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I consider this a Radical Gumbo, with many varied ingredients making more than the sum of its parts. We are no-holds barred, passionate and not overly PC here. Yes, Liberals can have Fangs. Jump in and be part of the cutting edge!
The truth? In the week that three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They're otherwise engaged; they're making money; they're enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on.
No shit. Steal land, sell condos. Fuck stopping us... there is too much to gain.
Peace would mess with profits.
Asked in a March poll to name the "most urgent problem" facing Israel, just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty. Israeli Arabs placed peace first, but among Jews here, the issue that President Obama calls "critical for the world" just doesn't seem - critical.
They are doing well without it. The plight of Palestine isn't even on their radar.
Yet more proof that Israel is ILLIBERAL (per essay below) and is land of neo-cons.... as if attacking a PEACE SHIP didn't already prove that to the World.
Its interesting, I've read so many odd things this week that meld together in this contraption that runs my physical being. Religion, Liberalism, Science. Open-mindedness.
I've seen sites co-opted in the past by people insisting our rage against the liars and the murderous bastards at the helm of this nation is illiberal... since good liberals don't ever use language that might "dehumanize" another. You all know where I stand on that touchy-feely bullshit.
I've seen other blogs, in the name of free speech, let pedantic madmen, bullies or right-wingers set the tone, just by sheer screaming volume, since real liberals must allow everyone a turn at the podium. Right... lets let Dick Cheney frame the day!
I've heard people say we need to find a moral reasoning to support our stances. I've heard people say we are too connected to science, and not connected enough to faith.
So, in no particular order, I'm going to shit pearls of Liberal wisdoms, and what I think to be the obvious morality behind them.
Lets start with the oldest philosophical question of all about what "goodness" is, and how it is weighed in a society. The few vs the many? Kind of a no brainer. You learned it in kindergarten whether or not you studied any religion. Its called the Golden Rule.
Yesterday was supposed to be 82 and sunny. We got cool, cloudy and sprinkles half the day. Summer ended with a whimper. But you should check out my flower pictoral before they are all gone, Its a good moment of zen.
I have to have Jake out of here by 7:30, Mike out by 8:00 and me by 8:30, in what is going to be our new routine. Thursdays my start time is later. They are both nervous, hell Mike is probably scared shitless, I suppose. Its going to be weird, usually if he was working, he'd be gone by 5 or so, and if he was off, he'd still be sleeping when we left. I see dueling bathroom time in my future. I know, the least of my worries, but the least is the only amusing part about this, so there it is.
I'm going to have to get up at 5 myself (though I often do anyway) just to have my 15 minutes of peace and quiet to write a morning post. The good boss is being a gem about them changing his chemo to Wednesdays ~ I can work Mondays & Fridays for her. Chemo day I have to be there all 4 hours. They do have wifi, though. The benadryl infusion will probably knock him out the 1st 2 hours.
Ok, its 6:33, and neither one of them got up with their alarms. (6 and 6:15) They know I will wake them, so they turn them off. I hate being the nag, but what else can I do, let them blow off school and radiation? If I don't come they'll sleep until 10.
Gah. Nag-role by force. Hate it.
Talk to you later, friends. Be my brain today, play nice with one another and kick some political ass, mmmmk?
The view from my small kitchen window over my sink; a fleeting tropical paradise of color, texture and perfume. Parting will be such sweet sorrow...
The gardens, despite everything, were awesome anyway this year. I love creating the world with my own hands... bringing elements to this clime and making them flourish despite it.
DTI - That may well be the new name of our Country, or at least its Ruling Class. Anyone who does not see that this is a Class War really needs to think about the fact if you have money, or are assigned a position of Power by the moneyed class, "Declined To Investigate" is always your designation, no matter how reprehensible your acts.
In the land of those suckled on Indian-killing cowboyism, I guess I am not surprised that the DTI on torture and War Crimes doesn't trigger any reaction, I mean those are less than human darkies in their purview .... but you would think there would enough parental triggers left in the species to make baby raping something we just might react to.
