Some Writin'

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:35:23 GMT

So the aliens were supposed to come today.
They didn't.

So it's time to work towards a better world, since it doesn't look like we'll be getting any help from the Galactic Federation of Light.

If anyone's interested and has two hours to kill, watch Zeitgeist: Addendum.
It's a movie about how fucked up our world is.

If you don't feel like watching a movie just check out The Zeitgeist Movement instead.

It's a step in the right direction.

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:55:32 GMT

I'd like to think I'd take dictation
from something big and evasive
that I've yet to see the face of,
bracing. But when I'm awake,
I'm like a little twig breaking under heavy winds weight,
or a moth hole in a sweater.
I know I could do it better, but...

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:01:45 GMT

lol China

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:30:02 GMT

Perseid Meteor Shower

It starts on my birthday and goes through until the 12th. I really wanna go to the dunes at Long Beach and just watch it for a few hours.

New Anthony Green album leaked. Not bad so far. The new Stonehearted Man is really weird but I think I like it better.

I've been playing too much WoW. I need to learn how to drive and register at Suffolk. College is so fucking lame. I think I'll just study something awesome, like marine biology or astronomy.

I wish there were no such thing as grades. I think I'd actually care about education if it wasn't such a competition.

This album has a weird Hawaiian feel to it. I wanna go back to Hawaii so badly. Maybe that's what I'll do after Suffolk... Studying marine biology in Hawaii sounds nice to me.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:16:16 GMT

Interviews with Dennis Kucinich

Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Bush on July 10th. I really hope they're heard and not just dismissed.

I wish he was in Obama's place. He might have been a shitty president, but at least he would have worked for our interests.

Why do I even care about this shit anymore? The Ron Pauls and Dennis Kuciniches will never be elected until the people stop watching and reading mainstream news and start voting for their own interests. The ad hominem attacks against the honest politicians who dare to run for president are enough to sway anyone who's too lazy or disillusioned to think about this stuff anymore. "He says he's seen a UFO! He's too crazy to be president!" Which is something I've heard people tell me about both Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. At least neither of them are crazy enough to undermine the philosophy of the country they swear they're defending (Bush and Cheney).

I think I'm slowly becoming too disillusioned.

But I have some hope I guess. That the internet continues to remain free despite the likely attempts to restrict it, and that my kids don't watch enough T.V. to become intellectually sedated. That my kids think rationally. Maybe their generation can finally clean up this joke of a democracy. I just have to do my part in helping the world survive long enough for that to happen.

Sometimes I wish I didn't care about this country or this world. There's too much shit that needs fixing.

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:33:31 GMT

The Meaning of Life

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:48:24 GMT

Do yourself a favor and download the new Sigur Rós album með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (I think in English it's called With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly). I've only heard the first song but I'm pretty sure I'm in love with it.

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:54:51 GMT

FAQ About Cannabis

Weed is a pretty fucking great thing once you learn the truth about it.

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:56:21 GMT

I'm feelin' that.

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:14:17 GMT

The little I remember from my dream last night:

I was in a machine with people from all different periods of time in the future. I was from the most ancient time (our time). They were arguing about something I didn't understand, and I just kept walking around and looking at the ship.

I went into this one room where people were sitting in tents, but the tents only closed on one side. The room itself looked like a Gravitron machine that was tilted at about a 30 degree angle, and it was spinning counter clockwise. Those people were arguing about how if you were in this room, you had to be contributing to it. You couldn't just come and sit here, you had to give something to the room. So I grabbed the open side of someones tent, started dragging it around, and screamed. I don't know why.

I saw an opening into another room that took me back to my time. I stepped out and I think Mike Cardinale was with me. We started running down the road, and then we heard an airplane. We found two people laying in the middle of the runway and tried to get them to move out of the way, but they just smiled at us. We left them and kept running down the road, New York City materialized in the distance. Apparently that's what we were looking for. We started screaming.

Pretty soon we came to an overpass. There were tons of babies just climbing up the support poles of the overpass (the poles that hold it up). Most of the babies were near the top, but there was this one baby that was being held back by her mother - who was wearing a doctor's mask - and her father. As we ran past I looked into the babies eyes and yelled, "Never stop crawling! Whatever you do baby, never stop crawling!"

