QQ : NUMBER THIRTY FOUR - OCTOBER 10, 2012

                                                         The Wholly Threesome:


 - the father, son and holy spiggot
 - the Masonic triangle
 - three primary colours
 - three bears,
 - three blind mice
 - three little pigs


The number “three” permeates our consciousness on many levels. In fact, the triangle is the strongest of all geometric shapes.


QQ: 1   A TRIPLE THREAT

Perhaps there are three “divinities” that we can harness to help us navigate our existence.

1. The infinite mystery of One; the unexplainable, the spiritual centre-point of all that is forever beyond understanding.

2. The Environment that with which we interact. I use the word "environment" in a broad sense. The environment includes the earth, the oceans and the heavens. The environment also includes the social structures that man creates and the physical structures that he makes. Within this concept, an earthquake is an environmental phenomenon. Stalin and Hitler created social environments. The internet is an environment as is the space shuttle and the martian Rover SUV.

3. The third divinity is Mankind. What is man but a being in conflict with the other two existential divinities? He must deal with the ultimate mystery which governs his mortality and he must also navigate the environment that is either imposed upon him or the one that he creates.


QQ: 2   AN APPLE A DAY

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve symbolized the triangle of divinities where they faced both the Eternal and the Environmental divinities.

As all humans do, these symbolic characters of our mythology adapted to their environment. They covered their modesty with leaves... triangular leaves.


QQ: 3   THE SANITY CLAUS

What are the tools with which man has been endowed to undertake this perilous journey?

We are mortal, we are vulnerable, we are subject to forces beyond our control... and we are blissfully ignorant. We maintain an unconsciousness of elements about which we know nothing. We make up myths and fairy tales to compensate for these gaps. Perhaps that response should be called “Sanity”.  Socrates expressed this concept in a another way.  He said: "I know nothing but the fact of my own ignorance".

Perhaps the only tool we have been given with which to grapple with the great existential questions... is the ability to make shapes.


QQ: 4   A ROSE IS A ROSE

To suggest that "all we have is shapes" could well be considered outrageous and a pretty narrow way of looking at the universe. Watching a 757 traverse the horizon in the sky, I see a shape made up of other shapes. Most of them are triangles. I sit in my dining room in my house of shapes. I see my table, chairs, windows and blinds as a series of shapes. Man has taken iron from the earth and created the steel knife and fork that sit in front of me. They are shaped for a purpose. The silicon sand that forms most of our earth has been formed into the plate that holds my meal and the chip that runs my iPad.

The mystery, the central divine however, is ever-present. It stands in the vase at the centre of the table. The vase contains carnations of a shape, hue and colour that man cannot and never will be able to create.

In the end...our shape making abilities are limited.


QQ: 5   WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF WATER?

When we adapt to the forces of the environment, we are able to create buildings and bridges that can withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. These structures are made up of shapes. When we navigate the oceans and the skies, we do so in objects of shapes that we create.

The concept delves into the abstract when we consider art, theatre and music. Picasso revolutionized the depiction of life itself when he considered the deconstruction of our pre - conceived notions of shape. He invented a new one.

Bach took the shape of tonal noise, weaved it and out of itself, turned it upside down, inside out, and created musical shapes unheard of before or since.

Frank Lloyd Wright accosted the environment. In a spiritual epiphany, he sent a waterfall through a house in Minnesota and created Falling Water.


QQ: 6   THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

Shapes symbolize the center-points of our spirituality. We have a cross, a star and a crescent. Shapes mark the center-points of our territorial claims. We have stars and stripes, the union jack and a swastika.

Heaven forbid that we should deface or burn these shapes. In some cultures, would condemn us to execution.

Shapes have been given astronomical value. Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream" recently sold for120 million dollars. That's a lot of zeroes for what amounts to a two - dimensional cartoon. A painting by Mark Rothko commands close to that for three rectangles.


QQ: 7   EM CEE SQUARED

Einstein suggested that Space and Time have a shape. Perhaps it was this deeper concept that has propelled me along this winding road. Beyond "shape", what else is there to work with?


QQ: 8   SOMEONE LEFT THE CAKE OUT IN THE RAIN

If we were to acknowledge that we have “Three Divinities” to deal with:
1. The Ultimate Mystery
2. The Environment
3. The Human Condition which battles the other two - perhaps we can better understand our place in eternity. Except for one thing.

What is that one thing that is the exception to our limited ability to make shapes?

Food preparation..


QQ: 9   THE SEDER

Food preparation? Is that it? Humans can make shapes and make toast? How outrageous a concept is that?

Try eating a raw olive. Chew on a stalk of wheat or a grain of uncooked rice.  Bread - how did it get here? Who decided to force feed a goose to make foie gras? Tofu, wine, vinegar and beer.......how did we get there and why?

We embrace aesthetics as they related to shapes. We look at the Mona Lisa and the Pyramids in wonder and awe. Shapes. Wonderful, awesome shapes.

There is an aesthetic and spirituality in the preparation of food that inspires a similar response. We bless bread and pray over wine. Wine symbolizes the blood of Jesus and bread is his body.

We spiritualize food across all cultures and religions with deep, ceremonial significance. The manner in which it is prepared and presented carries deep significance. The sharing of food at symbolic occasions sustains our most important social milestones.

Lets do lunch.


QQ: 10   THE BOOK OF MITT-MAN

Perhaps Anthony Bourdain is the new Messiah. Perhaps God is talking to my wife when she concocts a mixture of almond four, olive oil and lemon zest and creates heaven. There are wines, cheeses and baguettes in Bordeaux that transcend the limits of our culinary imagination. I know places in Los Angeles where there is time-bending Sushi.

Here we find ourselves with a triangle and a pastry watching the presidential debates in abject awe and mystery. Who are these people and why do they not understand?

The “Mitt-ster” has sent us to the emergency room for medical help while he invades Syria, nukes Iran and threatens China. Three strikes and we're out, dude. Your prophet tells us there are three heavens or three levels of glory. I vote that you go to this one:

THE TELESTIAL GLORY. "Those who on earth are liars, sorcerers, whoremongers, and adulterers, go to the Telestial Kingdom", according to your book of fantasy and myth.

On the other hand :The Gospel According to John (Capek- not that other John)
If it doesn't have a universal aesthetic, then ultimately I don't give a shit.

My search for the perfect balance of Cabernet, Camembert and Croissant continues.

I wonder what Mitt ate for lunch today. No Starbucks for the Mitt, though. Starbucks comes from Telestia.




Editing : Batsheva

Etched on my stone tablet.

QQ : NUMBER THIRTY THREE - SEPT 21, 2012

                                                           DRILL BABY DRILL

It has been some time since my last QQ.

Life has a way of imposing priorities. There is a saying attributed to an anonymous French sage that goes something like this: “Mentchen tracht un Gott lacht”.
Roughly translated - “People plan and God laughs”.  This describes my condition to a tee.

QQ: 1 WWIII

Nation building through recorded history has generally been a result of plundering, pillaging, rape and the ultimate conquering tool of all-out war.

War is an economic and technological decision requiring management, decision-making planning and arming.

Arming requires technological invention, innovation and industrial infra-structure.

As we sound the battle cries, rattle the sabres and rally to war, yet again, against the evil, expanding Persian empire, we must question the tools; the management and the economy of war.

It's the technology stupid. It is all about the drill.

QQ: 2  VAGINA DIALOGUES

The drill? What does that really mean?

I cannot deny my training and education as an engineer with regard to my point of view on this subject.

As it turns out, just about all contemporary weaponry has become irrelevant, outmoded, outdated and useless. This includes the most sophisticated of nuclear weapons. Why? Because the retaliatory response weaponry stockpiled by our great friends in North Korea, by Russia and by Iran is buried in deep caverns inside mountains. The inside of these mountains is sheathed in yards of concrete and steel. Said steel, concrete and granite is impenetrable by even the most powerful weapons that have ever been conceived of or produced.

So, you need a drill. One helluva drill. How practical and how realistic is that? How real is this dilemma?

QQ: 3.  IT'S A PHALLIC THING

The technology of drilling requires the simplest solution to the simplest problem. As you drill, how do you get rid of the the material that is generated by the hole that you make? A missile dropped from a plane will penetrate the earth by a few feet, create something of an impact crater and make a lot of noise. A North Korean war room 250 feet below the surface or inside a mountain will feel zero... nothing. An Iranian atomic missile silo buried deep inside a mountain will remain totally viable and intact. There is no weapon currently developed that can counter this deeply-buried inventory.

Here we enter the drill race. Which nation will develop the Ultimate Drilling Weapon that will give them Drilling Superiority?

Who has ultimate penetration?

QQ :4   THE AXIS OF EVIL

Ironically, drilling for energy runs on a parallel trajectory. Whoever can frack the most wins. I frack, you frack, Mobil fracks, Shell fracks and whomever drills the biggest, deepest hole to get those pesky hydrocarbons that run the Military-Industrial -Complex, wins.

How can we develop the big, drilling missiles to drill into Iranian mountains unless we drill-frack the energy required to run the infrastructure needed to develop the weapons? Hence, it is all about the Drill.

The technological dilemma is simple. When the drill screw penetrates the target, it creates the waste material that must be disposed of. As the hole gets deeper, the waste gets bigger and heavier and is more difficult to eliminate. Drilling missiles are under development that carry cannon on their skins that is supposed to explosively eject the material generated by the drill. Whether or not this primitive concept would actually work is somewhat suspect. It seems that our technological revolution should be capable of something a little more sophisticated than that.

QQ: 5.  THE INVENTION OF THE WHEEL

The race to drill has now superseded the arms race, the energy race, the sexual race and the human race.

We face enormous challenges confronting rogue regimes who bury their poison inside mountains; rogue energy hoarders who keep our resources buried deep somewhere in North Dakota; and rogue cultures who deny our human, sexual identities which they bury under face masks and cover in burkahs.

Effective drilling is necessary and required.

QQ: 6.  THE BRONZE AGE REVISITED

As the technological age and revolution continues, it turns out that there are two major geographical locations that have given birth to the greatest contemporary leaps in invention and innovation.

Those two places are Silicon Valley in California, and the tiny State of Israel. Based on this fact, it would seem likely that Israel has put some deep thought into the depth that a drilling missile can penetrate. Maybe they have even developed a weapon that can do the job. If that is the case, we should all be afraid, very afraid. We should be afraid because we exist, not in the Technological Age, or the Age of the Internet, or the Age of Aquarius. We are witnessing the dawn of the Age of the Drill.  Whoever has the biggest drill - wins.

QQ :7  FOX VERSUS CNN

It occurs to me that if my hypothesis is correct:  Israel has likely developed a drill that can penetrate Mount Sinai. If that is the case, the threat of an attack on Iran becomes very real.

