.
I am sure that some of this was psychological. The whole Cop Experience, the very real sense of being unwelcome at home and around town...of wanting so badly to leave, but being unable to...having nowhere to go....all this played a part in this craziness, I'm certain.
But before the wreck?
I haven't remembered, or even realised that I didn't remember, so many things.
Now, with all these folks "finding" me, online...it's coming back....and, coupled with this new awareness of the head trauma...I'm really starting to wonder.
I was a Crazy Person!
I have always known this...it's just confirmation, really...but Damn!
Add Madman to my Resume, I guess...
There are worse things.

Letter to "My" Congresscritter...

Howdy,
I just came across this:http://www.ftcldf.org/litigation/ey100426--ds%20mtd%20memo%20in%20support.pdf

...regarding Raw Milk.I've heard of this before, and while I'm not involved in the buying or selling of Raw Milk, I certainly understand the concerns of the folks who are.
I grow as much of my own food as I can manage.
This is due to economics, as well as a certain distrust of Big Ag.I have been involved in Organic Farming since before there was a name for it...and I was a Chef for many years. I have learned a lot about food, in my time, from farm to plate.
In reading the FDA's response to these folks, I am concerned about the agency's assertions that I have no right to contract, that I have no fundamental right to my own health and it's maintenance, and that I have no right to eat what I want.
For all the hollering, of late, about Big Government, one would think that Republicans would be all over this.
It is my learned opinion that this case is NOT about the health of the citizenry, or the healthfulness (or lack thereof) of Raw Milk...this is obviously Big Ag, specifically Big Milk, using the Government to stamp out competition(which is one of the hallmarks of that Free Market we hear so much about).
The same thing happened with the usurpation of the Organic Movement by Big Ag.
The Implications of this argument, by the FDA, are worrisome. They would make criminals of every Backyard Gardener, every Homesteader, every Small Farmer.
...and all for the benefit of Big Ag.
I ran into the same type of BS when I attempted to sell my eggs...sell my surplus veggies...even have my goats butchered, for my own consumption.
The Regulations on such things are needlessly burdensome on the little guys, and to the benefit of large Agribusiness.
Please look into it.
I know you have Agribusinesses among your constituency...Big Ag. The recent Supreme Court Ruling notwithstanding, the backyard gardeners, Homesteaders and anyone who wants to provide for their own sustenance are among your constituency, as well.
If the efforts of Big Ag succeed, they will have control of our food supply....and we will all be beholden to Corporations for the most basic Human Needs.
I will gladly be a criminal to stand in the way of such a usurpation.
Thanks, Josef D. Pinter.
Mason, Texas

Satanic Cult Scare! (run away!!!)

A long time ago, in a small town in Texas, everyone went crazy.
The people of this town were, for the most part, affluent, God-fearing, traditionalist folks.
They went to work, went to church, went to the football games, went to vote and pretty much did what everybody else was doing.
Some of their kids, however, were not satisfied with this narrow world, this proscribed field of possibility.
They rebelled….mostly in superficial ways…such as different drugs than their parents, different modes of dress and appearance, different likes and different opinions on big, important things like politics, religion, sex and freedom.
This was a shock to the parents, and other adults of this small town. There was much fear…and much laying of blame. The targets of this blame-laying were the usual suspects.
Rock and Roll was among them, as it was thought to be an instrument of the Devil…engendering loose morality, sexual excess and antisocial behaviour.
Drugs were there, on the block…for much the same reasons.
But the biggest culprit in the Rebellion of Youth was insufficient religious instruction….specifically, insufficient fear of the Christian God, and Love for His Son, Jesus.
The Town began a Crusade of Revivals, Youth Groups, Hay Rides, and Summer Camps. There were assemblies called in the schools, where the evils of drugs and the importance of abstinence were hammered home.
Gangs of Prayer Warriors deployed to Hangouts and the Drag, where young folks could be found on a given Saturday night….to bring the Good News to these kids, lest they fall into Satan's clutches.
And it was all for naught.
Rock and Roll still played, drugs were done, sex was performed, and youthful fashion marched further and further away from the parents idea of good and proper.

Then, at the beginning of the school year, a new kid came around. He was from California and wore his rebellion on his sleeve…he had an earring!, and a trenchcoat, and a Devil may care attitude that really worried the adults.
His charisma and West coast charm quickly found him a small coterie of friends, and a girlfriend.
The Californian, and his crew, did all the things the rest of the kids were doing….but the most important thing they did was go and drink beer and wine-coolers in a local cemetery, at night.
This was nothing unusual, what with the cops and Jesus Freaks that were everywhere else….indeed, many of the adults had done the same thing, in their time.
One night, in the cemetery, the Californian decided to shock one of the girls that was there.
He "performed" a séance.
It was all a joke…merely something to do…but the girl was freaked out.
Apparently, she was from a particularly religious family, and thus believed in Demons and Witchcraft.
Word soon spread around town that there was a Satanic Cult hereabouts….and that they had evil designs on the town.
Rumors flew! The Cult was everywhere! They were out for blood!
There were stories of Human Sacrifice, and of Blood Drinking, and of Black Mass being performed at cemeteries. His girlfriend was rumored to be pregnant, carrying the Devil's Child, who would be sacrificed on the football field on Homecoming, which so happened to fall, that year, on the same weekend as Halloween…Samhain in the Satanist's parlance.
Cops ran around everywhere, chasing down reports of vandalism and Rituals.
Church folks prayed and held Vigils and rallies.
Hippies, Stoners, Goths and Punks were chased down and beaten…just in case.
The Principal of the school called an assembly, with the Chief of Police behind him, calling for kids to report Suspicious Activity, to Be Careful, and for any Cult Members present in the audience to Cease and Desist!

There was a Vibratory quality to the atmosphere on the afternoon and evening of Homecoming.
Vigilance! Watchfulness! Apprehension!
Would the omnipresent Prayer work to fend off the Devil and his minions?
Or would Satan's Army triumph?...perhaps as punishment for the town's lack of Faith…
For allowing such sinful behaviour to go on so blatantly for so long.

It was a near-Full Moon, as well….

Nothing happened, at all.

All the fear and insanity and oppression and warnings were over something that didn't exist…and never had existed.
But that fact didn't lessen the general feeling that the Town had dodged a bullet…that the Prayers had, indeed, worked. God had placed His shielding Hand over the Town, and the Forces of Darkness had been defeated.

I don't know what happened to the Californian…I reckon he was encouraged to switch to a different school.
Kids in the town still did drugs, and listened to music and had all manner of sex.
The only things that really changed were that the Oppression got more severe, the cops got more assholeish, and the schools got more zero-tolerance.

This really happened.
I was there.
This is the best of my recollection.

A letter to a Reckless Cowboy.

