Essential Truths

Most people don't read your blog. Letters-to-the-Editor are probably more widely read although the blog offers far more creative freedom of course so I prefer them (not really into cyberforums anymore either, always the moderators with their corrective measures). My sitemeter is like my weight, it keeps going down. Actually my weight's being maintained but my hits keep going down. Keeping this essential truth in mind why do we blog? For me it's a kind of hobby, something to relax to after work. There are those who say to increase your hitmeter you have to visit quite a few other blogs on a regular basis, you know you scratch my balls I'll scratch yours. Too much work to do on a consistent basis imo so I only visit those that interest me on any given day and I tend to visit the same ones. If it ain't fun don't do it. Essential Truths -- a kind of continuing series:)

AIDS - 30+ years later

Read a big writeup about AIDS in my Sunday paper yesterday, how despite initial pessimism they're making progress after all these years. Many of the harsher earlier drugs like AZT have been replaced by kindler, gentler and more efficient and less toxic medicines and there is definite hope on the horizon but I got to thinking back to what the Jamaican chef (a character who occasionally pops up in these blogpages) told me once. Now if you met the guy you'd say he's quite intelligent, articulate and not your broadbased wildeyed conspiracy theorist, you can rap with him and since I'm on the subject I've been meaning to pose the question for BB and the others is there at least one conspiracy theory that you believe in, that you subscribe to? (what is this overtrust of government anyway?) Anyway he opined to me one day that he thinks AIDS was invented by the U.S. Government as a form of genocide against black people. Now I don't subscribe to this but it should be apparent by now that the darker-hued folks do see alot of subjects quite differently but I will say the key here and something I cannot answer and that doesn't sit well is why should there be a new disease? We've had your basic classic diseases down through the centuries. Mentions of syphilus have been woven into some of Shakespeare's plays and breast tumors have been around since the time of Cleopatra but AIDS??? Was this invented by some weird masturbator in a CIA lab somewhere, some Mengeleian prodigy? a form of biological warfare as it was maybe initially designed that somehow found its way into the general population? So how would you respond to the Jamaican chef? The argument from intimidation won't work, the man wants anwers.

Abortion

......(continued)......

Politics is alot like cooking

Everyone thinks their way is the way.

Don't get involved with Anthony's Weiner

Already I'm beginning to read the conservative punditocracy microanalyzing what happened, that a risque picture was somehow sent to a young female college student out West from New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner's Twitter account. It's a mildly interesting scandal at the beginning of summer, something to sip on in the shade of your hammock and points to the fact of a rather bleak GOP presidential field if this is what we're spending time on. I like this stuff but only for the entertainment value, I don't want to bring the man down. He doesn't look the type and with a name like his you'd think he'd be extra-vigilant for potential scandals of this nature. Speaking of underwear doesn't Obama look like a male underwear model? You know you're in Sears or the Big K looking for some Hanes or Fruit of the Loom and there he is on that fresh cottony package in his briefs rather well-toned and grinning from ear to ear. I think I heard on the news that Weiner has something like 50,000 followers on Twitter so anything's bound to happen. I'm hearing he ain't acting right, ain't acting like an innocent man and why didn't he go to the cops over this? Anyway enjoy the scandal for what it's worth but if this is your way of pushing forward a public-policy agenda to counter Obama's it has that prurient look to it like finding an orange pubic hair in the drain of a public shower. I feel a little skeevy even talking about it. It's all fungusy so let's not spend too much time on it OK?

stress @ work

It's one of those hypocritical issues stress at work because while practically everybody says it's bad for you, studies show it's a killer when push comes to shove nobody really cares about it or does anything about it. Boss (holding general meeting of staff at 9AM): "I realize workplace stress is an important issue to address so if there's anything I can do to make your day go better please let me know." Well no, certain work has to be done and done in a timely fashion, other work has to be completed not tomorrow but today. The honchos are coming in later, the suits are gonna go over everything with a fine toothcomb and this is your typical average American workday. When stress is addressed again we realize it's A Bad Thing but the problem is most likely YOU, don't let it get to you and btw you don't have to come in at 6:30AM anymore because we realize you also require so many hours of sleep again for reasons of health. The modern paradox, we all realize one's health is extremely important but it's the nature of the business world that nothing can really be done about it and if it leads to an early grave you can always be replaced. The wake information will be posted of course but the show must go on. When was the last time the issue was addressed at your place? No, put your political gavel down for a minute and think about it, Herman Cain and Ron Paul and Mitt Romney can wait. It's not so much my stress at work but I feel as if through osmosis the stress of others, that tense vibe going through the place and I'm thinking it doesn't have to be that way but it is. Health and Work, two worlds apart:)

Not voting as an act of conscience

NONE OF THE ABOVE is a valid option. Besides Jack Kemp is dead.

