A THIN REED

I went to see the new Michael Moore flic, Fahrenheit 11/9,with my thoughtful, educated, erudite, historian pal S...
My mood of gloom, depression and futility was NOT lifted by the Moore's plangent recitation of the mistakes and missteps that culminated in the horror of 11/9/16 and subsequently. I remarked, as I am wont to do in such circumstances, that "We Are SO fucked."
S.. remonstrated with me, however, making the (relatively obvious) point that we cannot predict the future: Something MIGHT change. He found hopeful the ambitions of the Parkland survivor kids, for example.
Recalling the hopes of 1971, when 18-yr-olds were given the vote, and McGovern's catastrophic defeat, even though there was still a horrific war going on, I said: "That's a pretty thin reed..."
But I was reminded by his remark of a parable/allegory I used to repeat to my students about the fragility of hope:
In a far-off land, many centuries ago, there was a powerful Emir who employed a Mage to do such things that Mage's do. His skill was such that he soon won the love and trust of his master. But, in the ways of such things, one night the Mage was apprehended sneaking OUT of the seraglio, and was hauled before the Emir, who pronounced the sentence: The Mage might choose his own means of demise.
But the Mage, a clever fellow almost by definition, offered the Emir a bargain: "Sire, I know you esteem your war-horse above all others. What if I were to teach your magnificent charger to talk? Give me a year, and then, if I should fail, you may do with me as you will. But if I succeed, you grant my freedom."
The Emir was amused by the proposition, and AGREED.
When he had left the Presence, the Mage's acolytes all clustered about him in confusion. "You CANNOT teach the horse to talk. You're insane!"
But the Mage said: "I have a year. In a year, the Emir may die. Or I may die. Or the horse may die.
"Or the horse may talk."

Why I Wasn't a "Lifer," Page 1...

Downtown Burque, early 1960's. 2nd and Central.
I'm pretty sher that I spent the night before I shipped out to Lackland for Basic, in September, 1964, at the expense of the USAF, at the Kings Hotel, on Central. It's (was) on the north side of the street, under the green sign, bracketed by bars. I was 18, and so the bars might as well have been on the moon. 
I don't think I slept much. There was an AF van at the curb in the morning which took me and a handful of others to the airport--the airfield, to be more precise, because they took us to Kirtland, and a military flight. A C-54, mebbe?
My first really vivid recollection of military life is of the short, squat (as it turned out, remarkably fit for his girth) Tech Sergeant assigned to my Basic "flight" (training company) yanking the sun glasses off my face and smashing them beneath the heel of his immaculately, gleamingly spit-shined combat boot and smilingly telling me I wouldn't be need in them for a while. 
Day One, Strike One.

THEY ARE OUT THERE!!!!!

Farewell, ol' Smoker-bear

From the NM DOG Facebook Page:

It is with a sad heart that we tell you, our sweet boy NOBEL (aka Smoky & Mr. Smokes) has crossed over The Rainbow Bridge 🐾🌈
Though we are very sad...more than that, we are grateful. Grateful that after having "lived" 10 loooong years at the end of his chain, he was able to know LoVe in a home, as part of a family for the past 2 & 1/2 years. When NOBEL first came to us, I didnt think we would have 3 mos to him but he showed us all what he was made of!!
After months in our care, NOBEL regained the majority of his mobility, he started to eat regularly & show interest in the world & the people around him. When his treasured FoReVeR Foster Dad adopted his little sister NMDOG TASHA...we really started to see a huge difference.
TASHA taught NOBEL how "to Dog" since he had never been given that opportunity at the end of his chain & she filled a hole in his heart that was created when we lost his lifelong chainmate LADONNA. It warms my heart to know they are now reunited.
We are so grateful to NOBEL'S Dad, NMDOG Volunteers that played a part in his journey, to our friends at The Doggie Den for going above & beyond in his care & to each of you that supports our work.... Without you, stories like his would not be possible, thank you ...
NOBEL peacefully passed in his home with the assistance of the good Doctor, surrounded by his favorite people & more LoVe than he could have ever imagined. Please wrap your arms around his family as we will all miss him dearly.
Our giant Koala Bear aka SMOKEY....you will live on in our hearts for FoReVeR

Recently we posted his NMDOG FoReVeR Foster Happy Tail which you can view at this link
NOBELS full rescue story can be viewed at this link 

Steeling Myself...

It is with incredible sadness that I/we recognize the time is coming when I/we shall have to bid adieu to my shaggy, woolly pal and send him on ahead to the Bridge..
He was seen by the Vet, yesterday and the diagnosis is that his hind legs are failing, having lost a LOT of muscle mass. It's something that happens with older/senior pups. We all know how to know when it IS time. That time is coming; though it is not yet here yet, it is not far...
Angela Stell, the driving force behind NMDOG, and Dawn Rivas, who were SMOKY's rescuers, and I, are all in agreement that we will not allow him to become immobile - which would break his spirit & his heart, he deserves better than that.
This is Angela's commentary:

"When we first rescued NOBS.....honestly, I didn't think he would last 3 mos. But because of the incredible care he received w/Dawn - followed by the amazing home he's had w/ Woody....he gave us 2.5 years ❤ That, is miracle, enough, in itself. Not only did he give us 2.5 years...but I am certain they were the best of his whole life & that alone is worth everything in the world.

"I wish things were different but we all knew this time would eventually come....& well, now its here 😞I will be making arrangements tomorrow to have a home euthanasia vet on stand by & Dawn & I will be (alternating) visiting him every other day so we are all on the same page with where he is at. 

"Right now it's all about monitoring NOBEL & wrapping our arms around Woody....I know this fuzzy Koala boy stole his heart. 

