tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36826020269919716432024-03-08T09:31:15.009-08:00hipgnosisRated MX--Metaphysically Explicit, and full of lots of Words. Some will consider some, or all, of them "Bad". Kids, you'll want to keep an eye on your parents--this could really f**k them up severely.
For you, Mom, and Adin & Alanna. Every word I ever wrote has always been so.hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-75232797975967738412022-03-08T17:58:00.001-08:002022-03-08T17:58:55.121-08:00Split Infinities<p> </p><p align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Split Infinities</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">I’m
neither the Best nor the Beast</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Neither
The King of the World nor</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Aqualung.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
younguns won’t get that </span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">reference.
Or maybe you</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">will.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"> What
difference does that</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"> make?</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
don’t get my own references,</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>most</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
of the Time.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Only
God)</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There’s
Nothing That gets them All</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
only see what’s in here.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
only see what’s in there.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
is a split Infinity?</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
halved</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is
that a linguistic term or a</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">math
term? It’s only</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">linguistic
in English. It’s an </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Imaginary
Number</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
what’s left is...Infinite.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There’s
no way I can know it.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Or
is there?</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Everyone
misinterprets everyone else.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sometimes
my ex hears things I say</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
sees things I do and figures </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">me
for The Weirdest Man in the World</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
I had no such intent. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
is it not written,</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Thou
hast not seen in this</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">world,
nor wilt Thou in the </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">next,
anyThing that Is not God?”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
Who’s doing the talking?</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Who’s
doing the interpreting</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hearing</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is
it not also that, “The Kingdom </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
God is within you?”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Where
is The Kingdom not?</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nowhere,
Never.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">¿</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
can only get it all wrong, right?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
can only get It wrong, alright? And that’s All Right, Alright?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
I say beautiful shit</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
someone hears...beautiful</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">shit
that they </span></span></span><i><b><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">know</span></b></i><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
is God</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">talking
to that one alone and</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">naught</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">it
has nothing to do with what </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
heard myself say, Who’s to</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">say
it wasn’t in there. It’s </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">exactly
right.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
I say beautiful shit and</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">someone
hears ugly, misshapen, demonic</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Beast
noises, is that not God</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hearing</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">deciding
what to hear, </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">think,
see,</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(fear seer sheer
cliff beauty fabric veil)</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">feel?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is
it less “just what I needed to hear” because it’s angular</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
hard?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
guy wrote, “On the Mistaking of the Algebra for </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Magick.”
Maybe I’ll write “On Mistaking </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Magick for Algebra.” What’s an</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">imaginary
number, anyhow?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Some
younguns will get it. Some</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">old
farts won’t. Age is just a number, </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">right? And numbers are Magick.</span></span></span></span></p>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-64262901362846233092022-01-05T17:49:00.003-08:002022-01-05T17:49:38.170-08:00How to Circle Perfectly...Without Going Down the Drain<p> </p><p align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>HOW
TO CIRCLE PERFECTLY...</b></span></span></p>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>WITHOUT
GOING DOWN THE DRAIN</b></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">It appears that the Thing can no
longer be encompassed by a fb box. Not even the Former('s)(Farmer's?)
sentence. Or the latter, i guess. You see what just happened there?
Probably not. Someone, maybe. "It ain't me, Man." You can't
see Me." I'm not saying I'm ditching Zuck just yet, but just
now, if you Do want to see me, go here: <a href="mailto:t.me@Hipgnotist">t.me@Hipgnotist</a></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"> or
<a href="mailto:t.me@Hipgnosis21">t.me@Hipgnosis21</a> where this
will be posted,
or <a href="https://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/">https://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/</a>
still.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">Yesterday or so a sweet Little
Sister of mine was showering in the hot rain that comes geysering
through my little firehose like Old Faithful, (Easter/Ishtar Egg!
Here’s another—hi E!), and after a bit she asked, “Sooo...what
<i><b>is </b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">your
religion???” I thought for a split second and said that the </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">alai
La</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">m</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a’s
response to the same question was, “My religion is Kindness.” But
of course, that’s not All. How could it Be? (oh—i see—not
herenow though). Soon after the latter exchange, the beautiful
playlist attached somewhere down below was Reminded to me.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">/give
certain angles\</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
first </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">NINE
tunes constitute an album </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
Mom gave me to play over and over again on my bedroom floor with one
of those crappy plastic record players for little kids that were
especially cool because you could fold them up and bring them with
you. Albums were a bitch to carry but I could tote a pretty good pile
of cardboard 33-1/3s from the back of a box of Super Sugar Crisps or
whatever, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(that’s
right—I thought Bobby Sherman and The Archies were pretty cool;
Donny <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXcj8dFOd1E">Osmond</a>,
too, though I don’t think he ever made Ke</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">l</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">log</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">g</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">’s
greatest hits)</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
The album is </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></i><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
Time Around</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
by that </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">true
and</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
incredibly Old Soul, John Bassette, (God Rest His Soul), recorded and
published by “Spa” John Prusnik, (if I’m spelling that
correctly), at Prusnik’s </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Tinkertoo
Records</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
situated in his Rubik's cube, (lol), of a </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rent
controlled brownstone/hippie pad/recording studio/plant
nursery/leather spa/and all-’round organic fuckeroo along the
right-hand, (of course), side of Hessler Street in University Circle
in Cleveland, Ohio, in a year waaay the hell on back in the day, for
me at least—at least, This Time Around for me. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Back
in the late 60s and early 70s, when I was very small—Christopher
Robin small—Hessler Street was Cleveland’s small-scale attempt at
a local reconstruction of Haight-As</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">h</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bury.
As true a Hippie enclave as I’ve ever witnessed. It was the first I
got a whiff of pa</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">t</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">chouli,
(I spend years trying to figure out what </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">that</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
was), the first place I ever saw long-haired, bearded gentle men, the
first place I caught a rumor of Mama Cannabis in the air, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">people
were rather more circumspect around little kids back then</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">)</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
guess I could have been as young as three years old when I first
found myself there, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
met those guys, and the rest of the Hessler Street crowd</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">Mom, bless her crazed heart,
still claims she was never a hippie. I used to laugh at her as I
dredged through memories of “Be-Ins” at, (I think), Carnegie Park
in University Circle during the Summer of Love and Hessler Street
itself and the like. I suspect she always said that because of her
once-violent opposition to cannabis, but I get her denial now. I’m
no hippie, Jonathan, and I’m pretty sure not so many ever existed
except for in Plato’s Forms. On the other hand...another whole
piece, that’s what. Perfect Circles and all.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">assette
was a super-beautiful, traveling, haunted, guitar-toting, Black
hippie that lived or hung around Hessler Street, which at the time,
along with University Circle proper, was an odd island of whiteness
surrounded by the dark-skinned sea that was the East Side of
Cleveland. Bear in mind, the country was on fire that year, and Mom
drove me across town, rolling through neighborhoods that were
literally smoldering, like whatever it’s called around 55</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
and Chester and thereabouts, where they still had Black Panther
murals featuring Mayor Perk getting stomped in the ass until the late
‘90s. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
hospital where they kept my brother going that <a href="https://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/11/ye-aulde-memoir.html">I’ve
written about</a> was part of the University of the Circle, so we/she
sort of had little choice, but I’m pretty certain her extra
45-minute trips to deliver me to the Nursery School at The Church of
the Covenant and Black Mrs. Klender(or however that’s spelled)’s
day-care nursery-school class was quite and downright deliberate,
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">along
with her perhaps less than subtle visits to the Pope’s house, and
other efforts to prevent as lily-white an upbringing as was otherwise
available in the alarmingly racist North at the time.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Don’t
forget that mere months ahead of my birth I wouldn’t have been
allowed to piss in the same toilet as a Brother </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">i</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">f
I had been physically capable of doing so. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now,—well
we forget all that, sometimes, at least us pale folk do. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Also
remember—I am perfectly free, now, and capable of physical feats
that few others can match. Paul, or the Romans, or someone had it a
bit off: Christ can do all things through me when He strenghten-ethes
me). I did mention that I intended to argue with Paul once before,
you may recall. That crazy guy. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
I piss in whatever toilet is handy.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Prusnik
and Bassette fit</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ted</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
right in. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">M</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ore
than that—they </span></span><i><b>embodied</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Hessler Street and the Hippie thing as if they had stepped out of the
world of Plato’s Forms and donned flesh like some sort of Avatars.
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hessler
Street would by no means have existed at all, had it not been Created
by John and John, and other folks like them, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
the extent that something like that </span></span><span style="color: #00a933;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">existsed</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">)</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
<(Not a typo right there, Y’all. I had to add it to the
processor’s dictionary. Freeware, of course).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Prusnik
was almost as good a friend as a tiny, weird child </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">like
I was </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">could
hope to find in the whole wide world. He taught me leatherwork, plant
husbandry, how to make kombucha, (long before it was a thing), though
I don’t know that I knew he did, until just now, writing </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">t</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his,
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ection—of
a very circly curlicue. The ones that came the closest to that—</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
conscious teaching—e</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ver,
in my Time Around just now, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">w</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ere
the Smith family. Maybe some reading this will recall Andrew—Andy,
a brilliant and kind man full of </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">joie
de vie </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">art
and laughs. Shit. I have to pause to clear my eyes. Even with these
tears I can still see. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">N</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ot
many people that have lived a</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">life
like </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">mine
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">have
frien</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">d</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">s
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
still love them after nearly 60 years, even during the past 10 years
or so. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waitaminit.
I guess that last sentence is still true but on the other hand (!)
not one mofo has lived a life like </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">mine
with it’s joys and disappointments, loves and perturbations, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lived
out in my little version of the mind/body/soul conundrum. Neither
has any lived Your life with all its sameness and differentness at
the same fucking time….</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Imma
tell you right now, you will get a bit more out of this piece if you
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">bear
in mind that we are considering Circles, here. Roundness. Perfection.
Life. Love. Happiness. Maybe even free will and an infinity of
tangential subject </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">matter</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
But those are All Nothing. I swear to you, (and I take such oaths
very seriously, indeed), that I am the happiest dude I ever met. So,
ya know—pay attention. Try and keep up. This will seem to Circle
around a bit but I’ll try and avoid Circular reasoning. We all know
circles contain irrational Mysteries though, Right? </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">Dang. Suddenly I may need to
pause for a slice of the pizza pie in the fridge….</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Captains
of Industry with their stupid fucking </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tightly-wrapped</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
ego-Magick rituals </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with
deliberate holes in them so no one can get through the tangle, (ha!
Fooled them; </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">w</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">hen
you do it that way, you can’t either), </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
and nootropics, cybernetic quantum singularities and gmo nursery
rhymes, their women and servants and headmasters (we don’t need no)
so they never have to touch their own vile offspring or ever ever
Love at all, Really.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">Bassette, on the other hand, and
Prusnik, the Smiths, Buddy with the husky named Emma Peel, the dying
kids at Case Western Reserve Rainbow Baby’s and Children’s
Hospital, (we knew the “Boy in the Bubble,” back then), were all
fucked up as hell, stressed out, strung out, wrung out, and left out.
But they knew how to live. Hard. And how to love. Mostly our family
was a mess. So was everyone else’s. Sometimes we hated each other,
but...not really. Bassette’s songs were all about being strung out
on heroin, rich child molesters, ditching the city for Colorado or
Virginia...and yet, he stayed. Until that one last fateful day, (for
him, anyhow), when he passed through The Veil, never to be seen again
on this side. If he had lingered, he’d have seen how the community
staged a memorial concert for him, playing his songs to remember him
by. He’d have seen how this guy writing this shit can’t do it
without frequent pauses to clear his eyes of tears.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">The tears are not of sadness,
though there may be a tinge of it. They’re joyful, with the Joy of
long history, Perfect Circles. It’s so nice on Hessler Street. They
still stage the Hessler Street Fair every year, I think. I haven’t
been in decades; I can’t imagine that it might really be the same.
How could it be? The Smiths don’t live there any longer and the
kids I knew are pushing 60. John and John are long gone from this
World. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEFQLYfpjXE">Everything
Changes, Nothing is Lost.</a></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;">When I contemplate this sort of
thing, I can tell that it’s surely no wonder my life has been as
weird as it has been. Between Bassette’s lyrics, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDxYKGaceho">Dr.
Seuss</a>, and L. Frank Baum and Judy Garland carrying on about shit
going on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU"><i>Somewhere
Over the Rainbow</i></a>, along with so many other things—well,
what did anyone expect. I’m quite glad to be here, though, this
side of the rainbow. Did you ever see a coronal rainbow? The
half-circles we ordinarily see are just that. Only half. The whole
thing is a circle, and a much more Perfect Circle than we can ever
draw here on Earth, no matter how much artifice or intelligence we
employ. And just where did Dorothy go, anyhow?</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Liberation Serif, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I’m
not so sure this piece has answered Bre’s question about my
“religion.” I’m not so sure it can be answered in a day, or a
single write-up, or a trip to a Methodist Sunday-school where you
might get asked not to come back if you ask too many hard questions,
or a lifetime of bullshit. But here, in John Bassette’s songs, with
me from the cradle as they say, is my religion. If you can’t
understand how the whole thing adds up, just go straight to </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Credo</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:
I believe in Love. Damn Hippies.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode, sans-serif;">John Bassette, <i>Next
Time Around+</i></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;">
<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fa-pRGJzFE&list=PLg13GlTHQo11AXwn3qSgV6QfgTa6ly5Ye">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fa-pRGJzFE&list=PLg13GlTHQo11AXwn3qSgV6QfgTa6ly5Ye</a>
</span>
</p>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-91200723164540166632021-12-25T09:29:00.001-08:002021-12-25T09:29:21.991-08:00Blame It; On the Moon?<p> </p><p align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Blame It; On the Moon?</b></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Y’all are so funny
with your efforts to Evolve. That shit takes bazillions of years and
it’s EXCRUCIATING! It’s all starts and fits and cul de sac and
deaths and cleft palates and Hearts that com out upside-down and
backwards with leaks and shit in them. Mothers that have to watch
their kids die while hoping against Hope they don’t themselves.
