Murderers All

The irony kills me.

So we have the likes of Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Dennis Kucinich rallying to save the DFAS center in downtown Cleveland while disdaining our military personnel for their general role as murderers, torturers, and conquistadors.

And don't give me any lip about how they really support our troops but not the mission. Every time a military man or woman dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's good news for Kucinich and his ilk. He's gotta be chompin' at the bit to give all these military bozos a big Told Ya So right about now. And with every death, the Told Ya So gets bigger.

Why would these two representatives, members of our 'educated elite', want to save the jobs of DFAS employees who basically work to make sure our murdering troops get paid? Do the war criminals who comprise our Army and Marines really deserve to get paid at all? Shouldn't they be looking to find jail space at a Guantanamo-like facility where we could imprison these murderers for their war crimes, imperialistic tendencies, and discrespect of the Holy Koran?

The More Things Change

I was sitting at the Ginza Sushi House downtown with Lex Luthor discussing the corruption of Cleveland and how Mike White is basically in the free and clear while all his old cronies fall when Lex busted in about the misery of Wal Mart at Steelyard Commons. I think we had actually started discussing the political attitude toward new business ventures in Cleveland in general; how the city council and mayor talk a good game but in reality they suck shit when it comes to creativity and dynamic thought.
Council has to have their collective hands in every pie by way of union rules, residency requirements, local hiring rules, minority hiring rules, and insanely foolish ploys meant to dissuade capitalist businesses (Read WAL MART et al) from coming to Cleveland. Basically, any business that plans to come to our beloved 'burg and actually turn a profit by cutting costs and hiring low-wage employees may as well be run by the ghost of Rockefeller himself. Apparently Cleveland council somehow got the idea that this is a socialist town where the government bosses decide how to divvy up the profits and say who gets how much.
And conversely, we have a tool of a mayor who would happily give the keys to the kingdom to any business leader who throws a decent fund raiser her way and uses key phrases like 'synergy of resources' and 'bionanowhateverthefuck'. Hell, you wanna start an intramural kickball league on a brownfield? Jane will give you tax abatement for twenty years and a city vehicle to drive...
So back to speaking of the wonderful Steelyard Commons deal. Lex decries the presence of Wal Mart because, he says, we should have manufacturing jobs there.

And I ask, "Like what....? SteelMills...?" Laughing heartily whilst snorting wasabi.
And Lex says something about biotechnology or nanotechnology or some sort of ology and I do retort:

"Choice A: Wal Mart."
"Choice B: Empty old steelmill."

And again Lex begins his footloose and fancy free pipe dreams of landing a technology company like a Microsoft or Cisco or some other type of company that's way too smart to even think about sticking their well-educated asses in Cleveland.
So since we ain't gettin' any bigass cool tech company to come and resurrect the hulking shell of an industry that took too long to die, you'd think Wal Mart might just be suitable.
American company, steady and unspectacular jobs, and better medical care than is offered to most of my friends in the food and wine industries.
But nay, my friends, it seems the majority of the truly 'educated elite' would rather tell those poor brothers who live off Broadway that those jobs ain't worth havin'. It's better to be proud and unemployed than to work for what the market or evil Sambo Walton may dictate.

So when will the Mayor or council decide to just pass a law that spells out the hiring procedures of Wal Mart or any other evil nasty job-hirin', low-price-product sellin', fascist company?

I'll admit it:I look for deals. Yep, when I need some Charmin or Listerine or Boca Burgers or Evereadys or Windex or Keds, I try to find it the cheapest.
And don't deny it, you do too.
Sure, when it comes to genteel products like restaurant dining or wine or beer or diamond-encrusted tennis bracelets, I tend to look for quality and a local purveyor of goods. But when it comes to mass-produced, expendable consumer crap, I want it CHEAP!

Now traditionally the thinking has been that the unions that fight for the downtrodden, overworked slob also cause prices to inflate. This is a chapter from Econ 101 at Tri-C. But the new union line, according to the stiffs who write to the PD letters page, states that prices don't have to rise because of union employment. The solution, from what I've read, is so simple even a welfare mom from Glenville could understand it. '

Wal Mart can hire union employees if only they'd take LESS PROFIT.

Well I'll be danged. It's just that simple. This company that was started on the basic principle of making profit for those who started it should just quit with the whole 'free-market capitalist thing'. If only Wal Mart would make it company policy to just break even, we'd be all cool.

Heck, Cleveland has already proven that capitalism is only a theory, much like this 'evolution' thing. Cleveland owns lots of businesses for which residents pay alot of cash, and Cleveland pays those (union) employees really well to move lethargically and maintain a sad status-quo. And it's safe to say that this city is lucky to break even on any of its business ventures, let alone attempt to turn a profit. So altruistic are our civic leaders that they'll gladly squander loads of tax dollars to satiate every special interest group, minority group, union, and judge in town.

