10/30/16

1. Would you let a toddler navigate the USS Zumwalt, the most powerful destroyer ever built, through the Bering Sea? [You may not like the Admiral… I mean, she did select “reply to all” when responding to your email invitation to the Halloween party with, “Can’t wait. Just checking, how’s your penis doing after that zipper incident?"… But she knows how to captain a ship.]

2. Notice how it's mostly white males who are incensed by this ridiculous email scandal? Clearly, they have Weiner issues.

Delusional Dot?

Polls are tightening again and there are 10 more days until the election.
There’s a part of me that’s trying to accept the outcome of a possible President Trump. It’s a small part, but it says, “It’ll give you and yours more purpose.” This small part of my psyche reminds me that when there is staunch opposition to progressive ideals and walls are being built, artists become megaphones, spray paint cans are rattled, and the "others" find their hammers. This small part of my psyche, the dot on the “i” in “Brian,” screams, “It’ll be a fight and you’ll fight!” Then the rest of my persona overwhelms the best of me and I fear, like the boy I was under the desk during the “duck and cover” drills my crazy kindergarten teacher practiced in Staten Island despite having no efficacy and being outmoded years before, that this is the end.
And the dot above the "i" says, "Despair not. The people know what's best."

Delusional dot?

Gospel of Truth

Probably authored by Valentinus in the second century, the non-canonical GOSPEL of TRUTH did not discuss Jesus Christ as a figure; rather, it expressed that which moved through Christ and that which was revealed in us… Truth! Clearly a gnostic tract, this GOSPEL was discovered in The Nag Hammadi Library in the mid 1940s. 

In the second to last translated paragraph, this…: “Say, then, from the heart that you are the perfect day and in you dwells the light that does not fail. Speak of the truth with those who search for it and (of) knowledge to those who have committed sin in their error. Make firm the foot of those who have stumbled and stretch out your hands to those who are ill. Feed those who are hungry and give repose to those who are weary, and rise up those who wish to rise, and awaken those who sleep. For you are the understanding that is drawn forth.”

This is Christianity in its earliest form.

Beyond Shadow and Pale

I’m a Catholic. I’m a pluralist Catholic. I’m a pluralist, agnostic Catholic. I believe in everything and nothing, especially science. I'm a whole lot of mishmash and an ardent atheist. I'm troubled.

 

Some friends know how deeply I care about religions and sacred texts. I’m the son of a powerfully intelligent Jewish man and a magnificently spiritual Catholic woman. I was informed by both of their religions and, like both of them, neither. Due to circumstances, I spent my youth, until college, in Catholic schools. I was an altar boy (or as Maria still teases, an “alter” boy); and I hated and loved Catholicism.

 

In college and throughout my 20s, I quietly studied (or maybe not so quietly if you spent any time with me) the Quran, Buddha’s teachings, Hinduism, and Nothingism; and, I concluded, I AM ALL.

 

I've read the Gospels (both accepted and not) many times and know that beyond the shadow and pale, Christ was a liberal. 

 

[Also in context, Christ, a Jewish rabbi, was among the greatest Buddhists.]

 

Having embraced the depth of concepts being taught through our shared (and NOT!) beliefs, I wonder why anyone identifying as Christian (especially Catholics!) would vote so ardently against those in need, the suffering, women, children, peace, enlightenment… 

 

Many ideologically "conservative" voters misunderstand Christ's messages and have more in common with the antagonist in Matthew 4:1-11 than the protagonist. 

 

I welcome haters and forgive you.

Lockstep and Landslide

The Knight's Party platform is in "lockstep" [note: word choice] with the rise of Donald Trump and the Alt-Right.
Below are the Ku Klux Klan's primary positions:
1. The recognition that America was founded as a Christian nation.

2. The recognition that America was founded as a White nation.
3. Put America FIRST in all foreign matters.
4. Stop all Foreign Aid Immediately.
5. Abolish ALL discriminatory affirmative action programs.
6. Put American troops on our border to STOP the flood of illegal aliens.
7. Abolish all anti-gun laws and encourage every adult to own a weapon.
8. Drug testing for welfare recipients.
9. A flat income tax should be introduced to allow for the funding of community, state and federal projects.
10. Abortion should be outlawed except to save the mother’s life or in case of rape or incest.
11. We support a national law against the practice of homosexuality.
12. Restoring individual freedom to Christian America.
13. We support state sovereignty resolutions.

