After a much needed hiatus, I have decided to pick this up again. 

Life's been happening.  I've been busy teaching, learning, and relationshiping, but this little sabbatical has been good for me.  I've come to this conclusion: the best approach to blogging is with the mind of a student.  I like to blog because it gives me an excuse to dredge up page after page of facts, opinions, and rants on issues I want to know (and blog) about.  Lately I've been missing that part of my life, so here I am again.

Critical Life Updates:

• The Girl dumped my sorry ass.
• Student-Teaching is half way through, next step: Middle School (AKA, the Asylum for pre-teens).
• Another rich, white, elitist is in the White House.  Color me shocked and awed. 
  

Speaking of which...

Hopes and Dreams for the next fours years:
(a response to KTOAB...)

• "Get out of Iraq fast. Do whatever is necessary in terms of quick ass kicking without having to worry about the opinions of the general public." - I agree.  Unfortunately I don't think this is going to happen shy of decimating entire villages - insurgents and civillians alike.  It can't be won, let's go home.
• "Less angry rhetoric. The chasm between those on the left and those on the right is huge and ugly. Blame the media and the in-your-face nature of the internet and bloggers." - YES!  Unfortunately, I think we're forgetting about the President himself who has only isolated himself from contrary beliefs.  Using Liberal like a four letter word is not 'unifying the country', Mr. President.
• "Fight terrorism where it lives and expand that fight if necessary." - Hell yeah.  Let's start with the terrorists inside Washington D.C.  Democran and Republicrat alike.
• "Make tort reform a reality." - Word.
• "Halt abortion as a form of birth control." - Fair enough, but for the love of God, give up on this debate.  The country's decided.  Let. It. Go.
• "Substantially reduce the massive national debt." - YES!

Personally..

I'll just settle for revolution.

 

but I think I agree with Kevin The One Armed Boy. 

Governor McGreevey is not heroic for coming out. 

In fact, I don't find a single commendable trait about this man so far.  Let's consider...

McGreevey appointes Cipel to a comfortable list of Aide positions almost out of the blue - liason to the Jewish community, New Jersey Democratic Party aide.  And then head of New Jersey's Homeland Security.  Qualifications include: reporter for Israeli and a published poet.  Unfortunately Cipel is an Israeli citizen and can't actually sit in on sensitive security briefings.  Very intelligent that appointment was.  And this is after 9/11.  After terrorists from Newark, NJ took two planes from Newark Airport and flew them into buildings.  Very well thought out, that was. 

Cipel declines, but McGreevey kindly keeps him on as a consultant, earning $110,000 a year doing nobody knows what (literally - they can't say).  Cipel leaves, and McGreevey helps him find a $120,000 a year job, and then a $150,000 a year job. 

And just one day before Cipel accuses McGreevey of sexual misconduct, McGreevey beats him to the punch, comes out of the closet, calls the affair consensual, and resigns.

All of this also nicely coincides with a federal corruption probe.  One of McGreevey's biggest contributors (and also the guy that got Cipel his visa) is being prosecuted for toying with a federal campaign finance probe.  Kusher lured a grand jury witness to meet with a prostitute, and then sent a video tape of the affair to his wife.

And, just to really make it juicy.  McGreevey has been identified as "State Official No. 1" in the federal indictment of David D'Amiano's extortion deal.  "The indictment, unsealed in Newark today, said McGreevey used the word ``Machiavelli'' during a meeting with the farmer. The fund-raiser, David D'Amiano, told the farmer before the meeting that McGreevey would use the word as a signal that the farmer's political contributions had bought influence with the governor, the indictment said."

It came upon me, one day, while walking with The Girl through The City.  That a lot of religious-political movements are remarkably Christian - which isn't news to anybody, being a Christian nation.  But so much of this comes out of the Old Testament, which is curious, because I would expect Jews to be just as vocal and loud and obstinant as their Christian counterparts.  But they aren't.

