Wednesday, January 30, 2013

THE SECOND AMENDMENT AND THE RIGHT TO MAKE REVOLUTION

The NRA demands that citizens keep their right to bear arms in case a person needs to defend themselves against a criminal, a foreign invader, or a corrupt government.

The gun is seen as the key to maintaining all freedoms: of body, of possession, and of rule.

The key to the freedom of the people is in the Second Amendment.  No tyrannt can overcome them because they have been given the right to have a gun, in case they might want to join a well-regulated militia and overthrow the tyranny.

And for a revolution and the people to be able to rise up in secret they must be able to keep their guns secret from the government that they are "allowing" to exist, by respecting the electoral voters, the freedom of speech, and the behaviour and actions of the people around them.

(Why so many Libertarians and non-fundamentalist-religious, right-wing don't give a crap about marijuana and many other drugs.  If something illegal becomes too commonly practiced many Second Amendment-ers believe it is the people's will exerting itself.  I did not always understand this viewpoint.)

By defending the right of people to bear arms, which they feel is the cornerstone of freedom, believing Mao Tse Tung's famous quote "all power comes from the power of the gun", they are in fact defending all the power of the gun, which is intimately attached to who is holding the guns.

Hence, "the people" of this country having the right is just as, or even more important than the military and police right to carry guns.

Not all pro-gun people  are supporters of the military, perhaps being of some sort of sovereign or other stance.

(I don't fully understand all of these groups and subsets.  The patterns haven't emerged yet.  I believe sovereign citizens believe in the full right of the individual, and will be disrespectful to the police and military to prove that point. I am trying to represent this in such a way that the people and argument I am representing would agree or have no point of disagreement on my representation of their stance.)

So that is why, so often, you see written in response on a comment thread "guns saved the world from naziism."  (True quote.)  It was Russian guns, in that instance, or perhaps even Hitler's own suicide pistol, but no matter, there is a very valid empirical point there.

German guns brought "naziism" into the world, and Russian guns saved the world from it.  (Or at least, the Third Reich.)

The gun IS the power.

Sure, there have been times when mistakes have been made, and lines crossed.  The U.S., for instance, is the only country to EVER use a nuclear weapon against the humans of another country.  But everyone makes mistakes, and better his mistakes than whomever he is opposing at the moment.  (If it weren't so deadly the world really just does resemble a bunch of little boys in gangs, constantly playing with toy soldiers.  I can't wait til women take over running the world.)

But, continues the thinking, when he, the Second Amendment defender, is holding the gun, or the extension of him- for example, the military or the revolutionary militia or defenders against criminals and mass shooters- the gun is what allows him to defend this flawed America he loves so much.

This, might, in fact, be only demonstration of his love for this country. This country might be filled with all sorts of degenerate or otherwise unlikable people, and most probably do not understand the great lengths and sacrifices he must make.

He is even defending someone like me, someone that does not agree with his assessment that all power and freedom rest on the barrel of a gun.  I am only able to defend that freedom because he defends me with that gun.

And we should thank him for that. (He believes.)

Many pro-gun people are willing to kill and die to defend the Second Amendment.  And their guns.   They express this openly, and vow again and again that they will kill anyone that tries to harm them-- criminals, gangs, corrupt governments either internal or external.

If there were some sort of take-over of the government, not only would they defend their right to the gun and its sacred Second Amendment rights to go home with any American, they would actually defend the Second Amendment with its own beneficiary.

So if there is a registry of guns, a gun owner's name will be on it.

Government lists can lead to concentration camps, as we know so well from Naziism, so lists are regarded as bad.

If "evil" people take over the government (because they are all just angels running things now) a gun owner's name will be on that list, along with Travis Bickle's, and Wayne LaPierre's, and Nancy Lanza, and James Holmes.

The government knowing who has the guns would definitely not be good for the revolution. (Although the angry entitled middle class white guy revolution is actually just starting right now, as I outline in my 5000 word thesis blog post.)

To someone for whom the gun is all the power, the internet and the Knowledge Revolution must be very bewildering.  You can live off the grid,  but very few do.  Your cell phone is enough to track you, and you probably have been boasting about the new Bushmaster you bought.  You might have even posted photos of it on Facebook.

But you probably don't get that the government has you well out gunned.

Random mass shootings are the only place where the individual gun really has any power.  (Mass shooters are becoming the US version of the Muslim suicide bomber, except mass shooters do not use religion as an excuse to kill themselves and other people.)

Crime is predictable.

But they have you outgunned, for sure.

Now what you think and say, whole other matter.  The government and law enforcement are much more interested in that.

They have demonstrated so very visibly just how interested they are in your emails and facebook status and blogging.  And also especially your porn viewing habits and photographs you are emailing.

And now no law enforcement agency needs to worry about submitting a warrant to get a transcript of you drunk chatting with the ex on your new boytoys laptop.

While everyone was busy screaming about gun rights, FISA got a few more years and more strength.

Yes, yes, I know.  Terrorists and pedophiles and criminals are out there, and we need to catch them.  Mr. Second Amendment doesn't care about hiding anything but his gun.  (And I think I made clear how little privacy anyone reading this blog actually has.  It is not that difficult to track anyone's IP and location.)

He's not the problem-- all these other people out there are.

A foreign invader that killed three thousand people lived among us for five years legally.  Guns don't stop everything. And actually, the internet spying would not have either.  They were very careful. (How much better if all those neighbours of the terrorists, and flight instructors, and etc, had actually gotten to know these people? **

And if you are going to defend me while I continue to stand up for and defend my 1st Amendment rights, and if you are doing this for me, why is it wrong to demand some sort of regulations?  Especially that you follow the same rules as the government military on learning gun safety, inventory of ammunition, and requiring licence and background check that you are-- as far as we can tell-- mentally sound?

Thank you for your effort at defending this entire country via your defense of your interpretation of the Second Amendment, but if this is really about "we the people" then we do all have the right to restrict your guns, or even make a (non-violent) revolution against you, if you "jump the gun" or equate "government takeover" with a black, Democratic President and "Naziism" with a ban on assault rifles.

You are willing to kill and die to defend the Second Amendment.  That's great.  We, the people, want a little say so -- and some updating to reflect the changes in firearms over the last 222 years-- in how you are going to do that.

