Andrew T. Durham

Election 2012: When Believing Isn't Enough Anymore

2012-01-20T13:07:00.000-05:00

    Once again radio host Michael Savage of The Savage Nation nails it. Lately, Savage has said that Mitt Romney is electable when pitted against Obama. In the same breath, Savage has stated that Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are not electable at all, and is precisely on target as to why. Gingrich is a nasty little man and nothing but a politician covered in his own dirt. Ron Paul, while he has some good ideas, is unelectable if only for the fact that he presents himself as a nutcase with outlandish expectations of a president’s power.
    Of course, this all rides on our belief in the electoral process. My advice is to wait and see who is invited to the Bilderberg Conference this spring. Then you will know who will be anointed president. To think those in power for a hundred or more years would voluntarily give it up to people like you and me is the ultimate in hubris. It is chutzpah writ large.
    But the harsh reality is that no one can be elected unless they are a centrist. Obama got through the radar because of his race. No other reason. Then, like a sprung trap, we found out what he was all about: absolutely no experience empowered by a radical past and radical, terrorist friends whose dreams revolved around the destruction of our government. But we let that one slide.

    If the Conservative pundits are determined not to make the same mistakes they did in 2008 (i.e. handing the election to Obama with inner squabbling about having no “real” Conservative candidate) they need to get behind someone and do it now. The “Anyone But Obama” strategy must be adopted sooner than later if you believe in the electoral process.
    As much as I hate to say it, Gingrich was a class act on the latest Republican Debate of 2012. Calling the media what they were was so show-stopping it was astounding. The fact that his fellow candidates did not feed into the obvious leftist smear tactics of our media shows that. But on the same level it showed a side of Gingrich that is both his ally and his enemy: his ability to go for the throat. This has made him almost universally detested by those who worked with him in Congress on both sides of the aisle.
    In any event, the sad fact remains that Mitt Romney seems like the only viable candidate who can communicate effectively enough to challenge Obama, who is but a puppet of merely lucky writers. And, as the Republicans did in 2008, the other candidates are currently trying to torpedo Romney while at the same time not realizing that they, themselves, are completely unelectable on their own. So, it looks like this ship will sink again.

    To me, the last remaining hope is for Hillary Clinton to resign her position as Secretary of State and run against Obama. I never thought I would say that. But I think she could beat him. After all, we do need a real man in the White House. Unfortunately, that would mean Hillary Clinton who, like it or not, is a person of great personal strength and political power. Oh, and she was invited, along with Obama, to the Bilderburg Conference in the spring of 2008. But to our loss would be the presence of the quintessential scumbag: Bill Clinton. I guess we have to take the bad with “that which doesn’t suck.”
    Make no mistake. I am not a Republican but I am certainly not a Democrat. I have proudly registered “No Party” for the past several years. If you still believe your vote makes a difference, then at least ponder what I have said…and will continue to say up until November.

    If you’re one of the ones like me who knows that the president is decided by huge corporate families and old bloodlines, then you can just make popcorn, kick up your feet and watch it happen.

    In the meantime, listen to a solid Independent thinker like Michael Savage. Once you have divested yourself of the two party system, you will understand that everyone is for sale and you don’t reap the profits.

Copyright 2012 by Andrew T. Durham

A Message to the GOP on the Verge of Losing Another Election: Get a Grip on Reality

2012-01-18T12:48:00.000-05:00

"Santorum Or Sanitarium" by R. Burnett Baker

With his permission, I have posted an article by my close friend R. Burnett Baker. As the Election of 2012 draws nearer, I felt it important to issue as many wakeup calls to Independents and Conservatives about what's at stake. This piece by a dear friend says a great deal of it with the subtlety of a warhead.

Right. Let me cut to the chase about Rick Santorum running for president: Would he be running for the presidency or the presidency of a sanitarium?

If what I read today online has a shred of truth to it ( and it's questionable whether ANYTHING we read these days contains any truth) then this man may be crazier than a shithouse rat.

The omnipresent Associated Press on June 6, 2011 ran a story about Santorum entering the Republican presidential race. The by-line of the online piece described him as a "reliable conservative."

In that story about his political history, policy stances, and family life there was the recounting about he and his wife having a child who died shortly after birth in 1996. According the the AP story, he and his wife "…slept with the bundled dead baby's body in their hospital room that night…" and then, and THEN took the baby's body home so their other kids could hold the baby before burial.
Sorry folks, but all sentimentality aside, that's beyond creepy. And some folks would want this man as our president?

This is just so whacked that it begs a few other questions. First, what state, hospital, of other institution allows people to just bundle up their dead and cart 'em home for any reason at all? Maybe that's legal somewhere? Really?
Second, what kind of parent would take a dead baby home for the other kids to see and hold? Um, that's just not normal, but more importantly, THAT'S JUST NOT NORMAL. In fact it's, it's, it's not something that I can even describe. And some folks would want this man as our president?

Rick Santorum's faith has always been at the forefront of his politics, but I believe this story just glosses over some kind of line in the sand about people being weird. And doing weird things.

Most of us have heard about his politics and the fact that he seems not to believe that citizens have any rights to privacy. His so-called social conservative beliefs about religion, gay rights, abortion, and such are well known.
But I'm tired of these politicians shoving their religious views in my face and using religion to justify their own insecurities over social CAUSES rather than forgetting about their religion and focusing on real ISSUES. Issues like war, economy, border protection, taxes, government spending, energy policy, education, and such. I don't want a religious fanatic being the puppet leader of our country. Any fool can see how well theocracies function. (Re: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and on and on…)

But back to the point of this rant. That dead baby thing should be enough to disqualify, in the minds of reasonable, thinking people, this man from holding any public office.
Sorry, GOP, but your party is one hell of a clown party. It almost makes the Neo-Marxist Democrats look reasonable. Almost.
I'd say the GOP is absolutely ready for Santorum.
And all of the GOP candidates and their supporters are ready for the sanitarium.

Rick Baker
June 6, 2011
Rochester, NY

© 2011 R. Burnett Baker

Photo from video game "Sanitarium"

Friend or Fiend: Love and Friendship in 2011

2012-01-09T15:00:00.001-05:00

Patterns of sick behavior can be disguised by what appear to be the most honorable of intentions. And, like a land mine, these patterns don’t emerge until it is too late, when you lose and arm, leg, heart…or the will to fight any longer.

A bit late, but nonetheless relevant, this piece reflects lessons learned by this writer in 2011. By means of disclaimer, I would emphasize that this will not devolve into a smattering of news stories that formed the output of what is left of our media. Instead, I will simply wax nostalgic about the teachable moments from my life in 2011.

Doubtless some will see themselves in my reflections. I would caution such individuals that this article is not about you. For once I have decided that this is about me: my turn. A better part of my life has been spent with the ability to see another’s point of view, often to the extent of ignoring or minimizing my own. This was done in a herculean effort to keep the peace; to avoid conflict. And it was done to further punish myself for what I do not know. But this has been a pattern. I would take the heat and feed my self-loathing.

On clear-minded reflection I have decided that I am done with the victim mentality. With my tail pried from between my legs I trundle on to 2012 and maybe the end of the world, or so some say.

I began 2011 with the cliché that it was” the first day of the rest of my life.” Instead it was a gauntlet; a marathon running through hell. It was journey through my worst fears. In each instance I was convinced that I had brought things upon myself. In fact, I had been skillfully manipulated by passive/aggressive puppetry wrought from decades of profoundly warped parenting, marinated in steroid and stimulant addiction as well as puerile fantasies of relationships.

[NOTE: To those playing along at home, forgive the big words. I find what most people view as honest is nothing more than bluntness. Being honest is not the same as being blunt. It does, however, make you something that rhymes with it.]

A not-so-subtle theme weaving through the year was that it takes a certain kind of person to take advantage of another who is in a weakened state of being. To psychologically torture someone with polarized expectations and conditions, coupled with a brutal pounding of shattered promises, would be the envy of any sociopath. That idea that it was all subconscious is chilling in that it was seemingly natural and right in this person’s mind. Second nature, if you will.

Sounds frightening. And it was.

I have always been a huge fan of irony. The fact that the person who perpetrated the above scenario was an employee of Disney World: The Happiest Place on Earth has its own kind of perverse humor. This is funnier still in that he had a sealed drug trafficking conviction while working directly with the safety of children. And he still works there, no doubt still pumped with steroids, supplements and stimulants. Stealing hundreds of dollars of my property – some of great sentimental value – pales in comparison to the above scene.

But this is just one example of lessons learned in 2011. While it may sound to some like sour grapes, I assure you it is not that childish. No, it is the result of a conscious decision to quit beating myself up over the acts of others no matter how much I may have contributed to the situation. Letting someone fail so that you may become a hero to them – that they may grow to depend on you entirely – is another such sick form of manipulation. This should be completely unexpected from someone considered a friend, particularly a friend of a decade or more.

But friendship was an ideal colored by the frame of mind in which I found myself over a decade ago. And there was always the glimmer of hope that people had changed in the intervening years.

They hadn’t.

People who have led sheltered lives, or lied to themselves about who they were, cannot change in any meaningful sense. Like an alcoholic or drug addict, they too remain stunted in maturity in precisely the same way. But in their case there is no chemical, just the endless feeding off the emotional table scraps of others. They do not generate any real emotion of their own. All that is left are the butchered remains of their hidden expectations and agendas. Then the blame will be placed upon others.

And then the cycle will begin again, this time with some other tortured soul.
Patterns of sick behavior can be disguised by what appear to be the most honorable of intentions. And, like a land mine, these patterns don’t emerge until it is too late, when you lose and arm, leg, heart…or the will to fight any longer.

As for friendship and love, be assured that they are NOT:

- Making promises and offers, and then placing conditions on them when it is after the fact or just plain rescinding them.

- Thinking that an infatuation of years ago (while living a lie in intervening years) was somehow a star-crossed event, entitling you to cast judgment upon someone you really don’t know.

- Switching someone off completely because of their personal misfortune while claiming “I will always love you.”

- Constantly threatening to throw someone to the curb because of bumps in the road in a relationship. Make no mistake: passive/aggressive manipulation is abuse just the same as physical abuse. Threatening someone with murder, for instance, tends to be frowned upon by the legal system.

- Taking things back given to someone you claim to care deeply about. When you give things to people, especially when they didn’t ask for them, it sort of makes you look really small when they end up missing.

- Refusing to hear the whole story after you have accused someone of lying or otherwise deceiving you. No one has the right, in a loving relationship, to have black and white cut-off points: “You either do/don’t do this or it’s over”. No one has that power and it is most definitely not the language of love. It is abuse, plain and simple. Depriving someone of making human errors screams of the inability to look at yourself.

And finally:

- Washing your hands of someone or some situation will not absolve you of your responsibility in whatever events occurred. It didn’t work for Pontius Pilate and it sure as hell won’t work for you.

Not everything I have alluded to can be solely attributed to “bad decisions”. In my own case, my bad decisions of the past year were based firmly in bad decisions I made decades ago in my choice of friends. When you’re young these things happen.

One thing I have noticed as I have gotten older is how, when I was younger – say, 17 – I was not “allowed” to be 17 by friends, girlfriends, etc. For some reason I was expected to be better than just a teenager. It seems I wasn’t permitted to have immature ideas and unrealistic expectations of the future. And as I have gotten older my friends of my younger years – the ones I dreamed with and made plans with – have all given up on their dreams and opting for existing instead of living.

Today I am in my forties and it seems that I have not been allowed to change, for better or worse. People I once spent my teen years with have actually said to me, “Why haven’t you done” this or that, while they nurture their baldness and waistlines. It seems that now I am not being allowed to have lived a rich life, following my own dreams, and making mistakes as large as my accomplishments. No, that seems to have been measured by how much of an inconvenience that has become to these others.

You see, the importance of envy cannot be underestimated in the motivations of people. There are those who see people of considerable talent and accomplishment as a threat to their own lack of same. So when such a gifted person has run upon a hard time, there are those who see this as an opportunity to control, subdue and downgrade him so that those insecure individuals can ease their self-hatred.

Good luck with that.

Self-hatred is a cancer that is, in some, incurable. And when it is under the cloak of loving, giving and caring it is a scorpion filled with soul poison. It seems there are those who believe that good intentions can justify most any act, no matter how warped it may seem on its face. And they have no problem finding what P.T. Barnum said was “born every minute.”

It is a certainty that folks like I have described will not change. After all, it takes a lifetime of practice to truly become such a psychic menace.

At one point during this past year I was going through a particularly rough patch. Someone like those described above asked me, “Was it me who drove you to this point?” I lied and replied, “No, it’s just my own doing.”

The truth is I should have said, “Yes, it was you. You were the sick, twisted nightmare that damn near pushed me over the edge. How does it feel?” But when your back is against the wall and you don’t hold the cards it is unwise to always be truthful, especially when mere survival depends on it.

There is an article I wrote quite a while ago that may be of some value. It was called The Snapping Turtle Syndrome and it was about toxic people. You can find it on my blog, or at http://www.wecommentary.com/ and http://www.americanchronicle.com/ under my name. As for this current article, it was meant to be a personal companion piece to the original, albeit an unexpected one. I just found it astounding how I could fall into the same old traps even though I was armed with the knowledge of how the traps worked. I guess intelligence doesn’t follow where the heart dares to journey.

Otherwise there would be no Romeo and Juliet, Doctor Zhivago or Sleepless in Seattle.

And, for that matter, no Fatal Attraction.

Copyright 2012 by Andrew T. Durham

What Means Anything?

2011-11-19T10:31:00.000-05:00

I've recently been thinking of things that we, as human beings, ascribe meaning to. Which has also forced me to contemplate the complete fallacy of it. There are those that say "There is a reason for everything", when I would counter, "There is a meaning for everything, depending on the individual."

For instance, I had occasion to be in New York City recently and, while I was waiting for my bus, I happened into a restaurant for come coffee. There I discovered the waitress/bartender was from Rochester, NY, a city I love and have spent many years in. Because it was Veterans Day, some USO women came in and I discovered that two of them were from a suburb of Rochester, and that one's husband went to a college in Rochester.

Coincidence? That's a word I don't believe in. Everything that happens, without exception, has meaning or does not have meaning, depending on the person to which said events occur.

Do I ascribe this to a deity? I don't know. But the magic of not knowing is what keeps it all going.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

The REAL Eternal Question

2011-09-19T19:57:00.001-04:00

Throughout time mankind has pondered many things about not just his immediate surroundings but the Universe itself. These questions have followed us through worldwide floods, worldwide fires, ice ages and ages of searing heat. During these times we evolved, matured and banded together into close knit groups. After millenia these groups turned into communities, then massive cities. Wars waged, religions and empires rose and fell. But throughout we evolved, changed and became what we now call civilized.

And the questions still remained.

In the 20th century we saw the most massive destruction of life and worlds that have ever been witnessed. Countless millions died as tyrants rose to power, only to be dispensed by our interior camaraderie. And our will to live.

With this we reached into space itself, landing on the moon, building space stations and visiting that dark expanse regularly. Wonders were witnessed and the proofs of immense awe discovered. We even dared question our God, often proclaiming we were even more.

But still the questions of the meaning of life, what does it all mean were not answered, only magnified.

Still, there was the one question that surpassed all of those child-like wonders...

Today we stand upon the precipice of economic and moral ruin. Wars rage over the planet and poverty has taken the scepter of monarch over the Earth.

With all the wonder we have witnessed - and the horrors - we still cannot answer the question of the ages: The Eternal Question, if you will.

And that is: WHAT THE HELL IS "TAUPE"?

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Things to Try, Part I

2011-09-18T13:13:00.001-04:00

1) When you stay in a hotel that serves a Continental Breakfast, go down in the morning, walk in with adult diapers on and order the Incontinental Breakfast.

2) Try a reverse carjacking. Walk up to someone on the street and pull a gun on them and demand that they take your car. Oh, and give the your ATM card and PIN.

3) Join the debate team in college. When you go to your first debate, dress immaculately and, when your opponent ends his argument, stand up and say, "Oh, Yeah?!", then just sit down.

4) Make a list of 10 people who you have never seen, never met and whose names you don't know.

5) Try a reverse shoplifting by smuggling things INTO a store.

6) Take your car into a body shop and tell them to total it.

7) Take your car into a repair shop and demand that there is nothing wrong with and that they do nothing to it or you'll call the Better Business Bureau.

8) Order a magazine subscription. When you see the postman about to deliver it, go meet him, take the magazine, roll it up, and whip yourself in the face with it. Then just hand it back to him.

9) Late at night pull a gun on some unsuspecting person and tell them you want absolutely nothing from them.

10) Go to a fine restaurant and order a great expensive meal. When asked if you want dessert, ask if they have any urinal cakes.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

What Every Writer Should Impart to Aspiring Writers About Writing

2011-09-07T21:29:00.000-04:00

Norway 2011: What Now?

2011-07-27T19:41:00.003-04:00

This week I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with a resident of Oslo, Norway James Michael Calderone. James is also a fantastic amateur photographer and agreed to provide the pictures he took of a candlelight vigil which you see here. Of course we talked about the insane tragedy that occurred there this past week. As we talked I realized I wanted to get the human element of this out before the soulless nutjobs in our politics and our media (same thing?) get hold of it. But, alas, that has already happened. In any case, this man I spoke with attended a candlelight vigil for the victims of the lunatic that snuffed them out. I have posted here with his permission, the pictures he took at one candlelight vigil this week and they are breath-taking. More than that, my friend was willing to give his personal feelings on what is was like, in a peaceful nation, for something as horrific as this to unfold before his eyes and the eyes of everyone he has ever known.

"It is a surreal thing. I don't lock my doors here, never worry about guns." James said at first. "To be honest, I wasn't surprised, though my first reaction to the bomb was that it may not be terrorism. It was unclear if this could have been a gas leak or an explosion of a different cause."

As far as it being a shock, he said,

"The initial knee jerk thoughts that this must have been Al Qaida gave way to the fact it was a right wing nationalist. This has really made people stop and think. It was strange really. I was at home and I let my partner know that there was an explosion in Oslo. I was in contact with most of my friends online. When we learned of the bombing, we weren't all that surprised. We all felt it was a matter of time. The US Embassy has long been thought to be a target.

"I suppose there were two main reactions... the first, people started blaming those 'damn immigrants' and Muslim extremists. But some of us, were a bit more guarded about tossing blame... I took a wait and see approach, even when a facebook page popped up by Muslim extremists claiming Muslim extremist responsibility. It didn't add up. If whoever did it was going for maximum damage and loss of life, they only had to move a few streets over. Then we heard about a shooting on the Island of Utøya at the Labor Party summer camp. That had us glued to any source of news we could find. Why would that be an international terrorist target?"

I had to ask if he saw any ripples that will sprawl out into Norwegian society.

"I don't think Norwegian society will change in the long run," Calderone replied ."But if I ever get to the point where I have to kill 80 kids to make a political statement, please shoot me. I imagine, though, it has certainly made the 'Norway for the Norwegians' crowd really stop and consider some things.

