The 1st amendment is not something to mess around with. If we lose it by excess chipping away from city, state or federal governments we are lost.
Americans have the right to stand up to our government and speak out. Lately our various elected officials seem to grow tired of citizens speech. This is the most recent example. It won't be the last.
For the record, he was allowed to come back into the chamber and make his full point.
There seems to be some question if he is a priest. I'm not sure I understand but at some point he was a Catholic priest. He then transition to the Orthodox church in 2009. He is married with two children. http://www.saintbenedictmission.com/staff.html
Anyway, it is an interesting bit of video on where we are today and in the days to come.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
There Is Still Much to Say
There was a time when 999 was the highest amount of posts you could upload on Blogger. I wasn't too worried about it because I didn't think I'd reach 999 posts. I don't think about things like that because they intimidate me.
Here I am. Number 1,000 according to my post log. Dang! I feel good about it.
I wrote long before there was blogging. Use to do an e-mail news letter. Had a old school user page that required HTML. I never warmed up to Dreamweaver but I gave it a go because I had much to say and thought my voice was as valid as some of the others on the World Wide Web.
In 2004 I came to Blogger.
In one of my early post I shared the lyrics to Sky Pilot. There was no way to easily embed video. There was no YouTube and I would not have known about this video from the CBC in Vancouver. This is a video montage created by the CBC performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals:
I have an attacment to this song because I would hear it on the radio. I might have been between 9 and 11 years of age. I don't remember. But I didn't connected the song with the Vietnam war.
I thought of Snoopy and the Red Baron. I was a kid. I related to the world that I knew.
This is such a different place. I now understand about the price of war on human bodies and minds. I understand that there have been other wars and some folks are now shopping for a new one to keep the military industrial corporation going.
"You'll never, never, never, reach the sky."
There was a time when I did not have my face on the blog. In 1999 had read a book about being on the Internet that talked about this guy who was making serious cash money doing web work but it got out that he was a black man.
His work dried up. At that time there were people that would attack you for being "the other."
Not much has changed. There are increasing attacks on women and feminist bloggers.
I have learned that you can't hide who you are. There are people that need to see that an African American woman has a blog. That I write about a variety of issues and concerns.
There is no point in trying to pin me down to a specific topic, not in this blog. One day it is politics, the next is noticing that Brookstone in the mall has a bunch of vibrators on sale for the holidays.
Seriously, not the cheap stuff. We are talking the upper level stroke, stroke, stroke until le petit mort kind of gear.
I get distracted. Too much is going on these days.
I bought a fountain pen. I'm going back to writing on paper first and then uploading. Has more to do with eye and hand preservation. It also has to do with allowing the words to come at a contemplative speed. I want time to think, not just react.
I don't like Facebook but I check in on friends. I like Google+ better but I don't have the time to do more than and comment on friends and followers post. There is some new widget that allows me to copy my post here to my G+ page. I might do that. Not sure.
Twitter, which I didn't initially care for, has been my day to day catch up with folks.
My blog - this is my home ground. My stoop. I know it. I'm okay here. I haven't been posting much because I got stuff going on. I have to make decisions about my life in 2012. What do I want to do? What do I need to do?
No matter what those choices are I still intend to blog. And write. Maybe a video now and then.
This blog is what made the connections with other people possible.
There are days when I get fed up with the stupidity of human beings. The American branch has plum lost their minds. Not sure they are going to get it together, it will take something awful to re-connect with each other.
It doesn't have to be that way but not sure if we can come together. Too many forces profit from keeping us apart.
So I still blog. One post at a time. I hope I remain unpredictable but who knows what changes can happen. Be open to the possible has served me well. I commit to that and the future.
Here I am. Number 1,000 according to my post log. Dang! I feel good about it.
I wrote long before there was blogging. Use to do an e-mail news letter. Had a old school user page that required HTML. I never warmed up to Dreamweaver but I gave it a go because I had much to say and thought my voice was as valid as some of the others on the World Wide Web.
In 2004 I came to Blogger.
In one of my early post I shared the lyrics to Sky Pilot. There was no way to easily embed video. There was no YouTube and I would not have known about this video from the CBC in Vancouver. This is a video montage created by the CBC performed by Eric Burdon and The Animals:
I have an attacment to this song because I would hear it on the radio. I might have been between 9 and 11 years of age. I don't remember. But I didn't connected the song with the Vietnam war.
I thought of Snoopy and the Red Baron. I was a kid. I related to the world that I knew.
This is such a different place. I now understand about the price of war on human bodies and minds. I understand that there have been other wars and some folks are now shopping for a new one to keep the military industrial corporation going.
"You'll never, never, never, reach the sky."
There was a time when I did not have my face on the blog. In 1999 had read a book about being on the Internet that talked about this guy who was making serious cash money doing web work but it got out that he was a black man.
