And Georgie Got His Gun.... back

George Zimmerman killed a sixteen year old kid who was just going home and agressively confronted him, and possibly, the kid tried to defend himself from the creepy ass cracker who was following him..   

George Zimmerman was acquitted.  And the court gave him his gun back.

His racist lawyer said he needs it because now he is more threatened than ever.   open seson on black kids....  or something...  scary.

Seriously, if that were here?  Well...  I've never wanted a gun, but am fairly sure the laws in ma countra would prohibit me from owning one...  And I'm fine with that.  We don't have crazy ass crackers going after minorities out on the square...  it would be a blood bath.  We did have one liquored up asshole backwater mountain guy stab and egyptian ....   once.   Some time ago.  We don't have a culture of violence...  

But we also don't get easy access to high grade weapons...  like at all....  

But Georgie got his gun back.  Here he'd have undergone strict psychiactric evaluation.  There?  n'yeh...  they just returned it to him.  Some people didn't find it a good decision.  I  wonder why....

LET him go out on a RAM-page,    And then they'll say... 'WHO WOULD HAVE SUSPECTED HE'D DO THAT???#

Yup...  Georgie got his gun back.  God help the people where he lives in the future, and oh!  fun fact.  He had a rap sheet.  His victim didn't.

How incredibly devastating...,.

I just learned of the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, and had been certain, given all I'd seen of it, and the intense discussions concerining it, that there would be at least a manslaughter decision, seeing that the murder 2 bar was set very high given the lack of evidence...   

That he was acquitted left me speechless for two hours.  Literally.  I hadn't written about the case before now, because I thought it would be a slam dunk for the prosecution.  

The verdict only proves that there is no justice for african-americans in 'Murka, and that the stand your ground laws only invite disaster.  

It's disgraceful.  But there's a lot of that going around these days, and not only in 'Murka.   

One of the interesting things about msnbc is that they have really increased their hosts with racially diverse backgrounds, and from them I get to hear points of views that I normally wouldn't not having contact personally, and that enriches the discussions people have.

Like the incredibly handsome and intelligent Touré on The Cycle, who can sound off about what it is like to be a young  black man who just by nature of the color of his skin is perceived as threatening , and he gets very vocal about how frustrating it is, or how he and his peers have to behave in ways that do not get them into life-threatening situations.

B ut it was the women who really drove home the results of what that verdict meant to the african-amercan community...  what to say to their children.  Melissa Harris Perry put it best...  she said they have two choices...  live in a predominantly black community where young people can die on the street, usually killed by other young blacks..  or live in a gated community, and even there...  like Trayvon Martin, they can go out to the local store for a snack, and end up  being profiled and killed without having been up to any sort of mischief.  And her frustration was so palpable...   ending with...  there's no place you can go where your children will be safe.   

That is a really damaging conclusion to have to come to.  But didn't surprise me.  The right will make George Zimmerman a He-ro...  but Trayvon Martin is still dead and the justice system in the US failed their minorities.

Disgrazia!  Disgraceful.

So Where Did YOU vacation????

I lurvs me the US morning shows.  Really.  They are anything but down to earth.  I watch college educated assholes who probably had C or D averages jawing on about affairs of the day, and spouting the worst nonsense I ever heard....   but hey...  they went to college, they're in the club.....

I don't mean to offend anyone who went to college because they theought they would LEARN something...  And possibly did.  There is a college trap...   

Let's think about this.  In my day, registration fees were two thousand dollars aq year.  That hardly covered living on campus so I knew some 'poor' people who commuted, and we arraanged to get to our lectures and seminars, and drive back to work 80 hour weeks to psay off our loans so we could finance the next semester, because......

We earned too much and thuis weren't eligible for a grant or scholarship.  The novel Catch 22 was popular back then.  You should read it.

