I was just in the supermarket...

getting groceries... and this disembodied voice came on with the news, and said John Edwards had retired from the primary race.

We even haven't the year of the Rat yet, and that was IT?

He spoke to me from the heart to my heart. And got negated. I can SO identify....

And it wasn't because he was a white Southern man... He has sound ideas and made me hope like it was 1963.

So all you get is corporate whores. Have a lotta fun dealing with that one...

All I see for a a corrective is the grass roots becoming even more stronger and you are gonna haveta start from the bottom up. But... didn't your folks ever EVER teach you not to take candy from strangers?? Just askin'


Well, we shall see.

We had some wind here yesterday...

Like I've seldom seen here before. The howling woke me up, even. The radio warned everyone not to leave the house unless it was really necessary. But I went to work... It caused a lot of damage. And that new housing project and office building up the street that was nearly finished?

Whaddaya know.... Turns out that acrylic 'skin' wasn't any too sturdy.....

The architect didn't reckon with Mother Nature, hey. Am glad I live in an old building...



And that was one huge fir tree that got uprooted....

I thought the full moon was over. Age-ism Week

You KNOW you're getting older when....

Your spam in your e-mail box wants to sell you enemas instead of penile growth vaccums, or viagra.

Enemas, hey! Wow. Just.... wow. 'Remove colon weight, and toxic substances.' Uh-HUH.

Well, holy shit on a shingle, you should forgive the expression... Ain't that somethin.....

How kinky.... can you GET, hey????

Listen, I know how older Murikans get if they are travelling and aren't 'regular'. Have heard it first hand in fact.... but that really goes beyond the pale.

Colon weight and toxic substances In-deed, hey. I used to work with a woman who was fixated on that and always threatened us with an enema laced with red pepper and tobasco sauce if we didn't do what she wanted us to. And yes, THAT was kinky.... Although I had no inclination to take her up on the offer. (Yuck.)

(Why do I always run into crazy ladies in my professional life? Magnetism? Am a wimp? Whatever...)

So ok. Full moon. have to accept I am an oldie. Haven't needed viagra, and won't. But enemas for health reasons? Wow.

Not going there.

Hokay.... am 75 no Wonder I feel like I do....

And that is what I get for being curious.

Anyone out there love those scam mails, where you fill out a questionaire, and get some idiot answer and results? Well there was this spam mail, 'find out your RealAge.' And I thought, ok, look at it, and have some fun....

Let's face it, you just KNOW you are gonna get a lot of spam for health products afterward, and I will be busy putting it into the spam guard, but why not, for a change? As above, was curious. So I answered it all honestly, and everything. They keep giving you tallies after you finish a section. So I went from 58.2 'calendar years to 63 after the first, and then down to 61 after the second, but then came the 'lifestyle' section. Uuuuuuuhhh... All that smoking and stress and no exercise? (When did I EVER have time to do THAT, working twelve hour shifts for over nearly forty years, huh? I was always too TIRED to go to a gym. )

So my body is 75.

BETRAYAL, body....

No. I did NOT run to the mirror in the bathroom to look. I hate mirrors and generally avoid all reflecting surfaces.... and try to stay away from open windows on upper floors of any given building. (Thank you John Irving...you have often saved my life.)

So after all THAT shit, I officially proclaim this to be ageism week.

Like I needed that....

Just sayin...

Thank whomever if your thoughts are still young, and you are open to the world. (see 'Dinner in Raymond, NH' in the Munich section. I always wanted to be like Prof. Cappon. Not there yet, but getting close.... I hope. I always take courage from my heroes and the survivors.)

So.... enough navel gazing. Time to turn in. At least I can sleep well. Some people I know do not.

And yes, sometimes I distract myself with the trivial so that I do not have to look at the train-wreck of my life. I was SO not kidding when I said I ENVY Heath Ledger. And let's leave it at that. You do your time and the world is a cruel place, and the cards get stacked against you from the get-go. So you have to be smart. Or try to be. And then you stumble, and fall. So what? You get back up, dust yourself off, and you go on. Till you just can not do it any more. and you DROWN.

And that is all there is.

So according to this thing, my body is 75.

Shall we break out a magnum of champagne to celebrate? Round number, sounds like a cause for celebration. Uh-HUH....

