glitsch in mail...

I haven't been able to access my acoount for over two weeks.    please be patient.  I 'thought' I had the problem solved, but...  it didn't work.  uhhh, I lurvs me the internets.  Has to do with the password.

Sorry for not answering anything.

There's another context to the post below... Peter

I spoke with him.  He said, 'Oh yeah, she was here today.' 

'No she wasn't she's in Graz.'

(stubborn)  She was, she comes often.

Siiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhh.   (big one)  Seemingly there is someone among his caregivers who he thinks is her, and he was ALWAYS antagonistic toward her in a passive agressive way.  Let me tell you, preciiousses, I learned from the best.

It began when I started at the no-tell 'ho'-tel.  First day I walked there, there were 'women of the NIGHT', and one at the stop light outside looked me up and down and said, 'How about it, baby?'

And I thought, what the hell am I getting INTO, here? 

My first night shift, Peter trained me on what to do and the whole bookkeeping, blah stuff, and there was a pause.  I looked like the green rube from rubnikville back then.  And he said, 'Listen, I wanna get rid of all the rabble, the pimps reckoning up with the prostitutes in the lobby and turn this around to be a really good middle class hotel.  Will you help me?` 

And I said 'yeah, tell me how' and it involved a third person who made a mess of money procuring, and providing rooms.  So I just had to turn anyone away who wasn't kosher.

It took three years, and in all that time, Peter and I were not an item.  But we turned the tide and turned the clientele base around to travelling salespeople. 

And every night he took this sadistical delight in calling her...  always shortly before ten p.m.  and really doing a number on how she was doing business.  And if I objected, it was ' I know what I'm doing.'

Whatever it was...  her spirit is getting back...  he sees her every day.

A Fractued Fairy Tale I Thought I'd Never Tell--- about romeyesque 'business...

Once upon a time, there was a child born, not the eldest, but the first girl.  It was a time when the world was at war, and they were fairly safe in a place called Boheme for most of it.  But her father was a very clever lawyer, and before he had left their real home, well, let's just say he was an opportunist of the worst sort.  Bought up goods of people who had been driven away over third parties and gotten quite wealthy doing it.

After the whole thing was over, she and her family were driven out, and her first memories were of being on the run, and her world falling down.  Chaos, in other words.

Her father got to do time in a prison camp run by anglo saxons.  Where he learned to love Wodehouse., which became her personal favorite.  Daughters love their dads, no matter what.

Her younger sister was taken by a crippling disease, and she was the one to carry her to classes, before wheelchairs became available after the Great Conflict.  In other words, she became 'the caretaker' in the family, the 'dependable' one, the one who made the sacrifices. 

So, time passed, and so forth and so on, and both the daughters became lawyers, but with the eldest girl, nah, that wasn't what she wanted to do....  her world was music, it was her escape.  And her mother encouraged her, and hired the last student of a very famous composer to teach her to make a violin sing.  And she learned to play tennis passably well, till she got tennis arm and had to give it up, because it interfered with her greatest passion...  music.

She married a guy who was of the same political stripe as her father, but...  her heart wasn't where his was, actually.

They lived in Germany for a while, and she had trouble bearing children, and after some medical help, had three.  A boy and two girls.  And then the inevitable happened.

She was called back to her home city to run a hotel that her father had 'inherited'...  or something.

And got right back into being 'the caretaker'.  The sister and brother had partial interest in it, and so, she did what she could to make it run.

It was a run-down, shabby affair when she took it over.  So she thought, 'investment'.  Make it better.

She was fairly scurrile by that time, because, even in the feminist age, she couldn't juggle home, the husband the kids, and a business that usually produces more divorces than any other branch I can think of.

Some people who worked for her thought she treated them like 'hers', serfs.  But they missed the point, she was actually generous, and sometimes was too inquisitive into their lives and well-being, but meant well.  Which didn't always go over well with those in her laser-like view of interest.  And she was so direct...  well there's a saying, 'falling into the house with the door in your hand'...  which means tactless.  and goes beyong putting your foot in your mouf.

If they did have some sort of trouble, she would do her best to help them out of it. 

Which could be trying some people found, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions....

And over thirty years, the children grew up, but hey, a lot of the edumacation was done over the phone, because she put in the time in order to get the money to fulfill their desires and give them a damned good life.

They rebelled of course, the eldest son especially.  And as they were sort of racist...   he went mountain climbing in Peru one season, and came back engaged...  to a very nice lady from there.  Whose compexion wasn't the brightest.  'Inca Princess'---   oh my, how they talked, and when the first children came....  well the husband of this lady had to resign from his fraternity, because of all the denigrating shit he got about it.

We're speaking about a far-off kingdom here, where races just did NOT mix.  Not in her cirles...

And time passed again, it goes by so quickly.  But for her, music was still the center of hre life, her true passion.  Eveinings playing with like-minded passionate people.  There may even have been a romance there, but even the story-teller can't be certain.

But it was time for her to retire, her father had died 'way too early', as we always think, and her mother went a bit ga-ga, but that's the way of the world, she thought, and she took very good care of her. 

So she decided to lease the hotel to a group of four businessmen from Vienna, who tuned out to be sharks.

They set goals to be achieved....  how much MONEY had to be taken in each month, and went after their newly acquired serfs if the goal wasn't achieved.    They had bought into the US mode of business, and they were hell-bent on getting them achieved.... without their doing one single thing to help.

Sound familiar? 

Well, it turned out the real goal was to acquire a first rate place, but for that, they had to show they were successful, and that was why the pressure was on.  And in the end, they did, a 'noble' resort, and they were in.

And their modest no-name place, well they tied it to a franchise, and re-branded it, and it was the step-child.  

But their plans were much bigger, turned out.  Being good business sharks who smelled blood in the water, and having a very savvy lawyer among them...  they bided their time, till our heroine was getting ON in years.  And the contract was:  they kept up mainenance, but big investmenst were hers to make.

Now she and the family got a monthly stipend as part of whatever profits it was 'they wanted to devulge'. Which weren't always above-board.

So it came to the point where there were some very heavy investments to be made, and she had to decide...  put herself in hock till she's 86 or sell out, and the price being offered wasn't all too extroadinary, because, hey, so many investments to be made... 

This is called being between a rock and a hard place.

In the end, she caved and sold.

On the one hand it was a relief.  On the other, she felt a bit taken to the laundry.  But she'd already had a stroke, there was no way to keep up with it.  And she lost the use of her arm and shoulder, and couldn't play violin anymore, which was like breathing air for her.  So she just let it go, paid off her debts and gave the rest in equal parts to her children.

But there is a half-way happy ending to this fairy tale:  she still had a voice, so she joined a choir, and sang and sang, because god or whoever didn't take that away from her.

Some of you may know what this fairy tale is about.  Some of you have even met the lady.  She is actually a kind person.  She called me and rattled on for an hour the other day.  Mainly concerned whether I'm ok.  I spent thirty years five feet away from the woman, and one thing I learned was listen...  out of the seemingly disconnected verbal flooding river, you find the stream and what really is going on.  But we do have a mutual respect for one another, and I never held my tongue when something was awry.  Nor did she, and she never said a word about Peter, not one mean thing evah.  For the mistress of tactlessness, that's saying something.

She did take me aback asking 'when did your father die?'  There ARE subtler ways of asking...   'and ummmm...  your father?'   for instance. 

And I said, 'wellll  ....   not yet....'

She was ecstatic, 'how WONDERFUL...  oh, Herr B.  be happy, you got great genes!'

Listen, no one could ever follow her line of thinking, I broke up laughing.

But the actual PÒINT of this ist how the 'gang of four' got their hands on a property, gutted it to get what they REALLY wanted, and sheesh...  ended up buying it  for a pittance in their range of what anything is worth, and will treat it like the step-child and gut it till it doesn't bring any more revenue, and declare it dead. 

And THAT is what Mitt Romney does.  You think jobs were created?  Of COURSE they weren't.  They pared a crew of 13 to 7.  It's how it works for them. 

Anyone buying that line of thinking is a fool.

In Memorium for people I never knew... the Israelis 40 years ago

I caught something on MSNBC last nite.  Israel asked London for a moment of silence to commemorate the killing of their wrestling team in Munich in 1972. At the opening.  London said no.

 It IS the forty year anniversary of that horror....it would have .been a memorial service, one that gets world-wide attention.  Better to consider another venue, maybe, because they surely deserve that.

And I should know, because I can still see them in my head, oh they deserve to be remembered.  They carried this infectuous joy with them all the time, I SAW them daily out in the village, and they really stood out.

Everyone else marched around and socialised in their own team groups, but not them, oh no, they had the virus...  here is the whole world, and we're curious, and friendly, and interested.  There wasn't a day I wouldn't see them and admire them...  for being what it was 'supposed' to be about. 

So they were burly guys, wrestlers, sure.  But they exhibited a real joy in being there, and the tremendous opportunity of meeting 'da world' in one very small.... if seemingly gigantic place.  To us, at the time.

I would so loved to have met one of them personally, but was too shy.  They were Olympians.  In every sense of the word.  And I admired them for being THAT outgoing, sort of cuddly teddy bears.  (Wrestlers don't have slight physiqes.)

