A Budgetary Aside.

Everyone throws around $1.5 Trillion dollars as the size of the Federal Budget for 2013.
It occurred to me, that Inflation is never taken into account.
My Proverbial Bag of Cat Food, that cost $5 in 1995, now costs closer to $20.
I would assume that the same holds true for the Federal Government...that it simply takes more Dollars if diminishing Value, to run the Government.
Here's the Inflation Calculator
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Here's the cut and paste, for the current Budget, in 1984 Dollars:

Inflation Calculator
		If in2013
		I purchased an item for $1,500,000,000,000.00
		then in1984
		that same item would cost:$666,375,915,545.35
		Cumulative rate of inflation:-55.6%

This is very interesting....The Current Budget , in 1984 Dollars is $666 Billion.
In 1984...also in 1984 Dollars....Reagan's Budget was:

$851,805,000,000

http://federal-budget.findthedata.org/l/87/1984

It costs more to run a country...not because of President Obama's profligacy...but because the Dollar is worth less.

The Paroxysts.

From a Rabid Right Winger who friended me, for some reason(it's been an enlightening relationship)...this, after I tore down a minor pillar of his Framework(seems Heritage did indeed come up with Obamacare,lol):
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“I would be against this so called compulsory health insurance no matter who promoted it. It is not about Health care but about power.
Make Me Buy Health Care
Make Me buy a car
make Me Drink Pepsi
Control what I eat, Where I go, Who I talk to, - Fuck That...
Where does it end. As soon as the government can force You to do anything there is no limit to what they can force You to do.There will always be rich & poor, There will always be a percentage that are homeless, There will always be a percentage that are in need, the poor are not poor because the rich are rich. It will be that way no matter who the president is."Third Way" is a Dangerous Myth, much like the Clinton Surplus. Only Conservative Capitalism will save this country.Yes We need a strong military. Ever play "Risk". I Believe in the domino theory.
We have real enemy's in the world and need a strong defense against them always.Over 60 ally countries supported the Iraq invasion along with Congress including Hillary who voted to go.
We are today still trying to contain the same chemical weapons that Saddam moved into Syria then.
We needed to go to Iraq. We need to keep a presence throughout the world. Someone will be the big dog on the block & if not us then Who?The 1% already bears the bulk of the tax burden.
The top 1% of US taxpayers pay almost as much in federal income taxes as the entire bottom 95%, and half of that bottom group paid no taxes at all in 2010.The Government does not need to have it's hands in the private sector banking or otherwise.End the Federal Reserve.Out of the UN & UN out of USA.Bust the Unions which are only money laundering funnels for the Left and the new terrorist arm for the Democrat Party since the KKK (The Democrat's old Terrorist arm) went out of style. No WPA/CCC. We do not need more government run, taxpayer funded work programs that do nothing for the economy other than allow the left to skew the numbers in an effort to make themselves look good an get more votes. No More FDR Raw Deal Politics. He did not end the Depression He made it worse.We need Small Government allocated only to those powers enumerated in the Constitution. We are where we are today because We have allowed the government of become too powerful and intrusive in the lives of the people.

I tire of arguing this trash with people who need the government to baby set them. As far as I'm concerned folks that think that way need to be in a home that is suited to their wants & needs, or maybe we could allocate one state and You could all go there where You could have a nanny state to wipe Your asses. What we do not want or need is for those who think like You to decide for the rest of us what we want or need because those of us who enjoy Liberty, Capitalism, Constitutionalism & The Free Representative Republic that our Forefathers set up & intended to have just get sick of hearing and seeing the way this regime and the Left have us headed.
If the choice is Government Masters or Corporate masters then I have to choose Corporate. At least they do not fuck me under the guise of trying to help me.

"The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." -Robert Heinlein

Favorite Bumper Sticker - "Earth First" - We'll drill the rest later... “
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Theoden said, in LOTR,”What can men do with such reckless hate?”
This played on track 3 of my mind, as I read his last words...
Because, believe you me, there was hate behind them.
Rage.
Born of Fear.
I had committed the Sin of tearing down an Assumption...of Correcting him.
Combined with all of our other “conversations”...where he has intruded into my space to ...well...I don't really know what he hoped to accomplish.
Put together, it paints a picture of a Monster. ...not he, himself...but that habit if mind...that Shadow Self in the collective American Psyche.
On 911, I was scared...not of Muslims in caves, and not of the Government...but of the Townspeople I saw at the gas station, buying gas, and bottled water, heading out to the ranch...What I saw that day is the same thing that drives people like my Tea Party Friend to such hatred.
Fear.
They push it down with belligerence, but Fear is what drives them.
That day I saw ordinary rednecks, prance like roosters, and talk about kicking ass and killing...not just Muslims, but UN Troops, and even Federal Troops......all while they were evacuating Mason, Texas.
Run to the Hills...
People build belief systems...what I have termed a Framework, on which they hang their apprehensions of Reality.
The point in all this rumination, is that our Framework clashes with theirs...
We can deal with such clashes...we are open to modifying our Framework, as new data comes in.
Malleable.
Liberal.
We bend with the wind.

They, on the other hand, are rigid...their Framework is hard, ossified, and therefore fragile.
This terrifies them...it is their deepest secret, as a people.
Pushed down so deep that they are not even aware of it.
this is why they fear, and therefore habitually belittle any form of psychotherapy...they'll confess to their Preacher, perhaps...but he will only reinforce their Certainty...not challenge it.This is also the very Root of their Fear and Belittling of everything from the Poor to the Gay.

Almost 10 years of research, of reading everything I could get hold of on the subject...as well as almost 7 years of “field work”...of being Jane Goodall in a duck blind on Right Wing Fora...and lately, watching them on Facebook...even having them “friend” me,lol...all of it has led to this Point I'm dancing around:
That the Hard Core of the Right Wing Movement...that most extreme and paranoid and dissonant faction of American politics...the ones who have always been there, but were relegated to the Fringes of political life, until, in their desperation, the GOP saw fit to use them as a weapon, hopped up on meth, and pushed to the front lines....that Heart of Dark Fear and Malice and Hysteria and Belligerent Posturing...is of the same material that gave the Nazis their power.
I know, I know...Godwin's Law...lol.

But that's where all this staring into the Abyss has led me.
Prohibition, be damned.
GOP, seeing their stranglehold loosen, set this Creature loose on all of us.
Pure Reaction.
Mindless Confusion, that Believes wholeheartedly in it's own Certainty...it's own Infallibility....while paradoxically and subconsciously Fearing that it's either Wrong or too Weak.

This is the Heart...the Essential...Fascism.
Eco's Ur-Fascism.