"I wish I had better news, but I dont. I hope you all find comfort in knowing you've played a very important role in his life & his coming back from the brink of death.  

"NOBEL did NOT die at the end of that stupid chain & he knew real LOVE, what it means to have family & place to call home. I love you all, I am grateful to each of you for all you have given of yourselves to ensure NOBEL had the best of the best. 

"Thank you for that ❤ Group hug....& some tears.

None of us thought he could/would last this long. I have to share the life-changing  "props" with my glorious tri-paw TASHA who gave him a doggy-reason to carry on. The change in his demeanor when she arrived a year ago was breath-TAKING.
And TASHA will be staying here, as I adopted her back at the beginning of summer.
All my thanks to all those friends, here and on F-book, who have followed, and admired (and loved) him from afar.

Why the "Left" Always Seems to Lose...

The American "Left" is a chimera; it's an "idea" more than it is a "movement": An "agenda" without a "constituency." And it is unlikely to be transformed anytime soon.  That's because the "Left" is (too) fragmented to effectively resist the concerted might of the Right, consisting as it does of a fragile and fractious amalgam of the counter-hegemonic interests, many with contradictory aspirations and expectations; and all of which are conditioned to struggle over the scraps thrown from the plutocRats' table. 

So, unfortunately, this will likely continue to be the case until they can plainly announce themselves as the ANTI-WHITE-SUPREMACY party, and have that single principle around which to organize.
This has been the secret of the Right's recent successes. The GOPhux have a single, simple set of organizing principles: 1) Keep The Nigras ("Undesirables") Down; 2) Preserve White Supremacism, and 3) Privatization. 

They have the additional advantage of being the Party of the PlutocRats and CorpoRats, and thereby imbued with the superior social status, enabling them to pull shit for which, if they tried it, the DIMs would be laughed into the Potomac. For instance, try to suppress your laughter at the idea of the Dims shutting down the Government, for ANY reason. Imagine the Dims, even with a majority, refusing to hear a GOPresidential SCROTUS nomination.
"White Power" will likely persist in the USofA long past the end of the White demographic bulge, because it is, I believe, extremely unlikely that People-of-Color will have the political power to wrest the financial hegemony away from the White establishment which will, in any case, bend every effort to turn the DIM fragments against one another--which works just about every time..

Academic Freedom Fail!

It SHOULD be true, all of it.
 I wish it were true, any of it.
 And it may be true, somewhere.
 I do not think it is the usual case, though.
 Whole "Universities," nevermind colleges, are being privatized wholesale. Entire departments have been effectively bought by corporate interests. The Koch brothers, for instance, own and control vast swaths of George Mason University and that VA school that gave us GOPhux Rep. Brat, Randolph-Mason College, among others.
So-called STEM ("Science, Technology, Engineering & Math") training has replaced whatever spirit of "free inquiry" there used to have been. Schools are freely discussing dropping and/or severely curtailing their "liberal arts" curricula.
 It's been almost 20 years since I was in a classroom and so it all may have changed, in the interim; but I would have to say that the preponderance of undergrads I taught were mostly interested in 1) NOT having their comfortable mis/preconceptions disturbed 2) on their way to a comfortable billet in the middle class. 
"Those student loans won't pay themselves back." 
 There just seems to be an air of greater desperation, now, as the opportunities shrink and the costs grow.

The "See Ya!" Agenda

The Congress is our only "hope,
But the (GOPhascist) Congress won't act.
Why would it? Why would ANYONE expect them to do so? EVERYTHING is going their way!
Lord Dampnut gives them cover while they enact every CorpoRat wet-dream of the past 85 years; or should I say, "while they repeal or reverse every social advance since the 1890s..."
They can DO ANYTHING, and they are!
It's the "See Ya"agenda:

>Health care? See ya.
>Industrial regulation? See ya.
>Climate change mitigation efforts? See ya.
>Renewable fuels/solar-wind power? See ya.
>Financial regulation? See ya.
>Reproductive choice? See ya.
>Worker Safety regulation? See ya.
>Immigration reform? See ya.
>Minority civil rights? See ya.
>Freedom of speech? See ya.
>Consumer protection? See ya.
>Black/brown lives matter? See ya.
>Public schools? See ya.
>Social safety net? See ya.
>Freedom FROM religion? See ya.
>Infrastructure maintenance? See ya.
>Passenger rail? See ya.
>Actual conservation? See ya.
>Worker safety? See ya.
>Unsafe product regulation? See ya...

And that's just off the top of my head, the low-hanging fruit, as it were.
Please feel free to add your own favorite to the list.
They're ALL 'dead letters'...

FUCK "Civility!"

Jeezis FUCK!
This the same fucking, meliorist, "be-nice, and don't offend the morons" rhetoric that GOT us TO this place.
ALWAYS the "Singular" Question:
What (whom) are you willing to compromise to reach an accord with those who we know from long experience won't concede a fucking thing?
If a woman can't go to PP for a pap smear w/out hassles by "Pro-life" fascists, why should the fucking fascisti get to eat a quiet meal? Answer: They SHOULDN'T. There HAS TO BE SOME social price to be paid for such enthusiastic complicity in so much cruelty, harm and damage.
Yer ol perfesser is growing increasingly irate at shit-head, "moderate," Vichy-press pundits in comfy gigs inside the Beltway or Manhattan, and no worries, telling us that, in effect, when rape is inevitable, we just gotta lie back and enjoy it...
I say again: Civility is the puke-soaked ball-gag the powerful force onto the powerless to rob them of their only weapon, their rage.
Just fucking stop, already!
I mean, Chuy jodido, esse!