" Had this been an international attack, I think Norwegian nationalism would be playing its ugly hand right now, but as it now seems to be a domestic attack against the sitting Labor Party for nationalistic reasons, this has put the nationalism in check somewhat, and focused the issue on the scale of the tragedy and what the idea 'Norwegian way of life' really means. In my community, things are getting back to normal for some, for others there is a long road to healing.. I heard last night that one of the boys who survived the attack physically hasn't been alone since he got back. He came face to face with the gunman, and he was shot at. Luckily the bullets missed. I can only imagine what he's going through, and i'm sure he knew people who were killed. I was told his mates are taking turns sleeping over each night, and the other evening his dad said one of his mates was there when he went to bed, and in the morning he found another has showed up in the night. People will heal. We'll get through this if we all stick together and help each other out." In the US we at least had the perception that something like 9/11 could happen. Norway did not. Considering the entirety of Europe is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome with their Muslim "invasion", for lack of a better word, the last thing they would expect is this. I refuse to mention the murderer's name here as this is not The Animal Planet blog. But extremism of any kind is dangerous. One would think that Europeans, of all people, would understand that. There was no reason to expect anything, though. None. Or was there?

"We've been expecting an attack for some time now," Calderone was quick to point out. "I believe most felt it would from an international source, or at least have something to do with images of certain bearded folk or have something to do with the Mid East peace process, the Nobel Peace Prize, our involvement in Afghanistan, things like that. I don't think the thought of domestic terrorism was on anyone's radar."

The Christian Al-Jazeera, WorldNetDaily.com , has made a point of trying to say that the killer was a Darwinist, not a Christian. Of course, this site is nothing but a hatred site against gays and Muslims. My point is that the US is already trying to spin this. As someone who has worked all of my professional career with disenfranchised youth, all I can think of is, "CHILDREN WERE SLAUGHTERED!". Can't we drop our neurotic beliefs to honor the innocent souls that were sent prematurely to their end?

Even with all I have seen in my life I cannot wrap my head around how this perverted nation of mine can shrug off the pure hell of this act. No. Ratings are more important. Take broadcaster Glenn Beck, for instance, who recently compared the young people's camp on Utoya island to "the Hitler Youth."

"Glenn Beck doesn't know what the hell he's talking about." James said. "Can you imagine what Glenn might have said had someone made comments about the motives of the people killed during 9/11, 3 days after it happened!?. If these were American kids, he'd be calling them heroes.

"Glenn and his kind have no sense of decency. Glenn likes to use the word Nazi and Hitler whenever there is something he doesn't understand. The camp is a yearly event for kids either in the the labor party of considering membership. They get together to have fun, debate, learn, and share their ideas. Glenn Beck doesn't understand the differences between socialism, communism, Marxism, Nazism, fascism etc etc, to him its all one thing....

"Norway is a social democracy. I don't expect Glenn to ever understand what that means. To equate fascism with social democracy says all one needs to say about Glenn Beck and his kind. Like him if you please, but if his fans do not condemn his recent statements, I question their decency as well."

When I was a junior in high school in Upstate New York I was elected to go to something called Boys State. We went to a college campus - vacated in that month because the academic year was over - and participated in a mock state government. There we chose candidates for governor and they waged campaigns for the whole week. One was elected and he appointed his staff and so on. This program was an honor to attend, hosted by the VFW, which every man in my family has been elected to attend. Was this, too, the Hitler Youth, Glenn?!?! .

I would only add, to paraphrase Shakespeare, "That which we call a freakin' lunatic, by any other name, would smell as hideous."

Among many of the things James said he mentioned that a young musician in his community has gone missing at this exact time.

"I think right now we need to focus on getting our dead returned home, and making sure the families and people affected are all right. The boy from our town is still missing and likely drowned or shot while swimming away. Clearly there are some lessons to be learned from this. "

Even today, this whole thing has not registered with me. This was far more personal and up-close than 9/11. That, maybe, is why it is so horrible to contemplate. It is easy, as I have done, to write this murderer off as simply insane. Which may or may not be the case. But the lingering question, as with the Unabomber, is, "What if he isn't?". That is even more terrifying.

Think about that. Just because an act is insane doesn't mean that the person committing it was. "Well, he was just nuts." That doesn't wash with me. I believe within each and every human being on this Earth is the capability of horrible acts. To quote my favorite television character of all time, Doctor Gregory House:

"We are all base, selfish animals crawling across this Earth. But because we have brains, and if we try real hard, we can, on occasion, aspire to something less than pure evil."

"How do you feel?", I finally asked.

"I feel sad, I feel calm, I feel proud of Norway. Coming from 'the big city' Its odd for me to live in such a rural area (and this is considered city life in Norway). I didn't know the boy who was killed, but I have seen him around. You see everyone around at some point in an area like this. (Sometimes twice in one day at two different locations which still freaks me out). My only hope is that Norway doesn't change. I firmly believe it will be stronger. The society will remain open but at least in terms of an open society, I think security for our institutions will need to be rethought

"If the tragedy helps to define national identity gone wrong, maybe so many will not have died in vain. "

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham
Photos copyright 2011 by James Michael Calderone

For MLD

2011-07-26T16:56:00.000-04:00

Another Comic Lets The Real Hate Come Through

2011-06-11T16:56:00.004-04:00

Apparently, someone named Tracy Morgan - whoever that is - went off on a anti-gay rant in his so-called comedy act. I have no idea who this is, but he said that if his own son were to be gay he would kill him and that being gay is a choice not biological. This Morgan person apparently believes he can say whatever he wants about any other ethnic, social group and not be held accountable, else his critics be branded racist. Typical of our society today. Double standards slap you in the face by those seek not equality but preferencial treatment.

Supposedly this person is on some TV show. And he wants to say these things? Working in Hollywood? Sorry, the "just kidding" thing doesn't work. Not according to those attending his "performance" who reported this his demeanor changed completely. About 15 people walked out, according to one attendee.

He apologized . Um, no. The dirtbag meant it, every word of it. This apology is like caving in someone's windshield and then saying "Oops, just kidding." Or like saying, "I'm going to kill you and your whole family" but then putting a smiley face after it. Morgan, whoever he is, can quite literally go to hell. But being who he is, he's already there, swimming a vat of hate and ignorance. Oh, but you can't criticize him.

Now I want to give you the reality side of this.

With all that being said, I truly believe he had every right to say those things. I just didn't like them, but that doesn't give me the right to try to pass a law to shut him up. It doesn't give me the right to "remove a word from our culture". The First Amendment was designed to protect offensive or unpopular speech, not stuff we all agree on. I hate what he said, but he hates himself more. So be it. But that does not mean I need to stop him. I do, however, have the right to say whatever I want about what he said.

The current - hopefully short-lived - administration is hell bent on destroying the First Amendment by the cluster bomb of political correctness. This has to end. Hopefully it will.

Take this to heart: there should be no limit on what someone can say. If you don't like it, boycott, picket, criticize. But you should not be able to pass laws on the non-existent thing called "hate speech". There is no such thing. You just don't like it. Either get therapy or speak up about it yourself.

The meek may inherit the Earth. But it's the strong who contest the will.

Oh,and Tracy: YOU GOT A GIRL'S NAME!

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

In Support of Rod Blagojevich

2011-04-14T14:08:00.001-04:00

In recent statements Blagojevich has demanded that certain evidence be made public to expose the underhanded (criminal?) workings of warped minds like Rahm Emanuel. And while I still believe Blagojevich is, um, ethically challenged I have no doubt whatsoever that he was met more than half way by the ilk of the Obama administration: probably the most corrupt presidential administration since the Clintons.

Now, apparently, Blagojevich is going to be retried after a hung jury in his last trial. I hope, if he goes down, he takes everyone with him. That would be a noble act. If he does that, the trail of deception will undoubtedly head straight to the White House. And the timing is perfect, as Obama’s thug administration is falling apart from incompetence and general ennui. Many of the most massive trees on Earth rot from within.

One basic cliché is always true…always. What comes around goes around. I hope Blagojevich does whatever it takes to bring down those who took it upon themselves to subvert the system and the laws that glue the political cauldron together.

There is no such thing as honor among thieves. Once the Mob dissipated in many major cities, chaos ensued to only be taken over by the logical heirs apparent: politicians. But, then, organized crime and politicians have always been in bed together. Looking at the Kennedys will prove that unequivocally. Now, it seems, some people have had enough of being thrown under the bus. And we all need to remember that anyone with no sense of right or wrong; no sense of the importance of consequences; no sense of common decency, is at best a nihilist or, at worst, a sociopath.

So, for once, I am interested in the fate of Rod Blagojevich. Because it has no good ending. But if he can manage to expose what seems to be a large pattern of corruption, I would have no problem hailing that as an honorable act.

For now, it’s ripples in a pond.

Soon, perhaps, a snowball will be rolled down the hill.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Conservatives: Drop the Social Issues or You Will Lose in 2012

2011-03-16T20:01:00.000-04:00

I am not going to belabor my point by giving you a long preamble to my basic assertions. In fact I have written about this before, but in recent days the topic has come into the news and I feel the need to continue it.

The only disclaimer I will give is this: I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am proud to say that I am an Independent and registered NO PARTY on my enrollment form. I think for myself. I have yet, however, to be able to support a Democrat candidate, and I’m certainly no supporter of the travesty inhabiting the White House at this time. (Oh, I forgot: he’s running away from world tragedy and war by going to Rio with the family.)

With that out of the way my central point is this: Republicans/Conservatives will not win the White House in 2012 if they don’t drop their pathological obsession with social issues. Conservatives claim to be all for individual liberties. What logically follows from that is that you leave people the hell alone to live their lives as they wish. Keep your religion and your laws out of my bedroom, out of my kitchen, out of my bathroom and out of my pants!

A message to all elected officials, current and future: Whether you like it or not, you represent ALL of your constituents, not just the ones whose way of life you agree with. DEAL WITH IT. You need to get the hell off social issues that are matters of personal conscience, not your Bible or Koran…for now, anyway. If religion wants to play with the big boys in politics, then tax them NOW. Two years ago, I was making an attempt to attend a Universalist church in Rochester, New York. Their summer minister – a personally abrasive man who basically only talked about himself and his gayness – actually said one day, “You do not belong here if you do not believe in the liberal ideals of social justice.” So the leftists do it too.

So much for “Universal”.

If churches and religious groups are going to try to influence politics they need to be taxed into the Stone Age like the rest of us. Otherwise, shut up.

So here are a few talking points for political candidates, local and national, who call themselves Conservative:

1) Drop the abortion issue. It is not going anywhere, so deal with it. Personally, as a man, I don’t feel I have a right to have an opinion on abortion. Seems like a woman has a bit more to deal with. And, hey, both Liberals and Conservatives want the same thing: the extermination of the poor. Even Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood said, “There are too many black babies being born.” Anyone want to be remembered for that remark? Not me.

2) Drop the blatant anti-homosexual hatred. Any gay man will tell you that anyone who expends too much time persecuting homosexuals has personal issues central to that very issue. So, drop it. You’re making fools out of yourselves. Ask Jim Baker. I’ll wait……

3) Drop the gay marriage thing. It is a NON-ISSUE. Nobody cares. What does that have to do with running the country? If Conservatives believe in limited government, then why do they want it to control our personal lives with entirely subjective pseudo-moralities? I don’t get it.

4) I can’t believe there are still sex education issues for our schools, but apparently those who can’t get it on a regular basis are concerned. Knock it off.

5) Instead of persecuting those who don’t buy into your hypocrisy, why not spend time and money preventing Liberal nutjobs from politically correcting classic literature and history books to reflect a neurotic lie about the factual progression of our nation?

6) Instead of trying to demonize the way a free people choose to define their lives, why not try to pay our military troops better wages and support our border control officers to actually do their jobs, not jailing them when they do?

7) And for presidential candidates: Instead of joining the NRA and passing laws outlawing flag-burning, why not have the balls to stand up for the very real concern that our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech is being snuffed out by political correctness and the blatant lie of “separation of church and state”, which does not exist? I dare you.

8) Instead of imprisoning people for non-existent “crimes” like drug possession, why not, as believers in “individual liberties”, decriminalize irrelevant chemicals that do far less harm than legal alcohol and nicotine? Everyone has the right to screw up their lives. You have no right to stand in their way. Criminalizing something meaningless does NOT take away desire or compulsion. It just makes it stronger and more intense. And, unless you are on the money-making end of the drug trade, you have no reason to criminalize any street drug. Hmmmmm. I wonder what that means….

9) Contraception and birth control. First, if you haven’t had sex in the last 6 months, just shut the hell up about this subject. Second, birth control and STD prevention are necessary, especially in this economy and just for even trying to prevent the extinction of the family.

10) Finally, all this comes down to the original premise. Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, you are representing ALL of your constituents whether you like it or not. If you are not, you need to be impeached, or jailed for fraud. So, if you’re a Christian Republican you represent every homosexual, lesbian, transgendered, black, Hispanic, trailer trash person within your constituency. every prostitute, murderer, rapist, thief, etc. in the same area or nation. You have no choice here. NONE.

If there is a problem with that, don’t even try to run for anything except the exit.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Civility Porn

2011-02-17T15:01:00.000-05:00

I have had to memorize 3 Shakespeare plays, as well as about 20 other stage plays. Now, memorizing Shakespeare is like herpes: once you do it, it never goes away. What I can’t understand is if I can do that why can’t the average person memorize things like “Excuse me”, “Thank you” and “You’re welcome.” If someone says to you, “Thank you”, you say, “You’re welcome.” You don’t say, “Okay”, and you certainly don’t say “Aiiight.” That’s not a word and it means nothing.

Now these are very simple things. Civility is a lost art and when someone runs into me and they don’t say, “Excuse me”, I go and make them.

All that being said the current bunch of thin skinned gamers in the Congress and White House have insisted on “civility”. Then why can’t they do it themselves? I mean I love to collect hypocrisy, but the very idea that Washington even knows the word “civility”, let alone able to practice it, is beyond ludicrous.

I’ve said this many times and I’ll do it again: If you offend a Conservative he will give you chapter and verse on why he thinks as he does. If you offend a Liberal they will ask, “Who’s your supervisor?” If you have no real beliefs and have to resort to silencing or name-calling don’t even pretend to talk about civility.

But, to be fair, this goes deeper than politics. This country has been suffering an astounding decline in simple manners ever since the death of the family unit. And please don’t play semantics with me by calling it a “redefinition” of the family.

Dead is dead. It is not a redefinition of life.

But as we literally crawl towards the destruction of our culture in this country, it begs the question: How did this all start and why did we allow it to happen?

Answer: spinelessness.

Today I go out of my way to compliment someone. If someone wants to sue me for sexual harassment, go for it. You can’t get blood from a stone, and if you’re that weak get therapy.

Now don’t get me wrong. I can almost always be accused of being negative. But there is a reason for it and it is that I want things to change. I need to be proven wrong. The human immune system will be weak if it is not challenged.

As far as I’m concerned being deemed a cynic is a good thing. I choose to call it realism. At any rate, when you’re a so-called cynic you can’t lose. If you’re right, you are affirmed. If you’re wrong, the world is a better place.

So, folks, we best get right with ourselves because, believe me, we are heading for hard times. Simple courtesy can’t hurt. But if you don’t really mean it….

Stay home.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Naughty Bits, Part I

2011-01-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

I felt the need to share random nonsense. So indulge me, if you will.

Little known fact: The song "I Got You Under My Skin" was the very first song written about scabies.

"Two guys are walking down the street..." - an excerpt from Famous Jokes Interrupted by the Teller Being Hit By Fallen Space Junk, Volume III (revised).

News Brief: Obama has decreed that all graffiti must be positive in nature, and non-violent.

In a world of murderers, thieves, terrorists, rapists, con men, liars and hypocrites the pressure to excel can be intense.

It's great to have a cause that you live/work for. But if you can't take the time to laugh at shit, you've already lost.

Just once I would love to hear a TV weatherman say, "Well, tonight it's going to snow like a motherfucker."

What if you drove past the office of Literacy Volunteers and the sign was spelled wrong?

Things Never to Ask at a Pawn Shop: "Excuse me, how much could I get for a used coffin?"

An extraordinarily brief commentary on Obama's State of the Union speech: Joseph Goebbels said " If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

In a world of murderers, thieves, terrorists, rapists, con men, liars and hypocrites the pressure to excel can be intense.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Limbaugh Accuses Independents for The Attacks in Arizona

2011-01-12T18:05:00.001-05:00

Today, in a stunningly inept revelation of agenda, Rush Limbaugh accused those Independents and so-called No Labels as being responsible for the attacks in Arizona that left many dead and Congresswoman Giffords fighting for her life.

Limbaugh, who is notoriously uneducated and a major advocate for the political genocide for any free-thinking voters left in the United States, blatantly claimed that the “alleged” killer, Jared Loughner, would be a great example for the No Label, Independent, etc. voters in this country, considering that he held no particular political beliefs and did not follow news or talk radio. Now this is in direct contradiction from the very fact that Limbaugh was apoplectic at the idea that the media was accusing him of being the cause. Now he is upset that the kid had no particular political beliefs.

This is just a further example of how the free-thinking people in this country are continually pummeled by the uneducated shills like Limbaugh and Hannity who cannot make a buck without polarizing the public. What I have found funny since 9/11 is how Limbaugh and his puppy dog Hannity have aligned themselves with the “Conservative” label, instead of Republican.

Bull Crap.

They love to talk about RINO’s – Republicans In Name Only. But they are ROLATS – Republicans Only Lying About Themselves. This may fly with their listeners, who are primarily people with a high school education or less, but not with those of us who can think for ourselves and realize that the two party system is dead. You see, when you work in a profit system like radio you have to pit one thing against another for ratings. This is all that the ilk of Limbaugh and Hannity do, because they are incapable of thinking outside the “us and them” mentality. Yet they pretend – in a rather pathetic way – that they are somehow outside of that way of thinking. They manage, actually, to hoodwink their listeners into thinking that they are really into an ideology outside the Dem/Rep party system.

It ain’t happening.

So let me just get this over with by saying to the children like Limbaugh that you may want to stifle free-thinking, but your inability to think outside of two sides is your own mental disability. Please get help, or get off the air, and let those of us who can decide for ourselves what is right set things straight.

Oh, and as a side note, Rush. We didn’t kill anyone. A wacked out kid did. And your attempt to use free-thinking people as a political tool to blame it on makes you no different from those you pretend to oppose on a daily basis.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Can We Resuscitate The First Amendment?

2011-01-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals just recently vacated the $1.21 million worth of fines that the FCC levied against ABC for a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue in which an actress’s backside was seen, for a split second, naked.

Similarly, late last year, a unanimous three-judge decision in the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the current FCC “rules” on obscenity as having a “chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here” because it left broadcasters basically swinging in the wind as to what the commission would rule as obscene.

I’m not going into detail on these cases. You can read about them online. What I want to address is what these decisions mean in the larger scheme of things. First, let me put some things out there:

1) The FCC by its very nature and purpose is unconstitutional. An unelected, self-appointed body that determines what we see and hear in broadcast media.

2) The very purpose of the First Amendment of the Constitution was to protect unpopular, even offensive speech. There may not be any pressing need protections for things that everyone agrees with. Or like a gardening show.

3) To break it down even further, as I see it, there is no such thing as bad/profane/obscene language. Words are innocent. We only confer upon them meaning because they have no inherent meaning. We created them.

4) The banning, or “retiring”, of words by any group is unconstitutional according to any rational reading the First Amendment. If you are offended by something someone says, get therapy because you are so controlled by words. Don’t go trying to get laws passed that completely stifle someone’s First Amendment rights. This Amendment is found in what is commonly called The Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791. It is not called The Bill of Really Cool Things You Can Do or Say Until You Piss Someone Off.