It's where the Hell's Angels come from, John Birch Society(and a whole slew of similar if less well known Anti-Communist groups), the American Legion, the more Radical and formerly hidden versions of the Milieu that went into the formation of what we call the Religious Right...(esp. “Reconstructionism”,et al.) The KKK, and all of their Offspring, from Stormfront, back to the Silver Shirts.
It has always been there, at the edge, muttering to itself about lost glory and betrayal, and world ending retributional violence.
But the GOP, in contemplating it's end, around 06...maybe before(who knows? They do play the Long Game)...Took this Smeagol, and whipped it up into a frenzy of self righteous anger and rearguard Triumphalism.It was a Hail Mary Pass, a last ditch effort to cling to power...
But it was for naught, it seems....
The Reagan Revolution is all but over...bankrupt, hollow, their Principals laid bare for all to see.
The Pendulum has come unstuck, and is beginning to swing, again...and none too soon.
There's still time, I hope, to repair some of the damage...to claw back a little Sanity and Compassion, from the ravages of the Machine...the Corporate State.
Many Prohibitions are removed...we can even talk seriously about Capitalism.
But, if we're not careful...if we ignore this Hard Core...continue with the Taboo against Naming it...this World Ending Nihilism...then our Victory will be Pyrrhic.
The Beast that the GOP has set loose will devour itself, all the while lashing out...their fantasies of Revolution, and Saving the Constitutional Republic from Itself...all the Crazy Ass Ideas that we tend to laugh at...make fun of...all the Terror in the very center of their Being will come out.
Being here...in the Homeland of Tea...surrounded by them...This is definitely something I worry about.
Wife worries, too...She looks at the kids, and asks if it is not more prudent to cease my outspoken critique of the Nutters.
For safety.
Because these folks are rather scary, up close.(indeed, I wrestled with posting this, at all)
I counter, that if we do that...if we do sit down and shut up...and let them have the field, then there will be no safety.
For anyone.
That's how we got here, in the first place....by being cowed into silence by bullies...by being afraid of our own ideals and ideas....even of the word “Liberal”.
We have finally found our Spines, and ...Lo and Behold!...we're winning.
We should continue in this endeavor...but have no illusions about what “Rough Beast” is wandering..addled...in the woods.

Keep all of these little insights from your favorite Feral Philosopher in mind, as we watch the Pendulum, hopefully, swing leftward once more.
Win the House, keep the Senate, and the White House...maybe even, over time, watch the GOP wither away....That is all a good thing, if it comes to pass.
But remember that folks like my Tea Part Friend are still there.
They always have been, and likely always will be.
Let us hope that the longed for more Liberal Paradigm remembers them, as well...and never again lets them so close to Power.

Iran.

(http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/09/16/is-iran-and-americas-ice-cold-relationship-beginning-to-thaw/)

I think Mr Rouhani is an improvement over the last guy they had in that position. Seems almost as reasonable....and sort of Modern....as Khatami;( he's the President that came before the odious, but entertaining, Ahmadinijhad(sp-3).)
Of course, the real Power in Iran is with the Religious Authority...Ayatollah's(sp-3) and Imans, and all the rest.(the Iranian version of Islam is largely a mystery, to me...I know more about Zoroastrianism)

I reckon it would be cool to end the mini cold war we've been having with Iran for 34 years. I also think we should apologise....yes, I said it!... for Operation Ajax.
They seem to be a regional power....and sort of important in Shia Islam...which is another good reason to at least Talk with them.
McCain and Lindsey are stuck in time....this is a feature of the Pre Tea Gop....I think they're even Pre-PNAC in their attitude on this.
Nevertheless, the childish “policy” of staring across the street and growling occasionally should end....and what better time, than with a new Iranian President who , at the very least, appears to not require Thorazine before venturing out in public.

"Patriot Day"

 

I can't think of a single instance when I have Wanted Lee Greenwood, stuck in my head.
When I found out this morning, that it was "Patriot Day", I was allowed to hold forth on some other ideas about what it means to be a Patriot.
Like the Right to Dissent, the Right of the Minority of One, the Right of the People to Know what their Employees are doing.
My kids are used to my rambling discourse, by now. I get eye-rolling from the older one, and the younger flits away like a sparrow who's gotten into the kitchen.
They are both going to be subjected to a lot of flag waving and propaganda, today....at the school I help to finance.
They know, however, likely alone among their cohort, that the views and memes hammered home, today, are not representative of all Americans....that some of us feel differently...and yet still manage to love our country, in spite of it's crimes and failings.
I have spent most of the day wearing nothing but a large silken bandanna, red white and blue, stars and stripes.
I watched "Loose Change", and will attempt to corral my boys long enough to watch "Hijacking Catastrophe", some time this week.
It's good to have one's beliefs and assumptions challenged, from time to time. I strive for circumspection, and falsifiability.
But, I have seen nothing in the intervening years, to sway my first impression....that at best, elements within My Government Let the events of that day Happen(LIHOP).
At worst, that they Made it Happen.
 
How different the world is, 12 years later.
I hardly recognise my country, any more, when I see the cameras....even way out here....and think about the gps in my phone, and how every text and call I make on it is sucked up by the largest computer storage capability on the planet...about Key Words (Nyukular)...about Habeus Corpus.

About Secret Laws and Secret Courts, and Secret Blanket Warrants....when they even bother.
I think about all the lists I'm likely on, due to my refusal to "Watch what I say"...If I overcome my fear of flying, I wonder if I will be able to.
Today, I remember being strangled, by a drunken American Legionnaire, for having the Balls to say that Lil George is a War Criminal.('04)
I remember being called a Traitor, for believing that the wars...especially Iraq...were bad ideas...and likely criminal acts.
I remember Freedom Fries, and the de facto Ban on foreign food.
I remember "You're either with us, or your with the Terrists"
On that day, we ceased to be a Civilisation...and became a Gang.
 

My Sordid Tale

 ( a recap, and an Update)

One of the most Kafka-esque qualities of this story...among a great many such qualities...is the need to begin twenty three years ago...and to include every damned detail from that whole time.
It is convoluted, complex and has been a central feature to the second twenty years of my time, here.

In December,1990, I was working at Pizza Hut, in Tomball,Texas...living 20 or so miles north, at Mom's, where I had grown up.
I was a drunk...as were most of the folks I knew and was acquainted with.
What was different about me...aside from my Mind...was that I was a hunted man.
Due to helping several young women out of dangerous and quite insane situations, I was Persona Non Grata, as far as the local cops were concerned.
That whole story bleeds into this one, but for now, I will keep them as separate. Suffice it to say that I was, at this time, living the sordid and unusual life of an Outlaw.
I would often give my boss, Sandra, a ride home, after work.
She lived out there, close to Mom's...and she helped with gas money, and we often pooled our resources for beer.
(the next bit is reconstructed from the recollections of her, and others, as well as a lot of circumstantial evidence, and drug induced Visions)
On December 17th...day before payday...Sandra and I were broke.
We collected our change, and purchased a "two-fer" of Busch Beer(2 Tall Boys) Each.
I drank one of mine on the way to her house, and was saving the other for later...it was in my inside coat pocket.
I left, at around midnight, and headed home.
I never made it.
3/4's of the way there, not a mile from my neighbourhood, I got behind a bone white Galaxie...the kind with the fins on the back, and the greenish bubble rear window.(below, is suppose to be a picture of one)
Carload of drunk Rednecks, hats and all, swerving all over the road.
I endeavoured to pass them....it is estimated that I hit the sweetgum tree at 90 mph...severing my right hip at the femoral neck, and turning my left ankle into gravel. I also "jammed" my knees...having locked them, straitlegged, onto the brake pedal.
I collided with the steering wheel, crumpling it, and exploding the last Tall Boy(I still have the unopened can)...soaking me with beer.
My forehead smashed the windshield.(I assume that I was wearing the seat belt, since the EMT's had to cut it)
I lay there for at least 4 hours...until the owner of a doughnut shop happened by on his way to work...his wife noticing my headlights, off in the trees.
They turned around, took a look, determined that I was drunk(smell of exploded beer)...and left to call the cops, and EMT's.
Cops arrived, first...and were discussing whether to charge me with Public Intoxication, or DWI, when the ambulance got there.

