Trust your instincts motherfucker

What is financial independence?

It’s making more money than you can spend.

I’m working on it.

Questions occurring late at night drinking…

GREG: Why are YOU so emotionally detached? Hell, I know why I am- why the hell are you? Life;s been good. No women have systematically destroyed you, like they have me.

Bubba: Why in the hell do I NOT want revenge this time? I used to be such a vengeful bastard. I ALWAYS had to win in the end. Why don’t I care this time? Cuz I know he’s already lost in the long run? Because – in this instance, pretending to lose AND still care makes me the psychological winner? My mind has such subtle turns any more, I do things before I know I am doing them. The only time I fuck things up IS WHEN MY Conscious actions get in the way of my subconscious ones.

Scary,. Eh?

Trust your instincts, motherfucker. Your level of experience in life far surpasses your ability to react. Quit kneejerking and let your inner self take over. Its far less conflicted than your outerself, that’s for fucking sure.

Wow. I have reached a new plateau of existence. Relegating my conscious thought to a subordinate role. Hmmm: Outer self says to “Inner” Self, reaching for another beer- Hope that works out for you. I’ll be here. Getting fucked up as usual.

Damn. I feel like a red-stater, just dedicating my life to God and Dubya Dubya 3. It’s a helluva release, letting someone else do the thinking. Ah, sweet Dependence, enfold me in your parental embrace. Let me latch on to that nipple and suck myself into oblivion.

It occurs to me that I am unable to get … that… drunk.
Although I can try.
What kind of complete fucking loser even WANTS to relinquish control? Well, apparently to my control freak ass, its incomprehensible, even deep into a whiskey drunk, softened by a Budweiser chaser. I must not have broken through to the “other side” yet. I am not misspelling words, yet.

Come sweet Jesus of Oblivion, Saint of Serenity, O peaceful bliss through alcohol saturated brain cells. Numb and Number. Numb and Number
Numbest.

“The distinctive flavor of this rare sippin’ whiskey results from a special “charcoal mellowing process” perfected by Jack Daniel and still in use today.”

Two thoughts come to mind… “Rare” what’s rare about mass produced whiskey? There’s a hundred bottles of this shit in every fucking city in America right NOW.
The other contemplation is “Charcoal mellowing”. Fuck. Not only Am I drinking shit that’s been filtered through … CHARCOAL… the Tennesee jackass whose poisoning me is not ONLY bragging about doing it, he’s using it as a fucking selling point!

Woooeee. And Copenhagen uses the choicest fiberglass particles with which to shred your lip lining in order to speed the flavor into your bloodstream.

BRAVO. Balls. Gotta respect the sheer Audacity, if nothing else. And here at Bushco, we only use the finest cancer causing agents to limit your suffering. Tips are Accepted.

Good god,. We ARE as completely fucking ignorant as I always expected. Even the slavers, because in the end, their fate is the same as the slaves.

Hmm. Hope that works out for you.

Damned to Repetition

Ah, the glory of the "I told you so". Except its not so damn glorious telling these idiots "I told you so" over and over when you are up to your armpits in the blood of people who really, REALLY didn't have to be killed.

Our knowledge is impotent. Our Logic is useless. Our Morals are trumped by their blind obedience to themselves. Knowing what is going to happen while those in power chug along in oblivious, or perhaps not-so-oblivious fashion, makes it all so much more unbearable.

Do they know they are wrong? Do they know their rhetoric is a failure? I think so, and for us to point out the obvious doesn't seem to hurt them at all. Bush and Cheney just unload another wheelbarrel full of bullshit on the public and chuckle to themselves when no ones watching.

I think another thing that those of us in-the-know Realize is that these men are callous criminals who would sell out our country in a heartbeat for their own bottom line. Some men become twisted for glory. Some men become twisted for misguided nationalism. These men are twisted for the simplest and shallowest of reasons: simple greed. Simple selfish greed. And our country will continue to suffer until enough of us stop trying to REASON with them and remove them from positions of power.

the rule of fear, the fear of rule

I WANT to hate because it is an alternative to breaking down and crying. Violent thoughts banish all the FEAR, as if being able to destroy could reaffirm my position in this-life and refute my failings...

night comes and so do i.
spewing forth, containing the day, invoking the mystery once again,

No one without the other DOOM and SALVATION
fear and bravado life and death, yet no beginning and no end.
A PARADOX with an answer, most assuredly. BUT who owns the textbook to this one?

