Today's Pix

Some Tunes

Grapefruit Juicy Fruit --Jimmy Buffett




When The Feelin' Comes Around --Jennifer Warnes

Thanksgiving Poem

Kopis'taya (A Gathering of Spirits)
by Pueblo and Sioux writer Paula Gunn Allen

Because we live in the browning season
the heavy air blocking our breath,
and in this time when living
is only survival, we doubt the voices
that come shadowed on the air,
that weave within our brains
certain thoughts, a motion that is soft,
imperceptible, a twilight rain,
soft feather's fall, a small body dropping
into its nest, rustling, murmuring, settling
in for the night.

Because we live in the hardedged season
where plastic brittle and gleaming shine,
and in this space that is cornered and angled,
we do not notice wet, moist, the significant
drops falling in perfect spheres that are certain measures
of our minds;
almost invisible, those tears,
soft as dew, fragile, that cling to leaves,
petals, roots, gentle and sure,
every morning.

We are the women of the daylight, of clocks
and steel foundries, of drugstores
and streetlights, of superhighways
that slice our days in two. Wrapped around
in plastic and steel we ride our lives;
behind dark glasses we hide our eyes;
our thoughts, shaded, seem obscure.
Smoke fills our minds, whiskey husks our songs,
polyester cuts our bodies from our breath,
our feet from the welcoming stones of earth.
Our dreams are pale memories of themselves
and nagging doubt is the false measure
of our days.

Even so, the spirit voices are singing,
their thoughts are dancing in the dirty air.
Their feet touch the cement, the asphalt
delighting, still they weave dreams upon our
shadowed skulls, if we could listen.
If we could hear.

Let's go then. Let's find them.
Let's listen for the water, the careful
gleaming drops that glisten on the leaves,
the flowers. Let's ride
the midnight, the early dawn.
Feel the wind striding though our hair.
Let's dance the dance of feathers,
the dance of birds.

hat tip = The Rude Pundit

Today's Toon

Happy Black Friday, Everybody

Because only in USAmerica Incorporated is it considered a time-honored and almost sacred tradition to trample each other trying to get into Wal-Mart less than 24 hours after we gave thanks for what we had the day before.

You go, America - all the world looks to you for your inspiring leadership.

OK - Maybe Just One

1. "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion."

2. "Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape."

3. "Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a 'disposable' culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new."

4. "Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system."

5. "Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples is reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence."

--Pope Frank

I don't put any credence in it just because the guy happens to be the pope; I put some credence in it because the guy happens to be right.

(I said I was takin' a little break - not crawling off to die)

Break Time

Call it burn-out or fatigue or I-Just-Can't-Take-This-Shit-Right-Now, or whatever.

I'm off for a bit.

In the meantime, gitcher headphones on and enjoy some Paul Simon (from One Trick Pony).

Late In The Evening




How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns




Nobody




Oh, Marion




One Trick Pony

Make Me Wanna Holler

Inner City Blues --Gil Scott Heron

Today's Pix

Today's Toon

I don't much care for removing some of the safeguards that're supposed to help a democracy function - and I'm pretty sure the filibuster was intended to ensure that the minority's right not to get pushed around was properly looked after.  Of course, that was when (we think) there was still some honor in politics, and when the point of the exercise was to do a little thing we used to call "governance according to the outcome of recent elections".   But when it becomes clear that the minority is gaming the system, and abusing the power, then something has to change.

We do need to remember that these changes cover Executive Appointments, and Federal Bench Appointments - but not SCOTUS or Legislation.  So Little Mitchie can go right along fucking up his own part of Da Gubmint all he wants - he just won't be allowed to continue metastasizing his fuck-up-ed-ness to the other branches; which is kinda how it's supposed to be, innit?  It's set up to compartmentalize the power in order to isolate the damage any one guy or one faction can do to the whole thing.  Oooh - Checks-n-Balances; what a concept; maybe we should write that one down somewhere.

And isn't it interesting that "conservatives" spend so much time and effort complaining about how they think brown people (eg) are always exploiting their status as a minority to gain special rights and privileges, but they can't see the same behavior in themselves when they're the minority in question?

Then again, maybe they do see it in themselves, and they just project it onto the nearest target of opportunity, hoping we won't notice something a lot more important.  Ya think?