But when 264 Pentagon Employees used credit cards to repeatedly purchase kiddy porn? Nadda. In 2006, they "looked into" only 52 of those, with only 10 were charged. We are talking about people with the highest security clearances in our land... and they just Declined To Investigate them. And no one says a thing.
I'm not surprised, mind you. Rape is one of the tools they love to use as torture. Its not surprising that those who climb our military ladder to the top echelons are sick, sadistic, perverted fucks that whack off to child porn while ordering genital electrocutions of kidnapped people who have done nothing but fit a racial profile or tried to be freedom fighters for their own autonomy.
I am surprised, however, that all the rubber fetus wavers aren't going crazy, though. Totally surprised. But of course, Glenn Beck isn't bawling over the exploited children whose exploiters found their most profitable clients in the Pentagon. I guess they only weep when told to, at abortion clinics. Its ok to sexually abuse children, as long as women have to have those children, even as a product of their own rapes.
Citizens of this country have to endure investigation at all times - we have no right to privacy, as our phone calls, credit card transactions, and every internet keystroke is mined to make sure we are proving ourselves innocent at all times. Video cameras to ticket the unwary by mail, and video cameras on every road for unknown reasons. There are check lanes and strip searches, there are metal detectors and data strips in our money. We are the PI class. Perpetually Investigated class.
You can only be DTI of you want to collapse our entire economy in a ponzi scheme. You can only be DTI if you don't want them to know how much oil you just spilled, how much poison you dumped to cover it up, or what its impact will be. You can only be DTI if you are private contractor granted ever new contracts, while letting your boys use human beings as video game target practice. You can only be DTI if you are killing an elected President. You can only be DTI if you are creating false evidence to invade a country and steal their oil.
These other DTI's make looking at images on a computer, completely disgusting as these images may be, almost seem innocuous in comparison. How does one weigh the crimes of the Elites, genocide, torture, terrorizing civilians by drone worldwide, sending hit squads after International Leaders and US citizens, killing a whole ocean, making our people impoverished, the rest of the world destitute, and enjoying baby raping?
Of course they Decline To Investigate themselves.
They are too busy oppressing us so that we never have the time to catch our breath and notice just what kind of Criminals we are allowing to run our lives.
Some days, you just have to wonder... what the fuck?
Some days I have to wonder, if its not the PI's fault for allowing this.
I had a surprise knock on my door yesterday. Cindy Denby is our MI House State Representative, and she is running for re-election. Truth be told? When I heard the car door, and saw her plodding up my walk, I thought, someone lost a dog or something. She handed me her doorknocker sized pamphlet, and started to introduce herself. I glanced down at the picture and the bright red "Conservative Republican" and said, "Oh, honey, I'm sorry, never going to happen, I'm a wild liberal!" She actually laughed. "Wild?" I wished her a nice day anyway. I suppose on a better day, a day I was remotely in the mood for people, I would have taken that chance to ask her in for coffee and debated with her. She seemed pleasant enough. I have to give her credit for going door to door herself. I must be growing soft, I didn't even have the remote desire to rip her spine out through her mouth. I totally blew off the chance to get on my soapbox and ask if supporting the Rich really was good for the People.
Other than hunkering down with our immediates and stockpiling toilet paper, what is it we can do? That's the question the far-left keeps asking. Communes are a pretty pipe dream, but post-oil Armageddon? We could suggest the survivors all do the pilgrimage back to the Georgia Guidestones, and renew the World with our new angelic ways. But Georgia has Georgians, and they know the lie of the Land. Ever seen Deliverance? I'm pretty sure the area is tropical swamp. It has lots of fresh water, 887 thousand kinds of poisonous snakes, and the mosquitoes have gunner pilots on board. Besides, most of us are old fucks and couldn't survive the 3 year walk it would take to get there.
(clicking on the map gets rid of the annoying balloon)
So what now, Diane? You blow off change from within, and you won't let us think we have special powers to survive, find one another and live happily ever after. Hell, you won't even let us hunker down and wallow in self-gratification as the Empire burns. Just when you thought your porn collection and stockpiled heirloom weed seed would come in handy!
