What We Don't Know Can't Hurt Us? -OR- Who's Jammin' Whom?

baffled, confused, puzzled, stumped, foxed, at sea, bewildered, at a loss, mystified, stymied, bamboozled, nonplussed, befuddled, distracted, disjointed, discombobulated, perplexed...

What IS the point? What is YOUR point?

Here is mine:
Despite the best efforts to stress independence and project an illusion that actions have no consequence beyond the immediate acute circumstance at which an action or deliberate inaction is aimed, shit happens.
We live on an intricately interconnected web where everything matters to someone; somewhere. There's nothing worse than a world of shit falling on you because somebody else was arrogantly careless.
So when you deliberately ignore the consequences of your actions, or worse deny any correlation of activity and consequence because you are insulated from the effect, you act carelessly; perhaps devastatingly so for people who wind up dealing with YOUR shit.



Wikileaks' exposure, of actions taken, allegedly on my behalf, are not a threat to national security. The real threat to our national security stems from thinking questionable means to a never defined end is a sound policy path. We deserve to know. We NEED to know. We might not like it, but we enabled it and it falls to us to fix it.

Whatever Gets You Through The Night -OR- Got Time to Kill?

Having an onboard integrated Babel Fish is both a blessing and a curse.

Ya hear what I'm saying? I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.

I appreciate the efforts of those who provide translated transcripts, recaps, highlights and lowlights.
Moonshine Patriot @ The Bobblespeak Translations
What They're Really Saying When They're Saying What They're Saying


And of course, the perpetually brilliant D r i f t g l a s s (whose SMMC (Sunday Morning Mouse Circus) should be on everybody's MUST READ! list) with yet another DavidfuckingBrooks vivisection. Even though it's low-hanging fruit, I leave each one just a little less fatalistic.

I'm up to my nads seriously rehabbing 25 sq. ft. of butcherblock counter in the kitchen. Just a mindless chore, but one that's long overdue. It won't finish any of the 30 drafts in my to-do box, which is sort of the point of the exercise?

I keep promising myself (and you) that I will stop the obtuse open ended postings and provide specifics, but by now we both know that's not likely anytime soon...

Ding. The Oxalic Acid timer... Later.

Civilized -OR- Factioned Out,: Show Your Work

What separates the U.S. from other third world cesspools? (note the clever inclusion of US as members of the 3rd world?)

We are civilized damnit! We've been civilized almost completely out of relevance. Whilst other backwaters practice a more overt perpetuation of the status quo by killing or imprisoning critics, cabals, dissenters, n'er-do-wells,... extending into the pools of potential via some bizarre Barney Fife "Nip it in the bud" cleansings, such places are also more prone to factious juntas, coups and societal disintegration enabled in part by meddling for America's "vital interests" and the backlash against such things.

Domestically, America has taken a more genteel approach to politics which has reserved costly space in our prisons for drug offenders and politicians sacrificed to the facade of good governance. Our best and brightest are monetized to eschew political involvement. Intellect, brains and smarts are considered negatives in the limelight of American Politics. By pervasively and deliberately limiting the potential field through pedigree, breeding and resume', while ridiculing and marginalizing actual thought, we have distilled the essence of our representation down to a well-groomed, compliant herd of spoon-fed narcissists; ready and willing to
say anything, do anything and BE anything useful to the cause of partisanship.

Today's parties have discovered the full advantage of being completely disagreeable without ever having to be responsible for anything. Neat, clean, sanitary. By purging
bi-partisanship as a requirement, our two-party system has distilled a power-sharing agreement that inoculates against upstarts, independents, reformers and rational thought. Everything is framed by party politics while party politics has become a wholly owned subsidiary of its big ticket donors. Conflict of interest no longer applies, since the interests have consolidated into focused, inculcating wielders of proxies. Attaining dominance through wealth, or the projected illusion of wealth and power via proxy aggregation, is in no way, shape or form, a level playing field.

Few Americans harbor illusions about the relationship as thriving or healthy. Most are resigned to continuing the lesser of two evils non-choices that occupy our election cycles. They are "hope and poke" voters not blithering idiots. Meeting their fate with a collective shrug and a "Whachoogonnadoabodit?"

Here in Illinois, we're in the thick of quite possibly the most factious, least informative election cycle ever. Mark Kirk and Alexi Gianoulias for Senate. Pat Quinn and Bill Brady for Governor. To see the ads, it's quite possible that the race is to determine who will preside over the ultimate destruction of the state.