What is the purpose of the IQ test?

seriously

The GOP Establishment wooing of Chris Christie, why they're always out of touch

You'd think he's the best the GOP can throw up against Obama next year, NJ Governor Chris Christie. Brash, plain-spoken, fiscally restrained or just a dickhead. I ain't voting for the guy and here's the reason. In one of my threads about the red-light traffic cams in the city of Yonkers a commenter posted a link about Gov. Christie wanting to double the number of towns in New Jersey that use red-light cams (http://njtoday.net/2011/04/14/scutari-criticizes-christie-administration-push-to-double-number-of-towns-using-red-light-cameras/). That ain't limited government, that's Big Brotherism, Basic Thuganomics 101. So that's it, that's my reason and that's the sheer beauty of our voting process. I can go into that booth, oh I forgot it's not a booth anymore. I can stand at that there table and fill those little oval circles on that scansheet and pull the lever, I mean hand it in, bascially vote for or against someone for whatever reason that tingles my ball that day. I care not one whit whether others think my reasons stupid, that's between Me, Myself and I. Maybe I don't like it that I think he's had too many Krispy Kremes and is therefore a poor role model for our youth. So the Supreme Court in New Jersey said he has to spend millions and millions of dollars on the poor school districts in that state, he criticized the court for telling him how to spend the state's money but will comply anyway. Well whoop-dee-doo!!! he's still for those red-light cams and I've gotten four of those in Yonkers to date. Didn't get anymore for a few weeks now since I now totally avoid the area where I got 'em, I treat it as practically a nuke zone but at the time I couldn't write out a check to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York for their annual fundraising appeal. I usually give a hundred, built up my checking account again and sent my check in the mail just this morning so charity has to wait at times so as cash-strapped cities, towns and municipalities who don't know how to handle money in the first place can rape the American taxpayer. The GOP wooing of Chris Christie, God help us!!! Obama will go into the next election with he killed something that may have been bin Laden, had the body chucked into the ocean after several hours so we'll never know for sure but the public has seemed to accept it as they always do and it is now a part of our collective socio-politico mythology (who can forget that iconic picture in the Situation Room?) and they've already moved on to Sex and Eschatology and all we get is the Republican establishment wooing faux libertarians/tea partiers. Michelle Bachmann who voted to extend certain provisions of the Patriot Act, same deal honey. Don't tell me what conservatism is. I know it in my gut and these folks ain't conservative:)

Fresh from the bin Laden kill Bam thinks he can solve the Mideast Crisis

Every president has to give it a shot, it's the irresistible political version of Rubik's Cube. President Obama has told Bibi to go back to Israel's pre-1967 borders before the Six-Day War. This apparently didn't go over too well, guess Obama has more important votes to get than the Jewish bloc. WHY do we have to spend so much time on this subject? Don't other parts of the world merit attention? I mean yeah they get covered like the Ivory Coast but they don't turn into foreign policy obsessions. Immigration reform and the Mideast, Obama put alot on his plate just now. Why not wait 'til a second term unless, unless...you don't think the World is ending soon do you?

The world will end not with a bang but a whimper

I hardly noticed, I mean the seamless transition was so smooth. The phrase comes from poet T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" and I'm gonna make a bold prediction here. The world will end when the Sun runs out of fuel. I haven't worked on the calculations yet but it involves literally millions of years. According to 89-year old preacher Harold Camping the World As We Know It was supposed to end this past Saturday at 6PM. Went to work the next day and the place was unusually slow for a Sunday afternoon in a food place so I says to a co-worker you know why it's slow right? All the good folk have been Raptured up and you're always going to Giggles (you have to be around these parts to get the joke). He said to me "you have five months." Yeah go through your hardcore I said and start throwing the shit out, softcore too buddy before the angels with the flaming swords start knocking on people's doors. I'm not against the world ending, it should but you have to be a fool to predict when. One of the readings this past Sunday had to do with only the Father knows when the world is going to end, apparently He didn't share this info with the Son. That's interesting and one of the curiouser passages from Scripture along with those unforgiveable sins against the Holy Spirit. Of course the world doesn't have to end per se, more likely humanity might just kill itself off by then. Think Charlton Heston in front of the Statue of Liberty (fave line from that movie: "you damn dirty ape!"). Our Lady of La Salette said "in the Last Days Rome itself will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist" and then the Three Days of Darkness and the earth will renew itself and mankind will start over basically with the unrepentant in "the everlasting chasms of Hell." I think the Protestants especially the evangelical crowd take the End Times more seriously than the Catholics, Catholics only care if they can get a last game of Bingo in. As I said everything after bin Laden is anti-climax, we have to have something to fill the weekly newscycle. Religion and Sex lately:)

