For those who do not know him: Joey Barton is an English footballer (soccer player) with a mean and violent streak, a criminal past, remarkable athletic skills, and more intelligence than one might expect from someone who has been arrested in the workplace for assaulting a co-worker, arrested for stubbing-out a cigarette in a co-worker's eye, and imprisoned for attacking someone outside a bar.
Yes, Joey Barton has had a sordid past.
He's bounced form team to team to team, and left each with bad blood.
This year, though, something seems different.
He seems to have matured. Dramatically.
Faced with diminishing professional prospects, it was unsure if he would play this season. Word spread that Arsenal was considering an offer. Then during an off-season friendly against the Gunners, he had a conflict with an Arsenal player, cheated, and caused his opponent to be dismissed from the match. Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal, is said to have been angered by the display and severed all relations with Joey and his handlers.
Queens Park Rangers, one of the newly promoted teams, was building a proper top-flight side and selected Barton as one of their new players. Joey is playing in London, one of the world's greatest stages for a public personality.
Since arriving in London, he has become a Twitter stud, sharing everything from his opinion of soccer to his delight with Nitschze and his disdain for "reality" television.
He's made some friends and enemies on his new stage, and he always has something to go on about.
I quite like it, and he should plan for a career in social commentary when his athletic career is over.
His current topic is one of the "Housewives" television shows. Have a look:
On Sunday, I was still receiving emails imploring me to attend the Black Friday sales here and there. Last time I looked, Sunday was not Friday.
Yesterday I was invited to online Cyber-Monday sales.
The numbers aren't in yet for Cyber-Monday; but, Black Friday numbers sent the stock market surging on Monday.
Thank you shoppers, I was finally able to dump that Lowe's stock when my holding went from deep in the red to a lovely green color! So Christmas-y!
On Black Friday (weekend), shoppers spent $52,000,000,000 this year. Last year we spent a paltry $45,000,000,000.
It took 226,000,000 people to spend that fifty-two billion (an average of $230 per shopper). Last year, only 212,000,000 people spent that forty-five billion (an average of $212 per shopper).
Who were these people and what did they buy?
It started as all public gatherings seem to start today. A bunch of middle-class white people showed up with tents and chairs and sleeping bags, and occupied unused space in public late at night. Coast-to-coast they established local sites all joined in solidarity to one end: They were staking their Constitutional right to shop. The police came to investigate.
Unlike other recent encampments of Americas exercising their Constitutional rights, no pepper-spray or billy clubs were used on these unholy thugs. After all, they weren't claiming a right to free speech or peaceable assembly - they were claiming something much more important and more in-line with the founding fathers' intentions: the right to spend money!
And the right to push and shove each other.
And to climb over each other's dead bodies to save God's capitalism.
There was a pepper-spraying mama who won the right to purchase an X-box 360 when she won a competitive shopping bout at Target. In another store, an elderly man lay dead in the aisles while bargain-hunters stepped over and around him without regard for any need to assist him. Youngsters were trampled.
It was pretty gruesome.
And these incidents didn't take place at good stores with valuable merchandise. This stuff happened at crappy places like Target and Wal-Mart over things like televisions!
Christmas is a time to celebrate the peace and love that Jesus promoted when he became a prophet. It's also a time to be with family and friends. It is a time to be generous of time, money and spirit. It is a time to celebrate the birth of the Christus. It is a time to give and receive lots of expensive gifts. It's time to spend like a drunken sailor. It's a time to help retail establishments end their year with no red ink on the books. It is time of heavy drinking. A time to vomit in church during Midnight Mass. A time for loud arguments. A time for big meals ruined by obnoxious relatives. Is there a time better than Christmastime?
During the Christmas season of 1991, Steve Martin appeared on Saturday Night Live to offer his Christmas Wish.
If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
If I had two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account.
You know, if I had three wishes I could make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over every living being in the entire universe.
And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that model Paulina-somebody, I can't think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it.
Wait a minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got, y'know?
No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice.
But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more trouble than it's worth! So -- we reorganize!
Here we go.
First, the sex thing. We go with that.
Second, the money. No, we go with the power second, then the money. And then the kids.
Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my enemies!
Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
Salt and pepper Salt 'n' Pepa Black pepper White pepper Green pepper Java pepper Long pepper Banana pepper Bell pepper Cayenne pepper Chili pepper Datil pepper Jalapeño Tasmanian pepper Sichuan pepper Art Pepper Barry Pepper Claude Pepper George W. Pepper Jim Pepper Tom Pepper Wendy Pepper William Pepper Jr. William F. Pepper Sam Pepper Pepper Adams Pepper Keenan Pepper Martin Pepper Rodgers Pepper Ann Pepper Potts Chris Pepper Sgt. Floyd Pepper Sgt. Leann "Pepper" Anderson Waldo Pepper Dr. Pepper Sgt. Pepper John Pepper Cec Pepper Nigel Pepper Irvin Pepper Pepper spray.
A woman in California was shopping.
Shopping, as you might recall, is considered a patriotic activity.
In 2001, after a band of criminals perpetrated the most heinous violent crime ever committed against American citizens, the President told us we should stand-up to the criminals, show that we believe in our way of life, and we should go shopping.