His work dried up. At that time there were people that would attack you for being "the other."
Not much has changed. There are increasing attacks on women and feminist bloggers.
I have learned that you can't hide who you are. There are people that need to see that an African American woman has a blog. That I write about a variety of issues and concerns.
There is no point in trying to pin me down to a specific topic, not in this blog. One day it is politics, the next is noticing that Brookstone in the mall has a bunch of vibrators on sale for the holidays.
Seriously, not the cheap stuff. We are talking the upper level stroke, stroke, stroke until le petit mort kind of gear.
I get distracted. Too much is going on these days.
I bought a fountain pen. I'm going back to writing on paper first and then uploading. Has more to do with eye and hand preservation. It also has to do with allowing the words to come at a contemplative speed. I want time to think, not just react.
I don't like Facebook but I check in on friends. I like Google+ better but I don't have the time to do more than and comment on friends and followers post. There is some new widget that allows me to copy my post here to my G+ page. I might do that. Not sure.
Twitter, which I didn't initially care for, has been my day to day catch up with folks.
My blog - this is my home ground. My stoop. I know it. I'm okay here. I haven't been posting much because I got stuff going on. I have to make decisions about my life in 2012. What do I want to do? What do I need to do?
No matter what those choices are I still intend to blog. And write. Maybe a video now and then.
This blog is what made the connections with other people possible.
There are days when I get fed up with the stupidity of human beings. The American branch has plum lost their minds. Not sure they are going to get it together, it will take something awful to re-connect with each other.
It doesn't have to be that way but not sure if we can come together. Too many forces profit from keeping us apart.
So I still blog. One post at a time. I hope I remain unpredictable but who knows what changes can happen. Be open to the possible has served me well. I commit to that and the future.
Not Writing The Prescriptive White People Letter
I have watched and listened as privileged white men tried to help the nation understand the problems and worth of poor black kids. If I am understanding correctly, which is impossible because I use to be a poor black kid, I am incapable of going to work, thinking long term and handling my responsibilities as an adult.
It seems I am unable of understanding my current and future situation in life. I did not know that I require intervention to help me move past my impoverished blackness of being. The fact that I had to use technology just to find out how incapacitated I am is beside the point.
I can't make this stuff up. This is Newt with his view on poor children. Excuse me, very poor children. Like poor needs a superlative.
Gene Marks article at Forbes understands the totality of the inequality but wants poor black kids to know that there is a way out via web apps, sites and technology.
I'm thinking Gene does not have a good grasp of the concept of being poor. There is no money. Food is dicey. You might not have a place to live. There are other concerns at the top of the list. Buying a computer is not one of them.
I have a mind to write a letter called "Dear White People..." I am motivated. These past two weeks have really lit me up to put pen to paper.
Hey, wouldn't such a letter be irresponsible? Would it be extremely biased based upon my limited understanding of the totality of the European American experience. Even thought that experience is pumped into my consciousness each and every day by media, literature and commerce.
Yet I feel compelled to try again. I have a tremendous amount of anger at the embedded racism that is structured in this society. Not only is there embedded racism but if I, as a black woman dare call somebody out on it I get accused of playing some goddamn race card of victim-hood.
I have no race card. With the shit coming out of (some) white folks mouths these past three years I don't need any. Do you hear the ish coming out of mainstream political discourse? Against women, the LGBTQ communities or anybody that is not a white Christian male?
Yet I am suppose to give a calm, rational nuanced response some of the most noxious public thinking that has been romping around the country as political commentary.
Bullshit.
Hmm. Not really where I wanted to go with this. Still too much anger.
I want to write that I am a human being with inalienable rights provided to me by the Constitution of the United States and the 15th Amendment.
Naw, that don't get it either. Bunch of extreme constitutionalists want to revert back to the original constitution. They don't recognize my right to existence anyway.
I can't do it. If I can't write it responsibly, with accuracy, historical perspective, real life experiences and independent documentation to support my point of view then I should not do it.
I can't seem to write without wanting to toss in a couple dozen cuss words. That isn't good.
See, I know that such a letter would hurt people I love, care and respect. It would even hurt people I don't like. There is enough hurt in the world. I have no desire to add to it.
Still that isn't a good reason not to write a prescriptive letter to white people.
Yet people I know might might take offense that I am telling middle class white folks that they don't know how to raise their kids, that they are structurally defective as parents and I, being the 2nd cousin, twice removed from God, have got the scoop on how they could live their lives better if only they would listen to me.
The poor white folks are probably doing the same things as poor black folks, trying to take care of their families the best way they can in these days of denial. Denial being telling folks to get a job but that job has been exported oversees years ago.
Then again, if I am so all powerful knowing that I can solve the problems of millions of people perhaps my time could be better spent fixing the state or federal budget.
