Collected Poetry
VOLUME SEVEN
Original materials - Copyright © 2012 by Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers,
and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always." Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Fortune smiles - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Fortune smiles, but she also may
Delight us in her reluctant way .
She gives the gift of a summer's day,
With a swarm of mosquitoes and us as prey.See: Fortuna lächelt...
"The Fatah party, headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has made official what it has been saying more quietly and has adopted a new logo showing all of Israel as Palestine. The logo marks the 48th anniversary of the founding of Fatah by Yasser Arafat and includes a map with the PA flag and a map of Israel that appears to be a depiction of the black and white checkered kefiyah, a symbol of the violent intifada, and the slogan 'the state and victory.' PMW revealed that the official PA daily published the new official logo. For the past year, official PA documents have increasingly shown Palestine as covering all of Israel, but this is the first time the Fatah party has officially placed the map on its logo." In "Abbas Makes It Official: All of Israel is Palestine," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News, 30 December 2012
The two-state solution
Played by the quartet
Was just pretty elocution,
Splayed and sold, and yet
The one-state solution
Is the far more likely plan
As Fatah's execution
Shows no Israel to ban.
Two has equaled one
And Oslo was a game.
The intervening years?
A sham with shills, a shame.
Let us watch all the hands
Wringing loudly now;
Applause now for those grands
And each shillyshally bow.
Addendum: "Israeli Jews are becoming more skeptical about a peace agreement with the Palestinians, with 83 percent saying a withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders and the division of Jerusalem would not end the conflict." In "Poll: Majority of Israeli Jews pessimistic about peace," by Ariel ben Solomon, The Jerusalem Post, 1 January 2013
Erotic vaudeville - paraphrase of poem by Alfred Lichtenstein
Night time in the middle of a street:
A landlord of a pub undresses.
An engineer appears deeply downbeat,
After straying from his wife's caresses.
After a like-minded rutting bastard
Ogles a dog of the queerest kind.
Notes an old man, wanking while plastered,
Too much will make you go blind.
Squatting in vomitus, green and thick,
Is a drunken syphilitic squatter .
A boxer shakes. A baby gets sick.
Stares an upper-crust, top-hatted rotter.
A young woman is killed by a car racing by.
A girl is thrashed by an toff.
Embittered is a man. But why?
Because though trying he just can't get off.See: Erotisches Variété
"President Evo Morales nationalized the Bolivian electricity distribution subsidiaries of the Spanish energy company Iberdrola in a public ceremony Saturday. Morales issued a decree allowing the takeover of shares in Empresa de Electricidad de La Paz (Electropaz) and Empresa de Luz y Fuerza de Oruro (Elfeo), which supply energy in this Andean nation. Soldiers guarded the installations of the electricity distribution companies, marked with signs reading: 'Nationalized.' In the ceremony at Bolivia's government palace, Morales also announced the expropriation of an investment management company and a service provider belonging to the Spanish energy giant." In "Bolivia expropriates Spanish energy subsidiaries," Associated Press, 29 December 2012
National eyes
Grow greedy now.
Expropriate
And then bid ciao.
Stealing speaks
Its very name
When politics
Declares this game.
Who'll invest
For losses great?
Who'll avoid
Expropriate?
National eyes?
See envy's glare.
The next investor?
You beware.
Thievery stalks you,
Steals, not buys,
And justifies
In national eyes.
Envoi: "State ownership! It leads only to absurd and monstrous conclusions; state ownership means state monopoly, concentrated in the hands of one party and its adherents, and that state brings only ruin and bankruptcy to all." Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
At his mirror - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
At his mirror he poses that
He might arrange his this and that.
He twists and turns moustache and beard,
And by the glint of his rings is cheered,
Trying things out, only just to see
Him chuckle aloud with glorious glee,
Seeing himself through admiring eyes,
He knots his cravat with endearing sighs.
He throws himself a parting glance,
Giving his mirror once last chance,
And off he struts to promenade,
While wafting about is his pomade,
And yet he's annoyed like a little boy
For other folks' vanity does him so annoy.
"Although we take little from it scientifically, the book remains a rare and eccentric journey into the madness of not three, but four men in an asylum. It is, in that sense, an unexpected tribute to human folly, and one that works best as a meditation on our own misplaced self-confidence. Whether scientist or psychiatric patient, we assume others are more likely to be biased or misled than we are, and we take for granted that our own beliefs are based on sound reasoning and observation. This may be the nearest we can get to revelation—the understanding that our most cherished beliefs could be wrong." In "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," by Vaughan Bell, Slate, 26 May 2010
Four Christs of Ypsilanti
Managed their little chats
And quarreled over who was right
And wrong in quarreling spats.
Three were patient in the ward
And one impatient just to see
How things would turn out scored
Over time and eventuality.
Human folly, it is said,
Needs padded walls of sorts,
But much of human folly
Plays at so many sports.
Beliefs which might be cherished
Might drive a person mad,
But everyone believes somehow
That their belief's not bad.
Someone else's, it is plain,
Makes all the problems, all the pain,
While every little Christ's campaign
Requires you believe in the main.
Such is every scribbled slate,
Each clinging clanging bell;
Tabula rasa's troubled fate
Overflows with words too well.
Psychological Christs, political Christs,
And Christs of all sorts and snares.
Three were studied in an asylum,
But we're legion in the world's affairs.
Be you critical of another's belief?
Of a belief that is not yours?
Anointed one, so critical,
Who abhors also adores.
Men all believe in something
That other men revile.
There comes a moment, comes your time,
Some will your belief defile.
Envoi: Susan: "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—" / Death: MY POINT EXACTLY.” Terry Pratchett, in Hogfather (1996)
"There is something particularly ugly in a democratic society when government officials lie — or in the case in point, tell half-truths. That’s a far cry from the heads-will-roll statement initially put out by the State Department presumably to give the rest of us the impression that actions have consequences and that there is a price to be paid for incompetence — especially a level of incompetence that resulted in the deaths of four brave Americans. Headed into term two, this administration continues its lying ways." In "The lying continues," by the Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 28 December 2012
Lying continues,
So is it writ;
Politics shows
Itself again shit.
Deal form the bottom
Of the well-marked deck,
Palm the ace,
And what the heck?
Tell half-truths.
Which half is true?
It's all a matter of
One's point-of-view.
Lying continues
Its same ugly ways,
As government fails,
Averting its gaze.
State your preference:
Half-truths? Or Lies?
State competence
Yet again stupefies.
Envoi: "Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke." Will Rogers (1879-1935)
Addendum: "But nowhere in the mainstream media did you hear that the U.S. economy lost more than 1.4 million jobs between December and January. It is amazing the things that you can find out when you actually take the time to look at the hard numbers instead of just listening to the media spin. Back in 2007, more than 146 million Americans were employed. Today, only 141.6 million Americans are employed even though our population has grown steadily since then. When the government and the media tell you that we are in a "recovery" and that unemployment is lower than it was a couple of years ago, I encourage you to dig deeper. The truth is that even the government's own numbers tell us that the percentage of the U.S. labor force that is employed continues to fall and that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession." In "Shocking Numbers That Show The Media Is Lying To You About Unemployment In America," posted by Michael, 1 February 2013
Addendum by the government numbers: For 2007, total employees: 146,047 [Numbers in thousands] or 146,047,000 -- In "Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey," United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Last Modified Date: March 1, 2012. For January 2013, 141,614 [Numbers in thousands] or 141,614,000 -- In "Economic News Release - Table A-9. Selected employment indicators" (Not seasonally adjusted), " United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Last Modified Date: February 01, 2013. The numbers -- 4,433,000 less Americans employed in January 2013 as compared to 2007.
Addendum by the news: "In the year following Obama's inauguration, the U.S. economy lost about 4.3 million jobs. But new figures released Thursday show 4.4 million jobs have been added back since then." In "Obama may be a job creator after all," by Annalyn Censky, CNN Money, 26 September 2012
Academic addendum: "It is both disquieting and even embarrassing that scholars supposedly studying the same phenomenon could have such strong differences of opinion." James T. Richardson, Ph.D., J.D., University of Nevada professor of sociology, "The Psychology of Induction: A Review and Interpretation"; Cults and New Religious Movements (1989), Marc Galanter, ed., American Psychiatric Association
Academic addendum: "History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government tells you. But knowing a bit of history--while it would not absolutely prove the government was lying in a given instance--might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth." Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (2002) [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Addendum of Misleading Statements: "The SEC said It was the first time it has charged a municipality for making misleading statements outside of securities disclosure documents. Its investigation covered Harrisburg's budget, annual and mid-year financial statements, and a 'State of the City' address. Alongside the charges, the SEC issued a report saying that public officials may be liable under federal securities laws for public statements made in the secondary market for municipal securities. Last Monday, the SEC accused Victorville, California, of defrauding investors by, in part, giving them false information about the security of bonds used for an airport hangar project. In March, the SEC settled fraud charges with Illinois over allegations that the state repeatedly misled investors about its underfunded pensions." In "SEC charges Pennsylvania's capital city with fraud," Reuters, 6 May 2013. [ 4 ]
The comedy: "Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" Chico Marx as Chicolini, in "Duck Soup" (1933) by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
See: If it's serious, you lie and also Debt and also a song setting of the rhyme, Si mundus vult decipi - (2008)
[ 1 ] "The biggest lie in politics today is that the debt can be tamed without hurting the middle class via tax hikes and entitlement cuts. Obama and his allies know better, or should, but there is no stomach in Washington for honesty." In "You May Be Right, Mr. President, But This Is Crazy," by Ron Fournier, National Journal, 20 February 2013
[ 2 ] "A week after official figures showed a steep fall in euro-zone output in late 2012 the European Commission (EC) has added to the gloom by unveiling some gloomy forecasts for 2013. Three months ago the EC envisaged a modest recovery getting under way in the first half of this year. Now that is not expected until the second half of 2013." In "The ever-receding recovery," The Economist, 22 February 2013.
[ 3 ] "...Argentina must show that it has rectified its false official statistics, including inflation and CPI numbers, or face censure. To put this in perspective, Argentina is the only leading world economy whose economic data have been repudiated by the IMF and Managing Director Christine Lagarde recently pledged to use the 'red card' against Argentina if Argentina failed to correct its numbers. Argentina's official inflation data has been grossly underreported since 2007. Officially, Argentina's inflation is in the single digits but it's an open secret that the numbers are completely fabricated." In "Argentina's Politics of intimidation," by Nancy Soderberg, UPI Outside View, 6 December 2012.
[ 4 ] "How often misused words generate misleading thoughts." In "The Principles of Ethics," Vol. I (1897) Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) Reflecting on those politicians above who "misled" investors according to the word use in the Reuters article, Spencer's observation is all the more profound. Politics is proving itself too often the antithesis of ethics, in which such words as lie, misleading, fraudulent and more cluster in and amongst politics, while ethics shuns them. One would do well then to conclude politics is all too often unethical. But to amplify the notion of the "misleading" as anti-social if political, we ponder, “Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Certainly the "health" of the investors who were misled, as Reuters reporting on the SEC's actions, and in the parlance of Emerson, such misleading -- lying said in a more polite manner -- is fraudulent while utterly political.
"In the wee hours of Dec. 10, the recently reelected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, boarded his private jet for Havana to undergo a fourth round of surgery in his battle against cancer. Surrounded by his inner circle, the 58-year-old populist, donning a blue and white tracksuit, stood at the top of the stairs of his plane, embraced his closest advisers, then punched the air with his fist and shouted, '¡Hasta la vida siempre!' ('Onward into life always!')". In "Fidel Castro’s Last Stand," by A. L. Bardach, Newsweek, 17 December 2012
It's populist oh so populist
To have one's private jet.
It's populist yea so populist
To be treated -- yes, you bet --
And populist oh so populist
To get the best of medical care --
Better than most of the others'
Most miserable un-populist share.
It's populist oh so populist
To be in the ruling elite.
It's populist truly so populist
To never have to compete --
Yes, populist -- oh so populist --
And lifted above the masses
By elite, unequal treatment
Over the populist-impoverished masses.
It's populist, writes a populist,
And misuses thereby the word.
It's populist -- whoa -- so populist
As to make populism absurd.
Now populist is not populist
As the meaning dilutes into naught
As an elite excuses elitism
Though elites pretend populist thought.
It's populist deeply populist
To have more than the underclass.
It's populist darkly populist
To soar above a populist mass.
When populists act as popularly
As popularly they don't,
One may be assured they mean
As populists, they simply won't.
Envoi: "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them." Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Addendum: "In this framework poor countries are not poor because their policymakers or citizens are uninformed about what good policies or institutions are. They are poor because those who exercise political power choose to organize society in ways that robs the vast mass of people of opportunities or incentives." In "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty," by James A Robinson (with Daron Acemoglu), CDE Conference 2012, Williams College, September 27, 2012
See: The funniest thing - a meditation on Emma Goldman
Eternity stretches out unending - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Eternity stretches out unending,
Where logical thought can never go,
Heartfelt piety apprehending
What lies where, beyond time's flow.
Where we once were, where we are,
Clever words cannot essay.
Such a pondering strays too far:
Life dissolves into yesterday.
Do not long in vain for answers.
What once was, always is, will be.
You and other like romancers
Must perish on life's surging seas.See: Woher, wohin?
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are." H. L. Mencken
Thinking is not encouraged.
It gives rise to evil thoughts,
Like liberty, freedom and similar views
Which fashion juggernauts
As to topple tyrants aplenty
Who'd rage against such thought.
This was, is and will be to come
As for freedom have thinkers fought.
Envoi: "The first duty of a man is to think for himself." José Martí (1853-1895)
Addendum: "The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought." Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
Addendum: "Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
See: Lemmings
The Singer - paraphrase of a Joachim Ringelnatz poem
Sitting to dine before he debuted
There sat, with a woman, the singer.
She marveled at the courses of food,
And thought he was such a humdinger.
The singer then trod up onto the stage,
Simply, with no need to boast.
The beer and meat salad he'd assuage
With cologne, or at least almost.
The singer sang his highest high C.
The applause rose up, well nigh raged.
The lady in the loge marked with a B
Rose also, racing out engaged.
The singer too rushed out the stage door,
Out into the snow-covered garden.
The lady followed, a bouquet and more
Ready enough, should something harden.
The singer raised high the hem of his coat
To stoop in that garden snow white.
Wind broke, booming like explosions afloat.
The lady had to wait in a most un-silent night.
They lingered too long in the damp wet snows,
Encouraging rheumatism's ache.
The singer of the high C's well knows
A mechanism must sometimes just break.See: Der Sänger
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Robert A. Heinlein, in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
That lunch? It wasn't free!
Now there's the agony
As truth replaces fiction.
When numbers come to call,
Blithe fantasies all fall,
Each was a sad addiction.
Pyramid schemes collapse;
Corruption just shot craps.
Full faith and credit meet restriction.
To all and by their need
Made stealing a righteous deed,
The often-proved prediction.
Losses climb debt's mount,
And most folks just lose count.
Free anything's a contradiction.
Lies mount up on wings.
The fat lady? She sings,
Her text in clear hard diction.
That lunch? It wasn't free!
Now there's the agony.
Mere truth replaces fiction.
Envoi: "As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery. Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. In the latter stages of the war all the belligerent governments practised, from necessity or incompetence, what a Bolshevist might have done from design. Even now, when the war is over, most of them continue out of weakness the same malpractices." In "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," John Maynard Keynes, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920
See: Lessons Are , and also Excessive Demand
"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." George Washington, in "Circular to the States," (1783). Writings 26: 484--89, Chapter 7, "Union."
Who seeks arbitrary power? Who?
Anyone you know? Oh no, not you!
To whom then did old Georgie speak?
Perhaps to the tame, the meek and weak.
Liberty is frail and powerless before
Those who seek power, as stated, and more,
For this is how it happens, friend,
And how such stories too often end.
Who seeks arbitrary power? Who?
Someone whom you might believe in too?
The ruins of liberty are foundations of power
And, as freedoms are trampled, built every hour.
To whom then did old Georgie refer?
The question's not rhetorical. No answer defer.
He asks this of all of us, clear and plain,
That we might be watchful and free of its stain.
Who seeks arbitrary power? Who?
Anyone you know? Certainly not you!
But this is how it happens, friend,
And how such stories tragically end.
Envoi: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
See: Foolish men were ruling, and see a song setting of Charles McKay's America - (2009)
and also Abraham Lincoln's words in a song setting, We all declare for liberty - (2009)
It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase
"The leading demographic accounts of contemporary slavery project a global slave population of between 20 million and 30 million people. Most of these people are in sedentary forms of slavery, such as hereditary collateral-debt bondage. But about 20 percent have been unwittingly trafficked though the promise of opportunity by predators through varying combinations of deception and coercion, very mobile, very dynamic, leveraging communications and logistics in the same basic way modern businesses do generally." In "Slavery's Global Comeback," by J. J. Gould, The Atlantic, 19 December 2012
It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase
Which informs so concisely in so many ways.
"Hereditary collateral-debt bondage" tells
A tale of debt passed on by the swells
To generations who could not agree to the deal
And yet will be ground under its debt-bondage wheel.
It's horrid to think language cuts to the quick
When so much of politics spews language too thick.
One little phrase speaks volumes and more,
And thereby informs and cuts to the core.
Debtors inheriting debt they've not made
Are collateral damage and slaves in that trade.
Trafficked by borrowing to prop up the state
Is proven hereby to slaves incubate.
Tomorrow's bright children will stare at the dark
Of debt, massive debt, as their greatest birthmark.
Deception, coercion, old promises lie
As the wreckage today hopes tomorrow will buy.
Envoi: "A man in debt is so far a slave." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
See: In a moment of candor and also a setting of James Weldon Johnson's To America - (2009)
Do not be greatly unhappy - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Do not be greatly unhappy
That the lovely times go by;
Cool yet dread-filled waves will draw us
Into the vortex' whirling eye;
Yes, sweet stirrings of the heart,
And love's highest and its best,
All within the heaven's movements
Must be given over to rest.
Let us love and sing and drink,
And whistle at the time which flees;
Even our faintest winking glances
Flicker through eternities.
The funniest thing - a meditation on Emma Goldman
"Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. [ 1 ] Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations." Emma Goldman, in "Anarchism and Other Essays." (Third revised edition, New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1917)
The funniest thing
That makes me laugh
Is the cheerleading loud
On politics' behalf,
To shout one party's best
To rule o'er the state
When all parties dine
From the very same plate.
The funniest thing
That makes me weep
Is the cheerleading bleat
From the governments' sheep,
For shackles are forged
By governments' rule,
And all of the cheering
Cheers but for some fool.
The funniest thing
That makes me smirk
Is the loyal party member
Oh so busily at work
Tying tightening restraints
To chain and oppress;
Instead of liberating,
They think they progress.
The funniest thing
That makes me sad
Are those in all parties
Who think it not bad.
And yet shackles tighten,
Restraints tax men's souls.
And belief in their government
Is riddled with holes.
From shackles, from restraint,
From dominion's firm rule,
The dream of sweet freedom
Stirs oft ridicule.
Liberating freedom
Is problematic at best
When those who would rule
Would rule the oppressed.
Naive children that play
At anarchism's font
Think tearing all down
Will answer their wont.
But freedom is freedom
Is freedom for all,
And such a plain thought
Is a revolutionary squall.
The funniest thing
Which threatens and dares
Is the notion of freedom
From governing snares.
Liberate the mind;
Liberate the man.
This struggle all alone
Is the simplest plan.
It threatens the towers
As foundations shake,
And powers all rage
Against freedom's great quake.
Liberate the mind
And shackles fall broke.
This is the dream hidden
By politics' party smoke.
Party members oh so loyal
Have a funniest ring,
Yet progressive shackles
Are a slave master's thing.
Progressive restraints
Are not progress at all;
When governments progress,
It is freedoms which fall.
Envoi: "We are willing to die for this country. For the mountains and the rivers, the land and the people, we are willing to die. But not for the generals or the admirals, or the businessmen, or the bankers, or the President, all who want to go to war. They are not our country. They don't give a damn about all the young men who will die in this war. What is patriotism? Is it love of your government? No. It is the love of our fellow men and women. It is the love of our country. And that love, that patriotism, may require you to oppose your government." From scene 15, Emma, an opera by Elaine Fine, 2006
Addendum: "It is certainly clear that wherever society exits there is no room for the state, but that wherever the state is it is like a thorn in society’s flesh, it does not permit it to form a people who can socially inhale and exhale, and instead divides them into classes and thereby prevents them from being a society. A centralized construct cannot at the same time be a federalist construct. A system of management organized along authoritarian lines is a government, a bureaucracy, a commanding power, and this is the mark of the state; a community built upon equal rights and mutuality is, when considered within the bounds of their physical proximity, a people, when considered as a general form of human living, a society. State and society are opposing concepts; the one excludes the other." Erich Kurt Mühsam, in "The Liberation of Society from the State. What is Communist Anarchism?" (Berlin-Britz, November 1932, Translated by CR Edmonston, 13 Sept 2008)
Addendum: "It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus whatever it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power; there is never, nor can be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power." In "Our Enemy, The State," by Albert Jay Nock, Caxton Printers, 1950.
Addendum: "If one reads, say, Wilhelm von Humboldt's critique of the state of 1792 [English language version: The Limits of State Action (Cambridge University Press, 1969)], a significant classic libertarian text that certainly inspired Mill, one finds that he doesn't speak at all of the need to resist private concentration of power, rather he speaks of the need to resist the encroachment of coercive state power". In "The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Peter Jay." The Jay Interview, 25 July 1976.
Addendum: "Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain." Frédéric Bastiat, The Law, par. L. 102.
Addendum: "When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons." Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947
Addendum: "To the States, or any one of them, / or any city of the States, / resist much, obey little/ Resist much! Resist!
Once unquestioning obedience, / once fully enslaved, / no nation, state, city of this earth, / ever afterward resumes its liberty. / Resist! Resist!" Walt Whitman, in "Leaves of Grass"
See: Debt and also a setting of Whitman's To the States - (2004)
[ 1 ] The notion of government and society as opposing forces is not new. From the supposed anarchistic Left of Goldman, Mühsam and Chomsky to the supposed political Right of the Libertarians and free market supporters, one finds the same conclusion. Thus the iconic American poet, Whitman can thunder "resist!" He does not mean to resist a society of his peers, but a state which holds itself his governor. One reads from a recent publication, "Just as the two basic and mutually exclusive interrelations between men are peaceful cooperation or coercive exploitation, production or predation, so the history of mankind, particularly its economic history, may be considered as a contest between these two principles. On the one hand, there is creative productivity, peaceful exchange and cooperation; on the other, coercive dictation and predation over those social relations. Albert Jay Nock happily termed these contesting forces: "social power" and "State power." Murray N. Rothbard, "Anatomy of the State," Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009.
The pot cracks into shards - paraphrase of an Erich Kurt Mühsam poem
The pot cracks into shards
To be flung away like dung.
Little one, you must die,
E'en though you are so young.
Flowers must soon wither,
And the cow be slaughtered soon
That for today we're milking
In a pail that leaks festoon.
Stones themselves decay
In each country lane o'ergrown.
Tones and sounds but echo,
And light away has flown.
Worlds fall to pieces
Without a remnant's trace.
Deceit lives on forever
In disaster's scowling face.
See: Kracht der Topf in Scherben,
"'If Europe today accounts for just over 7 per cent of the world's population, produces around 25 per cent of the global GDP and has to finance 50 per cent of global spending, then it's obvious that it will have to work very hard to maintain its prosperity and way of life,' Ms Merkel said in the interview. 'All of us have to stop spending more than we earn every year.' Although Ms Merkel stopped short of suggesting that a ceiling on social spending might be one yardstick for measuring competitiveness, she hinted as much in the light of soaring social spending in the face of an ageing population. Indeed, she said Germany is facing one of the greatest demographic challenges." In "Merkel warns on cost of welfare," by Quentin Peel, Financial Times, 16 December 2012
All of us must stop spending
more than we earn each year.
This is the holiday message,
bright with dullest cheer.
Sometimes something must be said,
in plain and thumping speech
When want-want-want sinks all in debt
in its over-reaching reach.
In the light of soaring spending
the darkness slow descends
For want-want-want is answered
by policies considering their ends.
Who just will not see this?
Those who refuse to see.
And who refuses the rising flood
called economic reality?
Then it's obvious, so she said,
and that is plain as day,
But such plain speaking is too hard
for the grasshoppers at play.
Envoi: "We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it." Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Junker (b. 1954)
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) surged back to power in an election on Sunday just three years after a devastating defeat, giving ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a chance to push his hawkish security agenda and radical economic recipe. In "Conservatives sweep to power in faltering Japan," Reuters, 16 December 2012
Liberal is conservative, so Reuters writes this day.
Is conservative then liberal? Let's cheer these words at play.
One thing is another, friend, as words say this and that,
Turning cartwheels' somersaults -- each a wordy acrobat.
Conservative is a liberal, so Reuters rights in print,
Left to you to parse the game, wide-eyed with a little squint.
One thing is another, friend, as words mean very much
Like so-and-so, and blah-blah-blah, and, oh yes, such and such!
Words are politicians' friends, while numbers are their foe.
Why is this? It's simple, as base reality tends to show.
Words can mean most anything. They romp, they squeal, they say
Whatever it is they seem to mean, just numbers won't go away.
Radical economic agenda is a phrase Reuters has penned,
Which makes me chuckle quietly, as words all flex and bend.
Radicals sometimes are on the left, and now they're on the right,
As words shift meanings like the wind in a wordy blathered fight.
But economics is not words, which tally not too well.
One needs numbers, clear, concise, which most politics dispel,
For debt is debt is debt is debt, and massive debt's a curse
Which all the words from all the pens have usually made worse.
Liberal bleeds into conservative, conservatives named liberal,
And radical -- my favorite word absurd -- all just peripheral
To what we see in numbers red with red ink's crushing weight.
In the crisis of most governments, words and debt both accumulate.
What is radical then, one need ask, to seek a numbered fix
To the flood of impotent words which answer with but tricks?
Radical numbers seek repair, a rescue in the nick of time,
While radical words can only paper over numerical crime.
Liberal names conservative, a radical economic recipe.
Names and modifying words spelled the debtors' spending spree.
What more now will all the words do to fix the mess?
I wager not one single thing except avoid the numbers chess.
Games best won have shifting rules made from wordy words,
Which redefine and redeploy in wild, stampeding herds.
Games oft lost have hardened rules, unchanging in the wind,
Which a word can merely fumble, and clear meaning oft rescind.
Envoi: "Japan's government is to take the unprecedented step of buying factories and machinery directly with taxpayer funds, the latest in a series of radical steps to lift the country out of its deep slump." In "Japan plans 'nationalisation' of factories to save industry," by Ambrose Evans–Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 1 January 2013
Addendum: "There are two kinds of liberalism. A liberalism which is always, subterraneously authoritative and paternalistic, on the side of one's good conscience. And then there is a liberalism which is more ethical than political; one would have to find another name for this. Something like a profound suspension of judgment." Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
See: National Eyes and also the language lesson, Left is Right, as Right is Left
We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party
"Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic. We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national." In an edited interview of Adolf Hitler by Viereck from 1923, republished in Liberty magazine in July 1932, and again in "'No room for the alien, no use for the wastrel'," by George Sylvester Viereck, The Guardian, UK, 17 September 2007
What is liberal anyway, and what is in a name?
When history is forgotten, such naming is a game.
Define and redefine the words, claim and counterclaim.
Socialize the words again, and try then to reclaim
The honor which some say is due to the socialists' fine aim.
"Ready, aim, fire," did liberal socialists proclaim,
Who stated they were liberal, as a world burst into flame.
Corollary -- See Anti-capitalism struggles
"In practice, France’s welfare system is a failure, and there is an economic explanation for this. Welfareship does not create wealth; there are no incentives to create wealth. Despite its good intentions, welfareship has created a 'poverty trap.'" In "In France's Welfare State Status Quo, Are We Seeing America's Future?" by Sylvain Charat, Forbes, 7 December 2012 [ 1 ]
It's not for me to do,
the planting of the grain,
It's not for me to do,
from milling I abstain.
It's not for me to do,
for baking is a strain.
It's not for me to do,
except demand bread and complain.
It's not for me to do,
to grow and harvest fruit.
It's not for me to do,
for that's not my pursuit.
It's not for me to do,
to labor like a brute.
It's not for me to do,
but you should. No dispute.
It's not for me to do;
my hand's out for your bread.
It's not for me to do,
not me, but you instead.
It's not for me to do,
get that through your thick head.
It's not for me to do,
but you must, as I've said.
It's not for me to do,
but to wait for sustenance.
It's not for me to do,
but to take what you advance.
It's not for me to do,
but you must me finance.
It's not for me to do,
but take from you, perchance.
It's not for me to do,
except clench a fist and glare.
It's not for me to do,
your profiting is unfair.
It's not for me to do,
but caution you. Beware.
It's not for me to do,
except demand you for me care.
It's not for me to do;
I'm caught in your great trap.
It's not for me to do,
so you must, working chap.
It's not for me to do,
that is your handicap.
It's not for you to do
but work. I'll play and nap.
Envoi -- "When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity." Aesop's Fable
[ 1 ] "Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage. 'There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state,' Mr Sapin said. 'That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective.'" In "France 'totally bankrupt', says Labour minister Michel Sapin," by Graham Ruddick, The Telegraph UK, 28 January 2013.
See: You toil - words of Abraham Lincoln
So it was - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
The teapot was so beautiful,
She'd loved it as herself.
Unfortunately her small mistake
Dropped it off the shelf.
What she felt of grief and pain
She'd remember long and hard.
She fitted the shards together and said,
This I held in high regard!See: So wars
"...to put the matter shortly, that a permanent possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self, and not from any accidents of education or ill-treatment. And the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon." G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905) [ 1 ]
In your You Topia you think
You'll get more than your fair share;
This blunted calculation proves
That You Topia is unfair.
But such is your You Topia
When you see yourself above
And wish to rule You Topia
With your velvet-fisted glove.
All the passionate speeches
About bettering this world
Are made by folks who'd take yet more
As You Topia's flag's unfurled.
Just how many caring folks
Care oh so much for You?
Peer behind the fragile scene
And note their hoard in view.
Organizing charity
Pays top dollar at the top,
And note that at the top
Is always a fairness cop.
You Topia has lots of cops
Who must have more than most,
In order to assure all is fair
As our betters have diagnosed.
In their You Topia they think
You'll believe in unequal shares;
This blunted calculation shows
That You Topians set their snares.
But such are all You Topias
As the leaders climb above
And with a firm fist rule the joint
With their velvet-fisted glove.
How much would you like to have?
More is an answer sure.
And so the dream of equal shares
Fades into a You Topian blur.
Eradicating poverty?
That's what You Topians preach,
While taking more than just fair shares
In their You Topian fisted reach.
Organizing charity
Pays top dollar at the top,
And note that at the top
There's always a You Topian cop.
This is why You Topia
Is a distant, distant dream,
Because all the very nicest folks
Lap up the richest cream.
Well, don't they really earn it?
That's the logic rare,Which says it is such valued work
To assign each unequal share.
And for this they must have just more
For You Topian fairness calls,
As they get their "more" just rewards,
Another's fair share simply falls.
Yes, this is why You Topia
Is a decadent dark dream,
Because all the very nicest folks
Lap up the You Topian cream.
Envoi: "What can oppose the decline of the west is not a resurrected culture but the utopia that is silently contained in the image of its decline." Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Addendum: "Utopianism substitutes glorious predictions and unachievable promises for knowledge, science, and reason, while laying claim to them all." Mark R. Levin, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America (2012)
See: Equality and Income Inequality, also No Place - no space, no grace, no trace
[ 1 ] "The country we live in is a laboratory. We have one experiment after another. Unfortunately, it is not a laboratory where no one gets hurt: some lives are enhanced, others are ruined. We have to view our society with concern and passion, and see what we can learn from each of our experiments. When we get upset and angry about politics — whether it is conservative, liberal, or whatever — we tend to think in terms of right and wrong, not what we can learn." In "The Liberals' Mistake", by Charles Reich, in "The Center Magazine" (July-August 1987).
[ 2 ] "When I made my theoretical model, I could not have guessed that people would try to realise it with Molotov cocktails." Adorno, cited in "The Dialectical Imagination : A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research" (1973) by M. Jay, p279. Hence, Adorno's vision of the future was not simply short-sighted but tragically wrong, as have been so many "theoretical models."