Oh PLEASE, a Dom Perignon.

At least I tasted it--once. Right.

So not worth celebrating.

How superficial can you GET?

Ok, time to hit the Lake

For you folks Stateside. Call, fax, e-mail your senators. The FISA bill is up again, and they want to give retroactive immunity for the telecoms that allowed the government to spy on you. Don't let them do it if you value your freedom.

This has been a public service message, as Mr. Amato says... And oh yes, isn't it interesting that Harry Reid, and Hillary got lots and lots of money from the telecoms just to let them enable that? Fits right in there. More corporate tools. But nothing will come of it if you don't speak out!

Time to do so. Or don't whine about it afterward. Just sayin'...

Oh.... (Jan 22-23--Blogger is striking on dates..)

Heath Ledger was found dead at the ripe old age of 28 today. In New York. Overdose, seemingly.... At the moment, I envy him...

I've only seen him in two films, so cannot judge how good an actor he was.

Yes, 'Brokeback Mountain'. And '10 Things I Hate About You', but he was a kid back then.

(Just for the record, I am so not a fan of'Brokeback'. I didn't NEED another depressing gay film, but he was good in it. The hype was nauseating.*)

What struck me over there was the panting, breathlessness of all the reporting, the callousness. What bothers me is the jackal-like glee in reporting details that turn out to be wrong, just because the NY press is smelling blood, and running with it, and he isn't fact-checking.

Found dead in the Olson Twins' appartment indeed, hey.

Why not tell the world he was having a three way with Barbie and Ken, all plastic, no parts?

I despise the Press. Shoddy little frat people.

Fact is, a young man with problems just up and died.

Shouldn't that be enough??

*Update. My take on the movie looks harher than in reality. It is a solid, well-made film.

Was over at America Blog today, and there was a thread on this. And all these people of a certain generation, were going ON, as if he were some sort of saint or something, and gave them so much in their lives with that one film. How superfluous. What the hell lives are they leading? And how the younger generation often 'didn't understand' their fascination with it. Well, I for one, didn't NEED to see the self-repression, fear, and hostility yet again on the so-called silver screen. I lived through it, experienced it, and got my sorry ass out of there, and never looked back . Talk about projection much? Freud would have a field day. And if the young generation hasn't got all those problems, so much the better. And yes it was a film from a wonderful short story by a woman who is an artist. It moved me. But it didn't mean getting FIXATED on it. You move on, and you try to make things better by being an example---a good one.

And to my generation---well, we've been through much. Get over it. And do something positive to change it. Sometimes I think we have been crippled by all the people we lost. There is still a fight to win....

This stuff just leaves me speechless.

Just saying....

Update 2: Twenty four hours of feeding frenzy in the press, and the reprehensible John Gibson of Faux news makes FUN of his death. He was still being obducted, and this homophobic ASS decides to make fun of it. Must have been nice for Ledger's family. Even Joe (somewhat of an ass) Scarborough was speechless, well not so, but angry. I get speechless at the heartlessness of some Murkin's who would take that and make it into an 'agenda'. Impious, disgusting. A mess of people got on that show's case and went to their adverdisers, and am sure it wasn't just gay people.

So NOW, at 2 am.... they got a video up of Gibson doing an apology, haven't heard it yet, but am sure there is a disclaimer in it. If I believed in evolution, (right), I would say the guy is an instant throw-back to cave guy. Weirdest head in all television. And Mr. Clairol wants to make Fun of the Breck Guy? Gimme a BREAK, hey....

You could just barf for years. 'Wha' HAPPENED?'

Well, the election results are in...

Was a beautiful day, yesterday, yet still only 52,6% of those elegible made use of their voting right.
Results with tables are in the title link above. So more Christian Dem rule. *sigh* And hard to believe that the Freepers gained 3% after last weekend's scandal. But what do I know...

Even biological preconditions never stop you from getting older, you know

Genes betray you. Sometimes. And if you get close to pushing sixty, time to re-evaluate. Yesterday, I got confronted with reality---twice. So if you keep your head open, and interact with everyone around you, you half-way keep up with the times, and boy are they accelerating. And in my head, I am sort of thirtiesh.