Pacifism Briefly Considered,

In yer ol' perfesser's opinion, the MAIN reason Gandhi was successful and the British didn't suppress him was that they had just emerged from WW II and they had neither the manpower nor the will nor the resources for a prolonged, murderous visible struggle half the world away. Britain lay in waste. They had to rebuild at home. They let India go, and India developed its own particular brand of murderous strife.
As to MLK's successes, the time was ripe, in '64 and again in '68. He won gains. I hope they are strong and resilient enough to withstand the attacks that I foresee, as the crisis of legitimacy unfolds, and White Supremacy and skin privilege struggle to hold their status.
With regard to Mandela vs. Apartheid, the struggle was hardly peaceful. It was long, bloody, brutal, cruel and murderous;, and Mandela participated fully, before Robben Island.
One of the secrets of the success of the previous resistance movements, globally, has been the ability to publicize what would be private/secret outrages.
A significant difference in our Junta is their willingness to act out their outrages in public, and in effect, brag about them.
Pacifism is an instrument which utilizes shame to reduce opposition and forstall excessive reaction.
These motherfukkking fascists have NO shame. Nixon more or less ORDERED Ohio Gov, Rhodes to have the Guard open fire at KSU. They DO have it in 'em...
The Lord Dampnut junta might be providing enough outrage among ordinary, non-drooling but also non-voting citizens to propel them, in numbers, to the polls and perhaps to the streets. Whether pacifistically or not will depend on them.

The "BIG LIE" at 100: Still Growing

Happy Birthday!
First thought up as a "public relations" tool by Freud's favorite nephew, Edward Bernays, in the late Teens of the last Century, the "Big Lie" was based on the cynical, but accurate observation that everybody lies.
Most people tell only small lies to ease their passages through civilization: Honey, do these jeans make me look chubby?
Most people are careful NOT to lie in matters that can be easily checked, or in BIG things being caught at which could be disastrous. A certain stigma attaches (or used to) to being known as a liar. And most people believe that most people believe and act as they do.
So that when some agent with nefarious purposes tells a BIG lie, most people--believing they wouldn't tell such a lie--are inclined to believe the BIG lie, the more so if that lie is repeated regularly by "reputable" sources/authority..
Bernays, who invented it, and Goebbels, who perfected it, called it "The Big Lie," making it seem as though there were only one. But that was somewhat disingenuous, because the Big Lie involves MANY lies about MANY things--possibly, potentially EVERYTHING!
But the same old rule applies: Keep it simple and repeat it endlessly.
Make EACH LIE simple. But tell MANY of them. In the age of  the internetz, they are instantly repeated and legitemated. The opposition--US--cannot counter all of them. And every criticism repeats the falsity. People will soon weary of the job of telling fact from falsehood and hopeless complicity ensues.
This is what "the Epistemic Crisis" is about. These are the terms and this is what's at stake.
It's no less than a concerted attack on the possibility of "public truth," and the Good Guys are losing.

Name That Tune, When You Were 15

The Dave Brubeck Quartet.
I was 15 in '61. It wasn't a great year for "bands," unless you were living in LA or NYC. Not in Santa Fe NM.
Most of the pop music in the hinterlands consisted of TOP FORTY hits, and in '61, it was still overwhelmingly solo performers: Elvis, Rick Nelson, Ray Charles, Del Shannon, Brenda Lee. All had 'hits" in '61. Even the Miracles, who had a hit, weren't really a "band," as much as they were an "act."
Mostly our tastes were limited to what came in on 1520 KOMA, in Okie City. 50KW, E/W directional; way up on the high side, that signal bounced off anything. XEROK in Juarez, too (150KW, 800 AM; allegedly, water boiled within 50 feet of the transmitter/tower).  And only at night.
My family lived 10 miles north of Santa Fe, which didn't have "pop"--"rock'n'roll"/Top 40--music until Karl Goodwin, a friend of my father's, hired me to play it on his radio station, KTRC, in the Winter of '62. And my JOB was to play Top 40, 4 hours nightly, 5 nights a week. And I sold the show, and wrote the ads.
I also ran the board and played elevator music and paid, religious programs on weekend days. Those days and nights I sat in that control room, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, I started to think how to organize senses to accomplish certain conditions.
And, because the station got all kinds or albums from producers, there were lots of genres to select from to my weekend shows.
We were on the Capitol Records mailing list, and so we got Stan Kenton albums, and George Shearing albums, and Sinatra, and Ella and Nancy Wilson and the whole plethora it their catalogue, as well as other labels' releases, too.
Nobody ever offered me payola, but other thatn that, it was fabulous fun and an excellent education!
For your information, recollection, and reflection, the link HERE is to the official, Billboard #1 hits for the year 1961.

Mere Anarchy IS Loosed....

Lay-deez and Gennemuns!
Step right up!
Watch real "history" unfolding before your wondering eyes!
Get the kiddies, and set 'em down to watch. Historians in the future (if there is one) will write scores of tomes about this time. They're "toppling" y/our fucking government! AMAZING! 
AND YOU CAN WATCH while it happens before y/our very own, helpless, horrified eyes! Hell, you can capture it for posterity in your fone.
THIS is/was the right-wing coup that the plutocRats and corpoRats have been plotting and arranging since the 1930s. Remember General Smedley Butler? They didn't start it then.
They wouldn't have started it NOW--wouldn't have brought it into the open--if they didn't think they could finish it. They think they will and can "succeed." In MANY ways, they already have!
And they don't NEED Lord Dampnut, anymore. So even if "we" expel him, the Agenda will continue.
Nobody is gonna "do" ANYTHING about "it," because nobody CAN do anything to stop it.

Can You Pronounce "Pojoaque?"

