AGEISM AS BILL MAHER SO RIGHTLY CALLED IT
In some places in this massively dysfunctional world, we are living longer and longer. There should have been preparation for this thunderous phenomenon yet here we are still working, some at minimum wage. At the same time, there are hundreds of thousands of young people who cannot find jobs and if they do find them, they, also, are working at minimum wage.
Perhaps, someone should have advised them that there is only one Bill Gates. The young have flooded the job market and there's only one thing that happens when there are too many people searching for the same job. Cheap wages or the classic line, "You have to know someone".
Job security? Not even in temp work. The Middle Class is destroyed.
However, there are some bastions of job security. The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States can sit there until we cannot determine if they are alive or dead or mummified, appointed for life.
We are supposedly a democracy but we are not. What we are is a republic, that is, the majority rules and the majority has massive amounts of money to buy anyone and anything.
And, speaking of bought and sold, there's Congress. With a few exceptions, I cannot remember such ineptitude. It is deliberate and hateful. Such machinations would astonish even Andrew Jackson, our first dictator, not Barack Obama.
You see a dictator is a leader who has control of everything. And not even FDR accomplished that trick. Andrew Jackson, however, did. He got rid of his Vice President, John C. Calhoun, he controlled Congress, and appointed Roger Taney as Chief Justice. That last historic note happened when John Marshall died. That is, the great John Marshall.
Jackson so hated the Cherokee Nation that he supported their removal from their lands. They fought the case twice before the Supreme Court. First, they lost. Second time around, they won. When Jackson was informed he said, "Mr. Marshall has made his decision. Now, who's going to enforce it?" Justice Marshall died and there are those who say that at his funeral, the Liberty Bell cracked. (Not too certain about the bell but it makes a great anecdote.)
Jackson ordered the troops to Georgia and the Cherokee were taken from their homes with just the clothes on their backs and marched to Oklahoma. Hundreds and hundreds died and many were not even allowed to bury their dead children where they fell. Even Sam Houston could not believe Jackson's Executive Order and Davy Crockett would leave for the west and, ultimately, die at the Alamo.
In American History, there is only one era named for a president and it really isn't a compliment. Want to guess? It's the Age of Jackson. I had an entire graduate course on Jackson and it was fascinating. Incidentally, the Cherokee Nation is still with us.
Now, to return to Ageism. If we live, we will grow old. And there is one person in the Senate who is a senior citizen, independent and brilliant. Senator Bernie Sanders hails from Vermont and whenever he speaks, I still have hope for this country.
Now, to return to the young, you have to take to the streets. Above all, you have to vote, vote, vote in every town, county, state and federal election.
As for our President, may he grab his pen and sign the Executive Orders that could counter the deliberate and massively financed hate that is ripping this nation to pieces. Let us all heed the words of Leonard Cohen.
Ring the bell that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in........
And me, I think the Liberty Bell can still bellow and proclaim the meaning of the name she was given.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Bullets of the False Revenge
This week saw the premiere of the Phil Ochs documentary, There But For Fortune. Due to winter conditions and lingering colds, my husband and I were unable to make it to IFC in New York City to view the film. I loved Phil Ochs when I was young and I still do. To me, he was the most relevant voice of his time. To Billy Bragg, he was everything that Bob Dylan should have been.
One of his songs was written after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and it begins with the words, "Oh the bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again.." and they have.
What happened in Tucson is not a surprise. I have been to Arizona twice and it is a state that oozes hate and hatred in every breath and breeze that covers it. The present governor of the state has allowed people who were approved for transplants to die because it wasn't in the budget. I guess the Republicans have begun their own death panels.
The young man who rushed to aid Congresswoman Gifford was Hispanic, Daniel Hernandez. I wonder if the governor wants to see his papers and does she already deem him to be illegal because his skin coloring is a bit darker than hers.
The right wing immediately started their cacophony, especially that drug addict, Limbaugh, that none of this was their fault. And yes, we have had our share of fanatics in our history but we have never had radio, internet sites or television networks that broadcast hate everyday, every hour, every minute, 24/7. In whatever co-universe there is, George Orwell must be following all of this with great interest or, perhaps, he already knows the outcome.
And never have we had a more misinformed electorate that believes every note of hate that screeches into their ears. On the same note, we have never have had a Black President and the one thing that no one seems to desire to admit is that rascism is as part of our DNA as apple pie.
I want the right wing extremists to name one president in recent history who has reached out so many times to the opposition party with greater civility and been as rebuffed in so many ways and times as President Obama. He was called a liar during the State of the Union message. The Republicans did not honor a meeting with him at the White House because it was a conflict in their schedules. And the minority leader of the Senate has only one goal and that it is make certain that the President is not re-elected in 2012. All the problems this nation faces and his one stupid objective is an election.
From Virginia, where the Attorney General, wishes to re-introduce nullification (as if that act of treason had ever gone away) to Texas, where the governor keeps babbling about secession (well, you have my permission to go), we have the South preparing to honor the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. They are saying it is to honor their culture (slavery?) but I call it treason.