So on Saturday, was minding my own business at the market, and this campaign worker for the election asks me do I want to take some balloons home with me for my grandchildren. (And I thought, 'WHA?') But I remained sort of civil. 'I don't even have children, Mister, let alone grandchildren....'

Later that evening I went out and got cigarettes and a hamburger from a little all night stand. Which is where I learned I wasn't just having a bad hair day. Lots of kids from the disco there, and this young african guy suddenly takes my shoulder and says, 'you go up front, old man.'

He was really only being polite, you know? So I said, 'Hey, just because my hair is grey doesn't mean my brain cells are. You just get your stuff.'

Getting old sucks. Now where is that barf bag again?

Just when you think you KNOW that a worst-case scenario

is about to turn your life up-side down, and you are steeling yourself for the shock that life is about to dish out and knock you metaphorically k.o. yet again, whaddaya know, some god-damned, heretofore docile Rottweiler smells it, and decides, (wtf???), to ATTACK out of left field.

And there you are on the virtual floor again, looking up at the ceiling, groggy, and trying to make sense of it. Only the ceiling is a fun-house mirror, and there is nothing you can recognise in it. Double bitch-slap and two super hard punches to the solar plexus comes close to describing it.... (I was ready for the other, more or less....) But only just close. The reality is worse, actually.... but what do I know, being 'cowardly and only superficial in my thoughts'? Uh-Huh...

(Which keeps bringing some stupid song from the Sixties or early Seventies going round and round in my head. 'They smile in your face--back-stabbers...' Only I forgot the rest of the lyrics.)

Let's face it, I'm getting old, whether I want to or not. Less resiliant, thin-skinned, but at least still objective... And after all the turbulence of the past year, I am only functioning at one third of what I used to be able to do. It has taken all my inner reserves to get through it without a trip to the Sigmund Freud clinic, and yeah, that is exactly what you think it is... Just when you are at your most vulnerable, hey, they attack.

That has been my 'wonderful' week.

So you are all gonna haveta excuse me while I call for someone with a virtual spatula to scrape me off the virtual floor, and I get my balance back. I'll probably be back in a few days.

And that will be the end of this topic. There are some things I do not write about, because it would be taken wrong, and damaging. So? That's all he wrote, hey. Go read something uplifting, meanwhile, okay? James Wolcott is always fun...

I wanted to 'adorn' this with a photo of dog-shit on the sidewalk, but they are seemingly scooping the poop of late. Or a good one of puke on the sidewalk, but there wasn't a high school prom across the way the past couple of days. Or a used snotty Kleenex about to be flushed down the toilet, but I ran out of Kleenex. And used toilet paper would have been just too crass, if fitting.

Because that is how I feel. Aren't you lucky I didn't get lucky....

(/end topic)

Basket cases. Yup, everywhere you look, hey...

They have a saying for it in German, even. 'The fools are running the insane asylum.' Yup, that pretty much sums it up, hey.

So Hillary and Obama's people discover, probably through polls, that the majority of voters do not LIKE the racist meme, and according to an AP headline, are gonna back off. How nice.

They should just be so fucking proud of themseleves. Yup. All that stuff was mean, and ineffectual, so they just decide to drop it because it is not going to advance their agendas. How big-hearted, and 'liberal'.

And we too, have a local election next Sunday, a pitiful, meaningless one. But we got us our own little coven of witches and bastard sorcerors. Oh yes. They had their coven meeting just outside of town this past Sunday. I really, really wanted to go, just to check this species out in their natural habitat, but I had to work. This time it was like the time I missed going to Woodstock.... kind of.

Ok, not that big.

And I would probably have gotten my face re-arranged in a not very attractive way... For not keeping my mouf shut, ya know? I really do a re-buff on the street, when they do their thing, and that is sometimes dangerous in itself. Idjit bullies....

Seemingly it was a Volksfest, fun for all the attendees. Three thousand little rabid fascists in a tent, hey. For a town of 250,000, ---less than one per cent? And then the Freeper Candidate got up to speak. I am SO sorry I missed it. The Chancellor has called for an investigation to charge her with 'Volksverhetzung', stirring people up to be violent against another group they do not like.