Throw-back Thursday, Home-Sweet-Home Dept: 
>>This is the view of the south--and probably the prettiest--side of the Konopak family domicile in Nambe, north of Santa Fe, from around 1961 until 2001, in area known as the Pojoaque valley.  ("Poh-wAAh-kee")
>>There were rooms in the house the walls of which were 300 years old. We took a core sample from one exposed beam. the lintel over a (very low) door, which was dated to around 1700. It had probably formerly been an exterior door. The floor in one the west-side rooms is laid over what had once been a well INSIDE the house, which suggests preparations for seige. It was a typical New Mexico countryside house, with rooms added almost randomly over time.
>>We had just under 10 acres, originally, but the State condemned (and paid for) about an acre of it in the late '70, to straighten a dangerous curve on the north side.
>>None of the siblings were able/could afford to buy the others out and keep it in the family. It was bought, in 2002, by a dentist from Seattle, as sort of a project for his wife, who apparently made it productive. I've driven by, but I haven't gone in--the new owners installed a locking gate across the driveway.
|>>The image was painted by my BiL, Gordon Dirlam, the artistic spouse of my equally artistic sister Cary, probably sometime in the '80s. They're both fabulously talented, in my estimation. I have no clue about how painters do what they do.
>>I really LIKE the way Gordon rendered the cottonwoods. They were elegant, massive, gnarled, sagging old denizens along the acequia. A few were 15-20 feet in girth.
It looks idyllic, but I couldn't WAIT to get away.

Does a Fish Know It's "Water?"

Other than the proselytizing part, I could have composed this.

"The problem isn’t that I am white, or male, or Christian or American. The problem is that this culture teaches me consciously or subconsciously to believe such accidental traits make me superior to people who aren’t like me.
It isn’t my fault I was taught a version of history where white people like me felt a duty to colonize and “civilize” other peoples. I was told not to ever speak of the trail of blood white people like me had left behind. I was told such imperialism is for their good.
It isn’t my fault every movie I saw as a child starred a male hero who rescued a helpless female. It did not occur to me that women might not need or want such dehumanizing help. I was told it is for their own good.
It isn't my fault I was taught a version of religion where other people are said to be born lost and must be recast into the image of Christians like me. I did not learn about the torture and violence resulting from that strange evangelism. I was told forcing my Christianity into the public square is for their own good.
It isn’t my fault I was taught my nation has a right, even a duty, to violently interfere in the internal affairs of other nations. I learned not to read the literature or newspapers from other lands. Such interference, I was assured, is for their own good.
It isn’t my fault that I was taught these kinds of cultural narcissism, but it is my solemn duty to unlearn them."
~ Jim Rigby, Minister, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Austin, TX

White privilege is so deeply inscribed in USer culture that its influences are ubiquitous, and irresistible until a certain age and level of experience begins to reveal the injustice in which one has unknowingly been participating--or one does not experience it; and as such, it might be described as "genetic" in the national ontology.

Atomic Zygote--A Great Name for a Band

Today's my birthday.
Spring is a good time to be born. You're birthday's usually pleasant, weather-wise, at least
I have the dubious honor of having been among the first post-nuclear zygotes to come into existence here on Terra..
I know this since, having been born 4/20/46, normal term, I had to have been conceived on or about July 16, 1945.
That was the date of the Trinity shot, the first atomic bomb test, in the desert between Alamogordo and Socorro, NM. My dad was home on his first (and only) "leave" of the war, since Jan, '43. My parents were in Santa Fe, where his parents lived, and which is about 125 miles--as the crow (or the atom) flies--north of the Blast.
Whence, a great band name was born: Atomic Zygote.
It is also the official, inaugural date of the "Anthropocene Epoch," the date from which the traces of man have become the ineradicable part of the geological record of the planet. Mankind's existence is forever stamped in the Earth. There's a song about it. The site is open for visitors twice a year, one day in May and one in October.
July 16, 1945 C,E.
The pylon in the photo marks the spot. It had rained that morning.

No Going Back...

Lord Dampnut, the Doucheviks and the whole GOPhux have "crossed the Rubicon." That is, they are "all in," and they're not backing up a single fucking step. They have taken measures from which there is no way back.
And Woody'z pretty sure that our vaunted, touted 'System of Checks & Balances'--which have done fuck all, so far, to restrain Lord Dampnut--won't save us, this time, because they CANNOT: they were never devised to deal with such a scenario as this... We, the most powerful Empire ever to bestride the planet, have "shit the bed." We have done that for which there is NO "undoing." There's the old adage...
Ol' Pal and worldly observer Prof. Wombat (Michael Kempster) opined:
"(T)he Constitution and the law have proven themselves utterly inadequate to stop a determined, ruthless, relentless minority party from seizing control of every lever of power in the country.
"And a constitutional convention, which would again be constitutional if called by the states under Republican control, would be the death of the republic, nothing less."
And folks call me a "fatalist" and a "nihilist" and a "cynic" and a "pessimist" for harboring--and worse, expressing--similar observations and conclusions.
But it seems to me one would have to be willfully ignoring the signs and portents NOT to have such concerns...NOT that there is anything ANYBODY can do about it.
And, anyway, what could possibly go wrong?

Racial and Gender Privileges Overlap A Lot.

The Male Privilege Checklist

An Unabashed Imitation of an Article by Peggy McIntosh

(Source: Expository Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 2.  Copyright © 2001 - 2002 Barry Deutsch.  Permission is granted to reproduce this list in any way, for any purpose, so long as the acknowledgment of Peggy McIntosh's work for inspiring this list is not removed²⁵ .)