Of these four, although you'd never glean it from the campaigns, ONLY Pat Quinn has a record that is remotely tied to the concerns of the average voter. The ONLY reason he is the current Illinois governor is that his party tried to bury him; consigned to the pointless obscurity of the Lt. Governor slot. Madigan. Foiled by Blago.

Looming just beyond the November farce, the local races will begin for the vote in April (after the tune-up February primaries). The race for Chicago mayor has consequence for a full two-thirds of Illini residents since that's how many live in Daleyville. Two out of ten voters will turn out to determine the swan-singers. Two more of each ten will still be trying to keep their powder dry. Another 3 will be checking their escape routes and the final 3 will be overcoming their limitations to complete their enrollment form for the tea party.

The preponderance of voters everywhere are contemplating the ultimate cost of being civilized.

Spirit Day, October 20th, 2010 -OR- Go Purple Against Hate

Facebook/Spirit Day

"It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in memory of the recent gay suicides. Many of them suffered from homophobic abuse in their schools or in their homes. We want to take a stand to say that we will not tolerate this. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th to remember all the lives of LGBTQ youth that have been lost due to homophobia. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools."

It seems a sane, reasonable response to the bullies. Google verifies that the idea has gone viral. Make a statement. Wear purple on October 20th.

If you're in Chicago area: Northwestern University (The Purple and White) are in homecoming mode. Wednesday is their "Bleed Purple; Give Blood" drive which dovetails nicely. I can take the Purple Line EL!

PlanIt Purple
When: Wednesday, October 20, 2010
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Norris University Center, Louis Room 1999 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208

2-4 2sDay Do Not Play; Do Not Obey

More Oppositisms -OR- You Can't Have it Both Ways

Marty, my father-in-law died of leukemia in 1959. My wife was four years old at the time. She has two brothers and a sister. He was a young father who probably never considered dying as an immediate concern. Because he was a union member, veteran and wage earner who paid into Social Security, his widow received monthly checks, two for each minor child, that allowed the family to stay in their home and grow into taxpaying citizens. Payments continued through college. Twenty years?

Marty's oldest son is now 58 and a CPA. You'd think he could do the math? You'd think he would recognize and appreciate the safety net that enabled his present success. You'd be wrong.

I don't know how he possibly rationalizes his political point-of-view. It's more than just a blind spot, it's full-blown selfishly militant. He's a dittohead, a Randian, a former Young Republican, worshipper of RWR, and now he has become a "don't tread on me" tea-bagger. I can't begin to tell you what this adds to family gatherings.

My own father was only 57 when he died. I was his youngest, 18. An Actuarial (or CPA) might argue that he got hosed by the system. After paying into SS for decades, he got nothing. I know that I was pretty angry at the unfairness of it all. My dad had been eyeing "early" retirement at 62, taking the diminished SS benefit and making the best of it.
Five more years?... Poof!

Descriptions of SS as a Ponzi scam are unfortunately apt, but shallow. As a retirement plan SS was a solid foundation. Far from something for nothing, it allowed generations to see past their working careers to the next phase of LIFE.
But like any money-pooling "resource" it has been under constant attack and criticism. It's also been targeted by those with little to no concern about safety nets and tomorrows.

Social Security's biggest plus and minus was that it was PROTECTED. It provided SECURITY for the working class. It also created a new, dependable voting bloc. This could not stand.

People generally see Medicare as pandering to that voting bloc. In reality it was the way into the program. The conservatives' Trojan Horse. Medicare stopped Health Care reform dead in its tracks in the 60s and opened the door for insurers and FOR-PROFIT health care providers access to a previously unavailable funding source.

Few would argue that medicare hasn't been good for seniors, but at what proportional costs? Medicare's growth, driven largely by insurers and a F-P health care industry
brought instability and uncertainty into the social security debate.
Instead of seniors, thankful and loyal to the cause, fear of loss was injected into the equation and fully weaponized by its wielders. The rise of Big Pharma and the runaway HCI profits are directly tied to the money pool of SS. Through money and influence under the guise of "helping seniors", reaping the harvest of distrust sown consistently since FDR, the conservatives are nearing their wet-dream of a quasi-feudal society worthy of their rank and privilege. Delusional. Thinking that the long history of disgruntled masses can be mounted and ridden.