Off to Tomball Hospital we went...where they took my blood for testing, and attempted by brute force to relocate my hip.
My screams were the first thing my Mom heard, when they called her.
The only part of this that I remember is the rain hitting my face as they put me on the chopper....
They took me to the big Medical Center, south of Downtown Houston.(I think it was Hermann)
It was only much later that I was informed that the blood test had been negative for intoxication...but I had bigger fish to fry.
They patched me up...pound of metal in my ankle...2 screws in my hip...pinning it back together.
A rather bitchy plastic surgeon fixed my forehead...badly, it turns out. I stayed maybe a week in the hospital, on Morphine, and in a daze...rambling to my Grandma incoherently about "White Galaxies" and Rednecks and Passing gears.
There was a hospital bed in my room, when we got home. Due to my stepdad being a paralyzed Vietnam Veteran, we were really well set up for all of this...extra wheelchairs, a roll in shower, ramps....
I had a six foot section of pvc with a notch cut into the end, for turning off the tv, and switching channels(one had to turn a knob, in those days).
Soon, Paolo, the Brazilian Physical Therapy guy began showing up, and helping me get ready to learn how to walk, again.
Nurses came to check on me, and even a few friends came and looked at me.

At some point, soon after getting home, a friend wheeled me down to the back pasture, where the crumpled carcass of my car was...
Sure enough!
Long streak of bone white paint, all down the passenger side.

There was a deer that we had rescued from another person's wreck, who had sort of adopted us. I'd wake up to a four point buck, eating my cigarettes, from my bedside table.
This went on for I don't know how long...getting stronger...recovering...
I was in a wheel chair for what seems like a long time...then a cane, with a big storm trooper boot on my ankle...and then I was back.
The Insurance dropped me at some point during this time...I remember being as yet unable to walk, when I got the bill for the balance:$140,000.
I started back at the community college in a wheel chair that summer. I also was in a Blues Band...lead singer and guitar man, in a wheel chair.For once, I didn't have to be my own Roadie.

By september, I was at work, part time...cooking.
This period is very hazy, since I soon began drinking again...part due to the pain...and part due to the fact that I was still a drunk...and a hunted man....a Pariah.

I don't really know how long this time, after I learned to walk, but before I finally left, went on...
It seems like years.
I lived in my van for much of that time...got arrested...and went on months long road trips to points east...what I have termed my Wild Years.

I ended up leaving, though...for good...after the one cop I was friendly with told me that I had better get out of town.
I went to Huntsville, back to college.
I lived with my brother, and did pretty well...all things considered.
Ended up with my own apartment, and was doing well in school...until the Dean pulled a fast one: all the credits I had made up, from my first abortive attempt at college...didn't count.
I'd have to repeat my first 2 semesters. Some fine print that I, and all my "advisors" , had missed, somehow.
So I left...new girlfriend in tow...we went to Austin.
My last paycheck from H-Town bounced, sending us into eviction, and about 30 bounced checks of our own...even jail, a couple of years later...for "Theft".
We never recovered, financially, from this... all manner of bad luck...ended up living in our car, and in seedy, weekly hotels.
Credit ruined, no savings, and an inability to save...we were fucked.
Moved in with a friend of ours, from H-Ville...then my folks helped us buy a trailer house. We still couldn't recover, financially, from all that...car was wrongfully repossessed...  bad luck, in spades...utilities, rent, through the roof...now, taxes, too...
So when my stepdad offered to help us move the whole kit and kaboodle up to Mason...we jumped.I was still getting "zits" on my forehead, at this time, that turned out to be pieces of windshield, working their way out.
I was still in a lot of pain, even after all this time...I was a Cook...standing on concrete for hours, lifting big boxes of onions and whatnot....
I knew I'd need a hip, by the time I was 40...so I tried several times to get insurance.
They either denied me, outright...or were so damned expensive...and without any assurances that the eventual hip would be covered...Cost/Benefit Analysis said  it wasn't do-able.
So off to Mason, we went...just sort of disappeared into the Texas Hill Country...100 miles from anything resembling Civilisation.
The Goal was to get Mom's 20 acres up and running and productive...but between Mom's pie in the sky ideas, and my stepdad's every six weeks bouts of irrational hatred towards me, that never panned out.
Wife left after a year...and I drank...and ran all over looking for companionship...and accidentally found my current (and last) Wife.
I worked in various restaurants and cafes...as well as on the Farm.
I grew Organic Veggies...and made no money...I opened a Cafe...and 911 happened...no one wanted that Unamerican Foreign Food, any more.
Around this time, not only was my first son born, but my hip and ankle and knees began to give me much pain.
I soldiered on...drinking for the pain, as I had no other avenue.
My schedule at the various cafe's I worked at gradually got shorter and shorter...fewer days, per week...shorter shifts....
By the time I'd get home,  I needed my Wife to help me out of the truck and into bed.
I went to our doctor...he said,"you need a hip, and can no longer work...apply for disability"
Around this time, my second son was born...and Wife was driving 200 miles round trip to get her degree....
She was also working at the school...and we figured that it was now imperative, with me all fucked up and broken, that she continue both of these things...work and school...we had no choice.
I applied for disability, and quit my 4 hours per week last job.I thought, as did everyone else, including my doctor...that I would be a shoe-in....get the hip,etc, and move on....That was seven years ago.(June of 2006)
I still did the necessary things around the farm...but I found that I had to severely pace myself...and that it took sometimes days to recover from whatever manual labour that was required of me.
Weather...especially cold fronts and distant hurricanes...just killed me...it hurt so bad.
I'd lay there in bed, in agony, for days.
Meanwhile, I kept getting denied for Disability...
At first, the reason given was "insufficient evidence"...after all, having no insurance, and little money, I had avoided doctors, for years.
So I borrowed money from Mom, and Dad, and tried to get evidence...to fill in the blanks...all for naught.
When it finally came before a Judge, on a flatscreen tv,I was denied, again. His reasons were many...and stupid, from my point of view:
I had never been "ordered", by a Doctor, to take up the Cane, again...I just did. This impugned my credibility, somehow.
In addition, I had been honest on one of the forms, about being depressed(wouldn't you be?)...and they'd sent me to a shrink for "evaluation"...shrink said I was not disabled due to mental health.
Judge used this little tidbit in his denial...even though I had never alleged Disability due to Mental Health...I had merely answered a questionnaire honestly.
The biggest pile of BS in the Judge's Denial...was that his little toady...an "Occupational Expert", sitting meekly behind a fold in His Honor's Robes...Toady said that there were two Jobs "In the National Economy" that I could probably do..."Cut and Paster", whatever that is....and "Order Taker"...again, whatever that is.
All this, and ergo, I am Not Disabled.
I had to reapply...to similar effect.
I did so 4 times...hilarity ensued, and much ridiculous bureaucratic incompetence...in my Outrage, I wrote letters and emails to my Congress Critters...all of them...and those belonging to other people, as well...I researched all the relevant law...I had ample time on my hands, after all.
By the time of the last Try at Disability, my "Credits"...that one builds up by working...had withered away.
I was denied the last time, because I was no longer Eligible...  because I had been out of work for so long...because I was Disabled.
This all took six and a half years.
Most of that time was spent in Wife's Drunk Uncle's ramshackle pile of sticks in Town....after finally having had enough of my belligerent stepdad's threats and crazy....(the Prowler Problem contributed, too...even more complexity, addressed elsewhere)
I spent the last of my Body getting this old house liveable...
Then, last October(I think) I got a letter from SSI....I had been caught in the safety net, at last!
Except that I still had the old beaten down trailer house, out in Mom's pasture...Tax man in his infinite goodness still reckoned it was worth $11K+...which was much more than the $3k in "assets" that SSI allowed. I wasn't sufficiently poor, it turns out.
So I took advantage of the deal they offered, and put it on the market...I found a sympathetic realtor, who listed it...at the required "Market Price"....the ludicrous $11k+.
It was a hopeless endeavour....and even if I did happen upon some rich mentally challenged person, the sale would do me in with SSI....
But I signed the damned thing, any way....and by the end of Febuary,2013, I had a new hip....that summer, I got the eyelashes removed, that had been poking my left eye for twenty years.
Meanwhile, and concurrently, Wife had finished her schooling...had her Graduation...and began to take the exit exam(turns out this was all a load of crap from a bitchy professor who had it in for her)
Failed, repeatedly, the last 3rd of the exam...bitchy professor made the test. I blame her.
Nevertheless...it is only now, 5 years after her Graduation, that my Wife is getting her Degree...except that the school put her down as "Quit", or something...so student loans were suddenly due...and with no way to make the payments...since she didn't have the damned sheepskin, so was making peanuts. So the Degree is on "Hold", until the student loan is paid in full,...they keep adding $$ to it, too.