If you are really worried about a government list, instead of waving your gun and threatening everyone, maybe you should focus on electing better officials to represent you.

I think the real question, Mr. Second Amendment, is this really about you protecting this country and freedom, or about your inability to live without the power you think your gun gives you?


**Footnote regarding the 9/11 bombers in this country and their life here among us:

Too many people couldn't see passed the fact they were Arab and Muslim.  Being already intimidated and scared, or simply out of their depth, they could not assess real danger.  They saw only the outsider, and their fear and avoidance of him was all he needed to stay undercover.

The same way a lot of white people in St. Louis cannot tell a true gang banger from a suburban middle class black kid.  All they see is black.  Conversely, I have had to explain to some black folks that not all bald-shaved, tattooed, white guys are racist skinheads.

The reverse is the person trying that is trying so hard not to judge, all they can see is what they are trying to ignore.

Most people have a very hard time being emotionally dishonest.  If those terrorists had had to interact with people here more they would not have been able to keep up their facade.

Knowledge of your neighbourhood and community is much more important than a gun when it comes to terrorism, crime, and even foreign invasion.

I feel confident a terrorist would have a hard time living in my apartment building. I am not a total curtain sniffer, but I keep an eye on things.  And I do not judge people by their culture, religion, race, etc.  (Except, actually, for cops and the average conservative middle and working class white guys from this country.  He really does have to prove himself to me sometimes. Call it a chip if you want.  I call it a reflex. I have alot of scars.)



Sunday, January 27, 2013

A GUN IS JUST LIKE A CAR

The NRA defense that a gun is just like a car, I agree!  Let's talk about that for a minute.

A gun is just like a car.

That means you need insurance, training and a licence, to start with.

The gun/car needs to be registered to you.  It is true that criminals will still have stolen guns, just like they have stolen cars!

A lot of guns used by criminals illegally, in the commission of crimes, come from burglaries.  So if all the legal guns are registered, and we know where it came from, we will be able to tie more crimes together.  An added bonus to the "treat the gun as a car" plan!

And how come people that own guns aren't required to have insurance?  I can't drive a car without insurance?

So let's have insurance.  Let's have it be based on need and what kind of weapon it is, and so forth.  Adults can hold licence and insurance for minors, if they want to have their kids be armed.  Maybe a minimum age would be good, and they would have to attend and pass the safety courses themselves.  And if they buy ammo, track use of it and not stockpile it.  (That is a little different than a car, but not really.  The ammo is like gasoline.  You can't store unlimited amounts of gasoline forever, in any way you want, either.)

How is it not fair or taking away your rights to require that you are responsible for your weapon, are certified to know how to use it safely, and that it is registered to you with the state through an agency like the Department of Motor Vehicles?

Keep your guns, even your semi-automatic handguns. (Assault rifles I think should be for rent only at specially designated shooting ranges.) Have as many as you'd like.  But I'd like for you to be required to use them once a month or so.

Moreover, what ever the limits on ammunition are, I want to see you use your ammo before it expires in effectiveness.

 Let's compare the limits on ammo to a "gas tank".  And let's compare the ammunition to gasoline. (A gun really is almost exactly like a car!)

Every kind of gun and gun owner can get a reasonable supply of ammo for their needs.  But it does need to be accounted for, and no stockpiling.  Not just because of the potential if it is used to kill a lot of people, but also because we don't need any gun accidents from stale ammo.

If you are going to fire your weapon, let's make sure ammunition works.  And like gasoline ammunition itself is a dangerous substance, and needs to stored carefully and professionally.  In the case of a car the gas goes bad and your car won't start unless you add some STP or something.  But if the ammo is bad you could have an even more dangerous situation on your hands than whatever made you fire your weapon to begin with!

And cars are required to be tested and smog checked once a year.  Let's see your guns, every now and then, even if you aren't buying ammo and using it at the shooting range.  The same way we check cars once a year to make sure they are safe, and also that illegal modifications aren't being made.

A gun is not a car, really, even though we can compare many aspects.  The aspect where the gun exists as a tool or vehicle for only one purpose: to do bodily injury, cannot be compared to anything else.

So we do need a background check. The same regulations need to apply to all gun sales, private party or through a dealer.  Same waiting periods.  No exceptions.

 It is true that a rampaging killer could get a car to do some damage, but with all the armed citizens about we won't need to worry about that for long.  Besides, if cars become the new weapon of choice, the NRA can counter by demanding background checks for people to drive cars.

I am glad that we have that all settled then. Thank you, NRA supporters, for bringing this up so often, about how many deaths occur due to cars, and how a gun is a tool, just like a car.   I see now that you are right.

http://www.demandaplan.org/take-action

(EDIT: A car requires all of these things, and it is not even under Constitutional Debate!  And even if you take the interpretation of the Second Amendment to mean that Forefathers meant for the people to always be prepared to make revolution, it also states "well-regulated" Militia.  There does have to be some checks and balances on things.  Some place for debate and discussion to take place between the sides, before one group or another decides to become an active Militia.  What is stop to the Adam Lanza's and James Holmes from ganging up together?  We better hope they are mentally ill.  Because right now you have a whole lot of Travis Bickle's running around.)


Friday, January 25, 2013

YOU'LL HAVE HAD YOUR BURNS NIGHT SUPPER THEN, HAMISH?

2014 Edit: And this http://laladyrae.blogspot.com/2014/01/slainte-mhath.html

The moon is full tomorrow night in beautiful sunny Leo.  And here tonight there was a wonderful, pearly moonbow.  What a gorgeous light to seduce and celebrate some poetry!




Tonight is Burns Night, the birthday celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.  Haggis is paraded about and recited poetry to and then consumed.  (The Scots national dish is most demonstrative of the national character: "we're not cheap, we're frugal!")

Have a toast of some fine Scotch! Slainte!

The title of this post comes from: Hamish and Dougal

Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne sung by Eddi Reader

Selkirk Grace

Great Chieftain o the Puddin Race!







Thursday, January 24, 2013

WHY I TAKE SUCH A STRONG STANCE ON INCREASED GUN CONTROL

This was originally part of the post
 http://laladyrae.blogspot.com/2013/01/more-guns-keep-kids-safe-like-rapist.html

I take a real hard-line stance on gun control not because I personally am afraid for myself being shot.