NO END no answer/s the big funny all over again. And then it is GONE. Are you laughing? I'm not... maybe i should be. And the greatest god is DOUBT. as ever it will be.

and late as i ponder i realize that the existence of any god at all is moot.
the only thing that matters is--YOUR decision.
so go with it. or dont. Just DONT do what they tell you to.

Salvation

Salvation (hat tip Hill)


during his first 100 days in office, says

'I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution'

It's a start...

Dispatches from America's class war

The age of working class art is over

EXCERPTS
"Also, I never would have had the money to spend a couple of months in Europe backpacking and using my Eurorail pass like many kids from wealthier families. So while these tours involved playing a show every night and were definitely "work", they are the only way a working class redneck punk such as myself would have had a shot to see the world. And what I saw blew my freaking mind.

My band had done some tours in the states, in typical budget-rock circumstances. Sleeping on people's floors and such. We did the same thing in Europe, but what blew my mind was that the quality of the floors was vastly improved. The difference in the quality of life of the average "socialist" western European compared to the average working class American was not only obvious, but also contrary to everything I had been brainwashed to believe while growing up in the greatest country in the world. I know these sorts of observations are neither original nor surprising to most educated and rational folks, but coming from where I was I could hardly be classified as either. Also, being from Missouri, I guess ya really do have to "show me" before I'll believe it. Quite frankly, it took a few years of cognitive dissonance to even come to terms with the idea. But, I had seen it myself. Explaining it to others, well, forget about it. They don't want to hear it. Rural America doesn't really even believe that Europe exists, except as maybe where a rich cousin went on vacation."

...

"As for the small town world I left? If anything, things have gotten worse. The European Union has raised the fortunes of much of western Europe, while the decline in small town America has been even more pronounced. Of all the places I've traveled that reminded me of my home the most, I'd have to say it was -- Serbia! Hell, a small village there isn't that different in feel from a little one in Missouri or Arkansas, and they had a damn WAR there. But try to tell that to the average liberal, in Europe or the states, and they won't believe you.

I can sometimes get pretty irritated at my European friends. It gets old constantly hearing how dumb Bush is, even if you happen to agree. And I guess it's my inner redneck coming out, but my orneriness is sometimes aroused when I hear bitching about rich, fat, and stupid Americans. Most Europeans, though they would be loathe to admit it, have their consciousness shaped and molded by the media just as much as their US counterparts. From the constant portrayal in the media, they seem to have bought the line that all Americans are loaded. I've had a hard time understanding this, it's not like I think all Mexicans are rich just because the characters on Univision soaps have nice houses. But that's what seems to have sunk in over there. If they come over to the states for a holiday, they never make it to the rural backwaters where I grew up. They don't understand being one medical problem away from bankrupt. They don't understand the reality of no social safety net whatsoever. If you look at the list of the worlds wealthiest nations, the USA ranks above Switzerland. But only a dumb redneck who couldn't find Switzerland on a map (or a liberal, Euro or American, who's never been to Niangua, Missouri) could possibly believe that the average American was better off than the average Swiss citizen.

Unlike you, I have no plans on ever going back to a small town, my hometown or anywhere else. The rampant racism, bible-thumping, and ignorance are too much for me to handle. But just as the Europeans can rankle me, I can also see where the typical American liberal rubs common folks the wrong way. To illustrate I'll go back to music, which got me started on this rant in the first place. At any American university worth its corduroy blazers and suede elbow patches you will find an ethnomusicology department. You will find intense study devoted to Javanese Gamalen or the music of the Baka Pygmies. But you will have to look very hard to find anyone who considers American indigenous music worthy of academic study. Grad students can travel to a remote village anywhere in the world to study a musical style, but you will never find one venturing out to East Bumfuck in America to see what the "natives" here listen to. Though you wouldn't know it from looking at the academic world, America has a rich musical tradition of poor folks who created interesting music. Poor white folks have actually made cultural contributions to this country, really! But throw a rock at a university music school in the states and you'll hit a dozen people writing papers on Fela Kuti before you'll find somebody who even knows who Merle Travis is. The simple fact is that the music of poor white trash isn't sexy enough to merit study, just like the poverty of poor white trash isn't a cause for hand wringing in the liberal world. Rednecks can tell that none of these rich liberal types gives two shits about them, not even as a cultural curiosity, and they vote accordingly."

...

"Working class now means you only have time enough for working. Creativity? Forget it. We've got cable. Easier to consume than it is to create, especially when you get home from a twelve hour shift. Don't even get me started on music education in this country, it's as bad as art education. Take away the time to do something creative, the space to do it in, and the education to even know such things are possible, and you get what we've got now. What passes for American culture."