Don't despair. I have an angle. I always have an angle. You did read the Title, yes?
The great dealer of all things is perilously close to a breakdown.
I dreamed it was me having chemo this morning. They have to give you a round of anti-nausea stuff. The next round is benadryl and steroids to keep your body from rejecting or reacting to the meds... then you wait an hour and then you get one set of poison, for 45 minutes, then the next set. I could feel the warmth of the chemicals pushing through my veins, spreading from my right arm into my body. It all takes 4 hours.
I so want to take this pain from him. I wish it WAS me.
They said the chemo part would be on Mondays, and I arranged my whole work schedule to accommodate that... and they scheduled him for Wednesdays. My rich-lady day. How the FUCK am I going to support my family on my one income when we barely made it on two? I am thinking of trying to set Jake up for the free lunch program; but you have to prove low-income, and low-income just started.
This is no way for a little boy to grow up. He shouldn't have grown up worries and deal with all this pain. I left for less than an hour the other day to pick up water softener salt, forgot my cell phone and when I came back, Jake was in the driveway waiting, panicked, because Dad collapsed after taking a shower. He is being caretaker. He collapsed, unable to breathe from the pneumonia, and the chemo & radiation hasn't even started yet. I felt guilty as hell for both of them. I feel like I cannot leave the house. Whats gonna happen when it really gets ugly?
I hate everything about this.
When the fuck are the AFLAC checks going to come? I have shut off notices on everything.
I'm in a shitty place right now, mentally. I can't write. So, here lies a bleeding fucking stupid open thread I probably shouldn't have written.
Gottlieb and Diane G. are live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio Friday night at 6pm Eastern Time to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.
Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth by the WWL coalition of subversion: undermining the PTB by speaking Truth to Power!!!!
1984 much anyone? Come to the land through the looking glass yet again; where attacking an innocent Country and destroying it is Victory, where leaving means staying, where Oil spills become the Norm, where both Parties are One and Slavery is the best end-game for our economic system.
We have myriad breaking news stories to cover, friends, listeners and lunatics... but really? We wish the song remained the same... but no, it IS getting worse.
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So wraps the fastest summer of my life. I can't complain, the weather is holding out as perfect into next week. But I did pretty much nothing that I pine for all winter. No boat time, little swim time, no floatie toy time at all. No bonfires (but fall is better for that anyway) and only 2 jams. I did not read all the books I promised myself I would. I did not buckle down and relearn guitar. I did not get Jake into Piano lessons. I did not bike ride or walk the rails to trails wilderness thing that goes for untold miles in any direction. Hell, I never even lost the winter weight... and now? Fall is closing in.
I guess thats the thing in living barraged by crisis; time speeds up. I find my self becoming both hyper-aware, and totally air-headed. I wake with random lists, "How will I get that tree that fell on my back yard fence last month cut up for this winter's firewood? Should I try and save up to buy some? We could save a ton of money if he's home to stoke the fireplace. Will he be able to? Will the tiny amount of smoke seepage be bad for him any way?" ...and thats just the first second.
What did get pushed back in my priority list is Jake-stuff for school. I had to race this week, getting his shots updated yesterday, and taking my 3/4 violin in for restringing for his first year in band... God, I hope that's back by Saturday. He has thousands of t-shirts, enough shorts and sandals, but egads, gonna have to come up with tennis shoes and pants within a month or so, for when the weather turns cold. He has grown too much. Hopefully, one of our rich neighbor friends who usually goes through her kid's closet about now drops off some like always. She is a god-send. He goes to school styling in brand names I could never put on his back. Maybe I'll nudge her through a friend. The neighbors have no idea whats going on in our lives. No need for that. The school didn't give us a "need to buy" supply list, but last year, they supplied almost all of it.
6th grade. Almost 12. He's getting a fine layer of not-blonde peach fuzz on his upper lip... not enough to be directly noticeable, save in the right light, but Jesus. Neither of the 2 girls he is desperately in love with are in his class, much to his combination of regret and relief. Heh. The meet and greet with his teachers went well. I was told by the cancer ptb to give them a heads up about his Dad. I did. It was weird. His homeroom teacher is a basketball coach, and took it with aplomb. Cool. His math & social study teacher went all touchy-feely on me. Yuck. But she was sweet and well-intended.