Maybe its just a matter of numbers, finance, and power - which the New Testament folk have in great abundence over their Torah ancestorship - but I think there is something more here.
So I run search after search on Jewish Creationism.  Some evolution vs creation high school curriculum debates, some crap, some incomprehensible writing, and a few good articles on a Judaic interpretation of the Torah (Old Testament).  And by now I am starting to think that I may be on to something here.  Change the language of the Torah from Hebrew to Latin to German to English, and meaning begins to rapidly change.  The intricacies of the Hebrew language are lost, the deeper literary significance disappears, and all you have is a literal interpretation that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.

"... the formulation of Biblical evolution called creationism, derived from the King James translation of Genesis, bears little, if any, resemblance to Jewish thought on the subject. It is a basic principle of Torah that every verse in the Bible has four levels of interpretation, an acronym for which is PaRDeS (Hebrew for "garden," and root of the English word "paradise").

1) "P" (Pshat) is its literal meaning and narrative intent; the plot or story line.
2) "R" (Remez) is the level of hint whereby peculiarities of grammar, spelling, syntax, and sentence structure indicate deeper levels of meaning and hidden interrelationships within the text.
3) "D" (Drash) is the homiletical level of interpretation where the entire Bible is understood as a metaphor for each individual soul's unfolding. Everyone has an aspect of Abraham that must be willing to sacrifice Isaac, every one must receive the Torah at Sinai, etc.
4) "S" (SOD) iS the secret, mystical or kabbalistic level of interpretation that hints to the inner worlds, angelic kingdoms, realms of soul and mathematical intricacies of Divinity.

"Translation can only access the first, or literal level of meaning. All others depend upon the subtleties of Hebrew and its weave of interconnections within the text. For this reason the Jewish calendar commemorates a yearly fast (the 10th of Teves) to mourn the first translation of the Torah. Thus began the possibility of its misinterpretation and trivialization by those who imagine that the narrative Pshat) is all there is, and presume to understand Judaism without a clue to the deeper levels of interpretation essential to its teachings."

More here: http://www.orot.com/ec.html

Stolen From Lorianne: Acronym Differences on the Net
"[Professor] Etym hopes the study shows the need for a national acronym standards body, so kids all over the country can communicate without confusion."  Proof positive that just because you teach linguistics doesn't mean you have a clue. 

Cafeteria debates on four day school weeks and hot lunch from Joe's Pizza every day just about summarize the entire political process for me.  Everything I know about democracy I learned in elementary school.  I learned that we all have some abstract civil duty to vote.  That only the elite (popular) kids ever run for election, or have a chance at winning.  I learned that free lollipops beat honest debate any day.  I learned that promises are meaningless -- people will say anything to get elected, and besides, student council representatives do not run the school, and politicians do not run this country either.

Power has always been inside the financial and beaurocratic institutions.  Politicians come and go.  Beaurocracy is forever.

So come election day, I don't vote.  Broken down to its common denominator, the national election is a cafeteria debate, or a playground squabble over who gets the new red bouncy ball.  Chaos ensues and somebody is always getting their skull bashed in with the damn thing anyway. 

And when I say I don't vote, I don't mean that I vote for Mickey Mouse, Mark Twain, or a Fickus plant.  I mean that I don't vote -- I choose to live instead.

Because as far as I'm concerned, voting is a meaningless activity which offers the illusion of public control.  Elections are not won by votes, but through the mechanisms and institutions surrounding the voting process.  Political parties.  Primaries.  Petitions.  Ballots.  Privitized voting registers and vote counters.  Does this sound like public control?  Does this sound like democracy to you?

There are other practical reasons for not voting -- Anthony Down's calls it the economic phenonemon of the 'free rider'.  Why pay for something you can get for free?  Why vote when you're party will inevitably lose or win (as the case may be)?  Why vote when you're going to get Ye Royal Shaft, irregardless of the name you punch? 

Some people don't vote because there are no politicians that represent their interests.  Third party candidates, while helpful in expanding the political debate to topics that neither party wants to approach with a ten foot pole, are not realistic alternatives. 

But for me, its really just the simple fact that I don't want to encourage a system that is fundamentally flawed.  I know voting is bullshit, so I don't bother.  The political power I wield is not measured by a piece of paper, but in the way I live my life -- the way I dance when I eat, or how I laugh too loud, the way I like to walk around without shoes, or keep a book in my back pocket when I am so inclined to read it.  My political power is a fist, a word, a quickening pulse.. and that makes me a very, very dangerous person.  Because I will never be satiated by a piece of paper, a lever, or a button.

