Varieties of the Limits of Control, Plus Miscellany
Philip Seymour Hoffman died on this day in 2014. David Fear, Rolling Stone:
"No modern actor was better at making you feel sympathy for fucking idiots, failures, degenerates, sad sacks and hangdogs dealt a bum hand by life, even as – no, especially when – he played them with all of their worst qualities front and center. But Philip Seymour Hoffman had a range that seemed all-encompassing, and he could breathe life into any role he took on: a famous author, a globetrotting party-boy aristocrat, a German counterintelligence agent, a charismatic cult leader, a genius who planned games of death in dystopic futures. He added heft to low-budget art films, and nuance and unpredictability to blockbuster franchises. He was a transformative performer who worked from the inside out, blessed with an emotional transparency that could be overwhelming, invigorating, compelling, devastating."
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Principal Strickland told Marty McFly that he should stop hanging out with Doc, because he's dangerous. Later that night Marty would have been shot by the Libyans if their gun wasn't jammed.
Why did Marty nearly get shot? Because they were chasing down Doc, who stole PLUTONIUM from them!
Who had Marty's best interest in mind? Who was an unappreciated guy just doing the best he could? Who was the hero? Strickland!
When Marty goes back to 1955, what is Strickland's complaint with George? He's a slacker. True! The guy had his finger on the pulse.
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I missed the halftime show but saw an unbelievably good 20-minute commercial for Puerto Rican statehood.
February 2, 2019
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I've been listening to Rocket Men by Craig Nelson and there's something that's been stuck in my head for weeks. Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins said of his childhood: "During the summer, I'd catch crabs to use as bait for fish. Then I used to fish in a trap to catch crabs. It was sort of an endless chain of converting fish to crabs and then crabs back to fish again."
I think I realized why I can't shake it... it's the juxtaposition of doing absolutely nothing (turning fish into crabs, crabs into fish, repeat), and then performing one of the most monumental achievements of humankind.
February 2, 2019
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I've been thinking about Trump's take on Frederick Douglass.
"Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice."
The funny thing about it...it's not like someone stopped him on the street and asked him what he thought. Those were his prepared remarks!
February 2, 2017
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Some people are mad at the Republicans for ramming through Pruitt as head of the EPA, since he's suing the EPA and now he'll run it. That's unfair! The Trump Administration should be good for the Earth and our natural resources (but by killing all the people.)
February 2, 2017
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If someone is pro-Trump, I think they need to ask themselves if they agree with Steve Bannon's statement:
"I am a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment."
February 2, 2017
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John Wayne Gacy in a clown suit as would literally be less of a threat to world security than the current president. You know why? Nobody would take him seriously.
February 2, 2017
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You may have noticed the rising tensions between us and Iran, and who could have guessed, right? My first clue was when he said during the one Republican primary debate that he would have gone to war with them over a minor diplomacy issue between our Navy and theirs.
And have you noticed the rising tension between us and Mexico? And us and Australia? And between us and the whole world? And have you considered that Trump has nukes and probably realizes that ground wars have become unpopular? A lot of questions and I saved the best for last- how soon can we get rid of this threat to world security?
February 2, 2017
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Terrible news, Philip Seymour Hoffman died this afternoon... he was perhaps the greatest living actor.
February 2, 2014
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On this day in 1850, Brigham Young declared war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah.
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In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1887, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
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The Onion- Depressed Groundhog Sees Shadow Of Rodent He Once Was
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Ulysses was published on this day in 1922, on James Joyce's 40th birthday.
"Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home."
Guess what, she was really reading the book. She was photographed here by Eve Arnold, who asked her what she was reading when she picked her up. She said she was just reading it little by little. They stopped by a playground and as Eve was putting film in the camera, Marilyn was reading it, and she snapped the picture. Perfect.
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The Third Man was released on this day in 1950.
Harry Lime: “Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly.”
That zither music!
https://youtu.be/a-W5ktOR2ts
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On this day in 2004, Roger Federer became the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he held for a record 237 weeks.