So thumbs-up to the flat-earthers who would stop this silly business venture from sullying the 'everything should be fair for everyone' attitude that makes Cleveland the great equalizer among rust belt cities. Maybe instead of a Wal Mart we could go and recruit a Cheesecake Factory or a Popeye's Chicken or an Auto Zone because those are the kinds of dynamic employers who have the good paying jobs and make our city rock. Michael Stanley could play for the grand opening and pass out a buck to every poor Clevelander who was wronged by the capitalist treachery of WalZilla.

So I'll continue to buy some of my consumer goods at Wal Mart because crap is crap no matter where you buy it. And if some little child starves tonight because I bought my toothpaste at a Megalomaniacal Super Destroyer Center, so be it...

Where's Mike 'Lily' White and Nate 'Greasy Palms' Gray when you really need them?

Maybe the city could sell the Steelyard site to China.
Would that mean that Wal Mart got outsourced?

Watermelon?

Here's a couple pieces of freeeky art from my boy's collection.
These pieces are by Frank Kozik. Way beyond concert poster art...

The first pic here just screams Happy Fuzzy Subversion.
Note the slingshot in the kids' back pocket.
See little Johhny scar helpless Nancy for life...


And the Dunnies. Yeah, Dunnies. Singular is Dunny.
I don't know if that means Dumb Bunny or what. Pretty spooky, no?
The smoking Maos are way cool. I get the one that came with the red book,
but WHY THE WATERMELON? WHY?
The real art of these Mao things is that they are manufactured in China!!

And Little Hitler. Oh, what can I say? So cute I almost want to get one for the kid to play with.
But wait, IT'S HITLER!!

You Fold It, You Bought It

I did a wine thing at a favorite local grocery on Friday night. As you can see, there were more salepeople than customers. Actually, it was like playing glorified semi-knowledgeable bartender for 20 people with a bunch of other bartenders also tending bar...

Salesfolk standing around waiting with dumbfounded expressions
hoping this whole thing is just an acid trip...

Madame

There's the nice lady who slid right on over here
from the whorehouse after putting all her bitches out for the night...
She told stories about cruisin' down the west coast in a limo
with a bunch of other Granny-Pimps on a wine tour.

She reminded me of a Sammy Davis Jr. with tits.


And I finally met the guy who owns the comic book store on The Simpsons.

"BEST...ICEWINE...EVER..."

There's Something About June 18th

My very good friend Rebecca came out to the farm with her daughters to stay the night and visit. We made pizza on the grill and talked 'til late.


It was like having my best friend back for one night after ten years. I remember when she moved to suburban Illinois my junior year of high school. I remember sitting in her car in front of her house and saying goodbye the fall of '93. The only girl I'd ever wanted...
When she stepped in my house last night, it seemed like only one day had passed since that day in front of her house.
We'd been emailing for a year now, and she'd even come out for one night last year. But everything was so rushed then. I hardly remember talking to her that night. I had to leave for work early the next morning.

It was so (unnaturally) natural for her to be here with her children. How could I have gone almost ten years without ever writing or calling or anything? And she got married and me too and she had kids we did too and when we first re-connected it was like we had talked on the phone yesterday.
And I used to extoll to her her virtues and her greatness and try to make her understand the love I feel for her. I don't need to tell her because she knows what I think and probably always did and always will.
Let me put it like this: If I went to prison, she'd be the only friend I know would come to see me. More than once, that is.
We're both where we're at and it's good but it's weird to think how things we did and choices we made years ago brought us face to face under the dining room chandelier and I look into her eyes and think of mightacouldas and I'm sure she's done the same.

Our kids got along like sisters and they're beautiful and they'd never met, but like Rebecca and me, they knew each other like longtime friends anyway.

She'll come back in the fall for our massive super Labor Day blowout campout and hopefully she and the kids can stay longer. And no, there's no kinkysex threesome party going on:( I mean, I probably wouldn't be too terribly upset by that notion, but I certainly haven't the huevos to call a round table discussion with the wife and friend(s) for that one...

So yeah, sometimes there's a slight quickening of the heart when we speak because love is strong. And in some other twisted life (c'mon, ain't one cruel life enough?) I think I really did get the girl I've always loved but never loved.

Cheaper Than Blockbuster

Quick props to the Cuyahoga County Public Library for having a great website, a huge DVD selection, and bestly, a pretty good music collection for a library chain. I shop mostly at the Middleburg Hts. branch and in the past three weeks, I've nabbed killer cuts from Bjork, Rufus Wainwright, The Libertines, Sonic Youth, Genesis, and Arcade Fire.
My only complaint is that there is still far too much crappy singer-songwriter albums and a plethora of world-centric weirdness. It's almost as if the purchaser of music for the library was trying to curate the Gordon Lightfoot and Ladysmith Black Mambazo music collection...

Goat Shit Makes Plants Happy

Just some shots of the monster garden and the keeper of the garden. Just to make all y'all city slickers wish you could play in the dirt with us.