If you want to participate in the cafeteria election, listen to the intelligent discourse at JibJab.com

Anarchist News: Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence.

What to expect: Chances to get to know each other and each other's work.
Discussions of strategy and analysis. Issue workshops. Skills trainings.
Banner making. Food, help with housing, and information you'll need for
the upcoming protests. At night, we'll unwind and enjoy the culture of
youth resistance as we drop beats not bombs. -- Excerpt from an Anarchist Listserv

August 28.
Saint Mark's Church
131 East 10th Street
Open 9am - 6pm.  Additional locations to be announced.

I wonder if The Girl will be interested in taking a field trip...

Alright, there is indeed some confusion concerning my last post which has spawned such intelligent criticism as follows:

"Don't be saying you're a buddhist. Buddhist don't fucking wish that an amendment that would liberate people more to not pass... go find another religion, you give buddhism a bad name. FUCK YOU"

and..

"GAY MARRIAGE. What are you, homophobic? YOU CRAZY SON OF A BITCH, why would you not want it to pass? Even though you may not be gay or a lesbian, think of the people who are. What I think of is a JERK and FUCK YOU!"

First, I'm not homophobic.  I absolutely, whole-heartedly support gay rights and gay marriage, something I have pontificated on at great length in this blog, if you care to search through the archives.  I really could care less who anybody's sexual partner is.

Alright, that's not true.  I care who my sexual partner is.  And I care who my sexual partner's sexual partner is.. hopefully being me. 

I think this confusion comes out of my wording.  I wrote "Gay Marriage Amendment: FAILED" when what I should have wrote was, "Federal Marriage Amendment: FAILED."  The Federal Marriage Amendment sought to add a formal amendment to the constitution specifically defining marriage between a man and a woman, and thereby void any legal marriage between same-sex couples.  There is no Gay Marriage Amendment.. I misworded, and figured people would just as well know what I was talking about.

On the positive side, its good to see people so passionate about their beliefs, and with such a strong aversion to intolerance.

On the down side, I think we really could have come up with a better discourse then "FUCK YOU!"  I mean.. really.  Am I supposed to believe this is the best literate human beings are capable of?

Sometimes I feel compelled to compare myself to other people, which is nonsense.  How do you compare an oak to bamboo?  You can't.  They're too different.  So why should I compare myself to anybody else? 

Other times I feel compelled to compare myself to myself -- who I thought I was, or I think I should be.  But if I think about it, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense either, because the person I am today is so different from the person I was yesterday, or the person I will be tomorrow.  Comparing Ryan-now to Ryan-then or Ryan-tomorrow is no different than comparing myself to an apple orchard, an ant, or the abstract notion of 'low'.

So then none of us really grow, or decay, or anything.  We do not make any progress at all, because that would imply we are the same from one moment to the next.  Or that we do not have in all the things that make us perfect, and whole, and unique. 

So then I get to thinking, that maybe we do not grow so much as we realize more or less fully who and what we really are.  Moments of lucid reality fluxate, wax, and wane with delusion.

Excerpts from a Bush-Cheney 2004 Ad:
"Freedom isn't free."
"Peace isn't pretty."

Excerpts from a Negative-Utopian Novel:
Freedom is slavery.
War is peace.

(Brownie points if you can actually explain the difference).

Quotes from a Topeka, Kansas protest:
"God hates Fags."
"God hates America."
"God hates people, get over it."

Gay Marriage Amendment: FAILED.
Muwahahaha! 
Did anybody seriously expect this amendment to pass?

Sherman Austin: FREED
Sherman Austin, an LA anarchist was arrested by the FBI under accustations of disseminating bomb-making information.  I could go into a whole rant about the bullshit political motives behind Sherman's arrest, but frankly, other people did it a lot better.  So if you care, go read their sites. 

cor·po·ra·tion  n.

1.  A body that is granted a charter recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members.
2.  Such a body created for purposes of government. Also called body corporate.
3.  A group of people combined into or acting as one body.
4.  Informal. A protruding abdominal region; a potbelly.   (How appropriate.. I mean you have to really appreciate the irony of the english language.)