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Russian-born American novelist, and all around terrible person, Ayn Rand, was born on this day in 1905. From The Fountainhead:
[Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”
[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?
She's not without some great quotes!
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Rich Sommer was born on this day in 1978. Harry Crane, what a great character! This scene was gasp-worthy.
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Other notable birthdays- Red Schoendienst (1923) Tom Smothers (1937), Farrah Fawcett (1947), Brent Spiner (1949), Zosia Mamet (1988),
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Bertrand Russell left us on this day in 1970, after a life well-lived. From his autobiography:
WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR
"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy – ecstasy so great thatI would often have sacrified all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness – that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what – at last – I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
More quotes:
Bertrand Russell, Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind- “When a man tortures himself he feels that it gives him a right to torture others, and inclines him to accept any system of dogma by which this right is fortified.“
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Bertrand Russell, BBC Interview (1964)- ”You mustn't exaggerate, young man. That's always a sign that your argument is weak.”
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Bertrand Russell- "We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power."
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Sid Vicious left us on this day in 1979, at the age of 21.
Rolling Stone- Sid Vicious Blows an Audience Away Singing ‘My Way’
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sex-pistols-sid-vicious-my-way-cover-great-rock-n-roll-swindle-787572/
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Solomon Perel left us on this day in 2023. He was a German Jew who buried his papers and was accepted into the Hitler Youth. He was captured by allied forces four years later and went back to being a Jew, remaining thankful to his former identity for saving his life.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/11/world/europe/solomon-perel-dead.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes
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Other notable deathdays- Boris Karloff (1969), Gene Kelly (1996), Stewart Stern (2015)
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Vivian Maier
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"It's so telling that the reaction to Philip Seymour Hoffman's death on places like Twitter and Facebook has gone beyond shock and sadness to devastation—a deep, emotional feeling of loss."
http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/philip-seymour-hoffman-19672014
February 2, 2014
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From Hard Eight, Philip Seymour Hoffman's only scene- haunting and unforgettable.
https://youtu.be/N5m6FrFsi8Y
February 2, 2014
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The Onion- Depressed groundhog sees shadow of rodent he once was
http://onion.com/1DoWst2
Feb 02, 2013
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Two years Philip Seymour Hoffmanless, still hard to believe.
February 2, 2016
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What's my favorite thing about the current political climate? Easy- Bob Dylan lyrics are newly relevant.
What's my least favorite thing about the current political climate? Easy- Bob Dylan lyrics are newly relevant.
https://youtu.be/90WD_ats6eE
February 2, 2017
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New York Times- 77 Days: Trump’s Campaign to Subvert the Election
Quite a substantive summation. Might not have much effect on those who believe Biden had a 0% chance of winning to begin with, but the facts can stand for themselves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/us/trump-election-lie.html
February 2, 2021
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This is going to a great debate!
https://munkdebates.com/dialogues/yuval-harari-masha-gessen
February 2, 2021
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Unsettling! A.I. generated pictures of people who never existed at a party that never happened. I might have nightmares.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02HB6eQiLhXa4g4anA5hpvrtNeXVRyvUzRH8s8eVA7gHo8SXkJFnv6uwy2XE9D1fCyl&id=729670122&sfnsn=mo&mibextid=6aamW6
February 1, 2023
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This is the best band that hasn't crossed my mind for 20 years.
Sham 69- If the Kids Are United
https://youtu.be/vyP8LAhcor8
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Plato- "When a person supposes that he knows, and does not know; this appears to be the great source of all the errors of the intellect."
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In the ninth century, the Buddhist sage Lin Chi told a monk, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." He meant that those who think they've found all the answers in any religion need to start questioning.
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Charlie Chaplin- "You need power, only when you want to do something harmful, otherwise love is enough to get everything done."
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Confucius- "It is only when mosquito land on your balls that you realize there is a way to solve problems without using violence."
Confucius, really? I doubt it.
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Epictetus- “If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.”
