MAY 14, 2008 • NEED I SAY MORE
Jerehmiah Wright is right about our beloved america
MARCH 16, 2008 • WE WILL LET YOU IN BUT ONLY ON YOUR KNEES
Why Jerehmiah Wright is right, and Obama must display the pre-requiste cowardice
this post is a response too THIS blog take a gander first
your assertion that Obama's judgment is flawed and Bush like is based on your assumption that Jeremiah Wright is a bigot and racist, or has made bigoted and racist comments. I would like to call your attention to the definitions of the words "bigot," and "racist," in terms of entirely debunking the validity and rationality of your slander:
rac·ism [rey-siz-uhm] -noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
This definition postulates that a racist must believe that one (usually their own) race is superior to the other SOLELY because of skin color.
If Jeremiah Wright or any black person, or any other non-white person for some reason stumbled upon the ideal that they were superior to white people - it would NOT and has NEVER been because of that persons European ethnicity. It has been and always will be because of their BEHAVIOR. Europeans, and white Americans have historically been the most popular and prolific promulgators of slavery, oppression, colonization, pillaging, genocidin, aparthidin, baptizing, excommunicating, crusading, conquerin, castratin, lynchin, chanin, and whippin. This is not to say Europeans are, or were the only ones behaving this way, but history i.e. slavery and colonization outlines a factually undeniable penchant for behavior that has resulted in the oppression of non-white people. THIS OPRESSION, not the color white, is the rational and motivation for any criticism of Europeanness. This motivation is opposite to what the above definition stipulates.
big·ot·ry [big-uh-tree] -noun, plural -ries.
1. stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.
2. the actions, beliefs, prejudices, etc., of a bigot.
When it comes to some things I would like to admit, that I am a bigot. For instance: I have complete intolerance for child molesters and their creeds and beliefs, similarly I have complete intolerance for war hawks who believed it right to pre-emptivly strike Iraq. By definition, it should be appropriate for all of us: you, me, and Jeremiah Wright to practice bigotry when it comes to some creeds, and beliefs that differ from our own. usually on the grounds of these opposing beliefs to infringe on the rights of other people, i.e. children, Iraqi civilians etc... That said Jeremiah Wright, is a bigot and so are you, and so is Obama, and George Bush, and Mother Teresa, and Hitler, and MLK, and so on...
Because I know that language is fluid however and you are not the type of person to understand the actual definitions for the words that you use I will address more directly your accusation of bigotry as I understand that you used the word to simply give more semantic teeth to your claims of racism. These teeth are necessary because of the saturated use of the R word in these types of conversations. Because of this saturation, you editorial types like to use Bigot as a surrogate, when in fact, because it doesn't mention race, it is at best a watered down synonym and something that at the end of the day is an acceptable state of being, as I mentioned in the section above.
As I recognize this game of semantics and approximation as your intent I will address the whole of your slander as an uninformed and incorrect reaction to comments by Wright that among other things point out whiteness and American ness as traits of people and cultural ideas that have throughout history been perpetrators of oppression, stupidity, and racism. Flying in the face of the image of America that we are trained to believe. en garde?
1. Wright said, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards," he said. "America's chickens are coming home to roost." - It is a fact that Ronald Reagan, supported the Aparthied government and VETOED the Anti Aparthied Act. In 1986 it is a FACT that The US, helped create Israel and provides unilateral financial, military, and politcal support for that nations "defense" efforts, efforts which , weather you like them or not - HAVE KILLED A LOT of Palestinian Muslims, the vast majority of them civilians. It is common knowledge, that the US's unconditional support of Israel is a large part of the rational of the Taliban, and Al quaida or anyone who would want to attack an American citizen, city, or ideal. Furthermore, none of this statement evidences your slander of racism and Bigotry. And it is the most cited quote used to condemn Wright.
