ex-lion tamer

NOTE: let my allowing of a link to the great orange satan be a sign of my atonement for past heresies.

Okay, I was not angry since I came to France, motherfuckers.

After the 2004 election there was the usual amount of “See, I TOLD YOU SO” from supporters of every other candidate on the planet and Kerry should have done this, Kerry should have done that, and I did as much post-mortem thinking as anybody else, I’m not excusing myself, but let’s walk this through for a second. Whatever Kerry should have done or did do or didn’t do four years ago, whatever Barack Obama should have done or did do or didn’t do today, what these so-called Swift Boat assholes (and thanks, by the way, fuckers, for taking an entire mode of military transportation and making it into an insult on par with “bestial pervert,” thanks so much there) did and are doing is the Original Not Okay, and I’m gonna be a hardass about this right now.

Let’s not forget, let’s not for one second ignore, that the point at which this equation starts to go off the rails is the point at which a bunch of ex-Nixon henchmen crawled out of the slime and, with their repentent-liberal allies in the daddy-don’t-hit-me-I’ll-be-good wing of the Demoratic party, began once again peddling their bullshit to the American people on TV every night. Their bullshit that the reason your life sucks is because we fucked up Vietnam, that we fucked up Vietnam because of all those hippies back here at home, that nobody would ever have to shoot or beat or fire-hose anybody into submission if only those stupid lefties knew their place, and by the way, now they want to take your Bible away. They broke our society, the hippies and the chicks and the blacks, too, they “went too far,” and here’s John Kerry, their leader, who deserves to go down for it all. And just like every hippie, he’s a liar and a traitor and he sucks.

It’s the story of the last 40 years, pushback and backlash, every time we get close to something decent here they come again, with the same old story: It’s this guy’s fault, not ours. And there’s always five or six dozen fucking people willing to take up the position that if only we were quieter, if only we sat down nicely, if only we wore ties to the protests, then they wouldn’t HAVE to be such bullies. If we’d just keep it down with our kumbaya, guys, they’d put their clubs away and leave us alone! It’s so much easier to look at your friends and give them well-meaning advice than it is to look at your enemies and give them exactly what they deserve, and good and hard while you’re at it.

So you know, Kerry should have pushed back harder against these fucks. And Obama shouldn’t have played down what Clark said. They both should have greeted these nasty creatures with endless repetitions of the words “Richard” and “Nixon’s” and “bitch” over and over and over until somebody started asking you know, whence exactly cometh these unholy throwbacks and why are they still so pissed off at the hippies, anyway? There’s a million ways Kerry and Obama should have handled all this differently. I’m right there with you in thinking it and I’d never tell you not to say it. Hell, I’ll be saying it myself several times in the next few days, at ever-increasing volume.

I will say this, though, first. Before I start bitching out Obama again, or Clark or any of the various Democrats at present flailing around trying to figure out something that has been evident to the liberal blogosphere for half a decade. Never for a second should our candidates’ mistakes and missteps excuse what is being done to them in the name of hate and division. Never. That’s on their accusers, that’s on those Nixon henchmen. That’s on them, and I don’t care what Kerry and Obama did or didn’t do. That’s on them.

A.

[original post]

i’m suffering some re-entry burn this morning, so i thought i’d just run this little tidbit by you. take a moment to reflect on the headline to this article, what it emphasizes and the tone it sets, against what the article is actually reporting. leave your reactions in comments.

Court cites nonsense poem in ruling for Gitmo detainee

• Story Highlights
• Appeals court faults government argument in case of Chinese Muslim held at Gitmo
• Just because claim is repeated doesn’t make it true, court says, citing Lewis Carroll
• Suspect has been detained for six years, accused of attending terrorist training
• Court says he must be released, transferred, or get new hearing quickly

  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A federal appeals court has slammed the reliability of U.S. government intelligence documents, saying just because officials keep repeating their assertions does not make them true.

  A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington likened the Bush administration’s case to a line in an 1876 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”

  Portions of the court’s findings were released a week ago, including a ruling that a Chinese Muslim accused of being a foreign fighter was wrongly imprisoned. The full ruling was released Monday.

  Hazaifa Parhat is being held by the U.S. military at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. In its ruling, the court ordered that Parhat be released or transferred, or that a hearing be held quickly to determine whether he is being held properly.

  The judges criticized the government for offering unsubstantiated evidence, and referred to Carroll’s poem,”The Hunting of the Snark,” in which the line is uttered by a pompous character called the Bellman.

