I’m feeling a little funky today.

Don’t much want to talk about politics on a Friday and I don’t have all that much of a social life from this past week to talk about.

I was delighted to hear from my friend DeShan that she decided to stay in town rather than go to Australia, but then I heard she’d been assaulted by some guy and was badly hurt.  I don’t know the 411 on the deal, but I’m distressed to think about sweet DeShan being hurt.

I am so broke, I can’t pay attention and I mean that literally.  I can’t seem to pay attention to my billing chores or to my main business either because I’m so twisted up over money.  One of my sister’s 5 Rules for Divorced Women says:  If his money is messed up, his life is messed up.  Seems to be true for her brother and maybe it’s true for all potential boyfriends.  Girls?  Have any stories or experiences?

I think 3:40 a.m. McArp’s depression is rubbing off on me.  There is a big part of me that wants to curl up into a fetal ball and go catatonic so no one can mess with me.  That is depression, isn’t it?  I mean, fuck monastaries and caves.  I want a padded room and good drugs.  And, no, dzaster, it isn’t ennui.  I’m bored with ennui.  And fuck the French and their language anyway.

I keep missing privacy shattered Sharon.  She’s in town and wants to go to lunch and I’m in Ardmore.  I want to take her to lunch and she’s in Bumfuck Egypt.  What’s a nice Jewish girl like her doing in Egypt anyway?  Doesn’t she know … well, of course, she knows.  Well, she might not know, she’s a little bit dotty …  No, … uhm …  well, anyway … .

Speaking of Sharons, Sonic Sharon was at a party I went to last weekend and she got everyone up on their feet dancing by getting up herself and flat hitting it hard.  She was SO good!  She got that moneymaker movin’ and the rest of us just couldn’t stay in our seats.  It was the highlight of the evening.  That boy she keeps being seen with — just to make ME jealous, I might add (LOL) — is a lucky guy.

The movie Wednesday was The Three Burials of Melaquides Estrada, directed and starring Tommy Lee Jones.  Very good.  Beautiful depiction of the Big Bend country of Texas and northern Mexico.  Lots of local color and colorful characters.  I recommend it.

Had a long talk with the lucky Veronique Mist the other day.  I sure do like that girl, even if she’s the darkest person I’ve ever been close to.  Death and decay delight her.  She revels in the thought of her own demise.  She really does think today would be a good day to die.  Her fondest wish is to be an unsolved murder victim.  Anyway, we both agreed that we were going to die alone and unloved and unmourned — at least that was what was going to happen in our deepest fears.  In the meantime, however, it is irritating as hell trying to find love on the internet.  The problem is that you get on the internet because you can’t find anyone you’re interested in dating and/or you haven’t met anyone who is interested in you.  Trouble is, everyone on the internet is there for the same reasons.  They are too picky to want you or they are so desperate they want anyone.  Anyway, I told her I’d looked at 1,000 photos of women aged 40-60 within 50 miles of me in OKC and there were only 8 photos that prompted me to look at their profiles, much less want to contact and date them.  She said I was lucky to find that many and that among men on the internet where she was looking, she couldn’t find one in 1,000.  Of course, she wasn’t searching.  She was just going through the 1,000 suitors who’d filled her inbox with lavish praise for her beauty.  Different deal altogether, if you ask me.  My sister in S.C. says she showed my picture to one of her grrrls and was told I am HOT.  Great.  A woman thinks I’m hot, but she’s 2,000 miles across the country.  At least I’m going to S.C. in December to see my niece get married, maybe I can meet the woman of my dreams then.  Then again, maybe not.  I sort of realized over the past couple of days since talking to Ms.Mist that I just may be fooling myself.  I don’t want to have to clean the house and turn down the stereo and stop eating over the sink and drinking milk out of the carton.  I have the sense most women would object to some of these endearing habits of mine.  I may be better off in the dark alone in my padded cell than with a serious relationship.  It’s too hot to cuddle anyway.

Don’t anyone say a single word to me about Clerks II, the new Kevin Smith movie, until I’ve seen it.  I will kill you.  I mean it.

SO DID I!!!

I spent some time Tuesday night with my favorite jazz bassist, Shy Oren, at the G Spot talking about Palestine.

First, I wanted to know if his family in Israel was safe and so far they are.

It’s rather difficult for me to imagine his situation.  His parents and siblings are within range of the Hezbollah rockets coming from Lebanon.  Like all Israelis, Shy has been in the Army — everyone serves their country in Israel.   (I sometimes think that would be a good idea for us, other times I think it makes a country militaristic).

His take on the homeland is that the Israelis are very united and angry.  They feel they tried land for peace and it didn’t work, he says.  He believes Israel will militarily establish a zone in southern Lebanon that is free of Arab arms and that seems clear at this point — telephone calls, taped, are being made by Israel to all phones in southern Lebanon telling common citizens to evacuate.   

Shy also believes there will be an Israeli invasion of Syria, retaking the Golan Heights, and that Israel will try to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities as they did in the 80s when they bombed Sadaam’s Iraqi nuke plant.

Gaza will be subdued by force.  Hamas will no longer have any military power because their gunmen will be killed.