I take a strong stance because the need for a gun really separates the men from the boys.

If you are a truly powerful person, and if you have truly faced real danger in your life and come back from it without fear, than you see the gun for what it is: a dangerous illusion of a safety and power.

There are plenty of people living in truly dangerous situations that could easily own guns and choose not to.

What the pro-gun people are actually saying is:  "I am afraid, and I cannot live without a gun.  There is nothing I believe in more than a gun."

And that is a belief that I want to really challenge, because that belief is making our society even weaker.  We need truly strong people right now that really understand true power.

And I believe anyone that willingly engages with me debate when I have thrown down the gauntlet actually WANTS me to kick their ass and destroy their argument.

I have something that is more powerful than a gun.  That person that is challenging me is just afraid that I am stupid.  So they have to observe me. See if I can live my principles and walk my talk.

They WANT me to walk my talk and prove it to them.  Because no person wants to live in fear.  They just think that is the best they can get.

So I let them continue to observe me shredding all of their lame attempts at argument.  And the relationship- whatever it is, from lover to facebook friend- can dance around that.

You pro gun people, you are willing to shoot someone to protect your possessions or body or someone else.

You are willing to shoot someone else dead, and you are prepared for it. You are anticipating it happening to such a degree that you become afraid the moment you think someone MIGHT take your guns away.

So you have the gun, to back up your words.  I only have my words and my actions.

So if you have any regard for me at all, I want you to understand that on this issue I find the need for a gun cowardly and fearful.

That is not why I take such a strong stance that I am willing to cut people out of my life, or push an explosive issue so that they will cut me out of their life.

I find the defense of current gun laws in the face  of such glaringly obvious statistics to be so ridiculous as to actually make me question the entire premise of my assessment of a person's ability to reason or think clearly.

You are afraid and scared.  That is okay.  Forcing the rest of us to live in your paranoid violent reality is not.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

MORE GUNS KEEP KIDS SAFE LIKE RAPIST SPERM IS REJECTED

You know, these probably aren't legitimate mass shootings, because the bullets haven't been rejected by the victim's bodies.

These people, the NRA supporters, are really just the stupidest of the stupid.  That they are men, white, middle and upperclass is not why. It is just "why" in this country.

In every country and race and government you find these types.  Like Akin and GW Bush, the rich white kid that has nothing else going for him but his birth, and really believes that his way is the best way and everyone else should be like him.

Oh, and do what he says.  And live how he wants to you to live. Probably to his benefit.  Which he is entitled to.

Like that NRA president and Cheney and Rove. Just pulling the puppet of strings of ordinary people -- be a "good" person, work "hard", be "honest."  You will get your "reward" in heaven.  Or somewhere else.  Not here, though, because we Great Men are going to reap the rewards of your labour.

And you are stupid enough to keep falling for it. Or lazy enough.  Or really just not that bright.  Or maybe society and these greedy fucks have got you so "Stockholmed Syndromed" to the system that you can't help from weeping with gratitude everytime a crumb comes your way.

"We won't give you any real freedoms-- in fact, we will take away all of your most important rights while you are busy looking at the Red Herring we are dangling before you-- but we will make you feel so grateful for the freedoms we do give you.  Look! Have a gun! Have plenty!  Shoot yourselves up all you want, all the workers are overseas, and we don't even really need you anymore.  Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!"

The people running things don't seem to be working hard, or being honest, and they all looks so slick on TV that you wonder if they aren't really just "good" because they know they are always being watched? (It really is all about how good you look on TV these days.)

So these  frat boys like George W and the manipulating "rich and powerful" gestapos like his Daddy being pro-gun makes perfect sense.  It's all part of a masterplan that they probably don't even consciously understand.  They just know it works for them.

It's the otherwise intelligent people.  The ones that see right through all the bullshit on most other issues.

Really, HOW can you seriously defend current gun laws?

The irony of this weekend is disgusting. A pro-gun rally surrounded by mass, random shootings.  One here in St. Louis.

I really never fully understood until now that to the gun owner/advocate, that is just MORE of a reason to have a gun.  All of their power is in the gun.  Without they are completely defenseless and unequal to the world.

All of the gun arguments I have been getting into have really only swayed me in two directions.  One, if there are going to be guns only women should be allowed to own them.  And all women should have them (more on that in another post.)

Two, that the people that cling to their guns like it is a part of their body, who become clammy with fear if you even MENTION ammunition tracking or closing the private party sale loophole, want a gun because they feel like there are a lot of "bad" people out there, and that all the "bad" people have guns.

What they don't seem to realise is that the "average responsible (mostly white) gun owner" is becoming the problem.  You are becoming a horrible statistic all on your own.  To the rest of us you look like small children, waving your deadly toys around and demanding your way.

And if you don't get your way, look out!  You have a weapon and you aren't afraid to use it if your persona corpus is threatened.  And you consider your right to bear arms on an even higher level than a woman's right to choose if she will bear a child.

 You are scarier than the average mugger or even the serial killer or socio or psycho or whatever paths. Even in sheep's skin they are the wolves, they stand out.

The images from the pro-gun rally in D.C. this weekend was a crowd of could-be Holmes, Kliebolds, and Lanzas.  Angry men, waving their guns and pictures of guns and words and threats about guns.

The sheep have spoken and it turns out that a good chunk of humanity really would jump off a bridge if everyone else was doing it.  It seems that random, mass violence is on the increase.

The more publicity it gets, the more shock and horror, it's like revenge porn.  Or reality television. The wanna be shooters out there can feast on the horror they see others creating. They can die happy knowing they have caused worse, and that they have inspired others like themselves.

It's a parthenogenesis of anger and fear and terror and hate.  The media coverage is like the embryo or cocoon of the next one.

And you don't have to worry about the consequences, because you can just kill yourself.  Suicide is murder. Murder is easy when you have a semi-automatic weapon and lots of ammo.

Or you can be killed by the police or the state, or locked up in purgatory of life in prison.  You can instantly create a situation where lot's of people are using these "tools" called guns.  (Random shooters are the best friend to the gun salesmen.  They are rolling in the dough right now.)

Guns are the answer to all of life's problems, in this new revolution.

