online

in an age before the internet,
when eniac was still the shit,
times were a little fuzzier,
as in an old forgotten film.
blurred around the edges
and frayed since its first day,
clocks moved a little slower
yet steadily on their way
to the next unnatural progression
of triumph over the soul.
a brand new world is turning
in same black image as the old.

4-square breakout

compressed, like all things.
simian in
appearance.
natural glow, quick
sand sidestepped,
put all of your birds in a row.
bouncing attack from
square one trigger
and only the days remain.

beat back refrain
from fro or toward thither
but some
rejected allow
our intrepid
explorer to turn a trick
not seen since
our recess in-
doors, spent at conquisting.

winter bones

killing fields, man’s path to independence,
float across the oceans’ blue
waters to find fortune in war.
the start of a new beginning
but constant the bloody wounds,
with foot on their necks, our spirit.

raise the banner, a nation’s spirit,
a land of pure independence
healing all the world’s wounds,
as the soft wind of freedom blew.
from first breath was our beginning,
a peace secured by war.

send our sons away to war,
a mother’s soulful spirit.
too old for new beginnings
bequeathed to independence,
and shades of lonely-heart blue,
her ball of yarn unwound.

picking at the open wounds
of world’s marks of war.
stars upon a field of blue
overflow their collective spirit
at the point of a gun, independence
is only the beginning.

the fire served as the beginning
of the end. the wounds
scarred over in the pendants
of her eyes. dark wars
to break our gentle spirit
the empty sky was blue.

our bodies black, skin beat blue
colors of a true beginning.
unleash the one primal spirit
which another man cannot wound.
revolution but not a war,
a call to independents.

streaming down a flow of blue
and red from countless wounds

a long forgotten sole beginning
the stained white dress she wore

rejoice unto the sacred spirit
her blade our independence.

Taxes and Death

The American taxpayer is long used to providing direct financial support for killing people, whether it be reformed gang leaders like Tookie Williams or countless victims of war. The Bush administration will try to increase this level of support a bit more in coming days as it will request an additional $100 billion from Congress to continue its violence in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would bring the current total cost of the wars to a half-trillion dollars. Unless you enjoy spending your hard-earned money in carrying out murder, stop paying your taxes to the U.S. government immediately.

X-mas

The almighty dollar.

It’s that time of year again. When visions of Xbox 360s are dancing in children’s heads and colored electric lights spell out messages wishing Jesus a happy birthday. Christmas, the ultimate combination of capitalism and organized religion, is just around the corner.

For centuries, Christmastime was a purely religious holiday. Christians celebrated the birth of Christ with little of the capitalistic fanfare that is now common. In pre-capitalist societies, this was to be expected. Families exchanged a few small gifts with one another in a nod to the actions of the three wise men who presented baby Jesus with some pretty nice presents all those years ago. Over time, this practice became an entrenched tradition and even if you didn’t really like someone that much, you were expected to give him a gift at Christmas. It wasn’t uncommon to hear sentiments such as, “Uncle Jim, you’re cool and all, but you sure as hell aren’t no son of god. Here’s your damn necktie.” When America burst onto the scene and threw the electrifying switch, the small and innocent Christmas gift-giving ritual took on new life as a bough of holly decked, cash-hungry Frankenstein’s monster.

America’s effect on Christmas was monumental. People began to forget why the holiday was celebrated in the first place, it was just a time to get lots of cool presents. Images of Jesus were replaced with secular objects like pine trees, stockings, and fat guys in red suits; the latter being a creation of a huge American corporation, Coca-Cola, no less. And the emphasis of December 25th, and later the whole month of December, and now the period from immediately after Halloween to mid-January, was changed from religious duty to spending money.

Although it often seems as though the capitalistic aspect of Christmas will eventually devour its religious side entirely, this is not the case. Americans are some of the world’s most religiously fanatic people and they won’t stand for letting the birthday of their lord become just another reason to lay down their cold hard cash. Christmas is destined to continue forever as an unholy coupling of capitalism and Christianity. So don't be afraid to max out those credit cards this holiday season as we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas: money. Oh yeah, and that whole virgin birth thing.

War on Drugs

With the “War on Terror” still exploding all around us, it is often difficult to remember that other vague war we are currently engaged in. But, yes, the “War on Drugs” is still hot. Consider this, a Utah man received a mandatory 55-year minimum sentence for a first time offense. His crime? He was selling small amounts of marijuana to police informants while he had a gun with him. The police later found more guns at his house. No gun was utilized in the carrying out of the crime; in fact, no violence was committed at all. Nevertheless, the man is serving a jail term longer than if he had hijacked a plane or committed second degree murder. This is but one example of how (most) governments of the world have transformed a simple plant into a primal target of focused legal regulation and restriction. The “war” rages on.

Guantanamo Detainees Take a Cue from South Beach

If it's good enough for Osama. . . 


