Open Tuesday 03/08/16

He had a penis eight hundred miles long and two hundred and ten miles in diameter, but practically all of it was in the fourth dimension.

—Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

So late Saturday afternoon I rented a backhoe, and used it to lay to rest, between the blackberries and the pear trees, the vacated corporeal containers of H. G. Wells and George Orwell. Both men, as I related here, having perished, here in my abode, the previous Thursday. Unable to survive the experience of that televised Republican debate wherein, among other things, The Hairball publicly pronounced his penis larger than Hagrid's, and promised to wield it to execute Edward Snowden, deport all and every Mexican, pound China into submission, and extinguish the families of the Muslims, as well as anyone who might have the effrontery to Libel him.

The three crows, they were very interested in the backhoe proceedings. They were hoping maybe I would rest in my labors, go into the house to get a sandwich or something, and then they could sail down out of their perch in the oak, and perhaps get an Eye. Crows, they are generally impatient about humans, and other roadkill, getting to the Rotting. And so they typically dig in, with an early appetizer, of Eyes.

But I did not want any Wells or Orwell eyes going into the crow beaks. This is because it is considered rude, when a guest dies in your home, to allow corvids to peck at their parts. So, diligently, I began the beguine, and kept at it, until both men were shuffled away beneath the soil. The crows, they huffed, in disappreciation. So, after, and to placate them, I set out some hard-boiled eggs. These the three birds consumed greedily. If ever you want to make friends with the crows, go to the hard-boiled eggs.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfcELZzwgZc]

The vegetable people on the property, they were even more avid in their interest in the corpses, than the crows. This is because plants dearly love meat. Animals eat vegetables, vegetables eat animals: that's the way it works, here on this planet. No plant is happier, than one fed blood meal. Bone meal, they favor that, too. Feed me, they cry. Feed me. More.

Alain Danielou, he is a Frenchman, who, for many years, plunged into Research, eventually emerging, in Shiva and Dionysus, having determined that he had unearthed the remains of the primordial human religion, which he calls Shivaism.

The Creator is a cruel god who made a world in which nothing can live but by destroying life through the killing of other living beings. Thus, no being can exist except by devouring other forms of life, whether vegetable or animal, and this is one of the fundamental aspects of created nature. Life in the world, both animal and human, is nothing but an interminable slaughter. To exist means to eat and to be eaten. All living beings feed on other beings and themselves become food for other beings in an ecological cycle. This is why the Creator himself defines his nature as devouring and devoured. "I am the food, food, food, and I am the eater, eater, eater . . . from food are born living beings. Those who are on the Earth live only by food and become themselves food in the end." (Taittiriya Upanishad, III, 2 and 10, 6.)

This cycle encompasses all of material creation, from "[t]he sun [which] only shines by destroying its own substance," to the smallest plant, which delights in devouring flesh.

The basic principle of Shivaism is to accept the world as it is, and not as we should like it to be. It is only when we accept the reality of the world that we can try to understand its nature, thus drawing nearer to the Creator and taking our place in the harmony of creation. Since nothing can exist without feeding on the life of other beings, we ourselves must take responsibility before the gods who have ordained it so. In order to share with the gods the responsibility for the fratricidal acts by which we are forced to devour other living beings so as to survive, we must offer them victims in sacrifice.

It is only when we are fully conscious of the value of our actions, consciously accomplishing the will of the gods who have ordained that life should only exist by death and by slaughter, that we can then limit its effects and play the part which has devolved on us in the harmony of the world. Only then can we avoid stepping out of our role, and avoid the hecatombs which take place when man tries to ignore his own real nature and that of the divine.

That's what Danielou says. Anyway.

As I was digging the Orwell and Wells graves, it occurred to me that if, earlier in my life, I had pursued a career as a gravedigger, living creatures today, they would not be doing the dying.

The reasoning for this, goes as follows:

I was reading this story, about how the journalists have gone away. The journalists, they used to be here, but now they are pretty much not. I know a couple of the people in that piece. Or did, back in the day. When I was a journalist. Before I killed the trade. Because, I realized, reading that piece, I am the Jonah of jobs. Whatever field I may enter, it is thereby Doomed.

