To my great and wide ranging audience all over the planet....
( dead silence )
OK. Well. To those of you who wish to know, roadSassy will be moving. Now, what that entails I'm not all that sure. Sondra Bonello, who designed the new roadSassy, suggested her host, HostForWeb,as an alternative to my present setup. Not 100% content, and liking what HostforWeb offers, I proceeded to register roadSassy.com as a domain and bought my first month. Sondra graciously offered to execute the transfer, she is quite familiar with the tools offered. What is really cool, she is going to install movable type for me. Now I have actually had little trouble with Blogger, but I like the autonomy of moveable type and the enthusiasm of its users. So, I am beyond psyched at the prospect of my new home.
Which is curious in itself. It is not as if I expect to gain more readers, though that will become more of a priority. It is as if blogging offered you an environment that pen and paper do not.. To write 'online' is like entering a room when you log in. My environment was none too tidy with my own roadSassy design efforts. I suck at HTML. And I found I wanted to feel like I was entering a specific ambience, if you will, when I came on line and opened my door. More so, I wanted whoever might come my way to feel like they were entering a specifically designed and presided over universe. Not a cluttered cyber smudge. Now, my writing may never merit the attention, but it makes me a happy camper because, I tell you what, I have come to value this space out here where I can at least imagine I have control, have a role in the world, a way to reach, a way to be reached. It is certainly mostly illusion, but hey, I am acting like a homeowner or something. I didn't like where my words and ideas and heart were living, so , I moved and built new. And when I 'walk' in, it is just like the thrill of being in your new 'digs' on earth, as it were, I can 'smell' the new paint and fresh scent of new wood. Yup, carpet is cushy too.
So strange the illusions of cyber space. If that is what they still call it. I have absolutely no online sophistication. Well, that's cool. Not like I'm asking to live in the Salon neighborhood.
"One of his assistants identified the hairy, potbellied body as that of a 72-year-old German man. "There was nothing exceptional in his life. He was a businessman, an employee, who lost his job at the age of 50. At that time he started drinking," the assistant said.
The man then drank up to two bottles of whiskey a day and was a heavy smoker for the rest of his life, the assistant said.
Moments later, von Hagens, wearing a black fedora and a blue surgical gown, took his scalpel to the naked preserved corpse. He sliced across his chest with one stroke, then down from his chest to his stomach, and pulled back the flap of chest with both hands."
They greet the admirable firemen (whose motto is Sauver ou périr, save or perish) with Molotov cocktails and hails of stones when they arrive on their mission of mercy, so that armored vehicles frequently have to protect the fire engines.
Benevolence inflames the anger of the young men of the cités as much as repression, because their rage is inseparable from their being. Ambulance men who take away a young man injured in an incident routinely find themselves surrounded by the man’s “friends,” and jostled, jeered at, and threatened: behavior that, according to one doctor I met, continues right into the hospital, even as the friends demand that their associate should be treated at once, before others.
Of course, they also expect him to be treated as well as anyone else, and in this expectation they reveal the bad faith, or at least ambivalence, of their stance toward the society around them. They are certainly not poor, at least by the standards of all previously existing societies: they are not hungry; they have cell phones, cars, and many other appurtenances of modernity; they are dressed fashionably—according to their own fashion—with a uniform disdain of bourgeois propriety and with gold chains round their necks. They believe they have rights, and they know they will receive medical treatment, however they behave. They enjoy a far higher standard of living (or consumption) than they would in the countries of their parents’ or grandparents’ origin, even if they labored there 14 hours a day to the maximum of their capacity.
But this is not a cause of gratitude—on the contrary: they feel it as an insult or a wound, even as they take it for granted as their due. But like all human beings, they want the respect and approval of others, even—or rather especially—of the people who carelessly toss them the crumbs of Western prosperity. Emasculating dependence is never a happy state, and no dependence is more absolute, more total, than that of most of the inhabitants of the cités. They therefore come to believe in the malevolence of those who maintain them in their limbo: and they want to keep alive the belief in this perfect malevolence, for it gives meaning—the only possible meaning—to their stunted lives. It is better to be opposed by an enemy than to be adrift in meaninglessness, for the simulacrum of an enemy lends purpose to actions whose nihilism would otherwise be self-evident.