The fact that these issues even need debating in a courtroom baffles me to the limit. I mean, if you can read English it’s right there. The idea that lawyers can twist and turn the meaning of direct language because some societal weakling gets offended is just plain wrong. Turn the TV channel. Walk away. Turn the radio dial. Get therapy.

So there is some hope. George Carlin once said: “Words are innocent. It’s the person using them you need to be concerned about.” But all of the above doesn’t preclude the law. If someone is being harassed, then that falls in to laws of privacy, assault/battery, disturbing the peace. Totally different from watching, say, Family Guy.

There were those in Shakespeare’s time who found some of his work obscene. Yet they had no problem with all the female parts being played by boys. Not many people know that. Because in Shakespeare’s day it was considered unseemly for woman to be an actor. It actually was considered by some as being on the same level as a harlot. But how would we react to that today? I mean, we teach Shakespeare in most, if not all, high schools. It is considered classic. Yet, there was a social context in which his plays were written and performed.

This leads to my next point. I have the distinct feeling that many of our elected officials consider our Founding Fathers as primitives. Power corrupts and the United States Constitution did not make any provision for professional politicians.

Leaving behind the short sidetrack, I’ll comment on the ruling pertaining to nudity on television. I don’t really have any strong feelings about it. To me it’s the same thing as the blatant, gratuitous use of autopsies and gore on network dramas. None of these things…none of them are being done for the verisimilitude of the program. It’s for shock and titillation and, ultimately ratings. Do I think there’s something inherently wrong with it? I just don’t see the need for it. I wouldn't campaign to stop it though. Because it's ultimately meaningless.

And I certainly don’t think that any of this will lead to the down-slide of our society. That’s a done deal already. So, as this current administration constantly attempts to, at best, ignore or, at worst, rape the US Constitution we can be assured that nothing will be done about the real problems we face. Like eradicating poverty? Cutting taxes? Getting off the backs of business and wealthy Americans who have earned their way? Rampant crime? And how about stopping a war that absolutely no one knows the reason it is still going on?

Going out on a limb here I would say that those major issues - and many more - are a bit more important than someone saying “damn” too many times on TV, or seeing someone’s butt.

Copyright 2011 by Andrew T. Durham

Looking Back on the Best Moments of 2010

2010-12-18T14:10:00.000-05:00

Another April

2010-11-20T15:31:00.000-05:00

Living is more than touch,
But reality escapes us as we think
And feel,
So everyone must reach
For something that means what life means;
Breathes what life breathes…

Yet, is it always through the face
And through the eyes
Of another
That we see the Corridor
To the rest of the world?

Apparently so,
Or we would never need to hold another body,
Or kiss another hand.

But living is more than touch.

It is an invisible thread
That leads to only one other person
In all the Universe.

And it is this thread that sews the very finest
Link
Between two separate souls,
Born of different mothers,
Yet familiar since the beginning of time,
Incarcerated through centuries
To flourish in temporary Aprils,
Eventually dying in countless Novembers,
Left to call to each other in the Afterword,
Calling and crying for each other,
Crying,

Until their souls meet again
In another April.

Copright 2010 by Andrew T. Durham

People Who Should Absolutely Not Run For President In 2012

2010-11-04T17:44:00.000-04:00

Now that the American public has resoundingly given thumbs down to the Congress and the Obama Administration, there is going to be much talk about the 2012 election. To anyone who has read me in the past, you already know I think voting for President is mere theater. That choice is made by old money and old blood long before the ultimate November. The only reason I vote in a presidential election is out of respect for my mother, who was the Commissioner of the Board of Elections where I grew up.

But even with that said, I want to weigh in on those who, under no circumstances, should run for President of the United States in 2012. And these are very obvious.

First, Sarah Palin should just forget about it. She has been made such a profound joke by the primates in the media and the liberal entertainment industry, she absolutely will not survive another onslaught. Which is too bad because I like her. In fact, after her address to the Republican Convention in 2008, the astoundingly uneducated, pseudo-beatnik man I worked for waddled into work proclaiming Palin was a Nazi. What amazes me about liberals is they throw around the word Nazi or fascist without any knowledge whatsoever of history. None. First, anyone with half a brain knows that when Hitler came into power among the first things he did was to have his government take over the automobile industry and the healthcare industry. Further, he almost immediately removed the right for common citizens to own firearms. Now, just WHAT does that sound like? Or whom?

Professional moron Bill Maher once defined fascism as the corporate control of government. It is exactly the opposite. But then I’m not a traitor to my own ethnicity.

Now, second, Newt Gingrich needs to go away. He may be correct in many things in which he believes, but he is a singularly unappealing person. He is a poor public speaker, he had an extramarital affair (which the career hypocrites in the media will exploit, unless you’re a Clinton) and he has absolutely no physical presence at all. None. In fact, I would go so far as to say Gingrich is less presidential material than the fruitcake who’s in office now.

Third, John Boehner. And we know he will do it. My logic on this is very simple. Looking at his last name, there simply is no other way to pronounce it. It can be repeated correctly over and over again, but the leftist name-callers (which is all a liberal can do, because they can’t possibly defend what they think they believe) will pound their cultists over the head with the obvious phonetic pronunciation. Shallow? Maybe. But mark my words, this is what will happen when, not if, Boehner decides to run. Just wait for it.

Now even writing about the above will make many brand me as a conservative. I am an Independent. This means – oh my God – I actually think for myself. And as an Independent I am one of those to whom the likes of Limbaugh and his lapdog Hannity wish to commit political genocide. Let me be clear about one thing: if you adhere completely to a party platform, without exception, you are a ROBOT. Period.

It was the Republicans that blew the 2008 election. Conservative receptacles like American Thinker and the Limbaugh/Hannity circus did nothing – nothing – but criticize Obama. When you’re preaching to the choir you need to freakin’ shut up if you are saying things they already know. Nearly nothing was done to support McCain. Why? Because he wasn’t the cookie cutter conservative.

Are you happy now? Boy, things worked out famously, didn’t they? But there will be some mouthpiece who will say “Well, it solidified the Conservative Movement.”

At what cost? Countless trillions of dollars in debt, 34 warships accompanying Obama to India (for absolutely no reason) and inarguably the worst Congress in American history.

Do I have a suggestion for who should run in 2012? Frankly, I don’t have a spare rat’s backside to give about that. Even with all of the above being said, a national election is ultimately meaningless. If you are for sale, you’re a whore. If you’re seeking power in government, you have no conscience. If you are both, you are either in Congress or the White House.

But I will say that the Tea Party Movement is probably the only genuine grass-roots movement that is not destructive in the history of this country. Well done.

So, as unsolicited advice I will say this: if the so-called Conservative Movement wants to put their money where their mouth is, they need to get rid of their problems concerning social issues and jettison the religious right. And that is somewhat painful for me to say because I am a profound believer in God. Those who proclaim they believe in limited government (no such thing) have to come to the realization that they are the representatives of all of the people, not just the ones they would invite to Thanksgiving Dinner.

Yes, that’s the inherent bitch of it all. But being unwilling to read the writing on the wall will make whatever Conservative Movement into, um, another kind of “movement” altogether.

And make no mistake. To be voluntarily ignorant is the abuse of intelligence and the utter rape of reality.

Copyright 2010 by Andrew T. Durham

Ya Say You Want A Revolution? Well, Ya Know....

2010-10-29T18:39:00.000-04:00

Why are you really surprised about the rampant voter fraud that is occurring at present? I rarely believe even a genuine “gasp”, but you have to be profoundly mentally disturbed to not see the trend that has developed.

Allow me to back up a bit with some background that you will, no doubt, care not one wit about.

My mother and father were born on the same day, the same month, the same year, in the same hospital and were in the same nursery together. Oh, and their mothers were in the same room together. My mother – a powerful woman by anyone’s estimation – became the Commissioner of the Board of Elections with nothing more than a high school diploma and a deep fear of learning how to drive a car. And she never did. I should have learned as such.

With that as our benchmark, let me take you back several years to when our government was mandating that all states and municipalities were to convert to mechanical voting, via computer. Now, if you recall, our government hired numerous computer hackers to try and defeat the computer voting systems, among them Diebold. They were able to. This, ostensibly was done to “make sure we can fend off any outside attack on our systems.”

Bull crap.

They did that so they knew damn well how to influence your pretend vote. Just look at the people who went to vote and were automatically siphoned into voting for the stupid chimp Harry Reid.

Now do you really think this is an accident? In my last article I wrote about the Bilderberg Group and the Powers That Be that really control this world. The thing is they are getting SLOPPY and overt. That’s because we don’t have men driving pickup trucks with shot guns in the back window anymore. No, they have squirt guns. Pink ones.

Near the end of her life, my mother was losing her mind. But one day, when this entire computer voting crap was becoming law, she said to me this: “Andy, you have no idea where this is going.” This comes from the woman who told me about politicians: “Don’t become one, don’t make friends with one and don’t hang around them. It rubs off.”

Now, when I talk this stuff my readers will ask “Well, what is the answer?” Actually, this time I do have an answer. But it has to be cryptic. So pay attention.

What we need to do is take a scientific survey of how the military men and women vote. Not in specific, not on an individual level, to be sure. But trends. I am particularly interested in where our Marines vote, politically speaking. So the inherent truth here is this: our military men and women have a special place in our hearts and society. Not much can be done without them.

Now, you just follow the logic here and you know where I’m going. Have a great day.

Copyright 2010 by Andrew T. Durham

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Redux)

2010-09-10T22:45:00.000-04:00

I’ve grown more than a little tired over the past months with the talk about (rather, the fear of) socialism. Talk radio is replete with references to socialism virtually every 30 seconds, especially as it relates to President Barack Obama. First I am certainly no supporter of Obama. I want nothing more than to see him gone in 2012. And while I understand, to an extent, this neurosis, it ignores certain realities that, sooner or later, this nation has to face.

Without further preamble, we live in country of 300 million people. There is massive poverty and the economic difference between “classes” has never been larger. We are in a buildup to very large problems with a very large population, if we’re not already there. So this begs the question: when are we going to get serious about taking care of the people in this country? Also, when are we going to get serious about taking care of the critical problems in this country? Do we simply relegate people who can’t afford healthcare to die? Do we simply let the government take over businesses that can’t survive because of their unrealistic and atrocious projections of profit? Ever wonder what role healthcare plays in the bankruptcy of some of these major companies, namely the auto industry?

Lots of questions. Anyone got the answers? Apparently not. But lots of delusional ideology, especially on talk radio, substituting for action.

You see, it is very easy for someone making tens of millions of dollars a year to talk about capitalism and “picking yourself up by your bootstraps.” I swear if I hear the phrase “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” one more time I will strangle the person with said bootstraps. It’s easy for the rich to talk about individual empowerment when they haven’t had to work a day in their life. It’s additionally easy for wealthy blowhards to talk about “making the able-bodied on welfare get a job”, despite the fact that there are no freakin' jobs!

Ronald Reagan said “If not now, when?” Funny how Conservatives forget that. It’s easy to say that the United States is the land of opportunity when you have your own jet. But this denies the stark fact that there is virtually no opportunity today for the struggling. Everyone has different talents and abilities. Some people can’t get above the struggle. So do we leave them to perish?

There is going to come a time, not too long from now, when we’re going to have to come to the realization that, no, the individual simply cannot afford their own healthcare in most cases. There is going to come a time when we’re going to have to realize that these major financial institutions and businesses that are currently in bailout had their shot and screwed it up. In some cases, like the auto industry, they allowed themselves to be intimidated by the unions. And now they’re in the toilet. It is at the same time humorous and terrifying that Conservative loudmouths (rich men, all) say, “We should just let them fail”. That’s an easy thing to propose when you have no boss, no one to answer to. Gone from this rhetoric is the simple recognition of the consequences of such an idea: massive unemployment and a further burden on a healthcare system that is supposedly most effectively conducted by catering to only those who can afford it.

This “survival of the fittest” crap is lame and it needs to go away. It’s too late, folks. It’s too late. This country has become too big and there’s no going back.
So I go back to the original question: when do we get serious about these problems and slough off the idealistic garbage of what ought to be as opposed to what needs to be? We do not have the luxury in this period in history to opt for what we want as opposed to what we need. Those days are gone. We are dealing with human life. We have let it go for too long, doling out money to other countries, giving “humanitarian aid” to impoverished nations (and giving weapons to dictators and terrorists) yet ignoring the very same conditions in our own back yard….or front yard.

But there is an underlying purpose to this paradox. The only way to control a large population is to maintain a state of conflict among the various groups within. The major media has been hard at work on this, especially during elections, by constantly bringing up the issue of race when no one else had. Look at what the propagandists that pass for journalists have done with President Obama in the White House. They won’t be able to race-bait the nation anymore, not without being branded as racists, which they are. It will be a frustrating time.

What does this have to do with what I’ve been talking about? Everything. The healthcare situation, the economic situation, and the manufactured oil “crisis” are blatant examples of a holding action. You control people by manipulating the major facets of their lives: health, finance/employment and energy. And the winds of rumor are hinting at yet another area of control in the near future: food.

I am sick and tired of people quoting John Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” No. It’s time that we demand that our country address the problems it helped create by virtue of its bloated affluence and neglect of its own population. And close the damned borders, for God’s sake. It is time to take care of our own, whether you like it or not. It’s easy to condemn those less fortunate than you when you have money in the bank and a job to go to.

I’m not suggesting we give something for nothing to anyone. What I am suggesting is that it is time to get serious about what exactly we intend to do for our own. We are heading into a period of what I can only call a “circle the wagons” time. Not to be “gloom and doom” but the die have been cast and there is no instant replay. And while government is not the entire answer, to be sure, it is also important to send the message to the public that we need to do some rather intense soul-searching about where we are, how we got here and what we are doing…and what we are going to do about it.

Often when I write about topics like this, where I ask a lot of questions, some linear thinking whiner will write to me saying, “Well, you didn’t offer any answers!”. Of course I didn’t. I am raising questions that need to be meditated upon and talked about with those close to us. There can be no answers if you are not in a position to implement them. Vigilance is the only answer for now.

But to deny any longer that we are past the point of no return will be become a terminal event.

It’s time to you know what or get off the pot.

Copyright 2010 by Andrew T. Durham

The Writing On The Wall

2010-08-31T11:27:00.000-04:00

I really can’t take this anymore. This is Monday, August 30. I’ve listened all day to every talk show host talk about the Glenn Beck religion rally. Yet to this day none of these blowhards will mention the major travesty committed against Michael Savage by Britain. [Notice I didn’t use the term Great Britain]

With the two year abomination of Savage being banned from entering Britain, a complete affront to free speech, these multi-millionaire talk show hosts can’t even mention this. Hypocrisy is amusing only to a point. But then it borders on propagandizing the American public, which is illegal.

This is because they are bought and sold by the Republican Party. They claim to be merely Conservatives, but they are nothing more than whores for the GOP.

The mere fact that those who pretend to uphold the Constitution are, by childish high school behavior, unwilling to even speak about an atrocity committed against one of their own makes me physically ill.

It’s like the Stepford Wives. But fat.

I am very truly ashamed of so-called Conservative talk radio. And there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t thank God I registered “No Party”.

In closing, let me mention one thing: When I was interviewed on the Savage Nation I was asked what people can do to change what’s happening to this country. I was at a loss. But after long consideration, I arrived at the conclusion that if people really want change they have to vote locally and keep on top of their representatives. If you think for one minute you have any influence on a Presidential election, you need your head examined. It’s all a lie. Do you think for one moment that people who gain power are going to give it up to the unwashed every 4 years?

Forget it. Love yourself, your family, your neighborhood and your city or town.

Some used to say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Cute. But the truth is this: If you’re for sale, you’re a whore. If you want to gain power in this world, you have no conscience. If you are both, you’re either in the White House or Congress.

If you don’t get that, God help you.

Copyright 2010 by Andrew T. Durham

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Entertainment Mysteries: TV, Tiger Woods, and Nobody Cares

2010-02-26T11:30:00.000-05:00

There are things I don't get with what is supposed to be "good". More importantly, there are things people should not give a damn about, yet we are supposed to. I beg to differ.

While I’m aware that the term “Hollywood mentality” is somewhat of an oxymoron, I continue to be amazed at what passes for “hits” currently – or, indeed, at any time – on television. Personally, I watch television shows online so I can prevent myself from being brainwashed by Madison Avenue every fifteen minutes with vacuous, nonsensical commercials. Hell, you can’t even go to the cinema anymore without commercials. Anyway, I am perpetually baffled by what is considered “funny”, or what is considered “a hit”. It raises more questions for me on the state of mind of the public, making the monastery more and more appealing as the years roll by.

So let’s start with the obvious: The Office and Scrubs. These two absolutely horrible shows are considered funny. In fact, one episode of Family Guy out-laughs an entire season of both of these shows combined. Why these are hits mystifies me. They’re awful. I get more genuine belly laughs out of incidental humor in episodes of House, White Collar, Burn Notice or Leverage than any time frame from The Office or Scrubs. These are terrible programs. Yet, they continue.

Moving on, I pride myself on the fact that I have seen exactly one episode of American Idol. As a musician, singer and actor I find it offensive that people with absolutely no talent whatsoever are judging people with talent. Simon Cowell needs to go away. He’s nobody. Just another snotty European who, like the rest of Europe, hasn’t contributed anything to culture for at least a century. The Beatles are the notable exception. And that’s it.

So-called “reality shows” are disgusting, and again I’m proud to say I’ve never seen one episode of any reality show simply because – based on commercials alone – they’re idiotic. Talk about being out of touch with reality. I’m actually embarrassed for the American public.

Thank God for cable and other networks. Were it not for TNT,USA and Fox, I wouldn’t have the pure joy of shows like House, White Collar, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, The Closer and Leverage. Original, witty and non-formula programs that are just plain fun.

What passes for a hit has always baffled me. I basically gave up after Just Shoot Me had more than 13 episodes. The truly hideous has become the norm, ushered in by the profoundly awful Married With Children. Fortunately some good has hung on over the years, and I guess that survives. One would hope. But it echoes the advent of disco in the 70’s which conjured such fear in me in my young years, thinking that music was dead. Still, the voices of real music call from the past, surviving the vacuum of mindless disco. Perhaps this will be the case with the television programs of quality. Star Trek, for instance, was a 3 year failure, yet has become the largest franchise in all media – bolstered by a fantastic movie this past year – and still going strong after over 45 years. Go figure.

The vast recycling bin that Hollywood has become is no longer cute. The novelty has worn off. But it won’t change.

It has gotten better, though, I have to admit. Just.

Let me, just for a moment, touch on the Tiger Woods thing. I was going to write an entire article on it, but I don’t care enough. Seeing as all sports are entertainment, this qualifies as one of the mysteries I described. Tiger Woods should not apologize to anyone other than his wife. The only thing Tiger Woods is guilty of is playing golf, for which capital punishment should apply. He plays a dull, pointless activity that takes up too much real estate in this country and that’s the only thing he’s guilty of. Neither he nor any other “sports figure” should be a role model. Parents – two of them – should be role models. Odd how musicians and actors – people with real talent – aren’t considered role models. They end up in rehab or worse. Yet we’re so eager to pawn off the role model moniker on stupid sports dolts. Makes no sense to me, and never has.