I worked in a library, and now they don't have the libraries anymore. I worked in bookstores, and so those are over. I worked for newspapers, and newspapers are gone; for magazines, which are no more; and in book publishing—thus, the books are leaving. I worked on the music radio, and so we can't have that. I had a CETA job, and, as a result, Ronald Reagan, on the day he took office as the president, abolished the whole program, nationwide. I worked in a commie recycling center, so those have been abolished. I was a private investigator, and them's more or less gone.

As I reviewed this litany of Failure, I grasped that, if only I had, early on, known the effect I would have, on any and all arenas of employment I might enter, I could have effected Great Change. Like, straight away, I would have joined the military—and so today there would be no military. Anywhere. On the planet. Then I would have taken a job in a gun store. And thus there would now be no guns. My taking a job at the Federal Reserve, that would have taken care of the money: it just wouldn't be here. As an aircraft designer, I would have guaranteed that today the skies would be free and silent and clear. While my gig as a city planner, that would mean that today those sad toxic cesspools would be wholly emptied out. And, finally, my laboring as a gravedigger, that would mean that these days there would be nothing to bury. Everything would be only about, living.

The problem with this belated brainshower, is that about fifteen years or so I mucked up, and shattered the pattern, when I started working in the law. Because that profession, it is not going anywhere, not any time soon. Because, I know, that as long as there is a State, any place on earth, it will be wanting to put people in the jail. To my Jonahing, the law is, alas, near-impervious. Though I should note that, since I entered law world, there are now fewer people in the jail, in this county and in this state, than there were when I began. The United States Supreme Court, it even issued an Order, that in this state tens of thousands of people, be put out of the prisons. So, maybe, my Jonahing, has had, some, effect.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtOidJPCqHE]

Because I did not enter politics, they are still out there making the president. Because the people, they think they need one.

This past weekend, in the Democratic version of the president, The Cranky Brooklyn Deli Man, he prevailed in three electoral contests, as compared to one for The Mad Bomber, and he also bested her in accumulated delegates, 67 to 64.

But not many people in the standard Reality wanted to pay attention to this. Because the accepted Narrative, it is that The Cranky Brooklyn Deli Man, he is the Loser.

Today, the Democrats will be making the president in Mississippi, a state on The Mad Bomber's shameless Black Like Me tour. And so, there, she shall be the Winner. As her name appears on the ballot as Sojourner Rodham Truth, and she has blanketed the state with ads recounting how she tenderly cradled Medgar Evers' head, as he lay dying in his driveway, she then heavy with Martin Luther King's child.

There will also be Democratic presidenting today in Michigan. Among the Normals, they are saying the Bomber there too will prevail. But the Deli Man, he is galloping up closer, in some of the tea-leaving known as polls. So, you never know.

When you gaze at a map, and you regard the borders of various nations and states and whatnot—all of which do not actually exist, are wholly artificial constructs, just addled group agreements of the human mind—it is generally difficult to discern just why the humans drew the lines where they did. This is particularly true of Michigan. The upper portion of the state, it is not linked to the lower portion: there is a bunch of water in the way. There wasn't even a bridge connecting the Upper Peninsula, as it is called, with the rest of the state, until 1957. Physically, upper Michigan abuts but Wisconsin. And also Canada, which doesn't count, because it is not the property of the Americans.

Michigan, when it became a state, it did not even want the Upper Peninsula. But Michigan was eventually forced to take it, in a "compromise," in which Michigan was also forced to relinquish the "Toledo strip" to Ohio. Lower Michiganers were all grumbly about this, considering themselves The Losers, as the Upper Peninsula was then officially deemed "a sterile region, destined by soil and climate to remain forever a wilderness." Of course a few years later they stumbled upon the copper and iron in the Peninusla, which brought in more mineral wealth than the California Gold Rush, and so then everybody wanted the UP. But it was too late. Michigan had it.

Notwithstanding the fact there is just that one bridge, connecting the upper and lower, Michigan, it is an example, of how everything connects.