Further, it occurs to me that the well-publicized cat fight between Obama and Netanyahu is pure theatre for the masses. They each know exactly what is going on.

It is possible that Israel has, in fact, made a drill that can penetrate mountains. With this tool in place, they can and possibly will attack Iran's nuclear arsenal.

In my opinion, American participation in this battle would not be tolerated by the American populace. They have lost too much in Afghanistan and Iraq. Therefore, if Israel does attack, it must be perceived to be doing it alone.  Ergo - the theatre of the Obama-Netanyahu feud. It makes for drama of near-Biblical proportion.

QQ : 8.  A DEEPLY WOVEN RUG

Why is Iran developing nuclear weapons and should we be afraid?

Regardless of the dogmatic, messianic megalo-maniacs who have voted themselves into their repressive, deified potentate status, it is a fact that the Persian people are a proud and strong group. There is a historical background of empire, of civilization and of nationhood that resonates deeply within its borders. It doesn't matter who is in charge. The Persian population will not appreciate anyone messing up their mountains. It seems to me that perhaps they are the ones to fear.

QQ: 9.  KOCH VERSUS KOCH

In the context of the Jewish, mega-drill missile, does it matter if it is Obama or Romney?

I believe not at all. It is completely irrelevant. America is unlikely to dive in to another war under current economic conditions and any support to Israel will happen under the table. Demonizing Obama is a naive response completely unrelated to well - reality.  Portraying Barack Obama as an ‘enemy of Israel’ and a ‘Muslim sympathizer’ has all the sophistication of realpolitic as interpreted by a 6 year-old.

The real world is one of layer-upon-layer of conspiracy on top of conspiracy; on intrigue and infinite twists and turns of policy and strategy. Romney is a naive fool who believes that the messiah is about to return... to Missouri.

I think it would be best that he is not the one with his finger on the Mega-drill.

QQ: 10. WYNN WYNN

Follow the money.

There’s no business like the Armament Business. War economies are good economies, especially if it is a proxy war. We develop and sell the stuff-and you fight the war. It is win-win.





Etched on my Stone Tablet

Edited by Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER THIRTY TWO - JULY 8, 2012

                                                          TRUTH OR FRICTION

QAPEK's PRINCIPAL OF KNOWLEDGE:
The more information we have access to, the less we know.

Common wisdom says that there are two absolutes in the universe. They are Death and Taxes. What else do we really know?

QQ :1.  KINDLING

Recently, the print edition of Encyclopedia Britannica was laid to rest. Long live Britannica! Since information is now free via Wikipedia, we no longer need to deal with those pesky door to door salesmen. We no longer have to commit to purchasing expensive, update volumes despite their gilded leather binding and hefty substance.

Burn those books! They make great kindling. Is that how they came up with the name "Kindle"?

Want to know the Capital of Suriname? Google will supply that information within seconds. Here's the rub. We still pay. Google is not free. Wikipedia is not consistently accurate and also, our searches are surreptitiously monitored and recorded.

The question that I ask at this point is; "What is the real value of my access to these questionable information sources"?

Britannica was sourced, edited, verified and written by academic experts who were paid for their time and their expertise. Wikipedia is a free, 'democratic' encyclopedia; un-sourced, un-edited, un-verified and mostly, badly written by amateurs or those with vested interests. 

Where does the truth lie? In Paramaribo.

QQ: 2.  PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY

Can we quantify information as to its degree of quality? How can we do that?

Perhaps the answer lies in the degree to which a particular piece of information is true or not. Wikipedia has duly informed me that the Capital City of Suriname is, in fact, Paramaribo. That is true. Perhaps I will go there some day. Beyond that truth, however, lies mostly an endless, bottomless, infinite litany of dubious opinion, blog and prejudice.

Where would I stay when I visit Paramaribo? Simply consult tripadvisor.com, hotels.com. expedia or any number of travel sites that will readily and speedily supply me with a multitude of options. Most of those options must fit a form and structure not of my choosing. They must fit the algorithmic template.

I used to have a travel agent. My travel agent was someone I could chastise and yell at if he pointed me in the wrong direction. I could change travel agents or recommend them to a friend if they were good. I shouldn't yell at Expedia although I do, frequently.  I can't remember my fucking password for a start. Leave the page to answer the call of nature, your time expires and you must start over.

Paramaribo will have to wait.

QQ: 3.  THE CULTURE OF NUMBERS

There are trivial truths and there are truths that affect life and death. The internet does not indicate the scale. The name of a capital city of an obscure country is a truth and fact that rarely affects our fate. In a game of Trivial Pursuit, it is, of course, life changing.

However, when we consult Dr. Google regarding a choice of medical intervention for disease, we enter dangerous territory. When we look at trending topics on Twitter, or top rating videos on YouTube, we similarly engage with a form of information that is not qualified.

Unverified testimonials regarding the success of spinal decompression contain a quality of truthiness that aligns itself with a half a billion YouTube hits of the song, "Friday". The millions of women tweating that they would willingly allow Chris Brown to rape them is also a statistical truth.

Numbers do not speak volumes. In fact in most cases they reflect a lack of volume and a surfeit of vacuum. These statistical 'facts" can form dangerous concepts. They are dangerous to our health, to our well being, to society and to culture.

QQ: 4.  I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE - UNDER MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN

As we burn the books, demolish the album, wipe out the TV networks, bankrupt Kodak, eliminate the Times Picayune and lose the storefront, we lose much more. As we embrace the shorthand of 140 characters; the postcard of Instagram; the recorded, single song; the compressed mp3; and the kindled book, we lose an experience.

We also lose a truth. The truth is complicated. It is not to be found in 140 characters. The truth is not illustrated in an Instagram postcard or in an mp3.

Perhaps the entire body of work by Bill Shakespeare might scrape the surface of some truths. Perhaps J.S. Bach reveals a semblance of truth in his solo cello pieces. Maybe a perfect ride down a freshly groomed piste on Mammoth Mountain in early spring might reveal the outer hints of some truths.

QQ: 5.  AND YOU SHOULD TELL IT TO YOUR CHILDREN AND TEACH THEM SO

When it comes to the concept of "truth", we are compelled to question the basis of education. The most fundamental structural basis of a civilized society tells us to teach our children. What truths should we teach them? The answer to this enormous question may perhaps have the potential of solving some of the most important dilemmas that face humankind.

The successful outcome of an educated society could potentially solve the most important issues that challenge us. They are hunger, disease, sanitation, shelter, violence and societal equity.

What is the statistical proportion of university graduates who are in jail, who are starving, who are homeless, who are unemployed and who are on welfare? I suggest it is proportionately minimal.

The fundamentals of education are unquestioned. In primitive times, we taught our children to hunt and to gather. Then, as we stopped wandering, we taught our children to fear the Old Man in the sky and his representatives on earth, be they animate or potentate.

Today we teach the tools of communication, commerce and day to day survival. These tools are language, expression, reading and writing; basic arithmetic, human interaction within a structure and personal hygiene.

The fact that the teaching of these most basic tools is called into question within religious, racial and economic parameters is destructive on a multitude of levels. When we do not effectively educate the poor and disadvantaged, we create more poor and disadvantaged. The cost to society is astronomical. The economic equation does not add up.

The greatest and most productive investment that a society can make is the investment in educating our children. Arithmetic is arithmetic in Beverly Hills, in the Catholic church, in Harlem and in the Ozarks.

When we choose a book of misogynist fairy tales transmitted by God or his agent, be it 5,000, 2,000 or 1,000 years old, to dictate dogmatic, universal 'truths', we fail at arithmetic. More than that, we fail at biology, we fail at women's rights and we fail at human compassion. The argument over whose 'truth' predominates has superceded all other considerations throughout human history. My god is bigger than your god. I win.

QQ: 6.  THE SQUARE ROOT

Beyond the most basic fundamentals relating to survival, what then is it that we should teach our children? What are the truths that they should know? Why are we so divided as to how to impart information to young minds?

Here is one:
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
  Socrates

When we teach our children that "truth" is an infinite concept, then and only then can we begin to scrape the surface of a real education. All the rest is a bunch of skills.

Therefore, if we argue with each other on political, racial, economic and religious grounds as to how we are going to impart a bunch of basic skills to our youth, we are wasting our time and energy. Arithmetic is arithmetic and grammar is grammar. Read, write, add subtract and there you have the fundamentals. Next.

QQ: 7.  AND LEE HARVEY OSWALD WAS THE LONE ASSASIN

"Next" then forms the bigger quandary. When we study history, we must question truth. There is no single, fact-based history. One can only get a glimpse of history through multiple sources. Try figuring out the basis for World War One. The myth says that Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated and then about 20 million people died in the aftermath. It would be neat and simple to presume that the assassination of one aristocrat was the cause of this holocaust, but that concept is nonsense. The reality is multi-layered, incredibly complex and mired in a generation or more of historical precedent that led to that event.

Is there any value then in teaching history as a compulsory subject? If so, how do we compress this voluminous body of information into a form that is useful and that can be absorbed? Can we prevent future holocausts if we convey a better understanding of the multi-layered truths that lead mankind to engage in his own self-destruction?

There is the rub. Perhaps that is one of the greatest possibilities of real education. Real education asks questions.

QQ: 8.  A CLASSICAL EDUCATION

Innovation, quality and culture are misunderstood, mis-used terms.

We innovate when we move forward in a positive fashion. Culture involves growth. The derivation comes from the context of agriculture. When we teach our children, the basic objective needs to be re-examined.

If we have any interest in moving forward, in improving our lot in life, in making the world a better place for our children, then the ingredients of forward movement should perhaps be the chief ingredient of education. These ingredients are innovation and culture. But, innovation cannot exist without quality. The very term implies forward positive movement.

How do we teach innovation? How do we impart culture?

These amorphous qualities are not to be found in fundamental arithmetic or in the conjugation of verbs. Memorizing the table of elements or singing the multiplication tables is rudimentary, fundamental skill-based learning. There is no culture or innovation involved.

The problem is that our objective in imparting these most basic skills is mired in racial, economic and political turmoil. Schools fail because families fail because societies fail because government fails. One cannot teach the most rudimentary necessities to a child who has not had sufficient food or sleep to function in a receptive manner. You cannot teach the most fundamental necessities to a child who has a broken home, who is subjected to violence, and who is disconnected from any social model of behaviour.

America is number 25 in the world for math scores. This is not the fault of the teachers or of the schools. This is a dark and foreboding indication of a social breakdown where we as a society have given up on our children, on our future, on growth on innovation and on culture.

QQ: 9.  A STAMP FOR A TWINKIE

We flail around blaming "the system". It's the scoring system; it's the teachers unions; it's the school boards;  it's government interference and any number of systemic issues.