2. Wright says that America, "wants us to sing 'God Bless America' " despite treating black people as second-class citizens. "No, no, no," Mr. Wright said, "God damn America!" - It is a fact that America demands patriotism and a belief in the inherent goodness of this country from its citizens of non-European decent. These demands are impossible to meet because, It is also a fact that this country for 400 years operated the transatlantic slave trade - I have an urge to remind you of the specific horrors of this system that go beyond Wright's label of "second class citizenship" but I will not insult the intelligence of other possible readers of this post. It is also a fact that for 100 years after slavery, this country decreed and supported unequal segregation, disenfranchisement (no voting), and outright murder (Newark riots, Emmitt till, etc...). Any person that has faith in a god, and is simultaneously subjected to these types of tyranny has license to call upon that God that they believe in to condemn (a.k.a. Damn) the institution that promotes, and operates this oppression and tyranny, in this case that institution is America.
3. Wright says that Mr. Obama "knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people; Hillary would never know that, Hillary ain't never been called a nigger". - It is a Fact that every president and the overwhelming majority of elected officials, owners of corporations, leaders of Churches and synagogues, and other's with power in this country have been wealthy white males. Obama was born a lower middle class black male who was raised in an America controlled by Morgans, Rothschiles, Rooselvets, Fords, Kennedys, Bushes, and Rocafellers. If not these men, who controls America? Hillary is a white woman. she was raised in the same America, and it is safe to say has never been called a nigger...
these are all facts... Also known as the truth.... and if you are daring enough to challenge them as such, I will be glad to review your evidence, especially the evidence that says the Hillary isn't white, American is run by Malaysian children with lisps, The US marines broke Nelson Mandela out of prison single handedly, the Navy Seals are currently in Palatine tearing down the "defence" wall, and black people flew over here from Ghana in 1779 because... it was way too hot over there.
baracks response in the video below posted on his blog
You are right. Barak Obama's judgment is flawed, but not because he was at one point closely aligned with Wright (all pun intended). Unfortunately, Barak Obama falsely believes he must distance himself from Jeremiah due to the corrupted and age old American political paradigm which calls for a "winning" candidate to be all things to all people, even if these people are racist, or sheep, or don't know the definition of a bigot, or think that the Iraq war has made us safer, or that Israel is justified in killing 100 Palestinian civilians in 2 days...
Furthermore, Obama's rhetoric of "not saying things that divide people" bleeds with the type of misguided politically "safe" sentiments that keep oppressive institutions intact and at worst chided at from safe distances by truth speakers armed with gas-less Molotov cocktails, pebbles, and broken megaphones.
The reality is that THE TRUTH will always DIVIDE! and speaking TRUTH to the POWERS at BE! whose bread and butter is dressing lies as truth, is the most comprehensively divisive rhetoric. The reality is that at some point you gotta separate the milk from the fat, the truth from the lies, and in this fashion those who profit from the lies will be separated from those who are oppressed by them. Wright understands this is a necessary and inevitable separation, the catalytic effect of a burning truth erected in the face of a widely accepted lie.
His targeting is evidence of his comprehensive grasp of the NATURE of truth as a DANGEROUS yet necessary harbinger of DIFFICULT TO realize CHANGE! Obama fails to realize that the truth's resultant division, is no reason to abandon her. And his reluctance to stand firm on the laurels of the truth - no matter how politically unacceptable the face, swagger, or frankness of the truth-speaker, is a sobering reminder of the corrupting nature of a political system that requires any candidate who wants to win to lick every bead of gristle from the scrotum of the hegemonic majority. Ignoring this hegemonies* constant and unfettered tyranny.
The Media, and the political establishment have focused their message to Obama in recent days saying to him quite clearly that, "Black man, we will let you inside our white house, but only on your knees, blindfolded, lotioned in the aforementioned gristle, and reciting our regurgitated lies over and over like a mantra. It goes "America the Beautiful, America the Free, America the land of Equality, We define Right and Wrong, Bad and good, And Love our own, certainly, America, Where God will preserve our superiority for all Eternity.(10x)""
MARCH 12, 2008 • WHITENESS DOESN'T EXIST
Why white people can't be victims of racism, and Black people can't have white dopplegangers
ohhhh - my that was... yea... he's right!
but he forgot one thing, the funniest thing in fact, the funniest thing about this is that ferrora is actualy correct!
Obama would not be a frontrunner, or a runner at all, and maybe not even a politician if he wasn't black. SURPRISE she is right! BUT, not because of how This crazy old bat thinks but because being Black doesn't mean your just a white person who has been unfortunately painted and without that paint you would be the same person just sans melanin. If Barack Obama wasn't black, Barack Obama wouldn't exist.
