Happiness is...

One of my oldest and dearest accomplices sent me the trailer to a movie that he is in, that is premiering Oct. 16 (in ATX)...



My "accomplice" is an artist and woodworker. I had the great gift of having him design two bedrooms onto my house almost eight years ago, in preparation for the arrival of my second daughter, Rain. He lives and creates in Austin with a whole host of other artists and is currently involved in more projects that even he could list in just one sitting. The movie looks great. His happiness stems from being able to create and enjoy the creativity of those around him. It is my great happiness to have worked and created with him.

Rise and Shine

Bidding ya'll the Fare-thee-Well-

I have no idea if I can actually stay away this time- but I am going to move on to more important matters than trying to sway my friends, family, (and eventually everyone else who became my blogging family) to my way of thinking. To everyone who has enjoyed my Redneck Liberal ranting, raving, and waxing poetic-like, thanks for the friendship and support!

When I started blogging three years ago, the tubes were a far different place. Believe it or not, the discourse HAS advanced. What used to be the liberal opinions of a small minority has grown to be the pervading mentality of the blogosphere in general. That is a very good thing. The only purpose I had at first was to learn more about what was going on, then to link every important story I found for dissemination to my Texas acquaintances.

I, of course, started adding my distinctive flair ;)

My only real goal was to convert a few of them from the ranks of the bushbots into thinking individuals who took an active interest in the news, the media, and politics. And this is all from the wilds of West Texas- so you can just guess how impossible this task was.

In the end, I succeeded with my friends, made inroads with my dumb-as-dirt relatives, and found a couple thousand other voices who taught me far more than I ever managed to teach... Blogging has been a most rewarding outlet for my frustrations. More than once you people have kept me sane just by allowing me to understand that there were others like me out there- And not just out there- but All OVER America- Stretched from one end of the country to the next. And I hope I let ya'll know that all is not lost, even in a Podunk town that once hoped to be the home of the Bush Library (THANK GOD THAT DIDNT HAPPEN!). This place is bad enough.

Other than a few bad jokes, some creative mixed metaphors, and a few pitiful attempts at graphic artwork- I don't feel like I've got much more to offer as a "Voice" at this moment. I've said my piece.

And gratefully, I look around the 'tubes and realize that there's a LOT more of you out there, some just now voicing your own piece- I welcome you to the patch of internet I used to take up- enjoy yourselves and BE YOURSELVES.

I thank every single person who ever bothered to make their opinion known on this blog- from Progressive Chicano, the first commenter I ever had (back on the Old House of the Rising Sons ) to Targa (who was my first commenter here, back in Nov. 2006) to Fred, to Swan, to Caveman, to Hill to the fans of Ioz's blog who are chewing my ass out as we speak on my Ioz post-

Thank you all.

IT'S THE CONVERSATION THAT MAKES US BETTER.

I'm gonna shut the fuck up now.

(And put my efforts outside the tubes where my mouth has been.)

Ya'll Have a good one.

Bitter pictures, Bitter pills

Is this the bitter picture Obama painted?



The truth is ugly. But it's there. Not very many people want to look it in its bestial eyes...

Make sure that you go from Cheyenne's place to the Robert Reich blog.

Do you see what I see?
Truth is an offense
Your silence for your confidence

Do you hear what I hear?
Doors are slamming shut
Limit your imagination,
keep you where they must

Do you feel what I feel?
Bittering distress
Who decides what you express?

Do you take what I take?
Endurance is the word
Moving back instead of forward
seems to me absurd

Doesn’t matter what you see
Or into it what you read
You can do it your own way
If its done just how I say

Independence limited
Freedom of choice -is made for you my friend

Freedom of speech is words that they will bend
Freedom with their exception

Do you fear what I fear?
Living properly
Truths to you are lies to me

Do you choose what I choose?
More alternatives
Energy derives from both the plus and negative

Do you need what I need?
Boundaries overthrown
Look inside to each his own

Do you trust what I trust?
Me, myself and i
Penetrate the smoke screen
I see through the selfish lie

Doesn’t matter what you see
Or into it what you read
You can do it your own way
If its done just how I say

Independence limited
Freedom of Choice -is made for you my friend

Freedom of Speech is words that they will bend
Freedom with their exception

Do you know what I know?
Your money and your wealth
Your silence just to hear your self

Do you want what I want?
Desire not a thing
I hunger after independence
lengthen freedoms ring

Doesn't matter what you see
Or into it what you read
You can do it your own way
If its done just how I say

(My favorite song off that album. That whole song could just be the theme song for the Amerka: The Bush Years)...



Art image by Samantha

For no particular reason

My Three Favorite Illustrators, no particular order...

click on the artist's names to go to their official sites



M.W.Kaluta


Charles Vess


Barry Windsor-Smith

I have this last print hanging in the entryway to my house. I own both volumes of Opus. I highly recommend them.

