Friday, December 30, 2005
The Ultimate Drug Dealer
Victor González is a modern day hero. In a country like Mexico one can still benefit the poor and make a success at business at the same time. He has made the price of medicine affordable to near all here. And in a world were everything seems to cost more and more everyday this is like a miracle. This man has gone against the rules proving that one need not be bound by their limitations. If this man can make such a difference, it shows there is hope that others can do the same.
A few excerpts from the article are listed below here. It is important to realize that not all medical and the poor need go the way America is going with it. (Or without it)
González has created an alternative health-care system. His stores stock mostly older drugs that have lost their patent and can be copied cheaply in Mexico. He subsidizes about 1,900 clinics, catering to those who can't afford the US $30 or so that private clinics charge for a visit. Some 800,000 Mexicans visit his clinics every month, according to the Metropolitan Autonomous University. The clinics are run by a nonprofit group set up by González, and doctors keep the money paid for visits.
"Before we appeared on the scene, poor people in Mexico used to pray to the Virgin to get better because they couldn't afford the medicines," says González. "Now they come to us".
González recently opened 11 drugstores and clinics in Argentina and 36 in Central America, where he recruited Guatemalan Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchu to be a spokeswoman.
The youngest of five children, González worked for years at his family-owned drugstore chain, founded in 1875 by his greatgrandfather. Because he has a speech impediment and admits to abusing alcohol in the past, he says his family never expected him to amount to much.
As sales have grown he opened 1,248 stores last year alone. He erected billboards across Mexico saying multinationals were trying to block access to cheap medicine. "Say no to corruption. Say yes to helping the poor," the billboards read.
González says he's not worried about juggling the demands of a presidential campaign with a fast-growing company. "I'm a businessman in the morning, a politician in the afternoon, and a lover in the evening."
wow such a caring human bless that man and may he also have herbs that heal and not just drugs that harm one thing as thay seam to fix another
Thursday, December 29, 2005
The Sky Is Falling! - Oh, never mind.
Crazy and paranoid and sneaky as those Americans are getting maybe Mexico better welcome that Wall, it works both ways. It won't be long before the final collapse of that oppressive and out of control nation happens and when it does, all those nuts will be rushing to desert it anyway they can. Me first, out of my way.
How many times can someone call wolf is there not a story of the shepard who called wolf so much when the wolfs came no one ran to help???? so many lesions in a story if people would read with a heart of understanding and not control????
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
What The Hell Is This Doing Here?
A better question is what is it doing where it otherwise appears. Don't just look at this grotesque graphic. Read it slowly. Absorb its impact.What it is doing here is illustrating the depths to which paid whoredom will sink.
It is a Texas, USA road sign right ? Nope, it is in a school text book. Some private nut christian school ? Not christian at all but quite the contrary. It was in a public school text used nationwide. But that's illegal. The function of law is not to control those in power but protect from those who lack it. It was for young impressionable toddlers then. No, wrong again. It is directed to older teens. Well, the US has no business so blatently propagandizing their kids! It wasn't in a US book. What other country would so sell out its youth? One that wants favors, like money, military jets, protection, and a guaranteed escape route for deposed officials. Can't imagine one that would be so patronizingly ass kissing.
It is in a public school text book for 16 year old students of English language classes in America's mid east nuclear ally, the propped up military dictatorship of Pakistan!
Wow, that's bad! Not really. Teachers everywhere and officials they whore for may be stupid, but in general, students are not. One unintended result of schooling is development of instinctive built in bull shit detectors.
Think of all the almost adult Pakistani students who because of this obvious garbage now understand the real role of schools in society. Hell, that graphic will serve to move them to our side as a recruitment poster for revolution to come! We should praise those kids' Allah and thank the puppet dictator Musharraf's US paymasters for the stupidty of their money minded arrogance.
America knows no shame when it comes to brainwashing. Bush has turned being American into a religion, a Christian bloody one hunting down the enemy and destroying or converting it.
"The Leader". How disgusting. Only place that man is leading is to oppression and the end of mankind as free thinkers.
And shame again on all you high living Americans acting like you care when your government stoops to such obvious methods of evil. You created him, now the world is going to have to stop him because you are useless against your own monster of a government.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
12/25/05 More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, have died in Iraq since the war was launched in March 2003.
***
My very stylish American cousin has given me some very stylish clothes for Christmas. She says I need to stay up to date. A military jacket, almost like real. All the ladies are wearing them now she says, not just the men. The military looks is very in she says.
For those of you who want to imitate the military style too, here is a site for you. Got kids? There is even one for your children Right in style, that's most important. And another, in an all time popular store , but you will see this one is sold out, they just can't keep up with the demand.
Why does killer America want to make their womens very clothes represent that which they are, war mongers and worshippers. Have they not enough violence within themselves without an outward display of it even with their fashions and fads? You think these woman, many mothers and wives, would reject that which kills their husbands and children, let alone all the other people all over the world that have died and suffered because of their military. How can they claim to be against war and violence and then approve of it by the way they dress?
You Americans look at yourselves dressed that way, and think of the statement this makes and the message it sends to the world.
Ready to go to war, wherever it may be, all part of being American.
Zatikia,
The yank uniform look from Macy's is as stupid looking as driving a military looking snob-appeal vehicle - a Hummer.
HiTekVagabond
Saturday, December 24, 2005
SEASON'S GREETINGS
I really agree with nur-al-cubicle, it's a cute nativity scene. I could not help but notice the football game on the TV and how baby Jesus is missing his halo. I also like the expression on the horse on the left's face.
Happy Holidays, Pocho.
HiTekVagabond
I suppose it is near enough Christmas now to get into it. So, a good one to all of you here, whether your into it or not.
And all this time, I have been wondering what los padres de jesusito could be watching on that tele.