And this brings us to what 2011 really is.
The death of the child in Tucson is an omen. She was born, almost ten years ago, on September 11th. We had the opportunity to make something remarkable out of that tragedy, something that had never previously happened in history. We could have shown the world our greatness by responding with good and not evil. Instead the death of all those innocent people was used as an excuse to engage in two wars, one for oil, and the other one, for undetermined reasons, which shall never be over and will bankrupt this nation, both spiritually and economically.
Violence breeds violence and hate breeds hatred.
I live in a small town and have seen old people standing at the post office, (federal government property, incidentally) with pictures of the President, in white face and with swastikas on his sleeves. When I called the local police and told them that such a situation might cause trouble, they took no notice and did nothing about it although the hate mongerers had no business being on federal property.
It is almost ten years since that day and we are not a better nation. We are as divided now as we were in 1860 and the weapons of hatred that we have at our disposal are far more powerful.
We do not debate. We scream. We do not discuss. We lie and twist history. We have taken words, like compromise and civility, and made them into profanities. We refuse to learn anything from the past and we have no thought for the future. The present has deteriorated into the worst form of capitalism: survival of the fittest.
There was a time, once, in this country when we believed in equality and tried to bring it where it did not exist, that is, in our own country. We thought that we could all stand together under a banner, a big banner, that simply stated "Americans".
We have lived through much violence and political assassinations. Like a dormant plague, the hate that causes this violence waits and waits and finds entry to destroy all that is good about us.
So this week the House of Representatives, out of a new found but temporary civility, will not introduce a bill to destroy Obamacare. I guess it can wait for a week. Perhaps, we can see the Speaker of the House shed a tear as he votes "Nay" on health care for the millions who do not have it. I have not seen his outrage or his tears for the innocent killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or Tucson.
Phil Ochs died of a broken heart. He knew that all that he believed in would never come to pass and with his death, an era passed.
The words and the music have remained, however, and the bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again.
One of his songs was written after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and it begins with the words, "Oh the bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again.." and they have.
What happened in Tucson is not a surprise. I have been to Arizona twice and it is a state that oozes hate and hatred in every breath and breeze that covers it. The present governor of the state has allowed people who were approved for transplants to die because it wasn't in the budget. I guess the Republicans have begun their own death panels.
The young man who rushed to aid Congresswoman Gifford was Hispanic, Daniel Hernandez. I wonder if the governor wants to see his papers and does she already deem him to be illegal because his skin coloring is a bit darker than hers.
The right wing immediately started their cacophony, especially that drug addict, Limbaugh, that none of this was their fault. And yes, we have had our share of fanatics in our history but we have never had radio, internet sites or television networks that broadcast hate everyday, every hour, every minute, 24/7. In whatever co-universe there is, George Orwell must be following all of this with great interest or, perhaps, he already knows the outcome.
And never have we had a more misinformed electorate that believes every note of hate that screeches into their ears. On the same note, we have never have had a Black President and the one thing that no one seems to desire to admit is that rascism is as part of our DNA as apple pie.
I want the right wing extremists to name one president in recent history who has reached out so many times to the opposition party with greater civility and been as rebuffed in so many ways and times as President Obama. He was called a liar during the State of the Union message. The Republicans did not honor a meeting with him at the White House because it was a conflict in their schedules. And the minority leader of the Senate has only one goal and that it is make certain that the President is not re-elected in 2012. All the problems this nation faces and his one stupid objective is an election.
From Virginia, where the Attorney General, wishes to re-introduce nullification (as if that act of treason had ever gone away) to Texas, where the governor keeps babbling about secession (well, you have my permission to go), we have the South preparing to honor the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. They are saying it is to honor their culture (slavery?) but I call it treason.
And this brings us to what 2011 really is.
The death of the child in Tucson is an omen. She was born, almost ten years ago, on September 11th. We had the opportunity to make something remarkable out of that tragedy, something that had never previously happened in history. We could have shown the world our greatness by responding with good and not evil. Instead the death of all those innocent people was used as an excuse to engage in two wars, one for oil, and the other one, for undetermined reasons, which shall never be over and will bankrupt this nation, both spiritually and economically.
Violence breeds violence and hate breeds hatred.
I live in a small town and have seen old people standing at the post office, (federal government property, incidentally) with pictures of the President, in white face and with swastikas on his sleeves. When I called the local police and told them that such a situation might cause trouble, they took no notice and did nothing about it although the hate mongerers had no business being on federal property.
It is almost ten years since that day and we are not a better nation. We are as divided now as we were in 1860 and the weapons of hatred that we have at our disposal are far more powerful.
We do not debate. We scream. We do not discuss. We lie and twist history. We have taken words, like compromise and civility, and made them into profanities. We refuse to learn anything from the past and we have no thought for the future. The present has deteriorated into the worst form of capitalism: survival of the fittest.