So, shopping we went!
Americans shopped themselves silly from 2001 - 2008, and our President spent the same years bankrupting our treasury, and standing idly by as big business gutted our economy.
As a nation, however, we stood proud, knowing that our way of life is the best, and that no socialists or liberals or Muslims (or Jews, blacks, queers, or abortionists) were going to be allowed to interfere with the Constitutional freedom of corporations to profiteer at any cost.
Sadly, this hasn't worked out very well. The years 2008 - 2011 saw the American way of life disintegrate from the land of opportunity to the land of haves and have-nots.
I am lucky, I landed on the side of the haves (for the time being).
I know many people who weren't so lucky - through no fault of their own.
It seems to have just been dumb luck, not intelligence, work ethic, patriotism, or moral standing that has landed some on the side of the haves and some on the side of the have-nots. It just seems to have been dumb luck.
Many who have landed on the side of the have-nots are regular middle-class, college educated Americans who made foolish decisions like taking a student loan, and securing a mortgage on a home. They financed a car, maybe two. They started socking-away money for retirement and kids' college funds. They took an annual vacation. They coached their daughter's soccer team, and took their sons to karate. They went to church on Sunday. They maintained a manageable credit-card debt. They went to work everyday. They were living the American Dream.
By mid-2011, those who had landed on the side of the have-nots were at wits-end. Many had been out of work for two years, lost their retirement funds, homes and cars. Some of the things they've heard from their elected officials are: corporations are people too, the President is failing to create jobs, Congress is impeding the President's attempts to create jobs, government programs are socialism, big government (whatever that is) is bad, more government services need to be privatized, etc. Basically, more of the same we have been hearing for thirty years.
It has became clear that the only solution available in a nation where the economy is based on supply-side economic theory is more of the same. Mechanisms to check and balance our economy have been dismantled in the name of freedom, and we are now expected to just sit by and hope that the people at the top of the economic food chain will allow some of the profits generated by the American way of life to trickle-down. That those at the top will create jobs for the jobless and opportunities for the young, as we have always been promised will happen with supply-side economic policy.
Those who landed on the side of the have-nots decided to Occupy Wall Street to air their grievances. A nationwide, then global movement of the have-nots began to shine light on the dark underbelly of our civilization: the failure of re-engineering the domestic (and global) economy of the past three decades.
At first, the Occupy movement seemed to be successful. People were talking about some of the policy changes that have hurt America.
After a couple of weeks of these public demonstrations of personal failure, the haves had had enough.
In New York, the police were ordered to put an end to the public demonstrations and were left to use whatever devices they chose.
The police chose military tactics that we generally see during television broadcasts from second- and third-world nations.
People were beaten with batons (billyclubs as we used to call them) and attacked with military grade gasses.
The televising of these tactics succeeded emboldened the haves, and set the stage for a typical media ploy: get the haves to blame the have-nots.
Public opinion switched from a somewhat sympathetic view of destroyed American families to a series of expletives and degrading statements about those who dared to question the authority of a newly-exposed police state, and question the Constitutional freedom of corporations to generate any profits at any cost at anytime.
Images of helmeted and armored police beating and spraying citizens engaged in peaceful public protest have become commonplace, and the haves accept the media analysis that these protesters are dirty, bad criminals trying to destroy America.
The most disturbing images have been uniformed police spraying chemicals directly into the faces of American citizens. Images of gas canisters being lobbed into an unruly crowd are sort of commonplace during civilian protest; but this new imagery of individual policemen choosing to spray gas directly into the faces of individual citizens is a new image.
It's a frightening image.
The action is so personal that I find it disturbing; and it looks like the cops are enjoying the task.
Tear gas, or pepper-spray as it is now called, is a major part of the American dialog; and the images in the ether are both disturbing and humorous.
One upshot of all of this is a new set of guidelines that says: American citizens are not allowed to congregate in tents and sleeping bags to exercise their Constitutional rights.
The woman was only trying to exercise her Constitutional right to shop, and others were in her way. She did what any reasonable American should do: go for the kill!
Next is a video report discussing patriotism (shopping).
Please note that people have congregated in tents and sleeping bags to exercise their Constitutional rights, but they are not being beaten or gassed:
If you are looking for the perfect pepper-spray to use on your fellow citizens while they exercise their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble, then Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream, 1.3% Red Band/1.3% Blue Band Pepper Spray is for you!
A military grade, combat ready spray, this has become the most talked-about product in the industry.
Sure, do the comparisons with all the competing products, and I guarantee you will be back to purchase this item over and over again!
