Debunking B.S.

The History Channel had on a show about the world ending in 2012. This is according to Nostradamus and the Mayan calender. Here are the top ten predictions by Nostradamus debunked. Here is the Mayan calender doomsday debunked. The world is not going to end in 2012 as it did not end in 2000.

Remember 2000 and that craziness about Y2K. I ran across this recently which made me think about that.

For a poetry reading on New Years Eve of 2000 I read this poem I had written for the event:

When a Problem Becomes a Solution

In the course of my lifetime,

the United States government and military

have waged war in Korea,

Vietnam,, Libya, Grenada, Panama,

the Gulf, Somalia, and Bosnia.

plus the cold war and undeclared war

on the poor, the homeless, the working class,

minorities and unionist.

They’ve also backed repressive regimes

in Latin America, Africa, Greece,

the Philippines and Asia.

They tried to kill Castro, and assassinated Allende in Chile,

and maybe even Kennedy and King.

They had the McCarthy witch hunt

and murdered students at Kent State.

One of our presidents was involved in a burglary.

another sold weapons to our enemies to fund an illegal war.

Some say he was our greatest president,

which sends shivers down my spine.

We’ve witnessed pollution, ozone depletion,

radioactive waste, nuclear buildup,

racism, sexism, homophobia,

thieving politicians, an unjust judicial system

and do as I say not as I do spiritual leaders.

We’ve had the advent of: serial killers, sky jackings,

school and workplace shootings, suicide cults and crack babies.

Drug addicts are no longer treated they are incarcerated

unless they happen to be running for political office.

We’ve had savings and loan failures

where tax payers picked up the bills.

Now the financial sector is lobbying to end Social Security,

so the money can be diverted to Wall Street.

Last bastions of hope like the hippies

the peace and love bohemians

of Haight and Ashbury Street

have turned into the BMW (Big Money Wasted) driving

yuppie stockbrokers of Wall Street.

Now on the edge of a new millennium we’re told

our greatest fear is a computer glitch called Y2K.

They claim it will devastate the functions

of the government, the military and financial institutes.

Which leads me to ask,

Is that really such a bad thing?

Elvis Costello Waiting On the End of the World

Herman’s Hermits End of the World

I know, I know you were expecting REM.

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”~ Richared Bach

Observations At a Wedding Reception

Something on a lighter note today. I attended my nephew’s wedding and reception yesterday in Elyria Ohio. My nephew, Doug has been living with his new wife, Abby for awhile now in their new home in North Carolina. I actually think living with someone can offer insight on how your married life might go. Abby seems like a lovely girl who will make Doug a good wife and vice versa.

The wedding was at a United Church of Christ church with a woman minister. I think religions like the Catholic Church are missing out big time not having women as ministers and priests. The minister talked about how no one is perfect. It got me thinking that a couple planning a wedding try to plan a perfect wedding. That would be a nice start to a marriage as much in your married life will be imperfect. Truth is the wedding went well but the reception did not go so well. That is because Abby had been fighting some kind of a bug for a few days and had already lost her voice. While doing the bridal dance she had to make a dash for the bathroom, as she was feeling ill.

So the imperfections of marriage had set in as early as the reception. On the bright side that is learning about the unexpected mysterious events that life is going to throw at you. The Elecpencil wouldn’t get up every morning if he didn’t think he was going face the mystery’s of life and learn something. Well, that and the fact every morning Mrs. Elecpencil says, “Get up you’re going to be late.”

Best wishes Abby and Doug. This couple has waited until their late 20’s to get married and I think that gives them a better chance at having a marriage that will stand the test of time. I wrote the following poem awhile back after observing some receptions of couples that were married years younger than Abby and Doug and I can tell you most of them are already divorced.