It’s HORRIBLE, really. Do you really want to pack all that into
this one precious curlicue of life?</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">What you want is to
TRANSCEND.</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Think on these
Things. (For as a Man—or Woman—thinketh…).</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJYxPN8qIA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJYxPN8qIA</a>
</p>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-17860130662559971202021-12-25T09:10:00.001-08:002021-12-25T09:10:11.187-08:00Red Dress<p> </p><p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Red Dress</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Is there a
difference between</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Shit under the bed
and</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Shit on top of the
bed?</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">Well, yes and no</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><u>No a</u><span style="text-decoration: none;">nd
Yes;</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
think about That.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
put on your Red Dress</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
Dance.</span></p>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-11175486216144665422020-01-25T00:25:00.001-08:002021-11-18T22:05:40.624-08:00Secret Garden<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Secret Garden</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The one word that comes closest to being “bad,” is<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Can’t,” but, even still, it’s a matter of timing;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the timing is so rarely apt for that word;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One so rarely finds the time for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only thing you can’t do, really, truly, and never will,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can’t do is<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Control Another.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You don’t deserve this stark, humorless,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friendless life; no one does.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So why create it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If/then<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If/then<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I see you, coming for me. I love you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You can’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I won’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I will
it not.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will us, together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you think I’m talking to you<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I respect and trust you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I respect and trust you.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is just conflict;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It kinda hurts, but it<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Doesn’t hurt anything<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know you can see it. I<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have faith in you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And we danced.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB1Q-PfUvN0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB1Q-PfUvN0</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByPS4aeEuC0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIimr0gVg-c</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<br />hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-14908724114896256872015-01-28T09:59:00.000-08:002015-01-28T10:00:47.975-08:00MLK Day in Houston<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-550d82f3-31ae-5618-adae-339824dd865d" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Founder of Sparrow Hawk Village Carol E. Parrish wrote, “Once a healthy and vibrant land, our country needs to be healed of past and present violence.” That, i think, is what Martin Luther King Jr. was all about, and the reason huge crowds come out for parades and such on that day we have set aside to honor King each year. This year my wife and i marched in Houston’s parade with Randa Fox and her<a href="http://notonourwatch.net/" target="_blank"> Not On Our Watch America Foundation</a>, (NOOW), a Houston based non-profit seeking to put an end to childhood sexual abuse, and to facilitate healing for victims. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, i’ve never been around Houston before, let alone gotten out to a parade. I knew next to nothing about MLK Day in Houston before the morning of the 19th of January just passed. The theme of this year’s parade was Unity, i heard, a dearly needed principle following the events of 2014, and the nature of the relationships in the United States in their wake. The notion is somewhat confused by the fact that there were two separate and competing parades in very close proximity here. The MLK Grande Parade said they expected 300,000 people at their event that took place more or less simultaneously with the Black Heritage Society “Original” Parade in we marched. Still, a huge and comparably sized crowd managed to attend our parade. We walked around 20 blocks, each fully lined with families and revelers. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With over 2 million residents, Houston is largely hispanic. Blacks and whites share a fairly even share of around half of the overall population, give or take, </span><a href="http://houstontx.gov/planning/demographic-data" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">according </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to the Houston Planning Department. Ours being the Black Heritage Society Parade may help explain in part why there were virtually no white faces in the crowd. There were a few, to be sure, but i think there were more white participants in the lineup than spectators on the way. This truth, and the nature of the group we marched with gave me a chance to make a couple observations that i may not have had elsewhere. In Colorado Springs, a city with many demographic distortions, we really don’t get much of a handle on the pulse of Black politics. We also attended a march in Colorado Springs following the decision not to prosecute in the Mike Brown case. One came away from that expression with the sense that Black America is angry, and the way it went down in Ferguson afterward seemed to support the perception. Not so in Houston. Though there may well have been anger among the crowds, the expression toward us, politically motivated marchers made up of an unusually pale mix of ethnicities, was very favorable; not one heckler attempted to deride our message of protection against sexual abuse for children. On the contrary, quite many along the route were vocally supportive.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I also found it heartening that many of the banners and signs in and around the place carried messages of unity. The “amens” we heard and general thumbs up we saw in support of Not On Our Watch America were gratifying and encouraging. Maybe the frogs in the pot are beginning to notice the water has heated to a near-boil. That is, maybe the awful behavior of the police around and about, and the stupid wars, and things like rampant sexual abuse in our casual human trafficking and rape culture have finally become so unbearable that we are willing to come together.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Given that some statistics indicate that nearly </span><a href="http://www.victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/child-sexual-abuse-statistics" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">30%</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of U.S. teens experience sexual abuse, i have to know--have to admit--that more than a few in the crowd of supporters we passed were harboring dark secrets. I myself am sure that business as usual is still untenable. But still the degree of warmth we felt from the crowd truly served to buoy spirits. Our ability to share parade chanting rhythms with the group supporting migrant worker rights behind us did the same. Even the group of </span><a href="http://www.rampgop.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> served to advocate unity by its very existence. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I really hate writing about race. There always seems to be some hidden pitfall that lifts someone’s scales. This event was not about that, though, even if MLK Day can not pass in these times without noticing some racial elements. I’ve never been prone to writing about sexual abuse, either; it really never occurred to me to do so. The more i travel around and interact with folks, though, the more i see that most of the women i know have some story to tell about an uncle or a neighbor, or even parents having committed some heinous act or another. These are separate matters, of course. There likely exists some kind of racial breakdown of instances of sexual abuse. That’s not where the action lies, though. Abuse crosses every line we know, and seems at a glance to be increasing rather than diminishing as one might expect in a supposedly enlightened era, and yet very little discussion takes place in public. Randa’s NOOW is out to change that, in as public a manner possible, and our participation in the parade with its friendly crowd was definitely a step forward. I can’t explain how gratifying it was to be so well received by the Black community of Houston as we helped to publicize such a volatile public issue.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our country has a lot of baggage. Conquest, genocide, unfounded wars, and, yes, child abuse, both sexual and psychic have all come together to build a national identity that needs care, for sure. It’s lucky for us that we have folks like Martin Luther King Jr., and Randa Fox to help us separate ourselves from some dark history and build a lighter present that is better than tolerable, but full of real living, support for one another, and above all, Love. Sure, things are not perfect yet today, but as one of Randa’s myriad bits of literature points out, if we all work together, as we did in Houston, and keep at it, we can and will make things better.</span></div>
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<a href="http://blackheritagesociety.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://blackheritagesociety.org/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-82394121326561719592015-01-10T20:36:00.001-08:002018-01-02T10:47:22.305-08:00Orpha<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On January 5th of 2015 Orpha Bass passed along to the next world at her brother and my father Ralph’s house in West Virginia.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the day that Mister Rogers died back in 2003 i shed a tear for my lost innocence. This is a similar day, and Orpha’s passing is a similar milestone. Orpha always seemed a strangely innocent person to me. She was a fixture of my childhood, part of the old generation Bass clan that lived along Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio, that included Dad’s mother Gertrude and her family. My great-Grandfather Ulrich had rolled into the United States during the late 1860s, bought a piece of land and established both a farm and one of those Europhile communities that don’t seem to exist so much any longer, at least not out west where i live, now. The family, including Orpha, Grandma Bass, Uncle Paul, Paul’s wife Mary, and Cousin Ray lived together in the old farmhouse. Aunt Ruth and my dad lived away with their respective families. Another Bass sibling, Ruth, and her husband Cifford--Uncle Buddy--were often there during those weekend gatherings with cousins Clifton and Janet. So far as i know, Dad’s entire generation was born there in that house, Orpha in 1925.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We spent pretty much every weekend there at the farm, living out scenes from Tom Sawyer in the North, (mingled with Kafka), without even knowing it. Orpha, an inveterate and talkative storyteller, would tell us how things were along Rockside back in the days when her dad would send her to the market on State Rd. to bring home beer in buckets. She had to walk slowly on the way back to avoid spilling more than half of the evening’s libations. She told us about the house next door, that had been a schoolhouse for a spell, after Ulrich donated it for that purpose. A family lived there by the time i knew anything about it. She told stories, and kept track of all the names the faces in those old sepia photographs bespoke. Those days--my story-forming days--were the days when fantasies were the staple of life, and anything was possible on any Sunday afternoon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We kids would pass muster at the house and then scatter for the woods, or the barn, or the gully, to pursue some crackpot idea, (often of mine), or another. We started clubs, climbed around in the old barn that my granddad and his dad had built once and then dismantled and moved later, and dug through the ancient artifacts in the two gullies that had been used for dumping since the late 19th century. We smashed stuff for fun that would have made the guys from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Pickers</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> weep. We got lost in the cornfields and the elder children would scare the younger in due course with silly monsters and impossible initiations. Once when i had gotten a little too much of the stress of my youth commingled with boldness engendered by avid reading, (</span><a href="http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/my-side-of-the-mountain" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Side of the Mountain</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, it was), i woke my brothers in the middle of the night to grab our haphazardly packed bags and move into the woods behind the farmhouse to live off squirrels and pilfered corn. This never really happened, of course, but that sort of absurdly fantastic planning was the staple of the day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our family took a pretty big hit during the late seventies when unpleasant business interests coerced Grandma into selling the farm to an outfit that preferred the standard veneer of asphalt and office buildings to the odd bucolic island that existed at the time there in Independence, just south of Cleveland. Grandma died a year later of what i remain convinced was her broken heart. My brother David spent a lot of time in the hospital around then, i was losing my mind to hormonal floods and a somewhat prescient case of post-industrial malaise, and Mom and Dad were barely holding civil space--for the sake of us kids, of course.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Soon after the loss of the farm and Grandma Bass’s death i left home way too young and soon found that being at odds with much of the world can be costly in various terms, mostly spiritual. When it occurred to me to reconnect with the old world--with my family, i mean--it was gone. The whole family was not really gone, of course, but irretrievably altered; and it may well be that my memories have become buffered and things weren’t as frog-hair-fine as i recall them. The huge Bass clan that collected itself once a year there at the farm may well have harbored tense dynamics unavailable to prepubescent sensibilities. But Mom and Dad were done by then and the family gatherings just never did come together again the way they had been. Surely few of the clan’s experiences were as dramatic as </span><a href="http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/11/ye-aulde-memoir.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">some of those</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that our branch--Dad’s branch--lived through. But i don’t know. Much of the crazier stuff we lived through you’ll never know either. To his profound credit, Dad did his best to preserve the Bass part of the thing, and Orpha and Paul ended their journeys at his reproduction of the farm there in West Virginia, more than less unencumbered by the dour nature of the way our society has progressed. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The days from which i most remember eternally cheerful Orpha were from before all that stuff that broke our family and seems to threaten worse. Mr. Rogers days. Back then we could still collect huge bags of candy and other delicious treats some of them unpackaged from random neighborhood strangers without a whiff of consciousness about Paganism; and so far as i could tell, fourth graders never, ever, </span><a href="http://rt.com/usa/221287-elba-students-plot-murder/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">plotted </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to kill teachers with hand sanitizer, (whether the ones the link describes are for real or not). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recall a day when i was around 8 or so when i wept in my mother’s arms over the pain of “growing up.” I was right about the pain, but it didn’t occur to me then that there would be great value in the years that separate me from that boy, pain and all. I may or may not be a “better” person now than i was back when Orpha helped form all those memories that amount to what perception of nostalgia that i carry with me now, but i am certainly more complete. I know a little more about what it means to be a better person because of the memories she leaves me. When i saw her last, a couple of years ago, she was grumpy. I had never seen that from her before and a little sadness came to me, then; even she couldn’t make it through unscathed. But her glorious cheerfulness remains with me, and helps to convince me--i really am convinced--that the world can come out good.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vaya con Dios, Orpha; and true and genuine apologies to all those who have had to suffer through my presence when i failed to apply the lessons she taught me just by being. May we all learn them.</span></div>
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<a href="http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?pid=173772567" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?pid=173772567</span></a>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-26808335977626984432014-10-13T17:47:00.001-07:002014-10-14T14:29:01.913-07:00The Soul of the God(Esse)s<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-877f3e89-0c04-10ff-ed00-dd699d537b66" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[From the El Paso County Jail]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some points are best made acerbically. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t know if this is one of them</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But It Is Written</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And there ya go. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So here ya go.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Friends, this is a thing about</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Christianity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And about God Gods and</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Goddesses. I mean it in </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Spirit and in Truth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I consider that perhaps</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I am become Death,”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> But Life as well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Consider this and weep--</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> For Joy:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s All a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cry me a River</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and I’ll cry a River</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">for a Metaphor too.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> for a Metaphor</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> for a Metaphor</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For No Thing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fear, that is, reverence for God, is that font from whence Wisdom derives. Or perhaps the threshold by which She enters one’s being. We know this cannot be “fear” as we imagine it such as anxiety over some worldly matter or a sudden shock to the system when some unexpected event takes place because “perfect love casteth out fear.” [1 Jn 4:18] In fact, we are...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Revere: to hold in great regard or religious respect</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reverence: veneration [L. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">venerari</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: worship]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">counseled that we may be untroubled by “sudden fear” in Pr 3:25.