There was a time, once, in this country when we believed in equality and tried to bring it where it did not exist, that is, in our own country. We thought that we could all stand together under a banner, a big banner, that simply stated "Americans".
We have lived through much violence and political assassinations. Like a dormant plague, the hate that causes this violence waits and waits and finds entry to destroy all that is good about us.
So this week the House of Representatives, out of a new found but temporary civility, will not introduce a bill to destroy Obamacare. I guess it can wait for a week. Perhaps, we can see the Speaker of the House shed a tear as he votes "Nay" on health care for the millions who do not have it. I have not seen his outrage or his tears for the innocent killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or Tucson.
Phil Ochs died of a broken heart. He knew that all that he believed in would never come to pass and with his death, an era passed.
The words and the music have remained, however, and the bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Unemployment, area24radio.com, Mark and Anne
It's been awhile but some good things have happened.
Our friends, Mark and Anne, had their annual party and we had a blast. It was a New Orleans theme and I had my first piece of alligator. Yes, it tastes like chicken!
Ended up the evening talking about art, movies, especially The Ghost Writer, directed by Roman Polanski. Everyone has just got to see it - everyone, with a brain, that is. And of course, talking about our favorite show, Mad Men, which won the Emmy again, for the third year in a row but the Emmy bigwigs don't seem to understand that the actors are suberb also. At least, they finally gave it to Kyra Sedgwick for The Closer.
Love you Anne and Mark.
I launched my show on area24radio.com called Power and Glory after the Phil Ochs song.
For my readers, my first show was in memory of the great Russian Poet, Andrei Voznesensky with poet, Kenneth Pearson and my second show was on the Iroquois Confederacy with great music provided by Joanne Shenandoah, Grammy Award Winner, and her family and Robbie Robertson and many great Native American Artists. It was really fun.
Since then I have been pounding the pavements. My first interview was a dud while the second was okay. Today, I returned from my third and I'm a bit hopeful. We'll see what happens.
Not one thing I voted for in the last presidential election has come to fruition. Gitmo is still open. The Iraq War, although we're making a show of pulling out, has left the country in a mess and let's not even discuss Afghanistan where more Americans were killed today.
We happened to be in Italy, two years ago. We went for two reasons: one was to show that I had recovered from my mastectomy and the other was that my husband could find his relatives in the Dolomites. Cool on both!
We were at my cousins in Genova when Lehman crashed and my cousins are both reporters and Luigino is the editor of a newspaper. They both turned and said, "Your next president is Obama". In fact, the night he won, after that fabulous speech in Chicago, they called me on the phone and we were all so happy. It was 3:30 AM and we were all so happy.
That was then and this is now. It seems his first priority was the banks and I guess it still is. He has surrounded himself, with the exception of Hillary Clinton, with the worst advisors I can recall, some of them, holdouts from Bush 2, the worst administration in my lifetime.
And so, not only me, but millions are pounding the pavements. And going to Unemployment for help is like going nowhere. They gave me a password to go onto their job site and there were job listings from 2008 and 2009. There's my tax dollars at work.
Perhaps, someone should tell the President. I'm still waiting to see how that health plan is going to benefit my husband and me. Where is it?
So, we decided to do something this weekend to forget everything and we saw Avatar, the extended one, at the IMAX in 3D. It was astonishing and that's how it should have been presented from the inception.
As for last night, I turned off the Emmys when I did not get to see Betty White give her acceptance speech. Got sick of Jimmy Fallon, too. Sorry, Jimmy.
I am in a strange head, a bit of a strange head because I cannot ever remember the United States in such a mess. I know that it's not all Obama's fault. Don't you love the Tea Party Claque, backed by oil money, which is really concerned about them. They want to take their government back. From Whom?
The Republicans are blubbering about the deficit. Well, it's their deficit and their boy, Bush 2 and the real president, Cheney in his bunker, who by the way said "that deficits are unimportant" started this money mess. Clinton handed them a surplus.
So my one question to the tea baggers is "Where were you during the Cheney-Bush Administration?"
I now avoid the corporate news and get my info from Jon Stewart, who also won another Emmy, and Stephen Colbert, who also deserved one and MSNBC. I read the intelligent conservative commentators, of which there are so few, and see such a great divide and feel the country wallowing in hatred, self-hatred, although the self-hatred is being directed at others. We're back to the old cliche of who's really an American.
That's easy: the Native Americans.
The rest of us are all immigrants and the children of immigrants. We are the hyphenated ones.
My show this week is going to be a lot of music that you may have never heard and some anecdotes. So tune in!
Let's stick together and fight the hate that is now calling itself the Republican Party. As for the Democrats, who the hell are you?
I should have voted for Hillary.
We, once again, are living in the age of Thomas Paine, "These are the times that try men's souls". Women, too, Mr. Paine and most of all, children.
As Phil Ochs sang about our country, "Oh, her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom, glory shall rest on us all, on us all".