AArg!
Even this part of the tale is so damned complex and crazy!

So...here we are.
I'm waiting to see the Ankle Guy...and the Rheumatologist.
I aim to fix the ankle, and determine if I have RA, on top of the Osteo Arthritis...
My back, and all the joints in my arms, my knees, my good hip, my fingers...I hurt all over....and all my numerous injuries over the years can't account for it.

One doctor confirmed my suspicion, that if I had gotten the Hip, seven years ago...I likely wouldn't be as Broken as I am now.!!!!!!!!

As it stands, I'll likely never work, again.
Tax man came to his senses, and dropped the "Value" of the trailer to $1600.
SSI says they have "overpaid" me, and that they want their money back.
Wife needs a loan for $3600 to get her degree...which SSI will see as evidence of Wealth...
If she gets her Degree, she'll make a little more money...maybe up to $19K...which SSI will see as more evidence of Wealth...
I don't know what all of these new developments will do to Medicaid, and to my ability to finish getting fixed.
I've been honest to a fault in all of my dealings with the various and sundry government agencies and functionaries...but I still fear the widespread assumption of fraud...I've heard the stories.
I assume the worst.

Less likely to be disappointed.

////////////////

So my Youngest brought home the annual first week of school infection....this time, a sinus/upper respiratory ailment.
Came down with it on my 44th birthday, and spent 3 days in the screaming abyss of febrile delirium. 
6 days later, and I'm mostly recovered.....but I feel like shit.
Violent sneezing led to what felt like bruised ribs...and a very painful fake hip...which is worrisome.
SSI Lady says the loan for Wife's degree, and any extra $$ she earns won't count against Medicaid...at least not till next year...
That's welcome news...but I'm still expected to keep the trailer house on the market....and , if it sells, it looks like it will count against me, somehow. The rules are esoteric, and seem to rely on interpretation, and chicken bones.
Still attempting to keep the tobacco intake to a minimum...but any plans to quit are out the window, for now.
I simply can't take the added stress....and it's more important, to me, to stay out of the bottle.
The Medicaid Contractor sent me a list of 5 Shrinks...who they say take Medicaid. The closest is 50 miles, one way...and hasn't called me back. The rest are 90+ miles, one way...mostly in Killeen.
Again, I expect the worst...to hear a lot about Jesus...or for them to simply be unqualified for someone like me("Grandiosity",lol).
There's no way that I can afford the gas for any sort of regular visit with even the closest of them...let alone the Pain associated with such travel.

Today, my Momma is taking me to North Austin, to see the Ankle Guy....and the Rheumatologist.
My blood contains Rheumatoid Factor...which fills me with Fear and Apprehension.
Best Case, as near as I can determine, is either RA, or Fibro...neither of which is curable, or all that well understood.
Those are the Best Case Scenarios!
I sort of expect to be sent to "Pain Management"...assuming I can find one in Texas who takes Medicaid.
This is worrisome, as well...Texas, in it's infinite wisdom and focus on compassion, has mandated that such places make me sign a contract...one of the provisions mandated is that I refrain from using any "illegal substances"....and that I submit to regular urine testing to prove it, if I wish to receive Vicodin.
This means I'll hafta quit Marijuana....you know, because Pot is just like Heroin....and the use of it is always indicative of Violent Immorality, and Substance Abuse.
Being a Drunk is, apparently, just fine.
Chronic Pain ,too. is  a Criminal Offense....for which I must be Punished.

( on the other hand, cooking meth, and blowing up houses is evidence of one's status as a Pillar of the Community. The Explosions don't even make it into the local paper.)

All of this is Depressing.

Even Good News is Bad News, and the Light at the End of the Tunnel smells of Sulphur.

Is it any wonder that, as I get older, and more Broken and Hopeless, that I lean further into Misanthropy?!
That I despise my "Civilisation", and all of it's Systems and Mythologies?

44

Mozart's entire Requiem Mass...complete with Communion in Latin.
15# of Lasagne....

in the Oven.
I even cleaned my own dishes

(how the Mighty have fallen!)
Bad Sneakers,Kid Charlemagne.
Southern Comfort,neat.
The recommendations of Dr. Smoke Nazi, forgotten.
My compromise with said Ankle Doctor, 1/2 pack, per day, postponed.
I'm almost afraid to ask how he feels about the Noble Weed....

I'm tired,

body and soul.
Texas Dems have returned to their Caves, and I'm left out here, on the field

All alone.

I rode the Wendy Wave as long as I could...

I burn out, after a while, too, I guess.
Especially when confronted with the local Apathy, and the ever present evidence of my Minority.

It's a large hill.

I have never felt this Singular.
....and that's something...because I've been Singular, all my Life.
A Visionary, too...and as cast aside as Cassandra...
Gift of Foresight, Curse of being Ignored.

No one calls, save Familia.
Inbox filled with shit I signed up for, no more.
I Brim with Erudition.
I overflow with Insight.
My River, however Broad and Deep,
Is Dammed

By Ignorance and Apathy

And the Dark Side.

How Masterful!
Their Coup!
How all-encompassing, their Colonisation!
Minds, overthrown!

I want to give up...

I want to shed the political, it seems so fucking
Hopeless....

Integrity says,"No."

The hard fact that I have Offspring says,"No."

It's the least I can do,

for them.

////////////////////////////////

Just noticed that there's a Mason on the Moon.
South of the Lacus Mortis(lake of death),
and to the North ofthe Lacus Somniorum(lake of dreams).
After many years of longing, I finally splurged, earlier this year, for a Moon Globe.
Included it in my long awaited Book Budget.
Priorities, and all...

Still have a ways to go....I keep adding to it!
The Feral Librarian, building my own Alexandria...
Tome by Tome.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=pd_ys_sf_lf_wl

Donations are, of course, gratefully accepted.

