Sticks and fucking stones!!!

Timing, they say, is everything.
On Friday afternoon, I took a brief break from work to walk around the block – something I do to break the excruciating monotony and boredom in lieu of smokin

As I walked, I came up behind two black girls in their late teens/early twenties, moseying down the street. Naturally, I eavesdropped. They were going on and on, each outdoing the other with how they told so and so off for not respecting them. Each story was replete with new levels of threats and hostility because someone hadn’t shown them the respect they were certain they were due. Their English was street (Ebonics IS still considered a racist term isn’t it?)
I began to tense up a bit as I thought about interrupting their conversation to offer them some enlightenment about the English language.
Respect, I wanted to offer them, is something that is earned. It is not something that you are due simply by existing. Cockroaches after all, have existed far longer than humans have.
It is especially NOT something that is due simply because you can out-inconvenience productive citizens and cost society more than someone else does. The stunned looks that I imagined would cross their respective faces at such startling news made me smile. Having suffered several weeks of futility at work made me think better of suffering it there as well, so I just walked around them and returned to the office.
After work, and several drinks to lubricate my Friday night, I went home, and read a headline on-line:
“Court rules that flipping someone off, ISNT grounds for being murdered!”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/10/BACA18MI8S.DTL&tsp=1


GEEEEE -----YA FUCKIN THINK????!!!!!!

As the dregs of society continue to lower the bar on civilization, I find myself increasingly willing to join the ranks of the ‘intolerant’. Would it really be so bad to finally acknowledge that some animals simply don’t want to be part of society? That they have no interest in upholding their end of the social contract? And that removing them from society really is best for everyone – themselves included? Aren’t there plenty of islands and open deserts that these animals would prefer roaming – free of a society asking a modicum of human decency from them?
Who knows, maybe in 300-400 years, they might even learn to put a shrimp on the barbie and come to learn about hospitality?

And I dreamed I was dying

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's all right, it's all right
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was crying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
and sing an American tune
Oh, and it's alright, it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest

cuz sometimes, others say it better than me.

yeah...sometimes

We're the best kind of sneetches on the beaches

It is a sad comment when our own brothers and sisters are so weakened and feeble, that they require Prop 8 stands. And with it stands the pernicious Star-bellied sneech.
the simplest of distinctions elevate them above all others – a star on the belly – in a word – marriage.
It is far and away the universal sentiment here and around the world, that gays should have all the rights of straights – save one – the word marriage.
This word, this mystical magical word, somehow bestows upon those who seek and adopt it, superiority over their fellow man.
Whether the old spinster who never married, or the eccentric uncle who never married. Somehow, their lives simply can NOT be complete or fulfilled, as they have never known the holy bonds of matrimony.
And to ensure that those for whom you must be superior to, remain beneath you; ban their right to even approach those bonds of matrimony. Ensure that they never know the fulfillment and bliss you do. Be better than them.
“It’s only a word” so many like to say. And so if it is only a word, one has to ask, why so protective of it? Why do you place the value and fulfillment of your life with it so ahead of any life without it? Why, if it’s only a word, do you not allow others to use it? Dose denying them the use of this word somehow make you better than them? Does it somehow artificially support the inequality you require to make your own life worth living?
There is, in the country in which I was born and raised, a tenet on which we were all raised:
“All men are created equal”
This tenet was enumerated in the law of our land, ensuring that all are equal under the law.
It is a tenet that has fought its way through the millennia and the existence of man.
It is a tenet that will not only endure – it will prevail.
And so, I urge all you sneeches – find another star. The one on your belly has faded. It no longer separates you from your equals. If you want to stand out, do something to earn that distinction. Because the more you seek to use a simple word to proclaim your superiority, the more your inferiority shines through.

Orange ya glad stupidity still breeds bigotry?

This one’s so delicious it just HAS to be fattening.
Carrie Prejean, Miss California, and the unfortunate bridesmaid in the Miss USA pageant is about to be dethroned for contract violations. It seems her noteriety for believing queers to be 2nd class citizens has won her numerous appearances, one in a commercial, for various hatemongering organizations who have somehow forgotten the words of the savior they continue to crucify every time they open their hateful mouths.
And such appearances are a no no.
As if that werent enough, it seems she posed topless at 17.
Another no no that Vanessa Williams indulged to make Bob Guccione very very rich.
When asked to comment on her contract violations, the uber brainiac that does blondes proud the world around, replied, “I don’t know because I don’t really know what was in the contract”.
Lovely. A role model for young women everywhere. Sign a contract without knowing what it says.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest she probably doesn’t really know what her bible says either. Or what her Christ taught. I’m willing to bet she’s never even cracked the book.
Isn't there something in there somewhere about lying and cheating? Or is that ok as long as it’s in the name of hatred and oppression?

