Oil

Hi Everybody,

I'm gonna try to keep this short.

I have a few thoughts I would like share regarding the recent oil "spill" off the coast of Louisiana. Even in the industry they call it a "gusher", so spill seems a little tame, not to mention inaccurate.

1st-I did not know that offshore drilling meant setting up a "well" nearly a mile below the surface of the ocean, and then drilling an additional 20,000 feet below the bottom of the ocean. The oil BP is going for down there is more than 4 MILES under the bottom of the ocean. On one hand, I am very impressed with such an outrageous technological achievement. Way to go humans! I mean, that's almost as amazing as landing on the moon. On the other hand, it is obviously a pathetic act of desperation born of an addiction to oil. It's too late for an intervention, and there will be no recovery. Our society's blood IS oil. Hence, the worthy cries of "No Blood for Oil!" will continue to go unheeded, and our way of life will disappear not long after all the oil does.

2nd-Could the complete capture of our federal government by corporations be any more obvious? Read this...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/interior-department-ig-re_n_588755.html

And then consider how, for more than a month, our federal government has allowed BP to oversee the clean-up efforts. That's like expecting the fox to clean the rabbit hole.

So the answer is no. No, it could not be more obvious that our government is both by and for the corporations. They are essentially one and the same. We have federalgovernment.com.

Now that the inherent problems of such a government can be seen washing ashore, killing everything from fish to birds to entire industries, turning small town southern coastal residents into refugees, sickening those that stay, coating everything in it's wake with thick foul sludge, befouling entire oceans and all the creatures that dwell within them, decimating ancient wetland ecosystems that won't return for decades, and poisoning major food sources for generations to come, isn't it time to start over?

Out with the old, in with new, let the dominoes fall...

Peace
WC

Scraps from the Notebook

Even After
The tremor of the winsome sinner
it was a winner of a winter dinner,
but for the
tenor of the sinewy grinner.

In Between
Those long languorous late summer shadows are

st r e t c h i n g

out of the summer and into the fall.
All that we see is not all at all.

Peace
Will

My Blog - Long See No Time

Hello There! Wherever there may be! It's been a long time since I've posted anything here, so I'll offer just a few introductory notes regarding my absence.

For one, it's scary to be back blogging. I feel like there's a big huge ocean out there and I have just enough courage to dip my big toe in some distant kiddie pool. It's not that I haven't had any ideas or that I've been totally lacking in outrage or insight. Maybe it's just that once you get out of the habit of something, it's hard to get back into it. Mitch Hedburg said "Well, how hard is it to quit smoking? About as hard as it is to START flossing."

Maybe I'm scared that in the long blogless interim I've forgotten how to write. Also, reading my past posts can be sort of embarrassing. I guess it's common for writers to disavow their past work as rubbish. I know I cringe when reading some of my past work. So I'll think "Wow, no need to add anything more to the already sizable pile of crap!"

For example, just look at that stuff I wrote about Obama. At this point I'm embarrassed to admit that I admired him so much. "A true leader" WTF?!?! He's led us to an impasse on health care, he's led us to accepting torture as an American standard procedure, and he's been more than happy to let the banks keep their strangle-hold on the economy. What a fuckin' phony! He fooled me! I should have known when he started marketing my beliefs back to me. "Change YOU can believe in." I still think he's in the ballpark of a human-being, but a great leader he is not. He's just another member of the purple corporate fascist party, albeit a likable and very intelligent member. I should have trusted George Carlin when he told us

"They. Don't give a fuck. About you. They don't give a fuck about you!"

Here's the clip. With a few exceptions, what George says here I believe is true. Please, please point out where George is wrong, if you feel that he is. (The clip is 3 minutes, in case you're short on time.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI

The only part that I completely disagree with is that the state of things in this country can never be changed. Nobody knows the future. Also, he does not define his terms very well in his argument. Who exactly are "they"? Well, if you want to know, here's a great place to start. (I know it's a bit dated, but you'll get the idea.)

http://www.theyrule.net

And a lot of "them" seem to belong to the following organization as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations

Thank you so much for reading, whoever you may be. My most warm and sincere appreciation goes out to you. Please post a comment if you are so inclined.

