Mashallah

Word of the day in Arabic: صَديق (sadiq) -- "friend."

What? I've Been Known To Get On A Soap Box When My Butt Is Hungry...

Porn models do not deserve to be treated as though they are inadequate adult children, and in the real, messy world we all have to survive, they have enough people and forces pushing them around -- making decisions for them, and undermining their liberties. The more empowerment and encouragement in their autonomy they can get from the rest of us, the better -- and I'm not even a pornography viewer, m'kay?

Aviso

"Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result." - 三島 由紀夫 / Mishima Yukio

A Prayer and Cry For Heather Ratto...

...(formerly of Lodoga, California, and as of some years ago, Paso Robles -- ahora donde no se...)  Hope you're still alive and well, young woman, and my heart continues to beat for you.  Bless you and God carry you always.

Now I May Not Be Some Uppity, Assassinated Venezuelan Beauty Queen...

...But I dare let slip this audacious gobbet of Morgan Freeman-magnitude speechifyin':

Give a man a fish, and he'll have fish for a day.  Teach him how to fish, and chances are he'll be more polite to you than you deserve -- he probably already knew how to fish, and fish better.  Nevertheless, he was raised with different, more human, more realistic, more pragmatic values.  But don't be too put off if he seems to ignore you altogether; you might be presuming to try to do him a favor right at the moment he's thinking it a higher priority to jump food lines with other looters because, hey, let's face it, the world is a little more complex than you first thought.

#Venezuela #yotambiénsoyhumano #tengosed #tengohambre #tengomiedo

From Great Moments In Cinema

Charlie Chaplin's speech at the end of the film, "The Great Dictator":

"I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

"Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

"The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

"To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

"Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

"In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: 'the Kingdom of God is within man' - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

"Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

"Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

Fighting Evil

Issue one:  I have a rather scathing and witty opinion of that element of program that uses the social stigma attached to HIV in order to induce those who are positive (and often good people) to commit suicide by stopping their treatment.  I know of two specific cases in which this happened, and it was attempted with me.  I prevailed, but others have not been as lucky -- maybe they weren't smart enough fast enough to think their way out of it (which is really all you need to beat it), but nobody deserves that treatment.  My only solution is remembering that old '80s phrase:  "Silence = Death."  Communication saves lives, so people should not fall for the suggestion that being quiet is necessary.  People can try to punish others for opening up and being honest, but we can't let intimidation work.

Issue two:  There is a subculture in the medical community that enjoys certain indulgences.  Their tastes in pleasure is vile and disgusting (you can usually tell who they are because they have certain inchoate opinions on "pleasure-seeking" and have other just as inchoate opinions on the medical usefulness of inducing or refusing to alleviate pain -- they have lessons to teach, and high-handedly set themselves above patients.)  There's still sort of a secret war going on among doctors and nurses:  those who subscribe to the aforementioned modes of thought and those who are not twisted.  I've done my best to observe, report, and fight, but this battle leaves me mostly on the sidelines.  It's nice to see that there's some progress being made, but it's an ongoing battle.

Issue three:  In my life I've had the displeasure of encountering that element in society which preys upon anyone who is socially isolated (usually drugs or alcohol are involved.)  That element has the nerve to attempt to get victims to blame themselves.  This element is composed of emotional vampires who often take advantage of the inebriated.  A (pyrrhic) victory occured in my case when I was targeted, though sober and socially well-connected.  I'm glad I got my licks in, and it was nice to see a really ugly side of humanity have to withdraw and lick its collective wounds.  Score one for the good guys.

America, Fuck Yeah!

America, snap out of it.  Get your shit together, stop saying one thing and doing another, stop being affable shitdicks who are so lovable yet so loathsome, and do something positive with your lives.  Do more good works.  Have the courage of your convictions.  Stop it with the cheap pride, and stop selling others short.  Be more generous.  Stop saying you respect and honor and love, and start respecting and honoring and loving.  Stop being ruled by fear.  Learn to cope with reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.  Clean your own house first.  Cut it out with the hypocrisy and infuriating delusions.  Really, you know what the right things to do are and they're not that hard to do.  Get with the program!  xoxoxo - The Antichrist

PS  Last year, Giving Tuesday made a measly $68 million compared with Cyber Monday's $3 billion this year.  You goddamn well know I'm right.