////////////////////////////////////////

Birthdays always seem to lend themselves to introspection; these days...I am reminded of a book:
"All my friends are going to be strangers",Larry McMurtry...
How prescient it was.

Ennui, Angst, Longing.
These were all supposed to be the afflictions of the Young...

not those of middle age.
Yet, here I is.

Almost all of my friends are online, and unmet.
Even those few who are nearby keep me at the safe distance of Facebook.
I imagine that it is my terrible Erudition...
my aforementioned Breadth and Depth....
That keeps my phone and doorstep so quiet.
Ha!

Of course, other folks have things to keep them busy.
And I am a Drunk....

Not near as often as before-times, but I still tend to fall pretty

hardly off the Wagon...

On occasion.

///////////////////////////////////////

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

====================================

Walk softly!
For I am well into the Vinyl.

....as well as the little sampler of Smirnoff.

6 little bottles of flavoured Vodka.
(I cannot recommend the Vanilla)

How many remember that if ya stomp,

It Skips?
My Library becomes a Temporal Bubble...
Here, it is 1971
(High Point of Western Civilisation)
Nag Champa,
The "Smell of Burning Leaves".

Ancient Music,
Brought forth on an equally Ancient Device.

"Every Picture Tells a Story"
"Moondance"

"Who's Next?"
>>>>>>>>>>>>>

To what end?

Why do I collect and read Books,

that no one else will read?
Why do I cook Gourmet Meals,
That no one will eat?
Why hold forth on Myriad Things that no one else

cares about?
I'm 44, today...

But my Body is in its seventies....my Mind, it's 90's, at least...
My Soul?

DECADENCE

“A civilization, when the moment has come for crowds to acquire a high hand over it, is at the mercy of too many chances to endure for long. Could anything postpone for a while the hour of its ruin, it would be precisely the extreme instability of the opinions of crowds and their growing indifference and lack of respect for all general beliefs.”
― Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
“Nothing really matters much, it's Doom alone that counts...”-Bob Dylan,'Shelter from the Storm'
Decadence is not the same as “Wake and Bake”.
It's not synonymous with Homosexuality, or even Promiscuity.
I define it, after Toynbee and Barzun, as Cultural Exhaustion, with a concurrent inability to Discern the Real....the Important.
Exhaustion with keeping up, with being Informed...a weariness with trying to Better oneself and one's Community...
Indeed, an inability to connect, at all, with anything resembling Community.(as previously defined)
The Alienation I've rambled about is in play, here, as well.
What “Community” we have is Forced, or Artificial.
In Virtua Mundi, Facebook stands in for the Coffee Shop.

Atoms.
Fragments.
Soundbites.
In four years, I have conversed across my back fence with the neighbor behind me exactly Once.
And while I am for the most part Anomalous and Not Representative, in this case, I don't think that this is all that unusual.(he, quite ineptly, attempted to feel me out; to determine if I was Sufficiently Teamerican.)
Ah!
To be Cassandra in these times, when all of the warnings we have shouted are now evident, at every turn...yet still Disbelieved.
Attention Spans, withered to Nil...to a 60 second Spot.
...and when you do find someone who will stoop to discuss the Very Important Things...they are, to a man, so ill informed, and so Certain in their Befuddlement, that no ground can be gained...no consensus reached.
Here is the Wasteland...here, the Dark Age...
...and there ain't a damned thing to be done about it.
There are many Minds on the Internet...but how Kafkaesque...how Absurdly Coincidental...that they are all equally Far from Here!
This, the effect of a dozen years of Terror and Tea, of Right Wing Populism, masquerading as Objective Reality.
All that's lacking is the Tricorn.
Everyone merely goes through the motions...with little bursts of activity around the Scandal Du Jour...who fucked who...who got caught masturbating...who blamed the school for their own parental ineptitude...all so very commonplace.
Banal.
...and the Confusion!
No one seems to know just what they believe...bemoan the school being short of money, and vote for Rickfuckingperry, anyway...failing to see the connection.
Moan some more about how you can't afford to get sick, and then moan some more about Obamacare, and “Death Panels”....
Terrified of Muslims...while never having seen one.(I doubt that there's ever been anyone of the Muslim Faith, even passing through this little town...Ha!)
The only commonality, that I can detect, is two-fold:1. A propensity to get fucked up...and 2: an equal propensity to condemn those who get fucked up.(and I include , here, all forms of “getting fucked up”, including Religion.)
Quite the rickety structure on which to hang Civilisation.
Schizoid. Willfully Ignorant.
A vacant gleam.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
“But it is not only in the “little religions” or in the political mystiques (Marx, et alia-Ed.) that we find degenerated or camouflaged religious behaviour. It is no less to be seen in movements that openly avow themselves to be secular or even antireligious. Examples are nudism or the movement for complete sexual freedom, ideologies in which we can discern traces of the “nostalgia for Eden,” the desire to re-establish the paradisal state before the Fall, when sin did not yet exist and there was no conflict between the pleasures of the flesh and conscience.”-Mircea Eliade,-' The Sacred and the Profane.'
Monotheism, especially of the Protestant Christian Varieties( and of those, the worst are the Fundamentalist sorts)...have done great damage to the World...and especially to the Natural World.
Indeed, it is because of that Mindset, that I must make such a distinction: Human World and Natural World.
No Longing for Eden, there!
Instead, a Longing for King Death.
These Habits of Mind, as Eliade says, are present even in the avowed Non-Religious, Secular parts of our collective life.
These Habits prevent a sufficient number of Humans from seeing, let alone Understanding our Dire Predicament.
So we Fuck, and get Fucked and get Fucked Up...and run around in circles, “making a living”, “living our lives'...and, at the end of the day, it's all so meaningless....
So we talk about the neighbors...look down our noses...all to make us feel a little more Worthy, by comparison.
...and that is the Rub, right there: Worth.
Are We, as a Species, Worthy of Survival?
“Then to this earthen bowl did I adjourn
My lip the secret well of life to learn:
And lip to lip it murmur'd-”While you live,
Drink!-for once dead you never shall return.”
-From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
What a Way to Go …..

Orrery

Of Cycles, Epicycles,and Contracycles.

                                           (**)

Wheels turn.
Pendulums swing.
Ripples expand.
Everything's in constant motion, forever interacting and canceling out, and adding to...
This is evident in the Physical World, from small to large...from Particles, orbiting, colliding, merging...to Planets, Galaxies...Clusters and Super-Clusters...
History, as a Lived Experience, has it's Cycles, too.
With our mere Century, at the outside, of Time in the World...it can be exceedingly difficult to grasp the broader movements of events, in which we, ourselves move, and interact.
It's even more difficult, when we keep our heads down, hard at work at the task at hand, for most of our ephemeral existence.
Humans tend to live out their lives in a subjectively eternal NOW...with just a little thought given to our own, personal history...and with even less tangible thought given to the unknowable Future.
Many of our secular would-be Prophets(economists) expend considerable effort to predict what comes next...and many Historians, or their future oriented analogs(Futurists)...build models, follow Trendlines, and otherwise attempt to divine the shape of things to come.
Science Fiction writers have had much success in this endeavor...predicting most accurately when they are writing about how things can go horribly wrong...creating Dystopian Worlds to serve as a Warning:Don't Go There!
...too often ignored, it turns out.
Let us step way back, to a shack on the Moon (in the Mare Crisium)...and sit on the Porch, and think about where we are,and where we've come from, and where we're going...