Thoughts under the inluence of ecstasy

Ravel’s Bolero –
As if it wasn’t a fine enough piece of music on its own, Bo Derek catapulted it into the halls of imortality by turning Dudley Moore on to a ‘great fuck’ piece.

Poor Bo. Disadvantaged not only by the sands of time, but the sans of brains, had no way of knowing that Madonna’s ‘La Isla Bonita’, a fictional island of lust and paradise would reign supreme as the rhythm of the sheets. A song I’ve been known to interruptus coitus to reset the needle – yes that was pre-mp3..
Among the other works that incite passion – whether carnal or cerebral – are:
One Night in Bankok – “I get my kicks above the waistline sunshine”
The Pretender – so many options here, but among the best “and when the morning sun comes streaming in, I’ll get up and do it again…”
Rock me on the Water – “oh people, look around you, the signs are all around you. You’ve left it for somebody other than you to be the one who cares…”
Before the Deluge – “Some of them knew pleasure, and some of them knew pain, and for some of them it was only the moment that mattered..and on the brave and crazy wings of youth they went flying around in the rain…and their feathers once so fine grew torn and tattered. In the end they traded their wings, for the resignation that living brings..”
Puff the Magic Dragon – really…do I need to quote this one????
I’m not ready to make nice – (dixie chicks) “It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over”… wow.. the last 8 years.. wow….

Wanna take a ride???

Wow.. sometimes it takes a while for things to really gel.. well, different people gel differently than others.. shuh..viva le difference!!

So anyhooo.. …for some reason, ‘thunder road’ has been insisting itself on me. And afterall, who am I to not be insisted on???
“poor man wanna be rich rich man wanna be king and a king aint satisfied til he owns everygthing...”

It’s really a simple understanding between two organic creatures. Eat or be eaten. Rule or be ruled.

And really, stop bitching about your role, and where in the heiarchy you might find you and yours.

Is there a liberal out there who wouldn’t become stingy when sitting atop Midas’ gold?

Is there really a conservative out there that wouldn’t demand that welfare is God’s ‘way’ if / when he’s down on his luck (or knees?)

So, we know, we are what we are.

Higher angels and darker demons notwithstanding, really honesty is the final salvation. It really is, at the end of the day, all that Jesus Christ preached. Just be honest. The antithesis of the Hebrew culture from which he sprang.

And we are biological creatures struggling to survive. And hopefully evolve.

On the basest level, we evolove with an extra thumb.
On the highest level, we evolve to equlality, compassion, ….humanity.

But, it is the nature of evolution that the old try to preserve itself, while the new inveitably kicks it to the dustbin of Dubai’s future revenue stream.

And it’s all good.

And it’s what rolls us all out of bed every morning .. some of us before the cock crows (apparently we set the terms of our consciousness, not a clock or cock – yes - I could indeed go on for sometime on THAT tangent, but that’s yet another rant -)

In the final analysis, please, spare us all your angst and agony…the world is what it is…a dirty motherfucker.
Our place in it is ensured once we realize that.
Our contribution to making it less painful…for ourselves first and others second…is contingent upon realizing that and figuring out how to get a little less dirt on us, and how best to get it off once we do - and we always do – we always will.

Realize that everyone is going to vote for the same homely bitch as homecoming queen. Be one of those who counts the vote and change it all.

Isnt Diebold a wholly owned subsidiary of Hadden Industries???

With my last breath, I stab at thee..

(04-08) 18:19 PDT Waco, Texas (AP) --

A man was stabbed after causing a stink — literally — in a motel room while eating with a friend, police said. Five men from the Houston area were sharing a Waco motel room Tuesday night, and two were inside the room eating when one had a flatulence problem, Waco police Officer Steve Anderson said. One man was so upset about the gas that he threw a large knife at him, cutting his leg, and then stabbed him in the chest, Anderson said.

The 35-year-old man was transported to a Waco hospital, where he was treated for what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries, Anderson said.

Jose Braule Ramirez, 33, of Houston, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, police said. He was arraigned Wednesday and was being held in the McLennan County Jail on $15,000 bond and placed on an immigration hold, according to jail records. He cannot be released, even if he posts bond, until authorities verify he is in the country legally.

A jail spokeswoman who declined to give her name said she was not allowed to release information on whether Ramirez had an attorney.

Husbands, beware!

Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

Last year, AT&T recorded $12.8 billion in profits. This year they’re planning the layoffs of 10s of thousands of employees. Their struggle not to remain profitable, but to remain obscenely so at the expense of workers who built the company, and the economy on which it depends, should come as no surprise to anyone. These are the people after all, who plead before Congress that if they were to be held accountable for breaking the law and helping w spy on American citizens BEFORE the Patriot Act was signed, BEFORE 9/11/2001, that surely they would go bankrupt. Immunity, they claimed, was essential in preserving the most fundamental of infrastructures in the U.S. – The Phone Company.
So how obscene is $13 billion in profits? It’s more money than the porn industry generated in whole (pun intended) last year - $11billion – which turns out interestingly enough to be more than Hollywood generated last year in both box office receipts and rentals combined.
It’s enough to keep GM afloat for another year.
Or the War in Iraq going for another 2 weeks.
Or enough to pay for 10s of thousands of employees to keep their jobs – and then some.

Buddy can you spare a trillion

I love this. Geithner and Obama have decided to finally call bull on corporate handouts.

By capping exec wages, and ousting corrupt and ineffective ceos, obama has made it crystal clear - dont put your hand out for money unless you really need it -

A number of buisnesses who've witnessed the control Geithner and Obama are exerting on those taking the handouts are re-thinking their 'need for emergency capital'...

The message seems to be getting through. Already, a number of those with their hands stretched out have suddenly realized they don’t really need the money afterall. They’ll get by.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/05/national/w094622D23.DTL&tsp=1

The Chairman at Chase has even said he’ll write a check right now to pay back what was given, with interest, to avoid the strings the Obama Administration is attaching.

Imagine that. Guess Chase didn’t really need those 10s of billions of taxpayer dollars afterall.

Good work Barry!

Picture, if you will...

The queen of england...an anachronism indulged by far too may people..has, on the eve of an economic summit as important as any since Yalta, somehow, beyond the realm of all that is rational in heaven and on earth, decided to give the POTUS, leader not only of the Free World, but leader of all economies in the world (sorry China, you really are nothing more than a bit player) a signed portrait.
How nice for Her.
How nice for Him.
How nice for Everybody!!!

And yet, here at home, the 'loyal opposition', - that is, the republican party and their lapdog pundits, choose to focus on his gift to her - an ipod.

The duly and democratically elected leader of the most technologically advanced and most powerful economy in the world, has chosen to to offer unto an anachronism, an emblematic token of both the 21st century and of the ingenuity of 'American can doism'.
And for this, he is chided.
And for her arrogance, she is lauded.
And for all of this, I offer, FUCK YOU!
Not since the Beatles offered a sing-song approach to world affairs has the British Empire been relevant. And yet, for some strange and inexplicable reason, an anachronism from an empire long since past its due date, somehow believes that an autographed picture of herself, should be received with the kind of swooning gratitude a groupie would offer their favorite rock star for the same.
No.
Not in this world.
Not in the 2st century.
Not in a world where little tin soldiers no longer line up on a battlefield to be cut down like overgrown grass.
Please refer to an earlier post referrencing 1215!

The ipod-gate is a stark and refreshing reminder not only of WHY Obama won, but of what his winning means.
I'll leave you to think about that, and to comment accordingly.
And in the interim, I suspect your ipod will entertain you far more than a moldy portrait of a moldy anachronism.

Re-writing contracts - Priceless!

All the big boys from AIG to Detroit are bleating in unified agony that the socialist Obama is exerting too much control over their respective fiefdoms. Re-writing one contract after another, they warn that this kind of oversight and responsibility will surely doom America.
And they know a lot about dooming America.
They're the ones who, at will, unilaterally change the terms of your credit card agreement.
Call your mortgage due if they feel your home isnt kept up appropriately or is worth less than the market could sustain.
Tell you that the problem with your car isnt covered under that bumper to bumper warranty you paid extra for.
Refuse to pay your medical costs because it throws off their actuarials.
Tap into YOUR pension to pay for THEIR private jets.

Yeah, these titans of knowing and doing what's good for America are in one exemplary position to be crying foul.

The Divine Right of Kings died in 1215.

Kinda gives ya half a stalk don't it?

Snuggie Crawl

Just saw this - Snuggie Crawls are sweeping the nation. If I'd known they were available at Walgreens, I wouldnt have wasted $120 on 'shipping and handling'!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/29/LVTI16LG23.DTL&tsp=1

Those zanny kids!!!

Life's a beach

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. So I packed up my stuff and spent it at the beach. Now sadly, the beaches in northern California aren’t as hospitable as the ones in southern California..but they are still beaches just the same.

Nothing so soul-enriching as the beach.

A sign warned that smoking on the beach now carries a $200 fine. Well, smoking cigarrettes anyway. Just to be safe, I’ll opt for brownies next time. With my favorite music playing, the sun warming my skin and the sand and waves warming my soul, I spent the day embracing my blessings.