The fact that Tiger Woods apologized publicly is a disgrace, not what he did. That’s between him and his wife. Period. The fact that people feel they can comment on it in public, while not looking at themselves, is astonishingly shallow.

And, let me tell you, the fact that I spent time defending someone that plays golf is more disgusting to me than anything I’ve ever done in my life. Anything.

What I’m getting at is that we are supposed to understand as fact that bad TV, or bad film, or bad entertainment is supposed to be good. This is why, for example, a bunch of coke-heads thought John Waters was a genius, when he was just plain BAD.

I haven’t watched the Oscars since the early 80’s. I have no intention to watch film that no one has ever seen get rewarded for extreme mediocrity. When I worked in Albany, NY, I had a boss who was a crystal meth addict, and he would always say “Perception is reality.” No. Reality is reality. And if bad is a substitute for good, then nothing is right.

Everything has the potential to be meaningless.

Apparently we have achieved this.

Andrew T. Durham

So You Say You Want A Revolution

2010-01-19T21:51:00.000-05:00

I try – I really do – to not get into the New Year retrospective frame of mind around this time of year. Usually it’s terminally infected with opinions of meaningless things, or major events tainted with spin. I generally despise anyone who writes about “The Best of..” or “The Worst of…” virtually anything. In most cases they are people completely out of touch, and writing about things no one has ever heard of, just to be trendy.

That being said, I cannot resist the elephant in the living room of 2009. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I think hypocrisy is one of the joys of observing the world. It’s like a previously unknown flower that blooms before your eyes, causing a near fatal allergic reaction. But as cynical (realistic) as I am about human society in general, I marvel to this very moment at the wholesale refusal on the part of the American so-called “Conservative underground” to acknowledge the gigantic travesty hoisted upon Independent radio talk show host Dr. Michael Savage.

For those of you victims of the propagandizing of the media – both Conservative and government-owned – Michael Savage, host of the 3^rd largest radio talk show in the nation “The Savage Nation”, was banned from entering Britain. Why? Because they felt he incited violence. Anyone with the simple gift of sight knows that’s nowhere near the truth, and anyone who has listened to him knows that it’s worse than untrue.

Now, before I go on, let me clarify something I said above. Propaganda is not always aggressive. Just as effective is the practice of not mentioning something. This, then, has been the modus operandi of the American so-called media toward Savage. This is a conscious, obvious effort to promote ignoring someone. Those who know what I mean by “sympathetic contempt” should have the hairs on the back of their neck sticking up. Yet the silence from Conservative “colleagues” is deafening.

Day in an day out we hear the railings of Conservative talk shows bemoaning the death of the Constitution, free speech and such. They howl against Obama and the perceived ruination of this country. Yet, they knowingly ignore, right before their eyes, the blatant and outrageous discrimination against Michael Savage: the denial of free travel to one of our biggest allies based on absolute lies. Then, lo and behold, we find out through the release of emails through British government, that Savage was put on the banned list because he was white and they wanted to balance out the list, ethnically speaking.

The deprivation of free speech is, to me, the single most vital concern today. As a writer, I confess I am anxious to write what I think for fear the thugs that run the US today will put an end to it. Or me.

The single most disgusting thing about Savage’s dilemma is that these uneducated blowhards of talk radio, who have every truck driver’s attention, will not recognize the ultimate symbol for what they are fighting to retain. This smacks of high school popular kids thinking.

Is there no one who doesn’t see how pathetic this is?

I have moments of what I can only describe as despair, thinking that the utterly blatant displays of hypocrisy on the part of the media, let alone our worst Congress in history, are just being eaten up without the beat of an eyelash.

But then I think about what really is going on here. I mean, if you strip the emotion from it, the intellectual investment in what is going on, you understand the pattern that is happening.

I have the good fortune of being a true Independent. I love it when someone tells me “I’m a registered Independent”. No, you’re not. You can’t register as Independent. You can register with the Independence Party. To be an Independent, you register as NO PARTY.

Anyway, the pattern that is going on is this: The Conservative media were deeply complicit in the election of Obama. This ensured ratings. Limbaugh and his lapdog Hannity would have nothing to do were it not for Obama. That’s why they spent the entire election year talking about him, preaching to the choir. The bitch is that there is no one to run in 2012. And PLEASE do not talk to me about the Pawlenty nobody.

Dr. Michael Savage sees himself as an Independent. Limbaugh and Hannity have both declared the intent of political genocide on Independents and moderates. In other words, they have declared war on free thinking people. What does that sound like to you?

Folks, the only way out of this mess we’re in is free thinking people, not Democrats or Republicans. That’s over.

Do this: Walk into the bathroom and splash some cold water on your face and ask yourself – to your own face – where the hell did that get us?

You know what comes next.

John Smith meets Matt Smith: Doctor Who Comes of Age

2010-01-02T20:07:00.000-05:00

just saw the second half of The End of Time, which marks the end of the David Tennant era of the famous British science fiction show Doctor Who. It goes without saying that I saw the first half last week.

I’m not going to do a synopsis. If you want to see it, see it. I have, however, had to endure some puerile pseudo-reviews from fanboys, but I disregard them automatically. Children should be seen, and not heard.

That being said, as a fan of Doctor Who for 35 years, I must say I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was pompous, yes, but that is Russell T. Davies and his romantic crush on David Tennant. While I loved David Tennant’s Doctor, it became too Messianic for my tastes and this goodbye was too drawn out. It was a great story, though, with TONS of depth; more so than any other Doctor Who episode in its history. There was true tragedy and sadness in the character of the Doctor, and the character portrayals throughout the two-parter were classic.

What I do want to remark on is Matt Smith’s few moments as the doctor at the end. I adored those moments. When I first saw Smith’s first interviews after getting the part, I knew he would make a great Doctor. I was right. I especially, as a musician, loved the music that accompanied his arrival as the new Doctor. The departure mechanism was truly artfully executed. Bravo to all involved with keeping this wonderful series alive.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant execution. Wonderful transition! I watched it 15 times. The best EVER.

I probably should apologize for the brevity of this review, but I won’t. Too many reviews are mired in the ego of the reviewer. One has but to read anything by Harry Knowles to become nauseated. On a very intuitive and even nostalgic level this Doctor Who special resonated with me, and I so look forward to Matt Smith for years to come.

Cheers, Matt.

Tired is No Longer a Physical or Mental State: It Is A Religion

2009-10-30T00:35:00.000-04:00

Tired is no longer a physical or mental state. It is a religion. Being weary doesn’t come from merely physical labor or the mental work of balancing a checkbook…or deciding who lives or dies.

Tired is a silent surrender, the tender whisper of the Cosmos telling you that enough is enough; what’s done is done.

The religion of Tired does not believe that the world, as we were sold it, is manageable…like syphilis. In truth, it is controlled by old blood and old money. And all of the bookkeeping, explaining the endless numerical calculations that result in the expenditure of Giving a Damn, and the conceit that you can do something about the state of things, means absolutely nothing...but the lie of power; something a bullet could take away.

Give some thought, for a moment, the concept of Smoke and Mirrors. And, similarly, think about those who need the concept for any reason.

Wonder, for just an afternoon, who really cares about the state of their world beyond going to work and providing for their families. They can hold up as many signs as they want, and hang out at as many rallies as they wish, but the truth is they need to go home, get up, and provide for their puppies.

This, then, is the way the Elite see us, the Tired. Allow me to spell it out:
The Tired believe that:

•Anyone who achieves or seeks power in this world has no conscience.

•No form of existing mind games (read: processes) will accomplish anything but regulated control of what the masses are doing.

•That the media, entertainment and information venues that are currently branded as “legitimate” are controlled by a small minority with agendas that are, for lack of a better term, interesting.

•Interesting is the base word for a famous Chinese proverb, in which we are living, and, amazingly enough, heralds the fact that the Chinese will control the world economy, if not more.

•Absolutely no one will do anything about this. No matter how many pick-up trucks you own, you won’t do anything. But it’s fun to bitch, ain’t it?

•Maybe the Chinese should control the world economy, because we have done nothing but been laid back as we screw everyone in our path. And we leave it to CNN, MSNBC and the major news media to tell us what we think. And they go home with multi-million dollar salaries, yet rail against capitalism. Much like Michael Moore.

•That we were meant to live in a world of honor, not being the sheep pen for the rich and the privileged nutjobs that really elect our presidents.

•That only REAL and TRUE change will come with pitchforks and torches, not the freakin' electronic voting booth controlled from Washington.

But, no one really cares. People love to be offended because they don’t really have to do anything about it. They can just bitch. Glenn Beck is a moron, Rush Limbaugh is a moron, and especially the ultimately uneducated Sean Hannity is a moron. You get ratings. You got this government elected just for your ratings. Drop your multi-million dollar salaries and DO something. But you won’t. You are the Jeremiah Wrights of the so called “Right”. You don’t really believe. But you’ll do anything to keep the cash rolling in. All this as you stab in the back people in your field that are actually fighting for principles, like Michael Savage in his battle with being banned from Britain. But because these “Special Education” boys don’t like an educated outsider, they ignore the reality of the principle: Freedom of Speech, the very corner stone of civilization.

But we are, on all fronts, the voluntary victims of liars.

You are liars. And you are nothing but puppets of The Way It’s Supposed To Be. At least take us out to dinner before your screw us?

Coprighted 2009 by Andrew T. Durham

Royal Pains: A TV Show Completely Without Pain

2009-08-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

I have to admit I expected to hate this show. I really did. And I rarely establish expectations about anything coming out of Hollywood. I thought the commercials for the opening were vacuous, but then look who we’re dealing with: Hollywood inbreeds. Originality is a pestilence to be wiped out; remake is the order of the day. I mean, this is the town where if you don’t have “The Rise of..” in your title, you’re out of step.

But, make no mistake; I watched the opening show out of boredom, and online. I had nothing else to do.

I was captivated.

Mark Feuerstein’s quiet intensity is mesmerizing as Hank Lawson, the doctor fired for saving the life of a street kid and, consequently, taking attention from a dying contributor to the hospital. He is the rock of the show and is entirely believable. He wears his conscience on his sleeve and makes no apologies for it. He almost makes you believe there are actual people like that in the world.

Almost.

Paolo Costanzo is magnetic and fantastic as the CPA brother, Evan Lawson. Now, this could have been a part played so irritatingly that one would contemplate purchasing a firearm. The restraint Costanzo shows in this role is nothing less than astounding, because this role could have just been so abrasive as to cause a change of channel. And, let’s face it, he’s just plain funny. His scenes with kids, particularly in the “No Man is an Island” episode, are touching, yet not so much as to be saccharin.

The supporting cast are first rate for a show that could have been done completely wrong. The guest stars are appropriately eccentric – I am particularly fond of the episodes featuring the character Tucker Bryant. I say this because I used to work with the kids of the wealthy in a profoundly warped school district in Brighton, which is a suburb of Rochester, NY. As a counselor, I was told unequivocally that the teachers didn’t care about the kids’ issues, only their grades. Yet, I experienced a talented young man whose mother was going to send him to a group home because she was working on her law degree and didn’t like the way he dressed. One day, a young boy walked into school and dropped dead of an aneurism. I am particularly touched by the story of two students – boyfriend and girlfriend – who were on the railroad tracks. Her foot got stuck in the tracks as a train was coming. The boy tried to free her, and stayed with her, trying to free her as they were both killed by the train.

I wonder how their grades were.

On a number of levels this show resonates with me. Ignore the puerile, vacant review of this show that appears on IMDB.com. Watch this show. Get into the characters. And rejoice in the fact that there can be a television show in this day and age that does not foretell doom, burdened with the existential angst of a life that is meaningless. This show is destined to be a classic.

The Snapping Turtle Syndrome: Toxic People

2009-08-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

From the time we are all tiny, by anyone's standards, we are told that we should obey the Golden Rule, that we are to treat others as we expect to be treated. But recently I have been thinking: What if I hate myself and want to die? How would I treat others in that event? The knee-jerk response is that we would be cruel to others or try to physically harm them. That makes sense. But, unfortunately, people do not always make sense. And the way someone would treat another with that self-world can be remarkably different, seemingly quite the opposite, yet with the same result.

The extreme of these people are stalkers. But that's too easy. Like a cancer, people often possess the subtlety of the briefest whiff of perfume left upon a pillow. You may have found yourself saying about a person “He is an effort to be around”, or maybe, “She literally soaks the life out of me whenever she is in my life”. This is not a poetic thing we say. There is, after all, such a thing as a psychic vampire. And before you go thinking this is some stupid, Goth, black-lipsticked fantasy film thing, it is a name for this type of person. The analogy is too apt to be merely dismissed.

Toxic people such as described above will often deeply care - as they see it - for another, often quite sincerely. Are you aware of the habits of the alligator snapping turtle? The alligator snapping turtle is a craggy looking thing, sitting at the bottom of a pond or lake. For all intents and purposes it looks like an outcropping of rock. Here, the creature opens its mouth, revealing a small tongue that looks just like a worm struggling in the current. A fish sees this and, thinking it sees what it wants, what it needs the most, will enter the mouth to catch the worm...only to have those powerful jaws snap shut, killing the fish. This, then, is what toxic people do to their prey. And that's what we are to them, make no mistake. We are prey. Sometimes it is intentional, but more often it is just what the poison spirit of the person does. That's not an excuse. It's just the way it is.

In my professional career I have witnessed myriads of these people, but my primary experience is from my personal life. Like a light bulb, toxic people need a socket to light themselves. I know there is a world of bad metaphors that can come from that. So before we go to the gutter, let me say this metaphor is present in much of spiritual thought as well, though not, perhaps as modernly expressed as a light bulb. In other words, there are people who are magnets for toxic people. I have often joked that my “little black book” was the DSM-IV, which is the diagnostic manual for mental disorders. It wasn’t far from the truth. Toxic people are masters of sensing vulnerabilities. It is truly an intuitive marvel.

For instance, in the field of addiction, there are people who are in relationships with addicts who will sabotage a person’s chemical dependency recovery, not necessarily intentionally, so that they can have more control over the addict again. This is not mere “enabling”, which is the popular psychobabble for that. Nor is it the simple codependent, which is the much over-used catch phrase of the 20th century. Codependents are merely victims, not predators. These people want you the way you were, so they can “help” you, so they can feed their need to – and this is key – make you pay for whatever injustice or atrocity happened to them in their own past. Again, this is most often entirely subconscious on their part.

I am not at all concerned what the diagnostic classification of toxic people may be. I am only concerned about them experientially. People such as these will show up in your life when you are finally succeeding. They will show up when you are at your lowest – as if by some magical intuition – and offer the highest of help. You will then be yanked into their familiar pattern…you know, the pattern that drove you to the very convenience store on the brink of insanity the last time.

And because this is a person you are dealing with, you can’t just call the exterminator. But we must understand one major component of all of this: toxic individuals do not enter the lives of the spiritually fit. Let me say that again, because I find that mildly important: The toxic person does not enter the life of the spiritually fit person. So, therefore, that is how one rids one’s self of such a person.

The person in your life must go. NOW. No “weaning” them off. There is no “patch” for this situation. I have no sympathy for smokers whatsoever. You cut it off cold turkey or quit bitching and whining. Why don’t they give alcoholics “beer patches” in rehab? They give every other idiot a nicotine patch in rehab centers. Which is more vital: the risk of the deadly possibility of withdrawal or the mere inconvenience of not being able to stick a phallic symbol in your mouth, like the pacifier you had when you were 2? And, as there is no alcohol “patch”, nicotine patches should be completely abolished. Give it up now, work on it yourself and keep your mouth shut.

Beginning with cutting all ties with this person immediately and irrevocably, you must then embark on a path of spiritual fitness. And, I would argue, one cannot have spiritual fitness without physical and mental fitness. By that I do not mean becoming buff or seeing a therapist. What I am saying is that it requires a commitment to develop what I call “soul currency”, meaning something you actually have to offer others and the world that is both credible and enduring. This can begin by simply doing this to feel better and gain more energy. And, yes, the issues of diet, exercise and all that happy horse crap are essential. If you do not provide the signals the psycho-plane can’t land. Self-sufficiency is the order of the day, or, as I prefer to call it: Self-fullness as opposed to selfishness.

The difficulty in this is that we are in a nation of selfish people. Yet, ironically, they all want to look the same, dress the same and act the same. Right now, at this very point in history, we are in a toxic society. There is no respect, there is no civility and there is no honor. There is absolutely no pride in work. And you have to “Press 1 for Sane”.

We are all embarking on a moment in history when things are going to become very difficult indeed. This will not get better. The importance of “circling the wagons” and creating the very artwork of our souls has never been more urgent. Notice that I gave no specific remedies here. This is because every person’s idea of spiritual fitness and such belongs to them. We are born by ourselves and will die by ourselves. We – our own individual bodies and souls - are the first and only family we will ever have. It falls upon every one of us to love ourselves, make it whole and then share that with others, not in reverse.

A line from the movie “Arthur”, starring Dudley Moore and Sir John Geilgud has haunted me all my life. As Geilgud’s character was dying, he told Moore’s character, “You can do anything with your life that you want to.” This was no greeting card whimsy. It is an absolute truth. And a frightening one.

As I see it, there are two kinds of hell in this world: No options or too many. It is, then, our life’s work to find the balance in ourselves and in our choices. And it’s not an easy thing. It requires a delicate intuition.

It is like looking at the stars on a clear night: sometimes there is a star that you cannot see when looking at it straight on. But if you relax and don’t look directly at it, then you can actually see it. We fool ourselves in a cruel way when we believe we can control our lives and start this engine with our very will.When all we really need to do is master the art of awareness; being open to the very opportunities and people that God sends us, why do we waste our soul energy on the poison in our lives when there are stars waiting to be seen?

Copyright by Andrew T. Durham, 2009

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek

2009-07-17T14:07:00.000-04:00

I have waited to write this after the hoopla of the opening of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, because it would just get lost in the frenzy. I absolutely loved this movie and, as a Star Trek fan for over 35 years I can honestly say this: aside from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, this is the only real Star Trek film made. The Wrath of Khan began the dumbing down of Star Trek for shallow people.

Before Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry died, he said that he wished that someone would take up the story (I refuse to use the word franchise). J.J. Abrams has shown his genius with Lost and Fringe, probably two of the best television shows of all time. The casting for the new Star Trek could not have been better. Karl Urban in particular was a joy to watch. I just wish Simon Pegg had more screen time.

It’s time that this concept of Star Trek to do what it was meant to do: smart, thought provoking and fun entertainment.

Like I said, I have been a Star Trek fan for over 35 years. This is the absolute best I have seen. Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine and the rest have supplanted my original visions of the crew. They were all that good.

That being said, I didn’t intend for this to be a review. I have been reading a lot about the sequel being planned. I have strong feelings about this. I have a couple things to actually beg the script writers NOT to do:

No Klingons. No Khan. No more crossovers. And PLEASE, no Shatner.

Copyright 2009 by Andrew T. Durham

And Then...Nothing Happened

2009-06-18T15:54:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of railing against the current administration going on, primarily from the direction of Conservative talk radio and other right-wing pundits. You can hear it daily with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. All day long you can hear the frenzied alarms and the pleas for action. Glenn Beck, in particular, has a trademark phrase, saying that people should “stand up” and take on the perceived attack on our nation from our government. It all sounds very passionate, but what I can guarantee you is this: absolutely no one will do anything about it.