When one's vision is grounded in a significant error in historical understanding, it can only be compounded, as one reads from another of the Frankfurt School, "The West is guilty of genocidal crimes against every civilization and culture it has encountered. American and Western Civilization are the world’s greatest repositories for racism, sexism, xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, Fascism, and Nazism. American society is oppressive, evil, and undeserving of loyalty." Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979)
The "greatest repositories" are not as he so poorly saw, but rather the entire history of mankind, all civilizations to include the socialist-inspired "repositories" such as the murderous and failed civilizations of Germany's National Socialism (True socialism, oh yes, he said), the withered and collapsed Soviet Socialism (see: Totalitarian) and perhaps the most murderous civilization in all of history, as represented by the Sino-socialism of Mao (for more on this most murderous history of the twentieth century, see: Death in peacetime).
Surveying only three systems of government in the 20th century, each proposing a utopian vision for society ills, gives lie to the assertion of an always-proposed utopian vision which gives way to totalitarian viciousness against those who would not participate as underlings. But such is the path of those who would take power. As one reads of the socialists' vision for taking "power" politically, "They saw their role as making largely passive propaganda for socialism. Capitalism was immoral: it would eventually collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. Power would fall into the hands of the working class like an over-ripe fruit. This socialist transformation was preordained by History." In "The Socialism of John Maclean," WorkersLiberty.org, accessed February 2013. The point herein is that seeking power to rule -- while promising a utopia -- is factually and historically its antithesis. As is noted of such utopian idealism as expressed by the naive but lenghty blather of Adorno's opus, we see from a clearer source, "Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) And it is indeed true that such theoretical thinkers as those of the Frankfurt School all "will to power."
The phrase cannot stand alone without fully understanding that this "will to power" amounts to "power over other people, with or even without their agreement. (See: I'm gonna guide you to the promised land - a story quite like others.)
[ 3 ] As counterpoint to the utopian -- and therefore totalitarian -- visions of the Marxists of varying sorts and post-modern cultural Marxists, author William Golding (1911-1993) observed, "Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply. We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?"
Given that a utopia requires submission to the collective and that no one has theoretically sketched a collective with which an individual may dissent without punishment, we also read, "If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it." Nadine Gordimer (b.1923)
My simple test in the vein of Golding's remark is colored by Gordimer's keen observation: Who can rule a utopia without making those who would not submit to its rule punished for their unwillingness to submit? This proves the truth of the etymology of the word, u-topia. As Merriam-Webster clarifies, the word is first found as "Utopia, imaginary and ideal country in Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More, from Greek ou not, no + topos place." The supposedly bright scholars of the Frankfurt School forward forgot -- or never learned -- that utopia is and has been since the 16th century "no place." It also proves -- as above -- that these scholars were not so much seeking a better world for all, as they were evidencing their "will to power," per the above.
Let us then reflect on a recent view as additional reflection: "The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle." Christopher Hitchens, in "Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays" (2004).
Eden round, there went a great wall - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Eden round, there went a great wall,
Highly high and of marble fine.
Killer Cain thought with shrewdest gall:
I'll enter in by way clandestine.
To this, his end, up then he stepped
On a brought-along ladder, like a clever rat.
Then roundabout the old Devil crept,
Upending Cain's ladder! O-o-o! Splat!
Our old Father Adam saw it all,
And said to Cain where he sprawled:
You rogue! You deserved your second fall;
Into paradise are all not always called.See: So nicht
"Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet [ 1 ], sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime. In "U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens," by Julia Angwin, Wall Street Journal, 12 December 2012
Suspected of no crime,
Some fascists overtime
Look to pry into guiltless lives
For their fascistic paradigm.
Of terror not suspected
Fascists have oft connected
Innocent ordinary little folks
With crimes quite unconnected.
Dragnets drag and net
The innocent, and yet
Fascists think this sensible,
As innocence is a guilt-tinged threat.
Suspected of no crimes,
Citizens in peaceful times
Are targets most political
As fascism pumps and primes.
Addendum: "For the second year in a row, President Obama has caved on his threat to veto this dangerous legislation, which severely restricts his ability to transfer or provide fair trials for the 166 men who remain imprisoned at Guantanamo. The 2013 NDAA extends restrictions that have been in place for nearly two years, during which zero prisoners have been certified for transfer oversees and zero have been transferred to the U.S. for prosecution. Once again, Obama has failed to lead on Guantanamo and surrendered closure issues to his political opponents in Congress. In one fell swoop, he has belied his recent lip-service about a continued commitment to closing Guantanamo." The Center for Constitutional Rights, 3 January 2013
Addendum: "Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote an open letter to John Brennan, the frontrunner for the post of Director of the CIA, asking Brennan to provide Congress with the secret legal opinions defining the government’s capacity to pursue and kill US citizens suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence by law have access to classified legal opinions – but, Wyden writes, the Obama administration has denied him access to the opinions governing targeted assassinations of American citizens." In "Obama administration hiding info on targeted killings of Americans," rt.com, 15 January 2013
Addendum: "The Justice Department’s unfortunate decision leaves Americans with no clear understanding of when we will be subjected to tracking—possibly for months at a time—or whether the government will first get a warrant. This is yet another example of secret surveillance policies—like the Justice Department’s secret opinions about the Patriot Act’s Section 215—that simply should not exist in a democratic society." In "Justice Department Refuses to Release GPS Tracking Memos," by Catherine Crump, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, 16 January 2013. [ 2 ]
See: Sir Veiled Lance
[ 1 ] "The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers." In "President Obama’s Dragnet," The Editorial Board, The New York Times, 6 June 2013.
The New York Times continues: "Essentially, the administration is saying that without any individual suspicion of wrongdoing, the government is allowed to know whom Americans are calling every time they make a phone call, for how long they talk and from where. This sort of tracking can reveal a lot of personal and intimate information about an individual. To casually permit this surveillance — with the American public having no idea that the executive branch is now exercising this power — fundamentally shifts power between the individual and the state, and it repudiates constitutional principles governing search, seizure and privacy."
The picture becomes clearer: "The proposal would extend technical design mandates for 'wiretap readiness' to peer-to-peer communications tools. According to reports, companies that do not comply with a wiretap order, including those that cannot comply because they have configured their communication service in a secure manner and do not themselves have access to user communications, or do not have access to such communications in unencrypted form, would face escalating, potentially ruinous fines. The threat of such liability would effectively force re-engineering of communications services so they are wiretap ready." In "Leading Security Experts Say FBI Wiretapping Proposal Would Undermine Cybersecurity," by Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Center for Democracy and Technology, 17 May 2013.
Seeing these reports through the assistance of basic word definitions is cause for alarm. Merriam-Webster's first definition of fascism includes these words: "severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition," while its second definition of fascism is this -- "a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control." One may well argue that such "overbroad surveillance powers" become evidence that this administration (and perhaps that before it as well) ever more seem to fulfill the textbook definition.
A German periodical's editorial echoes this sentiment: "What, exactly, is the purpose of the National Security Agency? Security, as its name might suggest? No matter in what system or to what purpose: A monitored human being is not a free human being. And every state that systematically contravenes human rights, even in the alleged service of security, is acting criminally." In "Obama's Soft Totalitarianism: Europe Must Protect Itself from America," by Jakob Augstein, Spiegel, 17 June 2013.
[ 2 ] Nope -- "Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Clapper denied allegations by panel members the NSA conducted electronic surveillance of Americans on U.S. soil. 'Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?' committee member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper during the March 12 hearing. In response, Clapper replied quickly: 'No, sir'." In "Clapper denied NSA surveillance before Senate panel" by Carlo Muñoz, The Hill, 6 June 2013.
Yup -- "...Clapper said national security required the NSA to collect all the Verizon subscriber data, even if not all the data would be analysed, and regardless of any evidence to link the phone records to crime, foreign espionage or terrorism. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that other telecoms received similar orders from the government for the subscriber data. 'The collection is broad in scope,' Clapper wrote, 'because more narrow collection would limit our ability to protect the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it may assist counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities'.' In "US intelligence chief denounces release of information," by Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian, 7 June 2013. Nope. Yup. Perhaps the US intelligence chief is really denouncing being proven to have said nope and then yup?
"Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said." In "Sources: NSA sucks in data from 50 companies," by Marc Ambinder, The Week, 6 June 2013.
Additionally it becomes clearer through closer examination: "Ret. Adm. Dennis Blair, who served as President Obama’s DNI in 2009 and 2010, told NBC News that, in one instance in 2009, analysts entered a phone number into agency computers and 'put one digit wrong,' and mined a large volume of information about Americans with no connection to terror. The matter was reported to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose judges required that all the data be destroyed, he said." In "Officials: NSA mistakenly intercepted emails, phone calls of innocent Americans," by Michael Isikoff, NBCNews, 7 June 2013.
One reads of the notion of surveillance states: “…there are different kinds of surveillance states. You can have a democratic surveillance state which collects as little data as possible and tells you as much as possible about what it’s doing. Or you could have an authoritarian surveillance state which collects as much as possible and tells the public as little as possible. And we are kind of on the authoritarian side.” Paul Krugman, on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," ABCNews, 9 June 2013.
This suggests to some the utter cynicism of the political class not only from the libertarian wing but also with the Left: "They said that if you vote Romney you’ll get a return to George W Bush. Well, Romney may have lost in 2012 but people got Bush all the same – Obama has cheerfully continued and expanded the authoritarian policies of Dubya. That’s the opinion of Michael Hayden, the former director of the US National Security Agency, who says that the state is bigger and more furtive than it was when Bush was in charge. It’s the kind of Right-wing talking point that would’ve been dismissed as a Right-wing talking point a month ago. But, in the light of the Verizon scandal, it’s starting to sound like an objective, accurate assessment. Obama is Bush 2.0…" In "Edward Snowden has exposed both the ambition and the incompetence of Obama's security state," by Tim Stanley, Telegraph UK, 9 June 2013.
As to authoritarian rule being perceived in the "land of the free and the home of the brave," one reads this interesting opinion: " 'In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material, and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago,' Ellsberg wrote in an op-ed published by the Guardian on Monday. 'Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an 'executive coup' against the U.S. constitution'." In "Ellsberg: Snowden’s NSA leak more important than my Pentagon Papers," by Dylan Stableford, Yahoo. 11 June 2013.
Synthesizing a stance: No synthesis is necessary. Free men across the years have already made this synthesis for all free men.
Courtesy of over two centuries ago: "Empires are broken down when the profits of administration are so great, that ambition is satisfied with obtaining them, and he that aspires to greatness needs do nothing more than talk himself into importance. He has then all the power which danger and conquest used formerly to give; he can raise a family, and reward his followers." Samuel Johnson, in a Letter to John Taylor, 24 January 1784.
Courtesy of the present moment: "Anyone, right or left, who cares about individual rights has reason to be appalled." In "Massive secret surveillance betrays Americans: Our view," by the editorial board, USAToday, 6 June 2013.
Now how does that seem to a lender like you? - a run-around
"Greece has managed to buy back some of its debt, but did not succeed in reducing its total debt by as much as its backers had hoped. Holders of Greek debt agreed to sell 31.9bn euros of bonds back to the country at 33.8% of their face value, Greece's debt management agency said." In "Greece buyback puts debt at 34% of its value," BBC, 12 December 2012
I'll borrow from you in some currency true,
And then pay back less, far less than you're due.
Now how does that seem to a lender like you?
I'll promise to pay but renege on my word.
But come now, don't think that this is absurd.
I simply say that as lender you erred.
I'll stiff you in measure by well over half,
And later perhaps we'll share a good laugh.
But for now what was yours is less. What a gaffe!
When all seems forgotten and over and past,
I'll come back again and sound so steadfast.
Now how will that seem to you, lender harassed?
I'll seek to borrow in some currency true,
And promise to pay back as much as you're due.
Now how would that seem to a lender like you?
Round and around the circle this goes,
As one leads another by a ring in the nose.
Now how does that seem to a lender? Suppose...
I'll borrow from you in some currency true,
And then pay back less, far less than you're due.
Now how does that seem to a lender like you?
Envoi: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery." Charles Dickens, in "David Copperfield"
See: A clip job
Armed peace - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Quite by surprise on a little mount
A fox and hedgehog met.
"Stop," cried the fox, "you no-account!
It's the king's orders you forget.
Peace has now been long proclaimed,
And you should truly be ashamed,
To be armed with spines, even when tamed.
On behalf of His Royal Majesty, sir,
Disarm and drop them from your fur."
"Not so fast," the hedgehog said,
"Break your fangs; when broken, bled,
Then we'll debate just what you've said!"
Quickly he spiked against attack,
With sharpened spines did he react,
Confidently defying the world' caprice,
Armed, but a living hero of peace.See: Bewaffneter Friede
"Jihad is a term that has unfortunately been widely misrepresented by the actions of Muslim extremists first and foremost, and by attempts at public indoctrination coming from Islamophobes who claim that the minority extremists are right and the majority of Muslims are wrong," said Rehab, who is the executive director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "The MyJihad campaign is about reclaiming Jihad from the Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists who ironically, but not surprisingly, see eye to eye on Jihad." [ 1 ] In "US Muslims to reclaim 'jihad' with ad campaign" AFP Chicago, 15 December 2012
Words have meaning, yes they do,
And meanings mean, through and through.
It's all the rage to define away
As if words mean only what you say.
Others use the very same words,
Defining something which undergirds
Exactly what you will not say.
Alas, the both now live today.
Misrepresentation, so it is said,
Is quite unfortunate, as when one's dead.
Minority extremists? Meaning what?
Definitions are neither closed nor shut.
You say what a word should really mean,
While killing remains a brutal scene.
Shall we say then, extreme jihad,
So as to modify the word? How odd.
Mein Kampf's Kampf was struggle too,
So struggle could be extreme? Yes, true.
Translations are such cumbersome things,
And meanings? Well, they fly with wings
Around the world, faster than truth.
Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.
Quote a struggle not thought extreme:
"Fight against Jews...." What means that theme?Let us all explain away,
Until words all confuse the day.
Envoi: "You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them." In "Kitab Al-Fitan wa Ashrat As-Sa`ah," Sahih Muslim, Book 041, Number 6981.
Addendum: "'The threat is a terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe,' said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian." In "Hundreds of French troops drive back Mali rebels," by Baba Ahmed and Jamey Keaten, AP, Mali, 12 January 2013
[ 1 ] "'We now face a spreading jihadist threat. We have driven a lot of the AQ [al-Qaida] operatives out of Afghanistan, Pakistan. We have killed a lot of them, including, of course, Bin Laden. But we have to recognise that this is a global movement,' she said." In "Clinton demands US takes lead to combat 'jihadist threat' in north Africa," By Chris McGreal, The Guardian UK, 23 January 2013.
See: Islamophobia
"House Speaker John Boehner accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of slow- walking negotiations to avoid the 'fiscal cliff,' and urged him to name specific cuts in government spending he would support as part of any compromise. 'Let’s be honest. We’re broke.'" In "Boehner: ‘Let’s Be Honest … We’re Broke’," CBS Washington, CBSDC/AP, 11 December 2012
"Let's be honest, we're broke."
That's what the speaker spoke.
Which fires might one stoke?
Which ones are mirrors and smoke?
Which funny part's the joke?
Listen to politics invoke
Lies to further and deeper soak
The average Joe and his fellow folk.
One waits for one fell stroke
For another politician to croak:
"Let's be honest, we're broke."
Oh yes, he's said it, he did!
How's about that again, then, kid?
Oh my goodness, heaven forbid!
The scheme is one huge pyramid,
Not to mention the quo pro quid
Which was never reformed, never undid,
For that's how they grease the skid.
The mirrors are broke, the smoke acrid,
As politics has ever backslid.
"We're broke." How's that for a bid?
Oh yes, he's said it, he did!
Envoi: "Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers." Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)
See: Leadership Failure, and also a song setting, Well, we are out of money now - (2009) after public quotes of Barak Hussein Obama II
The old fool - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
An artist midst his high wire walk
Turned old as passing years did him stalk;
Alighting one day from his scaffold high
Said he: now 'tis my time ne'er more to try,
But to only do upon reflection
That which does not upset digestion.
Then joked we all: "What once he'd been!
This master now seems all done in,
Too weak and stiff, he lacks the pep!"
"Ha!" he thinks. "I show those folks!"
The market closed, to quash such jokes
He tried his antics one more time,
High in the air, with a luck sublime
Until that single misstep.
With a crashing thud down he did fall
And broke his back, away to crawl.
"The old fool is now a shattered heap,"
Disparaged his fans; with nary a weep.See: Der alte Narr
"Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It’s a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Obama’s health care overhaul. The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers." In "Obamacare fee of $63 per person to begin in 2014," by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press, 10 December 2012
Passed on to you?
Pissed on? So true.
"Likely passed on to workers."
Unexpected expense?
Overhaul's pretense?
Let's all recall those smirkers?
It was always a tax.
And yes, now relax.
It's passed on to workers like you.
That's how it just works.
The detail just lurks.
Passed on, as always. Boohoo.
Envoi: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
Money makes the whirled go round
"I believe the US is facing a much more serious problem, one that has simply not been talked about at all: corruption. But this isn't the overt, "bartering of government favors in return for private kickbacks" corruption. Instead, this type of corruption has actually been legalized. And it is strangling both US competitiveness, and the ability for US firms to innovate. The corruption to which I am referring is the phenomenon of money in politics." In "How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation," by James Allworth, Harvard Business review, 7 December 2012
Money makes the whirled go round,
Be it dollar, Euro, pound;
Money makes the whirled resound,
Corrupting legally.
Money makes the whirled go round,
Skewing, screwing to dumbfound;
Money snakes the whirled all round
And does it busily.
Money makes the whirled twirled round,
As subsidies, loans and grants abound
Wherever quid pro quos abound,
And deliver politically.
Money makes the whirled go round,
Public funds for each chowhound;
Money makes its whirlwind's sound,
Corrupting wastefully.
Money makes the whirled go round,
For politics knows its fertile ground
And harvests in each battleground,
Corruption's legal. See?
Envoi: "President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign has been fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for reporting violations related to a set of donations received during the final days of the campaign. The fines are among the largest ever levied on a presidential campaign by the FEC and stem from a series of missing notices for nearly 1,200 contributions totaling nearly $1.9 million." In "Obama '08 Campaign Fined $375,000 by FEC," by Ken Thomas, Associated Press, 5 January 2013
Do you think this dreary game - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Do you think this dreary game
Will go always on and on?
Would you like to see my empathy
As earnest tears, not con?
Or perhaps you'd truly like to see
My dance to joy turned salty?
Previously you'd urged for that;
That proves your thinking's faulty.See: Denkst du
"I am always searching for new ways to de-sacralise the elitism that surrounds the art world..." Choreographer Robyn Orlin (b. 1955)
All ways surging,four gnu ways
Do desack (roll eyes)elites,
Witches' Y she isnow won a
Fringe's legion
done hers a word....
Every oncerevolving arts
In devolutionswhirled
Shows just howmunch correct nice
Is wavingflags unfurled.
But gaining gloryon hers
A warts asothers pranced
Defines elite quitesack (roll eyes)
PR'd andchoreo-danced.
Full bright she is
outstanding
Oh levy a word
commanding.
Such are cons'
none drums
When on hers
all won strums
Her happy
little tune,
With elitely honors
strewn.
All's great ends great
So I says herein
But forty sack (roll eyes)?
Subversion approved is in.
Envoi: "South Africa's Robyn Orlin, one of the country's most respected choreographers, has received a high honour from the French government for her services to the arts over a distinguished 20-year career. French President Nikolas Sarkozy has bestowed on her the French National Order of Merit in the class of Knight (Chevalier)." Media Club South Africa, 4 March 2009
See: anythingis
"The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone. Binney, one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in the history of the National Security Agency, resigned in 2001. He claimed he no longer wanted to be associated with alleged violations of the Constitution, such as how the FBI engages in widespread and pervasive surveillance through powerful devices called 'Naris.'" In "'Everyone in US under virtual surveillance' - NSA whistleblower," in rt.com, 4 December 2012.
Sir Veiled Lance was knighted
To serve the little kings,
And for this he invaded
All sorts of privileged things.
Sir Veiled Lance poked, prodded
In ways most would not see,
And this was justified in law
By the law's aristocracy.
Sir Veiled Lance saw Lady Liberty
As an inconvenient bitch,
And for this spurned the Lady
While serving in his niche.
Sir Veiled Lance feared the light of day
To work his hidden woes,
But this served well the littlest kings;
It was they who this dark knight chose.
The dark night descends hour by hour
As restraints are drawn away,
In ways which serve the twisted kings,
Silencing some who'd have their say.
Such is power turned to abuse,
And such is the point which cuts,
And such is the dream of the brazen kings
As each puffs and fumes and struts.
Sir Veiled Lance serves these kings right well
And pursues his duties dark,
While Lady Liberty lights the way
With one simple, human spark.
Freedom bucks the bridled bit
And the knight must tilt and sway
As Liberty speaks revolution
When kings must flee the day.
Envoi: "Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians." Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938)
Addendum: "Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government." In "On Publicity" from "The Works of Jeremy Bentham," Volume 2, part 2 (1839)
Addendum: "The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security. The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “'Civil Liberties Impact Assessment' of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices 'within 120 days.' More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings." In "DHS Watchdog OKs ‘Suspicionless’ Seizure of Electronic Devices Along Border," by David Kravets, Wired, 8 February 2013 [ 1 ]
Addendum: "The U.S. government, led by the Pentagon and CIA, censored in the name of national security files that the public requested last year under the Freedom of Information Act more often than at any time since President Barack Obama took office, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press." In "US citing security to censor more public records," by Jack Gillum and Ted Bridis, 11 March 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum: "The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters." In "EXCLUSIVE - U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans' finances," by Emily Flitter and Stella Dawson and Mark Hosenball, Reuters, 13 March 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum: "Where have all the liberals gone? President Obama, who as a Democratic senator accused the Bush administration of violating civil liberties in the name of security, now vigorously defends his own administration’s collection of Americans’ phone records and Internet activities. With some exceptions, progressive lawmakers and the liberal commentariat have been passive and acquiescent toward the secret spying programs, which would have infuriated the left had they been the work of a Republican administration. " In "The left turns compliant on violating civil liberties," by Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 14 June 2013.
Addendum: "Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program'." In "Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you (and they include 'pork', 'cloud' and 'Mexico')" by Daniel Miller, Daily Mail UK, 26 May 2013.
Foreign Addendum: "Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens. In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the United States could access and track virtually all forms of Internet communication were 'deeply disconcerting" and potentially dangerous. The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is,' she said." In "Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit," by Noah Barkin, Reuters, 11 June 2013.
[ 1 ] The story continues, in which a supposedly politically 'liberal' administration is behaving under the same assumptions as a totalitarian regime. When "suspicionless" and "acting on a hunch" become grounds for government actions, civil rights can be shown to have been eroded. "The ACLU, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other groups have sued to stop the practice, saying that it violates First and Fourth amendment rights. They say allowing agents to act on a hunch encourages racial profiling. Some activists say they also worry that the FBI and other federal investigators are using laptop searches at the border to collect intelligence on terror and criminal suspects without judicial checks. Catherine Crump, the ACLU lawyer who first requested the report, said it is the first detailed explanation of why the government believes it doesn’t need a reason to open a laptop or storage device and download files for further review. She described as inadequate the government’s argument that imposing a legal threshold to perform such searches would lead to lawsuits." In "Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on Hunches," CBS-DC, 5 June 2013.
More: "We all agreed that we needed legislation to make it harder for suspected terrorists to go undetected in this country. Americans everywhere wanted that. But soon after the PATRIOT Act passed, a few years before I ever arrived in the Senate, I began hearing concerns from people of every background and political leaning that this law didn't just provide law enforcement the powers it needed to keep us safe, but powers it didn't need to invade our privacy without cause or suspicion. Now, at times this issue has tended to degenerate into an 'either-or' type of debate. Either we protect our people from terror or we protect our most cherished principles. But that is a false choice. " In "Floor Statement of Senator Barack Obama on S.2271 - USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization," 16 February 2006.
[ 2 ] Yup -- Expanding this theme of surveillance, one learns further that the supposedly "liberal" or "progressive" stream of American politics is behaving in a decidedly illiberal manner. "The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing. The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19." In "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily - revealed," by Glenn Greenwald, Guardian UK, 6 June 2013. The political stance of this stream in American politics had previously decried the opposition stream of politics of acting in a totalitarian manner for doing the same thing.
One compares this to a candidate's stance, and finds great discrepancy between words and action. Candidate Obama called the Bush stance "illegal," but has broadened that stance. " 'The President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over,' Senator Obama said in the statement. 'It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people'." In "Obama defends new FISA bill as 'compromise'," RawStory, 20 June 2008.
Nope -- "For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and 'wiretaps without warrants,' he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.) It's hardly a new stance for Obama, who has made similar statements in previous campaign speeches, but mention of the issue in a stump speech, alongside more frequently discussed topics like Iraq and education, may give some clue to his priorities. In our own Technology Voters' Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: 'No'." In "Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me," by Anne Broache, CNET, 8 January 2008. It becomes obvious that such a political stance by a supposedly liberal candidate was nothing but electioneering.
Yup -- Adding to a more complete picture, one learns that candidate Obama's "the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and 'wiretaps without warrants" is most assuredly not over. "One thing from the memo that was released by the Justice Department was a brief assertion involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which dictates when the government can snoop on those deemed a threat to the nation. The statement read that 'unless Congress made a clear statement in FISA that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches in the national security area—which it has not—then the statute must be construed to avoid such a reading'." In "Obama Refuses to Release Bush’s Legal Excuse for Illegal Surveillance," by Jon Yoo, AllGov, 29 August 2011.
Very Yup -- One opinion makes an accusation in the process which is worth noting: "Those crazy American conspiracy theorists who live up trees with guns and drink their own pee don’t seem quite so crazy anymore. It turns out that a 'secret court order' has empowered the US government to collect the phone records of millions of users of Verizon, one of the most popular telephone providers – a massive domestic surveillance programme and a shocking intrusion into the lives of others." In "Verizon scandal: Barack Obama's national security state is now beyond democratic control," by Tim Stanley, The Telegraph UK, 6 June 2013.
Very, very Yup -- "Perhaps the White House can spread the responsibility. But the program was initiated and run by the executive branch." In "NSA Spying: An Obama Scandal?" by David Corn, Mother Jones, 6 June 2013.
A Yup to make the Nope a Lie -- In a next day addition from Mother Jones: "Government lawyers are trying to keep buried a classified court finding that a domestic spying program went too far. As news reports emerge about the massive phone records and internet surveillance programs—each of which began during the Bush administration and were carried out under congressional oversight and FISA court review—critics on the left and right have accused the government of going too far in sweeping up data, including information related to Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing. There's no telling if the 86-page FISA court opinion EFF seeks is directly related to either of these two programs, but EFF's pursuit of this document shows just how difficult it is—perhaps impossible—for the public to pry from the government information about domestic surveillance gone wrong." In "Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance," by David Corn, Mother Jones, 7 June 2013.
The scope of this injustice increases with additional reporting: "Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: 'Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple'." In "Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge," by Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras, 6 June 2013. And why surveillance of suspicion-free citizens? National security? There are other positions:
"The inventor of the World Wide Web said the internet is facing a 'major' threat from 'people who want to control it on the sly' through 'worrying laws' such as SOPA, the US anti-piracy act, and through the actions of internet giants. 'If you can control [the internet], if you can start tweaking what people say, or intercepting communications, it's very, very powerful...it's the sort of power that if you give it to a corrupt government, you give them the ability to stay in power forever'." In "Web inventor Berners-Lee warns forces are 'trying to take control'," by James Hurley, Telegraph UK, 8 June 2013.
One can take heart that in an "open society," secret courts operate with seeming impunity: "The Yahoo ruling, from 2008, shows the company argued that the order violated its users’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The court called that worry 'overblown'." In "Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind," by Claire Cain Miller, New York Times, 13 June 2013.
A comparison of remarks follows: First, "It is transparent. That’s why we set up the FISA court...." In "President Obama Defends NSA Spying," BuzzFeed Politics, 17 June 2013. Second, "Because of the sensitive nature of its business, the court is a 'secret court': its hearings are closed to the public, and, while records of the proceedings are kept, those records are also not available to the public." In "United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Wikipedia, accessed June 2013. "Transparent," "secret" and "not available to the public."
Those who argue this is Bush's doing and absolve Obama, and those who argue that this is Obama's doing but absolve Bush, and both groups who absolve Congress based on "security" arguments are playing various forms of partisan politics, and nothing more. Bentham's observation is worth revisiting: "Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government."
An American President also commented on such a scandal as this from an earlier time: "If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." James Madison (1751-1836) But the awareness of what makes for tyranny is millennia old: "This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." Plato (428 BC-348 BC).
[ 3 ] " 'If I know every single phone call you made, I’m able to determine every single person you talk to, I can get a pattern about your life that is very, very intrusive. And the real question here is: What do they do with this information that they collect that does not have anything to do with al Qaeda? There’s a whole deal when you talk about this kind of stuff, where the — under the law they’re supposed to demonstrate that they’re getting rid of and not keeping any extraneous information that they pick up on wiretaps and/or pick up in sweeps like this. And the president’s saying–I think I wrote down — he said, `this is not mining or trolling.’ If it’s true that 200 million Americans’ phone calls were monitored, in terms of not listening to what they said but to whom they spoke and who spoke to them, I don’t know, the Congress should investigate this'." A quote of then-Senator Joe Biden in 2006, in "Biden in 2006: 'Don’t count me in' on trusting NSA phone call surveillance'," by Jeff Poor, Daily Caller, 11 June 2013.
And as the revelations mount up, one finds journalists being investigated over "leaks" as over unfavorable investigative reporting, and a supposedly "secret" program fattened on federal funds which shows remarkable lack of judgment and perhaps even a redefinition of "secret" as something shared between a few thousand of your closest friends.
One reads: "Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said." In "U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms," by Michael Riley, Bloomberg News, 15 June 2013. How oddly fascist in this modern day to enlist "thousands" of private companies in "secret" operations, as happened in the wartime support of such governments as the Axis powers raised up for a time. Looking back through their own recent quotes, the current president and vice-president of the US spoke against surveillance as we are seeing now, while now being found to administer and defend it through their political governance. Yup is Nope. Why? Because the denial when the story first broke was simple lying by a government to its own people.
"The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed 'simply based on an analyst deciding that.' If the NSA wants 'to listen to the phone,' an analyst's decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. 'I was rather startled,' said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee. Not only does this disclosure shed more light on how the NSA's formidable eavesdropping apparatus works domestically it also suggests the Justice Department has secretly interpreted federal surveillance law to permit thousands of low-ranking analysts to eavesdrop on phone calls." In "NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants," by Declan McCullagh, CNET, 15 June 2013.
Compare and contrast the twisting explanations and confessions of the federal government in the last months with this: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. It becomes ever more clear that the current Justice Department of the United States government is now in violation of the nation's constitution.
While the federal government asserts via the White House and NSA that there is no Constitutional violation, one learns others disagree: "In the wake of the past week's revelations about the NSA's unprecedented mass surveillance of phone calls, today the ACLU filed a lawsuit charging that the program violates Americans' constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy. This lawsuit comes a day after we submitted a motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking the release of secret court opinions on the Patriot Act's Section 215, which has been interpreted to authorize this warrantless and suspicionless collection of phone records." In "ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging NSA's Patriot Act Phone Surveillance," by Brett Max Kaufman, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project, 11 June 2013.
"Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness." In "Why Socialists Don't Believe In Fun," by George Orwell, Tribune, 20 December 1943.
Perfecting society
Requires your fist,
Such that those who disagree
Can be summarily dismissed.
Perfecting utopia
Requires a club
To force dulled submission,
And there's the rub.
Perfecting humanity
Means human beings must
Offer perfecting leaders
Their obedient trust.
Imagining perfection
Shows emptiness within,
For one man's perfection
Is another man's sin.
One man's fun
Is another man's crime,
And such disagreement
Is not settled with time.
Perfecting society
Makes submission just prime,
Such that those who disagree
Can be cured in quicklime.
Envoi: "For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them." Thomas More, in "Utopia"
See: You Topia and also I'm gonna guide you to the promised land - a story quite like others, and a song setting of G. K. Chesterton's text, The Horrible History of Jones - (2006)
Sexy acrostic - just to turn a trick - 
"I’ve always had the cliched fantasy of having sex in Main Stacks, so we wasted no time in heading there first. The trick to doing it in Stacks is to go at a time when there won’t be a lot of people studying at the same time and to pick a section of books that people won’t ever think to look up. Like the British Royal Academy archives. We decided that, out of the millions of books in the library, the shelves full of books on religion seemed like the best place to fuck. We moved the adjacent shelves to block our location so that we couldn’t be seen from the rows on either side. I liked having our shelves of choice close to each other so that the setting was nice and cozy." In "College sex: Berkeley edition, Sex on Tuesday" by Nadia Cho in "The Daily Californian," 2 December 2012
Free sex isn't love, and
Unlike that which is paid,
Consensual screwing's but
Karmic fate delayed.