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Yoda- "We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters."
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Mencken- "Where is the graveyard of dead gods?"
See addendum for the full genius passage.
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Mailer- "The more things you own, the more things you need to keep you comfortable."
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Miyazaki- "Yet, even amidst the hatred and carnage, life is still worth living. It is possible for wonderful encounters and beautiful things to exist."
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Steinbeck, East of Eden- "Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber. The events, even the important ones, may have trooped by faceless and pale. And then -the glory- so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a man's importance in the world can be measured by the quality and number of his glories. It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from all other men.
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Ben Franklin- "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."
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Edward Abbey- "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view."
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FDR- "I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."
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Joyce, Ulysses- "The sea, the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea."
Addendum
1.
H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy:
Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today? And who of Huitzilopochtli? In one year - and it is no more than five hundred years ago - 50,000 youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered at all, it is only by some vagrant savage in the depths of the Mexican forest. Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had no human father; his mother was a virtuous widow; he was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that she carried out with the sun.
When he frowned, his father, the sun, stood still. When he roared with rage, earthquakes engulfed whole cities. When he thirsted he was watered with 10,000 gallons of human blood. But today Huitzilopochtli is as magnificently forgotten as Allen G. Thurman. Once the peer of Allah, Buddha and Wotan, he is now the peer of Richmond P. Hobson, Alton B. Parker, Adelina Patti, General Weyler and Tom Sharkey.
Speaking of Huitzilopochtli recalls his brother Tezcatlipoca. Tezcatlipoca was almost as powerful; he consumed 25,000 virgins a year.
Lead me to his tomb: I would weep, and hang a couronne des perles. But who knows where it is? Or where the grave of Quetzalcoatl is? Or Xiuhtecuhtli? Or Centeotl, that sweet one? Or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love? Of Mictlan? Or Xipe? Or all the host of Tzitzimitl? Where are their bones? Where is the willow on which they hung their harps? In what forlorn and unheard-of Hell do they await their resurrection morn? Who enjoys their residuary estates? Or that of Dis, whom Caesar found to be the chief god of the Celts? Of that of Tarves, the bull? Or that of Moccos, the pig? Or that of Epona, the mare? Or that of Mullo, the celestial jackass? There was a time when the Irish revered all these gods, but today even the drunkest Irishman laughs at them.
But they have company in oblivion: the Hell of dead gods is as crowded
as the Presbyterian Hell for babies. Damona is there, and Esus, and
Drunemeton, and Silvana, and Dervones, and Adsullata, and Deva, and
Bellisima, and Uxellimus, and Borvo, and Grannos, and Mogons. All mighty gods in their day, worshipped by millions, full of demands and impositions, able to bind and loose - all gods of the first class. Men labored for generations to build vast temples to them - temples with stones as large as hay-wagons.
The business of interpreting their whims occupied thousands of priests,
bishops, archbishops. To doubt them was to die, usually at the stake.
Armies took to the field to defend them against infidels; villages were burned, women and children butchered, cattle were driven off. Yet in the end they all withered and died, and today there is none so poor to do them reverence.
What has become of Sutekh, once the high god of the whole Nile Valley? What has become of:
Resheph
Anath
Ashtoreth
El
Nergal
Nebo
Ninib
Melek
Ahijah
Isis
Ptah
Anubis
Baal
Astarte
Hadad
Addu
Shalem
Dagon
Sharaab
Yau
Amon-Re
Osiris
Sebek
Molech?
All there were gods of the highest eminence. Many of them are mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament. They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Yahweh Himself; the worst of them stood far higher than Thor. Yet they have all gone down the chute, and with them the following:
Bilé
Ler
Arianrhod
Morrigu
Govannon
Gunfled
Sokk-mimi
Nemetona
Dagda
Robigus
Pluto
Ops
Meditrina
Vesta
You may think I spoof. That I invent the names. I do not. Ask the rector to lend you any good treatise on comparative religion: You will find them all listed. They were gods of the highest standing and dignity-gods of civilized peoples-worshiped and believed in by millions. All were omnipotent, omniscient and immortal.
