October 31, 2002
happy Hallowe'en
Not a very scary jack o' lantern, just goofy happy, sitting outside our windows and now in the ether as well....
a shenere un bessere velt
The just-about-legendary, yet historical, New York socialist community, The Workman's Circle, or Der Arbeter Ring celebrates over one hundred years of caring. Now exhibiting the effects of its success, or at least those of its age, it looks for ways...
Jam Master Jay
Jam Master Jay, the DJ of the rap group Run-DMC, was shot in the head and killed last night in a Queens recording studio. "He has a little soul, to rock n' roll Every record that he touches turns to...
Harry Hay and all the other queer outsiders
Michael Bronski has written a sharp essay on the real Harry Hay and his "uneasy relationship with the gay movement." Hay believed that "queer sexuality had an essential outsider quality that made the outcast homosexual the perfect prophet for a...
October 30, 2002
"Gay History is Still in the Closet"
Richard Goldstein made it onto the NYTimes Op-Ed page again today, this time using Harry Hay's death to remind us all of the American blackout of queer history.Why are the gay movement's roots so obscured? The reason is the invisibility...
Vatican extolls Vatican charity
Oh sure, they're gonna "open their files." Actually, it's simply a continuing coverup of Vatican complicity in the Holocaust, and a transparent propaganda move, to show historians "the great works of charity and assistance" undertaken by Pius XII for prisoners...
the Halloween "truth" man
Boondocks' Huey really says it best, and it makes a great sound bite, should any of us find ourselves under a microphone in the near future:Just a reminder that the economy is in the toilet, we're on the brink of...
"Woyzeck" for the ages
We sat in the first row for the Robert Wilson/Tom Waits "Woyzeck" last night. We're both getting impatient (at the least) with Wilson, but Waits' raw super-noir keeps him interesting. (This is their third collaboration, after "Black Rider" and "Alice.")...
take a hike, scum!
Oh what joy! To be able just once to say to the Bushies, "Take a Hike!" and know that they heard, and that so did everybody else.WASHINGTON - The sons of the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone said Vice President...
we need no axis for our evil
[Yesterday a Middle East intellectual] suggested that there was a double standard in the extraordinary reaction against Mr. Hussein today compared with the world's inaction when he turned chemical weapons against Iran and even against Iraqi civilians. "If chemical weapons...
Vidal still vital, but still no one listens
Gore Vidal is not afraid to offend, bless him. America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether...
October 29, 2002
Israeli zealots sabotaging Israel
Barry has just blogged a great piece on the disaster in Israel and Palestine.One of today's Ha'aretz essays, titled "Before Jewish fascism takes over", discusses interesting similarities between this era and that of the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans....
will we vote for more of the same?
Bad news for "the business of America": Business is bad, and America finally knows it.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Worries about jobs and a possible U.S. attack on Iraq pummeled consumer confidence to its lowest level in nine years in October,...
October 28, 2002
follow-up on G.M.'s fundamentalism
Now for a completely different read [NYTimes letter] on the item I posted recently. CHEVY GETS THE FAITH To the Editor: Re "G.M. Gets Criticism for Backing Tour of Christian Music Performers" (Business Day, Oct. 24): Chevrolet's sponsorship of a...
October 27, 2002
vote green this time
Don't let them keep getting away with it. [The Democrat-Republican party oligarchy, that is.] And we won't even be helping Pataki when we do it! Barry says it all on Bloggy:I see no reason to vote for Carl McCall in...
When less is sometimes almost enough
I love The Onion, so I hope they will excuse me when I say that sometimes it's enough just to read through the cheeky headlines. Well, at least when you're in a big hurry. A small sample from the last...
more on the numbers game in Washington
The Washington Post redeemed itself this time. The later edition of their article on the D.C. anti-war demonstration is a pretty fair report. No, it's a damn good one!Luigi Procopio, 45, a social worker from the district, wore a pink...
what's the message here?