The Male Privilege Checklist
1 My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favour. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed.
2 I can be confident that my co-workers won't think I got my job because of my sex - even though that might be true.
3 If I am never promoted, it's not because of my sex.
4 If I fail in my job or career, I can feel sure this won't be seen as a black mark against my entire sex's capabilities.
5 The odds of my encountering sexual harassment on the job are so low as to be negligible.
6 If I do the same task as a woman, and if the measurement is at all subjective, chances are people will think I did a better job.
7 If I'm a teen or adult, and if I can stay out of prison, my odds of being raped are so low as to be negligible.
8 I am not taught to fear walking alone after dark in average public spaces.
9 If I choose not to have children, my masculinity will not be called into question.
10 If I have children but do not provide primary care for them, my masculinity will not be called into question.
11 If I have children and provide primary care for them, I'll be praised for extraordinary parenting if I'm even marginally competent.
12 If I have children and pursue a career, no one will think I'm selfish for not staying at home.
13 If I seek political office, my relationship with my children, or who I hire to take care of them, will probably not be scrutinized by the press.
14 Chances are my elected representatives are mostly people of my own sex.
15 The more prestigious and powerful the elected position, the more likely this is to be true.
16 I can be somewhat sure that if I ask to see "the person in charge," I will face a person of my own sex. The higher-up in the organization the person is, the surer I can be.
17 As a child, chances are I was encouraged to be more active and outgoing than my sisters.
18 As a child, I could choose from an almost infinite variety of children's media featuring positive, active, non-stereotyped heroes of my own sex. I never had to look for it; male heroes were the default.
19 As a child, chances are I got more teacher attention than girls who raised their hands just as often.
20 If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether or not it has sexist overtones.
21 I can turn on the television or glance at the front page of the newspaper and see people of my own sex widely represented, every day, without exception.
22 If I'm careless with my financial affairs it won't be attributed to my sex.
23 If I'm careless with my driving it won't be attributed to my sex.
24 I can speak in public to a large group without putting my sex on trial.
25 If I have sex with a lot of people, it won't make me an object of contempt or derision.
26 There are value-neutral clothing choices available to me; it is possible for me to choose clothing that doesn't send any particular message to the world.
27 My wardrobe and grooming are relatively cheap and consume little time.
28 If I buy a new car, chances are I'll be offered a better price than a woman buying the same car.
29 If I'm not conventionally attractive, the disadvantages are relatively small and easy to ignore.
30 I can be loud with no fear of being called a shrew. I can be aggressive with no fear of being called a bitch.
31 I can ask for legal protection from violence that happens mostly to men without being seen as a selfish special interest, since that kind of violence is called "crime" and is a general social concern. (Violence that happens mostly to women is usually called "domestic violence" or "acquaintance rape," and is seen as a special interest issue.)
32 I can be confident that the ordinary language of day-to-day existence will always include my sex. "All men are created equal…," mailman, chairman, freshman, he.
33 My ability to make important decisions and my capability in general will never be questioned depending on what time of the month it is.
34 I will never be expected to change my name upon marriage or questioned if i don't change my name.
35 The decision to hire me will never be based on assumptions about whether or not I might choose to have a family sometime soon.
36 Every major religion in the world is led primarily by people of my own sex. Even God, in most major religions, is usually pictured as being male.
37 Most major religions argue that I should be the head of my household, while my wife and children should be subservient to me.
38 If I have a wife or girlfriend, chances are we'll divide up household chores so that she does most of the labour, and in particular the most repetitive and unrewarding tasks.
39 If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, chances are she'll do most of the childrearing, and in particular the most dirty, repetitive and unrewarding parts of childrearing.
40 If I have children with a wife or girlfriend, and it turns out that one of us needs to make career sacrifices to raise the kids, chances are we'll both assume the career sacrificed should be hers.
41 Magazines, billboards, television, movies, pornography, and virtually all of media are filled with images of scantily clad women intended to appeal to me sexually. Such images of men exist, but are much rarer.
42 I am not expected to spend my entire life 20-40 pounds underweight.
43 If I am heterosexual, it's incredibly unlikely that I'll ever be beaten up by a spouse or lover.\; and finally,
44 I have the privilege of being unaware of my male privilege.

Anosognosia, Revisited...

Ex-Prez LowBarry, apart from his election, was kinda disappointing to Black Americans. The author of this article, a senior prof of Af.Am. Studies at Duke, thinks so. Obama didn't "do enough to mitigate economic inequality," it is said.
And it's true.
Tho, of course, much of which he would have been prevented from doing by GOPhux majorities after 2010, even if he'd wanted to...
But he also lacked the will:
Back in '08, after the election installing Obama, I wrote the following:
"HOW nominally reasonable, normally intelligent people could ever THINK that the real owners of the country--oligarchs, plutocrats, aristos-- would EVER turn management of THEIR "property," or the system of its administration, over to somebody--to ANYBODY--who wasn't utterly, totally, and completely trustworthy; to someone who posed even the tiniest, remotest, slightest, slimmest CHANCE of undoing the least jot or tittle of their immensely profitable, unimaginably powerful status quo? Unthinkable.
No. That's preposterous! Who could believe such a thing?And it didn't happen, here, either..
Thus, "thePrez-elect" MUST already have faithfully demonstrated to the relevant authorities that he neither will, nor even particularly wants to, upset any plutocratic or hegemonic applecarts, or otherwise in any way disturb the Owners in their well-earned rest...
And to ignore or deny this quite evident set of facts is a text-book example of "Anosognosia."