I ba humbugged and have the best this time of year i ever had a day of giving being with friends and injoying life thanks for a day of giving is more important than getting wow at 41 i finly felt the gift of friends and giving a shame huh and the first year i was not asked to lie about a saint who would never have oked lieing in his name or making him famious .He was a man of giving to who needed not to who wanted in private his blessing to him self to be the unknown giver .why do humans have to change things to the point of lies ????
Friday, December 23, 2005
Heart
In a way, it is like the use of "soul" in some black communities. Most white people simply don't get it, nor are they expected to. Similarity is also noted in frequency of "corazón" in lyrics of Mexican music, which may put gringos to thinking there is a national obsession with cardiology. Many times when referring to the "movement", I've been asked, usually in an implied attack mode "What do you mean by that?". The only honest answer to one not a part if it is "You wouldn't understand".
It is fruitless trying to explain the meaning of heart to minds cemented in a heartless society. But there may be a few neighbors among them who are unusually perceptive and have feelings of such disgust with their binding status that they are ready to reach out and seek change to what they are. It is those and only those for which a suitable explanation of the meaning of "heart" might lend guidance.
I am not sure it can be perfectly put in words for it is not a thing of intellect. It would be a difficult if not impossible task for myself. The best attempt I've seen was written by yabasta. She posted it on her La Zatikia blog and it is linked here. Her words are worth reading. Rather, it would be better that they were studied and absorbed by all capable of doing so.
The best I can say to those who cannot is that they are in the wrong place.
Zatikia and Pocho,
This week, we are on vacation here in Merida visiting the town and the nearby Mayan ruins and wildlife parks. We skipped going to Cancun. It's just Miami South. After spending our third day here, it's painfully obvious that the United States of North America has sold an interesting bill of goods to its people - things can make you happy. I'm sure you've heard the expression the one with the most toys wins.
When walking downtown, there are street peddlers selling various kinds of curios - hammocks, jewlery, wooden snakes, dancing chickens... But they were only being sold to tourists, the people with a need for things.
When taking the city tour here, the bus tour drives by many churches and huge opulent, lifeless mansions belonging to families of slave owners. It was interesting to note that many of the mansions were no longer privately owned, but belonged to the government, insurance companies and banks. All along the tour, there were kids sitting outside talking with their friends, sharing bicycles, just having a good time. In the downtown square, there was a huge public gathering in the main square with music and dance.
At the beginning of the tour, the driver excused himself in that he would be telling a few jokes that would not easily translate into English and asked us not to be offended if the english part of the tour was a bit shorter than the spanish. After listening to the jokes, it was clear most Americans would not get them anyway.
To me, the culmination of the city tour here was where the bus stopped at the children's park for fifteen minutes. Kids were outside playing after dinner and their parents gathered to talk and be with each other. At the park there was food and drink for sale, but interestingly enough no things for sale. I believe the point of the rest stop was to create a moment of being together.
HiTekVagabond
Good to see you've reached civilization Hitek.
Here is a joke you could have told your bus driver though he probably already heard it anyway. It was told to me by a Mexican friend after we encountered and said just two not so nice words to a gringo who complained about our dogs.
A Mexican and a US dog are crossing the border to enter the other's country. The US dog asks the Mexican "Why you come to the USA", and the response is "Well, you have nice restaurants, museums, and besides, my owners relatives work there for money to send home. Why do you want to come to Mexico?" The US dog answers "So I can bark".
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Best For All or Best For Me
I was total gringo during our first extended trip to Mexico. My head was spinning in culture shock wonder of discovering a decent society which contrasted sharply with the USA in which to that point I'd spent my life. That the amazement was pleasant and well accepted was probably because of having battled as an activist the USA's more disgusting aspects during most adult years.
I pulled our trailer off the highway for a glass of fresh pineapple juice as we left the city of Veracruz while journeying back north. The large and busy intersection was undergoing hand construction repairs by many workers. I had worked as a highway engineer for a while as a younger man. That prompted me in unrealized but typical brash gringo arrogance to say to a Mexican at the juice stand "That work would be done in no time if you had the machines we have". I felt shrunk to the size of my juice glass when he responded "If we had the machines you have, we'd have the same problems. Everyone would be out of work. Look around you".
Chinese goods are considered of higher quality here in Mexico and certainly more affordable than those of the US. Prole explained well in the Chat Room contrast between hand production in her China and USA use of machines. Machines cost less than a factory of high paid hand workers. The price of items produced remains high and more of the income flows upward to owners, stock holders, and bosses. Much of their excess income goes to purchase of other non productive ownership, ie stocks of other similar companies. Less flows to workers who would otherwise further distribute to those personally encountered. The overall social effect is that the rich who do nothing become more so and the few workers and those with whom they interact receive in sum a smaller portion of producton income.
Contrast that to China (and other nations) utilizing hand production. Pay per individual is low but there are many workers. So is the overall cost of production and that is reflected in prices. The social impact is more of the income is distributed to a broader portion of the society's people and less to bosses, owners, or stock holders who do nothing in the making of goods. The bottom line is the reverse of that of the USA in terms of who benefits.
Repercussions from movement activity had twice caused me to be out of work with no income in sight. One way or another, two children would be fed. I flirted in frustration with possibility of a pistol point convenient store jackpot. Both times I lucked into jobs on society's underside. Those kept us going and were accepted though they were ones which would be rejected by most concerned with social and legal propriety. Kids' stomachs beat propriety every time.
Coyote's blog post linked here reflects a similar job loss situation. I understand his feelings on a personal level and in empathy wish him the luck that kept a pistol out of my hands. On larger social and political levels however I cannot sympathize with the current dismay of Americans over job loss. We hear "They are sending OUR jobs over seas" with always the unspoken implication of an appended "...to THOSE kind of people". It rings as being other than THOSE kind of people should automatically grant to Americans title to whatever they want?
