Style book- Orwell was prophetic.

David Bowie  sang 1984

, who could ask for more? Apparently, the Associated Press thinks we need more words to replace illegal immigrants, and they have a guide called style book. Perhaps bland or mind-numbing would be apter adjectives.  This latest attempt to alter the USA immigration debate is taking us down   a path in which we will be afraid to call a spade, a spade.  Yep, I said it .

Bowie used the word fag in a number of songs in the 1970's and 80's . Scream like a baby

Patti Smith  tried to re-define nigger in the late 1970's as outside of society in the song : rock & roll nigger

 Fast forward: Today it seems that you must be a member of the group you are commenting on and possibly deriding. Black rap bands freely use the word nigger. Gay have tossed the term fag around forever, but today it's homophobic for straights to use that term in the sports arena or anywhere else.

Freedom  isn't always pretty but it's worth a little pain. This over-sensitivity towards another's feelings is the first layer of the concrete of repression.

I lost count of how many times gays snidely refer to straights as breeders, but that's allegedly ok  cuz they're a minority. BTW,  it didn't make me run to a law office to sue.

Add more examples and I'll return to continue the discussion


4/24/13   Many of the tunes on the Honi Soit album were about dealing with military action. I think Cale is using the word- nigger- to describe a fellow struggler who happens to be dark. Artists often strive to not be limited by how others define words.

Like lovers below Bataan, below the senses
Cause the senses smell of tears
While we and nigger marched

Wilson Joliet by John Cale


08/14/13: Be wary of orthodox thought. In 1984, Julie, a  member of the Junior Anti-Sex league, was promiscuous.  The do as I say not as I do crowd knows no shame.

Liberals promoting bad public schools while sending their kids to the best private schools.

Federal politicians exempting themselves from the nightmares of ObamaCare(less)

11/18/13

I had to mention this: Patriot News in Pa retracts a Nov 19, 1863. editorial that panned the Gettysburg address. Really? What does this prove? Can we retract everything ever said and/or written?  http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/15/us/gettysburg-address-editorial-retraction/index.html?hpt=us_c2

11/27/13

off the air: Balwdin learns that cocksucker is an anti-gay slur
on the air: Bashir suggest someone should crap in Palins mouth
MSNBC retains Bashir  and cans Baldwin.

Even Orwell could not have imagined MSNBC.

3/21/14

Add Ergodan  to the  Orwellian club. here's his comments on shutting down Twitter to cover his corruption.

"They will see the power of the Turkish Republic. This has nothing to do with freedom-shmeedom. Freedom is not invading someone's privacy."

3/27/14

Delay now means accommodation according to the BO Care team. Orwell turns over in his grave again.

4/15/14

Ergodan's clampdown on Twitter includes   wanting them to pay more Turkish taxes. Did Orwell foresee that angle?

5/14/14

right to be forgotten is this the right to control or rewrite  history. strange ruling since Google linked but didn't write the original story don't google me

7/21/14

So Ergodan thinks Israeli's barbarism has surpassed Hitler's? Watch out Turkish citiznens,  Ergodan is intent on   runninjg secularists to the ground and making Turkey an Islamic state again.

7/27/14

Interesting  op-ed .  Elif Shafak   I agree the Turkish pledge was a bit  strong, however I never felt my  individuality was strained by the USA Pledge. The rest of the article enlightens.

The Prime Minister tells us that every Turkish woman should have at least three children while the government talks about the need for creating a "new, pious Muslim youth."

9/22/14

Turkey is being led further away from secularism by Ergodan. Is an Islamic state coming to all their neighborhoods.

10/8/14

This thread  has been Turkey- topped lately, but the level of dis-information from Ergodan's crew rises daily. Most folks sense their action are  more about the demise of the Kurds than ISIS(L). link

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said that Turkey was doing "whatever can be done" for Kobane.
He said that it was a "massive lie" that his country had done nothing for the town's inhabitants.

Mr Akdogan: Actions speak louder than words.

