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27 ottobre Utility Pole Blog on HomelessnessThe light pole by my bus stop at Garfield High School on 23rd avenue isn't normally where you'd expect to find a link to someone's blog, but as you can see from the picture, this is indeed what happened to me the other day.
I have no idea how much of it is truth (judge for yourself), but as disturbing as it sounds, it's not unrealistic. Most Americans don't realize that they're one unfortunate incident from homelessness, and in this person's tale, we see a fairly plausible (one-sided) portrait of how society treats the poor and homeless.
A real-life police-state conspriacy story if true... Here's a less dramatic story of a family teetering at the edge of losing everything. 26 ottobre Shadow Government in the USASurprise -- allegations the President doesn't actually run the show come from a former administration official. This Slate article summarizes the criticisms from a retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson who served with both current President and the sire.
The article's quotes contain delicious use of "cabal," a word of joy to conspiracy theorists. The official's actual speech, delivered at an event for a think tank (how do you get a job at one of those?) can be found here. That full transcript is an even better read because the speaker actually trots out the quote from that Eisenhower speech dear to every conspiracy-monger -- you know, the one about "the military industrial complex." Anyway, the claim is that this little cabal, consisting of the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and some other like-minded notables, forced the rest of the government to carry out questionable (actually “stupid”) according to the cabal’s arbitrary master plan. The cabal abused executive branch power to force the federal "bureaucracy" (a term used in the speech without irony -- clearly this is a DC crowd) into carrying out actions it neither understood nor supported. The article singles out the State Department as one of these puppet bureaucracies, and mentions usual suspects like the CIA and FBI. Sounds like what happens when Dilbert's boss gets to be Vice President. No wonder the administration is trying to pressure The Onion for headlines like "Bush to Appoint Someone to be in Charge of Country." Interesting read, though of course a side effect is that the Col. has conveniently drummed up some interest in the upcoming book mentioned several times in the transcript. Separately, I think I'd like to work at a think tank. The host for the speech was the New America Foundation, a group whose web site was touting itself today as "the think tank for Generation Next" (eeew, imagine a baby Wolfowitz). Look out RAND... 25 ottobre Rosa Parks Taught Me How to Ride the BusEven though Rosa Parks has moved on, we know she will be remembered. I'm proud that she came from Alabama, the same area in which a side of my family originated and still lives. And of course she spent the second half of her life in Detroit, a city that has always been proud to claim her. But even if I were somehow to forget about the course that Black people took through history, there is an even simpler reason I can't forget her-- it's just that I ride the bus every day. One time buschick asked me why I was insisting on sitting near the front of the bus when I boarded. My answer: "Because of Rosa Parks!" And besides, without Rosa we wouldn't have a Black girl named buschick. :) The front wasn't just about being further from the back where all the bad kids that want to be cool will sit (hey, I want to be cool too). I like it because Rosa and another 42,000 Black people went through some thangs for a lot of important reasons, the least of which was to get me a seat as close to the front of the bus as I'd like (which these days isn't the very front -- I'll have to wait until I'm around 65 for that, but it gives me something to look forward to. :) ) So thank you Mrs. Parks -- now I can sit where I please, and each day I do so, I always see that memory of what it took to get me here.
From today's news: Good-bye Mrs. Parks 23 ottobre C-O-N-SpiracyConspiracy theories are so much fun in part because they tie unrelated events into convoluted streams that collectively take on a mythical life of their own, leading to the most entertaining and ridiculous speculation. As a Black Helicopter, I’m no stranger to conspiracies…
So to motivate myself to stay focused on blogging, and hopefully to provoke arguments if not some thought, I will carelessly declare the following unoriginal and unsophisticated theory of conspiracy:
The government of a certain world superpower is under the influence of a philosophy that elevates to the highest priority the cause of preserving power and its associated structures (well, I suppose this is a fairly common occurrence if you read enough history).
This philosophy is currently being implemented through a series of foreign military excursions which address the external threat. Additionally, the implementation attacks the internal threat of democracy through a domestic social-class restructuring that decreases the wealth, education, and rationality of the average citizen in order to create a populace that can be manipulated into believing its interests are the same as those of the power structure, despite overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary.
I also claim that major events of the last four years, and even this year alone, are driven by this philosophy and directly support the theory.
Say it with me now -- C-O-N... Spiracy. :)
Disclaimer: I should make clear that in my academic career I steered away from social sciences in favor of humanities, natural sciences, and mathematics. Any posts with links to philosophers, political science theory, sociology, or other educational links will be most welcome. :) What had happened was...This is the Powerpoint of the events since the Black Helicopter went underground at the end of 2004:
Coming up: ridiculous oversimplifications of current events, my recent Detroit adventures with buschick, a poorly informed visitor’s guide to Detroit for the Super Bowl, how to not own a car in Seattle, and my most ambitious to date, the Virtual Nation State (tm) system for dysfunctional democracies.
Buschick, thank you for your wonderful writing – the Black helicopters are now back in our skies…
BackBlogIt seems buschick’s recent marketing campaign as a featured space (Congratulations buschick!) is shaming me back into action. All along my blog's aims have been purposefully overambitious: to uncover the world’s conspiracies while weaving my own plot to restore the health and influence of the wonderful city of Detroit. These continue to be, at least in my mind, laudable goals worthy of blog resurrection.
For now I'll judge success by the frequency of my posts, but eventually I'd like to accomplish that rarest of feats, the expression of an idea that the world deems slightly "new."
At the moment I have a ridiculous backlog since my last post; world events have passed me by. I will need a few posts to catch up before resuming the mission.
At least I’m finally ready to say that this blog is back… |
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