Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

There are religions who believe the way to find  favor in God’s eyes is to do without all modern technology, because apparently the industrial revolution was the work of the devil, and others who believe the way is to wrap  a damned snake around your neck and start talking gibberish.  There are some which won’t let their adherents drink coffee and at least one that  promises their adherents that everybody will get their own planet when they die, which is even better than 72 virgins, assuming it’s an inhabited planet.  There have  been religions in which the preacher convinced the parishioners to commit mass suicide (we think of Jim Jones, but don’t forget Marshall Applewhite).
However, the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania has put them all on notice, even Westboro Baptist, that there is a new candidate for world’s craziest church.

Of course, it was founded  by the son of the Reverend Sun Yung Moon, who decided that his father wasn’t crazy enough so he’d start his own faction.  Today, they had a ceremony of people blessing their AR-15s, while wearing white robes with pink (sort of a purplish pink – they were probably trying for royal and the fact that it looked a bit gay was totally coincidental) and crowns made out of actual bullets.

Have we reached bottom yet?  I doubt it.  I don’t know how we can go  any lower but the downward spiral continues and does not seem to be slacking its pace.

There seem to be some positive developments in the gun debate, with Dick’s, which I’d never heard of before but I guess it’s a pretty major sporting goods  chain, and Walmart both stopping sales of AR-15s. (you could buy one of those at WalMart?? Dayum)  Dick’s also stopped sales of magazines (or clips, whatever you want to call them), and raised the age of sale from 18 to 21 (they were not forced by legislation, mind you).  But, I’ve written a lot about this in the past week, and there are other things in the world.

Hope Hicks has resigned.  In light of the huge turnover in the Trump team, it’s really not big news, it’s a drop in the bucket, but… she has admitted publicly that she’s lied for Trump.  Little white lies, she said, but I’m not sure what the legal difference is between a little white lie and an attempt to defraud the public, or congress (congress, that could be a problem.  Lying to congress is what they impeached Clinton over.  Lying to the public is no big deal.  Politicians have been getting away with that forever.

We’ll see what she says to Mueller.
Here’s an optimistic thought to round out the evening.  Everybody in the Trump administration is working for a bloated, narcissistic moron.  They probably all realize this, but they are just as greedy, racist, and self-absorbed as he is, because birds of a feather and all  that.  There probably isn’t a one of them that won’t co-operate with the investigation to save themselves jail  time.

They speak with one voice and their arguments get stupider and stupider.  Not the time to talk about it, they said.  But, it is.  Mental health  issue, they said.  Well, yeah.  Crazy people shouldn’t have guns.  We’ll give them have a point for that one, but it doesn’t prove the point they wanted to prove.  Blah, blah, blah, some semantic difference between assault rifle and semi-automatic.  Yeah, I don’t know the names of everybody in AC/DC, either, but I have friends who are heavy metal fans who do.  Just because you’re a gun nut and proud to know the terminology, doesn’t make guns a good  thing.  Arm the teachers!, they say next, but that one just got laughed down, so they added metal detectors, bonuses, and military guards roaming the halls, which is as nightmarish as it is unaffordable.

Today’s talking point was ‘fatherless boys.’  Again, half a point.  It might not be the ideal situation, and society might do better at supporting single parent families (better daycare, more flexible employment possibilities), but there are millions of kids from single parent homes who are not shooting up their schools; who are, in fact, doing O.K.
After trying to drag the conversation back to banning guns, which is what we need to do to solve the problem, I  was called a Russian Troll (whatever gave them the idea I was Russian,  I don’t know.  My  language pattern and writing style should have made it totally clear that I am an American troll), and charged with trying to foment a civil war.  You know, because gun lovers love their guns so much  that they’ll fight to the death to keep them.  If anybody tries to take their guns (like the government) they’ll meet them with barrels blazing.
That is absolutely the worst argument ever.  That’s like the abusive boyfriend threatening to kill a girl if she leaves him.  Nothing says ‘get out now’ like a death threat.  That argument absolutely seals it for me, that we should take these guns away from these people as soon as possible.  They are dangerous.  They say so themselves.

Of the three poetry readings I regularly attend in Prague, the Spit it Out series is gaining in my favor.  Part of that is because of the location.  The A Maze in Tchaiovna is a very  cool place with a very weird name.  In the front room they have board  games and other things going on.  It just looks like  most other pubs/tea rooms in  Prague, except more for hippies.  Then you go through the first secret door.  I’m serious, there are hidden doors.  It looks like  part  of  the bookcase (and, in fact, it is, but it’s also a door), and once through that, you’re into the performance space.

There’s a stage, some tables and chairs, some tables and sofas, and a piano.  It’s a good place for a reading, because it’s a dedicated space.  When you have a poetry reading in a cafe, there are people there who didn’t come for the poetry reading, and see no reason whatsoever why they should interrupt their conversation.

From there, you go back into a couple more ‘secret’ rooms, through doors that  don’t actually look like doors.

It isn’t just about the space, though.  The organizer is an extremely intense poet in her own right, of the confessional/ranting/outraged  variety, and she always keeps the audience focused.    Sometimes I feel I know more about her personal history, and psychology, than it is decent for  another person to know,  because she totally lays it all out there.  But, she also seems to have  a talent for drawing in other artists and there are some very talented people showing up there who don’t come to the two others.

I’ll continue going to all three, of course.  Alchemy has tradition and continuity  behind  it, I often see old friends, and it’s currently in a performance space instead of just some cafe,  which is a big plus.

The readings formerly known as the Soma readings, after the pub they were held in, are fun  for me because there are a lot of French speakers  there and I  get to practice, and plenty of  people who like  to smoke pot, so the breaks are a lot of fun.  But, it just moved from one pub to another.
What’s amazing to me is  that, outside of maybe 3 or 4 people, there’s  not  much overlap between the  crowds at all.  I  don’t  get it, but in a way it’s a good thing.   You can get away with reading the  same thing two or three times, for one.

I’m sick of writing about the NRA, but death threats to survivors of a mass shooting, because they are arguing against guns, is seriously low.  If anybody is entitled to an opinion on this subject, it is them.

Also, they are proving, by this very activity, that gun lovers are maybe a little bit  psycho and should not be trusted with guns.  It’s sort of like  when a guy threatens a girl with  physical violence if she leaves him.   It totally validates her reason  for leaving him.
Of course, I’m not claiming that this  has been an official action of the NRA, but it  may well have  been done by their members and it was absolutely, 100%, done by their supporters.  So, screw the NRA.  They deserve to stop existing as an organization.

On another subject, I’m  glad to see Dianne Feinstein get snubbed, but the press (and the DNC) is still  ignoring David Hildebrand, the Berniecrat in the race.  The story is that Kevin DeLeon beat her, by more than 10%, at a Democratic party convention, in a vote to  see who would get the party’s endorsement.  So, they’re not  going to endorse anybody.

Which, actually, is how it should be.  Why should the party endorse one candidate over another in a party primary??  That is an attempt to over-ride, even to pre-empt, the will of the people.  Not cool at all.

Watched a bit of the closing ceremonies in  Pyeongchang this morning.  It  was a pretty good Olympics, some great  performances, some humorous pratfalls, no huge scandals except maybe an incidence or two of  doping and that’s nothing to  get excited  about any more, and, as witnessed in the closing ceremonies, the Koreans know how  to put  on a great show.