12/16/14

talking Turkey again. Ergodan arrest members of the press, blames it all on Gulen, and gives the middle finger to the EU.Yep , he's a secularist .:wink:  ergodan

1/19/15

As Turkey moves closer to a theocracy and clamps down on the press, a local newspaper in Turkey has started filling its front page with recipes with satirical titles such as deputy's finger. link

2/8/15

don't call ergodan average or you could face jail time     link

2/26/15

Four young people were arrested in four days last week on different charges of insulting the Ergodan during street protests this month.  link

4/23/15

Ergodan is as close to elected dictator as one can get.  link

• During Mr Erdogan's time in office (Prime Minister 2003-14, President from 2014), 63 journalists have been sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison, with collective fines of $128,000

4/24/15

Cartographic aggression. I'm no fan of Al Jazeera but  is this too much

 India has taken al-Jazeera off air for five days, claiming that it had shown wrong maps of Kashmir.

5/22/15

Yes, I think Turkey is a key player in themess in Syria & Iraq. Ergodan's domestic power grab may fail, and his regional mess is being exposed. link

 Turkey's state intelligence agency helped deliver arms to parts of Syria under Islamist rebel control during late 2013 and early 2014, according to a prosecutor and court testimony from gendarmerie officers seen by Reuters.

6/8/15

Big day for the Kurds and finally a bad electoral day for Ergodan. turkey elections

 The vote turned on the historic performance at the ballot box of Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which aligned with liberals and secular Turks opposed to Mr. Erdogan’s leadership to win almost 13 percent of the vote, passing the legal threshold for earning representation in Parliament.

7/28/15

Turkey bombs the Kurds in northern Iraq while ISIS rolls on. No coordination

8/18/15

Could the three other parties, CHP, MHP, & HDP, form a new Govt w/o the AKP. Tension increases in Turkey. link

10/4/15

The gun control debate stirs more statistical  juggling  and shifting than last minute fantasy football roster  moves with that in mind I offer this from John Cale's song Magazines:

What wouldn't be lost if loud men diedMagazines of gun

Take it any way you like

10/11/15

 The BBC gives a variety of angles on the problems in Turkey. Here's one point that nabbed my attention: hdp

 The pro-Kurdish HDP party has blamed the state. That is undoubtedly a reference to the so-called "deep state" often talked about here: a shady mix of nationalist forces either colluding with or supporting the government in power.

10/30/15

Ergodan raids press offices just before  more run-off elections. Hope the Turks vote against the AKP Sunday. press crackdown

“They have their own version of reality,” she said of Erdoğan and the ruling AKP. “An Ottoman dream, a palace. Erdoğan and his world see anyone opposing that reality as a threat. Even the tiniest criticism is perceived as a threat.”

12/30/15

Free speech can be expensive .   Naji Jerf, 38, a vocal critic of the so-called Islamic State,was shot with a silenced pistol in downtown Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. jerf

2/10/16

what's happened to san diego- why did they consider it? link

San Diego backs off ban of 'gender-biased' term 'Founding Fathers'

5/3/16

Ergodan practices repression domestically but the EU wants to allow Turks to travel without visas to Europe's passport-free. Schengen area. EU is desperate and won't make Turkey  follow through on less repression.

5/28/16

Turkish news has dominated this blog because Ergodan has turned the country into a restrictive theocracy. Now they're pissed that US special forces in Syria are wearing insignia of Kurdish militia. Mostly they're doing it to blend in. Plus  the Kurds have been our ally warriors in Iraq  & Syria while the Turks have twisted in the wind. yes, I know the Turks and Kurds have a bad history.

5/29/16

 Memorial Day weekend and  I recall  a Navy vet of the  Vietnam war telling me that he was sent to Cyprus after Nam, and it felt crazier because both sides were shooting at us. Turkey responded  in July 1974 to a coup led by Greek Cypriots.

7/15/16

Ergodans's theocratic dictatorship has  led to a  military coup in Turkey. Military has stressed:  “All international agreements are still valid. We hope that all of our good relationships with all countries will continue.”

7/30/16

Ergodan is whining about the world not liking him after he suppressed a coup. His clampdown is in full effect as he marches Turkey toward a theocratic dictatorship. Meanwhile he  withdrew  all lawsuits against people charged with insulting him. Now there's a man who understands democracy-LOL

8/2/16

Must be clampdown season: Police in Zimbabwe arrested ,Victor Matemadanda, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, in a growing crackdown on critics of President Robert #Mugabe after a series of rare protests.