It is only by looking beyond selfishly drawn borders of situation and birth if there is to be fruit from efforts to increase life's quality and decrease conflict. For us to think and act otherwise is tantamount to promoting continuance of that we claim to oppose.
Live what you believe. Otherwise it is just words.
Mexico is a study in how it is done simply. And keeping it simple seems to keep the people in the equation. A gang of men instead of one. Money for many instead of the few. Americans are told this is poverty here in Mexico, but what they are usually seeing is just simple living on a balanced level. In my state of Baja California, poverty is near non existent. Americans think they can prove, with their ever handy statistics, that many are not employed here. This is because they work for themselves, not reported, or drift and live with family. As is a fact, a few, as in any society, don't do much in life, but they still have full rights to it and their place in it. Many family members share a job, working it for awhile and giving another a chance. And the majority have good jobs and keep them. I know this is right and good because I see it work. There are not hoards of homeless roaming everywhere, lines of welfare patients and those collecting money because they are not working and mental hospitals for the deranged and jails popping up everywhere.
My family makes most of its purchases in the neighborhood. We hire from the neighborhood. In turn our neighborhood backs us. This is a family neighborhood, many of the people all related. No one does without.
Supporting the type of oppression Pocho speaks of above, by converting everything that can be to machinery and using that system that thrives off of it for the few, makes you the oppressor too. In America they are taught their own needs are the ones that really count, government and people alike. As much as they complain about their government and talk about the vote and keep living the lie they are living, they are right in the middle of their problem creating it daily.
You Americans can't talk one way and live another, unless you have yourself fooled or just a common hypocrite, or more likely, your government has you brainwashed and you accept it.
I,m a me but them i guess my idea of being a me is not like most you could say im backwards because whats best for me is simple food, roof,good health ,love and happyness .I cant be happy being a me if my nebor if hungy so i give then me is happy .I cant be happy when my friend has lost a love so i go hold them then me is happy i tryed to confort them.If i have 2 coats and thay are cold and my coat will fit them i give so im happy thay are warm too.I collect beads my main weakness of greed i love to make things but then being me if someone realy loves it ill sell less that th cost of the beads or give to them makes me happy in my greed of beads.If i could heal the world with herbs i would but i cant is my major sadness i cant even heal myself so many man made polutiants and so many healing herbs =plants made illage cause thay are cheeper to heal with and a lot better for humans .My love i dont have one besides myself and cats and friends no mate to hold no lover to cry on there shoulder but is life the ones i trusted as mates long ago had no honor thay hit and had others so i knew thay where not mine but is life i guess love maybe a thing of the past and when all things have passed we will be like Mars dry windy a dead place who will visit it we are the last planit in this ara alive and we are killing it and us but have heart we have one last chance can we make it ????
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
2-0-5 [Flash]
That such antics are cast as entertainment speaks more to the anger of the rest of the world toward not their comical leaders but the people of America who in contentment find it funny.
yes it is sad we laugh at pain we laugh at killing starving harming why cant we cry and then do something about it sad i still cant find what funny about it all guess im nor american im just a plain human
Natural Capital
Businesses that sustained without using up social and natural capital would be sustainable. The program then showed how clean energy production and the increasing economic advantages of wind power. They also featured a brewery in Colorado that was wind powered and had a very low environmental impact.
Here is an article I found about it.
Part of their theory is very appealing. I see that an economy that depends on producing disposable junk is headed nowhere. Also, I like the idea of mimicking natural processes where there are no waste products. Instead of focusing on labor productivity, the focus is on how completely a natural product can be used up. They also talk about shifting from producing things to where they wear out to where items are produced to last and make the best use of resources.
Somehow, somethings still bothers me about this and I can't put my finger on it. There seems to be something fundamentally missing.
HiTekVagabond
Monday, December 19, 2005
NSA Spying on US Citizens. Why?
A handful of judges on the FISA court have authorized many requests to spy in the name of National Security. They meet in secret, with no published orders, opinions, or public record. Those spied on May never know of the intrusion. Only very few requests to this court have ever been turned down.
Why do Bush and his cronies need resort to executive orders to bypass the FISA court? Is it because they are spying on someone the court would turn down the request for?
Activists? Perhaps they are spying on people that are not tied into terrorism - just people trying to put an end to this war. For example is this why they spy on a bunch of Quakers?
Journalists? Journalists often have contacts with various shady characters so that they can get the insides to a story. These requests may get turned down due to first amendment reasons. Is this why so many of them seem to get offed?
Lawmakers? The request may have nothing to do with terrorism at all. It may just have to do with figuring out the opposition's policies and strategy. Mabe we have another watergate on our hands.
HiTekVagabond
Is this really of concern or a case of movement people tendencies toward the paranoic? I can never be personally sure of the veracity of such accounts made by other persons. People exagerate, lie, have hidden agendas, twisted movtives, and can be wrong. Perhaps some actually suffer a mental disease called paranoia.
In days of direct movement activism, persons who thought themselves more reasonable than I, would describe me as paranoid. My tendency was then, and it still is, to believe the truth of conspiracy theories connected to the assassinations of the Kennedys, King, X (Malcom Little), Fred Hampton, and others. I use the word "believe" rather than "know" because I wasn't there. I can only attest to truth of what happenned to me and what I observed first hand. The following is offered to enlighten suspicions of reasonable doubters. The time and place are the 60's and 70's in a mid sized midwestern US city.
I woke for unknown reason one morning about 3 am, got up and looked out the front window from my darkened home. A car pulled up. A man got out the passenger side and threw a rock through the front picture window. I picked up the pellet pistol kept near the door. My wife correctly objected to that that aspect of my paranoia, but threating phone calls were common. I stepped out and shot once. I doubt I hit anything. The guy jumped back in the car, and it sped away. About the same time that night a similar thing happened to two friends, also movement activists. One got a rock. The other's garage was lit on fire.
