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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Amfortas the Obscure

(more from the backlog...scattered bits,from around June,'13)




And all should cry Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on Honeydew hath fed,
and drunk the milk of paradise.”(1)

Melancholia.
Bitter.
Arid.
Acerbic.

Curmudgeon.

.and then, I went to the Ball Game.
I love my Sons, but my god!
What I go through!
In such a state, going and sitting in the truck, and watching all the peripheral shenanigans...Sports is, at root, why I am the above enumerated things.
It was Rednecks and Jocks that set me on the path to my current Anger and Frustration.(in Magnolia, Texas, they are one and the same...Rednecks and Jocks)

In the Woods, I was as sure-footed as a deer...but on a Ball Field?
Clumsy.
Retarded Clumsy.
Was the ensuing Ridicule really necessary?

I think of these things...I really can't help it...from my perch on the hill, behind Center Field.
I hope I make them Nervous!
The Prancing Gorillas, and their Screeching wives.
I read.
I pay attention enough to know when My Kid is doing something.
The rest?
I honestly do not care.
Win?
Great!”(pats back)
Lose?
Their Pitcher was 15...”(pats back)
My Eldest understands that I Love him, but do not give one damn for the whole lot of it.
My Youngest is not as Thoughtful.
(“Taciturn” is a good word)

It doesn't help that I'm in a Melancholic Anhedonia, at the moment.
The normal Frustrations of Life in America, compounded by Great Intelligence and Eidetic Memory.

I'll say it again....
“Anomaly”.
I'm too fucking smart for my civilisation, and too Honest...and too...
Well.
I have never Fit...anywhere.
I feel this most acutely at the various Sports Events I must attend...and, to a lesser extent, the other Events...be it Band, or the Elementary Talent Show.(jury selection? Fighting with the tax man?lol)

Is it Opened Eyes?
Is it the result of determining the Truth, regarding Humankind?(at least the more likely Truth,lol)
Or is it 10+ years in the Wilderness...both literally and figuratively...after 911 and the closing of my cafe, and all the crazy that was unleashed that day?
Maybe it's the 30 years of Odd Duck-ness in Texas?

I call myself “Liberal”...in the Jeffersonian Sense...and yet I struggle with Misanthropy.
I Believe in the brotherhood of Man...and in His potential God-Hood....
And yet, I see the People running backwards, gleefully donning chains, and flinging poo at each other.

A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear.
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,
Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,
In word, or sigh, or tear-”(2)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This] Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising] from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.”(3)

How did I “get” Agoraphobia(nos)?
Was it that water fountain on the Bolivar Ferry, all those years ago?
Was it the aforementioned Rednecks, Jocks and Cops?
Was it the Glazed Eyes...the Cotton Minds...of my Contemporaries?




Psychology 

The Current Milieu.
Since 911, and the accompanying Hysteria and Fear of the Other, I have found myself more and more Hermitlike.
In this same period, I saw the birth of my sons, the failure of my Cafe, the loss of gainful employment(cost benefit analysis), and the increasing Disability, arising from the Wreck, (in 1990), and what can charitably be described as ,”Hard Living”.
The first 5-6 years of this period also saw increasing Panic Attacks, and attempts at self-medication for the Psychological issues, as well as the increasing Pain, related to the Disability.
Almost 5 years ago, the lifelong hostility from my stepdad finally became too much, and we moved to town. Concurrently, I was prescribed Vicodin for my pain, Amytriptaline for nerve damage, and found a steady source of Weed.
These combined with my wife and mother finally coming to understand just what was going on with me, Psychologically, and Physically.
I learned, due to my long habit of Introspection, what my “Triggers” were...and learned to avoid them.
When I must go among the Mundane, I take Valerian Root, in addition to the above listed meds....and gear myself up for the Ordeal.
If I fail to take these precautions, I find that I end up Drunk.
/////////////////////////

The Roots.