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If God really is that angry, jealous, flaming <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/search/searcher.py?query=jonathan+Edwards" target="_blank">Jonathan Edwards</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">dyke</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">head they warned me about at <a href="http://www.agapeforce.com/" target="_blank">Agape Force</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, then to hell with him. Somewhere up in that collection of books and letters called “Bible” that Christians approach with such futility is the key to all this for me: “God </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Love,” (“somewhere” being 1Jn 4:8, also). A very limited grasp of and tiny application of reason will show one that from this one can extrapolate: Love is God. I know so many more pagans that grasp this concept than Christians that it’s just stupid. Be that as it may, my vow is this: Whatever other gods may be running around loose in the world, the One that is Love is the One for me. If it turns out in the end that God is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Love, well then--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">fork </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“[T]o love mercy and to walk humbly with my God[s]”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Note that in deference to weak spirits i have deleted the various “f-bombs” and such that ordinarily gild my work. Many of these lines are apt to be much funnier if you fill them in with your imagination. Or maybe not; this box may have fixed the troubling humor problem in spades.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, i don’t believe the darker potentiality here is true. My entire life has been flavored by a discomfort with Christianity, even when i embraced it in one of its most diseased and virulent forms, which trepidation has been based on a subthreshold sense of a paradox the Christians can’t seem to abandon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t mean to say that it’s impossible for Love to be angry, (which would render this piece a bit useless), but there exist many Christians--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">many</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">--that are much like that angry </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">bucker</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> mentioned above. My dear friend <a href="http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?SpeakerOnly=true&currSection=sermonsspeaker&Keyword=Pastor^David^Reese" target="_blank">Dave Reese</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, (whom i’ve not seen for some while, now...Hi, Dave!), once told me that he’d be happy to see a rigid theocracy in the United States, with pillories and stocks set up on the lawn at the <a href="http://www.springsgov.com/SectionIndex.aspx?SectionID=38" target="_blank">Pioneer Museum</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, (housed in a severe old fortress-like invaders’ courthouse building in Colorado Springs, for you far-flung readers).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, Dave is not a raving lunatic or a constant irritant like many Christians. He’s a gentle, loving family man; an actual pastor, and a thinking man influenced by crap in the Bible that seems to extol this sort of holy prickery as a virtue. Without even finding it necessary to dig around in “scripture” about the nature of God’s anger, i assert that the initial problem at hand is twofold. Christians in(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">forking</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)sist that the Bible is the Truth, the whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth. Bull(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">shorts</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">). Secondly, Reason, as we understand Her, effective and useful though She may be, is not any better at providing a complete vision of What There Is than the Bible, nor is the Universe subject to Her demands, (again, as we <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok" target="_blank">grok</a>). <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paradox-zeno/" target="_blank">It is impossible for the hare to catch the turtle</a>, after all</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">OK, before we continue, let us first establish from your own assertions, dear Christian, that for the sake of discussion here, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a priori </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as you always in(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">forking</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)sist, the modern Bible really does represent the sacrosanct and perfect Word of God: A </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Logos </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in its own right--the God-breathed eternal and incorruptible Word, as it has been explained to me by intelligent members of your own cult: Jesus, Written. We can defer to the “Authorized” version in case you are one of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">those</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> sticklers, since i prefer its poetry anyhow.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With that foundation established and held firmly in mind, observe the breakdown to follow where it is amply demonstrated that the Old Testament of the Bible teaches very clearly that some tightly held Christian doctrines of the faith are based on drastic misinterpretation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-877f3e89-0c1e-bbb8-b56c-ea162ee241c2" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[Once again, apologies for the clunky way the blogger works--no footnotes. All these quotes are from </span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/">https://www.biblegateway.com/</a> ]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 1:20 Wisdom crieth without;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">she uttereth her voice in the streets:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">21 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">she crieth in the chief place of concourse,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in the openings of the gates….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And what pray tell, does </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cry?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1Jn 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John+4:18&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 4:18</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 1:21 [S]he crieth in the chief place of concourse,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and the scorners delight in their scorning,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and fools hate knowledge?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1:23 Turn you at my [Wisdom’s] reproof:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I will make known my words unto you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Joel 2:27 </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">28 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And it shall come to pass afterward,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that</span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I will pour out my spirit</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> upon all flesh….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Confirmed in NT: Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+35:17&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jeremiah 35:17</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel… “I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">have</span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">called</span><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> unto them, but they have not answered</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 2:6 For the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> giveth wisdom:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">out of his mouth </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cometh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> knowledge and understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*Observe at this point that “Wisdom” here is personified as both female and powerful. She possesses attributes and claims prerogatives reserved for God elsewhere in the Bible. The entire collection of Proverbs 1 through 15 is a conversation with Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding, with appearances by Discretion, Prudence, and others. These are both mingled and separated at various points in the text. The above verse shows at least Knowledge and Understanding as coming from God’s [The LORD; Tetragrammaton] mouth. That is, these are aspects of the word of God; an expression or embodiment of Logos, or at least some sort of Sister to the Son.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">Pr 2:10 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We see around and about that this is the behavior of the Holy Spirit, which is called the spirit of Christ, and of Christ, the Logos, as well. Pay attention, now:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">Col 2:2 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">3 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5:5&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Romans 5:5</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Corinthians 1:21-23</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">21 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> God; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">22 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. [See also Pr 16:3].</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+4:6&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Galatians 4:6</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+3:17&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Ephesians 3:17</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[T]hat Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, being rooted and grounded in love….</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3:16&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Colossians 3:16</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom….</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4:12&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Hebrews 4:12</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For the word of God </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [This is interesting--what is discernment, really, but the exercise of wisdom through understanding?].</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 2:11 Discretion shall preserve thee….</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+4:6&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Proverbs 4:6</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+9:6&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Nehemiah 9:6</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thou, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">even</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> thou, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">art</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">things</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">are</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> therein, the seas, and all that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+16:1&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 16:1</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+121:7&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 121:7</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And later, in case there remains any uncertainty:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 4:5-7 </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Get wisdom, get understanding:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">6 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">love her, and she shall keep thee.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">7 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wisdom </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the principal thing; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">therefore</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> get wisdom:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and with all thy getting get understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 2:11</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Understanding shall keep thee:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+23:20&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Exodus 23:20</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+6:24&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Numbers 6:24</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26:3&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Isaiah 26:3</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thou [the LORD] wilt keep </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">him</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in perfect peace, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">whose</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> mind </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> stayed </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">on thee:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> because he trusteth in thee.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17:11&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">John 17:11</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And now I [Jesus] am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">are</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Timothy+1:14&version=AKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Timothy 1:14</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Proverbs 3:5</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and lean not unto thine own understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Note that this does not in any wise suggest that one ought to abandon understanding, which as is on display here in previous proverbs is the Goddess, the Holy Spirit, Whom will enter any soul that reveres God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To clarify:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Proverbs 16</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">16 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">2 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">3 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Proverbs 4 is so entirely loaded with the Goddesses Wisdom and Understanding, and the rewards of Her [their] pursuit that it verily stands alone in this deliberation. It seems the principal thing, though, is, well, the principal thing.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 4:7 Wisdom </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the principal thing; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">therefore</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The attentive reader of scripture will no doubt wonder just how </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">anything </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">can be the principal thing, named with a feminine pronoun, other than the Goddess, both equal and One with any other aspect of Godhead. This entire chapter, with its promises of exaltation and crowns of grace and glory could well have fallen within the New Testament. If not for the Goddesses.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is classic:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 4:13 Take fast hold of instruction; let </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">her</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> not go:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">keep her; for she </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> thy life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Acts 17:28 ...for in him [God] we live, and move, and have our being….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 7:4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5 that they may keep thee….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This may be read in light of Ro 8:15:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 8 is intriguing because of the interaction of pronouns. Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Prudence are each named separately, yet referenced collectively by singular, feminine pronouns. 8:5 reads:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart,” a bit of mingling that further shades the relationship between and among these decisively feminine personifications. Webster, in the cheezy, junior-high school dictionary they provide us at the El Paso County Jail, uses these various words to define each the other, with various shades between them. For example, “prudence” is the cautious application of wisdom and discretion with an eye toward future outcomes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps even more telling for the purposes of this particular conversation is the bit between vv. 22 and 30: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">22 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> possessed me [Wisdom] in the beginning of his way,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">before his works of old.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">23 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I was set up from everlasting,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">from the beginning, or ever the earth was.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">24 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there were</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> no depths, I was brought forth;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">when </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there were</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> no fountains abounding with water.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">25 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Before the mountains were settled,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">before the hills was I brought forth:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">26 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">nor the highest part of the dust of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">27 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When he prepared the heavens, I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">was</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> there:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">28 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">when he established the clouds above:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">29 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">when he gave to the sea his decree,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that the waters should not pass his commandment:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">when he appointed the foundations of the earth:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">30 </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">then I was by him, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> one brought up </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">with him:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and I was daily </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">his</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> delight, rejoicing always before him….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Any honest Bible reader will no doubt recognize the similarities this passage bears with the first few chapters of John’s gospel when describing Jesus as Logos. This, one expects, will either tear the scales from his eyes, or cause his head to explode like Michael Ironside in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Scanners </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is after him with a vengeance.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pr 9:10 </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The fear of the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the beginning of wisdom:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and the knowledge of the holy </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And 10:13 </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found….</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And so on and so on, to an extent that these appear overall to be inextricably linked, like twins, but remaining in some sense separate and not causative, either of the other, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">per se</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. That is, they are a package and neither is primary to the other, just like the so-called Trinity is described.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These passages are so loaded with the feminine aspects of Godhead, associated with traits that are quite specific to later proclamations concerning God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that this short treatment by no means exhausts all the ramifications that develop. I think it’s quite enough for this bit of palaver, though, don’t you? And i haven’t even mentioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah" target="_blank">Asherah</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, yet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We see here that: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are Goddesses afoot. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At least one of them is Jesus’s sister, or possibly Jesus h(er)imself, as though (s)he were a hermaphrodite or something. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That Christianity, from its mainstream to its headwaters, (excepting rare Gnostic sects), and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> just individual </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">bung</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">holes within Christendom, is fundamentally, doctrinally, institutionally wrong, wrong, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">freak</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ing wrongity, wrong, wrong, wrong,all the zippity-do-dah-day long.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That almost very nearly all you Christians should </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">repent immediately</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and start loving everyone, unconditionally, quickly, before the short time we have left runs out. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What all this does is to prove, define, refine, and clarify what I’ve been saying rather less succinctly for some time: That the Bible does not say what Christians say it says, at least not alone; that it is most assuredly not what y’all say it is; and that large swaths of your schtick is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">frack</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ing evil. I have been nagged by doubts all the while--concerns about my own salvation, really. What if i favor these arguments and perspectives simply because i don’t like to follow the law? What if i’m serving my own flesh? Sometimes these concerns have tendrils of root meandering into truth, as well. But no! This revelation from God(dess)(es) clinches it all. I am not crazy; you are!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am reborn yet again! Set free by Truth! A child of God for real, which God is no bolt-wielding </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">funk</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">node, but more a Father than i am to ;my own children, and a damn fine Mother, to boot. And more still; brother to my sister the Goddess whom i have always sought, though i knew it not. Abba, Father! Aima, Mother!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t know what to make of this turn of events, exactly. I’m pretty sure, (but not sure at all), that the tide of Christendom will not shift at the word of a stoned house-painter, a repeated failure at business and marriage and the mechanics of living in general; in many eyes a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">flippit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ing criminal; but there it is. Come at me. My Siblings the Gods and Goddesses of the Ages, of all Creation and of Whatever There Is Above and Beyond, have my back all day, all night. Argue. Fight. Imprison. Kill. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fick</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> it! You can’t win this; it’s not me. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On the other hand, you could abandon your miserable fight. Come on! Jump in! The Living Water is great! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-13571952-0c5e-1f5f-ff88-40ca89afe2d5" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Res ipsa loquitur.</span></span></span> </i></span></div>