Here I am out of nowhere. I seem to still be in some state of entropy, or indecision. Perhaps I am finally brain dead and I'm presently existing only in the fumes of memories remaining. Or, maybe I'm depressed.
Screw it. I'm actually in a type of blog limbo as I wait for the final touches on the new site. The design is awesome. I am way pleased with the final results, which were emailed yesterday. A new server, domain registration, new comment system, and link system, and then we are good to go. Hopefully by this week end. As it is, I have been buried in articles I've downloaded and am dissecting. Research , if you will..
But , some random thoughts, as they emerge, will follow..........
Willie is such a chauvinist pig. Using the upcoming Victorias Secret special as pretext for his guest, one Carolyn Graglia, conservative author of a text entitled , Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism, he proceeds to elicit from her all that he loves to hear about women, which can be summed up with his criteria of the ideal female, to wit, she is a "... a bearer of children, a chef in the kitchen, and a whore in the bedroom" ( not sure if that is quite the quote, but you get the point). And Miss Graglia, obliges him with her oily rendering of the consummate wife....
Well, I'm not going to herein expound on my pet theory that some wives are , bottom line, no different from whores. At least by the time they are the middle aged woman, out of shape and discarded, save for being drug out as "the wife" at corporate and social functions. That particular woman, well aware her husband is screwing around and the marriage is a sham, that woman is a whore much the way any woman is a whore who provides succor and sex in exchange for security and comfort. She differs from the wife who is invested in an intelligent marriage with an engaged mate who honors her and the ideals that connect them. Who equally contribute to the marriage according to their prerequisites for an honorable relationship, whatever that looks like. And she differs from 'woman A', in that IF hubby becomes a philanderer or compromises their union, she is out the door, or he is, security and comfort be damned.
Nope, nope nope, won't go there. I will just point out some problems with Graglia. Her books main point is that the world will be safe to live in again when the wife returns to the hearth, and stays there. If she just did that, young girls would not be dressing like "whores" and, as the youngest generation is portrayed, "aggressively seeking sexual partners." Supposedly, the old standard of an passive and broken slut, passed around in sundry Chevy back seats while her pom pom proper sisters went on to "get the boy" and live a full life, is the preferable outcome of sexual freedoms. GAWd forbid the sexually aggressive female. That the old double standard, (that is actually NOT old but still prevailing) that men can be celebrated as sluts, but, woman is condemned, in the same breath, by the same opprobrium, absolutely incites me to fury.
Now I agree the kids are fucked up, but to lay that at the feet of the so called liberated woman, as Willie often does, without holding the Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, parenting style accountable for the generation that became the hippies ,war protestors and drug addicts is a bit disingenuous. Everyone , even sometimes me, waxes nostalgic for the two-parent-stay-at-home household that prevailed through most of the last century. What everyone seemingly fails to connect is that the the cultural cataclysms of the sixties did not emerge from a vacuum. It came out of those nice 3 bedroom ranch homes on twinkling clean American streets. I and my peers grew up in the wealthiest neighborhood in this city and we were shooting heroin before we left our pampered high schools. In my case, I was expelled, the first in my school to be busted. So something is a bit suspect with that version of domestic engineering as well. And here we go, pendulum creatures that we are swinging to the other frigging extreme as personified by this ridiculous author and the snide and smirking Willie, who loved having his vision of the barefoot and pregnant ideal exonerated. .