In between the library stacks
No big deal was made,
Grappling in a swinging trade.
Fuck is the lovelorn word
Elected by her, then written;
Maybe, oh just maybe,
It's likely she was smitten
Not with love but rutting
In opinion then typewritten.
So how should one understand
This rutting strutting kitten?
Fiat lux, or let there be light,
Utters the bright motto of Cal;
Consequently seen is this
Keen oh-so-Berkeley gal,
In between dark library stacks
Naughty as a femme fatale,
Graduating by degree au naturale.
Envoi: Scratch most feminists and underneath there is a woman [ 1 ] [ 2 ] who longs to be a sex object. -- Betty Rollin (b. 1936)
Addendum: "The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject I will only add, in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance." Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (written in 1798-1799)
Addendum: "What man can pretend to know the riddle of a woman's mind?" Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, in "Don Quixote" (1605)
Addendum: "And James Carville, Clinton's former adviser, made the comment: 'Drag a hundred dollars through a trailer park and there's no telling what you'll find.'" In "Watch Who You're Calling `Trailer Trash'," by Helene R. Lee, Chicago Tribune, 2 April 1997
Addendum: "If you can't say 'Fuck,' you can't say, 'Fuck the government.'" Lenny Bruce (1925-1966)
Addendumber: "Join us to laugh and learn about the "big O," the most popular topic sex educators Marshall Miller and Kate Weinberg teach about! Orgasm aficionados and beginners of all genders are welcome to come learn about everything from multiple orgasms to that mysterious G-spot. Kate and Marshall cover it all with lots of humor, plenty of honesty, and an underlying message of sexual health and women's empowerment." In "The Female Orgasm: A Program About Sexual Health and Women's Empowerment," University of Minnesota, Events Calendar, announced for 10 April 2013 [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Addendum-diddly-dum: "Hardly. Been there, done you. Adequate, but unremarkable.” Jennifer Estep, in "Spider's Bite" (2010) [ 5 ]
See: Whoopi and also Empowering feminism just below
[ 1 ] "Woman. Before marriage, an 'agente provocateuse'; after marriage, a 'gendarme'." In "The Jazz Webster," a section in "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916.
Another American humorist defines: "WOMAN, n. An animal usually living in the vicinity of Man, and having a rudimentary susceptibility to domestication. It is credited by many of the elder zoologists with a certain vestigial docility acquired in a former state of seclusion, but naturalists of the postsusananthony period, having no knowledge of the seclusion, deny the virtue and declare that such as creation's dawn beheld, it roareth now. The species is the most widely distributed of all beasts of prey, infesting all habitable parts of the globe, from Greeland's spicy mountains to India's moral strand. The popular name (wolfman) is incorrect, for the creature is of the cat kind. The woman is lithe and graceful in its movement, especially the American variety (felis pugnans), is omnivorous and can be taught not to talk." Fictionally attributed to Balthasar Pober, one of many pseudonyms of Ambrose Bierce, in his "The Devil's Dictionary" (1911).
And in modern literature in contradistinction to Nadia Cho's casual stance, "But when a woman decides to sleep with a man, there is no wall she will not scale, no fortress she will not destroy, no moral consideration she will not ignore at its very root: there is no God worth worrying about." Gabriel García Márquez, "Love in the Time of Cholera," (1985 in Spanish, 1988 in English). Other views not in agreement below.
[ 2 ] The power of sex in personal lives as in society is obvious, and without consensus. One reads: "The notion that Playboy turns women into sex objects is ridiculous. Women are sex objects. If women weren't sex objects, there wouldn't be another generation. It's the attraction between the sexes that makes the world go 'round. That's why women wear lipstick and short skirts." In "Being Hugh Hefner: The Playboy founder dishes on his love for blonds, Viagra and morality," by Jacob E. Osterhout, New York Daily News, 1 August 2010. In an opposite vein, one finds: "In a patriarchal society, all heterosexual intercourse is rape because women, as a group, are not strong enough to give meaningful consent." A quote in "Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies," by Daphne and Noretta Koertge Patai, New Republic/Basic, 1994. Stepping away from the overt materialist and philosophical stances, one finds: "The more sexual partners a woman has had, the more likely it is that she is depressed." Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, "Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying," Oxford University Press, 2010.
Continuing the back-and-forth, one reads a pithy comment: "The feminist ideology that created the hookup culture might be the greatest gift ever to mankind. It's as if a cabal of evil genius men got together and conspired to convince young college girls to throw away their moral inhibitions and make themselves playthings for college boys." A comment by RustyPelican to an article, "Why Is There a Hookup Culture?" by Dennis Prager, RealClearPolitics, 30 April 2013. I found this comment most amusing for it underscores Hefner's assertion by thanking feminism for being so sexually available. Ah, then both sides contribute to the culture of "empowerment?" Just from different perspectives, pretending outrage at the other. How interesting that a simple word, promiscuity, is left out of most of the discussions I have read. And so the battles continue.
Of late the Obama administration's Defense Department has busied itself with what some would call sexual justice and others would term prudery, as the US military concerns itself with such publications as Hugh Hefner has published for decades. One reads, " 'Contraband includes materials that are patently lewd, lascivious, obscene, or pornographic, as well as supremacist images, publications, or materials,' it says. Those items can include song lyrics, 'inappropriate cartoons,' picture with 'inappropriate comments,' and 'unprofessional' calendars or posters, according to a spreadsheet template provided to commanders to record their findings." In "Navy Will Inspect Its Bathrooms for ‘Degrading’ Images of Women," by Elizabeth Harrington, CNS, 18 June 2013.
How amusing to think that Ms. Cho's article about "the best place to fuck" might be considered "contraband" in the context of the new military. Perhaps the above-mentioned University of Minnesota's Events Calendar could be deemed "patently lewd?"
[ 3 ] The University of Minnesota and the University of California at Berkeley student programs are not the only examples. Here from a student committee at Washington University is their announcement: "Sex Week 2013: Friday / 1:00 – 3:30 pm: Free STI Screening DUC 233/234 / 7:00 – 9:00 pm: Sex Week 2013: (SHAC Presents) A Night With the Stars: Life, Love, and Sex in the Workplace Graham Chapel," in a Student Health Advisory Committee ("Connecting WashU students with SHS") announcement. 8 February 2013. And at Yale....
"During a discussion Saturday afternoon with 'sexologist' Jill McDevitt, who conducts workshops on sexual topics at college campuses across the country, roughly 40 students had to reconsider their idea of 'normal' in sex when asked to take anonymous surveys that yielded surprising results. Students often do not realize the difference between normative — being in the middle of the bell curve for certain behaviors — and normal, which is a judgment call, McDevitt said, adding that what is common is not necessarily good just as what is deviant is not necessarily bad. On the survey, nine percent of attendees reported having accepted payment for sex in the past." In "Sex Weekend examines sexual culture," by Cynthia Hua, Yale Daily News, 4 March 2013.
Compare this "free love" support sponsored by campus student groups with the following feminist statement: "I, personally, have taken the position that I will not appear with any man publicly, where it could possibly be interpreted that we were friends." Ti-Grace Atkinson, in "Amazon Odyssey," Links Books (1974).
Taken together, the wholly disparate views above underscore the following: "Richard Lichtman provides a sustained argument that Freud and Marx adhere to incompatible views of human nature, and Isaac Balbus similarly robs neo-Marxist liberationist movements, including feminist ones, of any clear picture of their oppressor." Nicholas Power in "The Freudian Left," article in "The Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Sex: From Plato to Paglia," Ed. By Alan Soble, Greenwood Press, 2005. Nadia Cho's "best place to fuck" cannot jive with the radical feminist's view of oppression, but rather seems a best fit with the quotes of Hefner and Rollin.
But what is obvious from a purely factual perspective is reported: "In 2008, there were an estimated 110 million prevalent STIs among women and men in the United States. Of these, more than 20% of infections (22.1 million) were among women and men aged 15 to 24 years. Approximately 19.7 million incident infections occurred in the United States in 2008; nearly 50% (9.8 million) were acquired by young women and men aged 15 to 24 years." In "Sexually Transmitted Infections Among US Women and Men: Prevalence and Incidence Estimates, 2008," Sexually Transmitted Diseases: March 2013 - Volume 40 - Issue 3. This is likely not part of Ms. Cho's "nice and cozy" and admittedly "clichéd fantasy."
Nor is the following: "Despite strides in reducing cases of HIV infection in the United States in the past three decades, as many as 50,000 Americans become infected with the virus each year. The CDC estimates that almost 1.2 million people in the United States are infected with HIV, yet 20 percent to 25 percent of them do not know it." In "Task force calls for routine HIV testing for all adults," by Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters, 29 April 2013.
In the ongoing changes of the biological world which relate wholly to human sexual ethics, one reads: "Professor Cathy Ison, head of the National Reference Laboratory for Gonorrhoea which is part of Public Health England, told the Today programme: 'Hopefully by raising awareness we can at least buy some time and look at new ways in which we can prevent it from becoming untreatable. But there is a possibility that if we don't do something then it could become untreatable by 2015'." In "Gonorrhea 'could be untreatable by 2015'," BBC, 23 April 2013.
In an oddly related story for the "safe sex" argument, one reads: "An underground workshop producing fake brand-name condoms was busted after police found clues on an online marketplace. Police confiscated more than 2 million bogus condoms labeled Jissbon, Durex and Contex in the factory and its warehouse. While a knock-off prophylactic is priced at 1 yuan (16 cents), it costs less than 0.2 yuan to produce." In "Fake-condom factory busted in Fujian," by Sun Li and Hu Meidongin Fuzhou, China Daily, 15 May 2013.
[ 4 ] ADULTERY. Democracy applied to love. In "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916. With the euphemism about "women's empowerment," one wonders what power women now have to act ever more as sexual objects under the tutelage of academic excuse and permission. Another news item about academic enthusiasm for such "empowerment" among many shows what a lack of judgment brings to the social debate: "But Schwyzer defended Navigating Pornography in an interview with The College Fix, calling the subject matter legitimate. '(The course) focuses on giving students tools to understand pornography as a historical and contemporary phenomenon,' Schwyzer told The College Fix. 'Students today live in a porn-saturated culture and very rarely get a chance to learn about it in a safe, non-judgmental, intellectually thoughtful way.'" by Jack Butler, The College Fix, 29 March 2013. So the question refers directly back to the dissonance between Hefner's "women are sex objects" and "women's empowerment" -- to appear as role models in pornography. The only remaining question for the range of societal views on this "sexy" subject is "which are you?"
One finds a seemingly safe, non-judgmental, and perhaps intellectually thoughtful stance allows one to climb high. "A DS agent was called off a case against US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over claims that he solicited prostitutes, including minors. 'The agent began his investigation and had determined that the ambassador routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children,' says the memo. 'The ambassador’s protective detail and the embassy’s surveillance detection team . . . were well aware of the behavior'." In "Hillary’s sorry state of affairs," By S. A. Miller and Geoff Earle, NYPost, 11 June 2013. But then one might also read: Hillarious - with two l's, because misspelling can be fun.
[ 5 ] LOVE. The delusion that one woman differs from another. Also in "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916
Empowering feminism - a parody on "I Am Woman" (first released 1971) by Helen Reddy and singer-songwriter Ray Burton.
"What we really need is a new and energized women's liberation movement that can fight for real changes in women's lives. We can start by rejecting the moralistic scapegoating that blames women for our personal choices and putting the focus instead on a society that has failed us." In "The single mother myth," Jen Roesch, Socialist Worker, 23 July 2012
She is woman, hear her roar,
In numbers too large to ignore.
She's unmarried and she's flitting like a bee.
She can open her own shut door,
Carry packages and what's more
She can family without a husband, as we see.
We're told she is wise
But it's wisdom born of pain,
And not so much was really gain.
If she has to
She will do anything.
She's alone (groan)
And not invincible (she's vincibile)
Modern woman.
She is bearing singly
In her postmodernity,
More elusive now is some next final goal.
Fisc'lly stronger? It seems not,
Yet this is now her lot.
It's consistent with her most postmodern soul.
We're told she is wise
But it's wisdom born of pain,
And not so much was really gain.
If she has to
She will do anything.
She's alone (groan)
And not invincible (she's vincibile)
Modern woman.
She's so often marriage-less,
Which seems so modern, oh my, yes.
And she spreads her lovin' arms often alone.
She aborts her embryo
Thinking that's the way to go.
Seems the whole thing was just overblown.
We're told she is wise
But it's wisdom born of pain,
And not so much was really gain.
If she has to
She will do anything.
She's alone (groan)
And not invincible (she's vincibile)
Modern woman.
Oh, modern woman?
She's not invincible.
Society's wrong?
For some women,
Not so invincible.
Not so strong.
Whither, woman?
Envoi: "Fewer and fewer Americans are getting married, continuing a decades-long trend among nearly all education levels and ages that shows no signs of slowing down. In 2011, 4.2 million adults were newly married, about the same number as in 2010 and sharply lower than the 4.5 million newlyweds estimated in 2008, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which asked respondents whether they had been married, divorced or widowed in the previous 12 months. This decline in nuptials from 2008 to 2011 is consistent with a general trend away from marriage in the U.S. Barely half of adults (51 percent) were married in 2011, according to ACS data, compared with 72 percent in 1960. Cohabitation, single-person households and other adult living arrangements are increasingly replacing marriage." In "Study: Marriage Continues To Decrease Among Americans," CBS Washington, D. C., 24 November 2012.
Addendum: "All of this has profoundly negative implications – for the emotional and mental well-being of children; for America’s social fabric and 'civil society'; for social mobility and the gap in income inequality; and for dependency on government and costs to the state (family breakdown costs the taxpayers billions every year). The collapse of marriage in America, then, has enormous human and social ramifications." In "America’s Exodus from Marriage," by Peter Wehner, Commentary Magazine, 17 January 2013
Addendum: "The study, released Dec. 20, also discovered that an American youth was 3.8 times more likely to become the victim of a serious violent crime if he or she lived in a home where the householder was unmarried than if he or she lived with married parents. In 2010, 7.4 out of every 1,000 youth living with married parents became the victims of a serious violent crime. At the same time, 27.8 out of every 1,000 living with an unmarried householder became the victims of a serious violent crime." In "DOJ: 95% Drop in Youth Victimized by Guns; 6x More Likely to be Victimized by Knife; Children of Unmarried 3.8x More Likely To Be Victims," by Terence P. Jeffrey, Cybercast News, 11 January 2013
Addendum: "The battle of the sexes is alive and well. [ 1 ] According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997 – from 28 percent to 37 percent. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent. Believe it or not, modern women want to get married. Trouble is, men don’t." [ 2 ] [ 3 ] In "The war on men," by Suzanne Venker, FoxNews.com, 26 November 2012
See -- Chased Away
[ 1 ] "Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner's inquest.." In "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916.
[ 2 ] "On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life / (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) / Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, / And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: 'The Wages of Sin is Death.'" An excerpt from the longer poem, "The Gods of the Copybook Headings," by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
[ 3 ] "What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness. What they would really like me to say is, 'Ha, sisters, I stand with you side by side in your struggle toward the golden dawn where all those beastly men are no more.' Do they really want people to make oversimplified statements about men and women? In fact, they do. I've come with great regret to this conclusion.'" Quote of Doris Lessing, in "Doris Lessing on Feminism, Communism and 'Space Fiction'," by Lesley Hazelton, New York Times, 25 July 1982.
And so as regards marriage as an institution and the "empowerment" promised by feminism, one reads: "It's hard to overstate the breakdown of marriage and the rise of single-parent families. Consider out-of-wedlock births. In 1980, about 18 percent of births were to unmarried women; by 2009, the proportion was 41 percent. Among whites, the increase was from 11 percent to 36 percent; among African-Americans, from 56 percent to 72 percent; among Hispanics, from 37 percent (1990) to 53 percent. Or look at the share of children living with two parents. Since 1970, that's dropped from 82 percent to 63 percent. Among whites, the decline is from 87 percent to 73 percent; among African-Americans, from 57 percent to 31 percent; among Hispanics, from 78 percent to 57 percent." In "Family Meltdown," by Robert Samuelson, The Washington Post Writers Group, 15 April 2013. Family meltdown? As noted above in Mencken comic twist perhaps this era is indeed "at a coroner's inquest."
A similar sentiment is made, from the perspective of the fiscal and social costs to the state as well as the society at large: "Single mothers in their early 20s instantly become the have-nots, statistically, in income and education. For so many women to have so many children without a husband is a complete abdication of personal responsibility, which leads to a complete shunning of any civic responsibility. We are going broke. And if you think taxing higher-income earners more is the answer, you haven't done the math. The men who are party to these births are, of course, just as irresponsible, just as uncommitted to a civic responsibility to take care of their own." In " Single moms are making us broke." by Joe Soucheray, Pioneer Press, 4 May 2013.
Yet in spite of the changing demographics in the West, one finds feminism fighting a different sort of battle: "Our understanding of Islamism, according to what we have learned fighting against it, tells us that our criticism of it is valid and holds out much hope for the future. At the heart of Islamism lies the enslavement of women based on control over their sexuality. The hijab is at the same time both a symbol and a tool of this enslavement." In "Why topless protesters will hound Islamic leaders," by Inna Shevchenko, special to CNN, 22 April 2013. It seems that some feminists have spoken clearly while others, less so: " 'I am struggling to understand a world in which the only anti-capitalist organisation is Islam and it seems the only way we can have Islam is with Sharia law,' she said. 'If I have to watch African women, North Africa women, Arab women choosing an Islamic republic because it is the answer then I'm also going to have to watch those women negotiate the problems that will be presented when they adopt Islamic systems.' " In "Hay Kerala: Greer warns 'I think we are all in grave danger'," by Matthew Bayley, Telegraph UK, 19 November 2013. See: Islamophobia.
A drunken poet - paraphrase of a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing poem
A drunken poet emptied
His glass with hefty swig;
His companion warned him:
Hey! enough of that, you pig.
Almost toppling from his stool,
He said: That's incorrect!
Ah yes, one can drink too much,
But enough? That I expect.See: Du hast genug
True socialism, oh yes, he said
"For the Nazi Party, the brownshirts -- who included the unemployed, the underemployed, apprentices and high-school students -- were 'political soldiers.' In Goebbel's view, their task was the 'conquest of the street.' In the melting pot of Berlin, these primarily young men were supposed to reconcile and embody two previously hostile worldviews: nationalism, which Goebbels believed had to be 'reshaped in a revolutionary way,' and a 'true socialism' free of Marxism." In "The Ruthless Rise of the Nazis in Berlin," by Uwe Klussmann, Der Spiegel, 29 November 2012
True socialism, oh yes, he said,
And today socialists should squirm,
For all the waters spilt o'er that dam
And blood spilled for this one term
Left the world to bleed and die
As millions of dead confirm;
Define it as you may and will;
In it there is a vicious germ
That grows into a murdering rot
As multiple histories all confirm.
National and yet socialist?
Reshaped? And brutal and firm.
But then, international socialist?
It collapsed being brought full-term.
True socialism, oh yes, each said;
All who forget now reaffirm
The same and ugly soldiers' stance
And the gnawing of that worm.
True socialism, oh yes, he said,
Yet true socialists don't squirm.
That they do not, but urge it again
Should clearly reaffirm
That such as he are with us still,
His cadre dreams long-term.
See: I'll use my freedom and also The Truth
"Big Island Carbon LLC, which spent some $50 million to build a biomass plant to turn Hawaii-grown macadamia nut shells into granulated activated carbon, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company, which has not started commercial operations at the Kawaihae plant, has laid off all 25 employees, including CEO Rick Vidgen, who was let go on Oct. 9 along with Chief Operating Officer Fred Baker and Controller Gerald Gruber, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where the bankruptcy was filed on Nov. 5. Vidgen declined to comment on the bankruptcy filing." In "Biomass producer Big Island Carbon files Chapter 7 bankruptcy," by Janis L. Magin, Managing Editor of Digital Content- Pacific Business News, 27 November 2012
Decline to comment;
No comment to be had.
Bankrupt but so green.
Now isn't that so sad?
The story is now oft reprised
And acted out again.
All and more is then foreseen.
The question is just when?
Of such things we are now told:
To comment, one declines.
Might I herein be too bold?
Such no comment brightly shines...
...out the same-old same-old mold.
Bankruptcy but maligns.
Truth foreseen, corruption told:
Ergo one comment declines.
See: Bankrupt green. and So - stupid, and also We won't ever be like them - reality, ahem!
"A Cook County judge set bail at $25,000 for Donne Trotter, 62, on the felony charge. Trotter, who has called the incident an honest mistake, posted bond and was released shortly afterward. If convicted, Trotter could face a sentence ranging from probation to up to four years in prison, according to prosecutors. Trotter, a Chicago Democrat, is a gun control advocate who once voted "no" on a measure that would have allowed state residents to carry concealed weapons in 1995." In "Illinois lawmaker running for Congress out on bond after gun charge" by Renita D. Young, Reuters, 6 December 2012
Guns for me, but not for thee,
That's our gun control.
Registered or maybe not?
That's a slick Chicago pol.
Strictest laws, so they say,
A gun safe zone to have,
Leaking like a hole-filled sieve
As words spread out their salve.
Let's all join the circus:
Gun control's the rage,
Let's organize a demo,
With rhetoric, thick and sage.
But when the push comes to pushing shove,
It seems the shoving folks
Think all their words and all their push
Are just their little jokes.
A Class 4 felony? An honest mistake,
Pled the jackass with donkey ears,
And all the other jackasses
Racing to allay political fears.
Guns for me, but not for thee,
That's gun control, we say.
Registered or maybe not?
That's part of the Chicago way.
Envoi: "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel attributes the rise in homicides, in part, to the broader problem of illegal guns on the street." In "Chicago observes a grim milestone: the 500th murder of 2012," by Adam Edelman, New York Daily News, 29 December 2012
Adden-dumb: "One party official made a joking reference to State Sen. Donne Trotter's early December arrest at O’Hare International Airport for carrying an unregistered handgun. Trotter is one of the candidates who wants Jackson's old seat.," by Janell Ross, Huffington Post, Chicago, 21 December 2012
See: If Chicago were a war zone, and for an oddly parallel story of another American politician, The anti-gun guy
"The District said Monday that hundreds of city workers took nearly $2 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits, a scandal that roiled the D.C. government earlier this year and prompted widespread firings and criminal charges. Lisa Mallory, the director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services, told the D.C. Council that her agency had detected $1.9 million in overpayments to District workers who collected unemployment benefits while on the city's payroll. 'This probe continues to be ongoing,; said Mallory, who has credited access to a specialized database for the initial detection of the fraud." In "D.C. says more than 300 city workers involved in unemployment scandal," by Alan Blinder, Washington Times, 19 November 2012
Cash in.
Trash in.
Thrashin' the law.
Hundreds.
Boneheads.
Gosh. Gee. Pshaw.
Workers,
Shirkers,
There's a guffaw.
Wheeling,
Dealing,
Stealing? Who saw?
Scandal?
Handle
Fraud or withdraw.
Envoi: "Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity." Tacitus (56-117), in "Annals"
Addendum: "We have a generation, many of whom are looking for a way to bleed the system to get their 'fair share.' We could call them the 'entitlement class.' But it goes beyond the welfare class to people with jobs and careers, looking for some way to 'cash in' in some way. There are many variations, but the common denominator is people looking for a way to get some kind of a free ride, in a manner in which they did not work for it or earn it. This reaches even to the tops of corporate America, with the recent bunch of corporate executives and CEOs that had a lapse of ethics and conscience and seem to have forgot such annoying things as laws, in the interest of their own personal fortunes." In "The Tytler Cycle" by John Eberhard. CommonSenseGovernment.com, 15 September 2003
Addendum: "The government's case against Freeman centered on an alleged scheme in which he was accused of boosting his salary by illegally directing Local 6434 money to the affiliated organization he led, California United Homecare Workers. He was charged with similarly defrauding a union-funded nonprofit group devoted to building homes for low-wage workers. At the time, Freeman's annual compensation was about $200,000, making him one of the higher-paid union leaders in the nation. The tax counts he was convicted on involved his failure to report about $63,000 in income from 2006 and 2007. Prosecutors dropped another tax charge initially brought in the indictment." In "Former leader of major California union faces theft, tax charges," by Paul Pringle and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 1 August 2013
Follow-up to the addendum: "Ex-SEIU local exec convicted of stealing from low-income members," by Paul Pringle and Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 28 January 2013
See: Welfare Queen, also Free Money
"The 'almost democracy' of the Hebrew Bible is less about structures of government than about culture and “habits of the heart,” the laws, practices and institutions capable of sustaining the virtues necessary for individual responsibility and a sense of the common good. It is as if in their different ways prophets, priests and sages were saying: there is a limit to how much can be changed in the human condition by power alone. Don’t expect political structures to deliver freedom. That needs a long apprenticeship in liberty. There is more to society than politics, and more to freedom than power." In "How democratic were the children of Israel?" by Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, The JC.com, November 15, 2012
Majority rule means nothing,
If not dictatorship as a club.
Therein lies the truth of it,
The meaning and the nub.
Little-d democrats
Play the democratic game,
But push comes to shoving shove,
And it's someone else gets the blame.
Liberty, freedom,
Old fashioned words,
Irritate damning democrats
And upset their loyal herds.
Society has so often
More politics than it needs,
More seeking democratic power
And practicing their screeds.
Minority rights must surely
Then be well preserved,
When again majorities fail
And to tyranny are swerved.
Little-d democrats
Are not left to be right,
As orthodox democracy
Is a rancorous fight.
Liberty, freedom,
Such new fangled themes,
Threaten little-d democrats
And their power-filling schemes.
Envoi: "You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989), in Tikkun (July-August 1989)
Addendum: "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Addendum: "Importantly, majority rule is not a fundamental principle of either democracy or fairness, nor is it required by any basic principle of democracy or fairness." In "Against Majoritarianism: Democratic Values and Institutional Design," by Stephen Macedo, Boston University Law Review, Vol. 90:1029
Addendum: "Love work, loath mastery over others, and avoid intimacy with the government." In "Ethics of the Fathers" (Pirkei Avot) 1:10, and "Be careful with the government, for they befriend a person only for their own needs. They appear to be friends when it is beneficial to them, but they do not stand by a person at the time of his distress." In " Ethics of the Fathers" (Pirkei Avot) 2:3
Addendum: "Resist much, obey little." Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (first published 1855)
See: Democracy is stupid, and Dizzy Dent and also a setting of Walt Whitman's text, To the States - (2004)
Life goes by and by and by
And always what is near too nigh
Is ever and a time like this,
Its hour drawn out from time's ticked kiss.
What were we are we will we be
Answers not in its fading, free
From what is once as never was
But always is as time's tick does.
Time goes by and by and by
And ever when we sore to fly --
To soar on wings of gossamer
That in these times do rise and stir...
To their end that they may spread
And carry us on the road ahead.
Who knew knows or can foresee?
Perhaps someone, but not me.
I prefer a knowing not,
A point to where I go, a spot
Where knowing will then come to be
As willingly I leave off me...
To that, the greater immensity,
When life goes between me and thee.
Life goes by and by and by,
Yet never answers, questioned why.
See: A song setting of Julie Dalton Williamson's text - No Ending - (2012)
"Again, the message they’re sending is quite clear– citizens, even in death, are dairy cows for the government to milk. Perhaps most shocking is increase in dividend tax rates, set to rise from 15% to as high as 43.4%. Individuals who start productive businesses are being heavily penalized. Individuals who save their money and put it to work investing in other people’s businesses are being heavily penalized. This says a lot about government values. Ironically, the new government of the People’s Republic of China has decided the REDUCE their tax on dividends. Years ago it was 20%, then dropped to 10% in 2005. Effective January 1st, though, the dividend tax rate in China will drop to a mere 5%." In "Tell Me Again... Which Of These Nations Is Communist?" by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, 20 November 2012
The donkeys and the elephants
Are playing at their game.
Let us now tax dividends
To a world-high rate! The aim?
To recover from that which seems unfair,
And gather some capital cash
From all the folks who've got some
To add to our capital stash.
These donkeys and these elephants
Pretend that freedom works,
As they confiscate to spend and spend
On donkeys' and elephants' perks.
Leaders lead, for so they tell,
And the message seems quite clear;
They help themselves to the high life
Off the sheep they fleece and shear.
When China taxes less than US,
An odd thing clarifies.
Blue donkeys and red elephants
All tax as their sole enterprise.
Addendum: "In Shanghai, the tax cut has helped reduce enterprises' tax burdens by 22.5 billion yuan (3.57 billion U.S.dollars) in the first 10 months of this year, while in Beijing, the new measure has cut tax revenue by 2.5 billion yuan in two months." In "Tax cut to benefit over 900,000 enterprises," Xinhuanet, China, 26 November 2012
"Years of overhaul efforts have done little to improve schools in Illinois, and a comprehensive and sustained program to change how children are educated in the state's public schools is needed, leaders of an education reform group said Tuesday. 'We're going to have to hit this with a 2-by-4,' said Robin Steans, executive director of Advance Illinois. According to a report released by the organization Tuesday, only one-third of Illinois students complete fourth grade proficient in reading; the same percentage of students is academically prepared at the start of high school; and fewer than one-third of students leave high school ready for college." In "Advance Illinois releases dismal report on education in Illinois," by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune, 14 November 2012
1-by-2?
No one knew?
2-by-3?
Don't you see?
3-by-4?
Dropouts soar.
4-by-5?
Sake's alive!
5-by-6?
Politics.
6-by-7?
Film at 11.
7-by-8?
Not played straight.
8-by-9?
By design?
9-by-ten?
Yet again.
2-by-4?
You'll need more.
Two and fro - not too much to know
By the wardrobe stands a can
That could hold none other than
A box within the can, I'd wager,
Explaining "What's in the box?"
And yet another question knocks:
Is it sung in minor or perhaps in major?
Leering out a long rectangle
"Two eyes" -- ah -- knows the angle.
I ask: But in those drawers is what?
What drawers, you ask? I answer,
The referent's advancer.
Wardrobe drawers are boxes shut.
One opens all with questions;
One shuts all with suggestions:
Alternatives go forth, then back.
Can a box be in a can?
Is a rectangled box more than
A frame to boundary a cul-de-sac?
One wonders, knowing not,
Because in art that's what we've got.
Questions point to questions' queries.
One goes here and one goes there,
And one might go quite anywhere.
Or so is this my simple theory.
By some wardrobe stands some can
That could hold none other than
Some box within the can, I'd gamble,
Nothing ventured, nothing gained,
And so nothing well explained:
Such questions for us all to unscramble!
An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the 'destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt,' drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week. Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such 'idols.' " In "'Destroy the idols,' Egyptian jihadist calls for removal of Sphinx, Pyramids," in Al Arabiya. 12 November 2012
Coexist, as sometimes said
By the blind as Western-bred,
Makes seven sweet melding icons speak
A happy word, just one, just meek.
The starred Crescent, an angry moon,
Is followed by the peace sign swOon,
Then hermaphrodite -- boy-E-girl;
After then David's X-starred pearl
And after Wiccan's pronoun, I,
Yin-yang's circle seems so Sly,
T types Christian? Really? Why?
Coexist, so clever, coy,
With clever symbols spells a toy,
Subsuming religions in one word,
As if the image were not absurd.
The angry Crescent, a starred moon,
Is on its march across the dune
To sand away the distant past
In order that only it will last.
Coexistence, some have said,
Is wise, we should be led.
But others would crush that idol dead.
Coexist is an idol dressed
As an icon of the dulled, dead West
In a game not all will play
Until other idols are ground to clay.See: Islamophobia
"Mao Tse-Tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world's population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader." --Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, "Mao: The Unknown Story" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005).
Death in peacetime ends not always
with a peaceful, peacetime death,
As Sino-Socialism's victims prove
with their millions' dying breath.
The professorial and the oh so cool,
those edgy, trendy folk
Think Warhol's Mao's an icon,
like a huge artistic joke.
Mao has hung on Christmas trees,
on precinct workers' walls,
In posters and iconic things
to line university halls.
When such Western stupidity
is totaled, the sum is great,
A soft and cuddly version
of murderous Maoist hate.
The Western Left love their icons
and wear them like a charm,
Ignoring such brutality,
much thuggery and harm.
But they would be offended
when one would speak a truth;
The iconic Mister Western Mao
is a lie told to our youth.
Death in peacetime ends not always
with a peaceful, peacetime death,
As Sino-Socialism's victims prove
with their millions' dying breath.See: Revising History
I'm done with my complaining - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Müller poem
I'm done with my complaining
About how bad things get,
When with a heady, hefty wine
I can my whistle wet.