These things that we blame do not even scratch the surface of the problem or even begin to address the multi-layered truths that exist.

Over 34% of Nashville TN children under the age of five live below the poverty line.

If this is an acceptable circumstance, then we willingly engage ourselves in the prison industrial complex, in the imposition of higher taxes to support the welfare system, in the food stamp marketplace and in any and every expensive support system that deals with this issue.

Forget the human cost. Consider the economic cost.

QQ: 10.  AND GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH IN SIX DAYS

Georgetown University is now charging about $55,000 a year per student in their undergraduate program. Charter schools are draining government funds to run for-profit businesses, regardless of academic outcome.

Economically strapped government schools have dropped art, music, P.E. and other humanities to save money. They survive on conjugating verbs and singing multiplication tables imparted to hungry un-engaged children who have no chance of ever innovating or growing.

We are feeding the status quo and starving the future.

Feed the kid, give her an after school activity, give her a keyboard or a paint brush, and make physical education compulsory. Involve parents, abandon the charter school industry and stop subsidizing the church.....any church.

I propose a new mythology. That is an acceptance of the mystery of the unknown.  Celebrate that. Then the concept of new discovery unfolds and reveals itself to us as we uncover layer upon layer of multiple truths. Then we may have the hint of a new beginning. Higgs Boson is just another layer.

Intelligent design, my ass.


Etched on my Stone tablet

Editing : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER THIRTY ONE - MAY 28, 2012

                      Qapek-onomics

A propensity to austerity brings catastrophe.


QQ:1   FUNNY, YOU DON'T LOOK KEYNESIAN

I challenge an economic historian to come up with a single example of a nation that has succeeded in resurrecting a collapsed economy by imposing austerity measures similar to the Merkel-Romney vision of Utopia. 

Here we eviscerate medical care, basic nutrition, emergency shelter, child labor laws and organized labor. Under the Merkel-Romney vision we hand these fundamental necessities of a civilized society over to the church and the plantation owner. Pick a bale of cotton.

Forty percent unemployment is an austerity measure that can only lead in one direction. That direction is the model designed and implemented by our European and Russian friends, the ethnic cleansers of 1933. Let's break a few windows. That will give the unemployed something to do.

QQ:2   EAST GERMANY’S BAILOUT COST TWO TRILLION EURO  

The ultimate irony is that Germany now finds itself in the position of power, just like Dr. Mengele, to give Greece a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Greece has an economy about the size of New York.
It's not that big a deal. Think of it like Europe's Mississippi or Louisiana. We can't all be Massachusetts. Build some roads, fix the plumbing, patch the roof and harvest the olives.

Who is going to have the last laugh when they discover rare earth deposits in the rocks, or shale gas or oil in the Aegean sea.

Isn't it wonderful that other nations can be so 'holier than thou' because they have valuable shit in the ground or black gold in their waters? It makes them the moral, ethical and economic wizards.

Alberta, Canada is like that. It is an entire province with a sneer on its face, epitomized by the dear leader Harper's complete bypass of democratic process. The environment, what environment? We have oil. Fuck the environment.

QQ:3   DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES

Can you imagine that Germany's intransigence could once more collapse Europe and possibly the economic structure of the world? Maybe Truman should not have stopped at Hiroshima. And the French are not much better.

QQ;4   A CONTEMPORARY ODYSSEY     

Shovel ready was an unfortunate turn of phrase. But the concept was correct.
How can an economy be turned around. There are no jobs because there is no work to do. The only way to create jobs is to educate, innovate, cultivate, beautify, renovate, germinate and originate.

Who will pay for these idealistic ventures? The state is the only body that can. The investment is far too long for private capital. Education can take 25 years to begin its payback. Private investment may run a school as a business, but they cannot sponsor a nuclear physicist from birth to age 30 when she might begin to be productive.

Who will pay for Greece's yet unborn Einstein? Who will build a desalination plant on a remote island when you could fill a suitcase with a worthless drachma?
But all is not lost. We have Facebook. Greek protestors can tweet and we can watch the entire adventure on YouTube. It's a reality show. In fact, it's a Greek tragedy.

QQ:5   HAM AND EGGS AND BAIN CAPITAL

The PIGS; Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain share a common destiny. If austerity measures continue without any injection of mechanisms that stimulate growth, then we will revisit the 1930s and chaos will reign.

Chaos is expensive. In fact, the organized, planned imposition of chaos in Greece is based on the Merkel-Romney economic theory of austerity. This policy is sheer madness not only in human terms, but more so in financial terms.

The formula is simple:

Austerity = unemployment = social unrest = chaos = PIGS in shit producing a global economic downturn in the trillions of dollars.

On the other hand:

Education = innovation = culture = beauty = growth = employment = prosperity with PIGS in heaven and a global uptick in social and economic equity.

QQ:6   SOCIAL ENGINEERING

And who are the unemployed?
They are black, they are Turkish, they are Arabic and they are Muslim. They are women, they are elderly, they are children and they are infirm. They are uneducated, they are immigrants, they are mentally ill and they are the homeless.

Minimum wage in the USA is $7.25 per hour. In what way should this exchange not be labelled for what it is. It is slavery. Basic nutrition, shelter, health and hygiene expenses, energy costs and transportation to work all for $7.25 per hour? Maybe on another planet.

What we do not acknowledge in this flawed equation is the immense cost to the taxpayer, to civil order, to larger health concerns and to culture.

When we exchange labor for $7.25 per hour, I suggest that the resulting cost to society is at least double that amount in the short term, and through geometric expansion, when families and communities are affected, the cost to society is probably multiple times that amount.

I postulate that the dollar saving to an entire economic system in the long term would be significant if the minimum wage were to truly reflect the reality of a 'living' wage, in which fundamental human needs would actually be addressed. There would be spending on goods and services. There would be a viable economy.

Corporations that profit to the tune of billions of dollars should not be permitted to pay their workers anything but a living wage. To suggest that their shareholders demand profit at any cost does not reflect the reality of the actual, long-term cost to the larger society, the cost of food stamps as socialized nutrition and ultimately to civil order.

How many gated communities can we build?
Can you trust your minimum-wage security guard? Don't wear a hoodie.

QQ: 7   YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US

When technology does our work for us:
Press one for assisted suicide
Press two for sexual abstinence
Press three for heavenly guidance
Press four for manna from heaven
Press five for the Red Sea to part
Press six for insider information on the Facebook ipo
Press seven for the Ayn Rand, personal debt-consolidation formula
Press eight for the return of the Messiah
Press nine for a private lap-dance from Lady Gaga
Press ten for your soul to be saved by Mitt Romney via Joseph Smith.

QQ: 8   A FINAL SOLUTION 

And if technology does not solve the problem, then what will?

There is a problem. We are revisiting the 1930s and we have not learned from history.

The French hate the Germans; the Croats hate the Serbs; the Protestants hate the Catholics; the Shia hate the Sunni; the Pakistanis hate the Indians and everybody hates the Jews.

I know, let's start with he easiest target. Blame the Jews. Once we get rid of of them, everything will be OK. Oh I forgot. We tried that. It didn't help.

God, please choose someone else next time.

QQ: 9   THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PHIL

History, if we have one, will look back at this last one hundred years in shock and with awe. We had the Stone Age, the Iron Age and the Bronze Age.

This has been the Oil Age.

It is an almost Monty Python-esque 'silly' concept. We crawl around in vehicles powered by technology that is more than one hundred years old. It explodes gasoline in iron cylinders to make wheels turn. That gasoline is something we found in the ground. We did not create it. It was just there. It happened to accumulate in regions of the world that would otherwise be barren and destitute.

The economics that governs what is found in the ground under a controlled territory is perhaps a primitive and flawed concept. This is my land, my territory and I have marked it with my urine. Whatever lies under it is mine, mine, mine. The fact that this resource has value to the larger society is not my problem. Let the market rule.

Based on this concept, I believe that mankind has remained static since ‘Phil’ created our current humanoid. Perhaps the creationists have it right. We are exactly the same as when we were created. There has  been absolutely, no evolution no development and no advancement. We are primitive beings leading primitive existences leading desperate lives of subsistence based on what we find when we dig into the shit in the ground of our marked territory.

My shit is more valuable than your shit.

I win.


QQ : 10   MICHELANGELO, DUDE....PAINT ME A CEILING

Bill Gates - buy a painting.
Zuckerface - sponsor some music.
Buffett - build an art school.
Saudi rich guys - put your money into real innovation. Liberate your women.
Chinese rich guys - cure cancer.

What ever happened to physical education and music in schools?
We lose on every level. Our agenda is economically unsound. The numbers do not add up.

This is the Oil Age.




etched on my stone tablet


editing : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER THIRTY - MAY 1, 2012

                                                 PRIORITIES, WHAT PRIORITIES?

QQ:  1.  LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

The social media phenom continues to mystify me. Instagram, at a billion dollars, sets a new level of a surrealistic commentary on what is considered to be valuable and important.

Instagram - I can't wait to see that next image of what you had for breakfast. Your cute kitties make me swoon. Your sunset is more sunset than the sun has ever set before, especially at 300 dpi in a one-inch square image on a cracked, faded screen. You have changed my life.

QQ:  2.   STAND YOUR GROUND

One hundred innocent people were shot to death in America today as they are, on the average, every day.

One hundred innocent people were shot to death in Syria today as they have been every day for the past several months.

Neither of these holocausts seem to trouble us all that much. In fact, the American one troubles us not at all. The front page of a recent New York Times carries an image and article about new men's fashions designed for the concealment of carried weapons.

Stand your ground and stand proud. We are Americans. Just don't wear a hoodie.

In Syria, there is no need for concealment nor for a comparable fashion statement.
So far, I'm loving the Arab spring. I'm also looking forward to the frozen, Mitt Romney, American winter. I forecast frogs, boils, locusts, lice and all the rest. The NRA will own the White House. Perhaps it already does. Watch out for your first born sons.

QQ:   3.   SCREEN-WANKING

Continuing my despair and wonder regarding the explosive impact of social media
I find the impact of a wall with my forehead somewhat comforting, especially when it occurs rhythmically with some force.

Facebook now insists on sharing with me the viral videos of fat asses shopping at Wallmart. This continues to be at the top of my news page on a daily basis. Zuck, you are starting to lose me. In fact, it seems that you lost a few billion this quarter. I have a suggestion for you. Perhaps some 'users' (oh how I love that word), simply are not interested in the voyeurism of 'sharing' (there's another of my favorite words) the soft porn images to which my 2000 'friends' have been wanking.

Anthony Wiener was a prophet, a visionary and a seer before his time. Had Instagram been around in his day, he would be a hero.


QQ:   4.   1949 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR


Something is rotten in the digi-verse.

