Grazie . . .

". . . teach your children well. . . "(Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young). . .
CHUCK!. . .


November 22, 2013 6:00 am  •  By CHUCK MUTH
On this coming Thanksgiving holiday, I would be eternally grateful if our government-run education camps would teach the next generation of Americans the true story of Plymouth Rock rather than the romanticized fairy tale version.

Ten years ago I read for the first time Matthew Givens’ column titled, “Thanksgiving: America’s Lesson on Why Socialism Doesn’t Work.” And I’ve been reading it to my home schooled kids every Thanksgiving ever since.

“When the colonists first landed” at Plymouth Rock in 1620, Givens wrote, “they signed something called the Mayflower Compact. Most of us have heard this document praised as an early social contract helping different people live together. What most of us never learned was that it was also an experiment in socialism.”

An experiment that went horribly wrong, big time.

The Mayflower Compact required that all the colonists donate all the benefits derived from their work — farming, fishing, clothing, etc. — into the “common stock” and only take out what they actually needed. You know: From each according to ability; to each according to need.

Well, as the story was told by then-Gov. William Bradford, the young men of the colony became unhappy campers about being forced to “spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children.” And since the non-producers got the same amount of goodies from the common stock as producers, the producers simply stopped producing.

As such, “the amount of food produced was never adequate.” Thus the inadequate harvests of 1621 and 1622 did, in fact, lead to famine, malnutrition and starvation among the Pilgrims.

But it wasn’t the Indians teaching them how to farm that ultimately rescued the colonists from their plight. What did? Old-fashioned American capitalism!

“In 1623,” Givens explains, “Bradford ‘gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit.”

The result?

“By 1624, the colony was producing so much food that it began exporting corn.”

Vunderbar!

“Thanksgiving,” Givens concludes, “far from being the simple and uninspiring story of a group of people learning how to farm, is actually a celebration of what has made America itself great.

It is the story of people working together by working for themselves first, and in so doing, improving the standard of living for everyone.”

Amen and hallelujah!

So as you sit around the Thanksgiving table this year with family and friends munching on turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, pause to reflect on the true meaning of this quintessential American holiday just as we should pause to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas each year; that socialism is bad, even when slick-talking community organizers from Chicago try to peddle it as “fairness.”

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Dreams. . .

If only we could dispense with every bad situation in our own lives as easily as Newhart, Cranston et al. . . (remember Bobby's dream in Dallas). . .


(from http://www.today.com/entertainment/breaking-bad-alternate-ending-reveals-it-was-malcolm-dream-2D11603773)
For those who didn't care for the actual dark and bloody "Bad" finale, picture this: Cranston (as "Malcolm's" dad Hal) wakes up in bed next to his wife Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) from "the scariest dream." Huddling under his covers, he whimpers to her that he'd dreamed he was a meth dealer whose companions included a man who looked "like the guy from 'The Shield'" (Dean Norris' Hank Schrader) and "a man child" (Aaron Paul's Jesse) "who always looked like he was wearing his older brother's clothes" and used "the b-word a lot." The faux ending sequence is a nod to "Newhart's" 1990 series finale, in which Bob Newhart woke up in bed next to his "The Bob Newhart Show" wife (Suzanne Pleshette) and declared he'd had a dream that essentially rendered "Newhart" as a long, confusing nightmare. Meanwhile, back in the "Bad" clip (which Sony Pictures had pulled from YouTube citing copyright infringement, but can currently be seen here), Lois is dubious of Hal's fears. "I knew this was going to happen, you grow a beard and suddenly you think you're Osama bin Laden," she says.

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Life . . .

 . . after death. . .

Sun Ra LIVES!!!
Thanks to Marshall Allen and all these wonderful musicians.

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An Offer . . .

(from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/pope-francis-mafia-target-corruption)
". . . Prosecutor says pope's attempt to bring transparency to Vatican is making mobsters agitated. Pope Francis's crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy's all-powerful mafia clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned.

Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria's shadowy 'Ndrangheta mafia, said on Wednesday that Francis's attempt to bring transparency to the Vatican was making the white collar mobsters who do business with corrupt prelates "nervous and agitated".

He told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano: "Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican.

"If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn't hesitate. I don't know if organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about it. They could be dangerous."

Francis, who has called for "a poor church", has backed reform at the Vatican's bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of mob profits. This week police impounded a luxury hotel on Rome's Janiculum hill – formerly a monastery – which the 'Ndrangheta allegedly purchased from a religious order.

In a fiery sermon on Monday, Francis railed against corruption and quoted the bible's advice that practitioners be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. . ."