Dear Governor Good Hair,
I noticed on yor little website (that we are paying for) that you are at War with the EPA.
Seems yor' rhetoric has blinded you to the reality.
Your site says:"Gov. Rick Perry today was joined by local government and business leaders to decry

Washington's latest attempt to extend federal control over the state's authority, an action that would undermine

Texas’ successful clean air programs and cost the state thousands of jobs. Last week, the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) announced its efforts to take over Texas’ federally delegated, successful Title V

permitting program and replace it with a less effective Washington-based, bureaucratic led, command and

control mandate. "
This is ludicrous, on many levels.
One, where is your evidence for the claim that Texas' Environmental Programs are working?
Have you ever been to Houston?
I see that you were in Deer Park when you announced this....did you not notice the smell?
Did you not see the plumes all over that whole area from the refineries and chemical plants?
Here, in the Reality Based Community, it is well known that Texas lags behind everybody else in Air Quality,

and most of the other Environmental things.
Your Pro Corporate Extremism is showing....might want to look to that.
Second, do you really, really think that what the Mullahs Don and Cynthia (SBOE) have been up to is good for

Texas?
We already fall far behind the rest of the country in Education....we are already a laughing stock.
I guess since "everything's bigger in Texas", we should be the biggest idiots, as well?
Third, I see that you're having knee surgery....must be nice.
Who's paying for it? Us taxpayers, or do you have some Caddilac Plan from whenever it was you last had a

(non-government) job?
I am among the 5 million, or so, Texans who cannot get adequate healthcare. Is your contempt for us so great ?
Are Po Folks insufficiently American?
I saw that you are refusing to have a High Risk Insurance Pool, for folks like me that the Industry has left out in

the cold.
How is such refusal good for Texas?
Who's side are you on?!
Is the money that good from your Corporate Buddies?
On your site, regarding healthcare..."The availability of affordable, quality medical care is important to all

Texans. Governor Perry has led efforts to keep doctors and other health care professionals in the exam room

instead of in the courtroom fighting frivolous lawsuits. He has also promoted reforms to the small employer

health insurance market, and conveyed a vision for reducing the number of uninsured Texans by restructuring

federal Medicaid funding to gain flexibility and optimize investments in health care. This reduces reliance on

expensive emergency room visits for non-emergent care, and makes it easier for the working poor to buy into

employer-sponsored health coverage. "
"Frivolous Lawsuits" are NOT the damned problem!
Hyperinflation and the resulting lack of access IS!
That whole paragraph is nothing but you channelling Karl Rove.
Get out of your Mansion...visit your people....and not just your filthy rich buddies.
It'll cost upwards of $100,000 to fix me so I can work again.
Insurance won't touch me.Your Medicaid System won't take me (my wife makes more than $230 per month)
The Federal Disability/SSI won't touch me, I'm told, because I "can be fixed" (!?)
I could go on and on, but I'm hurting, and I can't sit up any more tonight....and I doubt this will have any

impact, anyway.
Enjoy your surgery.
I'll be wishing 1/16th of the pain I feel every day....on you.

http://dh1976.wordpress.com/

http://dh1976.wordpress.com/


A hilarious exposition....esp. the comments.

Oil spill as a symptom.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/gulf-oil-spill
Five fucking pages of Oil Spill related coverage on a prominant Liberal web site.
A goodly number of them are about Avarice and Calumny, Greed and Corruption.
The Oil Industry, (Bad Petrolium (BP) stands at the front, today...but the entire Industry is just as Guilty.)...they are shamelessly attempting to manipulate the Public Perception of their Catastrophe....Hiring a mess of Temps for Obama's latest "Inspection Tour".
Openly Shopping for a favorable Judge to hear the numerous Lawsuits against them.
The CEO trying to run the media off the ruined shore....and the bastard Lying, Lying, Lying!!!
And what about the GOP (Whores and Weasels!), their Noise Machine, the Tea Party Brown Shirts,the Loud Fat Men, Hollering on the radio?
The Goddamn Drill, Baby, Drill; Deregulate Everything/Drown Government in a Frakking Bathtub- Crowd?
Well, that worked out about as well as the Deregulation of Wallstreet, and everything else!
Unmitigated Disaster!
It is a Testament to the effectiveness of their Machine, as well as an indictment of the Public Education they have despised and faught against, that so many otherwise ordinary folks still hang from their Back Bumper.
Depending on which poll you use, between 20 and 50 % of the Nation adheres to the Tomfoolery and Voodoo of the Right....in a Nation Founded, not on Superstition, but on Reason!
Surely, we are a Doomed Nation!
In every letter I've written regarding this Mess, I've included reference to Gas Digesters...to Methane Generation from Sewage, from Feedlots, from Landfills.
It is my Pet Energy (partial) Solution to our unnecessary dependance on OIL and GAS.
"Natural Gas" is a marketing term, dreamed up by Oil and Gas Companies to sell what comes out of the ass of every living thing.
they say it was needed, because "Consumers"(sigh.) were lilly livered about any mention, or mere thought, of bodily functions, and their byproducts.
The real reason for the verbal makeover was that Big Oil & Gas didn't want to compete with everything that Poops.
The 1000 septic tanks in my small county, as well as the Feedlots, the landfill and the city sewer sytem all generate Methane.Without any intervention by Humans.
All that is needed is to capture and clean (scrub) this byproduct of Life, and burn it.
The latter 3 (feedlots,etc) are repeatedly Fined by the EPA for "emitting" "Too Much" of this gas.
One can buy a city-sized digester domestically. Million or so bucks...but for a home, or neighborhood-scale digester....not here! You can get 'em in China, who is into this big time. Africa, yes...readily available.
To boot, a few years ago, while attempting to purchase such a system for my little farm, I found that the digesters sold in Tanzania for around $800...were manufactured in Georgia,USA....
But when I contacted that company, I was told that they "Couldn't sell one to me"...something about regulations.
The Right, at leats the ones I talk to about this, blame TreeHuggers for these Regulations.
I blame Big oil and Gas.
This technology actually renders what would be a potent Greenhouse Gas into a less potent form. Methane, into CO2. It takes the "Effluent" (Shit), and turns it into sterile mulch.....as in No Pathogens.
(My Shop/Smithy will be completed, soon...and I intend to build my own.Bull by the Horns, and all...)
My point is, There Are Alternatives(TAA, instead of TINA)...they are kept from us by greedy pigs, intent on the maintanance of Wealth and Power and Priviledge...
And it'll stay that way as long as a big potion of the American People continue to believe the BullShit and Hot Air from the Right.(Whom, now that it come to it, might be something of an energy source, themselves...)

river 5-2010

"-'For happiness, how little suffices for happiness!' Thus spoke I once and thought myself wise. But it was a blasphemy: that have I now learned. Wise

fools speak better.

The least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a whisk, an eye-glance- little makes up the best happiness.

Hush!

-What has befallen me: Hark! has time flown away? Do I not fall? Have I not fallen- hark! into the well of eternity?"-Zarathustra (Neitzche)Part 4 (at

Noontide)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Thus_Spake_Zarathustra_-_Thomas_Common_-_1917.djvu/337)

There are few fish in the Llano River these days...Gar, and Humans, have eaten too many; and the Carp, some as big as my 8 year old, as well as the

Nutria, have eaten the "Cover"....an untimely flood, 4 years ago at Spawning-Time lowered the population,too...
So when I finally got down there the other day, and it was raining, I just tied up to a Billion Year Old Cliff Face...and observed.
Got high, drank Tecate, looked at all the Life Everywhere.
There were Idiots with Automatic Weapons, somewhere upstream...hollering and shooting...I gleaned that I was far enough, and low enough, that I

would be OK...
The Cliff was Alive! Spiders and their Prey, Mosses and Ferns, Trees (baby trees) established in cracks in the rock,...and the Rock!
Strata that was once Mud on the floor of a shallow sea, when the dominant species on Earth were Jellyfish.
One of the places I tied off was overhung by a Rock Shelter, 15' above the water....one can still see the char on the "cieling" from 10,000 years of

campfires.An almost unknown folk, called the Chama...who, due to a two hundred year old mispelling, gave their name to this River.
There are Rock Ovens, farther upstream, where these folks cooked...Caves and Overhangs where they lived....
The rapids just upstream from where I was the other day is known as Soldier's Crossing...artifacts from both cultures can still be found, if one knows

what to look for.
Kingfishers, Eagles, and the omnipresent Buzzards.
Deer and Black Cows....wading across the river.
A wild Turkey Hen, and her Brood, scurrying up a wide gash in the Cliff Face, past Buffalo Grass and stunted Live oaks, covered with Ball Moss.
If it wasn't for the occasional burst of machine gun fire from upstream, and the occasional truck on the mile-distant highway, I might be in any era.
a Million miles away.

Farm boy in Town

"Such a man feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoying freely a spectacle that it affords, untroubled by the thoughts of death because he feels himself not really separated from those who come after him. It is in such a profound instinctive union with the stream of life that the greatest joy is to be found."

