The Eyewitness Is Dead

These visits to alternative reality are from a variety of sources. Included are Facebook (fb), twitter (tw), Futility Closet (fc), All Aphorisms, All The Time (Aph), Texts From Last Night (tln) , and Overheard in New York (ony). Attempts to maintain a no profanity blog will be suspended for this post. ~ ‏@bukquotes “these demons have staying power.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~ @bukquotes “I was easy to please. It was the rest of the world that was the problem.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~ @bukquotes “there was always the danger of men who originally wrote things down well of becoming professional writers.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~ @bukquotes “But what did it really matter who screwed who? It was finally all so drab. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~ @bukquotes “to walk a city street is to see hell early.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~‏@Enernoj “Wanna come back to my place and violate the sanctity of marriage?” – #FloridaPickupLines (tw) ~ @david_arnott #FloridaPickupLines Are those Skittles in your hoodie, or are you just happy to see me? (tw) ~ @jimray Isn’t Amercia the name of that Caribbean nation where Mittens keeps his money so he doesn’t have to pay taxes? #mitt2012 #withmitt (tw) ~ @BorowitzReport My phone autocorrects “Amercia” to “America,” and autocorrects “Romney” to “Blow me.” (tw) ~ “Mistakes happen,” Andrea Saul, Romney Press Secretary , said in an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday morning. “I don’t think any voter cares about a typo.” ~ @MittRomney The iPhone app is here – download it & tweet your photos using ‪#WithMitt‬. Will RT some favorites tomorrow http://mi.tt/WithMitt (tw) ~ @alaindebotton (For no good reasons) the greatest taboo in the eyes of the art establishment is the suggestion that art should be ‘useful’. (tw) ~ @MlTTR0MNEY So what if I can’t spell America? California elected a Gov. who couldn’t pronounce their state and it worked out…uh oh. #Amercia #withmitt (tw) ~ @PassingWhite 32 plural wives MT @nojorising @mittromney I’m with @mittromney. Here’s a photo showing my support. #mitt2012 #withmitt http://pic.twitter.com/amVAgBjC (tw) ~ @alaindebotton To judge from a lot of modern parenting, psychotherapy will continue to be a growth area deep into the 21st century. (tw) ~ You must have purchased items from Amazon to post. ~ Do you have a Hot topic on your mind that you just want to rant about… DISH DISH DISH!! I have some myself. about certain people i know. But i don’t know where to begin. He makes me so angry. But as i said i dont know where i should start. In the beginning the middle or the ending result of why we fell out. And if you must know. i Despise LIARS and THIEVES!! (fb) ~ Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain. -Anonymous (fb) ~ I am out of the country until May 27th and will be checking my email periodically. If your message requires a timely response, I will get back to you within a few days. Otherwise, I will respond to emails upon my return home. (fb) ~ A sleeper from the Amazon Put nighties of his gramazon. The reason? That He was too fat To get his own pajamazon. (fc) ~ Throwing up in his bed is not a step up in your relationship (tln) ~ You say you’re gonna take rehab seriously… but i keep imagining it as a training montage for you preparing to snort all of columbia. (tln) ~ So his mom walked in the kitchen while I was sucking him off and just casually suggested that “I’d need a glass of water after that” (tln) ~ New life rule, no banging opera singers. I might be a little deaf now (tln) ~ I was only out of town for 1 week. His cell records show he texted 63 ex-gfs and hookups while I was gone. And 10 condoms are missing. (tln) ~ All that fucking tequilla made my head feel like it’s inside of a body builder’s asshole. He’s doing squats. (tln) ~ It was like bizarre-o star trek. I shamefully went where every man has gone before. (tln) ~ theres chocolate ground into my couch, nerds candy all over the floor and cocaine on every surface. great memorial day weekend and yours? (tln) ~ Why are there chunks of your hair in everyones pocket? (tln) ~ My Grandma made me promise not to drink more beer, so I’m chugging wine. (tln) ~ Climbing out Mr. Friday night’s bathroom window. He thinks I’m puking. Be on state st. with the getaway car and if you could bring me a shirt and some advil that’d be dandy. (tln) ~ Best oral ever, hands down so to speak. but I’m starting to want to meet that lesbian truck driver he says he’s better than. Just for comparison purposes of course. (tln) ~ @bukquotes “How odd that everybody was younger than I.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~ @bukquotes “I’ve got to get back to the typewriter, I thought. Art takes discipline. Any asshole can chase a skirt.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) ~ ‏@bukquotes A guy on the bus next to me asked, “What are you reading?” Saw it was Women, and said, “Yeah, I can usually read women pretty well.” (tw) ~ Lady at shop: Are you Mexican? My ex was Mexican. He was shorter than me, but I loved him. Until he stabbed someone. (pause) Sweetheart, I need a lot of napkins–I don’t have my top teeth. (ony) ~ 20-something dude, talking to couple: I’m not sure if I want to go out with her. She has the kind of STDs that Ben Franklin had. (ony) ~ Angry suit on cell: I can sue you for defecation of character! (ony) ~ Naked guy to fellow naked guy, about boss: He’s so dumb! Why won’t natural selection just step in and make him walk in front of a bus? (ony) ~ Irate black man on cell: I love you, but you’re fuckin stupid. (ony) ~ Guy: People see me in a nursing uniform and they expect me to help. But I have a philosophy: stupid people deserve to die. (ony) ~ Old guy to young couple, upon departing train: Have a good night, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and if you do, wash your hair! (ony) ~ Who knew drunk me could climb a 17 story building for apple juice and sex (tln) ~ Pretty sure I scared him off for good. The lesbian in me is ecstatic. (tln) ~ Her roomates have been scoring her hookups. I got 8.9, best of the week! (tln) ~ Strike three, the fat brides maid they call shit puker also has herpes. (tln) ~ I’m gonna take my bong and hot box the pirate ship in the daycare playground. (tln) ~ This whole bra on the outside of my shirt thing is so convenient. It turns my shirt into a pocket to eat Fritos out of. Mmm boobies (tln) ~ Having to explain to my dad why there are chicken wings to the pool filter, new low. (tln) ~ We’ll talk about this tommorrow when I’m not mistaking my fingers for French fries…. (tln) ~ You didn’t act like you were blacked out yesterday…I didn’t know (tln) ~ I know it’s not technically the “Mile High Club” but we def need a name for the airport bathroom. Cuz that just happened. (tln) ~ I’m worried my skin won’t stretch enough to handle this boner. Then what? (tln) ~ I’m pretty sure every guy I’ve been with this weekend has made a solid attempt at getting me pregnant… (tln) ~ The fact that you can’t sell your daughter for three goats and a cow means we’ve already redifined marriage.(fb) ~ “It is easy for those who do nothing to criticize. Those who do much and love much, make mistakes” — Elbert Hubbard (fb) ~ “Nature is as prolific with man as she is with the seeds of the Maple, spores of the mushroom, and eggs of the Salmon. Too create a perfect man, she must make a million boobs.” — Elbert Hubbard (fb) ~ “FEAR – A method devised by Region and Government to keep the people from taking back what is theirs.” — Roycroft Dictionary (fb) ~ “We’re All Gonna Die” — anonymous (fb) ~ “The French have no word for Entrepreneur” —- Boy George Bush (fb) ~ “Fighting for Peace is like F**king for Chastity” —- Bathroom wall in Bloomington IN (fb) ~ Better bread with water than cake with trouble….. Russian Proverb (fb) ~ Small fish live in shallow water. (Aph) ~ You take people’s word and soon find that you’ve appropriated their whole vocabulary. (Aph) ~ The fear of falling in love with yourself is that you will displace no one. (Aph) ~ When you are washed up you never realize the extent of shoreline you have to yourself. (Aph) ~ The faith you lose in people is almost enough to start a religion elsewhere. (Aph) ~ Too many women around a man always camouflages his inability to make friends. (Aph) ~ No matter how we talk a thing to death, death always has the last word. (Aph) ~ @tejucole From  five floors up,  Sophie fell into Orchard Street, but was only slightly bruised. (tw) ~