Improper Breast Depictions

Lubbock Art Censorship Recap

My hometown, ever mindful of the dangers of showing boobies, especially boobies doing what God (or perhaps... Satan!?) intended - has banned two works of art depicting breasts and breastfeeding at a local art event at Buddy Holly Center. (Lubbock = Mecca of the Arts! or, er, perhaps I should say, congregation of the arts so as not to offend the christian brethren).
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Wow, arresting Chippendales dancers last year pales in comparison to this.... Of course, with Lubbockites, you never know what they are offended by exactly. Upon speaking to my fellow conservative, high morally upstanding fellow Lubbockites (... I am starting to refer to them as "Bubba-ckites") I have amalgamated their righteous indignation into one response, to save time and trouble...

For future reference, this Bubbackite pseudoynym will be "Sam Houston, defender of the West Texas Way."

So, Sam (pronounced the proper Lubbock way, with 3 syllables) why did you demand these breastfeeding pics be taken down?

Sam Houston Responds:

You damn lefties are trying to corrupt the good morals of this here community by showing women doing pagan activities like feeding kids from their bare breasts!

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How many jobs will be lost if all women start breastfeeding? How many formula manufacturers in China will go out of business, causing the commies to spend less money buying up the U.S. dollar and be forced to funnel that formula money into Iran's nuckleer program?

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If every child gets healthier by breast feeding instead of being raised on synthetics then Pharmaecutical companies will lose a ton of money! And every time a U.S. corporation loses a dollar, the terrorists win!

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Ya'll need to unnerstand the bigger picture out here! No red-blooded West Texas man wants to see a woman's boobies doing something as unnattractive as feeding some rugrat. Breasts should be only shown in glossy magazines in the bottom of our sock drawers, for a man's privacy in his own home. Or at private stag parties in the basement of the Lubbock City Council's chambers, away from the eyes of split-tails who may be offended by such imagery which God intended only for men of strong character.

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I do, however, like the fact that the women is bare-foot in the picture- that part is good Primitive Baptist doctrine . But other than that, its purely porn-aw-graffy! I ain't never been so fired up since they tried to put idols of Zeus blowing the wind on ever overpass in town! Damn heathens! Don't make me get my rope out, now.

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So, there you have it. The Sam Houstons of Lubbock strike again in the name of decency and keeping images of women safe from perverts.

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UPDATE: "Nurse-In" protest planned ...

Anyone can be a winner...

The Futility of Faith

This life so crippled that I can't stand,
And God on High, with no command
Angels futile and Devils impotent as well,
And to think that I was once afraid of Hell...

Seek not your soul, it does not exist-
Meaning and truth are ideas that do not persist
Each moments experience is its only reward-
Let passion be your shield, pleasure be thy sword.

And Love? That lofty goal so pure-
is no more than some charlatan's cure.
I realize now, and understand all too late
Faith in heart will not change your animals fate.

that is it, no moral here,
my search ends as my own worst fear.
I know of nothing more to say or write-
and these words- my life, no matter how slight...
Fade

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"Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom."

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"Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism."

(from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)

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It appears the easiest way to destroy a nation of tyrants is to let the tyrants rule... I give "free market capitalism" 15 more years of shelf life at the rate which they are eviscerating the country's resources, manufacturing, and economy. A investment insider, and multi-millionaire entrepenuer told me this today:

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"It will be like the 1900's. The middle class will be gone, they will all be migrated into the ranks of the poor. The poor won't care. They've never had shit, not having shit then won't be any more painful than it is today. The wealthy will be fine. You want to survive? Get as much money as you possibly can, because you'll need it. Get it now and you can leave the country later."

- a sentiment that I am sure is shared by many of our wealthiest Americans.

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Hmmm. Maybe if the government collapses and the four horsemen ride on America, all the christians will rush to Israel to beg for Jesus to come save them? We can only hope. Isn't there some passage in the bible that will convince them that salvation lies in the land of Moses?

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Buy a gun. Buy two. Because with what I know of Christians, the ones who aren't chasing the rapture will be trying to steal what little is left here in America. I could live with a return to a less decadent, less greed-driven society. Maybe once there's nothing left to steal, rape, or destroy, they will move on to the next victim of "Democracy".

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also from Gibbon's Decline:

"A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism."

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related links (Updated occasionally):

America in the time of Empire

Amerikan Apathy Conspiracy

The Ants of Gaia

Operation Mindcrime

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I Remember Now

Anarchy-X

Revolution Calling

Operation: Mindcrime I. Mindcrime II: Bush-Plame smoking gun?

Speak

Spreading the Disease

The Mission Knowledge Directed Revolution

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Suite Sister Mary Christianity from people who actually follow the teachings of Jesus

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The Needle Lies There are anti-liberal bushbots, and there are the Liberal anti-bushbots, and then there are the anti-liberal, anti-bushbot christbots... Ah, sweet diversity. This person tells us why Tucker Carlson is anti-bush. When you catch your breath and stop laughing, feel free to be astounded by the unintentional hilarity of this blog.

Electric Requiem The final word on torture, from a Brigadier General

Breaking the Silence

I Don't Believe In Love :

"I used to think

That only America's way was right

But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives

Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies"

My Empty Room The slow strangling of free market "capitalism"

Eyes of a Stranger The high price of American Gullibility