The three of us received mail the next morning, which had to have been posted the day before the acts. With glued on letters cut from a magazine, mine read something like. "Next time it will be a bullet through your head not a rock through the window." Also included was a commercially printed card stating it was from the KKK. It had a picture of rifle scope crosshairs and stated the sights are focused on the back of your neck. Together we met with the local police chief and lieutenants. They laughed. It seemed clear they were already well apprised. So much for Officer Friendly.
A friend had been the business manager of the local daily paper until he was fired when a copy of the National Guardian (a now defunct leftist weekly) was discovered in his desk. He then operated a private parking lot at the city's center. He also acted as a stringer for the local FBI Special Agent. That is, he feed them information, but it went both ways. Without hearing the rock/fire/threat story he told me persons from downstate were brought in by the FBI to administer the incident. His vehicle descrition fit.
I received a call at my office one day from the unviersity president's assistant. I was told the boss wanted me to know an attempt would be made in my department to have me fired. The president had been involved in protests for racial equality. His message concluded they'd have to get him before they got me. I heard no more about it, but years later I met and thanked the then retired president. He too quickly said he didn't recall.
A cab driver friend called from a phone booth and requested a meeting. He said he overheard the local FBI and state's attorney discussing plans to raid my home along with others and discover pot. I had none, but the cops probably did. I Never used it. The raid never took place.
In those days a room bug was simplicity in itself. One had only to unscrew a phone's mouthpiece, phone the target, and not hang up. The line remained open, bugged, and appeared dead. Many times I would attempt a phone call and find a dead line.
The line itself was also tapped. I confronted two guys on the pole installing it. They had an unmarked truck with other state license plates and said they were working on contract. The phone company denied it, and a neighbor employee informed me of the tap as did a local police officer. The job was evidently not very well done. Serveral times the police department answered my calls placed to other parties.
I had a separate unlisted line installed, and that was apparently overlooked. I used to chuckle at hours spent by someone unknown listening to my preteen daughters' endless conversations.
I built a bug tracing reciever and used it to locate and remove bugs from homes. With one, we actually got word the police wanted their equipment back.
There were some important papers I kept secret for family reasons that had nothing to do with movement activities. They were in an envelope taped behind a locked office file drawer. Years later on leaving that office, I discovered they were gone. Someone knows more about my family than I'd like. My kids might like the papers back.
I never went to the trouble of obtaining my FBI and other agency files. Two friends did. My name was all over them. No telling what the blacked out parts were, but much of the information had been submitted by local patriotic right wing fanatics. There was no verification of any of their paranoiac garbage.
Some national church council promoted a thing where we refused to pay the special war tax imposed on phone bills. The phone company simply notified the IRS of the lacking 23 cents or so each month. I would receive and ignore IRS notes to pay the 23 cents. Each month's was separate and seemed to be from a different office. Then the 3 am phone calls demanding payment began. Next they simply took it from my bank account, the 23 cents or so at a time.
We attended an old college friends reunion party at the distant city home of an ex appartment mate. He was then chief of IRS enforcement for the midwest. I joked of the 23 cents matter. His response was to the effect they would harrass us as we harrass them and get that 23 cents back over and over and over. He knew all about my activities, job, kids, etc. We hadn't seen each other or communicated for 15 years.
A student I knew to have been involved with the likes of the goofy right wing John Birchers all of a sudden joined the movement. His first idea was we should find out where we can get guns. I watched him slip away from a demonstration to confer with nearby police.
Two ridiculously hippie costumed guys no one had seen before appeared at a meeting preparing for a demonstration to oppose a Secretary of Defense speech. They also hyped for violent activity. They had previously informed the police they were from Army Intellegence. So said a friendly cop.
There's much more, but that's enough here. I had been briefly involved with SCLC in Selma, Alabama, SNCC in Jackson, Mississippi, and extended civil rights, anti war, poverty, and union organizing in my own town. But, I was just one of many who organized and used direct action to oppose government deeds. I was not in particular any kind of charismatic leader.
Now an old man retired in Mexico, I view things moving in the same direction once more, that is while doubting they had ever stopped. The agencies that will oppose such movement have probably dirtied rather than cleaned up their act. I can only urge those who see only lawful opponents to get real, get paranoid, keep their eyes on the prize, and hold on.
Well if it dont make a lot money for corporations and we persionalize our food again we might start thinking about all thay are trying to do and have been doing to us and the animals we eat .
Sad when a goverment becomes so paranoid that thay all watch each other then go looking for patsy,s. But then it has been going on sence this country was made by force others made by sectioning them selfs off or ones not wanting to be around others.
When a goverment oks the miss use of people f.d.a for proffit and only do recalls when people start sewing or dieing on stuff thay ok but now thay start taking natural stuff used thousands of years and want millions of dollars in proof it can work when thouse who realy care for healing make a simple living .
Now to pic flowers on the side the road is illage now to plant certan plants there a drug wait till thay find out another plant can heal something ill get indangered safe and then thay will be gone .
Need to keep the corporations happy and thay means making millions for people who invest in others work and want a make proffit even if it kills the workers o well thay are just the machines who do the work breaks get another one.
Good stories of the days when trying to help America seemed the right thing to do. Times have changed and one needs to realize, America failed, and we need to finish it off before it does anymore damage.
And with America, it is always best to keep the worst in mind, since that is what they seem to specialize in.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
I LOVE THAT PIC add some shoulder lenth rainbow hair and words that make so sence and laws that change faster then a lawyer can learn them much less a plain human and you have me wow!!!!
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Walls
US, Mexican border wall must come down, says Mexican President Vicente Fox
President Vicente Fox said walls along the U.S.-Mexico border "must be demolished" because they are "discriminatory" and "against freedom." "No country that is proud of itself should build walls. It doesn't make any sense."