Lionel Ritchie has the number-one album on the Billboard charts this week. He is sixty- two years old. Bonnie Raitt has the number-six album. She is sixty-two years old. Madonna has a top-twenty album. She is two thousand years old.

The monumental  failure of the recorded music industry to recognize, develop and nurture talent that speaks to the marketplace is a business, cultural and social calamity.

Where are the entrepreneurs who "get it" and can see beyond The Voice and Idol?
But, of course, this decay goes far beyond popular music. We live with the prospect of a cultural winter within the wasteland of a digi-verse Tower of Babel. Monetize that.


QQ:   5.   MISSING A LINK


The widow of a Nigerian diplomat keeps reminding me in her e-mails that she has nowhere to store her five-hundred million dollars. She apparently has  sought me out specifically and individually as the beneficiary of her good will. She does not spell very well and her sentence construction leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, I find myself pre-occupied with more pressing needs requiring my attention. These needs include my unsuccessful attempts at trying to fathom what the hell LinkedIn is.

I seem to be missing a link despite the fact that I am linked to various and sundry peers and an ever-expanding assembly of complete strangers.

Perhaps they will send me a picture of a sunset or of their new puppy. I hate to be missing out on the Nigerian offer, but that puppy is so cute! LinkedIn apparently is "professional" as opposed to Facebook which is all about how you scrambled your eggs this morning. I have yet to discover the difference between the two. They tell me corporations hire through LinkedIn. I guess there's no soup for me. Just send me an Instagram of your cupcakes and I'll add that to my profile.


QQ:   6.   NOW THAT'S A CUTE FROG


The competition for our time and our attention is a powerful, economic force. The time that we devote to Facebook sunsets and puppies carries astronomic, monetary value. Could it be that our time and attention are misdirected? Could it be that there are more valuable areas upon which to focus our energy? Facebook was all about Zuck's libido. The Twit-verse keeps us up on Beliebers and their world-shattering agendas. The list of interactive sites competing for our trivia is mind-boggling. Vimeo, Deezer, Tumblr, Google plus and so it goes. Where is the redeeming value? It is said that we are connected. To what? A viral image of a seated frog?  Now that's what I call funny.


QQ:   7.   COMPROMISE THIS


Perhaps it is the "middle" that is the most negative and the most insidious. The extremes at least gave us a bar to which we may set our relative perspective. But now that Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and Dick Santorum have fallen by the wayside, we revert to compromise. There should have been an Eleventh Commandment. Thou shalt not compromise. Perhaps compromise is the greatest evil. Neville Chamberlain's compromise with Hitler was the trigger that set off the Holocaust. Barry Obama's attempts at compromise have been a sad failure. Mitt Romney's compromise with the Tea Party requires him to deny his own beliefs and his own proven and successful policies.

American troops are now based in Australia within the policy a left of center government. There's a compromise for you. China is at once our bank and our nemesis.

In Canada, Albertan Liberals voted for the Conservatives in a recent election. This was a compromise to deny power to a racist, fascistic, far-right challenger. Progressive Liberals sold out.

Perhaps, if a natural cycle had been allowed to manifest itself, the left would be in a better position to react, reform and respond. But now they are a dead issue. The can go home and give up to the winner of their compromise decision. It is Big Oil. Keystone here we come!


QQ:   8.  AUSTERITY MEASURES


When the going gets tough, the tough say "you're fired".
Austerity as social and economic policy is an odd way to deal with the breakdown of an economy. How can it be in the best interest of a society and an economy to allow the poor, the disenfranchised, the unemployed and the hungry to fend for themselves?

History shows time and again that the slaves will ultimately revolt. They always do.

But first, austerity measures will be put in place to trim the herd. That's how we delay the inevitable.

Infrastructure be damned. In fact, if the dams do fail, perhaps the social experiment that was Katrina could be extended. Then the bridges, the highways, the water supply and the environment could be permitted to fail in order extend the 'final solution'.
That's what I call intelligent design. Ayn Rand would be proud.

Is Alan Greenspan not the personification of all that is evil in the universe?


QQ:   9.   BROWN POWER


Historically, enormous swaths of territory, now part of the USA, were originally Mexican territory. That being the case, there are millions of Americans who bear some of the physical characteristics of their Mexican heritage.

It's likely that people with that particular physical profile can now be mandated to present their 'papers' to the police in an interaction as mundane as a traffic violation.

It is, in fact, a Brave New World. The words 'Police State' now has a whole new meaning. I wonder how off-duty police of Mexican heritage in Arizona are going feel when confronted by their uniformed colleagues . They could arrest each other and deport themselves back to Acapulco. It's truly Catch 22 revisited.


QQ:   10.   COME BACK DR. MENGELE


When Adolph Hitler designed his agenda to create the Third Reich, much of his concept was based on social manipulation. The Aryan race was deemed to be superior and then various other strata of society were set up as levels of a caste or altogether undesirable. The 'undesirables' were gathered up and eliminated. The others were put to battle or to work for the greater cause.

In this next election cycle in America in 2012; poor, uneducated, unemployed, uninsured Caucasians will vote for Mitt Romney.

Their lot will most likely improve as the conservative social manipulation experiment develops. More Katrinas, more wars, more prisons and more failures of infrastructure will take care of the undesirables. Power will return to normal, law-abiding, church-going, God-fearing people who have the superior, Aryan, racial profile. They don't need or want entitlements, Social Security, medical insurance or even teeth. Because God and Smith and Wesson are on their side.

From Sea to shining Sea.


Etched on my Stone Tablet

Edit: Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY NINE - APRIL 19, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH


A JEWS BLUES ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

The festival of Passover tells the story of freedom from slavery.
This year it reminds me of my story as it does every year.

There was short drive down an unpaved track to one side of the Victorian era Matlock mansion past an abandoned streetcar. The path led to an L-shaped string of about a dozen connected faded gray automobile garages. At the midpoint of the two lines of garages was a narrow almost hidden doorway. That doorway opened to a large storage room. At one end of the room a dirty broken window ran the length of the wall and looked out on a neighboring property.

It is out of this window that I alone as a three year old child sang Czech nursery rhymes to an unknown and foreign neighbor while my mother and father toiled as indentured slaves in Melbourne 1949.

In the shed there was no running water, no toilet, no interior walls and no heat. This is where I and my parents lived for the first four years of my life in Australia.

The songs kept me company and moderated my fear. Perhaps this was a three year olds blues.

This began my trajectory.

QQ.  1:   MAHMUD AHMADINEJAB : THE “HOLOCAUST” IS A HOAX.

In Auschwitz my fathers first wife Greta died in more than a sad circumstance. A child that she knew had her number called for the gas chamber. Greta accompanied the child so that she would not have to die alone.

QQ.  2:   IT IS SUGGESTED THAT COACHED “SURVIVORS” ARE NOT SPEAKING FROM THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE BUT FROM CAREFULLY PREPARED SCRIPTS

A young boy in Prague was suspected by the Gestapo for stealing food. The boy was an inmate of an orphanage where my father was supervisor. The Gestapo gave my father an ultimatum. Find out the identity of the boy and give him up to us or we will kill all eighty of you.

My father gave the boy up.

QQ.  3   DEGESCH HAS PROVIDED DETAILED INFORMATION WHICH SHOWS JUST HOW IMPOSSIBLE THE HOLOCAUST CYANIDE GASSING CLAIMS ARE.

My mother's work detail out of Auschwitz built a railway line. The contractor was a company called Krupp. Some of my mothers friends threw themselves onto the electrified fence rather that suffer the hunger and cold and torture. Today Krupp thrives. When the camp was abandoned by her keepers my mother was taken in by a woman who repeatedly assaulted her and imprisoned her.

This assault was by a local Czech, not a German, Gestapo or Nazi. The war was over.

QQ.  4    THOSE  P U T  O N  T R I A L  C O N F E S S E D  T O  A L L  C R I M E S .
T H E   P E O P L E  O F  C Z E C H O S L O V A K I A   S I G N E D  P E T I T I O N S  A S K I N G   F O R  D E A T H  F O R  T H E  A L L E G E D  T R A I T O R S .   

My fathers house in Prague where I was born was nationalized by the Communist government in 1949. The housekeeper was appointed manager and all property became property of the state. We became tenants. The manager was required to file regular reports on our activities and behavior to the party.

Soon after we left, all of my fathers peers who remained were hung for activities against the state.

QQ.  5   ELIE WIESEL, A BRAZEN LIAR AND BIGOT WHO HAS REPEATEDLY CALLED FOR IMPRISONMENT OF HOLOCAUST “DENIERS,” MANAGED NONETHELESS TO GET HIMSELF A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IN 1986.

My grandfather Joseph had nine siblings. Irma and Ida found their way to California before the storm. The rest and most of the extended family died. In Terezin, my grandfather Joseph died in my fathers arms suffering Typhus. My mothers father died in her arms from starvation. My fathers brother, his wife and infant daughter were all gassed and then there were all the others.

QQ.  6   TO OUTSIDERS, IT WAS PRESENTED BY THE NAZIS AS A MODEL JEWISH SETTLEMENT, BUT IN REALITY IT WAS A CONCENTRATION CAMP 'WHERE OVER 33,000 INMATES DIED AS A RESULT OF HUNGER, SICKNESS, OR THE SADISTIC TREATMENT METED OUT BY THEIR CAPTORS'.THERESIENSTADT WAS ALSO USED AS A TRANSIT CAMP FOR EUROPEAN JEWS EN ROUTE TO AUSCHWITZ AND TREBLINKA.

When my mother was six years old, her mother Anna went to a spa in the Czech countryside. She caught cholera. The spa management hid her away and did not allow medical attention in fear that the situation would destroy their business. Anna died. My mother spent the next years in an orphanage until she was taken to Terezin and then Auschwitz.

QQ.  7   AT AUSCHWITZ II (BIRKENAU), THE SS STAFF INTRODUCED THE PRACTICE OF TATTOOING IN MARCH 1942 TO KEEP UP WITH THE IDENTIFICATION OF LARGE NUMBERS OF PRISONERS WHO ARRIVED, SICKENED, AND DIED QUICKLY.   

For unknown reasons my mother was never tattooed in Auschwitz.
In Sydney in 1990 mother went into a tattoo parlor and paid to have her number inscribed on her arm. She was quite mad.

QQ.  8   SURVIVORS OF GENOCIDE ARE FOREVER TRANSFORMED. THEY SPEAK OF HAVING LIVED THREE LIVES: THEIR LIFE BEFORE THE GENOCIDE, THEIR LIFE DURING THE GENOCIDE, AND THEIR LIFE AFTER THE GENOCIDE.  

In 2006 my mother wanted to claim the dignity of her own life and death decision.

She had debilitating emphysema and no quality of life. The system in Melbourne would not allow her this decision and her death was as tragic as her life.