EDIT: I removed a portion of this and made it a stand alone post:  Why I Take Such A Strong Stance On Increased Gun Control  http://laladyrae.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-i-take-such-strong-stance-on.html

***If you are really so afraid of the government taking away your rights, you should have been paying attention to this: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/still-no-word-debate-fisa-amendments-act-warrantless-spying-bill-deadline-nears

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

When I was a little kid, I was often confused about things.

One thing that confused me was Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr.  I didn't know anything about Martin Luther, the Catholic heretic and Protestant reformer, for whom both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his father were named for.

I didn't know about the Protestant Reformation.  I knew there were different religions, but not why, or how.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I knew a lot about. For one thing, his birthday was the day before mine, and back when I was in grade school we had the day of the holiday off- whether it was a Monday or not.  (So when it fell on Saturday or Sunday we did not get any extra days off school.)

In all my classes from kindergarten we learned a lot about him and the things he had done, every year in January around my birthday and his.

One year on Christmas Eve, when I was about 7 or 8, we were decorating the Christmas tree and my grandmother and my mother and the other adults somehow fell to discussing Christmas traditions, and the story of Martin Luther and the first Christmas tree.

The story was also denounced as probably not truthful, per my grandmother and others, as Christmas trees had existed before as leftover from Pagan Yule traditions.

As these discussions continued my mind was working out what I knew about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his age, and my best guess at the oldest his father could have been.

(At this point my mind had already developed sufficiently that when conundrums like this presented themselves I would often have to sort them: The age of the father was the most important, why he did not have the name "King" attached was also a problem.  But as "king" was also a title I'd determined that to be the second problem to work out.)

Even as a child I trusted only myself,  especially when working out the answers to what I considered to be the vast and unrelenting amount of lies, inconsistencies and half-truths adults told children.

I had learned to ask questions carefully and surreptitiously. Adults often ruined things if you revealed too much too soon, or let on that you know what they were up to.

"Nonny, did you have Christmas trees when you were a child?" We called my grandmother Nonny, and I knew she had been born in 1913.

"Yes, of course," she answered, looking at me curiously.  She pointed to an ornament on the tree.  "That ornament came from *my* grandmother," she told me.

There were a lot of people over, and it was busy, and everyone needed my grandmother to do something.  She did not have a chance to ask me why I had asked her such a curious question.

I went to find my mother and I asked her the next question.

"Mom, was Martin Luther senior a King too?"

"A King?" She answered distractedly.  She was busy in the kitchen, making her famous egg nog from scratch. "No, honey I think he was a type of minister though.  A Lutheran Bishop, I think. We can get you a book at church."

The Church library would be open when we went to the late Christmas Eve service.  That year was to be my first time to go to church late, with the adults, and I was looking forward to it.  That a book would also be included in the adventure was just another bonus.

Of course, the book on Martin Luther made matters worse.  There were no pictures, except at the front. He'd lived ages ago.  He was white.  He was from Germany.  I was completely perplexed and at a loss as how to proceed the investigation.

The Christmas holidays and then the always too sudden return to school provided me with enough distractions that I didn't begin my line of questioning again until the January 15th holiday.

I had become impatient to know the answers to the mystery, and the impatience overruled both the fear that some valuable secret would be taken from me at the moment of discovery.  Taken and used for adult purposes, as was often the case.

"Nonny, you had Christmas trees in your house when you were little?"  I tried again.

"Yes, of course.  My mother always decorated so beautifully.  I remember one year..."  She began a story I had heard many times before, about my grandmother's younger sister, who I might have known as my great-aunt if she had not died as child.

"And your grandmother had Christmas trees?" I cut her off, impatiently.

"Yes?"  She had stopped moving, which was rare for my grandmother. She was always moving and busy, even sitting down she would sort papers or sew or knit or write letters.  She was only still when she slept or when she listened to her Mahalia Jackson records.

Or when she was looking at me with her curious eagle eyes.  Probably wondering if I had broken an ornament or heirloom.

"Then how did Martin Luther Kings' father invent them? And how come no one ever says he is a King, too? Was it because he was white?"

I'd looked it up, Martin Luther King had been born only 14 years before my grandmother. And he'd born a King, too.  It was just a last name, not a title.  Had his son perhaps so eclipsed him? Why was that last name not used when referring to him?

I had asked a number of my black classmates about Martin Luther and/or Martin Luther King senior, and about the Christmas tree.  No one had ever heard the Christmas tree story, although one girl thought maybe it was because he was a black man, and not white or German.

As a child I found race, culture and colour completely confusing.  In fact, my experiences trying to understand these things were one of the chief reasons I had learned to be cautious about how I asked adults questions.  Adults were often infuriatingly evasive, and would refuse to answer direct questions.

My grandmother stared at me, uncomprehendingly, an expression I'd seen often enough, and would continue to see frequently throughout the rest of her life.

Finally she smiled.  Then she laughed.

She turned back to her baking, a cake that was to be for my birthday dinner the next day.

"Martin Luther was a German man that lived a long time ago, and he believed that there needed to be more than one church.  And that people should be able to talk to God, instead of having the priests talk to God for the people.  So he wrote down what he thought and nailed it to the church doors, and that started a big fight."

"Was he good or bad?"  Like every story my grandmother told, they way she said the words and the sound of her voice always drew me in. I had temporarily forgotten my line of questioning.

And I always loved to watch the careful and measured way she did things, especially cooking, baking and candy-making, her specialty.  She was mesmerizing to observe.

She always did things perfectly.  Everything always looked picture perfect and neat: her apron tied with a perfect bow, tidying the kitchen as she worked so it was never cluttered or dirty, the cake looking like it had come from a bakery.

"Good for some, not so good for the Catholics," she smiled.  "I am glad he did it."  My grandmother's church was Congregational, although they had recently split from the Puritan side of the church and joined with the very liberal United Church of Christ.  My grandmother did not even believe there was a hell at all, or that it was even possible to be separated from God ever.

God was everywhere. God was part of everything. That was what my grandmother believed.

"But, *Martin Luther* did all those things.  And he is a great hero to many for his beliefs and his courage to stand up for what he believed in.  And so many people have named their children after him. For instance, Martin Luther King Senior was named for Martin Luther, and his son, whose birthday we celebrate today, was named both for his own father, and for Martin Luther the Reformer."