Mexican government speaks out again on border fence:
http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/miami/16318.html
There was a happy song titled "Don't Fence Me In" which was popular in the US during days long past. That was when singers were understood and voiced lyrics with meaning.
The cultural health of a people is always reflected in their music. Both have changed in America now toward the brash. Words, written, spoken, or sung, mean little and nothing is understood. That such mode is readily accepted and practiced by Americans is evident in their acts and communications.
It is satisfying that our Mexican music yet tends to traditional. We sing and live that which has served an older more advanced culture of understanding people for centuries longer than that encasing the confused lives and noise of our upstart frantic fenced neighbors.
Well if your fenced in you stop the freedom of others to come visit .If your fenced out how can you be free to go where your heading in a timly fashion when all the sudden you have walls to go around or over o wait thats trustpassing how can you truly be free if your fence is so big the deer cant jump but high enuff to keep out people who want to harm .
Is it the ones full of fear who are safe or the ones held out ????
Is anyone safe in this world when a child can kill in a game and laugh or see a death and think its a game ???? O wait the child is now 21.He had the freedom to learn not to care for others lifes or his own his family had a fence around there heart.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Happy Hollandaise
Even though I don't eat mammals, I wish all of you "Happy Holandaise". Yes .. I hope you enjoy your steaks with some holandaise sause. (In case you mis-heard me say Happy Holidays or something similar)
HiTekVagabond
Hollandaise ingredients: egg yolks, clarified butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper. My Christ! (just to put the guy's name in an xmas message) Not a chile among them!
No wonder the US gets the kind of presidents it does and goes off killing and conquering under pretext of oil and land but perhaps secretly in search of real foods which fuel superiority of other cultures. Unfortunately for such quest, food that warms the heart would be unrecognizable by those lacking one.
Pipian, mole, sauzas rojas and verdes, pico de gallo maybe, but we ain't going to change the world with hollandaise unless as weapon to sicken the enemy.
So, the activist says to the gringo "After the revolution, no one will have to eat hollandaise". "But, I like hollandaise" is the reply. Then, between chomps on a chile, comes a response, "After the revolution, NOBODY will like hollandaise."
O so the if are mica looses the revelotion are you saying ill be forced not to eat something i may not like or is that saying i will be dead?????I might just eat it cause i can pooy everyone wants control of humans even the ones who say thay want fairness im confussed again
The chili pepper, so represenational of Mexico. Stuff those American turkeys full of them this season, what a surprise. Culinary warfare.
And remember, its the season to be jolly, this is just another one of those representational things.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
America and free speech, they use to go together in the eyes of the world. But look now, America has revealed its true goals to the point were they can no longer falsely send out this image.
"Journalists covering conflict, unrest, corruption, and human rights abuses face a growing risk of incarceration in many countries, where governments seek to disguise their repressive acts as legitimate legal processes,"
Zatikia,
That made me think about a statistic I read the other day:
66: Journalists killed in Iraq.
63: Journalists killed during Vietnam war
That also makes me wonder about the the large number of apparent suicides among journalists/media people. Here's a few that I can think of:
- Hunter S. Thompson Counterculture writer
- Gary Webb linked CIA to crack sales
- Danny Casolaro book writer
- Andrew Gilligan Downing Street Memo
- Willard “Billy” Clarey Daily Show
How many of these were "suicided" to preserve information supremacy??
HiTekVagabond
looks like they ran out of chinese made flags
A California family is upset because their soldier son's returns to the country not draped in a flag and accompanied by color guard.
Read more.
(Little do they realize that their son was just cannon fodder for a political get rich scheme.)
Would look like we would show a pic of saving people but no wait a lot of them we killed Opppps
I still dont understand who we are realy helping over there or are thay helping us im so lost .
Now how big is the area we are help fencing in or out ????
Seems like to die a so called heroes death in america gets you your last ride in the baggage compartment. Not much of a reward for giving your life for your country. But thats the American way, cheap and easy.
its just awful how this war is being faught for corporations that sit in their corporation buildings and act all corporationy and now they are getting money off the freight too we are lucky that they don't have haliburton do the deliveries
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Another perspective on the war in Iraq
I found a website that gives a rather startling perspective on the Iraq war. When the red button comes up, click on it to start the simulation.
Fatalities for all the countries are there but one, that which concerns me most, Iraq. I weep not over the deaths of those who went to kill, no matter their collective or personal rationalizations. Every damned one of them made a choice to engage in the slaughter. Of course, omission of Iraqi deaths in the linked graphic is understandable for purposes of presentation. Resistance successes in awarding little red badges of courage to the invaders would hardly show if Iraqi deaths were included.
Yes why do thay never add the the deaths to the people whos lands WE ARE IN . and just some info thay dont get added into all the polls people read and heath info you dont get befor you are given things just think of all the depleated urinium we are leaving there and our people and there people who are being long turm harned from it and whos going to vlean it up or are thay ????
hitec thanks for the info and sad site that looks like a game of a killing spree do you get points for deaths and what is a human worth do you know who puts the price on the people's lifes that are gone and dieing ????
Pocho,
Here is a website that attempts to track the iraqi CIVILIAN death toll:
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
HiTekVagabond
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Animals
Yesterdays discussion at work was all about William's execution. The converstation went on something like this. I said "Yes the guy was a founder of the Crips street gang and yes the courts found him guilty of murdering four people during two armed robberies. But why couldn't he be given life emprisonment?" In response, I was told "The crime was so heinous that we need to make sure they never do it again." What if it was the wrong person? "It's not." "Does his life not have value? Certainly if you believe in pro-life values his life should be just as precious as the life of an unborn child." "Who cares about animals like him? I think they should exterminate them all. We would not have crime anymore. They still shoot horses don't they?"