Seemingly, one of her statements was stating that we have a tsunami wave of Muslims who are gonna take away all we hold dear and press their way of life on us, jawohl! Uh-HUH. And the one that got her into really hot water was maintaining Mohammed was a child molester, and when he was middle-aged, he had his last wife who was six years old. Implying all Muslims are child molesters.

Sigh...

How fucking perverted can you GET in your greed, hey? That is what got her an investigation going.

Rightly so.

Does anything pass through her BRAIN before it comes out of her esophagus after passing through her aciduous somach? ? And you guys get all wimped out over implied racist statements? Ok, I did too... But what is going on here? I thought we lost that crap long ago...

And by the way... I go out my door daily, and there are a lot of people of Muslim faith out there. I only recognise the ones who dress accordingly. I do not bother them, they do NOT bother me. And that is how it should be. I can even interact with some of them, and they are nice people.

SO WHERE THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM?

Everyone went fucking crazy. For damned politics. Basket cases.

Just sayin'

NEVER answer the phone out of a deep sleep....

and wtf did I just DOOO? ???

Had five days of getting up at four a.m., running to work, nothing happening, so hard to get through the day, mostly got yelled at, but that is something I do not go into on this blog.


Deep breath.... from the top. I was tired, we have Mordor weather, it doesn't get light. I was just depressed and exhausted, so I went to bed at noon. And then the bloody phone rang. Long. I thought Peter had fallen down again or something.

I had this unreal older woman voice out of Munich. When I hear that diction and sort of voice, I listen up. She identified herself with a teevee company out of Munich. And did I want to come and take part in a quiz show, because now they add Austrians to the mix. Normally, I would have asked how they got my number, and all. But as above, was just out of a deep sleep.

Did I know the show? No. I work evenings. It is like 'Who wants to be a Millionaire', except the candidates don't answer, you have to pick a prominent person on the jury to give the answer. (jury-rigged, alarm bell here...)

And would I like to be in the series beginning in June, and the wins, and big sums of money, and five THOUSAND Euros just to go to Munich, expenses paid, and THAT my Preciousess is the glitter that made me lose all comprehension.

('Me... in a quiz show, I could WIN something... oh.... I could win big and fly Annti here to visit.' Just flashed before my eyes, still with the sandman sand in them.... Or I would have told her to go where the pepper grows, but she painted pretty pictures in my head.)

And before I knew it, I was signed up. And then came the scam. I get three chits. To play, their so-called Klassenlotterie. If I win, it is mine. Fat chance. Those chits go into another lottery and that decides if you get to go on the show. Otherwise I have to pay for one month playing their lottery, and it costs about fifty dollars, so she just robbed me of what I didn't want to give. And you can believe me... no WAY I'm ever gonna get on a teevee show. Got robbed per call center.

I do not know if you have ever seen the brilliant film, 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?' If you have, that is how I felt. If you haven't, rent it if available. But on a good day, not if you are depressed.

Just sayin' And sometimes.... just don't answer the phone.

Btw... the picture is of dishevilled Austrians (straw dummies) beneath a Coca Cola sign. I think it fits..... It is in front of a mom and pop store. The rest of the street is one Döner shop after the other, and I don't know how she survives.

Racist?

This morning's crop of videos from Crooks and Liars seems to have a disproportionately high number of discussions regarding New Hampshirites being racist, and that being why the pollers were wrong, and why Obama didn't get the lead they predicted.

As a former New Hampshirite, I really found that offensive. Highly offensive, as a matter of fact. The people I know and knew there are not much different from anyone anywhere else, in my experience. Some of them have their predjudices, and some of them harbour sort of odd opinions, mostly because they never have any experience with people who have a different color skin than they do. So they do not know. And most of them are good people, I found.

But I really doubt that racism was a factor in the election outcome. I do think, as Atrios at Eschaton does, that the media caused a typical backlash among the voters, because of how they treat Hillary.

"I don't know if reaction to the media treatment of Clinton had anything to do with voter choices yesterday, but I certainly know people in real life who a) don't want Clinton to win and b) are tempted to vote for her every time they're exposed to the way she's treated by the deeply broken monsters in our mainstream media."

So they should just stop with the 'racist' shit. I'm fairly sure we've gotten beyond that idiocy, not perfectly, but not the way they are framing it, at least....