Health care for seniors is their means to their end. Their society will be based on a value/worth system that all but guaranties an uncivil future. As architects and archetypes of this opposite world, they cannot hide their design. They will run out of ways to blame DFHs and the victims of their scam for its shortcomings. So why are they allowed to perpetuate the myth? Why are the still the shrillest voice and not held to account? I watch with pride as my daughter dismantles her uncle's arguments point by point. Why is that task not just as simple nationally?

Why is it impossible to stay on topic and not bite at every utterance emanating from the blowholes? In the end, why are our LEADERS so easily lead astray by transparently opposite rhetoric?

The Bleating Sheep -OR- Yeah, I'M the Bad Guy Here.

I've casually mentioned, FTTT, my antipathy for the fucking sleazeball liars who used the tragic events of 9/11 to hijack America. 9 years later, it should be painfully obvious to anyone with eyes and ears that the intent was always a deliberate policy decision to re-militarize and control this country; subsequent events have no other rational explanation.

But I'm not here to rehash. I'm not here to point out the incongruity between words and actions that belie the notion that it was all done to keep us safe. Mission Accomplished. You can't argue with success when success is defined on the fly.

By now I should know better than to question authority. By now I should understand that I am a resident of Opposite World. I should just shrug and suppress the urge to
voice my misgivings. I should finally accept my place as a DFH whose thoughts on anything/everything are so out of step with the mainstream's instruction manual, that I am forever consigned to the fringe without recourse. I should realize that I'm speaking a dead language from which there is no translation for peace, justice, equality, fairness, perspective or objectivity.

Since I simply cannot, I must be flawed. I must be wrong. I must be stopped... The new mantra... Enough of the people, enough of the time... Be one of us or you ARE one of them.

At this point, to expect past wrongs to be corrected would mean ADMITTING to wrongs. I should know... that's just not done anymore. The world I was born into, that I was raised to love, honor and respect no longer exists. That deal was merged and acquired and sold off in chunks. If I'm relying on past promises, I'm a chump.

What I think, do and say is meaningless to any and all save me and my small circle.
I should just be okay with that. I should just let it all go and be thankful I'm allowed to stand out here and observe...

You Can't Get There From Here -OR- The Professional Lost

Uncle Joe left the Shady Rest and moseyed on over to Sam Drucker's for a little bull-session...
"Get it straight, guys. These guys are playing for keeps," Biden warned of Republican efforts to make inroads in Illinois and Washington. Speaking to several hundred people at a rally at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local 130 headquarters on the Near West Side, the vice president said it would take the nation a decade to recover "if we let this slip through our hands."

I'm reminded of Casey Stengl who was famously quoted "Can't Anybody here play this game?.

While it's important that Joe Biden uttered the phrase, it's more important that he comprehend it. It's still unclear when he had this epiphany or why his party has chosen to downplay and ignore the threat, that is... when it isn't bending over backwards to appease.

"These guys" have ALWAYS been playing for keeps. Where is the confusion? They've always been Bluto to the Dem's Popeye. Except that these modern Popeyes are even slower to rile than the original and they seem to be woefully short of spinach.

I've had all I can stands! I can't stands no more.*

*Unless you object or criticize or call us names?

Ostensibly, Uncle Joe walked into a political green zone to convey a message about life on the rough and tumble "mean streets". And this was the message he delivered?
"Deese guys is serious"?

Is what remains even worth playing for? By any objective measure, the interests for which the Reproblicans have shilled and for which Demoncrats have not fought since FDR, have called "keeps" on anything and everything promised and realized through the "New Deal" and subsequent negotiations. All that remains to be given away cheaply is the future.

That's what's at stake. No more, no less. To wring the last of the dregs of the empty husk of a relatively brief period of progressiveness that gnaws at the Party of Bluto.

Binge/Purge Politics Style -OR- We Are Not Worthy. No Really. Please Stop!

It's not your clothes that you gotta change; It's your ATTITUDE!" Ray Davies/The Kinks- "Attitude"

WE somehow screwed the pooch.

Behold the awesomeness of MPS proprietor Tengrain:

Entitled: The Shady Bunch.



But don't they look MAHVELOUS! In the last precious weeks leading up to the vote for Jr. High Class Clowns... err...Homecoming King and Queen, bestest fakir EVAH! critical control of subpoena powers, the crazy knob gets cranked to ELEVEN!

The only advice going forward: Wear a Helmet.