As if it weren’t clear to anyone not living under a rock, Donald Rumsfeld has proven himself yet again to be an elitist bastard and an ass. Politicians are well-known to make crazy, misleading statements on a regular basis, but Rummy’s latest gem is on par with such ludicrous gapes as U.S. senator and medical doctor Bill Frist’s assertion that you can catch AIDS from people’s tears. Asked at a press conference about hunger strikes being carried out by Guantanamo Bay detainees (yes, the mainstream American media finally decided to report on this issue after months of silence), Rumsfeld responded by saying, “There are a number of people who go on a diet”. Unbelievably, the U.S. Secretary of State compared the hunger strikes, where 24 prisoners are being restrained, sedated, and fed “a diet of protein, glucose and fat. . .with tubes pushed into their stomachs through their noses, to keep them alive”, to being on a diet.

Rumsfeld went on to belittle the detainees’ strike by suggesting that, “what they're trying to do is to capture press attention, obviously, and they've succeeded.” Clearly Rumsfeld and the American government adopted a none-too-subtle plan to keep the detainees out of the press and the public mind from the very beginning. I guess if I was depriving a group of people of any legal rights, not to mention their rights as human beings with daily humiliation and degradation, I wouldn’t want anyone to know about it either. But those blank-eyes optimists who can actually listen to Rumsfeld’s comments with a straight face can rest assured that the detainees now look like the models in a fashion magazine, free from those unwanted extra pounds and love handles, in their day spa of a military prison.

Stay tuned to major news outlets to see how this story unfolds, just give them a few years to issue a short blurb about how it all ended up. The government’s hard-handed intent to keep the detainees confined to the oblivion of the center of a block hole makes it rather difficult to stay informed of their situation. Actually forget about the media altogether, what we really need is for Stephen Hawking to start theorizing as to what the prisoners’ legal status really is.

Election Day, ah, the Sweet Smell of Democracy

 

Another Election Day is upon us. Here in America it is the best time of the year to express our democratic rights as citizens as we head off to the polls (except for convicted felons, of course, for who could trust them with a ballot?). It should be expected that Election Day, being the holiest of holies of the American system, should shine brilliantly as a beacon to the world of the grandeur of democracy American-style. After all, it is being force-fed to many parts of the world like a sedated prisoner on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay. So just what is American democracy anyway?

As schoolchildren we learn that our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, it even says so in the Constitution. This gives people a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of their stomachs, and have no doubt that that was its intention, but the truth is somewhat harder to swallow. The Constitution also mentions checks and balances, having the different branches of government keep an eye on each other to keep things in line. To really understand the way government works, we need to look at another form of checks and balances, those exercised by the government over the people.

The American system was never intended to be a government of, by, and for the people. According to James Madison, one of our deified Founding Fathers, government’s main purpose is “to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority.” In other words, all of the country’s elitist bastards, like slaveholders, speculators, landlords, bankers, lawyers, corporations, government officials, etc., should have their interests looked out for above all else. After all, everyone knows these are the powers that control the system, not the common people. So in order to keep the ins in and the rich rich, the people's power had to be checked from the very beginning.

The government employed, and continues to employ, two types of checks and balances, positive and negative. Negative checks, things like racism, sexism, and class division, have served beautifully over the years to keep the masses disunited and quarrelling amongst themselves. As long as they remain fragmented and divided, they can pose no real threat to the system. Positive checks, on the other hand act as rewards for the people to keep them happy and feeling important as the tools of the machine. Patriotism, usually stoked up by invading other countries and condemning their inhabitants as evil haters of American democracy, has been a long-time favorite manifestation of positive checks.

Elections are the cornerstone of the positive check system, being built right into the government itself. The people will feel that they have a choice in how their society is set up and how it operates by casting a vote. What many people fail to realize, however, is that there is actually no choice in an election. No matter who you vote for, government wins. The same government that acts to protect its own interests, along with the interests of its pals in corporate America, by keeping the common people divided and submissive. So cast a "no" vote against government this and every Election Day by staying away from the polling places. Do something constructive instead like taking a walk in the park or doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Spelling Test Oppression

Thanks to my email subscription to “A Word a Day”, I know what heterography is. It is a spelling different from the one in current use. For example, if I spelled “ghost” without the “h” as “gost”, I would be practicing heterography. A good friend of mine recently sent me an email in which he referred to the reality-altering disease schizophrenia, which he spelled “schictso frenya”. While he may claim to be a heterographer, most people would say he is just a terrible speller.

But is my friend really wrong? Who said we have to spell our words in a particular manner in the first place? Those elitist bastards at Merriam-Webster, that’s who. The invention of the dictionary is simply another example of corporate control choking the life out of society. Granted, dictionaries do serve a noble purpose. By having one clear, well-known set of spellings, a written language is much more accessible to a wider population and makes communicating more understandable. But at what cost? I understood what was meant by schictso frenya, and I even had a good chuckle at it. Assigning yet another set of rules and regulations to society is just another nail in the coffin of one of humanity’s greatest gifts, its creative expression. Even William Shakespeare spelled his own name in various ways (Shakespear, Shaxspear, etc.). If I had to choose as to whether he was practicing creative heterography or was too stupid to spell his own surname, I know where I would put my money.