Peace
Will

ps
If you're like, "Will, what the hell is the purple corporate fascist party?"

go here

http://www.hoocoodanode.org/

It's the comments section of this blog, which has to be the best place on the net for finding out what in the world is going on with the economy.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/

Heretic Pride

Ok

Real quick.

The Mountain Goats
Heretic Pride

Give it a listen...

http://www.emusic.com/album/The-Mountain-Goats-Heretic-Pride-MP3-Download/11163092.html

Peace
MarcuSinger

God Bless America! For real?

A Hearty Hello!
and a Grand Welcome Back!
to Matt and Brian and my Mom and Dad, aka My Audience!

Thank you for your support. I am honored that you all would take the time to read what's going on in my mind. So, you ask, what is going on? Anything?

Well, thanks to a couple friendly reminders and the historic 2008 Presidential Primaries, I'm back on the Blogosphere, if you will. Bridget and I have been watching dangerous levels of MSNBC, C-Span, CNN, PBS, and any channel that carries political coverage. Coverage here generally means short bursts of Live footage from each campaign, followed by virutally ceaseless hours of commentary about those short bursts.

I have discovered a few things during my political bingeing.

-Barack Obama is the best candidate for president I have ever seen, and most of that is simply due to the fact that he IS authentic, honest, principled, and a leader in the truest sense of the word. In the words of the great David Foster Wallace, he is "in the ballpark of an ACTUAL human being". Candidates past and present who are Not In the Ballpark include...

Mitt Romney (He doesn't know where the ballpark is.)
Hillary Clinton (She used to know. Now she just pretends she's in the ballpark.)
John Kerry (Same for him.)
Rudy Giuliani (Every sentence includes A verb. A Noun. And 9/11. Clearly Not a Human.
George Bush (Duh)

and the list goes on...

But my point is that it's really not that hard to tell who is "acting" from who is simply "being." (To be fair, all politicians act, but you catch my drift right?) For decades I've been astonished that anyone could actually watch someone like Mitt Romney speak, and also BELIEVE the things he's saying. How can you believe that he believes? How can you listen to him and conclude "He does speak for me! He represents my interests! He really does believe in the things I believe in! He really does care about me as more than just a political tool to get him elected whereupon he will come back to screw me out of a job so that him and his cronies can make more money and consolidate power over the working class!"

The same goes for GW Bush. It has continued to baffle me over the years. How can people NOT SEE that he is lying and manipulative and in essence, is completely full of shit? I'm not talking about his political policies or his political party. I'm talking about Bush as a person. We all know BS artists. We've all met the salesman who will say ANYTHING to get you to buy his products. So how is it that we didn't identify GW Bush has one of "those" right from the beginning? Maybe it's because we expect our politicians to be fake and manipulative, so we just accept that they are and hope for the best. Maybe we just want so badly to believe that our President is a man of honor and integrity, that when he tells us he is, we believe him. I don't really know why we accept total phonies to represent us. But this year is different. You'll notice who I did NOT put on the list of politicians who are Not in the Ballpark of an Actual Human Being.

Mike Huckabee
John McCain
Barack Obama

What in the world could these three guys have in common, aside from being 3 of the 4 Presidential candidates still standing?

I'll tell you what they have in common. Some folks call it "character", some folks call it "honesty", some folks call it "credibility". I think the best word to describe it is "integrity". The 2nd best word to describe it is "authenticity". They are men of their word. They are motivated by patriotism, not by profit, although I'm sure they will all be quite well off financially after this campaign. They have beliefs which constitute the core of their character, their soul, and they DO NOT BETRAY their own SOULS to get elected!

*I'm a little uncomfortable including McCain in this group, he was right in the middle of the ballpark in 2000, he's barely in the bleachers now, but he's still there I think...

But what I am LOVING with all of my own soul in this election, more than a woman and a black man vying for the Democratic nomination, more than the splintering of the Republican party, more than the grace, courage, wisdom, and humor of Mr. Obama, is that it appears America is finally rejecting the phoniest candidates and embracing those with true authenticity, credibility, and honesty.