I will never forget the morning it went wrong.  And a colleague named Peter K woke me up and said, 'It's over, you can pack and get ready to go home'  And I said, 'what in the WURRLD are you TALKING about?'

And he told me.  And it all happened about three hundred meters from where we had been working, I had the night shift.  And don't think I slept more than three hours a night those nine weeks.

Well, I knew where it was, and hauled ass down there to see what was going on.  And that guy with the white mask was on the balcony, I was 100 feet away...  but the press, oh lordy, they really got me riled.  Overhearing inside specualation that someone inside the village---us---let them in, dirty commie students... 

Which led to a thousand sun hatred for them for decades...   except  twenty years later, whaddaya know, some drunk 'miurkins' helped the fuckers over the fence.  Way to go.

They were oblivious, and btw...  they were from 'Havid' and 'Yale' and were in groups and we were bugs.  High school multiplied to the nth degree. 

Up on the turf, everything seemed normal, but below were lots of inroads and venues and I nearly got shot trying to get my mail.  Two lines of soldiers at the entrance, and being naive, I thouth, 'good, we're safe'.  And used to have a fast walk, so I got barked at like out of a horror nazi movie...  'Stop!  Not so much haste!  Whaddaya want?', and boy his finger was itching on the trigger. I skidded into the muzzle, stopped, and said, 'I'm getting my mail'.  'Go to the other door.'  'We're not allowed there.'  'Today you are.'

There was an army down there.

Everything, everything was fully up in the air.  Other than that we had to work in the carfeteria that night...  So I was getting ready for my 11 pm shift, where we'd eat first, and begin at midnight, and all of a sudden the sound system went off and told us to stay inside.  My friend Eamonn had just arrived to accompany me to the caf.  'And I signalled him to be very quiet.  And put out the lights.  We were on the sixth floor.

And we took off our white smocks, and slinked out onto the balcony.  It faced the BMW building.  Below, two helicopters had landed on the strip below leading to the underground part of the village.  And then it happened. 

Two busses pulled up to the helicopters and stopped, and there were flood lights, I think.   We cringed down a bit.  And the bus doors opened, and the terrorists brought the team out it two groups, tied like cattle.  And they were so rough with them, it was horrible.  They shoved them into the helicopters, and they took off for the airport.  I was shaking with disbelief and anger like I've never felt before.  And looked at Eamonn and said, 'I don't think this is gonna end well....'

And we got the all clear to go to work.

Well, the best anyone had was a transistor radio, and the machines in my area were so interfering, we only got it in bursts and splashes of news.  By morning, we knew they were lost.

There was talk of ending the games.  Oh, man, that brought out the worst in people who everyone was looking up to...  the less said the better.  This is about the victims.

I repressed it at the time, over time.  But those faces have never left me, the pure joy, the light in their eyes, so warm all you wanted to do was meet them and be in their circle. 

Unfortunately, it never happened.  But they were good people, and deserve remembering, so if London won't, I am proud to say, 'yes, I remember them, vividly, fondly and with horror over what happened to them.  I remember them always laughing so heartily, such joy.  Which makes it more tragic.

When I went there, it was to meet the worrrrrllld, and I did., and so did they.  And no matter what anyone says, that was the mother of huge, horrible terrorist attacks.

I fail to see how anyone would not want to set up some sort of remembrance ceremony even after forty years.  Gawwd, betcha they'll still be doing 9/11 remembrances in 2050, wiht the name reading and the whole shebang?  Am sure.

Munich was a warning.  There is new evil in the world.  And crap on whoever gets in the cross-fire.

Why can't they do something for those very decent men?

So yeah...   I WILL remember all my days.  I was so traumatized by it all, I refused to ever watch a documentary about it. 

But I remember their faces, their laughter, their smiles.  Many people lost much that day, and the world its' innocence.  RIP, guys, wherever you are.

And my take?  Avery Brundage saying the Games must go on?  NO.  I know they think it must have been 'stubborn courageous'.  It was a time for mourning.  Except many didn't feel that way.

I look at the brouhaha over Columbine, and Aurora now...  did we learn anything other than to mourn?

It's just a question.  Why shouldn't they deserve 'a moment', even after so long? 

It's about humanity lost.





To get back to the theme kids in movie theaters...

Something cme back to me.  I worked in one for a decade.  This callous attitude isn't really new.  I remembered a day...   on a weekend, one of the ones we dreaded...  kiddie matinees.  It could have been 'The Wizard of Oz', or something similar, don't remember what.  Two showings back to back, one thousand unruly little imps per view, one thousand boxes of fresh popcorn popped beforehand, the usual.. 

And there was this one weekend, and a little boy who sort of grabbed my attention, while at the concession stand.  Who ordered five dollar's worth of crap.  Back then, that was a fortune.  If I remember correctly, he was about seven or eight years old...  and kept coming back.

It wasn't hard to preict...  he rushed out heading for the wc...  and threw up all over the rug.  And my staff were so squeamish...   well, I was the one to get out the stuff to clean it all up. 

But it got 'better'.  The kid remained behind long after both showings had ended.  Waiting for his parents who were NOT arriving.  We finally got a hold of them on the phone.  They'd 'forgotten' they'd taken him there.  It was already seven in the evening.  And they finally picked him up. 

Yeah, give the kid a tenner, make him sick because he doesn't know what boundaries are, and just forget him. 

If there were one person in the world I wish I had done physical damage to, it was that kid's father.

So yeah, it's been going on a long time, but at that time, it was an anomaly.

Just sayin'

Repost

Since the olympics begin this week...  let's take a look back in time.  I wrote this many years after the event.  Was struggling to come to terms, and it isn't great, but it was the best I could do.   You be the judge.  I hate that a lot of it is still relevant.  And damn starry eyed idealists who can't play dirty enough to make it work.

AND EVERYONE CRYING 'CHANGE!'



In the narrow corridor

Between Forum and Chapel

The atheletes are milling about.

It's an open Bazaar

Where the West meets the East.

(or is it perhaps

a miniature Big Apple??)

The reporters write for the evening news,

That here is a love feast

Where humanity is spoken

But to me it is Babel:

And behind their smiles

I see thirty-two tooth salutes of contempt..

They trade national tokens

When their training is over

And the August sun is on the wane.

And everyone's crying 'Change!



Some of their stick-pins are, of course

More in demand---

Depending on reknown and supply-

(For who wants a Poland

When one can acquire

A token of Russia---

or Japan, by and by?)

The Olympic ideal does not exclude

the desire for personal prestige and fame.

And so here the capitalist ethic reigns,

And everyone's crying 'Change!'



Most stay in their groups;

They're like gaggles of geese

And they casually size up their opponents.

The Belgians won't speak with the Germans,

And the French look down with noblesse oblige

On the rest of this city's components.

And the Indians are wary of the Pakistanis.

The Nigerians hate the Rhodesians....

Still, they are anxious to trade

So they swallow

Their pride and political allegiance.

The friendliest are from the smallest countries;

From barely visible dots on the atlas.

They compete with the best and have no face to lose.

And their names tie the tongue, are exceedingly strange...

And EVERYONE'S crying 'Change!'



And we watch them, amused....

We foreign 'guest workers'

Try not to compete, but try

To understand what we're all about,

To conquer the predjudices

Our leaders have taught us

And try to discover their lies.



(We find sinister reasons for political deeds.

Can most of them be really due

To something so mundane as greed?)

We grow national guilts for the actions of others,

Attempt to solve problems,

And the grounds our talks cover

Range from politics to jokes,

to religion and pollution.....

And we can only agree that our world is insane.

And everyone's crying 'Change'



CHANGE cry disillusioned Americans

as George Meany offers millions to dump George McGovern.



Change! cry the Irish

who are weary of blood-shed, still demand to be self-governed.



Change! cry Rhodesia's majority blacks,

while their whites promenade and acknowledge no guilt.



Change! cry the Greeks

who have lost their Democracy,

and blame the American military bloc.



Change! cry the people of the Middle East

While the world sits in judgement

To the ticking of a nuclear clock.



Change! cry the people trapped in the suburbs,

in anonymous houses, sleazily built.



Change! cry defenders of the Earth's environment,

while in factory accidents, their neighbors are killed.



Change! cry the starving and the world's minorities,

who live on hate, while others grow fat.



Change! cry the young, as they champ at the bit,

while the Establishment sees they're held back.



Change! cry the conservatives who want power and control,

and tremble at thought of a reverse in the order of things.



Change! cry the liberals who shout out for justice

So all have a chance to grasp the brass ring.

Yes!, they shout, Change!



On the day of departure

the action is frenzied,

and the shouting reaches fever pitch,

trading sneakers and track suits,

And their laughter and smiles

no longer seem stretched,

are real, and their owners fit.

Competition is over,

and now they are grinning,

no longer concerned

with who will be winning.

Koreans wear Russian warm-up pants;

Belgians wear French warm-up jackets.



We smile and fight down the urge to gloat,

For we long know what they're finding out,

Have the experience and memories to back it.



The September wind blows yesterday's news

Through the passage-way. Then it rains.

And the athletes take refuge in the Chapel's pews

To a dying last echo of 'Change'



Change! For the world is shrinking fast,

On yourself you can no longer rely.



Change! And drop tribal habits at last....

Or like the dinasaurs.... We WILL die...


Bad news day...

