Aviso

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

Well, Yeah, I Have A Good Idea of Who Hates Me and Why...

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

The Hollow Man's Advice Column: "On Professionalism"

Q.  "Is it acceptable to use the term 'reach out' in the workplace?"

A.  It is only if you're a member of The Four Tops.  Otherwise, absolutely not.

Peripheral Stupidity Agency II

I really don't have the patience to sit here and listen to what you think are your image problems.  I mean, you guys have had decades to perfect the racy, scintillating art of perception management.  But here's the thing:  you get too much into that, and you start to look like a whore...

This Probably Hurts Coming From Me, But When Hasn't It?

Fringe?  Paranoid?  A seemingly schizo delusion?  Too many episodes of the X-Files?  Perhaps.  But would it be surprising if true?  I mean, this is the same agency that attempted mind control experiments on U.S. civilians culminating in the defenestration of some poor soul who was tripping on LSD in the 60s, much to the chagrin and schadenfreude of the hippies.  Can you really put anything past them?  Even if this Disclose.tv story is so much conspiracy theorist confabulation, utterly bunk in it's details, my familiarity with history compels me to explore what could be a kernel of truth in many people's ideas of what the government may plausibly be up to...

It jibes with what we know of the mindset of certain subcultures within the intelligence community.  Of course, most people when considering a secret time travel program the CIA might attempt to implement, they'll assume the worst:  weaponization, overreach, unethical applications, et cetera.  But even if their intentions are benign, it's still somewhat sad and pathetic.  (When will the intelligence community and the military-industrial complex ever come to terms with the inarguable fact that every concrete application of scientific exploration and research inevitably improves and diminishes the human condition at the same time, and that scientific visionaries are not resources to be exploited by those whose intelligence is inferior, and whose responsibilities do not really exceed national security and petty scheming, no matter how large the scale of that scheming?  But I digress...)  Humanity isn't at its best when impotently yearning for what it cannot but misremember, and for what never was as we think today it used to be, or when it spins its wheels fantasizing about what could have been and what ought to be yet isn't.

Who among us hasn't at times longed to go back and choose differently if we could only have known then what we know now?  Even I have (I hope harmlessly) frittered away time in such a way in my youth.  But the hours and energy spent doing so in my humble opinion would be better and more effectively harnessed in pursuit of making whatever use of what we can remember and do no more than remember about the past for the sake of what could be the optimal future an accurate assessment of now can help us work towards.  If life hands you lemons, is it really worthwhile to strive for some pie-in-the-sky plan to go back in time and refuse them in favor of some unknowable options (while, as such scenarios inevitably have it, ignoring the law of unintended consequences), or do we just make lemonade in the here and now?

As I understand it, there are as often put forth by physicists (with plenty of heated argument) three theoretical ways in which time travel could be accomplished, but I see no point in exploring them or possible scenarios in which they could be realized.  The power in going back in order to choose differently is an illusion, a mirage, a pipe dream.  The real, attainable power, mastered by so many individuals every day around the world, lies in coming to terms with what is so as to arrive at what we hope can be and what ought to be -- what cannot but be.  But of course, this wouldn't be the first time humanity, particularly the federal government, has wasted untold millions or billions, has taken so much time -- years -- that could be better spent, and crushed its own feelings and others' lives, to attempt and predictably fail, when it could have much more cheaply and quickly simply practiced acceptance.

Oh, well.  If the poor timing and outlandish expenditures are good enough for government work...

"The past is a place of reference, not of residence." - Willie Jolley

"What a blessing it is not to know the future." - Me

I Asked Someone For Spare Change and Was Told To Get a Job

Thank God at least one of us was using his brain.  No wonder he's where he's at and I'm where I'm at...

"It’s called Housing First, because 'You have to have a home first. It’s pretty hard to solve your personal problems when you’re living under a park bench.'"

(I can't believe this approach is revolutionary, and yet of course it is.  All these degrading and mortifying programs that society persists in implementing from San Francisco to New York, programs modeled on first "fixing" what's wrong with people, and that people in need must be forced to change their maladaptive, undesirable behavior before they've earned the privilege of housing -- a mindset many unthinkingly share and assume we should all just go along with -- these programs have always put the cart before the horse, and in addition are highly ineffective and counterproductive.  An imperfect socioeconomic system, economic inequality, and institutionalized prejudice and injustice are the main root causes of poverty.  It is pointless and monstrous to blame poor choices made by the poor.  Paternalizing, uninformed and arrogant meddling, and human inertia among those in a position to render aid cannot continue.  And by the way, homelessness is the problem of those who are homeless but would rather not be -- it is not the problem of people whose ill-considered aesthetics, inexcusably fragile sensibilities, and inability to cope with reality are offended insofar as they perceive and are aware of the homeless; the latter group has real problems that are best addressed by swift kicks in the ass.)