I got to the city and found myself in this weird restaurant. Mike wasn't with me anymore. Everyone I've ever had some sort of connection with was in that room. All of my Hunter teachers, friends, and acquaintances. Then there were old friends from Long Island. I saw Nicky and Tiff a lot, in the distance though. Nicky and I made eye contact sometimes and when we did he smiled. But we never talked.

I walked outside and saw a bunch of girls that looked so familiar, but I didn't know their names. Mel was there though, and I think Kait was. Nicky came outside and stood next to me. We were all standing and watching something. There was a man in the street in what looked like an escape pod from a spaceship. Wires were going from the pod back to a group of people at a computer. They pressed some buttons and turned their eyes to the man in the capsule. The man inside started screaming "Stop it! Stop it! Don't let it happen again!" I don't know what they were doing to him but he started morphing into a superhuman. He started to look like the Hulk, only he wasn't green.

Something exploded nearby and we all ran inside. I took the elevator to the 12th floor and ran around the whole floor looking for something until I realized it was on the 14th floor. I ended up in my old Orientation Seminar room, the place where I learned about college and how much it sucks. The teacher said she had something great to show us and went to meatspin.com. The site was completely redone though. It was a collection of weird bands and we clicked on a link for Hormophone. We watched a music video of their's. The band was composed almost entirely of midgets and they were making old-school hip-hop. It sounded pretty nice to me, but now I don't remember much of what they were saying.

Some kid behind me started reciting the wrong lyrics. The song ended with the whole group saying "Give it a rest." I woke up.

Ultimate Frisbee Rules

Tue, 27 May 2008 03:02:22 GMT

Basic Rules

Complete Rules

For the reference of anyone who plays with me. Apparently we haven't been playing entirely right but we can choose to omit some of these rules I guess (Street Ultimate).

watch this movieeeee

Wed, 21 May 2008 02:18:49 GMT

Anarchism in America

Mon, 19 May 2008 22:16:13 GMT

Fuck college.

A Poem by Suheir Hammad

Wed, 14 May 2008 08:59:00 GMT

The video starts off with a guy named Black Ice. He's really awesome too but I posted the words for Suheir Hammad's "First Writing Since (Revision)" below the video. It's pretty moving and awesome and I'd like to do stuff like this one day. Sorry if the lines are awkwardly broken, I'm really tired and I had to cut out parts from the original poem.

there have been no words.
no poetry in ashes south of Canal.
no prose in trucks driving debris and DNA.

evident out my window
an abstract reality.
sky where once was steel.
smoke where once was flesh.

please god, let it be a mistake,
the pilot’s heart, the plane’s engine.
god, please, don’t let it be anyone
who looks like my brothers.

I don't know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.
I have never been so hungry that I willed hunger.
never so angry as to want a gun over a pen,
not really.
even as a woman, a Palestinian,
never this broken.

Ricardo on radio said in his accent thick as Yuca,
“I will feel so much better when the first bombs drop over there."

a woman crying in a car parked and stranded in hurt.
I offered comfort, a hand she did not see before she said,
“we’re gonna burn them so bad.”
my hand went to my head
and my head to the dead Iraqi children,
the dead in Nicaragua, in Rwanda who vied
with fake sport wrestling for America attention.

people saying,
"this was bound to happen, let's not forget U.S. transgressions."
hold up, I live here.
these are my friends and fam,
me in those buildings, and we’re not bad people,
do not support America's bullying.
can i just have half a second to feel bad?

thank you woman who saw me brinking cool and blinking tears.
opened her arms before she asked “do you want a hug?”
big white woman, and her embrace only people with flesh can offer.
“my brother’s in the navy,” i said. “and we’re arabs.”
“wow, you got double trouble.”
word.

one more person ask me if i knew the hijackers.
one more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in.
one more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed.
assume they know me, or that i represent a people.
or that a people represent an evil. or that evil is as simple as a
flag and words on a page.

we did not vilify white men when McVeigh bombed Oklahoma.
give out his family’s address or church.
or blame the bible or Pat-fucking-Robertson.

networks air footage of Palestinians dancing in the street,
no apology that hungry children are bribed with sweets that turn their teeth brown.
correspondents edit images.
archives facilitate lazy journalism.