A point for Conscience

Scotty McClellan finds his soul... about 6 years too late.

MSNBC

EXCERPT
McClellan admits to letting himself be deceived about the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, which resulted in his relentless pounding by the White House press corps over the activities of Rove and of Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the matter.

"I could feel something fall out of me into the abyss as each reporter took a turn whacking me," he writes of the withering criticism he received as the story played out. "It was my reputation crumbling away, bit by bit."

The truth will reveal itself, more and more, as Bush's last days in office expire. These cunts can't lie for this dirty son of a bitch forever, and they WON'T.

It's a little fucking late, but better late than never for the millions of dumbass Americans who have been hanging on every one of Bush's lies.

They've been played for fools, and our country is suffering for it.

Damn every one of the stupid bastards who have supported this vile piece of shit for the past eight years.

Damn them all to hell.

Viruses of Thought

I think that humans are far more susceptible to ‘viruses of thought’ than may be realized.

The more that people compartmentalize their ‘allies’ and ‘enemies’, the easier it seems for the collective consciousness to breed hate and loathing for those who “are not on my side”. The less empathy that we allow ourselves as individuals, the more the virus grows in us all. The cure for the collective madness is to cultivate independent thought and care and concern for ALL of our fellow mankind. As hippy-dippy as that may sound- it makes a lot of sense on a psychological level.

How to combat this affliction? By open conversation, understanding and less going off the handle about our own beliefs. The path of peace- IS PEACE. Gandhi’s way is a lot harder than Patton’s. But in the end, it is the only way that will allow humans to evolve past the savagery and the simplistic animal butchery that has been our way of life for too long.

We are the enlightened.

Humans DO build more than we destroy, in the grand scheme. But those who make excuses for their own callous treachery to mankind bring us low daily. We have to stand tall in the face of their shallow reasonings; the petty justifications of their support for evil acts against their fellow man.

Ours IS a better way. Our only enemies are those who believe that there can never be peace because they are not at peace with themselves.

Losing Gracefully

"I Will Fuck You All in Half!"

Discipline, Lack Of

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.

Slow Death

How is starving in Gaza different from starving in Auschwitz?

Joe Bageant - on the Audacity of Depression

POLISHIFTER: Gluttony is a Sin, ya fat Bastard!

Sorry that this post is slow going, lotsa stuff going on in the world of the Non-Tubes , most notably- leaving the life of money massaging for Lubbock fatcats and the ex wife is on a bender.

And I may actually post more of my pathetic attempts at "video". Compared to Culture Ghost , Fred, and Agi, my attempts at internet Art was like a stick figure scribble compared to ze Mona Lisa, but I haven't let lack of talent stop me thus far...

Let Mickey's Malt Liquor be my Muse ! (What? I'm broke for four more days)

UPDATE : Check out The Poetry Man's Obama in 30 sec video here. Then sign in and vote for a few videos there...

Our Government is a bad sitcom

Come and listen to a story about a man named Dub

A poor oil man’s son, barely a silver spoon scrub,

Then one day he was shootin up some coke,

And up through his brain came a bubblin' hoax.

War that is,

black gold, all for me

Well the first thing you know

ol' dub's a dictator,

Neocons said all you lefties are just haters

Said Guantanamo is the place you ought to be

So they loaded up the truck and killed what was free.

our laws, that is.

signing statements, wiretaps.

The Corporate Pharisees!

Well now its time to say good-bye to Dub and his bloody crown.

And he would like to thank you folks fer kindly bowing down.

You’re all invited back again to this locality

To have a heapin helpin of his hospitality

War profiteering that is.

dying for your country’s rich.

Empty your pockets.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

The Grand Masturbation of the Non-Reformists

"Nothing you do matters! It's all for naught! I am above you because I quit trying! So there! Phbbbt!"

Of course, they throw around their defeatist logic in much more erudite terms, but that's basically the gist of it. I've got no other way to put it but this :

Fucking Cowards.

Sorry. That's you. That's those of you who whine that it doesn't matter. And THEN when we tell you to get off your fucking asses and help do something- you oh-so-smugly "educate" us that it's all some worthless endeavor. "There is nothing you can do to change anything, goddamnit, cuz we-are-Powerless! Don't you see?!" you scream as you pull your asshairs out in clumps-

"Don't you See ?!?!?"

.