Given a national platform and a face, the KKK's ideology is becoming rampant... again.

So, with the many new posts trickling down your News Feeds encouraging a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton, I thought it best to get behind why such a broad mandate over hatred is necessary...

Because should they win, they would endeavor to lock me and most of the people I hold dear in the cattle wagons. [Actually? Figuratively?] As angry as many self-identifying white voters are and their willingness to protest (with impending violence?) the so called "rigged" election, so am I willing to defy the resurrection of this Evil.

Yes, a landslide victory for Hillary Clinton is necessary. It will not be enough to just win.

15,330 - 20 =

I'm not diggin' get older... at all. If I could somehow live to 88 years old (wishful thinking?), I have approximately 15,330 days left alive. Whether or not I treat it as such, every day has great value. Still, I would gladly forfeit the next 20 days, 2 hours, and 45 minutes (at the time of this post) to make tomorrow Election Day. I've had enough.

Goof Exquisitely

You know that longing, earnest saxophone that opens behind the chatty greetings of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” You're hearing it in your mind now and your head is starting to nod like you’re saying “No!” to everything other than the riff, the song, and its ideas. Right?

Eli Fontaine, a session sax player, was just warming his chops in the studio over the track when Gaye told him to go home. Gaye said, “We’ve already got what we need.”

Somewhat incredulous and probably taking it as a dismissal, Fontaine insisted that he was only “goofing around.”

Gaye responded with, “Well, you goof exquisitely.”

Goof exquisitely.

For Wednesday’s debate, a ranty list of questions:

For Wednesday’s debate: Enough ad hominem; enough gimmickry. How about answers and plans? How about discussing wealth inequality and quality of life? How about the lower class being the middle class (or vice versa) and the middle class being nonexistent? How about corporate corruption and profits? How about Social Security now that our parents need it more than ever because they were pillaged by Wall Street and the Great Recession? How about our massive interest accruing college and graduate school loans that many of us will die with before paying off? How about the fact that this has paralyzed families like mine? How about our children and their debt-fueled futures? How about infrastructure and the fact that NYC’s roads are among the worst of any industrialized nation…, which is A LOT of nations? How about science? How about the TRUTH in science? How about letting people worship the way they want and the way they don’t want? How about you take your religion and keep it to yourself? How about my ambitious community college students and their lack of prospects and the $2400.00 they spend per semester, which is already beyond their reaches? How about prosecuting all the fuckers on Wall Street that fucked our economy? How about throwing them in prison and releasing ALL nonviolent drug offenders? How about the fact that as I write this post, a black man is being assassinated and his loved ones will never get the answers to their questions? Fuck it, how about dismantling our entire criminal justice system? How about the women in my life – the only reason I do anything? How about ALL women and their rights to have rights for themselves, their bodies? How about the fact that women are superior to men and men use all their dirty tricks to try to make them feel inferior because men have inferiority complexes (and maybe should)? How about men going to college again so they can learn something about the world? How about securing ALL RIGHTS for our LGBTQ sisters and brothers and both and others because they’re our sisters and brothers and both and others and fathers and mothers and friends even if you want to continue to delude yourself by insisting they aren’t… and because there’s a chance you are too even if you don’t admit it (which is fine)? How about more art that violates your precious senses (you video-playing, R-rated-movie-watching hypocrites)? How about we refer to “Native” Americans as “Americans” and refer to every other group of “Americans” as “foreigners”? How about loving “foreigners”? How about protecting everyone’s right to vote, even the incarcerated? How about we take automatic and semiautomatic weapons away from everyone; and ALL guns away from anyone who uses them for anything other than hunting? How about we engage the world and talk to other nations, really talk to them, like they’re our equals? How about we talk about the issues? How about that? No bull shit. No dodging. The things that matter only. How about it? And then, if this could only happen, those of you who don’t already see what I see will see… These are just a few questions.

10/11/16

1. If you don’t like my posts, blame Maria because that’s what we do in America: We condemn women for their spouses’ sometimes reprehensible, occasionally stupid actions and behaviors.