The Sperminator

Already I'm hearing the cluck-clucking of the tongues but c'mon, we love the story! ADMIT IT. I always look at these stories first and foremost as is it interesting to read? You're darn tootin'! Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger are filing for divorce because he had a love child with the hired help, compared to what Strauss-Kahn is alleged to have done it's a generic scandal, no more no less. What's not to enjoy? So what is this moral clacking? after bin Laden everything else is anti-climax anyway.

I'm really not getting anything out of all this bin Laden coverage

Everyday it's something new. A diary, bin Laden porn and you don't even know if it's all true or not. Long Island Congressman Peter King has said he saw those pictures. Apparently there's some small cell of a room select Senators and Congresspeople go into and it's like the Third Secret of Fatima. You have to leave your cell phone outside so you can't send an image to the outside world. Mr. King said part of bin Laden's forehead was blown off which begs the question how can we positively identify him now? not that anybody's tallying all the contradictions. Then there's all the versions of the Story. Please can we settle on one positive official White House version of the Events for all posterity even if it is wrong? Let's say he was reaching for a strap-on harness and they thought it was an AK-47 ya know?

Will the bin Laden execution anger Obama's base?

Yes and No. Actually there are two left-wing bases we're talking about here, there's the base and then there's the base-base. The first base, maybe the majority are what I call the liberal pragmatists despite their various moral intonations from time to time and I include several prominent bloggers here. So long as Obama supports gay marriage or rights, health care reform, economic and social justice, whatever their issues are then the dubious and murky events in that compound in Abbottabad don't bother them in the least. In fact they're happy about it, will use it to their advantage and will quite joyfully point out that it was their man Obama and not the hated Bush who finally got the bastard and meted out justice. I used to think most liberals were alike but many of them will show the same bloodthirstiness they often bemoan conservatives as having. Conservatives may be pro-war but the more traditional ones from the Old School anyway are also pro-the laws of war meaning you don't kill an unarmed man no matter how bad. It's just the way it is as my Dad who served in the Navy during WW2 and who is as far from a liberal as you can get explained to me. Now the base-base, I think they're smaller than the pragmatists but they do take their principles very seriously and while they are all for the gay marriage, health care reform, economic and social justice and all the rest of the first group with which you can agree or disagree to your heart's content but they also have a certain moral compass that doesn't waver, one that eschews violence whenever possible and may even tend strongly towards pacifism re war and foreign policy in general. I know how we all feel about Michael Moore but he's mad about what Obama did. Say what you will he's consistent. Finally about the Event itself I've come to this conclusion: the government is probably telling the truth that bin Laden was killed, is dead. I choose to believe it and yet I can't fault those who don't or who at least question it and here's why. They got rid of the body so damn quickly, put it on the USS Carl Vinson, said something in Arabic we're told after wrapping him in a white sheet and then dumping him overboard. Basically what we have here is the government or those acting on the government's behalf telling us that bin Laden was shot to death but the evidence, namely the cadaver is gone so that no independent entity or more objective group of observers can verify that this is indeed what happened. You can make fun all you want, knock yourself out with your pejorative of choice and be clever but in the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of truth this is no small problem. Surprised nobody foresaw this. So who's on first?:)