It's a salon Premium article, so the regular Salon site includes only a precis, but it's all that's really needed to begin to put the story into perspective.]The media is fixating on John Allen Muhammad's Muslim beliefs. But the most...
Paul Wellstone
A poet salutes his friend.Paul Wellstone was an unlikely politician in a place like Minnesota — land of walleyes, cornfields and phlegmatic Scandinavians. He was an urban Jew, son of immigrants, a college professor at the fanciest of Minnesota's private...
Bush doctrine
Perhaps equally casual about distinguishing between those who "are either with us or against us," Bush's "new friend" has "weapons of mass destruction," and he doesn't seem to hestitate in using them even "against his own people."MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) --...
U.S. now pariah more than paragon
Clinton and his administration were no great shakes when it came to their domestic policy programs or their real successes, but Bush and his own people make their predecessors look like progressives and political geniuses if we look at not...
back to new art stuff
Ah, that's better. I've been feeling so distanced from the visual arts thing for months, I was beginning to think I was going through another change of life (-style). This afternoon's outing put the kibosh on that notion. The galleries...
October 26, 2002
numbers game in Washington
The Washington Post is certainly not repeating its brave record of the Viet Nam war era. The paper has been diligent in pushing a very conservative foreign policy agenda and dramatically demonstrating its support for the war fever of the...
throw the puritans out of NYC government!
If you are alive, dancing is a fundamental right, but dancing is illegal in almost any public place in New York City today. Come to City Hall Park thursday (Halloween!) to help show that we can and will dance when...
October 25, 2002
the method in their mendacity
"For the Bush administration is an extremely elitist clique trying to maintain a populist facade." Paul Krugman deconstructs the short-term strategy of the Bush administration and then, inexplicably, he says that he is confused.What remains puzzling is the long-term strategy....
Adolph Green
The news could not be more sad (even for me, and I have little interest in the Broadway musical form), unless it had included an announcement of the death of Betty Comden as well. In fact, Comden and Green were...
we've lost Senator Wellstone
Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, daughter Marcia, and five others were killed today in a small plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota. The Senator was one of our most courageous and progressive legislators, and we have very very few. His...
October 24, 2002
the death of a prince, or a princess
Harry Hay died today. HARRY HAY, PAVED THE WAY FOR MODERN GAY ACTIVISM, DIES AT 90 Henry "Harry" Hay, known as the founder of the modern American gay movement, has died at age 90. The pioneering gay activist devoted his...
G.M. pushes christian fundamentalism
Gosh, and I thought it was just their cars and SUVs that were offensive.Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, is title sponsor of the monthlong 16-city Come Together and Worship Tour, which begins on Nov. 1 in Atlanta. The tour...
simple questions, not so simple answers
What does the world look like today, compared to what it looked like just two years ago? No, the dwarf in the White House can't be blamed for everything, but he certainly can't be credited with anything. Admittedly he has...
re-writing the present, before it's history
Washington chickenhawks don't like what all of the top intellegence agencies are telling them, so they've erected a creature, responsible only to them, to give them the answer they want.Some officials say the creation of the team reflects frustration on...
October 23, 2002
everybody feel better now?
President Bush said on Wednesday he was praying for a quick end to the killing spree [our home-grown and our very latest] and offered full government resources to help catch the "ruthless" killer. Thank God. Also thank God Dubya is...
blessed are the vintners
Yes, I know there is a drama and perhaps a real tragedy being played out in Moscow as I write this, but I read this item about the beleagured wine industry in Chechnya this morning before the news about the...
they still ain't got no religion
Geesh, these people must think we're all really stupid! New York Republican neanderthals have finally decided to let the New York Senate vote on gay rights, but only in order to secure more votes for Republican candidates in November. The...
quite a Big Lie
Weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 without U.N. approval in a predawn evacuation on the orders of their chief, Richard Butler, hours before American and British attacks on Iraq. Butler had been advised by Washington of a possible U.S.-led bombing...