At the amazon.com page for the product, hundreds of consumers have left testimonials. Like this:
I don't always oppress, but when I do I use Defense Technology 56895 Mk-9 Stream, 1.3% Red Band/1.3% Blue Band Pepper Spray. - by Anonandon
WOW. After being pepper sprayed by this sensuous essence, I'm not sure I ever want to be pepper sprayed by any other brand ever again. Seriously, the smoky chipotle combines perfectly with the subtle "spray" flavors. Really, an excellent and delicious tool for capitalist repression. Don't commit police brutality without it. - by Juanpi
This stuff really just does everything it says it does. You spray, and people will move. Hate waiting in lines? Hate people just sitting around and wasting valuable time doing nothing? Just hate people in general? If you answered yes to any of those things, then you are in for a peppery treat! - by A.Ingraham
There I was, confronted by a large group of peaceful college students. There they sat, linked arms, doing nothing! You can imagine my fear: all I had was full riot gear, my baton, a taser, several guns a helmet and a vest, and 50 other guys. But I'm nothing if not macho, and I casually reached for my can of pepper spray, brandished it aloft, and sprayed the whole row of peaceful, passive students. That'll teach 'em to try doing nothing on my watch! When you're faced by a terrifying crowd of twenty something college kids sitting peacefully doing nothing, reach for Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream, 1.3% Red Band/1.3% Blue Band Pepper Spray. It's the choice of cowardly bullies, authoritarian dupes, and fascist simpletons the world over! - by H.C.Carey
If you are ever facing non-violent docile young students sitting down on the ground, and you hate "liberals", you can adjust it to the highest settings, and walk back and forth like you are spraying pest killer on your roses. It makes you feel so good! Even if you are a 260 pound strong man facing 145 pound unarmed American citizens practicing their right to peacefully assmble, you can easily spray the crowd of hippies that need to take a bath and get a job. Highly recommended for hippie control! - Craig Richard Gillette
As noted on Fox News, this product is essentially a food item. Applies easily to an entire table of food in seconds! I've also begun to fill my salt shaker with DDT and no meal is complete without just a touch of Mustard gas. Dinner conversation has never been so peaceful! - Jesse
Yessir, folks! This is the 1.3% for the 1%! Inferior sprays cannot and do not clear a public space of peaceful protestors like this one! Whether you need to reduce the manpower required to physically move those pesky adherents to Gandhi's principles, or simply want to get the biggest bang for your chemical irritant buck, accept no substitutes! Soon to be available in Now is the Winter of Our Discontent Wintergreen scent! - Patrick R. Chambers
I ordered this thinking it was just a safe alternative to smacking my bitch up, but I discovered it was absolutely wonderful sprinkled on pizza. Good eats, indeed. Thank you, Amazon, for making meals, domestic disputes and altercations with peaceful college students more palatable. - M.Patitucci
For thirty years I have been telling anyone who would listen that supply-side economic theory is a bad idea, and that Reaganomics will be the death of America - at least as we once knew it (a land of opportunity and personal freedom).
Looking back over those thirty years, I am still surprised to remember that the only mainstream politician to speak-out against the plan to remove all wealth from the middle class and funnel to the wealthy was a member of one of America's wealthiest and most powerful families: George H.W. Bush.
Bush I, in his public remarks about supply-side economic theory and during his debates with fellow-Republicans, referred to it as Voodoo Economics.
Today, our economy is a shambles - a mere shadow of its former self. Poverty is rampant with one-in-three American children living in poverty. Our educational spending has not kept-up with inflation, so the public school systems for the middle-class and poor have been gutted and no longer teach. Our nation no longer leads the world in learning, we now have the infant mortality rate of a second-world country, and the media has convinced the majority of Americans that it's not the rich that are a problem, but the poor and their champions - the liberals.
Occupy Wall Street started an amazing public outcry against our current economic policy, and it has spread across the country.
This image is the most complete message about the problem in America: not spending, not government, not liberals, not Democrats, but the enforcement of laws and regulations:
If the rich were held to the same legal and moral standards as the poor and the middle-class, if banks were held to the same legal and moral standards as our schools, and if the rich actually behaved like the patriots they pretend to be, then corporations would not be people, bankruptcy laws would protect citizens not just businesses, schools would be funded as if we were actually a civilized nation, and the lie of "libertarian-ism" would be exposed for the farce it really is.
Occupy students at UC Davis have been completely non-violent in their approach to redress for grievances.
Even when the chancellor of the University set the police in their militaristic riot gear upon them, they remained non-violent. In the face of brutal and vicious violence that most Americans would condemn in another country, they remained non-violent.
After the police finished their brutal attack against passive, non-violent students and teachers, the students prepared another protest. A silent, non-violent protest outside the office of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, the woman who ordered the brutal attack that injured many.
They sat in deafening silence as the chancellor left the building and made her way to her ride in the parking lot. The only noise is that of the media.
See for yourself:
Non-violence in America has always been met with violence. The civil rights movement and the anti-war movement are historical reminders of how the police treat non-violent protesters.
For an educated person to say they did not know that the police brutalize non-violent protesters is an insult. For the leader of a university to allow police to set-upon non-violent protesters shows a disregard for humanity and a remarkable of ignorance of history. A history she condemned us to repeat.
Her remarks about health and safety in relation to tents in the quad is embarrassing; and the only part of her statement that matters is this simple phrase:
. . . I take full responsibility for the incident. . . .
The person responsible for this brutal attack must be dealt with forthwith, she must be fired from her job with prejudice. She is in violation of the laws of decency, if not the terms of her contract. Anything less than forced termination of her employment suggests that the State of California has no regard for education, student safety, and the United States Constitution.
When Martin Luther King, Jr., accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964, he said:
Modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific success. He has produced machines that think and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed distance, placed time in chains, and carved highways through the stratosphere. This is a dazzling picture of modern man's scientific and technological progress.
Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
I applaud the students of UC Davis. I applaud their non-violence, their peaceful protest, and their resolve to remain non-violent in the face of brutal attack.
This is not a very good video, and I find it difficult to listen to the drivel coming from off-camera; but that pales when compared to the obvious point:
A retired police captain, a member of the establishment (to use an old-fashioned term) has taken a public stand in support of the Occupy movement, has put his safety and reputation on the line, and is directing his message to fellow police officers.
Some municipal government (New York, Oakland, Seattle, and others) have criminalized the Occupy movement so they can squash it with violence. Other cities (Albany, for example) have protected the Occupiers and work with the Occupiers to maintain civil and easy-to-manage events.
The police who are doing the bidding of the bankers in New York, Oakland, etc., are actually working against their own best interests, and it is good that a retired cop whose entire reputation is at stake, has taken a public stand.
The hottest software company is about to go public, raking in serious scratch. Only one problem-the mysterious death of their programming wizard!
It's 1984. The era of the desktop computer has dawned. Software companies are sprouting around the country like mushrooms. The biggest buzz in the financial press is about Locust, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its president, David Hedges, is already out of the box with a line of high-end business products. He`s itching to go public-and make his hundreds of millions-and Wall Street has his IPO all lined up.
His ace-in-the-hole is lead programmer, Rusty van Handle, whose piece of Locust will bring him a bundle. Though van Handle is a hot-shot in the digital world, he has a different reputation around town:
There's his plan to muscle-in on a real estate deal and take the property of an elderly black woman in the South End, and his claim that he owns half of the break-out pop band, Dead Enz, whose lead singer, Sal Ianucci, he regularly supplies with cocaine. Actually, van Handle was a regular supplier of cocaine to many, and he had mountains of the powder.
The day before the IPO, van Handle's body is found splattered on a street in the South End. Wearing handcuffs.
Murder? Accident? Suicide?
The Locust IPO goes on hold, and may burn-out entirely. The press is all over the scandal. David Hedges is livid and uses his influence to make sure someone-anyone-is nailed for the crime.
Kyle G. Brixton is the pen name for two Boston area writers. Beauty To Die For is the next in this series.
I've read it, and I want you to buy it. Choose a link below:
The law doesn't say we can peaceably assemble as long as nobody is offended or inconvenienced, it says we must be peaceful. It does not say that peaceable assembly may not interfere with commerce or traffic. It doesn't say peaceably assemble as long as certain levels of hygiene are met.
It is the duty of the police, municipalities, and state governments to provide those peaceably assembled the unwavering and unimpeded right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Lest anybody be unfamiliar with the obscure law of the land protecting the "Occupy" movements that have grown-up organically across the nation, it is commonly known as the First Amendment, and it states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Bill of Rights
Municipal laws about deadlines and curfews and hygiene do not trump the Constitution.
We don't get to say: you can protest against the state of our economy on Saturdays from Noon to 5:00 PM, but you can't set up a tent, and you can't move freely around the surrounding neighborhood.
The police should be protecting the Occupiers' right to peaceably assembly not using military tactics to crush them as though we live in some fascist state.
The Constitution also says we have the right to pursue happiness, it doesn't say we GET happiness. The presence of protesters with whom we don't agree or who are inconvenient do not prevent anybody's pursuit of happiness.
Occupy Wall Street is a peaceful assembly of concerned Americans. They have been violently set-upon by the police, and occupiers across America have been turned into criminals by local governments.
Now mayors and other local government officials complain that there are criminals present among the Occupiers.
If you criminalize an entire community, as we have done to the Occupiers, then everyone present is a criminal. You can't then be surprised that actual dangerous criminals make their homes among them.
Instead of vilifying and attacking Occupiers, mayors from coast-to-coast should be providing police protection and infrastructure support for them. If our government had been doing the right thing all along, they could actually be partners with the citizens and work jointly to ensure the safety of everyone involved, including those inconvenienced by the protest. The Occupations could be made safe.
It is sad to see my government fail so completely, and then hear citizens defend the police tactics being used to support corporate interests instead of actual citizens.
Reaganomcis promises that the privatization of government services (that is, services funded by taxpayers) will lead to more efficiency and reduced costs to all involved. As evinced by reality, privatization has been a boom for banks and a boondoggle for taxpayers.
Here's the latest farce: State governments pay Bank of America to distribute unemployment benefits. These are benefits we all pay for while we work and pay taxes. These benefits are not free-loading, this is money saved in the taxpayers' coffers in case a taxpayer should become suddenly unemployed.
The sums paid to individuals are small and prevent starvation; but do not prevent foreclosure and loss of home.
With this new-fangled distribution method, there need to be new approaches to using the money. Wall Street has come-up with the perfect, most profitable plan possible; that costs the taxpayers and consumers more than previous systems.
Recipients are required to use a BoA debit card to access their money (money generated with unemployment insurance they paid for). Bank of America then charges recipients for every transaction, further reducing the recipient's benefits. Most importantly, thought, this increases the profits of a bank that caused the huge unemployment rates in the first place.