"One hundred and fifty years ago, the corporation was a relatively insignificant entity. Today, it is a vivid, dramatic and pervasive presence in all our lives. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today’s dominant institution. But history humbles dominant institutions. All have been crushed, belittled or absorbed into some new order. The corporation is unlikely to be the first to defy history." -- The Corporation

I saw The Corporation with The Girl.  (Personal Digression: And how fucking cool is it to drag a body to some pinko-hippie liberaly progressive documentary at a not-for-profit independent theatre.. and have them go willingly?  Pretty fucking cool.)  Its as good as all the reviews.. and if you aren't the kind that normally affiliates with pinko-hippie liberally progressive movie goers, the reviews are damned good.  The kind of flick that should be mandatory for all business majors.  And while we're at it.. CEOs, Employers, Employees, and Customers too. 


Ringworm Dictionary

cor·po·ra·tion  n.

1.  A collective entity considered more than the sum of its parts, and therefore separate and distinct from its membership insofar as property, privelege, or responsibility.
2.  A soulless body with all the legal and civil rights of citizenship, that bears little to no responsibility for its decision making process, so far as those decisions produce a profit.

cor·po·ra·to·cra·cy  n.

1.  A caste of multinational corporations bearing such insurmountable wealth, influence, and power as to directly influence national and international politics, supporting despotic regimes, influencing elections, and manipulating the legislative process to create a market sympathetic for further profiteering.
2.  The modern ruling class.

Unrelated, Unpolitical, Un-Pinko-Hippie-Progressively-Liberal Quote of the Day:
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
--Albert Einstein

Listening to CNBC while I paint the interior of a cookie-cutter condominium in upper-class Madison, New Jersey, for an elderly animal-loving couple with leather chairs and a rug cut from the skin of a bear.. I can't help but think about this strange and incestuous relationship between business and politics. 

Big Business feeds political campaigns, so politicians can deregulate the market, so businessmen can make millions, run for office, and become politicians that get campaign contributions from Big Business. Ad infinitum.

I remember reading somewhere that the literal translation of Samsara is "to whirl about."

Samsara.  Sanskrit.  The Buddhist - Hindu concept that one is trapped in a continual cycle of death and rebirth. 

Quote of the Day:
Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell (1903 - 1950), 1946

On Another Note: Yeah, I guess this means my hiatus is over. 

Censorship Bill Turns Parents into Prosecutors

How many ways can a law go wrong?

They're comic books!  I think some people are wound just a little too tight, you know?  I can sympathize with the idea of safeguarding children, but really, I don't think this qualifies.  I think our children are a little too protected and safe-guarded as it is, personally.  We put so much value on censoring reality the our perspective becomes skewed.  Maybe we just never grew past our puritanical roots.  Or maybe its just me.  And after all, I don't have kids, so feel free to take this with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper.

Regardless.. using the law to justify moral values does not sit right with me.  Frankly I don't see why I need to impose my moral values on anybody else, and then back them up with a fine or a jail sentence. 

Nor do I understand our cultural refusal to accept personal responsibility.  If kids are buying 'dirty' comics, why not talk with the kid who bought it?  Isn't it his fault for buying it?  Did Marvel put a gun to his head, or implant subliminal buyme-buymenow messages?  Its the same mentality that wins a crazy old woman millions of dollars for spilling her coffee in her lap, overweight teenagers suing McDonald's for making unhealthy burgers (duh), and break-and-entering criminal suing the people they robbed for some silly accident or another. 


Other interesting news: Florida exectues a man that wants to die

My blog has fallen into disarray.  Look at it.  The poor thing, starved and neglected.  It was just another short week away from being regulated to the abyss of lost blogs and outdated personal web pages.  Alas, I am back. 

I've been busy with the necessities of mundane existence: work. 

And, of course, The Girl. 

The Girl still kicks immense ass.  And she kisses pretty damn good too.  

Political Mathematics:
Given: Even if you don't support the war, you have to support the troops..
Does it follow, if you don't support the resistence, you have to support the Iraqi fighters?

I'm just curious.

Fatkins: A Rant by Foamy