I really never understood the apparent contradiction between "Pro-Life" and "Pro-Death Penalty" until one of my "red" colleagues at work ''explained'' it to me. By labeling the criminal as an animal, they can separate them from their personhood. The label categorizes criminals as subhuman. The label also is and has been attached to other people such as Native Americans, Germans, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and now middle easterners. It's pretty clear to me now - they claim to be the uebermensh and the rest are untermensh. And this rationale is used to justify the death penalty, torture, even war.
I have to wonder how soon until this rationale is used to eliminate non-productive drug users, prostitutes, old people, handicapped people, sick people...
...even dissentors?
Death as an answer will always lead to more death. Either you believe in killing or you don't. A nation cheers the death of what they disapprove of and condemns a death they did not approve of.
If a government teaches its people killing solves, then they will believe it and have no way to put an end to it. Such is America, founded on killing off what they did not want.
Good post HiTek, society needs to be hit hard with the horror of what they will accept.
When you stop and look at how many now a days dont even know the meat thay eat shoot some that believe others should die with such hate give them a knife and a cow or pig and say butcher this wonder if it would be as easy to eat???? What happened to forgivness and humans being able to learn and change how can people care when thay have never truly been shown care????
How many have cryed for others deaths ever killed a unborn child or say its not my life so who cares i pray thay never get charged with something with no proof but anothers words and hate for what thay stand for but then im sure if ever i felt the need to kill i would want to know all the facts not just second hand news.
But then im not one to hate just because someones with a group or race or what ever all humans deserve the right to be who thay are and not prejudged from a blind point of view i think.
Fuck you and your hummer
I found this website (www.FUH2.com) that reflects exactly how I feel about these arrogant people and their stupid looking gas guzzler poser vehicles. Notice the ultimate in arrogance on this one - the support our oops bumper sticker. These turkeys don't even care that they send kids with real hummers without armor to Iraq so that they can drive their monsterous tax deductions here at home.
I see these Hummers down here, in Mexico, carelessly driving the back roads, trying to have some back to nature experience from inside the armour and glass and luxury.
Sitting on a porch with an old Indian friend, we had to laugh. That one Hummer going by represented more money than all the cars and houses in that small village. The joke was, they had the weekend for that short lived happiness so yearned for, while these villagers had a life time of happiness, with nothing more than what they had.
Wonder if i can cover one with solar panel's and live in it ????
Its so big looks as big as my house.wow and as much as it cost i could live in over comfort for a few years and hire friends to make a guarden and other stuff to share
Sonshine,
Now this is not a bad idea... Maybe there is a way of getting the government to buy your newly formed company (wink-wink) a brand new business vehicle (wink-wink). I wonder if the SUV loophole will work for buying a camper or panel truck that could double as a home and a taco or tamale stand or something.
By putting solar panels on it for electric and hot water, your check might just go much further.
HiTekVagabond
Monday, December 12, 2005
What's Left?
I visit a lot of blogs and on some leave comments. I did not remember Gothaminage's and went there today to search through its comments. I found none by either myself or our contributors. He asks a common question. Here comes a response that has been pondered and partially repeated often in the Chat Room.
Gothaminage's site seemed in quick scan to have orientation toward what might be considered liberal democratic politics in the USA. There is an immediately noticeable difference between that and ours. We've discovered, often in surprise to new users from the USA, that there are two USA's and surrounding larger world's. One is that dreamed of by most inside USA borders, including those terming themselves "liberal". The other is the realistic one known elsewhere. Gothaminage's site reflects the former, while the nature and locale of Further Left users causes focus on the latter.
The Further Left Chat Room, followed by its Library, and then finally this Forum have been around for close to two and a half years. The count of nation hits reaching one or more of them now stands at 114. It should be no surprise that people have come to them with many differing concepts of the meaning of "left".
Extremes range on the one hand from crawling around jungles with automatic weapons and obliterating anything associated with capitalism or its attendant imperialism to casting a vote for the USA's Democratic Party on the other. Some seem believe definition of leftist hinges on what books are read or political theories ascribed. Others ignore the written word and cast definition on fields of action where doing counts more than saying.
There are those who see flying airplanes into tall buildings as "left" while others consider it eschewing all violence of any form. A lot, especially those from the USA, seem to link "left" to a spectrum spot between what they call "liberal" and "conservative" while having no idea that persons of differing cultures often hold sharply contrasting definitions of those terms or that yet others consider them irrelevant. And then there are the views of "left" held by our detractors. Those are best left unstated.
It is necessary before self characterization to realize what we are and are not. We are words on a publicly available computer screen, neither more nor less. There are no bricks for download here suitable for tossing through a Walmart window. We can talk about organizing people to move a particular direction but within this facility are unable to roam a neighborhood and knock on necessary doors to do so.
We can say we support or oppose this or that set of activities, but would not delineate beyond unverifiable words the form of that support. Even if actuated, a sincere and prudent actvist wouldn't tell of routes to send money or material to certain active forces or brag of contributing to the offing of this or that enemy. There are those who talk and those who do. Those who talk are often by nature not those who do. Those who do are often by necessity not those who talk. Our users probably include some of both stripes.
We've stirred the pot in our couple years of existance and tried to discern a concept rising to the top. Each of the Library, Chat Room, and Forum contains a consensually derived phrasing which can serve as answer to Gothaminage's question. That is:
"...The words "Further Left" are meant to indicate a process rather than position. They imply changing one's stance in order to better contribute to uniting and empowering oppressed peoples so they may strike at causes of their concerns as they see fit."
It is granted that "uniting", "empowering", and "oppressed" are open to personal interpretation. The "as they see fit" seems to bother some, especially those in safety high on the hill who count the wounded in battle below and in arrogance believe they hold answers to what should be done by other people in other situations.