2-4 2sDay Drummers Drumming

1492 -OR- Sham Shame Celebrations

Whachoo gonna do? Columbus Day? He, who disguised as an intrepid explorer with a fashion flair did first rebrand and redefine the world in ways that differed vastly from previous efforts?

Civilization, having learned from centuries of territorial conquests and reprisals, embarked on a new model of defining its moments of savagery with glossy imagery and superior firepower.

The only way to reconcile discordant events is to distance oneself from its celebrants. The only way to bury the past is to celebrate the present.

10-10-10 10:10 -OR- Still Not AS Redundant By Comparison

The caption on this photo from the Village Voice points out Tom Green as the celebrity in attendance. No points for the "other guy"? Really? Reduced to a one joke wonder, that's still one more than Tom Green. WTF?

Over at Relaxed Politics, gnome de plume has encapsulated the movement morons wet dream.

Two serious questions. Where, oh where, can absurdity go from here? and Do I really have to go along?

When the deliberately absurd sounds very similar to what is passing for leadership?
The Onion?

Too much to think about, Too much to figure out, stuck between hope and doubt, got too much to think about. Todd Snider "Statistician's Blues"

I'm 10-10 on the side?

All Hands On Deck, We've run afloat... -OR- Brother Can You Spare

Holy Fucknola.

The dismissed and marginalized screams of those who fell first. Who warned of imminent catostophic clusterfuckery do not deserve any form of BLAME for events that have since transpired.

Inconceivable? I don't think that word means what you thing it does. Unless you thought/think yourself well insulated from any real world consequence. You have your niche, you have your comfort and the wolf is not at your door.

There but for grace go you.

Still Fucking Peasants -OR- How the Mighty May Fall

I've been drifting through today on the thermals of John Lennon. Wafting and alighting without regard for the "is" to mourn the "what if". The Ben Casey opening. Man. Woman. Birth. Death. Infinity. Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones. They're the modern stone-age family.

It is but a trivial pursuit?

Aim High

"Life? Don't Talk To Me About Life" -OR- Each And Every Day!

I mean REALLY? Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw... Brace yourself for another onslaught of rampant stupidity. Secure in the knowledge that for teh profoundly stoopid, along with all the other words they don't understand, QUIT! and STOP! get dyslexisized within their cranial emptiness as GO! and KEEP IT UP!, OH YEAH! Give us lots more of THAT!

I KNOW!

In the world we used to know, such lunacy was just as common, but didn't carry much import. didn't affect. didn't distract. didn't derail. didn't run for or hold office except in isolation.

But then teh stoopid organized. Well, actually they were rounded up, herded, branded and reprogrammed with simplistic jingoisms, jargon and phraseology to be used on everything, regardless of relevance, oblivious to how stoopid they sound in utterance.

My first recognizable experience with teh NEO-stoopids took place in the late 70s. That's when Steve Dahl programmed, wound up and unleashed his army of INSANE COHO LIPS upon the Chicago Music scene and the undeserving, unprepared population. Their mission was to kill, maim and destroy Disco Music. Their programming was simple; rudimentary; DISCO SUCKS! Spoken, chanted, shouted without regard to venue or genre. It was their battle cry, their mating call, their lunch order...AND THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!

You could no longer go to ANY venue without enduring the chant. Bands couldn't ignore it, couldn't reason with it or amplify over it and for damn sure didn't want to engage it. All they could do was ride it out; hope and pray that it would go away.

The effect was not lost on political strategists. The more mindless the better.
LIBERALS SUCK!
WE WANT TAX CUTS!
BOMB IRAQ!
DON'T TREAD ON ME!

That was then; this is now? Teh Stoopids love to be the center of attention.

Somewhere in Bolingbrook, in his subterranean Winnebago, the Stever is still wondering WTF happened. Nowhere is he given the "credit" he deserves for the concept that changed EVERYTHING. His relative obscurity, despite his big idea, still provides him fodder for his podcasts.
Sure, jingoists and flim-flammers harnessed the mob prior to the Disco Sucks movement, but Steve modernized the approach, incorporated it with multimedia with corporate backing.

And changed the world into what we have today. Thanks?

2-4 2sDay Where Billy Sunday Failed... Rut Ro Rorge!

Heads They Win; Tails They Win -OR- )))))SPITTAKES!(((((

Not to be mean, harsh, rude, crude or insensitive, BUT... every batshit day, in every batshit way, every batshit thing they think, every batshit thing they do and every batshit thing they say leaves me breathless at their boundless, bottomless, bone-jarring, reality-ignoring stupidity.