Every unemployed person receiving unemployment insurance payments must pay Bank of America, a private corporation, fees to use the money they receive. I know that those at the bottom are now expected to fund the lifestyles of those at the top; but, can we give the unemployed a break? BoA is making plenty of money without squeezing the poorest among us.
Lest you be confused: this is exactly what was promised with Reaganomics. Sadly, many Americans believed the lie that it would be good for all Americans. It is good for only a small percentage of Americans.
So if it's possible to be even more horrified by the abuse going on at Penn State than that which pours out just by being human, I, along with other Big 10 football fans are that horrified.
We're appalled. Sickened. It's vile. Evil. Disgusting. Who isn't outraged, when facing greedy, selfish, power-hungry, abusing child-haters masquerading as leaders and mentors to young men?
And it's no help to see the students at Penn State rallying against the mandatory, no-choice punishment dealt to Joe Paterno, one of the key players in the scandal. You're football fans? You ought to know the rules. You play the game, you take the hits.
But, I'm a Big 10 fan. And believer. I'm waiting, optimistically, for students at Penn State to remember who they are, who is supporting them at their fantastic school, and who their hearts should be broken for. I'm sure they will show up - to speak with their real voice.
Who are they? Our future. The future that includes no more tolerance for bullying, for brutality, for greed, for abuse of power. The same future that's rallying against greed and abuse of power on Wall Street. Money-grubbing greed, the worship of money over skill and talent and education, are the factors that have allowed more than one state university to be ruled by football profit-machines, losing their way in cover-ups that worried more about avoiding a black eye for an athletic program than honoring what should be their noble mission.
Penn State students will remember that. They'll remember they are our future.
They will also remember they are in school at the will and sufferance and financial support of the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. The "State" in Penn State is, after all, the state of Pennsylvania, the hard-working taxpayers who have more than enough financial challenges without their premier school covering up child abuse. Because that's who will pay for this mess. The state of Pennsylvania will be on the hook for reorganizing governance at Penn State, revamping their athletic programs, in addition to the cost of lawyers and criminal investigations, and money owed to victims.
The students will remember that. They will remember who is paying for their education.
And as sure as autumn brings foliage and pumpkins, and the cold smack of football helmets, and the breathtaking arc of a perfectly thrown pass landing flawlessly in the hands of a receiver just inside the end zone, it will bring some sense to the rallying crowds at Penn State to stand up in support of the children at the tragic center of this horror.
The same unified cacophony of sound that rings for a Nittany Lion victory will be the voice against a reign of terror enabled by criminal co-conspirators: the abuser, the coach, the athletic director, the president, the silent witnesses. Those criminals deserve no sympathy from us or from the students.
We do have a future. They'll remember who they are and speak accordingly.
A patriot can love his nation and support its soldiers while also hoping and praying that war ends, and our young men and women come home.
Today is Veterans Day.
Have you thanked a veteran today?
No matter what you think about war and peace, these men and women (some of them reluctant and unexpected heroes) risked everything for us.
Bring The Boys Home Freda Payne
Fathers are pleading, lovers are all alone Mothers are praying-send our sons back home You marched them away-yes, you did-on ships and planes To the senseless war, facing death in vain Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Turn the ships around, lay your weapons down Can't you see 'em march across the sky, all the soldiers that have died Tryin' to get home-can't you see them tryin' to get home? Tryin' to get home-they're tryin' to get home Cease all fire on the battlefield Enough men have already been wounded or killed Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Turn the ships around, lay your weapons down (Mothers, fathers and lovers, can't you see them) Oooh, oooh... Tryin' to get home-can't you see them tryin' to get home? Oooh, oooh... Tryin' to get home-they're tryin' to get home Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive) What they doing over there, now (bring 'em back alive) When we need them over here, now (bring 'em back alive) What they doing over there, now (bring 'em back alive) When we need them over here, now (bring 'em back alive)
Never one to pass-up a good opportunity, much to his credit, Conan O'Brien decided to enter into the fray known as same-sex marriage.
No, Conan has not decided to marry a man.
One of his staff has wanted to marry his partner. In California, where they all work and live, same-sex marriage is not legal.
Conan was hosting his show from the Beacon Theater, in New York, for a week. While the show and all its crew were in town, this staff member decided that he and his partner would get married at City Hall. Same-sex marriage is legal in New York, and it takes no time to get married in America. Basically, you just need the filing fee, and be currently unmarried.
When Conan learned of this, he decided it would be much nicer for the couple if, instead of a City Hall wedding, he hosted the wedding on his late night talk show.
This is a great way to: (1) have a little fun at work, (2) take a public stand on a public issue that most television people don't even know how to discuss, never mind have an opinion about it, and (3) make a nice wedding for someone you like.
The plan was announced and the right-wing media had a field day. Here was an opportunity to express the varied opinions of Americans, especially those who oppose same-sex marriage.
Now, I like to think that the right-wing media is relatively savvy in their presentation of things like facts and figures. I believe that each network, and in some cases each television station, has writers who prepare a script that suits the needs and reflects the style of that company.
Imagine my surprise when I watched this video montage of right-wing reporting of the Conan wedding officiating.
Media Response
Either those are all clips from Fox affiliates, or there is one guy writing the right-wing's agenda and sending it over the wire for all right-wing media to parrot.