October 22, 2002
in so many words
I'm borrowing a direct quote from ZNet email message, because it's so succinct:The U.S. propels a war on terorism in order to pursue its entirely different agendas of redistribution at home and solidifying empire internationally -- not least solidifying control...
still making a fuss!
These are our children! Activists demonstrated inside and outside of the UN General Assembly yesterday, where they shouted, "No war in Iraq!" These good folks, knowingly or not, were following in the footsteps and the soundbites of generations of worthy...
sigh
It's a fucked-up country. Sexphobia and religion encourages AIDS Ever bigger, tanklike SUVs protect us from each other Bombing is regularly employed to maintain peace Health care is made a commodity Incumbents are honored when terror strikes on their watch...
"Welcome to New York," Mr. Trump said.
Asshole Trump essentially embodies the worst aspects of the New York of the last few decades. Stupidity, greed, the appetite for power, horrendous taste, insensitivity, waste, and just plain vulgarity, with absolutely no redeeming social value. He is an embarassment...
October 21, 2002
villagers driven from their homes
But of course all Palestinians are terrorists, and G-d says this is our land. How could anyone have a problem with that?...
he did it!
It sure looks like Barry may have had more than a little to do with it. The Daily News now has a story on the deceit of the White House's North Korea secret....
democracy and Democracy, both now dead
Tom Tomorrow is just observing. This is not political satire. Our much balleyhooed two-party system ceased to exist a while back....
don't mess wid da car!
The Daily News did its tabloid thing yesterday with an hysterical front page headline ("IT'S TOLLS FOR THEE") and story screaming the news that our Mayor wants to charge tolls on the East River crossings. Duh. Gosh, why should someone...
the Times marches on, but doesn't forget
Wow! Holding a grudge for eighty-nine years! The NYTimes let us know this week that it has by no means forgotten its ignominious defeat over an environmental issue fought in the early years of the last century. In an editorial...
October 20, 2002
insurance, not socialism
Heck, although I was an insurance underwriter for thirty years (albeit in tort liability, not health insurance), I happy to find that I'm not the only American who understands the basic principle of insurance, the spread of risk among a...
"the odor of mendacity"
--is even worse than the smell of secrecy. The New York Daily News ain't Big Daddy. Their own newswriters, their wire services and their columnists apparently weren't swift enough to pick up on the lie, but whoever is responsible for...
October 18, 2002
ah, the good old Cold War!
At least it stayed cold. Is it possible that some day in the distant future (if a future is possible) we will look back on the period of the Cold War as one of peace and prosperity, when compared to...
October 17, 2002
beating the drums for the tin president
The junta itself can't make it's arguments consistent, let alone believable for anyone with a mind, but the media eats it up!The White House insists it isn't "wagging the dog" to divert attention from domestic issues, an accusation that Fleischer...
from the mouths of . . . entertainers
Of course Woody Harrelson doesn't have the credentials of a George W or most of the patsies in government and in the commercial media, but he does seem to understand the issues. It ain't that hard, afer all. It also...
CIA admits "war on terror" a failure
At least someone in Washington is willing to say it.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA Director George Tenet said on Thursday al Qaeda has reorganized and become as serious a threat to the United States as it was in the months...
October 14, 2002
so, are we winning now?
The next nut who speaks of the great job the Unelected One is doing with the "war on terror" should be committed.The blast that killed nearly 200 people on the Indonesian resort island of Bali this weekend is a different...
October 13, 2002
no more soggy teddy bears
Enough is sometimes more than enough. The keepers of St. Paul's Chapel across the street from the World Trade Center site say that they don't know what to do about the improvised shrine visitors have made of the fence surrounding...
domestic crisis ignored
We're long overdue. There is simply no rational explanation for our continuing to treat health care as a commodity like, oh, say, a new car or a flat-screen tv. Marcia Angell's Op-Ed piece in the NYTimes neatly flattens every argument...