I was already excited about my birthday the next day, but I was even more excited now, because I could explain the mystery to all my friends at school. Relieved of the burden of this great mystery at last, I gave my grandmother a big hug and ran off to play.

So that is what I was doing forty years ago, on this day.

Happy Birthday Rev. Dr. Martin Luther KING, Junior!  Thank you for your wonderful, courageous life and sacrifice and vision!!!!!!! Thank you for your dream!!!!!

Check out this great clip of MLK, Jr speech from UpWorthy: http://youtu.be/HlvEiBRgp2M


Monday, January 14, 2013

KUMBH MELA AND THE WINDING RIVER OF STARS


The Hindu Festival of Kumbh Mela is celebrated by washing in the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, and only every 12 years.  

During the time of this festival the two rivers actually converge with a river the muggles call "mythical" and spiritual peeps recognise as something else-- something astral perhaps, or magickal or mystical. 
Or perhaps astrological? Eridanus, http://earthsky.org/tonight/eridanus-a-river-of-stars

There is a third river. And to bathe in it we don't have to be in Allahabad.
We can wash ourselves of karma from all the past lives, and we can still celebrate the festival of Kumbh Mela in spirit and sympathy. 
Bathe your thoughts and heart in healing love light. Send out some purifying waves of protection to all those that might be lost and cold, or thirsty and tired. 
A night to be cleansed and renewed by the "winding river of stars"Eridanus",  as the Lady of the Waxing Crescent blesses us with her increase!
BLESSINGS!!!!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

LES MISERABLES MOVIE AND THE PROBLEM WITH FILM ACTORS SINGING

Okay, go see this movie.  And bring ALOT of hankies and try not to openly sob.

Yes, even you, manly men.

This is a strange one for fans of musicals. It's never been the strongest book (meaning music and story), which is usually only okay for a "non-dance" musical,  However, what the book lacks for in strong songs and musical themes, it makes up for in story and emotion!

(Again, though, regarding the book in and of itself, the music mostly aids the emotion, not so much story or character.)

And French musicals, generally, seem weak to me.  (Young Girls of Rochefort, and Umbrellas of Cherbourg, for example.  There are no strong songs, no strong solos, no strong and emotive recurring musical themes.) And I am sorry to say that because I love all things French.  But I speak truth.  The French do not "hear" the way we American English speakers do.  You don't hear these songs covered by regular singers a lot.

Learning that the musical began as a French concept album helps.   (Could this also be the origin of Hugh Jackman's incredibly nasal singing and pronunciation?)

However, these are issues I have with the book itself, regardless of how it is performed.  The movie was "off" for me because they let the actors sing.

Other than Hathaway, none of the celebrity performers knew how to really sing.  I don't mean hit the right note and hold it the required beats.  They all did that perfectly.  Just as Richard Gere did in Chicago, and Meryl Streep in Mama Mia.

But consider that Jennifer Holliday also hit the right notes and held them the required beats for "I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls.  Singing isn't just about notes and melodies and time signatures.

And this is doubly true for musicals.

What no one but the musical fan really seems to understand is that the story is told through the song. 

Moreover, the character comes through in how the performer sings the song.

Holliday owns that song and the character in Dreamgirls. I love you, Jennifer Hudson, and the movie was great, but Holliday defined that song and that character. 


(The best example of this phenomenon is actually not Holliday, and not on the stage, but a film movie, with a real singer: Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" in The Wizard of Oz.  Everything you needed to know about that character and Garland's performance of her was in that song.)

Among the big name leads in Les Miserables, only Hathaway seemed to understand that.  Or be able to perform it.  The rest of them seemed to be singing exactly how their vocal coach and the director and musical director told them to.

Which might be the best they could do.

But it just isn't the same.  I never felt cheated that I saw Eden Espinosa doing Elphaba. Of course I would have loved to see Idina Menzel.  But Eden Espinosa's Elphaba was wholly authentic.  I heard her Elphaba quite clearly. She was not just mimicing Menzel.

So when you see a musical in a theatre, live, you see the song and the story come through the "channel" of the performer (perhaps the ultimate example of my theory on music).  The actor becomes the song, and the song becomes the character.

The musical actor doesn't have to have a perfect voice, but s/he needs to have an authentic one.  S/he needs to know how to bring the character life through the song.

People that love musicals buy the soundtrack even if they can't see the show.  Because the soundtrack as sung by the cast will provide the most essential elements of the show, no matter how glitzy.  (And even in the sense of the more dance based ones this is still true- like Chicago-- because the body still remains the instrument.  Gwen Verdon channels Sweet Charity better than Shirley Maclaine, although Maclaine was good.)

In too many movies based on musicals I feel like I am watching a film actor trying to sing a song, and not channel a character.  (Although Hathaway did a good job. Although I still prefer the Patty Lupone or the Broadway cast.  Click on that link, and you will get all weepy just listening, I promise. And holy crap, what a musician she is!)

In a tear jerker like this, Crowe's singing, especially, just wasn't up to par.

Moreover acting for films and musicals is two different things! Either Hooper or Mackintosh understood that, and used it the film's advantage- because it is almost all close-ups. Happy songs the camera is looking up and sad song the camera looks down, but it is close up, or close medium (upper half of the body).  Ensembles are wide shots, with the camera looking up.  

Maybe it wasn't that simple, but it seemed that way.  And actually the unwavering close-ups helped with the singing-- maybe to give us something else to focus on.   And film actors are all about how they look- maybe not their actual features but their "looks", their expressions.

I did just read this review, by Adam Lambert, and it states that Tom Hooper wanted to keep the cast vocals and not "sweeten in the studio".   (Or, maybe have a real singer record it!!! Oh for the studio days when the "ghostest with the mostest" Marni Nixon, could step in for Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood!)

Perhaps Hooper was actually trying to retain that truth about musicals, in allowing the actors their own voices. But I wished they'd dubbed it.

(There is a really vast difference between film acting and stage acting, and few straddle it well.  It'd be nice if for more big screen adaptions used those that came from the stage, like the movie of Rent.)

Anyhow, I will end up buying this DVD, although I will stick to the original cast for the soundtrack.  (I really cannot imagine owning the film soundtrack.)

If you can watch the movie without crying you have no heart.  I was just trying to not openly sob in the theatre at the end.