The most wonderful thing that ever happened was when I got to 
German summer school....  oh msn...  2 semesters in eight weeks.  Wow, I was up for it, paid the fees....  only to find they hadn't included the dorm and cafeteria fees.  I was devasated.  Said...'Sorry, I can't come up with that money...'  And they told me to wait and held a conference, and whaddaya know...  I suddenly had a grant from the German government.  Just like that.

Kids in America are fasced with debts on .loans that are so high, it is unimaginable to me.  I spent nearly eight thousand dollars on mx so-called edumacation....  except the government nixed what I was studying, because, hey...  what Ami wants to learn a foreign language, so they didn't have it as a requisite to get into college.  

We never got taught economics.  That got dumped from the lower school curriculum in the Fifties, man....  they didn't want us to understand how we were possibly getting fucked over.

The year I was paying my tuition...  and workind eighty hours a week and trying to learn something...  I paid nearly rwice what a waieter in Austria made...  before tips...  and they lived ok...

No one ever held out a hand to help except the germans...  which was interesting...

So I get back into the rhythm of the news after the fucking loooongg break for the fourth of July, and everyone on these morning shows, who are so attuned to people...  but are in a sort of club...  went ON about where they vacationed......

OOOO...  the Hamptons...

I was in Nantucket.

I was in Cape Cod, but went to Martha's Vinyard for the first time...

That was stupiid Joe.  

But the most vapid of the morning shows, who thinks she has themes that connect with 'üeople'... No, we weren't in the South of France'-  Sje was om 10 Downing Street sittting in Winston Churchhills's chair.  And vistiting her ambassodor brother in 'Sweden...  who is doing a tremendous job!  Everybody'ss should have a life like hers....  except she is always unhappy and suffers from an inferioritys complex....  and because she grew up with every amenity you could ever wish for...  she thinks she cqan empathise with the plight of the average americaqn and chirp and twet and peep and be 'cool'

Why does a liberal chanel liek msnbc let thexse people on screen where you get so frustrated you want to scratch your eyes out?

And then I think of Peter...  except he spread the joy and the money and took people with us because they liked me or loved me.  So, Mika...  I haven't been anywhere in five years, nor can I afford to....

But I've seen Venice over two decades, and Genua, and Rome, and Athens twice, and the most beautiful island in the world Hydras, and the blue of the Mediterranean, and the excitement of Berlin especially after the Wall fell and that ensuing chaos..I sat in Harry's 'Bar in Venice in the 70's, and watched Truman Capote come in for the nien p.m dining sitting upstairs, with his coterie from New York.  

So they should just go fuck themselves, becauser it downt get you anywhere in life, it was a personal experience and they should get over it.  Just because they could afford it doesn't mean that it was more meaningful...  Some of my cheaöpest trips taught me more about life than anything the fenced off upper class would ever imaginge.  

They  really irritate me.

Ok.. I now admit I'm a news addict... yay..... and the world is nuts. and then comes the crash in San Francisco...

There was no news...  understandable... Murkins stare at their navel and celbrate their grandiosness....  (hold hand up....)  'But Egypt is erupting, and what does it all meeeeaaaan?'  Crickets till Sunday buster, and then the white journamalist who is so ENTITLED is gon  na get a whole lot of white old grouchy men in to tell you they know what's going on and explain it to you...  

Riiiiiight....

You get this entitled guy who is so out of it and has mostly only republicans on huis show..., because, xyou know they are in charge or something...  he's really gross...  And then you get the liberal channel breaking in in the afternoon, with sympathetic hosts who champion the right causes, and cheer on the left.   

Who's there for the middle?  Seemingly no one, but they are the ones who carry the country and the top tier is basically: 'fuck em'.

What I hate about being addicted to news is that I confuse it with a soap opera.  I'm ooooollllld...  And Fridays are sort of cliff hanger Fridays, like the old series they used to show before a movie...  Flash Gordon=  Oh yeah, I saw them in a retrospective...  awesome.  That dude was awesome......  really...  for the Thirties?  daring undrgarmentys...  but he'd never make final cut for the Chippendales nowadays....  