What we want to hear determines almost everything people say. (Aph) ~ You get carried away less often the older you get despite being closer to ending up on a stretcher. (Aph) ~ We are always at the mercy of our inability to give it. (Aph) ~ Murmurs often appear in those hearts that have no say. (Aph) ~ That life is almost meaningless in its brevity naturally shortens the attention span. (Aph) ~ A person’s pride is accountable for almost all their loneliness. (Aph) ~ What you love never leaves you, who you love always does. (Aph) ~ Mom with stroller to another: Am I the only one who thinks being a stay-at-home mom makes you a raging alcoholic? I mean… What else are you supposed to do with your time? (ony) ~  Basketball teen to friend, on girl who betrayed a best friend: We’re still friends on Facebook, but we not friends on Twitter. (ony) ~ Lady to stranger petting her dog: He’s great. I like him more than I like my friends. (ony) ~ Girl to friend: We’re not really dating, we’re not really friends either, we have a sexual acquaintanceship. (ony) ~ Asian girl on phone with her mother: He’s not a regular Hispanic, you know, he speaks English, recycles, and likes museums. (ony) ~ Potpourri: 1) I would like for all the gay stuff to calm down. I think giving attention to a few crackpots who say wild shit doesn’t really advance anything. 2) They found Etan Patz’s killer. I never knew about that til recently. 3) Space stations? 4) Remember also that truth is stranger than fiction. 5) Have a nice weekend. Memorial Day is a nice holiday.~ Today (May 25) is the last day in the Gregorian calendar in which the month number is the square root of the day number. The others are January 1, February 4, March 9 and April 16. ~ how would you feel if your name was Ludmila? ~ also: the difference between doing it and not doing it is doing it. -grant henry ~ More pourri and less pot is suggested. (fb) ~ I keep forgetting to avoid Walgreens on coupon day. Only the flashing red light in my own palm keeps me shut up around the arguing old biddies. (fb) ~ This is how people become gay ~ @TheDanielNavy #iUseTwitterBecause you guys are as appalling and abrasive as I am :’) (tw) ~ @tejucole To two of her daughters, Elizabeth and Clarine, Mrs Warner, of Los Angeles, willed $250,000, and to the third, Edith, $5. (tw) ~ @BorowitzReport RT @MittRomney I apologize for “Amercia” misspelling. The staff member who did it was foreign and has now self-deported. (tw) ~ @alaindebotton We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers… Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness… (tw) ~ @mystie03 #iUseTwitterBecause my real friends are not as cool & as funny as my followers!! (tw) ~ @watsonheart #iUseTwitterBecause i can tweet every minute. If i were to do that on facebook you would look like a complete idiot. (tw) ~ @GirlsAloud_USA #iUseTwitterBecause it gives me a chance to speak my mind with less consequences than reality (tw) ~ @BorowitzReport It’s weird that the candidate who was born in Kenya is the one who can spell America. (tw) ~ @alaindebotton ‘Freedom of speech’ obscures difference between what you can say in theory – and what you can say and retain any friends. (tw) ~ Men see themselves in women’s eyes; women trust the mirror. (Aph) ~ People who argue whether the glass is half empty or half full are probably not thirsty. (Aph) ~ People drown in shallow thoughts. (Aph) ~ It’s easy to write history. All the eyewitnesses are dead. (Aph) ~ @BorowitzReport I’m glad the Library of Congress is storing tweets so alien scientists will someday know why our civilization fell. (tw) ~ @NikkiMJFisher Do you feel comfortable knowing Thomas Donilon &John Brennan have the power to decide who lives and who dies? ‪#killist‬ pic.twitter.com/9uI4UOg1 (tw) ~ @Trendeh #IUseTwitterBecause people have to keep their stupid drama to 140 characters or less. (tw) ~ @iiiRelate_ @BorowitzReport It turns out that Mitt Romney also had a Kill List, and Chrysler and GM were on it. #killist (tw) ~ @Lprice3 Everyone who tweets #killist is going to end up on the DHS watch list – new “monitor” word? (Hello “the man”!) (tw) ~ 1- This is fun to listen to. What I really want to hear is another conversation between Ms. Hurlburt and Eli Lake. 2- Talk about revealing your age. The actual counter slogan in 1964 was “In your guts you know he’s nuts”. Which rhymes, and should be used in every Presidential election. 3- Ms. Hurlburt refers to a PG link. As the reader(s) of this blog know, PG is the stand in for the blog owner. In any event. PG is not Bolton curious. 4- This is another appalling visual. chamblee54 ~ “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” Oscar Wilde (tw) ~ It all depends if the displeasure is because your ego has stopped hearing itself in the other voice or that the conversation has becomes a monosyllabic joust of quotidian half hearted pleasentries. (fb) ~ Clothes we buy at sweatshop labor, drugs we buy from corporate enablers. We’re not living the good life, unless we’re fighting the good fight– you and me, just trying to get it right. (fb) ~ I haven’t been up this early since earlier (fb) ~ Most of all I rely on our spiritual connection with each other. I have long believed that beyond any religious teachings, dogma, principles, cannon laws or words written in stone it is the quality of love and respect with which we treat each other (including the plant, animal, mineral, and other elements of the natural creation) that best allows the God of my Understanding to be present in my life. Thank you for the degree to which you participate and share in that with me. (fb) ~ Whenever I try to understand the world, often I find myself thinking, “Why would healthy, well-adjusted people do ________? And then I realize that the world is not composed of healthy, well-adjusted people. And THAT’s why the paparazzi exists. (fb) ~ “Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.” — Anton Chekhov (fb) ~ I shared with a bar mitzvah student that God would have better off if S/He had taken anger management. (fb) ~ A wise man once said, “If you really, really wanna piss people off … just change your name on Facebook.” (fb) ~ Warning- Any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental, public or private structure including but not limited to the United States or Canadian Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including……, ……but not limited to…… my photos, and/ or the comments made about my photo’s or any other “picture” art posted on my profile. You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee(s), agent(s), student(s) or any personnel under your direction or control. The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE It is recommended that other members post a similar notice to this or you may copy and paste this one. Thank you. FB is now a publicly traded site. Protect yourself. (fb) ~ @tejucole Visiting Chicago, Reverend Heck was hit by a falling window washer. The reverend’s injuries were serious, the washer’s fatal. (tw) ~ @alaindebotton We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers… Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness… (tw) ~ #iUseTwitterBecause I hate my Facebook friends. (tw) ~ @alaindebotton It’s a homage to all the really great ones that even the worst books are hard to throw away without guilt. (tw) ~ @_TheOneWho #iUseTwitterBecause I can relate to my followers more than my real friends. (tw) ~ @ComedyTruth #iUseTwitterBecause if I updated my facebook status as much as I tweet, then everyone would think I’m annoying (tw) ~ #iUseTwitterBecause I can talk to myself without looking stupid .. (tw) ~ #iUseTwitterBecause my family has used Twitter since coming over to America on the Mayflower, and I dutifully continue our proud tradition (tw) ~ Selah