All I see is a crowd of losers who give up once everything doesn't go exactly their way. The worst of the worst of this ilk- is the Grand Masturbator himself, Ioz. The pseudo-intellectual poobah whom the disenfranchised flock to like a golden Nader idol. "We won't vote- We'll show you!"

.

I have never seen such a smug apathy-selling blogger. Wallowing in his own shit, he passes down his judgement on all who would dare attempt to make a difference. Here, again, he restates what passes for his principles:

The Occasional Restatement of Principles

You know, most Americans are imperialists. One of the reasons--the reason--that it so amuses me to find the occasional commenter here ask me why I offer no practical solutions to "our" problems, why the closest I ever come to advocating for direct action is to propose minor acts of cultural vandalism. Being an anti-imperialist in America is like being a Zionist in the Third Reich. I am a fringe radical. If you agree with even a tenth of what you read on this site, you too are a fringe radical. Your beliefs and opinions are not reflective of those of your countrymen. The question, "How do we stop being imperialists?" bears as much practical import as, "How do we live without breathing?" We don't. The United States of America is an empire. Maybe you think it's on the downhill slide? I certainly hope so. But it is what it is, nevertheless. The notions that within the body of empire lurks the heart of an egalitarian, constitutional republic, or a libertarian minarchy, or a parliamentary social democracy are the purest forms of political self-flattery. The subjects here may be largely political, but the program is purely perceptual. I am not a reformist.

He'th Amuthed. Well, shit on me.

Look, you pawn shop Socrates- you can sell fiddles until Rome burns if you like, but don't try to pawn your bullshit on me that you are some kind of radical. "The closest I ever come to adovocating.." Jaysus fucking Christ. Spare me your master plan of breaking windows to stop Imperialism, mkay? "like a Zionist in the Third Reich" ... good fucking grief. While pissants like you were telling your neighbors you can't fight the Third Reich, this Imperialist power did indeed help the Jews win in the end. The Third Reich didn't last, for all the help nihilists like you are. The Neoconservative movement won't last either. Unless a lot of good people stand aside and let them run roughshod because they feel apathetic towards it all. .
.
Within the body of THIS Empire, there ARE people like me- and there is the heart of a constitutional republic. We are NOT a minority in this country, although I do surely hope that if you are right about one thing it is that people with your mindset are a tiny, flaccid minority. Everything evolves. And if you haven't noticed, this Empire has actually steadily improved on all fronts- UNTIL the advent of the neoconservative radicals. So don't piss on my head and tell me it's a torrential downpour. There's work to be done. And our actions, and yes, even our votes can be used to shift the direction of this empire.

It's times like this that I actually miss certain things about being part of the Republican sheeple- as stupid as that may sound- I never ran into anyone crying in a corner saying they were ready to give up fighting. We need to rally around the Democratic candidate, whoever that might be- because that's the important battle before us. It isn't proving that some half ass huckster like Nader can make a few votes and pocket some change every four years. It isn't about showing the Dems that they you won't vote because they didn't cater as much to the left as you wanted.

It is about slowing down the Radical neo-conservative ultra Imperalists in our current government. And that battle is won by defeating the Republican party.

It is about winning the class war in America by defeating the Republican party.

It is about defanging the racist, sexist, corrupt Republican party and bringing our soldiers home. PERIOD

I just have ONE Question for you: Of all the legislation that Bush threatened to veto and came out swinging against the Dem party in speech after speech - How much would have passed if there would have been a Democrat, ANY Democrat in the oval office? That, I believe, is a valid question.

So, Ioz, spare some of us who are actually out here trying to improve the country, not help continue the Imperial Corporatocracy- Why don't you focus on something important like this
.
And, I'll leave you with one more Warhol quote, useless bastard that he was:
.
"I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say "figment." "
.
The Iozs of the world might as well have blank epitaths, because no one remembers the crybabies on the sidelines who champion the Imperialists by default. Nothing WILL change, while the country is populated with these impotent self-important folks who think they are above it all.
.
They aren't. And by the time these people are forced into activity from their comfort zones- it will be too late. Don't be just another couch potato. Just because Ioz is intelligent, doesn't mean the sum of his inactions make him anything more than just another Homer Simpson, albeit one with a blog.

I shall conclude with a bit from The Sermon To The Hypocrite by Zos, who may be a spiritual ancestor to Ioz:

O, ye whose future is in other hands! This familiarity is permitted not of thy-but of my impotence. Know me as Zos the Goatherd, saviour of myself and of those things I have not yet regretted. Unbidden ye listen'd to my soliloquy. Endure then my Anathema.