9/30/16

Orwellian nightmare goes on and on. It blows my mind that #TheSlants, an Asian -american band,  have had to  fight for five years to get a  SCOTUS hearing to acquire a trademark for their band name. Meanwhile bands ,#Yellowman, #redman , etc are trademarked.  Too much "sensitivity" going on. 

10/19/16

Some folks are standing up to the word police. Malaysian Tourism and Culture Minister #NazriAziz slammed the ruling by a Malaysian religous government body that  hot dogs must be renamed,  calling it "stupid and backward".

"Hot dog is hot dog lah. Even in Malay it's called hot dog - it's been around for so many years. I'm a Muslim and I'm not offended,".

Let's focus more on these Muslims with some common sense

10/31/16

#Wilders in 2014 wanted "fewer or more Moroccans" in the Netherlands. After supporters chanted back "fewer", he replied: "We'll organise that."Now he faces hate sppech charges in Schiphol, Holland. Hope this crap isn't headed to the USA.

11/16/16

Major problems in the world but don't call the dictator fat.

Chinese websites are censoring "Kim Fatty the Third", a nickname widely used to disparage North Korean leader #KimJongUn,

12/5/16

I watched a little bit of #christinehefner 's comments during the a symposium on #LennyBruce and was glad she stressed the way to deal with what you may perceive as insensitive comments is MORE SPEECH.

12/27/16

Ergodan is a dictator: A judge on Monday remanded in custody a cook, Senol Buran, who is alleged to have told police he would not serve President Erdogan a cup of tea.

1/8/17

Return to #Orwell:

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." 

2/8/17

To #Ted Koppel: Just a reminder about real, not imagined, attacks on journalists: #Turkey is currently the world's largest jailer of journalists - with some 150 behind bars.

3/13/17

#ergodan  wants to run Germany and Holland and the world. Hope the #turks don't give him more power.  He just helped #Wilders chances in the upcoming Dutch election

"Netherlands 'will pay the price' for blocking Turkish visit-Ergodan"

4/23/17

My Earth day sign "remember #Anglia U emails" when the "hockey stick" scientists were caught hiding  results that didn't fit into their global warming agenda. #Orwellian

4/28/17

Orwell 101: #Ecuador fines several media outlets for not covering a left wing report, " #Lasso: the offshore tycoon", . Can't make this sh^t up!

8/20/17

#ergodan is issuing Interpol "red notices" to nab his critics, and #spain has obliged by arresting #Akhanli who will have his day in a Spanish extradition court. 

9/19/17

#ergodan wants to rule the world . The Turkish government criticised German authorities for allowing the #PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan’s posters to be unfurled and group leaders’ messages to be read out during the rally in Germany.

10/15/17

I wonder what #orwell would think of this : Health professionals in England are going to ask patients aged 16 or over about their sexual orientation, under new NHS guidelines. The rationale:
 "no patient is discriminated against" and gays, bis and trannies will receive  better care. This is not an ONION report.

10/31/17

Give #ergodan a halloween mask of  Mussolini, Hitler,  Stalin, or name your dictator. 11 #AmnestyInternational chiefs on trial. in #Turkey

11/14/17

Fashion designer #Lagerfield criticized #Merkel's open door for migrants policy and said the word Holocaust on a French radio broadcast, and now may be investigated by the French media regulators. More #Orwellian everyday. 

2/2/18

#ergodan 'sTurkey gets scarier daily. Turkish authorities  ordered the detention of 13 people for supporting the national medical association online  opposition to a military campaign in Syria.

5/6/18

 About time:The White House on Saturday criticized China’s efforts to force foreign airlines to refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as part of One China, labeling China’s latest effort to police language  as “ #Orwellian nonsense.”

5/9/18

#australia :  Rockhampton Regional Council painted over a Taiwan flag on a student art project in deference to #china not recognising Taiwan as a country.  #pathetic

6/28/18

I haven't seen #Hollywood saying  FU to #ergodan In Turkey where Kurdish-German singer #HozanCane was arrested  on terrorism charges. Some the evidence includes a scene from a movie that she directs and plays the lead role in, which depicts  genocide committed by the "Islamic State" group against the Yazidi minority in Iraq.

8/9/18

"Being pro-west and pro-NATO is a big crime in Turkey now." from Former Lieutenant Commander #CaferTopkaya who skipped out on house arrest in Turkey and landed in #brussels.  