This is, of course, a recipe for a world war.

Islamic gunmen are taking over Somalia.  The Taliban has renewed strength in the south of Afghanistan.  The Iraqi insurgency is killing at a faster pace than ever in Iraq.

Lest we forget, there are also Islamic states in the south of what was the Soviet empire — the “stans”, where American and other European powers massed for the invasion of Kabul.  Those places have Islamic insurgencies that strike at Russia from time to time with Chechnya the focal point.

One of the things Shy and I discussed is that the press in America is very very different in its coverage than the free press in Europe and the rest of the world.  Frankly, if all you read is American newspapers and/or the American television news, you are not getting the same ideas of what is happening as is the rest of the world.

I don’t believe in an American Mainstream Media cabal or conspiracy,  but the view of the world being presented at present is skewed. 

American support of the Israeli prosecution of this military action is very dangerous.  After Clinton worked very hard to gain Arab and Islamic respect by backing Muslims in the Balkans against the Christian Serbs led by Milosovec, Arabs now believe America is captured by its Israeli paymasters.  Yes, that’s an anti-Semetic view of the world.

For America, I think part of the problem, a big part of the problem, is that this Administration and a large portion of the American population is simplistic in their worldview.

And, it’s the most un-Christian foreign policy I can imagine.

Not all problems can be solved by American arms.  A gun does not solve all disputes and a bomb is not the best answer to every disagreement.

We have a man in the White House who professes to be a “born-again” Christian.  He’s backed by a third of the voting population that identifies itself as “evangelical” or “religious”.

Why do we have a foreign policy that is based on the idea that America is a hegemon and can force by arms its will on the world?

Why are we condoning torture and kidnapping?

Why do we applaud tanks and airstrikes?

What is Christian about that?

“What would Jesus do?” is no mystery.  It’s in the New Testament plain as day.  Jesus would turn the other cheek, love his neighbor and forgive seven times seventy seven.  When the Centurian in the Garden of Gesthsemene had his ear cut off while coming to arrest Jesus, Christ healed him and admonished his disciples for turning to violence.

I understand the Israelis.  God is pretty much a tough military leader in the Old Testament.  Once, an angel (presumably, the Archangel Michael) with a fiery sword slew 10,000 enemies in their tents in a single night.  that’s a heckuva massacre, even by today’s standards.  don’t mess with God’s chosen people.

Meanwhile, back in the real world of today, you’ve got a sliver of the American population who are hoping that this will all turn into Armagedden so they can rapture up to heaven.

You can bet there are Arabs who are burnishing that quote from Bush back around 9/11 when he called the War on Terror a “crusade”.  You may recall, as do Arabs, that the crusades were not a good time for MidEast-European diplomatic ties.

I hope you also recall that the Arabs kicked Europe’s ass.  Jeruselem fell and just about the time Columbus was taking off for America, the Arab world took Constaninople.

Damascus is a far far older city than London or Paris and Baghdad is the traditional site of the Garden of Eden.

Frankly, I think America is in over our collective heads.

Bush’s idea of Arab democracy lacks two things:  an appreciation of the need for stability for a democracy to work; and, he forgot that the Arab world did not have the Englightenment, as did Washington and Jefferson and Madison.

He’s forgotten our Christian ideals.

And, this President has no respect for anyone with a differing view.

It is a prescription for disaster.

So, put those vacation plans on hold and cut up your credit cards because gasoline is about to go to $5-6 per liter (not gallon).  You won’t be able to afford to heat and cool your house this winter and next summer.  Do yourself a favor and buy a bicycle and a cord of wood if you’ve got a fireplace.

I’m very pessimistic, can you tell?

I’m here to start a new popular movement in America.

Drunkcall Damascus.

Everyone, sometime and sooner or later, has drunk called.

You know.  It’s 3:18 a.m. and you’ve had too much to drink and you call an old girlfriend.  Sometimes you just breathe and hang up, but sometimes you give them a piece of your mind.  Sometimes you beg for a piece just for old times’ sake.  Whatever.  What you really know is that you wake up the next morning and remember it and feel dirty, skanky, guilty and full of remorse.  Sometimes you don’t remember and you get to feel all those things when the drunkcall-ee gives you a going over for waking them up at 3:18 a.m. on a Tuesday.

Well, in this case, I think President Bush has a great idea.

We need someone to call President Assad of Syria and tell him to git Hizbullah to stop this shit.  Then it’ll be all over.

Why not every God-fearing, heavy drinking American?

It will save all those drunk calls to innocent former lovers, who will get to sleep peacefully through a Tuesday night and won’t wake up the next morning cranky with all their co-workers. 

Instead of feeling guilty about drunk calling, we can wake up with a sense of patriotic pride.

Hello, operator, give me Damascus.  This is London Calling, can’t you hear the damn CD?  I’ll turn it up.  Now put that guy Haaaasssssan on the line.

I’m not going anywhere, I just need a break from blogging.

I’ll start posting again next week.