and when we talk about holy books and hooded men and death,
why never mention the KKK?

if there are any people on earth who understand how New York is
feeling right now, they are in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Bush has waged war on a man once openly funded by the CIA.
I've read too many books, to believe what I am told.
I don’t give a fuck about Bin Laden.
his vision of the world don't represent me or those I love.
but I've signed petitions for years to out the U.S. sponsored Taliban.
shit is complicated, and I don’t know what to think.

but I know who will pay.
women, mostly colored and poor.
will have to bury children,
support themselves through grief.

in America, it will be those amongst us who refuse blanket attacks on the shivering.
who work toward social justice,
and opposing hateful policies.
“either you are with us, or with the terrorists” -
meaning, keep your people under control and resistance censored -
meaning, we got the loot
and the nukes.

never felt less American and more Brooklyn than these days.
these stars and stripes represent the dead as citizens first –
not family, not lovers.

my skin is real thin, my eyes are darker.
the future holds little light.

my baby brother is a man now,
on alert, praying five times a day the orders he will take are righteous
and not weigh his soul down from the afterlife.

both my brothers - my heart stops - not a beat disturbs my fear.
Muslim, gentle men.
born in Brooklyn and their faces are of the Arab man,
all eyelashes and nose and beautiful color and stubborn hair.

what will their lives be like now?

over there is over here.

across the river, burning rubber and limbs
rescuers traumatized.
skyline brought back to human size.
no longer taunting gods.

I cried
when I saw those buildings collapse on themselves like a broken heart.
I have never owned pain that needs to spread like that.

there is no poetry in this.
causes and effects.
symbols and ideologies.
mad conspiracy here.
information we will never know
there is death here,
and promises of more.

there is life here.
anyone hearing this is breathing,
maybe hurting
but breathing for sure.
if there is any light to come,
it will shine from the eyes of those who look for peace and justice
after the rubble and rhetoric are cleared and the phoenix has risen.

affirm life.
affirm life.
we got to carry each other now.
you are either with life, or against it.
affirm life.

Talking to Zach prompted this...

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:40:20 GMT

What I really want to do is stop pursuing an "education" that isn't satisfying or fulfilling. I want to get a real education, not one that involves someone speaking at me for a couple hours a week. Something more interactive than sitting in a chair and asking questions once in a while. I can sit in this computer chair and read an article and ask myself a question and then think about it and answer it for myself without wasting a couple thousand dollars a year on someone telling me if I'm right or wrong.

The purpose of higher education - definitely in America, maybe everywhere else - as far as I can tell is essentially this: Get a piece of paper that proves that you can eat the bullshit that people feed you without getting full.

Maybe it's just Hunter and maybe I'm overreacting and maybe this city just really got under my skin this past year but I've become extremely discouraged about college and very disillusioned with the direction that my life seems to be heading in. I feel like I could better educate myself by stumbling across pages on the internet or reading on my own, and that's what I've been doing instead of reading anything out of any textbook I've bought this semester. I remember one thing that a professor showed me that really interested me, but that's it. Eight thousand dollars for 5 interesting minutes.

I don't know if Purchase is any better - or any school for that matter - but I guess I'll try one more school before I drop out and try to make enough money to survive without a college diploma.

Or maybe I'll just go through the system and try to retain as much sanity as I can. Maybe I'll learn a few things and meet interesting people along the way. And once I get out and have that piece of paper it'll be easier to make enough money to get as far away from all this ridiculousness as I can. I guess as long as I'm aware that it's all bullshit, I'll be able to have some sense of intellectual self-defense.

I'll figure it out.

Barackula!

Wed, 07 May 2008 14:07:22 GMT

hahahahahaha

P.S.
"Hillary Clinton enthusiastically picked a filly named Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby and compared herself to the horse. Eight Belles finished second. The winner was the favorite, Big Brown.

Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line, and was euthanized shortly thereafter." - Time Magazine, Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

hahahahahaha

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:26:46 GMT

Videotape is the most perfect song ever written.
I'm glad Radiohead is still making music and that they've taken it in this direction.

Sun, 04 May 2008 20:12:17 GMT

I want to go back to Montauk and throw rocks at those boulders.
Scream out all the things we hate as they explode into tiny fragments.

The day I shaved my head you took the buzzer from my hand and
cut off whatever spots I missed.