I was the Freakish Genius, from a very early age. 180 IQ, a Shining Mind, and a Voracious Curiosity.
While there was outward praise, there was always a sort of covert condescension...which I now regard as a coping mechanism, by those who used it.
As time went on, I found that I didn't “Fit” into any of the pre-determined Social Groupings. I was obviously not a Jock, or a Redneck...nor was I a typical Geek.
Band was full of what I will term,”Goody-2-shoes”,lol....most of whom were also Geeks.
From 3rd to 9th grades, I had a Best Friend,MRL...we shared all of this symptomology, save that he was a better student than I , and he had more ability to Conform, and to be a part of Groups, at least peripherally.
The first time I noticed the Problem of Assumptions was in 7th grade, when my folks got divorced....teachers and counselors, and my folks, all expected a set of reactions and emotions and behaviour problems from me...which weren't there.
I understood the Divorce...what led to it, etc...and I could see the necessity and benefit of such an action.
This understanding went against all the expectations...which was, apparently, unacceptable.
I found that I had to repeatedly Explain Myself to various authorities whom, to a man, seemed incapable of understanding my Not Fitting into their Preconceptions....
These were my first experiences with outright denial of what turned out to be my Anomolousness.(there's the “diagnosis, right there,lol)
When, in 9th grade, my best buddy moved, due to his own folks' divorce...I found myself alone in the crowd. I had become fascinated with Da Vinci...and began writing in Mirror Writing...it was just something to do, to relieve the Boredom.
This was seen with much Concern, as a symptom of some underlying Emotional or Psychological Disturbance(from Divorce, etc). I was shocked to find that the school counselor was so Dense! Was there nothing in her books about Freakishly Smart Kids?(that's 2013 me talking, there,lol)
I was not believed when I explained that, no, I wasn't upset about the divorce...or anything else, really, except that my BFF had gone, and I was alone with a bunch of Fools and Jocks and Rednecks and a few other Smart Kids who, sadly, had little in common with me (they were all Xians, and incurious about most of the things that interested me...at the time , this incuriousness was not hostile, and had not ramped up to the anti-science insanity we see, today).

By the time I reconnected with MRL...who had moved 20 miles down the road...it was too late. We had diverged.
I'm coming around to the conclusion that this Loss was pretty Foundational to my development, and my subsequent wrestling with the System.//////////////////



Sister...do ya even want to...Try and Find me?”-Black Crowes,Sometimes Salvation

What choice did I have?
I never wanted, nor expected, to end up so broken and all alone.
Mike the Martian.
Even the Weirdos thought me weird.
Freak.
But I couldn't help it...
It wasn't my fault that I was too smart...or that I found Authority Figures so wanting...or that I recognized , so early on, that most of the Social Structures were just that, and were mostly Bunk.
The Fools and Idiots had already Won, and were in league against me.
What could I do, but Embrace my Weirdness?
When Austin was not the Hippie Paradise I had expected, I despaired.
I gave up, back then, of ever finding a Place to Belong...
So it was with this in mind that I removed to the Wilderness.
Bad idea, it turned out...between Mom/Don, the Townies, and lil George and 911, the Wilderness morphed into Tea...and I am stuck.
I should have followed my instinct...once I had run off the first wife...
Hit the Road and headed West.
I had the Means and the Body, as yet...and the Will to Make a Go of it.
All that Will and Effort was wasted, here...broken against the rocks of being either well ahead of my Time, or Out of Touch..or just taking the advice of others....the jury is still out.
So here I sit...body Broken...in my Library...the one that's never used.
I have no Friends...and even my wife and kids think I'm a weirdo.
I spend my days with agoraphobia and Pain...and rarely leave the Monastery and Environs.
I will likely die, here...misunderstood, if not hated.


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



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

I finally got a new hip in Feb of this year.
Wonderful.
Hip feels great.
The problem is, that the hip is connected to the rest of me.
Doctors, friends , relations and acquaintances...even strangers...all of them, to a person, seem to believe that my problems are Over...I am a New Man, and can now get off Medicaid, stop taking pain meds, and go get a job.
This is especially frustrating with the Doctors...who should know better.
Fear of Audit...and a heaping(and surprising) dose of Mythology, regarding Opiate painkillers,...and I'm cut off....
Given Naproxin (aleve)...and some other pill to prevent the first from fucking up my belly,(but which has it's own set of digestive side effects)
I have reserved the Percocet they gave me after the hip surgery...didn't need it, then...I had sufficient Norco, at the time.
Since I quit all the Pharmaceuticals, about a month and three weeks ago, I've taken perhaps 8 Percocets: all for extraordinary situations...going to Houston for a week, and doing the museums, etc...and my 36 hour whirlwind to Padre(took one for the trip back).

This is hardly behaviour indicative of addiction....
But I'm still screwed.
There are no Rheumatologists, in the State of Texas, who are currently accepting adult Medicaid patients.
I must wait for someone to be miraculously cured...which, given the nature of the diseases that Rheumatologists deal with, means that I must wait for someone to die.
I'm on a waiting list(and this is Texas...this waiting list has zero to do with Obamacare).
My regular Doc wants me to see a Rheumatologist to find out why I feel so terrible...why all my joints hurt so much. Then, he'll send me to a “Pain Management Specialist”(if I can find one who takes Medicaid,lol), who will...presumably...take the prescription of opiate painkillers out of my regular Doc's worried hands.
Xray of back and knee don't show any likely culprit...neck, shoulders other knee, wrists and elbows, have not been scrutinised, radiologically.
Neither has my gravel-like ankle.
I suggested an MRI for my knee/back...and was brushed off. I assume this is due to the inefficiency/incompetence(willful and on purpose) of Medicaid.