Because in Ukraine is a village called Chornobyl. Which is the Ukranian word for "wormwood." Established in 1193 as a hunting lodge. For many years home to a thriving Jewish community. The 17th Century Hasidic rabbi and Kabbalist mystic Menahem Nahum, he lived and taught in Chornobyl. And this is among what he said:

No man is beyond redemption. Redemption was established before the creation of the world itself, that's how important redemption is. No one can take it away.

During the Russian civil war, rightist counter-revolutionaries gathered together the Jews of Chornobyl, packed them onto boats, steered them out into the Pripyat River, scuttled the boats, and then shot anyone who tried to swim for shore. Boris Brasol, one of the killers who shot the Jews upon the water, later emigrated to the US, where he was responsible for the first American edition of the notorious Jew-hating forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Through this, Brasol came to the attention of Detroit automaker Henry Ford, who gave him a job on his Dearborn Independent, there in Michigan. Brasol collaborated with Ford on the latter's own sick-making anti-semitic tract, The International Jew. This book found favor with Adolph Hitler, whose government later bought vehicles and parts from the Ford Motor Company, as Germany was at war with Europe. When Hitler's troops came to occupy Chornobyl, they exterminated those Jews remaining in the region. Every one. And, this past Sunday night, The Cranky Brooklyn Deli Man, he stood on the debate stage, there in Flint, Michigan, and he said:

My father's family was wiped out by Hitler in the Holocaust. I know about what crazy and radical and extremist politics mean. I learned that lesson as a tiny, tiny child. When my mother would take me shopping, and we would see people working in stores, who had numbers on their arms, because they were in Hitler's concentration camps.

Danielou, he writes of phenomena like the Jew-killing, thusly:

Since cruelty is one of the basic constituents of the world, it also belongs to the nature of all living beings and is found—more or less disguised—in all men. Apart from vital food requirements, it is found in the form of the defence of vital territory, among both animals and humans. It is also used to ensure the supremacy and "purity" of a species, race, religion, or culture, and is thus one of the causes of genocide.

Each human group instinctively seeks to assert itself at the expense of others, whether "foreigners," or elements who are considered "different" or discriminated against. Any group may be subject to this collective instinct of cruelty. It may be the people of a nearby country, or of a foreign race, a social class or a religious or political conviction. The taste for violence and slaughter is latent in all societies. "Purges" are often considered legitimate by the partisans of whichever regime is in power. As a proverb says, "Give your dog a bad name and hang it."

It is not possible to fight effectively against one of these instinctive forms, while accepting others.

This is the appeal of The Hairball. It is very clear, to those who cleave to him, that The Hairball wants to hurt people, wants to kill people. The people of The Hairball: they like that. Because that's what they want, too. The Mexicans, and the Muslims, the brown people, those people The Hairball has explictly stated, over and over and over again, that he wants to hurt, wants to kill, they are, to the people of The Hairball, nothing but Other. And so:

what's all the fuss
they ain't like us
they don't matter anyway

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0U2KqVC1-0]

The Hairball, he was mighty peeved, when, this past weekend, the creepy, sinister vampire, Zed Crud, accumulated more votes, and more delegates, in the Republican version of the presidenting, than did he.

And so, The Hairball, he reacted, as he always does, when thwarted: he lashed out. He decided that he would again behave as if he is already the president, as he did the night of the Nevada caucuses, when he presided over the burning of the Mexicans. And so he hand-scrawled two Orders: one to place a 35% tariff on all goods from China entering the United States, and one to "bomb the shit" out of ISIL, and all Muslims related to, or who might look like, ISIL.

Unfortunately, because The Hairball is a short-fingered vulgarian, his writing is not at all coherent, or readable. And so, The Hairball minions, they got the Orders mixed up. And thus, the word went forth, to slap a 35% tariff on all goods entering the US from ISIL, and to "bomb the shit" out of China, and all the people related to, or who might look like, the Chinese.