Woke up to the horrific reports out of colorado.   Nothing like that surprises me any more.  But I do have a question:  WHAT THE FUCK were babies, six year olds, twelve year olds doing at a midnight screening of fucking Batman? 

Now I KNOW I'm old...  really fucking old.  When I was a kid, I was allowed to see a matinee...  which was actually early afternoons, not mornings, as the name would suggest.  If I earnced the money for it running errands for the elderly in the neighborhood.  But going in the evening?  Holy Sacrilege, Batman!  Unthinkable.  When I was 14, bedtime was 9:30 pm, and there was no way around it.  Except my brother, who was 3 years younger, got the same priveleges when I got them, which I found unfair...

I broke the rule of being home in time for supper, by which we meant evening meal only once.  Attended a double feature, and the first one was very long, but hey, I paid my money, and wanted to see the second.  It was Town Without Pity.  And there was a big clock in there, and I had half an eye on it, but the film was engrossing.  About a rape of a German girl in an occupied town in Germany.  Just about everyone had left after 'The Devil at 4 O'clock', which was cool...  but this was sort of mind blowing.  And you know how kids think:  'just five more minutes, what's gonna happen next?'
And of course I overdid it...  and before I knew what was what, The Ven was in the aisle and practically dragged me out of there.  It was suppertime.  They were so sour...  no movie priveleges for two weeks, which killed me...  I thought.

Especially when I paused over the meat loaf and veggies and mashed potatoes to remark, 'well, now I know what rape is '  I was always good at conversation stoppers. 

I had crazy ideas...  I wanted to see Peter Paul and Mary sing and there was no WAY, no way I was allowed to do that, even tho I had saved the money.  Ditto the 'Trapp Family Singers.  Children had to be in bed by 8 p.m. at that time.  And despite protests of not being tired, we did sleep.

So how and when did that change so drastically?  A family takes an infant and a 4 yr old to a midnight showing of Batman?  Because they couldn't afford a baby sitter, or don't trust anyone with their progeny?  Anne Curry found the lamest excuse I ever saw...  'It was family time, and the children were asleep.'  Reallah...  If I'm not mistaken, there's a lot of noise in that film.  In dolby.  Way to go.

And under 18, I wouldn't have been able to do that and be in a cinema...  unless I was working there. 

Something is very wrong with the whole picture...  and if a family can't afford both a baby sitter and the tickets, they shouldn't have been there. 

As above, I am sooo  old, and find some things hard to understand, esp. when all reports you see on Today, or Dateline are exaggerated concerns about protecting children.  Well that didn't work out so well, did it?

But I see it here as well in a lot of ways.  People allow kids to stay up way too long, and when I see them getting breakfast in the supermarket in the mornings, they look sleep deprived and like so many little zombies.

Dark rings under the eyes, etc.

I pity the poor people in that theater...  their lives will never be the same, and it will take many years for them to process it.  Wanna bet they won't ever wanna see a batman film again?

I still can't watch anything pertaining to Munich, and it's been forty years.

Locally, to add to the bad news, we're about to have a 'thirty year event', some say the event of a century. 

We've had severe weather.  Two weeks of extreme heat, comparable to what was in the US.  Where you just 'swim away in your own sweat'.  And thunderstorms of ferocity, with hail.  Not directly in Graz, mostly upstate.  So there were lots of landslides, blocking roads, in two cases trapping people in their cars, and it was dramatic...  Mostly you get avalanches in the west of the country in the winter, but yesterday it went to a new level...   and a huge fifteen foot high landslide pretty much decimated the center of a little town upstate.  I haven't seen the pictures yet, but over 50 houses got totalled, and people got trapped, and access was cut off.

Whatever, I live near the river Mur, which runs from Salzburg into Slovenia.  And tonight sometime, it's gonna go over the banks two blocks from where I live.  sheet.  I've always had a thing about living one flight up from ground level....

Up north, the river is already at the 15 foot level...   and it's still raining.  I really should have invested in a canoe.

But the radio ist playing it down...  no danger to the citizenry.  Really?  If I get my feet wet tomorrow, the radio is gonna get SUCH an e-mail from me... 

But at least I don't have to worry about people running around with guns looting and killing people.

Just sayin'. 

And I still say, children have no business being in a movie theater at midnight.  That's for crazy adults who make a cult series into a life style.

OMFG forty years!!!

And the next spectacular olympics will begin.   How edifying.  I don't know how to say this, but...  big deal.

Really. 

I was a starry-eyed kid when I got what had to be THE dream job of a lifetime working in the olympic village.  And it turned out to be the nightmare of my life.  I felt incredibly honoured.  And formed freindships that lasted for decades.  But there were downsides, and the fact is...    it was so fucking political, and we were caught up in the issues of the day, which....  surprise!...  still exist and never got resolved.  How's that for 'progress'?

No, am not going to go into a golden hazed view back to a summer that began so incredibly well, and ended in tragedy that I witnessed, and still can't really get over.  I only wrote one piece much later in the Munich section of this blog that captured how we were feeling:  'Change'.  And whaddaya know, not much did.

Oh yeah, apartheid got abolished...   decades later.  And a couple of other things.

But mostly?  Not so much, boyo.

And all of a sudden, there's this thing in US politics about....  Romney 'saving' the olympics.  Which I know little about.  But I know one thing:  when 'Murka decides or 'gets' to host the olympics...   look out.  You got a propaganda machine that was waaaay beyond anything that was actually fair or balanced, or came anywhere near 'sportsmanship'. 

And gawwd help you if you were Germany in the 70's and decided to host them, because, y'know they had that disastrous hosting of the games in the 30's, and Hitler presiding, and it was their chance to get over that.  'Which became the main problem in the end.

From the get-go, back then, the US press, (speak Newsweek and Time magazines), were rabid.  Most articles began with 'Munich, which is only several miles from Dachau...'  And they were  'we want 'friendly games, we have to get past this.'  Well, that ended well, didn't it?  Because they went so lax, the security went way down.

Just as example, I ran across people from home and could borrow them my id pass to get into the village although they looked nothing like me, and could still get in, and they would stay overnight.  It was that lax, for the reasons above.  Everyone did that.

We didn't have an inkling of how dangerous that was.

Thanks to the press, the Germans were friggin' terrified to have tight security.  Because, y'know, how would it look? 

And it became a terrible tragedy.

Since then, the games became far more 'secure', and am sure Mr. Romney turned his home base into a nice looking high security prison.

It would be an interesting thing to look into, but journalists there are mostly just journamalists.

And, ya know...  USA!  (rinse wash and repeat till ya feel good  and take a lesson:  no athlete does it for his or her country, they do it for themselves. And no one as a people has a vicarious win.  It was the accomplishment of an idividual.   With a promise of big money meanwhile.  The rest is pure bullshit. 1972 may have been a simpler time, and the money sucked, but there was that too.)

´The entire topic has become toxic to me of late.  I felt that something, this golden dream of nations coming together and people taliking with common goals got sullied and died that year, and I mourn it.  It won' t come back and if you think 'Murkins were in on it, wow, you are so wrong.  Stayed in their cliques...  from Yale and Havid, and looked down their nose at everyone else.  Disgusting.  How are you supposed to learn about anything if you don't talk to the great unwashed?

Stephen Colbert has been really weird all year...  creating a super-pac, but it was a ruse to get people to realise what that means.  And he named horse dressage as the summer olympics game to watch.  Because, as fake rethug....  well Romney has a horse competing in that category, and his wife has ms, and it is therapeutic for her.  Who do you know has the money to have a thoroughbred horse for his wife as therapy and it qualifies for the olympics in dressage? 

Rachel Maddow did a number on a recent slot on her show all about how out of touch he is, and a fundraiser in the Hamptons.  Colbert nailed it.

Because, y'know, he's Mr. Olympics.  Shifty-eyed, stuttering animatronic that he is.

I think I can throw up now...



What is WRONG with these people? Da Ven just vented.

I'm not going to qualify this with anything....  Could just as easily have labelled it 'Talk of the Town'.  But really, how callous do you have to get in this day and age?  And heroes?  We were just talin' about em below?  Well, my take on things isn't so askew as I thought.  Since when do you get sued for saving a life?   It has to be the heat...

This should be good fodder for your blog . maybe you read about the life guard

at the beach who went in and saved a guy from drowning, and got fired because
the guy he saved was out of bounds
 He was past the sign that said in this section your on your own, so the life gaurd was supposed to let the guy drown because he was not in his jurisdiction,
the people who hired him said there would be a liabilty . After the news broke he was offered his job back but had to stay in his area,  The hero refused to go back , serveral other guards walked off the job , at the time, how about that for  bullshit. 
 
 

wring me out and hang me up to dry before I go mouldy...

Which means it's friggin' hot.  And for nine...  NINE! days runnin'...  my cubicle of an appartment...   well I guess the thermomerter froze at thirty, because that bugger hasn't moved a milimiter from 30, 31 degrees because it LIKES it there.  The inhabitant does not.  And every day, sure as shit, we get warnings toward evening:  'Hey, bad thunderstorms comin' your way, batten down the hatches'.   About ten minutes before the actually hit.  Oh, they are lovely, they are.  Thunderstorms are dangerous here, btw.  They bring hail.  Up north of here, they came down the size of golf balls the other day.  We got little pebbles.  Outside it got to 37, 38, records were broken and the ditz brains on the radio were just chirping away, what a terrific summer, and go swimming and drown, or be glad you're not in Italy.  Jeebus.  One day they will get such a crank call from me.  For them, everyone is always on holiday or an extended weekend.  So how come they work?