Oh, and regarding that fiscal cliff and austerity, and things that make heads of state go rolling, etc:

Idiot Politicians and and greedy Corporate Pigs, take heed;
http://schoolworkhelper.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/causes_french_revolution.gif 

A great clip from Les Miz 10th http://youtu.be/lC5TqchAbwc

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY PAGE THE MAGE

Check out 13 year old Jimmy:
http://youtu.be/wxvzEMNTbWs

And then to get a tear in your eye, watch this:
http://youtu.be/ng5CzvCvfOE

Happy Birthday Mr Page and thank you so much for all the music!!!!!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID BOWIE!!!! WHERE ARE WE NOW?

David Bowie is lucky number 66!!! Happy Birthday to him, but really LUCKY US for his PRESENCE on this planet!!!

I swear somedays I think the only reason I came to this incarnation was to hear David Bowie sing.

And that pretty much makes the whole thing worth it.  So THANK YOU DAVID BOWIE for the new single:



I cannot stop listening.  And the film that is the music video is just stunning and beautiful.

Perfect.  So breathtakingly fantastically perfect.

And the lyrics-- just layered, and so many echoes, just even on the first listening to it.

A T.S. Eliot Wasteland translated to the Post World War 2 European experience.  The legacy of loss- so different from the U.S. and the fat cat Baby Boomer generation.

European nations did not revel in unbelievable wealth and technological advances in the 1950's- they struggled to rebuild decimated countries and adjust to life with new iron curtains and dividing walls.

And Germany has been forever changed.  Every street and alley; every corner, every depot.

For Bowie here, too, are years that he spent-- often with "Jim", that is, Iggy Pop-- shooting up and ending up very desolate.

The clean up from those lost Berlin years would become the album Scary Monsters (Super Creeps) and the song "Ashes to Ashes" in particular.

But I think there may also be a hearken back to We Are The Dead.

I have to listen to the single ten thousand more times-- and I cannot wait for the album!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID ROBERT JONES AKA BOWIE!!!!

I am so so thankful to you for your music and your life!!!!!!

AS LONG AS THERE'S YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Monday, January 7, 2013

EPIPHANY BUTTERFLY: SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT

 "They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods." ~Edith Wharton

I came across a lost and frozen astral messenger lying on the sidewalk yesterday.   I thought it was probably dead, but it was so bright and yellow in the grey overcast day.  Almost fluerescent, it's wings spread out perfectly.   And along the edges it is pink and green.

A "clouded sulphur" butterfly, common to Missouri from March to December.

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/clouded-sulphur

It's colouring made me think of the astral chakra cleansing visualisation and meditation I do, where you use the energies of earth and heaven (or earth and the Universe) to come through you and send out the beautiful green light of Universal Love, and the pink earthly love of the human heart to the whole world and everything and everyone upon it.**

I always see the pink light coming from my heart as little pink hearts and they are  fluttering like butterflies, riding upon the almost liquid green light out, and circling around the globe, 7 billion of them, without reservation or pause.

I picked it up carefully with two business cards, and it did close its wings.  I took off one glove and put it in the opening, trying not to touch its wings.  When I got to work I brought it in, but it began to move around a lot in the well-heated building.  I didn't want it to hurt itself and I had no idea what to do for it or feed it, etc.

I took it outside in my glove and left it in a planter, protected from the wind and the cold.  I wanted it to be able to move on if it was able to.

It waited patiently for me while I worked and then I took it home, holding the glove carefully.  I put it in a jar with a washcloth and some mums clipped from a Christmas arrangment, and an apple peel.  I put the jar to the window with the window cracked.

Later, after consulting many facebook friends via text and email, I replaced the mum with a branch from the front yard, still green.  Also sugar water replaced the apple peel, in the cap of a food storage container, and then a little later and little more information later, a mesh bag over the sugar water,  for easier feeding.

Thank goddess this creature survived me and my ignorance!  I was as inadequate to the task as a medieval serf hosting the Queen of the Sidhe.   I have no gossamer, no nectar, and for this Royal Sylph creature-- no alfalfa or dandelion flowers, or flowers of the sunflower thistle family.  

http://www.keepinginsects.com/butterfly/care/

After talking to the totally wonderful people at the Missouri Botanical Garden's Climatron I was guided to consider either just making the creature as comfortable as possible before death and/or trying to release if the temperature went over 40 degrees.  She assured me that butterflies don't need any GPS and if it were to fly away outside it would know where to go.

If the wee winged one wanted to get to Florida, it would be possible in two days, and definitely could get to warmer climes by night fall.

She also informed that they didn't have anything at all there to feed this kind of butterfly.  (The zoo had told me straight away no because nothing can go in or out.  It is a closed system.  They have special air suction and stuff, I was informed by a facebook friend in the know.)

So at about noon I took the butterfly outside in the wire mesh hamper and pulled back the mesh garment bag that I had put across the top.  The butterfly had been hanging upside down from it.  It stayed there, and did not fly away, upright and bobbing like a surfer sitting on the waves, as the wind went over its body. 

It actually gave me a "LOOK".  A "it is way too cold out here, I'd much rather go back to the warm with some fresh sugar water, thanks.  Maybe we can try tomorrow" look.

So it is back in the back room.  I cracked the window a wee bit, I don't want it to get too warm and comfy if it is going to fly out tomorrow, and also I don't want to suffocate it with any cooking smoke or incense, or even if the microwave or television or something disrupts its senses.  So the back room, where it is warm, but not Florida warm, with a wee bit of fresh air, seemed best.

I've been practicing my inter-species telepathic skills.  After we got back inside I told it if it was hanging upside down to start laying eggs and cocooning it should wait til tomorrow night because possibly it could go catch up with its peeps down south.

I left the room and when I came back in was sitting on the bottom, upright, in the middle of garment bag-- not near the food or branches.  I took it as a sign it agreed with me.

I think it might have flown back down.  I have not seen it fly except it was fluttering in the jar when I came in this morning, before I moved it to the mesh laundry hamper.

And it actually walked up the mesh to the top and then positioned itself in the middle, hanging upside down by only one leg.

That was extremely cool to observe!  I don't think I could have spent money and had such a great and unexpected experience!

I am kind of OCD checking on it.  Which in my imagined telepathic communications the creature finds both annoying and amusing: "Again?  You were just here five seconds ago- we agreed to wait til tomorrow, let me sleep."