So how, why and where is ANYTHING they say NEWSWORTHY? When you've been demonstrably, painfully, planet destroyingly, sustainability threateningly, horribly, fatally wrong about absolutely everything, what possible justification is there to allow you to remain on OUR public stage and keep repeating the point of view of the catastrophically WRONG as though it just wasn't properly understood or tested?

Who are they? you might ask, thinking I'm singling out the unhinged righties who regurgitate their talking points while conveniently disregarding the damages their tireless line of bullshit has inflicted upon an undeserving planet? Well yeah them, but it also applies equally to the spineless Quislings who allegedly represent the opposing point of view. You judge them by what they do, regardless of what they SAY.
This ain't no party. This ain't no disco. And they sure ain't fooling around.

Their actions have serious real world consequences, from which they are fully isolated and insulated. So here's a little hint, if what you're doing is WRONG, continuing to do it will not fix anything. Moving the lever over further toward batshit crazy can ONLY make matters worse.

At the moment there are legions of pissed off people who are eagerly going wherever they are aimed. You can, MAYBE, continue to distract them from seeing how they are being exploited and used. And MAYBE, just maybe, there is a little more power you can extract from their pissed-offedness, but then what? What's the plan for when you're at the front of the mob and they've finally had all they can stand?

Do you honestly believe the mob won't tear you limb from limb? Won't dance and piss on your entrails? You're the ones who said you'd fix it, you'd make things make sense once more. You can't do that without getting rid of the NONsense. You might definitely make bullshit fly, but you can't make it fly indefinitely. Do you think you can hide? Away from the fray, then reemerge when the dust settles?

Good luck with that.

Give Them A Light -OR- Who Scared You?

Oh, for the dayz of benign banality. When conjured commies, unearthly UFOs and guffawed goons were enough to quake the quacks. Duck and cover drills, backyard fallout shelters, HUAC spectacles and largely symbolic fences have been surplanted by
Opposite Worlders with Homeland Security and ever-present danger.
Ah yes, those halcyon dayz before we began mainlining fear and paranoia as the national narcotic cocktail.

Giving fear a face and a name has far exceeded all expectations. The Alpha and the Omega. Against all logic, against all advertised dogged pragmatism, against all innovation and against all pleas of context, the United States of America has abandoned hope, hedging it all against the great unknown emanating from scattered site, unquantifiable, unstable, transient, evil-doers with either advanced light-bending cloaking technology, world class ghillie suits or just a mastery of hide and seek tactics that utterly baffles our high-tech defenses. What diabolical evil geniuses!

Having milked our propensity for protections (for phun and profit) and hitting the proverbial wall in terms of improvements, how fortunate that brand-new threats be conjured to focus our distractions and drive our industry.

Or, in the words of the 21st century's Nostradamus, Ed Grimley,
We've gone completely mental, I must say.

Expatriated @ Home -OR- Most Don't Give a Shit

"If X happens, I'm outta here! I'm moving to ______________!"

If I had a dime for each time I've heard this, I'd have a buncha dimes.
Could it be that I'm just lazy? That sort of fits with the DFH stereotype.
Locally, Regionally, Nationally... Society's disgruntled Nomads trudge onward
from place to place looking for their own.

In their thinking, there was a place where everything is Tickety-Boo and would not rest until they found it. Ready made. No muss, no fuss. They were unwilling and unable to settle. If the collapse of the housing market has an upside it's that people are being forced to take a good look around their community and actually JOIN in to address needs and shortcomings.

Suddenly there's a flurry of localized upstart grassroots causes searching for support. They are hampered and hamstrung by some established efforts who believe themselves to be the rightful conduit for community actions, but decades of mission creep, inbreeding and atrophy render them incapable or unwilling to allow meaningful input by "outsiders". These battles, petty turf wars and pissing contests may be entertaining and amusing to watch, but they are, in the end, unproductive.

Baggage handling becomes a full-time job. Grudges fester. Wagons circle. Hunkering in bunkers with limited contact and zero outreach.

Where are the peacemakers? The uniters? Who will lead?

Can You Run Back to the Truck For Me?? -OR- Job Freaks

A climb up the tallest tower @ Yahoo! Video

Do watch it in full screen mode.

H/T Bonster!