Saw. . .

. . . a headline on the web the other day. . .

". . .TIT FOR TAT What Happens When You Post Revenge Porn?
Nerve Lust
It's a truly modern story: Man posts revenge porn of ex-girlfriend, ex-girlfriend then posts revenge porn of man. . ."

A contemporary problem, to be sure.  Revenge Porn!!???
 
First, the only place revenge should exist is in a Mel Gibson movie.  In real life, it serves no purpose and never solves anything.  (Example:  Israel and Palestine)

Second, revenge and porn within the same sentence is pure incongruity.  Only in this post-digital, pro-reality-TV, sub-stratus-personal standards age could two unrelated terms be used within the same sentence and actually portray a veritable reality. 

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Quote. . .

. . . from Bertrand Russell confronted me today. . .

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser men so full of doubts.”

. . . which really struck me.  In the past twenty-some years that I have been writing and attempting to market (in some form or fashion) original material, it occurred to me that this is exactly what stopped me from starting this process much, much earlier.  So after reading this Russell gem, I believe that it was actually not insecurity that prevented me from jumping head first into a musical pursuit, it was actually wisdom.

But to take this another step, I always felt that wisdom comes with age, simply because the longer one lives, the more experience he attains by virtue of mere longevity.  But if what Russell says is true, my late-found self-confident could be nothing more than foolishness.

. . . or could there be a happy middle-ground in there somewhere?

 

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American. . .

. . . dream. . .

"You're throwing away your money," she would sometimes say.  "Buy a house."  In her eyes, paying rent was throwing away money.  It was the prevailing logic of her generation, the children of immigrants who arrived in this country with very little, worked hard and carved out a well-deserved place in the American landscape.

I, unlike most of my, and successive generations, left my parents' home when I got married, and did live in a rented apartment at that time.  It was a wonderful place in a lush, wooded area within the city itself and within minutes downtown.

To my simple mind, it was the ideal living situation.  We put furniture in the place, hung pictures and lived.  If anything broke, leaked, stopped heating or cooling, made too much noise, cracked or otherwise caused a problem within our 'home', we called maintenance.  When we got home from work the next day, the problem was solved.  All we had to do was pay our rent, preferably on time.
And we did.

But oh how Mom thought that 'owning' a place was what young adults were supposed to do.  It meant staking out one's own turf.  It was putting money into something that was your own;  and investment in the future.  And of course she was correct.

Only now. . . there is no 'maintenance' to call.

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Fifteen. . .

Fifteen minutes of glory
Maybe less
What I wouldn't give for the chance
To confess
All my intimate secrets
All my hopes and my desires
I don't care just how valid
You think that they are
They've been mine for a long long time
And I'm not ashamed of them

Shut up Joe
How do you really know
What's going down
How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere
To be found
We all need to gather round
To help everybody else to see
That running your mouth aloud
Makes it that much more difficult
For you and me
And our integrity

Went to work at the factory
At fourteen
Thought I'd finish my schooling
Sometime in between
Drunken weekends and futile street fights
And the visits to my best girl
But the time slipped away
I've got bills here to pay
I've got small ones depending on me
My vision is limited

Shut up Joe
How do you really know
What's going down
How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere
To be found
We all need to gather round
To help everybody else to see
That running your mouth aloud
Makes it that much more difficult
For you and me
And our integrity

All my life I've known
I'd want to say
Something to my
Fellow man today
Couldn't let the facts
Get in the way.

We weren't that well acquainted
Never were
An occasional run-in
We preferred
There's one thing that we both believe in
Heard it over and over again
It was something about
All the fondness we felt
How the heart can't miss what's not around
If the mind doesn't value it

Shut up Joe
How do you really know
What's going down
How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere
To be found
We all need to gather round
To help everybody else to see
That running your mouth aloud
Makes it that much more difficult
For you and me
And our integrity


Integrity
©2008 Raymond M. Jozwiak




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Worse. . .

. . . than it looks?. . . is that possible?. . .

(from It's Even Worse Than It Looks [How the American Constitutional System Collided With The New Politics of Extremism] by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein ©2012 Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein)
". . . The Problem is Mismatch
We believe a fundamental problem is the mismatch between parliamentary-style political parties-ideologically polarized, internally unified, vehemently oppositional, and politically strategic-that has emerged in recent years and a separation-of-powers system that makes it extremely difficult for majorities to work their will.  Students of comparative politics have demonstrated that the American policy-making system of checks and balances and separation of powers has more structural impediments to action than an other major democracy.  Now there are additional incentive for obstruction in that policy-making process.  Witness the Republicans' immense electoral success in 2010 after voting in unison against virtually every Obama initiative and priority, and making each vote and enactment contentious and excruciating, followed by major efforts to delegitimize the result. And because of the partisan nature of much of the media and reflexive tendency of many in the mainstream press to use false equivalence to explain outcomes, it becomes much easier for a minority, in this case the Republicans, to use filibusters, holds, and other techniques to obstruct. The status quo bias of the constitutional system becomes magnified under dysfunction and creates a take-no-prisoners political dynamic that gives new meaning to the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan's concept of "defining deviancy down.". . . "

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Here I am . . .

. . . again.  On the crest of another Monday morning.

A dear friend fighting for life. . . want to help
A respite from a dull, cursory week was welcome, and now over
Hot, steamy conditions with which to cope, and with which I have little problem.  (No shovels required)
Good conversation with my west-coast son
Exhilarating workouts at the keyboard
Stressful coping with the 'critical' element
Progress made in the creative direction
Another future opportunity to make some joyful noise for friends and their family
Wonderful meals and time with my loved one (and ones)
But here comes that Monday again. . .

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Entitled to WHAT? ? ?. . .

. . . from FactCheck.org

"Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra of California said that he would "fight to take [Social Security] off the table" in budget negotiations, because it "hasn't contributed 1 cent to the deficit that we face today, nor 1 cent to any of the national debt, the $14.3 trillion." We take no position on whether Social Security should be cut, but it's wrong to say it's not contributing to the deficit.

Social Security benefits paid were more than payroll taxes in 2010, leading to a cash deficit of $49 billion. For 2011, the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees project a $46 billion deficit. And those figures don't include the billions more the government will have to borrow to cover that reduction in payroll taxes that was in last year's deal to extend the Bush tax cuts."

Did you see that LAST LINE, "And those figures don't include the billions more the government will have to borrow to cover that REDUCTION IN PAYROLL TAXES that was in last year's deal to EXTEND THE BUSH TAX CUTS."??

Meanwhile back at the ranch, "Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) will serve on the commission, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced. Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) will represent House Republicans(in the Super Congress deficit commitee), said Speaker John Boehner. All six Republicans have signed a pledge to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform that they will not vote to raise taxes." (reported by the Huffington Post)

So you tell me. . . exactly what, or should we ask WHO, IS THE PROBLEM HERE???!!!!



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