Foul feeders! Slipped, are ye, on your own excrement?
Parasites! Having made the world lousy, imagine ye are of significance to Heaven?

Desiring to learn-think ye to escape hurt in the rape of your ignorance? For of what I put in, far more than innocence shall come out! Labouring not the harvest of my weakness, shall I your moral-fed desires satisfy?

I, who enjoy my body with unweary tread, would rather pack with wolves than enter your pest-houses.

Sensation . . Nutrition . . . Mastication . . . . Procreation . . . ! This
is your blind-worm cycle. Ye have made a curiously bloody world for love in desire. Shall nothing change except through your accusing diet?

IN THAT YE ARE CANNIBALS, what meat should I offer?
Having eaten of your dead selves savoured with every filth, ye now raven to glutton of my mind's motion?

In your conflict ye have obtained . . . ? Ye who believe your procreation is ultimate are the sweepings of creation manifest, returning again to early simplicity to hunger, to become, and realise-ye are not yet. Ye have muddled time and ego.

Think ye to curb the semen SENTIMENTALLY? Ye deny sexuality with tinsel ethics, live by slaughter, pray to greater idiots-that all things may be possible to ye WHO ARE IMPOSSIBLE.

For ye desire saviours useless to pleasure.

Verily, far easier for madmen to enter Heaven than moral Lepers. Of what difference is Life or Death? Of what difference is dream or reality? Know ye nothing further than you own stench? Know ye what ye think ye know for certain? Fain would I be silent. Yet too tolerant is this Sun that comethup to behold me, and my weakness comes of my dissatisfaction of you solicit. . . . but be ye damned before obtaining fresh excuses of me!
...
Cursed are the Reformists! Cursed I say!.

UPDATE: Those defending the idea of that nothing Americans can do matters are working pretty hard to convince me. Not exactly the action I was hoping for, but at least they seem to be doing something to change others, even if they don't believe in it...

A final note (from the comments):

Party affiliation isn't the end-all, be-all. It's important to get in the individuals who will support the issues that you want. Yes, it seems hopeless. But what the Deconstructionists don't seem to realize is that you can get mired in your own complexity. I have no doubt that Ioz (and the rest of you guys, for that matter) are more intelligent than those who support the status quo.

HOWEVER, their continuance of power relies upon your "deconstruction". The less you do, the easier it is FOR THEM to maintain control. They may not be brainiacs, but they realize this simple strategy. The subtleties of the political spectrum are NOT Lost on me, I choose to step over them in order to implement a strategy that sets back the status quo elite. Yes, Hillary and Obama are not the candidate I want- but Change is not some Overnight sensation as some of you seem to feel- it is a gradual evolution.

You have to win small battles and get the most progressive choices you have into office over the worst of the worst. Unfortunately, if the "Ioz crowd" decides to sit this one out, in the name of apathy, or Deconstruction, or what have you- it's a win for the worst. There is a reason they (the status quo pimps) are winning. And it's because there are more people willing to sit out Democracy than participate- And whether you claim it's for some Deconstructionist purpose, or whether you are simply one of those people to lazy to vote, the end result is the same.

Defeat.

It's the Status Quo folks that PUT us down, but its the Ioz's who KEEP us down.

Earth vs. the Earthlings

"Man seeks knowledge like the lemming seeks the ocean, instinct provoking self-destruction."

Does over-population invoke in man a greater level of instinctive self-destructive tendencies?

Yes, I realize that lemmings don't commit suicide en masse. The population fluctuation of lemmings is actually equally interesting as the fact that lemmings will accidentally run off cliffs or inadvertantly swim to their deaths during their migratory cycles in the middle of a population explosion. But it's this "suicide" that piques my interest on this Earth day.

This seems to me to be nature's way of culling the herd sans predators. As their population spikes they consume more of their resources, they crowd out habitable areas and the more innate the instinct for the animals to migrate into new areas. When new habitable areas with food sources are no more and the mass of their population is teeming, starving and frantic, some push onwards off cliffs or into bodies of water to their deaths.

Is certain behavior density dependent? It seems to me common sense that the more dense the population, no matter what the creature, that extremes of instinctive behavior will become more common. Especially as the increasing density of the population stresses and depletes the resources for said creature. These extremes will result in a culling of the herd in most cases.

With humans and our current population explosion, technology could be said to broken through our natural barriers to extreme density of population. Disease, starvation, and natural disasters no longer affect the human population with as much of a culling effect as they have centuries before. Our only natural predator is ourselves. It seems to be it could be said that the earth's ecological salvation may depend on human's ability to cull our own herd - ourselves.