It was indeed fortuitous that Hairball senior aide Horst Wessel, he detected the error, before the planes entered Chinese airspace, and was able to turn them around. All except one. Piloted by a certain Major Kong. That plane, alas, reached its target. And bombed away. Which is why we should probably all now go down into the Shelter.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcW_Ygs6hm0]

But maybe it will be okay, down there in the Shelter. After all, these very tubes, they were invented by insane people, to enable serial killers, who had already nuclearly crisped the planet, to "route around damage," and thus continue to communicate, down there in the holes, with one another.

The Republicans, they will be making the president today, in Idaho, Hawaii, Michigan, and Mississippi.

The Hairball, late last night, he announced, on his twit machine, a new Policy. Those states that do not elect him the Winner, they will be Bombed.

The Hairball, he is, at root, Sad. We know this from his micropenis, and from the fact that, 25 years on, he still cannot get over the fact that effete East Coast foreigner Graydon Carter wrote in the long-defunct Spy magazine that The Hairball is "a short-fingered vulgarian."

To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers. I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby. The most recent offering arrived earlier this year, before his decision to go after the Republican presidential nomination. Like the other packages, this one included a circled hand and the words, also written in gold Sharpie: "See, not so short!" I sent the picture back by return mail with a note attached, saying, "Actually, quite short."

This is pitiable, and also deeply Disturbed. The Hairball, like Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket, he suffers from a "major malfunction." And, like Pyle, he should not be allowed anywhere near weaponry. Way back in his past, something scarred him badly, and he has not been able to recover. He remains a poor, lonely child. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, in the true-life documentary film Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7qOFB4IXA8]

The Hairball, he Hurts. And so he Hurts, in return.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pHVRLdWzaQ]

He should go Quiet. And get Treatment. All those enablers, praising his name, they are not Helping. For they will never be Enough.

For too many days, the tubes have been clogged with stories about Mommie Poo Pants, one of the wives of Ronald "Where's The Brain Of Me?" Reagan. I have not opened many of these tubes, because too many of them mention the woman's unspeakable "Just Say No" jihad. And, whenever I encounter this anathema, I feel morally compelled, to ingest a narcotic. And I do not want to OD.

In but one of the recent "Just Say No" tubes, have I found related the bleeding irony of her campaign: that Mommie Poo Pants was herself addicted to a galaxy of prescription pills, and for more than 40 years. Her daughter, Patti Davis, blamed this addiction for the vicious and unrelenting child abuse to which she was subjected; Mommie Poo Pants' favorite weapon, a hairbrush. Davis was so traumatized that she had herself sterilized, in her early 20s, so afraid was she that, in turn, she would abuse her own children.

While Mommie Poo Pants lay moaning in the hospital, struggling to emit Patti into the world, hubby Ron was out bouncing the bedsprings with lover Christine Larson. Reliving the glory of his peak Hollywood days, replete with libidinous, bibulous blackouts, when he would not uncommonly awake not knowing the name of the woman lying beside him.

A number of years on, producer Robert Evans, he encountered a similar problem. However, more clever than Reagan, Evans devised a system in which his housekeeper would serve him breakfast in bed: black coffee, and a piece of cheesecake. And, under the cake plate, the housekeeper slipped a thin piece of paper, upon which was written the name of the woman lying beside him.

Evans served the planet far more than ever did Reagan. In hiring Roman Polanski to structure, re-write, and direct, Chinatown.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cWnubJ9CEw]

Just in case you might think "time" is any more Real than balderdash like "nations" and "borders," today a solar eclipse will commence, that will end the day before it begins.

The Science Men, they say they have espied the most "far-away galaxy" out there, which they are calling GN-z11.

There are two problems with this. First, this is not, by any measure, the most "far-away galaxy" extant. Second, it is not called GN-z11. I have been out there, a time or two, and I can tell you, with confidence, that the true name of this galaxy, according to the galaxy himself, is Bob.