These calls to action from the high-school educated radio talkers are the stuff of so-so rhetoric. The problem is that there is no one in this country who will do anything about their outrage. Anyone can utter as many “stand up and fight” or “take our country back” slogans as he wants, but all anyone will do is get pissed off. After all, it makes for great ratings. That’s why Conservative talk radio, and Conservative media as a whole, did their best to get Barack Obama elected. How? All they did was talk about Obama, preaching to their audience choir everyday, assuring the victory for Obama.

Personally, I don’t care either way. There’s nothing that can be done, especially when one reaches the realization that the electoral process is a joke and doesn’t exist anymore, if it ever did. Just like the two party system, there is nothing even remotely real in it anymore.
But that’s not the point. The point is that there is no one who will dare take any action other than pathetic Tea Parties that are no more than Tupperware Parties for the infuriated. I mean, Im' not suggesting anything drastic or revolutionary. I don't care enough. But if you're going to incite people, there must be some kind of concrete suggestion for relief. But no. Everyone loves being offended or beside themselves because they don’t actually have to do anything about it.
Even if there were actions to be taken, what would they be? Please don’t tell me, “The voting booth.” That’s a joke with no punch line. People won’t even get out to do that. Folks like being angry because it gives them a cause. Once the cause is resolved, there’s nothing left. Then life has no meaning.

And there is no excitement in satisfaction.

So what is the answer? There isn’t one, and nobody wants one. Righteous indignation looks good with any color.

Eminem is Back: It's Been So Empty Without You

2009-04-07T21:10:00.000-04:00

Eminem is back. And not a moment too soon. After I viewed his new video “We Made You” yesterday, I felt the stale air drain from the industry. As a musician, I have always liked Eminem because he actually uses MUSIC in his rap recordings. His sense of humor and irony, along with what appears to be a keen sense of what I can only describe as “disdain for trend whores”, makes his music actual music. There are statements that are overt and not couched in false poeticism, much like John Lennon’s early solo career.

I’ve played in rock bands most of my life, and I had grown to despise rap, as most sane people do. But Eminem changed that because of his uncanny ability to both elevate the medium and use it to parody itself at the same time. This is not easy, and something that is not done by anyone current. The Pet Shop Boys made a career out of such self-parody, but became stale. Someone once described Eminem as “hearing symphonies in his head.” I’m inclined to believe that.

No, I haven’t heard the entirety of his new record, but I intend to. If “We Made You” is any indication, it will be a treat.

Eminem is one of those rare personalities that I would love to sit down and talk to. I think the image he portrays is counter to what is going inside that bleach-blond head. That kind of quirkiness and what I’d call a sadistic passion for sarcasm can only come from something other than having had a tough life and killing people on the street. Some things come from genuine introspection and (dare I say) depth. Both of these are missing from the “life sucks” music of today, or the vacuous sex ballads by your generic female artist of the day.

Sometimes it is necessary to reach into inner space to escape the two-dimensional trash that assaults us from Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, MTV or the mind-numbing garbage of American Idol (the untalented judging the talented. Imagine that.).
And, yes, sometimes it is necessary to bludgeon someone with a point instead of trying to slip it in through subconscious manipulation. No change of mind, no revolution, no spark of change ever started with a mere suggestion.

Eminem’s great song “Without Me” contains the line: “Feels so empty without me”. Yeah, it has felt that way.

Welcome back, Marshall.

Matt Smith: Eleventh Doctor in the Eleventh Hour

2009-03-02T21:58:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I have never seen any of Matt Smith’s acting. But when I saw the video interview with him when they announced he was to be the next Doctor Who, I was immediately sold. For those of you who don’t know – and if you don’t, you’re probably not reading this – Doctor Who is a British sci-fi series that has been going on since the early sixties. So far, 10 actors have played the part. You see, the Doctor is a time travelling alien, and when he’s near death he regenerates into a new body. This was an ingenious way for a new actor to take over the role when one tired of it, or was fired.

Therefore, the Doctor has had many personalities, my favorite being Peter Davison. I was first introduced to the series here in the US in the mid 70’s. I was about 9 years old, and I had a fever of 102 and was watching Public Television on a Saturday. I was watching Tom Baker as the Doctor – the most recognizable by many as Doctor Who – and the confusion and cheesiness of the show was adding to my delirium. I didn’t like it but after a while I couldn’t live without watching it.

When Peter Davison took over the role I was doubly interested because, at the time, I looked very much like him. In fact, at Halloween in 1988 I went as his Doctor in a costume that was meticulously tailored (at large expense) and it was EXACT. It was a fine moment for me.

I lost contact with the show since. I have been reading online a lot about the new series, but haven’t seen it, except for one small episode in which the current Doctor (David Tennant) meets one of his former selves (Peter Davison). This wonderful little vignette was oddly moving to me. It was so well done, and Tennant is the best Doctor I have seen since Davison. It was a very emotional experience for me.

When I heard they had picked a new Doctor, Matt Smith, I was relieved. My reason for my relief I will not expound upon other than to say I’m glad that casting people in the UK are much deeper than here in the US. I love them for not opting to turn the show on its ear or, worse, go politically correct. What I had been reading about speculation for future Doctors was making me nervous.

Anyway, I saw the little video interviewing Smith upon announcing his casting and I was, frankly, hooked again. Just watching this young man talk, his movements, his thankfully non-Hollywood appearance (oh, and the hair) was a spectacle to behold. I said – out loud actually – after watching the video, “You guys got it right!”

So I have a much renewed interest in the good old Doctor Who. I have no doubt whatsoever – none – that young Matt Smith will be a blessing to a show already blessed with long life. Amazing, amazing casting. Now I have to go rent something he’s been in.

Oh, and I think that at the end of every episode he should say, “Damn.” No reason. Just “Damn.”

So, as the Cloister Bell rings, I’m off.

(c) 2009 by Andrew T. Durham

The Eugenics War II: Blue Genes

2009-02-19T14:11:00.000-05:00

"Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see." - Lennon/McCartney

This last summer, scientists postulated that in the distant future (probably next Thursday) human beings will evolve into two basic types: tall, beautiful creatures and short, goblin-like creatures. This I don’t doubt. This is already happening. For any Star Trek fans out there, you must know that much of the technology in the original TV series is actually coming to pass, amazingly. But what if that’s not all? In the Star Trek “history”, Earth was to go through something called the Eugenics Wars in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. This was related to the creation of a super race (never happened before, right?) and the so called “perfection” of mankind.

I contend that we are currently dealing with a quite conscious effort to shape the “preferable” natural selection. Not by science, not by politics, but by the very vacuous, soulless and mind-numbingly stupid fields of fashion, advertising and entertainment. Look, for instance, at what passes for attractive today in the male category: cow eyed fembots who feign heterosexuality. Their perfectly symmetrical features, pouting lips and barely controlled lisp seem to be what we men are supposed to aspire to embody. I literally could not control my laughter during the presidential campaign when I saw an interview with Matt Damon whining about Sarah Palin. Damon lisped his way through the interview and his only concern was when Palin thought the dinosaurs existed! Now THERE is a role model. Another Hollywood Eisnstein.

Today, we are supposed to opt for the pretty, not the handsome. Any and all manner of manliness shrugged off, we are commanded to favor the sensitive, caring, ultimately ineffectual boyishness that borders on the female. And who is commanding this acceptance of this “super race” (or stupor race)? Why, it’s the cokehead gays, coupled with chain-smoking Europeans that control the fashion industry. Nothing like hedonistic sociopaths and people who don’t bathe on a regular basis dictating the shape of the human future.

So let’s ask ourselves some probing questions. What happened to the content of one’s character as currency in this culture? Look at the cultural icons of previous generations, and then compare those time periods to the cultural/ethical wasteland we have produced today in this rotting nation. Were did we go? Since when did the feminization of the American male equal the improvement of the male image in the arts? Heath Ledger died last year. He was probably talented, but would anyone care if he wasn’t pretty? What if he was 38 and not 28? And why did the vacuous dirtbags in the media have to mention that he was naked when they found him?

Why? Tell me why that’s significant. I dare you.

As teen suicide rises; as the continued pounding emphasis on physical perfection (as defined by drug addicts, perverts and neurotics who can’t deal with intimacy) pushes the timid to bulimia, anorexia and the like; as young people insist on self mutilation to rebel against this absurd pressure from soulless nobodies, our culture oozes towards its twilight. The words from Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” linger in my mind as I watch how the Madison Avenue brown-shirts tug on the intestines of our youth, nudging them ever so subtly to the brink of self hatred. And why? Because they aren’t emaciated. They don’t have eyes that match up exactly, symmetrically. They don’t have female facial features and a penis. They don’t have a drug/alcohol problem or pouting lips. And they might – just might – be interested in the opposite sex.

Those who demand perfection cannot deliver it themselves. Therein lies the problem. Did Joseph Mengele have blond hair and blue eyes when he was working on producing the master race? Did Hitler?

So we come to the eternal question. Not “What is the meaning of life?”. Not “Is there a God?”. But, “Who the hell are you to tell me what I should be and what I am worth?”.

Guess – just guess – who is the only one who can answer that question.

(c) 2009, by Andrew T. Durham

Political Correctness and the Eugenics War

2009-02-12T13:44:00.000-05:00

There are so many ways that we are being trained to lie to ourselves. Make no mistake, political correctness is the AIDS to our Constitution. In a world where the person who is offended by something is the one with power, you know something is wrong. Here’s the deal: if you are offended by something someone says, you need therapy. You don’t take away the speaker’s freedom of speech. Or, you get the backbone to confront this person. You don’t weasel around behind the scenes to hurt this individual. But with the advent of a new “Fairness Doctrine”, the vigilance of the thinking public needs to be jolted. Social discourse is about to be intercoursed by the worst Congress in American History. And this can’t be allowed to happen.

So I’ve compiled some of the more ridiculous things we say to lie to ourselves and others about what we really mean. Some of these things are just irritating, not necessarily politically correct, but the point is that everyone seems to want to pretend they’re living in an episode of The West Wing. I, unfortunately, have a lot of contact with local political officials and elected representatives, and it is absolutely pathetic to talk to these people. Two dimensional people should be food, not in positions of influence.

Let me begin with something that is best called a disclaimer. This is where someone begins a sentence with one thing, and then proceeds to make the first thing they said a lie. The perfect example is when someone starts by saying “With all due respect”. You know right away that what follows is going to be completely disrespectful. So why bother saying “with all due respect”? Does this somehow absolve the person for what they’re about to say? Could I cave in someone’s windshield with a baseball bat, and then say “Just kidding” and that would make it ok? Of course not. It is spineless, politically correct, softened language that takes the power of conviction out of what we say.

Often times someone will say “I don’t mean to be negative, but…”. You know, automatically, when there’s a “but” that it has just erased your disclaimer of not wanting to be negative. It’s like someone saying: “I don’t mean to be negative, but I hate your guts and I want to kill you and your whole family.” Why bother with the pretense? Because we want to take the passion out of our words, fearing we might offend some neurotic who shouldn’t be out in public in the first place. Crybabies rule this country. And people like us, who actually have convictions about real issues, are made to take a back seat to the spineless.

Sometimes, though, there are things that people say that are just useless. Catch phrases that become popular on TV or from your local yuppie lunatic are what I am talking about. I mean things like “Let’s think outside the box.” I had a boss who used to say that all the time. I used to think that it was just his crystal meth addiction that made him dim, but apparently it was really just him. I have nothing more to say about this phrase except this: Anyone who says “outside the box” needs to be put in one, preferably made of pine.

Similarly, the phrase “The reality is…” is a suspect way to begin saying anything. I find that most of the time someone who begins a sentence by saying “The reality is…” is about to demonstrate a total disconnect from it. Not only that, but when someone says that, they are implying that they know what the reality of something is, and you don’t. No one knows what “the reality is.” Not even the cult of science knows. So please keep your mouth shut if you have no idea what you are saying. Just say it. And then take the consequences.

I think one of the most heinous phrases I have ever heard, though, has to be “It’s all good”. What a lame, cop-out thing to say. No, it’s not all good. All is never good. Some things are just plain bad or evil, and when some “laid back” idiot says “it’s all good” it means that they are too stupid, high or tired to recognize that some people are into, doing, perpetuating, receiving or believing in bad, stupid or dangerous things. And when I say “bad things” I don’t mean “inappropriate things”. That’s another word I truly hate. Things are not “inappropriate”. What a vanilla, gutless thing to say. Things are bad, wrong or maybe even tasteless. “Inappropriate” means nothing. And the word is usually used by nothings who are trying to sound sophisticated.

As someone who has worked on the “front lines” and created various outreach programs for 20 years, let me make something clear. Absolutely no program – non-profit, government, or otherwise – will influence real change with political correctness. If you are too afraid of getting sued by some uneducated, spineless weakling you might offend, then stay out of the business. Look at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example. They gave in to political correctness in the 80’s in the AIDS epidemic, so for the last 10 years the HIV/AIDS rate has continued at approximately 40,000 a year. No decrease. Just 40,000 “acceptable losses.” Good work, folks. But, hey, I’m glad you didn’t offend anybody.

Let me be blunt: we are a nutless country that has given in to lawyers trying outrageous lawsuits for idiots and where complete garbage can be offended by some meaningless utterance and get someone fired. In a famous recent incident, Don Imus, a person I can’t stand, was fired for the same thing. This has got to stop. The First Amendment is unequivocal. It doesn’t say “kinda, oughta, sorta”. Once this amendment is gone, the Republic falls. Orwell’s “1984” is NOW, though somewhat late.

Much of this is involved in a much larger thing, which I call the Eugenics War. You may want to look that word “eugenics” up. We’re in it now, and all of our recent headlines are aimed at it. This, I am not joking about, actually. This is happening, and many of us have seen it coming for decades. What used to be talent now is replaced by photogenic image. And taking into the account the unavoidable reality that advertising places these things in premium, and that advertising is entirely invested in the mission to tell us “You are not good enough, you are not attractive enough and you are not ‘hot’ enough” unless you buy what they are selling", our inner and outer selves are being literally mutated to the whims of stupid, shallow people. Envy is the engine that powers this society, make no mistake about it. Otherwise, no advertising would work. We are being engineered to allow only those with certain features to succeed. Take, for a moment, the vast numbers of young people who are getting cosmetic surgery. Look at the fact that the legislature of Mississippi was once trying to pass a law to make it illegal for restaurants to serve obese people. Do you think for one moment that this was promulgated for health purposes? No. It is because people aren’t supposed to be overweight because it’s not attractive. Nobody cares about their health. It’s just not pretty. This disgusting hypocrisy is only the surface symptom of this manipulation of the natural selection process that drives the self-esteem of the weaker person into the ground. And it’s all geared toward killing the “right” people: those people not wearing the jackboots of the GQ generation.

And now, on top of this assault from the vacuous, we have the added insult of having our language policed by the barely educated and easily offended. Not only are we engineering people so that only those with certain physical features will succeed, but now we are only allowing those with certain beliefs to succeed. Does any of that sound vaguely familiar to you? The writing is not merely on the wall, it has been carved into the stone.

Personally, I am tired of caving to the spineless. Where did the meaning go? And why are we so ready to give it up?

(c) 2009, Andrew T. Durham

The Snapping Turtle Syndrome

2009-01-26T00:09:00.000-05:00

From the time we are all tiny, by anyone's standards, we are told that we should obey the Golden Rule, that we are to treat others as we expect to be treated. But recently I have been thinking: What if I hate myself and want to die? How would I treat others in that event? The knee-jerk response is that we would be cruel to others or try to physically harm them. That makes sense. But, unfortunately, people do not always make sense. And the way someone would treat another with that self-world can be remarkably different, seemingly quite the opposite, yet with the same result.

The extreme of these people are stalkers. But that's too easy. Like a cancer, people often possess the subtlety of the briefest whiff of perfume left upon a pillow. You may have found yourself saying about a person “He is an effort to be around”, or maybe, “She literally soaks the life out of me whenever she is in my life”. This is not a poetic thing we say. There is, after all, such a thing as a psychic vampire. And before you go thinking this is some stupid, Goth, black-lipsticked fantasy film thing, it is a name for this type of person. The analogy is too apt to be merely dismissed.

Toxic people such as described above will often deeply care - as they see it - for another, often quite sincerely. Are you aware of the habits of the alligator snapping turtle? The alligator snapping turtle is a craggy looking thing, sitting at the bottom of a pond or lake. For all intents and purposes it looks like an outcropping of rock. Here, the creature opens its mouth, revealing a small tongue that looks just like a worm struggling in the current. A fish sees this and, thinking it sees what it wants, what it needs the most, will enter the mouth to catch the worm...only to have those powerful jaws snap shut, killing the fish. This, then, is what toxic people do to their prey. And that's what we are to them, make no mistake. We are prey. Sometimes it is intentional, but more often it is just what the poison spirit of the person does. That's not an excuse. It's just the way it is.

In my professional career I have witnessed myriads of these people, but my primary experience is from my personal life. Like a light bulb, toxic people need a socket to light themselves. I know there is a world of bad metaphors that can come from that. So before we go to the gutter, let me say this metaphor is present in much of spiritual thought as well, though not, perhaps as modernly expressed as a light bulb. In other words, there are people who are magnets for toxic people. I have often joked that my “little black book” was the DSM-IV, which is the diagnostic manual for mental disorders. It wasn’t far from the truth. Toxic people are masters of sensing vulnerabilities. It is truly an intuitive marvel. For instance, in the field of addiction, there are people who are in relationships with addicts who will sabotage a person’s chemical dependency recovery, not necessarily intentionally, so that they can have more control over the addict again. This is not mere “enabling”, which is the popular psychobabble for that. Nor is it the simple codependent, which is the much over-used catch phrase of the 20th century. Codependents are merely victims, not predators. These people want you the way you were, so they can “help” you, so they can feed their need to – and this is key – make you pay for whatever injustice or atrocity happened to them in their own past. Again, this is most often entirely subconscious on their part.

I am not at all concerned what the diagnostic classification of toxic people may be. I am only concerned about them experientially. People such as these will show up in your life when you are finally succeeding. They will show up when you are at your lowest – as if by some magical intuition – and offer the highest of help. You will then be yanked into their familiar pattern…you know, the pattern that drove you to the very convenience store on the brink of insanity the last time.
And because this is a person you are dealing with, you can’t just call the exterminator. But we must understand one major component of all of this: toxic individuals do not enter the lives of the spiritually fit. Let me say that again, because I find that mildly important: The toxic person does not enter the life of the spiritually fit person. So, therefore, that is how one rids one’s self of such a person.

The person in your life must go. NOW. No “weaning” them off. There is no “patch” for this situation. I have no sympathy for smokers whatsoever. You cut it off cold turkey or quit bitching and whining. Why don’t they give alcoholics “beer patches” in rehab? They give every other idiot a nicotine patch in rehab centers. Which is more vital: the risk of the deadly possibility of withdrawal or the mere inconvenience of not being able to stick a phallic symbol in your mouth, like the pacifier you had when you were 2? And, as there is no alcohol “patch”, nicotine patches should be completely abolished. Give it up now, work on it yourself and keep your mouth shut.