(It’s really a photo from Miss K’s graduation from nursing school, but don’t let on)

John,

I’ve been upgrading a couple of my sites…

http://www.fastpipe.com/

http://www.hdtvok.com/

When you’re desperate for work, you work on that portfolio…

I’ve started following Mary Elizabeth’s blog, which I find very funny. 

In case I forget, happy birthday!

Dennis
—
Dennis Whiteman
FastPipe Media, Inc.
[email protected]
AIM Video: fastpipex

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face.
It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
           — George W. Bush, November 2005

My son, Jack (and U2’s Bono) send this along

In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile
runs from 2   rivers, fed by 2 glaciers.

Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be
fought for it.

Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no
unemployment, and  they provide the second largest
source of income for the area.

Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of
gold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it
would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers –
something never conceived of in the history of the
world – and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a
whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the
mine’s rubbish tip.

The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is
called Barrick Gold.

The operation is planned by a multi-national company,
one of whose members is George Bush Senior.

The Chilean Government has approved the project to
start this year, 2006.

The only reason it hasn’t started yet is because the
farmers have got a temporary stay of execution.

If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just
destroy the source of especially pure water, but they
will permanently contaminate the 2  rivers so they
will never again be fit for human or animal
consumption because of the use of cyanide and
sulphuric acid in the extraction process.
Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the
multinational company and not one will be left with
the people whose land it is. They will only be left
with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.

The farmers have been fighting a long time for their
land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a
ban from the Ministry of the Interior.

Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project
is to get help from international justice.

The world must know what is happening in Chile. The
only place to start changing the world is from here.

We ask you to circulate this message amongst your
friends in the following way.

Please copy this text, paste it into a new email
adding your signature and send it to everyone in your
address book. Please, will the 100th person to receive
and sign the petition, send it to
[email protected] to be forwarded to the Chilean
Government.

No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean
Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier.

   We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the
Pascua Lama project to protect the whole     of 3
glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix
Valley and El Transito, the quality of the
   agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the
quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the
   whole population of the region.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascua_Lama

   Signature, City, Country

   1) Katharine Proudfoot, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
   2) Laura Cole, London, UK
   3) David Platt, London, UK
   4) Diane Platt, Manchester, UK
   5) Tanya Corker, Manchester, UK
   6) Nicola Hargreaves, UK
   7) Nicholas Jones, UK
   8) Johann Don-Daniel, Germany
   9) Ashley Berger, Germany
   10) Sarah Downie, Leeds, UK
   11) Paula Delahunty, Bingley, UK
   12) John O’Driscoll, Bingley, Uk
   13) Jordan-Lee Delahunty, Bingley, UK
   14) Claire Mulvey, Bradford, UK
   15) Marie Malcolm Bradford, UK
   16) Ann Clowes, Halifax UK
   17) Jayne McGee, Brighouse UK
   18) Jason Barratt Oldham UK
   19) Lindsay Torrance, Rochdale UK
   20) Maggie Ford, Rochdale, U.K.
   21) Barry Cook, Todmorden, U.K.
   22) Shelley Burgoyne, Todmorden, U.K.
   23) Lisa Stuart, Potes, Spain.
   24) Michael Stuart, Potes, Spain.
   25) Renee Engl, Byron Bay, Australia
   26) Adrian Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
   27) Riana Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
   28) Oriel Paterson, Brunswick Heads, Australia
   29) Alicia Paterson, Brisbane, Australia
   30) Lyneve Robinson, Sydney, Australia
   31) Jennifer Moalem, Sydney, Australia
   32) Alexandra Pope, Sydney Australia
   33) Shushann Movsessian, Sydney Australia
   34) Amanda Frost
   35) Chris Liddell, AUS
   36) Jade Deegan, AUS
   37) Donna Duggan, Sydney, AUS
   37) Jo Satori, AUS
   38) Katinka Lytton-Hitchins, AUS
   39 Anthony Ashworth NSW, AUS
   40)ShamanaTara, NSW Australia
   41) Lorene Barin, NSW, Australia
   42) Dimahi Dettra Farrell, NSW Australia
   43) Julie Pirotta, WA, Australia
   44) Ginny Webb, Perth, Australia
   45) Elspeth Taimre WA Australia
   46) chris murray WA Australia
   47] Annie Parkhouse, Carlisle, UK
   48) Norah McWilliam, Bradford, Yorks. UK
   49) Simon Dunn, Manchester, UK
   50) Kate Dunn, Manchester, UK
   51) Jeremy Haughty, Exeter UK
   52) Julie Verre, Exeter, UK
   53)Tricia Cassel-Gerard, Exeter, Uk
   54) Simon Evans, Wembury,UK
   56) Neil Cooper, Modbury, UK
   57) John Nightingale, Capton, UK
   58) Tim Malyon, Uplowman, UK
   59) Tony Bennett, London, UK
   60) Lora Fountain, Paris, France
   61) David Koblick, Steyr, Austria
   62) Sylviane Bellamy, USA
   63)  Virginia MacArthur, VA,USA
   64) Maribel Moheno, Richmond, VA, USA
   65)  Nora Finton, NYC
  66) Dorian Rush, LA, USA
  67) Jack Long, LA, USA
http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/getinvolved