Danielou, he may write accurately, of what was, and is, but it is not what shall be. And actually, as seen by a Mexican, whom The Hairball would deport, it is already over:

The information we're plugged into is the universe itself, and everybody knows that on a cellular level. It's built in. Just superficial stuff like what happened to you in your lifetime is nothing compared to the container which holds all your information. And there's a similarity in all our containers. We are all one organism, we are all the universe, we are all doing the same thing. That's the sort of thing that everybody knows, and I think that it's only weird little differences that are making it difficult. The thing is that we're all earthlings. The earthling consciousness is the one that's really trying to happen at this juncture and so far it's only a tiny little glint, but it's already over. The change has already happened, and it's a matter of swirling out. It has already happened. We're living after the fact. It's a postrevolutionary age. The change is over. The rest of it is a cleanup action. Unfortunately it's very slow. Amazingly slow and amazingly difficult.

Because we have been to the monolith. And we have seen over.

Roger Ebert, dying of a terrible disease, in terrible pain, saw, as related by his wife, this:

That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: "This is all an elaborate hoax." I asked him, "What’s a hoax?" And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn't visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can't even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once.

Ebert had already seen this, clear, years before, and related it, in the concluding words of his review of 2001: A Space Odyssey:

And here man undergoes a transformation as important as when he became a tool-user. He becomes a natural being again, having used his tools for hundreds of thousands of years to pull himself up by the bootstraps. Now, he no longer needs them. He has transcended his own nature, as that original ape did, and now he is no longer a "man."

Instead, having grown old and died, he is reborn as a child of the universe. As a solemn, wide-eyed infant who slowly looks over the stars and the Earth, and then turns his eyes on the audience.

These last 20 seconds, as the child of man looks down on his ancestral parents, are the most important in the film. We in the audience are men, and here is the liberated, natural being, Kubrick believes we will someday become.

But when Kubrick's space infant looked at the audience the other night, half of the audience was already on its feet, in a hurry to get out. A good third of the audience, must not have seen the space infant at all.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXS8P0HksQo]

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hecate's picture

up there in the upper left-hand portion of the page. It is small, because Johnny is modest. People who have pennies to spare, I think they should put some in there. Because Johnny devoted hundreds and hundreds of hours, to creating this space, back in the lonely day, and for this he has never been recompensed. And the non-recompensation, it continues. Just the other night, he was on the phone, in the wee wee hours of the morning, with tubes people, seeking to expand this space. Not to mention that, daily, he presides over this space, with a gentle hand, guiding even those, like me, who occasionally run off the rails, placing us back on the track, and urging we avail ourselves, in a timely fashion, of all requisite Medicines. All this Johnny does in his "spare time." Because there is for him no profit here; this place is, instead, for him, a time and labor and monetary Hole. He has other jobs, to which he must attend, as well as Life, and Family. He is a good man. I know this to be true. And he deserves to be brought, out of the Hole.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Ask and you shall receive! I just queried about this in another post!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

hecate's picture

early; donate often. ; )

Thank you.

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jiordan's picture

Donated first thing this morning.

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hecate's picture

can be fun
join the holy orgy kama sutra
every one

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URDCkQCwAes]

Put pennies, please, if ye have them, in the Johnny cup.

And, thereby, ye shall, be, forever, blessed.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4emcNAf5lY]

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PastorAgnostic's picture

Gotcha.

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hecate's picture

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Haikukitty's picture

Wasn't a whole lot, but hopefully if a lot of people donate a little, it will be enough.... that's pretty much how Bernie's done so well, right? Smile

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hecate's picture

And you are exactly right.

This is how the Deli Man, he has made it be done.

Thank you.

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Gerrit's picture

I loved reading you on the other place and I'm so happy to see you here Smile Best wishes, feather fall

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

that is beautiful and very much appreciated.

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hecate's picture

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lotlizard's picture

then turning around and using the refugees resulting from Syria’s destruction to blackmail the E.U.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Turkey-Falls-Under-Boot-of-by-Finian-Cu...

In this Sunday’s elections, German voters disgusted by the sight of their leaders caving to blackmail are poised to flock to political pied pipers like the anti-E.U. and anti-immigrant A.f.D.

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hecate's picture

a Hairball outfit. Proto-humans. Kunckledraggers. Kin to Le Pen, Wilders. Old and in the way. Over. Dead bodies, thrashing in last throes.

American populism, notorious as a pious front for venal corruption, the curse of this nation, and now, empowered by American wealth and resources, a worldwide plague.