Below is a video of Conan pushing the envelope on late-night television.
Not all veterans support the Occupy movement, but not all of them oppose it, either.
Although so-called "conservatives" consider themselves patriots and go on and on about how patriotic they are and how much liberals hate America, that is hardly the truth.
Our military veterans have been being squeezed by the government for three decades and five presidents. Anything that remotely appears to be social welfare (education, health care, housing, etc.) has been under attack for an entire generation. In fact, people under 40 most likely do not remember a time when the United States was a scientifically, medically, educationally, militarily progressive nation. We have spent every years trying to revert back to some mysterious time when things are alleged to have been better.
Back to the vets. We have been gutting their benefits for years, while increasing tax breaks and welfare payments to millionaires and corporations.
If you bother with slogans, then pretty much all veterans belong to the "99%."
Now some veterans are taking a public stand with the Occupy movement.
So-called "conservatives" and most Republicans like to talk about family values. In fact, the GOP wears the badge of family values as part of its endless campaign of lies, lies, and more lies.
In general, the right-wing refers to the "nuclear family" as a "traditional" family, which is in and of it self completely inaccurate. The nuclear family was a product of post-war America, that is the 1950s, when our government used tax dollars to build the suburbs.
A traditional family hearkens back from WWII to biblical times, and that kind of family is unable to have the rigid guidelines promoted by the right-wing because they are actually working to keep their family fed, clothed, nurtured, educated and in pursuit of happiness. There is no time for ridiculous moral values when a family is actually living as a family.
Conservatives are so enthusiastic about supporting the nuclear family that they refuse food, housing, and medical assistance to the poorest families in order to further their agenda. No tax dollars are spent to assist families in need, because "conservatives" think that is somehow bad.
As a father and husband, I take seriously my responsibility to support and nurture my family. As a progressive, a leftist if you will, I actually follow-through with that commitment without fanfare, court orders, or to further my career. I do it because it is the right thing to do.
Why is it that the people who rant on-and-on about family values, who use the issue to further their careers, and work to condemn those families that don't fit their narrow view, seem to be the people that are least likely to live those values?
The most recent conservative Republican lawmaker to fall just a tad short of the values he pretends to support, a man who gets a "True Blue" rating from the Family Research Council, is Rep. Joe Walsh, of Illinois.
Come to find out, his traditional family, which includes an ex-wife and three children with whom he does not live, is looking for all the child support he has failed to pay. It seems he is about a hundred grand short of his court-ordered payments.
His line of defense is an insistence that he and his ex-wife had a verbal agreement that he didn't have to pay the court-ordered money when he wasn't earning very much.
The congressman's annual salary is $174,000 from the taxpayers, and whatever else he is wringing out of the right-wing machine for speeches, House votes, and other favors. Call me a socialist, if you will, but I think a father could afford some child support on a salary of $174,000 salary.
Even if the alleged verbal agreement with his ex-wife is true, at what point does he consider his salary sufficient to chip-in for support of his kids? If $174,000 isn't enough, is $175,000? Or, is he waiting until he's earning half-a-million to start supporting his kids?
You would think the Family Research Council would be a bit embarrassed about all this since they awarded him a True Blue award earlier this month. Why did they honor him? For his "unwavering support of the family"! Support of the family - just not his own.
It doesn't matter to the FRC, though. The right-wing ignores this little indiscretion by the congressman, because they know he will vote their bidding on financial and economic matters. The whole "family values" line is a parcel of bullshit the right-wing feeds to the stupid as a smoke-screen to hide their dismantling of America's economy.
The FRC announced:
We thank Congressman Walsh who has voted consistently to defend faith, family and freedom. Congressman. Walsh and other "True Blue Members" have voted to repeal Obamacare, de-fund Planned Parenthood, end government funding for abortion within the health care law, uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, and continue support for school choice. I applaud their commitment to uphold the institutions of marriage and family. Rep. Walsh lauded by group for being pro-family, though accused of owing child support
Walsh proudly accepted the honor. I'm sure he has accepted money from their PAC, too. Probably not enough to support his family, however.
OK: I get it about reducing the tax burden of the wealthy and all the corporations. OK: I get it. I don't agree, but a majority of the right-wing media believe this, and it's their opinion that counts.
Corporate taxes have been deeply reduced in the past ten years. Tea-baggers will tell you it's not true, but corporations pay almost no tax on their profits. One of the arguments made by anti-tax proponents is that we double tax corporations by taxing their profits and then taxing the dividends that shareholders received when remaining profits are distributed.
This argument, though theoretically sensible, no longer has any validity because as corporate profits have sky-rocketed and the salaries of chiefs and directors have soared, dividend payments have been woefully stagnant. There is no double taxation if the profits aren't distributed!
Now we have learned that companies no longer paying taxes are receiving huge welfare payments. So, not only aren't they helping to support our society, they are actually sucking off the middle class, not the wealthy. You see, the wealthy pay a much lower percentage of their income than the rest of us.
Not being satisfied with bankrupting our Treasury and stealing as much as they can, the tea-baggers at the State level have figured out another way to give corporations huge amounts of our money.
Not bailouts.
Not tax-breaks.
Not corporate subsidies.