Let's hope!
Ciao for now!
Our friends, Mark and Anne, had their annual party and we had a blast. It was a New Orleans theme and I had my first piece of alligator. Yes, it tastes like chicken!
Ended up the evening talking about art, movies, especially The Ghost Writer, directed by Roman Polanski. Everyone has just got to see it - everyone, with a brain, that is. And of course, talking about our favorite show, Mad Men, which won the Emmy again, for the third year in a row but the Emmy bigwigs don't seem to understand that the actors are suberb also. At least, they finally gave it to Kyra Sedgwick for The Closer.
Love you Anne and Mark.
I launched my show on area24radio.com called Power and Glory after the Phil Ochs song.
For my readers, my first show was in memory of the great Russian Poet, Andrei Voznesensky with poet, Kenneth Pearson and my second show was on the Iroquois Confederacy with great music provided by Joanne Shenandoah, Grammy Award Winner, and her family and Robbie Robertson and many great Native American Artists. It was really fun.
Since then I have been pounding the pavements. My first interview was a dud while the second was okay. Today, I returned from my third and I'm a bit hopeful. We'll see what happens.
Not one thing I voted for in the last presidential election has come to fruition. Gitmo is still open. The Iraq War, although we're making a show of pulling out, has left the country in a mess and let's not even discuss Afghanistan where more Americans were killed today.
We happened to be in Italy, two years ago. We went for two reasons: one was to show that I had recovered from my mastectomy and the other was that my husband could find his relatives in the Dolomites. Cool on both!
We were at my cousins in Genova when Lehman crashed and my cousins are both reporters and Luigino is the editor of a newspaper. They both turned and said, "Your next president is Obama". In fact, the night he won, after that fabulous speech in Chicago, they called me on the phone and we were all so happy. It was 3:30 AM and we were all so happy.
That was then and this is now. It seems his first priority was the banks and I guess it still is. He has surrounded himself, with the exception of Hillary Clinton, with the worst advisors I can recall, some of them, holdouts from Bush 2, the worst administration in my lifetime.
And so, not only me, but millions are pounding the pavements. And going to Unemployment for help is like going nowhere. They gave me a password to go onto their job site and there were job listings from 2008 and 2009. There's my tax dollars at work.
Perhaps, someone should tell the President. I'm still waiting to see how that health plan is going to benefit my husband and me. Where is it?
So, we decided to do something this weekend to forget everything and we saw Avatar, the extended one, at the IMAX in 3D. It was astonishing and that's how it should have been presented from the inception.
As for last night, I turned off the Emmys when I did not get to see Betty White give her acceptance speech. Got sick of Jimmy Fallon, too. Sorry, Jimmy.
I am in a strange head, a bit of a strange head because I cannot ever remember the United States in such a mess. I know that it's not all Obama's fault. Don't you love the Tea Party Claque, backed by oil money, which is really concerned about them. They want to take their government back. From Whom?
The Republicans are blubbering about the deficit. Well, it's their deficit and their boy, Bush 2 and the real president, Cheney in his bunker, who by the way said "that deficits are unimportant" started this money mess. Clinton handed them a surplus.
So my one question to the tea baggers is "Where were you during the Cheney-Bush Administration?"
I now avoid the corporate news and get my info from Jon Stewart, who also won another Emmy, and Stephen Colbert, who also deserved one and MSNBC. I read the intelligent conservative commentators, of which there are so few, and see such a great divide and feel the country wallowing in hatred, self-hatred, although the self-hatred is being directed at others. We're back to the old cliche of who's really an American.
That's easy: the Native Americans.
The rest of us are all immigrants and the children of immigrants. We are the hyphenated ones.
My show this week is going to be a lot of music that you may have never heard and some anecdotes. So tune in!
Let's stick together and fight the hate that is now calling itself the Republican Party. As for the Democrats, who the hell are you?
I should have voted for Hillary.
We, once again, are living in the age of Thomas Paine, "These are the times that try men's souls". Women, too, Mr. Paine and most of all, children.
As Phil Ochs sang about our country, "Oh, her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom, glory shall rest on us all, on us all".
Let's hope!
Ciao for now!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Tabbie
It is one year since the death of our cat, Tabbie. It hurts as much now as it did then.
We still love you, Tabbie.
We still love you, Tabbie.
From the moment I first saw you, in the closet, in the cardboard box, being ridiculed as stupid, I saw a poor creature that no one wanted.
And when Lou adopted Patch, Mary T. sent you home with him insisting that my mother said that Lou needed two cats for company. My mother, of course, said no such thing.
There we all were with you, a little runt, who cowered with every glance and every caress.
We didn’t have a name for you and so we called you Tabbie.
TabbieRoo - Tabber
Beanie - Beanbag
Eeny of the Beanies - and Tabberini.
You weren’t stupid. You were King of the Yard and won many battles, bringing home much booty. No one had street smarts like you. Often victorious, you always knew where home was and although the street rang with “Tabbie come home”, you would put up a fuss and answer back but you always returned.