I personally rank most defining the phrases "process rather than a position" and "changing one's stance". That inherits from being old enough to know what we are about was occurring long before we arrived on the scene and will continue long after we are gone. It brings realization the best we can do through this medium is encourage pushing the ball down the field toward yet unseen shifting goals while letting our hearts guide steps along the path.
That was the consensual view of our efforts here. My own personal take as drawn from experience is best described in the Further Left Library piece titled Radical Activism, An Organizing Know How.
May you take it as you wish Gothaminage and in so doing direct your efforts to making more concrete the slogan "Agitate, Antagonize, Educate, and Organize".
IM a ME Left or right walking no mater what im a me and i left the norm to learn what most dont worry about any more why our world a mess so many huh and who cares till to lates????
What's Left? A process rather than a position. To me that is the most fitting explanation. Moving towards freedom and away from oppression. It is a way of life. It is far more than the limitations of politics. One cannot come to terms with nature and balance by electing officials. Nor with themselves when they have learned to lead a life that need harm another to obtain what is thought to be needed.
I live left. And if you don't, then you cannot really say you are left. And since we all seem to need a direction to take the view from, the word left fits it well. The opposite direction than those who think they are right by their might.
If you think your going to solve the problems of your America by rearranging your politics come election time by a daring vote or non vote you cannot say you are left, your just part of it.
Gothamimage,
There are many things we can disagree on. But wanting to better that around us seems to be something we both agree on. Everyones truths need to come out in the open for all to see and decide which add to the human condition and which detract.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Adios Richard
Richard Prior, comedian from Peoria, Illinois, just died from heart attack at 65. I knew his aunt Maxine. She was a whore house madam in nearby Bloomington, Illinois, where I was a compatriate rather than customer. Her profession kept her in the background of the community. But from there, she was a voice, one which helped organize and supported the movement. She had to send arriving customers around to the back door during our living room discussions. I never figured out if that was to protect us from being seen by them or the other way around. Her nephew helped too. He gave courage to black people by bringing racism to the surface as he led the way in telling white people what they didn't want to hear, getting away with that by doing it in such fashion they paid him for it.Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Definitions, New and Old
1. The act of rendering.
2. An interpretation of a musical score or a dramatic piece.
3. A performance of a musical or dramatic work.
4. A translation, often interpretive.
5. A surrender.
and elaborates the first as:
1. the act or result of rendering a court's judgment
2. legal extradition of a fugitive who has fled to another state
Now we have a new one serving to cover barbarity and soothe nervous fools with word play. According to script writers who arm Condoleezza Rice with American make believe, it is now to be:
"the covert capture in foreign countries and transfer of terrorism suspects without the involvement of a court"
I prefer definition 3 and think of some songs that helped render what pigs of past opposed, going so far as to make it possible for Ms. Rice to serve as America's chief in charge of international whoring.
"Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round, turn me round, turn me round. Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round. Gonna keep on a walkin, keep on a talkin, marchin up to freedom land."
My guitar remembers that one well. Condoleezza might have some relatives who do also.
May i know the name of that song ????So i can know the name to hear it. Or if you would be so kind and sing it for us with heart???I would try to download it if you would be so kind to have it with your singing on the other form in the downloads that i have downloaded 1 otherthing but this i think i would love to hear with music and singing to it like a song for the soul.
Pick and choose, which words take out the sting, which words ease the conscience, which words blur the truth. So many ways to rename what is and always will be, inhuman treatment of another. There is only one way a person should feel on that and that act is what should be seen, not the words disguising it.
The act of rendering here in Mexico means making carnitas and chicharones. Taking the fat out of the pig. Sounds like what those American pigs need to have happen to them.
Cochineros, los todos.
The name of the song is "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round". I would like to play and sing it, and it would certainly be done with heart if not musical quality. I first sang it during freedom marches in Selma, Alabama, USA in 1965 and have hardly stopped since. But you would have to come near my house to hear it repeated. The windows are open and you would experience what my neighbors endure. To record and upload it would have to wait for another day because my computer sound system is broken. There is another way which offers better voice than can I. A version of the song was posted in the Library for download last February. That practice was canceled because of storage limitations. I uploaded it again. It does not appear on the Library menus but can be heard and downloaded by clicking here.
Pocho -
The act of kidnapping someone in a foreing country and extradite them without a court, a judge, habeas corpus, documentation ... used to be called "extraordinary renditions". It seems like you don't hear about legal renditions anymore.
Other terms which come to mind are kidnap, body snatch, bundle off, capture, hijack, impress, pirate, seize, shanghai, snatch, steal, and waylay. Do you suppose Condoleezza would hold the buck by accepting 20 years to life? Or, would she pass it to accumulate with others of her boss calling for his execution? Now, if his nation were in fact a democracy respondent to wills of his people, as they seem to dream, isn't it also they to whom punishment should be shared? Perhaps sufficient sentence would be requiring each to take their chances by spending prescribed time in yet remaining tall buildings.
I was just wondering does this mean thay can now do the same thing in the usa just get who thay have charges on ?????It would be fair but who would thay want to lock up lol
Just and Fair?
Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all." -- Michael Rivero
"Most people do not have the courage to face that choice." tells of easy friends who walk out of a room when a discussion turns into a fight. This post couples well with the November 3rd one further down titled "¿Amigos?"
Monday, December 05, 2005
Word of the day: Intransigent
This is a word that Spielberg uses to describe both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. "The biggest enemy is not the Palestinians or the Israelis. The biggest enemy in the region is intransigence."
It might also apply to the Al-qaeda / US terror conflict. It sounds a negative word in this context where each side is unwilling to step off of their viewpoint.
However, I am wondering how this word might apply to Senator McCain where he definitely should be intransigent. No comprimises are needed for the torture amendment. Afterall, he has survived torture, Bush and his cronies have not.