Awful news? Apocalypse?
Brother, let's have a drink!
To toss one down has greater worth
Than newsprint and the printers' ink.
Perhaps things round the world
And from day to miserable day
Get worse, more worse, most worse
As so many loudly say:
But there's relief in liquidity
Despite the fads and trends,
As has been true throughout the years
When spent with drink and friends.
What each passing year might bring
In public stings' breadth and length,
Is answered fruitfully by wine,
Ginning passion, courage, strength.
Let's pour out yet another round,
Open and empty, and open yet more.
Time flies by just the same,
And constant worry is such a bore!
For those who waste their pressured lives
Mired in misery's chains,
I recommend some vintage year
Such thinking to right rearrange.
Envoi: "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
"The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race. On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities, reported the Palm Beach Post." In "Florida Passes Plan For Racially-Based Academic Goals," CBS Tampa, 12 October 2012
Merit dies as scholarship
Lies gasping in ICU.
Equality has taken leave,
In this political curlicue.
Grades are now just relative
And goals change like the winds,
As education withers now;
Plain commonsense rescinds
The excuses which are trotted out
To make some colored skin
The same old lesser worth
Which the KKK said in sin.
Slavery based on the hues of skin
Was toppled long ago,
But now the same conclusions
Are held as apropos
Of enlightened academic thinking
About children, culture, race,
All the while their work
Keeps some lessers in their place.
I'd hold to a different view,
Expectations even raised,
To see accomplishment be born
And achievement highly praised.
But this is now what racists
Call racist in our day,
For it demands merit and
Then scholarship holds sway.
The race which means the most
Is not the Asian there,
But in winning one's accomplishment
All efforts are deemed fair.
Those who work and work yet more
Receive a just reward,
While those who act with sloth and less
Should probably be ignored.
See: Everything's about my colored skin - (or sadly, Why racism works)
We won't ever be like them - reality, ahem!
"Seven months after calling themselves the 'anti-Solyndra,' the Colorado-based solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar announced it was filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, arguing that cheap Chinese solar panels flooding the market caused their demise. 'With over $30 billion in reported government subsidies, Chinese panel makers were able to sell below cost and put Abound out of business before we were big enough to pose a real competitive threat to China’s rapidly growing market share,' according to the prepared congressional testimony by Craig Witsoe, former CEO of Abound." In "Sources, documents suggest government-subsidized Abound Solar was selling faulty product," by Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller, 2 October 2012
We would never be like them, and yet, in time we are.
Strike a pose, adopt a stance, keep reality afar?
But ticked time's mill stone grinds all fine,
And reality refuses to toe the illiquid line.
We won't ever be like them, that is, until we are.
Chapter seven liquidates this emptied repertoire.
Billions wasted on a dream, again and then again.
Such is the tale of subsidies and green lies told by men.
See: Bankrupt green
Sixteen trillion - the teetering pavilion
"You load sixteen tons, what do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt. / Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, / I owe my soul to the company store." first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his album 'Folk Songs of the Hills' in 1947.
You owe sixteen trillion, and what do you get?
Another year weaker and deeper in debt.
Prosperity ain't calling, the reason you know:
You owe your soul 'cause you wouldn't say "no."
The nation owes trillions, a growing threat.
The numbers explode; now don't you forget,
Prosperity can't call you, the numbers show:
You owe your soul 'cause you couldn't say "whoa."
You owe sixteen trillion, and that's your bad bet,
And so you ignore it, trying not to fret.
Prosperity can't help you by printing more dough:
You owe your soul for the money you blow.
You owe sixteen trillion, your grandkids' debt,
That's how you pretend you're clever, and yet....
Prosperity ain't coming to this fiasco:
They'll owe their souls 'cause you wouldn't say "no."
Envoi: "And don't tell me debt is not a big deal. Debt will cut off your legs and laugh at you as you grovel in the dirt begging for mercy. If you don't need it, don't get it. If you can't afford it, don't get it. If you're already in debt, get out quickly. If you think you'll never get out, you're right, you won't." Osayi Osar-Emokpae, in "Impossible Is Stupid"
See: Debt
Noah's Ark - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Müller poem
Our meals yet not our drink
Were brought from paradise.
What Adam once had wasted
When Eve's apple did entice
Was given back by heady wine
And merry songs that intertwine.
Once man's new earth was sunk
By the joys of eating crowned,
The flood would wash away man's sin
As creatures by it were drowned.
But dear old Noah did survive,
And did our grapes vines keep alive.
He fled with wife and family,
Sailing in an ark-shaped vat
Which floated o'er flooding waters,
And none got wet from that.
By this did wine for us live on
Till watery death became dry dawn.
And as the flood abated,
The great round house alit
So all could come ashore
And upon that mountain sit,
To greet anew with cheery hoots
And plant their vineyards' tender shoots.
That vat upon the mountain
Stands as monument this day;
Yet in Heidelberg on the Neckar
We see something like it, anyway.
So understand this then, a story fine,
How came our grapes along the Rhine.
If even one would err with bile
Our sacred wine so to revile,
He should sink in flooding waters
To wash away the smirk or smile.
So brethren, raise your glasses:
For wine and song all surpasses!See: Die Arche Noäh
"I do not want to see the allies defeated. But I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing and seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed. Englishmen are showing the strength that Empire builders must have. I expect them to rise much higher than they seem to be doing." Mahatma Gandhi, in Letter to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, regarding the military situation between England and Germany (May 1940), quoted in Collected Works (1958), p. 70.
The problem with words is they hang around,
And then rise up with lingering sound
To remind that our saints are so easily fooled
As hindsight well shows to those so schooled.
Why, he wasn't as bad as he was depicted,
So said a man who wrongly predicted.
The problem with worship of all mortal men
Is even the best ones err, and then
Their errors compound into raging roars
Which teach us wise men too can be boors.
Why, he wasn't as bad as he was depicted,
So said some words history's contradicted.
Non-violence as a creed serves not well,
Sometimes paving a pathway straight to hell;
And wise pronouncements often pale
When in hindsight reality's truths prevail.
Yup, he wasn't as bad as he was depicted,
Excepting the millions of dead he'd inflicted.
Empire builders, now there's a phrase
Which bubbled in Gandhi's bubbling praise
With opinions sure footed, written and read
Which never conceived of so many dead.
But, he was in fact worse than he was depicted,
The mahatma was wrong, his vision constricted.
Envoi: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?" Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Addendum: "Relatively little was known in America about Hitler, and many leading newspapers predicted that the Nazis would not turn out to be as bad as some feared. An editorial in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin on Jan. 30 [1933] claimed that “there have been indications of moderation” on Hitler’s part. The editors of the Cleveland Press, on Jan. 31, asserted that the 'appointment of Hitler as German chancellor may not be such a threat to world peace as it appears at first blush.' Officials of the Roosevelt administration were quoted in the press as saying they 'had faith that Hitler would act with moderation compared to the extremist agitation [i]n his recent election campaigning... [They] based this belief on past events showing that so-called 'radical' groups usually moderated, once in power.'" In "How the press soft-pedaled Hitler," by Rafael Medoff, jns.org, posted 17 January 2013
See: Conjugating Hitler
"Nous sommes ici dans le dogme anti-capitaliste, l'anti-économique, le «brisage de rêve», la démotivation quasi-sadique, le "je-ne-sais-quoi-qui-donne-la nausée"..." In "Une loi de finances anti-start-up?" by Jean-David Chamboredon, La Tribune, 28 September 2012 [ 1 ]
Auntie Capital's in a snit
And don't know what to do.
Auntie Capital is -- mmm -- fit
To cook in Darwin's stew.
Auntie Capital's sucking dream
Is ready, perched in view.
Auntie Capital's latest scheme,
Does wrong 'gainst what works true.
Auntie Capital's latest thought
Seeks more capital to be brought.
Then just what has belle France bought?
A deadly cold is what she's caught.
Idea logs burst into fire,
To burn with passion and expire.
Capital flees, we know that's true,
As Auntie Capital applies her screw.
Dogma dogs old Auntie now,
And soon she'll kill her own cash cow.Auntie Capital can't live alone,
She'll need her pigeons, when they've flown....
Envoi: "Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours / Un de ces matins disparaissent / Le soleil brillera toujours." ("But if these ravens, these vultures / disappeared one of these days / the sun will shine forever." From the socialist hymn, L'Internationale, 1871 text by Eugène Pottier (1816–1887).
Reference: " Enemies of Capitalism, just below
[ 1 ] Recent years have brought a reform of the Revolutionary Communist League: "A new party aiming to appeal to disaffected French leftists of all political stripes was born Saturday. The New Anticapitalist Party, or NPA, is the latest incarnation of the Revolutionary Communist League, or LCR, which was dissolved to create the new party. NPA founder Olivier Besancenot has said the global economic crisis — and the conservative French government's response — has shown that the global capitalist system is not viable." In "New anticapitalist party born in France," in USAToday, 7 February 2009.
In only a few years the bickering began and worsened: "In its first years, the NPA attracted whole new layers of activists from a wide variety of backgrounds: militant trade unionists, youth, greens, feminists, and even anarchists. Militants from smaller Trotskyist groups joined it, too. However, it failed to win them to a clear common strategic orientation for fighting capitalism; that is, to a coherent programme. Nor did it gain any agreement on the tactics necessary to bring down the Sarkozy government. And as we have noted, its electoral tactics were incoherent." In "France’s New Anticapitalist Party’s congress fails to solve its crisis," in Workers Power UK, 7 May 2013.
Amusingly, one reads: "In their minds, and contrary to what some politicians have assumed, the enemies are not the foreigners but employers and their main instrument: the State. Both of them pointed out the necessity to create links with the various fighting workers’ movements so as to make converge all the fights under a common perspective, the same political objective, which could eventually lead to a better organization of the society and a better distribution of wealth." In "France Anti-Capitalist Party Holds Gathering," by Anne-Sophie Raujol, La Jeune Politique, 25 Ocotber 2012.
Now with avowed socialist Hollande atop French government, one sees Auntie Capital struggling -- because of capital being sought by the anti-capitalists. One reads: "In a world where the best capitalists are card-carrying Chinese communists and even the Castro brothers are slowly liberalising Cuba, the episode exposed just how out of sync French politics are with what most of the world now thinks about the sources of economic growth." In "ArcelorMittal episode depicts France's anti-capitalist neurosis and its relationship with money," by Bennett Voyles, IndiaTimes, 9 December 2012.
And so, the populace is unsettled: "To express their discontent with Hollande’s policies, tens of thousands of leftists marched through Paris on Sunday. Police put the number of leftwing rally participants at 30,000, while the organizers claim the crowd was six times that figure. A major source of public anger is skyrocketing unemployment, the worst in years, with 3.2 million French now looking for work. And that’s just one of the factors which contributed to Hollande’s popularity plummet. The French are dissatisfied with the fact that the one who they hailed as a socialist hero could not deliver on many of his election promises." In "Hollande anniversary marked by protests and record popularity slump," RTNews, 6 May 2013. What promises? To redistribute wealth by various policies to fund election promises, all the while denigrating the creation of wealth from which the Hollande programs planned to redistribute. One does not easily pay from an empty wallet. It is capital that fills wallets, as the Chinese communist leadership has managed rather well to fill theirs at the expense of a populace.
For more on this, see: Capital for Communists - a story growing old, and We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. The basic problem for ideologues who seek to redistribute capital while speaking against capital is obvious. From whence comes capital, that one might be against it while seeking it? And for this, one sees reaction from the dastardly capitalists who have and are planning to exit France for its climbing taxation rates. It is therefore even more amusing to consider the rhetoric of anti-capitalism from an earlier historical perspective of other European anti-capitalists, as below.
And further, it is instructive to observe further from a news article: "The weakness of their politics is that they have no united font policy towards the PS, and therefore no way of breaking French workers from reformism. And their approach to the NPA’s development is negative. Regarding its foundation as an abandonment of “Trotskyism”, they cannot see how to struggle for a revolutionary programme within it. While most of the NPA platforms agree on a turn outwards towards workers’ struggles, these are developing under a reformist PS-led government, where the union leaders, as usual, are holding back and sabotaging struggles to protect the government. In "France Anti-Capitalist Party Holds Gathering," by Anne-Sophie Raujol, La Jeune Politique, 25 Ocotber 2012. If anti-capitalism were a positive and productive program, the most ardent anti-capitalist political movements should by now have demonstrated through their economic prosperity the greatest growth and productivity in history. Sadly for Auntie Capital, it seems that capital is still more productive than "anti-capital." This remains a delicious irony for dear old Auntie, which has yet to deal with -- as the original quote above clearly mentions -- "demotivation" of those producing the capital at the political attacks of the anti-capitalists who oddly seek capital. Might be that anti-capitalists require capital even more than capitalists?
"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." Adolf Hitler, quoted in John Toland, "Adolf Hitler," p. 224, New York, Anchor Books, 1976.
A word, we're told, doesn't mean the same
When it various folks define.
Today's socialists say Hitler's game
Was fascist, as they whine,
But a word is a word is a word is a word
And that fiend toed the socialist line.
Modern socialists wiggle and squirm
To wrestle with this, yet malign
And as enemies of capitalism, they join hands
But with whom? I ask and opine,
With those who spoke the very same words,
Which stem from the roots of one socialist vine.
Reference: "Auntie Capital," just above
Corollary -- See Anti-capitalism struggles
Rearrange the words - an exercise in grammar
Filthy rich businesses --
Poor dumb governments --
That's what folks are wont to say.
But filthy rich governments
Tax poor dumb businesses;
Rearrange the words, flipping this way
For debate about the size and scope
Of the fat cat governing class --
Of a taxing bureaucracy holding sway.
Rearrange the words; consider --
Who profits most of all?
Do not the governments underplay.
Work and eke a taxed profit?
Or tax all with but slight constraint?
Governments win out straightaway.
One may ignore rich businesses,
Just turn on one's heel and walk away.
Ignore governments and walk? Just try that today.
Filthy rich businesses?
Poor dumb governments?
That's what we're told each day.
But filthy rich government
Heists a portion of profits all;
Rearrange and see: with governments, we're all their prey.
See: Up on the little guy
Growth in debt - a non-sequitur
The first 42 presidents had driven the debt to $5 trillion, he said, but Bush "added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic," said candidate Obama. Under Obama, in just over three years, the debt has ballooned to $16 trillion. He spends and spends. But he sure looked cool talking to the pirate. Numbers don't cringe. Numbers don't have bromances with talk show hosts. Numbers don't make gaffes. And all that $16 trillion debt does is grow." In "Obama's pricey gaffe that's worth talking about," by John Kass, Chicago Tribune, 23 September 2012
Growth in debt is shrinkage sure;
Spending now is the deadly lure.
Someone later will fix the mess,
But that is then in this political chess.
Kick the can and kick it again,
Make debtors of the next rank of men.
Generations will pay, so it is said,
But ever more likely, they'll be bled.
Growth in debt is shrinkage sure
Because growth in debt is a non-sequitur.
Envoi: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt." Barack Obama, in remarks to the Senate, 16 March 2006
Addendum: "The key elements of the required policy package are well known: foremost among them is setting out—and implementing—a clear and credible plan to bring debt ratios down over the medium term. The continued absence of such plans in Japan and the United States remains a significant concern, particularly given the introduction of new short-term stimulus in Japan (even though temporary) and insufficient progress on measures to restore medium-term fiscal sustainability, including entitlement reform, in the United States." In "Fiscal Adjustment in an Uncertain World," IMF, April 2013.
See: This Then That - portrait of the Gordian Acrobat
Diogenes and the bad boys of Corinth, a Grecian story - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Pensively lying in his barrel,
Diogenes philosophized not on his peril.
A bad boy of Corinth by him had passed
Who called to his chum to join him fast.
On that barrel these bad boys drummed;
At civility they their noses thumbed.
Diogenes peered out from where he lay,
And said: Hey! That's not very agápē!
The hoodied boy, reports disclose,
Ran quick to fetch a water hose.
Sprayed through a hole knocked in a stave,
Diogenes was drenched by this one knave.
Barely could Diogenes lie down again,
These two bad boys returned, and then...
The two began to push and spin
The barrel; Diogenes screamed within.
The barrel heavily turned and spun,
And to the boys it seemed fine fun.
Two nails sticking out here and there
Caught on their jackets. Ah, beware!
The boys were taught by physics' law,
As they screamed and flipped and saw...
The barrel rolling, flattening them,
Not ever part of their stratagem.
Those boys from Corinth, bad, unwashed,
Were predictably and fully squashed.
Philosophizing, Diogenes was not perplexed.
"Ah yes, one thing regularly leads to the next."
"The only way to save America’s children is to lock up the baby boomers. We are robbing the next generation’s future." In "Boomers vs. Millennials: Who’s Really Getting Robbed?" by Michael Winerip, in the New York Times, 13 September 2012
Deficits are just robbery;
Public debt is basically theft.
Adding to the deficits
Shows sense has gone and left.
Government says roll it over,
Paying interest is so great;
Its one true self-interest
Is its own re-election's fate.
Vote for me! I'll rob your kids, not you,
And probably rob your grandkids too,
But just consider your goodies I send
And you'll come round in the end.
Envoi: "Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people." Wendell Phillips (1811-1884)
Addendum: "A pickpocket is obviously a champion of private enterprise. But it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that a pickpocket is a champion of private property. The point about Capitalism and Commercialism, as conducted of late, is that they have really preached the extension of business rather than the preservation of belongings; and have at best tried to disguise the pickpocket with some of the virtues of the pirate." G. K. Chesterton, The Outline of Sanity (1927)
See: Debt
Offertory - an anthem of irony
"The National Atheist Party is canceling its secular convention due to a lack of funding. Troy Boyle, the party’s president, announced on its website won’t be holding NAPCON 2012 in Boston in October because it would bankrupt the group." In "National Atheist Party Cancels Convention Due To Lack Of Funding," CBS Connecticut, 30 August 2012
The choir sings, so pass the plate.
Oh no! No services? But wait!
The organ plays, collection time?
But no one comes to drop a dime.
Congregated? Well, they're not.
A patron ain't is what they got.
Pass their hat? It gathers squat.
Their party comes now to naught.
Near to bankruptcy's their thing?
Oh, my Lord! The angels sing....
Envoi: "Among the repulsions of atheism for me has been its drastic uninterestingness as an intellectual position. Where was the ingenuity, the ambiguity, the humanity (in the Harvard sense) of saying that the universe just happened to happen and that when we're dead we're dead?" John Updike (1932-2009)
Addendum: "There were two factors in particular that were decisive. One was my growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe. The second was my own insight that the integrated complexity of life itself—which is far more complex than the physical Universe—can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source. I believe that the origin of life and reproduction simply cannot be explained from a biological standpoint despite numerous efforts to do so. With every passing year, the more that was discovered about the richness and inherent intelligence of life, the less it seemed likely that a chemical soup could magically generate the genetic code. The difference between life and non-life, it became apparent to me, was ontological and not chemical. The best confirmation of this radical gulf is Richard Dawkins' comical effort to argue in The God Delusion that the origin of life can be attributed to a 'lucky chance.' If that's the best argument you have, then the game is over. No, I did not hear a Voice. It was the evidence itself that led me to this conclusion." Quote of Anthony Flew, in "How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind," by Dr. Benjamin Wiker, To the Source, 30 October 2007.
Addendum: "Irreligion. The principal one of the great faiths of the world." Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
See: No God is the god for me - a musing on amusing atheists
Serve the Poor - observing the Poverty Barons
"The Department for International Development (DFID) paid almost £500million last year to consultants, mostly British, many of whom earn six, even seven-figure incomes, courtesy of the taxpayer. DFID also funds dozens of foreign consultancy firms. It is paying £6million to the University of Cape Town to investigate mental health issues in southern Africa and millions of pounds to US-based organisations, including the Clinton Foundation, the International Food Policy Research Institute and Family Health Inter-national. It is paying a Washington-based group, Search for Common Ground, £3.9million to 'support the electoral cycle in Sierra Leone'. Consultancy firms in India and Uganda are also receiving large sums." In "'Poverty barons' who make a fortune from taxpayer-funded aid budget, Britain's swelling overseas aid budget has created a new group of “poverty barons” paying themselves up to £2 million a year for their work helping the disadvantaged," by Andrew Gilligan, The Telegraph UK, 15 September 2012
Serve the poor,
Six figures rich.
Programs pay;
So where's the hitch?
Budgets bloat,
Teeter, pitch,
To and fro,
Bait and switch.
Serve the poor,
Scratch that itch.
Six-figure leaders
Fill each niche.
Philanthropy?
A lucrative plum.
Common ground?
Like a sieve, old chum.
Poverty?
Not for some
Who receive
Till kingdom come.
A Serve Yourself
Consortium
Pays itself
At maximum.
Envoi: "Almost all War on Poverty programs shied away from serious empirical research, since they were mainly run by people with an ideological belief in the redemptive power of their own programs." In "What I Learned in the Poverty War, Work, not welfare, uplifts the poor," by Peter Cove, City Journal, Autumn 2012, vol. 22, no.4
Addendum: "But an audit released today found that among 20 community agencies hired by the state, several had misspent or failed to refund a total of $12.2 million from January 2010 to June 2011 —some by awarding themselves bonuses, throwing themselves a party at a country club, or hiring others to do the work and pocketing the proceeds." In "Audit: N.J. child welfare nonprofits misspent as much as $12.2M," by Susan K. Livio, NJ - New Jersey, 5 February 2013
Addendum: "After Joe Kennedy left Congress, he returned to run Citizens Energy. That job paid him $86,311 in 2010. But the bulk of his income comes from his for-profit companies — Citizens Enterprises Corp. and Citizens Investments Ltd. — which together paid him $807,390 in salary and benefits. Kennedy’s wife, Elizabeth, raked in $346,764 from the nonprofit, where she is marketing director, and from the for-profit companies." In "$lick Kennedy is oil broken up," by isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein, New York Post, 10 March 2013
From chrysalis of day
Through chrysalis of night
We cannot remember,
And yet we take flight.
The flight we take
As each chrysalis breaks
Is a new dawn, awake,
Which memory forsakes.
Rage we against
The dying of the light?
The butterfly knows
When mere poets lose sight.
Out chrysalis one day
Into chrysalis one night,
We will not remember
Yet wings will take flight.
"Only human beings who are forced to hide something catastrophic are capable of erring so consistently and punishing so relentlessly any attempt at clarifying such errors." Wilhelm Reich, in "Ether, God and Devil/Cosmic Superimposition"
I'd like to blame the eraser
For mistakes my pencil made.
I'd like to blame my pencil
When my thinking was what strayed.
I'd like to blame that inkwell
When my pen had scratched its lie.
I'd like to blame poor penmanship
When content runs awry.
I'd like to blame the gritty truth
Which often knocks me down.
But I'd never blame myself, not me,
As I burnish bright my crown.
I'd like to blame the burning bush
For its bursting into flame.
I'd like to blame most anyone
As my operative counterclaim.
I'd like to spread the guilt around,
Yet lavish gilt on me.
Blame is like a tide, a flood,
And ne'er my calamity.
You bear the blame, I tell you true,
For I alone assign...
...the penalties which blame poor you --
All those that I opine.
I'd like to blame the hand gun
For the shooter's innocence.
I'd like to blame low taxes,
Not my poor beneficence.
I'd like to blame and blame some more
Just so you'll understand
That nothing I have ever done
Is a fault from my own hand.
I'd like to blame another,
For so the game proceeds
To point accusing fingers
And fueling raging screeds.
I'd like to blame and then again
I'd like to blame yet more,
For in my active blaming
Your blaming I can ignore.
Envoi: "We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others." Pema Chödrön (b. 1936)
Thoughts are never secret;
They leach into the world,
Even if as puzzles,
Awaiting sense, unfurled.
Thoughts are thoughts becoming
Something as they're thought,
As connections or their eulogies
Comes thoughts' jumbled juggernaut.
Thoughts once secret, then they speak,
Or sing, or in symbols dance;
Thoughts reach out to others
In far more than happenstance.
Thoughts are ever secret,
Till comes the time they scream,
Or whisper, joking laugh,
Or take flight in a waking dream.
Unwise from the start - market forces and common sense dictate
"It is not often that a stroke of a pen can quickly undo the ravages of nature, but federal regulators now have an opportunity to do just that. Americans’ food budgets will be hit hard by the ongoing Midwestern drought, the worst since 1956. Food bills will rise and many farmers will go bust. An act of God, right? Well, the drought itself may be, but a human remedy for some of the fallout is at hand — if only the federal authorities would act. By suspending renewable-fuel standards that were unwise from the start, the Environmental Protection Agency could divert vast amounts of corn from inefficient ethanol production back into the food chain, where market forces and common sense dictate it should go." In "Corn for Food, Not Fuel," by Colin A. Carter and Henry I. Miller, The New York Times, 30 July 2012
Burn your food?
That harvest ripe?
Call it green
With wordy tripe;
Corn for food,
Not for fuel --
Rising costs
Are so cruel.
Now we learn,
Growing smart,
'Twas unwise
From the start.
Burn your wealth?
Lose it quick.
Say it's green
With verbal shtick.
Watch it come;
Watch it go --
Corn for fuel's
Afterglow.
Now we read,
Off each chart,
'Twas unwise
From the start.
Envoi: "For urban residents, the US biofuel mandates—now sending 40 percent of the US corn crop into ethanol production—are pushing up the price of corn, a staple food in Guatemala. Rosenthal points to an Iowa State University study estimating that US biofuel policy added about 17 percent to global corn prices in 2011—bad news for people who rely on tortillas as a staple." In "What Does Biofuel Have to Do With the Price of Tortillas in Guatemala?" by Tom Philpott, Mother Jones, 9 January 2013
Addendum: "As corn prices skyrocket and land is removed from food production to produce ethanol, some unintended consequences of fuel policies designed to cut carbon emissions are coming into focus." In "Are biofuels starving the world's poor?" Compiled by Eric Schulzke, Deseret News, 10 January 2013
See: Creative Folklore
Toil and labor praise I not! - paraphrase of a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing poem
Toil and labor praise I not!
Toil and labor's the worker's lot.
So, let the worker have his say:
Toil and labor? Or a lazy day?
Idleness is my delight;
It wearies not nor does incite.
Friend, let dust lie on your books.
Ignore them, nor more studied looks!
Tomorrow we ourselves are dust!
Laziness is right and just,
Except love's labors and wine's joy,
And laziness to well employ.See: Die Faulheit
This then that - portrait of the Gordian Acrobat
"He took office at a time when the U.S. economy was on its worst slide in 75 years, but pushed policies using borrowed money that were more meant to preserve government jobs than broadly help the private sector where the great majority of Americans work, ensuring the jobs crisis continued. He railed against the heavy spending and big deficits of his predecessor, but blithely backed budgets that had triple the deficits ever seen in American history." In "Presidential busts: The worst of all: Barack Obama (2009-?)," an editorial in San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 July 2012
I said this but I did that.
Fed the kitty yet killed the cat.
I said less but I spent all,
as we soar into our fall.
I said yes but I meant no.
Hey, it's politics. Don't you know?
I said no, while meaning yes.
You're the ones supposed to guess.
I say more for little me,
but not as an election plea.
Debt so bad is stimulus good,
in our parties' neighborhood.
This then that is all the game,
and ever always, you're to blame.
Envoi: "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
See: Growth in debt - a non-sequitur, and also Cherished Cultural Myths - to maintain power and influence
A comedian - paraphrase of a Joachim Ringelnatz poem
A comedian of ostensible renown
Went along a way of a road of a town.
Folks thereabouts would point, then exclaim,
"There goes Mister -- hmm -- What's-his-name!"
This ignominy stormed home, and took it out
By throttling his gal, Miss Knockabout.
Not play acting was he with his honey,
But serious: one must be earnest to be funny.See: Der Komiker
"General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts." In "Insight: GM's Volt - The ugly math of low sales, high costs," by Bernie Woodall and Paul Lienert and Ben Klayman, Reuters, 10 September 2012
Re: Volt is this just
Sticker shock?
The price you pay
For GM schlock?The market is revolting.
Costs X to build?
Half X is lost
When sold today
To count the cost.The basic truth is jolting.
The numbers tell
The lying word;
Re: Volt, the car is
Green absurd.The buyers? They are bolting.
Taxpayers lose?
Well, that's a shock.
It seems the Volt's
Just business crock.The Volt is now revolting.
Envoi: "Despite the promise of 'green' transportation - and despite billions of dollars in investment, most recently by Nissan Motor Co - EVs continue to be plagued by many of the problems that eventually scuttled electrics in the 1910s and more recently in the 1990s. Those include high cost, short driving range and lack of charging stations. The public's lack of appetite for battery-powered cars persuaded the Obama administration last week to back away from its aggressive goal to put 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015." In "Insight: Electric cars head toward another dead end," by Norihiko Shirouzu and Yoko Kubota and Paul Lienert, Reuters, Tokyo-Detroit, 5 February 2013
Addendum: "There’s simply no denying that the administration’s electric-vehicle project was a mistake. But it’s worth asking precisely what kind of mistake (beyond eminently foreseeable and terribly expensive). As Bruce Springsteen once sang: 'Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?'" In "The electric car mistake," by Charles Lane, Washington Post, 12 February 2013 [ 1 ]
See: A Losing Proposition
[ 1 ] As an amusing note, one comment to the Washington Post article observed, "electric vehicle = coal-powered vehicle," for the fact that recharging a battery requires an electrical source, and most in the United States are coal-fired plants, the remaining being nuclear and some hydroelectric. One group of environmentalists opposes coal, while another opposes nuclear, and yet another opposes new hydroelectric dams. taken together, one observes that a certain illogic fires the imaginations of environmental positions which call for electric vehicles without concerning themselves with where sufficient "electric" will come from in the future. Every religion seems structurally to demand its demons, and the secular stance of environmentalism in its many denominations has built one or more plentiful supplies of energy as their demons, while evangelizing for their chosen messiah. How human.
Response (of a drunken poet) - paraphrase of a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing poem
A drunken poet quickly drained
His glass, drawing this rebuff,
Being warned by his companion:
"Stop it! you've drunk enough."
Poised to topple out of his chair,
He cracked: "Clever, you're not!
One can always drink too much,
But enough can never be got."See: Antwort
Fled from empty market shelves - a history lesson
"It was the height of the Cold War, and the comrades believed that the conflict between socialism and capitalism would be decided in Germany. For that reason, they wanted to make sure that East Germany would economically outpace its West German rival. But Ulbricht's planned economy failed to gain momentum, and in 1960 alone, roughly 200,000 East Germans fled from empty supermarket shelves -- and the Stasi secret police -- to West Germany." In "Who Ordered the Construction of the Berlin Wall?" by Klaus Wiegrefe, Der Spiegel, 30 April 2009
Fled from empty market shelves?
Let us consider then this ourselves
Those police state thug-like tactics
With a mind to which didactics
Turned men's thoughts to the political thing,
As to economics, as its poor sibling.
In the conflict, so a telling mirror tells,
And on which each opposing side dwells,
It was socialism against mean capital flight;
It seems that fleeing was a capital fight.
For this that wall must corral such foe
As dare to shop and spend their dough.
Lesson lost? Forgotten? Suppressed?
The story returns, and never in jest,
For socialists now say the wall was bad,
Yet it was socialism that acted the social cad.
Socialism withered, plucked from capital's vine,
While capital flew elsewhere, to grow quite fine.
Had socialism worked, those nice socialists
Would have been quite prosperous, not angry, not pissed.
Alas it was proved by those empty market shelves,
And will again as the mirror's story delves
Into who built the wall and who took flight
And who sought capital and who built the blight.
Fled from empty market shelves?
Let us conclude then this ourselves
That police state walls and brutal snares
Await the same when come their heirs
To lure our thoughts to their political thing,
To socialism and its empty shelf sting.
Envoi: "Business representatives responded that shortages were a result of the government's economic policies, including intimidation, price controls and rationing of foreign currency in a country that was heavily dependent on imports. There isn't a single example in the world of a country where controlling prices and threatening businesses has worked in solving shortages," said Luis Vicente León, a pollster and economist who advises leading private companies in Venezuela." In "Chávez will miss inauguration, say officials," by Benedict Mander, Financial Times, 8 January 2013
Addendum: See the quotes beneath the verse, Socialists love money for a review of the East German Socialist leadership's perspective on capital.
I'm gonna guide you to the promised land - a story quite like others
"Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully, noting each of their strengths and weaknesses...." and "While Jones always spoke of the social gospel's virtues, before the late 1960s Jones chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism. By the late 1960s, Jones began at least partially openly revealing in Temple sermons his 'Apostolic Socialism' concept." In "Jim Jones," Wikipedia, accessed 4 August 2012.