So on Cliffhanger Friday, we always get a crisis somewhere...  A congressman in trouble, another Rethug who said he went hiking and ends up with his mistress in South America, and she's SO FUCKING GOOOD...  he extends vacation and gets caught... but he's baaaaaack....  bless him.

Friday, Egypt was on fire..  dangersous stuff.....   interesting, how would the government react, hoq would the WUUURLD survive, because, hey, that's how they fucking sold it...

So over four days...   nada...   the Essence Festival in New Orleans, and there were some very serious topics covered...  so we got thrown a bone...  (salivate, salivate, get engergiued....)

It was interesting that those clips only got posted sunday niht late when no one was pulling it upß on the internets, but me being six hours ahead, yeah, I cautht it and said, 'oh, thanks for the crimbs you guys...  You put fucking braying jackass Joe up about ten minutes after a segment is shown.....

Sheesh..

So today is MONDAY....   oooooo....  I've been news deprived for over four days, and what happened Friday in Egypt and how is the US going to handle that?    

There ARE no cliff-hanger Fridays...   Egypt fucking DISAPPERED!   Can you imagine?  It's not what I saw elsewhere, but wow...  for the Murkins...  it doesn't exist any more....  That's better than a Houdini trick.

And what was the topic?  WOW...  the plane crash in San Francisco and the media whores pointing out that no major crash had happened in YEARS... (if you except that one ant that ont and that one, but hey, ehy were small planes, not zzz's....  (sigh... I luvs me some media whores...  smile)

And they want instant gratification.  'What CAUSED this?  I wanna KNOW!!  lIKE YESTERDAY!!!'

OK; let us get our panties otu of a twist, and some of you may need more time than others because theye is mor cloth involved.---

Personally?  Amaing that there was so little loss of life...  but I hate to think what the 186 injured are gonna have to indure... the news dosn't focus on that.... they need the STORY...  except they miss the story...  how will those people's lives be impacted.  How will they survive financially..  What will be the physical and emotional cost of recovery= Will anyone cover those costs?

Well, we never get that narrative...  in any sense of the word....

And THAT...  is show business....   always deflecting, never attention focussed on what is the subject or real, 'Oh, look shiny new object.  

I ahven't told anyone I grew up there in a long while.   It would be too embarrassing.  Rapacious, racist, supressive, repressive, b igoted, divisive, hateful spiteful, angry...   and #God help me....  if ther is one...  there are a couple of people I love there,   So what do you do?

It'w a dilemma...

I want the contunance of Friday's episode, because you can bet your bottom...  (who though up that term...  why would yo wanna bet your ass on anything...  and what would the winner want to do to it`?  Beat it?

They'll mess it up..  And on Halloween, I will go as Mr. Cahos.  

It might be a worthy goal.

Chilren and Art...

I had an interesting afternoon...   a friend dropped by and returned some videos.  And since the US had been devoid  of news these past days, I diverted myself by watching 'AouTube.  I wanted something cheerful to laugh about, so I typed in G'eorge Carlin, only to find out he died in 2008..   six months before Obama was elected.  There were many clips, but one in paricular which sort of summed up his entire view of the world qnd politics and religion and was outrgeous....   because what he said was true...  and that was nice...

I think it sort of shocked my friend...  not so much the profanity but the content.  

But one of his non-political themes sort of resonated with me.  Children in the US are no longer allowed to be children in certain circles.  The parents fight to get them into the best kindergartens at great cost.  Make playdates fot them for crissakes..   Children can not be children any more over there..  seemingly...  And parents here are also so overprotective...  I just thought...  I'm glad I'm not a child nowadays.

My parents weren't over-prtective...  they both worked, but they istilled some sense into us and there were rules....  be home at five p.m. for supper, and if it was summer,  before dark.  They never questioned where we'd been or what we'd done and we rarely got out of hand on our early years...  

I had a ro-mance with a young girl when I was nine...  as was she.  We traded notes at the VA club next door...  in a grate in the wall... very romantic....