Why Bush didn't go to Ground Zero

He knows something ain't right. Bill Clinton another one, scheduling conflict. Chatter at work and wherever I go, something weird went down. There's a surreal vibe in the air, visions of Eric Holder under oath, a Congressional investigation? IMO President Obama authorized this kill mission to boost his poll numbers and to seal his reelection, to give his presidency a certain historical gravitas that has been sorely lacking until now. Spokesman Jay Carney who is a joke at this point called it a "legal kill." What are we on safari here hunting lions on the Serengeti? Speaks volumes but listening to Rush Limbaugh's childish commentary yesterday afternoon reminded me of why I don't listen to the man anymore. His take: liberals (his fave word) saw him as a kind of faculty lounge wuss and the Osama kill made a man out of him. Whatever, a more incisive commentary would have been government is corrupt and Obama who campaigned as a fresh moral voice in Washington has lost his innocence as they all do. Osama's death, like curing cancer sure it helps humanity but it also helps you and many times we make moral decisions out of supposedly altruistic reasons but the hidden moral calculus is how it really benefits us. I Killed Osama will be a kind of unspoken campaign slogan next year, may as well say that in response to each question in the presidential debates but folks are starting to ask questions and word on the street is he won't win reelection ("I don't think he's gonna make it" one woman said to me). This is not a transparent government, which government is? Final Word: Bush would have done it differently:)

The reluctant conspiracy theorist (an abridged reader)

Although to be sure there are inconsistencies. Now unless the unarmed Osama at 6'6" was a mystical Bruce Lee figure who could pull off some fancy Matrix moves there's nothing those Navy SEAL hunks in that room couldn't have handled with a little Krav Maga action? Did one of the SEALS lose his cool the way Magnum P.I. once shot that Nazi at the end of that classic episode? Worked a little late last night and on the drive home tuned into Mark Levin, wasn't gonna listen but it turned out to be a fascinating discussion. A former Navy SEAL called in and said are we to believe that AG Eric Holder would let them just walk in and kill a man in front of his whole family? The burial-at-sea, as one commentator wrote this was a mistake and gave the impression that Osama was a good and practicing Muslim being buried according to Muslim law and we might add why so quick to make him shark bait? Obama has told Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" that they've made the official decision to not release any of the Osama death photos (ahem), cadaver images even though CIA head Leon Panetta said just the other day he wouldn't be surprised if a photo emerges. They're afraid of inflaming the Muslim world but here's the thing. Obama is exhibiting a pronounced anti-Muslim bias here, most are bad and can't handle the pics goes the thinking but somehow they can stream live videos of actual beheadings and we get those put on on right-wing websites like Savage. The Administration now has an image problem which begs the question HOW do you exactly fuck up a good thing?

A question of Authority, libertarians and conservatives

Alot of folks assume conservatism and libertarianism are more or less the same creature, not so and at times they do make strange bedfellows. If I could distill one of the key differences it is this: conservatives are vastly more pro-authority than libertarians although to be sure there are different flavors, genres you could call it of libertarianism. Conservatives generally respect authority far more than libertarians because social and political stability is at the foundation and cornerstone and practically inspires and permeates all conservative thought which is why they were and still are against the hippie upheaval of the Sixties and feel the Vietnam War should have been fought on to ultimate victory. At heart it's really not about the wisdom of the war but about respecting institutions like the military and if you get drafted suck it up like a man and do your duty. Hit the nigger on the head and they'll come up with excuses for the cops. The AZ immigration law, the con 'tude is it's 'bout time, we're gonna kick some alien ass with the new law. Authority itself is problematic for me even though I recognize it is necessary and practically runs through the whole of our existence, how could it not? I've a visceral reaction to it like the boss making your schedule, it's mostly what he or she needs. Now it may be necessary for the workplace to run this way in order to function but at heart authority is a control issue. Think about how many ways your life is not your own. You have to put off your daily run or trip to the pier because somebody else, Authority finds the workplace a far more important place for you to be than you do. Maybe it's good, maybe it ain't but it's still all about authority, control. So how much authority do we need and how much is over the top? Driving drunk is and should be a crime, buckling up should be up to you and when cops are expected to uphold even nonessential laws they in effect symbolize the Power of the State. Think of the sheer power that comes with authority, the power of the few over the many, it's awesome in fact. Anarcho-libertarianism would seem to reject all authority so where do you fall on the spectrum?:)

Porn in Brooklyn, just don't light up

Apparently it is now OK to view porn on public library computers in any of the 200+ branches in New York City if you're a grown A-dult. "Customers (?) can watch whatever they want on the computer" said Brooklyn Public Library spokeswoman Malika Granville. "In deference to the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech the New York Public Library cannot prevent patrons from accessing adult content that is legal" said New York Public Library spokeswoman Angela Montefinise. The libraries provide for extensions on the sides of the computers for privacy, no mention if they provide spackle buckets too. Libraries that only get federal funding have to install filters on the public computers to block content that is illegal like obscenity (?) and child porn. Maybe someday we'll get around to actually nailing down the definition of obscenity but if a barely 18 girl with braces and a couple of zits is circle-jerking three guys and it's straight down the hatch and she's blowing bubbles does that qualify? I give great preference to the First Amendment in most cases but this is kind of skeevy. You already got your societal castoffs playing card games by themselves, your homeless set, druggies, young dorky stalkers, older men who form a kind of male bonding club and spend all day at the library because their wives don't want 'em around the house. Do we really want to downgrade the clientele even further? I feel like an immigrant in my own country. As my friend once said New York City is violently weird:)

