One - is this really true?

and two - what about California boys?

can we get drunk and listen to the Dead?

Or better yet - get HIGH and listen to the Dead?

Although he may have been a pederast, he was a damn talented one

Wow.

I am just amazed at this town.

Sure, GM is moving out in droves.

Sure, the American Auto Industry has been considered left for dead by many investors.

But Flint still exists.

The locals have taken the grandiose structures from previous wealth, and turned it into something new. Something local.

Something unique - something beautiful.

The city still has the brick pavement on Saginaw St.

My mother's childhood home still stands. Kept up very well - and like any good midwestern home, there is no fence. That our California thing.

I saw a Pipe Repairs and Sales place.

After talking with some folks, I noticed many of them moved to Flint because it was an affordable home for a commuter to Lansing.

I realized - if Flint, or any city is to rebuild from this point - it needs to do so from the centers of government out.

Look - I know, what the Republicans will say. "Socialism! Socialism!" Well - its not. One big hallmark of true Socialism is central planning. So how is sending cash out to strapped states central planning?

How is it "Socialism?"

We need to fund our states, give them the cash they need - so they don't go bankrupt. Many states do not have the luxury of deficit spending.

Give them cash - if anything to keep the states alive.

If anything to keep Flint alive.

If anything to keep America alive.

But there is a Media "Business"

Among the Freepers, they accuse the News Media of being run by Liberals. They haven't tired of this old schtick and they won't anytime soon. Among some of us, there is the idea that there is a Conservative bias in the news.

Neither is correct - at least in the political sense. The owners of the Media Giants (save Murdoch) have no interest in politics unless it affects their bottom line. That includes the business of "selling news."

The media was gung-ho about the Iraq Invasion because, hell, viewership goes up during a war. That war, with its embedded reporters, was planned, executed and managed by the Media - and by the media I do not mean the reporters or the editors, but the "X-level" folks. Executives and Presidents.

In short, War sells, and everybody's buying. We were just as guilty when we turned in to CNN to see the war unfold. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc got to plaster advertisments at us non stop, and made money off us all, whether we supported the war or not.

Now I'm not going to go as far as saying the media "supported" President, then-Candidate Obama during the election. But they did give him much more favorable coverage than Kerry, Gore or Clinton. Why? Again, the bottom line - Obama sells. Pepsi knows this - Just look at their new logo. Even though every day I am reminded how big of a bullet we dodged with mccain/PALIN! - but the media didn't give Obama fairer coverage because they thought he was best for the Country. They did it because they can market and sell Obama. He's a brand to them.

And this brings me to Dubya. They DID give him preferential treatment in the media. Even though he was obviously an idiot - in fact, exactly because he was an idiot. Again, Bush sold, even if it was bad news. Even if it was Bush doing something incredibly stupid, people tuned in just to bury their face in their hands.

So in essence, there is no liberal or conservative media - only a Media Business, who wishes to (1) sell ads to their sponsors, (2) get more people to watch the news and (3) keep the public from having a negative view of corporations, despite what they do.



Anyway, your thoughts?

Me? I was a suburban kid from Northern California. We grew up on bad cheap hair farm bands and the occasional Heavy Metal dinosaur who came out of retirement to pay for rehab, or his Scientology bill. At the time, I found New Wave to be "unmanly" and punk to be, well, meaningless to me.

So it wasn't until I graduated college and joined the Peace Corps that I first heard "Do the Strand" by Roxy Music. I traded tapes (cassette tapes, remember them?) with other volunteers and ended up with "Street Life."

So here comes this discordant, atonal, yet rhythmically sound madness. I swore it had to be some 80's post punk band so I looked at the label. Nope! 1973-muthafucka! I literally did a double take. I mean these guys weren't simply ahead of their time, in many ways their first four albums are STILL ahead of their time.

I am an Atheist

In Fact I think Jesus never existed

HOWEVER, whether he existed or not provides no impetus for this argument.

The archetype he represented, the everyman who comes into the world, secretly of the elite, but never disclosing - even until his death at a horrifying end, which eventually frees us all from our guilt - is a genuine desire in our psychological makeup.

So as Michel Onfray suggested - whether he physically existed is irrelevant, he exists in enough minds to make the question irrelevant.

So this archetype speaks to something that lies within our subconscious. We long to have a 'saviour.'

We long for someone to save us all. Whether its Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama or FDR - we long for this "magic" individual to come along and free us from our toils. The old Spirituals of Antebellum America attest to this: just read the lyrics to "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" to see this in lyrical form.