There appear to be Cycles within Cycles, as in any complex System...whether Natural or Created.
It seems to me that we are at the convergence...or very near it...of several Cycles...economic, geological,climatological,ecological,historical, and social.
For all the hollering against the very existence of these Cycles...and all the disinformation and lies, the willful Ignorance, and practiced Blindness....the insistence on a Static Universe, where it's the End of History, and we have entered the Secular Heaven of Democratic Capitalism, world without end....
For all that, and in spite of it, there are Great Changes afoot.
I'll take them in order.

Neoliberalism is a euphemism used to denote...or rather, point to...a complex extension of what used to be called Oligarchy. It is neither New, nor Liberal.
It grew out of the ideas surrounding Capitalism, but went several miles beyond.
It is a method of Harvesting wealth from the great mass of humans, and hoarding it for the benefit of the few. Aristocracy on Steroids,wearing a toga, waving Cross, and a Flag...forever invoking “The People!”, as it hoovers up the produce of the Endless Growth that it requires to survive.
But the petri dish is Finite..it has walls.
We've already Grown up to those walls, and the Neoliberal Machine turned around, and started eating Us...in the form of Serial Bubble Blowing...Tech, Housing,etc. The International Labor Arbitrage.
Derivatives.
One doesn't engage in such Cannibalism unless there's no other choice.
This Theme, of Petri Dishes and Cannibalism will recur with disturbing regularity.

This Neoliberal Machine needs fuel...like any organism...
The most important Fuel is that derived from Hydrocarbons...Fossilised, long ago, from the remains of Carboniferous Jungles and Swamps, and Algae Blooms...
The “Bank Account” of these substances, globally, is of course Finite....there's only so much of it. The Carboniferous Period only lasted for so long, and then the massive amounts of Carbon in the air, at the beginning of that period, had been used up...incorporated into Plantlife, and sequestered into the rocks the Plants became embedded in.
A quite remarkable species of Ape(that's us, btw), learned, at long last how to use these Hydrocarbons...and use them, we did...to replace the animal and unfortunate Human Slaves. The byproducts, we used to fuel agriculture, and materials science, even medicine.
A focus on the Short Term(due to our short term life span, relative to ...say Trees...Tortises...or the Earth, herself)...led us to have no care for the Finite Quality of these resources. There was so much of this stuff! Just stick a straw in the ground, in the right place, and up it came.

Until it didn't.
...which is where we are , now...going after the dregs, in deep water, in the coldest places on earth, the most inhospitable...pumping enormous amounts of water and other fluids, deep into old oil fields, to scour out the remaining Juice.We go to War in sandy, used up places...in jungles...and in some of the most pristine wildernesses left to us...all to suck up the dwindling remainder of this Carboniferous Substance, this Lifeblood of Civilisation, this accidental endowment, given to us by Ancient Plants.
In the course of this path of wanton Industrialism, we have inadvertently Released much of that bound up Carbon...back into the atmosphere...making that bubble of air that surrounds us more Carboniferous than it's been since the Period of that name.
This has the predictable effect of changing the conditions of this planet, back into what they were, way back then...hot and stagnant.
Many scientists...more and more, every year since the 40's, at least...have warned us, scolded us...but we, instead, listened to the Mouthpieces of the Neoliberal Machine....who told us, “No. We are Infinite. The End of History. Fear not, and Enjoy Our Largesse.”
But the Walls of the Petri Dish loomed before us....and the admonitions and comforting distractions of the Machine grew less and less believable.
Species died out...whole ecosystems died out.
We knew about it, because of a remarkable communications web that had been built by the Machine to distract us.
It did, indeed , distract us...but it also connected us, in new ways, that the Machine, and even ourselves, did not expect.
The Mouthpieces of Machine withered...for now, anyone could be a Reporter, an Observer, a Combat Photographer.
Scientists no longer had to have the blessing of the Machine to disseminate their Findings.
The Hubris of the machine led it to, on the one hand, attempt to Capitalise on this new development...and, on the other, to attempt to Control it...with the time worn tools of Authority; Fear, and Hatred and Ignorance.
Very busy, uneducated people were encouraged to Fear and Hate, and Remain Ignorant...and , what's more, to Enforce such Fear, Hate and Ignorance.
To sell such enforcement as “The American Way”, as Tradition, as Patriotism.
As “What God Wants”.
But cracks appeared in the Edifice.
Daylight crept in.
...and the Political/Philosophical Pendulum, that had been so artificially Stuck for so long, was dislodged.
Instead of Hypercompetition and Struggle...of Dog Eat Dog, Cannibalistic Frenzy...another way is forming...or at least appears to be.(near certainty in such things requires Hindsight)
Things like Altruism, Cooperation, and the proverbial Brotherhood of Man...for so long suppressed and denigrated as Hippy Dippy Communistic Fantasies..as Irrational, and Dangerous, even as Evil, itself....now seem rational to many...even Good, better than the old way.
Machine, at this moment, is busy sticking it's many fingers in the Dike...plumbing the leaky pipes, duct-taping the frayed cables, grinding smooth the cracked wheels and pulleys...
Turns out there may be Hope for Mankind, after all...and another Kinder way of doing things.
The great myriad Problems are still there, of course...the Petri Dish is still Finite...but, contrary to what's been hammered into the hearts and minds of Humanity,( TINA,there is no alternative)... there Is an Alternative(TIAA).
This is the Struggle...the Agon...we find ourselves in, today...can we take the reins of our fate...and find a more humane and sensible method of Powering Down to a more reasonable, and sustainable...and, yes, Kinder, way of living on Earth?
Or are we fated to follow the Machine into Cannibalism,and Death?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Trolls, minions of the Machine...whether they know it, or not...would have us lose Hope, and keep killing and gorging and despising one another.

I choose the Former...in spite of them...
Have the Courage to Hope, all the way to the End.
I Love You All.


(**)from the Dark Crystal.

Two Down

So.
Here we are.
Hip...fixed...although it still hurts.
Nothing like before.
I cannot sit for too long(feels like sitting on a spring in the the chair, but from inside)....still, much improved.
Backwards Poking Eyelashes....fixed.
Took all of 10 minutes,the Doc. Burning them away, at the roots, with a tiny radio-wave gun.Smell of burning hair, and done...a week more of a scab, and I can see.

Went for a follow-up with the hip guy....x-rayed my left knee(the better one, already did my right)...Chondromalacia(= arthritis).
And also my left ankle(=gravel pit,no cartilage, “loose bodies”)...so I get to go to their Ankle Guy, in 2 weeks, and...it is to be hoped...get the ball rolling on Fusing the whole joint; essentially, breaking everything between the bottom of my leg bones, to the middle of my foot, and inducing it to grow all together.
I'm told I'll still be able to wiggle my toes.

In addition, Hip Guy listened to my tale of woe, regarding all of the rest of me(especially Back...but arms,too)...about how I feel when I first wake, like I'm under a pile of rocks...or have been hauling hay, fighting in a bar, or been run over.(ya get the idea)
There's also what appear to be Myoclonic Jerks, and something like “Restless Leg”, in my arms, too.
There's no good reason for all of this,as yet.
Wear and Tear only goes so far.
So my Regular Doc had suggested a Rheumatologist.
None that I have found(around 40 on Medicaid's List) take Medicaid.
So the Hip Guy sends me for Bloodwork...so that maybe the Rheumatologist in his Gaggle of Bone Doctors will see fit to take me.
I am torn and frightened by this.
If the tests come back positive for some ailment that falls under Rheumatologist's purview...it means that I'm screwed...all of that stuff is incurable...and mostly untreatable.
If Negative, it means that it is still Unknown just what's wrong with me.
After much research, over the years, I lean towards Fibromyalgia...my Issues don't really fit all the rest of the possibilities...RA, etc....
But who knows?