My offending eyelashes...which grow into my left eye...and have for 23 years...are due to be electrocuted next week.
I am both extremely leery of the procedure...and cannot wait to have it done.
3 ½ weeks of “letting them grow” has been nightmarish...even with the “bandage contact lens” I've been wearing.
That eye remains open when I sleep...and . Thus, dries out.
Both eyes suffer from “cotton eye”...which I suspect is related to the left eye's issues.
Dry eyes, with a contact is a bitch. So I lubricate...and wear a patch.
I am ready for the electrodes.
(this was done...but they missed 2 eyelashes...as was expected by all concerned)
/////////////

On top of all of this is Psychology.
I'm a mess.
...mostly because of my life-experiences...cops and hillbillies...the frequently lamented Anomalous-ness.

I find that I am enraged...oh, so quietly.
I am enraged at the Injustice I see all around me, at the injustice of my Medical experience....at the continual assumptions made by everyone from the garbage man to Rickfuckingperry, that it's all, somehow, a brilliant plan to mooch off the gooberment...
at the Bullying I was subject to, as a kid and young adult...
I am enraged at the carload of Rednecks(the hats gave them away) who ran me off the road, 12-17-90...and were never looked for...you know, because Joe is obviously making it up, and deserves his fate(Cops...really).
I am enraged that it has become unheard of and silly to refuse to kiss the bosses' ass...That demanding a better wage, and humane working conditions, is for some reason, a bad thing.
I am enraged that Stupidity is ascendant.
...and that the Enlightenment Project has been abandoned by so many of my countrymen.
I am enraged that the successful businessmen are usually the most corrupt...and that the entire regulatory apparatus excludes the small, the poor and the Honest.
That one is expected to set aside Integrity, in order to “get ahead”...and that one finds oneself falling behind, anyway...and without Integrity.

I am Enraged by these things...and many others...and yet I offend by falling into the beer pool, on occasion.
By behaving stupidly, and forgetting my Mundane Filter..(.that habit of being so clear that the most ignorant moron can understand me.My Mundane Filter is usually Silence...I just don't say anything, at all.)

I offend.
What is unknown...or forgotten?...is that I am Offended...continually...
By all those things, and more.
I have, as perhaps my greatest curse, Terminal Curiosity about the universe.
As a result, I find myself more knowledgeable, in more pertinent subjects, than anyone I know.

All this seems to accomplish is my further alienation from the rest of the species...at least the Texas portion of it.

I manage to limit my news intake for a week...and when I can't stand it, any more, I take a peek....
and find that Texas is in an uproar, that Gay People can marry(somewhere), and that our Right to Vote is on the block, again...like it's 1956.
Oh...and the NSA is watching and recording every phone call and email and facebook post...which I have known for many years, but the majority is only now having to become aware of.

I think about the 6 years of low boil terror, from mom's prowling neighbor (who is now in an asylum for early-onset Altzheimer's !!)...and I think about the ridicule my mom and I endured from friends and family and cops.

Add PTSD to the diagnosis.

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

I am afraid to attempt to utilise Medicaid for a shrink.
I'm afraid for several reasons...
For one, I have some experience with shrinks...both in clinical and in educational settings(I really like Jung,lol)...they are not semi-divine...and the specimens I have examined are , simply, not qualified for someone like me.
For another, I am in the middle of Texas...there are few shrinks this side of Austin or San Antone(100+miles away)...and Medicaid frowns on shopping around in these terribly slim pickins.
Out of the 5 or so shrinks I have interacted with, however briefly, over the last 18 years, only one has not had crosses and bible verses all over the room.
All but one have worn their Christian Zeal on their sleeves.
I don't want to do that.
I don't want to have to defend my agnosticism, or paganism or whatever.
Even the nice, educated and tolerant specimens have always ended up at “if you would only offer yourself to Jesus...”
Another reason for this reluctance, is that all or most of the symptomology looks like perfectly rational responses to intractable problems...Rebellion against increasing Cripplehood, the whole Anomaly-Thing,the world being basically Screwed, and the Ascendance of the Insane and Ignorant.
Is there a Pill, for this?
///////////////////////////////////


sigh.
Turns out that there ARE NO Shrinks who take Medicaid...at least within 100 miles of me.


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

I have thought about getting out of Texas...
perhaps the issue is Place.
Perhaps New Mexico, or Colorado...if not California or Oregon...are better suited to someone like me, in my situation....
But I have no money.++**
I have no Strength.
...and I have zero experience with anywhere but Texas and the rest of the Deep South.
I have contemplated an attempt at reconnaissance....
Stick a camper on the truck, and take off for points west, just to see what's up...
That's really what the Padre trip, and the campout for the boys, were all about....test runs.
Experiments to find out my endurance for such endeavors...driving and living rough.