If you like capitalizing all “proper nouns” and crossing every “T”, by all means go for it, just realize the control that is being exerted over you by outside forces. Conformity, even in the seemingly mundane aspects of life, is just what they want. Once they have us all spelling the same, then they’ll want us to start thinking the same, acting the same, buying the same. . . a regular brave new world. But if you rather desire to explore your individuality a little, throw out a “shew bocks” every once in a while or opt not to capitalize “george washington”; after all, what makes him any better than an all-lowercase “bucket of nails”? Or if you are simply a shitty speller, at least now you have a big word for an excuse, you’re a heterographer. Just don’t forget how to spell it.

Mukhtaran Bibi - A True Survivor

Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani woman, was scheduled to attend an Asian American Network Against Abuse of Women conference in the U.S later this month. Ms. Bibi’s courageous story begins in a rural village in Pakistan where her brother was found guilty of sodomy. To punish her brother for this, while inhumane and backwards, wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows since most Americans have heard such stories of moral ultra-conservatism from backwater countries like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Alabama. But the village’s tribal council decided to punish her brother by sentencing Ms. Bibi to be gang-raped by eight men. Ms. Bibi somehow managed to overcome this trauma, meted out by her own government, and went to on to work for female empowerment by founding schools for girls and helping other rape victims. Upon hearing her intentions to leave the country to attend the U.S. convention, the Pakistani government put her on house arrest. She is now a prisoner in Pakistan because she chose to speak out about her country’s injustices. At the next tribal council, the U.S. needs to vote Pakistan out of its “alliance of the willing”. Its abhorrent record on human rights and its dictator “president” are too much to justify a continued American relationship.

Phillip Coonskin Leaves Bush Administration

Phillip A. Coonskin . . . what, it's Cooney? Oh, shit.

Last year's stirring Hollywood drama, "The Day after Tomorrow", gave us a glimpse into the world's future. Instead of filling our minds with silly ideas like auto emissions, industrial pollution, and global warming, we should be focusing our attention on the impending Ice Age. Fortunately, the American government realized this years ago and has been protecting our fragile planet by shunning international accords such as the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and relegating the concept of global warming to "junk science" status. One of the crafters of this masterful bit of logic was Phillip A. Cooney, a former science policy official of the Bush administration. Now don't misunderstand, he is no scientist nor does he have any scientific background at all. He merely made important scientific decisions as a part of his job. Having previously served as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, Mr. Cooney was brought on board the Bush team to set the record straight about global warming. As a science policy wonk, it was his responsibility to soften the language used in government reports. Here is an example:

Pre-Cooney statement: "Greenhouse gasses, such as carbon monoxide, have a negative effect on the environment and contribute to global warming."

Post-Cooney "revised" statement: "I am not a scientist but George Bush lets me pretend that I am."

After a successful stint in the field of science policy-making, Mr. Cooney has decided to move on. While our nation will miss his remarkable insights into climate change and the future of Earth, we must somehow struggle on. Mr. Cooney will lend his talents to Exxon-Mobil, a force for environmental good in the world, where he has found a new job. Maybe, just maybe, we can churn out enough noxious gases to keep our planet warm enough to stave off the next Ice Age. Good luck, Mr. Cooney, and God bless you.

Hardcore

Who put my towel in the sink?
Don’t call me Sally and
think of happier times.
Open the can – Flash Man!
Wear a shawl or wear a robe,
It’s all so old and tacky.

Dude, Check Out My Robe!

I made it myself.

Thanks to Devo for posting an excellent comment to the previous post concerning the Supreme Court’s medicinal marijuana decision. The case was unusually interesting not only because of its ramifications for American drug laws, but also due to the unique blending of two traditionally opposite political positions: liberal leaning social laws and the more conservative states’ rights stance. For a justice of the Court to vote either way on this case, he or she would have had to reconcile the apparent paradox of supporting both of these polar positions simultaneously. To uphold the federal ban against the medical use of dope, one would be supporting the right of the U.S. government to shoot down any individual state’s own police laws while at the same time thrashing the prospect of reforming the country’s drug laws. Chief Justice William Renquist, for example, voted against the ban. One of the Court’s most conservative members, he could be counted on to stand up for the states’ right to make their own legislation. But he is not known for his bleeding heart on social issues. Interestingly, however, Renquist has cancer, a disease whose symptoms can be successfully treated with medicinal marijuana, according to its proponents. So perhaps our Chief Justice actually was in a win-win situation; uphold states’ rights and keep weed available to those who need its pain-relieving qualities, i.e. himself. Far be it from me to suggest that Renquist partakes in illegal substances, but come on, the guy designed his own justice robe, complete with cool racing stripes. He must have been smoking something.