And all are dead.
2.
Myspace Blog
February 2, 2007
Notes on Frontline: Gulf War
Here are my notes on PBS Frontline's Gulf War. It was made in 1995. I know, PBS is run by communists.
- Kuwait dropped the price of oil and Iraq demanded that it be raised because they were losing billions per year. (i.e. The Gulf War was about oil.)
- Before Iraq's invasion the American ambassador April Glaspie said in the meeting with Saddam Hussein, "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait." Remember that we were friends with Iraq at the time. That sounds to me like "go ahead" rather than something along the lines of "The U.N.charter prohibits invasion and aggression." Could that have made a difference? Maybe.
- Thatcher, talking about Iraq, said "an aggressor should be thrown out." An aggressor should be thrown out, huh? I think we can all agree on that. I'd just like to specify that she was talking about Iraq being thrown out of Kuwait.
- Powell said, "for those of us that are Vietnam veterans, we all have a view that says if you're going to put us into something, then you owe the armed forces, you owe the American people a clear objective of what you're trying to achieve." Nice work Powell. I agree with that statement. Powell was against the war. He was for sanctions.
- First time the U.S. troops were in Saudi Arabia. (That irritates Osama bin Laden.)
- George H.W. Bush- "We must resist aggression or it will destroy our freedoms." I had no idea G.H.W.B. was a member of the Iraqi insurgency.
- The war was sold partially on the testimony of a Kuwaiti teenager who testified to Congress. Later it became known that she was the daughter of a kuwaiti ambassador. (I think it was an ambassador... it might have been something similar.) Some in Congress might have known she was related to him, but didn't say. This is based on conflicting answers to the media. She said- "Babies were pulled out of incubators and left to die on the cold floor." Maybe it's legit but something doesn't sound right about the term "cold floor." Intentionally manipulative. She had experience with how cold the floor was? Yeah, I know, maybe. I'm not questioning whether or not Iraqi troops were brutal, but rather how the war was sold. Moving on...
- Powell said that demonizing Saddam Hussein was a useful way to raise public support. Again, strangely familiar.
- Countries were given massive money incentives to join the coalition. I'm just saying.
- HILARIOUS. I couldn't stop laughing. At a protest someone was holding a sign- "George Bush- Send Your Sons, Not Ours." Let me tell you how hard I was laughing- so hard that Emma almost got mad at me... which means at least slightly harder than a giggle.
-Anti-War chant- "Hell no, we won't go. We won't fight for Texaco." I'm not a big chanter, but that one has a ring to it.
- Bush Sr. asked for the Iraqi ambassador to come to the White House. Secretary of State Baker went to Iraq to talk directly to Saddam Hussein. Days are over for that type of thing.
- As public skepticism grew, Bush said that of 42 Patriot missiles, 41 intercepted scuds. Later it comes out that probably none of them did. That was kept secret during the war.
- We heard that Saddam Hussein was in a Winnebago, so we attacked a bunch of Winnebagos. You think we might have attacked every Winnebago? In a war the price for being in a Winnebago is death.
- We mistakenly attacked a civilian air raid shelter. Oopsie.
- Saddam Hussein was certain that he'd beat us because we were based entirely on technology. He was certain he'd beat us on the ground. Uh, don't tell the troops.
- After being told his troops in Kuwait were doomed, Saddam Hussein told a Soviet envoy that that he'd retreat, but didn't want to be shot in the back as they left.
- Oi, the Highway of Death, at least thousands of retreating iraqi soldiers, refugees and people simply stuck in a traffic jam were bombed and bombed and bombed. U.S. soldiers described it as a turkey shoot. War crime? A U.S. soldier, Timothy McVeigh, was "shocked" to see the carnage on the road. Maybe you heard about it when he later declared war against the U.S. government.