Should I wait till I'm as fixed as possible?
If so, how does one determine that point?
I could lose Medicaid, etc at any moment...due to the dysfunctional system, due to some misunderstanding by the underpaid and undertrained staff at such agencies...or due to simple , arbitrary fiat by Machine...ie: for no reason, at all.
Folks who have no experience with these things should shut the hell up, every once and a while...and listen.

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

Killing Hope.
Some folks, whom I listen to, say it's a Good Thing...to kill Hope.
Frees one up for Action...or something...
I am not convinced.
I see the state of the world...and I despair.
I see the state of my life...relatively stable;at least on a material level, at the moment...and I despair.

I haven't written a word in weeks.
I find that I have both too much and too little to say...
I also feel like I've said it all before...
Is this because I have become a Cliche?
Or because so much is still unresolved?

It is an Impasse.

I am all but Powerless to resolve the health issues...things must “take their course”...all I have , as far as Agency, is to keep reminding the various Doctors that I ain't done.

The rest?
Well..I suspect that Health is what's in the way, there.
If I can get the ankle fixed, and get with some rational pain management people(lol),for the rest of me, I might be able to find some work I can do....which, it is hoped, would help with a whole host of other things.
I have the makings of a shop...I could make wind-chimes, or something.
I'll never cook for a living, again.(more psychologically damaging realisations.)
I really have no idea what I can, or want to do for a living.
There are so many unknowns.

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

Lack of Agency is likely a large part of my current anhedonic melancholia...
I have always been the guy with the duck tape and wire...perhaps a bit of rope...
I always could find a work-around...
But no longer.

That way of living seems so exhausting...and painful...now.
Much like living rough...I don't think I'm up to it, any more.
Not physically able.

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


























  1. Kubla Khan”, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  2. Dejection;an ode”, Ibid.


++**I'm probably the only person any of you readers know who has never had a credit card.
Try that for a week.
Lol.


Exegesis on DOOM

(from Feb.'13, lost in the shuffle)

“The House GOP...winning the hearts and minds of Americans (not). Just in time for Obama's address later today. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/us/politics/house-gop-sets-new-offensive-on-obama-goals.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
    after careful and ongoing review of various and sundry numbers...I am almost ready to say that the Pendulum has become Unstuck.
    ...and I think that GOPTEA knows it...hence all the hollering and temper tantrums, and other toddler-like behaviour.

  • I read it again, and thought about it.
    prolly would be prudent to lay in a few extra supplies.
    Fiscal year ends on Sep.31?(terrible with dates)...so, shutdown...maybe a crash by the end of October.
    In our still weakened state(it ain't 1995), demand could take a rather large hit.
    again, it ain't 95...we're service sector, now.
    I wrote the Prez...asked him to please kick some GOPTEA Ass, in the next few weeks..go all Heston as Moses...call down the thunder.
    They've been burning and burning everything for a long while , now...do they really want to burn the whole thing?
    It's looking that way.
    This article has made me madder at them, than I've ever been.

    GOPTEA needs a scolding...and the Democratic Party needs to stop pretending that GOP are merely the other party.
    I don't think they are.
    Dystopian Vistas sprawl before my inner eye.
    I think mythologically of Sith and Sauron, and the Galactic Empire(modern myth cycles)...of the Mule in Foundation...God-Emperor of Dune.
    How would one, with sufficient resources, bring about a NeoManorialism...neo Feudalism?
    How would one go about getting rid of those pesky ideas, like Democracy, Equality, Liberty?
    If you really believed that your group/class/subspecies(Ha!), were superior to the rest, and deserved to Rule...that the Masses needed the Noble Lie, and to be Governed by your benevolent, but firm hand(Strauss)...if you believed all that...how would you go about it?
    One way, would be almost exactly what has happened, these past 4 decades, or so.(Powell Memo,etc)
    That's what articles like this make me think of...after so many years of studying these assholes.
    "Rage, Rage, against the dying of the Light"
  • principii obsta ;et respice finem.
    around 2003, 2 over-riding questions pushed there way to the front:1. why Iraq?(ans:it has to do with Resource Depletion...which nobody wants to talk about...but that is, nevertheless, the only driving force behind all the rest of the otherwise insane actions of the Right, that makes any sense.)
    And 2:"Who the hell are these people?!"
    The answer to #2 is even more complicated...there being factions and front groups, money men, and street thugs, and soccer moms...it's difficult to find what commonalities bring them all together...
    I spent 7 years, immersed in all things Right Wing; from Edmund Burke, to Hitler,lol.
    From Milton Friedman to Leo Strauss.
    and, in addition, I lurked on many RW fora...with aliases, and fake emails...what I call my Jane Goodall Period.
    I studied Trolls.
    The results?
    There's a million little groups, and big groups, all hollering and agitating...but these are not the Core.
    The GOP, and TEA, are not the Core. Even the Boardrooms are not the Core.
    The Core of this Revolutionary Movement lies in Gated Enclaves...in Penthouses...Palatial Estates.
    Yacht Clubs, Country Clubs.
    The "Corporations" and "Hedge Funds" that we all get so worked up about, are not the Core...they are merely another curtain to hide behind.
    What we used to call the "Aristocracy"...is alive and well...and dug in, so far out of sight, that we've forgotten about them.
    Kock Bro's are among them...but we'll never see the rest.
    They don't go on TV...don't get caught at fundraisers.
    From what I can surmise, Leo Strauss comes very close to laying out the guiding Ideology of this Invisible Class...
    To them, we're serfs and vermin...incapable of self rule...stupid, ignorant, and ready to believe the Big Lie(see:Strauss,"Natural Right and History", and "On Tyranny").
    They see themselves as Natural Rulers....echoes of Divine Right.
    as for the Goals of this bunch, see #1, above.
    There's too many people for the planet to sustain...ergo, the herd must be thinned.
    Shocking, no?
    The Horror I felt, when I arrived at these 2 things!
    the huge near impossible problems Humanity faces...and the "Solution" engineered by these would be Masters.
    It really is Life or Death...it really is an Existential Fight.
    We really are in a struggle for Civilisation, itself.
    #1 means that there will be a general collapse, at some point. the Resources aren't there to sustain...and even if they were, we've managed to so damage the Biosphere(Commons), that we've effectively doubled down on the damage.
    #2 means that we've allowed this bunch to channel us into certain, determinative forks in the road.
    30-40 years ago, a choice was made...in some cushy room...to forget about a managed and humane Decline...and to instead, push the pedal to the firewall, extract as much wealth and power as possible, and then Hunker Down, while the Ecological Disaster, the Famine, and our own Inner Demons took care of the "surplus Population".
    Then they could emerge from the bunker, as it were, and be Saviours to the Remnant.
    ...and to the Manor Born...as "God Intended".
    This is the way I see things...and it ain't pretty...
    It also ain't for everybody.lol.