The State of Illinois is now giving our payroll taxes directly to the largest corporations in that State.
When State taxes are withheld from your paycheck, they are sent to the State to run the government. When it's time to tally-up, money is sometimes returned to the taxpayer, because the amount withheld was greater then the amount required.
The largest corporations in Illinois now withhold your payroll taxes and keep them for themselves.
So, not only have we drastically cut corporate tax and drastically increased corporate welfare, we are now giving our tax dollars directly to the corporations right out of our paychecks.
I know that "conservatives" and tea-baggers hate America's government (which means they hate themselves), and we've been told for thirty years by every president since Reagan that reduced taxes will lead to a smaller government and a smaller government will result in reduced taxes.
What is happening, however, is that our taxes continue to go up, government services are reduced (in the case of Illinois, the State is completely removed from any direct relationship with its taxpayers), and corporations are taking more of the taxes paid by the citizenry.
This is not good.
If we want to reduce the government, then reduce the government, but don't just give our taxes to corporations who already pay no taxes!
Take a minute-and-a-half to watch this video by Reuters correspondent David Cay Johnston:
This is one of my all-time favorite rock songs. It is from David Bowie's 1973 Aladdin Sane album.
Panic in Detroit
He looked a lot like Che Guevara, Drove a diesel van Kept his gun in quiet seclusion, Such a humble man The only survivor Of the National People's Gang Panic in Detroit, I asked for an autograph He wanted to stay home, I wish someone would phone
Panic in Detroit
He laughed at accidental sirens that broke the evening gloom The police had warned of repercussions They followed none too soon A trickle of strangers were all that were left alive
Panic in Detroit, I asked for an autograph He wanted to stay home, I wish someone would phone
Panic in Detroit
Putting on some clothes I made my way to school And I found my teacher crouching in his overalls I screamed and ran to smash my favorite slot machine And jumped the silent cars that slept at traffic lights
Having scored a trillion dollars, Made a run back home Found him slumped across the table. The gun and me alone I ran to the window. Looked for a plane or two
Panic in Detroit. He left me an autograph "Let me collect dust." I wish someone would phone
This was a news story that caught my eye earlier this year, and has stayed in my mind since.
I never published it before, because I wasn't certain how to present it.
It seems too easy to just present the rantings of another "conservative" and say they are all hateful, crazy bastards. It's easy to say that, of course.
This incident was particularly distrurbing to me, and I share it with you these months later:
Progressives around the country can breathe a little easier today: James Adkisson has been sentenced to life behind bars for the deaths of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, the Unitarian Universalist martyrs who died during his assault on their church in Knoxville, TN last July.
[In a maifesto,] he unleashes the full measure of his hatred for liberals -- and encourages other would-be right-wing warriors to take up arms and follow him into battle.
Some choice excerpts:
"Know this if nothing else: This was a hate crime. I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them. . . .
"This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence."
"I thought I'd do something good for this Country Kill Democrats til the cops kill me. . . . Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is to kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. I'd like to encourage other like minded people to do what I've done. If life aint worth living anymore don't just kill yourself. do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals.
Depending on your station in life you are allowed to get away with certain types of crimes. The rich are allowed to commit financial fraud, but the middle class isn't. The middle-class is allowed to use drugs, but the poor aren't. The poor are allowed to beat their wives and siblings, but the rich and the middle class are not.
And when crimes cross class lines, enforcement of laws is often based on skin color. A lower-class brown-skinned guy caught with an ounce of reefer is always prosecuted differently than a lower-class white guy caught with an ounce of reefer.
It's simply the American way; and I don't see it changing any time soon.
We also collectively consider different crimes more or less appalling than others. Rape, child abuse, and torture are decried, universally, as wholly unacceptable. Drunk driving, drug trafficking, and assault and battery are not tolerated. Prostitution, bank fraud, and drug consumption are often discussed as if they are not crimes at all.
Then there are degrees of crimes. Some laws are actually written around the severity of the crime committed. There is first-degree murder and second-degree murder. Homicide and vehicular homicide, and then there's manslaughter. There's assault, assault and battery, assault with intent to kill, assault of a police officer, assault of a police officer with intent to kill, all of which are treated differently. There is grand larceny and petty larceny, and then there is shoplifting and embezzlement.
All crimes are rooted in the Judeo-Christian notions of sin, the seven deadly sins: pride, lust, anger, greed, gluttony, envy and sloth. Although the non-religious or anti-religious will argue that there is no connection, that argument holds no water. And our varying degrees of crimes is rooted in our innate sense of fairness and compassion. Well, unless you are a "conservative," then the notions of fairness apply only to you and others like you, but not to others -- those who are different. Generally, though, as a species we temper our disdain for crime with a sense of compassion.
Even the most brutal law enforcement officials honor some unspoken and unwritten codes. They are pretty obvious when you bother to think of them, and aren't written down anywhere.
If a home is raided for illegal activity, generally the men are arrested and the women are left behind to care for the children; even if the women are believed to be part of the criminal enterprise. It's just sort of the decent thing to do. It's also easier than processing the kids through the morass that is our failed children's services system.
When sick and/or elderly people are arrested, accommodation is made for them. This is the decent thing to do.