QQ.  9   IN 1964, AFTER YEARS OF CLINICAL EXPERIENCE IN DIAGNOSING AND TREATING CONCENTRATION CAMP SURVIVORS, WILLIAM NIEDERLAND, A PSYCHIATRIST AND A REFUGEE FROM NAZI GERMANY, PUBLISHED A LANDMARK STUDY PROCLAIMING THE EXISTENCE OF A SURVIVOR SYNDROME.

My mother was a City Councilor a political activist and was decorated by Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE for her community work.

Irene only got as far as grade 8 in school before Terezin

QQ.  10   HOLOCAUST DENIAL IS THE ACT OF DENYING THE GENOCIDE OF JEWS DURING WORLD WAR II, USUALLY REFERRED TO AS THE HOLOCAUST.

These days the Holocaust is often depicted as old news and as a political tool used by Jews to manipulate situations for their political and economic agenda. There is a term "Shoa business" that is used to describe the many accounts, books, films and other vehicles that continue to flow as a result of this event.

I am not part of the Shoa business. But I do still sing the blues.



Etched on my Stone Tablet

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY EIGHT - APRIL 6, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH

                                                        T R U T H    OR    D A R E


     
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
 -  Winston Churchill.


“Keep the company of those who seek the truth - run from those who have found it”
― Václav Havel


The problem, as I see it, is that on any particular point, there is usually one lie but there are many truths.  A lie occupies the highway, the truths take many side roads to get to their destination.

QQ:  1.   THE WISDOM OF 1787

THE LIE:

Obama-care is socialism imposed by dictatorial decree.

A RANDOM SELECTION OF TRUTHS (ARS of TRUTHS:):

Three troubling truths trouble me. These are the Deity, the Bible and the American Constitution. They trouble me because within our accepted cultural, religious and political norms, we place the symbol above the content. The Deity is a judgmental, angry super-being who demands worship and subservience. The Bible of any religion is a poorly-translated, badly-edited collection of fables and myths that seek to impose nonsensical dogma. The American Constitution is a utopian ideal that had a vague relevance to the world in 1787.

When the Supreme Court ponders the mores of 1787 as to whether or not society should express compassion towards the sick, they miss the point. Federal, state or corporate is not the point. The point IS welfare and compassion. We should direct welfare and compassion towards our fellow human beings if we wish to lay claim to even the most rudimentary connection to a civilized society. 
 
QQ:  2.  BORN AGAIN

THE LIE:

The Republican Party position on abortion:

"The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed".

ARS of TRUTHS:

We are primitive beings. Ego supersedes meaning. Jesus is said to have proclaimed,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) This suggests that the ego of the Deity surpasses any content or meaning. Compassion, charity ethics and morality are put in second place behind the proclamation and acceptance of the Deity's ego. No heaven for you dude unless you fall on your knees and accept the me-me-me. We will deal with ethics later. Me first.

Similarly, the big man in the sky decided to test Abraham. "Don't concern yourself with your natural instinct to protect your son. Kill him to prove that you love me more".
The big man in the sky has a big ego.

The sanctity of life within a woman's womb is a hot topic of debate amongst privileged, white, male moralists who seek to impose a dogma and a fundamentalist absolutism based on the message they claim to have received from the big man in the sky.

I, in fact, prefer to exercise my rights as an individual human being after my birth. Prior to coming in to existence, I had nothing much to say on the matter. I would have preferred that Dick Santorum stay out of my mother's womb. Perhaps, he would extend fundamental individual rights to the un-dead and the post-death population? The population of purgatory may have something to say on the matter.
In that Dick firmly believes in the afterlife, don't the living dead have rights as well?

QQ:  3.  GAY PRIDE IN GAZA

THE LIE:

Israel practices state-imposed apartheid as mandated policy.

ARS of TRUTHS:

The Jewish population of Egypt is about a dozen, down from  80,000.

Moroccan Jews formed an ancient community. Before 1948, there were about 300,000 Jews in the country. Now a handful remain.

And so it goes. Pick an Arab country, any Arab country and ask what happened to the Jews? Spontaneous combustion? Perhaps, they simultaneously packed their bags, abandoned their homes and businesses and moved en-masse to the war-ravaged peace and quiet of Palestine.

Or could it be a case of ethnic cleansing? Perhaps we should ask the Copts of Egypt or the Christians of Iraq.

Israeli Arabs serve at every level of government and administration. Are there any Jews running for office in Saudi Arabia? Any Christians? Is Saudi Arabia exempt from accusations of practicing apartheid?

Where are the Queers Against Saudi Apartheid policies? Where are the York University marches against Saudi apartheid? When is the Gay Pride Day in Gaza?

By the way, I propose that we return Manhattan to its rightful owners. Or, is conquered or purchased territory a whole other matter? Give that island back to its rightful owners and send the occupiers back to where they came from.

QQ:  4.  I AM NOT AN APE

THE LIE:  

Evolution is a theory.

ARS of TRUTHS::

Tennessee established its place on the world stage in 1925 with the Monkey Trial.
Bill 368 passed in the House last year continues the Tennessee Dark Age of Reason.

Because we are God's creation and unrelated to the apes or the ants, it seems that the entire science of genetics should be banned in Tennessee as it does not conform with the teachings of 'Bubba the Evangelista'.

Of course, the Department of Genetics & Evolution at Geneva University which studies the integration of multiple disciplines such as Classical Genetics, Molecular Genetics, Developmental Biology, and Evolutionary Biology is based on the teachings of Satan.

Such a university department would have no place in a God-fearing Tennessee where we know that the world was created 6,000 years ago. According to William Jennings Bryan, if we have to give up either religion or education, we should give up education. Bryan also declared an absolutism connected to something about a whale and some guy called Jonah. It is written.

QQ:  5.  GOOGLE GAGGLE

THE LIE: 

The Internet has given us a new democracy. Twitter has facilitated the Arab spring and the free flow of information and ideas for the greater good.

ARS of TRUTHS:

The twitter-fest is a superficial, meaningless vehicle facilitating pissing into the wind. The Arab spring has unleashed nothing but more fundamentalism.

The democracy of the blog-o-sphere, YouTube and Facebook can in no way replace the   power of real journalism, developed and formed artistic statements and educated commentary and criticism.

Fifty million YouTube hits on the song "Friday" does not constitute a useful or meaningful democratic statement.

The cult of the amateur has sucked up the energy of the available media and spat out the result.
He is Drake.

QQ:  6.  MY COLD DEAD HANDS

THE LIE:

Guns don't kill people. People kill people .

ARS of TRUTHS

The city of Windsor,Ontario,Canada has not had a homicide in two years. Windsor is geographically a twin city with Detroit, Michigan, separated by a river.

A recent news report from Detroit states: (WJBK) - "It was once labeled America's murder capitol of the world. Sadly, Detroit could once again be headed for that negative title. The murder rate in the city has jumped to the highest level in nearly two decades. There have been 166 murders since January first. That's up 20-percent, and we're on pace for nearly 400 this year. When it comes to shootings, there have been 521 since January first. That's up 12-percent".

How is it that the "people" on one side of the river seem to have a greater propensity to kill than the "people" on the other side of the river.

Could it possibly have something to do with - guns?

These are horrifying numbers. Four hundred murders on one side of the river and zero on the other. Glock that.

QQ:  7.  ACCEPTIONALISM

THE LIE: 

Obama-Bush America is American exceptionalism - business as usual.

ARS of TRUTHS:

This time it is truly different. The SCOTUS has effectively destroyed the very underpinning and principal of the American ideal with its decision on Citizens United. With this one decision, it is game over at every level.

The new corporate democracy does allow us greater freedom. We are permitted to Tweet, MyFace and Blog, however with a cautioning eye on anything that might be picked up by the algorithms that watch over the security of our homeland. Who came up with the word "homeland"? Hitler or Stalin? Fatherland and Motherland were already taken.

In addition, we are permitted to post on YouTube and comment ad nauseous on the endless commentary bilge-fest promoted as a last ditch attempt by newspapers to engage their readers in the new, 'Web 2', great leap forward. I blog, you blog, we all blog into the wind.

What we are not permitted to do:
Get sick, develop art and culture, or use the word "liberal".
We are also not permitted to make a real and reasonable choice in the forthcoming presidential election. I don't know which to choose - between business or business, or rule by corporation or rule by corporation. You say tomato.

Why don't we just hand the country over to the Koch brothers and be done with it.
Perhaps, we already have. What is pink slime anyway?

QQ:  8.  NOT SO SUPREME

THE LIE:

Canon Two of the Code of Conduct mandates that, "A judge should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge should neither lend the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others nor convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge."

ARS of TRUTHS:

The SCOTUS is out of control. Their activist agenda is a humanitarian, fascistic, inconceivable nightmare.

The SCOTUS has decided the outcome of an election, allowed strip searches for minor traffic offenses and determined that corporations are people. Of course, the acceptance of the larger society that health care is a 'product' is not the fault of the court. Is that colonoscopy up on Craigslist yet?

A strip search on Justice Scalia would likely reveal black lace panties and a hot pink lift and separate bra.

QQ:  9.  FRACK YOU

THE LIE:

Global warming is the result of the Earth's natural cycles.

ARS of TRUTHS:

Fracking causes earthquakes. Eliminating the natural lubricants in the earth's interior creates violent disruption.

The hole in the ozone layer has made exposure to the sun a life threatening hazard in the southern hemisphere.

Tuna used to be food. Now it contains the raw material for thermometers.

QQ:  10.  FOLLOW ME DOWN THE RIVER

THE LIE:

There is deep cultural and powerful significance to the following twitter statistics

Lady Gaga has 22,000,000 followers.

Shakira has 15,000,000.

Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift have similar millions of followers.

ARS of TRUTHS:

Hitler, Stalin and Kim Jong Il also had followers. Their accumulated number was possibly in the hundreds of millions.

Could it be that the medium is more important than the message?


Etched on my Stone Tablet

Editing : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY SEVEN - March 19, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH


                                                   JOHNNY'S VAGINA MONOLOGUES:



QQ:1   PLEASE, MISTER DICK!

It's all about the vagina. Which intrusion should we examine first?
An Egyptian army doctor was recently acquitted of rape charges. He had conducted virginity tests on women protestors arrested in the Tahrir Square demonstrations. Apparently, the most important, post-Mubarek issue is now the integrity of the hymen. There's an Arab-spring forward.