So we as a culture, oppressed by our own spirits, forced to, in Chuck Palahniuk's words "Work jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need" longs for such a figure.

Just an observation...

PREWORK: Cook 1 1/2 cups of uncooked brown rice in a ricecooker or similar

TO MAKE: Take a big stock pot, and add a little olive oil. 1 Tbsp should be enough.

ADD: 1 cup Chicken breast, cubed
1 cup Andouille sausage, sliced

CHOP: 1 cup Fresh (or frozen) Okra
1 Cup Sweet Onion, diced
1/2 Cup Shallot, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, seeded and stemmed.

FRY: The veggies, in said stock pot, with the oil and meat. After about 10 min, add:

2 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp salt
5 shakes of Gumbo File
1/2 cup of wine, any kind

Cook for about 1 hour. As soon as the veggies are limp, add

1 8oz can of tomato sauce

Simmer for about 30 min

Then add the rice.

Then eat

Face it, our banks have failed and they can't be trusted to run themselves. For every bailout check we send them, the hookers may get rich, but other non-CSW Americans won't.

Health Care System has failed. Just watch Michael Moore's "Sicko" if you don't believe me.

So my question is, all this "pump up the fear" rhetoric the GOPpies are giving us about "being like France," I just gotta say "What in the hell is wrong with THAT?"

The French have Health Care for all, their banks are under much more scrutiny than ours, unemployment insurance is guaranteed and not such a hassle to get, and they educate your kids from Pre-School to Grad School for free. Yeah, that sure sounds like the suck

So let's nationalize BofA - let's nationalize the oil companies (sorry Dick and Bush) - lets nationalize the school system, or at least kick out the private ones, and the health care industry. Single payer buddy, and if you don't like that, Somalia is always open to new residents. You'll like that whole "no government" thing they're doing over there.

At least I'd like to hope that's the case!

I mean - jeez - I learned I wasn't invinvible when I was 21. I went out skiing like every other morning that spring (it was Oregon, there was fresh snow at Hoodoo. No classes that day - so SKI TIME!!!!)

So I strap on my skis, and - on the advice of a magazine article for fresh powder, I tighten up my bindings so they don't come off as easily. This is the early 90's FTR.

Anyway, about the third run, I catch and edge and it manages to turn my entire leg at an angle that is way past any angle our legs have evolved to handle. I am mid air. I fall. OW.

At this same time, I realize that I am on the top of a cornice. After, which point, it is at 90 degree or less angle. I fall. OW.

I hit the ground a few times. I keep hitting it. Rock, after rock seems to slow me down. That is at least what I am telling myself as I impact each piece of granite.

OW.

I finally stop in a position no human being should ever see themselves in - my leg is pointed the WRONG DIRECTION THAT IT SHOULD BE!!!

OW.

After a scream and an "AWWWWW FUCK!!" the Ski Patrol rush me to the Emergency Room. I am sent home, with Percocet and Ice.

So - that is the day I became a man. Woo hoo!

Atheists vary so much in belief - simply because Atheism is not a religion. It is no more a religion than not collecting stamps is a hobby. There is no Pope of Atheism - if Dawkins, Harris or Hitchens says something dumb, we don't all have to agree with it.

Peter Singer is an Atheist. Josef Stalin was an Atheist. The former is in pursuit of the most ethical life you can live. The former, a mass-murdering fuckwad.

It especially bothers me when we are all described as believing in nothing. No one does that - not even Nihilists! Nihilists just believe there is no meaning in anything. Even nihilists vary in degrees on the nothingness of meaning. There are Atheists who reject Nihilism, and see meaning without a god. Meaning and ethics have nothing to do with a god . There is no monopoly on ethics among theists.

Just give them their dog-and-pony show.

Give them Rick Warren, voguing evangelical for the throngs, feeling the *oh!* passion of the Spirit on National TV.

Give them his eyes, closed in euphoric prayer, at one with Jesus and the Lord of Hosts (whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean)

But keep that nut away from policy.

In fact give him the publicity that he so craves. It's fucking obvious isn't it? He wasn't allowed to do drama in High School - the guy has drama geek written all over him, whether its the beard or "golly gee" Jim Neighbors voice.

He wants an audience.

So give him one.

But keep that nut away from policy.

Hell, maybe we need a Rick Warren Variety hour...

One with dancers in overalls, synchronized swimming in chastity bathing suits, singers and at the end a conga line down the sawdust trail.

But keep that nut away from policy.