And his vision includes continuing to issue men license for their sexual proclivities while still condemning the woman for the same appetite. Thus, the tie in with Victorias' secret. This was ok, because it is up to the woman, according to Willie to bear the responsibility for the morals of America by putting a sacred gate in front of their vagina but, it is also woman who must gratify men's insatiable ardor and hunger for the very pliant female whom they will condemn as a whore two seconds after they deposit their potential progeny. They save their most focused and laser attention for a "whore", they sink careers and presidencies for a "whore", throw children to ruin for just some real life Victoria Girls, for the "whore", but it is the woman, in her cursed schizophrenia who must bear the responsibility for the morals and future of America.
And this bitch agrees!!! When asked about the propriety of men ogling the Vic Girls, this woman who, a moment before froths over teenage girls wearing thongs and low riders, chuckles and guffaws with Willie, men-will-be-men. Basically what she is saying was look all you want but, stick it in me when you want some. Well, that's such a flattering self image. She called Victoria "appetizers" for the real meal, which would be the wife. So, she finds whores useful, does she. And they would not, by any chance, have been at one point someone's daughter who saw the Vic/girl/woman held up as ideal and ran like a moth to the flame, a woman hungering for the adulation of men.
Apparently she doesn't perceive the contradiction. There was no edict from her that men take responsibility for their dicks and their appetites, that they not pass on to their sons their Hustlers and Penthouses with a wink, that they not look at the sons 'first lay' as some crowning achievement , ignoring the human recipient of the seed. I found it contradictory indeed until a read a review of her book by conservative writer, Antoinette M. Aubert, that disclosed some pretty sick passages....
" She does not merely support women staying at home, but creates a quixotic ideal of the submissive wife. She even unconscionably defends the horrible mutilation of clitoridectomy, hypothesizing that Western women can learn from these women's contentment. The only lesson to be learned here is how to be a happy abuse victim. "
and....
"Women will be happy when they become the "awakened Brunhilde", overcome by marital intercourse:
When, with regularity, a woman experiences sexual pleasure ... she increasingly delights in her femininity and feels herself to be precious. Ever softening, she becomes self-satisfied, less competitive, less aggressive." ( my emphasis)
Nice guest Willie.
Willie made the statement that 99% of all very happily married men, if told they could do a Vic Girl with secrecy and impunity, would jump on it. His telling statement was that "it [would be] nothing personal".
So, it is not personal to break the marriage vow, not personal to use a woman as a come deposit. No wonder feminists exist. As long as anachronisms like Willie and his guest have a public forum, we will always need ball breaking women around.
Here are what looks to be the final version of roadSassys' evolution.
spicedSass... which will be the political rants about Cincinnati and the world.
heartSass....well, issues of an atrophied heart. Well, not that melodramatic, but, herein my musings, stuff on dissociative, ADD, ennegrams, sex, pain, and ponderings and esoteric relevant to none but me.
roadSassy.....will be more focused on my experiences as a limo driver in Cincinnati, my love of the road,my fascination with highway systems, local commentary of a NON political nature and hopefully no frigging pontificating.
However, poor Sandra, I did find one other picture I think I want for my final roadSassy choice. I love that truck. I drove one like that when I lived in Omak, Washington, home of the world famous Stampede and Suicide Race and I so love them on those high desert roads..
Sandra is working on the splash page to tie them together and then I simply have to redistribute my materials, insert links and comments, and just start cranking it out.
And now it is off to the races. I'm in a stretch all day. Not exactly my choice on the day Cincinnati might get its' first snow of the season. We seem to be having a major accident per day on dry roads.
Why is it that for the left, wealth in the hands of their own is somehow not suspect or egregious, while conservative wealth is venal and ill gotten? I mean , really, this definitely is a lifestyle that abjures opulence, and demonstrates just how it is possible for Babs to be so in tune with the downtrodden she weeps for. Certainly anyone of us can relate to the odious task of integrating our East coast furniture into our West coast home.........
"She's asked five top West Coast designers to bid on a project to incorporate her New York furniture into a farmhouse-like addition on her Malibu estate," said the source. "
And, because she is just such a stunning warrior for the weak, we will allow her hypocrisies. Still a free country, right?