I still carry around that letter you wrote in response to mine.
It has its own pocket in my backpack.

With your arms around my neck you lightly squeeze me
as we fall asleep in your bed when your parents aren't home.

I'll continue to kiss you goodbye every Sunday before I leave you,
feeling weak.

As of right now this doesn't have a title.
I can't think of a good one.

A summary and a rant...

Thu, 01 May 2008 02:36:34 GMT

The Logic of the Health Care Debate

Honestly, I don't understand how conservative thought has prevailed for so long in this country.
It takes maybe 5 minutes of thought to realize that the sorry excuse for a health care system that we have in this country is fundamentally fucked up. This system is only valid if we believe that we don't have an individual responsibility to take care of our fellow citizens.
I do understand how it got to be like this though. The idea that capitalism is the only just and fair economical system has been pounded into our heads since we were old enough to read a history textbook (and probably even before that). Subsequently, the idea that nobody is entitled to anything that they didn't personally earn has also been planted in our heads. It's incredibly sad if you think about it - that a person who is physically or mentally handicapped and incapable of maintaining an income is worthless. Hey, I'm not the one in the wheelchair, so I don't fucking care.
Anyway, in the fifth section of that report Giuliani is quoted as actually comparing private health care to the act of buying a plasma TV. He stated that, if the government offered to pay for a plasma TV for those who couldn't afford it, then lower quality televisions would cost upwards of $15,000 today, instead of higher quality ones now being available for only $2,000. He then went on to say, “The free market operated, lots of consumers got into the market, they bought TVs, and manufacturers realized that if they reduced the price they’d get more customers,” Giuliani said. “How do you get health care providers to start thinking that way? The only way you do it is to have 70 million customers bring the price down and the quality up.” He also said that the reason that the American health care system was better than all others is that it is, "private, competitive, and for-profit."
What Giuliani and many people don't understand - which is also something that this report explains - is that the health care industry is not like other industries. In other industries, companies can increase profits by delivering more of their product to their customers. But it's different with insurance providers. They increase profits by decreasing care. And since this system is about making a profit, 117 million people in this country are either underinsured or uninsured altogether. It's too expensive to care for them - the companies would turn less profits. So they're ignored.
Probably the most common argument I hear in favor of the American health care system is something along the lines of this: "Well, people from other countries come here when they really need help. In Europe and Canada there are waiting lists sometimes months long - it's not like that in America." In my opinion, Michael Moore posed a pretty good counter this argument. He said something like, "Well of course there's a line in other countries - but that's just because every citizen is insured. In America, we take 117 million people out of the line altogether. That's why there's no wait here, because half the population isn't even in line."
I'd like to add to that. The only people that come here from other countries are the people that can afford it - the rich. The system in place here is designed to benefit the rich and ignore the poor, so it makes sense that a rich person from another country would come here instead of waiting for treatment in their own country. They've got the money to spare, so why not? I'm pretty sure the poor stay in their own country to get treatment even if there is a long waiting list, because if they came here they wouldn't get treatment anyway.
Economically, there really shouldn't be an argument as to which system is more effective. This and this study concerning California support that a universal health care system, if implemented properly, could actually help families and businesses save money.
A common economical argument against universal health care is that in order to pay for it we'd have to raise taxes, which isn't fair.
First of all, the increase in taxes would also result in a decrease in personal cost for procedures and operations that private health insurance won't cover. So you pay more taxes, pay less out of pocket if you get seriously sick, and also help to provide health care for every citizen in your country. But of course that's a horrible idea that would ruin everything this country stands for.
Second of all, people seem to ignore the fact that it also isn't fair that "health care costs are the main cause of personal bankruptcies." But of course an increase in taxes for all is certainly more evil than a man being $200,000 in debt after his wife died of colon cancer because their insurance would only cover a fraction of the cost. If they didn't earn enough money to pay for it themselves, they deserve to die and be in debt. It's not me - at least, not yet - so I don't care.