Energy analyst Chris Nelder fires back at the latest fact-free commentary on peak oil:”
to wit:"I expect world oil production to rise, weakly, for another two years or so, as America falls into a deeper slumber believing that fracking has cured everything. The media will reinforce that belief. And when it comes, the wake-up call is going to be harsh. In the meantime we’re just going to be waiting for the punchline.

So to those who can grasp the data, here’s my final thought: How will you prepare yourself for The Great Contraction? You’ve got perhaps two good years left of business as usual, and maybe another three or four after that before things really get difficult. I encourage you to use them well, and do what you can to make yourself resilient and self-sufficient. What will you do 10 years from now if the price of gasoline is $10 a gallon?

Yes, we do need to have a serious talk about our values, hopes, beliefs, mythologies, and ambitions; about the embedded growth paradigm, the debt overhang, and economic theory in an age of diminishing marginal returns. Those are all important discussions. But let’s have them after we understand the facts about energy. Not before.

Whatever you do, don’t think that peak oil is dead just because some guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about said so in a fact-free blog post. It’s coming. Later than some thought, but sooner than you think."
(from today:http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/take/peak-oil-isnt-dead-it-just-smells-that-way/963)



it's the same story for copper,Potash, even uranium and coal...topsoil, fresh water...on and on and on.
with all this in mind, I have encouraged my local gooberments to use the grants available to turn the ancient sewage plant into a gas digestor...to at least run the water system...but everybody's a cornucopian.
and I am simply insane.lol.
This nexus of giant, unaddressed and terminal problems(climate, resource and peak Economics(go on, argue that one,lol)) are the underlying reasons for the all out balls-to-the-wall implementation of panopticon, corps-deregulation,and the wonton destruction of the Rule of Law.
but, instead of doing what we can to mitigate all of this, we're mired in apathy, or in bickering over the crumbs, or in being oh so terrified of the terrist, or the gay, under the bed.
puppet theater.lol.
I have said repeatedly, that I don't deny the reality of decline..what concerns me is HOW we enter that decline...as ruthless fire-monkeys, at each other's throats...or as compassionate citizens, aware that we share the boat.
now that i've scared the shit out of everybody,lol...and driven you all to the nearest liquor cabinet...
am I without Hope?
hell no.
there's still time to take it all back from the "Noble Lords"(sic), and their legions of fearful and violent followers.
The Pendulum, reference far above, does indeed appear to be moving, at long last.
Better late, than too late.
Unlike many of my Doomer buddies, who believe that it's already as good as Over...and that it's past time to retreat to our own bunkers, and try and stay out of the way...Unlike them, I am far too Agnostic to believe in such Certainties...
yes, it appears that the current Paradigm of Human Industrial Civilisation is patently unstable, and unsustainable...I have not been able to disprove this.
But that just makes it all the more imperative that we...the non-crazy,non-racist,non-misogynist,pro-education, pro-99%(!)...all of us who haven't drunk too deeply of the Neoliberal Koolaide...that we wake up, then stand up...and kick the bastards out.
We've heard the phrase,"Take our country back!"...usually without any explanation as to "Who from?",lol.
As with so many Right Wing Tropes...this is Projection...projecting their own secret desires and wants and needs, their own hatred and self loathing, onto Us.
It is We who should be Taking Our country back...
the nature of their long term, slow motion Coup has been such, that the conventional ways of countering treason, and ...yes..Evil...are no longer applicable.
Poisoning the Language, totally fouling "debate",shouting lies and half-truths, for so long that folks begin to believe them.
If Holder...or the Prez.. were to make any moves to apply the Rule of Law...the Great Wurlitzer of Ignorant Outrage would spin up.I can hear them, now..."see...he IS a Dictator!".
I'm afraid that it's up to US.

