All Sing!

Today is Saturday, 24 October 2009.

Of Sophie

Today is Thursday, 22 October 2009.

Sparing you sad specifics:

Two days ago,
We rushed my beloved Sophie,
Dachsund, small and black,
With mighty opinions, well-voiced,
To the vet, suffering from a protozoan illness -
Protozoa encover the world.

Happens to all mammals,
Including thee and me.
They live on our hands.

It was grim,
sparing you sad specifics,
but she is well.

Frequently, surely, I have since heard, in the voices of
The washer, the dryer, car sounds on the street, the clicks of heel upon the floor,
Birds in the air,
Everywhere,
Her voice of astonishing range and versatility.

“Where are you? I’m here.”

Tomorrow, she comes home.

How narrow, the zone of life.

The voice of all the living, the dying:
"Where are you? I'm here.
Come soon.
Please."

In Memory: Clif

Today is Monday, 12 October 2009.

Clif S. G., dear friend of HH and Ms. HH, best friend for 57 years of Ms. HH's father, this date died, aged 95. Born a few days before World War One commenced, once thought to be The Great War.

Chemical engineer, holder of 18 patents. B.S.E ’36, M.S. ’37, Ph.D. ’65, all University of Michigan.

Lieutenant-Commander, United States Navy, in World War Two.

Generous to those in need. Witty and funny. Boon companion.

Though his body aged, his mind and heart were always young.


"Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest".

-HH

In Memory: John and Che

Today is Friday, 9 October 2009.

On this date in 1940, John Lennon was born.

On this date in 1967, Che Guevara was assassinated by Bolivian soldiers. The best evidence indicates the murder was ordered by CIA.

The Museum of the Bourgeois salutes them.

Presente!

W. Bush and Polanski

Today is Thursday, 8 October 2009.

Some figures in the arts argue that Roman Polanski should be relieved of further legal jeopardy in the rape of a 13-year-old, on the grounds of his cultural contributions.

Others decry this position as elitist.

The latter public figures are frequently, if not usually, right-wingers of an anti-intellectual, nekulturny bias. Their argument might carry more weight were it not for the fact they almost always oppose the prosecution, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, of those such as W. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc., on the grounds that the latter were Great Leaders Doing Their Duty.

Elites, anyone?

Everyone knows that an inevitable concomitant of war, since the beginning of time, is the rape of women of all ages. Why should the political elites be issued a free pass, and not cultural elites?

I’m frankly undecided if Polanski should be extradited and jailed. On the one hand, his victim says not, because, for her sake and that of her family, she wants it all put behind her permanently. On the other hand is the question of the example set for other potential child rapists. There is no easy answer which satisfies both needs.

However, certainly, if Polanski is to be put in the dock, he should be joined by W. Bush and company, gleefully and proudly responsible for far more heinous crimes.

Afghanistan + 8

Today is Wednesday, 7 October 2009.

On this date in 2001, eight long years ago, the USA/USE conquest of Afghanistan began.

Afghanistan is in worse shape now than then, thanks to W. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and thousands upon thousands of Republican supporters, all eagerly embracing a Napoleon complex, and too early fitting themselves for crowns.

These thugs wanted to conquer Afghanistan swiftly and on the cheap, then conquer Iraq, turning an ocean of sand into just another lake in the American Empire.

Thus, the Republicrimes economized on American troops, and hired the criminal gangs of local warlords to do the heavy lifting.

Now, actual power in Afghanistan is divided among the American military, the Taliban, the warlords, and the fantastically corrupt “government” of Hamid Karzi, the man who would be capo di tutti capi.

Meanwhile, the Afghan people suffer ever-increasing levels of poverty, misery, and violence.

Obama must publicly acknowledge this reality, and make decisions based on it, and not on lies about “fighting for freedom”.

Meanwhile, the Afghan people and the American military suffer mightily for the profit of mafias.

Open for Bidness

Today is Tuesday, 6 October 2009.

New Federal Trade Commission rules to take effect on 1 December will require all bloggers endorsing products to disclose all compensation received, including free samples. While MoB hasn’t yet endorsed much beyond anarcho-socialism, we keep an open mind.