I'm gonna guide you to the promised land
And if you don't follow in the ways I've planned,
You're a sexist, racist, hater, and a homophobe,
You're a devil, you're a demon, you're a xenophobe.
I'm gonna guide you to my promised land
But if you resist in the things I demand,
You're the enemy, a threat, and even traitor to the cause,
And for these many reasons, I'll unsheathe my claws....
And drag your sorry hide into my promised land,
And scorch the earth behind us so you cannot stand
On what you'd always thought was a haven from the storm
Of all the minions I'd muster for my poisoned swarm.
I'm gonna drag you to my promised land
And if you resist, you'll be slave to my command
For resistance to my dreams and rejection of my goals
Will land you in hot water, abandoned on the shoals
Of all the lovely wonders of my promised land
Which burn to purify as they rage to expand,
As every head will bow and every knee will bend
In tribute and allegiance till the very end.
I'm gonna conquer from my promised land
By reason of my promises which none should e'er withstand,
For all the earth must be as my dreams have foreseen
And all that must be swept away is whate'er might contravene.
I will rule with force o'er this promised land
As right is as defined in all that I have planned.
I'm gonna guide you to the promised land
And if you want to leave, blood must flow upon the sand.
I will compel you in the promised land
And if you don't follow in the ways I've planned,
You're a heretic, a turncoat, an apostate cursed.
You're a villain, you're a sinner who must be coerced.
I'm gonna see us in our promised land,
Hundreds, yes the children, revolution as is planned,
Crossing over borders to the dreams that I dream,
Lying altogether in the jungle's rotting steam.
Envoi: "You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission." Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear it Away (1960)
Addendum: "If Jones' People's Temple wasn't a cult, then the term has no meaning. That’s obvious." In "Rethinking Jonestown," by Scott McLemee, Salon.com, 17 June 1998
Addendum: "Marxism arose as a theory that would liberate a proletariat that had 'nothing to lose but its chains', and has ended up imposing chains on the proletariat. The followers of the Peoples Temple (mainly poor blacks and alienated young whites) have made history by inaugurating the 'mass revolutionary suicide'. Cults can clearly mature into mainstream institutions. Or disintegrate into jungle horror stories. A detailed analysis of cults would require an analysis of their rhetoric and ideology, and of the culture matrices in which they are embedded. The present appeal of cults is related to the major upheaval of our times." In "Suicide for socialism? - Maurice Brinton", LibCon.org, 25 July 2005
See: Totalitarian
Better for all the world - notions from the underworld
"Even the United States Supreme Court endorsed aspects of eugenics. In its infamous 1927 decision, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, 'It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind…. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.' This decision opened the floodgates for thousands to be coercively sterilized or otherwise persecuted as subhuman. Years later, the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials quoted Holmes's words in their own defense. In "The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics," by Edwin Black, History News Network, 25 November 2003.
Better for all the world,
Said one famous imbecile,
If other imbeciles were hurled,
Disposed of deep in some landfill hill.
Better for all the world,
Say imbeciles today,
If all the imbeciles they judge
Were killed and thrown away.
Better for all the world,
But better then for who?
Who will judge and who be judged?
Next time, they'll come for you.
Better for all the world
To prevent the imbecile,
But oh, alas, and oh, alack,
Who, how many should one kill?
Better for all the world
To never think this way,
For no one judges all the world
Lest hatred rise to say:
Better for all the world,
So say such imbeciles,
If other imbeciles were hurled,
Discarded dark, deep in our landfill hills.
See: The Robert Reich Song - to the tune of "The farmer in the dell"
"Today we find a world of symmetric development, unsustainable natural resource use, and continued rural and urban poverty. There is general agreement about the current global environmental and development crisis. It is also known that the consequences of these global changes have the most devastating impacts on the poorest, who historically have had limited entitlements and opportunities for growth." In "Fifty million climate refugees by 2010," statement of the UNEP on their website, now scrubbed as of 2012.
Revising's the game
When predictions fall flat,
And the UN's true aim
Was to cause panic, whereat
We would run for the hills
And for salvation plead;
Mountains, not mole hills,
Would make us agreed.
The cash should then flow
In bundles galore,
As our saviors would show
Their why and wherefore
That refugees floods
Would break loose in waves
And all would then learn
That politics saves.
That year's prediction
Is scrubbed clean away,
But new ones erupt
To continue the play.
Envoi: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Vladimir Lenin (1870 - 1924)
The evening comes, the day is past - paraphrase of a Manfred Kyber poem
The evening comes, the day is past,
And Lady Sun by time is led;
Retiring to a cloud-washed house,
She yawns and directly goes to bed.
When this is all well and done
The stars are seen above,
And over all, both sea and land,
The angels guard with love.
And when the golden stars are there,
The moon bright blazes too,
As come the time to go to bed:
For the world, for me, and you.
And when our tired eyes are shut,
And when soft sleep alights,
The Queen of Night then sends to all
A dream of love's delights.See: Abendlied
"Chicago likes to compare itself to other world cities, so Ward Room thought it would find out how we rank in violence. It turns out no one can top us. Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo. Here’s how we rank in murders per 100,000 among cities we consider our peers, based on a projected murder total of 505 for this year." In "The Deadliest Global City," by Edward McClelland, NBCChicago.com, 30 July 2012
Berlin earns one as its murderous score,
While Chicago gets better than five hundred more.
Los Angeles wracks up its seven or eight,
Chicago scores that in a weekend spate.
Moscow numbers ten, so statistics tell,
While Chicago does fifty times as well.
Mexico City? Their number's eight.
São Paulo's at a fifteen-point-six murder rate.
Aurora's dozen tell a tale of twelve killed,
But Chicago's epic is forty-two times spilled.
Chicago's morgues take five hundred plus,
As Chicago is the champ at such murderousness.
How is it, this phenomenon?
Is this part of the values Chicagoan?
Addendum: "'We wanted to get a handle on how people are recovering post-recession and to understand how things like our state's budget crisis are filtering down into communities,' said report author Amy Rynell, director of the research center. 'What we learned was extraordinarily disturbing,' Rynell said. The study found that almost half of Chicago's population is living in or near poverty." In "1 in 3 Illinoisans lives in or near poverty level: report," Sun-Times Media Wire, 16 January 2013
Addendum: "The date was January 12, 2013. You probably didn’t hear about this tragedy involving guns and two teenage boys. But this was the headline in the Chicago Tribune: 'Boys, 14 and 15, killed in separate shootings Friday.' You didn’t hear about it because such events aren’t news in Chicago. They’re ordinary daily occurrences." In "The War Against Black Men," by Lee Habeeb, National Review Online, 17 January 2013
Addendum: "It’s getting easier to get away with shooting people in Chicago. Last year, gunmen who shot and wounded someone got away without criminal charges 94 percent of the time, according to a DNAinfo.com Chicago analysis of police data." In "Most Shooters In Chicago Don't Face Charges," Mark Konkol, DNAinfo, 24 January 2013
"Little boys have always played with swords and guns. But they did not always play at beating a prisoner's genitals with a rope, or stitching a live bomb inside a man's stomach. For that innovation we must thank Hollywood, the industrious factory of dreams, now frequently devoted to churning out nightmares. The poet WB Yeats once wrote, 'In dreams begins responsibility', yet Hollywood will never take responsibility for its most brutal dreams so long as the paying public still flocks to the theatre of cruelty." In "Our attitude to violence is beyond a joke as new Batman film, The Dark Knight, shows. The new Batman film reaches new levels of brutality, so why are we letting children watch it? Jenny McCartney looks at a society seduced by sadism," by Jenny McCartney, Telegraph UK, 26 July 2012
We must thank Hollywood,
So writes one clear-eyed man.
Dream factories churn out nightmares
As their money-making plan.
Brutal dreams parade on screen
In the theaters of cruelty,
While nightmare makers prance and preen,
Over 'innocent' novelty.
Society seduced by sadism
Laps up such imagery,
For such is excitement in this day
When fun is savagery.
Nightmareland is open
And self-congratulates,
Denying culpability
As a flocks' blood coagulates.
"Nearly 80 percent of bundlers who raised $500,000 or more for Mr. Obama were appointed to posts in the administration, according to a 2011 report by the Center for Public Integrity, which tracks campaign finance issues. While most envoys got perches in coveted capitals like Prague, Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen or Oslo, a few were sent to commercially or politically delicate posts like Canada and South Africa." In "Obama Rewarded ’08 Fund-Raisers, Barring Some From Helping Now," by Mark Landler, New York Times, 24 July 2012
Rich rewards
is how it works.
Pay to play
with political perks.
Drop a dime
up to half a mil
to live life plush;
so works the Hill.
Lucky numbers,
about eighty percent,
delivered funds;
their consequent
ascension, don't you know,
is that never confessed
quid pro quo.
Envoi: "This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and powerful, and to despise or, at least, neglect persons of poor and mean conditions, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments." Adam Smith, in "Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759)
See: Corruption
So - stupid
"At its peak, the large German solar companies - SolarWorld, SMA Solar, Q-Cells, Conergy, Solon, Solar Millennium, Centrotherm, Phoenix Solar - - were worth more than 25 billion Euros, according to calculations by Handelsblatt online. Today, all together have only a market capitalization of 1.12 billion Euros. Of this amount, 863 million Euros alone belong to SMA. The company based in Northern Hessen is the only one whose stock price has not totally crashed. The others have lost more than 97 percent of their value since the peak." In "Germany's Green Disaster: Wave Of Solar Bankruptcies Wipes Off Almost 25 Billion Euros," by Jörg Hackhausen, Handelsblatt, 12 July 2012
So lar so long so lost so rry
So rrow so so ught so re so undingly
So lar so long so much is lost
So so so mbre so bering cost
So licitation so gone wrong
So lid investment so ld but not for long
So me time
So me what
So me one
So me how
So me where
So me wise
So so la la cries
So lar so sad so bankrupt see?
So who's at fault so in errantly?So long so green so red ink so then stupidity.
Envoi: "On Thursday, the price hit a low of €2.81 ($3.75) per metric ton of carbon and rebounded back above €4 before the end of the day. But it remains far below the €20 or €30 price point that analysts say is needed to spur the type of clean investment needed by industry to cut carbon emissions. Back in April of 2006, credits peaked at €32 and neared €30 per ton in 2008." In "Wake-Up Call: A Disastrous Week for Carbon Trading," by Joel Stonington, Der Spiegel, 27 January 2013.
Addendum by Looking Back: "The EU's flagship mechanism for combatting climate change, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), has been revealed as a magnet for tax fraud on a grand scale, costing government coffers around €5 billion euros. In announcing its investigations into the pan-European racket, Europol, Europe's criminal intelligence agency, said that as much as 90 percent of the entire market volume on emissions exchanges was caused by fraudulent activity, undermining the very viability of the ETS just as the EU is touting a similar scheme for the rest of the world." In "EU emissions trading an 'open door' for crime, Europol says," by Leigh Phillips, EUObserver, 12 December 2009.
See: Bankrupt green
"Topinka has remained critical of how Illinois lawmakers -- particularly Democrats -- have handled the state's budget in Springfield. In April, when she unveiled her office's new 'The Ledger' website, she said, 'Being the chief fiscal officer in Illinois right now is like being one of your obituary writers at the newspaper, because I’ve only got bad news to report all the time.'" In "Illinois Budget Deficit Worst In The Nation: State Is Reportedly $43.8 Billion In The Red," 22 June 2012, The Huffington Post
Obit a bit,Then obit a lot.
With numbers like these,
Their debt's a blot.
Worst in a nation
Awash in red ink,
Suggests that the state
Soon just might sink.
Behind are they
In paying their bills,
They've spent all their credit
Acquiring ills.
Bad news to tell
With bad news to come
Is bad news for all
Ad infinitum.
Obit a bit,
Then obit a lot.
The state was fat fed
With tommyrot.
Worst in a nation
Growing more debt
Suggests its elite
Are its biggest threat.See: Bernie got it right and In a moment of candor
Saying - paraphrase of a Justinus Kerner rhyme
I've no idea from whence I came,
And no idea of tomorrow's game,
But 'tis assured I know one thing:
What an unforgettable love can bring.See: Ein Spruch
green screws red - lights or bread
"800.000 Deutsche können Strom nicht bezahlen," [ 800 thousand Germans cannot pay their electrical bills ] headline in Die Welt, 26 June 2012
green screws red
as black darks night....
lots of average folks
can't pay, all right.
green made red;
now power costs more....
what was all the
technology for?
to line the pockets
of political friends,
the same old,
same old never ends....
green screws red,
then red must react,
demanding costs
be swift attacked....
costs still rise
as green requires,
and when costs rise,
as it transpires,
bust budgets
of the little folk
for whom this
is no little joke....
green screws red
as plain as day,
and once again
just politics is at play....
green screws red,
and red screws green,
and markets screw both
as was well foreseen....
Envoi: "Ever since the German government started subsidizing solar energy, demand for solar installations went up like clockwork, towards the end of each year. But recently released data from German regulators shows that number of solar installations in December 2012 was down 88% from the previous year. In fact, 2012 saw the lowest number of installations since 2008. And it still wasn't as low as the German government would have liked. The German government wants to cut back on solar energy installations because their whole drive to switch to renewable energy has ended being far more expensive that they thought it would be." In "It Looks Like Europe Is Going Off The Solar Energy Demand Cliff," by Lisa Mahapatra, Business Insider, 12 January 2013.
Addendum: "Real German electricity prices for households have increased 61% since 2000. One quarter of household costs now stem directly from renewable energy. Also, the increase is *not* because of increasing production costs (which have actually slightly declined since 1978). The increase is due to dramatically increasing taxes, most noticeably from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). In 2013 the EEG will increase 50% to 6.28 euro-cent (5.28 cents plus 19% VAT). In June 2011, Chancellor Angela Merkel famously promised to keep EEG prices stable, but this promise has now clearly been broken. The German household will pay 24% of its electricity bill to renewables." Bjørn Lomborg's Facebook Page, accessed 24 January 2013.
Addendum: "On Thursday, the price hit a low of €2.81 ($3.75) per metric ton of carbon and rebounded back above €4 before the end of the day. But it remains far below the €20 or €30 price point that analysts say is needed to spur the type of clean investment needed by industry to cut carbon emissions. Back in April of 2006, credits peaked at €32 and neared €30 per ton in 2008." In "Wake-Up Call: A Disastrous Week for Carbon Trading," by Joel Stonington, Der Spiegel, 27 January 2013.
Addendum: "Germany's push for wind and solar and its retreat from nuclear power is driving electricity costs to untenable levels and destroying support for the green agenda, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned. Electricity costs rose 11pc last year, in part to fund subsidies for wind and solar. This is doing little to create jobs at home since China’s solar upstarts have swept the market while Germany’s solar pioneers go bust." In "IEA warns Germany on soaring green dream costs," by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 24 May 2013.
Addendum: "There are many reasons for the cost explosion. Contrary to earlier forecasts, solar and wind farms are a long way from being able to produce energy at the prices possible in coal-fired or nuclear power plants. There are also high costs associated with grid expansion and electricity storage facilities -- both necessary for a system more reliant on renewables -- as well as for backup power plants, which take up the slack when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. In addition, the German government failed to define upper limits for solar energy, an expensive form of energy that is inefficient in a country like Germany, with its relative lack of sunshine. Even more vexing, consumer advocates and Green Party politicians like energy expert Bärbel Höhn have been saying for months, are the special provisions that enable 'supposedly energy-intensive companies' to exempt themselves from the EEG levy and grid charges." In "War on Subsidies: Brussels Questions German Energy Revolution," by Frank Dohmen, Christoph Pauly and Gerald Traufetter, Spiegel, 26 May 2013.
See: Raise those taxes! and So - stupid, and also Now how does that seem to a lender like you? - a run-around (about the Greek austerity situation, but applicable to any investment loss)
Prudence and Thrift - a hoary story
Borrowing and Bonds
Went up Credit hill
To fetch more bails of money.
The Boys come stumbling,
Bumbling down,
Which Prudence and Thrift find funny.
Prudence and Thrift
Climbed no such hill,
But saved their bits of money;
Borrowing and Bonds
Looked darkly on
But projected an outlook sunny.
Borrowing and Bonds?
Their ratings drop.
Now Credit mountain's steeper.
Their little game
Rolls over again,
Ever more deep and deeper.
Prudence and Thrift
Suffer no such thing,
For credit they have plenty,
So Borrowing and Bonds,
Hats in their hands,
Coming begging:
Loan us twenty?
Loan us thousands?
Millions perhaps,
Although we cannot pay?
So says Borrowing,
Bonds likewise,
In their heightened plea and play.
Prudence and Thrift
Must sadly decline,
And not accept their spiel.
Prudence and Thrift
Would new haircuts get,
In an ever worsening deal.
The virtuous Ladies
Offend such Boys
Who refuse thought of tomorrow.
The story is old
Yet relives again,
Always to end in sorrow.
Capital for Communists - a story growing old
"The investments are hidden from public view in multiple holding companies, but were identified among thousands of pages of regulatory findings, Bloomberg said. The family's interests include a 1.83 billion yuan (£188 million) share of the assets of Shenzhen Yuanwei, a property investment company, according to a filing from December 2011. Other companies in the same group, wholly owned by the family, have assets of at least 539.3 million yuan. They also have an indirect 18 per cent stake in Jiangxi Rare Earth & Rare Metals Tungsten Group, whose assets are worth some £1.1 billion." In "China's incoming president Xi Jinping's family 'has wealth of hundreds of millions'," by Malcolm Moore, The Telegraph UK, 29 June 2012
Capital for Communists
Is quite the clever game.
It is equality in lying words
But not in truth the same.
Capital for Communists
Is variations on a theme,
The tune being all political
In a government's regime.
Communism is powerful
And gathers in the wealth,
And then to censor fact
It practices its stealth.
Capital for Communists
Is a story growing old,
For oh so many Communists
The same was always told.
How capital for Communists
To use the system so,
To gather in their fortunes
From all the poor below.
How it is is how it was,
And how it will also be,
Until one day it's overthrown
By honest liberty.
Envoi: "The fact that there are no free elections leaves the party elders vulnerable to accusations that they have merely perpetuated China's dynastic traditions by handing down power within a 'red nobility.' The privileges of birth extend to every sector of the economy, be it oil, electric power, insurance or even diamonds. 'It isn't so much corruption as a system of official privilege,' said Ding Xueliang, a professor of sociology at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Originally from the mainland, Ding recalls that when he worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung Thought, many of his colleagues were children of officials who either changed their names or kept quiet about their connections. 'After several months, you would learn, oh, her father was X, Y or Z.'" In "In China, 'red nobility' trumps egalitarian ideals," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, 4 March 2013.
Addendum of the Big Fish: "As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg. Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don’t account for liabilities and thus don’t reflect the family’s net worth." In "Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite," Bloomberg News, 29 June 2012
Addendum for the Small Fry: "Jia said that locals would often witness a steady flow of luxury cars streaming in and out of the complex, alerting them to the extravagance within. They learned of Zhang's banquet from an unidentified whistleblower. 'Every room in the centre had a banquet, and each banquet included abalone and other expensive dishes,' Jia said." In "Chinese official sacked after 'citizen journalists' expose extravagant banquet," Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, The Guardian UK, 25 April 2013.
Corollary -- See Anti-capitalism struggles
See more on the subject of capitalist Communism: Red is a game, much like Green
An inconvenient surprise - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
The old fellow chortles with happy cheer,
because he's brought a first liter of beer.
The brew is one most highly praised,
and very quickly his glass is raised.
Gulp! the beer goes down the hatch,
in expectation of a second batch.
"But what is this?" he cries in haste,
"This has the most obnoxious taste!"
At once 'twas clear the sickening cause --
A dead mouse worth a stomach-churning pause!
Ah yes, hardly will most any man rejoice,
before he must suffer from his own awful choice.
"Many cities across the country are facing unsustainable legacy costs. But Detroit is uniquely impervious to political solutions because the ratio of its public moochers to private producers is far higher than others. There are too few Detroiters with a vested interest in fixing the city and too many with a vested interest in sucking it dry. Only bankruptcy will convince them that there is nothing more to be milked." In "Detroit Has Run Out of Other People's Money," by Shijha Dalmia, 3 July 2012
Pair a site with your chosen tube
To a vacuum which gently sucks;
In time most any sort of rube
Can empty bilge or bucks.
Pump a vessel's bilge so deep
Until dry as dry can be;
It is just so with taxes' sweep
And the takers' taking spree.
Pump a people and some folks will
Escape the bound plantations;
Those who can, who've had their fill,
Evade such dry vexations.
As all dries up, those at the pumps
Might pump more in their haste,
Yet flows reduce; awakening chumps
Contribute less, then none, to waste.
Pair a site with a siphon pipe
To a vacuum which daily sucks;
In time most any sort and type
Can empty bilge or bucks.
When emptied -- ah now, there's the rub --
The pumps can suck more;
What's left then is that moochers' club,
Hat-in-hand and door-to-door.
Think this model false, unfair?
It's oft been proved in the public square.
Utopia, we learn, means "nowhere;"
Too many imagined it could be there.
When cash cows die or just wander off
The milk stops flowing in the public trough.The model is tested; do not scoff.
One cannot give truth a brushing off.
Envoi: "The Auditors fluttered anxiously. And, as always happens in their species when something goes radically wrong and needs fixing instantly, they settled down to try to work how who was to blame." Terry Pratchett, in "Hogfather"
Addendum: "If socialists mean that under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the State should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions, we will, of course, agree. This is done now; we desire that it be done better. There is however, a point on this road that must not be passed; it is the point where governmental foresight would step in to replace individual foresight and thus destroy it." Frédéric Bastiat, in "Justice and fraternity," in Journal des Économistes, 15 June 1848, page 313.
See: When the cash cow cashes out and I squeezed the golden goose and also a setting of James Weldon Johnson's To America - (2009)
"...private property institutions are more robust because they enable people to cope with uncertainty by reducing the prospect of systemic error. Compared to regimes where decisions are taken at the centre, the dispersal of ownership in a market tends to confine the effects of any errors to a relatively smaller sphere and provides decision-makers with greater scope to respond to changing circumstances as they face them." In "Robust Political Economy; Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy ," by Mark Pennington, New Thinking in Political Economy, 2011
They decide
or you decide,
But someone will,
that's true.
From the top
and thundering down
Decisions flood
o'er you.
That's when freedom
withers, fades,
As powers align
amassed.
History mans
the barricades
When freedom
fights at last
Against the center
at the top
Which clings
to privilege,
As freedom is
a sacrilege
Against power
against just them
From whom unfree
decisions stem.
They decide
or you decide,
But someone will.
Will you?
Idea - hist whist fist
I love an idea
that cannot fly;
it will not hunt
nor clarify.
It might not work,
but must not fail;
You should not mock
nor it assail.
My idea is mine,
even should it fall;
and yet you must
it not forestall,
though it bring pain
and loss to you,
it is my thought;
my clearsight view.
I love my idea,
and you should too;
If you will not,
I'll force it through.
It might come to naught
in time, in yield,
yet it is mine
to wave and wield.
You must then bend;
this I declare.
You must its faults
just grin and bear.
My idea is my Will.
I've come to be
in every land
through history.
I love my idea
that's sure to be
bequeathed to all
eternity.
It might not work,
but must not fail;
express no doubt,
but my Will hail.
Phil owed Sophie's - whence non sense
A pack of lips for profits
or if a gull predicts
The end of daze,
a pox of lipstick visions'
silly bills which says,
Awful owes us fees
as offal oozes fleas.
Yea! I've had my fill
of them, so fill 'em up Sophie's.
Play dough did that sock rat tease,
then aeries' toddle did,
Ear as mouse upped willing if
ox ham's racer's kid.
Loud say as confuse she does
each tern as ease sachets,
Then a gust teen cat low lick
to choose my mono days;
Rain a day cart thinking thought
but cherry me bent them so,
The curl marks stained the spot
a damn smith got two know.
I manual he can't yes and no
while John's jacks bruises so,
Shopping hour gorged heard bird
a sore and quirky gird bent low.
Fried rice, knee, cheese goodied after
fronds' cough cart met a morph,
Martinet high digger to tea art déjà Dan:
Her bird mark's oozes tea on a door, no?
Cyber berg lewd wig haggle
shun locks' curl mocks again
Spin nose ah! when bird rammed rustle
as any wit can steams,
johnnies do he didwhile jump all sword know exited.
All's not as all it seems....these pillowed sophists' courts,
unseeingly epochs a pun these warts
In pleas now friend now no retorts.Know eye did know name them All
Toucan you can who cans crawl?
Envoi: "Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them." Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), in "Adagia," Opus Posthumous (1959).
"Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul." Plato (427-347-BCE), in "The Republic."
The answer is:
because it's fun.
Many parts
weave into one.
Point and counter
blithely spun,
A voice begins,
till all are done.
Envoi: "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." Aldous Huxley, in "Music at Night and Other Essays" (1931)
Addendum: "Music is... [a] higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy" Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Addendum: "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music." Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Addendum: "Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference." Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
Green drivel - love locks, dead
"Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines. As he puts it, 'so-called sustainable development … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant.'" In "Green 'drivel,' The godfather of global warming lowers the boom on climate change hysteria," Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun, 23 June 2012
Drivel snivel shrivel,
Green red inks now in tides.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Green red thought's cow subsides.
Drivel snivel shrivel,
Sustainable proves not.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Hysteria is what we got.
Drivel snivel shrivel,
Green now bleaches and fades.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Green hosts its masquerades.
Drivel snivel shrivel,
It's meaningless, he said.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Now to them love locks, dead.
Envoi: "They say: 'The market for renewable energy is an artificial one created and maintained by government legislation. The question is whether this consumer-derived money is well spent. It is worth noting that the excessive subsidy offered to onshore wind development has drawn developers even to sites where the wind resource is very weak and the environmental impact severe.'" In "Wind farms fail to deliver value for money, report claims," by Patrick Sawyer, The Telegraph UK, 13 September 2008
Addendum: "The owners of the biggest Proven wind turbines in Shetland were advised to shut down their £60,000 machines last week due to a danger that the rotor and its blades might fly off." In "Small wind turbine owners advised to shut down Proven machines after defect discovered," by John Robertson, Shetland Times, 22 September 2011
Addendum: "Iowa recently incurred what is being described as the greatest failure of the $100 million Power Fund started by former Governor Chet Culver in 2007. An $8 million project striving to store wind energy underground was abandoned on Thursday." In "Iowa’s failed wind energy project," by Michael Gallagher, Iowa Environmental Focus, 29 July 2011
Addendum: "Governments are squandering billions of dollars on "uneconomic" wind farms, according to a landmark study that undermines the case for Labor's huge renewable energy subsidies. Investment in wind turbines will fail to cut enough greenhouse gas emissions to justify their cost, economists warned yesterday after a detailed British analysis released this week." In "Billions blown away on wind power, says British study," by David Crowe, The Australian, 9 March 2012
Addendum: "Germany is being horribly caught out by precisely the same delusion about renewable energy that our own politicians have fallen for. Like all enthusiasts for “free, clean, renewable electricity”, they overlook the fatal implications of the fact that wind speeds and sunlight constantly vary. They are taken in by the wind industry’s trick of vastly exaggerating the usefulness of wind farms by talking in terms of their “capacity”, hiding the fact that their actual output will waver between 100 per cent of capacity and zero. In Britain it averages around 25 per cent; in Germany it is lower, just 17 per cent." In "Germany's wind power chaos should be a warning to the UK." by Christopher Booker, Daily Mail UK, 22 September 2012
Addendum: "For decades, wind power proponents argued that wind would be cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation if only it received the taxpayer's help for a few more years. In 1986, a representative of the American Wind Energy Association claimed that wind would be the "lowest cost source of energy in the 1990s, beating out even large-scale hydro." That didn't happen." In "Taxpayers Shouldn't Subsidize Wind Energy They Don't Want, Don't Use," by Daniel Simmons, US News and World Report, 26 September 2012
Addendum: "The £250,000 tower, which stood as tall as a six storey building, was hit by gale force gusts of 50mph. The structure then collapsed at a farm in Bradworth, Devon, leaving a 'mangled wreck'. Margaret Coles, Chairwoman of Bradworthy District Council, said hail storms and strong winds have hit the area and the turbine, installed just three years ago, simply could not withstand the wind." In "Wind turbine collapses in high wind," by Louise Gray, Telegraph UK, 30 January 2013
See: Bankrupt green
"Solo for Voice 92 - Perform the material (four systems on each of four pages)....."
Eric Satie écrivait,
that is, once he did say,
L'artiste n'a pas...
as hip-hip-hurrah,
le droit de disposer...
one's welcome overstay,
inutilement du temps...
underuse or overdraw,
de son auditeur.
in concert or at theater.
Far too many, John then wrote,
times to type as antidote.
Antidotes in too large a dose
can be as deadly as they are verbose.
The kids are screwed - a truth renewed
"The economic historian, who is affiliated to Oxford and Harvard Universities, says wise young voters should insist politicians pay off debts as soon as possible for the benefit and security of their own financial interests. Speaking at the Reith Lectures on Tuesday, Professor Ferguson will argue the 'young should welcome austerity,' adding they 'find it quite hard to compute their own long-term economic interests.'" In "Niall Ferguson: If the young knew what was good for them they'd join the Tea Party," Telegraph UK, 17 June 2012
The kids are screwed and the grandkids worse;
That's the sum, its chapter and verse.
The next generations will foot the bill
For someone has robbed them almost at will.
The kids are screwed by these days that spend
Tomorrow, already appearing round the bend.
The next generations will then be asked
To pay such debt as it is unmasked.
The kids are screwed and the grandkids robbed,
For into tomorrow are debt bombs lobbed.
The next generations will look at debt
And think quite rightly that we built that threat.
The kids are screwed, as the debt tides rise
To drown such discussions in a flurry of lies.
But debt plus debt equals debt beyond debt,
And that spells truth in math's alphabet.
Politics this ain't, just numbers and math
Showing quite clearly the horrid path
From rhetoric to lies of self-serving john and jack
Who, for today, kids' tomorrows attack.
The kids are screwed, and the grandkids worse;
That's the sum, its chapter and verse.
The next generations will foot the bill
For someone has robbed them almost at will.
Envoi: "Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt." Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
See: Pretty darn fucked
anythingis - that new old refrain
anythingismusic
andanythingisart
andanythingistheater
likeaurinalorsilentfart
let'salljoininsinging
dada dee lah di dah
anythingisacleverprank
andanythingisalsonot
andanythingischurlish
likeabicyclewheelorpot
idsamodernartthing
dada dee lah di dah
anythingisconceptual
andanythingiswhat
andanythingishowandwhy
saysabrightboylikeanut
punkchewaiting
dada dee lah di dah
windmillswithinwheels
wheelswithinwindmillsturn
circlescriclingcircles
tacettruningtaciturn
insilenceletussing
dada dee lah di dah
onceyouehearthepunchline
thejokeisoverdone
andonceyou'reindeterminant
onewonderswhatwaswon
zenassumptionsnegating
dada dee lah di dah
liberatefrompersonaltaste
canalwaysbedoneinhurriedhaste
justputonplaypokerfaced
allandnothingwellembraced
startagainfromthebeginning
dada dee lah di dah
Envoi -- "Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before." Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
Addendum: "I speak only of myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own way." Tristan Tzara, "Dada Manifesto 1918"
Addendum: "This is a guide for instructing posthumans in living a Dada life. It is not advisable, nor was it ever, to lead a Dada life. It is not advisable, nor was it ever, to lead a Dada life. It is and it was always foolish and self-destructive to lead a Dada life because a Dada life will include by definition pranks, buffoonery, masking, deranged senses, intoxication, sabotage, taboo breaking, playing childish and/or dangerous games, waking up dead gods, and not taking education seriously."--"The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara & Lenin Play Chess, by Andrei Codrescu, Princeton University Press, 2009
See: Modern Art and also Surrealism Lessons
Examinations - towards abrogations
"To gauge where these policies went wrong, we'll examine the performance of what we'll call Europe's "Six Spenders:" France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece, and Portugal. To simplify, we'll treat the Six Spenders as if they were one big country by combining their deficit, spending, debt, GDP growth and other numbers. The big push for stimulus began in 2009. From the end of 2008 to 2011, the Six Spenders had combined budget deficits of almost $1.4 trillion (we'll translate all euro numbers into dollars). That's approximately $450 billion a year, or an enormous 7.3% of GDP. So how much growth did all that 'stimulus create? Over those three years, the Six Spenders' combined output shrank by 5%, adjusted for inflation." In "More spending won't rescue Europe's six big spenders," by Shawn Tully, senior editor-at-large, Fortune, 31 May 2012
Examine nations as they shrink
While spending more and more.