You were quite a talker, getting us up every morning to do your bidding. With you around, there was no real need for an alarm clock.
You loved thunderstorms and always sat in the window to catch each bit of action, thunder peals, lightning bolts and raindrops.
You loved your towels and Lou’s shoes and my purses.
You really never asked for anything but we saw the suffering in your eyes. We saw it every time you climbed to the window and looked out at a world that you could no longer have.
So Goodbye, Tabbie.
Be King again. Reign over a kingdom, filled with the best thunderstorms.
May you find the best bush for shelter and observation.
We wish that now you need never cower again and be frightened by every glance and every caress and we send you all the kisses and caresses that we tried to give you, here, on this earth.
But most of all, we wish you peace, little friend, best buddy and all around cool cat.
Vaya con Dios, Tabbie and may the first person you meet be St. Francis of Assisi and you will never fear anything, anymore.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
An Open Letter to the Association of Ass Lickers
I think I've mentioned several times that I was unemployed and grateful, especially when I was able to watch every game of the World Cup.
The circumstances, however, I kept to myself.
Well, tonight, that's over.
I left a job because I was forced out of it. A new administrator was hired to do the ass licking bidding of owners who are only interested in making money for themselves.
Four years ago, when I was hired, the place was a fun place to work and my best friend was there. Shortly after, my friend was promoted Assistant Director of Nursing. Within a month, she lost the position because she didn't fit into the "blonde and blonder" group, this dump's version of an upper echelon.
She was sent back to the floors as a nurse manager, clearly a demotion, and there were weekends when she was the only RN on duty during her shift.
I tried to cheer her on and say that it was only temporary but I really knew better. Last March, she died and a part of me went with her but not far enough from the dump.
I stayed because I needed the money like everyone else. Meantime, a new administrator was hired and I can admit that I never had a "read" on her. She pretended to hate the owners but talked against them every time they came. Yet she did their bidding.
One can only imagine the salary of an ass licker, but a duplicitous ass licker!!!!!
Those of us who are older (and I only admit that in age) knew that the handwriting was on the wall.
However, younger people were fired first because they were making "too much money" or had been there a long time.
Like Phil Ochs, "when I've got something to say, I'm going to say it now".
I did not do the ass licker's bidding and soon realized with all the work being heaped upon me (and it was stupid work, stupid assignments) that my time had come. Some would say, "Let them fire you so you can collect unemployment".
I have always believed in saving myself because you see no one will save you if you don't make the first move.
Tonight, I heard from a friend, a friend I have to admit, that I knew the ass licker would fire. She is a beloved woman, loved by everyone who ever worked with her, unless you're an ass licker.
Her time to leave has come and, probably, been decided upon months ago.
The best part was that she was asked to come in next week and help the new hire. She said "No".
The second best part was that she was asked if she wanted to come back next week so the staff could give her a farewell party.
Ass Licker, this isn't a farewell.
You fired her.
What are you smoking or has all that blonde bleach gone into any brain that you might have had?
All businesses have the right to terminate any employees who do not fulfill their obligations. They also have the right to terminate their employees when they can no longer afford to keep them or their businesses viable.
However, to fire people whose loss destroys the morale of the business working place is not good business.
I don't regret one moment of my decision. After all, I got to watch every game of the World Cup.
I do regret not seeing the people that I cared for and respected for a period of 4 years.
That last statement does not apply to ass lickers.
The Bible says, "This, too, shall pass".
Shakespeare has Hamlet say, "Every dog shall have his day".
And, then, there's Karma.
However, there is something the ass licker might consider especially when she sneaks out early because she fired a beloved employee.
Your owners, and they own you, will find someone to lick their posteriors (and they are massive) and that person will have a longer tongue and do it better than you. And when they find that someone, she will work cheaper than you.
My only question to you, then, will be did the flavor hold up and was it worth it?
The circumstances, however, I kept to myself.
Well, tonight, that's over.
I left a job because I was forced out of it. A new administrator was hired to do the ass licking bidding of owners who are only interested in making money for themselves.
Four years ago, when I was hired, the place was a fun place to work and my best friend was there. Shortly after, my friend was promoted Assistant Director of Nursing. Within a month, she lost the position because she didn't fit into the "blonde and blonder" group, this dump's version of an upper echelon.
She was sent back to the floors as a nurse manager, clearly a demotion, and there were weekends when she was the only RN on duty during her shift.
I tried to cheer her on and say that it was only temporary but I really knew better. Last March, she died and a part of me went with her but not far enough from the dump.
I stayed because I needed the money like everyone else. Meantime, a new administrator was hired and I can admit that I never had a "read" on her. She pretended to hate the owners but talked against them every time they came. Yet she did their bidding.
One can only imagine the salary of an ass licker, but a duplicitous ass licker!!!!!
Those of us who are older (and I only admit that in age) knew that the handwriting was on the wall.