BLACKNESS ill have you white people know, determines a lot about your environment, i.e. how people treat you, who you are exposed to as a role model, your personal value system, your socio-economic level, all these things are linked to being a member of black culture... a prerequiste of which is enough melanin to get you past sicilian (john brown, and tapanga non withstanding) THUS, your blackness the color of your skin, and the cultural affiliations and influcences that result from that color, help to craft the minut idiocyncracies and grand brush strokes of your identity. wheather its how you shake hands and dance to if you have a genuine concern for the plight of poor people and minorities.
To speak about BLACKNESS as if there are some white Barak Obama dopplegangers who never got the shot is ridiculous, the white Barak Obama doesn't exist. Barak and his blackness are inseperable just like all of us are from our culture / color.
white people will never be able to understand the reality of this link between culture and color and its influence on personal identity. Why? because in their realm this link and influence doesn't commonly exist, because WHITENESS is an anti-culture, a culture that in truth although based on color has nothing to do with actual ethnic links like its sister concept of blackness. Whitness or white American culture is a hodgepodge of fantastical utopian judeo-christian values, day to day hedonism, and xenophobic hyper-capitalism, but thats about it. because ethnically white american's are extremely diverse and have knowledge of that diversity. they are free to determine the idiosyncracies of their identity void of the gaze of an oppressive hegamonic other. Who is busy stressin, testin, colonizin, and oppressin'.
Ferrora's comments illustrate this incompentence to a tee. She Sees blackness as a mini whiteness aspiring to the accomplishments of big brother, incapable of existing without the white base coat on top of which it is painted.
Her comments strip black culture of its heat, which brands all of us with its mark, not on our skin but on our soul. She in fact is incapable of perceiving that blackness could feed its idiosyncrasies into not only the persona of an individual but that blackness could also fill the grossly large holes in ideals and practice in the failed experiment of "america."
Ferrona further salted her self inflicted womb by painting herself the victim saying that she was the victim of racism, only subjected to criticism cause she is WHITE!
(pause 45 minutes for laughter... the kind where you cry and can't catch your breath)
IT IS TIME SOME ONE SAID IT: WHITE PEOPLE BY DEFINITION CANNOT BE VICTIMS OF RACISM! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE... OF ANY RACE TO BE RACIST AGAINST SOMEONE WHO IS OF EUROPEAN DECENT:
the websters definition of RACISM:
rac·ism [rey-siz-uhm]
-noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
The defiinition postulates that a racist must believe that one (usually their own) race is suprior to the other SOLELY because of the color of their skin.
NEWS FLASH if a black person, or any other non-white person for some reason stumbled upon the ideal that they were superior to white people and their holy-grail of a culture - it would NOT and has NEVER been because of their european ethnicity and milky white complexion. it has been and always will be because of their BEHAVIOR! Europeans, and white Americans have historically been the most popular and prolific promulgators of slavery, oppression, colonization, pillaging, genocidin, aparthidin, babtizin, excommunicating, crusading, rapin, conquerin, castratin, lynchin, chanin, whippin, sodomizin, and (low-blow) mass murdurin. not to say they the only ones doin it but you know they got a pretty strong repuation for the aformentioned.
if Ferrora even knows the definition of the word racism, i'd be surprised but she and all white ppl need to understand that their whiteness isn't a factor in any disdain that the world throws their way. it would be the same if they were varying shades of green and purple, the disdain is a direct consequence of the tyrrany. The reality is tho that white people largley are either proud of the tyrranny in a way that passivly dismisses the disdain, or beleive that their hands have been washed of it, by way of being born now and not then.
(warning tangential rant coming)
well once you stop blaming me for buying shiny rims and not graduating from jr high school ill stop blaming you directly for every social problem under the sun mmmk. we are products of the circumstances crafted by our ancestors, if you knowingly profit from evil shit you were born into, then you should burn in the same hell that your slave master/colonizer grandfather does.... and share in the responsibility for the fucked up circumstances that they created to birth my cycle of fatherlessness, my collard greens flavored fatback, and my ignorance to the specific name and location of my homeland. sopp that up wit a biscuit.
so lets heal...