And me: "I suspect you of flying when I am not in the room."

Butterfly: "Well, if all goes well you will see me fly tomorrow."

No matter what happens, I have thanked all the nature spirits and gods, and Lord and Lady Paralda especially, repeatedly for this blessing and opportunity.

I am naming the butterfly "Epiphany" even though I think it is a male, and that is kind of a girly name.  But whether a creature of the astral or supernatural or just a victim of global warming and strange weather patterns, this is one unique little butterfly, and he deserves a special name!

Elton John Someone Saved My Life Tonight on Youtube









"You give me butterflies inside..." Michael Jackson on Youtube

** In this system I use for cleansing the chakras this way, and sending out love energy, the colour yellow is linked to the ego or solar plexus chakra and the ego. It is the New Age chakra correspondences, not necessarily the Hindu yogic system.  The butterfly is mostly yellow.

Of course, in Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude, and also in his Erendira,yellow butterflies are love:
“It was then that she realized that the yellow butterflies preceded the appearances of Mauricio Babilonia.” ― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

And here are a few more:

The fluttering of a butterfly's wings can effect climate changes on the other side of the planet.  ~Paul Erlich  

 It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.  How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?  For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.  That is where the writer scores over his fellows:  he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.  ~Vita Sackville-West


Know thyself!  A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly.  Whoever observes himself arrests his own development.  A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.  ~Andre Gide


Go on, hitch a ride on the back of a butterfly.  There's no better way to fly.  ~Pat Monahan, Scott Michael Underwood, and James W. Stafford, "Get To Me

Sunday, January 6, 2013

THE FLACCID "PRO-ARMS" ARGUMENT AND IMPOTENT BELIEVERS

(EDIT: Alex Jones illustrates another side of this-- the rabid dog, foaming at the mouth. ) http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2013/01/08/pmt-bts-jones-gun-control-debate.cnn

I am sorry because I know some of you are friends, but do you realise how ridiculous you all sound?

And let's be clear that the lies and insults are what piss me off.   When you post memes with fucked up facts you don't check.  When you resort to "hell-fire and brimstone" speeches worthy of the best "backwoods hillbilly, 700 Club subscribing" fundamentalists about what is going to happen if even the gun show loophole gets closed.  (Capitialism will collapse, we will be come a fascist state, and there will be rioting and looting in the streets, since the only thing holding back the "apocalypse" is your guns.)

And please understand what we are saying when we say "gun show loophole", we mean "private party including gun show sales".  Let's be clear that at gun shows it is often organized by people that make the vendors adhere to public seller laws and many of the vendors are licensed sellers.

But please review the following article to understand EXACTLY what we are talking about so that you can properly respond.

Perhaps it is unfortunate that our description isn't accurate.  However, you are on the defense right now.  If you want to convince us to let you keep your guns legally then you do need to be able to respond to what we are saying accurately.  Sorry.  We need facts and logic.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1006326

Trust me, your ridiculous logic is not even worthy of contempt.  It is jaw-dropping and piteous.

(The NRA spends a lot of money to keep you on their side. Far more than our side has, too.)

But then you have to throw in that shit like "if you don't like this country, then leave it" often with some variation of "you'd be speaking German and sucking Russian cock if it weren't for macho, gun waving people like me, and so you don't deserve to live here, and don't forget, I have a gun and you don't so you better shut the fuck up."

Or "Hitler Stalin and Obama are all pro-Gun control, and Thomas Jefferson wanted you to own a gun."

And (the best): Sandy Hook was some sort of conspiracy perpetrated by the imaginary ANTI-gun lobby to create smokescreen to get fascist anti-gun laws passed.

(And this imaginary lobby is  supposedly led by Obama--who, btw, worked for a pro-gun lobby and to us "anti-gun or stricter laws" folks is actually considered to be one of you. Just really quiet about it. President Obama really has done NOTHING on gun control, as far as I am concerned.  Do you understand that?  Whatever he does from here on out you have already condemned him to our side-- even though we do not see him among us!... Yet...)

Your arguments all boil down to "I want my gun and I don't feel safe without it, and I am not the kind of person that would buy one illegally, so I am just gonna make shit up and use bad logic and insult you."

So watch this, and you will see and hear just how ridiculous these arguments sound.  We don't really even have to insult you back (although the memes and conspiracy theories sure do invite it).  No, your own arguments do quite well on their own.

The pro-gun logic leads straight to "legalised nuclear weapons and heroin for everyone"lol:

http://www.upworthy.com/watch-hyper-pro-gun-activists-argument-gets-destroyed-by-smart-ladys-calm-decenc?g=2&c=upw1

Your arguments are limp and flaccid.  They all boil down to your own fear and inadequacy.  You need a big metal dick, a "killing penis",  to feel like someone adequate to living in these times and remain safe.

You can't navigate this world without a gun.  And don't try to say that I can't either, I just don't know it, because secretly your gun has been keeping me safe, because we both know that is bullshit.  I have had guns pointed at me, all  held by white men. A "regular" guy, a felon, and then some cops--sometimes cops in uniform, sometimes cops out of uniform, and not while I was being arrested.

Always some guy that wanted me to do something sexual I didn't want to do, who had a gun. So don't tell me your (mostly imagined and often second and third hand) horror stories. I've lived them.

And there are plenty of people that live in much less safe environments then the statistically "average" legal gun owner.  Your gun is not keeping them safer. 

And maybe the rest of us need guns to protect ourselves from you?  Yes, you, typical NRA supporter : white, middle and working class, man

Have you by any chance noticed the difference between a random shooting and crime?

Crime, at least, we can see coming.  It has a reason, outside of just "I have a gun and I want to shoot someone."  This isn't even like accidental spray from gang shootings (which mostly occur  in black and brown neighbourhoods, with illegal guns-- often guns that were legal before they were sold illegally or stolen).

There is no rhyme or reason, except in someone like James Holmes' head.  No predictable behaviour or sign.  Except in purchasing ammo.  If someone were tracking how much people were buying and who was buying it and why. Oh but you are against that, too.

And even though  in Lanza's case likely this never would have happened. A kid like Adam Lanza probably could not have successfully navigated purchasing ammo-- just getting away from his mother or a caretaker for long enough.  His shooting spree was almost solely due to the availability of weapons and ammo.