Yes, I'm being a piss-poor sport about stoically going through a heat wave, it's not like we haven't had them before.  My problem is that all my windows face south and there aren't any on the other side to cross venitlate, and cool my four walls down. 

But today was special, because, for the second time in six weeks, we had a notice that they were gonna turn off the electricity for several HOURS.  And I thought, 'hokay, I'm living in rural russia or someplace worse.'  So I stayed up all night and created a fourth new character in my game.  A gay beschi...   sorcerer.  So-called because their armour looks like they've been on circuit parties in Miami and Fire Island.  But they're cool, and fight well.

And come early morning, it was time to check what happened yesterday on the Ven's soap, Days of our Lives, which isn't much of anything...   I'm waiting for Melanie to finally break out of the basement she's being held captive in...    And General Hospital, which is my poison of taste at the moment.  I had never known it was about two mob families, and that is sort of The Godfather on a never-ending loop.  Currently there is a psycopathic lady in it who causes me the only merriment I get in an otherwise dull day.  Whoever plays her is a joy to watch.

And rounded it off with some msnbc news shows, which is actually the topic here, not the heat, not the weather, not my sour grapes attitude.  Since it is the Fourth of July weekend, I guess, for those in the US. 

There seems to be an increasing, and to me, very valid concern, that...  having a vounteer military isn't exactly a 'perfect' thing.  It means that only one per cent of Americans serve.  (Something Bush and his cronies love, am sure...)...  What it means in the long run is that military families end up being a different sort of 'elite', except they are treated badly.  But the topic is suddenly being brought up with surprising frequency.  There IS this disconnect, 'oh yeah, you go and fight for us, you're fucking heros and heroines, but hey, we got our lives to live, thanks for your service.'  It is never said that way, but that is the attitude.

And just before the power went off, there was a clip of admiral Mullen ruminating about it, and what he was saying was, it's a problem.  And I never thought I would say it, but he's right.

In the Viet Nam era, there wasn't one family I knew who wasn't affected, hardly a family I knew who hadn't lost someone they loved in that dreadful, stupid war. 

Iraq?  Iran?  They've been fighting so long, most people don't even know why.

And then they get spit out of the armed forces and treated shabbily at best, or regarded as loose cannons.  Which is a shame.

Y'know, when I was a kid, there was the war in viet nam.  I didn't know ONE family who wasn't touched by it, or had losses in their families, tragedies, and they treated those vets worse than any war vets I can think of. 

But everyone was involved, everyone  had a side, everyone was personally concerrned with those who were conscripted.

I do have an inkling, and repeat, inkling, about what the military is like.  I was in the Civil Air Patrol and did a two week sort-of basic training on an air force base.  And at the height of the controversy about DADT, I described that to a cousin.  There wasn't a second in any day to think for yourself.  It was react, react, react, drill, polish, and gawwd help you if you didn't have your neighbor's back.  By the end, you were a cog in teh machine, a unit, and having a moment for yourself?  Oh, that was non-existant.  And I know, not all of service is basic training, but it can sure form you into what they want.  So self is nothing...   watching out for your others is everything, being safe.  DADT was stupid.

And what was a culture of its' own became a subculture.   In my opinion.

I wouldn't DARE speak to anyone in the service the way some people do...   and that shit-ass, 'thank you for your service' makes me want to puke every time I hear it.  It sure doesn't stop Joe Walsh from going after Tammy Duckworth and villifying her for 'talking about her service all the time', the friggin' bottom feeder.  Service is only good if you keep your mouf shut?  Do tell.

Or denigrating Kerry's service in the most horrendous ways...  it was appalling.

Whatever, there was an interesting clip of Admiral Mullen on yesterday's news.  His concern about the increasing divide between those who serve, and the great unwashed populace.  And he didn't say it, but I think there is an idea that everyone of a certain young age should serve their country.  Many countries have that rule, and Austria does.  You either serve in the military, of if you are a conscientious objector, you serve in social services, ambulance duty, or helping in hospitals, for instance.

You basically give up about a year of your life for the well-being of your country. 

And as it happened, I would have done the military time when I got my papers.  Except...  they dawdled so long, I was already too old, so it never happened.  But I would have.  Everyone I know has, it' a rite of passage that got stolen from me. 

Actually, it#s sort of morbid to think about..   you're thirty-six, you're too old to serve your adopted country.  I never felt good about that.

I think that sooner or later, things will go in that direction in the US.  And I wouldn't even think it a bad thing.  It should be about instilling the feeling of a common bond, a community, a nation. 

And no, am not going ga-ga or conservative.  But some things seem just to be...   the right thing to do.

So this weekend, GAG on the 'thank you for your service' shit.  Wouldn't it be a perfect world if you could ask  'Is there anything we can do for you?'

Oh yeah, that's sappy, soooo...   chalk it up to the heat, chalk it up to my hours of being electronically dead and sour grapes, chalk it up to whatever.  But in my perfect world...   that wouldn't be a bad thing to do.

Hope my relatives will be in Portsmouth this weekend.  Beautiful town.

And that is about as much sense as you'll get from my fried brain tonite.





edumachation issues

I've been sort of a recluse lately, but the one tie I have to the outside worls is to my tobacconist.  Who is about ten years younger than me.  AAnd nd she's a nice lady, loves to cook, I can go ON about recipes, and be the best sort of male fishwife you could think of when I go in in the morning, and get my daily 'fix'.    Ahhh...  sniggarettes.  Half the food I wanna eat I'm suddenly allergic to, but hey...  sniggarettes are gonna kill me, but so far, no signs.  Might dodge the bullet there... 

Now I've gone all old geehzer about kids in the supermarket in the mornings at seven, and how parents don't make their kids their school lunch any more...  which in times of austerity would be cheaper in the long run, and the little imps buy LOTS of sugar, which is gonna do them so much good, and make them so hyperactive, their parents will reconsider if it was worth having them in the first place.

But this past year...   I've been sorta surprised.  If I go in there at nine, or ten, or eleven, there are STILL kids hanging out in the supermarket, and I kept wondering, 'did they change the school hours?  What gives?' 

They're playing hookey!

And it became such a national problem, the parliament it it's vast 'wisdom', decided to implement a new law.  But let's take a closer look at this.  Most of the kids are from immigrant families.   Unless I've gone senile, it seems that the schools are failing these kids in very basic ways.  So it would be obvious, how to change that?  And there are programms in place which try.

However....   the new law has markers in place.  First beginning with a certain number of days missed, the parents get called in for a talk.  Social services are brought in.  If the little renitents still skip school, warnings are placed, and if the little buggers still won't go...   the parents get fined over four hundred euros, and most of those are the ones who can hardly afford it.

Bravo.

And there is the discipline problem, and some guy on the way right was for a good old-fashioned slap in the face.  Which caused the left to call for the guy's resignation.  It was fun.

The school year here ends friday, so it's been a burner of a debate, and 'the people on the street', have been hotly debating it all.

So...  to put this in perspective, kids nowadays are savvier, fresher, think they know alllll  about the world and can be insufferable little plagues.  And if a teacher is unable to gain their respect, he or she is in for a miserable time.  And since little kids are sadistic by nature, they go for the jugular.  It's how they are.

So I've been privy to conversations in the morning about topic A.

'Listen, my kids have really gone over the line sometimes, and I gave them a healthy slap in the face.'

Me:  'errm, I took care of small kids, but I never had to raise a hand or threaten.  I did get hit by my grandma, but I knew I was in the wrong and deserved it because I went too far.  But just to hit a kid for no reason?  Don't buy it.  It begins with the parents, and if they don't have the time, they shouldn't have had them.  Or expect teachers to do what is basically THEIR job.  I've heard of kindergarten teachers having to teach kids to tie thier shoes, because they don't know how.  That shouldabeen  the parents.'  (shocked reaction)

And I know, I go all over the place.

Sometimes it pays to be older, you remember things.  And yesterday I said, 'Well, where I grew up, if the kids played hookey, they ended up in juvenile prisons.'  And boy did my tobacconists' eyes light up like two christmas trees over THAT.  Wooo---hoo and boy howdy.  Except she had the wrong idea...  she thought they got into some sort of juvie prison and had classes, and drilled in edumacation.

Mighta worked, come to think of it.  Except the reality was, they became incorrigible felons.  And got buggered, and no one gave a shit about them, so they came out way the worse for wear, and dumber than a giraffe wearing a bonnet.

And then, the first lightning bolt hit twelve hours before the worst thunderstorm we've had in years.

'My mother always says it.  What Hitler did to the Jews was wrong.  But god damn it, he created oder, he gave people jobs, and everyone had to do what is RIGHT.'.

This from the lady who is so progressive, and with whom I can laugh heartily?  I was fucking spitless.

And I went quiet, which is when I'm most deadly:  'NOTHING he did was right, and I understand the historical context.  What is WRONG is that parents don't have any fucking time to really take care of the kids they spawn.  And you have to begin at the beginning, verdammt noch mal.'

Well, it ended in a deadlock, as most things tend to do. 