If my theory here is correct, all I can say is,

God Bless America!

ok one more thing...

It's about Time!

ok one more thing

Vote Barack Obama in 2008!

Peace
Marcus Singer

ps
I've seen hours and hours and hours of pundits over the past week. Not one of them has even mentioned words like "credibility" "authenticity" and "honesty" as reasons why people are voting how they are.

pps
Not to toot my own horn here, it's a popular thing to do on a blog and all...

pps
Toot! Toot! ;)

Chit Chat

Hey People, (Bri-guy)

So yeah it looks like there's a new trend in marketing. The first time I noticed it was from a box a french fries I purchased.

The box said things like "You're different. That's why you chose me. Because you're smart. Because these fries are golden, delicious, and just waiting to be eaten."

The text went on too. There was a whole paragraph of dialog that was ostensibly directed toward me and me alone. The box of fries seemingly wanted to be my friend. The box of fries was talking to me like I was his "buddy". The box of fries wanted to not only be eaten, but it wanted to "hang with me" as well. The box thought we could do some bonding in our short time together, form a personal connection. The box thought that maybe if it could make a friend out of me, then maybe I would be a friend to the entire franchise of this particular fast food eatery. The words were so personal, so warm, so much like real chit-chat. I half expected the box to scribble out a phone number and hand it to me.

"You see that extra long fry, the one that's extra crispy. Before you eat it, check out the digits. Call me?"

Then I got to thinking. There have to be at least several million of these boxes, and there's no way this chain spent the money to customize each one. So that means that millions of french fry consumers are reading this one batch of dialog. And that means that the group of marketing executives who came up with this idea think that it's gonna work. That if they put some words on a cardboard sleeve, that people will bond with the words, and come back to enjoy more fries and banter with the packaging. That these consumers will become every marketers cream dream, what they call "brand loyal".

So these marketers are under the impression that a single set of words printed on packaging will form a bond with each and every customer that reads them. They think that nobody will see through these efforts as patronizing and condescending. They think we are stupid. They think we are so stupid that we won't even notice that the writing on the fry box doesn't make the fries taste any better. They think we are so stupid that we'll actually believe the fry box is our friend! That every person who reads these words will think to themselves,

"You know, I do love WacArnold's. They've always been good to me. They're just such a friendly company. And I do relate to the chit-chat on the box. The fry box is right! These fries are delicious and just waiting to be eaten! I am smart! I did choose you! This fry box is just like a real friend, I could even add them to my MySpace page! Maybe this box will give me a ride to the airport next weekend! And then it'll help me move! I can cry on it's shoulder when I'm feeling down! The hot grease stains might burn my cheek a little, but I just like this cardboard so much, it would drive me to the hospital right?"

And the worst part is, the trend is growing. More and more packaging is adopting a personal tone. More and more inanimate mass-produced consumer goods are trying to strike-up a conversation. This can mean only one thing; the unholy predatory profit-driven demons that came up with this strategy believe that it's working. They put these words out there, and the sales climb.

Are we as consumers really that stupid?

Are we as consumers really that lonely?

Peace
Marcus Singer

It's time for a new job when...

You're a college graduate and you find that the following things are true

-You work with recently released convicts.
-You are the only one in your department who speaks fluent English.
-You find that a few of your daily tasks can be done with your eyes closed.
-Some can even be done while reading.
-Problem solving is figuring out how to transport numerous heavy objects from their bins to your work-space.
-You notice that the words "chronic lower back pain" apply to you.
-Your boss is unfamiliar with the word "cacophony".
-Your boss asks you for help with simple arithmetic.
-Your job could be considered among the "hottest and smelliest".
-You are the only one who brings a book to read during breaks.
-And your co-workers eye you suspiciously for being one of them "readin-types".
-You get called "bookworm".
-People say things like "The Unabomber was just too smart for his own good".
-You start thinking that being a long-haul truck driver would be a step UP.

Peace
Marcus Singer