8/12/18

Turkey 's currency the #Lira is in deep trouble and here's  their leader #ergodan 's answer  "They have the dollar, [but] we have our people … and Allah."

8/17/18

More than 1,000 employees of #Google have signed a letter demanding that the company come clean about an alleged secretive search engine  in the works for #China market that would ban information related to human rights, democracy and religion. So some folks at google have heard of Orwell! 

9/28/18

Adding some words to  a billboard attached to a truck at the #Berlin airport: #ergodan lands in Berlin (with full military honors), journalists land in prison.  #turkey #merkel

1/8/19

 #macron plan  to ban yellow-vested "troublemakers" from participating in demonstrations, similar to the way football hooligans are banned from stadiums has #Orwell turning over in his grave.

2/7/19

I'm guessing that #orwell would chuckle that seventy years later the #BritishCouncil would apologize for rejecting his essay, Defence of English Cooking, because it was "unwise to publish it for the continental reader". At this point , why bother.

3/18/19

 #macron considers banning protests on Champs Elysees. His knee-jerks again

3/20/19

#ergodan reaction to the Christchurch, NZ terrorism was to warn anti-Muslim Australians that they would be sent back in coffins like their grandfathers at Gallipoli.(world war 1). It looks as if there is no middle ground.

4/1/19

#ergodan 's AKP  suffered some losses in local elections and here was his newspeak reply: "perhaps his party could not express itself enough to some voters."

5/13/19

Dictator and Theocrat  #Ergodan rolls over foes: His #AKP party lost a mayoral  election in Istanbul so they're running another one, and #Demirag,  a journalist, was beaten up after moderating a TV show that discussed the new election. Also, German-Turkish journalist #DenizYücel claims he was tortured while being held in pretrial detention at Silivri prison near Istanbul.

6/5/19

More revision of history. It's one thing to remove statues , but dead bodies? 
Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a Socialist, want to move #Franco 's remains on June 10 from his current resting place at the Valley of the Fallen to a public cemetery near Madrid claiming Spain could not "continue to glorify" the former dictator. The Supreme Court has delayed the move.

6/15/19

 The Catholic Church is giving into the Orwellian revision of history. Bishop #Irarrazaval in Chile resigned  for  commenting “we have to respect that” about  no women being seated at the table at the Last Supper.

6/24/19

#EkremImamoglu of the (CHP) secured 54.21% of votes in a re-run of the Istanbul Mayoral election in May. #ergodan must be seething.

8/7/19

  A Turkish court  banned 136 websites and social media accounts mainly those belonging to organizations and people critical of President Erdogan's government.
 Brazil’s Supreme Court rejected a request for the extradition of Ali Sipahi, a businessman and owner of restaurants in Sao Paulo and an opponent of  #Erdogan, stating there was no guarantee he would get a fair trial in Turkey.
 8/19/19-  #ergodan the Turkish dictator replaced three Kurdish  mayors,who received 60% of the popular vote with state officials in three cities and then detained more than 400 Kurds for suspected militant links

04/04/20

How about Comrade #Cuomo seizing ventilators from folks in upstate NY who prepared for tough situations to assist areas around NYC  that didn't prepare and calling it sharing. Paging #Orwell

05/17/20 

 Laetitia Avia, the French MP behind an online hate speech law that will force platforms and search engines to remove prohibited content within 24 hours starting July 1, has been accused of  homophobic comments and apologized for using the expression “the fags’ amendment. Paging #Orwell

6/25/20

Finally, a little common sense: French constitutional court scrapped multiple provisions of an anti-hate speech law on the grounds that it violated the constitution. And as expected #Avia won't , "give up the fight to protect Internet users, victims or witnesses of online hatred."

03/12/21

After #VíctorObiols completed a  Catalan translation of Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb last month, Viking Books requested the work to be carried out by a female activist with African-American origins, if possible. Part of Obiols reply: 

"But if I cannot translate a poet because she is a woman, young, black, an American of the 21st Century, neither can I translate Homer because I am not a Greek of the eighth century BC.

6/30/21

#LinkedIn made a trade-off to accept Chinese censorship when it entered China in 2014 but still keeps making this claim: the company supports freedom of expression.  The most recent Communist Chinese dragnet was a deletion of entire profiles instead of individual posts.