Prospectus: 2018

2018.
I'll turn 72 in April. An "orphan" since 2001, my folks passed within a year of each other earlier this Century.
I'll be okay if next year unfolds for me, personally, in just about the way this last one has. I hasten to knock on wood.
For me, inside the walls of the perrara, my life is bearable. My health, apart from my mobility issues, is reasonable for one of my age and exposures. Money's always an issue: I'm mostly, if not broke, then at least badly bent.
But my machines are all functional and functioning. if nowhere near 'state of the art.' I got a new HP desk-top in 2017, and it works well for what I do. Also, I would feel secure taking a 1000-mile trip in either the car ('02 Lexus GS) or the truck ('97 Ranger SLT). I'd like to get a newer vehicle, but I don't NEED one, so I probably won't--absent hitting the lottery..
After some months out of the loop, I now am reinstated in a health-care plan, this one with Humana. I had my introductory appointment last month with the new "group." My new primary care Doc is Ghanaian. I had to take a piss test to have my hydrocodone 'scrip renewed, and I had to sign an agreement that I wouldn't shop around for more controlled 'scrips. Prescription pain pills aren't my failing...That was a new development.
Late last year, I had visits with my heart doc, skin doc, and lung doc, all in the last 6 mos, and none of them said anything worrisome. No open wounds or unexp0lained lesions.
As is usual, I am still plagued by rotten tenants, though usually only one at a time. A Landlord's lot is not a happy one.
Mainly, though, this past year was memorable for the two unbelievable gifts, bestowed on me, in Smoky (aka, Nobel) and TASHA, both of who I am fostering for NMDOG.
It's been just about all the adventure I can handle, anymore, watching Smoker-boy become a real dog. He was a shell-shocked wreck when he landed here. He'd been treated well by his rescuers, but he was deeply affected by his years of abandonment. He barely moved at all the first month he was here: I had to lift him to his feet and lead him outdoors.
TAnd lately, against odds, there has been the positive pleasure of him attaching to me, becoming my dog and me his person. Watching and helping him emerge has been a genuine delight.
And Tasha's, the blonde bombshell/tri-paw, my other canine sprite/spirit. Her arrival signalled the biggest changes in Smokies' demeanor and behavior. She's a handful, strong enough to pull stumps, even though only having three limbs.
The two are just enough.
So, I'm hoping for a "push" in 2018. You never "hit" either (20 or 18) in blackjack, cuz the dealer might bust.

Wasted on the young?

Salome was on the very full playbill the first summer I worked at the Santa Fe Opera, when it was still in the first theater--which resembled nothing so much as an incomplete barn--in '62 (though with Eleanor Lutton in the title role; the image above is from 1967, another staging of the Strauss biblical fable). Those were the first operas I had ever heard and seen performed.
What I remember most, musically, from that summer was the Stravinsky festival that was presented, with the maestro in attendance; it was his 80th birthday, and he and the SFO founder John Crosby were soulmates. (foto, right)
"We" did SIX Stravinsky operas in about three weeks, that summer: Mavra, Le Rossignol, Oedious Rex, Persephone, The rake's Progress and Renard.
This at the same time "we" were also producing repertoire classics like Tosca and Traviata, which the pros could perform in their sleep, but along with Honegger's "Joan of Arc..." and Strauss' aforesaid Salome, PLUS Cosi fan Tutte. It was a constant whirl, and music flooded everywhere, from rehearsal studios all over the "ranch." (foto, below:The first theater, which burned down in '67)
I worked on them all as an apprentice set-builder/laborer, and then as stage-hand moving sets and props at night during the shows. I was there for every rehearsals, and every performance. Always in the back. I knew it was an exceptional experience; I just didn't know HOW exceptional it was. I hadn't remembered this in years, but at the dress rehearsal of Tosca, when having killed Scarpia, she flung herself off the battlement to her death, there was an astonishing puff of dust from the p[adding behind the fall, which exploded in the lights, which was a novel effect, and was unanticipated.
I remember two, other, really outstanding moments, in particular, from my Summer of '62: 1) I appeared on-stage, once, in a Swiss-Guards uniform, filling out the ranks of the chorus in Tosca. And 2), at a cocktail party, I sat beside the Maestro, on the piano bench, turning pages of a score I could not read, while he played and members of the Opera cast took turns singing songs from Porgy and Bess; he nodded to me when the time was right to turn 'em. Didn't say a word.
Ultimately, I worked at the Opera for all or parts of three summers, 62-64, incl...
It was illuminating.

Make Those Responsible, Accountable: A Modest proposal

As another school shooting unrolls--this one in Kentucky, but it is becoming increasingly immaterial where--a friend, who has grown weary of the perpetual, tragic, preventable, too-frequent headlines, suggests a cure:
Prosecute the PARENTS of kids who take guns from home and use them to commit these crimes, for the same crimes as the shooter would be charged with--if they live/d.
A death sentence or a couple of well-publicized life-imprisonments MIGHT get the attention of the ammo-sexuals and gun-goons, enough to get them serious about locking up their metal phalli when they'r not playing with them.
Personally, I am a firm believer in the instructive power of the well-chosen, well-publicized, well-conducted execution.
I think, for example, the summary execution of a few corrupt bankers would have salutary consequences in the whole industry. A hedge-fund runner or two? Also polluting industrialists: Broadcast videos of  the drowning of a few of 'em in toxic tailings pools might just prompt the rest to clean up their acts.
The Chinese handle corrupt officials in the most impressive and efficient way:

For those who embarrass the regime, they hold a drum-head trial, with a pro forma guilty verdict, trip the malefactor to her or his tighty-whities, give 'em a shove to dige a hole, stand 'em in it, shoot 'em in the head, and dump a bag of quick-lime into the hole with a couple gallons of water and seal it up.

I don't know whether this prevents corruption, but it does positively affect recidivism...

None STILL Dare...

Some people were not alive, and others weren't paying attention, when Tricky Dicky Nixon was forced out of office in 1974, and seek to find parallels between then and now, where--other than the perfidy, treachery, and dishonesty of the perpetrators--there is very little similarity.
They (the GOPhux) are the majority now. So, their inaction is covering their asses...