-me, on FB, july 21-22,2013

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

After the (hopefully abortive) Coup.






So, it's 2015, and the Tea Party is back in Fringeland, muttering to itself...the GOP is cowed and broken, licking it's wounds, having had to give up seats...actual seats...on it's side of the aisle, to accommodate all the new Dems.
What now?

Although none of the above has happened yet, and there's certainly no guarantee that it will come to pass..."What now?" is what at least some of us should be thinking about.


I'm gonna ramble, here...let bubble up many things that I've mulled over. I'm also gonna link shamelessly to Wikipedia...and if that's the hammer you intend to strike me with, you are a fool. Go back under your rock, and re-examine your Assumptions.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Reagan Revolution has done huge damage to the country.
Socially, Economically, Morally, and in the other metrics that come to mind.
We are an Empire, abroad...and a heartless, idiot, at home.
The division and acrimony among the People is at it's highest level, since the Civil War...and the Surreality...the utter Confusion...displayed by both sides of the political divide...but especially that of the Right...is simply staggering.
But this is not meant to be about How we got to where we're at...but about where we're going.

If the Democratic Party listened to me(which they do not), here's what I would do...and quickly.

First, I'd start zealously Enforcing the Sherman Anti Trust Act...With a Will.
One of the Features of Mature Reaganism is near Monopoly Control over every material aspect of life.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act )

Corporate Consolidation, it should be understood, is a Bad Thing.
Start Undoing it.
Maybe we could stop subsidizing Giant Corporations, as well.
Freeloaders Suck.
Second, and related, I'd move very quickly with...not a penny...but a quarter, for a while...tax on every dollar that Wall street (the FIRE Economy) "Makes".
This "Industry" has become a Parasite on the Real Economy(what You do every day with your Money and your Time).
It's high Time for a Vermifuge.
Third, and also related, End the War on Unions...end "Right to Work", Unilaterally, and Federally...maybe even Amend the Constitution, eventually....
And speaking of that, Amend it to Counter the odious Citizen's United, Publically Fund Elections, and declare...ONCE and FOR ALL...that Corporations ARE NOT PEOPLE!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Management_Relations_Act_of_1947 )
Next, I'd undo the Consolidation of Media Ownership.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership )
End the things Clinton did, to encourage it.
Similarly, Bring back Glass Steagall, and related Legislation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_steagal)

In the realm of Government...Fix the Filibuster...and punish it's overuse, and misuse.
While it can be an essential tool, to ensure that the Minority has a say, it has been become Farce.
No More Paper Filibusters.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster )

We should also endeavor to Fix the Gerrymandering Problem.
It's dishonest...and it appears that our elected representatives cannot be trusted with this endeavor.
So take it away from them.
I'd put it in the hands of the People...with a Randomocracy Type selection system.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering )
(Randomocracy is explained in Arthur C Clarke's "Songs of Distant Earth")
Next, I'd revist Apportionment, in general...we have too few Representatives to realistically Represent Us.
Currently a Congressional District has around 600,000 Constituents.
It is Impossible for anyone...good or bad...moral or no...to "Represent" that many folks.
So, re-animate Article the First.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_the_First )

Next, I'd tackle the Overblown Intelligence and Warfighting Sectors...and End the Stupid and Unamerican War on Drugs.
Disband the NSA.
It should be well known, by now, that they cannot be trusted.
The Cia needs a spanking, as well....and we should Open the Damned Vault, and let the People IN>
Hypersecrecy is anathema to a democratic-republican form of Government.
The Cold War is Over...and so is the War on Terror...which was a terrible idea, to begin with.
We should apologize for all our sins, abroad, over the last Hundred years...just Fess Up...and resolve to try harder to live up to our Ideals.
(the Right will especially hammer me on this point...but I don't care. I am unafraid of men in caves, or weak countries who want to try something different)
The War on Drugs...especially the War on Marijuana, has sown fear and distrust, between citizen and cop, and between citizens, themselves. It has eviscerated the 1st,4th,5th,6th,8th,9th and 10th Amendments, done murder to the credibility of Government, and put millions of otherwise innocent people in Jail.
And anyway, after lurking in Right Wing Fora these past few weeks/years, I think the sudden widespread legal availability of some Primo Weed is just what we need, at this juncture.