That club was the center of much attention for us kids.  It had a huuuge hall where we could be onlookers at elegant weddings, and square dancing competitions, and on Saturday nights, we could watch the 'hops'  sponsored by the local radio, and my brother would hang upside down on a fence and was obsessed with counting who had the most petticoats going it.  It was the Fifties, after all.  Many took umbrage, and I had to get him out of trouble, even tho he was three  years ysounger.  

And yesah, we could get out of hand and go down to the LOWER corporation beyond the canal and run riot with the really poor kids and hunt rats in the millyards, where the kids were really Dangerously cool...  or something...  and did dare sou stuff like jumping onto moving trains.  

Or going onto the other side of Elm St and joining a gang for a day or so to help demolish the remnants of a house that was to Be demolished...   jumpin oon beams and just revelling in being destructive, because it was coming down anyway...  

Well, after two days of that without injuries, I decided it wasn't reallys my thing...   Instead...  four or five of us with meet under some bushes outside the Cancer Society...  and it was dank and cool in there on a summer's eveining...  and tell ghost stories or  tell all about the latest hooror film we'd seen and try to creep one another out...  till it got dark and we had to go home...

Later, when we were older, we'd join some lame-assd group and it was an excuse to get out once a week, but we didn't go to the meetings, oh no..  we cruised the main drag, and ate pepper steak sanwiches and smoked...  shocking.

And when we started working in the cinema, we met people from all sociqal classes, and made friendships which would last a long time.  And we's sit up till 2 a.m. and discuss the newest films, and it was so exciting, there were so many new ideas...  and we'd share our expieriences and find out that kids from the rich part of town had the same problems we did.  Which was sort of liberating...

Our parents ere worried we were taking DRUGS?  We were hveing marathon discussion about religion and how it had affected our families..   ooooo   we were such rebels....

A'lthough I was up to reading seven books a week at that point,,,,,  once an addict always and addict, and it was about new ideas...  i came into contact with other peers from diverse social strata, and that was a good thing.

So all the molly-coddling and wussification istn't EVAH gonna do any good, because if they do that...  the trouble they'll get into later is going to be major.

I'm glad I was let to 'rund wild'  because, hey taught me right from wrong but they gave me real freedom.  

Just sayin'

First the dogs....

Am watching Morning Joe...

Clips of the Arizona fires and that 19 firefighters died, and tragic...

And then there was a clip of this OLD guy who'd just lost his house...  and he said, 'First I got the dogs, then the wife... and then we lost the house.'

I went into complete hysterics...  for laughing.

And I thought...   'oh MAN, you'r priorities are really screewed up.'  And laughed so hard I could hardly contain myself.

It really says a lot about 'Murka.  And certainly says much about women's rights and how they are being trampled on.

I really think that guy had a prblem with is wife......

just sayin...

Filibuster

So...  juis before the weekend, the almost best filibuster EVAH was carried out by a texan lady with brass ovaries...  Wendy #Davis.  The coverage was awesome.

Not so awesome was the response of that half-witted entitlement Bush wannabe Perry.  Texas is so weird...  And he was so out of line with his personal counter attack, I'm sure he'll not get much traction out of his egregious reaction.

A friend gave me a present two days later...  a restored version of Mr.Smith Goes to Washington on dvd.  The timing was so ironic.  I hadn't seen it in over forty years, and it was from the golden year 1939.  

Needless to say, it became so timely when watching, I got goose bumps.  James Stewart has to defend himself at the end by staging a filibuster, which in those days was a rare and nearly unused procedure in the Senate.  

Although nowadays, all anyone has to do is say filibuster, and the process gets shut dwon, back then, it was dramatic.  It jmade me cry...   not because it was a moving story and is a masterpiece of filmmaking, but because of how relevant it is to today.  I would reccomend it to all who have an interest in history, and see how nothing changed, but indeed, became worse.  

Wendy Davis of Texas became the real-life James Stewart of today by standing up and giving the state senate bore than it ever bargained for.  Good on her.  I'm sure she'll go far.