While it would be nice, on a certain level, to have a name for what I feel...to have a Diagnosis...Fibro, like all the rest of the strange zoo of rheumatology, is a life sentence for Pain and Suffering.
They'll want me to try Cymbalta and Lyrica, again...prolly give me samples from the Hot Drug Pushers storming their Offices, every day.
I also expect to be led through the whole menagerie of NSAIDS, again...

If it all works, perfectly...if I can be Repaired...I have years of effort ahead of me, to get back muscle mass and endurance, and all the things one loses, when one has been through what I've been through...Seven Years of suffering.

Preacher

When I was in the last half of High School,
Sometimes I'd come home all fucked up.
Dad slept rather soundly, so it was ok.
Late at night, grubbing for some microwaveable vittles...the only thing on TV...worth watching, at least...was this guy:God's Angry Man

Dr. gene Scott.
I wasn't all that interested in Christianity...at least at a spiritual level. ..I was a Scholar of Religion, even then....detached ...Clinical.
Dr. Scott read Greek...on TV.
And Aramaic.
Then he'd break for the Horse Races...
Now, the Bikini Girls...
And droning on and on...and at times, getting real excited about something, or other.
Usually something completely Esoteric.
I loved that Dude.
Now, come to find out , that his Sexy Widow has taken over the store...(she was, apparently, one of the Bikini Girls, before she was his wife...that's how Dr. Scott rolled,lol)
The result....no video of Dr. Scott and his corncob pipe and strange headgear...not to even speak of his Wonderfully Weird take on Xianity...
None of it seems to be available, online.

I was sad to learn this...not because I believe in Dr Scott's 'Message', but because the world needs such Iconoclasty...Such Unwaveringly Strange and Creative Individuals...Bull Headed and Wild.
It appears to me that there is a Shortage of these people.
And Humanity is lessened by that lack.

Block,Uncarved.

I guess this is what writer's block feels like.
I start a hundred things, but can't finish a one.

Part of it is the current Health Sitrep...Hip's Great!
But the rest?
Xrays found nothing discernable w/ back and knee...I ask, “well, why do they hurt?”
Shots in both, 2 weeks+ ago...and, nothing...
And when these Drunken Spring Cold Fronts come?(it's Frikkin May!!)
It's all over.

Curl Up.
Like some desiccated spider.
I go to Medicaid's “provider's” web site...”find a doctor”...Ha!
Every one I dutifully write down(rheumatologist is indicated by Regular Doctor)...every one...from my “insurance's” own freaking web site...doesn't take Medicaid, any more.

At least those within 100 miles(one way).

ug.

At the same time, I am cut off from Vicodin.
I have around 14 left...no refills, and Regular Doc has indicated he's growing ever more leery of prescribing such things, now that the Hip is Titanium.(!?!)
So I Quit.
Cold Turkey.
(no symptoms of Withdrawal, save for the predicted Pain)

Got a big bottle of oxycodone, in reserve, that I didn't take after the Hip Surgery.
For particularly Bad Days.
So, it's weed...and the other, less effective, drugs....the ones with side effects , like heart burn/indigestion.

And I piddle around the Monastery and Environs, in a Haze of Pain.

Drink more often, to the chagrin and even Ire of Wife...

Simultaneously, is the Discouragement...Disillusionment...the utter Futility of Political Endeavors....(Doom is Political, too. Including attempting to prepare for it, a la Local Ag)...

When even “Libs” and “Dems' suffer from the Surreality, from the Mindfuck...Using the same Unreason...the same Tactics of Confusion...as the Reps, and Tea People...the same Hysterical Nonsense, but with “liberal/democratic” Food Coloring...and perhaps some Processed Cheese Product, on top?
What's the Point?!!

Cassandra in the Coal Mine, and in the Walmart, shouting “Doom!” and “Know yer Farmer!!”, as she's led away.

I give away eggs and spinach and lettuce and onions...to my immediate Neighbors...and to Folks who deign to speak to me in public.
Otherwise, it's close the gate...shut the door...and(it was warm, a little while ago) close the windows.
Retreat to the Monastery, once more.

Justice.

So they caught the guy.
After gun fights and bomb-fights on the streets of a major American City...after that City was on “Lock Down”...which amounts, essentially, to undeclared Martial Law....the Other Bomber is found bleeding in somebody's back yard.
Now what?

Some are calling for him to be sent to Guantanamo...saying that he's “too dangerous” to be afforded the Rights of an American Citizen(which he is).
Some are even calling for him to be Tortured...so as to “Extract Information”....
Shockingly, it's not just the usual suspects calling for these patently Unamerican things...
I have seen even staunch Liberals giving in to the emotion and fear...ready to pick up the Rope, or the Stone, in order to extract “Justice”.
But we're America...not East Germany...not Stalin's USSR.
We have a Justice System that was designed specifically to apprehend the Truth.
That system has been eroded, these past 12 years...to our peril.
The Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments are just as Important as the Second.
Fiat Justicias!
Let Justice be done....but in order to do that, the Worst Among Us must be afforded All of the Rights We are Guaranteed.
We either have these Right...or we do not.
No Exceptions.
It appears to me, that the Obama Administration is attempting to walk back the abuses of the Bush Administration...while still trying to provide themselves with Political Cover, from all the Take-Him-Out-and-Shoot-Him-People.
We have a long way to go...
Everyone should Calm Down.
If this guy...obviously already convicted in the Court of Public Opinion...if he has no Rights, then None of Us do.
My broken record, during the recent Gun Debate was...Let us Defend the Rest of the bill of Rights with the same Fervor that we use to Defend the Second.
Here's your Chance, America.

Dialog

"Come, Let us Reason, Together..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/obama-legacy_b_2654287.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/sooner-rather-than-later-_b_2839940.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/america-is-drifting-mindl_b_2881138.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/alternative-scenarios-for_b_2875298.html

FTA,PT4:”I also have a challenge for the Ameican people: Recommit to a new civic course accommodating change in our socity and systemic environment. Essentially, we all should participate, as responsible citizens, in that national dialogue; we also need to embrace change but resist radical alteration of the historic democratic experiment.

My suggested course for both the president and the people also means foregoing partisan advantage, as much as is humanly possible, in favor of practical democratic progress. Too often, for example, conservatives tend to cling stubbornly to cherished but outdated remnants of the past; and, alternatively, liberals tend to ignore valuable lessons of history. Such tendencies are acceptable when neither side prevails completely in our limited, representative system of governance. However, if one or the other assumes sufficient dominance and pursues wayward tendencies, within an extremely distempered environment, the outcome could threaten the substantive ideals and representative procedures of our historic experiment.”




This is a Transformative Time, in American, and World History...and including both of those(American and World)...including that Context is Important.
I am confronted Daily, by erstwhile Liberals(who often do not know it), who unwittingly Parrot Conservative Talking Points:”Obama is a Failure”,”He's Worse than Bush”,etc...and who aver that it's all over...and that We should give up on Democracy, and the Republic...since they're “All the Same”.
A sort of Galt's Gulch mentality, often shorn of it's Randian precursor of Selfishness as the Highest Good.

