The next afternoon, I am on the way home from work, and stopping downtown at the bank. We stop at a corner, where paintings are being sold out of a car. The saints in my neighborhood: Zapata, Ernesto Che, The Virgin of Guadalupe, and Al Pacino as Scarface. Up the street, a couple of middle-aged guys got on. They are talking about not being able to find a job without a licence, going back to prison, and seeing old friends once they get out. "He took my beer, slammed that. I said, 'Damn, that was my beer.' He said, 'You know how it is.' He wants to come over and party. I told him that it ain't like the old days. I got an old lady now. He's like, 'That's fucked up.'" The driver tells the guys to watch their language. She had also told a passenger getting off at the transfer station to throw her trash into the trash can. One of the guys notices the woman next to him has a hard hat. He asks her about getting a job. The following morning is another Saturday. At the gas station, next to the stop next to where I catch a bus for a short ride up the street, someone is taking a long look in a trash can next to the front door.
Michael Novak saw the "new ethnic politics as a direct challenge to the WASP conception of America. It asserts that "groups" can structure the rules and goals and procedures of American life. It asserts that individuals...do not have to "melt." In her speech at...Monsignor Geno...Baroni's conference, Mikulski capsulized her view of America, "America is not a melting pot," she said... "It is a sizzling cauldron... Government is polarizing people by the creation of myths. ...groups end up fighting each other for...jobs and competing for new schools and recreations centers...for tokens..." Novak writes that "the tactic of demonstration is inherently WASP and inherently offensive to ethnic peoples." Tim Sampson...said"...you had in the neighborhood an infrastructure...churches, ethnic organizations," long time residents. "That's infinitely weaker now. ...if our task is to create the infrastructure of the damn society...that's a hell of a problem."
Tom Hayden said, "It's the first time the right wing has been able to move from social...to economic issues and start to channel...low-...and middle-income people into a campaign." The collapse of the center is producing a view of obsolete social welfare. By the time of Watergate...New Right theorists and publicists...had decided the Republican Party was probably dying. They thought of a new coalition, some considering leaving the party behind when Ronald Reagan resolutely insisted on keeping his challenge strictly within the framework of the Republican Party... There was discussion of forming a two-party coalition of conservatives to seize control of the House of Representatives. As for the re-election of moderate Republicans, in hopes of achieving a congressional majority within the GOP. "I really think they're smoking something when they believe that," Weyrich remarked of such GOP leaders. - Broder
Two glass coffins were placed in the center of the nave. "This is supposed to be a saint..." A special exhibition entitled "The Church is an Organization for the Exportation of the People" showed that baptisms, funerals, religious processions, and...ringing of the bells were used to fill the coffers of the church. On a red flag which was hanging on a wall were inscribed the words, "Against God, Liquor, and Illiteracy." ...the central Anti-Religious Museum in the former Monastery of the Passion in Moscow showed...the raping of minors by clergymen. ..."Beshoshnk" (1935, No. 12) wrote: "...the Priest Koralev came to the Third Fish Smoking Plant of Lenningrad... He did not wear his priestly garb, nor did he have long hair. ...sufficient proof by the directorate of the factory to accept him as a member of the workers' association. No one seemed to think to ask the stranger for his workers' documentation. Soon the priest was issued ration cards... When he ...had not been unmasked, he began to propagate his religious views... Some...were persuaded to take his place at the workbench...when he went to church... We ask, Where was the watchfulness of the working class of the Third Fish Smoking Plant?" - Iron Curtain Christians, by Kurt Hutten, 1962
As we enter the Eighties...the Catholic Church has gone...from being..."part of the colonial system" to being a part of the political self-realization of the Hispanic community. "...if you were a young executive, they told you; 'We need you to be a part of community life here. This is part of your job.'" - Broder
Our world is characterized by greed and selfishness. In such an environment, some people find it difficult to be different.-Exodus 23:2 Satan.a rebellious spirit creature is "misleading the entire inhabited earth." (Revelation 12:9) He thrives on manipulating humans. He may craftily manipulate a person's natural desire for material comfort and financial well-being... Does that mean that we are mere puppets in Satan's hands...? - The Watchtower, 10/1/12
It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I'm waiting for a bus home from just up the street. A young guy comes strolling up. He has teardrop shades and a Megadeath T-shirt. I haven't heard from Megadeath in a couple of decades. The stop is right in front of a big Vietnamese restaurant. He turns to me and sez: "Goddamn, that smells good." A drunk I recognize follows him over, and they appear to know each other. The following day, at the same stop, I am waiting for the same bus with a girl who was on the previous bus with me. She has a small dog in her black and white tiger-print purse. She was asking the passengers if anyone had a phone which she could use. She now has her thumb out for the indifferent traffic. One heel is in the street, now another. Someone in a passing car yells at her, "Suck my duck." When we get on our connecting bus, she asks those passengers is anyone has a cell phone...
The home has two main media rooms. There are seven patios on various levels of the home. In the master bedroom, the 55-inch TV resides in a custom cabinet with a motorized lift, so it can disappear completely...and the 13-foot tall windows are covered by a motorized drapery system controllable by the room's ever-present iPad. Fireplaces throughout the home can be controlled by iPad apps, as can the water feature in the back yard. ...a setup in which they could enjoy multiple games simultaneously. "We mounted thre 42-inch and two 60-inch HDTVs, plus a projector with a 110-inch drop-down screen. The system has the ability to matrix out five different feeds simultaneously... The couple has five different feeds simultaneously...five different DirecTV boxes... - ListenUp High Definition Sight & Sound
The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I am in Walgreens. A girl behind the front counter is talking to a customer, introducing a guy twice her size as her brother. She tells the customer that, eleven girls jumped her, and her brother kicked their ass. It's five days later. I'm out and about on my day off, to the drug store, to the bank, to the post office. Walking to the bus stop, I am passed by a guy in his sixties in a Winter Olympics scarf. He asks me matter of factly if I "have any spare change or extra food?" Food is what one may expect to be an immediate concern if homeless. It's just that, this is the first time I've had a request for food of any kind.
...fascism...considered the creation of Protestant "subjectivism"... The Russian Orthodox Church became an important factor in the Pan-Slavic movement and in Communist world propaganda. In July 1, 1949, the Vatican published a decree against Communism. The Holy Office had decided that Catholics who had...published Communist literature, or made contributions for these purposes, or had spread and read them, would no longer be admitted to the sacraments. - Hutten
"We're all in this together. I mean, it's the exact same profession. All trying to seek beauty, truth, and justice...to save the free world from Communism...and make these United States a social paradise..." - Broder
After work I am at the train station. I see a long, neat line of people, perfectly organized and standing in front of a train ticket kiosk. One by one, they are each staring at it as if they have no idea what to do with it. This is why the line is so long. These are not the 9 to 5 riders who are here day in and day out. These are the ones who never ride the train, except for occasions such as tonight, when there is a Christmas parade downtown. Their slow progress ensure that there will be room for myself on the next train home. On the train is a guy who says, "My brother drives a bus. They can pull you off the bus for a drug test at any time." At the station where I get off is a similar line in front of the ticket kiosk. People you would never otherwise see at a train station, except on Fridays to go downtown for dinner and drinks. On the bus home from the station is a grey-haired woman. She is speaking to someone on her phone, telling them about problems with her cable service, when she says, "I'm goin' gay. I'm fuckin' serious. I'm serious. I'm serious. I'm lookin' for someone to fuckin' love me for who I am. I love you baby."