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hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-60975223456043588192014-08-02T19:53:00.003-07:002014-08-02T19:53:51.352-07:00The Next One<div style="text-align: center;">
The Next One</div>
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The next one is a letter to my dad. You don't get to read it now. Gimme a minute.hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-20000723365787041562014-08-01T15:46:00.002-07:002014-08-02T07:15:13.216-07:00Also Done With Mirrors<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also Done With Mirrors</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From The El Paso County Jail</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">June 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In jail now for contempt of court, i can only hope that i will not be punished for thought, given my intent with this piece more or less to publicly scorn the same court and many of its agents represented here at the misnamed Criminal Justice Center of El Paso County. I will concentrate on this local example for specifics because of intimacy, but recent news and broad history supports my encouragement to the reader that (s)he extrapolate freely. </span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-cf9feaa2-93bd-b660-d20f-bd14436b257a" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d almost rather sleep than pace around here like a </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/steve-bass/the-tyger-william-blake/787233684631037" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tyger</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in a fucking zoo, but i am as i have been formed. I really don’t think you fuckers can </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">make</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> me sleep without some kind of assault. It’s possible a dispassionate observer might develop the notion that you can piss me off, so to speak, that you can make me blow my Zen, but no--that was i, and i’m over it already.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here at the El Paso County Jail, called the “Criminal Justice Center,” uniforms abound and each, of course, conveys a message. All the prisoners are color coded. The deps and “specialists" and nurses and “contractors” are all of a feather, some with fancier tails as it were, expressive of assorted specifics. Variation is for the most part strictly </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">verboten</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, (sorry to misuse the language for such a purpose, T. You know what i mean.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prisoners are separated by severity of “crime,” degree of danger to self or others, and some by a certain degree of “privilege” (these are called “trusty”). Deputies are generally demarcated according to “authority.” Some have little shoulder insignia indicating rank, “honors,” or extreme pathology. “Civilians” in various “house nig...um...servant,” (ahem), positions bear yet further uniform garb, while certain haughty nabobs glide around in suits carrying clipboards, heads high, presumably to be the more able to reach the rarefied air that must sustain them with their pinched aquiline nostrils.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With irony that may or may not be intentional on someone or something’s part, the same uniforms described as so expressive also squelch some communication, which would be quite freely broadcast in ordinary circles. Certainly “club” colors are vigorously banned. Stuff like those placeholders for my ears. Some shit slips by: Many Department of Corrections guys, (prisoners), are recognizable by “penitentiary” labels on personal clothing. Haircuts, though highly imperfect at clarity, often show fondness for a martial life. The richest bearers of information of all apart from coded wristbands we wear under a pretty fair degree of duress are tattoos, freely and openly displayed by all but the besuited clipboard crowd.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The deputies have prevented me from wearing the little protective posts made of comb teeth i put in my ears, meant to keep the piercings from closing, as an experiment in boundaries, and as an expression of my identity; a bit of communication through appearance; silent aesthetic vocalization. One pleasant deputy said to me with great concern and chagrin in both his voice and his eyes, “Oh, no! This is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">terrible!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” I asked him about his concern and he played it off as a joke; “Sarcasm.” But to me, “this”--that is, a bit of aesthetic experimentation that serves to announce my separation from a society i find abhorrent--is a marvelous thing, rich in multifaceted, radiating, information-bearing emanations. We all do these things, and some of us then wonder why we are rejected by those for whom we define ourselves as Other by those choices of appearance we make of our own volition.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No one can do anything about skin color, for example, and we ought not make assessments about human beings that are based on unchangeables like that, but we do anyhow. And life probably works out to support those assessments. Whether the differences are real or not, when two segments of society conspire to call one another’s members hateful names, like “nigger,” or “cracker,” or “Palestinian,” or “Jew,” the intonation of Otherness establishes a state of polarity where the prophecies inherent in the expression all become true, eventually. That’s pretty crazy in itself. At The El Paso County Jail the most desperate of prisoners--the mixed-color-teal-and-yellow crowd--are garbed thusly so that they are easily recognizable as homicidal-suicidal. They seem to live a miserable existence, isolated from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everyone</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> because of mutual fear, from which font their own dreaded behavior springs. The nurses in the medical unit where many of these saddest of souls reside sometimes and apart from regulation wear colors so similar that i have been startled by the spectacle of those shades in unexpected places. But i have had conversations with EPCO jail employees that went something like, “You should find something to do that doesn’t eat your soul.” “Oh, I’m fine--I get home and just forgetaboutit. Turn it off,” with a motion like flipping a switch. “Do you really think partitioning your personality--your life--your Self--to that degree so you won’t flip out is healthy!!? Isn’t that exactly how ‘multiples’ work things?” So just who are the crazy ones?</span></div>
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<a href="http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/10/revolution-at-2112-rpm.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Division by zer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">o</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One deputy said to me, “Sixty to seventy percent of the cops in this town are just doing their jobs.” This is </span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> multi-dimensionally wrong: Only a mental pathology allows a guy to perpetrate violence against an unwilling subject for a mundane paycheck that is derived in part from money confiscated from that very person being so victimized. This is deeply parasitic and also pretty fucking stupid in that biologically, the most successful parasite is one that works a symbiotic relationship with its host. The relationship of our government, (and virtually all governments), to its host our society is now and will soon prove to be catastrophically <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_zlbB-inFp1SYeTplsnGp6AfV3maDckNhpKBMDfjDbk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">vitacidal</a>. Meanwhile, what are the other forty percent doing? My estimation figures the best part of this minority is enjoying the sanction of the same gullible society to be violent for pay and false “honor.” Some of these two groups are actually deluded to imagine they are helping people.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Can’t break the rules just doin’ my job nothin’ personal behind that blow to the head gotta paycheck to collect gotta family to feed….”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assuredly history’s most spectacularly egregious crimes, and lest any reader seeks to comfort himself with false abstraction, those of this very day, this very moment, have always been committed beneath the false flag of “The Rules.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve heard it said in the context of “appearances” that the men and women of “</span><a href="http://www.epcsheriff.com/sections-detention-bureau/security-division/gateway-through-rockies" style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gateway</span></a><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” “represent El Paso County,” so that they are not permitted to wear a Mohawk, (or i suppose, bits of comb in their ears). Now, be alert that i am not a Gateway man, exactly, but i </span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">am</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> here because of appearances, at least in part. To be clear, i don’t represent El Paso County, by any means and i give but the merest of fucks for appearances. I represent some higher Thing, and not by my choice at all; but having been chosen for this i serve my purpose while </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/skip-williams/12/29a/635" style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Judge Williams</span></a><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> serves his. We are what we are, and what each of us represents is so far beyond El Paso County that i can’t see its apex from here and i suspect that Judge Williams has scarcely even apprehended its Its truth, having heard of these things only in forgotten dreams. I hope you aren’t hurt, dear Judge; these lots of ours are assigned, not chosen.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I certainly never meant to cause you harm, or even pain, though i can’t deny i have been quite angry; far more at your system than at you, personally. It’s up to you how much grief will be in this for you, but: Fear not, sir; for as i have said, this is all perfectly safe, And again: We are in this together. All of us. Like it or not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Submitted with respect to those EPCO Schindlers who struggle daily to avoid division by zero. And i’ll have to talk more about Gateway, later.</span></div>
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</span>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-27450895266310440732014-07-23T21:45:00.001-07:002016-03-07T12:45:32.899-08:00House of Mirrors<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-0c7ceb27-66ab-5357-c30b-68759951887e" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> House of Mirrors</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 26 June 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t freak out now, anyone. I’m still out of jail, pending appeal, as of today, 23 July 2014. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sorry, no footnotes in the blogger. You can get them <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1umk-RPyxoiQTPSS84Cp4sR80UAXFzsVRpuiRBVzrdNA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here </a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pogo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> couldn’t have known the heft and resonance of his words: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I wrote a screed a while back, (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/10/todays-tom-sawyer.html" target="_blank">Today’s Tom Sawyer</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">), excoriating shitty Christian behavior.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> There’s still plenty to say about all that, and maybe some of it will come out here, but it’s not the point of this one. During that earlier rant, i promised to harp, eventually, about bad behavior on the part of pagans, dope fiends, felons, bikers, disgruntled employees, GIs, vets, and some of my other natural affinity groups as well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That isn’t it either. Or maybe it is. But not really. Not quite. I promised to write about the Fear, too, and nor is it that, though the Fear runs through it all. This is about a war.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many members of of various of the groups on that funny little list i jotted just now recognize and will now openly state that there’s a war looming. They’re wrong about that much anyhow--the looming is all done and the fight is on. Right now. It’s been on for decades, (or maybe forever). I’m here “jotting” because that’s what one does in the county jail, where i am a political prisoner--a POW, really, though i prefer to think of myself as a prisoner of conscience--but maybe it’s a digression to say so. Or maybe not. Let’s explore this amalgam of notions a bit, and see if we can find out.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Here at the county jail one finds a peculiarly refined microcosm of the way the dynamics of the variously conflicting groups involved in this bizarre war interact, cleared of much of the dross of false civility that ordinarily circumvents the fight out on the sidewalk, at least here in the U.S.A.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I know Europeans living here that want to skedaddle from this place and others afraid to come here because many of them can see the shitstorm brewing and it scares them. They often seem to see it more clearly than we Americans are able to do at least in part because our access to real news is barely over nil, of maybe because as outside observers they aren’t saddled with the cognitive dissonance we sorry brainwashed frogs that live in this hot-ass boiling lake must so often suffer. I don’t know. I hope they realize this pond holds us all.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oddly enough, while the interactions at the county jail display some of the finer points of conflict in our absurdly labeled free society, they also show some reasons for hope. There are still lights burning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Fuck the Police!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t know how many times i’ve heard that phrase from some of my dearest friends. I’ve uttered them myself. Often. Sometimes at the top of my lungs. Sometimes it was far more personal: “Fuck </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">!" That’s right, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, personally, whomever you may be in your opposition to me, my pursuits, my people. Maybe i should refer to the less common; “Fuck the Pigs,<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">"</span> because the police are only a fractional representation of one segment, one camp of that particular overarching social entity the hippies were talking about when they began to disparage swine so badly as to label their opposition thusly in this odd existential war from whence the flesh and blood scrap derives.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Battle lines are being drawn,”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> went the line from the Buffalo Springfield some fifty-ish years back. They’re pretty well drawn, now, though they resemble lines a three-year-old might scribble. The shit’s on. People are fighting. The skirmishes often feel like some kind of kids’ game though too, involving blindfolds and billyclubs. Maybe i can’t deny swinging a stick around myself, sometimes. Maybe </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that’s</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> what this is--a chance for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">me</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to look in the mirror a little, Maybe it’s because it’s hard to sit the game out when i keep getting hit in the head. Whatever. Let’s keep on through the maze and just hope we don’t smash too many mirrors.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">During the Occupation we intrepids staged a few years back, (and some of us still engage--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">viva la revolución</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and all), my son and i traveled to Denver for the final push when the cops razed the encampment there. The scene that October of 2011 there in Denver was some shit this country hadn’t seen in over forty years maybe, where armored brigades of soldiers--not cops at all but stormtroopers--rolled on a huge, disparate group of unarmed citizens. It was tragic. And beautiful. Versions of the same scene played out all around the world that fall.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There at Civic Center Park</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, across the avenue from the State Capitol building, the Boy and i stood in the thick of it as those battle lines sharpened, and then blew apart as the whole outhouse hit the fan. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some thousands of us had marched boisterously through Denver’s business district, pausing for a special visit at the Federal Reserve. After completing a wide loop around downtown we mounted the Capitol steps for whatever confrontation the Denver planners had planned. They, (to claim a thing--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">we</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">), had been warned explicitly beforehand to stay off that particular edifice, so the moment </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>we</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> took the steps and began railing through one of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">our</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ubiquitous bullhorns, the shock teams appeared, as if the bearded-Spock Enterprise had beamed them to the scene.