Several states in the USA are legislating for compulsory, intrusive ultra-sound exams on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy. Sounds like state-sanctioned rape to me. Now I can’t decide between Egypt or Virginia for the woman in me. Contraception is similarly entering the legislative agenda, where men are determining exactly what may enter or leave the vagina based on primitive, neanderthal mindsets. Dick Perry failed in his presidential bid. He is now exerting his manly power by demolishing all possible access to medical care by financially disadvantaged women. He's my new hero. Go Dick! There's an issue we can all get behind. Ethnic cleansing would be a great next move for Texas-Dick after he deals with the vagina.

I would like to check the integrity of his hymen.

We seem to be in a state of deathly, morbid fear of women and their womanly parts. In fact, we are so afraid that some women voluntarily participate in our fear culture. Karen Santorum has placed her vagina in a sanctified place where its manifestations are only controlled by Jesus and his representative on earth, Dick, who will determine if and when Karen is to die in childbirth in the case of a life -threatening complication. Or what if she simply does not want to have another....."please may I not have more Mr. Dick"?

Dick's place in heaven might be in jeopardy based on the one pregnancy known to have been terminated with the permission of this devout opus dei hypocrite.

QQ.:2   I WANT MY RIB BACK

The concept of 'women as evil' seems to go back to pre-history. Eve tempted Adam. He was unable to resist and that was the end of paradise. From that point on, Eve was forever damned. But for that temptress, we would still be in paradise.

So, in our modern, emancipated cultural atmosphere of diversity, we embrace all beliefs and all cultures. Semitic-featured women parade along Broadway in downtown Nashville, three steps behind their husbands. They are wearing floor-length, head-to-toe black tents. They wear these garments as a symbol of their dedication to the teachings of the prophet, to guard their modesty and to avoid temptation. Only their eyes are visible and more often than not, these are hidden behind shades. These fashion-specific guidelines were set up only to protect the wives of the prophet, and not for the larger society of 1500 years before our time. In 2012, we pretend to emulate the teachings of the prophet through subjugation via polyester. It's a fashion thing. Of course with means, the subjugation can be upgraded to linen or silk.

It's that vagina thing. Men are out of control and we must do whatever it takes to avoid that confrontation with the pussy. Vulva avoidance at all costs is protected, floor to ceiling, with the deepest, darkest, black disguise we can find. Because under that tent, we might find a truth. The truth is that a woman hides underneath. She is a human person. She thinks, she knows, she heals and loves. She lives and she dies. She bears children. She also has a vagina. That in the year 2012, male Mullahs in Egypt and Mullahs in Mississippi and Mullahs in the Vatican seek to gain control over that vagina is more than troubling. There is pending legislation in one southern backwater that proposes making the insertion of an IUD illegal. Our fellow human inhabitants of this planet suffer hunger and deprivation in the billions. The new industrial revolution has made the oceans and the air our personal garbage disposal site. The pervasive culture is tribal, feudal and corrupt.
We have climate change and the occasional genocide or two. But, at the very top of this mess, if we are to follow the agenda surrounding the current GOP primary campaign, is the all -powerful vagina. The vagina rules.

QQ:3   LADIES FIRST

Rape is a weapon of war. Men of war seek out women who 'belong' to their adversaries. They subjugate these women, forcibly penetrate their vaginas and ejaculate into them. Then they kill them or simply move on to more important issues relating to power and territory. But, ladies first.

This invasion has been a weapon of war throughout history and is happening today in the Middle east and in Africa.

As we wage war to gain power and to gain territory, the ownership of women gains historical priority that seems to pre-date the reptile. Before land, before crops, before power and before god, we will subjugate and rape your women. We'll deal with the other issues after we deal with the vagina.

QQ:4   GANG BANG

When we penetrate the vaginas of our opposing forces, this somehow symbolizes a significant form of domination that is seminal. And isn't seminal the perfect word.

What in hell is going on here?

Rape is a curious concept. How is it that a man in the depths of rage, hatred and murderous turmoil can achieve and maintain an erection? Is this a fundamental primitive programming that has any evolutionary purpose?

There are some primitive concepts regarding the definition of rape. Am I recalling correctly some ancient biblical interpretation that suggests when cries for help cannot be heard, then rape is justified.

Designer drugs have introduced a whole other form of rape. Date rape. Now there's a concept. The man makes a woman unconscious and then penetrates her. What is the fun in that? American Psycho, I hope was a sad and dark commentary based on black humour. It seems that it was much more serious.

A recent, trending twitter topic was "Who'd I most wanna bang". Responses were in the millions. Accused, violent abuser, Chris Brown won hands down. Sorry, hands up. This psychopath has achieved notoriety for beating women. Yet, his fame has made him the most attractive, fantasy-fuck for the twitter audience. That women find him attractive is the darkest possible commentary about our zeitgeist. If women like bad boys, and they may, does that excuse the bad boys behavior? That is a ridiculous concept. 'Woman beating' as an Olympic event is beyond the pale under any circumstances and the families who failed these aberrant, ‘Chris Brown fantasy women’ carry sad bags of blame. What will Dick do when one of his daughters shows up with bruises. Statistics show that the likelihood of that happening is fairly significant. Statistics suggest that in America, a woman is assaulted every two minutes.

QQ:5   A NOD AND A WINK      

The word "slut" is being bandied about by Rush Limbugger, et al. However, the more recent usage of the word by a Canadian law enforcement officer resulted in the worldwide phenomenon of Slutwalks. The concept is that if a woman dresses provocatively, then she is inviting rape. Limbugger extended the concept to the idea that if a woman uses contraception too often, according to his metric, then she must be a slut.

Slutwalks are a protest movement where women express their right to dress as they wish. Is the penis so out of control that women need to be subjugated at every level? According to the mullahs, yes it is. I now look to Rush Limbugger, Dick Santorum and the Ayatollah to legislate and police on behalf of my penis and to keep me away from those pesky women with their ankles exposed. Who knows what could happen?

QQ:6   IT’S A MINSTREL SHOW  

Lynchings in history were more often than not based on accusations of a black man assaulting a white woman. You know what they say : "once you go black, you never go back".

Currently, Barak Obama is being politically lynched. The fact that this lynching has most of its power and energy emanating from the American South, in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana is no coincidence. Barry has been embraced by the political loyalty of some white women. This cannot be tolerated. Barry has veered from the accepted course of our native land and its pre-destined exceptionalism. When we hear the phrase, "we need to take our country back", it is not just about the socialist, Muslim, African, anti- Semitic traitor in the White House. It's all about the fact that white women voted for him. We have to protect our women from the black man.

When the Mullahs Sanitarium/Romulus take away women's health care, those same white women will likely vote for the black man again because once you go black, you never go back. That's where the lynching begins.

No president in history has been confronted with so many brick walls preventing any and all forward movement. The guy had given it his best shot, but there's a lynchin a-goin’ on. Gun sales are at record levels and we are in a war to protect our women from the black man's assault on their honour.
The corner of compromise that Barry has found himself backed into is a political position of sad reaction. The better candidate, Hillary is a woman. We couldn't have that could we? Better a black man who we can slow-lynch.

QQ:7   THE NEW MECCA  

I am curious as to Dick Santorum's thoughts on women's fashion. Does he have a fashion philosophy? I wonder how Dick feels about the color red? Is Purple too Catholic? Does Dick have feelings about high heels, pointed toes and nail polish? More importantly, is there a Dick skirt-length based on so many inches above the knee?

Perhaps, if prayer launches Dick into the White House, he will legislate a Santorum modesty index. This will moderate the actions of the 'out of control' penis, protect our white women, and avoid future lynchings based on temptation that arises out of a shade of lipstick that does not adhere to the Sanitarium modesty index.

The most important part of the new agenda for 2013 must be to get those sluts under control. Demolishing Roe versus Wade will take precedent followed by revoking all women's driver's licenses.  It works so well in Saudi Arabia. Clearly, allowing women to drive leads them to temptations from which they must be protected. After all, they are the superior species and need to be honored with our protective mantle. Keep them pregnant and in the kitchen where they belong. Then we will all be safe. Mississippi is the new Mecca.

The fact that there likely is a Santoru-mist concept of slut-ism and women's fashion modesty is a much more important issue than would first seem.

Fashion is a fleeting reflection of the times. There exists a multi-edited and badly-translated, mish-mash book of fables patched together about two thousand years ago that reflected the political and philosophical fashion of that time.

The Santorumists suggest that they have the key to this book’s rules and that key designates the behaviour and style of garments that a woman may wear in 2013. Paris, get ready for the new conservative Santorum/Gautier fall line of red white and blue burkhas coming to your Macy's outlet soon.

QQ: 8   SAY WOMD

As bad as the concept of a black man taking away our women and our country is, an uppity, black woman is intolerable. Michelle was Barry's mentor and transitional supervisor in the legal world.
A fellow Harvard graduate, Michelle likely has important things to say and do. Political wisdom has kept her well hidden away. We know more about her bare arms than we know about her intellect. Anita Hill was another uppity black woman who had to be disposed of in the interests of the country.

Condoleezza Rice was Dubya’s ventriloquist dummy. She was trained to mouth the letters “W.O.M.D.”, and did her master's bidding. I'm sure she had other thoughts on the subject. She's a pretty good pianist. I'm glad we didn't see her tap dance, although she kind of did.

We embrace Oprah on the same level as we embrace our tap dancers and boxers. Also, she has learned to play it well as a talking head. But she's no Rush Limbaugh. He has the real audience and the real political power. Real men listen to Rush. They universally dislike Oprah because they are manly men.

QQ: 9   A GROWING CONCERN  

And then there is the trafficking of children.

The powers that be, from the Vatican to Wall Street, from the White House to Congress, from Brussells to Beijing all have the possibility of setting their priorities and their resulting agendas. Yet, the slave trade continues to represent the fastest-growing criminal activity in the world. It mainly affects women and children.

Check into any major chain downtown USA Hotel. You are a co-dependent of the human trafficking industrial complex. Paris Hilton anybody?

QQ:10   FEMINISM OR HUMANISM  

The concept of "conservative feminist" mystifies me. Is this not a contradiction?

The Planned Parenthood website suggests that 50% of all women in America will experience an unplanned pregnancy at some point. Sarah Palin and her grizzly soccer moms suggest that every one of these pregnancies be forced to term through legislative enforcement. Give birth or go to jail.

For all manner of aberrant reasons, there are millions of 'conservative' women who support Sarah, the assorted Dicks and Chris Brown. Similarly, there were Black-African leaders heavily invested in the slave trade to the Americas at its peak. The Vatican does not properly deal with its child molesters and rape continues to be a weapon of war. The Arab spring has not addressed the 90% female genital mutilation rate in Egypt.
Until it does, spring will not have sprung.

I am not a feminist. I am a humanist.


Etched on my stone tablet.

Edited : Batsheva

www.johncapek.com

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY SIX - March 7, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH



Three cyclists ride into a bar

A Catholic on a Tricycle,
An Agnostic on a Bicycle,
and a Jew on a Unicycle

They all fall down..