It's sad that people have been so indoctrinated in this country that they seem to have lost the idea of a responsibility to ensure that their fellow citizens are treated as human beings. We're constantly told that any man can build himself up from the ground - that any man has the opportunity to achieve great things and great wealth. What is kept secret is that not every man can do these things. Not every man can be rich; not every man can afford to pay $200,000 in health care costs. Not every man can be a CEO. There's a working class too.
You've been convinced that you should only be concerned with providing for yourself. You've been convinced that your neighbors can fend for themselves, and if they can't, then it doesn't concern you. That's capitalism, that's social Darwinism. Dependency and solidarity are evil socialist ideas that are a threat to the what this country was founded on. Nevermind the fact that a universal health care system would actually be better for the majority of the public. Nevermind that it would only hurt the companies in the health care industry and "inconvenience" the rich. Nevermind that business has no place in gambling with a person's health. Profit's worth more than people.
Until we all give this issue serious thought and realize the lies and morally bankrupt opinions that are being spread about this issue, we can't hope for any real change. Neither Obama or Clinton are offering a real universal health care plan and no president ever will unless there's a popular demand for it by the public. The opportunity for change lies in the ability for the citizens of this country to abandon what they've always been told and turn a critical eye towards important issues and problems such as the American health care system. We need to really think. Hopefully we'll come to the right conclusion.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:01:14 GMT

'Disneyland' comes to Baghdad with multi-million pound entertainment park

The capitalist mentality never ceases to amaze me.
At least Werner's honest:

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t making money,” he said. “I also have this wonderful sense that we’re doing the right thing – we’re going to employ thousands of Iraqis. But mostly everything here is for profit.”

I feel like this article could be in the Onion.
THEY'RE BUILDING A FUCKING AMUSEMENT PARK IN BAGHDAD

Seriously, what the fuck?

I wish I could just read news instead of writing about shitty Jane Austen novels that I've half-read.
It'd be a more constructive use of my time.

By the way, if you want to watch real news, watch DemocracyNOW!

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:06:11 GMT

Un-"threat"-ing Iran: An Interview With Stephen Kinzer

The interviewer's voice is annoying but Stephen Kinzer explains America's motives behind "spreading democracy" in a nice, simple way.

Check out the site if you have time, it's pretty awesome.

The "Rules" of War

An Iraq veteran talks about the rules of engagement (and how they were broken) in Iraq and his experience there as a medic. He also spoke at:

Winter Soldier which was a meeting of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans against the war.

Search Winter Soldier in youtube.
I'm so glad that these soldiers are speaking out.
It's pretty fucking brave.

I love this guy:

Winter Soldier Mike Prysner testimony, Pt1
Winter Soldier Mike Prysner testimony, Pt2

I wish that the mainstream media in America wasn't so fucking useless and would cover things like this instead of beating the shit out of the 2008 presidential marathon.

"...no major television network or cable news network even mentioned Winter Soldier over the weekend. Neither did The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times and most other major newspapers in the country. The editors of the Washington Post chose to cover Winter Soldier, but placed the column in the local section." - Amy Goodman, DemocracyNOW

These stories are so sad.

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:21:36 GMT

I'd like to take this opportunity to let everyone know that Noam Chomsky is my intellectual idol.

Questions About Anarchism (Part 1)
Questions About Anarchism (Part 2)
Questions About Anarchism (Part 3)
Questions About Anarchism (Part 4)
Questions About Anarchism (Part 5)

Oh, and he teaches Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and has written about 90 books, many of which critique America's foreign policy in the past century.

If I can accomplish half of what he has or acquire half of the knowledge he has I'll be more than satisfied, and probably very sick and tired.

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:04:28 GMT

How to Cast a Write-In Vote for Ron Paul (Or Any Candidate Who Isn't On the Ballot)

I think that's what I'ma do.

Or maybe Mike Gravel.
I think he's the Libertarian nominee now.

Or maybe I should vote for the Democrat, just to keep McCain out.

I guess the real question is,
What am I gonna do after I press that button?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:29:36 GMT

Answer the question if you wanna. Anonymous posts are cool too.

My answer is: Make the government work for the people again. And by people I mean the majority of the population that isn't rich.

bleheheheheh

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:54:02 GMT

The New York Times
And tapping feet.

Twenty people touching
Physically

A homeless prophet begging
To a man without a seat.

The uptown 6 is lonely
Seven days a week.

Spring break in a week.
Summer in a few more.
I can't wait to get back to Long Island.

I don't think I'll miss this city.