All I need is one more month of summer. Please? My tropical paradise is just coming into full glory, being planted so late after the MIL crisis. I need to watch more sunsets with my toes in the warm sand and cool water.
Reading this? I realize I sound sad. But I'm really not. Just baffled how the time flew. Fall is beautiful, winter can be amazing, and another spring always comes. Lets be honest here, this summer got half-stolen by how unnaturally extreme the heat was... and though I hate A/C, I hid in it. Right now? The windows are all open, the air smells amazing, and we are all alive. Every day has to be a good day to be alive, and so it is.
I am Fringer. I want an American Socialist Revolution in my time. Ideally a World Revolution. I am fringe enough that even with the absolute certainty that my desires will likely never come to fruition does not make the fires of my desire burn even slightly less intensely. I am WAY out there.
In fact, I would seriously postulate that I am an extraterrestrial being, but I have evidence to the contrary: You never see bags under those huge alien eyes - and my human weaknesses are too telling in that way.
Life and gravity have not been kind to my all too human packaging.
I feel that a true desire for justice, for all that is good and right has an event horizon; a gravity that once you commit to it, will not allow one to back away from the position. Once you see that light, that is really all that exists. You are part of the singularity.
Budhydharma wrote a brilliant sermon (fiery as a sermon, anyway) in which he asks, "Do YOU Want The Republicans To Win?" The frightening title would infer trying to make people cling back to their partisan politics, to renew their support for Democrats. That was not his whole story, though. He accomplished that in some, while maintaining that the Dems themselves are doing nothing to stop it. His idea is to "push" the Dems to do better. The comment thread was the best part, inspirational to me.
I honed my analogy from last night, from the pages of WWL, where we have been discussing the same issues, just from a Fringe-Left position. The last 4 or 5 essays all have been in part, or in full, about the process of actual change in this country. Let me expand my thoughts. (and use the Red Sox, rather than the Tigers - I hear it will make a more compelling argument :-)
You cannot get a Red Sox fan EVER to like the Yankees.... but you can get a Baseball fan to get REALLY pissed at the Owners for locking out the League.
We need to change the very basis of the conversation.
The Owners of the League set the rules, the prices, the schedule, the ads, everything. They make bazillions off the trade. These, the richest of the Game, get subsidized by we the fan's tax dollars - to build larger shrines to them, larger so they can charge more, and fill more seats while so doing. Welfare for the rich, tax-fueled stadiums, and tax breaks for building them in our cities.
The Players? Oh, yes, they are the pampered and well paid whores that enable the process. It doesn't matter one bit if they wear a Yankee uniform, or a Red Sox one. They can change teams as easily as underwear.
You, the fan? Are nothing but an easily played means for more revenue. Back your Team! Show your Pride! Pay for the newest arena! Hate the other Team! Pay through the ass to watch what is still theater, meaningless team-less theater... brought to you by your Owners.
Do I need to point out the obvious analogy to our Political process?
I wish I could type faster. I had fun last night transcribing Obama-speak into "what he really said" but missed so many plays on words from his choices of verbiage.
Its a great way to vent frustration, dark humor. He blew so much smoke up our collective asses, the sky should be full of American Intestinal Zeppelins. Does he really think he will get all those baggers on his side with a little killer-worship, and a bit of Bushsucking flag waving? Does he really think the anti-war movement is fooled for a MOMENT that he is a Peace President? Political tone-deafness to what it was that got him elected.
I am officially smarter than the boy-genius President.
The responses to my call to 2008 made clear that I am not preaching to any choir. There is no choir anymore.
"Rage is bad, defeating," came the psychospeak.
"We need a LEADER," came the whine.
"We need a definitive plan," came the complaints.
I got everything BUT agreement for the most part, at least on DD... Cathy had a brilliant comment here worth reading, and most here got it to some extent, if in a negative doomed kind of way.