DEATH DRUGS AND ROCK 'N ROLL (While falling off a bike).

Quality, Innovation and Culture are three words that haunt me. How do we quantify Quality? Is there a score between one and ten? Does a Mozart sonata get an 8 out o 10 versus a Chopin polonaise that gets a 9? Does James Joyce’s "Ulysses" score a 9 versus Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" at 8? Why is an original Rothko worth more than a Milton Avery?

Who are you wearing?

But more importantly, how do we deal with the quality of our mortality? Does the culture of death impact our lives, or do we simply bury it in the sand until it impacts us or those close to us? Can the quality of death be improved with innovation?

QQ:1.  A PETRO STATE OF MIND

The quality of leadership that we would most likely embrace, I imagine, is honesty.

The "Art of War" suggests that the most valuable weapon of power that one can have, far beyond position and armament, is intelligence.

Intelligence, by its very nature requires secrecy. If we want our leaders to be honest, yet require them to protect our interests with powerful intelligence, then there is a blatant conflict. We can't have secrecy and honesty existing at the same time. Do we elect our leaders to lie to us? Where do we draw the line? Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no its an Obama-drone a-coming' to getcha! Constitution, what constitution?

In Canada, "Our Dear Leader", Harper has built a wall between himself and the press. He has drawn his line in the sand. He is holding his cards close and he is up to no good. Based on his hegemony, the quality of life and the quality of death will be profoundly impacted in Canada as the leader imposes his paternalistic agenda. Intelligence now rules with its necessary ingredient of secrecy. The fact that he may have stolen the election is a matter of internal national security.

Immediately after the recent federal election the leader of the opposition Jack Layton met an untimely death when he was most needed.

Mortality strikes again. Jack Layton was a bike rider.

QQ : 2.  STAR BREITBART NOT SO BRIGHT

Our leaders are not only the elected dudes who run things. We also have our media ranters and ravers. One of these leaders with a following in the millions, recently met his maker. His name was Andrew Breitbart. He was a despicable human being who ranted and raved mainly about small issues that roused small people with small minds. He got mileage out of Anthony Weiner's small weiner and tweeted briefs. Destroying Shirley Sherrod and Acorn were equally small potatoes that got this aggregator/thief an unfortunate amount of inappropriate mob response. He ran a business and raked in the dough based on lifting copyright and disseminating edited bits to edited morons.

The sympathetic press regarding his demise is mystifying.

Rush Limbaugh has now taken up the mantle of 'Supreme Idiot', but he has an out. He has always described himself as an entertainer first. I love his take on those pesky cyclists: “Frankly, if the door opens into a bicycle rider, I won’t care" is a direct quote from the Rush comedy show. Rush does occasionally reveal his internal straight man.....that of a sad, sick fuck.

Here is the important distinction between the two. Brietbart was a martyr. Limbaugh is a self-admitted clown and cyclist hit man. He will never gain martyrdom.

It is the quality and timing of Breitbart's death that gives him significant attention. The latest rumors even accuse the administration of having him whacked.

That he leaves behind a wife and kids does not make him a better person, just a better martyr.

QQ 3.   FATHER, SON AND THE HOLY GUN

Should we celebrate Osama Bin Laden being shot in the face by our elite commandos?

Was this a happy-making event? I wonder if we had sent the Mossad to bundle him up, cart him back to a courtroom and put him on trial and then shoot him in the face, would that have been more appropriate? Does the quality of death matter? We are constantly reminded of the suffering of Jesus as he experienced the torture leading to his death.

This suffering is presented to us as an example of martyrdom that is meant to instill a multitude of feelings including guilt, sympathy and obedience. The quality and pain of Jesus' death experience is held up as deeply significant.

Had Jesus been shot in the face like Osama, would we be similarly impressed? The symbol of the cross would have no meaning. We would be genuflecting to another symbol, the military assault rifle.
Oh, I forgot. In America, we already do that.

I wonder if Osama ever experienced the joy of riding a bicycle? The resulting prostate issue could have gotten him in the end without the commando intervention.

QQ 4.   HOW ABOUT THOSE TITANS?

A worldview from the vantage point of Nashville, Tennessee is a narrow focus that does not distract our attention from important matters. These deep and significant issues include the daily rag's headlines describing the Titan's fortunes, tornado predictions and random shootings. Tennessee Republicans have voted for Dick Sanitarium in the recent primary. Dick's views on capital punishment are unclear. He seems to be much more concerned with the quality of his ejaculate than a choice between lethal injection or hanging as an option between two varieties of "cruel and unusual".

The unborn have taken on a priority far greater than the disenfranchised, the hungry, the poor, the sick and the dying. Let's hear it for the unborn. I can see those headlines in The Tennessean now: Unborn Titans Defeat Tornados While Random Shootings Protect Our Homeland.

No condoms for you; not if you want to go to heaven.

QQ 5.   WHEN IS A CITY NOT A CITY?

My experience of 'cruel and unusual' is the synchronicity of stop lights along the newly deconstructed St. Clair Avenue in Toronto. City planners have seen fit to have all traffic along a five mile stretch stop at exactly the same time with synchronized red traffic lights, for no logical reason. This is my version of purgatory.

My vision of hell, would be trying to ride a bicycle along that same stretch of bitumen. The city planners did not plan for bikes, they are so 2013. Only lemmings would take to cycling along this treacherous roadway.
It is a death sentence.

QQ 6.   IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

We are encouraged to ride our bikes to contribute to the greening of our environment.

Coincidentally,a disproportionate number of my closest friends have recently been struck down during their participation in this deceivingly, seemingly benign activity.

Bob, in a coma, almost died in Europe after being struck by a speeding car; Richard on a bike path in Melbourne broke his neck; Geoffrey, my closest childhood friend is just recovering from an almost lethal brain injury after a fall from his bike.....and then there is Marvin. What can I say? The prize, however is held by my new friend, Henry, who was charged by an elephant on a highway in India while riding his bike. That inspired my new anthem for his tour company, Tour d Afrique. I'm not sure that he will be riding from Cairo to Capetown for a while.

I have covered the planet on my bike. I'm not afraid, but I am conscious of the dangers. I will not ride along that lethal stretch of St Clair. I am, however concerned with the quality of the air in Toronto which according to some reports is the third most polluted city in North America. You can actually taste the air on a bike during the summer in Toronto. A taste of coal, anybody? Perhaps, this is held as a secret in the interests of national security. That air quality does, however support an inordinate amount of respiratory medical intervention that supports the larger pharma and surgical economy.

QQ 7.   BEAT IT

Propofol is an amazing drug. It was responsible for Jacko's demise.
I had a taste of it for an age-appropriate medical test. It put me out appropriately, but allowed me full coherence and mobility immediately afterwards. It's a miracle.

So, in their infinite wisdom, there are a few states and countries that permit some individual choice regarding death. Perhaps this is innovative. Perhaps the quality of our death is worth some examination. If our consciousness can be so easily suppressed with a drug like Propofol, then martyrdom is removed from the picture.

Imagine the possibility of not being tortured, not experiencing unnecessary pain, not facing an impossible depletion in the quality of life. Hook up to the IV and be done with it. Why is this concept so horrifying to so many? We deify the unborn and the dying more than the living. Another martyr,
Dr. Kevorkian, died for our sins. He was interested in the quality of death and was demonized for it.


QQ 8.   HIPPOCRATIC HYPOCRISY

An innovative approach to death and dying is a morbid topic at best. Except when one impotently watches the torturous struggle that the contemporary medical industrial complex imposes on us. The large question remains as to whether it is the responsibility of a doctor to alleviate suffering. The tri-cyclists seem to want to keep us alive at any cost in order to have us replicate and re experience Jesus suffering. My mother begged and pleaded for relief for her suffering in her dying days. It was not permitted. The system required her to suffer.

We cling to life at all costs and put our faith in technologically advanced medical procedures that at times can achieve miraculous results. We hang on and survive a bypass, a transplant, chemo and radiation, mastectomies, hysterectomies, hip replacements and all the cutting and slicing that fuels an industry overwhelming in its size and scope.

Is there any room for a conversation about the quality of this innovation?
I am not convinced that the extension of our life span by this industrial intervention is a universal good. It is particularly disturbing to observe the recurring reports of torturous pain and suffering that many of these interventions create. In my mother‘s case, the system overwhelmingly created more pain and depleted the quality of her life. It did not allow her the decision to plan or participate in decisions regarding the quality of her death.

My father died under similar circumstances, in a hospital, delirious with failing kidneys and hospital-induced infection.

It is perfectly clear that the majority of medical interventions make perfect sense based on precedent.
I would have died multiple times without the intervention of my dentist. I prefer not to suffer a violent death based on an infected tooth. The path and the plan are generally clear when it comes to simple dentistry. Without that skillful diagnosis and intervention we would suffer inappropriately. My dentist deserves sanctification. He spends half his working week treating the homeless and the poor, pro bono.

So, once our teeth are fixed, what then?

QQ 9.   TO HELL AND BACK

Returning to the haunting concepts of Quality, Culture and Innovation, I ponder the quantification we as a society have historically given to the value of life. The saying says that "life is precious".

How precious?

When we lose the ability to give and receive love, when we lose the ability to give and receive beauty and when pain and suffering are our only experience, then we should have a choice.

My friend Marvin sketches and paints, has travel plans and continues to make music. He says that he has no physical pain. Marv has chosen life. He could use a roof.

Geoffrey dotes on his grandchildren and looks forward to his getting back on that goddamn bike. Rodney's humour and his ability to share it never fails and Bob continues to re-invent himself every day. Dan is in the Philippines touring and Allan continues to make music. These boys from my youth still strive for quality, culture and innovation because of the positive outcomes of medical intervention.

QQ 10.   DR. DOCTOR

On the other hand, my friends who are doctors have another perspective.
They will not ultimately allow the system to determine the quality of their death.

When it comes to that they all have access to the good drugs.

Perhaps they know something that they are not sharing.

Now I have a headache.



Etched on my stone tablet

Editing : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY FIVE - February 25, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH



There is a theme and there are variations on that theme.
As hard as I try, I cannot seem to veer from my increasingly abject horror at observing the bizarre farce represented by Cirque du Santorum-Romney. "We must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate.”
Eradicate?

QQ: 1.   I WANT TO BE A MACHO MAN

I prefer my political clowns to be French or Italian. These passionate, Mediterranean macho men have no need to hide their hedonism in a cloister or a closet.

I like a French leader who enjoys a good Cuban cohiba, identifies with his Hungarian heritage and marries an Italian super-model-heiress.  My Italian presidents on the other hand take it one step further. They know how to party down and party hard regardless of party affiliation. Bunga Bunga.