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Dot On Your Door . . .

You’re living your ninth life time is running out
The blood of the lamb has dried and lost its clout
If you show no mercy, no mercy will be your
You’re dated and done for the dot’s on your door

On day one they marked you, put you on the list
Embroidered a burning red letter on your bib
You move with caution, the trap’s laced with lure
You’re dated and done, there’s a dot on your door

Cowards die a thousand times, the brave die only once
If ignorance is bliss, may your joy be out to lunch
If you were meant to hang in life then you will never drown
Dodging the left, the right one brings you to the ground

You’re using the right words, getting the response
Newton was right, you’re life’s a renaissance
Your impedimenta pile up on the floor
You’re locked in this room, There’s a dot on your door

Kissing your mother, digging in the dirt
Hoping something of your life will take root and give birth
The vine seeks the light, branches reaching through the clouds
Where love will prune and crown you, relieve you of your shroud


Bread & Circuses Bistro
27 E. Chesapeake Avenue
Towson, MD  21286
410-337-5282
http://bandcbistro.com/
Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak are OHO
Also visit http://www.ohomusic.com


Dot On Your Door
by John P. Graboski
(Oho [Jay Graboski, David Reeve, Ray Jozwiak]
rehearsal recording June 2013)





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Kwazy Wabbit? . . .

(by codetaco on http://askville.amazon.com/NOELLE-NIKPOUR-LIVING/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=16018793)
Noelle Nikpour is the die-hard-Tea-Party conservatives'  go-to gal for consultation and strategy. Not surprising.

Noelle Nikpour is a woman from Little Rock, AR who gets paid to do "Republican political consulting"; the qualifications for such a position are unknown. According to her IMDB profile, her television appearances are limited to Sean Hannity's "Hannity" show (where she has dutifully towed the party line) and "The Daily Show" (where Jon Stewart has poked fun at her the same).

During and interview with Aasiv Mandvi On the October 26, 2011 show she claimed that "scientists are scamming the American people [...] for their own financial gain." When Aasiv asked if she had any evidence or data for such a claim, she responded that "Every American [...] would have a gut feeling that some of these numbers that scientists are putting out are not right."

She complained that "Scientists are the only people qualified to comment on scientific theories"; apparently she saw no contradiction in the fact that she and others on Hannity have incessantly commented on scientific theories (such as climate change) without any qualification to do so. Some theories (such as evolution), require only the application of logic (such as examining the fossil record or observing bacteria in a petri dish). When Aasiv facetiously stated "it should be up to the American people to decide what's true", she wholeheartedly agreed by saying "absolutely!! Doesn't it make common sense?"

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Machiavellian . . .

. . . terror



(from wikipedia.com)
"Machiavellianism", is a widely used negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described in The Prince. The book itself gained enormous notoriety and wide readership because the author seemed to be endorsing behavior often deemed as evil and immoral.


(from The Hidden History of 9-11, Edited by Paul Zarembka)
". . . It is vital in a democracy to question the state's own account of itself - to engage in what I call, oppositional theorizing.  Rather than accepting the official story of 9-11, which contains so many unsatisfactory elements, the left ought to theorize the attacks on New York and Washington from an oppositional standpoint. "Citizens are free . . . so long as nothing is hidden from them. Thus, they must watch, surveil, expose and reveal" (Dean, 2000, p. 16).  Sadly, the established left has done the opposite. Respected left commentators have embraced a radicalized version of the White House 9-11 account of September 11. (sic)  Claiming the attacks are payback for globalization exposes the left to charges of supporting terrorism.  Even while denying stereotyped views of Islam, the left hardly doubts bin Laden's "cartoonish parody ... [of] Muslims as angry and violent" (Gusterson, 2004, p. 144).

The left embraces a distorted notion of political violence that sees it as an understandable response of the weak to provocations of the powerful.  Yet, what I have called Machiavellian state terrorism is a common feature in history.  Acts of terror are vulnerable to manipulation, and far more likely to be a weapon of state rulers and their agents, than the oppressed masses.  As a legitimized protection racket, the state may be tempted to inflict harm secretly on its own citizens in order to achieve unpublicized but highly desired goals.  Rival power holders may find it inconvenient to confront lies which help maintain the current regime.  This is likely the case with September 11, which provided American power a convenient excuse to conduct ware on Afghanistan and Iraq that had been planned well before.  The left abjures conspiracy theory (while enabling the official bin Laden story) but oppositional theorizing - questioning government and looking for connections between events, perceiving the world "to be organized beneath the surface" (Sturken, 1997, p. 77) - is a critical feature of what it means to be vitally active in the political universe. . . "

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