—Robert Stone
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enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

shaharazade's picture

always turn ugly, fascistic and hateful. Look at the two faces of populism we have battling it out here in the US. The real powers that be globally like to scare the pants off the people by using the demagogues of hate and fear and the specter of Hitler, Mussolini and every damn evil maniac that has gotten power by playing the hate and fear card. They use these monsters to get sane and free thinking humans into such a panic state that they ratify and consent to so called lesser evils. I personally find Hillary and Big Dog way more terrifying as they appeal to most of the so called sane people as a rational alternative. What a surreal election selection season.

I'm not sitting it out but the binary political maze I've been herded into makes me feel like a cow in the humane slaughterhouses designed by Temple Grandin. I definitely feel the urge to stampede. So I righteously fear the Hairball and who doesn't. He's a classic demagogue old school nutter charlatan who isn't even interested in being cunning. Does that mean I should STFU and embrace the scary suck that is Killary.

What a choice were handed. Like the lady or the tiger, only this lady is even more viscous, effective,dangerous and insane then the mangy Hairball tiger. History is rife with villains and lying turn coats who dupe people into consenting to the powers that be. Damn this current game is so transparent it's amazing that people are still buying it as legitimate. Extortion has now replaced the democratic process and delusion runs rampant but still I hope the Brooklyn Deli Guy and all the people who understand his message of empowerment to the people, kicks their oligarchical collective butts.

Sorry to go on and one but it took me forever to find the Tuesday OT which is a highlight of my day, week, millennium or whatever time I'm running on at the moment of now. Loved the Last moments of Kubrick's Space Odyssey made me weep with joy. Also loved your on spot coverage of Nancy 'Just Say No' legacy and death. Thanks Hecate you always perk me up make me think, laugh and get me high on creativity.

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Fuck this shit because I signed up and now this place is too big already. Kidding I hope but zeitgeist leans toward Caucus99percent must grow quickly! lol, thanks goodness there are organizers about, it's all good. One thing I like here is you all own your own words and so decide who gets to profit from them.

We consider any original work, or opinions, posted here the property of its author unless otherwise noted. Any requests for duplicating or republishing should be directed accordingly. Please respect copyright law and fair use standards.

Thanks!

Coincidentally, I have a Shiva lunchbox, and Breakfast of Champions changed my life when I read it. Never looked in a mirror again without thinking how leaks work. Organized religion repels me that is my problem, I love mother earth first that is all. Whatevs. Peace & Love ain't that enough?
berniebecausefuck_0.jpg

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hecate's picture

pieces that rely on terms like "ruling class," "zero growth rates," and "the new economic normal," they are fun, if you like time machines, and want to snuffle around in the early 19th Century.

Money, well, that is over, and it is boring; and, as for organizing, try the slime mould.

I'd suggest asking the earth herself. Whether peace and love is enough. ; )

The Cranky Brooklyn Deli Man, he is okay, I guess. But I am really for Annabella Piugattuk. Because, unlike all the other candidates, she does not have a birther problem. For she is Inuit.

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lotlizard's picture

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Pat K California's picture

I do believe I have stumbled upon a new "favorite diarist"! The omnipresent orange at the Other Place seems to have blinded me to your talents. Now that I have rowed my lifeboat to these new shores, I can "see" you now ... and I am delighted.

Oh, and thank you for pointing out the donation button. I will use it TODAY to help pay for my keep.

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"Long term: first the rich get mean, then the poor get mean, and the rest is history." My brother Rob.

hecate's picture

& thank you, Pat K, for your kind words. ; )

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gulfgal98's picture

We are so blessed to have hecate writing for us. He graces us with his incredible language skills and innovative mind twice each week on our Open Threads, each Tuesday and Saturday. I call each Tuesday "esoteric Tuesday" because of hecate's wonderful writing on his Open Thread.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Bisbonian's picture

Blinded by the Orange.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

skod's picture

I find myself compelled to revisit one of my favorite songs from Mission of Burma. (Clint Conley _is_ Gawd, by the way)...