The biggest and most important difference then, circa 1971-74, was that the Democrats held substantial majorities in BOTH Houses of Congress. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/93rd_United_States_Congress#Party_summary)
The GOP were the DEEP minority in 73. The Dems either had passed or were on the verge of passing the Bill of Impeachment in the House, but even with 57 seats, they didn't have enough votes in the Senate to convict, without GOP defections.
Scott, Baker, and Goldwater all went to Nixon and told him if he didn't resign, there were enough Senators who were ready to defect, including themselves. So Nixon squeezed out a pardon and departed.
Perhaps another significant difference is that the GOPhux in Congress were not implicated in Nixon's malfeasances; his crimes were committed solely within the Executive branch.
Whereas, now, at MINIMUM, we know that Sen. Yertle McConnell knew of the Russian interference as early as March of '16, and not only did nothing to interrupt or prevent it, but actually threatened Obama to expose and politicize it, in the RightWing Echo Chamber and through them the rest of the lap-dog, stenographic national media, and torpedo the whole election by delegitimizing the intelligence. And that, ladeeze and gennemuns, is treason.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/23/mitch-mcconnell-russia-obama-joe-biden-359531

Joe Biden said Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stopped the Obama administration from speaking out about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign by refusing to sign on to a bipartisan statement of condemnation.
That moment, the former Democratic vice president said, made him think “the die had been cast ... this was all about the political play.”
He expressed regret, in hindsight, given the intelligence he says came in after Election Day. "Had we known what we knew three weeks later, we may have done something more,” Biden, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said.
Biden was speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, a block from his old office at the Old Executive Office Building, to discuss his new article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, “How to Stand Up to the Kremlin.”

The irony of the title of the book Biden was celebrating, notwithstanding,
We should be measuring the motherfukkerz for nooses.

Dr. Woody'z "Wize Wurdz, Droll Dichos & Homey Homilies", Jan, 3, 2018

A 'gentleman' should be known by the quality of his intoxicants and his generosity with them.

A MINIMUM wage that is NOT also a LIVING wage is makes a mockery of "working for a living."

A burning flag injures no one who is not wrapped in it.

Age inflicts the subtlest injuries.

Agnosticism: A conviction that arguing over the 'existence' of 'gods' is mere, idol speculation...

A grudge needn't be "forever": one day at a time is enough.

Algebra is the grammar of calculus; calculus is the language of "the modern World."

All 'religions' extract obedience, submission, and self-abnegation from the 'faithfui' in exchange for moral 'certainty.' 

Allowing White people to "define" racism in Murka is like letting priests define pederasty.

Anti-vax fanatics are descended from the folks who used to blame witchcraft for a still-born calf. 

Atheism is a "religion" the same way "Off" is a TV channel.

Belief is redundant in the presence of sufficient evidence.

Blaming (or congratulating) ANY one president for the the rising or falling of the current economy is like blaming a passing ship for the tides. 

Causation in human affairs is ALWAYS retrospective.

Celebrities are known for BEING known, not for WHAT they know.

Childless: at least that's ONE mess I won't leave behind.

Civility is the shit-soaked ball-gag the powerful force onto the People to silence their rage.

Class war only occurs when the workers fight back.

Correlation is not causality, but it is close enough for schadenfreude.

Credit cards are nothing so much as renewable instruments of perpetual indenture.

Depressions are only really bad for 98-99% of folks. The rest do okay.

"Dignity" is civilization's substitute for "turf and mates."

Dogs read languages most humans don't know we are speaking.

Do not automatically attribute to stupidity or ignorance what can equally well be explained by malice and/or indifference.

Don't expect to be treated nicely by people to whose "Faith" you are a living rebuke.

Economics is the scientific application of high-level maths to the job of king the Rulers look good.

Everybody's got 'baggage'. What matters is how and what you pack.

Faith (#1) is NOT an automatic dispensation from the requirements of reason and logic.

Faith (#2) is the capacity to believe, wholly, what cannot possibly be true.

Free will (#1) is a handy myth by which the Owners can blame the Losers for their own fate and make the Losers accept the verdict.

Free will (#2) is a metaphorical trap by which the Oners/Owners persuade the powerless to blame themselves for their own oppression.

Freedom in any civilization is measured by the distance between the Church and the State.

Freedom isn't free; so quitcher bitchin', and pay your fucking taxes...

Folks who now blame vaccines for their children's infirmities once blamed witches for still-born calves.

Futility is appealing to sensibilities which one's antagonists and adversaries do not possess.

Grafitti is the art of "self-inscryption."

Great wealth is never "innocent."

Grown-ups don't expect "credit" for doing the right thing, or for NOT doing the wrong one.

High ground is great in a flood, not so much in a fire.

Hope is emotional morphine. It doesn't relieve pain, it anulls anxiety about it.

How can one trust ordinary citizens to be 'responsible gun owners' when so overwhelmingly MANY of them are not even 'responsible citizens?'

Humanity: A cosmic experiment, testing if Life can survive self-consciousness. The Null Hypothesis appears safe.

I always scored "high" on drug tests...

I believe in higher powers; they're called "exponents."

I bid you all peaceful slumbers--but if not, then poor memory...

I find the most vitriolic critics of lawyers usually have NOT been "defendants."

I never lost a job; I knew where every damn one of 'em was the day they let me go...

I'll believe you don't solve problems by throwing money at them when people with money stop throwing it at their problems.

I've not got much use for those who gotta have "God" to be good.

If I know your religious beliefs, and I haven't asked you about'em, you've said too much.

If it's my weed, we're on my schedule; if it's yours, I'm flexible.

If men were conditioned from birth to autofellate, they'd never have to leave the house; there'd be world peace in a generation...

If religious people were susceptible to reason, they wouldn't BE religious people.

If the fascist boot ain't on yer neck, it might be cuz it's on yer foot.

