92 in the Shade

I have to take a little walk today before it gets too warm. Need to get the blood going.

I think it'll be fun, if my back holds up.

If not, I'll probably be crying.

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Ibuprofen Works

Slept a little better last night after medicating with Ibuprofen.  Feel pretty good for now, with a tad more mobility.

My brother eats a lot of Vicodin for his back pain.  I tried it once when I broke a finger on the job.  It hit me wrong, just as the label warns, and gave me extreme nausea.  No good.

I gave my extra pills away.  A drug-addled co-worker appreciated them.

I'll stick with the lesser drug, thanks, just as a friend suggested. Never really been into pills, though I take a few for non-pain issues. Beer has always been my liquid cure-all.

People are funny about it.  They see you hobbling and have stories about their own pain.

It's a good conversation starter, though you might not want to listen in if you're skittish or easily bored.


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Amy & John

It has been almost a year since President Barack Obama admitted, “in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. ... we tortured some folks.” The administration of Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, carefully crafted a legal rationale enabling what it called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which is no more than a euphemism for torture. From the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay to the dungeons of Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram air base in Afghanistan, countless hundreds, if not thousands, of people were subjected to torture, all in the name of the “Global War on Terror.” With the exception of a few low-level soldiers at Abu Ghraib, not one person has been held accountable. The only high-level person sent to prison over torture was John Kiriakou—not for conducting torture, but for exposing it, as a whistleblower.

She has it right, as usual.

Kiriakou speaks.


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Cold Eye, the Kindle Edition

(Lee Santa photo)

Cold Eye and the Long Goodbye

"When I moved to Portland in 1977, a segment of the city’s literary scene was centered on the Long Goodbye, a café/club in the heart of what is now known as the Pearl District, the upscale enclave of restaurants and apartments at the edge of Portland’s city center. In 1977, the area was a rundown district full of crumbling, turn-of-the-century warehouses. A few craftsmen and artists lived there on a dime and a dream, satisfied with the inexpensive rent and plentiful solitude. At night, the district was eerily dark and quiet, with long shadows, dim streetlights and a foreboding, noirish feel. The café’s owner, Richard Vidan, must have felt that vibe when he opened the place, naming it after Raymond Chandler’s famous noir novel.

"The Long Goodbye was a music, theater and poetry venue in the enduring fashion of fifties and sixties-era New York coffee houses, a place where poets looked like poets. I haven’t owned a beret in years, but I know I had a black one back then, and I’d usually don it for Tuesday night open mic, when the poets gathered. I carried my precious poems in a leather shoulder bag and kept a G harmonica in my tweed sports coat, just in case. At times, I wore a beard, or I’d trim it back for the Beat feel. It didn’t concern me that I was twenty-years late for that literary movement."--Terry Simons

This is a small slice of the literary history of Portland, of which I'm very proud.  Buy it now at the Kindle store.


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Not Again...

The back pain has returned with a vengeance.

This is clearly a case of lumbar spinal stenosis, "relatively common in adults over 60," according to the websites.

But Doc, what about children over 60, like me?  Why?

This is my best computer-generated diagnosis; last time I figured my arthritic left hip was to blame, but now I think it's the stenosis.

My brother has been in a wheelchair for over 20 years due to sciatica.  Hope to avoid that...

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You Had to Be There

Regarding Nixon--this and this.

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Nightscapes

Photos by Terence Connery.

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Laugh of the Day

In the words of one voter who was surveyed, “When I hear some of these candidates talk, I sure do miss Sarah Palin.”

Too funny.


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Dig In

Bernie by the numbers.

We're all in this together.

Norman Solomon weighs in.

A few words regarding drone warfare.

Pilger makes a point.

Etc., etc.


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Good Thinking

As the United States military continues to sell the idea of joining its ranks to high school students throughout the nation as the best way for many poor students to get financing for college, the will to create true social responsibility for our nation’s underserved and underprivileged children is getting further out of reach.

Many democratic governments throughout Europe offer their children a free college education. Some, like Denmark, even pay their children a living allowance of around $1000 to go to college. In South America, the government of Brazil offers its students a free college education. The United States, conversely, charges students exorbitant fees for education which has forced many poorer students to either join the military and utilize the GI Bill or take out huge loans in order to go to college.

In the richest country in the world, for the people in the poor districts throughout America, the only possibility of a free college education comes with the costs of possible loss of life, possible disfiguring injury, possible increases in mental illnesses like PTSD, increased incidences of suicide both during and after military service, and if you’re a female, possible sexual harassment and increased incidences of rape.

Some cogent thinking from Adam Vogal.

I worry about the future of my 7 year-old grandson in the face of this blight.  What choices will he have in another 10 years?  Will he be able to go to college if he wants to?  Will the military snap him up like convenient carrion and march him off to the never-ending wars this country has given its youth?

All to protect the assets of sonsofbitches?

I can tell you at times this world frightens me.  I literally get sick to my stomach imagining the next horror perpetuated by the psychopaths among us--and I'm not talking about the random losers who crawl out of their holes and create mayhem out of some twisted sense of paranoid logic.

I'm talking about the thieves and liars at the top, the users and abusers with their deliberate designs and American-flag lapel pins glistening under the strobe lights of the corporate media.


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Briefly, Good Reading

The July 5 referendum in Greece provides the clearest and most inspiring evidence to date, but the message it conveyed has been clear for a long time: that people hate the banksters who impose austerity upon them, and that they hate austerity even more.

What could be more understandable? Most people are working more (or no less) for less (or no more) — not for the age old reason, that there is not enough to go around, but because of the machinations of banksters, and the politicians and bureaucrats who serve their interests and the interests of their class brothers and sisters.

It is thanks to them, not scarcity, that many of the gains of the past century are now being rolled back.

A good read by Levine.

Another by Paul Craig Roberts.


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Reminder

It was not “faulty intelligence,” as Jeb Bush claims,  that led to the war in Iraq.  He knows better.  His brother’s Administration meant to invade Iraq from its first days in office, and Jeb Bush was prominent among those demanding it.

“Faulty intelligence” is a facade and a fraud.  America was taken deliberately into war by a fanatic group obsessed with democratizing the world by force—the force of U.S. military supremacy.  The group was called the Project for the New American Century.  Dozens of PNAC members–Vice President Richard Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for example—dominated the Administration of George W. Bush in setting foreign and defense policy, and leading the nation to war as a result.

Jeb Bush was a founding member of the Project for the New American Century.

Let's not forget it in the months ahead.


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Quick Note

Former President George W. Bush is attracting a flurry of renewed criticism after revelations surfaced this week that he charged a charity for severely wounded veterans of the so-called War on Terror $100,000 in speaking fees.

The ultimate wastrel.


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Two More

Got to keep it short and sweet, as my computer is overheating. Gotta get it fixed one day soon.

Two more Kindle editions of my work are up and ready. Everything is cut-rate.

We're trying to make a buck here.


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Kindle and Smoke

Hey, RBP fans.

If you have a Kindle-compatible device you might be excited to know you can go here to access Alt-Everything.

Don't miss out.

The fan on my computer, or something similarly evil, must be broken.

I smell burning.

I may have to shut things down until I can get this baby into the shop, see what the problem is.


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