However, younger people were fired first because they were making "too much money" or had been there a long time.
Like Phil Ochs, "when I've got something to say, I'm going to say it now".
I did not do the ass licker's bidding and soon realized with all the work being heaped upon me (and it was stupid work, stupid assignments) that my time had come. Some would say, "Let them fire you so you can collect unemployment".
I have always believed in saving myself because you see no one will save you if you don't make the first move.
Tonight, I heard from a friend, a friend I have to admit, that I knew the ass licker would fire. She is a beloved woman, loved by everyone who ever worked with her, unless you're an ass licker.
Her time to leave has come and, probably, been decided upon months ago.
The best part was that she was asked to come in next week and help the new hire. She said "No".
The second best part was that she was asked if she wanted to come back next week so the staff could give her a farewell party.
Ass Licker, this isn't a farewell.
You fired her.
What are you smoking or has all that blonde bleach gone into any brain that you might have had?
All businesses have the right to terminate any employees who do not fulfill their obligations. They also have the right to terminate their employees when they can no longer afford to keep them or their businesses viable.
However, to fire people whose loss destroys the morale of the business working place is not good business.
I don't regret one moment of my decision. After all, I got to watch every game of the World Cup.
I do regret not seeing the people that I cared for and respected for a period of 4 years.
That last statement does not apply to ass lickers.
The Bible says, "This, too, shall pass".
Shakespeare has Hamlet say, "Every dog shall have his day".
And, then, there's Karma.
However, there is something the ass licker might consider especially when she sneaks out early because she fired a beloved employee.
Your owners, and they own you, will find someone to lick their posteriors (and they are massive) and that person will have a longer tongue and do it better than you. And when they find that someone, she will work cheaper than you.
My only question to you, then, will be did the flavor hold up and was it worth it?
Monday, July 19, 2010
Musings on Andrei and Power and Glory
Welcome to all.
It's been so hot that I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone episode where the world is ending and everyone is cold - but it's really bloody sweltering heat!
If Dante's Inferno really exists, we're already in it.
On to new adventures and, hopefully, an end to this infernal humidity.
On Thursday evening, July 22, 2010, my first show of Power and Glory will debut on area24radio.com from 7PM to 9PM. Once you get to the website, just press in the center and it will take you to the show that is currently playing.
Power and Glory will be a little bit of everything: storytelling, stories that you were never told or taught, music, fun and guests.
The first show is a tribute to Russian poet, Andrei Voznesensky, whose passing was announced on June 1, 2010. My guest for our premiere show is poet Kenneth Pearson.
The sixties and seventies didn't just happen. It was as if everywhere in the world we were all awakening from the nightmare that had been World War II.
Krushchev had announced that Stalin was nothing but a bloody murderer. In the U.S.,we had just passed from the oldest elected president (Dwight Eisenhower) to the youngest elected president (JFK). The tragedy of the assassination pierced us all.
And people of all ages were realizing that our society was not exactly perfect and the War in Vietnam globalized protests against all forms of war everywhere.
I don't believe in nostalgia. I don't believe in glorifying the past. In fact, Andrei entitled one of his books of poetry, Nostalgia for the Present. I like that but the sixties and seventies had traits of a Renaissance when it came to Music, Literature and, certainly, movies.
The Russian people have poetry in their blood and young poets filled arenas like rock stars and they had a lot to say. One of Andrei's poems has the following lines:
Life is a series of burned-out sites.
Nobody escapes the bonfire:
If you live - you burn.
We all felt a lot like that - we were all on fire for whatever cause we supported.
We were young and we were going to change the world.
After all these years, I really don't know what we changed. The capitalistic materialism we allegedly renounced is smothering us all. The U.S. isn't fighting one war: it's fighting two and in certain areas of the country, we are more apart than we have ever been.
And Sony and the Jackson Family sell the songs of the Beatles to anyone who pays them the right price.
But the one thing that remains is the art that we loved and cherished. What remains is what it meant to us.
The one thing that always remains is art, literature, music and our own twentieth century art form: the movies.
There are certain people, always artists, who although we have never met them belong to us. I met Andrei Voznesensky for a brief moment and the autograph he gave me is fading away. His words, however, will never fade away.
And so to all artists out there and all of us who love them, I wish you a glorious goodnight.
Or as Andrei wrote in OZA:
I know that people consist of atoms and particles, just as rainbows consist of shining specks of dust, or as sentences consist of letters. You only have to change the order and your meaning changes.
For me, Maria, it's time to change those shining specks of dust again.
It's time to go in search of new rainbows.
It's been so hot that I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone episode where the world is ending and everyone is cold - but it's really bloody sweltering heat!
If Dante's Inferno really exists, we're already in it.
On to new adventures and, hopefully, an end to this infernal humidity.
On Thursday evening, July 22, 2010, my first show of Power and Glory will debut on area24radio.com from 7PM to 9PM. Once you get to the website, just press in the center and it will take you to the show that is currently playing.