-Bertrand Russell
I'll attempt to put up pictures of the back lot where the garden and the birds are.
If it doesn't work, they're at Flikr, under Amfortas the Hippie:


These are in no particular order...I'm not sophisticated for that.

This area was a wasteland 11 months ago....10' weeds, trash, brush, a 50' diameter trash pile,10' high...and no fences. The cousin/neighbor, whom noone likes, had tried to annex this part of wife's family place...unsuccessful, but he had contributed mightily, to the pile of refuse.
Enter Amfortas.
The Chicken House has an attached Greenhouse and "Run", where chicks go when they are too big for the hutch, but not big enough for the General Population.
The lot is divided into 3 "paddocks": the garden, the "Goose Pen" (w/ the kiddie pool) and the "Foyer", where the Chx House is, the apple Trees are, and the grain and whatnot is kept...the foyer opens either into the back yard, the lot next door (another, absentee, Uncle), the Goose Place (Anserinium), or the garden.
The birds (Chickens, Ducks and Geese...next year Pheasants and Turkeys) are rotated: Winter, they clean the Garden, Spring and Summer, they're next door, mowing...Fall is the yard, the Anserinium, etc....
The Garden shown is what I could accomplish this year...(I'm Damaged, after all...)
I've got around 15-20 more of those metal beds, out at the old place.
The neighbor to the back has horses...I get all the horseshit I can carry.
And the feedlot in Town gives well rotted cowshit away...just pull up the truck and they load it.
All this, combined with kitchen scraps, and bedding from the chicken house (I use hay)makes for abundant soil where there was only clay....the topsoil having washed away over years of misuse/neglect.
If I can acquire the place next door, on the other side, I'll have enough room for more birds, and a coupla milk goats....and we're well on the way to Food Security.
I've started on gutters on the house, have one 300 gallon tank that filled up during a 1" rain....and there's an old well I'm intending to work on this summer...gonna put a hand pump on it.
The Cowboy Pool (water trough)is in one of those pics....I have an idea for a savonius rotor to circulate the h2o through a charcoal filter...
And whatever h20 I can't collect will be channeled into the Pond, close to the pool in the pic, that is slowly taking shape (hand digging...ugh!)
Didn't have any chicks hatched this year, as the house wasn't complete and the birds were being moved here over time this winter...uproar isn't conducive to Broodyness.
It's a Work in Progress...

Outlaw

I went home, hopefully for the last time…my Grandmother's death removed the last excuse for ever returning to the places I grew up.
200 miles I went, and saw 1 cop…then I crossed into Montgomery County, and in the next 20-30 miles saw no fewer than 12 cops.
It has become a Police State.
I'll elucidate why I hate the place so much….Magnolia/Tomball

When I was 16, my Mom kicked me out of the house. She was in her crazy period, having been through a long divorce, and had a moneyed, cripple Vietnam Vet shacked up w/ us….
I was entering my own crazy period, resisting arbitrary authority wherever it could be found.
I left…and she got on the phone to all and sundry with her version…that I had "run away"…even to the cops…classic CYA, which she has never admitted.( I let this go a long time ago). 86 "Homebase".
I went to live w/ Dad in Tomball…he was trying to reorient his life after the divorce….had a girlfriend,etc…was always gone.
I enjoyed the freedom…and did well in school and socially…as much as can be expected from a budding genius in the land of mediocrity (which is discussed elsewhere).
A friend of mine called one night when Dad was off somewhere….Ziggy…his girlfriend had called him crying. Her mom had beat her, but Zig was stuck in Galveston, or somewhere…could I pick her up at Ken's Bread and Butter?
I said sure. Went and got her…black and blue wisp of a girl.
She stayed w/ me for a few days ( and I didn't even try to screw her), then Zig showed up and took her off my hands.
2 nights later, me and my girlfriend were on a double date…came back to my Dad's place, and all the cops in Tomball came roaring in.
Officer Stan came up to me, demanding to know that girl's whereabouts.
He was to become my friend, and the only cop I felt I could trust for the remainder of my time there.
This is how I "got on their Radar".
I was what was known as a "Stoner", although, that doesn't account for the nuances and richness of me. Had long hair, played music, thumbed my nose at authority….
and did most of the things that my peers did…nothing unusual about my actions, appearance or attitudes, really.
A few years later, another girl…this one a longtime friend, called me up, crying. Her Crazy Mom had gone too far, her Crazier Dad's house was not an option…she was on the side of the road, so I went to get her. We laid low at Chaaker's house…and there learned that her Dad had called the dogs…His brother was Police Chief.
We ended up at Mary Beth's safe haven. She had been married to the Crazy Dad, and could protect us.
I was threatened with "statutory rape" and jail….I had never slept w/ Mippy, even tho I had loved her for a long time.
This whole fiasco ended w/ Mippy living w/ her Dad, Jerry….and me becoming Persona Non Grata.
From then on, I was chased, harassed and slandered by the cops. Gun held to my head for being drunk, followed whenever I came into town, pulled over and put through the ringer for the smallest infraction..this official behaviour spread to Magnolia, too…I learned to sneak around the Greater Northern Houston Area.
All this had a profound effect on me…which I hadn't realized 'till just a few years ago.
I drank, got drunk, did drugs, etc Ran around being a Rebel….none of this really set me apart, even tho I was a bit more extreme. In retrospect, I was depressed…I had been abandoned by my hometown(s) and my family….and had sought solace. I noticed, early in this period, that others "got away" with the same things I got the third degree for. Seems I was a special case.


What set me apart is that I was "on the Radar"….
This went on for years…I made forays to other places, tried to live w/ Mom again…but never had the money, or familial support, to get set up someplace. Home was my truck, or someone's couch. And I had nothing to lose, since I could, apparently, do no right….

Officer Stan pulled me over one day, after numerous tickets, and said "you better get out of town, Joe"….seems the law was gonna "plant" heroin on me, to be rid of me.It was only then that I found out the root of my problem. I asked Stan why they were always after me. He said," Because of that girl…"
I left.
Went to college, and on to Austin….with a few years of Road thrown in for good measure.

This period of Pariah-hood set in stone my distrust and hatred of Authority.

I was totally unprepared for the realities of life in Reagan's America…I had absorbed the Myth from family, that if one worked hard, and did the "right thing", was honest, one could "make it". (my attitude regarding school is covered elsewhere) Well, I had done the "right thing", to my mind and sense of Morality, in helping these waifs….and the Powers had tagged me as a Problem to Be Eradicated. I was a Weed.
Almost 20 years later, I moved back to Magnolia, looking for work.
Living in my Great Grandmother's house, w/ my Brother, in the neighborhood where I grew up.
Found a job.
Just beginning to get out of the hole caused by 911 and Lil George's economic "policies"…
Day off, I was at the Hill, where we used to camp, and hang around, building forts, etc…memories!...Drinking beer in my truck, not 100 yards from the house, parked in the ditch beside our property, not a soul on the little road. Local redneck, Ricky, comes by in a Mule, w/ a fifth of Wild Turkey and an AK47. Stops, shoots the shit, provides me with a joint….same idiot redneck that used to chase me with his buddies, "Here, Hippy!"…
He left.
Not 10 minutes later, cop pulls up and arrests me. Turns out that Ricky had a "special relationship" w/ the law….in addition to his business of construction work, mostly public works, rife with corruption and kickbacks, he was also a drug dealer…complete with cops in his pocket. Redneck Mafia.
When I got out of jail, (PI), I was afraid to leave the damned house! Was it starting all over?
Was I still, after all these years, Persona Non Grata?
I had my wife and year old son to think about….and it cost more to live there than I could hope to make….so we evacuated…back to the Hill Country.
When we were down there for the funeral, that same son(now 8) was riding with me….and wanted to know why I hate the place so much. He was shocked to learn that his dad was once an Outlaw…
I am resolved to not hold back with him, about the shittyness of the world….like my folks held back with me.
I had to find out on my own, by trial and error….
Grandma's place (Gagoo, I called her) will be on the market soon….and I ain't never going back…53 years of occupation by Browns and Pinters is at an end.
The Rednecks and the UberConservative, Rightwing Xians can keep their People's Republic of North Houston.