The Royal Flush

Imagine if Donald Trump's lavish lifestyle were funded by the American taxpayer, Warren Buffet's sons were Princes and Oprah Winfrey were the Queen. American Royalty. Well that in a nut is the situation in the United Kingdom and you can't bitch and moan about tax cuts to the wealthy here and then get all misty-eyed about the celestial nuptials this Friday over there. Contradiction in terms, at least our well-to-do have earned their riches the honest ones anyway. Kate lost alot of weight, stress? William already has a receding hairline and I get the sense he's bored looking for things to do else why trek up the Arctic and have a dog outside your tent at night in case a polar bear is lurking? The roots of my conservatism are more primeval and explains my distaste for the Royal Welfare. It's not that I'm pro-work, not at all. Kyle Smith recently wrote a piece about why we love the rat race, I don't think so Kyle but if I have to suffer, if I have to work then so do the rest of you, princes and paupers alike. Get off your Royal Ass and get a job! They seem like nice enough kids though:)

The World's Biggest Egotists

Now it's good to have a healthy sense of self-esteem but these outsized egos are out of all proportion to their actual contributions (can you Supersize that?), I mean none of them have cured Cancer. They see themselves as so integral to the Progress of Civilization, so pivotal to the Race of Man, well here's a partial list by no means exhaustive: Hugh Hefner - actually let's throw in Charlie Sheen here too since together they form a kind of hybrid creature called Don't You Wanna Be Like ME? which even if you thought that would you say it? Now Hef sees himself as a kind of cultural icon/hero who helped Society break off from the iron shackles of sexual repression (the World didn't enjoy Sex until He came along) but the culture would have gone whichever way with or without his help. They say Charlie Sheen is actually a crystal methhead in which case he's a goner, just sayin'. Glenn Beck - makes the list only for pro-forma reasons, so many people think he should be there although I'm not sure how many egotists (or is that egoists?) talk about their past alcoholism and how they messed up their lives. For me Bill O'Reilly looks like he has the bigger ego the type that would give the deli clerk a hard time ("I said THINNNNN!!!"). Then there's Keith Olbermann - never got those lists of his, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. One week it was Rush Limbaugh. You don't have to like the guy, I really don't care but Worst Person on the Third Planet from the Sun Keith? that'd probably be Moammar Khadafy with Robert Mugabe running a close second. Barack Obama of course with his messianic complex. Has a bug up his ass about the rich, he sees it more as the problem of wealth and it's been bothering him his whole life but you're somehow an extremist if you don't see him as a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist. His Saviorhood has been somewhat tarnished by his rather dismal performance in office thus far but as a Kool-Aid drinker at work told me the other day give him some time, he only got his feet wet. Donald Trump - probably heads anybody's list but I'd still vote for the guy, actually I'd vote for Ryan Seacrest if he ran against Obama. Diddy (past names Puff Daddy, real name Sean Combs) - actually most rap stars but YOU made it that way, all those white suburban kids who somehow gravitated away from Rock over the years. Once arrested on a gun charge they become semi-respectabalized as time goes by, look for Fitty to be doing Eugene O'Neill on Broadway. Egotism is like a weird drug trip and to me never made any sense. I mean I've done so many dickheaded things in my life it'd be hard to be that way. Doesn't seem like the natural state this overinflated self-deified condition but that's just me. The Lady Gaga - Here's how it works. In Madonna's case she was like a monkey swinging from the trees, she discovered Morality and now she's swinging from the trees again. Look for Gaga to have a moral arc somewhere in the middle, settle down, have a couple kids and then go back in the jungle again. Gaga's talents which I will concede are eclipsed by her antics and I like what my friend said once. We were in a Target store looking at the magazines and we seemed to be in the young adult section, Miley Cyrus on the cover over here, the pale guy from Twilight over there, Avril Lavigne, whoever and he takes one look at them and says to me they're all full of shit:)