If you can be trusted with a gun, you can be trusted with a joint.

If you get better with age, I must SURELY be approaching "splendid" by now.

In a dog's eyes, there's no such thing as "size."

In principle, there are a gazillion explanations for "things" that DON'T require "god," or "divine will" and only one that does. I like the odds.

In the "real" world, nobody cares HOW you win, only THAT you do...

In the Corporate State, corporate media are State Media.

In the USofA, today, every shooting deathy is a "political" killing.

Irony is incomprehensible to the true believer.

Is "freedom" an intellectual/emotional antidote--the speculative antivenin--to the snake-bite certainty of determinism?

It's both stupid & futile to pretend to operate a political democracy within a totalitarian economy.

It is often easier an more effective to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

It's hard to convince someone NOT to believe a falsehood upon and in which their only power rests, howsoever illicit.

It's hard to quit being an asshole, because it requires admitting you were an asshole to begin with.

It's tough when you look this good to feel so bad.

It's your pain. Nobody gets to tell you what hurts, how much or what helps.

Law functions best to insulate the Rulers from the insolence of the unruly.

Learning is what we call what happens when education turns feeling into knowing.

Life is so rich, so variegated, so fecund that it seems unlikely that it is also rare.

Life's an existential tautology: It's only purpose is to "be."

Life's too short to drink cheap Scotch.

Low on weed? "Be careful with whatchu got!" Good advice for anytime, really...

Men seldom realize they're in the shit til it closes over them.

Men who weep at tragedy are "compassionate"; a weeping woman is "weak."

Metaphor: The art of calling something what it is not, and being understood.

Miracles seem to diminish in direct proportion to the availability of recording devices.

Most men have feet of clay: the more prominent the man, the more porous the feet.

NOTHING of which humans are capable has NOT at some time been both a sin and a sacrament.

No 'quiet desperation.' Not here; my despair is LOUD and RUDE.

No language is either "inferior" or "superior." None is "better" nor "worse." Each one uniquely conveys the conditions its speakers require it to describe.

No people is humane or civilized which sells its victims to the highest bidder.

No reliable CorpoRat sycophant, of which ever "party," ever left Congress broke.

Nobody gets religion like a slut gone "good."

Nobody's ever too old to be an orphan.

One is only as 'free" as one is wealthy, in the capitalist USofA.. 

One may be honestly mistaken; but upon learning what is true, one must thereafter cease to be either 1) mistaken or 2) honest.

One may safely ignore those who loudly or proudly proclaim their own sanctity or enlightenment.

One seldom mutters imprecations when drunk that one does NOT think when sober.

One thing "faith" makes possible: ENDLESS self-deception!

One thing about being a solipsist is, you're never really alone.

Optimism is the secular equivalent of "faith."

People who mock lawyers mostly have never been defendants.

Religion is how folks who need 'purpose' invent it.

Religion is the safest grift: Nobody can say "God" didn't "say" what you say "He said."

Sarcasm: For when it's really NOT worth prison.

Sex is just sex. All the rest is adjectives. 

Speak no more ill of the dead than they did of the living.

Speed kills. Weed chills.

The "media": Electronic thorazine for an irritable polis.

That I am not surprised does not mean I am not outraged.

The thetoric of "positive thinking" and "self-reliance" is a tool the Bosses use to blame the proles for failing to overcome the hurdles, pitfalls, and obstacles the Owners set before them.

The "sin" at the root of all "religious" crimes is "thought."

The Bosses don't have to control what you think as long as they control what you think about, and how you think about it."

The Difference? Drunks run stop-signs; stoners wait for 'em to turn green.

The Rich make "choices": Porsche or Jag;the poor make "decisions": Food or rent...

The Secret of Life: It's doable, once you quit expecting it not to suck.

The biggest difference between "flying" and "falling" is in the landing.

The epitome of human hubris is the frantic search for the cure for death.

The greatest privilege the privileged enjoy is the privilege of pretending they aren't privileged.

The more knowledge there is, the less "miraculous" the Universe seems, but the MORE astonishing.

The older I get, the better I used to be.

The worst thing about having a good education is that it won't let you forget.

The person who says money can't buy happiness probably doesn't know where to shop.

There CANNOT be a meaningful political "democracy" amid a totalitarian economy.

There is no such thing as an "outside" joke.

There's nothing in the 'worst' of us that isn't in ALL of us.

They say, you can't cheat an honest man. Don't believe it. You can.

Thinking: What we call the process of turning feelings into words.

Treat your 'faith' like your dick: Don't shove it in somebody's face unless they ask...

United, we bargain; divided, we beg.

Usurpers are endlessly inventive in "defense" of the stolen.

We're all gonna go sometime. There is no law that says it's gotta be awful. 

What Coprophagy is to nutrition, so exactly is Ayn Rand to intellect.

What we detest most in ourselves, infallibly we detect immediately in others.

What you see depends not on what you're looking at, but what you're looking for.

What's the loneliest waterway in the world? Bayou Selphe...

When in doubt, you're probably right.

When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. But if you have ANYTHING,m then you have EVERYTHING to lose.

Who can convince you to believe the impossible can induce you to do the unthinkable.

Who votes doesn't count; who counts the votes does...

Who sees fraud in every program for the poor only attests to their own avarice and sloth. 

Who would be both safe and free/Asks what ne'er was nor e'er can be.

Without deadlines, I'd have had far fewer headlines.

Wolf pups snapping at one anothers' heels aren't simply "playing," they're PRACTICING.

You are NOT "What you eat." You are what you don't excrete.

You can't sell your soul and then pretend you still have one.

You do not "know" what you cannot "say."

You don't have be very smart to confuse the truly stupid.

You get what you'll settle for.

(Copyright, John Konopak, 2018.)