Rebel

I am the Consummate Rebel….the Quintessential Iconoclast…an Unrepentant, Independent Other.
It has always been thus, since very early on, when I kept finding Differences in Myself that were unwanted/Feared by the Herd. I grasped onto that Anomalousness…Owned It! It was Mine!
Evidence was manifest and unavoidable that Society, and all its numerous Constructs, were anathema to a Thinking Person…and must be resisted, at all costs, if Integrity were to be preserved.
"Conform!" said the Machine…and I refused.

"Be Silent!", it said…and I said my peace.

"Sit Down!"….I stood.

This is such a Part of Me,now, that I cannot help but Live it.
It is Integral to Who I am…from the Beard, the Long Hair, to the Refusal to wear a tie (ridiculous, leash-like fashion requirement!)…to my Immunity to Propaganda and Advertising, my Profound Distrust and Dislike of Authority…my Total Disregard for the Opinion of those whose opinions I hold as less than worthy of consideration…
All this is no secret to those whom I do hold dear, few as they may be…
And yet, those closest to me are Shocked and Amazed! When I bristle at any suggestion that I Conform, Shut Up, Sit Down, etc…"just for today"….as if Integrity can be laid aside, temporarily, when the perceived "Need" presents itself.

Personal Integrity is so rare, today that it is confused with public approval, it seems…
How can one have Integrity if no one knows about it, or (worse) no one acknowledges it?
To the Contrary, I say…Integrity is most Important when No One recognizes it. This is more of an indictment of the Polity, than an affirmation of Personal Integrity.
Plato's Cave, and all….
To hear, even implied, "act normal", "don't say that", "you're wearing that?", "are you going to cut your hair for(insert formal public function)?"….from those whom I hold Dear, is maddening.

Have they not been paying attention?
Do they really think I'm gonna wear Flip-Flops to Church? Or worse, take a big-ol- dump in the aisle?
That is what is implied…that being Me, Unapologetically, is an affront to "Civilisation"…and is, inherently, Embarrassing.
It's even worse when it comes to my Crippleness…"can you leave your cane for (insert formal public performance)?"
"Can you not make a big deal out of not being able to go up and down stairs when the Immigration Czars don't have enough Handicap-accessible seats?"
Implied, just like the perception I get from the Public at Large, is that I'm somehow "Faking it"…
After all, I don't look sufficiently damaged…

Maddening….and dispiriting…that those closest to me think so little of me.
It's hard to be an Anomaly…but it's not something that comes with a switch…
It is Not something that I do to get a rise out of folks…(well, sometimes)…indeed, with the recent turn to the right, and hence, more conformity, it is more than uncomfortable to be so obviously Other.
Even so, it is a Duty that I take very seriously…to remain Integral…while the rest of the world seems bent on Suicidal Conformity.
Since I've been out of the Cave, it is incumbent on me to not deny the existence of "Outside the Cave"…I couldn't live with myself, otherwise.
I am among those who came down from the trees…and to pretend to be just another Fire Monkey is not only a disservice to my own sense of Worth, I reckon it as a disservice to Mankind…
It is not easy…this way I am.
It's hard, it's lonely, being Anomalous….There is, apparently, no Place for Me in this World.
When this is revealed, inevitably, it is "why don't you stop being anomalous?"
As if it's a "lifestyle choice", or a passing fad, instead of Who I Am.
Why should I regret it, lament it?
My "crimes" and "failures" are in the eye of the beholder, and not without context…and, anyway, they pale in comparison to the crimes and Failures of our Society, Civilisation, Species….
Instead of"why don't I change, be more like the Herd?"…I say, "why does the Herd persist in it's irrational, superstitious, ultimately suicidal behaviour?"
Without the Weirdos, we would have likely died out, as a Species, long ago.
It was the Freaks who thought outside of the Norm, who ensured our continued survival.
I am a Lonely Representative of that Tradition of Freakishness.

Inconsistencies in Arizona

My, what a shitstorm.
The Right has finally found a Gooberment who will do what they have longed for...
I predict that, at some point, Arizona will be the first state to secede.
But that's not what I'm on about.
I'm on about Inconsistencies!
Long has "Down with Big Government!" been a rallying cry for the Right. "Drown it in the Bathtub", "Get it Off Our Backs!"...
This Meme was, of course, stolen from the Libertarians...who naively believed that simply getting rid of Government would Magically solve all the problems in the world. (I know, as I used to count myself among them...)
The Right took this Meme and, starting with Reagan, used it as a Stealth Weapon against their enemies, who are Legion:Po' Folks, Black, Brown, Yellow and Red Folks, "Commies", "Socialists" and Secular Humanists....all of whom were believed to be either hanging from the Teat of Government, or Deploying that Teat in ways meant to benefit these Unamerrcans. (to the great disadvantage of "Real Amerrcans".
Now, at least for a brief time, we can watch the Laboratory of Federalism (State's Rights) work it's magic...the Law mandates that cops ask for Papers from anyone who doesn't look sufficiently Amerrcan.
From long practice with our Litigious Civilisation, the cops will err on the side of Caution...and stop Everybody, just to be sure.
The Inconsistency is this: How is this NOT Big Government?
How does this NOT intrude into our Lives in an unwholesome way?
Even disregarding the obvious parallels in recent history ("Papers, please...(Nazi Germany, USSR,etc...))this Law sets a course, necessarily, for More Government Intrusion! ...with it's inevitable bureaucracy!
(sigh.)
The other glaring inconsistency is what this Law hopes to remedy: "Illegal Immigration"....hordes of "undocumented workers", sneaking across the porous border, to "steal our jobs!"...
It occurs to me that these folks embody the much vaunted Free Market....more so than the sham of Corporate Capitalism, fer sure!
They have identified a Need, and risk Life and Limb, and Illegality, to Fill that Need. The right should be embracing these Paragons of Entrepreneurship!
The Free Market at Work!
...of course these folks would probably rather stay home, but nafta took care of any glimmers of an economy back home...messing with the Free Market caused this Immigration. There's a Lesson for the right....lol.

What a bunch of Maroons!
And! to boot! after all the shouting, "Drill ,Baby, Drill!", accompanied by Secret Fantasies of Nailin' Palin, I'm sure...the growing Environmental Catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, not a month after the Evil One (Obama)(!??) handed them what they wanted, will expose the unfortunate Fact that all us Bleeding Heart Liberals, Hippies and assorted Godless Treehuggers were right, after all...250,000 oil spills since the 70's, and they thought opening up the Coastal Shelf for Rapacious Oil Giants was nothing to worry about.
So Louisiana will lose it's Barrier of Wetlands, as well as most of it's tourist and Fish economy, for oil that wouldn't last us a year, and would take at least 10 years to get out of the seabed.
When will a sufficient portion of the mouthbreathers on the Right finally peer out from their Colons and get right with Reality?

Geez!

(and a caveat, in case we're not on the same page...I detest the Right...no secret.
But it doesn't follow that I, therefore, Love Democrats, who I regard as merely less disturbing and evil than Republicans. There hasn't been a Left in this country in my lifetime...at least an organised Left that I could sign up with. A Real Left would oppose Empire, and all it's Trappings...no such animal, that I can see. Machine works too well.)