12/19/21

You can't make this sh^t up. Julia, a feminist re-telling of Orwell’s novel 1984, has been approved by the estate of the late author. I guess the character Winston got too much ink and/or they don't understand the book 1984.

10/29/23

EU warned X, Meta, and TikTok over Israel-Hamas dis-information. When did the EU become the sole arbiter of truth? What the he!! is illegal content?

 

Cale-mut carcasses- variety pack

Jospeh Heywood's novel Red Jacket of the the labor unrest that led to the Italian Hall Disater of 1913 in Calumet , Michigan has been an  amusing read  despite some of the gruesome events because the main character Lute Bapcat, ex -Rough Rider, ex-trapper, then game warden, is a well developed  character.  Lute was an orphan and his name was short for Lutheran/Catholic/Baptist. It's disturbing to read the coal mine operators were  possibly hiring men to kill deer  and let them rot so the strikers would have less food options.  I'm midway through the book and haven't discovered if the operators were guilty

I'll mosey along to one of the starker images in  a rock & roll song. "They sleep in each other's nests like maggots in despair," from John Cale's song :

Strange times in Casa Blanca

A tune by Elephant's Memory Mongoose

shortened life cycle theme over for now

3/26/13

I finished Red Jacket yesterday. The final third of the book felt like a quick scramble to finish. Apparently, a slightly retarded  character was encouraged to scream beer which was misheard as fire and led to the stampede. Bapcat and his LEO cohorts were unable to make a solid legal connection between the "deerkillers" and the operators.

5/21/13

  How Michigan would be if the Brits had won the War of 1812  and extended the Canadian boundary further south? Siege of Detroit-1812

10/11/13

 My reading compass guided me in the direction of Canada  again, but I detoured in the fictional small town of New Bremen , Minnesota. I've enjoyed the Krueger's Cork O'Conner mystery series but his  growing injection of gun control sloganeering into his later novels was irritating. His latest effort , Ordinary Grace, is a stand alone centered around the family of a Methodist minister and WW2 vet, Rev. Drum. The narrator is his oldest son Frank  as he looks back to 1961, the summer his oldest sister Ariel was murdered. His mom 's lack of interest in God but devotion to the church choir was one one of many aspects that had me wishing for more background on her character. For my blog readers who like music, piano playing and singing were integral parts of the novel.

11/2/13

I just finished the book Black Irish by Stephan Tulty  which described smuggling IRA soldiers  in the trunk of the car over the USA/Canadian border at Niagra Falls in the 1980's, and I started thinking about how much of our vast northern border allows for free movement. I'm referring to unpaved ground.

12/22/13

I  watched a PBS program on the 1913 copper strike and saw Steve Earle covering Woody Guthrie's slightly inaccurate folk tune 1913 massacre about  the Italian hall disaster in Calumet. The show pointed out that the strike failed but Congress  was influenced to pass some legislation favorable to workers.
http://www.pbs.org/program/red-metal/

3/2/14

This entry is getting a lot of hits. I had another chuckle about the name Lute Bapcat. My German language teacher in high school used to call me RC (Roman Catholic). Of course, he was a Lutheran. I've lapsed.

7/5/14

Baltimore is gearing up for  a September celebration of  the 200th anniversary of FSK writing the Star Spangled banner. Brits  were damn close to  some revenge for the American Revolution defeat. Re-read the link on 5/21/13 post.

9/27/14

The latest  books, Tamarack County and Windigo Island, in the Cork'Oconnor series have been disappointing. The O'Connor character  had a more balanced approach  to the relations between  the whiteman and the native American earlier in the series, but now I feel like he's ready to make the NFL Redskins drop their name..  Cork's son Stephen has become an official mythological seer. It's time for Krueger to re-adjust.

12/17/14

I'm behind on this bureaucratic Detroit /Toronto battle over the bridge :

Ambassador Bridge, the aging Windsor-Detroit structure that handles nearly one-third of Canada-U.S. trade.

4/11/15

It may seem mundane but this private vs public bridge battle intrigues me. link

Before anyone gets to thinking that a new Detroit River span to rival the 85-year-old Ambassador Bridge is as good as done, Manuel (Matty) Moroun still has some legal cards to play.....has argued that the congressional act creating the Ambassador Bridge amounts to a franchise right for spans over the Detroit River.