Update: the discourse got even worse in the past 48 hours. Cuomo coming up with that 'shuck and jive' remark. I'd never heard that term before, having been around so many 'racists', you know, but you would think that if I grew up with them, I would have heard it at least once somewhere.... So were they backwards and ill-informed, to boot? If you click on Pam Spaulding in the blogroll, she explains why it is so fully negative. I expected something like this toward the end of the election cycle, not now...

If I had a tin-foil hat, I would put it on, and come up with the idea that the corporate world WANTS Clinton to get the nomination, just so they can tear her apart and put in yet another Repuglican, and continue to rape the world. Stranger things have happened.... And now there is to be a recount, as the hand-counted ones show an advantage for Obama, and the Diebold ones are the exact opposite to Clinton's advantage. Something about that really smells fishy, as we used to say. Since both of them are being funded by big corporate interests, what the fuck is going ON here? It wouldn't bother me one way or the other if it didn't affect the rest of the world. But this is crass. Just sayin'.

The Producers...

Was the first Mel Brooks film I ever saw, in 1968. I was totally unaware of what was about to happen and be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. It was an assault on everything and anything considered politically correct. It starred the never-to-be-replaced Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, in what I believe was his first role in any movie. He was so neurotic, he was a joy to watch. It was about a would-be, hoped-to-be producer who is an accountant, and has to check a nefarious dastard of a producer, who takes him under his wing. And they get up this plan to make a flop. So they get the worst, absolutely worst musical script from a Nazi, and hire the worst director on the face of the earth, the worst actors, and then sell 100 percent of the supposed gains to all of the backers. It ended with a song and dance number, Springtime For Hitler'. I was fucking shocked, being only eighteen years old. Because it made me laugh, and feel guilty about laughing over it. It really stuck in my throat. Brilliant. It became a cult film later and wasn't a hit.

Sometime in the early 80's there was this art house cinema here, and they did a series of Brooks retrospectives. I dragged Peter to see it. The end of it? He FREAKED. 'You can't DO that!' And I said, 'Well, he is entitled, I think.'

I think it was his next film, the chaotic 'Blazing Saddles' that rocketed Brooks into everyones's hearts. It is the silliest movie ever made. I love it.

A few years ago, he made The Producers into a musical. Seats 100 dollars and up, and it was a smash hit. And now it is a film. With Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the original roles, and the lovely Uma Thurman. It is even more tasteless, but funny. (Ok, I admit it, I like tasteless funny, and it is a very fine line to walk.) He added a number with old women as backers doing a dance number with walkers, you know the frame things? Tap dancing with them? Only Mel Brooks would come up with something that tasteless--and hilarious.

I waited a long time to get this one, because I had a barf taste in my mouth as far as what I had seen of Nathan Lane so far. Which was only 'The Birdcage'. He was bad. Take my word for it. He was horrible. If anyone has seen the incomparable late Michel Serreault in the original French version, BRILLIANT, they will understand what I mean. And THAT man could do ANYTHING. So I was sceptical.

He was more than a worthy follower of Zero Mostel in this. My mouth was AGAPE, hey. That good. Matthew Broderick did ok with the security blanket thing, but he's no Gene Wilder. Will Ferrell was very funny. And the finale gets topped with the incredible number 'Heil me!' (Which is a double entendre, can mean 'cure' me.) I went into pure shock. It was so daring, on the one hand. But, in the end, I think it is all to the good to take one of the worst people in history and make them laughable. As above, it is a very fine line to walk, but in this cased it worked both times. Recommend it highly.

I mentioned my nice colleague and how I lend her my dvds when I get a musical? Well, I wasn't sure this time. The finale is on You Tube now. So I called it up, had explained what it is about, and said, 'Ummmm are you SURE you want to borrow this one? It is sort of crazy.'

She was fucking SHOCKED, I tell you, SHOCKED: 'How can anyone make FUN of Hitler?' And I just said, 'Well, he is entitled...'

So she is going to borrow it. But her daughters do NOT get to see it.

Fascinating, that forty years later, it still shocks people.

Yes, it is crass. It is sophmoric. But it is also brilliant.