When the going gets weird, the weird turn Pro..-HunterSThompson

Further evidence of a nacent civil war…
The 2 women I talked to yesterday, one from a state congessman's office, the other, federal…were unintentionally instructive as to the depth of the Ideological Divide in this country.
The first was the more open and forthright…coming right out with it in a long, tangential meander into Tea Party Talking Points (which I saw later on Faux News).
The second made an effort to remain neutral, to handle the problem at hand (my lack of a Hip,etc), but her own Tea Party Exposure was evident, if merely implied.
I'll focus on the first.
At first, it was about "constituent services"…helping me find the services I require.
When we reached mutual understanding that there really are no services for my particular situation, she began veering Right…into the Government=Evil Meme-Field..
The fault, it seems, for the lack of an answer, lies with Democrats and Big Government.
I couldn't really follow her "reasoning" on this…something to do with Trial Lawyers and Malpractice being at the root of the high costs. I mentioned the possibility, obvious to me, that Insurance Companies and the Profit Motive might, in some way, have a share of responsibility.
Heresy!...those benevolent Corporations are merely trying to help..but the Evil Trial Lawyers and Socialists (whom, I gathered, were under every other rock), were ruining our perfect system…biting the Invisible hand, as it were.
She moved on to Car Insurance…a parallel to Health Insurance, regarding the Mandatory stuff in the new health legislation…I said, yes! There's yer precedent..right there!
She was having none of it.
That was ok, you see, because it's not all that expensive, and all those poor folks who "choose" not to carry insurance (for cars) are driving up costs for everybody…
She ignored the obvious relation her argument for mandatory car insurance had to Obama's argument for mandatory health insurance…
She moved on…seems there's a Credit of some kind for energy efficient appliances; Federally mandated, state administered.
Her office "handles" so many calls from folks wanting this "free money"(?) that the phones are smoking!
Damned Freeloaders…(I got that from her tone)…
I said that, seeing as I have ample time to read and learn, and am interested in such things, I had a solution!
Get onto the manufacturers! Have them make more efficient machines, (for instance : put the Guts of a refrigerator on Top, instead of on Bottom…where the heat rises into the area one is trying to cool. This is done with restaurant equipment, already).
I further suggested that it would be great to have available a fridge that ran on 24 ,48, or even 12 volt…to facilitate the use of wind and solar, which are easier to use in those voltages…(now, one must have lots more generation capability, as well as an Inverter…which loses lotsa power in conversion.)
This, apparently, suggested that I was talking about the Big, Gigantic Wind Farms going up all over West Texas….with attendant Giant Powerlines that no one wants in their yard…(I tried to syeer her back to the idea of decentralization of power generation…to no avail)
Those damned Environmentalist Hippie Socialists were Ramming These Eyesores Down Our Throats!
Seems these Ne'er-do-wells all live on the east coast, in cities, and on Martha's Vinyard…which the Kennedy's have fought to protect from such intrusions…(sigh.)
I, again, offered up a Solution!...Methane Digesters….Glorified Septic Tanks, simple Scrubbers=Free Methane for Everyone.
I said that such small scale digesters were made in Georgia, shipped to the Third World, but that they were unavailable in the US…due to some unknown Import Restriction…
She pounced! See, the damned Environmentalists!
I said, No…it's the Oil and Gas Corporations who had written these Regulations, during Bush 1…(if I remember right)…they didn't want the competition from everyone who Poops!. (think about it…"Natural Gas" is a marketing euphemism for Methane)
She, it seems, didn't hear or understand…insisting that it was Environmentalists and Trial Lawyers and Socialists and the Evil Federal Government who was at the bottom of this Nefarious Plot!
She then seemed to catch her breath…said she had been "in Government" for most of her adult life (she said she was in her seventies)…and returned to my problems…said she'd get right on it…
I thanked her, and that was it.

Analysis.
This woman offered that she has worked for the government for a long, long time.
But the government is the source of Evil in the world, and by implication, should be eliminated.
My statement(s) that it was the combination, the marriage, of Government and Big Business that was the real problem, was poo-poohed…multinational Corporations are Free-Enterprise at it's Finest.
Government is controlled by Environmentalists, Socialists, Hippies, Lawyers, Democrats, and Beaurocrats..of which list, she admitted to the last…being a government functionary for 50+ years.
Social Security and Medicare are Evil, except, it seems ,for the part where she is On Social Security and Medicare.
Poor Folks are Evil, as well…wanting to "be taken care of by the Nanny State" and "thinking they're entitled to a handout, when a Job is what they really need"…except that they're "too lazy and coddled to go out and find a job…since Welfare is right there for the taking"….(quotes are her words, as I remember them…I 'm not trying to put words in her mouth…)
Business is being "Strangled by Regulation and Government Meddling and High Taxes"…
All of which, at least in Texas, is demonstrably false…

Which brings me around to the most scary thing about this whole encounter:
Facts, Evidence, Objective Reality….none of this matters.
If it runs contrary to the Mythology, it either doesn't exist…or it is some kind of Liberal Socialist Plot to destroy us.
Nothing can disabuse these folks from their beliefs…the sky, when they look up, really IS Green!
This woman, and the other one…as well as a guy who used to work in the Medicaid Office in Brady…are all, by definition, "The Government"!
Yet they rail and rave that Government is Evil…without Shame, much less the slightest sense of Irony!
You can almost hear the disembodied Voice of Beck, Limbaugh and Faux News, behind everything they say.

We are so Fucked!

(and the Governor of Virginia has made a Proclamation of Confederate Day, neglecting to mention the role of Slavery in the War of Northern Agression…Civil War was all about Freedom!...
They are embracing the Meme.
Liberals, and all others who don't believe in this tripe, should clean their guns,(in a defensive manner, of course), and Hunker Down…
That may sound crazy, but I fear it'll come to that…)

Interstices

Sent this to "my" State Congresscritters:

Howdy,
My name is , ,and I'm disabled. I'm not "technically" disabled, due to the Byzantine system we have in this country, but I am disabled, nonetheless.
20 years ago, I had an accident…hit a tree at 90 mph. Both the tree and I survived.
I severed the "neck" of my right femur, made my left ankle into gravel, and messed up my knees…especially the right one. After I got out of the Hospital, I spent a long time in bed…then a long time in a wheelchair…and a long time learning to walk, again.
Sooner than anyone's expectations, I was back at work, and back at school.

The pain was always there, but it was tolerable. I was a cook…I like the term "Chef"…for all those years. I was very good at it…a "Ninja in the Kitchen"….but the hard floors, the long hours without a break, had their effect…
Five years ago, when I would go to work, I found myself having a harder and harder time finishing my shift…the pain was so great… After I finally got off, I could hardly drive home. Then, in the mornings, I'd find that I could not walk.

So I quit, and went to my Doctor, who said, "You need a new hip".