But it was polite.  Maybe a point was made from my side, there was much more to it.  Don't know.

But I hate the term 'gesunde watschen'.  Which means a 'healthy slap in the face'.  Nothing healthy about it.  I witnessed one once, my friend G.  Was at his family's for dinner, and he got fresh with his mother, who was a basically lovely lady.  And she shot one off at him so hard, it was totally embarrassing.  but he really was asking for it.

Just as an aside, she really waa a lovely lady.  All the more shock when she one day said 'Hitler had the right idea.  They should gas the gays.'  I never went back. 

I know that must have hurt her, and she died not long after, but, I wasn't up for confrontation in those days, and her husband was a state police officer, could have been expelled.  I felt sorry for her.

At the moment, would like to put on crosby stills and nash, and listen to 'teach your children well'...  or the incomprable Sondheim from Into the Woods...  Children Will Listen.

So that's the 'concern' of  the man-woman on the street.  What friggin KILLS me is that that bastard ADI keeps fucking up the conversation.  It's like a zombie you can't kill, hey.  And saddens me. So much for edumacation.

Just an addendum about the airline fight described below

So...  the national airline gets swallowed up by the smaller 'daughter' company, ok?  Both have unions, and the 'daughter' one is weaker.  The plutocrats decide....  the speakers for the union will be from the smaller company, and not the vastly bigger one.   Now, those from the smaller one don't want to be caught in the middle of this cat-fight, those from the national one feel they've just got a k.o.  ....  annd....  the assholes in charge sit back and grin. 

Am I mistaken here, or wasn't that what Scott Walker of friggin' Nebraska meant about driving wedges? 

Disgusting.

Happy 4th.... not that you really notice, just a day for beach.

Í have taken a long hiatus from writing.  Partly or mostly because of health issues, which had me very preoccupied.  But as in most happy end stories, it wasn't life threatening, as I'd first thought.  It was stupid, and painful, and made me the world's worst grouch.

And it wasn't the painful part that made me so.  I just STOPPED...  and thought, 'whaddaya doin here?'  Getting your gall out for things you really can't do much about?  Now, at the beginning, the health care debate made me catch fire in a way I'd never cared so much about before.  And I was more than willing to put myself way out there and tell truth to lies.  And didn't care who knew it.  Who else would have experienced both models, the european and the US ones, and make any sort of sense about it?

Having been spent over fifteen years in our system with my very ill significant other gave me the right to speak out.  And know whereof I speak.

Did it do any good?  Doubt it.  Did it make me feel better?  Yes, oh, yes.

If I reached one person...  it was a good thing to do.  And I fully stand by it.  The so-called debate was infuriating, and so long...   well, other topics were obviously needed as fillers.  But it was my main bugaboo.  For any conservative running across this...  it was the truth.

So Happy Fourth of July, you get health care.  maybe.  What is being shovelled under the rug is that the poorest will NOT.  Because, y'know, no one ever talks about 'em.  But it IS a wonderful beginning, and I wasn't sure that the assholes who ruled that corportations have speech weren't gong to strike it down in its' enirety. 

Yay.   Nice catch, them trying to be respectable again.  And heartless as ever, but ok, you take what you can get.

Because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I tuned out.  I do watch cable news via internet.  And that was another concern, going with the choir and being all johnny one note on issues.  I've never followed mainstream opinions of any side.

Things here have been 'interesting'.  There was a several month long fight between the national airline, and their 'daughter' firm.  And they were waaay in debt, so...   they got swallowed up by the german national airline, who had swallowed up the swuss national airline some years ago, and, well, they were gonna have to cut costs.  The german mother firm was very clear about what our whores had to do.

So they went after the unions, and in and uprecedented act, declared the contracts our national airline people had null and void, and they would have to agree to taking on the contract the 'daughter' airline had.  Because, y'know, it's austerity, and everybody has to make a sacrifice.

In this case, the sacrifice was a 25% cut in salary...  and the elimination of severance pay.  Now severance pay is sort of like a 401 K plan...  the longer you work, the more you get, and if you retire, it is a sort of  financial cushion which helps you while you are doing the rigamarole of getting officially retired.  Which for pilots is especially a lot of money.  Whoosh, gone.

Well, it was harsh as harsh can be.  And the unions are strong here.  So for months, they laid out new proposals, hell, they were willing to sacrifice, and make comprimises....  but oh no, the fucking german mothership would have made Romney proud.  Ruthless, is what it was.

If everyone had walked, the airline would have been kaputt, and no one wanted that.  And it involved ten thousand people and their livelihoods.  So when it came down to the wire...  ten percent walked, and the others caved, and swallowed a bitter pill.

And y'know...  when I see all the stuff about Nebraska, and Ohio, and all that's happened there?  I can hardly be surprised. 

That is what oligarchs DO.

As to the morning news on radio...  I get laughing fits, although it isn't funny.  A seemingly endless series of corruption scandals, involving lobbyists who cost the taxpayers money through putting through deals, and involving huuuuge (for austria) commissions, and there's this one guy who still is referred to as a count, altho carrying that sort of title isn't actually legal, but everyone knows he is....  and this 'person' has received a mess of money in 'commisions'.  As he was/is married to a former health commissioner, there was a fun thing about him providing us all with face masks during the avian flu scare, which btw amounted to nothing...  but of course he denies it...  they went to the czechs, the idjits, and he made a killing, and his wife is threatening libel suits all over the place.  He really is delightful, the press love him.  He goes into a hearing, and takes our version of the 5th repeatedly for hours?  And comes out and says, 'We had a nice conversation'.  Reallah....

And as all this happenend while the conservatives were in power, they are very damaged, soooo...  they made up a 'transparancy' law about donating, and lobbyists, and it is so transparent...  well, suffice it to say it's just farce.

The count is fascinating.  We've had colorful figures among us, but this guy is amazing.  my last fractured fairy tale was about him, actually.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this blog.  During the health care fight, my goal was set, and it was important to me.  So I haven't really decided yet. 

(This he says sitting in a thunderstorm and it's hailing, and with the winders open, because....  gawwddam...  for over a week it was 38 degrees heat..... which is wilt and die... and my apt thermometer has been stuck at 30.  A breath of fresh air to an asthmatic is a wonderful thing.  At least the hailstones aren't golf-ball sized like north of here.....  And the electric is on...  most of the lines are under ground, ya might wanna consider it for the next milennium.

Have a nice weekend, and enjoy the new thing you've gotten, even if it fully hasn't kicked in yet.  I promise you'll like it.  Just ask anyone in Massachussetts.






Poster Boy for how not to be a son just in time for father's day

There is a pundit who nicknamed a dubious journalist 'joke line'  Which is his name separated, not an anagram. 

He is a 'terrific' son.  And one of the most vile journamilists evah, which is why he gets printed in Time.

But I was bored out of my non-existant tits, and watched the indescribable Morning Joe...  which consists of 'elites' tee-hee ing and braying, and barely stomachable, unless you haven't eaten yet.

They were the last to eliminate the bloviatings of the disgusting Pat Buchanan.

There is so much wrong with the interview, it revived me from my lethargy.   And you gotta KNOW that fuck-shit spent big bucks, but wow!  he got this corporate group (who cut hsi costs), and yeah, they died, happens to everyone... 

What I found revolting was the 'attitoode'.  Sanctimonious git. 

Then again, I hate him from the time he fucked over clinton in a novel and issued it anonymously.  Spineless garbage.

Just a note.  peter's still alive, and I've never been consulted about his eventual death.

There is more to come tomorrow.  But this really stuck in my craw.
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"> name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=47628155&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"> style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for breaking'>http://www.msnbc.msn.com">breaking news, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">world news, and http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;">news about the economy

Wow... am back and everything changed with the format.

My lappi 'died'.  Had a crash, and no money to fix it.  My money dried out on April 20, and then had ten lovely days subsisting on noodles and rice.  Except I didn't make it boring.  And then, then! I was doing the wash, and some water got on the tiles of the bathroom floor, did a turn to grab something to hole onto, and missed entirely, and came down with a crash.  Sprained not only my ankle but my knee, and for over ten days have been 'Mr. Humpelalong B.'
So haven't gotten anything done, but now the lappi is fixed, and will catch up.  Except the explorer browser doesn't wanna support the blogger format.  or something.  How quickly things change.

THIS is why I spent the horridays under the bed.



As if Santa wasn't intimidating enough.. Sick sick sick.

Thanks to Annti, for enriching my already vivid nightmares. love her.

ewwwww.

And oh... the bells haven't rung since Thursday-... they usually are my alarm clock

Tradition says, the bells got sent to Rome. Really. So no bells, and the eveangelical protestants don't do them either in solidarity.

The bells will ring on sunday.

Meanwhile, urchins go around from house to house with noise makers in the villages, and have a little song and dance, and want their victims to pray, and they get candy, and a bit of mony. Probably to go away. I've never seen that, but seemingly, it's a custom.

And now I have to go close my winder, the wind is all wrong. It's the night of the bonfires, and people take all their garden stuff and burn them, and am still not sure what THAT signifies. But if the wind is wrong.. it sure isn't good for asthma patients. Tonight it is.

GAWWD, I hate the horridays.

The horridays are back....

'Good' Friday. hokay...