The results of this rude equation
Ask what was such spending for?
Examine nations on the brink
As debt waves crash ashore.
What is their best explanation?
What did they all ignore?
Examine nations' doublethink
Stimulating loss galore.
Leaders of the highest station
Were foolish to their core.
Examine nations' debt load stink
Now rising in its roar.
Stimulation's titillation
Has emptied the reservoir.
Examinations flunked, they slink
Away, each big league boor,
Considering each an abrogation
While lying just to reassure.
Hippogrizzly - a zoological fantasy
"The IMF chief Christine Lagarde was accused of hypocrisy yesterday after it emerged that she pays no income tax – just days after blaming the Greeks for causing their financial peril by dodging their own bills. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is paid a salary of $467,940 (£298,675), automatically increased every year according to inflation. On top of that she receives an allowance of $83,760 – payable without 'justification' – and additional expenses for entertainment, making her total package worth more than the amount received by US President Barack Obama according to reports last night. Unlike Mr Obama, however, she does not have to pay any tax on this substantial income because of her diplomatic status." In "Anger over Lagarde's tax-free salary," by Rob Hatsings, The Independent, 30 May 2012
The hippogrizzly waddled out
Onto the world stage.
She seemed so wise, elite and large
Upon the news' front page.
She freely gorged as such would do
Because it is their way.
The little folks, on the other hand,
Are the ones who ought to pay.
The hippogrizzly blathers on
For reporters of the press,
To lecture on austerity
Amidst her own excess.
The diplomat's a banker,
Or the banker's a diplomat?
In that same reality,
This financial world falls flat.
Black heart, black heart,
Know you many fools?
Yes sir, in the press, sir,
Her fans are useful tools.
Because they stand above us
In their broad hypocrisy.This is how it works
In one zoological fantasy.
Envoi: "He often derides the Washington-based organization, headed by French politician Christine Lagarde, as a 'North Atlantic monetary fund,' because, as he argues, Americans and Europeans are primarily interested in defending their interests and preventing emerging economies like Brazil from exerting their rightful influence in the fund. He resents the Europeans for increasingly availing themselves of the fund's assets to combat their euro crisis, even though they have enough money of their own. 'The euro countries abuse their power within the IMF,' Batista is fond of saying.' In "Merkel Maligned: IMF Board Attacks Euro Crisis Management," by Markus Dettmer and Christian Reiermann, Der Spiegel, 3 June 2013.
Addendum: "In an internal document marked 'strictly confidential,' the IMF said it badly underestimated the damage that its prescriptions of austerity would do to Greece's economy, which has been mired in recession for the last six years. The IMF conceded that it bent its own rules to make Greece's burgeoning debt seem sustainable and that, in retrospect, the country failed on three of its four criteria to qualify for aid. An immediate restructuring would have been cheaper for European taxpayers, as private-sector creditors were repaid in full for two years before 2012 using the money borrowed by Athens. Greece's debt level thus remained undented, but it was now owed to the IMF and euro-zone taxpayers instead of banks and hedge funds." In "IMF Concedes It Made Mistakes on Greece," by Matina Stevis and Ian Talley, Wall Street Journal, 5 June 2013.
See: How is it - questions not in the news, for a view to Lagarde's predecessor and his tax-free, expense-rich remuneration. Pigs of a feather....
"If Chicago were a war zone, it would be a deadlier one for Americans than Afghanistan. In fact, according to the Department of Defense and FBI data, the number of Chicagoans murdered is two and a half times U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001. With NATO in the rear-view mirror, area law enforcement officials and politicians will turn their attention away from unruly protestors back to the city's rising murder rate - up 54 percent from last year, according to police data." In "Chicago's murder rate mirrors war zone, federal data shows," by Nolan Peterson, Medill News Service (Illinois), 23 May 2012
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Begins with one word, if,
A conjunction from Old English
Which at comparisons can sniff.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Seeks numbers to compare,
But finding war in the present day
Makes comparisons unfair.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Conjoins a war so far away,
But Chicago's lethal numbers
More than double that in prey.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Is found in Illinois' press,
Which makes that small conjunction
An editorial address.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Was writer's license sure,
For Chicago is a war zone
For the war game connoisseur.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Begins with "if," one reads,
A conjunction from Old English
Which sees the city as it bleeds."If Chicago were a war zone"
Tells of this poster child
For a society that stumbles
By gunning, running wild.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Is not too much an "if,"
When one counts up in numbers
Its victims, cold and stiff.
Envoi: "...the Chicago City Council adopted the Responsible Gun Owners Ordinance. This requires prospective gun owners to take a firearm safety course at a gun range in order to obtain a permit to own a gun in a home. The city also placed a virtual ban on gun ranges. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says that the Chicago City Council has been blocking Chicagoans from obtaining handguns and range-training; the result being that law-abiding citizens are left defenseless." In "Chicago Shootings Spike 49% In November Despite Strict Gun Laws," by Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr., Cybercast News Service, 4 December 2012.
Addendum: "Chris said he’s confident he and his crew will always be one step ahead of the police. 'You’ll never stop us from getting guns,' he said. 'You feel me?'" In "Getting a gun in Chicago quick and easy," by Frank Main, 25 August 2012.
Addendum: "Firearms are inanimate objects; they don’t kill people, people kill people. Yes, that’s been said so many times it’s become a cliche. Cliche or not, ask former presidential adviser, now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel how his city, a city with the most restrictive gun-control measures in the country, got the nickname 'murder capital.'" In "Chicago proof strict gun laws don’t work," Bud Cohan, The Columbus Dispatch, 27 December 2012.
Addendum: "National Runaway Safeline Executive Director Maureen Blaha said the number of youths in Illinois contacting the hotline steadily increased over the past three years. And every year, more say that they're homeless when they call. Beth Cunningham, a youth attorney for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said shelters she works with turn away children and young adults in increasing and 'really disturbing numbers'." In "Number of homeless youths on the rise, suggests shelter, hotline data," by Ellen Jean Hirst, Chicago Tribune, 27 May 2013.
Addendum: "It's really not much of an exaggeration to say that parts of Chicago resemble a war zone. [ 1 ] The numbers are grim. Unofficially, there were 513 homicides in Chicago in 2012, nearly 100 more than in New York City, which recorded 414 killings but which has triple the population. Chicago's body count is 200 more than the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan last year. The carnage has continued unabated into the New Year." In "Mr. President, Chicago's gun victims need you now," by Thomas Bevan, Chicago Tribune, 20 January 2013.
Weekend Update: "At least 33 people were shot — six of them fatally — Saturday afternoon through Father's Day Sunday, stretching from 94th Street and Loomis Avenue on the South Side up to about North Avenue and North Pulaski Road on the Northwest Side, according to authorities. The youngest person killed during one of the bloodiest weekends in Chicago this year was 16." In "Weekend violence leaves 7 dead, 46 shot," by Peter Nickeas, David Jackson, Mitch Smith and Jennifer Delgado, Chicago Tribune, 16 June 2013.
[ 1 ] "...the number of black children killed by gunfire since 1979 is nearly 13 times more than the number of blacks who were lynched in this country between 1882 and 1968. In Chicago alone, more than 270 children have been killed since 2007. And most of them were killed by other blacks, as are most of the nation's homicide victims." In "Gun violence threatens young blacks," by Dwayne Wickham, USA Today, 11 February 2013.
Such information is coalescing as more speak out about the problem: " 'There is no safe time of day to go out anymore,' said Arthur Lyles, an assistant pastor of Christ Bible Church of Chicago, which sits in the middle of Terror Town. Lyles has a grandson and nephew wounded by gunfire. 'You can be shot at 10 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon or 9 at night.' '' In "Chicago Killings Cost $2.5 Billion as Murders Top N.Y.’s," by Tim Jones and John McCormick, Bloomberg News, 23 May 2013.
See: Guns for me
Partisan artisan - most news is a ruse
"A budget resolution based on President Obama’s 2013 budget failed to get any votes in the Senate on Wednesday. In a 99-0 vote, all of the senators present rejected the president’s blueprint. It’s the second year in a row the Senate has voted down Obama’s budget. Obama's 2012 budget failed 97 to 0 last May after Obama himself last April said he wanted deeper deficit cuts." In "Senate rejects Obama budget in 99-0 vote," by Erik Wasson and Daniel Strauss, The Hill, 16 May 2012
One side gets the blame, another side gloating crows,
As if those partisans all would come to real blows.
But when push and shove meet on the pushy Senate floor,
It seems oft there is no partisan knocking at their door.
Ninety-nine to zero earns a zero; some game, eh?
Ninety-seven to zero was last year's vote, then blame.
One side is at fault when both sides come to vote?
Politics is all just words until by numbers it is smote.
The partisan artisan whose outrage is oft so loud
Turns out to vote with everyone else in that voting crowd.
Yes, when push and shove smile behind the budget's roar,
It seems there is no partisan knocking at that door.
Spend what you don't have - no tonics for wreckonomics
"Mark Rutte, the deposed Dutch prime minister, made a passionate plea to politicians to stick to his proposed budget cuts. 'The problems are serious, the economy is stalling, employment is under pressure and government debt is growing faster than the Netherlands can afford,' he said. 'Those are the facts and nobody can run away from them. I'm standing here without pretences, it is up to parliament and the voters.'" In "German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends austerity in face of open rebellion in Europe," by Louise Armitstead, The Telegraph UK, 24 April 2012
Spend what you don't have;
Explain it all away.
The brightest folks have done it,
Or so they do say.
There'll never come a reckoning,
They'll tell you straight,
And then they'll resign
At some later date.
Debt is growing faster,
Because they spend.
What is so difficult
About truth to comprehend?
Debt is growing up to be
What no one can afford.
Once upon a time,
This was something we abhorred.
Spend what you don't have,
The government way.
The bright folks can manage,
For so they say.
Then there comes a reckoning;
It's time to abdicate,
But when that time arrives
Said arrival comes too late.
Debt is growing faster,
Because they waste.
What was once so tasty
Has an acid aftertaste.
Debt is blowing up to be
What no one can repay.
Once upon a time
Is nevermore today.
What's spent you didn't have,
For all the good it did.
Encumbrance cannot manage
And no longer can be hid.
Now comes the hard reckoning
As politicians flee,
Leaving behind their debts
After politics' spending spree.
Envoi: "The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it." Frédéric Bastiat, in "The Law" (c. 1850)
I have seen mirages
In the plain of day;
To this I can well testify
And this is what I say.
I have heard dark rumors
In the deep of night;
To them I bear my witness
Which you then too might cite.
I have felt the changing winds
Of protest, outrage, war,
Recoiling at the stirrings
Which drum up such a roar.
I have tasted joyfulness
In savoring little things,
And for the simplest of them all
My heart then leaps and sings.
I believe in unicorns
As found in stories rare,
And think such unrealities
Are real as rumors' blare.
I hold trust in little
Which spills from lips of man,
For much is vowed in surety
Though a failing, futile plan.
I have trusted fools and fops
Who swore they were other than
What later they each proved to be:
That fabled bogeyman.
Fools and fops and bogeymen,
Unicorns, winds, mirage,
All too often acts the world
In fictions' camouflage.
I have seen mirages
In ideas, words and deeds;
Of this I can certify
To the folly in many creeds.
Freedom is the pits - a revolution waves
"At least 12 percent of Americans change their residences each year, often moving to more hospitable economic environments. In a system of competitive federalism, Peterson and Nadler write, 'If states and localities attempt in a serious way to tax the rich and give to the poor, the rich will depart while the poor will be attracted.' And government revenues and expenditures vary inversely." In "Illinois moves toward state of insolvency," by George Will, Boston Herald, 27 April 2012
Freedom is the pits
When free funds call it quits,
And wander off the campus
Where rule the hypocrites.
Freedom with both feet
Annoys the taxing bleat
Which give me politicks
As policy concrete.
Freedom makes attacks
By footsteps leaving tracks
Which lead away from burdens
Of ever higher tax.
Say whatever you will,
But freedom seeks to still
Rapaciousness and greed
From a steadily rising bill.
Governments tax and spend,
Then borrow, heaven forefend,
Until the debts are weighted
And schemes predict their end.
Freedom digs the grave
When free funds so behave,
And wander off the campus
Where hypocrites enslave.
States of insolvency
Have always had a history
Of all this sort of thing:
A government's spending spree.
Freedom is the pits
When free folks call it quits,
Throwing off the yokes and chains
Forged by the hypocrites.
Envoi: "Anarcho-Syndicalists... deny the arguments seemingly posed by the Marxist-Leninist approach, for example, which seems to say that people must first be trained in the habits of deference and blind submission to authority (in other words, the habits of slavery) in order to be freed. The methodology of anarcho-syndicalism decrees that individuals must train themselves for freedom, that they must incorporate it into their everyday lives in the present. It says that in order for the end result of working class activism to be the liberation of the world from poverty and wage-slavery, people generally must learn to be autonomous, free-thinking, self-actualising individuals before they can make the social revolution, not the other way around." In "Section 1: Defining Anarcho-Syndicalism," on anarchosyndicalism.net.
"Demand for housing loans fell 70pc in Portugal, 44pc in Italy, and 42pc in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2012. Enterprise loans fell 38pc in Italy. The survey took place in late March and early April, and therefore includes the second of Mario Draghi’s €1 trillion liquidity infusion (LTRO). The ECB said net demand for loans had fallen 'to a significantly lower level than had been expected in the fourth quarter of 2011, with the decline driven in particular by a further sharp drop in financing needs for fixed investment.' Demand fell 43pc for household loans, and 30pc for non-bank firms." In "Europe faces Japan syndrome as credit demand implodes," by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 25 April 2012
Take it from me:
debt's slavery,
and that's the sum of it.
Debt's slavery
would take from me,
and for this I have quit.
Demand drops down,
debt's proved a clown,
which laughed on to its bank.
Too high? Folks drown
in a dry-water town,
until debt's tides drop down.
Take it from you,
debt becomes due,
and that subtracts so much.
Debt is a shrew
which crushes on cue,
strangling most its clutch.
Take it from me:
debt's slavery,
and that's the truth of it.
Debt's slavery
would take from me;
cleverly I have quit.
Envoi: "Debt is the slavery of the free." Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, a freed slave
The bubbles grew;
As skins blew thin,
Depending on
Their state of sin.
Puffing up
And puffing out,
All went pop,
Sought bailed out.
After math
The aftermath,
For blowhards chose
A losing path.
The market did
As markets do,
Each time bubbles
Meet a screw.
Pointedly
The point remains,
The bubble pops
And loses gains.
Who knew then
And who knows now?
The deep in debt
Who wonder how....
After math
Negatives subtract,
When bubbles burst
By sharpened fact.
Who blows bubbles?
That's the key.
From what I know
And what I see
It is not you
And is not me,
But those who act
Politically.
I like math,
Not politics,
For numbers' truth
Sees lunatics
For what they are
And what they say,
In blowing bubbles
Night and day.
Aftermath tells
A hardened thing;
After math works,
Each pop's a sting.
The cupboard was bare - it bares, repeating
"But many economists call it a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it. Prices are set so low, they say, that companies and producers cannot make a profit. So farmers grow less food, manufacturers cut back production and retailers stock less inventory. Moreover, some of the shortages are in industries, like dairy and coffee, where the government has seized private companies and is now running them, saying it is in the national interest. In January, according to a scarcity index compiled by the Central Bank of Venezuela, the difficulty of finding basic goods on store shelves was at its worst level since 2008." In "With Venezuelan Cupboards Bare, Some Blame Price Controls," by William Neuman, The New York Times, 20 April 2012
The cupboard was bare
As time went by,
For the bugbear's err
Was to damnify
Those folks who would see
Such shelves well filled,
A bourgeoisie
Who'd profit and build....a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
Government seizes;
Government carves.
Government squeezes;
Government starves.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
The cupboard goes bare
As profits go dry,
Through a government's flair
To crass crucify
Those who are key
By their work so skilled;
Again bureaucracy
Whole markets chilled.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
A scarcity index,
Writes the New York Times,
Notes market wrecks
Under such government climes.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
The cupboard stays bare
As time goes by,
For the bugbear's err
Is to ever hog-tie
Those folks who'd see
Such shelves refilled,
The bourgeoisie
Which was slowly killed.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
It's you you'll target,
In this radicalized tale,
As the radicals' argot
Would, dear you, impale.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
As you read this rhyme so crass,
Think to yourself:
Are you in that middle class
And seek a well-stocked shelf?
Yet do you dabble
In radical thought
And think a bourgeois rabble
Should be thumped and fought?
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
Government blames,
Then government takes,
Over decades it maims
What a free people makes.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
The cupboard goes bare
By marketplace rules,
When marketplace politics
Makes us tools
To tear apart
Whereupon we stand,
Which is ever and always
What radicals have planned....a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
"Three months ago, CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, may be trying to abandon toxic waste. It’s a tedious process. Slowly but surely, the shattered remains of brand new solar panel tubes head to a recycling plant in Hayward. Meanwhile the next phase of the company’s liquidation is under way. It involves getting rid of all the heavy metals left inside the building that were used to make the panels." In "Solyndra Not Dealing With Toxic Waste At Milpitas Facility," CBS San Francisco, 28 April 2012 [ 1 ]
Bankrupt green
Proves toxic too?
A tragic laugh
For Secretary Chu.
Save the planet
By poisoning it?
Tell me a tale
Of sordid shit.
That future wave
Has hit the fan;
It proves the lie,
A failed plan.
Bankrupt green
Took hefty cash,
Converting it
To toxic trash.
Toxic debt
And toxic waste,
All because
The bright boys chased
Green as red ink
Spilled and stained,
As good after bad
Was treasure drained.
Loss and waste
Comes out the end,
And that's the story
Facts have penned.
Litany of pent-ups:
Solyndra, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Evergreen Solar, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
SpectraWatt, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Beacon Power, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Nevada Geothermal, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
SunPower, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
First Solar, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Babcock & Brown, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Ener1, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Amonix, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
The National Renewable Energy Lab, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Abound Solar, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Solar Trust of America, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
A123 Systems, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Willard & Kelsey Solar Group, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Beacon Power, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Range Fuels Solar Trust of America, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Eastern Energy, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Unisolar, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Bright Automotive, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Sovello, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Siag, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Solon, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Q-Cells, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Mountain Plaza, bankrupt now. Pay for us.Billions burned by bankrupt green. Pay for us.
And bankrupt green
Proved toxic too;As screaming Cassandras
Were ignored by who?
Might they have been ignored by you? [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Envoi: "It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities." Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)
Addendum: "How did you go bankrupt?" / "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly." Ernest Hemingway, in "The Sun Also Rises" (1926)
Addendum: "Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
Addendum: "The commercial world is very frequently put into confusion by the bankruptcy of merchants, that assumed the splendour of wealth only to obtain the privilege of trading with the stock of other men, and of contracting debts which nothing but lucky casualties could enable them to pay; till after having supported their appearance a while by tumultuary magnificence of boundless traffic, they sink at once, and drag down into poverty those whom their equipages had induced to trust them." Samuel Johnson, in Rambler #189, 7 January 1752.
Addendum: "Chu had bragged about the 'unprecedented speed' with which he was granting loans to 'promising' companies that 'hesitant investors' weren’t supporting. Those hesitant investors look pretty good right now and Obama and Chu look stupid. But in their minds they still stand on the side of the angels and thus should be exempt from any criticism. Judge us by our intentions, they basically say. Their attitude about 'green jobs' is the same as their approach to 'climate change' regulations — they consider them the 'right thing to do' no matter how much economic destruction might follow in their wake. Of course, they don’t think those adverse consequences should touch them or their political donors. Obama and Chu made sure to leave the Solyndra bill for the American taxpayer rather than George Kaiser. Obama and Chu claim that they could not have anticipated the company’s problems (one would have needed 'clairvoyant' hindsight, Chu has said) even as they boast of the brave risk they took by supporting it. 'And what we always understood was that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy,' Obama has said. It was a noble failure, they say — a noble failure that they didn’t want anyone to know about.' Thinking that innocent incompetence is an easier and more respectable explanation than hubris and corruption, the Nobel Prize winner [Chu] is essentially pleading stupidity." In "Chu Him Out," by George Neumayr, American Spectator, 17 November 2011.
[ 1 ] "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra, will always be America’s businesses. But that doesn’t mean the government can just sit on the sidelines. Government still has the responsibility to help create the conditions in which students can gain an education so they can work at Solyndra, and entrepreneurs can get financing so they can start a company, and new industries can take hold." Quote of Barack Obama in "Remarks by the President on the Economy," The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 26 May 2010.
Only a few years later, one finds, "'The allocation of spending to clean energy is haphazard,' he wrote. 'The government is just not well equipped to decide which companies should get the money and how much. … One of our solar companies with revenues of less than $100 million (and not yet profitable) received a government loan of $580 million; while that is good for us, I can't imagine it's a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.'" In "Obama on Solyndra: 'Hindsight Is Always 20/20'," by Matthew Mosk, ABC News, 3 October 2011.
[ 2 ] "The Energy Department gave $150 million in economic Recovery Act funds to a battery company, LG Chem Michigan, which has yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public and whose workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games, or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups." In "Inspector general: Grant money for battery company not ‘managed effectively’" by Stave Mufson, Washington Post, 13 February 2013.
Such stories continue to proliferate. Small "green" companies sprang up under the flood of subsidies from governments, only to find they needed more capital than they estimated. As another example: "If the San Jose, Calif., company defaults, Portland taxpayers could be out $5 million, because the city guaranteed half the loan last year in wooing the plant away from Wilsonville. Already the state of Oregon is out $20 million in state tax credits issued to SoloPower, which is scheduled to close its factory next month, barring arrival of a white knight bearing fresh capital. Energy officials are working with Oregon Justice Department lawyers on the case, said Diana Enright, an Energy Department spokeswoman." In "Oregon prepares to foreclose on SoloPower as solar startup misses loan payment," by Richard Read, The Oregonian, 3 May 2013.
The overall picture painted by so many "market" failures of subsidized green companies suggests that the "market" fundamentals were exaggerated if not simply falsified. Taken as a study worldwide, it seems "green" is "red" in simple terms of red ink and past, ongoing and future bankruptcies. But in addition to tax payers losing public funds yet again, one sees consumers being essentially gouged See: green screws red - lights or bread.
[ 3 ] "The face of Obama’s green energy ideas is a Potemkin village. Behind closed doors — a little real work, and a lot of pretending. You give me billions of dollars, I’ll pretend for them too. Put up a nice storefront, with a pretty sign. Dog and pony shows." Comment ascribed to Paul-Cincy in an article titled, "IG: Add LG Chem to Obama’s green-tech subsidy flops," HotAir.com, 13 February 2013.
Additionally one reads of the UK's learning curve on "green" fuels for vehicles: "'Once you take into account these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the first place,' said Rob Bailey. 'Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely irrational strategy.'" In "Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'," by Matt McGrath, BBC News, 15 April 2013.
Among the prizes of the "green" movement was the very expensive car bought by celebrities of wealth. But.... "But the limelight was short-lived for Fisker. In the months and years that followed, the company spiraled downward, burning its dreams and reputation to the ground — just like faulty parts did to a couple of its cars. Fisker has been reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy, lawsuits are piling up, and a government hearing is reportedly in the works." In "A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned," by Katie Fehrenbacher, CNN, 17 April 2013. CNN opinion would do well to review Huxley's remark as above.
More on Fisker: "The Energy Department, which has had to defend its loan guarantees to failed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, gave Fisker its loan primarily to acquire and restart production at a closed GM plant in Delaware, the home state of Vice President Joe Biden, who attended the press conference announcing the venture. The company forecast it would create 2,500 jobs, according to a project summary still posted on the Energy Department’s website. Activity at the Delaware plant stopped last year and no cars have been made there. " In "Fisker Spent $660,000 on Each $103,000 Plug-in Car," by Angela Greiling Keane, Bloomberg News, 19 April 2013.
But the federal government and Secretary Chu are represented by an official website, recounting the promise: "Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced a $528.7 million conditional loan for Fisker Automotive for the development of two lines of plug-in hybrids that will save hundreds of millions gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. The project will result in approximately 5,000 jobs created or saved for domestic parts suppliers and thousands more to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the U.S. 'This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future,' said Secretary Chu. 'Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could revolutionize personal transportation and cut our dependence on foreign oil, not to mention give us cleaner air and less carbon pollution.'" In "US Energy Secretary Chu Announces $528 Million Loan for Advanced Vehicle Technology for Fisker Automotive," statement dated 22 September 2009, found on the "energy.gov" website of the United States Federal Government. This announcement has been proven an empty promise at the costs of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other "green" vehicle companies are also collapsing at a steady pace: "Closely held Coda, which counted former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as an investor, pitched its vehicle as a “real world” car with better range, battery-pack life and acceleration than competitors such as Nissan Motor (7201) Co.’s Leaf, Ford Motor Co. (F)’s Focus EV and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211)’s i-MiEV hatchbacks. The compact, which cost $37,250 before a $7,500 U.S. tax credit, averages 88 miles (142 kilometers) per charge and can travel as far as 125 miles, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. About 87,000 electric and plug-in hybrid cars have been sold in the U.S., with two years left to achieve President Barack Obama’s target of 1 million sales for the industry." In "Electric-Car Maker Coda Files for Bankruptcy to Seek Sale," by Michael Bathon & Kit Chellel, Bloomberg News, 2 May 2013.
[ 4 ] And as to the complaint of unfair price competition with China-made solar panels, one learns that -- "China's Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., once the larger manufacturer of solar panels in the world, said its main operating subsidiary has been pushed into bankruptcy by eight Chinese banks." In "Chinese solar panel manufacturer Suntech Power's operating unit in bankruptcy," Pacific Business News, 20 March 2013. It seems the rush to obtain government grants and cheap loans in the solar boom has caused the predictable solar bust. As with the now defunct Chicago Climate Exchange which from height of market to its collapse lost ninety percent of its investors' value, and as Germany's solar sector has lost in a similar scale, only a few years later China is also finding the promise of profits from solar energy elusive. Screaming Cassandras foresaw this and were ridiculed by the green industry.
Additionally as to SunTech, one learns, "Some of the $75 billion sector's high profile names have fallen on hard times recently - most notably Suntech Power (STP). The China-based solar panel company rattled the industry when it filed for bankruptcy last week. In its heyday, the stock traded just shy of $90 and had a market capitalization of $16 billion: on Thursday, the last day U.S. markets were open, the shares traded around for 42 cents each." In "Once 'Overhyped and Sexy,' Solar Tumbles," by Javier E. David, CNBC, 30 March 2013. As with carbon credits traded by the now collapsed Chicago Climate Exchange which traded at a high of about $8 and were worth about 10 cents at collapse, the SunTech high of $90 falling to 42 cents, suggests a quite common occurrence in "green" trading.
As one looks further, one finds "'In Europe, prices plunged as it became clear that the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is over-allocated all the way to 2020, mainly due to the impact of Europe's economic troubles on emissions', explained Anders Nordeng, senior carbon analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon and co-editor of the report." In "European carbon price 'inching ever closer to zero'," by James Murray, Guardian UK, 7 February 2013. As with the massive losses generated for investors in the Chicago Climate Exchange, one sees the same thing in Europe in the moment. Checking European Carbon Futures, on learns from a high in 2010 of over 17.50 Euros/t CO2, the price has slipped to under 7.5 Euros, for a loss for investors of about sixty percent.
The losses in the German solar sector also climb: "The Bosch unit is the latest casualty of boom and bust experienced in Germany's solar energy industry. Former heavyweights SolarWorld (SWVG.D) and Conergy (CGYGk.DE) are in debt restructuring talks while Q-Cells QCEG.UL filed for insolvency last year." In "Bosch abandons solar energy," Reuters, 22 March 2013.
Losses are becoming synonymous with "carbon" investing. "After trading on the EU ETS began, prices reached a high of €31 per ton. But the economic slump beginning in 2008 slowed industrial activity, depressing prices. Permits for delivery in December 2013 (and valid for seven years) touched a low of €2.81 on Jan. 24. They closed at €4.15 on March 22." In "Europe's Carbon Emissions Market Is Crashing," by Alex Morales and Alessandro Vitelli, Bloomberg Business Week, 28 March 2013. These numbers tell the tale, wherein the "high" is now worth less than 14 percent of an investor's "credit."
The bankrupt and bankrupting green companies, only some of which are listed above, are causing massive amounts of investors' funds and government subsidies alike to be lost. One example: "The California Public Employees Retirement System has put $900 million to work in cleantech, $460 million of that with venture capitalists who invest in cleantech startups, and has had a negative return of 9.8 percent on that money." In "CalPERS loses on cleantech bets," by Kent Bernhard Jr., Upstart Business Journal, 22 March 2013. The pattern and sheer scope of the losses suggest that "green" was overhyped and oversold, its claims outlandish and proven so in a few short years.
But it is worthwhile revisiting the intent of the politicians involved, through their own words, notably: "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity price would necessarily skyrocket. . . . Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas—you name it—whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers." Barack Obama, January 2008 and found as a YouTube video, and as cited by Institute for Energy Research, "Quotes on Cap and Trade and Energy."
As well as significant losses in government subsidies to companies now bankrupt only years later, one also reviews the proposed cap and trade as envisioned by government: "A cap and trade bill will likely increase the costs of electricity. . . . These costs will be passed on to the consumers. But the issue is, how does it actually…how do we interact in terms with the rest of the world? If other countries don’t impose a cost on carbon, then we would be at a disadvantage. . . . We should look at considering duties that would offset that cost." Quote of Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, in testimony to House Committee on Science on Technology, 17 March 2009.
As Chu resigned from the administration, he wrote the following: "Through the Recovery Act, the Department of Energy made grants and loans to more than 1,300 companies. While critics try hard to discredit the program, the truth is that only one percent of the companies of the companies we funded went bankrupt. That one percent has gotten more attention than the 99 percent that have not." Steven Chu, "Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees Announcing His Decision Not to Serve a Second Term," 1 February 2013. So is it a matter of the number of companies or the amount of loan losses?
One reads: "The story is the same for the U.S. Department of Energy. The Obama administration’s rocky road with green-energy boosterism is no secret. With big names like Solyndra and Solar Trust of America, it’s hard to lose sight of the administration’s funding failures. But what may come as a surprise is the overall amount of money being thrown away on these green companies that the administration has championed. Of the $10.7 billion in green-energy commitments, detailed below, approximately $3.2 billion is to companies that are in bankruptcy, and another $7.1 billion is committed to teetering firms." In "Energy Loserville: U.S. DOE Picks in an Artificial Industry," by Sterling Burnett, MasterResource, 9 July 2012.
Simple math suggests that as of July 2012, about 30 percent of the "commitments" were in bankruptcy, a greater number than Chu's "one percent." Apples and oranges. Chu seems to be citing the number of companies or university grants, not aggregate dollar losses. But some months after his retirement from the adminstration, he predicted, "We're going to have a few more bankruptcies. Sometimes it'll be like Solyndra where you get 3 cents on the dollar. Others, it'll be 80 cents, or something like that." In "Ex-Energy Secretary Steven Chu Q&A," by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 2013. What an odd prediction of "something like that." Losing money on an investment is not what investors seek.
But in stepping down Chu wrote, "This is the approach I’ve brought to the Department of Energy, where I believe we should be judged not by the money we direct to a particular State or district, company, university or national lab, but by the character of our decisions." Steven Chu, "Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees Announcing His Decision Not to Serve a Second Term," 1 February 2013. What is the definition of "character of our decisions" when so great an economic loss is assigned to the "public?"
See: Green Job , and green screws red - lights or bread, and also So - stupid, as well as Creative Folklore
Hen Party - a eunuch's cluck
"But for many Swedes, gender equality is not enough. Many are pushing for the Nordic nation to be not simply gender-equal but gender-neutral. The idea is that the government and society should tolerate no distinctions at all between the sexes. This means on the narrow level that society should show sensitivity to people who don't identify themselves as either male or female, including allowing any type of couple to marry. But that’s the least radical part of the project. What many gender-neutral activists are after is a society that entirely erases traditional gender roles and stereotypes at even the most mundane levels." In "Sweden’s New Gender-Neutral Pronoun: Hen, A country tries to banish gender." by Nathalie Rothschild, Slate.com, 11 April 2012. [ 1 ]
Parent One and Parent Two
Had Children: One, Two, Three!
Oh, no, yes, no! But then who knew
Of gender's responsibility?
Parent One and Parent Two
With names like Sky and Sea
Could name their kids -- hmm -- Red and Blue,
Avoiding gender's augury.