October 11, 2002
Bloggy
I feel apologetic for the limited number of my postings lately, so I'm referring you all to Barry for great stuff, both political and everything that ain't....
the two prizes
Two prizes were awarded today. Bush won the booby prize. Carter won the the real one. If there is an award the opposite of the Nobel Peace Prize it would be that handed to George W. Bush, his entire administration,...
October 9, 2002
When Did Iraq Become More Important Than America?
So asks the public interest site, TomPaine.com.Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat OR he’s just a convenient political distraction wielded by the White House. Whichever way you see it, you must agree: The attack-Iraq tempest has eclipsed most other issues....
GI Joe's dream house
www.antiwar.com describes it, "GI Joe Commandeers Barbie's Dream House." From the J.C. Penny catalog. Seriously! Just whose family home are they imagining trashed by our hero? Is it in Nablus? Baghdad? Manila? Bogota? San Francisco? "Holidays ahead!" Indeed....
October 8, 2002
America has its head up its ass!
In spite of the direction in which the caption seems to point, it's not about politics this time. Sub-headline: "Bikes told to take a hike" San Diego in my experience is one of the most fitness-conscious, physical cities we have....
The General Strike
This is an excerpt, from an online excerpt, from Chapter 13 of The Iron Heel by Jack London (1908).The general strike was the one great victory we American socialists won. On 4 December the American minister was withdrawn from the...
October 7, 2002
the lesson of Viet Nam
For the life of me (and for the lives of so many who died needlessly in Southeast Asia on both sides), I'll never understand how the media can describe the Democrats' "lesson of Vietnam" as the resolve to appear forevermore...
thanks, Ray
The world needs Ray Johnson right now. Ok, at least I do. Ray is gone, but what he left behind, that part of his art which could survive him, is now more accessible than perhaps ever before. The very human,...
protestors jeer Gephardt
We really really really love Maine!As U.S. House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt stepped away from the crowd Sunday in Kennedy Park, the crowd followed. It was not the crowd that showed up to support Democrat Mike Michaud in his run...
pinko faggot treehugger towelhead
What an amazing world! And what an amazing city! (Paris, this time) In an earlier post I described Bertrand Delanoe, the Mayor of Paris, as queer, green and a socialist, and nothing much was yet know about the man who...
war as only a tool of statecraft
"war as only a tool of statecraft" [my characterization of the accelerating Republican talk of war] Now that sounds like a fine old European tradition, although one modern Europe was happy to abandon a couple of generations ago. For our...
October 6, 2002
this may be our last best chance
Do something. Together with tomorrow and just possibly the day after, these may be the most fateful days in modern American history. Some day they will ask, "Where were you?" Be ready to tell them, if you survive the days...
just don't stop dancing!
The queer green socialist Mayor of Paris [just try using those adjectives anywhere in this country to describe a town executive!] was stabbed, apparently by a deranged man, in the midst of the all-night party he had given to the...
October 5, 2002
"jews hate Bush"
[This goy would wear it as a badge of honor, if he could imagine it involved any merit on his part.] Tonight I was surprised to find myself the target in a classic and somewhat extended anti-semitic confrontation. While Barry...
why now? why now?
A great orator, and perhaps the last of his kind. I don't often see eye-to-eye with the senior Senator from West Virginia, but Democrat Robert C. Byrd did amazing work in the halls of Congress this week. [the following quotes...
Jessica Lange gets it
--not that the media is going to report her statement, even if she is a celebrity (shouldn't that be enough of a temptation?), when it refuses to cover the statements of (legitimate?) politicians who speak out against the Administration's latest...
October 4, 2002
rigging the election
There really is an excellent reason for supporting war with Iraq, or at least for talking about such a war. If one is of the Republican persuasion and one wishes to maintain and even increase the Republican domination of the...