Fat lot of good it's done you
Tryin' to play the fool
When we know full well
You know your ass from your apposive

This club has standards, many
Try and come up short
That touch of thickness that makes a
Proper mesomorph, proper mesomorph

Five-foot-one,
Eyes as cold as stone,
Topped off by that hard blackened helmet,
And I'm haunted by the freakish size of Nancy Reagan's head,
(No way that thing came with that body)

(instrumental breakdown)

We, believe, believe
If, we, believe

Strike up the band, it's official,
You've got my back
Next thing I know, I got me
A chronic pain in the sacroliliac
Think it's funny? laugh
Want your money back?
Count it out, then,

One-two-three-four-five-foot-one,
Eyes as cold as stone,
Topped off by that fierce blackened helmet
And I'm haunted by the freakish size of Nancy Reagan's head,
(No way that thing came with that body)

And Roxy Music came to save the world,
And all I got was this lousy T-shirt ,
And I'm haunted by the freakish size of Nancy Reagan's head,
(No way that thing came with that body)

(Instrumental fadeout)

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hecate's picture

Nancy's head, hers was the name, back in the day, passed around among Hollywood studio execs, as the starlet who gave, the very best head.

Which would be neither here nor there. If she hadn't later presumed, to lecture us all, on "family values."

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOEuX44BDJI]

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detroitmechworks's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHJoj9IqeKg]

And I have no qualms saying it after her policies destroyed millions of lives.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

hecate's picture

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TheOtherMaven's picture

Interestingly, in private life she was a kind gentle woman who taught elementary school kids. (Why is it that so many of the great stage and screen villains have been really sweet pussycats when they're off the set? Do they get to work out all their aggressions and nastiness through their art?)

She said more than once, as I recall, that she thoroughly enjoyed playing the Witch, because the Witch had such style (and always lost). But she didn't like playing Elvira Gulch (the mean Kansas bitch) at all. Maybe Miss Gulch was a bit too real.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

detroitmechworks's picture

Good actors have it. In order to portray a character realistically, a good actor needs to have the ability to truly understand emotion and motivations.

Hence why if you look at the "Conservative Hollywood" actors, you'll often find stock Character actors who play the same role, over and over. It's the difference between an artist and a wall painter, IMHO. Nothing wrong with a wall painter, but they don't have the sense of the craft that a trained artist does.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

burnt out's picture

I very rarely comment , selfishly preferring to just shamelessly sit and quietly absorb the intelligent thoughts and ideas offered so freely by all the bright minds that so willingly share their wisdom and knowledge here. Guilty. But I'm making an exception today to share some rare good news coming from the Missouri legislature.

As anyone following Missouri politics the last few years knows, good news coming out of the Jefferson City legislature has become an exceedingly rare event since the teabaggers took almost complete control when Missouri voters gave them a veto proof majority several years ago. It seems like hardly a day goes by anymore that some insane legislation isn't being proposed. And unfortunately, no matter how ridiculous or insane that legislation is, it's far too often fast tracked through with little fanfare and even less media coverage. Thankfully one of the most outrageous Republican resolutions this year has come up against some serious opposition. The legislation I'm referring to is SJR 39 which asks Missouri voters to vote for a constitutional amendment which gives clear protections to anyone opposed to same sex marriage. What they are wanting is to basically give churches, business owners, and basically anyone with "sincere religious beliefs" the legal right to discriminate against same sex marriage. We're not talking about just refusing to bake wedding cakes here, we're talking about everything from housing to employment opportunities. Forgetting for a moment the obvious bigotry involved, what makes this resolution even more ignorant is that here in Missouri LBGT people are already excluded from Missouri human rights law so it's already perfectly legal to discriminate against them, and it already happens here, every day.

As I said, with a veto proof teabagger majority, and a less than helpful media, Missouri Democrats have had little success in blocking the hate and stupid coming out of Jeff City lately but yesterday afternoon at 4:00 the Senate Democrats began filibustering this resolution and as of this moment, 17+ hours later, they're still going strong. Not sure how long this will go on or how successful they will be but just seeing them trying is heartening and good for this old man's soul. Livestream of the filiuster can be found here> http://chamber.senate.mo.gov/SenateChamber

Thanks for reading.