Disillusionment and the Singles Scene

I would create a Tinder profile, but it seems my job title, "Apparent Victim With A Twist" isn't "hot," and won't get me laid.

(Of course, it's still better than the poorly paid -- except in awkward sex, regrettable drugs, showily patriotic lip service, and hollow thanks -- position of "Ex-Marine," right guys?)

Thank you, SFGate, for another display of journalistic ineptitude, the contents of which give me every reason to be appalled at humanity and the myriad ways it can fail itself...

Dignified Responses

When I was subject to whatever that program was during the last few years since 2009, one of the explicitly spoken imperatives was to me, for me to "be a man about things."  My response?  "Does that mean to shirk, complain and whine?"  It took a while, but I stopped hearing that one...

The Company You Keep

Your mama always told you:  if you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.  Personally, I don't know why anyone hangs out with Frank Haros.  That's a surefire way of getting your shit fucked up.  He has cost people their badges.  He is bad news.  You're better off just hanging out with me.

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.

The Inferior Sex

I've been accused of objectifying men, which is ridiculous:  Men love to be objectified.

I've been accused of manipulating men to my own aims, which is ridiculous:  Men are for better or worse ruled by their cocks, and so am I.

If you're interested in a date, I like them rough, nasty, no-necked, tattooed, and possessing fucked-up teeth.

But truth be told, I like all men, I don't care how much of an asshole, douche bag or troglodyte you are.  All comers are welcome.  I can't wait to pull off my Penelope act...

Myanmar

Honestly, how in the hell could little old me have had anything to do with that?  I mean, you've been watching me the whole time, and I've been ever so good and perfectly under thumb.  If anything, it's your fault.  Prove that I did that.  (Neener, neener.)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The time is always right to do the right thing."

Ping

I guess it's getting close to that time...

Squaw Creek Inn

Ron turned up the volume on the bar TV.  It was his favorite show, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and one of his favorite episodes, the one about the colony of Indians who settled on the planet Dorvan V.  In the episode, Wesley Crusher has a vision during a sweat lodge session in which he sees his father and chooses another, better path in life.  The bar was empty save for William, who was high and toasty on well vodka.  Ron was hip to William's drunk, and since it was just that, put up with his commentary.

"Jesus, Ron, could you imagine us on that flying freakshow, the USS Enterprise?"

"No.  I guess I've tried, but I can't."

"Picture it:  'Computer, please locate Ensign Wesley Crusher.'  You know what?

"What?"

"Crickets chirping, that's what.  And if you'd pressed her, she would have lied, because Majel was a good wife and treated Gene better than he deserved.  That computer, like every other sentient being aboard the Enterprise, loathed Wesley.  He was that precocious whippersnapper everybody prayed would die.  And I think he's the only redshirt who didn't.  (Probably because his mother, Doctor Beverly Crusher, was scarier than a Cardassian in-law at your holodeck wedding.  She was a horrible physician, and malicious.)"

"William, I like this show."

"Oh," continued William, drunk and so far oblivious,"but Deanna Troi was the worst:  'Captain, I think he's hiding something.'  I can't for the life of me figure out why no one just came out and said it:  'Damn, Counselor Troi, you want to know the truth?  We all rein it in around you.  Everybody has something to hide.  Bitch, give the man some privacy.'  She was the most terrifying member of the Enterprise crew."

"So, you headed home?"

"Yeah, I can't watch this shit.  That ship is scary."

William knew he had been 86'd and wobbled to the door."

"Oh, and one more thing, Ron."

"Yeah?"

"Never get quarters with a window.  That's just asking for a heart attack..."

Dad

Reason for visit:  Acute Respiratory Failure

Medical Problems:

• Chronic respiratory disease
• Chronic a-fib
• Hyponatremia
• Chronic, continuous use of opioids
• Anemia
• Acute respiratory failure
• Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia
• COPD exacerbation
• Atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response
• Encephalopathy
• Sepsis
• Alcoholism
• Decreased urine volume
• Coagulopathy
• MRSA bacteremia

Doesn't sound good, does it?  And he's only 67.

Project For A New American Century

Well now it's a New Kenyan Century.  Good work, George Bush Radio.

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..."

I Guess I Don't Understand How The World Works

I was watching a promo for that new show, "Mr. Robot," when I heard the following:  "...A coward who can't face the truth"; to me, that line made no sense.  A coward who can't face the truth is to me just a shrewd person who is blessed with foresight and options the rest of us are denied -- someone worthy of admiration and envy.

I guess television doesn't really work for me unless it's the decrepit, rotting spectacle of Morley Safer creak, groan and wheeze under his own weight.