If I expose myself… ideologically, that’s on me.

2. My grandmother, Francis Timpone, had a way of twisting clichés and idioms to suit her needs. In regards to this political season she would’ve said, “The writing’s on the floor.”

Jump!

About 20 of so years ago when Maria and I first moved to the East Village I was witness to one of the most desperate scenes: A man was on a rooftop ledge seemingly on the verge of leaping seven stories into a maze of fire escapes. The high school across the street set its teenagers free and they, along with other onlookers, police officers, and fire fighters, gathered in a flash mob. There was movement on the roof and I could see the first responders trying to woo the man from the cliff. He teetered forward, backward, forward again and the teenagers started yelling, “Jump! Jump! Jump!”

This is America’s political situation and it’s beyond a suicide watch. As we wait for the next “Breaking News” and subsequent scandal, we all seem poised to yell, “Jump!”

The Trumpy Horror Picture Show

My daughter is 14 and she attended the midnight ROCKY HORROR screening last night (this morning?) for the third time with her friends. The film, the audience, the vibe, the dancing, the suggestions, the cursing, the silliness – it’s just her scene; she gets it. And then there is Trump who makes THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW look like a mad combination Kieślowski/Scorsese/Ramis (yup!) masterpiece. I say, shelter our kids from our presidential election. Let ‘em play the most violent video games and watch all the R-rated movies they want…. It’s a whole lot safer.

My new submissions to the Oxford English Dictionary:

Trump + misogynist = Trumpogynist
Trump + petulant = Trumpulant
Trump + absurd = Trumpsurd
Trump + moronic = Trumponic
Trump + megalomaniac = Trumplomaniac
Trump + bankruptcy = Trumpruptcy
Trump + apocalypse = Trumpocalypse
Trump + pitiful = Trumpitiful
Trump + bloated = Trumploated
Trump + embarrassing = Trumparassing
Trump + shyster = Trumpyster
Trump + disastrous = Trumpastrous
Trump + xenophobic = Trumpenophobic
Trump + asshole = Trumphole
Trump + maniac = Trumpaniac
Trump + orange + neanderthal =Trumporanderthal
Trump + pig + bigot = Trumpiggot
[I could do this for hours.]
Smarmy… Opps, that’s already in there. Silly me.

The King Scumbag

Trump accuses Mexicans of being rapists as he lustily talks about violating women? The King Scumbag of scumbags gets caught on tape for revealing his contempt despite the fact the we are repeatedly told that he has no regard for women and now you listen? Women came forward; women complained... and he continued to climb the polls (thanks, in large part, to white males). These brave women were dismissed as they often are; and now you're paying attention? And now he offers an "apology"? And tomorrow he debates Clinton? And Monday's polls hardly adjust to reflect what an awful human being he is? Haiti gets shit on again... The story of Jessica White's death: shielding her children from gunfire... Untold atrocities in Syria... And women spoke up... And thank the Deities in Heaven, women will vote.

TRUMPKINHEAD, the Movie

Opening January 20, 2017: TRUMPKINHEAD, the Beginning of the End
Plotline: When a disfigured corpse with a festering dead ferret on its head lumbers out of its gilded mausoleum seeking an imagined vengeance, Jason, Michael, Freddy, Candyman, Chucky, Leatherface, and Pennywise join forces to save America from itself.
Tagline: The worst of the worst ain’t the worst no more.

Observations, 10/3/16:

Observations, 10/3/16

1.     My fellow NYC bicyclists are becoming more aggressive, inconsiderate and vulgar than cab drivers.

2.     Sikhs practice place before religion; hence, when they identify as “American” they are more sincerely nationalistic than most Christians.

3.     ComicCon is next weekend and payday is Friday. A totally fucked combination.

4.     Siri is listening: When Maria and I have a conversation with points or facts that need verifying, we pull out our iPhones. Whatever it is we are searching for always appears as the first suggestion after just one or two typed letters.  “C,” “h”… Google: “The Chariot tarot card.” Really? How? Ahhhh. We’re screwed.

5.     The hardest part of grading essays for me is getting the papers out of my bag. Once they’re out, I’m committed. Once I’m committed, I’m an asshole. Now I’m an asshole and I feel really bad for my students.