Really? Plans, leaders and the calm logic come after the Public Sway demands them.... and we have LOST the Public Sway. We have lost the exact Public Sway that brought us the false leader of Obama... but a huge Sway it had been.
I don't know how to say it any clearer. The first step is always moving the dialogue, moving the People. We have to again air our list of grievances, remind people of who ACTUALLY caused those grievances, We have to show the People that the UniParty has not addressed those grievances.
If the Public Sway creates a groundswell atmosphere of Change, then Change, Plans and Leaders follow.
We cannot, must not, give up because the first attempt failed. 2008 was a start, it should not be a finish.
We need a 2008er Party. A People's Party. If we on the far-far Left cannot even unite behind the obvious need for united voices to speak reason against the Bagger BS, then what are we?
I know you feel like a battered spouse, tricked into staying again, out of some misguided sense of loyalty. I know you feel like there is nowhere to run TO, had you the courage to leave. I know, it feels powerless and hopeless to try - and really? Despite all the disappointments, you look around and say, "Its not that bad, there are a LOT of people worse off than I am. I'm strong. Its not THAT bad yet. Nothings perfect..."
To which I say:
WHAT THE FUCK, MORONS!?!?!?!?
Sure, I know one of the things people burn out on is sustained rage - but every single thing we came together about in '08 has gotten WORSE not BETTER.
I'm not talking about sustaining rage anymore. I'm talking about exponentially increasing our rage.
ENDING WAR?
THE ECONOMY?
TRANSPARENCY?
PRIVACY?
HEALTH CARE?
WALL STREET'S ROBBERY?
WAR CRIMES?
The only way to counter the INSANITY of the Tea Baggers slapping their balls on your face and calling it taking America back, is to remind people of HOW and WHY they got here, and who and what RUINED THEIR LIVES UP IN THE FIRST PLACE.
The US press hasn't bothered with this, though The Vancouver Sun has given it two mentions, one this morning.
First let me explain a little Mexican remedial land usage for Ocean Front Properties... basically, they understandably don't want foreign investors taking it all over, so it is nearly impossible to "own" coastal regions outright.
But there are ways: 30 year leases, or banks that hold title in trust for you.
The second issue with this particular piece of property is that it was an "ejido" - basically a communally held piece of property wrenched from the hands of exploitative rich ranchero owners who tried to keep the peasants from owning or using land.
Now this particular piece of property has been in question since 1991, when a developer purchased it from the widow of a former Jalisco state governor. There have been two previous mass evacuations before this one.
Portends started last summer when someone blocked the road, with no explanation, from the nearby village to the beach area.
Mass evacuation basically has happened again - Americans, Canadians, and European people who bought properties in good faith (deeds approved no less by the office of the President under Fox) have been run off their properties, along with the Mexican community that lived there, and flourished under the needs of the International Community. They not only appropriated the property; but have stolen the possessions on that property. They are tearing down homes and businesses.
Wow, this just has to excuse a second morning post.
In perusing the GOS this morning, I found an article that pointed to the fact that one of the very first things Lebanon did after Israel "bombed them back into the stone age" is rebuild a Synagogue in the heart of Beirut.... as well as a Greek Orthodox Church and a Mosque.
The Israelis bombed the Synagogue, thinking the Hezbollah guard put there to protect its Jewish citizens were "storing weapons" there.
So, did the People of Lebanon rise up against building a place of worship at Ground Zero of their attacker's destruction? Not so much.
It was simply a place for the 30-300 Jews of Beirut to celebrate their faith in downtown Beirut in peace.
One would think that Hezbollah would quickly strike against such a project that could believe celebrates a Zionist victory. Nope. A spokesperson released a statement, "We respect Judaism, just as we respect Christianity. Our only problem is with Israel."
But here in the Land of so-called "Freedom"??? Anti Park 51 bigots are less tolerant of US citizens religious freedom than Hezbollah. Fucking wow.
Even Pat Condell, who sometimes gets it right about religious extremism, went bat-shit crazy insisting Park 51 is nothing but a rub it in our face moment. Yeah. He's not American. Brits can be racist fear mongering assholes too.