12/22/15

This issue remains on my radar and it appears that falling concrete can't speed up bureaucrats. link

 Last week, officials in Windsor closed some streets under the bridge, saying chunks of concrete fell from beneath the 86-year-old span posing a serious danger.

2/20/16

Catching up on bridge news. The new bridge, Gordie Howe International Bridge, is a planned bridge and border crossing to be constructed across the Detroit River. When all else fails turn to hockey.

5/22/16

Mountains of the Misbegotten, #2 in the Bapcat series, looks to be a good one. The UPI region near the Michigan /Wisonsin border was /is treacherous.

6/18/16

A blurb  about the USA/Canada border in the this day in history section of the June 15 print edition of the Baltimore Sun stirred my interest. What is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and large portions of British Columbia, had been under joint occupancy- imagine that.  We (USA) settled with the Brits on the 49th parallel on June 15, 1846 because we were facing a poosible war with Mexico on our southern border.

8/27/16

Headed for Hampton VA for our annual cousins' fantasy football draft and we may take in a Norfolk Tides game this weekend, too.  Here's a memo from the war of 1812.

“Virginia . . . hangs onthe fate of Norfolk”—Gen. Robert Barraud Taylor on the Defense of Norfolk, 1812–1813 

10/23/16

I started this blog about the UPI and have meandered to Virginia.
Oct 19, 1781: #Cornwalis surrendered at Yorktown
Oct 19 1864: Union General #PhilipSheridan averted a near disaster in the Shenandoah Valley when  scored a major victory that devastated Confederate General Early’s army at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.

2/7/17

16 #plainsbison have been  reintroduced to Banff National Park in Alberta.
They were delivered by truck.

2/21/17

Read a few pages of a thick biography on #HenryClay and learned he played a big role in blocking the Brits from having access to the Mississippi River as a part of the Treaty of Ghent. Clay may have disliked #johnadams, his negotiating partner, more than the Brits across the table.

3/24/17

A story that won't fade away. #ambassadorbridge subsidiary Canadian Transit Company is being sued by homeowners.Windsor won't repair dilapidated homes or allow them to be demolished. Love  explanations from residents of the area.  ambassador bridge

7/22/17

Well, they still haven't started the #gordiehoweinternationalbridge but #trump and #trudeau

want 'expeditious' completion of Detroit-Windsor bridge

8/29/17

I know museums are careful how they display history, but  the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown's brief post  on #cornwalis ' career after his defeat at #yorktown still has me puzzled. I paraphrase: he eliminated corruption in #India.. Overall, it's a solid museum.

10/18/17

#quebec gets it. Part of #Bill62  will  stop provincially subsidised childcare services from offering religious education.

2/24/18

City of Ice, a crime novel about Montreal cops in the late 90's , by Trevor Ferguson , aka John Farrow, was both riveting and frustrating. Some situations were explained ad nauseum  while others were resolved in a sentence. The book was dedicated to #danieldesrochers, an eleven-year child killed by a bikers bomb in 1995. Cinq-Mars, the central character, was a bit too all-knowing. CIA conspiracies had me shaking my head.

3/27/18

Seeking #canadien input :  Apparently a waiter, Guillaume Rey  in Vancouver was fired for being too direct with co-workers.  I love his  explanation

" I'm not rude, just French"

6/19/18

 How will the Trump/ Trudy trade spat affect the #gordiehoweinternationalbridge  ?

8/21/18

A woman  questioning his  #trudeau 's open door policies,  asked whether he is tolerant of the "Quebecois de souche" (old-stock Quebecers). And Trudy replied "your racism has no place here." Clearly Trudy lacks tolerance  and may want to be careful piercing the French "wound" .

11/9/18

#Canada offered opening its dairy market to the USA in trade talks. The debate in Canada is: Was it a concession or compromise?

1/4/19

Will a  citizen petition to Congress  to give Canada back the #NorthwestAngle (part of Minnesota) located near Manitoba.gain traction?

2/28/19

Is Trudy in trouble in Canada? Former Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould testified that "the prime minister asked me to help out, to find a solution for SNC, a Montral based firm accused of bribing officials in the Libyan government under strongman Muammar Gaddafi between 2001 and 2011.

3/31/19

 On the tape, Wernick,Clerk of the Privy Council,  told Wilson-Raybould that the prime minister "is determined, quite firm," in avoiding criminal prosecution of "a signature Canadian firm".  Trudy's  #SNC dilemma worsens.