Observations on the Occasion of a Wedding Reception

These kids are too damn young.
The younger the bride
the more bridesmaids she has.
Here at the reception sat eight
all in dresses they hated
it’s some unwritten law.
But it’s the bride’s day not theirs,
and a fortune was spent
on a hall, a dress and limos.
So guest must make due
with 7 oz. pony bottles of Blatz,
rum and cokes, heavy on the coke,
and red wine in a box.
There’s Mostacholi without enough sause
along with a salad dripping in dressing.
The wedding couple passes
the laden cookie table
to go cut their cake.
They tackily shove it
into each others face.
A 5-piece band
strikes up polkas
and the obligatory
Proud Mary and
Joy to the World.
They ignore a request
from the Best Man for
She’s Having My Baby and
Another One Bites the Dust.
A dance line chugs around to,
Do the Locomotion.
An old flame of the groom
wants to know if
the band will play,
The Lady is a Tramp.
Gigolos electric slide,
kids and grandmas
do the Macarena and
the chicken dance.
Babas and Stedababas
tell single girls
twice the bride’s age
their marriage is next.
The sound of these girls’s eye’s
rolling back in their head’s,
can be heard over the band.
In the bathrooms
drunken teenagers
hug the porcelain telephone
and yell in the receiver
for Ralph.
Open collared, gold chained,
snake skin boot wearing,
cigar smoking, beer breathed,
Cadillac driving,
multi-divorced,
would be Romeo’s
offer up sage advice
to the wide-eyed groom.
Like: she got the wedding ring
and you get the suffering.
and: Wedlock, not enough wed
and too much lock.
Another adds: you didn’t fall
into her arms
you fell into her hands.
The groom is made
to feel like a pimp,
while men line up to pay
for a bridal dance.
He becomes angry
when she dances close
with an ex-boyfriend
she had insisted on inviting.
The bride had met
the groom’s number one
priority for marriage material,
she liked to party her ass off.
She fell in love with him
because he has cute buns.
These are the foundations
for a marriage now a days.
The band takes a break
and the groom joins them
outside the hall for a doobie.
The bride’s father passes by
and shakes his head.
He can’t believe he has lost
his little princess
to this sad loser.
He had been thinking,
he’d turn her bedroom
into a computer room.
Unfortunately his wife
had nixed that idea.
She claimed they needed
to keep the room as it is.
That way their daughter
would have a place
to come if the marriage
didn’t work out.
That doesn’t sound good
to the father who dipped
into his retirement fund
to pay for the wedding.
He’s thinking about
the extra five years
he’ll have to work.
He strolls past a red Camaro
whose coil springs
bounce up and down.
As the best man
and a bridesmaid’s
legs dangle from a window.
The bride’s father is glad
someone got something
out of all this.

Chicken Dance Polka

Doing the Locomotion

Proud Mary Sung at a Wedding

A Sad Comment On Marital Bliss

“Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery.” -Erma Bombeck

The Greatest Generation Were Socialists

I was glad to see President Obama go to Normandy Beach and give a speech to honor the 65th anniversary of the D-Day victory! Most of our surviving WWII veterans are in their 80’s and 90’s and need to be thanked while they are still with us. In many ways they are, “the Greatest Generation” as newsman Tom Brokaw has called them. I thank them for their service and the values they have given us.

I heard some conservative using the Greatest Generation as an example of people who provided for their own family and didn’t need socialistic programs from Big Government. The commentator stated the Greatest Generation utilized what it had and this is a big part of why the Greatest Generation  should be an inspiration to us all.

I think this conservative commentator is absolutely right that we need lots of the things the Greatest Generation was able to utilize that made them the inspiration they are today. Things like President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal socialized programs that provided, direct relief, economic recovery, and financial reform that benefited the Greatest Generation’s parents and them. Then you had socialized programs like the GI Bill, which offered young war veterans cheap loans to pursue business opportunities and education that before World War II would have been out of their reach. This government assistance produced a thriving middle class. It educated hundreds of thousands of teachers, scientists, doctors and engineers who helped the long post war economic growth. It made that generation stress the value of education and of taking advantage of great government programs to better your self. It taught that generation that programs like Social Security and Medicare were worth fighting for.

The conservative corporate media will of course ignore the fact that socialism in part made the Greatest Generation the successful generation that it was. The corporate media will continue to use phrases like: “Liberal, cradle to the grave mentality, big government and big brother” to describe socialism as some kind of creeping evil.