"Last year, her site urged fans to be more energy-efficient even while she criss-crossed the country on fossil fuel-sucking private jets, roamed the roads in gas-guzzling limos and SUVs, and vacationed on big power boats.
Streisand also urged her fellow Americans to set air conditioners at 78 degrees. One source told Keil that Babs kept the 16 rooms in her unoccupied Central Park West triplex as cold as a meat locker.
And don't forget the time Streisand urged everyone to conserve energy by hanging laundry outside on lines, rather than use electric clothes dryers. But when asked if Streisand herself was using a backyard clothesline, her spokesman said: "She never meant that it necessarily applied to her."
I think the left must think that all of the Draconian measures they would so easily impose on all of us, simply do not apply to them. I wish they would test that theory of immunity in Iraq. They will find the consequences they fail to reap for their traitorous ways here, would render them slightly less comfortable results.
I'm plowing through this material on Streisand, trying to stomach the perusing of her site. I almost feel I must hold my breath, as you would when walking past a particularly foul excretion on the sidewalk. Its rather like wading through Jello, no substance, reality bending to sophistry...
"The Streisand Foundation gives away money to organizations that work to protect the environment, ( green Party) our civil liberties ( Shakedown Inc.), the rights of women ( NOW) and children, and fight against nuclear proliferation (the enemy)... " ( parentheses mine )
Shes just another frigging pimp for the left. Just another Hollywood denizen artistically gifted and morally bereft. Her talent is in inverse proportion to her worthiness as its' steward. Her voice is as transcendent as her politics is scum sucking. Same regarding the politics of artists I'll no longer be able to stomach no matter how gifted: Sarandon, the Ball-less Baldwin boys, Glover, Cosby, Goldberg, ad nauseam. It certainly demonstrates the egalitarian approach that 'Deity' adopts in the distribution of human genius. It is almost a cosmic version of Affirmative Action, in that the preponderance of the universes largesse is bestowed upon the least deserving and the least capable.
I just have to wade thru just a bit more of this bilge, simply because she is a such poster child for the disingenuous. Drudge unearths her investments in to Halliburton as well as Limbaughs Clear Channel. and her adroit refutation of such heinous charges was to whine about loosing money on the stock. The point is you BOUGHT the stock, Babbles Baby. Loosing money does not ameliorate the hypocrisy demonstrated.. geee-ZuS!!
I beg these people to, for ONCE, frigging put their money where their mouth is. I have no idea what the politics of Audrey Hepburn were, but that ephemeral spirit actually served the impoverished the left purport to embrace so fervently but whose presence they can not endure past the photo shoot. She certainly didn't have her name embraced by the Fashion Nazis.....
"..Their work appeals to many icons of the film world including Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, who buy the clothes to wear to their own special private occasions and more public events such as the Oscars..."
And via Roelands.Org, we find that Babs has company. Probably one of her Green Peace buddies.....
SACRAMENTO, Nov. 3 -- "California's 1,100-mile coast has a new watchdog: a retired tech mogul with a helicopter and a digital camera who is posting detailed photos on the Internet of every inch of the oceanfront, from the redwood-studded cliffs of the north to the rows of mansions crowding the south......A typical four-person helicopter, the Bell JetRanger 206, burns 25 gallons of fuel per hour. In an hour of typical highway operation, a typical large SUV will burn between three and five gallons. So the husband-wife team of environmental heroes is essentially flying around northern California in eight SUVs strapped together, madly expending fossil fuels and pumping out greenhouse gases. To top it off, helicopter engines are totally unrestricted when it comes to smog-forming emissions. A JetRanger or similar helicopter would spew thousands of times as much smog-forming compounds, per hour of operation, as any make or model of modern car. But they're environmental heroes because they are looking for bulldozers!...."
No doubt the money plowed into this misadventure is better serving humanity than had it perhaps educated one child, brought medical succor to one sick person. But 'one' is too small a number for the left. Doesn't feed their rapacious ego to have the gratitude of one. They must have the abeyance of the masses to their edicts.