Joe Scarborough is not a racist or a bigot....

I've been cogitating over the past few days about the horrendous supreme court ruling on the voting rights act.  And I was right...  they saved the DOMA and Prop 8 decisions for last to deflect from how bad that decision was...  

So let's begin with a short story.  In the 90's we had groups of US tourists mostly from the US, who stayed on one of those whirlwind tours they so like.....  visit ten countries, fly low over five others and     you have seen the world sort of things.  And one evening one of the UK tour leaders who liked me said, come join us, they'll love that your from America.  So I said ok., and she introduced me to a rather regal looking lady who was from 'Tennessee, and said, 'He's American too.'   (I still was, at the time)  And she asked, 'Where y'all FROM?'  And I named a northern state, whereupon her visage underwent a remarkable changed and her eyes practically spit sparks and she hissed:  'Damned Yankee!'  She was a senior citizen.  I was taken aback, and said, 'Well, I can't help were I was born', and excused myself and went back to my desk thinking, ''Wow, over 100 years, and it still is there...that hate.'

That anecdote is the crux of my point in this post.

Now, I listen to Joe Scarborough's 'Morning Joe' often, usually doing something else on the computer, because he irritates me totally, and his cohort Mika is so clueless and entitled and snobbish, I would throw something at the screen if I were only to watch it.  

Over time, I know he is self-deprecating and usually has a sort of inferiority complex because he 'only' went to the university of Alabama, but the way he does it is telling when he has his white privileged class guests who were at Yale and Havid...  and he's brash, and yet...  he has a good heart, and he engages in good causes that really go opposite to what you think he would support.  

I think he is somewhat mysoginistic, but don't know how much of that is for show....  I know he was in congress and had the time of his life and was very conservative, but he is one of the few who can present an idea which even I would agree with, which would make it interesting if I would ever meet or have a conversation with him...

So on Friday, that man's head EXPLODED when he had people on his show who were critical of the shutting down of the voting rights ammendment.  He was close to an aneurism, and felt he was being accused of being racist, or bigoted.   

And the discussion went so badly, he really nearly lost it.   

On the first listening, I thought   'What is his PROBLEM?'

No one had intimated anything of the sort.

I was so surprised, I listened a second time while I had a game on since I don't have to actually SEE him...   and there it was...

More than once he referenced living in the Northeast and how it GALLED him, this condescending attitude and I believe the phrase 'the north having their boots on our necks' and treating his part of the country as racists and bigots.  Or maybe I dreamt it...  But it wasn't the sort of thing I might imagine.  

And there it was, my 'AHA!' moment.  We're back to the goddamned 'War of Northern Agression' and the feelings of anger and hate and humiliation that got passed on over generations.  

And the truth of the matter is:  it all had nothing to DO with what has been egregions in voter supression in the US of late.  At least not directly, not as I see it.  It's a fucking game they play.  As in 'How to Win DIRTY.  So you change the rules of the game to get your candidates in, and you don't fucking care how you do it, you go in to win....  

That is the real crux of the matter.   So you make up rules to make the opposing side not want to vote, or make it difficult for them to vote, the main goal is getting your candidate in.

I don't think that the fact that the people who get the short end of the stick are poor, or minorities, or even racially motivated.  At least not most of the time.  But the fact ist... people who vote for democrats  usually are minorities, or very poor.  And that is a sad staste of affairs...   but I do not think they are thinking race first....

They'd target any other sort of demographic if they think it would serve their purposes.

Actually, he came up with a good idea.  Make the preclusion laws valid for all fifty states, because let's face it...   as is, the supression problem is rampant all over the place.

So no...  Joe Scarborough is not a bigot, he is not a racist.  He's a human being, and even has some very likeable qualities despite me finding him abrasive, and fights some good fights.  But I think he is a good man who passionately defends his positions, and so deserves my utmost respect.  I wish others of his party were half as human as he is.  It would even lead to sensible discussion.  Maybe....