Lanza's mother was a "responsible gun owner" and she taught her children to "respect the gun". She was stockpiling ammo in case of one of the many hellfire and brimstone stories she and her NRA folks believe in came true.

Except that her actions were what brought the about the story fulfillment.

These random shootings are WAY fucking scarier than a crime of property or even sexual assault.  It is "death orgasm", and meant to be multiple.  The target doesn't matter. It is the person with the gun versus the people without the guns.  (Again, NRA, your stories come to life.)

And the increase in random shootings is directly related to the ease of purchasing guns and ammo in this country and the sheer number of weapons, a ratio unrivalled by even most war zones the worldover!

Adam Lanza and Dylan Kliebold and T.J. Lane-- all they want to do is kill.  Middle class, white men and boys.  (And guns are made for no other purpose. They are not at all "just tools" like screwdrivers.  They are not like cars and car accidents.  They don't screw in screws, they don't drive people places-- like driving people to the hospital that have gunshot wounds. Guns are tools of death. Period. STOP being ridiculous, if you can be.)

And when powerless but entitled feeling men don't get their way or they get angry at the world and don't know why all these people won't just "leave the country" or "go back where they came from" they grab a gun, a "killing penis", to go out and shoot a few people up before taking their own life.

But, oh that's right, you will be there to play hero and shoot 'em up faster.  Fuck everyone that doesn't have a gun, or if they aren't fast enough draw.

You NRA Party Line people are basically saying the same things that these random shooters are saying. You are the flip side of it, you're the armed "hero" who is going to take them out.  You are both having the same fantasy.  You are just facing each other with your guns.  And the rest of us are running for cover.

I have a lot more to say.  But I thought I would start there.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

HIPSTERS, CELTS, AND OTHER MUSINGS

I have 46 posts in Drafts.  I have another 20 or so in my writing folder.

The longer and more complicated the post, the more likely it will set.  Since September there have been many multiple drafts on guns, rape, politicians talking about rape, racism, Israel, Mayans, racism again, guns again, etc.

A post on one of these topics becomes quickly very long, and often turns into multiple posts, and some I fear are almost book length. ( I never worry about running out of ideas or stories to write.)

So when something easy comes along, that I can cobble quickly from facebook posts into a draft-- usually at the end of an otherwise unsatisfying day in terms of writing accomplishments-- I leap on it to make myself feel like I did something objectively evident.

Also, the term "hipster" has fascinated since I began hearing it in L.A. at least five years ago, maybe seven (and if the term appeared earlier it didn't register or I didn't hear it used).

I recall an early encounter with the term on a facebook posting by a guy that I consider to be "hip" although I realise now is definitely NOT a hipster, based on current usage.

He worked as a waiter in an upscale but not high end (not for L.A.) restaurant, and he'd had a very tiresome encounter with a "moneyed hipster."

The comments on that facebook post did not lead me to identifying hipsters in my day to day life.  Although, this year I have come to conclude that I have indeed encountered many hipsters, most of them in their 20's, and most of them here in St. Louis. 

This was mainly due to this article:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/

And then this one:

Really what I liked about the first post was just the description of hipsters. Like when the young people started saying EMO. I was like what the fuck is that? Some new Goth, I thought. I was shocked when I learned it meant Emotional. (I knew at that moment I was totally out of it in terms of the young people and their lingo.)

I have to admit that I was always looking for the modern day hipster to be a kind of beatnik, a bohemian.  Wearing a beret and snapping fingers and going to poetry readings. The pre-Hippie hipsters.

These kids with the truckers hats and facial hair and trombones didn't register as hipsters to me because I am not looking from the perspective of today's popular youth culture.

I certainly come in contact with the youth culture, but essentially I have become the older generation.  I am outside looking in, the same way the baby boomers were looking at us Gen X'ers.

I remember when I was a teenager and we all used to debate things like "mods" and "punks" and I was 2-Tone punk, and a "Rude Girl" and those things were SO important to me.   And those terms meant something completely different and had no cultural context for the ww2 and post-war boomer generations.

And none of the hipsters I knew were able to tell me that they, themselves, were hipsters because they either did not recognise themselves as such and/or recognised the term as a deragotory term and therefore did not embrace it.

My generation adopted "punk" because we embraced being "punks" to our Boomer parents the way the Teddys and rockbillys and rock n rollers embraced being "hoods" to their WW2 parents.
And the Gen X  Preppies embraced being preparatory school children to the punks and burnout.

But the hipsters don't embrace the term at all.

There is an eternally recurring question among newbies Celt-o-philes about whether the Celtic tribes would have pronounced "Celtic"  Keltic or Seltic? 

The question does not get asked once the student reaches a level of study where they learn that Keltoi was a Greek word for the tribes that shared similar cultures, languages, and religions, spread out over France, Spain, and parts of British Isles. 

Each tribe, or clan (and family or sept), would have called itself by its own name, and if there were a word to unite all the tribes as one people, it would likely not have been a Greek word.

But the Greek word is spelled and pronounced with a hard "k".  Moreover, in all Gaelic languages C is hard like a K.  And the Druids, mostly in Ireland granted, chose how their language would enter the written word, and how the words would be spelled.

(The Celtic tribes had no written language other than a highly magickal and priestly one, of which even Ogham was a late addition.  It was carved on sticks, and wood rots, of course. Few remnants survive. They were an oral -and I personally think  a telepathic- people, until the Latin Roman alphabet showed up. )

Anyhow, so that "hipster" term isn't really used among hipsters, as far as I can tell, and that is why no one could ever answer me! They didn't see themselves as such. Just as I was not "new wave", when I was a teenager.  I was a "punk" and a "2-tone Rude Girl."

I thought of this post in the drafts folder because I recently read this article on "hipster racism".   In every person there is the potential to be racist, and only when a person has really made a decision to become aware of it in themselves can they conquer it.  So this article deals with  "racism" true, but just how it gets translated through the "hipster" crowd. 

http://jezebel.com/5905291/a-complete-guide-to-hipster-racism 

Oh, and PS if you like this post for how my crazy mind works, you might like this one from my old blog as well: http://toodler.blogspot.com/2005/10/godzilla-friend-or-foe-hip-hop-photos.html