Interested? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_death
-Powell on the implicit threat of nuclear weapons- "I don't think we ever would have used them." Not very reassuring. He also said there were thoughts of flooding Baghdad under 6 feet of water. He acknowledged there'd be a huge loss of civilian life and said they would have done it even though it wasn't thoroughly analyzed. Hmmm, a war against the Iraqi people?
- Schwartzkopf- "Had we gone into Baghdad we couldn't have gotten out. We'd be the occupying power and we'd be paying 100% of the cost to administer all of Iraq." These guys are geniuses.
- 1000s say they have Gulf War Sickness- The Pentagon says there's no such thing. Maybe they're right. They seem to be right about everything else.
- After the war, the Shias rose up to overthrow Saddam Hussein, as Bush Sr. repeatedly said they should do. Schwartzkopf was sent to work out the terms of the surrender and gave Saddam back what was left of his military, which was then used the attack the uprisings, keeping Saddam in power. There are estimates of tens of thousands of Shias killed by Baathists during this time.
- Also, a million Kurds were displaced wondering why Bush Sr. didn't support the uprisings as he said he would.
- The flavor of many of the Bush administration's statements- this war has buried the ghost of Vietnam.
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I'd like to add one thing. We invaded Panama killing thousands of civilians in the year prior to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. Between that, and our ho-hum attitude about the impending invasion of Kuwait, and the fact that our countries were friendly, did we give Saddam the go-ahead for the invasion without fear? What possible motive could there have been on our part. That's the thing I don't quite get. Oh, wait, I have an idea. No, that'd be crazy.
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OK, one more thing-
Lee Greenwood lyrics: And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
David Cross: Well here's your chance asshole.
3.
b 2, 2007
Remnants of Love
At the northbound I-79 rest area, just north of the Slippery Rock exit, a janitor in his early 20's mopped under a vending machine and discovered a quarter.
I was glad that he didn't notice that I noticed. I asked him how he was doing, hoping he'd mention his good fortune. These guys get minimum wage, but the more enterprising of them can get a few extra dollars a day by finding lost or forgotten change. I always try to get them to talk about it without directly asking. Why? I don't know. I'm secretive, I guess.
He answered, "Good. Do you have a stamp?"
Internal shudder. Good God, even if I did, I do NOT want THAT quarter. That mop has the remnants of probably tens of thousands of people's crap. Not something I want in my pocket. Wait, I think, why would he ask some random guy if he has a stamp? There's another reason he's asking me. He wants to tell me something.
"No, I don't."
"Oh, cause I need it to send a Valentine's card to my girlfriend. I'm buying her everything- flowers, candy." I only understood his garbled words after asking him to repeat himself a few times. Then I heard him say something about the first time he "scored."
"What?" I asked.
"This is the first girlfriend that's lasted a month," he said smiling and showing me for the first time the remnants of his brown, jagged teeth. No doubt the chasms, chinks, cracks, crevices, clefts and crannies were confusing the acoustics of his words. No wonder I couldn't understand him.
He kept mopping and I kept filling brochures. A lady's bag of Cheetos got stuck in the vending machine. Instead of shaking the machine she opened the flap and banged it closed a few times. I thought "No way that'll work." They fell, and her precious foodstuff was in her hand.
"You'll enjoy them more now that you had to work for them," I said.
She responded with a mix between a sigh and a scoff, sort of a quiet, nasal "hhhuh." That's why I don't talk much. Maybe she's like me. I wouldn't want strangers that I'll never see again to know that I like Cheetos either.
As I pondered, a picture phone was thrust in my face. The janitor was showing me his girlfriend. She wasn't bad looking but the picture was fuzzy. I was happy for him. He said something incomprehensible. I smiled and nodded.
After some struggle and questioning, I pieced together what he said next. "She's 4'11" and 90 pounds. Her sister is 5'3", 120 pounds and only sixteen years old." I'm not sure I'd give measurements first when I told someone about my girlfriend, but that's just me. He's different. He showed me a picture of the sisters. This clearer picture revealed them as probably having Flown Syndrome, one bigger than the other. He mumbled something. I nodded a smiling agreement.