  “The government suggests that several of the assertions in the intelligence documents are reliable because they are made in at least three different documents,” wrote Judge Merrick Garland. “We are not persuaded. Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact the government has ’said it thrice’ does not make the allegation true. In fact we have no basis for concluding that there are independent sources for the documents’ thrice-made assertions.”

full article available at CNN.com - used entirely without permission; Fair Use claimed under 17 U.S.C. &7 - “Not an infringement of copyright [if used] for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting etc.”

can somebody please explain to me WTF this means?

word ta tha muthafucka:

there is not, nor has there ever been, any such thing as a “christian punk” band. and this is coming from someone who, at least in the 1980’s, was the closest thing you will ever find to a “christian punk”.

there is no “christian punk”. not now. not ever. if it sells itself categorically as christian - it’s not punk.

now listen closely. you can be christian. and you can be a punk too. it’s happened.

but to say “christian punk” as a genre specific musicological term? c’mon. it’s like saying “wet dry”.

i grudgingly allow that there is, in fact, something one might call “christian rock”, and god forgive us all for that particular monstrosity. it is evil. praise jesus and glory be to god on high, but it is evil. eeeeeviiilll.

if you’re in a band that calls itself “christian punk” or “christian rock” please don’t send me any angry emails or leave righteous comments. get on your knees and pray to your lord and savior jesus christ for forgiveness.

jesus loves punk rock because it is anti-religion. just as he loves rock because it cannot be found in church.

yours in christ,

r@d@r/ex-lion tamer

• racially/ethnically/sexual identity diverse
• cost of living low, quality of living high
• excellent, affordable and available health care
• safe to walk at night
• sunny most of the year, not too hot
• rains briefly, enough to keep things green
• leaves turn in winter, snows at christmas, melts immediately afterwards
• short drive to skiing, the ocean
• houses with yards, not too close together
• block parties every weekend
• teenage garage bands on every street
• band posters left up on telephone poles
• everybody has a home, enough to eat, and a good paying job
• lots of good thrift stores
• no starbucks - only local small-batch roasters
• no barnes & noble/borders - only local independent booksellers
• locally produced beer, wine, cheese, organic vegetables, stress-free meat, etc.
• copious cobblestoned pedestrian malls
• lots of unmarried members of both sexes and every age group available for social interaction
• child friendly, parent friendly
• good schools
• safe playgrounds
• lots and lots and lots of trees
• two movie theaters - one for first runs, another for reruns (discount)
• local repertory theater company, dance company, choir, symphony, jazz & blues bands
• places for live performance by rock bands
• affordable rehearsal space
• pro bono/”spec time” recording studios
• grocery shopping within walking distance of home
• dog parks
• lots and lots and lots and lots of public transportation
• tasteful civic architecture & landscape; preserved historical sites
• “greenscaping/xeriscaping”
• a piazza/town square
• a safe, clean, thriving red light district
• relaxed, un-oppressive “blue laws”
• friendly, helpful, community-minded police presence

anything i left out?

if you have no interest in such arcane subjects as obscure subcultures, fashion, etc., please skip this post and move on - nothing to see here. i’ll have something up for you presently. for the rest of you - step right this way.

Keep reading →

wordpress’s “automatically generated related posts” feature brought me an all-time high of 411 page hits in one day thanks to this blog.  the evil robot brain that follows this wacky algorithm was set in motion by this post, which is already one of my most popular in almost seven years of writing this garbage (LOL - can you believe it??  SEVEN YEARS).  the only other recent post anywhere near as popular was this one.

dude, i should totally sell advertising on this place.  maybe i wouldn’t have to worry about the Man coming to take my house.

headline from BBC Online’s RSS Feed: “Barack Obama’s Wife Clarifies ‘Pathetic’ TV Blunder”

headline from the article: “Obama’s Wife in ‘Pathetic’ Gaffe”

then when you READ THE ACTUAL ARTICLE, it is revealed that she did not use the word at all - she was in fact misheard while saying her husband was empathetic. if you read the transcript it makes more sense in context - the alleged comment does not.

that’s why you should read the guardian or the independent instead, kiddiwinks.

i went through my cell phone directory and called all the fathers i know on father’s day.  actually, i didn’t - i called all  the ones of my generation, i didn’t call any of the parents of friends of mine, but i didn’t have any of their phone numbers handy, although i know by heart one or two of those phone numbers, from constantly calling their house to talk to their children who were my childhood playmates.

one of my old friends who is a father reported to me that (a) he’s now a grandfather (!!!) and (b) he’s been diagnosed as bipolar with some mild schizophrenic or schizoaffective features, and put on heavy medication and (c) his shrink signed his paperwork to get him on disability…..which he should have been on years ago.  with the way mental illness is treated in this country, one wonders just how many of the working poor like my friend with dependent children should be on some sort of disability.