Or laying in the infrastruction of a national high speed rail line. Or full high speed Internet access for all, even in the most pastel sections of the country.
You know, If could lay in that rail line by June then I wouldn't have to get in an airplane or spending time in TSA lines.
Change of plan. I need to attend to my areas of interests.
White folks will have to muddle through without my assistance.
It seems I am unable of understanding my current and future situation in life. I did not know that I require intervention to help me move past my impoverished blackness of being. The fact that I had to use technology just to find out how incapacitated I am is beside the point.
I can't make this stuff up. This is Newt with his view on poor children. Excuse me, very poor children. Like poor needs a superlative.
Gene Marks article at Forbes understands the totality of the inequality but wants poor black kids to know that there is a way out via web apps, sites and technology.
I'm thinking Gene does not have a good grasp of the concept of being poor. There is no money. Food is dicey. You might not have a place to live. There are other concerns at the top of the list. Buying a computer is not one of them.
I have a mind to write a letter called "Dear White People..." I am motivated. These past two weeks have really lit me up to put pen to paper.
Hey, wouldn't such a letter be irresponsible? Would it be extremely biased based upon my limited understanding of the totality of the European American experience. Even thought that experience is pumped into my consciousness each and every day by media, literature and commerce.
Yet I feel compelled to try again. I have a tremendous amount of anger at the embedded racism that is structured in this society. Not only is there embedded racism but if I, as a black woman dare call somebody out on it I get accused of playing some goddamn race card of victim-hood.
I have no race card. With the shit coming out of (some) white folks mouths these past three years I don't need any. Do you hear the ish coming out of mainstream political discourse? Against women, the LGBTQ communities or anybody that is not a white Christian male?
Yet I am suppose to give a calm, rational nuanced response some of the most noxious public thinking that has been romping around the country as political commentary.
Bullshit.
Hmm. Not really where I wanted to go with this. Still too much anger.
I want to write that I am a human being with inalienable rights provided to me by the Constitution of the United States and the 15th Amendment.
Naw, that don't get it either. Bunch of extreme constitutionalists want to revert back to the original constitution. They don't recognize my right to existence anyway.
I can't do it. If I can't write it responsibly, with accuracy, historical perspective, real life experiences and independent documentation to support my point of view then I should not do it.
I can't seem to write without wanting to toss in a couple dozen cuss words. That isn't good.
See, I know that such a letter would hurt people I love, care and respect. It would even hurt people I don't like. There is enough hurt in the world. I have no desire to add to it.
Still that isn't a good reason not to write a prescriptive letter to white people.
Yet people I know might might take offense that I am telling middle class white folks that they don't know how to raise their kids, that they are structurally defective as parents and I, being the 2nd cousin, twice removed from God, have got the scoop on how they could live their lives better if only they would listen to me.
The poor white folks are probably doing the same things as poor black folks, trying to take care of their families the best way they can in these days of denial. Denial being telling folks to get a job but that job has been exported oversees years ago.
Then again, if I am so all powerful knowing that I can solve the problems of millions of people perhaps my time could be better spent fixing the state or federal budget.
Or laying in the infrastruction of a national high speed rail line. Or full high speed Internet access for all, even in the most pastel sections of the country.
You know, If could lay in that rail line by June then I wouldn't have to get in an airplane or spending time in TSA lines.
Change of plan. I need to attend to my areas of interests.
White folks will have to muddle through without my assistance.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Anais Nin's Students A Celebration at Beyond Baroque
If you happen to be in the Venice or Santa Monica areas around 7:30 p.m. you might want to stop by Beyond Baroque for a Celebration by the students of Anais Nin. If your fingers haven't flipped through Delta of Venus you have got a bit of catching up to do.
If you feel a bit of frost bite in the heart or other regions of the body you really should plunk down money for her books. That is the heathen side of me, paying more attention to the erotic work instead of her other works.
This is Nancy Shiffrin reading a work that you could say was inspired by Nin.
The participants will be Nancy Shiffrin, Leah Schweitzer and Nan Hunt.
For more info or if you are in the Los Angeles area and need a weekly dose of poetical or literary inspiration visit:
BEYOND BAROQUE
681 Venice Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
Or check out their Facebook page.
If you feel a bit of frost bite in the heart or other regions of the body you really should plunk down money for her books. That is the heathen side of me, paying more attention to the erotic work instead of her other works.
This is Nancy Shiffrin reading a work that you could say was inspired by Nin.
The participants will be Nancy Shiffrin, Leah Schweitzer and Nan Hunt.
For more info or if you are in the Los Angeles area and need a weekly dose of poetical or literary inspiration visit:
BEYOND BAROQUE
681 Venice Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
Or check out their Facebook page.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Learning From Old Movies - The Animal Kingdom
I am coming up on my 1,000 post. I tend to think that I haven't don't anything a thousand times. Nonsense, we all have. We just don't think of them. Anyway, I needed an old movie fix. You rarely can go wrong with a Leslie Howard movie.