Humankind's ability to adapt makes the un-checked population explosion of our species a most resilient plague upon our host-planet. Have our wars served to aid the planet by eradicating large swaths of humans periodically? Are human (and all other populations for that matter) destined to follow elliot wave-like patterns of growth and decline?

And If this is indeed the pattern that provides for an orderly balance of ecology- What happens when humans crash gluttonously through the pattern, crowding out all other life with just more and more of US? Is it pure selfishness to desire to end plague, death, and war? By saving more and more of ourselves are we dooming ourselves and the entire ecosystem in the end?

Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, stated:

"Forging and maintaining a sustainable society is the critical challenge for this and all generations to come. In responding to that challenge, population will be the critical factor in determining whether or not we succeed in forging such a society."

And Garrett Hardin, in 196,8 had this to say in Tragedy of the Commons:

"The most important aspect of necessity that we must now recognize, is the necessity of abandoning the commons in breeding. No technical solution can rescue us from the misery of overpopulation. Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all. At the moment, to avoid hard decisions many of us are tempted to propagandize for conscience and responsible parenthood. The temptation must be resisted, because an appeal to independently acting consciences selects for the disappearance of all conscience in the long run, and an increase in anxiety in the short.

The only way we can preserve and nurture other and more precious freedoms is by relinquishing the freedom to breed, and that very soon. "Freedom is the recognition of necessity" -- and it is the role of education to reveal to all the necessity of abandoning the freedom to breed. Only so, can we put an end to this aspect of the tragedy of the commons."

UPDATE: Cheyenne has a related Earth Day post- Check out the Plant-viewpoint vid too.
UPDATE 2: Dcap does the Math

Related subjects:
Ecology
Sustainable Population
Population and Environment
Tragedy of the Commons
Patterns within waves

Off the Fence

First things First: Freida Bee and Liberality: I'm working on my tag post... (busy weekend)

Now, on to business-

Like me, A lot of Democrats have been sitting on the fence. Obama or Clinton wasn't our first choice, so we didn't really care which one of them won the nomination. And then, I made a distinction based on the recent actions of the two candidates. I went with Obama.

Michael Moore has finally jumped off the fence and onto Obama's side. His reasoning is much like mine. This is from his newsletter:

My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore
April 21st, 2008

Friends,

I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate's name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.

But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.
How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good
question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.

Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.

It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"

But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,Michael Moore

If you can read all that, AND STILL Support Clinton, well, I'd love to know why. If not, start emailing your Dem reps, your Dem Senators, your delegates and everybody else- that Clinton needs to bow out. It's time to move forward.

Bag em and Tag em

Rules of the game …

*Link to the person who tagged you.

*Post the rules on your blog.

*Write six random things about yourself.

*Tag six random people by linking to their blogs.

*Let each of the six know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment (on each blog).

*Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

I was tag-teamed by Freida Bee and Liberality (or is it team-tagged?) Oh well, the more, the merrier, I always say...

I love art, I love drawing, even though I don't do it much anymore. Writing or reading is what I end up spending all my free time doing now. But every once in a while If I do draw something, it's usually for my kids. They all love art, and I get more contentment watching them sketch, paint or build something than most parents get watching their kids play a sport. And every once in a while they need Dad to show them how to draw something. That is the best.

I am known to most of my friends as a very outgoing person. But to people I don't know closely, I appear to be a very quiet, even brooding person. I don't like bringing attention to myself except when I'm in my circle of friends, where I am a twisting Texas tornado. The people who I meet in the "social circuit" who see me out in the "real world" almost don't recognize me. And the people who I've met via work, or other situations who run into me in that mode can't tell me fast enough how boring they thought I was before then. So, that's kind of weird to me.

I cook very well. This surprises people when they have an occasion to partake of a dinner I've made. I don't know why this surprises them. I have been a single dad for most of my life. Someone had to feed my kids. The concoctions I create are a little weird, I'll give you that. Typical man that I am, I almost never use a recipe except as a rough guideline. I also never go to the grocery store just to purchase items for one meal. I just look in the fridge and cabinets and work with what I've got. My kids are very picky, but they will usually eat anything I cook (This drives Lauren crazy!)