At this point, I'd like to apologize if my blind support of his unknown words leads to the harm of someone in the future. It's possible he said "I'll kill yours and you kill mine." It's also possible I've seen too many Hitchcock movies. Anyway, I apologize, I accept responsibility and I'll pay the consequences- whatever reparations you feel are appropriate.
He continued, "Friends ask why I don't take the sister. I say, "jail time."" His mouth twisted into a Grinch of a smile and a rotten piece of tooth fell out and clinked onto the ceramic-tiled floor. At least that's what I'll say happened. Maybe I'm just using his rotten mouth as a metaphor for his rotten soul.
(Note to self: In the future allow the reader to discover their own metaphors.)
Then it hit me, with revulsion. He's buying his girlfriend her Valentine's Day stuff with rotten rest area coins he picked off the floor- rotten with the remnants of crap. And when you think about it, the crap they're rotten with was crap to begin with. The only thing good that can come from a foundation of crap is a mushroom, and this relationship was no mushroom.
I think, "I'm sorry buddy, but this won't last." I'll ask him about the end of their relationship when I return in three weeks. Indirectly, of course. Maybe I'll say, "How was your Valentine's Day?" I'll wait for his answer and add, "Women, they're too expensive anyway, right?"
4.
Pinko Politics
I'm gonna say it- I think socialism has gotten a bad rap. Most people associate it with the oppressive, repressive regimes of the past. Must it be that way? No way! Would it be again? Maybe, but I'm not a defeatist.
Everybody likes social security, right? Of course! I enjoy it everyday. No, not the money, you capitalist! I enjoy the security! There isn't a more communistic idea than social security is there? OK, maybe growing crops and sharing them with your neighbors… and atheism and book-burning. Besides them though- it's social security.
So why doesn't social security have the same stigma as sharing crops? I've heard it said that past societies are judged by how they treat their elderly, their disabled, their sick and their prisoners. I think Ben Franklin said that, but in the interest of full disclosure it could very well have been the Unabomber. It seems like the reasons for supporting social security would hold for supporting free public health care, or certainly affordable public health care.
"Who is this guy and why is he bombarding me with his opinions?" Is that what you're asking yourself, comrade? Let's leave my opinion out of it- what do think the Founding Fathers meant when they said that "promoting the general welfare" is the responsibility of the federal government? This isn't in some forgotten tome in the Brainlord's basement. It's in the first sentence of the Constitution. Are you concerned about forming a more perfect Union or not?
Adopting some aspects of socialism has to be in our best interest. It helps us, and helps our neighbors. It's not unlike adopting a cat from the pound. If we show the cat love, the cat will love us back.
https://youtu.be/VywxLBN-Pos?si=VvlNs1--Z2JlatYv
Uh, on second thought maybe we do need the leash of the free market. Change too quickly and we might have a wildcat on our hands. My ideas on this are admittedly still being formed. Maybe some combination of capitalism and socialism is in our best interest.
Did you know that in the mid-20th century, CEOs made 20-40 times the average worker. By the 90's it was 100 times. Now it's over 400 times. Perhaps any exorbitant profits should go back to the workers- maybe in the form of higher wages, expanded health care, or free, clean drinking water.
We can do this people! It's the way Pinky would want it, if he weren't completely consumed with fear and rage.
On an unrelated topic, did you hear that Exxon just posted the record for highest quarterly profits? $36 billion comrades. Remember the Exxon-Valdez oil spill? Are you aware that Exxon was ordered to pay $5 billion but they are still appealing it? And can you guess how much Harper's Monthly estimates Exxon has made in interest on the unpaid $5 billion over the years? You got it, $5 billion!
I'm not going to say this isn't a perfect country. No, I'd never say that. But don't you think it's time to put our efforts into making it more perfect?
Addendum
Did you know?
In the 2006 mid-term elections, the great state of Vermont elected Bernie Sanders, the country's first socialist senator?
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