QQ: 2.  CHUTZPAH

There are other leaders we can only hold in unbrideld awe for their boundless chutzpah.

Stephen Harper, the benevolent dictator of Canada, holds the contents of one of the world’s largest quarries in his slippery hands. The proposed Keystone pipeline will transport Canadian oil across the USA to facilitate the more economically viable route to China. The issue is not the pipeline itself. The problem is the environmental repercussions of mining and refining the tar sands from whence the oil cometh.

The earth will pay us back one-thousand fold for this criminal incursion. If we thought nuclear waste was a problem, this takes pollution to a whole new level.

Beyond that 'Our Dear Leader' Harper promotes Canada's continuing export of asbestos; the defunding of Universal Health Care; the re-districting of electoral regions in his favor; the establishment of police with unfettered powers and the spying on all private communication. The fourth estate has failed us. Oh Canada!

Another exciting show to watch is the Shakespearian power struggle in Australia between sparring leaders Gillard and Rudd. Just like Canada, it's all about the stuff in the ground that they want to sell to China. Rudd even speaks the lingo.

One thing in Ms. Gillard‘s favor is the fact she is unmarried and co-habits with her male partner in Australia's ‘White House’. The Aussies don't see this as a problem. Could we ever imagine such a travesty in the good old USA?

QQ: 3.  IS TAIL-GATING A RELIGION?

France and Italy are predominantly Catholic countries. Australia's religion is beer and surfing. Canada's religion is beer and Hockey. Any time remaining is used to keep warm. In France, Italy, Australia and Canada, it occurs to me that the electorate is not concerned about the frequency of Julia Gillard's attendance at mass. In Canada, we would be much more disturbed by Stephen Harper missing a hockey final than his not showing up for church on Sunday, especially on a snow day.

What has happened in America that has made fundamentalist, religious affiliation to be such an enormous part of the political agenda?

QQ: 4.  JUST ASK FOR VINNY

If my only choice was to choose from a two-way race between Mitt Romney and Dickless Santorium, then I choose Newt Gingrich.

Calling these demented, mentally-deranged, power-addicted morons 'clowns' has ceased to be a joke.

There is something wrong in the state of the church, and these guys stand at the entrance leading the way to a hell of their design. We are presented with a choice between Bishop Romney and self-appointed Catechist Dick Santorum. These religious megalomaniacs have determined the universal moral code and will impose it on us whether we like it or not.

Let's begin with women's reproductive rights. They are an easy enough target. Clearly, condoms are a barrier to man's direct communication with the about-to-return messiah and must be left to the individual states to control. Some states will then determine that we will be closer to God if we ejaculate freely. Some states will embrace Satan and permit the unholy use of prophylactics, only, however, with a doctor‘s prescription. Imagine, it could be like Prohibition. Al Capone and Joe Kennedy could join forces to bring illegal rubbers across the Mexican frontier and sell them at speak-easy pharmacies where there's a sliding panel in the door and you have to ask for Vinny.

QQ : 5.   HANGING CHADS

The most disturbing aspect of the Romney-Santorum circus is that it comes to us from a nation and a people who have given these guys their power, their support and their dollars to the tune of about half the voting population.

Romney did not become a state governor by decree. He was elected. Santorum did not appoint himself to elected office. He was voted in. Then again, Justin Bieber has about 60 million YouTube hits. Numbers like that could get him elected president.

I think I'll change my mind about the Gingrich alternative and vote for Justin.
I have a feeling he's OK with condoms. Although, there were recent rumors of a paternity suit. Maybe he’d consider adoption. I’d be willing to call him dad and he could call me John Bieber-Qapek.

The world has gone gaga.

QQ : 6.   NO CHEESEBURGERS FOR YOU

The problem is not religious custom and ritual. We need these things to bring us together as community. We do not live in isolation on this planet.

The problem is clearly the literal interpretation of long-forgotten, tribal mandates as God‘s Word.
It is Written

I believe that we can express our gratitude for the earth‘s bounty and for all things good, without worship. Worship implies an exchange. It is a primitive, unscientific, baseless concept. The larger imperative, it would seem to me, is the need for acknowledgement.

As fleeting, human occupiers of the planet, we should absolutely acknowledge the fundamental aspects of life that promote our survival and the quality of that survival.

We should treat each other as we would like to be treated.
We should acknowledge our powerlessness over our mortality.
We should treat the earth with respect and leave it in better shape than the way we found it.
Our creativity is our most treasured gift. Honour that gift.

Maybe four commandments are enough. Qapek’s Quadralogue

QQ : 7.  WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS

What then explains America's reversion to a fundamentalist and primitive interpretation of ethics and morality. This step back into 'Dark Age'  rigidity is not just about Romney-Santorum. There are larger, cultural forces in place.

I attribute part of this cultural shift to a reversion to a territorial, circling-of-the-wagons mentality. We are afraid. We fear the unknown and our misinterpretation of the known. One could say that the Crusades never ended. The historical timeline tells us of the siege of Damascus in 1140 by the Crusaders that continues to this day, symbolically, by proxy and as a reality for the larger region. Damascus continues to be a headline one thousand years later and we are encouraged to intervene. Damascus is under siege.

The more damaging aspect of our reversion, I believe, is racially based.
I suggest that the Civil War was never really resolved and this country continues to be radically divided on racial and subsequent economic areas. These divisions are so severe they have led to the circling-of-the-wagons for protection at every level and strata of society. We accept the imposition of a racially based prison industrial complex.

This is not an America-centric issue. Europe and its underclass of workers from the East is equally implicated. Apartheid lives. Our segregated societies are separate and they are unequal.

States‘ rights are a great, idealistic concept when it comes to economic structuring. States‘ rights, pertaining to ethical and moral dictees have no place on the political agenda. The idea that a woman could get an abortion in New York, but not in Alabama is patently ridiculous. This concept plays out racially and economically. You can carry a concealed handgun in Nashville , but not in Chicago. I just can't decide. Mandating the teaching of creationism is beyond the pale. The Monkey trial happened in 1925. The issue is still undecided.

Let states figure out how to build bridges, fix highways and provide public transport that is unique to their geographical and urban needs. Let states determine how best to utilize and protect their natural resources. But the idea that you can legally hire a hooker in Vegas, but not Chattanooga should not be a state issue. We should not look to the State to dictate the moral agenda on any level. Either it is a crime or it isn’t. The larger issue is human trafficking and the exploitation of children. That is and should be a federal crime and not something to be determined piecemeal by individual states. What quality of human trafficking is OK in Alabama, but not in Nebraska? What aspect of child exploitation will be better determined in Texas for Texans?

Furthermore, we should not allow the State to impose an acceptance of slavery. Individual state-imposed legislation that bans worker representation;  accepts and supports the mistreatment of farm workers; restaurant workers and hotel maids is a state that has gone beyond fundamental human rights to the continuation of the battle of Gettysburg.

A state that imposes individual identity checks and imposes its own interpretation of federal immigration law has gone beyond its legal bounds.

"Your papers, please". Ring any bells?

“We’ll always have Paris”.


QQ : 8.   A LINE IN THE SAND

Super PACS, Iraq, Israel and the larger conspiracy are  worthwhile areas to explore.

Conspiracies do exist. Conspiracies do occur. The Holocaust was not some hidden deceit. Of course it was known while it was happening. Jews just fulfilled their traditional role of scapegoat. America's invasion of Iraq,  based on fake evidence was a blatant conspiracy.

Perhaps the current, threatened bombing of Iran could be a larger conspiracy of usually opposing forces for the purposes of political and economic expediency.

We are presented with an out-of-control, insane, warlike Iran with ambitions to rebuild the Persian empire. This scenario would require a larger military and economic basis that Iran could possibly muster. Germany, prior to WWII, and Russia during the Cold War had tremendous, viable war machinery with a powerful, economic base.

What if, hypothetically, there were other advantages for the current US administration in a conspiring partnership with the GOP Mullahs, Israel and Europe to take on the Iranian problem. There is oil, there is Greece and there is deep unemployment across the board. With the winterizing of the Arab spring, Israel needs to make a definitive statement of "do not fuck with us". In that statement, there is no other cohesive territory to take on with as much symbolic power as Iran. They make the perfect target.
And the economic bounty pays off at every level. The GOP Mullahs can support the crusade and the Israelis send the necessary message. Barry Obama becomes a war hero and Greece is saved by the thriving economics of war as we busily re-tool the German armament industry. I hear that Mykonos is up for sale.

The problem is that regardless of the Ayatollahs and media portrayed madmen who currently run Iran, there would be an unhappy Iranian populace. They are the ones we should fear and consider before unleashing the fire. We as primitive humans are fundamentally, territorial. The Iranian populace has marked its territory and will react regardless of the hats that their leaders wear.

I will not send my son to fight this Persian crusade.

QQ: 9.   THE BUCK STOPS WHERE?

Follow the money. The song says "Money can't buy me love". So where is all that dough?
The invention of financial ‘products’ has created an industry unlike anything that has ever existed. Money buys money that borrows more money that bets on borrowed money being lost in an investment gone bad that has insurance against that loss with more leverage.

The manipulators and algorithms move non-existent billions from place to place in nanoseconds generating bonuses and profits from mystical sources that have no solid basis or foundation. Where is this cash? Greece could use some, the employees of Foxconn could use some and so could I.

It was interesting to watch the dispersion of unlimited financial resources that were unleashed in Australia by BHP and Rio Tinto when their interests were threatened. They brought down the Prime Minister. The two biggest mining companies in the world are far beyond the vicissitudes of the democratic process. They have a larger agenda. There is money to be made.

Similarly, the superPACS currently distributing infinite mountains of coin in the USA to manipulate the outcome of the forthcoming 2012 election presents a fun piece of theater. There is a new currency in the USA. It is the Koch-dollar. K$1 = 1 GOP vote.

Oh, I get it. There's the money. I found it.

QQ : 10.   IF YOU THOUGHT SARAH PALIN WAS GREAT, (THEN...)
Ten Reasons to vote for Dick Santorum:

1  His endorsement by Megadeath's lead singer
2  His nickname is "Rooster"
3  His role in deregulating the World Wrestling Federation from federal drug laws
4  His support of a ban on the free dissemination of weather info
5  He supports enhanced interrogation.
6  He believes in an Islamic-fascist agenda to conquer the western world
7  He does not believe in the right to privacy
8  He supports the construction of a fence along the Mexican border
9  No amnesty for illegal immigrants
10 He believes that left-wing, liberal culture caused Catholic priests to abuse young boys

The word according to Dick:

We are in a war and theology is its basis. Just like we were in a war against Communism and ideology was its basis. We need to understand that.
“What must we do to win [against Islam]? We must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate.”


Revelation 2:23  “I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.“


Editing: Batsheva

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