4/29/19

# dike bursts, and flood waters threaten #montreal and #JustinTrudeau highlighted the need to make infrastructure that was "climate resilient." Hey, I ain't making this up!

8/26/19

Another trip  to an area, the Jamestown Settlement, rich in history, and I watch  a video that labeled  #nathanielbacon, a lower class rebel  who disliked the Native Indian tribes, but I read a few of the posted information displays outside the mini theater and discovered Bacon was a property owner and his 1676 rebellion  was part of a bigger power play funded by William Drummond, a one time govenor in Albemarle County(later part of NC)  against Royal Colonial Gov Berkeley. The trio at the core of the battle had some "issues".

9/18/19

Back to Canada:  #CameronOrtis , a civilian cyber security guy in the #RCMP , faces a combination of charges which  imply he's been hacking  and/or stealing sensitive info through digital networks and passing it along.

9/19/19

#trudeau 's  re-election campaign was rocked by the bombshell report, first published by Time magazine, which Trudeau didn't refute,  that he wore "brownface makeup" as part of a costume at an Arabian Nights-themed party at a British Columbia school where he taught 2000-01.

1/8/20

 The Palace will respond to reports that #MeghanMarkle and Prince Harry are planning a move to Canada.

3/4/20

  Between Dec. 20 and Feb. 21, up to 20,000 of Tim Hortons app users saw their balances and rewards vanish and the company has been slow to address the issues.

May 14, 2020

 Calgary Zoo in Canada is sending two giant pandas back to China because it's unable to get enough bamboo to feed them. Bamboo makes up to 99% of their diet.

Jan 30, 2022

 Since I've visited Hampton, VA nearly every year since 2010, I've noticed the news that Hampton U was moving upward from the Big South to CAA in sports, just a few years after exiting the MEAC, a small black sports conference. Great to see the Pirates' move but please stop shouting about the plights of HBCUs. Opportunity calls and some answer.

Feb 8, 2022

Trudy shut down the Ambassador Bridge and a Canadian judge bans truckers from honking.

Vetting at Jim Carroll's Zoo

I went back and reviewed some thoughts I forced out (May 11, 2011) immediately after finishing Petting Zoo by Jim Carroll. I may re-read it and add or subtract  opinions.

 

Michael Jackson's compound ? No

 Allusions or references to his teenage years getting blown for dollars in  male  public bathrooms. However, the main characters, Billy Wolfram , 38 year-old  painter /sculptor who had sex once in his life and that occurred during his last year on earth.. Interesting use of moving ahead then back to the recent past. Sometimes it felt like he banged on the same points, too often which reminded me of Mailer's final book.  The Castle in the Forest which was his version of Hitler's childhood. Does getting old mean one has to analyze a point to nullity (borrowing a Henry Miller line here)? Here's how  I jumped to a Nazi reference: I looked up wolfram or tungsten and found it was an essential material for armament production that Spain secretly traded with Nazi Germany during WW2.

I started thinking about the  a line from Tragically Hip song  38 years old: "38 years old , never kissed a girl."

The Catholic claws left permanent marks on the  basketball poet and the raven watched from his sill as he  slipped to the floor and died.

Kerouac and Carroll died clinging to Catholicism while fully aware of  human follies.

Gotta believe in something, many say.

I read a few tweeter-like reviews in which folks were looking for more stories about  1960-style drug deals, gay bathroom sex , and other  fast-paced action from the Basketball Diaries. Many folks (including me) were stunned he lived almost 60 years (1949-2009).

One passage from Petting Zoo that caught my attention was the character Billy Wolfram feeling  a sense of comfort watching 1950's TV re-runs while fully aware of how unrealistic they were.

11/21/12

 I  recall seeing Jim C chat about his poetry and literary friends in the basement below a jazz bar in Baltimore in the late 1980's.  As a friend and I were hurrying to be on time, my foot made contact with a scurrying rat on W. Preston St 

3/20/13

 After reading Patti Smith's Just Kids , I sensed that Mapplethorpe's artistic fervor was inserted into the character Billy Wolfram. Just a guess. wonder if JC ever considered writing an essay on the changes in basketball since his playing days in the early to mid 1960's.