I Sing The Body Electric

1
I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.

Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul?
And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?
2
The love of the body of man or woman balks account,
the body itself balks account,
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.

The expression of the face balks account,
But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face,
It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,
It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees,
dress does not hide him,
The strong sweet quality he has strikes through the cotton and broadcloth,
To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more,
You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side.

The sprawl and fulness of babes, the bosoms and heads of women,
the folds of their dress, their style as we pass in the street,
the contour of their shape downwards,
The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen as he swims through
the transparent green-shine, or lies with his face up and rolls
silently to and from the heave of the water,
The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boats,
the horse-man in his saddle,
Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their performances,
The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-kettles,
and their wives waiting,
The female soothing a child, the farmer’s daughter in the garden or cow-yard,
The young fellow hosing corn, the sleigh-driver driving his six horses
through the crowd,
The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty,
good-natured, native-born, out on the vacant lot at sundown after work,
The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of love and resistance,
The upper-hold and under-hold, the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;
The march of firemen in their own costumes, the play of masculine muscle
through clean-setting trowsers and waist-straps,
The slow return from the fire, the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again,
and the listening on the alert,
The natural, perfect, varied attitudes, the bent head, the curv’d neck
and the counting;
Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother’s breast
with the little child,
Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line
with the firemen, and pause, listen, count.
3
I knew a man, a common farmer, the father of five sons,
And in them the fathers of sons, and in them the fathers of sons.
This man was a wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person,
The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard,
the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes,
the richness and breadth of his manners,
These I used to go and visit him to see, he was wise also,
He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old, his sons were massive,
clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome,
They and his daughters loved him, all who saw him loved him,
They did not love him by allowance, they loved him with personal love,
He drank water only, the blood show’d like scarlet
through the clear-brown skin of his face,
He was a frequent gunner and fisher, he sail’d his boat himself,
he had a fine one presented to him by a ship-joiner,
he had fowling-pieces presented to him by men that loved him,
When he went with his five sons and many grand-sons to hunt or fish,
you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,
You would wish long and long to be with him, you would wish to sit by him
in the boat that you and he might touch each other.

4
I have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly
round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.

There is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them,
and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well,
All things please the soul, but these please the soul well.

5
This is the female form,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor,
all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth,
and what was expected of heaven or fear’d of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it,
the response likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all diffused,
mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling
and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love,
white-blow and delirious juice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh’d day.

This the nucleus—after the child is born of woman, man is born of woman,
This the bath of birth, this the merge of small and large, and the outlet again.

Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest,
and is the exit of the rest,
You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.

The female contains all qualities and tempers them,
She is in her place and moves with perfect balance,
She is all things duly veil’d, she is both passive and active,
She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as daughters.

As I see my soul reflected in Nature,
As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible completeness,
sanity, beauty,
See the bent head and arms folded over the breast, the Female I see.

6
The male is not less the soul nor more, he too is in his place,
He too is all qualities, he is action and power,
The flush of the known universe is in him,
Scorn becomes him well, and appetite and defiance become him well,
The wildest largest passions, bliss that is utmost, sorrow that is utmost
become him well, pride is for him,
The full-spread pride of man is calming and excellent to the soul,
Knowledge becomes him, he likes it always, he brings every thing
to the test of himself,
Whatever the survey, whatever the sea and the sail
he strikes soundings at last only here,
(Where else does he strike soundings except here?)

The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred,
No matter who it is, it is sacred—is it the meanest one in the laborers’ gang?
Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf?
Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off, just as much as you,
Each has his or her place in the procession.

(All is a procession,
The universe is a procession with measured and perfect motion.)

Do you know so much yourself that you call the meanest ignorant?
Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight,
and he or she has no right to a sight?
Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float,
and the soil is on the surface, and water runs and vegetation sprouts,
For you only, and not for him and her?

7
A man’s body at auction,
(For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale,)
I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business.

Gentlemen look on this wonder,
Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it,
For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one animal or plant,
For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily roll’d.

In this head the all-baffling brain,
In it and below it the makings of heroes.

Examine these limbs, red, black, or white, they are cunning in tendon and nerve,
They shall be stript that you may see them.

Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition,
Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant backbone and neck, flesh not flabby,
good-sized arms and legs,
And wonders within there yet.

Within there runs blood,
The same old blood! the same red-running blood!
There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations,

(Do you think they are not there because they are not express’d
in parlors and lecture-rooms?)

This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers
in their turns,
In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
Of him countless immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments.

How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring
through the centuries?
(Who might you find you have come from yourself,
if you could trace back through the centuries?)

8
A woman’s body at auction,
She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers,
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.

Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
Have you ever loved the body of a man?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations
and times all over the earth?

If anything is sacred the human body is sacred,
And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of manhood untainted,
And in man or woman a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is more beautiful
than the most beautiful face.

Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body?
or the fool that corrupted her own live body?
For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.

9
O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women,
nor the likes of the parts of you,
I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul,
(and that they are the soul,)
I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems,
and that they are my poems,
Man’s, woman’s, child, youth’s, wife’s, husband’s, mother’s, father’s,
young man’s, young woman’s poems,
Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking
or sleeping of the lids,
Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges,
Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders,
and the ample side-round of the chest,
Upper-arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones,
Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, forefinger,
finger-joints, finger-nails,
Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast-side,
Ribs, belly, backbone, joints of the backbone,
Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round,
man-balls, man-root,
Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
Leg-fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg,
Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel;
All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your body
or of any one’s body, male or female,
The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame,
Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, maternity,
Womanhood, and all that is a woman, and the man that comes from woman,
The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laughter, weeping,
love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,
Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curving and tightening,
The continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,
The skin, the sunburnt shade, freckles, hair,
The curious sympathy one feels when feeling with the hand
the naked meat of the body,
The circling rivers the breath, and breathing it in and out,
The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips,
and thence downward toward the knees,
The thin red jellies within you or within me, the bones and the marrow
in the bones,
The exquisite realization of health;

O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
O I say now these are the soul!