Well, I'm just in here goofing, no time for much more..
Has anyone attended one of these Meetups? Bloggers, pursuing a mutual interest, meet up locally. Looks like 130 some topics in Cinci, but most with only one member. Webloggers meets 11.20. I believe a minimum of 3 people have to commit for a meeting to take place.
I have not been able to attend one yet, work precluding commitments, which keeps my life so very marvelously safe. I can't even commit to myself. Just the road. Oh well.
I've never actually interacted in real life with anyone I knew on line. When I first got on line, I was intoxicated with all the communites warmly extending affirmation, recognition, whatever.............I found though, after about 6 months, my on line behavior began to mimic my planet bound behavior. An observer, loner, traveler. I don't use any instant messenger devices and rarely check out a chat room. Most contain gibberish and i haven't the patience to seek like minds.........just like in real life, I'm way too restless
This was my response to a comment from the post below this one, because my comment thingy, which works quite well if one gets few comments, doesn't seem to serve its' purpose sufficiently if actually employed. So I'll post it here.
I applaud the intensity of your convictions even as I rue the void that separates yours from mine. I guess my main concern now is that 1) congress has ignored the constitutional definition of a declaration of war, both with regard to Iraq and to the "police action on terrorism," resulting in a muddying of national policy and a consequent muddying of national opinion; and 2) we're inconsistent, hypocritical - why aren't we planning to bomb North Korea? The Saudis? The Indonesians? Is it because we enjoy (or - anticipate) valuable trade with them despite our inability to (or - once we can) subvert their idologies without replacing their leaders?
My opinion, valueless though it may be: Either drop a single gasvapor bomb over central bagdhad and kill 200,000 people without loss of a single american life (or only those stupid enough to stay in a war zone) and have done with it, or get the hell out of their politics as well as that of the Saudis, Jordanians, Turkish and Syrians. The best way to kill the mysogynistic and backwards regiemes of the middle east is to develop the fuel cell engine and stop importing their oil. Let them eat their own black gold. I do not want to die for it, nor to send others to their deaths.
to which I responded with...
a cursory glance would suggest that we are not too far apart in some things.
... congress has ignored the constitutional definition of a declaration of war, both with regard to Iraq and to the "police action on terrorism...
i guess this is hearsay, but I'm not focusing on the 'mechanics' of politics and war. I'm not concerned about verbiage employed or tactics pursued in jockeying legislation through, though I'm sure I ought to be concerned with it.. What I am focusing on is the nature and severity of the threat, which embodies this type of madness:
EXTREMIST Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir is actively recruiting members in Australia, despite being banned across much of the rest of the world.
The party, which attracted 400 people to a meeting in Sydney this week, is dividing the local Islamic community with its hardline views advocating the overthrow of Western governments and the creation of an international Islamic state.
Also known as the Party of Islamic Liberation, the organization condemns Jews, Christians, Hindus, homosexuals, communists and capitalists as non-believers.
To me it simply comes down to preserving Western civilization and though I'm not suggesting I'm worth reading, but, in the course of keeping this blog, it can be seen in my convoluted attempt to 'frame' this 'war', that I consistently return to the fears I have of the demise of all that man has thus far achieved and why the hell do we consistently self destruct. And that is where my focus keeps returning. The bottom line. In the interim, the politics of destruction, i.e., oil, power plays, corrupt governments, are beyond my current grasp of international politics for me to correctly interpret. I can only speak from where I am, and where I am is aligned pretty much with the first part of your either/or statement......
Either drop a single gasvapor bomb over central bagdhad and kill 200,000 people without loss of a single american life (or only those stupid enough to stay in a war zone) and have done with it...
which isn't going to happen
or get the hell out of their politics as well as that of the Saudis, Jordanians, Turkish and Syrians.
which isn't realistic as long as we fail to achieve your next point...