Power and Glory will be a little bit of everything: storytelling, stories that you were never told or taught, music, fun and guests.
The first show is a tribute to Russian poet, Andrei Voznesensky, whose passing was announced on June 1, 2010. My guest for our premiere show is poet Kenneth Pearson.
The sixties and seventies didn't just happen. It was as if everywhere in the world we were all awakening from the nightmare that had been World War II.
Krushchev had announced that Stalin was nothing but a bloody murderer. In the U.S.,we had just passed from the oldest elected president (Dwight Eisenhower) to the youngest elected president (JFK). The tragedy of the assassination pierced us all.
And people of all ages were realizing that our society was not exactly perfect and the War in Vietnam globalized protests against all forms of war everywhere.
I don't believe in nostalgia. I don't believe in glorifying the past. In fact, Andrei entitled one of his books of poetry, Nostalgia for the Present. I like that but the sixties and seventies had traits of a Renaissance when it came to Music, Literature and, certainly, movies.
The Russian people have poetry in their blood and young poets filled arenas like rock stars and they had a lot to say. One of Andrei's poems has the following lines:
Life is a series of burned-out sites.
Nobody escapes the bonfire:
If you live - you burn.
We all felt a lot like that - we were all on fire for whatever cause we supported.
We were young and we were going to change the world.
After all these years, I really don't know what we changed. The capitalistic materialism we allegedly renounced is smothering us all. The U.S. isn't fighting one war: it's fighting two and in certain areas of the country, we are more apart than we have ever been.
And Sony and the Jackson Family sell the songs of the Beatles to anyone who pays them the right price.
But the one thing that remains is the art that we loved and cherished. What remains is what it meant to us.
The one thing that always remains is art, literature, music and our own twentieth century art form: the movies.
There are certain people, always artists, who although we have never met them belong to us. I met Andrei Voznesensky for a brief moment and the autograph he gave me is fading away. His words, however, will never fade away.
And so to all artists out there and all of us who love them, I wish you a glorious goodnight.
Or as Andrei wrote in OZA:
I know that people consist of atoms and particles, just as rainbows consist of shining specks of dust, or as sentences consist of letters. You only have to change the order and your meaning changes.
For me, Maria, it's time to change those shining specks of dust again.
It's time to go in search of new rainbows.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thoughts on the End of the World Cup
The World Cup has ended and I am disappointed because the best team did not win.
Uruguay and Diego Forlan and his great team deserved the victory. He was awarded The Player of the World Cup Award and, of course, he said that he would not have received it without the entire support of his team. I said it before: the man's a class act.
Viva Uruguay!
As for Spain, my second wish came true in that I hoped that if Italy could not win, then a country that had never won the Cup should win it this time in the continent of "Firsts", Mother Africa.
However, a few truths have to be recognized.
Spain didn't exactly get off to a brilliant start. They were beaten by the Swiss in their first attempt. And, Honduras and Chile were no match for Spain.
They beat Portugal 1-0 and then, Paraguay, who put up quite a fight, by 1-0. The only major team they faced in the entire tournament was Germany and I, frankly, am surprised that they won.
Spain never played Brazil or Argentina or Uruguay. I believe that had they faced any of the latter, they would have been eliminated.
South American soccer is so right-on; European soccer, which is purely defensive, is so boring.
The Uruguay-Germany match was far more exciting than Spain vs. the Netherlands.
Incidentally, who was that Dutch team who took the field on Sunday? A bunch of thugs?
I didn't know that soccer is played by hitting a member of the opposite team in the chest with your foot. Many more red cards should have been given to the Dutch and had the English referee done it from the onset, the game would have been better.
Of course, I watched Univision for the first part of the closing ceremonies and saw Nelson Mandela and his wife in the little golf cart. Mandela's grandson said that the great one was badgered and badgered by FIFA to make an appearance. And he did although he was still in mourning.
Shame on FIFA but when you are as corrupt as FIFA, shame is not in your lexicon.
We watched the game on Channel 7 and had a telephone conference with our friend Paul in Connecticut throughout the whole match. That was fun.
When 4:30 came, however, Channel 7 had to transmit Nascar Angels so I switched back to Univision and saw the players get their medals and the fireworks.
Incidentally, did you catch the manager of the Dutch team after he got his second place medal? He ripped it off his neck and stuffed it into his pocket.
That's the way to act, man! Perhaps, if you hadn't told your team to win by any means, the Netherlands might have won. Most of the time, I thought I was watching a high school wrestling tournament instead of a World Cup game.
My last thoughts on what was accomplished in South Africa:
1.) The unemployment rate is still 25%-30% and so is Spain's.
2.) Millions, if not billions, were spent to build unnecessary stadiums in the shadows of slums.
3.) Regular street merchants with their food and craft stands were placed one kilometer away from all the stadiums. You know who took their places? Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc. Like they need the money! Did you catch all the ads surrounding the playing fields? The changing of colors, the shine and sparkle? That costs a bloody fortune. I wonder how many schools and hospitals and affordable housing could have been made for the poor with those expenditures. Do I really need to see another VISA ad?