Text for this adventure is from the Project Gutenberg.
The text was reformatted by Chamblee54.
“I sing the Body Electric” was written by Walt Whitman.
An audio version of this poem is available from Librivox.
Reposted May 31,2012. Walt Whitman’s 193rd Birthday.

The Mean Meme

A radio whiner referred to a book, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas, and the idea light bulb went off in PG’s fevered mental cavity. The tome is written by Jonah Goldberg, who is often confused for Jeffrey Goldberg. PG has not read the book. However, with the help of Amazon and NPR, he knows enough to write some text. You have to put something between the pictures. The pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The video is courtesy of  The Heritage Foundation. Listen to it at your own risk.
Amazon dutifully posts this brief description: “The bestselling author of Liberal Fascism dismantles the progressive myths that are passed-off as wisdom in our schools, media and politics. According to Jonah Goldberg, if the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, the greatest trick liberals ever pulled was convincing themselves that they’re not ideological. Today, “objective” journalists, academics and “moderate” politicians peddle some of the most radical arguments by hiding them in homespun aphorisms.”
Mr. Goldberg proceeds to break down some of these expressions. Among the sacred cows skewered are : “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter ~ Violence never solves anything ~ Better ten guilty men go free than one innocent man suffer ~ Diversity is strength.”
Before we go any further, we should know that PG is no fan of bumper sticker wisdom. Much of what passes for knowledge in our culture is cleverly worded pablum. It is like the sets on a movie soundstage … What looks like Dodge City is a painting held up by a wooden frame. It gives you the sense of being on a western street. Reading Jonah Goldberg gives you the sense of being smart.
A writer starts a fire to promote a book. This fire produces a bit of heat, a smidgen of light, and enough smoke to fill the Georgia Dome. When you write a post about book promotion and reviews, it can be tough to see through the smoke. It is bad for your health to inhale smoke.
Many conservative writers whine about liberal mainstream media. They use MSM to promote their books. It is part of the game. In the internet age, with reviews and interview transcripts, there is a lot of material for the slack blogger. If you add a few comments of your own, then you can quickly produce post with a scary wordcount. Most readers don’t have the patience for more than 500 words. A great deal of long form blogging is not worth the effort, so the slack reader may be correct.
A good place to start is the NPR interview, Do Liberals Live Under A ‘Tyranny Of Cliches’? A transcript is the slack bloggers friend.
Jonah Goldberg: “What bothers me is the way in which cliches sort of sail right through. And so you’ll get these kids who will stand up in an audience and say – you know – Mr. Goldberg, I may disagree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it … And first of all, it’s just a lie. You know, this kid’s not going to take a bullet for me. And second of all, it’s completely not responsive. All it is, is him sort of getting bravery on the cheap, claiming to take – you know, to be valiantly defending my right to free speech. “
Chamblee 54 – PG wonders what Mr. Voltaire meant by that phrase, and what the context was. A version today might be, I may disagree with what you say, and I will interrupt you before you finish your second sentence. Arguments (which Mr. Goldbergs is fond of) usually consist of people yelling at each other, with few listening to what the other says.
As for bravery on the cheap … this is in a country that uses a paid army to fight wars of conquest eight time zones away. Few are called on to sacrifice in the fifty states, except those who serve in the military (and their families). These military adventures are paid for with a tax cut. Yes, to raise money to pay for these wars, the taxes were cut. There is something called supply side economics at play here, and it has produced trillion dollar a year budget deficits. Conservatives denounce big government, then demand that this big government send hundreds of thousands of bootsontheground eight time zones away, and pay for it with a tax cut. Lets talk about cliches run amok.
JG- “That’s right. I mean, it’s not a book about bumper stickers and buzz phrases. Those are sort of endemic to politics, and I’m not sure you can ever completely get them out. I sort of want to go one layer beyond that, you know, things like social justice. Or President Obama recently talked about social Darwinism. And… “
NPR- “He’s against it.”
JG- “He’s against it. But here’s the funny thing: Nobody is for it. There was no intellectual movement in American history called social Darwinism. The people who were supposedly the leaders of the social Darwinist movement never embraced something called social Darwinism. It didn’t exist. But it is one of these sort of mythologies about America and its intellectual history, that the right embraced this thing called social Darwinism, when it never did so.”
C54- So nobody claims to be a social Darwinist. Just like nobody embraces liberalism. The only people who talk about liberalism are conservatives. Very few people embrace the label of liberal. This business of dividing society into liberals and conservatives ignores the people who don’t claim any label, but just want to live their lives and be happy. This is very discouraging to those who want to have arguments.