When I see the average citizen fall for this rhetoric I know that the real big brother, corporations and the right-wing think tanks and media that they own have succeeded in their propaganda. The think tanks and media succeeded when they were able to get the middle class to label the poor getting assistance as, “welfare queens.” This while Wal-Mart the ultimate welfare queen got $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies and abatements. Many of the states give Wal-Mart money while they cut social programs for their citizens.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found, 11 of the 14 most medically significant drugs developed in the United States between 1970 and 1995 originated with government-funded research. Then this public investment was privatized in exclusive licenses to drug companies without return to taxpayers. Anyone remember the recent Wall Street, banks and auto manufacturers bailout? That bailouts proved that, the foundation of corporate welfare is to socialize the cost and privatize the profits

Most businesses wouldn’t be able to survive in a free market system because the government would not be able to protect them from free market discipline. Dwayne Andreas, CEO of corporate giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), in 1995 told a reporter, “the only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians. People do not understand that this is a socialist country.”

We have corporate socialism in this country and it’s not going away. If the corporations and their think tanks have their way public socialism to help the needy will disappear and be funneled to help the greedy in the form of corporate welfare. Right now we have a government of big business, by big business and for big business. We need a separation of corporate and state. We also need to remember that the people are the government and our tax dollars should benefit us not corporations that have no loyalty to this country.

Those WWII GI’s who landed at Normandy made the world safe for every generation to follow. If we don’t soon put people before profits we will doom our following generations.

Tom Morell “the Night Watchman” sings only one thing…the truth:

Tom Morello Guerilla Radio

House in Flames

Road I Must Travel

“Many people consider the things  government does for them to be  social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.” ~ Earl Warren

Bumper Stickers as Suicide Notes

My daughter the Mac has graduated with honors from Matthews High School! She is happy to have received a couple of local scholarships. We attended a sports award banquet yesterday. Mac lettered in softball and it was a nice event that parents brought covered dishes to. These kinds of events that honor our children make me proud to be a member of the Vienna community.

The Elecpencil has always been allergic to money but has never had any danger of breaking out in a rash from having any. I realized the other night that I am wealthy because I have two children that have turned out to be fine young adults that make me proud. It may not be the kind of wealth you can spend but it is the kind of wealth that makes for a better future for all of us. You can take that to the bank.

An update about the late Joe Alexi that I wrote about in my post, “No Average Joe”: At the sports banquet it was mentioned that donations would be accepted for a bench with the late Joe Alexi’s name on it to be placed at either the school or football field. It was mentioned that Joe was the one guy that could be phoned last minute and show up to do anything that needed to be done for our communities kids. Because Joe always sold 50/50 raffle tickets at the high school football and basketball games he was affectionately known as, “Mr. 50/50.”

I’d like to make a comment about the killing of Dr.Tiller in Kansas. A few months ago commentators on the right were outraged that Homeland Security was warning about right-wing extremists here in the USA. Well, it looks like Homeland Security was correct. Add in that right-wing commentators like Bill O’Reilly in over two-dozen shows had called Dr. Tiller a murderer.

I see bumper stickers promoting, pro-life, God, guns and hunting. Those of us on the left feel that these folks are entitled to have these opinions. If  I  had bumper stickers saying, pro-choice, anti-God, anti-guns and anti-hunting how long would it be before me or my vehicle was damaged or shot full of holes? Having such a bumper sticker would make me suicidal as I’d be inviting, “Suicide by right-wing extremists.”

I remember a few years back when there was a debate about stopping hunting in the Cuyahoga Forest. An elderly woman had a bumper sticker saying to support efforts to stop hunting in the forest. She was followed by a hunter in his truck who severely beat her. I’m saying these folks on the right tend to be more dangerous than ones on the left. Then there are the hypocrites on the right like: O’Reilly, Hannity, Boss Limbaugh, Bill Kristol, G W Bush and Cheney who can’t get enough of war but all ducked the draft.

If America wants to bring peace and a better life to the planets back yards we better start cleaning our own front porches.

The Holdup David Bromberg

Danger Man

“How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be “American” before (or in contradiction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?”

Edith Wharton