This Exhaustion is the direct result of two things, both part and parcel of the 35 year Project of what I term the Violent Parasitical Elite(VPE):1. The Wholesale Purchase of the Apparatus of American Governance, and 2. the accompanying Mindfuck, directed at the American People....the overwhelming Barrage of Confusion and Helplessness, the Confusion of Tongues and the Corruption of Language,Cognitive Dissonance, and Revisionist History.
All of this in the context of Racial Pandering, and the encouragement to Blame
our Neighbors and Fellow Prisoners for the Actions of our Ruling Class(whom they have convinced us, do not even exist.(“Classless Society” is part of the Mindfuck.))


While we're beating each other about the face over whether or not, variously, Black People, Brown People, Queers, Women, Non-Xians, etc are Citizens...or even People...the VPE have run off with the Country.
We have been sold into slavery, and our chains are made of Mythology and an Inability to Think.





A Comment:
FT Comments:”Thomas Pain

365 Fans

05:10 PM on 03/30/2013

Glen Browder's heart is in the right place, but call for a renewal America inspired by "the sacred fire of liberty," "a new birth of freedom," and a "dream of equality," is far to vague and amiguous to take us anywhere.

What we need is some very specific proposals.

First, I propose putting a sign at the front of every classroom in every school grades 1-12 that says:

______________________________________________________

I WILL TREAT OTHERS THE WAY I WANT THEM TO TREAT ME
______________________________________________________

Yes, the Golden Rule, restated as an affirmation, for this is the essence of the law, and of love, friendshp, civility, civic cooperation, and civilization.

Second, every student in high school must take a course in Political Philosophy, in which he, or she, will read and discuss "The Rights of Man," "The Age of Reason," "The American Crisis," and "Common Sense," by Thomas Paine (with an "e"), the most influential philospher of the American Revolution; the "Meditations" of Marcus Arelius, Emperor of Rome; "The Quotable Founding Fathers" edited by Buckner F. Melton, and "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer.

Fourth, also in every classrom, a poster with these words of Abraham Lincoln from his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 1861:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, Capital. Capital is only the fruit of Labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to Capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." “

Consider, that in Texas, the new Social Studies Curriculum is...instead of being concerned with History, Context, and Truth....is all about Indoctrinating our Youth into believing many of the VPE's Favorite Mythologies...Christian Nation, “Capitalism” as 1. What we've been doing, and 2. the perfect expression of Liberty....the American Experience as Nothing but the Good and Positive...meaning,”My Country Right or Wrong”, and the Uncritical,”We're Number One!”.
What Mr Browder doesn't mention is all of this, as Context.
He is pointing to the Effects of the Mindfuck, without mentioning the Mindfuck.
It's the Ontological Crisis I've been hollering about all this time.

Another Comment:”

Peter Goguen

3 Fans

01:44 PM on 03/30/2013

Despite the widespread belief that the present government is mired in partisan politics, I would assert that quite the opposite is true. We are embroiled in a national dialogue about fairness and justice, with more voices being heard than ever before, and this is a good thing. The issues over taxation,health care, gay marriage, and voting rights are being fervently discussed and argued at multiple levels of varying detail in every political news cycle of the day. As these arguments proceed they will eventually distill some form of consensus, enlighten the electorate and lead to a better America. Patience is all that is needed - good things are happening in America “

This is what I would like to Believe...and there is an argument to be made that there is Great Transformation happening, under the surface...after all, how would we expect to know...when the VPE have a Tentacle thrown across the Media(Hydraulic Despotism)?
When our Information about the World is Filtered through the wholly owned Corporate Media, is it any wonder that We are confused?

I am, of course, way out beyond mere Party and Politics...Review my Ramblings...Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal...none of this means much , any more...
Better: Dominator/Cooperator, or Authoritarian/Egalitarian.
I side with Democrats, because the LEAN towards Cooperator/Egalitarian...not because they EMBODY them. We let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Acceptable Improvement.

With that in mind, Protest Does, indeed Work...despite what my Naysaying Buddies would have us believe, on our way to Throwing in the Towel.
Racists use Euphamism and Code Words, instead of openly declaring their Racism=Progress.
Even Republicans are set to give up on Gay Marriage...shamed into silence for fear of losing elections=Progress.
Occupy, ere it was Cast into Outer Media Darkness...and Tea, ere it was Bought...agreeing on the Fundamental Problem of Super Rich Folks, and the Corps(e) they Hide Behind, essentially Buying Our Governments.=Progress.
There is reason for a little Hope....

Another Comment,Exemplifying the Confusion of Tongues:”Bart DePalma

Bart DePalma

563 Fans

11:27 AM on 03/30/2013

"Can our nation -- a people of growing cultural diversity, with increasingly divergent values, and dissentient governance inclinations, in a constrained systemic environment -- continue to sustain our collective pursuit of freedom, equality, and justice through the traditional framework of limited, representative government?"

Talk about your compound questions! Let's break this down...

The traditional framework of constitutionally limited, representative government is based on the proposal that the purpose of government is to protect the liberties of the people and accomplishes this purpose by limiting the power of government to infringe on liberty. The only proper law ("collective pursuit") is one that prevents the citizenry from harming one another.

This permits divergent cultures to live with one another peacefully.

The fundamental challenge to the existence of constitutionally limited, representative government is progressivism and socialism - the "dissentient governance inclinations" referred to in the question.

Progressivism and socialism are based upon the proposition of unlimited government power exercised by an unelected bureaucracy of "experts" directing the economy and society. This is the anti-thesis of and cannot coexist with constitutionally limited, representative government.

Under our current progressive and socialist government, the bureaucracy and courts rather than our elected Congress enact the vast majority of law.

Our caesarist President quite openly declines to enforce laws of which he disapproves and rules by executive order or bureaucratic decree where ever he can. How Professor Browder can even conceive of Mr. Obama as a transformative president advancing democracy is a complete mystery to me.”

Here is the Exemplar of the Confusion of Tongues....
To me, it is Obvious...the code Words,”Progressive”, allied with “Socialist”...mixed with the others,”Constitutionally Limited,Representative Government”....
Again, I am confronted Every Day, with such rhetoric...mostly by erstwhile Liberals...who do not Know that they are Liberals(after all, don't they eat babies?)
Who cannot Define Terms, save from Inside the Mindfuck....”Socialism/Progressivism/Liberalism”= Soviet Russia.(or even Nazi Germany!!)...always neglected in such statements is the Effects, even the Reality, of Corporate Domination of every area of Life.
I stand firmly with Mr Browder...We, the People, must Engage in Dialog....except that no one seems to recall what “Dialog” is.
In order to begin a Dialog, “Both Sides”(but especially what is known as “the Right”!) must accept the other as American, Too.
Our Diversity is often the root of our ineffectiveness.
Fear of the Other is fomented....by those who would have us fighting our Neighbor, rather than attacking the actual Enemies of Freedom.
We, the People, must overcome this Distraction...this Manufactured Division...if We are to ever even begin to, as we heard so often from TEA,”Take Our Country Back”..

Again, We have been riding the car, driven by maniacs, bumping along in the Right Hand Ditch...any correctional swerve to the left is regarded as going all the way, into the Left Hand Ditch...the Perfectly Serviceable Road remains Empty.