The New York Times did it’s capitalist duty to help sell Mr. Goldberg’s book. Hating Liberals ‘The Tyranny of Clichés,’ by Jonah Goldberg is a copypaste wonderland. Even more fun is the reply, The NYT Calls Central Casting
New York Times- “Jonah Goldberg’s first book was called “Liberal Fascism.” It was a screed, of course, but a clever one. He argued that liberals who routinely denounce extreme conservatives as fascists should take a look in their own backyard, and he wasn’t fooling around: “It is my argument that American liberalism is a totalitarian political religion.”
Jonah Goldberg- “One quick point about Liberal Fascism. My first book still serves as something of a liberal emetic. It elicits vomitous exhalations of bilious nonsense. There’s just something about that  book that many liberals can’t make peace with or contend with honestly. It can be very annoying, but I also take it as a compliment. If the book didn’t matter so much, they’d stop bringing it up.”
Chamblee54- Before today, PG had never heard of “Liberal Fascism”. It reminds him of a billboard announcing a new radio station. WGKA 920 AM LIBERALS HATE US. The truth is, very few liberals even knew the station existed. Most people would rather listen to something else. Mr. Goldberg does score rhetorical points with this paragraph. This sort of prose is fun to read, even if it doesn’t mean a dern thing.
NYT- “But I’ve just come off six months of watching Republican candidates for president ply their trade, and the cliché spew has been volcanic. We can start with “Government doesn’t create jobs,” which somehow elides the existence of the military-industrial complex. Goldberg does acknowledge that conservatives also inhale, but liberal clichés are, well, fascistic, a never-ending assault on American freedom.”
NYT- “One of Goldberg’s next targets — and we’re still in the introduction, by the way — is centrism, which he sees as a particularly insidious brand of liberal obtuseness: “Well, the Wahhabis want to kill all the gays and Jews. The Sufis don’t want to kill any gays or Jews. So the moderate, sensible position must be to kill just the gays, but not the Jews. . . . The point is that sometimes the extreme is 100 percent correct while the centrist position is 100 percent wrong. Would it be pedestrian, in a decidedly liberal way, for me to point out that this sort of argument is not merely infantile, but a sly denigration of the necessary compromises that are at the heart of almost every real policy dispute? Figuring out how to calculate cost-of-living increases for Social Security is not an all-or-nothing proposition. But Goldberg is not interested in anything so quotidian as actual governance. “
JG- “Well yes, it is pedestrian in a decidedly liberal way for him to say this. When I write: “The point is that sometimes the extreme is 100 percent correct while the centrist position is 100 percent wrong,” I mean “Sometimes the extreme position is 100 percent correct.” Does he deny that? Or does he honestly believe the difference-splitting middle is always right?
Well, maybe he does. Like so many in his phylum, Klein is fixated on the issue of “compromise.” These days, “compromise” means conservatives should cave in on all of the big issues and liberals should be gracious about not rubbing it in too hard. Amusingly, this is a major theme of my book, and Klein not only doesn’t really seem to understand it but – like Piers Morgan before him — seems determined to illustrate the point for me.
He says that real policy disputes revolve around how much Social Security checks should go up, and that it is “infantile” for me to suggest otherwise. In other words, according to Klein conservatives are grown-ups when they agree to the status quo and/or growth in the size of government, but they are extremists when they suggest more structural reforms. Liberals, meanwhile, are grown-ups when they agree to bend a little on how much bigger the checks should be and, I surmise, they are never extremists because Joe Klein’s version of liberalism is never wrong. Ultimately, any effort more ambitious than slowing the rate of increase in entitlement spending is, by Klein’s lights, extremist.
No wonder he doesn’t like the book. It’s as if I wrote it about him!”
C54- At some point, it is helpful to quit arguing and find a solution to the problem. To point out the misdeeds of those who disagree with you solves little. It is like kids on a playground, screaming … always screaming … Billy is a liberal Billy is a liberal na nana na na. Dogs like to bark, and Jonah Goldberg likes to argue. Having a shouting match can be great fun for the participants, but is rough on the neighbors who are trying to sleep.
NYT- “Whatever minimal truth there is to that, Goldberg’s methods in exposing these depredations are not exactly rigorous. He begins his exploration of liberal clichés with this one: “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” He says he hears it all the time on college campuses, from students more serious-looking than “the typical hippie with open-toed shoes and a closed mind.” (Hmm. Aren’t stereotypes first cousins to clichés?) “My response?” he responds. “Who gives a rat’s ass? First of all, my right to speak never was in doubt. . . . Second, the kid is almost surely lying. He’ll take a bullet for me? ­Really?”
JG- “By the end Klein simply starts to unravel entirely. It’s easy to imagine him dictating the last bits from his fainting couch, as he gestures for his attendants to bring him a cold rag for his brow. Assuming you’re still with me, I promise to keep it briefer than Klein deserves. He suggests I’m being absurd when I write: “Liberals are uncomfortable with the topic of patriotism because their core philosophical impulses are to make America a different country than it is.”
“In other words,” Klein responds, “the reforming instinct — the progressive insistence that meat be inspected by the government, for example — is inherently un-American because it’s a first step down the slippery slope toward government control?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I am saying! Meat inspections are unpatriotic! (Actually, I make no such slippery-slope argument, but he makes a slippery-slope inference. Also, I never say liberals are unpatriotic, I say they are confused about patriotism. For instance, Barack Obama has voiced his desire to “fundamentally transform the United States of America,” a locution, I think, that is hard to square with a love for America as it is. Don’t believe me? Tell your wife or husband, “Honey, I love you, I just want to fundamentally transform you.”) “
C54- ““Liberals are uncomfortable with the topic of patriotism” “I never say liberals are unpatriotic, I say they are confused about patriotism.” When your arguments about ideas don’t work, you go for the personal attack. Then you deny that you made this attack, but explain what you meant by it, which is when you launch another personal attack. Holy rhetoric Batman.
NYT- “After a while, it just becomes exhausting. “Feminism was in no small part launched as a Trojan horse for an older and more familiar Marxist assault.” And “No Jews were tortured in the Spanish Inquisition” (only “former” Jews who claimed conversion to Catholicism were, but Jews were treated far better by the Muslims than by the Catholics, a fact Goldberg neglects). Gandhi evinced “stunning naïveté” and was, occasionally, “incandescently dumb,” without a mention of the impact of his philosophy on the American civil rights movement or the collapse of the Soviet empire. Does Goldberg really believe this stuff? Or is he just being tendentious for rhetorical effect? In the end, his vindictive thrashings have very little to do with the actual practice of politics; the idea that political clichés are banal isn’t exactly a blinding insight, either. Sadly, Goldberg has intellectual resources that might be put to grown-up use. But then, as the liberal cliché has it, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
JG- “Well, yes, I do really believe this stuff. What I want to know is whether Klein thinks any of this amounts to an impressive rejoinder or is he just monkey-dancing for the readers of the New York Times Book Review as the editors churn the organ grinder? Does Klein dispute that Gandhi was “incandescently dumb” when he advised the Jews of Germany to commit mass suicide? How about after the war, when Gandhi said, “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife”? Does he know George Orwell and I see eye to eye on this? Is Klein arguing that Gandhi was savvy and smart when he told the British to surrender the British Isles to the Nazis? Does he deny Gandhi was naïve to call Hitler his friend? And what does Gandhi’s influence on the American civil-rights movement have to do with anything?”
C54- Mr. Gandhi was in a struggle against the British. If Great Britain were to surrender to the Nazis, then perhaps the goal of Indian independence would be closer to fulfillment. Or maybe not. Many people in the Soviet Union greeted the German’s as liberators. Where have we heard that phrase?
JG- “In the Tyranny of Clichés I write that liberals are largely ignorant of, and disconnected from, their own intellectual history and blind to their own dogmatic and ideological commitments. As a result, their thinking has become calcified, and they tend to mask their ideological agenda behind clichés that sound more intelligent and harmless than they really are. I want to thank Mr. Klein for proving my point.”
No Amazon assisted post is complete without one star reviews. There are plenty to choose from.
Confused, muddled, and irrelevant ramblings from someone with too much time on his hands Jim (Northern Virginia) May 23, 2012
The author insults people for using “cliches” such as, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” He says it is an expression “born in glibness – defined by vanity.” But here’s a post written by the author from his magazine’s blog in 2010:
“I can criticize and complain about my brother all I like, but if my brother bothers somebody outside the family, well, that’s just too bad. Similarly, Ted Kennedy may or may not be a Caligulan carbuncle, but if the jihadists want to behead him for it, they’ll have to get through me first.”
Whoops! I guess dumb cliches are only dumb if they aren’t being used by the author. That his confused hypocrisy can be exposed so easily shows how undeserving of serious attention this person is. He needs to get a real job.
Shameful, Disrespectful, and just more War propaganda.
A. S. Evangelista “Truth Seeker” (Midwest) May 21, 2012
This is nothing more then neoconservative propaganda, spewed out to keep the hate alive between two groups (liberals & conservatives) in hopes of further separating us and promoting overall approval for Governmental violence in face of overwhelming evidence it is not working.