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Honestly, i was pretty fucking nervous at that point. It’s not as though i’d never been beaten up by the cops before, but that stuff is kind of a young man’s sport, and i was never really all that much a fan anyhow. Besides, those had always been cops, not armored sci-fi gladiators. But the main thing was the Boy. He was fifteen then and down for plenty, but he looked pretty worried too, and, (the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">main</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> thing, actually), i knew i’d never live through my next conversation with his mother if i allowed him to be beaten and busted by the police. I suggested we pull back to the park and we did, but i felt pretty spineless for having done it, really.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Boy and i had a quick consult: “You see what this is going to be, right?” “Yeah.” “Are you down, or not?” Nervous but firm, “Yeah.” “Fuck it then...God </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">damn</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> it; your mom is gonna kill me. Let’s get some lunch.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The park itself was packed with crowds of Occupiers, some having returned with us from the march and probably harboring thoughts similar to mine. The encampment had been there for a good while by then, and the Black Flag Anarchists’ Free Kitchen</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> was in full flight. It had already been dismantled more than once as a special preparatory project for the cops--kind of a warm-up. Knowing well what was coming, the no-nonsense scrappy men’n’women in black behind the table were all assholes with elbows, flying around in a frenzy with grim serious joy in their eyes as they did their level best to sling as much great tasting free food as possible before the inevitable hammer fell. Those guys were freaking awesome sauce with motherfuckin’ cherries on top!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rather than spark an actual and possibly justifiable war on the Capitol steps, even the most radical and adrenaline-blinded of the group holding that position chose to retreat and quickly joined us at the park. The scene was oddly festive, with tents and art projects and folks dressed for carnival. The mid-autumn day was one of those beautiful Colorado Indian summer affairs with pristine blue skies through which flitted happy and blissfully oblivious birdies merrily on the lookout for delectable kitchen scraps. But wait! What the hey!!? The second the steps were abandoned and that contingent joined those meeker souls at the park, the rest of the cops in the danged known universe materialized in a huff and began setting up for some sort of paramilitary invasion. No shit--we all saw pretty quickly what the Denver PD had in mind for all those fun military vehicles and equipment they’d been collecting.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The scene changed dramatically there on the sidewalk where the Anarchists’ Kitchen was set up. There was plenty of action before then, but the top-gun radicals had been at the Capitol along with most of the cops. Now a phalanx quickly formed four deep with armored, shielded, armed, dangerous, implacable, and apparently stoically unflappable police stretching all around, up and down--all over the fucking place. Where the Boy and i stood a few sidewalk squares south of the Kitchen the scene was still like a carnival spreading away and outward into the park in every direction save the east, buy more like something Ray Bradbury</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> or John Clifford</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> might have dreamt up. Moving east to west one would have passed through four rows of cops in a formation that i’d only seen before in movies about Fascist takeovers where American patriots saved the day by vanquishing some identically clad and positioned foe as we occupiers faced that day, armored only with our damn-the-torpedoes ethical certitude. Stepping by the entrenched police if one were to dare it, one would have passed a modest tree lawn, an ordinary sidewalk crowded with dark festival-goers, and could then step up to the folding table that served as the Anarchists’ ordering counter and serving table set up facing east from the immediate western line of the sidewalk across from the antiMayberry lines facing the stubbornly unaltered scene in the Kitchen.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The cops just stood there for what seems to memory like hours, but it couldn’t have been all afternoon or anything. Maybe so. The Boy and i milled around a bit getting a look at the overall scene and scoping out the various sections of the park. Behind the Kitchen to the west were the bulk of the tents, say a hundred or more, though others were scattered about. Further west a concrete round with maybe a fountain or something hosted a bunch of info tables, some artsy hippies working on various projects, a triage setup, some chanting Hare Krishnas. More cops surrounded the camp, even more moved to close off the farthest reaches of the west side, We all saw we were utterly circumscribed and our physical position was hopeless. There was plenty of Hope, mind you, but all of it founded on our spiritual position, see. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As we awaited what everyone knew to be inexorable, not so many of us remained quiet, (by “us” i mean Occupiers here; the most visible government employees were silent). I did mostly, and so did the Boy, he for his reasons and i for mine. The whole scene produced its own racket, but the most noticeable volume arose from the collection of spirit-moved Occupiers working the lines of eerily insensate gendarmes. Each was moved by his or her own personal spirit, few of which were very friendly toward the collective juggernaut we faced. More than one strode frenetically up and down whichever line was convenient hurling f-bombs and spittle with as much force as he could muster. You know: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fuck the Police!!!”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Fuck Yoooou!!!”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">from distances as close as the collected officers’ gear would allow. The pointillistic rows of cops, each in his own world, stared into space, eyes forward and directed at some Unknown, refusing eye contact. Only God and each man in his solitude knew what blackness filled his vision, (and possibly anyone operating one of those guv’mint mind-reading gizmos,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> if you’re into that sort of thinking). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sensibly, few of the “non-violent” protesters were mad--that is crazy--enough to attempt to get physical. Those that did were promptly stomped, smashed and removed from the game. Otherwise with many pushing the envelope right to its most extreme limit, the arms-down-and-rigid-face forward-inches-from-any-nearest-random-cop’s-shielded-face stance of extreme and barely checked agitation rapidly became familiar. I for one was amazed at the extraordinary and rather creepy restraint the beleaguered police were displaying, though few shield-screened eyes could keep from betraying internal turmoil. Virtually none of the cops would assent to eye contact.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As this scene played itself out, a few Occupiers attempted to convince their fellows to mellow. In the midst of the very front and most electrical line of all this, there in front of the aforementioned Kitchen, one lone Occupier was working the line of gear-laden men, moved by a different spirit indeed. He was preaching it, baby. Pleading. Begging. Beseeching. As near to tears as i am now as this scene spills its way from my fingertips, fluid in his expressive motion to and fro as any practiced Sunday morning crowd-pleaser can i get a amen. “Don’t you see it? You are us! We are you! Please, stop this! We are one--we </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">must </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">stop fighting!” And in some brilliant, divinely inspired voice, “Lay down your shields! Join us! Put down your clubs and have some lunch!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And then ...right there in front of the Boy and me...with the scene in the actual Kitchen production area behind the table unchanged from before the lines formed...one of them did exactly that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There was actually a fat queue at the Kitchen counter that parted like the Red Sea, astonished, for this newborn brother of ours to step up and claim his serving. He ate his food in silence and retook his spot in that other line which remained unaltered as his fellows stood unmoved, apparently in both senses. The Boy and i collected our portion of genuinely bomb-ass risotto and began to eat with more on our minds than i can possibly describe. Before we were half through our plates the order came and we found ourselves dining amidst a police riot, our rice flavored by tear gas. (I got off the hook before, when the story remained vague. I suppose his mom is going to kill me now, after all).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The rest of the action went down as one would expect, with ample blood, outrage, and pepper-bullet injury and indignity and tears and drama. It was all on the news, with much expansion available on YouTube. You can look it up. None of that is the point.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I heard that one cop was fired perfunctorily that night.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We were there. Right fucking there. It really happened. It was so surreal i almost have to ask the Boy if it actually wasn’t some kind of dream.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Those two guys, though. That cop! When we all do what he did, just maybe then the war will be over. He looked up and noticed he was looking in the fucking mirror.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The thing about all this is that the crowd of Occupiers was a full-on quorum of average joes with representation across several spectra. There were Christians, pagans, dope fiends, felons, bikers, disgruntled employees, GIs, vets, blue-collar Barney Rubbles, Republicans, Democrats, hippies, neo-hippies, and chanting, jangling Hare Krishnas, The cops were disguised as an invading foreign force but we all know they were really just a bunch of Christians, pagans, dope fiends, felons, bikers, disgruntled employees, GIs, vets, blue-collar Barney Rubbles, Republicans, and Democrats. The only groups lacking representation really were the hippies and the chanting, jangling Hare Krishnas that stayed with the rest of us till late into the night serving free food as a replacement for the Anarchists who had been quite the hell shut down. Oh yeah--there likely weren’t too many Anarchists on the cops’ side of the lines. I’m pretty sure those differences are significant. Maybe the cops would be better if they got some of those groups they were missing. The janglier the better.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Back here at the county jail where i’m still Occupying, there’s lots of conflict, though not nearly so boiling hot. The old standby, “Fuck the Police,” is scrawled or carved around and about and plenty of folks on either side of whatever line each has drawn are fully prepared to swing clubs at one another. Many of the sheriff's deputies and sad, paycheck-to paycheck “detention specialists” are happy to evoke a very dark spirit indeed in their efforts to control us inmates who represent Other to them. I have been struck by the observation that these obnoxious fucks are the respected representatives of a society that so many of our deluded citizenry expect us of the criminal class to emulate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ha! I may be an asshole myself, but no thanks: I have no interest in joining your obnoxious and shitty club. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Meanwhile, virtually all of us prisoners, including myself sometimes, react…”Grumble grumble fuck the police why i oughtta etc. etc. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ad nauseum</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” Various of us slink around and steal or fight among ourselves or in general practice a sort of blindfolded subservience to Self. (Marco! Polo!...Ouch! Motherfucker!!!). We’re fucking obnoxious. We want the cops and the guards and judges and bankers and presidents to act differently but...why would they want to join our obnoxious and shitty club? When they do we wind up with a spectacular clusterfuck like the found at the Denver county jail last month, where a dep was helping a banger sling dope and administer beat-downs.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Happens all the time. In every kaleidoscopic variation you can imagine. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s no wonder Washington and Wall Street play on like they do.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I mentioned some encouraging developments. Some--possibly even many--of the upstanding folks working around here actually seem to be secretly human. As usual lots of my friends from out in the world are here and we get to visit. Some i haven’t seen for a while. One dear friend, Scott Meehan wanted very badly to kill the shit out of me the last time we interacted out in the unenclosed air. He is a veteran of way too much ridiculous and outrageous conflict on behalf of the United States of America, and after he misinterpreted something i said in public one day he came unglued and kept promising to come over and put me out of his misery for a while, until the drugs caused him to lose interest i guess. Now almost three years later and under altogether different set of circumstances, we’ve established a genuinely natural and free-flowing rapprochement and are back to the same page though it’s a different page for both of us, really. The faces in the mirror are converging. Certain Truths seem to seem to be acting as glass cleaner, lately.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ve had conversations with deputies and the like around here that i really suspected might not ever be possible. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> conversation. I told one deputy i had been holding my breath for a good twenty-five years for the moment. (Going back much before that i wasn’t interested; you know, fuck the police and all).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” Is this true? What about Zeno’s Paradox</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> which </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">proves</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the hare can never catch the turtle, due to the nature of the Infinite and its eternally cascading series of halves? Sometimes we sense that those engaged in these epic battles are each right, and that neither is wrong.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “The math of morality falters.” Like the Singularity at the Big Bang, or the event horizon at the threshold of the mind-body conundrum. Like division by zero.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But really, this stuff is just riddles, like castles built on air, “perfectly habitable if you don’t look down.” None of it can ever work, really. All the numbers in the real world say we’re screwed. The oceans will drown us in a sea of useless paper money six-pack plastic radioactive fish floating atop a sunken oil slick before our kids can finish college. But the world is a box that holds Schrödinger’s cat</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and we can’t tell if the cat will be live or dead when the box opens. “We, together, are the cat, and we, individually are the scientist outside the box.” We can’t say what will happen until the Magick is done, and it doesn’t look all that good. Except we’re bigger than Schrödinger’s catbox. “Like any good cat, we have nine lives.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Life is both less and more spectacular than we make it out to be, whether we’re talking to ourselves or to anyone else. No one will ever know if Willie’s story is true or not, because it is either way. I really don’t think Willie will ever tell, even though i don’t think i ever explicitly asked him to deal with the question any other way--but he gets it, ya know. Maybe the cat’s fate has more to do with each of us coming to terms with the miraculous than anything on the ground anyways.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Maybe the fate of the world depends on a riddle, a cipher one can only read in a mirror.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No matter what we’re all in this life together whether we know it and whether we like it or not, and every last savory breath of it is a gift from the Gods. And, in the end, “<a href="http://bukowski.net/database/displayContents.php?book=107" target="_blank">What </a>matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Although those of you that have read or will now read the other stuff here on hipgnosis will easily recognize the common ground that one may imagine stands to be found on the lawns inside the moats of our adjacent castles in a neighborhood full of loons, all built on air, i am deeply indebted to Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> for some of the truly fine and beautiful language i snatched more or less wholesale to help me build the last four paragraphs here. Even though their book, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Rule of Four</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is a best-seller of a popular genre, i highly recommend it as the best book i’ve read produced during the twenty-first century. I wish i had written it myself, (while noting the title of this piece). Everyone should read this book.</span>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-91590393618848439842014-07-21T15:09:00.001-07:002014-07-21T19:19:44.894-07:00Isn't Bethlehem Nice This Time of Year?<br />
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Anyone that hasn't followed this a post at a time may be in the dark a little but if you dig around the top few pages of this thing with the buttons below it ought to make sense enough. Start <a href="http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2014/07/interludes-3-and-32.html" target="_blank">here</a>, maybe.<br />
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Think about how this works out for a lil' minute. Concentrate on the fact that this came while i'm in jail for refusing community service. Guess some is missing so: I'm supposed to report to muni probation to sign up for the shyte i refused to do. This is still over a word and licensure from the government. Get it?<br />
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Did i mention i spent last weekend in the deep Ad.Seg Charlie Unit because i had to refuse to do a free slave job for the county?<br />
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21 July 2014hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-68644147022517326302014-07-19T16:30:00.000-07:002018-01-11T10:14:06.555-08:00Field Greens Salad From the Yard (One of Many)<div style="text-align: center;">
Field Greens Salad From the Yard (One of Many)</div>
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Outdoor Alchemy </div>
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19 July 2014<br />
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So this is one of those things that takes a little more than work to really do right. That is to say, it rather takes community, cooperation, love; and:</div>
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About equal portions of<a href="http://www.ediblewildfood.com/dandelion.aspx" target="_blank"> dandelion</a> greens and <a href="http://www.ediblewildfood.com/lambs-quarters.aspx" target="_blank">lamb's quarter</a>, cleaned, which takes a bit of work. The girls went on an herb hunt while i dug some miscellany out of the fridge. Then the kids all pitched in on cleaning while i tried to sort out what to do. </div>
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The dandelions should be relatively young if you can help it. If they are leathery and/or hairy they're probably good for something, but not eating. Don't pull; cut, and think about uses. One can dig a fat root for some, otherwise leave some life for later in the season. Then <i><b>don't</b></i> pull; cut, and think about uses. Mainly these are good if you get the red, with its milky bitterness off the bottom of the leaf. The lamb's quarter stay tasty till they die but the stems get rough so you'll have to pull leaves if it's past Spring. </div>
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Then, you put it together with stuff. This depends on just what stuff ya got. The other night to the best of my sketchy memory it was some red onion and garlic, olive oil, some vinegary pepper juice with cut up peppers, one of those crunchy peaches, some carrot and a radish or two, tomato, bell pepper red and green, some water-wilted cuke chunks (kinda cleaned out the fridge a bit), some green olives and juice, cheese, mustard, salt, pepper, honey. Mix it up and serve it, or let it soak up flavor a spell.</div>
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This isn't really a recipe; you can use different things mix ingredients around or differently. Use marmalade instead of honey. Throw in a splash of vodka. Some avocado, tarragon, eggs...whatever. Make it how you like it, because,</div>
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Here's the thing: this stuff is fine to eat alone later when it's leftover or whatever and you need a snack. But it's not cooking or anything; it's alchemy. For your soul.</div>
hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-41266814702858036772014-07-18T16:24:00.003-07:002014-07-19T06:03:54.884-07:00Only Kinda BoringThese are the last two hearings, the final of which ended <i><b>after</b></i> i had been rushed out the door in irons. For the record, as it were, court transcripts are often quite embarrassing in that court recorders insist on articulating all the ums and uhs and cretinous interruptions. I expect we come out reading better than most.<br />
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7LlysDjrGizTjFYVUhpUUZzSE9MR2ZVbHBtQldXT0g4T25v/edit?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7LlysDjrGizTjFYVUhpUUZzSE9MR2ZVbHBtQldXT0g4T25v/edit?usp=sharing</a>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-38368570208907145362014-07-18T04:55:00.000-07:002016-10-25T10:05:40.733-07:00"Free Steve Bass!"<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9f7e8928-4950-6620-8560-5d180b8fadd6" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Free Steve Bass”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thus reads one of the picket signs</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> that has waved about in its various incarnations at each of the court appearances that i, Steve Bass, have made pertinent to a violation of Colorado Springs’s municipal anti-camping ordinance</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Whoa.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It may not be quite so readily apparent to just any casual observer , or even to those close to the proceedings like my dear friend Jon Martinez</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> who created the sign, just how deep its meaning roots itself in by psyche. Simply contemplating its gravity as i attempt to marshal words with which to express the thoughts to follow raises gooseflesh along my forearms and threatens my vision with tears.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Peltier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Mumia</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Mandela</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Suu Kyi.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Solzhenitsyn</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Human and flawed as the bearers of these names may have been, each has earned his or her place in history and whatever grand mythos has attached to each’s name, (see my earlier thoughts about </span><a href="http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/09/willie-and-waylon-and-some-other-guy.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">bullshit</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">), because others have noted a deep principle underpinning acts of pragmatic defiance to misbegotten, misappropriated authority and overbearing power. Each of those names has appeared on countless pickets behind the word, “Free.”</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Plenty others of my heroes have been imprisoned and worse over principle, whether crowds gathered at the time or not: King</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Thoreau</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Parks</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Sinclair</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Voltaire</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Pussy Riot</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Boethius</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Occupiers all over the country and all over the world</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Yeah, Jesus Freaking Christ</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I can sift my mind and recall dozens--possibly hundreds--of luminaries whose histories, myths, and leavings have formed our national and global consciousness and conscience, (seared though those appendages may have become), that spent time imprisoned or suffered various tragedies up to and including inglorious deaths at the hands of Power devoid of Authority. I can do this because i am so formed and constituted that i have been drawn to those historical superstars’ vaunted legends since i was very small. I was encouraged by virtually everyone--Mom, churches, schools, Hollywood, even government with its pithy marble and granite-carved parables--to revere the fortitude of the people attached to those names and the actual principles for which they stood and suffered and died, and for which they are recalled.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wrap your head around this a bit, dear reader, especially if you are a U.S. American: I was encouraged my </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">entire fucking life</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to place certain principles and their practical adherents high on a pedestal of esteem, until i actually began to act as if any of that shit was actually fucking real.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Liberty. Equity. Charity. Grace. Forbearance, The Golden Rule. Gentle mercy. Peace. Hope. Fucking Love</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">! Yeah, many will recognize these odd notions, and this is not meant to be about God, (though it is), nor is it a screed about Christian hypocrisy. (If you want that from me, see </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Today’s Tom Sawyer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">). These are just some of the principles i’ve been discussing, championed by my heroes. My kinsman. People like me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I was recently compared with a few of the very best of these in public--even more, on record in a courtroom--by a well educated man whom i respect. My jaw nearly dropped because even though i had read his statement</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ahead of the hearing it just didn’t sink in that he meant to read it verbatim--didn’t seem real--so there was something embarrassing about the sound of those words. I felt manifestly unqualified, with my ocean-deep flaws, fuck-ups, and lifelong commitment to bullshit, to approach the company of those worthies let alone to pull up a seat at their table, though i suppose i have indeed sought to emulate those most noteworthy champions there has never been a moment wherein i’d have ever been so bold, so absurdly hubristic as to place anything i’ve ever done on an historical narrative with theirs; until Chris Lasch made it magick for me to think about it by doing exactly that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I started to think about what all those folks were saying and what spillover came from the notions. I thought of signs i’ve seen: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Eritrea Must Be Free!” (I had no clue what or whom Eritrea may have been back when i first saw that one but it didn’t matter so long as they were free). “Free Tibet,” “Free Iraq,” “Free Ukrania.” “Free Hugs,” reads one of my favorite signs ever. In a fashion i can’t truly describe, all these notions resonate together.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Voltaire said, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">L’amour est l’enfant de la liberté</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: Love is the child of liberty.” Love cannot be forced; it can only be demonstrated. Love is a verb</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and it can coexist with neither self-serving institutional oppression nor half-assed apathy save there be conflict.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Resonance. This stuff is the reason we remember William Wallace</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and why </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Braveheart</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> won an Oscar. Sure enough, that idea is opinion(ish) and its proofs are for another piece but it’s key to the principles in general, and to the actions of those of us that have been imprisoned over the same.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, sure; since i’ve been invited i’ll take my seat at that table though with eternal deference to those far greater than i. Who was Thoreau anyhow, but a guy with a backbone and a way with words, and a perception more or less identical with mine, and resonant, like segments of those fractal art pieces</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">? We prisoners of conscience choose imprisonment over silence or conciliatory plea-bargaining because the points we have always striven to make are gigantic. Epic. Universal. So much bigger than any single one of us that we can’t even know how to wrap our heads around them. We who seek this stuff on the grandest scale possible, cringing when self-promotion becomes necessary to further the Ideas, fight for just that--bigger fish</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> than ourselves for the pan. I only met my heroes in legend, but there in those tales that define our mythos not one of those folks whom i so revere was ever so concerned with his or her own welfare that he or she allowed personal narrative to eclipse the grand cry of Liberty, that Lovechild of God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More than one person close to me has asked me whether i don’t think this stubborn insistence on a point, this hard-headed leaning into a course of action that has me incarcerated isn’t a waste of time, talent, life. The answer is: Absolutely not. Although shit happens around each of us all the time that we can’t see and will never know, this</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> looks to me as though more good has already come of my actions than much of anything else i’ve done during the past little spell of literary hiatus. Simply the effect i seem to observe here at the El Paso County Jail is worth every second of the experience. I feel more like a conduit for a higher greater Thing than “i”--more like an “I” than has resulted from anything i can recall doing. Ever. Except for bringing up my kids, of which all of this is a part. (Coming at The Machine has always been a “God” thing for me. It isn’t necessary for you to interpret it that way). And anyway, How can holding to Truth be a waste?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, yeah. It’s be nice to be out of jail, but don’t fret too hard about Steve Bass. We at this table suffer far less than you imagine. I came to the conversation with a particular physical plan about a camping ordinance and having failed to eliminate the ordinance, the reason for continuing along with my fellow Occupiers, and guys like Assange and such is to blare it from the rooftops: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a fucking emergency!!!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The story we were told and are being told is a lie! We live in a fully-blown Fascist state, (and State), wherever we are in the World now, and if we want to own our own myth, we’d better fucking do something about it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So when you see that sign or when you read some shit about Steve Bass--forget about him and read all the thoughts above into it instead, and more if you can imagine it. Because that’s what’s important about all this. Don’t worry about Steve Bass. Worry about freeing yourself. Free the whole fucking World. Because that’s what’s important about all this. Because where </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> live, here in this flawed and tragicomic heart of mine--i </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">am</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> free.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Free Steve Bass,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">hipgnotist</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">23 June 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thing is, this stuff is all scribbled around on crappy paper with bad markers. I reserve the right to edit if i find words that ought to have been here.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*Hmm <a href="http://hermetic.com/bey/taz1.html#labelChaosSection">http://hermetic.com/bey/taz1.html#labelChaosSection</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*I really hope i’m just too tired to figure out how to make the blogger do footnotes. Meanwhile, here they are: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MZJG957oejyd_V8UF0yQBn7PHY0FOWxSD4vGwQ3Of_w/edit?usp=sharing">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MZJG957oejyd_V8UF0yQBn7PHY0FOWxSD4vGwQ3Of_w/edit?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-89326152268640802062014-07-18T04:49:00.000-07:002014-07-24T15:15:10.121-07:00Interludes 3 and 3.2<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-228ba603-4948-517e-ef19-c4b6fc6c0307" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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Interludes 3 and 3.2</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Anyone who followed anything that happened on hipgnosis during the heady days of 2011 may have wondered just what happened to cause the abrupt drop-off in volume. After the actual, physical Occupation i must confess that i, along with many Occupiers lost a bit of the angle toward the wind along which i had been pushing my sails. I spent a bit of time luffing in the doldrums, to the chagrin of some, but i never stopped Occupying, or whatever you call this that i’ve done all along of which Occupy is the smaller portion. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The break has allowed What There Is to provide me some clarity and direction. One might say i’ve come about, as it were, but really the wind picked up again. The motor is back to running and we’re ready to fling a few more mixed and mangled metaphors.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After nearly three years of court battles, many of which may as well have been designed to imitate the Sargasso Sea, (stretch ‘em, Baby!), the City of Colorado Springs, through the ministrations of Spottswood W.H. Williams, has spent some absurd amount of money, (mind you i want to know and if i find out i’ll amend this), to incarcerate me for 160 days over that camping ticket</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So the next batch of installments will be coming from my, (hopefully), temporary home here in this fancy tent, (which i also hope to price), at the El Paso County Jail, on public property, of course. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Occupy the El Paso County Jail!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**One point--.2, that is: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There have been intriguing developments, and i am now running around loose pending appeal. Again. I had hoped the arrangement i had made to publish this stuff while incarcerated would outpace the County’s bureaucracy but nooooo! I mean to publish what i produced </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">over a 35 day period </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">at the jail without altering the perspective afforded by the positioning but i’ll add comments where due.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Steve Bass, hipgnotist, 23 June 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There's <a href="http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2014/07/free-steve-bass.html" target="_blank">this </a>next.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">***Whaaat?? Maybe it's just too late but the blogger doesn't seem to allow footnotes. Here's where the live, till i figure it out at least: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jMtJ3vOGdJQfg_-5G04Q5fXB5NJHVMN0Byjcn15D284/edit?usp=sharing">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jMtJ3vOGdJQfg_-5G04Q5fXB5NJHVMN0Byjcn15D284/edit?usp=sharing</a></span></div>
hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-81493710843005065572014-07-18T03:19:00.003-07:002014-07-18T14:29:09.403-07:00Also Spracht Chris Lasch<div style="text-align: center;">
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This is Chris Lasch's words, spoken to the court. I am still floored: </div>
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Steve Bass--April 23, 2014</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This was, and remains, a political case.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By this I mean that while Mr. Bass did violate the anti-camping ordinance, he did so not as a criminal act but as a political one. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In October 2011, Mr. Bass engaged in a peaceful act of civil disobedience. He did it because of deeply held personal beliefs, rooted in his own personal circumstances and life experience. Mr. Bass has been homeless “off and on” since he was twelve years old, and has a passion for helping the homeless. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Transcript, 6/7/2012, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">at 38, 43-44). For the last seventeen years, he has volunteered at the Colorado College soup kitchen in Colorado Springs, helping the homeless, indigent, and people with mental health issues. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Id. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">at 42-43. As a result of his commitments, Mr. Bass has been engaged in ongoing peaceful and respectful dialogue with the Colorado Springs police about issues relating to homelessness. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Id. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">at 6-7, 44-45. Mr. Bass has made known to the police on many occasions his view that the anti-camping ordinance adopted by Colorado Springs in 2010 is “a bad ordinance.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Id.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> at 6.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In October 2011, Mr. Bass pitched a tent in Acacia Park. He voluntarily returned to a state of homelessness. This was not an act that was easy for him, and it was not one that caused him any great personal enjoyment. It was an act of protest, and Mr. Bass let anyone he could know what he was protesting: economic oppression, or as he explained it to this court previously, “whether or not poverty represents a criteria for being pushed around by those with money.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On October 18, 2011, at 1:50 a.m., the police approached Mr. Bass. Mr. Bass was inside his tent in Acacia Park, camping. He was inside a sleeping bag in the tent. The tent was right beneath a sign on a light pole that said NO CAMPING. Officer Michael Thomson asked Mr. Bass to step out of the tent. Mr. Bass said, “Hi, give me a second.” Mr. Bass put his shoes on and came out. Officer Thomson took Mr. Bass in his custody to the police station and issued a summons charging Mr. Bass with violating the anti-camping ordinance. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Although others were camped in tents near Mr. Bass’s tent — including people who had been issued written warnings for camping in Acacia Park — no other person was arrested or charged with violating the anti-camping ordinance. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In fact, Mr. Bass was the only person up to that time ever to have been charged with violating the ordinance. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mr. Bass protested. He did it peacefully. No one suffered in any way, shape, or form by his actions. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tradition of dissent.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thoreau, MLK Jr., Rosa Parks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Boston Tea Party – which certainly caused a lot of damage – that didn’t happen here. What happened here is that Mr. Bass raised, without one shred of harm to others, an issue for consideration by this Court and the appellate courts of Colorado. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now the Court must do its part, given that this is a political case.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This case, then, is not the ordinary criminal case. It is instead, a political case. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ordinarily the Court, as a criminal court, would consider what punishment is appropriate for Mr. Bass, for his crime of violating of the anti-camping ordinance. But the question has no meaning here – Mr. Bass did not commit a crime in the ordinary sense so much as he expressed himself politically. Mr. Bass has already been punished, in that his political beliefs have been cast aside by the State. The questions the Court must answer today are not the usual questions the Court faces at sentencing: What punishment will best serve the State’s interest in deterrence? In rehabilitation? In incapacitation? Those questions have no bearing on today’s matter. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instead, the question the Court faces is, How much ought the Court be interested in stifling political speech?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I must also be clear, that the Court should not consider Mr. Bass in any way to be contemptuous of the Court’s authority. His act of rejecting the Court’s order of community service is not an act of disrespect for the Court, it is just a continuation of his political statement. Mr. Bass has at all times exhibited the utmost respect for the institutions of government, and indeed has invoked their mechanisms. He knew, or at least suspected, that the police would cite him for violating the anti-camping ban, and was peaceful and compliant when those mechanisms were triggered. He submitted gladly to the jurisdiction of this Court and the trial, though he was not permitted under this Court’s rules to present the defense he believed he was entitled to. He invoked the district court’s appellate jurisdiction and the Supreme Court’s certiorari jurisdiction.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Indeed Mr. Bass is here today, once again submitting himself to the Court and its procedures. Mr. Bass knows that the Court may lock him up. He is not defiant of the Court in any way. He simply is expressing his political beliefs, by saying that he will not allow community service (which he does routinely and without compulsion) to masquerade as a punishment. Mr. Bass is here precisely because he has an interest in the answer to this question: How much ought the Court be interested in stifling his political speech?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Henry David</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Thoreau compared government to a machine. When the machine was producing injustice, he said it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be "a counter friction … to stop the machine." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thoreau was jailed briefly for failing to pay taxes, that he thought would support a government that had failed to abolish slavery and was pursuing the Mexican-American war, that he believed was unjust.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The question for this Court is really: How much should dissent be stifled? In other words, is dissent really a friction on the machinery of government? Or is it, in fact, an oil for that machinery? Did not Mr. Bass succeed in raising, and resolving, an important political question here? Did he not invoke the very machinery of government to do that? Was not his political act an important, indeed an integral part of what we believe our government to be? The Court should, as the traditions of our country do, embrace dissent.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A punishment for expressing oneself politically, as Mr. Bass did here, can only be aimed at suppressing political expression. A punishment would impose a price on using civil disobedience to raise important questions for orderly decision in the courts, as Mr. Bass did here.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There should be no consequence other than what has already happened.</span></div>
hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-47459670015855154932014-05-27T10:56:00.000-07:002014-07-18T13:21:42.446-07:00Statement to Judge Spottswood Williams<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-cb62530d-3ecc-2b2d-d942-7f2b0c0a374f" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After losing the camping ticket case described in earlier posts here, law professor Chris Lasch made himself and his brigade of students available for an appeal. I asked him when we first spoke if an appeal wouldn't most likely be futile. After all, our failure to bring anything new to the discussion with anything other than a previously failed 1st Amendment argument i figured we were done. I thought </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">law students would be fun, though, so i went along.</span> The proceedings were mostly remote afterward; when </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">appellate courts refuse to see you, you don't have to see them, either. By the time the status hearing Judge Williams had scheduled rolled around, i had had time to mull the idea of community service as punishment over a bit. So i had to tell him this:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span>Judge Williams, we’ve come to the end of my case, and it seems we come now to the end of this part of the larger thing we have been discussing, you and I. The societal problems that engendered the Occupy encampments of which i was and am a part have not by any means been alleviated since we began our relationship. Cases like mine, but initiated by necessity rather than principle can only increase in the face of increasing tension and decreasing wealth for most Americans. Things have developed some since this started, and positive advancements like Utah’s near elimination of homelessness with housing programs have been overshadowed by wars and rioting in the world, and continued societal polarization here at home. The principles and dynamics from which i derive motivation in what i am doing here have remained in place in the world, and also in me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This action i have undertaken is about the widening rift between ordinary citizens and the increasingly few remnants of the old “American Dream,” defined by ideologies like Manifest Destiny and practices like eminent domain, in the wake of which the so-called dream becomes just sad justification for sidestepping the guilty baggage we have engendered by its systemic misuse and redefinition, however fine the intentions of its architects may have been. Whatever the disagreements may have been among Occupiers here in Colorado Springs, and whatever success the system may have enjoyed in obscuring the fact, i remain a part of Occupy and i became so because the package of grievances Occupy rose up to address fitted so well with positions i have held since my ethics were formed as a child, i imagine in more or less the same educational milieu as you, Mr. Williams. I see the ethical misfire of the camping ordinance in question here because it is addressed by that package of moral truths i learned early. I cannot believe that you failed to note the same noble principles as i, involving truth, justice, equality, and by extension maybe even empathy and community. These are the principles that allow for national pride, but i have seen these principles abandoned wholesale, during my lifetime, if they ever really existed in our power structures to start.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I find attempts on the part of our government, (of which you are a part, i must note while avoiding personal disrespect), to criminalize poverty while simultaneously building policies that appear very well-designed to increase the same to be antithetical to those principles i have noted both now and throughout our interactions, which i was led to believe were entwined with our national identity. The development of stances that allow effete aesthetics to take priority over the most basic of human rights has positioned those of us outside the empowered set--one might say the 99%--in a defensive place. The system is at war with us. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We Occupiers have not gone away, nor have we failed to note that the troubles we came together to oppose have increased rather than subsided. We saw in the beginning that the sort of catastrophe that has been ongoing in Greece, for example, and now the Ukraine and Taiwan, of all places, will certainly happen here. Our American Dream has been twisted from a noble goal of an experimental system to a cruel motivation for clambering over the head of the next guy. Our system, our government, our corporations, and, yes, our courts have failed us and in truth actively oppose the people they are meant to sustain and protect. I can’t accept that in good faith. I have kids, for crying out loud.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, with that i come to the meat here. You and i have engaged in a fairly deep conversation on the record here; you may recall a portion of that conversation, (recorded on around pp. 73-74 of the hearing transcript from 7 June, 2012, and throughout, really). The impoverished, i said, “have got to be under somebody else’s purview.” Because of the ordinance “[we] no longer have liberty.” We are barred from being where we need or want to be and must, by law retreat to where you, the System, wants us and we ourselves want specifically not to be. This is effectively status-based incarceration. I said already that “[T]he end result of this is jail,” and forcing another into a locked “shelter” is incarceration. The ordinance demands that i incarcerate myself prior to the commission of any so-called crime.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With all this in mind i have wrestled my own mind into a position wherein i can not accept your sentence of community service in lieu of jail. I figured up along the lines of around 20,000 hours of community service i’ve completed of my own volition in this town, and i’ve added several hundred to that figure since we met. I do this as a matter of course in my life. I don’t think it will mean anything at all to do more service at the Court’s behest. For the court to attempt to punish me with more is at least disingenuous, and hardly punishment; in fact it’s a bit of a sham, that seems to mock the values in question. The United States of America is not supposed to be a place where only the sensibilities of insensate money and its owners serve as our ethical foundation. So we arrive back at the point of where i want to be and what i want to do, which is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to submit to this ordinance which has acquired no redeeming attributes since we met. Therefore, i am here in front of you forcing your hand. You must now either acknowledge the ethical poverty of the ordinance, or prove my point. I hope this move doesn’t damage our relationship. You owe me a beer and a conversation, i think.</span></div>
hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-82552060278438247092014-02-17T04:12:00.001-08:002014-02-17T04:12:07.891-08:00Uncommon Sense • A Shift From Competition to Conscious Capitalism<a href="http://uncommonsense.is/post/19871112023/a-shift-from-competition-to-conscious-capitalism">Uncommon Sense • A Shift From Competition to Conscious Capitalism</a>: <br /><br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-53318775893646329862014-02-13T00:44:00.006-08:002014-08-26T08:47:06.928-07:00George Who?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.95; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.95; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Who?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It seems peculiar that in 2009 no one has heard of Henry George, if only for the fact that during his prime a hundred years past his was easily one of the most recognizable names on Earth. Just a journalist really, George’s hardscrabble upbringing, his early experience in the business world, and maybe just a little OCD inspired him to craft an entirely new approach to economic theory. Its publication very quickly garnered him international acclaim, respect, and supportive friendship from many of the greatest figures of his day. Many, encountering his work for the first time today, would no doubt label him a Commie, particularly given that George’s work followed Marx and Engels’ by three decades. This misinterprets George. His thinking split the difference between Adam Smith and the Communist theorists in many ways, sharing common ground with both camps but firmly establishing his own territory. His work deserves a second reading.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>George was born in Philadelphia, September, 1839, to a family headed by a hardworking but low-budget printer. By providing the Church cut-rate printing services, George’s devout father enabled Henry to garner a relatively high-standard primary education from the Episcopal Academy. He left home after high-school seeking his own way, and after a brief period of adventuring, found himself in San Francisco where he joined the Printer’s Union, following in his father’s footsteps after all.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>George lived a poor man’s life--same as any tradesman at the height of the Robber Barons’ power--until an editor at the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">San Francisco Times</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> came across a piece he had written and left lying around. He accepted an offered staff writing position at $50 a week, which seemed a princely amount compared with his father’s $800 a year. He traveled quite a bit for the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Times</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and in 1868 on assignment in New York City first encountered the squalid conditions surrounding and adjoining vaunted islands of luxury and power that would inform and undergird his writing for the rest of his life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Having gained considerable respect as a newsman and a fair amount of seed-money, George and a partner, William Hinton, established the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">San Francisco EveningPost</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in 1871. George unabashedly used the paper as a human rights platform until 1877, when, some say, powerful railroad interests against whom he had written since his </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SF Times </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">days shut the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evening Post</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> down. Quickly landing a government post through highly-placed friendships he had developed, he used the leisure time it afforded to produce his magnum opus, </span><a href="http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Progress and Poverty</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and published it in 1879. George moved to New York in 1880 and promptly left for England and Ireland, touring there to support Irish land support. By the time he returned, his life had changed forever. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Progress and Poverty </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">had made him a celebrity (de Mille 1-152). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George’s political economy laid out in his roughly 600 page book begins with his assertion that Smith’s approach established private land ownership as the foundation of economic and social structure, referring often to “the sacred rights of private property” (Smith, par. 1.11.79). So far few would argue, but George figured this skewed, and brazenly wrote that, “[t]he great cause of inequality in the distribution of wealth is inequality in the ownership of land. The ownership of land is the great fundamental fact which ultimately determines the intellectual and moral condition of a people....[I]t necessarily follows that the only remedy for the unjust distribution of wealth is in making land common property” (295, 391). He argued that as a foundational natural resource there is no basis for sequestering land in private hands. He proposed to hold land in common and allot it to users for as long as they needed, for whatever production they could derive from it, and the holder would pay tax, (rent), on its assessed value until relinquished. The holder and any capital or labor involved would keep whatever profit came from the working of the land, and the public would base taxation only upon the land itself. Note that this negates both income and capital gains taxes. (During George’s prominence, no federal income tax existed in the United States). George insisted the extensive system described philosophically in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Progress and Poverty</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and rather more technically in </span><a href="http://savingcommunities.org/docs/george.henry/specontents.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Science of Political Economy</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, would adequately supply the government’s fiscal needs without additional taxes while simultaneously encouraging entrepreneurship and curtailing development of a landed class.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marx, whose seminal works came before George, but close enough that both wrote from the surrounding milieu of the Industrial Revolution, addressed similar problems. He and those following took the matter to a deeper extreme, however, allowing for no private ownership of either property or capital. Marx expressed a well known hostility to capital. The familiar Communist adage, “Property is Theft,” represents a drastic condensation from Marx’s arguments that labor always seems to wind up on the short end of dealings with those holding either land or capital (Marx, chap. 6, par.2). Like George, Marx chafed at the inequities this arrangement produced, especially with the exacerbations of capital lording over labor, which industrial development had completely disassociated from the land producing the wealth. “The means of production and of exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up,” says Marx, “were generated in feudal society,” (Marx, and Engels 1848, chap. 1, par. 21).The Communists implemented a far more radical seizure of all private property, including both land and capital, consolidating it under a central federal power (chap. 2, par. 75). Contrarily, George felt that capital deserved its due, and sought to rectify the problems he saw by implementation of a more enlightened “single tax.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few germane observations present themselves for discussion. Smith, George, and Marx all expressed notions we might call idealist—Utopian even. Each sought to solve timeless conundrums with an incredibly optimistic approach. Jaded 21</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">st</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> century readers might consider any one of them painfully naive, in retrospect. None of them had the advantage of the hindsight we enjoy, however, and fruitlessly denying the problems each pointed out in his broader work does not help at all. Smith wrote when, fresh from the collapse of European Feudalism, land served as the key to wealth of any kind, and still viewed as an unlimited resource for the grabbing. The vast inequities the Industrial Revolution had abruptly produced vexed George and the Communists. None of these could have predicted today’s technological, information-based economies, with the problems they addressed dispersed over the entire planet. Today, the rate of separation between the “Haves” and the “Have Nots” poises to exceed the conditions affecting either set of writers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George did not design a perfect system. Neither, as amply demonstrated by both history and current events, did Smith or Marx. Henry George thoughtfully and humanely addressed a terribly intractable matter in human affairs, however, and deliberately allowed for future thinkers to expand his work. His work deserves contemplation as we forge into a new century fraught with uncertainties. Our present crisis may help encourage just that. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Works Cited</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<a href="http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/mille-anna-george-de_on-henry-george.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">De Mille, Anna George. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Henry George: Citizen of the World</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1950.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George, Henry. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 1898. New York, New York: The Robert Shalkenbach Foundation, 1979. 17 February 2009</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marx, Karl. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wage-Labor Capital</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 1849. 17 February 2009 <</span><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marx, K. and Engels, F. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Manifesto of the Communist Party</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 1848. 17 February 2009 <</span><a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smith, Adam. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. 1776. Ed. Edwin Cannan. 5</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ed. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1904. 17 February 2009 <</span><a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">United States Department of the Treasury. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fact Sheets: Taxes. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17 February 2009 (This link is obsolete).</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<a href="http://www.henrygeorge.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.henrygeorge.org/</span></a></div>
<a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=progress+and+poverty&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=progress+and+poverty&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart</span></a>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-26982625716211073492014-02-02T18:53:00.001-08:002014-02-02T18:53:24.934-08:00Dangerous Knowledge - ScienceGymnasium<a href="http://www.sciencegymnasium.com/2014/01/dangerous-knowledge.html">Dangerous Knowledge - ScienceGymnasium</a>: "Finally, Alan Turing, the great Bletchley Park code breaker, father of computer science and homosexual, died trying to prove that some things are fundamentally unprovable."<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>hipgnotisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13345899001401169647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3682602026991971643.post-91237762152250460002013-05-15T15:55:00.000-07:002014-08-25T16:59:34.619-07:00Top o’ the World<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In 1776 the British colonies in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
rejected tyranny and established a democratic republic, to the consternation of
monarchs everywhere, and the Western World embarked on its “Great Experiment.”