I've read a few screeds by some self-describing as "Jewish diaspora community of the US" who insist that no one who considers a one-state solution as reasonable should be allowed to build in the US. What the FUCK? I guess bigotry is only bigotry when its aimed at them. Me? I don't think its good for the goose or the gander. Douches.
The tea party racists, of course, have nothing but Islamophobia to go on. You know, there are no good Muslims, only terrorists in training.
The Christinazis never mention that there are Churches all across America at ground zero's of our conquests... and they certainly weren't reach-outs to other indigenous religions... it was convert or be killed.
Maghen Abraham Synagogue at Ground Zero in Lebanon, ok. Park 51 at Ground Zero in the US, they say hell no.
I'm wondering when the internment camps open.
Probably after some Beck-ramped up addict blows the fucking "Community Center" sky high. Then they will say it is for their "protection."
There are 10.080 minutes in a week. About a third of those are spent sleeping. So, where do the other 60,000 minutes go? Thats 100 hours of awake time. In just one week.
Its all about time. An hour here, an hour there, the things we do with our time, the things we don't. So, I'm gonna waste a few moments of your precious time with songs about time. Click, click, click.
Mattilda was an awesome guest on WWL Radio last night. I adored her. You can hear it right on our sidebar, as always.
Yes, yes.. I was, in fact, an incorrigible microphone hog last night. Gottlieb barely got a word in edgewise until I would remember that I needed to quit being an incorrigible microphone hog. I just couldn't help myself. I spent two days immersed in her book, and was just chock full of questions and dying to pick her marvelous brain. I was greedy and excited as a kid. My bad. But on listen? It went just swimmingly. Loved it anyway. I promise next week to let Gottsy lead, and shut myself the fuck up. Oy.
So anyway, tonight I cook kale for the first time. To me kale has always been those purple and pink ornamental flowerbed plants. I mean I knew it was edible in some forms, but just never pursued it. Cindy-squaw and Linda have been yapping about it as miracle food for a year or more - before the Cancer - so now? Double double nag. I suppose I will try the steam it method first... the idea of a stronger than spinach smoothie gags us both out.
Remember, darlings, I did sell natural vitamins and shit for some company I don't even remember the name of anymore for a while. I knew about Ginko before it was hot, let alone passe. If its real food, I will generally try it. Pills, not so much. Been there, done that.
Oh, yes, did I mention that part of our lives had begun? When alternative medicine people crawl out of the woodwork and try and talk me into feeding him a whole Graviola Tree? Even truck drivers. Bikers for blue-green algae. Mmmmk. If I can find a fresh Paw Paw, I would eat the fruit... but please, so many absolute quacks sell extracts that aren't actually extracts, I'm not even touching that.
Besides, that is one bad-ass looking fruit. All spikey and mean and grrrr... I can't even imagine anything that is less inviting of you to eat it, other than perhaps gottsy's imaginary lesbians. Heh. Heh-heh.
Why am I suddenly thinking of the lyrics to Dark Star? Oh, yeah, because I am an ADD *lyricophant. (yes I made that word up) No, not the Dead's version, sillies, CSN's. The "shopworn" one.....Ah, but I crack me up.
The days have been perfect, mid 70's and the nights cool, (ok, freezing to me) but it seems that Mike and Jake's last week before their respective incarcerations (school and chemo/radiation) is going to be a last blast of summer, with clear skies and low to mid 80's starting today or tomorrow.
I plan on spending at least some of that at the beach. Now I'm thinking lyrics to "The Last Line" and why, yes. It feels exactly like that. The bittersweet last bump of summer after scraping out every crumb in the deering. Wow, that was a flash-way-back.
I have GOT to remember to take some pictures of my garden before its gone, and think about digging up my banana trees and my Bird of Paradises. I was so hoping the latter would bloom this year. It feels like the last time I do that too. Will I give a fuck about plants next spring?
You've seen the signs, you know deep down you are being used. You know that its all about him, and he only gives you attention when he has to. You know damn well, that even the few kind morsels that come your way come on his terms, on his time, and with demands that you comply with whatever parameters he sets.