4.) The best game of the match was Uruguay vs. Ghana and I hate to tell the Ghana fans but any player would have done what Suarez did by using his hand to offset the goal.
5.) Booing Suarez was stupid and petty.
6.) My friend, the poet, Kenneth Pearson called it for the Netherlands. His dad, also Ken, called it for Spain at 1-0. Congratulations, Dad!
7.) I want to get my hands on that octopus and see if he can predict the lotto numbers for me.
All in all, it was fun and I honor the memory of my father who took me to my first games when I was a teenager and fell in love with the sport and the camaraderie in the stands. We used to go to Randall's Island and is was like being with family.
I never dreamed in my life that I would see every game of a World Cup and so I have to thank my unemployment, ESPN, Univision and Channel 7.
Incidentally, the best commercial of the World Cup belongs to Geico who showed that even a chess match can be exciting if Andres is reporting it and yelling out "GOAL".
May we all be better off in 2014 in Brazil and may this begin today.
Peace and Love and Viva Uruguay and Diego Forlan.
Uruguay and Diego Forlan and his great team deserved the victory. He was awarded The Player of the World Cup Award and, of course, he said that he would not have received it without the entire support of his team. I said it before: the man's a class act.
Viva Uruguay!
As for Spain, my second wish came true in that I hoped that if Italy could not win, then a country that had never won the Cup should win it this time in the continent of "Firsts", Mother Africa.
However, a few truths have to be recognized.
Spain didn't exactly get off to a brilliant start. They were beaten by the Swiss in their first attempt. And, Honduras and Chile were no match for Spain.
They beat Portugal 1-0 and then, Paraguay, who put up quite a fight, by 1-0. The only major team they faced in the entire tournament was Germany and I, frankly, am surprised that they won.
Spain never played Brazil or Argentina or Uruguay. I believe that had they faced any of the latter, they would have been eliminated.
South American soccer is so right-on; European soccer, which is purely defensive, is so boring.
The Uruguay-Germany match was far more exciting than Spain vs. the Netherlands.
Incidentally, who was that Dutch team who took the field on Sunday? A bunch of thugs?
I didn't know that soccer is played by hitting a member of the opposite team in the chest with your foot. Many more red cards should have been given to the Dutch and had the English referee done it from the onset, the game would have been better.
Of course, I watched Univision for the first part of the closing ceremonies and saw Nelson Mandela and his wife in the little golf cart. Mandela's grandson said that the great one was badgered and badgered by FIFA to make an appearance. And he did although he was still in mourning.
Shame on FIFA but when you are as corrupt as FIFA, shame is not in your lexicon.
We watched the game on Channel 7 and had a telephone conference with our friend Paul in Connecticut throughout the whole match. That was fun.
When 4:30 came, however, Channel 7 had to transmit Nascar Angels so I switched back to Univision and saw the players get their medals and the fireworks.
Incidentally, did you catch the manager of the Dutch team after he got his second place medal? He ripped it off his neck and stuffed it into his pocket.
That's the way to act, man! Perhaps, if you hadn't told your team to win by any means, the Netherlands might have won. Most of the time, I thought I was watching a high school wrestling tournament instead of a World Cup game.
My last thoughts on what was accomplished in South Africa:
1.) The unemployment rate is still 25%-30% and so is Spain's.
2.) Millions, if not billions, were spent to build unnecessary stadiums in the shadows of slums.
3.) Regular street merchants with their food and craft stands were placed one kilometer away from all the stadiums. You know who took their places? Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc. Like they need the money! Did you catch all the ads surrounding the playing fields? The changing of colors, the shine and sparkle? That costs a bloody fortune. I wonder how many schools and hospitals and affordable housing could have been made for the poor with those expenditures. Do I really need to see another VISA ad?
4.) The best game of the match was Uruguay vs. Ghana and I hate to tell the Ghana fans but any player would have done what Suarez did by using his hand to offset the goal.
5.) Booing Suarez was stupid and petty.
6.) My friend, the poet, Kenneth Pearson called it for the Netherlands. His dad, also Ken, called it for Spain at 1-0. Congratulations, Dad!
7.) I want to get my hands on that octopus and see if he can predict the lotto numbers for me.
All in all, it was fun and I honor the memory of my father who took me to my first games when I was a teenager and fell in love with the sport and the camaraderie in the stands. We used to go to Randall's Island and is was like being with family.
I never dreamed in my life that I would see every game of a World Cup and so I have to thank my unemployment, ESPN, Univision and Channel 7.
Incidentally, the best commercial of the World Cup belongs to Geico who showed that even a chess match can be exciting if Andres is reporting it and yelling out "GOAL".
May we all be better off in 2014 in Brazil and may this begin today.
Peace and Love and Viva Uruguay and Diego Forlan.
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