Two hundred years later, in a tiny, ruggedly beautiful, and culturally Medieval
Asian country, a monarch began to dream of his own experiment, and in 2006, to
the consternation of his people, Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicated
his hereditary power to further his plan for a new constitutional government,
turning the venture of the Americans on its head. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It would be difficult to deny the
similarities between issues the early Americans faced, like the need to build
both industry and infrastructure, and what the Bhutanese confront today, but
the overall essence of Bhutanese politics is unique and the results of reform
will prove telling for any third-world country in its emergent years. King
Wangchuck and his son Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck are attempting to develop
practical applications for idealistic political theories that few Westerners
can view as less than extraordinarily naive, but early observations offer
encouragement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Ideal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> In 2005, King revealed his proposal
for a new constitution to the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, a document loaded with
democratic reform (<i>Kingdom</i>). The
constitution took decades of thought and soul-searching to produce by the old
King, who upon his installation in 1972 as the fourth monarch in a kingdom
established by the British in 1907, almost immediately announced his Gross
National Happiness Index (GNH). This quirky title applies specifically to
Buddhist Bodhisattva Wangchuck’s policies, but also expresses his personal
approach to reform. The rather nebulous concept has gelled over a period of
years into a solid body of constitutional policy supported by the “Four
Pillars” of GNH, cultural promotion, good governance, equitable economic
development, and environmental preservation (van </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Willenswaard 2</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Wangchuck knew that small, isolated
countries like his, subject to the pressures of Asian politics, have rarely
managed to pass the threshold into modernity without revolution and severe
social disruption. He carefully designed a new democratic government and
constitution for his country, beginning from the assumption that happiness
supersedes other more conventional measures of wealth, particularly targeting
the standard economic pulse of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as incomplete in
scope. During the intervening years between Wangchuck’s initial proffering of
his philosophy a cottage industry has arisen to apply flesh to the framework,
with a small horde of Bhutanese intellectuals providing contributions, centered
at the ubiquitous “Centre for Bhutan Studies,” an independent “think-tank” that
enjoys substantial government support. The discussion has become endemic in
public discourse, with threads of GNH woven into every aspect of conversation
from Bhutanese newspaper coverage, to debate in legislative bodies (“Daydreaming,”
People’s 1-28).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In 2006 Jigme Singye Wangchuck became
the first absolute monarch ever to relinquish power as part of his commitment
to reform, turning the reigns of government over to his son in hopes of
affording him experience as head of state before conversion to a new democracy.
Jigme Khesar has since proven an enthusiastic purveyor of his father’s ideal.
The new constitution, ratified on 18 July 2008, includes much dear to
Westerners like limiting powers between branches of government, and separation
of church and state (Kingdom). Policy developing from the seed of GNH has
included wealth redistribution, protective environmental law, and relocation of
rural populations disrupted by infrastructure projects, a ban on public
smoking, and a national dress code. The object is to ease <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> onto the
international stage and into the modern era without thoroughly disrupting its
largely agrarian Buddhist culture (Larmer 128-149). It remains to be seen how
this will work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Reality<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Not everyone likes the changes in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, either
inside the country or from an international perspective, and the Wangchuck camp
acknowledges its plan as highly ambitious. Many Bhutanese view the whole notion
of democracy with a jaundiced eye, expressing a conservative preference for a
status quo supported by their religious appreciation for the King as a
Bodhisattva, the “Druk Gyalpo,” or Dharma King of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> (Larmer 131). Foreigners
remain skeptical. Observers point out that idealistic doctrine notwithstanding,
the country still faces a virtually non-existent infrastructure, a
long-standing low-tech agricultural economy in a mountainous geography,
political realities for a strategically important zone surrounded by powerful
and at least latently hostile countries, and internal ethnic concerns the
handling of which has brought perhaps the harshest criticisms of Bhutan since
ratifying its new constitution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Daunting matters abound. Poverty
hampers any development effort in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, a country with a GDP of
only $3.294 billion in 2008, and little level ground with which to work. Very
few passable roads exist, with goods often transported by foot or in small
carts, and though 12% of the GDP comes from hydroelectricity exports to China
and India, only about 12% of total electricity produced is used in country
because the bulk of the population has no use for it. For perspective, in a
country about the size of Switzerland, with a population just under 700,000,
there exist only about 11,000 television sets, 30,000 telephone connections,
and about 5,000 km of paved roads (“World,” sec. 5; <u>National</u>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The low-budget lives of many
Bhutanese raise issues when government efforts at planning come to play, for
instance, when in attempts to prevent dislocation of rural populations
resulting from infrastructure projects, officials shuffle farmers to ostensibly
more productive land. The principle behind this move keeps economic disruption
from forcing impoverished subsistence farmers to enter dead-end pursuits in the
lower strata of the urban milieu, and to keep the crop base that feeds the
population viable. The politics of this kind of forced removal often engenders
contention, especially when it involves minority ethnic Nepalese, as it
frequently does, whom the Bhutanese simply deport, often to countries that do
not accept them. This presents only one of the issues that come to the fore in
the play between Bhutan and China, and Bhutan and India, both of which
neighboring countries see Bhutan as a useful buffer, and often dispute Bhutan’s
authority (Walcott 3).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Synthesis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In spite of problems with implementation, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> has made
notable progress pursuing “Gross National Happiness,” and other governments and
institutions are taking notice. Life expectancy ballooned 72% since 1972. Adult
literacy has risen by 42% to 59.5% of total population (Walcott 5). Planners
have made long strides in areas such as taxation, land preservation, and
economic and infrastructure development. The whole undertaking still seems a
work in progress, and lively debate dominates local discussion. Two political
parties have formed, if only to apply an ideal, since the parties display
little difference (Larmer 130). Satisfaction still eludes some, but <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
government seems genuinely committed to felicitous reform, establishing
vigorous commissions and accessible avenues of communication. Reassuring his
tentatively willing subjects, Jigme Singye Wangchuck said:</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“looking at the improvement in the
living standard of our communities, which were never heard of before, we are
reassured without any doubt that our goals will be achieved well in future just
as in the past. We now understand more about our incomplete works, our
inabilities and the problems that arise with development activities” (qtd. in Nishimizu, sec. 5).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">In spite of his choppy English, Wangchung’s evident
concern for his people comes through as nearly palpable as he encourages them
to ease into embracing an expansive new way of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The crux of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s GNH,
and the policies it engenders is a respect for traditional culture. Both the
elder and the younger Wangchuck exhibit awareness that entrance to the new
global forum is both necessary to his country’s well-being, and inevitable in
some form or another. In the past, development efforts in <st1:place w:st="on">Third
World</st1:place> countries have come from the top down, planned and executed
by economists and technocrats with little regard for cultural matters viewing
traditional culture as a superfluous impediment (Daskon 168-9). The
orchestrators behind GNH policies want to pioneer a method of both measure and
practice whereby the religious, rural, traditional culture of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> and its
people participate actively in the emergence of the country onto the world
stage. Physical and economic development are viewed as secondary to points of
national identity, comfort, and welfare, and projects focused on developing a
sense of cultural pulse are initiated before rushing in with bulldozers and
bank loans. This is in stark contrast, one might note, to proceedings in many
of the most troubled parts of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Even accounting for physical
development headaches, perhaps the most ambitious of these cultural projects is
the nearly 300 line GNH Index questionnaire aggressively disseminated across
all societal lines. The index represents a substantial departure from
measurements that account for only economic measurements of progress, and
exposes a much gentler philosophical basis. Added to what most Westerners wound
normally consider germane to economics, the GNH Index survey seeks to measure
such variables as the number of yaks owned by a household, room occupancy in
the house, the popularity of traditional festivals and activities, health and
meditation practices, and in short, happiness (“</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Gross”)</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">. “We have to think of human
well-being in broader terms," said Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s home
minister and ex-prime minister. "Material well-being is only one
component. That doesn't ensure that you're at peace with your environment and
in harmony with each other" (qtd. in Revkin, par. 13). The objective is
not to make the country <i>rich</i> by
materialistic standards, but rich in a broader, metaphysical sense. Only after
exhaustively measuring and merging the broad Bhutanese cultural climate as well
as possible do officials allow necessarily disruptive projects or policies
allowed to commence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Others in the international community
have taken note, with discussion of GNH cropping up everywhere from United
Nations fora to political discussion in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> (Revkin). In his recent London
Financial Times piece, Simon Briscoe even pointed out the similarity between <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region>’s overarching programs and the possible
course <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
new president finds himself forced to pursue (par.10). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Dharma
Democracy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Bhutanese, it appears, are
chasing democracy because the King says they should. Likely no one but the
Dharma King, the “King of the Way Things Ought to Be,” could have convinced his
conservative, impishly Buddhist people in favor of the drastic transformation
inherent in the changeover he has instigated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Up to now, the Wangchu<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ng</span>s’ plan seems
effectual. Though the pace of life remains comparatively slow, the new mingles
with the old, with Buddhist teenagers break dancing on the new television
program “Bhutanese Idol,” to the bemusement of their elders, and Western styles
tentatively emerging in city centers (Larmer 127). Standards of living, health,
and felicity are rising in spite of transformation and an expected modicum of
turmoil. Unlike other developing countries suffering severe population disturbances
while elites wrangle over resources, in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, families continue to hold
strong, and the countryside atmosphere remains stable. Education and literacy
have become both valued and broadly supported. Revolution and upheaval are
nowhere in sight. Disagreements find redress in a newly empowered and revamped
court system. Happy reform gains new ground in every aspect of Bhutanese life
with each fresh glance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The new administration always meant
for its country to mount the world stage, and as it does, the West takes it all
in, to the extent that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
garners attention at all. Many of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s renovated policies show a
recognizably Western influence with a singularly Bhutanese spin. Maybe we
Westerners would do well to study the Bodhisattvas’ logic before we rush into
sweeping changes of our own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Briscoe, Simon. “A More Humane Way to Measure Progress<i>.</i>” <u>Financial Times of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city></u> 31 January
2009. 8 March 2009 <</span>h<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ttp://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/ main/highlight_detail.php?id=44>; [The previous link is dead. Here's a new one: <<a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b2926d7e-eb63-11dd-bb6e-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz2xTbYTpKX">http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b2926d7e-eb63-11dd-bb6e-0000779fd2ac.html#axzz2xTbYTpKX</a>>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Daskon, Chandima D. “</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Gross National Happiness: A New Paradigm<i>.</i>”</span><b><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle-Bold","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle-Bold; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">bhutanstudies.org.bt. 2008.</span></u><b><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle-Bold","serif"; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></b><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Thimphu</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region>: </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Centre for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> Studies. 10 March 2009 <http: admin="" gnh.pdf="" pubfiles="" rd="" www.bhutanstudies.org.bt="">.</http:></span><b><span style="font-family: "BookmanOldStyle-Bold","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: BookmanOldStyle-Bold; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Daydreaming GNH</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">.” <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><u>Bhutan</u></st1:place></st1:country-region><u>
Observer</u>. Editorial. <u>bhutanobserver.bt</u> 8 March 2009. 12 March 2009
<http: 2009="" daydreaming-gnh.html="" editorial="" w="" ww.bhutanobserver.bt="">.<o:p></o:p></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“Gross National Happiness Pre-Test Questionnaire #3 November
2007, </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Final</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">.”</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> <st1:city w:st="on">Thimphu</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region>:</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Centre for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> Studies.
2007. 10 March 2009 <http: gnh-questionnaire.pdf="" gnh-survey="" nationalhappiness.com="" www.gross="">.<i> <o:p></o:p></i></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Kingdom</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:placename></span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Constitution Drafting Committee. <u>Constitution
of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of
<st1:placename w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:placename></st1:place>, The</u>. </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Thimphu</span></st1:city><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region></span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">: </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Constitution Drafting Committee,
2008. 5 March 2009 <</span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">http://www.constitution.bt/TsaThrim%20Eng%20(A5).pdf>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Larmer, Brook. “<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s Enlightened Experiment.”<i> </i><u>National
Geographic </u>March 2008: 124-149.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mathou, Thierry. “How to Reform a Buddhist Monarchy: The Political Achievements of His
Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Fourth King of Bhutan (1972-2006)</span>.”<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <u>bhutanstudies.org.bt</u></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">. 2008. <st1:city w:st="on">Thimphu</st1:city>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region>: </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The Centre for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region> Studies.
5 March 2009 <http: admin="" pubfiles="" raditionalmonarchy.pdf="" www.bhutanstudies.org.bt="">.<o:p></o:p></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">National Portal of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region></span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">. Profile page. 9 March 2009 <http: aboutbhutan.php="" gov.bt="" government="" www.bhutan.="">.<o:p></o:p></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Nishimizu, Mieko. “Portrait of a Leader: Through the
Looking-Glass of His Majesty’s Decrees.” <u>bhutanstudies.org.bt</u>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">2008. <st1:city w:st="on">Thimphu</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region>:
The Centre for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Studies. 10 March 2009 <http: -studies.org.bt="" admin="" ortraitleadereng.pdf="" pubfiles="" www.bhutan="">.</http:></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“People’s Democratic Party Manifesto 2008: Well Being
for Everyone, The.” <u>pdp.bt</u>. 2008. People’s Democratic Party of Bhutan.
Party homepage. 8 March 2009 <http: pdp-manifesto-2008.pdf="" pdp.bt="" uploads="" wp-content="" www.="">.<o:p></o:p></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Revkin, Andrew C. “A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom<i>.</i>”<i>
</i><u>New York Times</u> 4 October 2005. 5 March 200 <http: 0="" happ.html="" science="" scp="1&sq=Kingdom,%20well-being&st=cse" www.nytimes.com="">.<o:p></o:p></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">van Willenswaard, Hans. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">“Critical
Holism: A New Development Paradigm Inspired by Gross National Happiness? A
Contribution to the Global GDP Debate.”<i> </i></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Paper for the Fourth International Conference on Gross
National Happiness, 24-26
November 2008, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Thimphu</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:country-region></st1:place>. GNH</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 200%; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> Project Team,
Suan Nguen Mee Ma Co., Ltd.,<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Thailand</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
5 March 2009 <http: admin="" gnh4.pdf="" pubfiles="" www.bhutanstudies.org.bt="">.<o:p></o:p></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Walcott, Dr. Susan<i>. </i>“Urbanization in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bhutan</st1:place></st1:country-region>:(Geographical
Field Notes).”<i> </i></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3682602026991971643" title="Geographical Review"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Geographical Review</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> 99.1 (Jan. 2009): 81-93. <u>EBSCO Academic Search Premier</u>.
5 March 2009 <http: amp="" direct="true&db=aph&AN" login.aspx="" search.ebscohost.com="" site="ehost-live"><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></http:></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“World Factbook, The 2008.” <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>, D.C: United States Central
Intelligence Agency 2008. 3 March 2009 <https: bt.html="" library="" print="" publications="" the-world-factbook="" www.cia.gov="">.</https:></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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