After and during all of this, we need to tackle the problems faced by the American People.
For decades, we've learned to blame and fear the poor and unfortunate...the sick, and the weak.
The Myth of the "Welfare Queen" is hateful and false.
So, shore up "Welfare"...everything from foodstamps to unemployment to disability...end the Presumption of Guilt that currently Rules these systems.
The reason we have so many folks who need this sort of thing(and I would count myself among them, even if I weren't...Solidarity!)...is because of 35-100 years of the Mythmaking Right.
Begin the Reawakening by Helping, not Harming, those less fortunate.
Then, we can maybe tackle some of the Causes of such Misery.
I've already spoken about the HyperCapitalism, which led to Near Monopoly...well, there's another phrase that more aptly describes how we've allowed our Economic Life to be run: Hydraulic Despotism.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_empire )
Why don't we have electric cars and Rail? Because the Car companies and the Oil and Gas companies have colluded to prevent it.
...and we gave them billions in Corporate Welfare for their trouble.
A handful of Corporations own the media, another handful controls the Meat Supply, another handful sits astride the Seed Supply, and a few more control the stores, and the manufacturing.
These entities have bought our Governments.
Then they set about rewriting the Rules and Regulations to ensure that their Despotism was complete and could not be challenged from Below.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barriers_to_entry )
We need to Decentralise Everything.
Democratise It All.
Remake the world in a Human Image, instead of the image of a collection of papers in an offshore post office box.
I've written extensively about this...Toilet Paper as a Cottage Industry.
We don't Make Anything, any more.

(http://amfortasthehippie.blogspot.com/2012/12/me-vs-us.html )
(http://amfortasthehippie.blogspot.com/2012/12/us-vs-me-ii.html )




(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralization )
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lastly, yet concurrently, we must remember who we are.
The Tiny Minorities of Oligarchs, and their Rabid Hangers On, have convinced us that we're all like them.
We are not.
Most of us continue to quietly, if not secretly, believe in the Time Honored Idealism that truly made this country great.

Make Ignorant Screaming Shameful, again.
Make Fearmongering and Lying through your teeth and Wild Eyed Hatred, Shameful, again.

The Idea that it's Me against Everybody Else, is not Civilisation....it is it's Anathema.

We should all be ashamed to have let this terrible few get away with so dividing US.
  I have always been ready to defend the Rights of the most Odious among us...even the Klan...
It is high time that We the People demanded some Reciprocal Consideration.
The Enemy of Mankind, when you boil away the distractions and BullShit, is not other Humans, at all...but a set of Ideas, long since disproven.
That is our Battlefield.
Not our streets, and not our borders, not some sandy country that had the misfortune of being located atop "Our Oil"...but in the Minds of Americans.
We, on the Left, have been Remiss and Cowardly, for too long...and left this Battlefield to the Small Minded Men, who care only about Greed...and that fearful and confused portion of our fellow Americans who didn't know any better.
It is hard not to hate them...I understand the recent calls from the Left to charge the Lot of Them with Sedition...but that cannot be the way forward.
A little soap in the mouth, perhaps...but they do not deserve our Hatred, in return for their hatred of us...rather, our Pity...and our Forbearance.....all the while making Certain that they do not again take over the whole damned country.
It has perhaps become clear to you that our words are all but meaningless to them...so let us try Action, for a change.

I await your thoughtful response.




Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Bite that Hand




Since at least the time of Reagan, there's been a growing fraction of Americans who distrust government. This, like many things, falls along a continuum...from what I regard as a rather healthy distrust, all the way to the extremes of hatred, and hysteria.
It is instructive to remember that we hate what we fear, and we generally fear what we do not understand...an important principal. The other side of the syllogism, of course, is that the best course for lessening hatred is the prescriptive lessening of fear, which can be accomplished by increasing understanding.
In former times, I would have been an unlikely defender of government. As a Jeffersonian Liberal, I have always believed that government was a necessary evil...that for any group of humans to live together, some organisation is necessary.
The larger the group, the larger the organisation required.
I had always thought that these concepts were well known and almost stupidly obvious...and I never thought that I would need to make the case for government, even in Principle.
There have always been a certain tiny fraction of folks who reject these concepts....from a few factions in Anarchist Thought, on the Left....to Birchers and the more Randian Libertarians, on the Right.
The latter group has seen it's ideas increasingly infect the Right side of American Political Thought, beginning in the late 70's and early 80's.
The Tea Party, sort of within the GOP, is the latest and most extreme example of this phenomenon.
This seems to be as true in Mason County, as in the rest of the 11th District of Texas.
What is ignored, (sometimes purposefully, often not), is that Mason relies on government.
According to citydata.com(1),17.8% of Masonites work for Government, either state or local.(the percentage of Texans, in general, is 12%). This figure may or may not include the Public School...which as near as I can tell, is our largest Employer.(2nd and 3rd seem to be the City and County; but it's hard to get direct data, during a government shutdown).
Also from citydata(2)...  14 households in Mason, Texas make less than $10,000, per year. 67  make less than $30,000..
County wide, 31 households are under $10K, and 164 are under $30K. (3)
According to wiki(via the now closed US Census), 23.5% of folks in Mason County were over the age of 65...and therefore receiving(or at least eligible for) Social Security and Medicare..
 Around 13% of those, were below the Poverty Line.
The notoriously rosy Federal Poverty Level(FPL) stands at just over $23,000, for a family of four.
13.2% of the population, overall, were below the FPL.(4)(5)
Over at the school, between 55 and 63% of students are deemed "Low Income", by TEA(6). Mason ISD is a "Title 1 School", which means we receive extra funds from the Federal Government.
In 2008, the last year for which I could find data,the Federal Government paid for almost 10% of the doings at the school...State of Texas, 53%.(7)
Then there's the Highway Department, out 29 East...I couldn't find any data for them, specifically...but TxDot is well known for it's reliance on federal Dollars.
And last, remember when there used to be peanuts around here...and wool?
If I remember correctly, all the Government money for those activities sort of went away, late 90's...and that activity all but stopped,with big consequences for the Mason County Economy.
Government, state and federal, has long been vital to farming and ranching...from crop insurance to loans and grants, to outright subsidies. With the shutdown, no reliable, current data was available...so it is unknown just how much of this money flows into Mason.

It can be argued, of course, that...well...that's too much Government Cheese for such a self reliant and, yes, "Conservative" Community. I could probably make that argument, better than most.
However, recklessly shutting off that Flow is hardly the most prudent method of lessening it. To do so is to ensure that many of your neighbors go hungry, go cold in the winter, and that their children go uneducated...and remember that the school also has a secondary function as Child Care. If the kids didn't have school, someone would have to stay home with them. Much of the above income figures are, necessarily, based on more than one income.
A Federal Government Shutdown will have an effect on Mason.
The longer it goes on, the bigger the effect. Much of the ag and education and highway funding has already been passed along.Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, SSI,VA and Disability, similarly, are on separate funding streams; it will take longer for a Shutdown to effect them...but eventually, it will.
If the current Minority in the House gets its way, and we go over the even more irresponsible  cliff of Defaulting on our debt, all of this will become exponentially worse.
If that happens, I expect a Credit Freeze, and an almost immediate cessation of Economic Activity.
That says "Depression".
There is a very real possibility that such a reckless action could end Civilisation, itself.
That may still sound hyperbolic and "crazy talk"-ish,lol.
But it's not.
I spent the weekend studying up on Economics...a refresher course on how the Economy actually works.
Default equals Disaster.

This may well be the last opportunity for Non Tea People to speak up,and put a stop to this madness.
In our district, there's not much hope of "converting" this loud bunch of Nutters to anything resembling Reality.
But they are not the Majority of Mr Conaway's Constituency.
Apathy will kill us, in the end.
///////////////////////////////

If I send this to the paper, it might get printed.
I am reluctant, because I can almost hear the half-baked rebuttals to each of these things.
It's tiresome....and it may be quite dangerous, if things go as wrongly as they seem to be.
I went away from Facebook for a few days...to step back from the Madness. I return, and find that I am blocked from My Senator's FB page.(for "abuse")
The Cult Members, there, can call for the violent overthrow of the US Government, come nearer  than ever to calling for assassination, can strongly imply that "libtards" be taken out and shot....and yet I am blocked...for snark and dissent, and a few links to the facts.
I fear that we are beyond hope, now.
I fear that we are heading into a dark and flaming place, a Hobbesian Civil War...all against all...
I fear that I have been right, all along.
And that Terrifies me.
The folks who Hate Government...even the idea of Government...have taken us to that very edge.

I will spend the next few days evacuating my Library(started anyway, due to the snake-problem)....and buying up food and other supplies.
I'll clean my guns, as well.






(1) http://www.city-data.com/work/work-Mason-Texas.html
(2) http://pics2.city-data.com/hin2009/25080.png
(3) http://www.city-data.com/county/Mason_County-TX.html
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_County,_Texas#Demographics
(5) http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/13poverty.cfm
(6) http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=%202147499694&menu_id=798&menu_id2=2147483722   (2009-2010)

(7) http://www.localschooldirectory.com/district-schools/157901/Mason-Independent-School-District-%28ISD%29/TX    (2008)

Sunday, October 6, 2013

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


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


Monday, September 23, 2013

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... “
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Iran.





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.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

"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.
 


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

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?




Tuesday, September 3, 2013

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?