Jimmy Breslin Talks About Damon Runyon

Jimmy Breslin wrote a book, Damon Runyon. As you might guess, it is about the journalist and story teller. Mr. Breslin appeared on the CBS radio network to promote the book. The interview he gave is available on Wired for Books.
Even if Mr. Breslin did not write the book, he should have given this interview. He sounds like a New Yorker, with the rough edges intact. As it turns out, Mr. Runyon was from Manhattan KS, and only moved to New York after a wild career out west. He covered Pancho Villa, and had a cigarette lighter given to him by the raider. William Randolph Hearst, the employer of Damon Runyon, was fond of Pancho Villa, until 600 head of cattle was stolen from a Hearst owned ranch. At that point, Pancho Villa became a terrorist.
W.R. Hearst is a player in another story. It seems like “Citizen Kane” supported Germany at the start of World War One. After the armistice was signed, Mr. Hearst wanted to welcome a ship of soldiers to New York. The fighting men did not like this idea, and threatened to make trouble.
Damon Runyon was asked to serve as a go between. He knew George Patton, from his days of fighting Pancho Villa. Mr. Runyon spoke to the General, who ordered his men to wave politely to William Randolph Hearst.
Damon Runyon flourished during the roaring twenties. Jimmy Breslin argues that Mr. Runyon invented much of the mystique of that era. Mr. Runyon wrote for the Hearst Newspapers. He thrilled America with stories about gangsters, horse players, and the “colorful characters” that populated Broadway. Mr. Runyon wrote short stories. These formed the basis for the show “Guys and Dolls”.
This was a time before movies and radio took over, and newspapers had a monopoly. At one time New York had sixteen daily papers, many of which were horrible. There is a story about a writer who was describing some shooting, and coined the phrase “innocent bystander”. He was so proud of himself that he went to a bar to celebrate. He got to talking to a young lady. She said that someone she knew was a “stuffed shirt”. The writer put his drink down, went to the newspaper office, and typed a story with the phrase “stuffed shirt” in it. Another cliche was born.
To hear Mr. Breslin tell it, the best thing that Damon Runyon did was when he died. Mr. Runyon used his Pancho Villa lighter many, many times. The smoking caught up with him, and he developed throat cancer. In 1946, cancer was never mentioned. People died after a “long illness”. When Damon Runyon perished, the cause of death was listed as cancer. He may have been the first famous person to openly die of cancer.

Do Not Kill List

The internet is monitored in a number of ways. If our government takes the “war on terror” a step further, then citizens in this country may not be exempt for targeted killing. It is already going on in other countries. If this program of government sanctioned murder is imported to this country, then people reading dangerous blog posts may be targeted.
This last paragraph may be a bit over the top. This reminds PG of the time when a shop selling hydroponic growing supplies opened. It was suggested that you should park nearby, and walk over to the store. PG thought this was too much worry. It turns there was a donut shop across the street. The police hung out there to monitor traffic into the store. License plate numbers were recorded.
Glenn Greenwald has a post today about the air slaughter perpetrated by the US government abroad. A more comprehensive report on this matter is forthcoming at Chamblee54. (Mr. Greenwald takes seriously the concept of giving links to show where you get your information. Reading his posts, and following the links, is a time consuming affair.)
It was update III that inspired this post. “Some unknown citizens decided to use the White House petition system today to start a petition asking for the creation of a “Do-Not-Kill” list, “in which American citizens can sign up to avoid being put on the president’s ‘kill list’ and therefore avoid being executed without indictment, judge, jury, trial or due process of law.”
Here is the text of the petition: “The New York Times reports that President Obama has created an official “kill list” that he uses to personally order the assassination of American citizens. Considering that the government already has a “Do Not Call” list and a “No Fly” list, we hereby request that the White House create a “Do Not Kill” list in which American citizens can sign up to avoid being put on the president’s “kill list” and therefore avoid being executed without indictment, judge, jury, trial or due process of law.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Doc Watson

Doc Watson died today. He was at “Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where he was hospitalized recently after falling at his home in Deep Gap, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He underwent abdominal surgery while in the hospital and had been in critical condition for several days.” Doc Watson was a treasure of American music.
“Arthel Lane Watson was born March 3, 1923 in Deep Gap NC, about 100 miles northwest of Charlotte. He lost his eyesight by the age of 1 when he developed an eye infection that was worsened by a congenital vascular disorder … Watson took his nickname at age 19 when someone couldn’t pronounce his name and a girl in the audience shouted “Call him Doc!” … “Doc Watson’s son Merle began recording and touring with him in 1964. Merle Watson died, at 36, in a 1985 tractor accident.”
PG had the privilege of seeing Doc and Merle Watson in March, 1973. They played at The Great Southeast Music Hall. Doc, despite being blind, did not wear sunglasses. Merle led him on stage, and was a pretty good picker himself. They did “Deep River Blues” and “Thats All”… “If you can’t preach without going to school, then you ain’t a preacher you’re an educated fool”.
The duo had a new LP out at the time. PG handed it to Merle, and asked him to autograph it. Merle signed his name on one side, and signed Doc’s name on the other side.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

Cuss Words

There is a lively feature today, A brief history of four letter words. It deals with the evolution of profanity. HT to Andrew Sullivan. Examples of wirty dords will be used in this feature. If such language offends you, please skip the text, and enjoy the pictures. These pictures are from The Library of Congress. These pictures were taken on the USS Brooklyn, where the men would swear like sailors.
“Golly! Zounds! Gadzooks! These are the kind of things Captain Marvel would say. Almost any other superhero would be too mature for such, childish silly words. And yet, during Shakespeare’s time, they made him one of the more edgy writers out there. They’re not just random sounds, but contractions, meant to make absolutely shocking sentiments less outright obscene. Golly, zounds, and gadzooks were, in order, G-d’s body, G-d’s wounds, and G-d’s hocks.” The spell check suggestion for Gadzooks is Bazookas.
The body of G-d, or Jesus, is a big deal to some varieties of Christians. When Shakespeare was in business, it was even more so. Religious profanity is less and less explosive, as bumper sticker’s about G-d’s last name might indicate. When Europe was fighting wars about the best way to worship, this talk about God’s Ham was explosive.
The third commandment refers to the proper use of sacred names. It’s application is in the ear of the beholder. PG thinks that a pledge of allegiance to a political symbol is not a proper use of a holy name, and almost no one agrees with him. And PG is notoriously non Christian.
There is a book, “The Whisper of the River , about a baptist reared young man who goes to college. A yankee neighbor says “good G-d a mighty”. The raised right young man calls him out about “using the name of the Lord in vain”.
In another real life, PG worked for many years with a professional Jesus worshiper. The experience severely  PG from Jesus. One of the favorite sayings of the PJW was “good G-d a mighty”,
Some people think they are being righteous by not using certain words. The truth is that profanity is a social standard. G-d has better things to worry about than what words people use to describe procreation. All of the Carlin seven appear in the Bible, in one of the many languages used.
Bitch and ass are two words that used to refer to animals. “Ass is actually two words blended together to become an obscenity. Ass, the swear word, started out as irs, which meant the back end of anything, not just animals.  It became arse, and eventually rounded out and emerged as an ass.”
“Bitch started out, ” and remains, a female dog in breeding condition. From there its meaning expanded to anything female in breeding condition, and eventually it expanded to become promiscuous women, angry women, angry or promiscuous homosexual men, or anything “especially disagreeable.” Sliding between the slightly sexual, the slightly referring to sexuality, and the literal meaning of the word got bitch into general conversation, and most television shows. It also helps that being “especially disagreeable,” rather than meek and accommodating has become a point of pride for both women and male homosexuals, and so even at its most insulting, the word has lost the power to shock as society has moved on.”
Both bitch and ass have become more acceptable. Ass has a suffix, hole, which describes a (hopefully) functioning body part. This word is a serious insult. Names for genitalia also function, with remarkable versatility, as cuss words.
At the start of the Carlin seven is piss and shit. These created using onomatopoeia … a word that sounds like what it describes. They refer to excretion, both as noun and verb. Excrete is seldom used as profanity, even though it means the same thing. As time goes down the toilet, both piss and shit have acquired multiple meanings.
Which brings us to the F bomb. It is similar to the German Ficken or the Dutch Fokken. It almost certainly is NOT an acronym. Technically it is not one of the Carlin seven. If it is, then mother is a super cussword. With a profitable holiday in May, mother will always be said on television.
There is another forbidden word. It *triggers* strong reactions. If Mr. Carlin had used this word in his monolog, his career would have ended. This word was used by Mark Twain. It is used today by millions of people. Many people who use this this word are described by it. Our culture might be better off without this word,  but America is stuck with it.