What luck. What good fortune. Only last week, my doctor gave me a clean bill of health. I live in a city where the only concern people have about my private life is whether or not I smoke. I have the good fortune of family that I love and that I find to be the most interesting and entertaining people I know. I have friends who are, 2nd only to my family, the most intelligent and interesting people I know. It doesn’t snow where I live, and when it rains, it’s moody and romantic, not dark and dreary. I have a job (for the moment anyway) that aside from some petty micromangement by tiny little caesars, is a dream job – a few blocks walk from my home, affords me the opportunity to be out of the office all day, learning about other businesses and helping them STAY in business – and the pay is fine.

I spread my blanket on the beach not far from a guy who was tapping away on a laptop. How great to sit on the beach and tap tap tap away, whether for work or play. I don’t think I’ll take mine to the beach next time, but it seemed like a possiblity that would do well poolside anyway.
Sometimes it’s good to just ignore the troubles in the world and all the gloom and doom people want to burden you with. And for those times, there’s no better place than at the beach. Kinda makes living close to one worth the high cost of living. Because it is living, and damn, what a life!

That'd be in the butt Bob

As the noose of depression tightens around our necks everyday, and the media gleefully straps on sandwhich boards heralding “the end is near”, there are occasions that ellicit simultaneous guffaws and reassurance all at once.

Taken from inter-office communications between a sales rep trying to straighten out a billing problem, and our ESL crew in Houston who, not having mastered the language, somehow believes they’ve mastered book-keeping:

"Darien,
We understand the invoices do not match because that is what they explained to us. That is why we contacted you to resolve. We can not resolve any discrepancies. Only you can resolve a discrepancy. This department does not enter ads. That is done through the sales office. It was always believe that we bill in the rears because of the delivery. I’m just as surprised as you are why it was billed early. Any idea who did that? "

Yes, you read that right. Darien, among the most capable of account executives, attempting to reconcile her client’s account, was kind enough to share this gem.
And so, if the ESL wizard in accounting has a job, really, are you all that concerned about keeping/finding one yourself??

I mean, I know w’s fuzzy math has had us ALL taking it in the rears for sometime now. But after reading this, the answer to his seminal question ‘is our children being edumacated’ is finally answered once and for all. There are not only school children being left behind, there are entire corporations being left behind. Sadly, they’ll blame everyone but the minimum wage book-keeper who finds accounting to be acceptably a pain in the ass. And they’ll hand them billions. And then they’ll hand them billions more. And when they’ve stashed that in Bimini and Dubai, they’ll hand them billions more.

THAT, however, is fodder for a future rant.

Stay tuned.

NO PARKING

It’s often said that society breaks down when people park where they’re not supposed to. OK, so I’m the one that often says it – no harm injecting a little ad populum to bolster one’s argument (is there?) –

Last night, I came home to find that someone had parked their car IN our private garage, blocking not just one (mine) but THREE parking spaces. Really, WHO DOES THIS???
No note telling which apt he/she was in so they could be asked politely to rectify their rectum stretching. I did notice a baby car seat in the back with baby blankets and toys. I suppose the entitled parents of that little bundle of joy somehow belive their convenience trumps the social contract.
The only consolation I managed, was watching the rain outside, and knowing how expensive it is to replace windshield wipers on Audis.

I think the wind just broke his arm

Gee...Whoda Thunk it?

Whoever could have seen THIS coming?
Pelosi appeals to the Department of Justice to allow Hearst to violate anti-trust laws in the name of keeping ‘news’ alive:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/16/MNIA16GCBO.DTL&tsp=1
In the first round of negotiations between Hearst and the Unions, I urged that Hearst not only show us the specific savings that would be realized in their draconian union-busting amendments to our contract, but that they open their books to us (Hearst is a private company, not publically owned, and has to show their books to no one – questionably even the IRS) to allow us to see this “more than a million dollar a week loss” they were claiming.
The request was denied.
That night at the membership meeting, I suggested to the membership that Hearst was in fact NOT losing money at all – they were simply seeing diminishing profits. The claim of crushing losses was nothing more than fear mongering and positioning. If they could scare the union into submission, and scare the dept. of justice into allowing them to gain a monopoly in The Bay Area – or allow Media News Group (of whom they have part ownership) to have a monopoly, then all would be lovely at San Simeon.
I was not only pooh poohed by the room, I was later chastised by the rest of the Guild Executive Committee and told to either walk in lock-step with their party line or just keep my mouth shut altogether.
I resigned my position.
No sooner had the Union surrendered to Hearst’s tactics, than that paragon of legislative integrity, Nancy Pelosi, began her role as Hearst’s latest stooge, and began appealing for anti-trust exemptions.
The sad thing is, to whom do we turn to expose these crimes? The Chronicle? The corporate media? Congress?
Randy Shilts (a former and deceased Chronicle reporter) asked the question in his ground-breaking expose on AIDS, “And the Band Played On”: ‘When doctors become bankers, to whom will we turn for our healthcare?’
And when the 4th estate becomes one with our government, to whom will we turn to expose their conspiracy?
The blogosphere.