Red and Blue trot out to play
While One and Two peer on,
To guard against some gendered way
Such childish play might spawn.
Distinction, by law, is not allowed;
Only neutrality may be had,
As One and Two and all their crowd
Believe gender is that bad.
Parent Three and Parent Four
Whose sex -- oops, gender -- function not
Ponder what life has for them in store
After gender-neutral they had sought.
My parts, your parts, those neutral things,
Aren't quite working up to snuff.
Engendering sometimes -- well -- it stings,
When gendered sex is erased enough.
Gender neutral's ideal spawns
Gender neutral's checkmate pawns.
Gender-neutral, that's the game,
Because it's gender that is so too blame
For all the ills in all the world
Come from gendered parts unfurled.
Wrap them tightly, bind them well,
And -- gee -- won't a neutral life be swell?
Sexy then goes out of date,
Confusion reigns twixt mate and mate.
When mating does not make the grade,
Then gender-neutral sex will fade.
Darwin's thoughts might enter here,
To say such thinking needn't fear;
Gender-neutral will not prove fit;
Coming generations will not submit.
Envoi: "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell, in "Politics and the English Language" (1946)
See: Sexy acrostic - just to turn a trick, and its varying viewpoints in footnotes
[ 1 ] This enthusiasm from the supposedly modern feminist to attack language as patriarchal and in need of their enlightened viewpoint is found elsewhere "The University of Leipzig has voted to adopt the feminine version of the word for 'professor' as its default. In German Professorin refers to a female professor while Professor is the male equivalent. Under the new measures, written documents will use the term Professorinnen when referring to professors in general. A footnote is to explain that male professors are also included in the description." In "Uni switches to feminine professor titles for men," kkf, The Local.de, 5 June 2013. This is amusing, as the other approach in a number of languages had been to use the "masculine" form as inclusive of all genders. By opting for either, gender is played as a political stance.
Amusingly one Leipzig professor suggests that, however amusing the exercise is, changing the language will not change the socio-political situation of discrimination wherever it might be found: "Der Gleichstellungsbeauftragte der Uni Leipzig, Georg Teichert, sieht das ähnlich: Die Idee der neuen Schreibweise, die von Physikprofessor Josef Käs stamme, sei interessant. „Sie ändert aber nichts an der tatsächlichen Diskriminierung von Frauen“, sagte Teichert." In "Nur noch „Professorinnen“ an der Uni Leipzig," Franfurter Allgemeine, 5 June 2013.
This is a remarkable stream of thought for when on contemplates even lightly on "gender-neutral language," then the politico-philosophic stream of feminism which recognizes the feminine in its own chosen name is in fact not "gender-neutral." One reads: "Various forms of gender-neutral language became a common feature in written and spoken versions of many languages in the late twentieth century. Feminists argue that previously the practice of assigning masculine gender to generic antecedents stemmed from language reflecting 'the prejudices of the society in which it evolved, and English evolved through most of its history in a male-centered, patriarchal society'." in Wikipedia article on "Gender-neutral language." Feminine is in fact a gender-specific adjective, as is masculine.
A popular play of the last decade or so has been Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, in which sections are titled, as example, "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy" or "Because He Liked to Look At It," with both "woman" and "he" being anything but gender-neutral. It is amusing to follow the critical trail for a moment. On critic, Kim Hall, complained of "colonialist conceptions of non-Western women." Again "woman" appears in the language. In assessing the last decades of feminism, a gender-specific term pointing to the "feminine," one finds feminism countered with a second and then third "wave" as the struggle over language is mired in politics. As observed in a Wikipedia stub, "In this wave, as in previous ones, there is no all-encompassing single feminist idea." In "Third-wave feminism," Wikipedia accessed May 2013. Gender equality does not sit well as a language rule with gender specificity, and this is what is observed, which makes Orwell's prescient statement most apt -- "to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
"I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?" W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963). The Souls of Black Folk, 1903.
Shakespeare, Balzac and Dumas were of another distant land,
Another folk, another time, another life and band.
Aristotle and Aurelius still commerce with our thought,
Across all time, the learnéd have their wisdom wrought.
Swing wide and open knowledge in wisdom as in truth,
By swinging wide those gates of toil in age as in one's youth.
The demagogue demands we cease to learn and widely learn,
And by such learning learn it is for freedom that we yearn.
Those who would shut and bar the gates pretend another stance,
But as they blind the knowing, they must quickstep in their dance,
And say they stand for learning, for this but not for that,
Then as the gates are closing, reveal their caveat.
This, not that, and all approved, but one must not be free,
For from the freedom knowledge brings, these tyrants then must flee.
The rich - owed an American ode
"Longtime political strategist David Axelrod, who helped advise President Obama's presidential run in 2008 and is serving as communications director for Obama's re-election campaign, has paid $1.7 million for a four-bedroom, 3,320-square-foot condo unit in a high- rise condo along Michigan Avenue." In "Axelrod buys $1.7 million Michigan Ave condo," by Bob Goldsborough, Chicago Tribune, 16 April 2012 [ 1 ]
The rich,
When left to their own devices,
Are a Kennedy'd Camelot.
The rich,
When right, the Left entices
Right wealth to re-allot.
The rich,
When left to use words like fairness
Rage against the right.
The rich
When right corner a squareness
Unready for that fight.
The rich
Left millionaires make bold display
To complain of Right millionaires.
The rich
Right millionaires reply and say
Soros' billions trump piddling flares.
The rich
In liberal limousines
Like the finest of pricey things.
The rich
Play acting conservative scenes
Find the game is tough and it stings.
The rich,
Left and Right, are a dynamo
Trading influence on the go.
The rich,
Left and Right, play quid pro quo,
And far more than they show.The rich
Buy parties for their friends,
The best that money can buy.
The rich,
Other people's money spends
To take aim at each little guy.
Envoi: "...the city of Yonkers is paying more than 100 retired cops pensions that are bigger than the salaries they got when they were on patrol. One officer who retired – at 44 – with pay of $74,000 is collecting a pension of more than $100,000. In San Diego last year, a mayoral candidate got a lot of traction by noting that a retired assistant attorney was pulling down a pension of more than $300,000, and a chief librarian’s pension exceeded $230,000." In "Today’s top opinion: The pension bomb," Richmond Times Dispatch, 25 February 2013
Addendum: "CalPERS' advocacy for higher benefits and its poor investment performance in recent years have locked in long-term debt in California and driven up costs, problems for which there are no easy solutions. As former Schwarzenegger administration economic advisor David Crane, a Democrat, has said of the fund's managers and board: ;They are desperate to keep truths hidden.'" In "California's sad pension saga," by Steve Malanga, Los Angeles Times, 24 February 2013
[ 1 ] "...when Axelrod was the top advisor to the Obama presidential campaign, he hauled in a total of $1.5 million in salary and partnership income from the two companies." In "Obama advisor David Axelrod sells stakes in Chicago firms for $3 million," by Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times, 5 April 2009.
"With regard to music: It is forbidden and is not permissible to play musical instruments or listen to songs and tunes. The majority of scholars say that it is haraam, including the four imams of fiqh: Abu Haneefah, Maalik, al-Shaafa’i and Ahmad (may Allaah have mercy on them all). The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: 'Among my ummah there will be people who will regard as permissible adultery, silk, alcohol and musical instruments.' Narrated by al-Bukhaari (5590). See also: al- Silsilah al-Saheehah by al-Albaani (91). " In "Islam Question and Answer," Shaykh Muhammads al- Munajjid, Fatwa No. 50687. Posted by Norman Lebrecht, in his article, "Is it permissible for Moslems to listen to classical music?" 3 April 2012
With regard to music,
Let's shake it a little.
The Shakers thought music
A dancing, spiritual gift,
While one bearded old fakir
By a merry tune gets miffed.
The Hindus have bhajans,
Devotional, lyrical and old,
But this Shaykh would play critic;
Sama veda leaves him cold.
Jews have had piyyutim,
Niggunim and much more,
But through this silly fatwa,
That's music to abhor.
Christians sing hymns,
Praises, chants and laments,
But to grumpy old sheykh
It's a forbidden offence.
Buddhists sing shomyo,
Ryokyoku and rikkyoku styled,
But one shaking old sheykh
Thinks of them and gets riled.
Druids had their bards
For a mystical, musical elite,
Of which cheeky old crab
Is no appreciative aesthete.
High heaven forbid
That some tune might infect
A robed, tune-dead scholar
And his unmusical sect.
The question today:
Shall our tolerance respect
Such a fatuous proponent
Who would all music reject?I choose singers of note,
Ivories' tinkled en masse,
Scratchers of strings
And winds and bright brass.
Battery is a drum beat
With sticks and much more,
Not doctrinal battery from
An unmusical bore.
Envoi: "So it was with utter horror that I heard Lucy Duran, who hosts the BBC programme World Routes and teaches the anthropology of world music at SOAS, say in an emotional comment this week that one of the terrible side effects of the extreme Islamic fundamentalism now invading northern Mali is the silencing of music. Outlawed under Sharia law, all instruments, radio, CD players have been destroyed, and as Lucy chillingly said, those seen playing guitars were threatened with having their fingers cut off." In "Mali: silencing the music," by Lauren O’Hara Cyrus Mail, 19 January 2013.
Addendum: " 'It's a chain reaction – when people listen to music, they ask for alcohol, which will lead to adultery,' said Imam Mahmoud Abdel of Masjid Annur Islamic Center. 'One step leads to another in the majority of cases. It's well known that anybody who listens to music a lot will be distracted from his or her mission, which is worshipping God Almighty'." In "Hip-hop, poetry, singers, classical music to star in Muslim event," by Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee, 15 June 2013.
"Verily the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures...." (Sahih Muslim vol. 3, no. 5271)
Chagall is toast, Picasso's roast;
But, Matisse? Just compost in hell.
Rembrandt? He broils, while Brueghel boils,
And Rubens? He too oils in hell.
Magritte? He is tortured in Hell's Painters' orchard.
But is there yet more heard? Pray tell?
Dali's hard charred, and Van Gogh's well scarred,
Both feathered and tarred. Yeah, swell.
Da Vinci blazes, while Goya chafing braises.
Hell as critic appraises? What's that smell?
Michelangelo flares; Klimt's pained in his snares,
As Cezanne deep despairs. Art, farewell!
Escher is but ashes; Kahlo receives lashes.
Monet flares and flashes in Hell's show-and-tell.
Verily, ignite some painter tonight;
Hell delights in their pain, scream and yell.
Munch loud screams, as his scream did blaspheme
In colors extreme. Some old text says it well.
Chagall is toast, Picasso's roast;
So does some text boast and foretell.
Europe's art might burn, for so do some yearn.
Will Europe then learn? Time will tell.
See: The Jerusalem Windows - suite for organ (1993)
"Four times he struck: as oft the clashing sound/ Of arms was heard, and inward groans rebound./ Yet, mad with zeal, and blinded with our fate,/ We haul along the horse in solemn state;/ Then place the dire portent within the tow'r./ Cassandra cried, and curs'd th' unhappy hour;/ Foretold our fate; but, by the god's decree,/ All heard, and none believ'd the prophecy." (Aeneid, Virgil, Volume XVIII, Translated by John Dryden)
All had heard and none believed,
So is Virgil's tale told.
Millennia old and oft relived,
A tale so new, though old.
All hear, yet few will see
The calamities foretold,
For calamities are a given
For leaders far too bold.
Cassandra in each age cries out,
In voices hundredfold,
But still the world refuses sight
In errors manifold.
All hear and none believe
As in Virgil's tale of old,
And so pattern replicates
In creases in each fold.
Envoi: "If this could be accomplished, security might be provided by an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force. Many people have recognized this as a goal, but the way to reach it remains obscure in a world where factionalism seems, if anything, to be increasing. The first step necessarily involves partial surrender of sovereignty to an international organization." In "Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, and John Holdren, co-authors of the textbook "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," 1978.
Addendum: "Intellectuals like to think of themselves as iconoclasts, he says. 'But you take a look through history an it's the exact opposite. The respected intellectuals are those who conform and serve power interests.'" In "Lunch with the FT: Noam Chomsky," by John McDermott, Financial Times, 15 March 2013.
Addendum: "When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something." Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
"Thirteen people were shot and two killed in six hours on Thursday. There have been 23 murders in the past two weeks, and 117 already this year. Chicago's murder rate is up 56 percent over last year." In "Chicago Murder Rate Up 56%," myFOXchiacgo.com, 30 March 2012
Chicago is now more dangerous
Than are troops away at war,
Which begs the simple question:
What's Chicago's culture's score?
Chicago has a culture; one may fairly ask
To take this Butchered Hog to task.
Chicago's own, one from a century's beholders,
Wrote of the lakeside's big Big Shoulders.
Now they carry Big Debt, Big Death, Big Crime;
It's certain this city's running out of time.
Chicago is now more dangerous
Than are troops away at war,
Which begs the simple question:
What's Chicago's culture's score?See: Chicago Poem VI
"The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency. The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office. The latest posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department shows the National Debt now stands at $15.566 trillion. It was $10.626 trillion on President Bush's last day in office, which coincided with President Obama's first day. The National Debt also now exceeds 100% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services." In "National Debt has increased more under Obama than under Bush," by Mark Knoller, CBS News, 19 March 2012
See! BS is noticed in the news,
And the numbers do most of the talking.
CBS has sung the big numbers blues,
And the numbers are truly shocking.
Greece, it's said, has a problem with debt,
Which makes an interesting pickle,
For debt rises as a growing threat,
Proven by a busted hammer and sickle.
Nations go bust and parties go broke,
Because of their red ink blunders.
This time it's the Democrats' sad little joke,
As debt rises up and thunders.
Eye on the news? One big logo'd eye
Now sees through the wordy words' blather.
The National Debt's rising up, sky high,
As more problems just gather and gather.
See! BS is noticed in the news,
And big numbers prove a flood of errors.
CBS has sung the big numbers blues,
And the numbers Cassandra their terrors.
Stuck on stupid is political pelf,
Which blames and blames and blames,
But never ever blames itself
For its insolvency's red ink games.
Envoi: "There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out." Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
See: De fault in de plan
"Danske bilister betaler en merpris for millioner af liter biodiesel, som formentlig udleder mere CO2 end gammeldags diesel." In "Grøn diesel er skadeligt for miljøet," by Lars Attrup, epn.dk, 19 March 2012
The Danes now learn
of creative folklore.
Green diesel emits
"as much or more"
Cee-Oh-2,
when keeping score,
Than regular diesel.
Furthermore,
green diesel is
A resource whore.
Who could have known?
Bright boys swore
Green was the way
economies soar.
Ah well, such things
are hard to ignore.
The end of the story?
I n f l a t i o n ' s G o r e . . . . .
See: Cherished Cultural Myths and Unwise from the start - market forces and common sense dictate
"It was an odd fact to come out at a city council meeting, but again, these are not normal times for the city of Allen Park. On Tuesday night, it was revealed that the city is now paying finance charges on a credit card bill from the Home Depot because it can’t pay off the balance of a couple of hundred dollars." In "A City at the End of Its Rope," by Anne Schieber, Michigan Capitol Confidential, 15 March 2012
At one end of the rope
Hangs in the balance a thread
As insolvency blooms
Washed in finances inked red.
The council which ruled
Was incomparably schooled
In political savvy,
But by numbers were fooled.
These are not normal times,
For normal times make sense,
While leadership civic
Was just a lame pretense.
At one end of the rope
Hangs in the balance a thread
As bankruptcy blooms
Gorged with finances inked red.
Envoi: "Interest on debts grow without rain." Old Yiddish Proverb
"In preparing the March 2012 baseline budget projections, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have updated estimates of the budgetary effects of the health insurance coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That legislation comprises the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) and the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152)." The Congressional Budget Office, "Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act," 13 March 2012
An earlier year projected once;
Projections rising double to twice.
Affordable seems to mean
Doubling costs are twice as nice.
Government pencils erred
When guesstimating costs:
Figuring now doubles and
Old numbers out are crossed.
Was it perfect ineptitude?
Perhaps it was the perfect lie?
Was it just -- hmm -- political?
Where do numbers go to die?
Affordable now costs twice
What affordable was said to cost.
What does affordable even mean
When the meaning's now so lost?
A rancher might afford a bull
A chance to procreate:
It involves a bit of screwing,
And a steer with which to mate.
Affordable? Afford a bull?
The pun's a joke, as such,
Until the numbers are new crunched,
Inking red with more than much.
See: Passed on to you
A poem by Basho floats in spacE
Or in a CaGe or common space.
While the older one is Erik SAtie
The younger one's still Johnny C.
What, you say, with wheN and why
Because He was just that kind of guy.
Something's been done almOst everywhere,
You'll see it if Just once you stare.
Voices stilled at the end of the race
So is John's cage actually commonplace.
"Join HLSRJ and Good Vibrations for a short discussion of sex-positivity, a demo of lube and some popular sex toys, then Q&A. Free Food!" In Harvard's "Sex-Positivity and Slut- Pride: Sex Tips for a Modern World from Good Vibrations - Sex Week Schedule," 26 March 2012
Slut is bad and slut is good;
Now slut is offered with "free food!"
Such is the humor now accrued
To slut as good and slut as crude,
Yet slut is slutty with certitude.
Slut is spewed and slut is rude,
Or slut is sexy when in the mood.
Slut is fine and slut is screwed,
In truth, slut is now a word well skewed.
Slut is bad and slut is good,
And slut's now offered with "free food!"
Slut well baked and slut quick brewed
Means nothing now in the slut-slut feud.
Envoi: Harvard's motto inscribed on its shield - Veritas" in Latin, for "Truth."
Addendum: "Despite the progress, troubling trends remain: 47,500 new cases of HIV infection are diagnosed each year in the U.S. 'Many young people consider it just another STD,' and aren’t as likely to practice 'safe sex' and get tested, said Lange, chief of the division of infectious diseases at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson. That’s because they know if they get sick, there 'is medication that provides patients with an almost normal life like diabetes or hypertension,' he said."" In "African-Americans face uphill HIV fight," by Mary Jo Layton, NorthJersey.com, 25 February 2013
See: Sexy acrostic - just to turn a trick
There's nothing like having innocent fun,
And nothing's like doing a job well done.
There's nothing like a race when you've won
And nothing's like a story when brilliantly spun.
Finding nothing like this, it's luck you shall have,
For such nothing can be a restorative salve.
Seek nothing but the good and the kind,
For nothing is more than such riches well mined.
There's nothing like having your place in the sun,
And nothing's like nothing when newly begun.
Between rhetoric and reality - on the reality of socialist Cuba's healthcare system
"The Cuban health care system has long been applauded within the international health community for its equitable, efficient provision of superior care and its enviable health status indicators. Therefore, it is surprising to learn in this ethnographic account by a US medical anthropologist that the Castro government has apparently been cooking the books. In chapters 1-4, Hirschfeld (University of Oklahoma) describes her problem-fraught experience of fieldwork (and personal illness) in Cuba in the late 1990s, an account informed by observations on gender, social structure, economics, and kinship, as well as health. Her idealistic preconceptions dashed by ‘discrepancies between rhetoric and reality,’ she observes a repressive, bureaucratized and secretive system, long on ‘militarization’ and short on patients’ rights, with state-employed ‘family doctors’ responsible not only for health but also for exposing political dissent. No less compelling is the ‘revisionist history’ of chapters 5-10, in which the author, resorting to historical documents, concludes that the regime did foster public health gains after 1959, but concomitantly manipulated both health statistics and the impact of earlier US involvement in Cuba to highlight the 1959 revolution’s alleged successes. A revealing and persuasive glimpse into public health under socialism. Highly recommended.” Review of "Politics and Revolution in Cuba Since 1898," by Tassie Katherine Hirschfeld, PhD, in Choice Magazine, Reviews for Academic Libraries, 2007.
Between rhetoric and reality
An expanse lies broad, lies deep.
Between rhetoric and reality
Is a truth to make one weep.
For sickos who would cheer the game
Its proved that game was rigged,
And scores were fiddled wildly
As the social stance was jigged.
Between rhetoric and reality
More hear cheap pabulum spewed,
For that's the goal of fiddlers,
Unjust verisimilitude.
Between rhetoric and reality
An expanse lies deep, lies broad.
To rhetoric from reality
Plain truth stand up to fraud.
Applauding rhetoric, dumb and blind,
Avoids reality, so oft maligned.
Addendum: "Political detentions rose dramatically in Cuba in 2012 and will likely increase again in 2013 because of a lack of 'real reforms' on the communist island, a Cuban human rights group said on Thursday." In "Cuban group says political detentions rose dramatically in 2012," Reuters Havana, 3 January 2013
See: Chains and also Socialism's Last Hurrah - not democracy in any town
"A report by the European Court of Auditors has found problems in the way the EU's 31 agencies manage their budgets. The findings are likely to fuel the debate about the usefulness of the bodies in a time of austerity." In "Auditor: EU agencies mismanaging their budgets," by Valentina Pop, EU Observer, 16 February 2012
Little Miss Management
Gobbles what's overspent,
Absorbing the public's great tax.
Along comes austerity,
That economic verity,
To frighten the waste and kickbacks.
What shall they do
When all is askew
And red ink is eyeing the axe?
Justify, bluster
With flibbering fluster,
Using statistics to paper the cracks.
Spittle from management
Says nothing's overspent,
And their propaganda are not attacks.
Little Miss Management
Shoulders on, malcontent,
Saying there yet must be more tax.
Yet each little Miss Muffet
On a bureaucrat's tuffet
Trembles for coming cutbacks.
Miss Management's eponymous
And governments' synonymous
With waste such as ever subtracts.
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"The world is on the threshold of what might be called 'peak people.' The world’s supply of working-age people will soon be shrinking, causing a shift from surplus to scarcity. As with “peak oil” theories – which hold that declining petroleum supplies will trigger global economic instability – the claims of the doomsayers are too hyperbolic and hysterical. These are not existential threats but rather policy challenges. That said, they’re very big policy challenges." In "The world’s losing its workers. How will we compete?" by Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail, 11 February 2012
Ole grandpa and granny had themselves a bunch,
And scraped and saved for there was no free lunch
To come their way nor did they seek
Such nonsensical things. Now, let's sneak a peek.
Our pops and moms, with more had yet less,
And so did the family's numbers regress
Into fewer, and those sometimes spaced far between,
That numbers then shrank, as we've read and we've seen.
Now? Well, demographics stands ready, bill in hand,
For by having less, then less still yet planned,
The matter evolves to who'll work and will pay.
Shall surplus morph to scarcity someday day?
Peak people? Peek, people, for this question looms.
The answers apparent will lie in the wombs
Of those who have children while others do not,
For that is reality, and the woe which we've wrought.
Which model pays dividends as time passes by?
Does shrinking make sense when debt climbs sky high?
That's more for each to shoulder the load,
While fewer remain as the numbers erode.
While growth has its limits, so does decline,
And that is a fact one foresees, I opine,
When rose-colored glasses and politics green
Are shed for reality's harsh, blinding scene.
Ole grandpa and granny had themselves a bunch,
And scraped and saved for there was no free lunch
To come their way nor did they seek
Such nonsensical things. Now's man past his peak?
Envoi: "There has been a cheering reduction in birth rates, but sadly not far enough in rich countries such as the United States and Australia, and not sufficiently widespread." Quote by Paul Ehrlich, in "Q&A: Stanford's Paul Ehrlich fears the worst for a planet with 7 billion residents," by Sarah Jane Keller, Stanford Report, 26 October 2011
Addendum: "Demographers and economists foresee that 30 million Europeans of working age will 'disappear' by 2050. At the same time, retirement will be lasting decades as the number of people in their 80s and 90s increases dramatically.” The crisis, they argue, will come from a 'triple whammy of increasing demand on the welfare state and health-care systems, with a decline in tax contributions from an ever-smaller work force.' That is to say, there won’t be enough workers to pay for the pensions of all those long-living retirees." In "No Babies?," by Russell Shorto, The New York Times, 29 June 2008
Addendum-de-dum-dum: "Around the globe, fertility rates are plummeting. Countries like Japan and Russia teeter on self-imposed fertility cliffs, facing dramatic population shrinkage and the potential collapse of their welfare states. Europe, with stagnant birth rates, isn't far behind -- and, contrary to popular opinion, neither is America, according to Weekly Standard writer Jonathan V. Last. His new book, What to Expect When No One's Expecting: America's Coming Demographic Disaster, documents a remarkable demographic shift: the global baby un-boom." In "When Babies Disappear," by Heather Wilhelm, RealClearBooks, 14 January 2013
See: The Scourge of the Planet and also Apocalypse sometime
"But European officials, rather than listen to the alarms that the market was raising about Greece, promptly began to deny that the country needed a bailout. Greece’s prime minister at the time, George Papandreou, began a global trip to whip up new bond buyers by insisting that 'we will not be needing help.' In February, at the first of many summits, Merkel flatly refused to discuss a bailout, noting that 'Greece has never asked us for support.' Papandreou also claimed that 'traders and speculators' had unfairly ignored Greece’s 'deep' fiscal reforms. The prime minister’s European counterparts backed him up. Of course, Greece did need a bailout and got it." In "Farewell to the Free Market?" by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal, Winter 2012
Once upon a time,
So the stories start,
Tell their sorry tales,
Wisdom to impart.
Once upon a time
Primed Ministers were heard,
"We'll not be needing help,"
Which turns out 'twas absurd.
Once upon a time
Politicians vowed
Some things very wrong.
Were they over proud?
Once upon a time,
So these tales tell,
Is supposed to be forgot,
As lies begin to smell.
Once upon a time,
Everything was fine,
And then but months beyond
Some bright boys did resign.
Once upon a time
Comes like clockwork's tick,
And what such bright boys said
Turned sour, sad and sick.
Once upon a time
Leaders ignored alarms,
And so the stories lead
To bankruptcies' dark charms.
Once upon a time
People once believed
And as they did so
Time saw them harsh aggrieved.
Once upon a time
Comes around again,
And just as was before
The lessons were as then.
See: In black-and-white and also Europe 4 all? Yea!
"The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance “whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers,” has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers. The Espionage Act, enacted back in 1917 to punish those who gave aid to our enemies, was used three times in all the prior administrations to bring cases against government officials accused of providing classified information to the media. It has been used six times since the current president took office." In "Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth," by David Carr, New York Times, 26 February 26, 2012
Sshh, don't tell a soul,
But someone's noticed now.
What government would silence,
Free men shan't allow.
The New York Times reports,
And they've been fans and chums;
But something this most obvious
Is something that wicked comes.
Silencing those whistle blows --
Because they're proved so prone --
Means all the talk was empty
In its smiling baritone.
Three times in almost a century
Yet six times in but years
Suggests that government now
Doles out coercion's fears.
Sshh, don't tell a soul,
Reporters have noticed now.
This government will silence
Ignoring its campaigns' vow.
NYTimes, don't tell a soul.See: Sir Veiled Lance
"La démocratie étend la sphère de l'indépendence individuelle, le socialisme la reserre. La démocratie donne toute sa valeur possible à chacque homme, le socialisme fait de chaque homme un agent, un instrument, un chiffre. La démocratie et le socialisme ne se tiennent qu par un mot, l'égalité; mais remarquez la différence: la démocratie veut l'égalité dans la liberté et le socialisme veut l'égalité dans la gene et dan la servitude." In "Discours prononcé à l'assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail", by Alexis de Tocqueville, in Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546.
The old words still remain,
To be read and read again.
Rereading them, these same,
Tells much about us men.
The conflict of two sides is,
One would be free from chains,
And the other is that tyranny
Which stokes a people's flames.
Democracy allows men speech
While collectives reach and grasp,
Laboring hard, consistently
Fitting speech with lock and hasp.
Freedom is a word requiring
The preposition's phrase,
As in freedom from each tyranny,
Its mandates and its maze.
A fist is raised by tyranny
When freedom's fist droops low,
And rising tyrants use their fists
To mute freedom with a blow.
Independence of the individual
Is freedom's greatest claim,
As the discourse circles round again,
And the old words still remain.
See: Freedom is freedom is freedom and also It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase
"Like drunks at a bar door, the euro zone's governments and banks are leaning unsteadily on each other for support. The banks know they have to sober up, but governments are urging them to have one more for the road." In "Analysis: Euro zone gropes for way out of state-bank dependency," by Paul Taylor, Reuters Paris, 20 February 2012
One more for the road
To lighten any load
Is logic that's bereft of sense,
Drunk drivers' crashes showed.I see you, and lift your glass,
Which shatters in the hand;
Like as not it says as much
For that one more which is planned.
One more for the road
Is heaping a-la-mode
Obesity's plate with calories
Emptiness swallowed.
"One more for the road,"
Bar room drunks bellowed,
While fumbling for their keys
As out that door they strode.
One more for that road
Means more is ever owed,
And this too surely fails
As economies implode.
Envoi: "Debts and lies are generally mixed together." François Rabelais (c. 1494-1553)
Addendum: "The European Union, which is not directly responsible to voters, provides an irresistible opportunity for European elites to seize power in order to impose their own vision on a newly socially regimented Europe." In "Eurofascism, Lite," by Maggie Gallagher, UExpress, 15 July 2003
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"The Jewish nigger Lassalle, who fortunately leaves at the end of this week, has happily again lost 5,000 Thaler in a fraudulent speculation. The fellow would rather throw money in the dirt than make a loan to a 'friend' even if interest and capital are guaranteed. He acts on the view that he must live like a Jewish baron or baronised (probably via the Countess) Jew." (Letter dated July 30, 1862; Vol. 3, Marx-Engels Correspondence, German edition, page 82.)
Jewish nigger,
so Marx wrote,
Is explained away
with sugarcoat
As Marxists chat
and spin and say,
The old boy was in
foul mood that day.
So let's forgive
and let's forget,
For such nice words
aren't epithet.
Bygones be bygones;
let's skip this, his word.
Marx was a saint, as
one believes the absurd.
Jewish nigger,
so Marx wrote,
Is forgivable. Why?
He was just that sort of guy.
Marxists love their Marx
and like to just omit
That lovely Marx lived
in a pig's proverbial shit.
He schnorred loans,
read, capital, cash,
Because he poorly managed
so his tiny monthly stash.
But now he's the rage
and a guru great,
A economic sage
and heavyweight,
Who speaks of capital
with which he fumbled,
Because he's Marx,
and never stumbled.
Except to write
a thing or two,
To disparage the Negro
and insult the Jew.
Envoi: While Marx made this statement, it is interesting to note the fine words another icon of revolutionary socialism has stated: “The Negro is indolent and spends his money on frivolities and drink, the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent…The negro has maintained his racial purity by his well known habit of avoiding baths.” Quote of Ernesto Guevara, cited by Humberto Fontova, Babalú Blog, 5 April 2013
Yes, we have no good answers - to be sung to the tune, "Yes! We Have No Bananas," a novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn (circa 1922)
"We're not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don't like yours." Quote of United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in C- SPAN3 coverage of a House Committee Hearing on the federal budget with an official 1.3 trillion dollar deficit, 16 February 2012
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got words and words and words
and rhetoric topped with words,
And yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
There’s a bank man at the helm
Whose tiny name is Tim,
His answers underwhelm,
For when you hear him limn
And you ask him anything,
He never answers no,
He just “Yeses” you to death
And then he takes your dough.
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got charts and graphs and drafts,
Yes, statistics gimmicked well,
So yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
Testifying ain't his best routine;
He calla his chums to say,
“Help! Corzine! Frank! I mean,
I need you right away.”
When they're all together, oh,
There is fun, you bet,
Someone asks for answers,
And then the whole quartet....
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got words and words and words
and rhetoric topped with words,
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.But we don't like yours....
Envoi: "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." John Adams (1735-1826)
See: Partisan artisan - most news is a ruse
The man who knew too little
Said he knew a lot;
It had been really quite enough
To earn him his big shot.
One big shot was all it took
To show a little man
Had nothing but his ego
And a big then failing plan.
And yet he knew well enough
To earn the trust of men
And then he brought a gaggle
To swill in his pig's pen.
We are so smart and so elite,
He bragged and preened and brayed,
That in our farm of animals
None should be afraid.
The man who knew too little
But said it was a lot
Demanded all obey him;
Dissent would come to naught.
The man who knew too little
But said he knew a lot
Wished quietly he could command
A skeptic could be shot
With bullet or with drug
Or re-educated, hard and well,
Such that a skeptic then meekly turn
To the big shot's carousel.
One big shot meant many more,
Each twisting force to fist.
Complaints on deaf ears rained
And only made him pissed.
The man who knew too little
Knew well revenge and spite
And ordered force to make that fist
For him and his to fight.