The Ira Hayes Story

The post before this is about Arizona SB1070, a controversial measure dealing with illegal immigration. One of the men quoted is the Sheriff of Pima County, which lies on the border.
Pima County is named for the Pima Tribe, whose land was in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Their name for the “river people” is Akimel O’odham. According to Wikipedia, “The short name, “Pima” is believed to have come from the phrase pi ‘añi mac or pi mac, meaning “I don’t know,” used repeatedly in their initial meeting with Europeans.”
Many of the Mexicans crossing the border are Native Americans. They did not agree to the Gadsden Purchase , or the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . In other words, they were here first, and the white man (and black associates) are the uninvited guests. Maybe the natives should ask the English speakers for their papers.
The second part of this feature is a repost. One of the best known Pimas was Ira Hayes. He was one of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima.
One of the enduring images of World War II was raising the flag on Iwo Jima. Three of the six men raising the flag died on the island. A fourth, Ira Hayes, became a casualty after the war.
The story of Ira Hayes is well known, but needs to be told again. A Pima Indian, his people had not been treated well by the conquerors. Nonetheless, when the War against Japan started, men were needed for the struggle, and Ira Hayes joined the Marines.
Iwo Jima was a steppingstone to the main island of Japan. After Iwo Jima and Okinawa were in Yankee hands, preparations could be made for the invasion of the main island. However, the stepping stone islands proved to be incredibly tough to secure. There were more American casualties on Iwo Jima than on D Day.
On the fourth day of the battle, a picture was made of six marines raising the flag on top of Mount Suribachi. A month of sticky, treacherous fighting was ahead for the fighting men. Of 21,000 Japanese soldiers, 20,000 died. Still, the image is inspiring. The photographer fiercely denied having staged it.
The flag was raised on February 23, 1945. Germany was all but defeated. The “explosive lens” for the atom bomb had been successfully tested. Viewed from the standpoint of 1945, it seems inevitable that the costly island hopping needed to continue, to be followed by an invasion of the Japanese mainland. From the view of 2009, one wonders if the fight for Iwo Jima, in retrospect, was really needed. War is fought in the present tense.
Two of the twelve hands holding the flagpole belonged to Ira Hayes. Ira Hayes did not adjust to peacetime well. He became a drunkard. On January 24, 1955, he passed away.
Ira Hayes was a native American. Thousands of African Americans have returned from foreign wars, to be treated poorly. Until a few months ago, if a man, or woman, is accused of being gay, the service is forgotten. On this Memorial Day, we should struggle to ensure that all future veterans are treated with respect, all year long.
Thank you Wikipedia, luxunsghost, and The Library of Congress, for the pictures.

I Have My Opinion

Chamblee54 is normally a profanity free blog. However, for this piece, certain words are essential to the free flow of information. In other words IF YOU DON’T LIKE CUSS WORDS, YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ THE TEXT.
This text is going to be gender insensitive and use the male form throughout. Just remember, when you read he, it also means she and it. Or, she it. If you are from the south, you will enjoy that last comment. Unless you are a Sunni.
Recently, a radio whiner said that one third of all people were not qualified to have opinions. He did not say why. Possible reasons would be lack of education, or inability to think critically. Maybe these people have a disturbing tendency to disagree with the person doing the study.
When it comes to opinions about opinions, there are several classic lines. There is the crowd pleaser “opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got theirs”. This is missing the mark. Opinions have more in common with the shit that comes out of an asshole. Feces is the result of the food that is fed into the digestive system. Opinions are the result of information fed into the thought system. Doodoo is influenced by the digestive system. Opinions are influenced by the attitudes of the individual. They both stink. Only one can be used as fertilizer.
Another golden oldie is “Four Jews, Five opinions”. The numbers in the formula change, but you get the idea. There is also “You are entitled to your opinion”. This is usually said when you disagree with what you have just heard.
When the Supreme Court issues a ruling on a case, It is called an opinion. Sometimes, a justice will write a dissenting opinion. When getting an insurance company to pay for a procedure, you often need to get a second opinion.
Opinions are frequently more valued by the giver than by the receiver. Some opinions are best kept to the owner. You should be wary of someone who feels that his shit does not stink. He will usually feel the same way about his opinions.
Opinions are seldom humble, no matter what the owner of the opinion might say. The act of holding an opinion is often self aggrandizing, and contrary to humility.
You don’t have to have an opinion about everything. Many things are beyond your control. Some do not interest you. You should be wary of those who try to “fire up” your opinions. Often these people do not have the best of motives.
Opinions are a way of asserting one’s individuality. Many people have lives of quiet desperation, full of struggle and turmoil. Often, what the individual thinks is not valued by the powers that be. Having opinions can restore a sense of self worth to the individual. I am somebody. I have my opinion.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Bad Writing

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon. Unknown
He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. Joseph Romm, Washington
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again. Rich Murphy, Fairfax Station
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup.
Paul Sabourin, Silver Spring
From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and “Jeopardy” comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.
Roy Ashley, Washington
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. Chuck Smith, Woodbridge
Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. ~ The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.  Russell Beland, Springfield
Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake Ken Krattenmaker, Landover Hills
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. Unknown
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. Jack Bross, Chevy Chase
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
Gary F. Hevel, Silver Spring
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
Wayne Goode, Madison, Ala.
Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like”Second Tall Man.” Russell Beland, Springfield
Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. Jennifer Hart, Arlington
They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth. Paul Kocak, Syracuse, N.Y.
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
Russell Beland, Springfield
The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play. Barbara Fetherolf, Alexandria
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. Chuck Smith, Woodbridge
These examples of bad writing are from a blog that is no longer published. (“This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.”)
The pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.