in any case, we did some politically incorrect chuckling about “getting on board the crazy train” even though neither of us needs disabusing of any kind of “welfare queen in a cadillac” myth.  my friend has always been constitutionally unable to hold down a job and has had to struggle to support his family, and it was only when he was at the bring of taking his own life in despair that he realized it was time to take responsibility, own his illness and get treatment.  which he did.  as a long time taxpayer, i’m far more comfortable with the system supporting my friend than i am with murdering iraqi children with weapons of mass destruction.  but i’m crazy like that.

my wife informs me that the standard disability payout for someone with a chronic MI is $800/month.  can you live on $800/month?  do you have kids?  my friend is happy to ride a bicycle rather than drive; but what if he was physically disabled as well?  we can also make noises about family support, but a typical experience among MI sufferers is the “burned bridge” syndrome where family and friends are emotionally or even financially tapped out and can no longer help their troubled relative or friend.  compile that with an inability to hold down a job, and you can see why expecting the churches to carry the social burden of caring for those of us with MIs is not only impractical but immoral.  the very existence of government at all is predicated on the understanding that it is no more and no less than a concretization and organization in physical terms of the social contract.  the government, like it or not, is us.  and if it’s not, it’s our job to make it so.  do we want to live according to a universal agreement that we will take care of those who cannot take care of themselves?  if you don’t want to sign on for that, fine - but it’s part of the contract that includes roads, bridges, and sewer systems being built and maintained to make your life more comfortable.  personally, i’d like to see people who are “against” welfare programs such as SSI do without beef, which would never make it to their table without generous federal subsidies.

[ed. note: alternate title - carnival of copyright infringement]

there were many results related to news stories with headlines of incest/rape and other kinds of violence perpetrated by fathers on their children. i found this depressing, but not at all surprising.

the pictures say something evocative to me about our stereotypes of fatherhood, and the shadow aspects of it in our culture. other than that i’ll leave you with these, to make of them what you will.

“Dine on some charbroiled nun!”

“Aw sweetums, you’re putting daddy’s purity balls in a vise!”

“Our first sepia-toned president”

To tell you the truth - I don’t even feel like joking about it.

“I am Spartacus!”  “And I am Gecko!”

“It’s called a ‘hangover’, Suzie, and it’s what happens when you pick the lock on mommy and daddy’s liquor cabinet.  The first one’s always the worst.  Shall I bring you some hair of the dog?  Bloody Mary?  Screwdriver?”

While Timmy worries about what the ice cream is going to do to his weight, some strange man standing behind him plays pocket pool.  …..Oh, hi Dad.

“I KNOW HOW TO GET THERE!  I DON’T NEED TO STOP AND ASK DIRECTIONS!  SHUT UP!!”

“Here baby, I scored for you.  I don’t want you touching that cut up street skag.  This is the pure China White right here.  Only the best for my baby!”

a very dear friend of many years i recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with said to me, “i’m waiting for the moment when you’re going to stop being a victim and start being a man of action again.”

i like the sound of that.

a man of action. the first part is more or less beyond my control, but the second part - to be of action - that’s something very intriguing.

i really don’t know how i got so careful. i don’t think of caution as being part of my value system. i suppose i’ve been swimming against the stream of culture in this country, where action without thought is so lauded, with such disastrous results. the spending of the grocery money on liquor, cigarettes and video games, so to speak. spending our national future on war games now. i didn’t want to be that, i didn’t want to do that. but because i tried to go the other way - i got careful. and i didn’t want to be that either.

there’s nothing wrong with having a house and a family. i know a lot of people who wonder what that’s like. as wonderful as it is, it’s really nothing special. i guess the real red herring is all the wanting and trying to be special. really, nobody is special, and nothing is special. [it's why the "daily special" is one of my favorite oxymorons, and the Specials is one of the best ironic band names ever.]

the thing about life is - whether you live it in the domestic/employed fashion or on some kind of overtly “edge” existence [such as being an artist of the type that challenges the arbitrary boundaries created by society] - there are two ways it can be played: awake or asleep. alive or dead. in the interests of non-duality one may say that neither state is preferable, and often they are interchangeable, and striving for one state or the other is probably at the root of all suffering; but if one is true to one’s own nature, and is gentle and forgiving toward one’s own preferences, one may find that being alive is in many ways preferable to being dead. insofar as a third option is beyond the scope of this particular conversation.

it may be said to be preferable to build than to tear down, although both are necessary. it may be said to be preferable to be free than to be imprisoned, although such states are often circumstances beyond our control. the mind can be [and usually is] a prison, and the imprisoned body may still be free.

i’m currently seeking to return to a state in which i live with gentleness toward my own preferences, rather than continually sublimating them. that’s the kind of freedom i’m talking about. it’s a dangerous freedom, but there’s no other kind.

“where there’s no future, there cannot be sin/we’re the flowers in the dustbin/we’re the poison in the human machine/we’re the future - your future” - john lydon

nope - hasn’t gotten any better.