In these last 20 years, I have fallen a lot. I've broken both thumbs, both wrists, both elbows….damaged my back and neck (due, I think, to not being able to "lift with my knees").
Also, after my wreck and all the surgery and recovery was done, my insurance dropped me like a hot potato. I have never been able to get insurance, since that day.
So, all these "peripheral injuries" are undocumented…I just wrapped them up, drank some tequila, grit my teeth, and moved on.
When my Doc said "get a hip", I applied for Disability.
I have been through that whole process one and a half times….I'm in the second go-'round, on the first appeal to the first denial.
For some reason, they keep denying me.
Seems to be a criterion in the relevant law regarding "jobs present in the National Economy"…..notwithstanding the presence of such jobs anywhere near me.
I live in Mason, Texas. I cannot move, as I have been out of work for nearly 5 years.
This doesn't matter to the Judge, or to the Functionaries…
It seems like a convenient excuse for denying me.
I don't qualify for Medicaid, as my wife makes around $1000 per month…and the income threshold for adult Medicaid is $230 per month….in my opinion, ridiculously low.
A doctor friend of mine suggested that I "establish residence" in San Antonio, or somewhere ;where there are big County Hospitals. But I am fatally honest….I won't lie.
I am in a kind of Purgatory…I can usually walk, with great pain…I can do stuff, but I pay for it with pain.
I do the necessary repairs on this ancient house, but then I have to lie around for 1-5 days, depending on the strenuousness of the chore.
The few jobs out here are not conducive to this.
I have stated, repeatedly, that I am NOT after a check. I want to go back to work, start a business, something!
But to do so, I must be repaired.
They tell me I have Avascular necrosis in my hip…the bone is dead.
I need a hip replacement…I also need what's called an ankle-fusion.
The Orthopedic guy says I'll soon need a right knee replacement.
The Hospital quoted me, 2 years ago, $40,000+, just for the hip.
I'm at my wits end.
My family suffers, needlessly, for it.
What am I supposed to do?
The system is broken…and I didn't do the breaking.
I have never asked for "welfare" before all this started.
The system was built by folks who hold their Ideology above their Hearts…and it is Shameful.
With the recent hullaballoo over Health care Reform, there's been a lot of Hyperbole and Hollering…but the fact remains…I have fallen through cracks, that were opened, then made wider, by folks who care more about the health of Corporations than the Health of Poor People.
You, Sir, supposedly represent me.
I am a Human Being, a 5th generation Texan.
Fix it!

Thank You.
You can call me any time.(325)


Actually got a response…booted it up to "my" National Congressman…who's Minion called me.
She was very nice, very understanding…but there apparently ain't a damned thing they, or anyone else, can do.
The underlying contempt for all things Government was palpable, but I didn't get into my feelings about that…lol.
Seems that since I'm white, 40 and Educated, I have fallen through a sizeable Crack.
I am informed that the last five years of wrangling with a heartless system was for nothing.
She said it's "not what Social Security/Disability is for…it's for people who will never work again…"
Not, she says, for repairing younger folks so that they are able to go back to work.(!!)
So…from all this I glean that there is no help forthcoming, from state, federal or local government.
I'm screwed until I'm 65…or become so damaged that I can never work again.
Incentive to jump off the roof?
Yes, if I trusted the Machine with a hole in the head…which I do not.
I am, as I've feared, Doomed to deteriororate ,in increasing pain , till I finally can no longer move, at all.

I did get a rise out of her, though…
I related the results of my research into costs, regarding the Hip Replacement.
Fredericksburg Hospital "quoted" me a ballpark figure of $40,000…for the fake hip and it's installation. This figure does not include anesthesia, anesthesiologist, post operative stuff, a bed in the Hospital for a night or two,or any platinum-clad, diamond studded Tylenol or other extras that may be needed. Nothing about Physical Therapy, to get me back on my feet. Just the surgery.
I found a place that would do the whole damned thing…all the stuff mentioned above, plus recovery in a bungalow on the beach with a private nurse…for $18,000.
It's called Cuba.
It's the only country in the whole world that I ,as an American, am specifically forbidden from visiting.
If 20 grand falls out of the sky, I'll be on the first fucking boat, I told her…and y'all can throw me in jail afterwards.
If such things come to pass, be certain, dear readers, that the entire adventure will be available on YouTube.
Call it Citizen Journalism.
Or consider it a Stick in the Eye of the Beast.

On Falling Down

I have always been a drunk.
Not the "normal" drunk, having a nip every morning, needing alcohol to get through every day, or (almost) unconsciously following the dictates of Addiction.
I am Anomalous in this, as in everything else.
I'm Episodic…and Deliberate.
I know, at the outset, exactly what I'm doing….Trying to Stop My Mind.
My Mind is aswirl, most of the time. I've got Music…whole symphonies playing in my head, to the tiniest detail. For years, now, I just don't listen to music…it gets stuck in my head, and I can't get rid of it. I'll hear a snatch of (for instance) a commercial, that reminds me, on some subconscious level, of Mozart or Strauss, or Hendrix or John Coltrane….and my Mind takes over, playing the music back, like I have a tape deck in my head…whose stop button has been removed.

At the same time, having learned, it seems, far too much about the World, I think about Philosophy….whether Religion, or Politics, or Science, or History….Another kind of Symphony, playing right along side the other.

Daily tasks, like dishes, or building the porch, or even interacting w/ my bunch….I've got these other, parallel tracks in operation…

10-track mind.

Curse of Genius….

One of the problems, the Philosophical Track has no outlet in the real Life I find myself in….there is no Salon…no Lycee..nowhere to find others who Think.
America in the 21st Century, at least Texas, is anti-intellectual…(which is, of course, one of the Harbingers of Fascism…Action over Thought)….

So, in my Time, I've found that, not only am I unable to be socialized, Domesticated…unable to just naturally "fit" into our "Culture"…the things I think about, the things I care about…noone really wants to know.
I can't make "small-talk"…I just don't get it.
Here I am, concerned about Very Large Things…our place in the Universe, what it means to be American, Human, Alive…lately, whether we as a species actually deserve to survive ourselves…..
And everyone wants to talk about basketball.
About who fucked who.
About what they bought at walmart.
(spell check wants to capitalize "walmart",lol)
My Wife tries to Engage me…but we are conditioned by the Machine to be uncomfortable with Thought…
So many of the most important questions have no definitive answers…they are open ended.
Many others require looking at ourselves sans-slogans…without the Labels that we use to, unthinkingly, shut down critical thinking.
It appears that most folks are uncomfortable with Thinking…preferring, instead, to accept whatever Model they've been handed.
Safety in the Warm Herd.

I have been told, usually by shrinks (who are singularly unprepared for someone like me) , to "shut it off"….just stop thinking about the Very Large Things…Accept…rejoin the Flock, in their Happy Oblivion.
Therein lies the Problem…not only can I not stop…I don't want to stop.
To stop Thinking about these things would be unethical…it would, if I could, put me into the Herd in such a way that would destroy my Integrity.(the Integrity that matters, how I see myself…not the "integrity" that is worn on the sleeve…noone can see my Integrity.)
To say" it's too hard to think about Ethics in an unethical age" is the same Cowardice that I rail against.
I'm stuck…so, once a week, once every two weeks (it varies)…I drink.
It starts out fine…it works….the Mind slows, I can focus on one track…the Music quiets…I find the "Sweet Spot", like the drunkard in Streetcar named Desire…
But the addiction takes over from there…and, sometimes (not always) I go too far…become Mr Hyde…
Mr Hyde is a Libertine, an Extremist…a Kerouacian Force of Nature….Dionysius on Acid….
Totally in the Moment, the Eternal NOW.
I don't run off, like I used to…Even Drunk, I'm still a Cripple, after all.
Now, I find myself "drunk dialing", even online….I think it's looking for connection, just forgetting the Anomalousness….
I don't realize, in that state, that I am even harder for folks to Understand…I make references that, if I were sober, I would usually attempt to explain….
These seemingly unconnected references come across as strange, as wildly inappropriate…they are frequently taken out of Context….a Context I fail to provide.
Complexity of Thought, presented as it Is…without Explanation….
I think that is what I find Liberating….not having to give a class for every utterance.
I know the Context…it's right there, before my Mind's Eye…when I'm beyond the Sweet Spot, I (mistakenly) expect everyone else to have the same Contextual References before their Mind's Eye as well.

What to do…
When I manage to abstain…or, even, to stop at the Sweet Spot…my Mind gets so spun up…whirling with all these Big Things that have nowhere to go…no outlet.
It is… uncomfortable.
Our "culture", in it's long drive towards Homogeneity, driven by Consumerism , Materialism, and the Unspoken Fascism these engender, has few outlets for Anomalies like me.
We are all supposed to be the Same….it's never stated so plainly, honestly…but it's there in every Trope, every Slogan, every instance of Small Talk.
It is Implied, strongly, that Unusual is Bad. Normal is Good.
Beware of the other, the Not Like Us.