This morning, on the radio, there is this guy who goes around asking questions of people, and asked, the 'man' and 'woman' on the street, what Easter is about. You'd 'Think' that it was a non-brainer... the resurrection of Christ. Right? Wronnnng.

The answere went from, 'celebrating the beginning of Spring' to 'celebrating the crucifiction', to... well it doesn't matter... the easter bunny and eating chocolate does, and it's 'fambly'.

Makes me wonder about the quality of edumacation in Austria these days, it really does.

And it became unavoidable.. the whole day, blather about the Easter bunny, and Easter nests, and spend, spend, spend, because, y'know.. for those three days, about one billion Euros get spent. Scam.

In one sense, the one person was right... celebrating crucifiction... because 'good' Friday is a horriday in northern germany among the protestants. Go figure.

I assume it isn't any better there. For anyone who doesn't particularly believe in ANYTHING, it is irritating at least, and more than irritating at worst.

HOSWEVER: I finally found out what the significance of the Easter bunny is... yep.

Some progressie 'priest' was on the radio, saying that bunnies sleep with their eyes open, and are a symbol of being on watch, and defensive, and protective.

I didn't believe a word. It's a pagan thing with the rites of spring being celebrated. Such bullshit.

I nearly got thrown out of my guild over it today, joking around. After doing a lot of innuendo jokes about eggs, but marko started it. Because I said a lot of the uproar is just pagan ritual. Which is called 'falling into the barn with the door in your hand'. In german.

After bitching about people buying waaaay to much food, because after tomorrow, preciousses... everything closes. It's like Christmas, second most terrible horriday of the year.

I won't deed all the junk.. I want my bit of ham, my white bread with raisins, a couple of eggs, and some horseradish, and I will be incredibly happy with my meal. Even if it sounds perverse.

I've been dreaming of making a creole spinach salad for days, but they jacked the prices up so high... well it wasn't worth the effort. Even though it is spectacular.

Will the US become Michigan? You decide.

She's been really on this. And very well worth paying attention to. Facism at work there.


Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I REALLY hope you clicked that link in the post below

Are there any question?

OH, NOT! A Cardinal is gonna ' take one for the team', whaddaya know?

Ok... from the top... was nearly finished and google ate it.

Once upon a time, in a tiny happy kingdom, there was a young man. And he loved his church. Sang like a veritable angel. But he fell in love with the 'wrong' person, who also happened to be a man, and that wasn't what his church sanctioned or condoned.

But the young man was 'in-love', and he married his partner in a civil ceremony anyway, which probably hurt him inside... because his church certainly wouldn't allow it.

Now, the young man lived according to the tenets of his beliefs, and he was very helpful indeed, and tended to the needy, sang like an angel in choir, and was very busy, even though the beliefs of his church were totally opposite to who he really was, imagine that.

And it came time to vote for members to sit on the parish board, and the young man was elected by a very large majority. Which surprised the rest of the kingdom, because in a village that tiny, one would have thought they would be totally against it.

Well, his church said, 'oh no, this won't do at all. It is wonderful that he is so accepted in his community, but he must withdraw and concede his nomination. The way he lives his life is against all our tenets.'

And a wondrous thing happened. People in the entire realm heard of the young man's story, and decided to give a loud voice in opposition to his being ousted after being overwhelmingly elected.

And the loudest voices of protests came from the young man's community, because they liked him so much.

Now, the über-head of this church was of old and ancient lineage, and things hadn't been going so well for his 'lambs'. Way too many scandals. And his church's idea of never marrying, and remaining chaste for a lifetime was very difficult to follow for his fellow priestly members. Which led to... shall we say, egregious acts against the naive and innocent?

And that had led to his followers officially leaving his faith and church in droves. For years, and it was bleeding dry. And of course, revenues dropped accordingly.

But the über-head... well, he took the Sunday before the most important religious holiday of his church to go on the tee-vee and radio to say he'd revised his decision. He'd invited the young man and his spouse to dine with him. (and if I'd been asked, I'd have made a wiiide circle around THAT meeting and not shown up...) And said, that after seeing them, he would certify the election of the young man, and thought he was very upstanding. Happy end.

Disclaimer: I never denigrate what people choose to believe. If that is what the young man wanted, and actually got? I guess that's ok... but from the outside looking in... I really have to question everyone's judgement in the whole story.

I got some recent stats here. The latest involved a private school up north, and kids were abused in all sorts of ways into the 90's. And oh yeah, there was this 'terrific' horrific report on how people in Bavaria in schools like that... went so far as to turn kids, and then have them castrated when they were 20 to stop them from being gay. It was in the Fifties. If I were that young man... I would watch my back.

As to the ueber-head.. he said, 'It's against all teachings, but I'll take it on my cap.' And.. 'Jesus woulnd't have turnred them away.' No, he wouldn't have. But he meant taking responsibility for his decision a wondrously rare thing in his field.. But he has to stop the bleeding, so he's 'taking it for the team.'

Tja.. fairy tales are so odd... I must've dreamed it. I wanna know when any respect for clowns flew out the winder.

After what Giorgio Moroder did to disco... Austria strikes again on a different level, and I don't know how Annti is gonna take it.

Going into redneck hillbilly rock... oh, preciousses... this has gone BIG here, always on the radio.

Well now we know for sure when life begins....

There was a radio programme about jewish humour on this morning. So the next time people go hammer and tongs at one another about when human life begins, you can defuse it.

A christian and a jewish man get into the question, and the christian says, 'everybody knows it begins at conception'. And the jewish man says, 'no, it's when a woman first feels a child moving inside her.' And they consult a rabbi to ask who is right.

And he says... 'human life begins when the children are grown and move out of the house.'

I loved it.

It was interesting by the way... but then again Freud maintained that people laugh over good jokes.... because they hurt on some level.

'If you stand with one foot in yesterday, and the other in tomorrow,

you're gonna piss on today.'

Queer as Folk, season two, episode six, and useful thought for the day.

It resonated.

Yes have been watching some of the series of late from a jaded eye. I think it will prove sociologically valuable as a view of a certain subculture of a certain time... and god or whomever help me, but I can certainly identify with much of it. And not always in a positive way.

Season one ended with a horrific shock, and was chilling. It doesn't help to watch the news, and see all the reporting on the Trayvon Martin killing, and learning about assinine laws that allow anyone to just gun someone down... because they are black, because they are gay... let's not forget the guys who dragged a gay black man behind their car on a chain till he looked like friggin road kill, here... the rethugs ramped it up so that people can kill and get off scott free, it's a license to hunt what people don't like. Always 'the other'.

Which, by the way... does NH have a stand your ground law... or not? First they were on the maps, then they weren't... which is it?

It would be interesting to know in case I wanted to ever visit... because if it is the case, no way I'm up for being victim.

The other theme in season two involves being hiv positive. And a scene where the major character michael wants to sleep with his hiv positive friend, and sees all the meds for the first time, and gets cold feet. (He was looking for condoms in the wc).

And it reminded me of when my beloved friend Mark visited us the last time... in Vienna. And the hotel staff sort of freaked, because all his pills were on the night stand, and got very errrm... suspicious. Adding the fact that Mark was six months before dying and emaciated. It broke my heart. I told them he had cancer. Brave, right? They were scared to death back then... Hell, I was at the beginning. If anyone were from New York or San Francisto or Miami? I didn't want to be even near them, if they fit the category of possibly gay. And all we had back then were persistent journalists in the alternative press who did remarkably good reporting. No one today who is young would believe the fear and stress and death and destruction an entire generation endured. It was very intensive.

Or let alone sleep with anyone considered iffy, and boy, it sure didn't work that way for a lot of people.

Although the series reflects the post-outbreak era.... it was always in the background, and made a lot of us who somehow survived it become very cynical. With good reason. So the series is good, but I for one take it in small doses, and see new things with every viewing... am only on the third time around.

As above... socioliogically interesting and holds up for that alone. But that sentence sort of hit me, and sounds like good advice.

Charades.....

Let's see.... once upon a time, then... in a far-off kingdom where happiness was the main thing in the whooooollle wide world, there was an evil count. (No, it wasn't Disney World Florida). Even though he wasn't able to USE his title, everybody still knew... he was a count. Uh-huh. And the count was eeevil because.... he was an arms trading lobbyist, and for years, rumours and suspicions were muttered among the populace, because... they thought he was doing illegal things. And let's face it, selling arms isn't exactly a noble thing to do.

And the count took a wifey... who in the happy kingdom became the minister of health. And the people who sucked up to the count were even more happy, indeed, she provided a wonderful cover for him to continue in his 'business'.

Well, governments come, and governments go, and even in the happy kingdom, there was a regime change, and elections. The outcome was so close, the parties had to form a coalition. And the rumours about the count had become very loud indeed, so the old-fashioned party supported by the count decided to help the minister, saying they would only negotiate to form a coalition if the rebel party would apologise to the count. Which they did, thinking that a consensus would be constructive.

So the years went by, and the wifey and the count separated.... seemingly divorced, and the evil count was free to wheel and deal without compromising his spouse, and wheel and deal he seemingly did. The story teller isn't so clear on that... his attention was focused on another story.

Now, being a count has priveleges. And traditions! Like hosting hunts in the autumn, and all the lower intestinal acrobats among the populace were very lucky indeed to get trips, and kill bambis, and their mommies, and pheasants, and whatever moved in the woods.... but that was just camouflage. They were there for business. Or go golfing on the world's best courses... and do business.