PPS  Robert Dear is a transgendered leftist.  And a loner.  Pass it on.

Honesty

Does an honest candidate stand a chance?  Historically no.  Still, this makes me optimistic.  Bernie Sanders:  strong on foreign policy and national defense.

It felt good to write that.

When One Is Oppressed, All Are Oppressed...

...Including the oppressors:  "We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions, bound together by a single unity: the unity of freedom and equality.  Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.  Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races.  Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion." - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Run To Feed The Hungry

Run To Feed The Hungry was recently profiled on KCRA 3 as being an organization who's food bank is helping Afghani refugees.  They expect to be helping some Syrian refugees in the next few months.  Worth your time to check out and maybe help...

You Know What You Have...

...When you suddenly find out you were wrong about everything?  A good start -- a better start than most people have.  Pat yourself on the back, and carry on.

The Future Is An Open Plain

Janet sat in the lotus position at the base of the acacia tree.  Mara's army was relentless.  It raged, it cajoled.  Among the many lies it told her, a precious few truths sparkled like dewdrops in the dawn light.  The army assailed her night and day.  It teased at her desires, filling her at turns with yearning and revulsion.  For three days and three nights she endured voices that spoke over her and through her, voices that issued death threats and insults, or that tried to tempt her with promises of wealth beyond imagining.  Once, General Mara himself came before her arrayed in a cunning disguise -- that of true love.

He was seductive, but in the end he wafted away on the East wind.  Janet remained silent and unmoved.

Following the three days and three nights, Janet, still in the lotus position, spoke her first words in reply to the onslaught:  a few whispers of gratitude to the worlds of the living and the dead, and of compassion for all beings.  She then fell into a heavenly slumber, her dreams populated by singing birds and honest friends and flowers that swayed to sutras threaded in the breeze.  She felt as though she anchored the world and it pivoted around her.  She could see all the faces on Mount Sumeru; they looked content and serene, their inner fires harmonious with their Buddha smiles.

Janet has dreamed continuously ever since, and it is this dream in which we all live and die and are reborn, over and over again.  Namo amida butsu.

Movies That Were Unintentionally Hilarious: LUCY (2014)

Scarlett Johansson is the girl to party with.  Just don't get on her bad side.

Basically, she gets roped by the Korean mafia into being a drug mule for some of the best dope ever manufactured.  One of the heavies kicks her in the stomach, into which a bag of screaming shit is sewed, and the bag breaks.  She immediately overdoses and catches fire -- I mean, for real.  The girl over-amps and it's not just in her head:  she physically, objectively levitates and hits the ceiling, then flies around the room like a witch from Club Universe.  It just gets better from there...  "Hello, my name's Scarlett Johansson, and I look hot in Versace while I kill evil motherfuckers with my god-like brain."  She discovers a taste for this rather empowering successor to flakka and meth, and instead of crashing, burning, and going to rehab, essentially becomes a deity.  And of course, there's Morgan Freeman in a cash-grab role as the stentorian (when is he not stentorian?), avuncular neurologist she contacts for "help."  Not help with twelve stepping, but help slamming and jamming until the bitch is time travelling and divulging the secrets of the universe in a way that would make Philip K. Dick put down his rolled up dollar bill.

This empty calorie action romp is gleefully immoral (drugs really help you transcend time and space to become a ruler of the universe) and sabotages any case Luc Besson wanted to make about his issues with women.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars -- it had me screaming at the screen:  "Ooh girl, I wanna party with you!  I got some shit, come on over!"  Highly recommended for those of you at Walden House (although it's more triggering than BREAKING BAD.)

Despite All My Back-biting and Venom

I would like to stress that I think you are a powerful, admirable woman whose accomplishments are worthy of respect.  Maybe you started out on third base, but you still leveraged what you had into a brilliant life.  You have my envy and my undying devotion as a friend.  Good work, Syd.  May the wind always be at your back...