What to do?
One can't Unring a Bell….I can't unread Nietzsche….can't unthink all the thoughts that led me to this place…I cannot be "normal". It would mean Pretending to be Normal.
And that would be Dishonest….and require a Bullet.

And in the current "cultural" milieu, with unthinking Teabaggers, and secretly ashamed former Bushies, and Fundamentalists of every stripe…well, there is even less of a need, or even mere acceptance, of Me.
Plug in the deterioration of the Practice of Discussion…
Plug in the Certainty on all sides…
And you have the recipe for Pitchforks and Torches….Mobs.
I know enough about history to understand just who the Mob thinks is to blame…
And it looks an awful lot like me.

machines, thinking

I find it strange, that the Bots, or whatever, that place the ads on my little blog seem to think I'm a Right Winger.
"Stop the Liberals"?
"Say No to Cardcheck"?
Someone tell the Machine that I am a Liberal....please.

screw it...

After actually being engaged in Mr Horowitz's site, for however briefly before I was no longer allowed to...and after reviewing past experience with other Right Wing sites...I give up.
There can be no common ground, no agreement to disagree, no compromise...when one's "opposition" inhabits a completely different world.
The Right's hysterical hatred of anything that wanders out of their narrow world...
Their inability to see anything outside of their narrow worldview, makes impossible any attempt at coexistence.How can one, in good faith, compromise with folks who believe that you are Evil...and will believe nothing to the contrary, no matter the evidence?
It appears to me, after long study and observation, that the Right simply cannot see evidence that contradicts their Ideology.
Consider the cherry-picking of scientific knowledge, the rampant cherry-picking of Bible Verses and even the cherry-picking of quotations by the Founders...picking out those utterances and concepts (or pieces thereof...) that support their World; and chucking all the rest.
Most obvious is the Bible stuff, I think...Ignoring the "Liberal" sayings of Jesus (Beatitudes), and quoting, ad nauseum, Leviticus, Exodus, Isaiah, Revelations, and various passages from Paul...in other words, the most violent, warlike, hate-filled parts are the ones they holler the most.
There is even a website, modelled on that evil, liberal Wiki, to rewrite the Bible, excising the "Liberal" parts.
The recent uproar in Texas, with the Board of Education rewriting History, and the teaching thereof...removing Thomas Jefferson (due to "Wall of Separation between Church and State", I'm sure),in favor of Newt Gingrich,St. Ronnie, and a revived Joe McCarthy.(!)

The total forgetfulness of what Lil George, et alia, accomplished...instead, focusing on what they perceive happening w/ the Obama administration...almost word for word what we on the Left saw with the Previous Occupant.(the difference is that Lil George left ample evidence laying about...no shame there!).
Projecting on to "Liberals" the very things that they secretly hope and pray for....like death camps, roundups of the "opposition", widespread spying, wrecking the country...all of these things that have been a part of Right Wing Rhetoric for years, they Project onto us.
Never mind that such things are inimical to "Liberals"...go against the very things that make us Liberal, in the first place.
Fine.
I propose that we give them a little world...say Oklahoma, maybe Kansas...we can argue about this...where they can be "God Fearing Conservative Patriots".
Can we skip the whole Civil War II, thing? just hand over some portion of the country where they can try their Right Wing Theocracy, and whatever else they have been pining for?
If Texas falls under that Jurisdiction (Likely) I'll be happy to emigrate.
I can think of nothing else that would avoid Hobbes' War...the Political System is hopelessly Marred...they Broke it.
They broke it when they decided that elections don't matter...if they lose them.
When they decided that Majorities don't matter...when they are not in them.
The last year has been a testament to this...they don't think it matters that they lost, handily.
They still behave as if they are in charge.
What can men do, in the face of such Mindless Intractibility?
We'd be in better shape arguing with Geese.

Perusing David

I've been wandering around David Horowitz's numerous web-publications...
(I started here:
)
I am just stunned! Talk about Myopic, Studiously Ignorant Ravings!
They see everything through Red (Commie)-Coloured Glasses!
Obama is, somehow, a Liberal/Progressive President...which seems to equal, in these people's mind, Communist/Fascist Totalitarianism. (?)
Amazing.
Seems that if one doesn't swallow the whole Capitalism/Manifest Destiny/USA!=Freedom(no matter what!) Mantra, one is, by definition, a member of the Enemy...lurking in shadows, yet at the same time, boldly taking over God's Own Country.
No grey area, here!
As I remember, it was Conservatives...not "Liberals"...who had a hand in creating the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan...leading directly to Taliban/Al Queda.
It was Conservatives who championed Deregulation of Corporations, in the name of "Free Enterprise"...which led directly to our current Economic Malaise.(Clinton, who is not "Liberal" by any sane definition, went along with Conservatives in this)
It was a Conservative "Administration" who shamelessly and openly usurped many of our Rights under the color of fighting a War on a Tactic (Terrism!).
I could go on, and on...
I am not saying, and have never said, that Democrats are our best hope.
I'd be as Myopic as Horowitz.
Democrats, with few exceptions, are nothing close to Liberal/Progressive.
Neither is Obama.
They are, at best, merely less Right Wing than the Republicans/Conservatives(who are linked by their own words, not mine...and have been trying to tacitly separate since the Failures of BushII)
I expect my contributions to David's Comment Sections to be removed, forthwith...not because I was nasty (I wasn't) but because there is no room, in his world, for a Reasoned Opposition.
it's sad, and illustrative...I go to such sites because I really do want to know...I want to understand folks who think like that.But when I dare to ask questions...dare to point out inconsistencies..I am either banned or pilloried or both.
I'm interested to learn how Good David reacts.

Cowardice

The Stupidity, and Disingenuousness, of the Right never ceases to amaze me…
In continuing my rant from below, if ya' want a Revolution, a Civil War 2, at least have the courage to come out and say it!
The Right's Machine, their de facto Leadership, has for years been scaring folks into more and more violent and apoplectic moods. Combined with the demise of Discourse and Debate, this has led to a very Dangerous Place: a Nascent Revolution.
I don't have numbers, polls being what they are…but whatever percentage of the country is included in Right Wing Nuttyland has been stirred up, like the proverbial hornet's nest, to the very edge of a Violent Outburst.
This should surprise no one…and indeed, many on the Left have been warning about this for years…(Dave Niewert comes to mind)
That the Republican/Conservative "leadership" is frantically backpedalling, now at the Hour of their Glory, highlights (in Pink?!) their lack of Courage.
They are, after all, Cowards…Arm Chair Rabble Rousers.
Pathetic.
They hide behind small, fearful, outraged Idiots…the same idiots that they have created…the same , that they have nurtured, and poisoned, and whose hair they have set alight.
Now, when their long program of ignorance and indignation has come to fruition, they run for cover.
If they truly believe in their own Rhetoric…of which there is ample evidence, going back to the Palmer Raids, at least…if they really believe all the Vile Things they've pounded into the minds of their Base, they should grab a flag, and a gun, and get out in front of the Mob they have created.
They won't, of course…
Turns out that the Right is not only Cowardly, but quintessentially dishonest.
The Reason the Right's "leadership" is against Healthcare Reform is not, as has been shouted, because it is a "Government Takeover"…it's because it will at least begin to rein in the Corporations involved in "health care".
They are against Unions, and the stalled EFCA…not because of some principled concern for the Freedom of the Worker…but because restoring the right to Collectively Bargain hurts the bottom line of Corporations.
They, in almost every instance, have hollered about how they are for "the American People" and Freedom…when, in Reality..they are protecting the Rights of Corporate Vampires.
I could go on, but it's very early…
The "leadership" of the Right will continue it's disingenuous distancing from the Violence they have unleashed…
They have created these conditions, now they can sit back and allow the Machine to do it's work.
A Principled Stand would be out of character, and might lift the Veil just enough to allow the Bewildered Herd to see where their real allegiance lies..
Why would they risk that?
Fucking Cowards.