Beginning with cutting all ties with this person immediately and irrevocably, you must then embark on a path of spiritual fitness. And, I would argue, one cannot have spiritual fitness without physical and mental fitness. By that I do not mean becoming buff or seeing a therapist. What I am saying is that it requires a commitment to develop what I call “soul currency”, meaning something you actually have to offer others and the world that is both credible and enduring. This can begin by simply doing this to feel better and gain more energy. And, yes, the issues of diet, exercise and all that happy horse crap are essential. If you do not provide the signals the psycho-plane can’t land. Self-sufficiency is the order of the day, or, as I prefer to call it: Self-fullness as opposed to selfishness.

The difficulty in this is that we are in a nation of selfish people. Yet, ironically, they all want to look the same, dress the same and act the same. Right now, at this very point in history, we are in a toxic society. There is no respect, there is no civility and there is no honor. There is absolutely no pride in work. And you have to “Press 1 for Sane”.

We are all embarking on a moment in history when things are going to become very difficult indeed. This will not get better. The importance of “circling the wagons” and creating the very artwork of our souls has never been more urgent. Notice that I gave no specific remedies here. This is because every person’s idea of spiritual fitness and such belongs to them. We are born by ourselves and will die by ourselves. We – our own individual bodies and souls - are the first and only family we will ever have. It falls upon every one of us to love ourselves, make it whole and then share that with others, not in reverse.

A line from the movie “Arthur”, starring Dudley Moore and Sir John Geilgud has haunted me all my life. As Geilgud’s character was dying, he told Moore’s character, “You can do anything with your life that you want to.” This was no greeting card whimsy. It is an absolute truth. And a frightening one.

As I see it, there are two kinds of hell in this world: No options or too many. It is, then, our life’s work to find the balance in ourselves and in our choices. And it’s not an easy thing. It requires a delicate intuition. It is like looking at the stars on a clear night: sometimes there is a star that you cannot see when looking at it straight on. But if you relax and don’t look directly at it, then you can actually see it. We fool ourselves in a cruel way when we believe we can control our lives and start this engine with our very will.

When all we really need to do is master the art of awareness; being open to the very opportunities and people that God sends us, why do we waste our soul energy on the poison in our lives when there are stars waiting to be seen?

(c) Andrew T. Durham, 2009

The Disclosure Fallacy

2009-01-03T12:14:00.000-05:00

There is a wind blowing in so-called paranormal circles, postulating that President-elect Obama will be the “President of Disclosure”. What this refers to is the recent trend for some foreign countries – namely Britain – to release long-classified UFO data from their files. For some reason there are those that believe our new president will be the one to disclose over half a century of cover-up in this area. And there are those who will be gravely disappointed.

While it is inescapable that the American public has been illegally propagandized on the subject of UFO’s for decades, there is no reason to believe that the new President will attempt to remedy this Constitutional violation. Once one Constitutional requirement is voided, the entire document falls. And it already has crumbled in light of the blatant propaganda perpetuated by our government and NASA regarding the entire issue of Unidentified Flying Objects.

But the criminal politics of the United States is irrelevant in all of this. It is merely an example of the utter hopelessness that this dying nation will be at the forefront of disclosure. There is too much power at stake for the organized crime that is our government. Whatever disclosure occurs will be left to so-called “lesser” nations, and then methodically ridiculed by the uneducated puppets of CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the government-controlled media.

I suppose in some pathological fog it’s nice to think that the world will be turned around by the wholesale admission of the most important event in human history. After all, things are pretty bad right now and there is absolutely no indication that they will rebound on their own. And they won’t. But to pathetically pine for the bought-and-sold to come forward on such a monumental, literally earth-shattering affair is homage to absurdity.

And it demands vigilance when there are those who will so easily place dangerous faith in the vacant marionettes of the Power Elite, when men of honor have long since passed into dust.

© 2009, by Andrew T. Durham

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

2008-11-13T16:52:00.000-05:00

I’ve grown more than a little tired over the past months with the talk about (rather, the fear of) socialism. Talk radio is replete with references to socialism virtually every 30 seconds, especially as it relates to President-elect Barack Obama. While I understand, to an extent, this neurosis, it ignores certain realities that, sooner or later, this nation has to face.

Without further preamble, we live in country of 300 million people. There is massive poverty and the economic difference between “classes” has never been larger. We are in a buildup to very large problems with a very large population, if we’re not already there.So this begs the question: when are we going to get serious about taking care of the people in this country? Also, when are we going to get serious about taking care of the critical problems in this country? Do we simply relegate people who can’t afford healthcare to die? Do we simply let the government take over businesses that can’t survive because of their unrealistic and atrocious projections of profit? Ever wonder what role healthcare plays in the bankruptcy of some of these major companies, namely the auto industry?

Lots of questions. Anyone got the answers? Apparently not. But lots of delusional ideology, especially on talk radio, substituting for action.

You see, it is very easy for someone making tens of millions of dollars a year to talk about capitalism and “picking yourself up by your bootstraps.” I swear if I hear the phrase “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” one more time I will strangle the person with said bootstraps. It’s easy for the rich to talk about individual empowerment when they haven’t had to work a day in their life. It’s additionally easy for wealthy blowhards to talk about “making the able-bodied on welfare get a job”, despite the fact that there are no freakin jobs!

Ronald Reagan said “If not now, when?” Funny how Conservatives forget that. It’s easy to say that the United States is the land of opportunity when you have your own jet. But this denies the stark fact that there is virtually no opportunity today for the struggling. Everyone has different talents and abilities. Some people can’t get above the struggle. So do we leave them to perish?

There is going to come a time, not too long from now, when we’re going to have to come to the realization that, no, the individual simply cannot afford their own healthcare in most cases. There is going to come a time when we’re going to have to realize that these major financial institutions and businesses that are currently in bailout had their shot and screwed it up. In some cases, like the auto industry, they allowed themselves to be intimidated by the unions. And now they’re in the toilet. It is at the same time humorous and terrifying that Conservative loudmouths (rich men, all) say, “We should just let them fail”. That’s an easy thing to propose when you have no boss, no one to answer to. Gone from this rhetoric is the simple recognition of the consequences of such an idea: massive unemployment and a further burden on a healthcare system that is supposedly most effectively conducted by catering to only those who can afford it.

This “survival of the fittest” crap is lame and it needs to go away. It’s too late, folks. It’s too late. This country has become too big and there’s no going back.

So I go back to the original question: when do we get serious about these problems and slough off the idealistic garbage of what ought to be as opposed to what needs to be? We do not have the luxury in this period in history to opt for what we want as opposed to what we need. Those days are gone. We are dealing with human life. We have let it go for too long, doling out money to other countries, giving “humanitarian aid” to impoverished nations (and giving weapons to dictators and terrorists) yet ignoring the very same conditions in our own back yard….or front yard.

But there is an underlying purpose to this paradox. The only way to control a large population is to maintain a state of conflict among the various groups within. The major media has been hard at work on this, especially during the election, by constantly bringing up the issue of race when no one else had. I wonder what the propagandists that pass for journalists are going to do when President Obama is in the White House? They won’t be able to race-bait the nation anymore, not without being branded as racists, which they are. It will be a frustrating time.

What does this have to do with what I’ve been talking about? Everything. The healthcare situation, the economic situation, and the manufactured oil “crisis” are blatant examples of a holding action. You control people by manipulating the major facets of their lives: health, finance/employment and energy. And the winds of rumor are hinting at yet another area of control in the near future: food.

I am sick and tired of people quoting John Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” No. It’s time that we demand that our country address the problems it helped create by virtue of its bloated affluence and neglect of its own population. And close the damned borders, for God’s sake. It is time to take care of our own, whether you like it or not. It’s easy to condemn those less fortunate than you when you have money in the bank and a job to go to.

I’m not suggesting we give something for nothing to anyone. What I am suggesting is that it is time to get serious about what exactly we intend to do for our own. We are heading into a period of what I can only call a “circle the wagons” time. Not to be “gloom and doom” but the die have been cast and there is no instant replay. And while government is not the entire answer, to be sure, it is also important to send the message to the public that we need to do some rather intense soul-searching about where we are, how we got here and what we are doing…and what we are going to do about it.

Often when I write about topics like this, where I ask a lot of questions, some linear thinking whiner will write to me saying, “Well, you didn’t offer any answers!”. Of course I didn’t. I am raising questions that need to be meditated upon and talked about with those close to us. There can be no answers if you are not in a position to implement them. Vigilance is the only answer for now.

But to deny any longer that we are past the point of no return will be become a terminal event.

It’s time to you know what or get off the pot.

Looking Inward in the Shadow of a Financial Meltdown by Steve Amoia and Andrew T. Durham

2008-10-07T13:27:00.001-04:00

Many of us go through a time in our lives when we lose our identities in our work, opting to place all of our self-worth in our jobs. While most sane people understand that when you place the validity of your self-image entirely in one activity, person or idea you are, for all intents and purposes, filling out an application to be devastated. But most people are self-destructive anyway. Just look at what we place value upon in our lives.

In any event, the semi-lofty meanderings above will be reduced to money in the coming months for many. With the recent (and long ago orchestrated) financial crisis that engorged the headlines, you will find people trying to sell you things, trying to give you excuses for things and trying to accuse you of things because of “these uncertain times”. They did this with 9/11. But the truth is that this so-called tragedy – conceived and nurtured in the Nixon Administration with the pediatric aid of Alan Greenspan – will not significantly affect those of us who have committed the ultimate and unpardonable sin of this materialistic age by having only one home. Which is not to say it won’t come home in other ways, which we will get into later. For now, general needs to precede specific.

In a recent article by Katherine Bucknell published in the Times of London, the recent roller coaster of global financial markets was documented in personal terms. She discussed how the failure of Lehman Brothers was felt among “City” (workers in the London financial district) denizens and their spouses. Unlike Bear Stearns and AIG, the United States Government did not bail out Lehman Brothers. Stockholders, many of whom were Lehman employees, lost virtually everything as the former blue chip stock went from zenith to nadir in the span of one year.

Self-esteem tied to Financial Worth

“Many of them are workaholics, accustomed to being under pressure for 18 hours a day. We hear that they are frantically looking for work, and that a lucky few are being recruited by former competitors. But how many jobs can there be in this environment? Adjusting to being out of work will be hard for the rest of them, adjusting to being out of luck even harder. Their self-esteem may now be lower than their net worth. They have no place to go but home, to tell the family.

Some Lehman wives feel that their husbands were lied to by the firm; they were encouraged to stay, to reinvest, to ‘engage their passion’, as the Lehman Brothers careers website still forlornly urges. Those wives are wondering how their husbands could stay loyal for so long despite all the warning signals. Why didn't they devise a Plan B?”

(Source: The Times of London, 18 September 2008, “After Lehman Brothers: Desperate City Wives,” by Katherine Bucknell.)

URL: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4769062.ece

Loyalty is a Two-Way Street: Rewarding Failure

When corporations ask for our loyalty, they need to exhibit the same commitment in return. But as we saw this past week with Lehman, along with previous high-profile cases, thousands of workers were written off like a bad debt. As the English say, they were made “redundant.” But why is it that the CEOs of these companies walk away with generous rewards for failure, while their subordinates are left with a train wreckage of personal, financial, emotional, and career turmoil?

According to Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, former Lehman Brothers CEO, Mr. Richard Fuld, hit the lottery.

“Last year, Mr.Fuld earned about $45 million, according to the calculations of Equilar, an executive pay research company. That amounts to roughly $17,000 an hour to obliterate a firm.”

(Source: New York Times, 17 September 2008, “Need a Job? $17,000 an Hour. No Success Required,” by Nicholas Kristof, op-ed page.)

Leadership means being responsible for the well-being of others. But how often do we ever hear “It was my fault, it happened on my watch, I take responsibility, and I don’t expect a severance package?” In Japan, the CEO commits hara kiri out of a sense of shame. In the West, the CEO rips the guts out of their employees while floating away on golden parachutes. “We are like family here.” Whose family, the Sopranos? And every single organization talks about “team work” or “team building”. Then, of course, they make you sit on a power drill when things go to hell.

So, like the old parable teaches, “A scorpion will be a scorpion.” And some failures are engineered for other, more subterranean reasons. Therefore, what many see as “losses” are far, far more than merely misplacing something, as the word implies. Similarly, sometimes things we lament as having “lost” we never owned in reality, so we either allowed them to be taken or we just gave them away.

Losing a Job

Let’s look at the other side of the equation. Why do we say, "lost a job"? Did we own it in the first place? Sudden job loss has become synonymous with death or grieving. Surely, it hurts on many levels, but aren't there tougher things to deal with in life? Perhaps we place too much emphasis on what others think of us or allow strangers to peg a value based on a job that could vanish tomorrow. Or a large house, luxurious car, and other trappings of “success.” As Ms. Bucknell noted , tying one’s self-esteem to a job or material possessions. Aren’t we more than a job that is ultimately controlled by someone else despite our own diligence?

Attachment

“Cases can be severe. I once saw a woman whose husband had hanged himself after he was made unemployed. He was a sane, rational, bright young man with no history of mental illness. But employment does not just provide money - a job underpins who you are and gives you an identity. When that goes, life can feel helpless. This husband wrote his wife a suicide note in which he said that he was of no use to her, that she was better off without him.”

(Source: The Times of London, 18 September 2008, “After Lehman Brothers: Desperate City Wives,” by Katherine Bucknell.)

We all identify with our work. It's natural. But we strip away the souls of people and make them feel worthless when bad things happen. Then treat them (and sometimes ourselves) like lepers to further reinforce the alienation. We forget that a person is more than a job. The attachment syndrome. The Dalai Lama has discussed this topic at length. "I can't even own a dog. Too much attachment." The Buddhists believe that much misery and suffering comes from our attachment to things and people. The irony of Lehman Brothers was that financial firms are usually built upon diversification. But as we saw on a business and personal level, the leaders of the company seemingly failed their employees, and the latter also were remiss to invest so much into a company or job.

Or could it be that the Masters of the Universe were doing something intentionally, serving a larger scheme of things dependent upon the devaluation of the dollar? Sometimes the Buddhist mantra of the suffering of life is part of a tapestry created by those with the most toys. And sometimes, yes, the piano does fall from the high rise and kill the pedestrian.

An Example from Bronx Tale

In the movie produced by Robert De Niro, there was an interesting exchange between a young man and his older mentor. The younger one lived and died for the New York Yankees, but the older man changed his perspective in a New York minute. “If you can’t pay your rent, will anyone from the Yankees come by to help you out?”

The young man never felt the same way about the Yankees.

Perhaps we should re-examine how we look at those who employ us. Many go into job interviews automatically assuming the people judging them know what they are doing. The reality is that, behind the scenes, unethical, illegal and prejudicial things make the hiring decision. Vacuous advice givers on the Internet, radio and television spew misleading and paranoia-inducing beatitudes to the job seeker. Most of these rules are rubbish. And, as stated before, the so-called “uncertain times” will be used as an excuse to justify already unstable business managers to demand more of employees…all for the justification that “times are tough.” Guess what? They always have been. Your lack of planning does not constitute my crisis.

Perhaps more importantly, how we examine ourselves and fellow citizens. Part of being human means being humane. Perhaps Human Resources should be renamed “Humane” Resources. The entire field of Human Resources (which sounds like something out of Soylent Green) was built not on the needs of growing businesses but on the knowledge that supervisors no longer were adhering to the Golden Rule of Hiring: Always hire someone who is more qualified than you. So Human Resources is a gigantic industry based upon the low self-image of people who are supposed to be doing the damned hiring in the first place, but in constant fear of their own inadequacy.

And perhaps we should not judge others or ourselves by material achievement. He who dies with the most toys does not win.

The unpleasant yet certain truth is this: You are born by yourself, you will go through life essentially by yourself, and you will most certainly die by yourself. No one goes with you. So you have to learn to love the only thing you will ever truly know, own, trust or understand: You.

Get to know it, love it and, on your own terms, determine the admission price.

Steve Amoia has published articles, book reviews, and interviews about alternative health, art history, career-related themes, historical figures, Italian and international soccer, martial arts, psychology, and sports medicine topics. His writing portfolio and contact information can be found at www.sanstefano.com

Andrew T. Durham

If You Could See Me Now: On the Absence of Frederick Douglass in the '08 Election by Steve Amoia and Andrew T. Durham

2008-09-27T12:14:00.000-04:00

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night. Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise." - Lennon/McCartney

One historical name has not entered the current political debate, and it is surprising. One of the greatest champions of American civil rights and women’s suffrage had a mountain of published material; however, none of the candidates on either side of the valley have evoked his name or tremendous intellect with any significant frequency. There can be no unity and there can be no change with vacuous slogans or Machiavellian machinations. But learning from those who came before us – before the soul was mercilessly sucked out of our Founding Fathers’ vision, like so much liposuction – might just actually begin the long march to unite a populace who have become the unwitting pawns in the games of media who want nothing less than cultural warfare to keep folks interesting, needy, in line and, ironically, in conflict distracting them from what is really going on. So let’s go to the core of the potential that is being ignored in the political discourse of today.

Who Was Frederick Douglass?

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery during February, 1818, on a plantation on the banks of the Tuckahoe River in Talbot County, Maryland. This was an area located on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. He never was told the precise date of his birth. As an adult, he decided to select the 14th, Valentine’s Day, to celebrate his birthday.

“By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.”

“My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant–before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.”

Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Chapter I.

Self-Taught without the Benefit of Prestigious Higher Education

Unlike the current roster of Presidential contenders who attended Columbia, Harvard, the U.S. Naval Academy, Wellesley, and Yale, respectively, Mr. Douglass never had a day of formal education. Yet his written command of English, along with his powerful eloquence, would make most of us pale in comparison.

After he escaped slavery, he wrote about his unique life. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” is a jewel of American literature. It describes the arduous and unlikely journey as Frederick Bailey became Frederick Douglass. As a child in Baltimore, he taught himself how to read and write. Initially, the wife of his master, Mrs. Sophia Auld, taught him passages from the Holy Bible. But this was deemed dangerous, and his lessons were cut short by his Master.

“My mistress seemed almost as proud of my progress as if I had been her own child, and supposing that her husband would be as well pleased, she made no secret of what she was doing for me. Indeed, she exultingly told him of the aptness of her pupil and of her intention to persevere, as she felt it her duty to do, in teaching me, at least, to read the Bible. And here arose the first dark cloud over my Baltimore prospects, the precursor of chilling blasts and drenching storms. Master Hugh was astounded beyond measure and, probably for the first time, proceeded to unfold to his wife the true philosophy of the slave system, and the peculiar rules necessary in the nature of the case to be observed in the management of human chattels.”

Source: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: Chapter X.

Filled with the determination to learn to read at any cost, I hit upon many expedients to accomplish that much desired end. The plan which I mainly adopted, and the one which was the most successful, was that of using as teachers my young white playmates, with whom I met on the streets. I used almost constantly to carry a copy of Webster’s spelling-book in my pocket, and when sent of errands, or when play-time was allowed me, I would step aside with my young friends and take a lesson in spelling.”

Source: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: Chapter XI.

Mr. Douglass on a Black or Biracial President

“What I Would Do if I Were President?”

It is intriguing that his brief yet powerful essay has not been widely publicized or discussed.