He said he knew well enough
To break the backs of men
And then he loosed his struggle
Well planned for his time, when
That man who knew too little
Would know one thing very well,
That his right was almost divine
To silence his opponents' yell.
Dictate or mandate by force of law
Yet fail across the years,
The man that knew too little
Blamed others for the jeers.
The man that knew too little
Spoke in passion's heated lies
To prop up his great ego
With a knowing sort of guise.
One big shot was all it took
To waste, to cheat, destroy
With nothing but his ego
And his cadre to employ.
The man that knew too little
Excepting speaking lies
Is always toppled in the end
As histories advise.
Of which man do these quatrains' rhyme
Speak in scansion's time?
Of yesterday's man and this day's too,
And tomorrow's paradigm.
All men that knew too little
Have hubris on their side,
And this has always, ever served
To lead men towards genocide.
"'Americans are tired of being tired,' Joe Biden said." In "VP Biden: 'Americans Are Tired Of Being Tired'," WXII12 Television, 24 February 2012
Are you tired of being tired?
Weary with weariness? Are you worn out being worn out?
Are you stale from staleness? Are you trite for being trite?
Sleepy from lack of sleep? Are you exhausted from exhaustion?
Does crying make you weep?
In circles one might speak
Which brings one back around Being tired of being tired,
Revisiting the same old ground. Circular circles' thinking
Of circles all going around Is what some folks still follow
Although their ship's aground.
Are you tired of being tired?
Weary from weariness? Drained because you're draining?Am I leery for my leeriness? Oh yes, we all can circle round
About the sentence tree, When sense is hard to come bySpeaking vice-presidentially.
"Chicago is the corruption capital of America, and Illinois is the third most-corrupt state, according to a new academic study on the science of sleaze. 'Unfortunately, when it comes to political corruption, we're numero uno,' Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of the report, told me Wednesday. 'It's not something we should be proud of. But this is the corruption capital.'" In "Kass: We're No. 1 — in political sleaze, Chicago is corruption capital, report shows" by John Kass, The Chicago Tribune, 16 February 2012
Headlines read,
Corrupt all over;
So says the Tribune
Waking, hung-over.
The science of sleaze
Is decades of change
Which resulted in none;
Now isn't that strange?
Reform, renew,
Refresh, rethink;
From Sandburg to now
It's the same old stink.
Headlines read,
Political sleaze;
So prints the Tribune,
Amid larcenies.See: Chicago Poem V
"One of the things that has forced the Greek people to the precipice is the corrupt [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and inefficient government that everyone agrees must shrink. For decades, politicians have been handing out jobs - with generous benefits - in return for votes, and now the country is broke. 'We all know what needs to be done,' said Apostolos Apostolakis, one of Greece's hardworking young entrepreneurs. 'The problem is, who will take the political risk to do it? We need people who will place the country above their personal interests.'" In "Latest layoffs, cuts drive Greeks to despair," by Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News, 15 February 2012
And there it is
In black-and-white:
That truth which tells it all.
'Twas government
That broke the bank,
And conjured up the squall.
It's debt on debt
That's become the threat,
And now we taste its gall.
Yes, there it is
In black-and-white:
Government which once was small
Fattened, bloated,
Borrowed much,
Must suffocate and fall.Hard to ignore
What's plain to see:
The truth should plain appall.
[ 1 ] "In reality, says Bakouris, an incompetent political class continues to govern the country -- the same people, the same story. For decades, they have created a sick system that permeates all segments of society." In "'We Are Greedy and Asocial': Corruption Continues Virtually Unchecked in Greece," by Julia Amalia Heyer, Der Spiegel, 16 October 2012. One reads further, "Greece has scored the worst ranking of all 27 European Union nations in a global league table of perceived official corruption, falling below ex-communist Bulgaria as public anger about graft soars during the country's crisis." In "Greece takes bottom EU spot in global corruption index," by Gareth Jones, Reuters, 5 December 2012
[ 2 ] "A Thessaloniki criminal court on Wednesday ruled that the city's former mayor, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, is guilty of embezzling almost 18 million euros from municipal coffers over the course of his two terms in office, handing him a sentence of life in prison. Papageorgopoulos and 17 other officials stood trial for allegedly embezzling almost 52 million euros from the municipality’s coffers, though the Thessaloniki court on Wednesday said that there was proof of 17.962 million euros having been misappropriated by the former mayor and his cohorts." In "Thessaloniki court hands ex-mayor life sentence over embezzlement," ekathimerini.com, 27 February 2013.
For a view of similar tales in the United States of Corruption, see: Corruption, and for other nations' similarly blessed, see: Corruption has a middle name
"One out of five jobs in Greece is held by a bureaucrat, which is why unemployment among the under-24s runs at 42%. A 2010 poll shows that seven out of 10 Greek college graduates seek to leave. Some 9% of Greek college graduates and at least 51% of Greece's Ph.D.s are already gone, according to University of Macedonia demographer Lois Lambrianidis." In "Greece's Bailout Socialism Penalizes Youth Most," Investor's Business Daily Editorial, 21 February 2012
They say it's wonderful,
The answer to your dreams,
If only it was done right
And wasn't as it seems.
They say mistakes were made
When last the game was played,
But next time, we're assured,
Socialism earns a higher grade.
But, why do young folks leave
When old socialist schemes fail?
And why do bright folks walk
When the buckets start to bail?
Why leave what is good?
Why not stay as you should?
Socialism's centuries-old buggy
Has no motor beneath its hood.
Soviet Socialists imploded
Into broken mirrors and smoke,
While National Socialism
Was a vicious, murderous joke.
Castro's Revolution
Creaks and limps with age,
While Britain's NHS is
In its life support stage.
Greece is slipping off the rails,
While fingers wag and wave,
But fattened bureaucrats all say
Somehow, some way they'll save
The teetering, toppling system
Which becomes so often frail.
This is why bright young folks walk
When the buckets start to bail.
They've said it's wonderful,
The answer to your dreams,
If only we could do it right
And wasn't what it seems.
It seems, when looking into it,
Old socialism bloats,
And fattens into awful health
As debts it floats and floats.
And then the time just rolls along
When something's overdue.
It's then that socialists all shrug
And hand the mess to you.
They urged this thing so wonderful
On generations' past,
And then defaulted, warred,
And then they all collapsed.
Is there a lesson in all this?
Well, no, not if you hold
That socialism might yet work
As socialists have told.
The track record is rather poor,
And failures abound,
And yet evangelizing socialists
Convert the world around.
They say it's wonderful,
The answer to your dreams,
If only it is done right
And isn't as it seems.
For minootes toidytree sekunds
For minootes toidytree sekunds
keeps notsingin johnz crazy Ol tune
but therez a limit to sittin U kin reckunds --
after that uR rootin tootin immune
for Minootes hemorrhoidy sekunds
measured In the stop -- watch
the haNds tick off what beckunds --
if you've drUnk nuff from suchy klatsch
for minooTes verily hoidytoidy fekunds
oddyEnces will patiently sit
ever So each appreciatively reckunds --
and listens too as wiT applauds it
yup applaud this red Herring u hear/d go tick
you kIn page turn or cough [sic]thatz the tRick
cause its all music -- sTop music
im goin to not hum that sprY shtick
or at least Try a spoonful
cuz its catcHy and rightfully tuneful
and whateveR else it's wry
for minootes the shEep will buy
apprEciatively dulled
and liSten enthrulled
so with it Edgy devant guard
cut to the Chase they pays their reward
to hear nOthing yes no thing
but Noise from them self
Dutifully like stock on some shelf
countin minootz n sekundScleverly cagey, huh?
See: A setting of Busch's Die Selbstkritik hat viel für sich, variations on C-A-G-E - (2012)
"Ex-Gov. Bill Richardson is one of several former top U.S. government officials pocketing large fees to speak in support of an Iranian group that is listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization." In "Richardson Is Paid To Promote Listed Terror Group," by Thomas Cole, Albuquerque Journal, 10 March 2012
Pockets of corruption pocket some change
To chatter the matter for terrorists. Strange?
Not when one thinks of the greed, yes indeed,
Whenever a politician mounts up his steed.
Speaking fees line all such pockets as his;
They're astonished when noticed. Gosh, golly. Gee whiz!
It's only a speech for five figures or more,
And only to terrorists. That, not much more,
As pockets of corruption pocket their change
In quid pro quo bargains, in moneyed exchange.
Is this greed that progressively shows?
Or yet another emperor's old clothes?
Step by step, one path drops deep,
Step by step, one way grows steep,
Step by step, the weepers weep,
Step by step, each step a creep.
Another log for the fires of hell,
Another dog for their hounds, as well,
Another peal from that tolling bell,
Another soul that's sinned and fell.
Step by step, another calls,
Step by step, it upward sprawls.
Step by step, to mount the walls,
Step by step, to gilded halls.
Another joy, in circles bright,
Another time comes into sight,
Another step in pathways right,
Another tread to scale the height.
Step by step, each path is built,
Step by step, as blood is split.
Step by step, as guilt by guilt,
Step by step? Which way to tilt?
"The acts that are at once the means and ends of education, knowing, thinking, understanding, judging, are all committed in solitude. It is only in a mind that the work of the mind can be done." In "The Graves of Academe," Richard Mitchell (1981) Akadine Press, 1999.
There is something about being alone,
that all too many people bemoan.
Alone in one's thoughts may be filled to replete,
while alone in one's dreams is merely discrete.
In solitude one creates, invents and learns,
and in it one grasps that for which one yearns.
There is something wondrous about being alone,
when all one's thoughts may be truly one's own.
See: Witness
Fat cats richly rich of late - a comparative and sourced criticism of the nouveau "fair share" folks
"A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share. Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year." In "36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes," by Andrew Malcolm, Investors Business Daily, 26 January 2012
Fat cats richly rich of late
Seem to evidence a spate
Of "you, not me" and abdicate
What they for others must apply.
Top cats topping out their place
Demonstrate in the income race
A "you, not me" as their state of grace
Which we lessers should not espy.
Fair share is bright rhetoric,
So some think, I think, a trick,
A slimy gambit, a surly shtick
Which the underclass should just buy.
Gosh and golly, the Fair Share folks
Seem to calculate their Fair Share jokes
Perpetrated on the littlest folks.
All is fair when you've climbed that swing.Double standards dance and sing.
More for them; and we bear the sting.
Envoi: "Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.” Aristophanes, in "Plutus" (c. 388 BCE)
Addendum: "On July 30, 2008, HERA established FHFA as the regulator of Fannie Mae [ 1 ] , Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.6 Generally, FHFA is responsible for overseeing the safety and soundness of the regulated entities (i.e., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System), supervising their efforts to support housing finance and affordable housing goals, and facilitating a stable and liquid mortgage market. In "FHFA’s Oversight of the Enterprises’ Compensation of Their Executives and Senior Professionals," Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General's Evaluation Report: EVL-2013-001,Dated: December 10, 2012 . [ 2 ]
Addendum: "Executives at Medicaid- funded not-for-profits in New York are hauling in massive salaries, with one raking in $2.8 million and 14 others topping a half-million, an explosive congressional report has found. And more than 100 other executives from Medicaid-funded agencies in New York are pulling in more than $200,000, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." In "NY Medicaid exec pay is sickening," by Carl Campanile and Chuck Bennett, New York Post, 5 February 2013 [ 3 ]
See: The rich - owed an American ode [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] and also The Double Standard Song - (2009)
[ 1 ] "Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), the biggest source of money for U.S. home loans, said on Wednesday it would seek $4.6 billion in additional federal aid after reporting a fourth-quarter loss. Earlier on Wednesday, the government-controlled mortgage finance company posted a loss of $2.4 billion for the quarter ended December 31. That pushed Fannie Mae's loss for 2011 to $16.9 billion from $14.0 billion a year earlier, the company said." In "Fannie Mae seeks $4.6 billion in aid after Q4 loss," by By Margaret Chadbourn, Reuters, 29 February 2012
[ 2 ] From the report cited above the salaries for the top management in a failing financial enterprise in the majority by taxpayers: Executives - 23 EVPs at Medium Cash Compensation of $1,718,200 - subtotal - $ 39,514,000, and 62 SVPs at Medium Cash Compensation of $723,500 - subtotal - $ 44,857,000, and Senior Professionals - 333 VPs at Medium Cash Compensation of $388,000 - subtotal - $ 129,204,000, and 1,650 Directors at Medium Cash Compensation of $205,300 - subtotal - $ 41,745,00, for a grand total for all Executives and Senior Professionals -- $ 255,320,000.00 for 2,068 "workers." Putting the number into words, the top management of a consistently failing enterprise run by the government of "fat cats richly rich of late" is over one quarter of a billion dollars, or about ten percent of the bailout money requested from Congress to pay to "compensate" two thousand bureaucrats whose job seems to be to lose many billions of dollars consistently over the last five years. Such is the state of "executives and senior professionals" who are "fat cats richly rich of late."
[ 3 ] A quick tabulation from the text suggests these "not-for-profit" entities funded by government pay out approximately $ 29,700,000.00 to 115 "executives" who might well be described also as "fat cats richly rich of late." For comparison, "Per capita money income in the past 12 months (2011 dollars), 2007-2011 - $31,796.00" for New York State. In "State & County QuickFacts," U.S. Department of Commerce United States Census Bureau. And for further comparison, "The average federal civilian employee makes $74,311 per year," in "The Top Paid Federal Employees," by Danielle Kurtzleben, US News and World Report, 30 November 2010. As an addition insight to the "fat cats richly rich of late," one reads, "The roster of state workers raking in six-figure pay skyrocketed last year by an astonishing 12 percent to nearly 7,700 employees, according to a Herald review — a budget-busting bombshell that has fiscal watchdogs howling 'enough.'" In "Mass. gives out 100 grand like candy," by Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald, 16 February 2013.
[ 4 ] "The numbers are even larger in California, where a state psychiatrist was paid $822,000, a highway patrol officer collected $484,000 in pay and pension benefits and 17 employees got checks of more than $200,000 for unused vacation and leave. The best-paid staff in other states earned far less for the same work, according to the data. Rising employee expenses are crowding out other priorities for state and local governments and draining resources for college tuition, health care, public safety, schools and other services...." In "$822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway," by Mark Niquette, Michael B. Marois & Rodney Yap. Bloomberg, 11 December 2012.
The fat cat mentality of California is shown as well in another egregious example of using the "state" to make an individual rich: "With a gross salary of more than $333,000, BART's highest-paid employee last year wasn't its general manager, police chief or a worker who racked up gobs of overtime scrubbing grime from filthy train seats. It was someone who did no work at all for BART in 2012: Dorothy Dugger, the agency's former general manager who resigned under pressure more than two years ago. Under a lucrative retirement scheme, Dugger, 57, quietly stayed on the books, burning off nearly 80 weeks of unused vacation time, drawing paychecks and full benefits for more than 19 months after she agreed to quit in May 2011, according to an analysis by this newspaper. By remaining on BART's payroll, she accrued almost two extra months of vacation, while sitting at home drawing a six-figure salary for unused time off. The months of extra pay were on top of the $920,000 that BART paid Dugger to leave after the agency's board botched an effort to fire her by violating public meetings laws." In "BART's top-paid worker of 2012 never worked a day," by Thomas Peele and Daniel J. Willis, Mercury News, 9 June 2013.
Also one reads as yet another example of "fat cats richly rich of late" the following: "The township police chief will soon retire with an annual benefit of $131,951.76, according to state Department of Treasury spokesman William Quinn." In "Retiring Parsippany police chief to get $132K a year, state says," by Brendan Kuty, nj.com, 14 February 2013. By way of contrast, Wikipedia states in "Household income in the United States, the "U.S. median household income fell from $51,144 in 2010 to $50,502 in 2011. Extreme poverty in the United States, meaning households living on less than $2 per day before government benefits, doubled from 1996 to 1.5 million households in 2011, including 2.8 million children."
And so to contrast the statistics of poverty in the United States, one sees: "...212 pensioners collect six-figure paychecks, with the top five retirees earning $200,000 or more annually." In "Under 50 and grabbing state pensions," by Erin Smith and Chris Cassidy, Boston Herald, 10 April 2013. See: Income Inequality
[ 5 ] "And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers." Quote of Barack Hussein Obama II, in "President Obama’s Remarks on Executive Pay," 4 February 2009 And for this "subsidized by the U. S. taxpayers" remark, specifically see: Lying continues.
[ 6 ] To illustrate that this problem is worldwide, one also finds massive payouts to leaders of "charitable" organizations, such as the following: "Human rights group Amnesty International has paid more than £500,000 in a secret pay-off to its former chief, it was revealed yesterday. The organisation paid out another £300,000 to its deputy leader, who quit at the same time in December 2009. Amnesty declined to discuss the payouts to former secretary general Irene Khan and her deputy Kate Gilmore. But the scale of the payments throws a harsh light on the group’s management decisions following years of increasing criticism." In "Revealed: Amnesty's secret £800,000 pay-offs to two bosses... which it doesn't seem very keen to talk about," by Steve Doughty, Daily Mail UK, 19 February 2011. As if this seems like a one-time event, one follows the news with this: "Last year, Amnesty paid 36 people more than 60,000 pounds a year and seven of them received more than 100,000 pounds. In 2007, there were only seven people earning more than 60,000 pounds, three of whom received more than 100,000 pounds." In "Amnesty International workers start strike," by Danica Kirka, Associated Press, 20 November 2012. It becomes obvious that fine, upper-class salaries can be found in government as well as in charitable foundations. Public servants and charitable work seem now to be well characterized by the phrase, "Fat cats richly rich of late."
An egregious example has been announced in the blog of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Muranishi has been with the county for 38 years, and she’s 63. When retirement day comes, she’ll be getting a lot more than a gold watch. That’s because, according to the county auditor’s office, Muranishi’s annual pension will be equal to the dollar total of her entire yearly package — $413,000. She also has a separate executive private pension plan, for which the county chips in $46,500 a year." In "Alameda County rewards boss: $400k…for life," Matier & Ross, 25 March 2013. This in a state where the average income is slightly over one-tenth that amount.
See: Freddie and Fannie and Barney and Frank for a perspective on the politics which led to multiple years of red ink for taxpayers and millions for "fat cat" bureaucrats..
Greek disability groups expressed anger Monday at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action 'incomprehensible,' and said pedophiles are now awarded a higher government disability pay than some people who have received organ transplants. The Labor Ministry said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance." In "Furor in Greece over pedophilia as a disability," by Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press, 9 January 2012
Hey diddle diddle,
To the chaps that fiddle,
And the boys that like to moon,
As the thieves all laugh to see such sport,
And disability is its own lampoon.
Hey twiddle twiddle,
To the folks that piddle,
And the arsonists in the commune,
As the gamblers all laugh to see such sport,
And disability is a Greek's cartoon.
Hey fiddle fiddle,
The government's a riddle,
And the economy's in a swoon,
As the fools rejoice to make such sport,
And disabled is the government buffoon.
See: Down the drain
"'Perception management' can be usefully shortened to a one-syllable word: 'con.' The confidence-man's most basic tool is to create the surface sheen of success with minimal investment of time and capital. Thus the con-man buys a couple of designer suits, rents a cubbyhole office with a prestigious address, leases a 500-series Mercedes vehicle, counterfeits some diplomas or other signifiers of Elite status and achievement, and then goes to work conning his credulous marks." In "The Grand Game of Perception Management," by Charles Hugh Smith, Financial Sense, 16 February 2012
The prose of cons is flowery bright
And darkly shines throughout each night.
Believe me, friends, all will be well,
So place your cash on my carousel.
The prose and cons stand off, aloof,
Deflecting those who would seek proof.
Not wishing to be seen as one,
The pros pretend it's all just fun.
The prose and cons are slippery tricks,
Guiltless as the Bolsheviks,
And honest as the day is wrong,
So lilting is their siren's song.
The prose and cons seduce, accuse,
Badger, bluster and amuse.
Such words as open wallets wide
Are all the cons on every side.
The prose of cons is glistening bright
And shines with words of love and fright,
With one intent over other goals,
To chat up all their rigmaroles.
Would you see through twaddle? Trash?
Gibberish? Nonsense? Balderdash?
They think you won't; they think you can't,
And if you do then comes the rant.
Denier! Fool! Skeptic! Ass!
Racist! Sexist! Hardnosed! Crass!
The prose of con turns to its edge
To cut, to hammer with its sledge.
In the end with light enough,
The prose and cons receive rebuff.
Believe not in their siren call,
Thus prose and cons will ne'er enthrall.
See: Ponzi states
Naturally no one steals anything
"Naturally, no one is stealing anything. Like Ermanna Cossio, the youngest pensioner in the world who retired at the age of 29 on 94% of her final salary, the stenographers can say that they didn’t make the rules. Fair enough. But those rules enable Senate staff to quadruple their pay in real terms over their career, thanks to a ridiculous system of automatic increments. Today, the rules generate sky-high earnings at a time when the rest of the county is being asked to make big sacrifices." And "In the meantime, parliamentary staff who head for the door are being showered with gold. " In "Senate Stenographer Paid As Much As King of Spain, Stenographer’s €290,000 salary. Salaries quadruple by end of service. Clerks receive up to €160,000," by Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella, Corriere della Sera, 4 gennaio 2012.
Naturally no one steals anything;
They are only showered with gold.
Okay, that's all hyperbole,
But the showering is bold.
Naturally no one steals anything;
They are raking in by rules.
Okay, that's understandable,
Say bureaucrats to loyal fools.
Naturally no one steals anything;
Though they enjoy ridiculous perks.
Okay, that's the way the game is played,
And how such corruption works.
See: Corruption and also Never forget
a circle's a square,
as your spoon is a fork,
and more debt surely solves
political pork
yup is sure nope,
and why asks how
while most of the world
is having a cow
a square is a circle,
a fork is a spoon,
and the cow surely never
jumped over the moon,
and debt hasn't solved
one crisis of debt,
as stupid plays smartin its solo duet
See: Debt
"Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure. The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found 'millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.'" In "Feds find failures in Cook Co. homeland security project," by Carol Marin and Don Moseley, Chicago Sun-Times, 8 January 2012
Let us feign surprise again;
More waste is found. Hooray! Amen!
That government would waste is true;
Who does not think this? Is it you?
Government defines most waste,
And spends and spends and spends in haste.
All the prattle, the rhetorical bull
Is meant to make government coffers full,
That they be emptied double quick,
To show them acting politic.
Come to hear there's waste? Ah then
Let's all feign surprise again.
See: Mandate waste
I need no boots for me to lick,
and need no cures that make me sick.
I need no guru to guide my path,
and need no banker to take a bath.
I need no counsel to rob me blind,
and need no posture pre-assigned.
I need no one who rules over me,
and need no bar to my liberty.
The boots which demand that I hobnail lick,
and cures which serve to make me sick,
The gurus demands' to guide my way?
Such as these I disobey.
I need no counsel to stay my course,
no more than I need a charley-horse.
I need no rulers to measure me,
But need them all to leave me be.
Envoi: "And because a man is a man, / we won't tolerate a boot in his face! / He will not come to be seen as a slave / nor have a master over him." Translation of a song lyric by Berthold Brecht (1898-1956) in a circa 1920 song set to music by Hanns Eisler, titled, "Die Einheitsfront"
Addendum: "I am sure there was no man born marked of God above another for none comes into the world with a saddle upon his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him." Last words of Richard Rumbold before being hanged for planning an insurrection against Charles II, 1679, the speech being referred to often in discussions about defining treason, during the American Constitutional Convention of 1787.
See: Leave me be
"People are less dissatisfied by what they lack than by what others have. And when government engages in redistribution in order to maximize the happiness of citizens who become more envious as they become more comfortable, government becomes increasingly frenzied and futile." In "Government: The redistributionist behemoth," by George Will, The Washington Post, 7 January 2012
You got it; I want it.
I'll get from you.
You got it; I'm envious
Quite through and through.
You got it; I'll have it.
I'll wrench it from you.
Coercion is justice,
And debt revenue.
You got it; I'll take it
By law as by force.
You dare not resist
Or you're beaten, of course.
You got it; I'll have it.
At least you will not.
If all is a loss,
Well, that's what you've wrought.
You've had it; resentment
Filled me with ills.
And for this my actions
Are justified kills.
See: Gimme, and also Anti-capitalism struggles - a curriculum of sorts
Red is a game, much like Green
"Chinese officials love their cars — big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue." In "China Communist Party bureaucrats like their cars high end," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, 8 January 2012
Some Reds, it seems, are millionaires;
Some Greens do very fine.
Bentleys in a lovely blue
Among the poor can shine.Red is a game, much like Green.
It is the blind which have not seen.
Some Reds, it seems, have needs
Quite like unto some Greens,
While the poorest classes serve,
Slaving for philistines.Red's been a game, much like Green.
Its openness is byzantine.
Chinese Red games, much like Jolly Green,
Where social justice lies
Like words which lie on lips
As the elite aggrandize.Red is a game, much like Green.
It rewards the few with a fine limousine.
Some Reds, we learn, are billionaires;
Some Greens pursue the same.
And why, one asks politely,
Play Red and Green this game?Red is that game, much like Green.
It waddles fat, among great hunger mean.
Bentley has an answer,
In chocolate as in blue.
Reds and Greens will often
Others clearly screw.Red was a game, much like Green.
Its outcomes were truly all foreseen.
LoaGai contain the riff-raff
Who never will ride fine.
Red gulags hold the poorest,
So the wealthy bright may shine.Red is a game, much like Green,
Such games only freedoms contravene.
Communism has its panda face
Which bears a grin at times.
Such smiling happy leaders
May beam through all their crimes.
Socialism shows its caring side
While piling debt on debt,
But shifting sands and angry hands
Are rising as a threat.
The threat? It is to Bentleys
Of blue or chocolate hue,
For such things tyrannies
Must have by robbing -- you.Red is a game, much like Green.
It is the blind which have not seen.
See: Capital for Communists - a story growing old
"He also cited a media report that one man claimed he'd signed recall petitions 80 times, and submitted a petition from last summer's attempt to recall Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), in which the accountability board allowed a 'Bugs Bunny' signature to be counted. Kennedy said the signature was counted because Holperin didn't follow the proper procedures for challenging it." In "Judge rules for Walker campaign in case against state election officials," by Tom Tolan of the Journal Sentinel, 5 January, 2012.
Bugs Bunny votes?
Well, some would have it so.
It's a matter of procedures,
They'd like to have you know.
Donald Duck's ballot?
Someone quacked is there,
To say that it's procedural
And so a fake is fair.
Hitler's signature?
But defend it, so some did.
It seems such loony tunes
One must now not forbid.
Bugs Bunny votes?
Who argues for this view?
Politics now is cartoon land
Where sanity's askew.See: Never forget
"There are eleven things which are impure: urine, excrement, sperm, bones, blood, dogs, pigs, non-Muslim men and women, wine, beer and the sweat of the excrement-eating camel. The urine and feces of man and any animal whose bloods spurts when a vein or artery of its body is opened are impure. But flyspecks or the droppings of mosquitoes or others small insects whose blood does not gush are pure." In "The Little Green Book, Selected Fatwahs and Sayings of the Ayatollah Mosavi Khomeini," translated into English by Harold Salemson, Bantam Books, 1985
Purely pure purity, one reads in strange evidence,
Makes for purely purity in insects' droppings; thence
When those who'd puree purely such insect excrements,
I'd decline to dine on insect dung -- their spices and their scents.
But then again such sayings say I am unclean, impure,
So I'd not be invited anyway by such a bearded epicure.
But then he's rotten in the way of spoiled fleshly things,
And left us his droppings in a book about such seasonings.
See: Islamophobia
"Where would you rather live: Congo, Algeria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Myanmar; or HK, Singapore, NZ, Switzerland, UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland or Luxembourg? If you favour the second set of countries - because you imagine, rightly, that they enjoy a much higher level of income and personal freedom - you might also be interested to know that they all benefit from a high level of what this book's contributors call 'economic freedom'; that is, the rule of law, private ownership, personal choice, voluntary exchange and free entry into markets. The first lot, by contrast, are at the bottom of the 'economic freedom' index." In "Making poor nations rich," a book review of "A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures, Princeton University Press, 2000," by Elisa Nay, published by Nth Position.
Freedom is freedom is freedom,
But, what is that you say?
In order that others might have theirs,
You need erode mine away?
Okay, you really mean only
Degree by step by cause,
But still it's freedom eroded,
And that should give us pause.
Freedom is freedom is freedom,
But the brightest and the best
Say and vow and argue
That freedom should be finessed
Into less and less of freedom
As chains grow link by link.
Some proclaim this progress,
Pushing freedom to the brink
Of that which is no longer free
And best known as plain slavery.
Envoi: "A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims." Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Addendum: "People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take." Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
Addendum: "The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion." In "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," Paolo Freire (1970)
Addendum: "It is harder, Montesquieu has written, to release a nation from servitude than to enslave a free nation. This truth is proven by the annals of all times, which reveal that most free nations have been put under the yoke, but very few enslaved nations have recovered their liberty." In " A Letter by Simón Bolívar," otherwise known as "Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island,: Kingston, Jamaica, 6 September 1815. Translated by Lewis Bertrand in "Selected Writings of Bolivar," (New York: The Colonial Press Inc.,1951)
Addendum: "'I Smashed The Treadmill But The Golems Repaired It. Why? And I Let The Animals Go But They Just Milled Around Stupidly. Some Of Them Even Went Back To The Slaughter Pens. Why?" / 'Welcome to the world, Constable Dorfl.' / 'Is It Frightening To Be Free?' / 'You said it.'" Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay (1996), pp. 406
See: It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase and also Ambrose Bierce's Freedom - (2008)
"If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill 'unproductive' fellow humans--and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill--then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive. Then, it is only necessary for some secret edict to order that the method developed for the mentally ill should be extended to other 'unproductive' people, that it should be applied to those suffering from incurable lung disease, to the elderly who are frail or invalids, to the severely disabled soldiers. Then none of our lives will be safe any more. Some commission can put us on the list of the 'unproductive,' who in their opinion have become worthless life." From the sermon by Catholic Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral.
Übermensch and Untermensch
Might sound so very German,
Though Fabian Socialists, Shaw for one,
Did with English words determine
That folks like him and others bright
Should query plainly men,
That they justify to them their lives
Or be snuffed right there and then.
Un-man is a vision dark
Allowing some to kill,
And this is championed round the world
In subtle words and shrill.
Unproductive? Aren't you just?
Then you, man, fetus, frail,
Are ripe for picking, plucking, plain
Discarded by the hale.
Worthless life, so says some judge,
May be discarded quick.
The quick then soon become the dead,
And history repeats its sick
Sad story, told too well
Of culling herds of men
Which some determine have no worth
As the saga starts again.
Übermensch and Untermensch
Tripped off philosophers' lips
And fell into usage, common, mean,
And led to dictatorships.
A courageous Clemens' courageous stance
Spoke out in dangerous times,
Lest we forget and never learn
Of evil's paradigms.See: In a kindly manner and also G. K. Chesterton's The Horrible History of Jones - (2006)
He's the bride at every wedding,
So well groomed is this best man;
He plays his roles bright blithely
As if it were not a plan.
He acts the corpse at every wake,
As he lies and lies in state;
He's the star of every story,
Himself to accentuate.
He's the hero, he's the savior,
Above you many he's the one.
He's the one that he's waited for,
And shines as moon and sun.
He's archenemy of evil
And advocate of your good;
For all your snares and errors
He must rule your neighborhood.
He's the top dog of his pack,
And the headline when you wake.
He's Dear Leader in all tongues
And he serves for his own sake.
He's the judge at every trial,
Retribution for all wrongs.
He's a jury and executioner,
Who loves adoring throngs.
He's right: it must be you
Who is in the wrong this day,
And by his right, your wrong
Must be made to pay.
To pay for all the weddings,
The trials and the plays,
The mourning and adorning,
Requires payments many ways.
You Toil - words of Abraham Lincoln
"It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." Abraham Lincoln, in the Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, at Alton, Illinois (15 October 1858)
You toil, you dreary little ant;
I, grasshopper, shall fiddle.
I'll protest, march and chant
This tyrannical little riddle.
Who'll toil and work and earn the bread
That I feed off such labor?
Is that not right that I be fed?
Aren't we each the other's neighbor?
Labor on and store up fruits
That I might have of yours;
Who makes, who takes are both pursuits,
In supplying the omnivores.
You toil and work for both of us,
For this is how I feed.
Such is the system; it's a plus
For me, I say! Indeed!
Now toil, you dreary little ant;
I, grasshopper, shall trifle.
I'll politic to get my grant
To through your gleanings rifle.
You'll toil and work and earn the bread
That I feed off such labor.
Is it not right that I be fed?
Asserts the greedy neighbor.See: Lazy Bones