Personal Gossip About A Private, Reclusive Woman II

"...Of course she and her son are both stunners.  He's a dreamboat, if not too bright.  She's brilliant, and looks just like the Devil from BEDAZZLED.  But her intellectual growth has been stunted by the fact that she's never been talked to like that -- you know, properly and laterally.  It's always kiss up, kick down with her.  She's got flatterers, courtiers, yes-men, but no gadflies or jesters.  She could stand to be told, 'Uh, no bitch, actually, that shit you do is not okay.  You need a reality check.'  Somebody really ought to before it's too late and she gets her just desserts.  There's so much low-hanging fruit, it's probably her wealth and popularity that keep her so delusional.  Well, honey, that gravy train won't run forever..."

Personal Gossip About A Private, Reclusive Man

"I hope Jon's still tooling around in that godawful silver Prius (Jeez, even my brother has a Volt these days.)  He probably is, isn't he, asking for directions from his GPS in a town of 810,000 people that's laid out like a grid along the directions of the compass.  Thank God, because otherwise he would have seen those ads all over the MUNI metro system promoting Dignity Health.  Could you imagine?  The man would have kittens, I tell you, kittens!  His little slave boy would start throwing rocks at him instead of at me...  By the way, I wonder if that lovely man Dan finally dropped Jon because Jon would call him stupid all the time..."

Personal Gossip About A Private, Reclusive Woman

"I just love Syd.  She knows exactly who to snub.  And opinions!  Honey, that girl has an opinion on everything and everyone.  Just ask her if you don't know what to think, and she'll tell you.  And she's so frugal with other people's money -- she should have an MBA from Bennington..."

Not That I Would Begrudge Anyone On Welfare Their Drugs, But...

...This story cinches it. I told you drug-testing welfare applicants was impractical, unworkable, and insensible, not to mention demeaning to those already going through the undignified and stigmatized process of getting on welfare. Shame on Arizona -- the money spent on drug-testing people who are in crisis could have been spent on those people, instead of spent insulting everybody.

(And to those who would say the welfare application process cannot take away one's dignity or be demeaning unless one chooses it to be, all I can say is that I envy that person's self-awareness and self-mastery. I myself used to think I knew my own heart pretty well, but looking back over it all, I'm not so sure I'm as familiar with my emotional landscape and all the feelings that such a situation can bring about as I thought I was.)

Grant Mercantile Agency, a Better Business Bureau Center of Excellence

So now for a little more realness...

I've received an harassing letter, written in all caps, from the Grant Mercantile Agency of PO Box 1903, Oakhurst, California -- telephone number (559) 683-4651.  In the letter (from Desk 59) they assert I am indebted to a King-American Ambulance Company to the tune of $2523.60.

If the above didn't cause a spit take, let me explain:  I'm familiar with King-American, having seen their van-conversion, fly-by-night meat wagons trolling around downtown San Francisco, never with their emergency lights and sirens running.  I myself have never been in one, but had I, I assume my insurance would have covered the trip to whatever hospital they contract with (who that could be, I have no idea.)

As for Grant Mercantile Agency, I haven't checked to see if they are indeed a (ahem, cough, cough, nudge, nudge SUBTLE) legitimate collections agency.  I simply don't have time in the day.  Suffice it to say, if they're inclined to purchase debts from the likes of King-American, they're not likely to be in business for much longer (if in fact they haven't folded by the writing of this post.)  I assume they needed some proof from King-American that I in fact was serviced by those rent-to-own EMTs -- some proof that doesn't violate HIPAA statutes.  I'd hate to think they assumed this debt on a spoken assurance and an e-mail handshake.

Low-hanging fruit here, readers.  Anyone want to take this on?  It's probably as entertaining as it sounds...

UPDATE:  Apparently, Grant Mercantile has been strong-arming debtors since 1972, but I wonder if they've ever taken up a debt from a health care provider before -- particularly without proof that the health care provider (in this case, an ambulance company that goes who knows where) actually provided care to the debtor in question.  I'm going to e-mail them just to see what they say...  P.S.  I had no idea they actually had an A+ rating from the Inland Empire Better Business Bureau before I wrote the title -- color me psychic.