You're used to it. Hell, its been that way since the beginning of time.He mostly does it the easy way, ignores you while you beg for attention, and you find yourself elated if he ever deigns to answer. That failing? The man calls the shots, uses reverse psychology, threats, emotional warfare to put you directly in the place of subservience... right where he wants you. Then makes you think its your idea. You do the work, he gets the glory.
Its never been about you. Its all about him.
We have been tamed, un-made, devolved, ruined as humans. We look for love in all the wrong places, from people who barely recognize we exist.
Gottlieb and Diane G. are live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio Friday night at 6pm Eastern Time to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.
Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth by the WWL coalition of subversion: undermining the PTB by speaking Truth to Power!!!!
Mattilda was recently interviewed on NPR and Pacifica where she talked about the malevolence of the mainstream gay marriage/military/ordination-to-the-priesthood movement, resisting the violence of assimilation, gender fascism, gay hyperconsumerism, sex work, myopic liberals, defiant ways of loving, the failure of the "gay liberation movement", US imperialism, creating oppositional culture, challenging all hierarchies (including anarchist hierarchies), incest, and more!
This will be one fascinating, insightful, transgressive and fabulously provocative show you don't want to miss. She makes the case against the gay marriage movement.
WWL is delighted to have Mattilda with us this Friday. She challenges EVERYTHING, even the narrative of Gentrified Mainstream *Gaydia, (yes that is a Dianism, inspired by her book) who she feels has co-opted the larger movement against the realistic needs of the larger GLBT community.
In reading her latest book, "So Many Ways to Sleep Badly" you are transported directly to the place of no words, to the direct soul of her being. And that being is amazing. This is not observational reading, this is rolling around in the direct-essence of Mattilda until you are Mattilda. Buy this book! It will change your EVERYTHING.
From the boxes we all put one another in, to the issues people "decide" are important, to the description of "acceptable" behaviors... the only way to bend the spoon is to realize there is no spoon. When you read or listen to Mattilda, you are invited directly to a place where there is no you, and no her, there is only surviving a world of shattered glass pasts, the hugs that put the Earth back on her axis, the sweet relief of an orgasm, and always, always the air we all breathe.
We will be discussing her book, gentrification, gay marriage, anarchy, sex workers, tricks, gross consumerism, or anything the fuck else she feels like talking about.
Come let your mind be bent... or blown!
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is a writer, editor, activist, critic and troublemaker. Most recently, she is the author of the novel So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights 2008). She is also the editor of Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal 2007), and an expanded second edition of That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull 2008).
Mattilda's first novel was Pulling Taffy (Suspect Thoughts 2003), and she also edited Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving (Haworth 2004) and Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write about Their Clients (Haworth 2000), which now also appears in Italian (Effepi Libri 2007).
Mattilda is currently working on a new anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform. She is immersed in Lostmissing: a public art project - about the friend who will always be there, and what happens when you lose that relationship. She is also working on a memoir called The End of San Francisco.
Mattilda's articles, essays, interviews, reviews, and stories appear regularly in a variety of publications, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Bitch, Utne Reader, AlterNet, Bookslut, The Stranger, and The Gay & Lesbian Review, and she writes a monthly column in Maximumrocknroll.
Mattilda is the reviews editor at the feminist magazine Make/shift, where she also writes a column.
In 2010, Mattilda made a short film, All That Sheltering Emptiness, in collaboration with Gina Carducci. Mattilda and Gina are currently working on a second film.
Mattilda's activism has included ACT UP in the early '90s, Fed Up Queers in the late '90s, Gay Shame, and numerous lesser-known (or even unnamed) groups.
Mattilda lives in San Francisco, but tours regularly, and is available for bookings. In the past, she has appeared in independent bookstores, community centers, performance venues and universities including Yale, Harvard, Brown, McGill, University of Chicago, Wesleyan, Macalester, NYU, UCLA, University of Massachusetts, Evergreen, DePauw, DePaul, Mills, Antioch, University of Michigan, Wagner, University of Oregon, UC Santa Cruz, Georgetown, and others.
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