Now oddly... the count always maintained he was poor and a modest sort of person, possessing not so much in means. But he had friends in the telecomunications industry, seemingly, and they were very happy to provide loads of monies to finance any junket the count thought would bring in revenue to what he considered a paltry estate. I mean, he WAS a count, after all... and that mattered to some people... because, being a count, he had influence, and 'knew' people and 'connections'.

And they provided tons of money to the candidates that the count liked for elections, the ones who would help him do even more business... seemingly with faked bill receipts. So it wouldn't look political, of course.

And one fine day, someone finally noticed, and the parliament of the tiny happy country decided to try to find out what threads of deceit had been perpertrated. And the count was cited to appear before the grave and disconcerted comittee.. and took a 'forget' pill, and couldn't remember 45 things that were important. Except the populace didn't buy that and got very angry, especially with his friends.

Now, the friends, who had feasted and dined, and hunted and golfed with the count were suddenly outraged, OUTRAGED, I tell you, that anyone in the populace would even think that they would have been involved in such nefarious behaviour. Why, they never had anything to do with the man, let alone condone anything he might have done.... Forgetting about the apology thing with the wifey.... Nope, they never knew him, never had anything to DO with him, nothing, nada, never. Except there were facts and documents showing that they did.

Of course.

And the grandee of all the counts' friends, and of high renown in his party said, 'if having a private company give money to an election campaign is illegal... we should change the law and let any private entity contribute as much money to a campaign as they see fit.'... That might have seemed like a good idea, but it seems the grandee got it from a very unhappy kingdom that was very far away, so he thought it would pass muster and no one would notice. AND... the grandee would devise an 'honor code' that everyone in their party would have to pledge to and follow.

This story doesn't have an end yet... in the happy kingdom, the populace are being forced to live on a restricted diet, because they were living too well. And the count and his ilk are miffed over all that lost revenue.

So the story teller can't pretend to know if there will be a happy end in the happy kingdom. But the story teller told it to Peter... and he giggled and grinned, and was thrilled about it. But some things made him indignant.

Disclaimer: any resemblance to the happy kingdom or the unhappy one and real places.... are purely coincidental. I must've dreamed it. And watch too much news.

and actually...

Peter's eyes are green with brown flecks in them, but mostly green.. I can never get that on film.

Birfday Boy

Friday Peter turned 73. I visited, of course, didn't wanna miss da rocket cake, hey. Except, well... he wasn't having a very good day. I didn't find him in his room, so went looking and there he was in the hall pulling himself along a railing, soooo concentrated and frustrated that he was having a hard time of it. So I was about fifteen feet away, and he'd look up, but... no recognition at all, and I thought, oh, THIS is gonna be a ton of fun. The house doctor was on the sidelines and suddenly seemed interested. I sort of shook my head at him, as if to say, 'WHAA???' No reaction. So I tentatively approached him and said 'Peter???' Once I was close to him, his face it up in recognition and joy. Not that looking at me is any reason to be joyous, believe me. That was the only smile I got, by the way. Of the three hours, he was just exhausted. We sat in the garden for half an hour, the weather was picture perfect beautiful, warm, and Spring is showing off down there in its' usual showy way.

But sitting hurt him, he wanted to sleep. The entire afternoon freaked me out totally. But I've seen him like that before. Apathetic. I couldn't get another smile out of him till I mentioned some news he missed or forgot about a corrupt politician. But didn't have the camera ready. It was just all too private.

So most of the time I was there he slept, and I watched him for a while, trying to remember the perosn in the shell that I loved so much, and find traces. Then I turned on his tee-vee very low, and ascertained that I haven't been missing ANYTHING.

Of course I kept going out, and feeding my asthma. And I said I would never do this... but there was a man out there with a goiter the likes of which I have NEVER seen. It's a thyroid condition, and there used to be a lot of people who had that malady back in the day... lack of iodine in their diet. But he was really a record breaker for me. And whereas that used to be sort of uncommon, but not unusual, it is very rare. He was very friendly... and racist. Going on about 'Jugos'. In front of a slovenian caretaker, yet. She said, 'There are no more 'iugos'... that stopped in 1991. You mean Slovenians.' He sure back peddaled, and made nice. Friendly, if rather stupid man. There was another man who seemed ok... asking me about my camera..... and then he wanted to ask me something. And his brain froze... He struggled and struggled, but the words just weren't there, and he was asking for help. With vague gestures. That went on for what seemed like forever, but was only three minutes, I would think. Painful to watch, that struggle, and being locked in his head, with some key words hidden somewhere.


Between times I was back and forth, so despite the picture perfect day in the picture perfect setting.... it was disgustingly depressing. But there was an easter bunny in the garden already.
And the personnel are unbelievably good. And in the two years now... hardly any new faces, no big staff turnover. Which is also very good.



On the trip back, got off the bus to be accosted by this... next to the church. What does an easter bunny have to do with catholicism, I ask you... And you probably won't be able to answer that either. Just sayin'. The eggs were hideous.

Remember the Fifties? And 'Hoods' and Rebel Without a Cause, and playing 'chicken' with cars?

Fresh news.....

A day or so ago... not far from here in a boring sleepy village.. some kids did something I had't heard of before. Car surfing.

Totally loaded. All 17. So a young guy and a young girl get up on the roof of two cars, and they zoom off. And whoever falls off first loses. Or something. Well something happened, and the cars had to swerve. The boy fell off first, got off with scrapes and bruises. The girl got thrown off after so hard, she sustained head injuries and died today.

And the kid driving was drunk and didn't have a license.

What a waste. I 'get' taking dares, done some, but something that dumb? How bored can you be? And it isn't as if there weren't enough things offered that could have interested them in some way.

Senseless. Or I'm getting old.

And just remembered... again... the kids in the 'lower corporation' were into stuff like that. It was called that because it was below the canal and a main large street that was an artery through the city. i was a bit too young to hang out with them, they were street tough. Went hunting rats in the factory yards, stunned them and blew them up with firecrackers. Which was dangerous enough..... you corner a rat, you're in for a surpise, and I hate them like nothing else.

But back in the day.... well, the train depot wasn't far from there. And the big thing someone came up with was.... targeting freight trains. The cars had ladders on them. And when they left the depot... it was a dare... see how far you could hold on to it as it gained speed, and go the farthest before jumping off. It was a big deal, back then.

And one not so fine day... a kid 'won' going the farthest ever. EXCEPT.... he fell wrong, landed under the train, and got basically cut in half.

Some things are really too stupid to even try.

What is that catch phrase? The more things change, the more they remain the same. The difference was the kids I knew were 12 to 15.

Well, it must be spring... or thereabouts. and formerly missing white women...

I wasn't paying attention, really. Except the apt. got warm, so I assumed it was mild out.

And went out at ten p.m., to get cigarettes, and it was so mild it was odd after all the cold. And had my winter coat thrown over me, which is having its' last season... and a mess of young people were out on the square in shorts and light hoodies. So I thought... whelp, you KNOW you're asking for a nasty spring cold, dont'cha? Which makes me old. Very ollld. Because when I was in my twenties and early thirties, the first day like that, I was out in a wind-sheltered corner of somewhere getting rid of my winter whiteness, and was out in short-sleeved shirts and light clothing, which, let's face it, is a nice change after all the gear you have to put on in winter.

So I should 'talk', right?

Even if it's in my head. Except..... back then, I only wore them during the height of the day. When it was warmest.

Guess the little buggers are hot-blooded.

So what's been happening? Dejà vu. Let's see, what's been happening? Well, there is an ongoing parliamentary investigation into a huge scandal involving the telekom. Involving lobbyists, corruption, bribes, and all the happy shit that comes with that stuff. Sound familiar? Except the numbers here were sort of laughable compared to what we've seen across the pond. But ya gotta hand it to the conservatives... the lead guy on the committee is being investigated and refused to step down. It's a 'conspiracy', yup, uh-huh...

People are basically disappointing. What caused a world-wide lack of a sense of morals, what is right, and got replaced with greed and disparaging people who have less means than the wealthy do? It wasn't like that before.

And that is another thing that amazed and bothered me of late. They re-opened the case of the kidnapped girl, now woman who was kept captive for eighteen years, because... a) they think there was something fishy about it, in that some accomplices might have been involved, and she hasn't been acting 'normal'. And maybe it had to do with white slavery, or something. They say.

After two years and I hadn't been paying attention, that is so wrong on so many levels.

I put out some feelers asking, 'why bring that all up again after two years, hey?'

Well, popular opinion is... something is fishy about the whole thing. And out comes the envy. 'No one can tell me she got so educated just through the radio.' 'No one can tell me that someone like that gets a tee-vee show and can be so sovereign.' 'And she bought the house that she was held captive for sentimental reasons.... who does something like that?'

Fishy... they say, and it went to a parliametary investigation, and the whole damned story gets drudged through the mud yet again. And produced some really bizarre side stories... like a policeman taking money to go into a grade school and get a dna sample of a child per dinner napkin to find out if some kid was another of the kidnapped woman's children. You can't make stuff like that up, hey. Creepy. Needless to say, the child wasn't.