HighTechVagabond
Whether a position appears extreme depends on the zero point from which the measurement is taken. That normally means a prevailing mode. That in turn depends on where one looks. I look to find it neither in the United States nor Israel. There are other places and peoples, and I prefer their directions. Flip the ruler to measure from those, and what prevails in the USA becomes the extreme. It is from that I remain intransigent. The alternative is to drift toward its opposite, compromise with what cannot be accepted.
The basis for such perception of this old man of his nation and its people will not oft be heard for there are few yet alive to declare it. We who grew to adulthood in the US during the 1930's and 40's were taught well by government, schools, media, and surrounding society to hate the racist superiority inherent to the beliefs and actions of those "good" German people who allowed and in so doing championed Hitler's barbarism. We learned to cheer resistance fighters and militaries aligned against that colossus. Those roots and defining lessons drive me to stand and oppose by any means possible the actions of the US today, intransigent though that may be considered by those oblivious to a world welcomed process of their demolition.
"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul." That originated from Thomas Paine in what was to become the United States. It was an intransigent call to battle those who would have it become what in time they succeeded in making it.
Forget the "bad" Americans. Their positions are starkly noted. What we can do here is help clarify the extreme actions of the self professed "good" people of the US and in so doing bolster the intransigence of those who battle them and what they allow.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Evil America Beware
America, look at yourself and what you are doing. Your nation is the greatest evil to attempt to take over mankind yet for its own sinister deeds. Masters and Slaves, and nothing in between. It is what your country always wanted and still does.
I challenge those of you who say America is good, to read this article to the end, and if you don’t finish it with an extreme feeling of disgust and an urgent need to put an end to those who create this, you have already become less than human and it is to late for you, your part of it.
Help finish off America, before it finishes off the world.
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/octubre/juev13/42carceles.html
The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?
BY VICKY PELAEZ (Taken from El Diario-La Prensa, New York
HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.
(This is just the very beginning of this article, it holds important truths that all need to know, so do take the time to read all of it.)
And people wonder why thouse who live here dont stand up more.Thouse who live here know in truths whats happening shoot here where i live 2 new jails going up federal ones .You Would think thay would let out the none violent people and make them pay a fine and stuff but noooooo now thay going to start putting them to work some it probly will help but most just cheep labor.That changeing laws so fast here even the most law abiding human will be breaking laws and not know it.
In days of heavy movement activity, there was a companion who made the mistake of trading a six pack of beer in exchange for a stolen package of steaks with a teen age boy who worked in a grocery store. The boy immediately told his father, who relayed it to the cops. My friend got probation.
In order that I would be protected, I wasn't told when the group distributed anti war leaflets at the high school where I was teaching. My friend held on when a far right minded teacher grabbed his leaflets and claimed he had been attacked. The friend was arrested for aggravated assault but tried for breaking probation. I testified to what really happened. The teacher and another of like politic lied. The judge was awakened from sleep to pronounce a predetermined sentence, year and a half in a maximum security prison.
Things that go around, come around, and there was an encore. I was involved in a very successful research program called Hooked On Books in which problem students could study anything they want any way they want as long as they turned in one full written page per day. One girl, who suffered from recurrent epilepsy, studied witchcraft. She was sympathetic to the movement and hated the attitudes of those two teachers. Within a month, they both died at home of unexpected heart attacks.
Maybe there is something we're missing.
Zatikia,
That was a very interesting article.
The interesting part of this whole gulag economy is that people on the outside are convinced that these people are being rehabilitated and trained to hold a job in the prison.
But the sad truth is that once the prisoner's sentences have been served, it is very difficult for them to find jobs due to background checks done by all employers these days. Often an employer that hires ex-cons will not pay a competitive rate. This all increases the likelyhood that they are back within a few months.
HiTekVagabond
Friday, December 02, 2005
How The Camel Got Its Hump
Always striding toward honesty, I should say I stole this cartoon by Steve Bell from today's Guardian. The word "IRAQ" was added to the camel so Americans might peek through characteristic vain fantasy and comprehend its intended depth of meaning.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Posted By Roastedcoyote
We just finished up an election in my small city. I helped with all the democratic canidates, we won 5 council seats and the treasurer's seat. Only two republicians got elected so it's considered a victory. In my ward a young woman, Bridget Kelly, ran for and won her first election. She is a very progressive democrat and I am excited to have been a part of her efforts.
I've been busy with IBEW union business as a new officer in my local union. I was recently appointed to be a delegate to the Central Labor Council of the Greater Cincinnati AFL-CIO. It seems to me the more I show up to different groups the more involved I get. I'm on the board of directors of my city's democratic party and up for election this month. All of this has transpired since a year ago just after the US presidential election. I got a burr up am butt and decided it was high time to get involved.
I still remain very upset concerning the Iraq War and the current direction of the United States. Most days the news is so sickening it is all one can do not to run into the street and scream. We have indeed been screaming and it's starting to show in some of the voices we have in congress. When oh when will sanity return? It almost like living one of those drunken jags that has lasted for weeks and knowing it has to end soon but not having the power to do anything about it.
Anyway, it's nice to discover your new corner on the internet, I have you bookmarked and will drop in every chance I get.
Good to see you again coyote. Seeing the change that has taken place in yourself and others is what has kept me at this. I would rather be repeating a past in streets, bars, meeting halls, and front doors as are you and still many of my companions of old than throwing alphabetic pleas to the ether. Personal circumstances have taught that one goes with and adjusts their mode not only by what was but also by what is. If it weren't for those as yourself, I might take mine as no more that a selfish way of increasing the chances of going out at least figuratively on foot. You are a example of the meaning of this system as posted at the page top in that you are not only open to change but actively attempting to cause it. The first step in that is always changing oneself. You have and are. The important thing is that you are building experiences, and there is no telling where they'll take you. Who knows?, when I am long gone maybe you'll finally also similarly be reduced to adding something to that blog of yours. I hope to see more of you before then, particularly in the chat room.