The best way to kill the mysogynistic and backwards regiemes of the middle east is to develop the fuel cell engine and stop importing their oil. Let them eat their own black gold. I do not want to die for it, nor to send others to their deaths.
Well, for now, I'm quite happy with the fact that the Pubs wonked the Dems. I will put aside the alarm I have over the future justices to be voted in, and wait for the Pubs to deliver on the war. Maybe it is that simple. Perhaps no one feels the Dems quite get who America presently is or how intensely we want decisive and aggressive action against terrorism and in the securing of our borders. . I am an un-edified political novice who has no party to hail but, I certainly would wish to hear a coherent espousal of a viewpoint similar to mine. Thus, I most assuredly hope the Dems do NOT whack out here and spin into an even more narcissistic and neurotic episode of non-productive self examination. What they surely need to be doing is listening to the reverberating echo of Americas' collective voice. Because IF they can speak to these voters intelligently and debate war and domestic issues sans the shrill harridan leftist choir, IF they can shake off the costumery of elite foppery and hit the road and hear the America that exists now, not their fervid utopian pipe dream..... well, IF they can provide a reasonable strong voice, we require such a voice, not to eviscerate Bush & Boys, but to be an additional intelligent vessel that I can trust to put Americas interests first. Not the interest of the third world. We who are pleased with the election results all imagine we hear our own voice echoing across the land as well, as if my own personal plea for a particular future was being answered. But I will watch the Pubs as ever warily as I would the Dems. I have not been pleased that Bush has allowed the UN to slow this inevitable process of war during which time the international political complexion alters as we live and breathe......
All of these things alarm me,esp., in view of the fact frigging Hussein has actually praised the war protestors for creating static, hoping they will impede the way to his deposal. THAT is what the dim Dems have got to get. Who can give support to a party whose most vociferous factions have pleased Hussein far more frequently than they have pleased the American electorate????.
Well, time evaporates and I have so much more to say and I don't care if no one is listening because I've been studying a lot of material and things are starting to make sense.......
Well. Can't say I have not had enough time to write.
Can say I am lethargic.
I am.
Can say I'm percolating ideas on how I want to examine roots.
Roots of warring tribes, roots of races oppressed, roots of religious terror....
I want to play with theories. Theories as to how the hell did liberals become despots and tyrants. Theories on why third world countries can't get a grip. Theories on why man always operates on a fear based system.
Bottom line Common Denominator Angels on a Pinhead
Ruminations Speculations Mumbling
I'm not a philosophy major. I'm not a political major. I'm not a journalist. I'm not an anything major.
I"m a human on planet earth watching the world convulse. And I'm going to try to play with various thoughts, ideas, digressions, and imaginings, on 'paper', as it were.
There will always be article after article, thank god, to digest and dissect,and I will, but I am not 100% satisfied with simply posting the evidence of our terribly tilted world. I still want to figure it out.
And the new format will reflect the content. And I've gone and screwed myself by electing to start over with a new template.But I love how clean this looks. Check it out.Same designer as referred to earlier.
Then, I ran into WebCrimson, which has a nice zine content program which introduces a new twist.....
But, it is coming together. I've been organizing content and links. I have a ton of material referenced that I've been re-filing.
So it goes on.
Well, time to get on Cinci roads , WET Cinci roads, which, as the natives will tell you, we treat the same as ice....
I know this is old news but I must record it for posterity. I think the Russians definitely have a flair for drama. Good use of it in this instance.
Chechen Terrorists to be Buried in Pigskin According to the Moskovski Komsomol newspaper, Russian security forces have decided to bury the terrorists from last's week's hostage siege wrapped in pig's skin. The aim is to deter potential Islamic terrorists from future attacks.
Shahidi (Jihad martyrs) believe by their nefarious acts that they ascend immediately to heaven. Using their beliefs against them, wrapping their corpses in 'unclean' pigskin prevents them from entering heaven for eternity.