Cynthia McKinney Is Back

Cynthia McKinney is back. The former congresswoman is running for her old seat in Georgia’s fourth district. She will be running with the Green Party.
While Miss McKinney is known for her goofy behavior in the past, perhaps this is the time to forgive. This may be an opportunity to damage the two party system. The Republicans and Democrats have a duopoly on power in America. Many say they just take turns in office, while raking in the bribes campaign contributions from the one percent. While one seat in congress is not a big deal, it is a start.
This is the first election after the district lines were drawn again. If you have a strong stomach, here are some details of the Atlanta area. The fifth district was designed to be a black district, and is the one formerly represented by Miss McKinney. She enjoys wide name recognition. The fact that much of it is negative is irrelevant. There is no bad publicity. McKinney is easy to spell correctly.
There are some more factors in play here. When she lost to Hank Johnson in 2008, Miss McKinney enjoyed wide support in the black community. Many of the white voters who voted for Mr. Johnson are in other districts now. Another thing to consider is the chaos in the Georgia Democratic party. If Miss McKinney can get on the ballot, there is a chance.
The downside is the ballot access laws in Georgia. The Republicans and Democrats are dedicated to maintaining their duopoly. To quote a press release: “In addition to securing the support of Delegates to the June 2nd Convention, in order to appear as Greens on the Georgia ballot, these partisan candidates are also required to file petitions with signatures representing 5% of the number of voters who are registered and eligible to vote in November’s General Election. This ballot access standard is ten times the national average and according to Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, constitutes the highest barrier to participation in the world, when comparing all countries which conduct contested elections. The filing deadline is in 76 days.”
Peach Pundit estimates that the Green Party will need 25K-40K signatures to get Miss McKinney on the ballot. This is going to be a tall order. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

From DDE To BHO

Listening to the news shows that came on before the cartoons, PG heard the phrase “President Eisenhower”. As a friends explained to him, G-d made everything, but the President is Eisenhower.
When he was six, PG moved to a new house, and started first grade. There was an election that fall, and someone named Kennedy became President. PG wasn’t old enough to pay attention to the news yet, except when it looked like the Russians were going to kill us all in 1962.
The first news story that PG clearly remembers was the day when his fourth grade teacher, Miss McKenzie, told the class that President Kennedy had been shot. One of the worst moments that weekend was the moment when a plane landed in Washington, and the new President spoke on television. THAT was the new President? Yuck.
Lyndon Johnson was a larger than life figure, and was ultimately hated by millions of Amuricuns. While there was some good done by LBJ, it was overshadowed by the War in Vietnam.When he left office in 1968, the voters had possibly the worst choice ever…Hubert Humphrey or Richard Nixon.
Tricky Dick Nixon is another larger than life figure, with millions of Americans screaming for his impeachment. For some reason, there were others who passionately admired the man.
In 1973, the oil companies tried to say there was an oil shortage. Later that year, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan attacked Israel, and the Arab oil producers cut oil to the USA. After this embargo, OPEC was in charge of the oil supply, and the price of gasoline increased 200%. The era of big money oil was on. What a convenient war.
After the ethical shortcomings of Mr. Nixon became too obnoxious to ignore, Gerald Ford became President. On a policy level, Ford was like all the other Presidents…some things he got right, some things he got wrong. On a personality level…the show business part…Ford excelled. His family provided harmless fodder for the gossipmongers. He was a likable man, a welcome break from the meanness of Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.
When PG was a kid at Ashford Park School, there had never been a President from Georgia. It seemed impossible. When Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter announced he was running, it seemed like another ego tripper running for President. The funny thing is, he won. It still seems a bit unreal, like having the Olympics in Atlanta.
Jimmy was a Democrat, with attack Republicans fighting him every step of the way. This is a problem later Democrats in the Oval Office will have. On the policy level, he did better than many realize. Many of his achievements only bore fruit after he left office. On the show biz front, his down home Georgia routine did not appeal to many Yankees. He was trounced in 1980,  beaten by an actor.
PG was worried when Ronald Reagan took office. With America’s nuclear arsenal, and the Soviet Union wheezing it’s threat, many thought that Ronnie would start the war to kill us all. The good news is, this war never happened. Whatever tough talk came out of Washington was not matched by military adventurism abroad.
Reagan was the master of show business. He was an actor, playing the greatest role of his career. It was said that if America had a figure head monarch, Reagan would have been terrific. On the policy front, taxes were cut, and the budget increased. The national debt went over a trillion dollars, which was seen as a horrible moment. (The annual budget deficit is now over a trillion dollars.)
When Mr. Reagan’s two terms were over, George H.W. Bush took over. This was an era where the Democrats could not do anything right on a national level. Bush presided over a war, and brought the troops home when the mission was over. His show business image never really took off, though, and the whiners were not pleased. A geek named Ross Perot decided to run as a third party candidate.
In the winter of 1992, PG had a little job downtown. One day, there was a rally at the CNN center for a little known Presidential candidate. PG went, and said to a friend, If this guy gets elected, you are going to regret not going to see him. At the time, War Winner Bush seemed unbeatable, and PG said that with high sarcasm.
When he got to CNN center, it was obvious that a big money event was unfolding. The place was packed, with school children bussed in to fill all the seats. Finally, the speakers blared “Twist and Shout” at top volume, and Bill Clinton walked on the stage. PG was not especially impressed.
Clinton inspired toxic hatred, but managed to keep the boat floating. He won reelection, with the Republicans seeming to self destruct. The economy was going good, the budget was balanced, and the haters went wild. After a entertaining sex scandal, the Clinton years were over.
A couple of weeks before the 2000 election, PG liked neither candidate, and did not think it made much difference. (With Georgia’s electoral votes certain to go Republican, PG did not have a vote.) He listened to someone talking, who thought that it was important that Gore won. PG remembered that conversation often during the next eight years.
George W. Bush was a disaster. It is possible that 911 was a personal vendetta against the Bush family, and would not have happened if Gore was President. The reaction of Bush to this tragedy was to start two wars. The war in Babylon is technically over, while Afghanistan has been escalated.
Finally, we have Barack Obama, the first dark skinned President. He has continued the war happy ways of the Bush regime. BHO will probably be reelected in 2012, and given four more years to wage war. Pictures for this feature are from the The Library of Congress.
This is a repost. BHO will be up for re-election this fall. His opponent will be Mitt Romney, a dreadful person. The outcome of the race is in doubt. Mr. Obama has not performed miracles with the economy. He has lots of blood on his hands. In some ways, race relations in America are worse than ever. This election is another choice between bad and worse, and will be highly unpleasant.