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All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon

gulfgal98's picture

Hi there! It is good to see you 'round these parts. You really should post more often. Dirol

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

burnt out's picture

I know I should, I'll try to do better. ( :

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All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon

Bisbonian's picture

the journalists have gone away, because I love your writing. I would prefer to see you doing this, over driving a backhoe. I can do that well enough for both of us.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

hecate's picture

to move, rightly, a backhoe. Back in the day, I could push a little forklift, to and fro. But, today, I've lost the ring. Maybe, you and I, could share skill-sets. I'd really, like that.

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It's good for business

Aquis Exchange Ltd. has doubled its share of public European stock trading since Feb. 8, when it banned what it considers a problematic high-frequency-trading strategy. Aquis says it doesn’t have a beef with HFT firms, it just wants to limit proprietary traders to passively providing price quotes. “We have the same goal as the end investor -- we both want to minimize market impact,” said Doug Cifu, the chief executive of Virtu Financial Inc., an electronic trading company that’s providing more liquidity on Aquis.

hft.png
Who woulda thunk it? People don't want to play in a rigged market?

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hecate's picture

Another drugged spider chart.

spider-web-on-caffeine.jpg

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gulfgal98's picture

I remember the caffeinated one was wild. Shok

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

hecate's picture

that might also be a caffeine one.

Chloral hydrate—downers—that's where the spdiers really get unable to regularly or routinely function.
chloralhydrate.jpg

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the weird has become normal

Tuesday saw the first sale of a benchmark negative-yielding covered bond, according to Bloomberg data, with German mortgage bank Berlin Hyp AG selling a €500 million ($550 million) deal at a yield of minus 0.162 percent.

That's just the latest addition to the world's $7 trillion-strong pile of negative-yielding debt. It wasn't unexpected, given that the market has already seen a covered bond sold with a negative coupon, and many previously issued covered bonds are also trading below zero percent.

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hecate's picture

go up yonder, to the donate button, and pass on to Johnny, some scratch.
1879.jpg

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enhydra lutris's picture

When I was a starving student in a shack in the western reaches of Berkeley, I drew upon the interior wall of shack, in multiple appropriate colors, a great mandala, below which I diagrammed in illustrated fashion and in detail, the Krebs cycle. Sadly, no photos exist.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

hecate's picture

are Shakti and Shiva. As long as they keep fucking, we shall draw breath.
shiva-shakti-1.jpg

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thanatokephaloides's picture

Lots of great pictures of The Lord and His Lady, too!

p.s. Shiv Ratri 2016 (the greatest of the Shiva Festivals in the year) was yesterday, March 6/7 (as seen in North America)!

[video:https://youtu.be/PiqPmhPS0jg]

OM namah Shivaya!

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

challenging her portrayal of Bernie's bailout vote.

http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/democratic-senators-take-issue-...

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

hecate's picture

this week a headline that I thought read "Clinton Extradited To US."

Then the mini-stroke passed, and I realized it actually said: "Clinton Hacker Extradited To US."

Bummer. ; /

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Shahryar's picture

I've been looking for info on early religions. The Joseph Campbell stuff is fairly good but I want to know more about some of that Sumerian and Cretan theology. I've read that Crete took a lot from Egypt and that Greece took a lot from Crete. Any ideas on where to find that info would be appreciated.

Along those lines I'm also looking for a book on heresies. Those are some of the best of Christian thought but even Powell's comes up short.

Ok...now about gravedigging and nobody dying. I recall a science fiction work where people stopped dying even though they were in horrible accidents so those folks were walking around all mangled. Anyone know what that is? I can't remember.

Lastly about Ebert...weren't Aldous Huxley's last words "I knew it!"? Or was that Alan Watts? I think it was Huxley. I like that kind of thing because I'd rather find myself, should the "end" ever come, somewhere else. I sometimes think, should there be "somewhere else", that it would be pretty much what we'd choose, whether that be heaven, Fairyland, the Elysian Fields, here again in some other form, here again in the same form.

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Shahryar's picture

it's really a DNC solicitation. I find it interesting that they're using the Obamas and not mentioning DWS

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