Blandishments we might enjoy: a 1959 Jaguar (with complete pre-paid upkeep plan), caviar (the pound-a-month gift plan), autographed ("HH - you betcha! you steam my snowmobile windshield") advance galley of Going Rogue (please bind in fine Corinthian leather), estate jewelry for Mrs. HH (1950 and earlier), Caribbean jazz cruise tix (master suites only, please), tons of gourmet cat and dog treats, global peace and justice (best of luck finding a vendor), cash (note to Ben Bernanke: for a little $timulu$, I’ll dump all over Alan Greenspan) … You get the picture.

If I’m to sell out … well, this ho don’t come cheap, know what I mean? And yes, expect me to bite the hand that feeds me. But then, “I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you correctly spell the name of the product I'm flacking”, as they say on Mad Men.

Sputnik Day

Today is Sunday, 4 October 2009.

On this date in 1957, Sputnik 1 began orbiting the Earth, the first human artifact to do so.

Here's a recording of its transmission:


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The Museum of the Bourgeois congratulates the Panhellenic Socialist Movement on its resounding victory in the Greek parliamentary elections.

We Were Boomers Once ... and Young

Today is Saturday, 3 October 2009.

On this date in 1955, Captain Kangaroo debuted.



A Boomer reference:



The column title is a reference to Hal Moore's book about the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, 14-16 November 1965, We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young.

On this date in 1942, a V-2/A4 rocket, launched by Nazi Germany, became the first human artifact to reach outer space.

Olympic Shame

Today is Friday, 2 October 2009.

In Brazil, at least 25% of the people live below the poverty line in misery.

In Brazil, at least another 25% of the people live hand-to-mouth in misery.

The government of Brazil has chosen to piss away billions of dollars of the people’s money to provide the First World the chance to party at and profit from the advertising orgy of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Shame on the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula, you have decisively abandoned the values which once caused me to support you. Once progressive, you are become regressive.

Shame on Barack Obama, who squandered perhaps $2 million of the people’s money in a pathetic attempt to bring the party/orgy to Chicago.

Shame, above all, on the First World, vampire as usual.

“Sports” is the excuse: nationalism and profiteering are the bottom line.

The East Ain't Red

Today is Thursday, 1 October 2009.

On this date in 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Unfortunately for the Chinese people, although Mao had clawed his way to the top of the Chinese Communist Party, he wasn’t a socialist, nor a Marxist, nor a communist, but merely an old-fashioned opportunistic adventurer, lusting after power and privilege. Mao’s corrupt faction would triumph over true Party comrades such as Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi, and replace private market command capitalism with state command capitalism. In this, Mao was the Chinese equivalent of Stalin.

Intellectually, Mao never transcended the backwardness of his peasant origins. The “Great Leap Forward” of 1958 to 1961 produced minimal industrialization, but collectivized agriculture and caused famine, resulting in ca. 30,000,000 surplus deaths. The “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” of 1966 to 1976 succeeded in re-asserting Mao’s leading role, but at the cost of wrecking Chinese society.

Since 1977, when the re-introduction of private market command capitalism began, the tacit bargain has been: the Chinese people tolerate the Party’s dictatorship so long as living standards continue to improve. Today’s strutting 60th anniversary parade in Beijing is a reminder to the people that, should they grow too restive under that bargain, the Party still has the guns.

“But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow …”
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Special Note: “On this Glorious Anniversary, the Chinese Communist Party salutes Sam Walton for his visionary strategy of exploiting low-wage Chinese proletarians to produce cheap goods for American proletarians, to the mutual profit of the C.C.P. and Wal-Mart.”
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Yo, tea-bag delusionals:

Were Obama a socialist, he wouldn’t squander the people’s money flitting off to Denmark in an attempt to land, for Chicago, one of capitalism’s major advertising orgies, the Summer Olympics. He would have stayed at the White House, laboring for the benefit of the long-suffering people of New Orleans.

But brave little tea baggers valiantly refuse to be enslaved by reason: they proudly wallow in the freedoms of false ideology and bigotry.