7/28/13

 I wonder what words  are on Jim's tomb:  It's too late

11/24/13

Above tune entered my skull when I read some foolish lass wanted to marry Jailbird Manson

12/20/13

From Carroll's song Jody: 

Jody, are you still hanging with that latin? With rabbit fur inside his wheels? With his Gilbert Roland piece, And his glove department deals

1/19/13

JC's blue collar roots came through on it's 7/28/13 linked tune:

they're so decadent til their daddy's money from home is all spent 

2/16/14

I watched part of the Basketball Diaries movie again and it gets lamer each time. De Caprio as Jim C -poor casting choice

7/6/14

Listening to  Robert Palmer sneakin sally this morning and a line from Jim Carroll came to mind

Its when the sneak thieves are checkin, They're checkin the alleys for unlocked doors

11/17/14

I doubt if Patti Smith will cover Jim's Catholic Boy at the 2014 Vatican Xmas Festival

"redeemed through pain not through joy"

3/28/15

Dynel Catrece Lane  attacked a pregnant woman and cut the baby from her womb.
Chuck Manson's crew stabbbed and shot a pregnant Sharon Tate in 1969.
In a 1970's tune, Leaving it up to you,  John Cale's  sarcasm  got to the point:

I know we could all feel safe like Sharon Tate

6/20/15

I was leafing through The Petting Zoo and this line from Billy nabbed my attention.

"These graffiti artists main concern is maintainng a contrived attitude, which only limits their parameters, restricting both their art and themselves." 

This could be said about many vocations.

8/2/15

JC would've been 66 yesterday so I revisited the Catholic Boy tune linked on 11/17/14

5/30/16

paraphrasing a Jim Carroll line "they were all going to the Vietnam protests to get laid"

9/10/16

When #JimCarroll slid off a chair and died on 9/11/09 folks said to me "he lived that long." Despite many years of "stick them needles in your arm" (from Lynyrd Skynrd tune) he made it to 60. #paregoric baby #catholicboy

11/5/16

NYC will hosting both  #hillary and #trump post-election gatherings on Nov 7, and I doubt if this #jimcarroll tune about Manhattan will be played. city drops into the night

4/15/17

I suspect some folks view #jimcarroll, a minor poet and or lyricist, but I woke up with his line from the song Day and Night: "Remember when . . . I watched her on the stairway
She was drinkin' wine..." chanting through my cranium.
Some young singer should cover this tune.

5/4/18

Re-reading some #jimcarroll quotes and wondering has a contrived attitude become more essential than actions and words.

8/31/18

Lines from #jimcarroll s " city drops into the night" reverberate

I'm just a constant warning to take the other direction, Mister, I am your connection

6/28/19

 I don't recall meeting a gal like this one in #JimCarroll 's tune Three Sisters:  "But she just wants to lay in bed all night /Reading Raymond Chandler"

11/30/19

 It would have been interesting if #Tarantino had included songs from #Johncale and #jimcarroll in his latest movie which references #sharontate  .   "It's too late to fall in love with sharon tate" from Carroll ,and "we could all feel safe like sharon tate" from Cale

6/27/20

Since Antifa wants to cancel almost everything, maybe their next chant will borrow a possibly, humorous line from the late Jim Carroll's tune Wicked Gravity.

9/11/21

 re-listening to a "I want a world without gravity" and went to the dictionary:  parvenu- one that has recently risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige associated with it.

10/23/21

#jimCarroll (1949-2009) In the late 1980s, I recall hearing a variety of opinions on him from "he's still alive" to "he's strictly a minor poet." From time to time I skim through his works and appreciate some solid lines however, the question I would have asked him if I'd 'bumped' into him after seeing him talk at a basement club over thirty years ago: Did you cross paths with Lew Alcindor(Jabbar)(1947-) on the NYC basketball courts in the early 1960s.

Jan 26, 2023

I thought of Jim Carrol's lyric "it's too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate" when I saw this today: Sharon Tate would have celebrated her 80th birthday on Jan. 24, 2023. And that in 2013 some woman wanted to marry Jailbird Charley Manson whose cult members murdered Tate.

Aug 12, 2023

"sky over Jersey-that sky starts to drain from view" Jim Carroll. Gets me thinking about NYC!

Feb 9, 2024

"The voices, He hears the voices" lyrics come to mind listening to Biden sputter.