And I still like the original. It was a masterpiece.

Springtime for Hitler, in-deed. Gawd.

The missing party candidate

The Greens are nearly invisible in the thicket of the other posters and billboards. Either they are short on funds, or just wanting to remain in the opposition, can't tell. Latest polls on Sunday said the Socialists are standing still, the Christian Dems are gonna win, and the Greens and Freepers are going to make gains, and the Communists are going to go down the tubes. We shall see.

And yes, most of them look as tight-lipped as her.

Today is important for you NH people...

So go out there and vote. I will not bloviate about what I think. Doesn't matter, does it? YOU are in the decision making process big time. So get your asses out there and put your X's where you think it will be best for you. It is your country. Time to take it back. Vote.

Oh yes, it is my brother's birthday. I'd wish him a happy happy, but life doesn't work that way. I make him 'uncomfortable' for being who I am. Well, he missed out on a lot of fun along the way... His problem. And sad.

See that ice? Make it thaw. Go vote.

PS: sorry about the poor photo. Grass roots and ice on the brook. I have to learn to use the macro on my camera better . But I thought it was fitting.

....And woke up to a real shock. Sitemeter tells me that the incomparable TRex was in my efficiency appartment, while I was sleeping. That is like having the Dalai Lama hovering over your bed in levitation, or something. You would think that a 40 foot therapod would wake you up, but I slept well. And am still saving up for his dowry, so that I can swoop over to GA, carry him off and marry him in Massachusetts. Seeing as I'll be about 105 years old by that time, as 40 foot therapods are high maintainence, I had better join a gym. Yup. So much for fantasies.

But you guys don't have to fantasize today. Use your voice, and make it LOUD. Just sayin'.

A Nine Yr. Old Live-blogs the Republican Debate

over at Daily Kos. Meet Bunny Ears, Beagle Eyes, and Oily..... Indeed!
Heh..

BRAVOS to the good folks in Nashua, NH!

for showing Faux News guy Bill O'Reilly a less than warm welcome, and some one-fingered salutes. Lots more at Crooks and Liars. (in the blogroll in the side-bar.)

We had the dubious privilege of receiving that channel on our sat system for three long months after Sept. 2001. I was so shocked at the content, I couldn't watch more than ten minutes at a time before wanting to kill my teevee. Hannity drove me up the wall, Colmes was a wimp, they were all whiny, then full of false bravado, to barf. But Bill O? They do not come any more fatuous, pompous or more hate-mongering. Can't wait to see Keith Olberman go at him with his Snoopy Schadenfreude dance. Am sure he will...

Update: The King of Snark,TRex, rubs his therapod claws in glee here.
His twin brother PatRex has some unsettling thoughts in the comments.

Bravo, Nashuans! And if any of you in NH know someone from there, give them a congratulatory hug. In this case, bad manners should definitely be rewarded!

Ten years and no thaw.....

When I shot this photo, I did not think it would be a metaphor. But it is. Someone left the fountain on purposely, and made a free-form ice sculptcha'. Yup

Sums it up, oh yes. Not to worry. This is about local stuff. Oh, yeah... It represents what the Democratic Party is there and the Socialist party is here.

And I am NOT bitching. Just clueless.

The first time I came to Europe, I was a lowly student who hadn't an inkling of what was beyond our borders. It was 1972. I had the 'good' luck to work in the Olympic Village in Munich, working in the cafeteria where the athletes ate. THAT was fairly AWESOME.... 14oo students from all over the world. I would have given my left nut for that experience... and it just sort of fell into my lap, hey.

Well, I had hardly been there a week, and this German JUSO (young Socialist) comes running down the hall and grabs me. 'We have to DO something! We need a delegation!'

What got their panties in a twist? The cafeteria didn't have freezers or coolers and were throwing away the best foods you can think of into the garbage every day. Prime beef steaks, everything. And every night they would deliver everything fresh again. Wahnsinn! Crazy!

The Jusos were going from floor to floor to find delegates to help stop the wastage. They wanted to go to the management, point out this waste, and threaten to strike on opening day, and threatren them with a report to the }}}}Bild ZEITUNG{{{{. That is just one step up from the National Enquirer in tone, and everybody read it. And being 23 years old, I said, YES, let's DO this. The thought did cross my mind that I would get expelled, and have to go back to that horrible city I grew up in, but he got me fired up, and ENRAGED.