And then the worst of the yellow press, Bild Zeitung in Germany.... I can't even begin to tell you how awful they are. Sort of a cross between The National Enquirer and The Sun. Only worse. And they came up with some fake photo of the dead kidnapper.... who threw himself under a train after she escaped.... without a head, so, of COURSE it wasn't him, and he's still at large, and wow, something is 'fishy'. Leave it to the journaille.

I can't even pretend to think of why she would have bought that house. But sorta think it had to do with confronting her past.... she did grow up there, after all. 'Who knows how someone would feel about a place where they grew up for 18 years? And bore children? People have their own way of confronting what traumatised them.

I wouldn't want to be that woman... with all that envy and suspicion... because she doesn't behave as what they think a 'victim' should in their opinion. It's sort of disgusting.

What I didn't see in the news over there this week was a tragic accident. Belgian school kids on ski vacation in Switzerland... they started home on a bus and it crashed into a tunnel wall... 22 students dead, 6 adults, including the driver and co-driver, and 2o some odd kids in critical condition. And hey, the busses had seat belts, whaddaya know? It was gruesome. And an hourly cnn type update for days. Journaille.

The more I hear from Rick Sanatorium and co... the less I wish to comment. With a field like that and mr. animatronic... I really don't think it will be much of a race in the end. Hopefully. But there is sure a lack of coverage regarding syria... and that guy who offed all those people in afghanistan? Heard more here, than from there. Like, he had a head wound in iraq, but was ok for afghanistan yet again.... and supposedly drunk. Way to go, guy. That's a mess, would say.

And the planet keeps turning, and somehow people keep taking in oxygen they shouldn't be entitled to. And how was YOUR week?

She forgot a mandatory prostate exam with a gloved digit...

But oh yeah, they should really go there. And while they are at it... masturbation should qualify as mass murder.... all those little squiggly things that might have been chirren. Gawwwwd.. it's awful to think about. Why, it could qualify as genocide, and half the world's population would be qualified to end up before the world court in the Hague. And you could have a generation of teen-aged boys having to wear spotted sheets of shame to school with mass murderer written on them in red lipstick, oh, the possibilities are endless. But I like that lady in ohio.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And oh yes... I deliberately didn't go into

the asshole with vp aspirations who thinks transvaginal ultrasounds are necessary for women who want a 'procedure'

For a party who wants to take gubmit out of people's lives... why are they doing the opposite?

It's state sanctioned rape.

Boy, I have a mess to say right now....

Where to start, where to start.

I haven't neglected keeping up with news, either there nor here. But I don't see the sense in going from one hyperventilating cause of outrage to another without pause, or without having an antidote, other than to get involved in things directly through petitions, and giving your pennies to whomever you think can dig 'Murka out of the hole it dug for itself, and messed up half the world in the process.

But the THING IS... what happens there doesn't STAY there, and I sure as hell wish it would.

So let's see, on the repub side, you have a disney animatronics figure with faulty wiring and a weak battery that makes him stammer all over the place and look embarassed. And a wannabe disgusting guy who is out only for financial gain, and a real, dyed in the wool, bible-thumping, ASSinine religious zealot who would like to take the clown car in full throttle forward toward a cliff, and the gear shift is broken, and there's no reverse on the damned thing. They sure have them some 'swell' choices.

Things have come up in this cycle that I thought were dead and solved a half century ago. But hey, Sanatorium coming up and saying he wanted to puke over JFK's presser about separation of church and state? I REMEBERED that speech as if it were yesterday. I was 11 years old, but my family was catholic, and that was a very big deal and concern, the wasps thinking 'da pope' would control him somehow. I remembered that speech when they began playing excerpts in light of what mr. 'Sanatorium' was saying. And then they reported that the JFK speech was 51 years ago, and I said to myself, 'Oh, Ren... you've gotten oooooollllllld.

Then going after women, because that is what bullies and guys who are sexually frustrated and have no---NO--clue as to what women are like DO and they go after them because they think they are an easy target. And these ASSHOLES get onto contraception issues, out of the blue, hey... Except we thought THAT was settled 51 years ago. Leaving aside that some men still consider women as possessions or chattel, and the word trophy wife is so telling, don'tcha think?... leaving that aside, that wasn't even the real purpose of all the uproar. They hate health care and are using it as a wedge issue so that insurance companies can continue to screw the public, see the so-called Blunt ammendment. If I as an employer am not a believer in medicine, cancer treatments won't be part of the insurance package I offer. That's what they really want.

Just when you think progress of some sort was made. And attacking a college student, boy, ya gotta hand 'the Rush' a trophy. Here's a guy who was married four times, sired no children...(that anyone KNOWS of)... and he goes on thinking that women have to take a birth control pill every time they have sex, so the student is a ´rapacious slut? He HAS to know better, and it was vicious, and so typical of bully behaviour, and in the end, laughable... except a lot of people aren't very well edumacated in 'Murka these days. And the woman's testimony wasn't ABOUT that. It was about the fact that women take the pill for other reasons, like preventing ovarian cysts. But hey it's an agenda, so drag an innocent woman through the mud, why not, she's 'only' a woman, after all and that is how that bastard thinks. And the real rethugs kiss his ass and perform unmentionable lower intestinal acrobatics on him to make him feel reaaaalllll good.

And hokay, how does this look here? We got us an AUSTERITY package, how loverly. And the focus on pensioners and federal employees, not good, but it could have been worse. Except now, of a sudden, well, another major bank needs a bail-out and guess who's on the paying end? Uh-huh. It's a daily case of dejà vu.

What concerns me far more is what is coming out of the mouthpieces of the parties here about a rise in drop outs in the schools, and 'playing lots of hooky'. Alarums went off in what is left of my mind. Because, you see, the conservative party thinks it would be a useful thing to fine parents of children who play hooky.

Reallah... really? IF we are gonna haveta go there... I seem to remember a time when things in 'Murka weren't so good for kids in poor neighborhoods, and I went to a grade school in the poorest part of the city. You got caught playing hooky? You got sent to a juvenile detention center, and boy howdy, those institutions created a whole generation of petty criminals. The only way to keep peace in that grade school was for the principal to beat up the sixteen year old seventh grade students once a week in front of his office winder during recess, to intimidate the rest of the students. And there were knives, and one teacher got thrown down a flight of stairs and broke her leg, it was terrific, and didn't learn much of anything there other than to survive from one day to another, but thank whomever I read non-stop. Every single one of us were expected to fail. Every one of us. Let's face it, it's real class warfare... keeping the plebes in their place, and it was anything but pleasant. Now it seems subtle.. seems.

So that was also fifty years ago, so what? Except I saw an interview with a mother on one of the msnbc shows last week that I would have killed to keep for this, and can't find it. There's this school called noble school in one of the poorest parts of chicago. And it's the only hope for those kids. But they fine parents when the kids break the rules, and whoa, they are successful. They are so successful, they collected nearly half a million dollars in fines in a two year period. From the parents in the poorest part of the city. And they coughed it up, because if they didn't... there was no other school for their kids to go to. Simple as that.

Transgressions leading to fines? Untied shoelaces. A button not buttoned on a shirt. Not sitting up straight and tracking the teacher continuously, falling asleep in detention.

WHAT the hell has any of that have to do with education? And Rahm Emanuel thinks it's a great program? What was he looking at?` The fine intake?

It's keep em down, keep em in their place. So let's take a closer look at here. The socialists think it's a bad idea to fine the parents of kids who play hooky, the freepers are for it, of course, greens against, and the unmentionables... don't count... so far.

And I was on-line, and asked about it in my guild. We are only about seven people aged late thiry to my age. So sorta adult. And I wanted to know if they had those fines in germany, and they do. One said it was just another scheme to get money from people who are already so strapped by their austerity program. And I asked who gets the brunt of the fines? Not hard to guess, preciousses... the poor and the newly emigrated families. Just keep em in their place, hey. It was an interesting discussion.

If the children of immigrants aren't doing well, it's because their system is failing, as it is failing here. Ours fails them, they are trying to find a solution. And the Germans? Turn a blind eye, seemingly, but I might be wrong. I haven't looked into their 'troubles' so much, so that is only a supposition.
---
But if you take that to the extreme, you get what you recently had in chicago... I think it was... where a mother gets jail time for drugs... not the serious kind... and a sixteen THOUSAND dollar fine, BECAUSE... she enrolled her son in a school in a better district so he would have a better chance, and that was 'stealing' from the taxpayers.... a public school, hey, who did she steal from, huh?

This bothers me in the extreme... our schools are very good. When they graduate from 'high school' it is the equivalent of two years of college over there. And this shit shouldn't be happening, but leave it to the catholic conservatives... they are really a pain in the ass and mules with blinkers on.

This all seems somewhat surreal to me... as in getting the feeling, 'I've been here before, why am I back in this nightmare?'

I'm not so happy with the other side there either on some issues, but goodness... as Mittens would say... at least they act like they are adults.

One last thing... if anyone tells you that they are for 'enhanced interrogation' I saw a documentary on tee-vee the other night about Hitler taking over Austria. And you know what? That is when the SS decided to use, 'strengthened' vulgo 'enhanced' interrogation, right here. and that was their euphemism for it, and people died horribly. So I think I would ask such promoters of that why they would ever want to associate themselves with people so heinous, because that is what they do when they say they are for it.