“It seems a little absurd for me in my position to be asked, or to answer the question as to what I would do or would not do if I were President of the United States, since no such contingency has even one chance in sixty-million to be realized. But, if that chance should happen, it would probably be my experience and my misfortune to make as many blunders and give just cause for as much criticism as any one, who has ever occupied the Presidential chair. One thing however I would do or try to do. I would employ every means supplied to the President by the Constitution of the United States, to secure to every citizen of the United States, without regard to race, color, sex or religion, equal protection of the laws. No citizen, however poor or despised, should be able to say at te close of my administration that he had suffered any injustice or had been in any way oppressed or injured by any act of mine while acting as President of the United States.”

Source: The Frederick Douglass Papers at The Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mfd/31/31039/0001d.jpg

Mr. Douglass on Women in Politics

“War, slavery, injustice and oppression, and the idea that might makes right have been uppermost in all such governments, and the weak, for whose protection governments are ostensibly created, have had practically no rights which the strong have felt bound to respect. The slayers of thousands have been exalted into heroes, and the worship of mere physical force has been considered glorious. Nations have been and still are but armed camps, expending their wealth and strength and ingenuity in forging weapons of destruction against each other; and while it may not be contended that the introduction of the feminine element in government would entirely cure this tendency to exalt woman’s influence over right, many reasons can be given to show that woman’s influence would greatly tend to check and modify this barbarous and destructive tendency. At any rate, seeing that the male governments of the world have failed, it can do no harm to try the experiment of a government by man and woman united.”

Source: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Chapter XVIII, “Honor To Whom Honor.”

Mr. Douglass on Religious Slave masters

Frederick Douglass had interesting views about the role of religion. Especially as it was manifested in the seemingly contradictory behavior of his Christian slave holders. He also compared the treatment he received from those who did not adhere to any particular religious faith.

“I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty. As an example, I will state one of many facts going to prove the charge. I have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture– ‘He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Chapter IX.

“Another advantage I gained in my new master was, he made no pretensions to, or profession of, religion; and this, in my opinion, was truly a great advantage. I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,–a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,–a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,–and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection.

Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.”

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Chapter X.

Mr. Douglass on Hypocritical Religious Leaders

Frederick Douglass ran into fierce opposition when he tried to teach other slaves how to read. He wanted to use their one day off, Sunday, to spread literacy and the Gospel. But as you will see, he was met with the hypocritical stance common of most Christian slaveholders and other religious leaders.

“As summer came on and the long Sabbath days stretched themselves over our idleness, I became uneasy and wanted a Sabbath-school in which to exercise my gifts and to impart to my brother-slaves the little knowledge I possessed.

Our pious masters at St. Michaels must not know that a few of their dusky brothers were learning to read the Word of God, lest they should come down upon us with the lash and chain. We might have met to drink whisky, to wrestle, fight, and to do other unseemly things, with no fear of interruption from the saints or the sinners of St. Michaels. But to meet for the purpose of improving the mind and heart, by learning to read the sacred scriptures, was a nuisance to be instantly stopped.

The slaveholders there, like slaveholders elsewhere, preferred to see the slaves engaged in degrading sports, rather than acting like moral and accountable beings. Had any one, at that time, asked a religious white man in St. Michaels, the names of three men in that town whose lives were most after the pattern of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, the reply would have been: Garrison West, class-leader, Wright Fairbanks and Thomas Auld, both also class-leaders; and yet these men, armed with mob-like missiles, ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath-school and forbade our meeting again on pain of having our backs subjected to the bloody lash. This same Garrison West was my class-leader, and I had thought him a Christian until he took part in breaking up my school. He led me no more after that.”

Source: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Chapter XVIII.

Mr. Douglass’ Meeting with his Former Master

Before the death of his former master, Captain Hugh Auld, Frederick Douglass, who was then a U.S. Marshall, had the following exchange:

“We addressed each other simultaneously, he calling me ‘Marshal Douglass,’ and I, as I had always called him, ‘Captain Auld.’ Hearing myself called by him ‘Marshal Douglass,’ I instantly broke up the formal nature of the meeting by saying, ‘not Marshal, but Frederick to you as formerly.’ We shook hands cordially, and in the act of doing so, he, having been long stricken with palsy, shed tears as men thus afflicted will do when excited by any deep emotion...

Though broken by age and palsy, the mind of Capt. Auld was remarkably clear and strong. After he had become composed I asked him what he thought of my conduct in running away and going to the north. He hesitated a moment as if to properly formulate his reply, and said: ‘Frederick, I always knew you were too smart to be a slave, and had I been in your place, I should have done as you did.’ I said, ‘Capt. Auld, I am glad to hear you say this. I did not run away from you, but from slavery; it was not that I loved Caesar less, but Rome more.’”

Source: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: Chapter XVI.

Who would you rather quote? Educated politicians? Their sound-bite promoters and speech writers? Former spiritual advisors who were not “disowned?” The Mainstream Media who paints events with their own thick strokes, forever dumping kindling on the fires of human conflict for their own, what, “amusement”?

Or Frederick Douglass?

Who owns whom in the battle for our hearts and minds? The present or the past? Illusions or veracity? Good intentions or an American life story that should be celebrated and promoted from sea to shining sea? Politicians quote the “safe” sources, never the true catalysts. Face it: we live in an era where no one has put forth anything worth quoting for generations to come. And those who might qualify have died or been murdered. That speaks volumes.

“The soul that is within me no man can degrade.” ---Frederick Douglass

Steve Amoia has published articles, book reviews, and interviews about alternative health, art history, career-related themes, historical figures, Italian and international soccer, martial arts, psychology, and sports medicine topics. He was the historical editor for the Frederick Douglass Blog. His writing portfolio and contact information can be found at www.sanstefano.com

If Plato Were Alive Today by Steve Amoia and Andrew T. Durham

2008-09-02T12:21:00.000-04:00

He can't even run his own life, I'll be damned if he'll run mine..." - Jonathan Edwards, Sunshine

It’s interesting that there has been much talk in this presidential campaign about the qualifications for actually becoming President of the United States. In fact, it is quite easy to fall into that rhetoric when taken at face value. That so much emphasis is placed on the importance of the office as “the most powerful person in the world” is amazing upon further analysis.

Without belaboring what could become a far more extensive debate, let us just say this: it is useful to entertain the notion that the office of President of the United States actually means something. Even though the reality is that the office of President of the United States may be the most powerful figurehead in the world, there is a large percentage of the American public and, indeed, the world who actually believes this person can actually enact things beyond the occasional executive order. To be sure, no matter which person ends up in the Oval Office, they will have handlers. These handlers have been around for decades, creating a generation of new handlers to make sure all future Presidents do what they are told. So one really shouldn’t worry about experience. One should just worry.

But, for the moment, let’s work with the idea that the system actually works:

Clause Five in Article II of the United States Constitution provides us with the necessary qualifications to become President. As you will see, it is a rather concise statement:

“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

In Section Two, Clause One, of Article II, the Presidential Powers with regards to the military are outlined:

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

Lack of Requisites

You don’t need legal, management, military, political, social, or any other type of specialized experience to hold the highest elected office in the United States of America. You don’t have to take any formalized test. A college degree is not required, nor is there any foreign language requirement.

It’s also important to note that a background security investigation is also not a requirement; however, modern day candidates usually release personal financial and medical records. Interestingly, only the private medical records of John McCain made history for being the first Presidential candidate whose personal health history was read on live television and ridiculed. No media bias there

But let’s look at Plato himself, and let’s see what the background is for these whimsical ideas of qualification and experience.

The Republic of Plato

Plato was born in 427/428 B.C. in the city-state of Athens. As a young man, he was a student of Socrates, and later wrote a treatise called “The Republic of Plato.” He developed the first organized institute of learning, similar to a modern day University, called the “Academy," in Athens.

In Chapter VII of The Republic, “The Luxurious State,” and Chapter XVII, “Usages of War ,” he discussed the training of a soldier or military leader. As we select our next Commander in Chief, perhaps his perspectives would be helpful to review. Because even after two millennia, Plato’s understanding of human nature is intriguing. While some of Plato’s views might be controversial in today’s world, his examples and arguments, as they apply to war in this example, merit consideration.

The Art of War: Analogy of the Shoemaker

“We need not say whether war does good or harm, but only that we have discovered its origin in desires which are the most fruitful source of evils both to individuals and to states… We agreed that no one man can practice many trades or arts satisfactorily… Well, is not the conduct of war an art, quite as important as shoemaking?”

“But we would not allow our shoemaker to try to be also a farmer or weaver or builder, because we wanted our shoes well made. We gave each man on trade, for which he was naturally fitted; he would do good work, if he confined himself to that all his life, never letting the right moment slip by. Now in no form of work is efficiency so important as in war; and fighting is not so easy a business that man can follow another trade, such as farming or shoemaking, and also be an efficient soldier. Why, even a game like draughts or dice must be studied from childhood; no one can become a fine player in his spare moments. Just taking up a shield or other weapon will not make a man capable of fighting that very day in any sort of warfare, any more than taking up a tool or implement of some kind will make a man a craftsman or an athlete, if he does not understand its use and has never been properly trained to handle it.”

Source: Chapter VII, “The Luxurious State.”

The Trade of War

“Men and women will take the field together and moreover bring with them the children who are sturdy enough, to learn this trade, like any other, by watching what they will have to do themselves when they are grown up; and besides looking on, they will fetch and carry for their fathers and mothers and see to all their needs in time of war. You must have noticed, in the potter’s trade for example, the children watch their fathers and wait on them long before they may touch the wheel. Ought our Guardians to be less careful to train theirs by letting them look on and become familiar with their duties? And is it of no importance that men who are to be warriors should see something of war in childhood? Is that not worth some danger?”

Source: Chapter XVII, “Usages of War.”

Experience Versus Aptitude

Plato believed that hands-on experience from an early age, along with specific training, was the best teacher in the art of war. Should the Commander-in-Chief manage the military without actual experience? Would we expect him or her to make shoes or pottery without proper training? Is aptitude enough or do you need actual experience in military tactics?

Plato in the 21st Century

While it is fun to ponder what great men of the past would do, say or achieve in the modern day, there are certain realities relating to the hypocrisies and double standards of our day that would be comical if they weren’t so dangerous. It is always easier to deem someone a legend when they are not around, and too much time has passed. The so-called light of the modern day would eviscerate most of those we hold as great or even influential. And even then, that determination, in today’s world, would rely completely upon who has the most to gain from such a person’s fame or infamy.

How would men like Washington, Franklin, Jefferson or others be scrutinized in our modern times? Do you think they would survive? Do the qualifications (or lack thereof) need to change to accommodate (defend against) the circumstances and, indeed, the circus of modern times? Or should we just feel safe that men like these are gone, so that we can press their words between the pages of our lives, not having to actually live up to them? Is experience dependent upon a time period, or does it transcend all of that?

Or maybe one really shouldn’t worry about experience. One should just worry.

What do you think?

About the Authors

Steve Amoia has published articles, book reviews, and interviews about alternative health, art history, career-related themes, historical figures, Italian and international soccer, martial arts, psychology, and sports medicine topics. His writing portfolio and contact information can be found at www.sanstefano.com

Are Summer Camps for Parents or Children? by Steve Amoia and Andrew T. Durham

2008-08-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

Many years ago, Newt Gingrich discussed the need to re-parent a new generation of younger workers. What he didn’t address in detail was the root cause: Controlling parents who do not allow their children to develop their own sense of independence.

Today, there is apparently an over-compensation response to the daycare as parenting era. And this has worked famously, hasn’t it? We have a rampant epidemic of disrespect from younger (and older) people, the total lack of honor or integrity in the socialization of the young, and the complete absence of discipline throughout society as a whole. Apparently, it doesn’t take village to raise a child. It takes actual parents who see their children as more than status symbols, obligations or, worse, pets.

Recently, the New York Times discussed a new trend in summer camps. Namely, the amount of time (one estimate was 80%) summer camp managers and administrators spent on demanding parents rather than their children.

“Their parents, meanwhile, were bombarding the camp with calls: one wanted help arranging private guitar lessons for her daughter, another did not like the sound of her child’s voice during a recent conversation, and a third needed to know — preferably today — which of her daughter’s four varieties of vitamins had run out. All before lunch."

Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist in Massachusetts who consults with residential camps, said they can be among the best places for children to develop social skills and resilience — if only parents allow it. ‘If your child doesn’t get the bunk they want or you’re worried that he didn’t get the right camp counselor, if you convey that kind of response — Oh my God, that’s awful, let me call them, it’s so unfair — that’s the worst possible response a parent could have,’ she said. But more of that is happening.’ ”

Source: New York Times, 26 July 2008.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26camp.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

24/7 Parenting

This generation of parents did not grow up with mobile phones, instant messages, the Internet, email, GPS, iPhones, or other modern advances in technology. Yet they seem to be very reluctant to allow their children off of these new electronic leashes. Surely, the new technology has a purpose as parents juggle hectic lives; however, at whose expense? Are we raising self-aware and self-sufficient offspring if we don't allow them to grow up and experience the world on their own? Anyone with a modicum of observational ability surely has been able to see the writing on the wall, heralding the looming disaster of Internet socialization. This is not experiencing the world. It is a world based on anonymity with no regard for the consequences of what we do or say, let alone the necessary exposure to real life disappointment, or triumph. Gone is interpersonal interaction, which is vital to socialization. And despite parental controls galore, many young people see this as a challenge, rather than reasonable limitation.

Summer camp used to be a rite of passage to allow children to interact with others outside of the safe confines of the family cocoon. Now, as we have seen from the Times article, it has been become an extension of the American parent's need for seemingly obsessive control. And as we all know, the more you try to control something the more slippery it gets in your fingers. It is almost as if some parents are imposing a classic abusive relationship on their children. We all know that those kinds of relationships always turn out for the best. Right?

Parents Living Through Their Children

There seems to be a reluctance to allow young people to make mistakes, learn, grow, and perhaps take a step back before they advance forward. As we have seen in organized youth sports, parents often vicariously live through their children. Screaming parents at baseball or soccer games have become the norm. Rarely do we see children playing on their own without some sort of adult supervision. Obviously, safety concerns for children are important in public places, but don't children need "free time" away from adults to foster their own identities and development? In a culture where everything is scheduled with military precision, are we creating robotic children that don't fully develop until much later than in previous eras? Can't we give them a week or two at a summer camp and/or other youth environments without constant parental interference? Not to mention numerous calls per day due to mobile phones to monitor their lives? There used to be a time when children were allowed to be influenced by other respectable adults. Nowadays, there seems to be a lack of willingness or trust to allow other adults to have meaningful roles. If only for a week or a few hours during a sporting event.

Quality over Quantity

In soccer, the game lasts for 90 minutes. You may have the ball only 5 minutes of that time; consequently, what you do during the other 85 minutes is equally important in terms of preparation, anticipation, and understanding your role in the team. In baseball, a relief pitcher may one see one inning of work that decides the game. He learns to study the game in anticipation of his limited but important role that may occur when the outcome of the game is in the balance. If we take these two analogies to the important role of parenting, perhaps we need to give our children more time on the ball, and less influence controlling the other 85 minutes or 8 innings. Prepare them for the five minutes or one inning in life that counts on a daily basis.

Further, it is a mistake to shelter children from what we call tragedy or loss of life. We are raising generation after generation of spineless people who can’t deal with life’s curve balls, let alone the views and convictions of others. It is almost like we are caught in the self-centric world of the small child. The political correctness movement, and the neurosis involved in that entire concept, is a prime example of trying to coddle people from being offended by the free speech of others. As is the new M.O. in this culture if one person is too weak to tolerate the views of others, we dissolve the rights of everyone else so we don’t offend someone. That is insane. Yet that’s where we’re headed.

The entire concept of sheltering someone from the words of others is rooted in the maniacal need to substitute control for parenting: the Nanny State, if you will. Because of this substitution of real relationships, we are now seeing its fruits in youth crime and the gang culture. In many inner city neighborhoods, gangs provide the role models and the ground rules for the younger kids. Rebellion against authority is the order of the day. And we all know that always works out well.

Where did the family go, and what did it take with it when it left? It certainly wasn’t succeeded by some “village”. Not when gangs are the cops, parents and mentors. Or worse.

No. The art of parenting need not be a lost art. And there are many masterpieces yet to be created if we are to get through the future we are seeing unfold before our tired eyes; a future that needs to be reminded:

If you can’t raise your kids, you will raze your kids.

What do you think? Do we need parental summer camps to teach adults to relax a little more, or do children benefit from all of this control?

Steve Amoia's writing portfolio and contact information can be found at www.sanstefano.com.

On Spiritual Famine

2008-07-19T13:59:00.000-04:00

The Bible mentions in Revelations that famine will strike the world in the end days, among other things. While this is universally taken as meaning a nutritional famine, it is clear that there is a spiritual famine of equal destructive power, if not greater. Make no mistake; there is no shortage of religion. The problem is, there is very little that is not destructive about what we call our religious institutions. They have become little more than hermetic bubbles of exclusion.

This is not news.

As we slide toward a prolonged time of excruciating trials, we go unarmed. Of course, I am not speaking of everyone, but I am forced to generalize that we are in deep trouble. One needs only look at our young people and their priorities to see what we have wrought. Though it could be argued that it could be said of any generation of the one that follows, I think the state of the entire planet shows that the writing is on the wall. But the knee-jerk response for some is to turn to our “spiritual leaders”, which is a meaningless term.

Today, political parasites disguised as “spiritual leaders” stoke the fires of discontent to their vacant throngs. The admonition of Richard III has become so: “Now is the winter of our discontent…”. The national media aids this completely and, of late, blatantly. After all, the only way to control a large population is by creating conflict among them. So these “spiritual leaders” seek power in this world, having had their collective conscience excised by greed decades ago.

In even worse moments, news anchors turn to religious “scholars” to talk about spiritual matters that are trendy. There’s nothing quite like intellectualizing the spiritual to confer oh so much validity upon it. Again, more two-dimensional people to be spokesmen for multidimensional issues. It’s like interviewing a paramecium to explain music…or a politician to explain himself.

And in politics the religious has become part of the armory. Jesus has become a weapon. I grow tired of so-called morality being injected into governance. Time and time again, in every election, what are called Christian Fundamentalists are looked upon to influence or ordain, if you will, the veracity of a given candidate. When this happens I have to wonder: why would anyone want the support of a point of view that actually anticipates the end of the world? In fact, one of the major factors influencing the Central Intelligence Agency’s blindness to the impending fall of the Soviet Union was that they were saturated with so many Fundamentalist Christians in their power structure, that they couldn’t bring themselves to believe the Soviet Union was falling. It wasn’t “supposed” to happen. It was “supposed” to bring about Armageddon.

I feel safe. Don’t you?

None of this does anything to nurture spirituality. It is impossible for affluence to give rise to the spiritual. Even Jesus said that. I contend that only true suffering and fear can jump start the spiritual famine we find ourselves in, and let me assure you the opportunity for both of those is coming very soon. This may sound negative, but it’s not. Jesus spent three days in hell before he ascended. An alcoholic must hit rock bottom before he has the spiritual awakening that will abate his disease. A dying culture must be brought to the brink – or beyond – to motivate the people to “change the towels”.