So I said, 'yes, let's DO this!' All ten of us get into the managers' office, and the 'firebrand ' punks me. He probably thought it would be better coming from a 'ferner'. I don't know. My German was fairly fluent. But only fairly. And all of a sudden, I am the 'speaker' for this group. I was polite, but firm. 'You can't really believe that you can just throw things away, when there are people in need, or that some people in old-aged homes (!) would be thankful if you would have it sent to them instead of throwing into the GARBAGE....

At that moment, I was terrified. Inside. Outwardly, I was firm. I thought Socialists were Communists or something... And deep within me, I was seething about how unjust it was. And I thought, 'If I have to go back to my Mill town and look at bricks all my life, this is so WORTH it.' So I grabbed my courage in my hand and let loose.

And I felt I was doing the right thing.

And then I DELIVERED the ultimatum. Sometimes, back then, I used to have a courage I didn't even know I had... Young and reckless, hey, if not in the sense of being part of a motorcycle gang...

As soon as I mentioned 'strike on opening day', and Bild Zeitung, they went pale. Obviously I did NOT get fired. And the next day, all these social services people drove up to the back ramp and loaded the good stuff to be taken to old age homes, and so on. And I thought, HOLY fucking SHIT, we have some powerful stuff going on here...

And that is how I became a Socialist in mentality. Never was a card-carrying member. We were doing something constructrive, it wasn't for personal gain, and we put our jobs on the line, and won.

It was heady, it was wonderful, and it was real, you could see that you made a difference. For the good, nothing selfish...

Zoom ahead thirty years. Complacency? Check. A social ice age? Check. Greedy assholes who even rob your strike funds? For a shady deal with an american bank that was so nefarious, even I could hardly beleive it, and have seen some egregrious things in my day. WHAT the FUCK??? CHECK. Wha' HAPPENED, hey???

In the past fifteen or so years, the people who made that party WHAT IT WAS, died. And the people who took it over? Bankers. And they ruined whatever I admired and worked for over many years. The whole fucking world 'changed'. Dashed hopes and whatever.

So what does this have to do with the Democratic Party, you ask? It also is like that fountain in the picture.... Stasis. Got frozen. Except it seems you guys are experiencing a little bit of a thaw. People are going out and getting active there, and they do not want to take what is being crammed down their throats any more. And that is all to the good.

Their programmes have always been a bit to the left, but it is always lip service, for the most part.

Sorry, but am sort of bilious at the moment.

So when the Fuck does my thaw come?

I cannot see it yet..

Am going to vote Communist, I swear....

Local candidates.....

Who would you vote for? Who turns you off? These are the five local candidates for mayor and the city council elections coming up in a few weeks....



Communist Party candidate. 'Helping instead of Talking ' is the slogan. To her credit, she is the only candidate I see all year round near the market on some Saturdays, listening to people's problems and trying to find solutions for them. She has honest eyes and seems to listen well.



Socialist Party candidate. He wants more for Graz. His campaign began with no photo, and that he wanted more social justice, and fairness. Now he wants more for people, and the city. Uh-HUH.



















An even more extreme right wing splinter party of our local Freepers. Wants to 'clean up' the city. NOW or Never. Right. Ethnic cleansing, anyone?









This is the current mayor. Christian Democratic Party. Wants to give families with children more benefits, among other things.... He thinks Graz is 'fun'. Someone thought Graz might be 'fun'. The graffito reads 'without you'. And he still owes the GLBT community an apology from his first days in office, so I doubt he'll ever offer one now, insulting prig....



And this is the most defaced poster in all the town, which is plastered with these faces at the moment. Freeper Party, have the exact same platform and talking points as their US counterparts. 'So that Graz remains 'Homeland'. I liked the one where she sports a Hitler moustache, which some prankster gave her with a black Magic Marker but they replace them too quickly. She must have flipped out, because the replacements had stickers on them with the one-liner 'we respect you.' Uh-HUH....

Why do I get a headache trying to decide??????

Oh yeah, Happy New Year. Now where did I stash that bottle of aspirin??????