I shot my younger brother in the head with a bb gun when I was in fifth grade. He was holding a bucket up through a clubhouse window while we were playing war. I hit the bucket and the bb slid past it and embedded itself in his right temple, about an inch from his eye. I took him back to the house, forced him to take some tylenol (to deaden the pain) and was about to do surgery with an X-acto blade when Mom came home. He got a quick trip to the emergency room. Mom took our bb guns away but we were still allowed to take the shotguns out down the street whenever we felt like it. In her words "At least I know you won't be shooting at each other with THOSE guns"... well, actually Mom...

My older sister cut the tires of the apartment complex manager's car where our parents lived one New Year's Eve. I got blamed. My older brother whooped my ass good. I never narc-ed her out, but I still feel like she should at least admit to the shit after all this time.

If I was to find out I would die tomorrow, I would die satisfied and content. I couldn't always say that, but I believe that I've made up for every bad thing I've ever done and made amends to everyone in my life that I've ever hurt. I'm a good friend, a stand up person, and the best father that I know how to be. I've paid it forward every day of my life, even before I even knew what the hell that meant. That's the only thing to me that matters- that I can look myself in the mirror and not be ashamed of who I am.

Framing The "Debate"

A friend called me early this morning. He's a default Texas John McCain supporter, which means : He won't vote for no split tail or no negro, by God.

A day before I had ripped McCain to this Truck Driver- and explained why he should be voting Democrat for the rest of his natural born life, apparently, 24 hours set in and he forgot the fifteen damn factors I had instilled in him via reason, logic, and historical example.

He called me from his cell as he was truckin along, and he asked me if I was still supporting Obama. Before I could answer, he followed up with : "Have you seen the news?" - Now, I am a news JUNKIE. I mainline C&L, I shoot MSNBC Straight, I chase it with NPR Radio , and while I'm at it, I have a slice of Yahoo and smoke a bowl of CNBC. And I wash it all down with a suicide of various blogs. So, sitting down at my desk that early morning, I hadn't even booted up my PC yet. All I had was my morning drive with NPR's tibetan updates.

I thought- 'Well, shit! what did I miss?'

"Obama got a terrorist working for him.Yep, it's all over the news!" He exclaimed.

Unawares of what the heck he was talking about, I kinda mumbled- "I didn't see that on the news" But nonplussed, I followed up with the standard West Texas talking point- "Well, hell, Rocky, I'll still vote for a terrorist over Hillary or McCain". That got a chuckle.

"Well, I just thought you should know that's what I heard. That your boy got terrorists working for him."

He couldn't cite a news agency or details, and he had to go abruptly. I quickly got online, thinking to myself- What-in-the-fck-now?

Unsurprisingly it dawned on me that there was no news concerning this soundbite. I had forgotten that the rest of the country isn't quite up to speed on current events. Maybe he had finally heard some shit about Madrassas. Maybe he had heard about Weather Underground. Maybe he heard some uppity black preacher was badmouthing the flag. But whatever bullshit he took in one ear, didn't quite make it out the other.

All that careful conversation I had with him the day before, meant nothing now. All he heard was that I was supporting a black man over the white one. And although he listened carefully and even told me what a sorrry ass Bush was, worst President ever- a day later all that registered was that crazy ass nigga's middle name was Hu-saaaaannnnne and he won't say the pledge of allegiance by damn!

...

He wants to vote Republican. Because he's been told to. But everything is shit and it has been for the past 8 years. Nothing has quite worked out like the Republican party told him it would. He just don't know. But ho-shit- It's not just a split-tail running for President, that's a god-damn Clinton! By Jesus, He'd take a bj in an outhouse with his wife holding a roll of toilet paper outside, but he cain't abide the Preznit getting his jollies in the oval office!

Not if he's damn democrat, at least! And then the other option is a half-breed! And half breeds ain't so bad, Hell this guy's grandson is a "half-breed". But this fucker is half (whisper- BLACK! whisper)

Sumbitch!

McCain is a white guy and hell he's even a War Hero. (If it all it takes to be a war hero is to be captured by a rice farmer in a paddy where you've been bombing civiilians)... So when he hears "Hussein" or "Farrakhan" or "black President" his mind is made up.

The wit and wisdom, the facts and the figures, the history and the truth isn't going to sway him.

UNLESS...

So, what I propose- is to fight like a dirty, piece of shit Republican. Do what they have done to Obama and to Hillary before him- Make up a bunch of bullshit and pass it down the line. Who knows? Knowing the Middle Amerkan dipshit like I know so well, they will PROBABLY improve on it as it goes in one ear and out their ass.