Pregnant women are also often afforded some leeway when crime and punishment is being negotiated. It's just the decent thing to do.
Even at our worst, our anger and frustration about crimes and criminals is generally tempered by a certain amount of decency and compassion.
In a Dickensian incident in Honolulu, Hawaii (and is there a place less Dickensian than Hawaii?), a pregnant woman and her husband were arrested for failure to pay for the sandwich the pregnant woman ate while shopping at Safeway.
They were running late, they had difficulty finding their way around their new community, and having missed her meal the pregnant woman was famished. This is biology, not culture. While shopping, she opened a two dollar sandwich, put the wrapper in her basket for payment upon checking out, and continued her tasks.
At check-out the sandwich wrapper was not scanned and the couple left the store without paying for the sandwich.
Upon exiting, they were set-upon by a security guard who pointed out they had failed to pay for the sandwich. They were embarrassed and apologized, went back into the store and attempted to pay for the sandwich.
At that point, the security guard and the manager explained that they would not accept payment for any item that had left the store, and that they would be charged with shoplifting.
They spent hours at the store. Eventually the police arrived to arrest these dangerous criminals, handcuff them, and take them to the station.
A-ha, another little detail. Their two-year-old daughter was also with them and the child was taken into custody and inserted in the child services system.
For a sandwich.
Have you read Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime & Punishment"? If you haven't read it, but perhaps have heard about it, please note that this situation feels as barbaric as that story.
Safeway stores has a policy that is so inhumane and lacking any sense of human decency that they would have a family torn apart, no matter how temporarily, over the cost of a sandwich.
I went to the Safeway website and wrote to them. You can to, by using this link: Contact Safeway
I wrote:
Are you serious? You had a pregnant woman arrested when she forgot to pay for her sandwich?
Even if she WAS stealing it, what company has a person arrested for a two dollar sandwich, then watches as the authorities take her child from her?
And your response is that you are "investigating"?
You need to fire everyone at that store who came within hearing distance of the incident and come-up with some kind of remuneration that YOU would accept if a store security guard turned your life upside-down over a two dollar misunderstanding!
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Angrily, Dick Mac
I hope you will write.
More importantly, I hope you will stop shopping at Safeway.
Every now and then I like to read some or all of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Since the first time they were discussed during junior high history at Catholic school, and then in 9th Grade Civics class, I have been fascinated. I have read and re-read, and I have gone from thinking I knew what it said to wondering if I knew is said, to accepting that it needs little interpretation.
Since childhood I have heard the term "first amendment rights" bandied about for some of the most minuscule and some of the most important issues of the day.
The discussion has mostly centered on the "freedom of speech, or of the press" clause. And for good reason. We are the people who enjoy such freedoms laid out in black and white.
The clause about "establishment of religion" has been murkier, because religious zealots interpret this differently than intellectuals. Although a religious person myself, I fall on the side of the intellectual interpretations. it means keep your damned religion out of my government. Period.
The ending part of the First Amendment has been the least discussed: "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
It seems pretty clear to me. If a group of citizens are gathered, without weapons, without violence, to highlight grievances with government policy, then they have every right to do so.
That right is not abridged by any inconvenience to commerce, nor any notions of cleanliness or noise. It is the role of the local (municipal and state) law enforcement agencies to ensure that citizens are protected during this gathering and petition for redress.
Those rights and the protection afforded exercise of those rights do not expire after twenty-four hours, or five days, or a month.
And when local law enforcement agencies fail to provide that protection, or actually become a hindrance to the exercise of these rights, federal law enforcement authorities are expected to step in and provide the security.
That is what Constitutional rights require: the protection of the civil liberties of the citizens.
We protect the Westboro Baptist Church when it wants to protest at the funerals of soldiers, we protect gun-toting rednecks when they want to gather at a speech by the President, and we need to protect the disenfranchised when they are protesting the newfangled laws of finance that have been re-engineered against the average citizen for three decades.
This last group, however, has not been afforded protection. In fact, elected officials across the country have used their police forces like a domestic military force to disperse and silence that which they find inconvenient.
Policemen have dressed in military gear, taken high-powered weapons, and set upon American citizens because some don't like the topics at hand.
The Federal government's failure to protect these protesters, who have peaceably assembled to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, is a stain on the FBI, the Supreme Court, the legislative branch of government, and the President. it is a stain on our democracy, a stain on our Bill of Rights, a stain on our reputation as the leaders of the free world.
Lest there be any confusion about the text of the First Amendment, post it here:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. See, Bill of Rights
Irrespective of our opinions about the Occupy Wall Street movement, they are breaking no laws except some municipal ordinances that never trump the Constitution, They deserve to be protected and all government officials should come to their aid as they would a more privileged group of people.
There are some Americans who are members of the military and law enforcement agencies who have spoken-up. None more dramatically than Sgt. Shamar Thomas, a New York veteran of the Iraq War.
In this video taken in Times Square, he confronts New York police who are attempting to disperse a group of protesters. The presence of so many "white shirts" is proof that the police planned to use violence, until Sgt. Thomas intervened.
The only time the police become violent in NYC is when the "white shirts" are present. They are the harbingers of violence for the New York City police. The "white shirts" bring dishonor to all cops.
by Dick Mac