Actually it was Ann Harding. I had seen another movie in which she scopes out a playboy with potential and decides to plot to marry him. It was a lesson on entrepreneurship in the depression. Ann's business was marriage, making her husband look good and keeping him happy. William Powell's business was to avoid marriage and responsibility.
Anyway, in The Animal Kingdom Ann and Leslie were doing the do outside of the bands of matrimony. They were the best of friends, were lovers and no strings. She goes off oversees and Leslie meets Myrna, who does love him but wants to recreate him into a proper rich dude. Which he does not want to be.
Moving on. This was a pre-code film. People talked about sex. Well, you do have to decipher quite a bit about sex in the film. Myrna used a sleeping gown to great advantage. She definitely roped the dope but you can only do that a few time before the dope gets to thinking that the rope is a harness and he doesn't want to be in one.
In other words, juicy gets em crazy but you can't keep it up. Most of the time.
The movie has a happy ending for two of the three leads. From the DVD cover you can get a clue.
When people talk about the simplicity and morality of an early time I'm not sure what time that would be. These weren't bad people. Leslie wanted his friend and his wife. His wife wanted him. His friend wanted to be left alone because she didn't want to be a homewrecker.
Life if complicated. Always has been. Always will be.
 |
| YouTube Link for The Animal Kingdom |
Actually it was Ann Harding. I had seen another movie in which she scopes out a playboy with potential and decides to plot to marry him. It was a lesson on entrepreneurship in the depression. Ann's business was marriage, making her husband look good and keeping him happy. William Powell's business was to avoid marriage and responsibility.
Anyway, in The Animal Kingdom Ann and Leslie were doing the do outside of the bands of matrimony. They were the best of friends, were lovers and no strings. She goes off oversees and Leslie meets Myrna, who does love him but wants to recreate him into a proper rich dude. Which he does not want to be.
Moving on. This was a pre-code film. People talked about sex. Well, you do have to decipher quite a bit about sex in the film. Myrna used a sleeping gown to great advantage. She definitely roped the dope but you can only do that a few time before the dope gets to thinking that the rope is a harness and he doesn't want to be in one.
In other words, juicy gets em crazy but you can't keep it up. Most of the time.
The movie has a happy ending for two of the three leads. From the DVD cover you can get a clue.
When people talk about the simplicity and morality of an early time I'm not sure what time that would be. These weren't bad people. Leslie wanted his friend and his wife. His wife wanted him. His friend wanted to be left alone because she didn't want to be a homewrecker.
Life if complicated. Always has been. Always will be.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Baby It Is Cold Inside or My Body Is Not Happy
I have the heat on. And my coat. If I could find one of my hats it would be on my head too. It is not unusual to have a chill in the morning. This ain't a chill, this is straight up cold. I feel like it is back east weather.
I personally like waking up to temperatures in the 60 degree range. This ish feels like lower 30s or something.
I'm having to put clothes on the heater to warm them before I'll put them on. That is old school east coast living skills.
Dear Canada. I have great respect for your country. I even watch some of your TV shows like Being Erica on Hulu. Please come get this stray wind pattern. Replants some trees. Restore a wet land, ice pond or something.
Stop the fracking of your land. That may have nothing to do with the weather but I just thought I'd toss that out there in case you are listing.
In the meantime I gotta find my gloves. I need to open the refrigerator.
I personally like waking up to temperatures in the 60 degree range. This ish feels like lower 30s or something.
I'm having to put clothes on the heater to warm them before I'll put them on. That is old school east coast living skills.
Dear Canada. I have great respect for your country. I even watch some of your TV shows like Being Erica on Hulu. Please come get this stray wind pattern. Replants some trees. Restore a wet land, ice pond or something.
Stop the fracking of your land. That may have nothing to do with the weather but I just thought I'd toss that out there in case you are listing.
In the meantime I gotta find my gloves. I need to open the refrigerator.
Monday, December 05, 2011
This Wind Has No Name
It wasn't the Santa Ana Wind. It has been accused of downing multiple trees in the area. It is innocent. The hit job blast came from Canada and the other wind pattern location hasn't been identified as yet.
It is still blowing outside but not at the intensity of last week. There are fire warnings being issued by NOAA and other weather services. Things are looking kinda normal for now.
Pasadena is still cleaning up. There are trees down on a lot of streets. If you need cheap firewood you are in luck.
Bring your own saw.
It is still blowing outside but not at the intensity of last week. There are fire warnings being issued by NOAA and other weather services. Things are looking kinda normal for now.
Pasadena is still cleaning up. There are trees down on a lot of streets. If you need cheap firewood you are in luck.
Bring your own saw.
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