Do-Overs

So…the Democrats and the President (finally) pass something to reform our Byzantine, For-Profit Healthcare System…and the Right goes Apeshit…
Throwing insults, epithets and even Bricks (!) at Democrats, calling for the Lynching of Elected Representatives, Praying to their God for the Immediate Death of their Opponents…
Suddenly, the Republicans, and many of their TV Loudmouths, are furiously trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube.
"Oh, the violence is just terrible…we didn't have anything to do with it…but it's terrible!"
What a bunch of Chickenshits! Hypocrites! Liars!
Since Obama began his campaign, the Right (including elected Republicans) has been hollering all manner of lies and hyperbole…that O will be the socialist/communist/Nazi/fascist/negro…END of the Frakkin World!!!!!!
That the "Liberal Agenda" (as near as I can tell nonexistent, much like the "Gay Agenda") includes Death Camps, Death Panels, Gun Confiscation, and Handing American Sovereignty over to the UN…or Iran, or Hugo Chavez, or Mother Russia….(it's hard to keep track of all the Serious Existential Threats, there are so many…)
Now, when a portion of the watered down Liberal Program is passed into Law, and the last almost 3 years(+100) of Eliminationist Fearmongering have their (predictable) effects…the Right is surprised, and Shocked!
How could this have happened?!
The Right's over-the-top, Fact-Free Rhetoric…from Reagan on…but especially since 9-11, has been leading us to this point….inexorably.(it really began with Hoover…)
The Toothpaste is out…and there is very little to be done about it.
Facts, Truth, Objective Reality…these things are an anathema to the Right…ever since they hitched their Wagon to the Fundies. Same thing with Civil Debate and Discourse…they have been replaced by Ad Hominem Shouting, Shamelessly Lying about Everything, Coded Language and Ideology Trumping Truth.
Mythology is what passes for Reality, now….("we create our own reality" said Turdblossom)
And the Holy Cleansing Civil WarII that the Right has been itching for…without ever being honest enough (with themselves or anyone else) to just come out and admit…that Civil War is fixing to come to pass.
Except, this time, it'll be sans battle-lines…Bellum Omnia Contra Omnes…house to house…almost random.
When you make Civil Discussion impossible…when you use Eliminationist Rhetoric against your political opponents…when you ceaselessly promote Fear and Loathing as Legitimate Public Discourse…and when you Lie and Lie and Lie, about Everything for almost 100 years…
Well what would you expect?

Ethics

To make one's way in the world, with one's Integrity intact, a System of Ethics is more than helpful.
After 30 years of development, I figger now is as good a time as any to set down mine...
For my boys.

There are several anecdotal maxims that I consider to be at the Core of my own, personal System of Ethics.
First among these is the Idea of Reciprocity....variously stated in the Golden Rule, the Rule of Hillel, the Wiccan Rede and (in thousands of words) Mill's On Liberty.
My favorite, and (in my opinion) the most succinct, is the Rede:"An harming none, Do as thou wilt."
Can you imagine what the History of Mankind would've been like if everyone had taken this Maxim to heart?
Kant said pretty much the same thing, with his test of Morality/Good..."is what I contemplate something that I would make into a Universal Law?"
or, "Would the action I am about to perform , if Universalised, be a Good thing?"
These things, which are just different ways of stating the same thing, all require us to Think about the Consequences of our Actions....like the Iraquois, down to the Seventh Generation.

The Second Maxim is as follows: There is a Prohibition on First Use of Force...with the exception of defending the defenseless...but even that caveat is, at root, a Defensive stance.
The Idea is that one should not, under any circumstances, Initiate Violence...only defend against the Initiation of Violence by Others. Again, what would History look like?
This Maxim can be shoehorned into those areas where actions are not Violent, per se, but merely contain the Threat of Violence...however veiled.
Coersion, as in the Tax Man, the bully, the Dictator...
The PaleoLibertarians extend this concept to the Mundane. If some dude opens up a factory of some kind next door, belching noxious vapours and emmitting loud noises, deep into the night...he has initiated a kind of Violence onto the Peace and Tranquility of the neighborhood. He has lessened the Quality of Life.
The PaleoLibertarians insist that he must make recompense, or cease such Violence.
I wholeheartedly agree...and find that, altogether, this Inclusive use of the term quite marvellous in maintaining Peace.

The Third Maxim: The Purpose of Life is to Learn and Experience.
Trite cliches, such as "it's the Journey, not the Destination" are applicable, here. We, endowed with Conciousness,can be thought of as the Universe Contemplating Itself....an Idea I find Profound and, ultimately, comforting.Consider, Life's grand March on this small World has been a March toward greater and greater Conciousness....From Cyanobacteria to Plants to Amoebae to Dogs to Us (as far as we know...see below).
Greater ability to Introspect...greater capacity for Understanding. With Greater Understanding should follow Greater Compassion...but it is seldom so.Which leads to the Fourth Maxim...and the most Important.

Socrates said, "I know that I do not know"...and thus, was the Wisest man in Hellas.
Socratic Perplexity is the first step to Wisdom. It's opposite is Certainty.
Consider...if one is Certain, if one believes that one's own worldview is, necessarily, correct, without Error...Inquiry, Introspection, are shut down.
One is immune to Compromise. One has Reached the Destination...no further argument is needed. This, invariably, leads to the Crimes we see throughout our History.
It is Fundamentalism; Religious, Political or both. When we are Certain that we have the Truth, the Journey is over...we are free to force others to adhere to our view.
This is particularly odious where Religion is concerned: "We are Right, because we have the Word of God, in this Book...of unknown, questionable Providence..and as we interpret it....therefore, we are doing God's Work when we slaughter these Infidels and Heretics ("Faithless Choice-Makers")". This mindset, of Certainty, leads inevitably to Violence...after all, if God is "on your side", you can do no wrong...Inshalla,it is God's Will. Who can counter this?What Reason can penetrate Certainty...this is the Fundamental (pun intended) Problem of our Time.
The Remedy to this is Perplexity..."I know that I do not Know"....in the face of that Arrogance, that Presumtion of knowing the Mind of God...I am Humble in my studied Perplexity.
I Do Not Know.
This doesn't mean that I don't have some Ideas. On the contrary, I have constructed a Model of the Universe that satisfies me...untill new data is found that shatters the Model.
We all construct Models of the Universe....most don't realise it, and accept the Model that has been handed to them...never questioning the Foundational Assumptions that lie at the root of all such Models.
I have Foundational Assumptions...the sky appears Blue....Oxygen readily bonds with two atoms of Hydrogen..there is a Thing behind Things...indeed,.all manner of assumptions.
The difference is that I am willing, and ready, to cast out my Foundational Assumptions when and if some new evidence is found that makes them Unworkable.
Jesus shows up on my rooftop...revise my thinking that Xianity is Superstitious Nonsense.
I expire, and wake up in Hell...well, you get the idea.
I do not presume to Know, for Certain...anything. All my Knowledge is Provisional...Subject to Revision, pending new data.
I readily admit, that this is a more difficult way of interacting with the World....but I believe (untill new data disproves it...) that it is the only Honest way.
This Perplexity, this UnCertainty, is an effective shield from the stupidity and violence we find everywhere. If I Don't Know, am I likely to follow someone in doing Violence to the Other?
No, I am likely to follow my own Mind...since the Great Leader can't presume to Know, any more than I can. The Pope, the President, the King, the Crime Boss...all are just as fallable as me...just as Perplexed. They just don't know it...and I do. I , alone, am responsible for my own actions...not to God, or the King...but to myself, and my own Integrity. And. not because I fear punishment, but because I wouldn't respect myself if I went against my own counsel.


That's it...that's the Ethics of Amfortas the Hippie.