I'm sure you've heard some dirt on McCain. Well, do what THEY do, and just assume its true and pass it around. But frame it in the worst possible way to Right wingers and their ilk; Make a headline about McCain. Say that you heard it from a "reputable source" and let that fucker fly. We are dealing with idiots, slaves, and sycophants. For four years of blogging, I've laid out the truth in careful little lines only to be ignored by morons who want to know who's Britney's Sister's Baby's Daddy is.

FUCK THEM.

McCain wants to Double the Estate Tax! I read it in the Wall Street Journal!

McCain owns interest in a Chinese Nuclear Weapons facility! It was on FoxNews!

McCain called one of Mitt Romney's three wives' (the thirteen year old) a bitch! I heard it on Rush!

McCain beat his ex-wife as she lay in a cancer ward, then had sex with his mistress in the same room as she lay bleeding afterwards! it was on Drudge, I Swear!

McCain wants Cheney as his Vice President! (that might be true)

Rove threatens to blow the whistle on McCain's Bondage Affair with Condi Rice, her lesbian girlfriend and Jeff Gannon! I read it at Free Republic!

McCain secretly vows to George Bush in a satanic blood brother ritual that they will do a 9-11 in every major city until the Democrat party is no longer a majority in Congress! I saw it on Perez Hilton!

Because the horrible truth is- THESE Lies are more likely to get attention than Bush okaying Torture, Blackwater pulling guns on American soldiers with no consequences, Iraq going to hell in a handbasket, our President funneling millions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia and Israel, our government allowing crooked corporations to loot American stockholders, or our military being destroyed by the Incompetent Republican leadership.

So lie all you want. The truth is far worse.

Blogger Universe!

Real Name: Unknown
Other Blog handles: Redneck Liberal, Faded
Base of Operations: West Texas, ya'll



First Blog Appearance: Crooks and Liars, 2004
Group Affiliations: MCCS1977, Blue Herald, and Unruly Mob

Topic of Choice: Government is out of control, Right Wing is ruining America

Medals of Valor: Thinking blogger award, thrice decorated, Awarded the coveted Iamsoretarded.com linkage from Archvillain Megabrad.

Special Powers: Fast typing, Profanity Specialist, ability to use True Conservative arguments in the Liberal cause to dismantle the bullshit of Right wingers. Unafraid to piss people off.

Google-Link Ability: Level 10 - Master
HTML Ability: Level 2 - Cut and paster

Weaknesses: Alcohol, Vulgar women , Truly Intelligent people, ability to piss people off.
ArchEnemy: Caveman , destroyed in mid-2007, not seen since.

History: Born in a trailer, raised in the projects while simultaneously living on weekends with his millionaire father, Fade is a man of contradictions and exceptions. May possibly be the only member of Who's Who with multiple college scholarships prior to entering high school who was a gangmember and frequent incarceree of the Lubbock jail system.

Leaving West Texas for the Big D, he escaped the confines of the bible belt and expanded his mind in college. However, his criminal side resurfaced and he became a young Republican. Returning to Lubbock, he became a board member of the corporation his father was President of. Dark days of dittoheadness followed.

Days after championing W in the 2000 elections, Fade discovered something was very wrong. He realized his political views and life were a complete hypocritical self-serving pile of shit.

Then he discovered the intertubes. He fell under the tutelage of Blog Master Actor212, who took him under his wing and tried to hone Fade's pathetic lack of html skills. After Actor212 showed him the ways of the tubes- Fade opened his zen blog temple, House of the Rising Sons.

Fade became a junior member of the Justice Blog of America (aka MCCS1977) sometime in 2006, where he learned much at the feet of Frederick, Navyswan, and Bacchus. Fade then struck out on his own again with a new House and to this very day fights crime and Republicans from this stronghold.

The Mother's Prayer

The Mother's Prayer

Our Mother, which art underfoot and all around

Hallowed be thy world, to which all are bound

Thy kingdom now

Our will be one, as above, so below

Give us this day our daily need

and let us give back what is not needed

let us live without greed, sloth, or vanity

let us know our place in thy world

let us sow so that we may reap

let us reap so that we may sow

let us live so that we may die

let us die so that we may live

Give us balance

and let us have the wisdom to maintain the balance

From thy we are born

and to thy we return

For thine is the kingdom,

earth and heaven and hell, wrapped in one.

Let it be.

Kirk Berryhill

4/17/2008

Political Survey

Stony Brook Survey - (found at Crooks and Liars)

...feeling a little burnt out lately, posting may be light unless inspiration striketh... will be haunting YOUR blogs, so get cracking!

SadButTrue of "The Mob" On Fascism