To be sure, there are powerful forces that have been at work for decades in an effort to bring about a race war, if not a civil war. In the winter of 2007, Halliburton Corporation was given a government contract to the tune of $400,000,000+ to build concentration camps in the U.S. Ostensibly, these are for the purpose of moving people into “new programs” if necessary. “Coincidentally”, in May of the same year, President Bush signed an executive order giving the president the power to declare martial law without the consent of Congress.

What exactly are we anticipating?

The spiritual famine that is pandemic in our world will inevitably lead to the massive unrest that is being prepared for in the above examples. What began as the simple lack of common courtesy, common sense, and common decency has metastasized into a spiritual cancer that is now spreading to the spinal column of our nation. And it looks like there will be no spiritual CPR, merely religious morphine to numb the pain.

What is the answer? I don’t know, and if I did I wouldn’t give it. This is an individual’s own journey. A nation of sheep will be sheared, without a doubt. What I do know is that whatever answer there is cannot be found in a book, a 12 Step program, a feel-good seminar or a relationship. For some, these things may work for a time. But only a wholesale return to our connectedness we call the spiritual can save what I am sure is the potential demise of society.

An answer? All I can say is do this at all costs, no matter what it takes. Find what is beyond the TV and the Web. Find what is beyond your stupid cell phone and your iPod. Find what is beyond your parties and your kisses.

And find what is beyond your fists.

And tell your “spiritual leaders”, “No, thanks. I can take it from here.”

(c) Andrew T. Durham, 2008

Propagandizing the American Public: The Cult of Science

2008-07-14T22:21:00.000-04:00

And if Galileo were alive today, he'd still be condemned ... or denied funding.

It is Constitutionally illegal for the United States Government to propagandize the public. While I believe they do this anyway, that is not the point of this piece. The truth is, the government does not need to propagandize the American public. They have science, the media and no one to stop them

In true American tradition, the cult of science is propagandizing the American people. You’re in dubiously good company.

The scientific establishment has for too long put themselves in the precarious position of lying to the public. Look at NASA. Some have stated unequivocally that scientists had proven that all crop circles were man made by “pranksters”. This is flatly untrue. The huge majority of so-called crop circles are unexplained, having been created in a matter of hours, with the stems of the plant life being disrupted at the cellular level. One of the latest circles appeared in North Korea. Now, Americans, how could “pranksters” do something as intricate as a crop circle in a country where you can be shot for relatively minimal offenses, let alone a nation that is vastly difficult for our own officials to enter? You need to research the entire story before you decide that something is proven. Period. And no scientist has ever proven that all crop circles were made by hoaxers. Science, like drug addicts and alcoholics, find denial a great way of ignoring something.
Science used to be about investigating the unknown. They weren't professional debunkers.

But scientists are a cult you can’t rely upon. Since the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, scientists have fallen all over themselves saying the crystal skulls that exist in the world are “fake”. If one actually reads what these smock-jockeys are saying, you find that they are saying they could not have been made in the time period the are claimed to be from. That says nothing. That says what people have been asserting for decades: These things are a genuine unknown. That doesn’t mean they’re “fake”. That just means the fragile egos of the scientific priesthood can’t figure it out. Neither can any of us. So get therapy, and shut the hell up and go find a cure for something or we’ll stop our taxes from paying for your whining.

By far my favorite pseudo-discovery of science was this past year, when scientists asserted they had discovered “another universe”. If you think about this, it’s hilarious if only on a semantic level. Any idiot knows that the word “universe” means everything, everywhere. You can’t have more than one EVERYTHING. Parallel universes may exist in the same physical space, but they are part of everything, even then. No, what these childish oracles are really saying is this: “We’re saying we discovered a whole other universe because we’re rather embarrassed that we have been saying for years that we have been able to quantify, map and assert that our universe is finite.” In other words, its all a diversion from the fact that THEY WERE WRONG AND THE UNIVERSE IS MUCH BIGGER THAN THESE SHALLOW LINEAR THINKING PRIMATES THOUGHT.

People like these are terrified that there may be someone somewhere else smarter than they are. They are exactly like the hierarchy of the Vatican, or any religion. If they are seen as inferior, their fragile self-images will shatter their power on Earth. They are terrified of the so-called paranormal because it doesn’t fit their narrow paradigm of reality…or the constraints of their grant funding.

What really is going on here is that reality is far larger than we know. There is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal simply because these phenomena exist as part of a larger part of reality that, for some reason, seems to be bleeding more and more into our perceptions. And for countless thousands of years humans have reported all manner of apparition or being, with little or no qualms expressed by their peers until, that is, a bunch of dead German philosophers a few hundred years ago convinced us that our intellect was more important than our intuition, or our very souls. So we have paid the price by becoming soul-blind, forever divorced from our ability to entertain a much larger, more vital reality.

Some things just are. And because one chooses not to believe in a certain thing does not confer non-existence upon it. I don't know why people can't get that through their head.

As early as last summer scientists announced that they had proven that parallel universes exist. My understanding, though admittedly limited, is that this new discovery allows for the existence of parallel worlds in which every conceivable possibility plays out. This concept was long held as solely within the purview of science fiction. Yet here it is. Where do the so-called unreasonable phenomena start and where do they stop? Who judges it or those who perceive it? Certainly not reporters.

A village magistrate in a European country during World War II was told by an eye witness about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the concentration camps. The magistrate simply could not believe the witness. Understand, he did not think he was lying. He just could not allow himself to believe it. I think many do this regularly in their blindness to the rich, teeming reality around us, seeking comfort in the ridicule, shunning the cold chill of their insignificance in the shadow of great wonder. Sadly, scientists do this regularly, depriving real investigation into the real final frontiers.

To simply dismiss the unknown because you haven’t personally experienced it is an arrogance that is both pathetic and poignant at the same time. As an example, ask yourself this: how many credible, sane eyewitnesses does it take to convict someone of murder in this country? One? Two? Hundreds of thousands of people have seen UFO’s, the majority of whom were sane, credible and some were trained observers. Yet this is discarded out of hand. This makes no sense. None. Let me say again: simply because you choose not to believe in something does not confer non-existence upon it. Things just may not depend on your belief to exist. Imagine that. And even if UFO’s are not machines from another world, no scientist would say that there are no unidentified objects seen in the sky, no matter what they were. UFO means: unidentified flying object. It doesn’t mean: Holy crap this is an alien ship. It simply means no one knows what it is.

Wombats exist. I’ve seen pictures and some film. Thousands if not millions of people have seen wombats. But I haven’t. What if I chose not to believe in wombats, simply because I have not experienced one up close? That would just be silly.

Damn right.

I suppose the ultimate expression of the supernatural would be God. I’m not going to get into an ontological debate. I will, however, say this: God is to be experienced and seen in the swirl of events that form the tapestry of our lives. A professor of mine in college called it “radical mystery”, which is to say God is that which cannot be defined or comprehended, yet we as human beings must suspend our desire to classify and accept that we cannot know or comprehend what God is. In effect, it is a surrender to the unknown, something we all must do eventually.

Atheists amuse me in that they are the eternal children who never got that train set they wanted for Christmas when they were a kid, so they take it out by not believing in anything. It is a bittersweet blindness that consumes them, one which can create a husk where a man once stood. This optional blindness usually culminates in the definitive statement: “I don’t believe in God”, at which point I reply, “I’d be more concerned about whether God believes in YOU.”

I mean, even Ray Charles could see that when he was alive. What does that make you?

(c) Andrew T. Durham 2008

The Army of Money

2008-07-14T21:44:00.001-04:00

In a war of secret souls,
When all that can remain in the end
Is rust and blood,
The instruments of the end,
However come upon,
Are at the expense of the forgotten;
To be forever debated
In the dimly lit halls of our tabloid age,
Never to be told in truth and honor,
Never to be told in truth and honor.

And the obituary page is our black wall of carved names,
With no mourners but those we have touched,
And the icy stare of those we have wronged,
Making us the destitute sages of forbidden wisdom,
Until all that has gone before
Spirals into the swirling vortex of resentment,
Into the swirling vortex of resentment.

But perhaps in some distant future -
Maybe on some crisp autumn day,
With the painful blue sky illuminating the pallet earth -
Our descendants will expose the army of money,
And its clandestine sentinels that brandish chests with medals,
And bright red ties,
Forever feeding the starved
With the very flame that burns their spirit,
Living, never changing, in every neighborhood;
Every studio apartment;
Every single skull
Bending in silent servitude to the army of money.

All that is left,
After this holocaust of the soul,
Is the very silence within where the Prophets heard voices.

© Andrew T. Durham, 2007

Why is Dressing Down the New Dressing Up? by Steve Amoia and Andrew T. Durham

2008-07-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

Even as something as monumental as the twilight of the American way of life stares us all in the face, some time should be spent on the arguably trivial point of the way we dress ourselves. It has been said "The clothing makes the man". Well, that may be. But today the man makes the clothing...or males, anyway. More, they design it. The point is that, coupled with the complete lack of common courtesy, common decency and common sense in this waning culture, the "insult to injury" shows itself in what we can now call our National Dishevelment.

Not too long ago the unshaven look became the norm. Now, multiple face piercings are a plus in some industries (albeit not in the industries involving electrical work). The simple civility of showing respect to others by respecting your appearance - which has been replaced by so-called "fashion" - has been lost. Apparently the need has arisen for our populace to express themselves by how closely they can mimic the homeless.

Have you ever see those old newsreels of American baseball games? All of the spectators were dressed to the nines. Compare that to what we see today. People don't respect themselves in the same way. It is as if they go to great strides to dress down, sloppily, or to follow the latest fashion trends by someone in Milan or Paris. Who then changes their minds next year to tell us what is now in fashion. As Forrest Gump might have said, "Shallow is as shallow does." But designers cater to an appetite to conform. Even in the most self-absorbed place on earth: North America. If a famous fashion designer said, "Men should wear Fedoras, and women should wear white gloves," guess what we would see on the streets on America? Rugged individualism, aka "The Marlboro Man," has yielded to robotic conformity based upon the judgment of strangers.

Adults Who Dress Like Children

For example, adult men wearing baseball caps backwards and indoors, failure to comb their hair properly, and wearing dress shirts outside of their trousers. Adult women showing inappropriate bare skin, undergarments, tattoos in an office setting or in public. And we will politely dance around those with enormous (as the British would say) "sit-upons" crammed into tight jeans. In the United States, there is a general lack of respect and civility for other people. We convey that by how we dress. Sadly, the standard has declined in massive proportions. "There is no more civility in this society." Coach Joe Paterno on "The Charlie Rose Show." That is so true in so many ways. And never.....EVER...complement someone on how they look. The severe irony of this is that they will say "What do you mean by that?". Which means two things: a) they know they look ridiculous and b) you're headed for a harassment suit, pick the category.

Why Has Prison Culture Gone Mainstream?

Andrew was walking down the street recently, and a police officer was talking to a rookie, explaining the real reason why young men wear their pants halfway down. Such a display is a prison code, which means a willingness to engage in a certain activity. Andrew - unable to let this go - stopped and said how pleased he was that someone knew the real reason for that behavior. But why was the behavior adopted and subsequently accepted in the first place? The same with torn jeans, dirty sweat pants (and don't get us started on the backward baseball cap) that used to be associated with personal shame and lack of communal respect are now common fare in public. Is Sunday "best" even a viable option any further? No, because anything related to Sunday has been rendered filth by the ACLU. And, as we all know, they run Newspeak.

Tattoos in Suburbia

It seems that if you don't have a tattoo, or "body art,"' it is the exception. Suburban women, with kids in tow, have a new acceptable fashion statement: The "tramp stamp." Or images sketched on their bare shoulders. What message does that send to their children? Add low rise jeans that leave nothing to the imagination, along with blouses that are not tucked in. Perhaps in strict Islamic societies, women cover themselves because they understand that certain things are not for the whole world to see. But in North America, what used to be acceptable at the beach is now seen routinely in offices or the local shopping malls. What was de rigueur in red light districts is now as common as a barber shop on Main Street.

Flip Flops at the White House

In 2005, a group of college students from Northwestern University's womens championship lacrosse team went to the White House. In a photograph that was widely circulated, many were wearing flip flops. Parents spend thousands of dollars on college tuition so that their children can attend a "good school," but is it too much trouble to teach them to show the President of the United States a modicum of respect? Were it 10 years earlier, it was apparent that clothing was optional in the Oval Office, however.

In a recent photo by the Politico, Congressional staffers were seen changing their flip flops before entering the Longworth House Office Building. "Robert Primus has a pet peeve he is reminded of between May and September. 'I actually have a problem with how most offices dress or how they allow their offices to dress,' said Primus, chief of staff for Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.). 'I don't care if it's summertime or not. I always say that staff should not look like tourists' he added."

The Workplace

Work is not a playground or an extension of our homes. Despite those who receive constant calls for personal matters, or who bring their private lives into full public view. It is curious to watch shows such as "Mad Men" to see what was an acceptable dress code back in the 1960s compared to now. If you walk into a McDonald's, you will see the staff dressed very neatly and with ties in many cases. It sends the message that they have self-respect, along with a high regard for their customers. Despite earning minimum wage, they display a much higher standard than we see in "Casual Corporate America." Because wouldn't we expect jeans, tee shirts, and flip flops at the most famous fast food restaurant in the world? They don't have to sell us anything except the food, but they go the extra mile. But, alas, this is not consistent in all McDonald's. Nor is the quality of the food. What you're selling should be reflected by the people selling it, should it not?

Is it too much to ask outside of McDonald's? Is that too much to ask in an era of political correctness and the suffocation of values for the simple tapestry of appearing with genuine character to our fellows to have at least some meaning?

"The difference between style and fashion is quality." - Giorgio Armani

"I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men." - Marlene Dietrich

"Got to be good looking ‘cause he's so hard to see.." - Lennon/McCartney

"I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man." - William Shakespeare

"A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic." - George Bernard Shaw

But let us close (clothes?) this erudite commentary with the eternal Dante:

"When I had journeyed half of our life's way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray. Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was, that savage forest dense and difficult, which even in recall renews my fear: so bitter - death is hardly more severe! But to retell the good discovered there, I'll also tell of other things I saw." - Dante's Inferno, Canto I.

Dante had no idea. He didn't have to walk behind some people. And McDonald's was but a dream.

Steve Amoiai's website is sanstefano.com; Andrew T. Durham's is andrewtdurham.blogspot.com/

Dave Navarro's Spread TV: Must See Non-TV

2008-05-10T20:09:00.000-04:00

If you haven't caught "Dave Navarro's Spread TV" on Mania TV, you have to. I normally hate video talk shows, but this guy is a total natural. AND, like me, he's a musician who can actually form sentences. Dave Navarro should be on late night television, certainly more so than Conan Freakin O'Brien.

Navarro's ease with talking with people is refreshingly free from the smarmy dog crap from every single talk show host from Matt Lauer on up (and there's nowhere to go but "up" from Lauer). His willingness to entertain all ideas and lifestyles is amazing as it rolls off his back. He is genuine, seemingly, and is not a part of the Holly network. The small audience environment is great for this intimate show and I cannot imagine that it should change with a different venue.

I saw it for the first time last night from a link to a particular show. I was totally struck with the minimalist beauty of the show and the way Navarro completely focuses on his guests, as if there's nothing else happening in the world. If only the so-called "best of the best" could be that way. This guy should be moderating the presidential debates. But, if he is as cool as he seems to be, he would think it was just too funny. In fact, Navarro goes at things with such a child-like wonder that it draws you into his attention, not just your own. That is so missing from traditional television. There is a complete absence in Navarro's show of false bravado, or sardonic pseudo-wisdom.

Folks, no matter what your political, philosophical, sexual, or horticultural beliefs are, you should tune in to Dave Navarro's Spread TV on Mania TV, which is on www.maniatv.com. You won't be disappointed. And if you are, screw you and everyone that looks like you.

(That's a little joke, there.)

The Eugenics War: In the Eye of the Beholder, My Ass!

2008-04-19T15:13:00.000-04:00

"Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see..." - Lennon/McCartney

I contend that we are currently dealing with a quite conscious effort to shape the “preferable” natural selection. Not by science, not by politics, but by the very vacuous, soulless and mind-numbingly stupid fields of fashion, advertising and entertainment. Look, for instance, at what passes for attractive today in the male category: cow eyed fembots who feign heterosexuality. Their perfectly symmetrical features, pouting lips and barely controlled lisp seem to be what we men are supposed to aspire to embody. Today, we are supposed to opt for the pretty, not the handsome. Any and all manner of manliness shrugged off, we are commanded to favor the sensitive, caring, ultimately ineffectual boyishness that borders on the female. And who is commanding this acceptance of this “super race” (or stupor race)? Why, it’s the cokehead gays and the chain-smoking Europeans that control the fashion industry. Nothing like hedonistic sociopaths and people who don’t bathe on a regular basis dictating the shape of the human future.

This, I am not joking about, actually. This is happening, and many of us have seen it coming for decades. What used to be talent now is replaced by photogenic image. And taking into the account the unavoidable reality that advertising places these things in premium, and that advertising is entirely invested in the mission to tell us “You are not good enough, you are not attractive enough and you are not ‘hot’ enough” unless you buy what they are selling", our inner and outer selves are being literally mutated to the whims of stupid, shallow people. Envy is the engine that powers this society, make no mistake about it. Otherwise, no advertising would work. We are being engineered to allow only those with certain features to succeed. Take, for a moment, the vast numbers of young people who are getting cosmetic surgery. Look at the fact that the legislature of Mississippi was trying to pass a law to make it illegal for restaurants to serve obese people. Do you think for one moment that this was promulgated for health purposes? No. It is because people aren’t supposed to be overweight because it’s not attractive. Nobody cares about their health. It’s just not pretty. This disgusting hypocrisy is only the surface symptom of this manipulation of the natural selection process that drives the self-esteem of the weaker person into the ground. And it’s all geared toward killing the “right” people: those people not wearing the jackboots of the GQ generation.

So let’s ask ourselves some probing questions. What happened to the content of one’s character as currency in this culture? Look at the cultural icons of previous generations, and then compare those time periods to the cultural/ethical wasteland we have produced today in this rotting nation. Were did we go? Since when did the feminization of the American male equal the improvement of the male image in the arts? Keith Ledger died recently. He was probably talented, but would anyone care if he wasn’t pretty? What if he was 38 and not 28? And why did the vacuous dirtbags in the media have to mention that he was naked when they found him? Why? Tell me why that’s significant. I dare you.

As teen suicide rises; as the continued pounding emphasis on physical perfection (as defined by drug addicts, perverts and neurotics who can’t deal with intimacy) pushes the timid to bulimia, anorexia and the like; as young people insist on self mutilation to rebel against this absurd pressure from soulless nobodies, our culture oozes towards its twilight. The words from Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” linger in my mind as I watch how the Madison Avenue brown-shirts tug on the intestines of our youth, nudging them ever so subtly to the brink of self hatred. And why? Because they aren’t emaciated. They don’t have eyes that match up exactly, symmetrically. They don’t have female facial features and a penis. They don’t have a drug/alcohol problem or pouting lips. And they might – just might – be interested in the opposite sex.

Those who demand perfection cannot deliver it themselves. Therein lies the problem. Did Joseph Mengele have blond hair and blue eyes when he was working on producing the master race? Did Hitler?

So we come to the eternal question. Not “What is the meaning of life?”. Not “Is there a God?”. But, “Who the hell are you to tell me what I should be and what I am worth?”.

Guess – just guess – who is the only one who can answer that question.