Step one:
white people go embrace your actual ethnicities and do away with american whiteness as a culture. Flamenco, braughtwurst, vodka, riverdance, and the language of the celts, is all freakin like waaay cooler than frat boys, BEER, really big banks that made all their money in the slave trade, pamala anderson, the word terrorist, and televangalism.
Black people: too much to write right here but maybe we should just go vote for obama? that could probably help out alot (although the palasteninans are damned if they do, damned if they don't, sista condaleeza is over there lap doggin it for the darkside lookin like deborah LEVIL from the boondocks)
step two: like every news channel needs to do a story every day on the realities of the tyrannical behavior practiced by european cultures and governments and the beautiful, benign, positive things about non white cultures, so they can you know... balance the shit out... after about 1000 years every body should have a healthy amount of propoganda to fight against the first 1000 years of vilification of brownness/blackness/yellowness . and romanticization of whiteness.
so back to the point, blackness means something for who you are. whitness usually doesn't because...
whiteness doesn't exist.
originally posted at www.terencenance.com/paris
FEBRUARY 16, 2008 • MOVIE REVIEW - THE ASSASINATION OF JESSE JAMES... SEE IT
Directed by Andrew Dominik With Casey Afleck and Brad Pitt
Get used to this way of writing reviews - Casey Afleck - talk about talent skipping a generation, or maybe not a generation since him and the infamously drab Ben are brothers. - Casey defines a career with his turn as Robert Ford. Talk about "stop snitchin," they should put his face on all those t-shirts so popular in tha hud. Ford personifies all the most egregious betrayals of the G-code (laws of gangsters), stay loyal to the hardest dude, don't rat on people who you were involved in criminal activity with, etc... The movie is first a character study of a man eternally plagued by his place in his family (criminal and blood) and his place in society. Casey interprets Robert ford as analogous to all those bulimic girls vomiting and googling "Paris Hilton "waist size";" Or more accurately all those young boys in Mannenburg (a "coulered" township near cape town) running around shooting people calling themselves Tupac. He is an example of the tyranny of the notion of celebrity by means of gangsterism. And he conveys the complexity of a boy naïve enough, neglected enough, and uneducated enough to be convinced of the dignity of his actions within this popular psychology.
His character is also refreshingly dynamic in a way that both he and the audience cannot expect. Ford matures through the film into a regretful, and contemplative man at least aware of the implications of his former self and his actions. His face is painted with the coming, foreboding regret that will weigh on him for the rest of his days on earth in the telling moment when he shoots James in the back.
Dominick's writing and direction brought very naturalistic depth to Fords character and surprisingly Pitt's character, Jesse James. The reality and myth of James is so weighed down in folklore and legend that some sort of historically accurate biopic is neither appropriate nor possible, so Dominick doesn't even shoot for that star. Instead, he imagines the implications of the dynamic between James and his public, personified of course by Robert Ford. Who destroys him out of love that matures into hate, a hate born of jealousy, envy, misunderstanding, outright lies, naivety, and probably a good dose of stupidity and gullibility. Again...like most good movies that deal with history, allegorical for how we both deify and crucify those blessed, and cursed with celebrity in our culture, corrupting mainly ourselves in the process.
The uncompromisingly romantic characterization of Jesse James is maybe necessary to achieve the aforementioned allegory. But inside the romantic, family man / gangster, alpha male, really cool, and ultimately betrayed, more hero than anti-hero (the position already taken by ford) is the films sole weakness. In truth Jesse James was a sociopath racist and Confederate loyalist with not an actual heroic or sane bone in his body, and he came from a family of them. Dominick does some portraiture of this "baud maun" (said with a Jamaican accent) caricature in a few scenes where Pitt is clearly violent and unstable and likely to cut a moh foh given the slightest of inane motivation. But the lasting impression Pitt leaves on us of James is that of a very slightly tormented family man borne into a profession he has a natural skill for and vilified beyond the dimensions of his very benign humanity; and on top of all of that on the completely innocent side of the most famous betrayal ever. He is thus conjured as more so a Michael Corleone type, doing the best he can with what is dealt to him rather than, lets say George Bush, or someone who is the principal instrument of their own demise, the fragile morals of the episode of his murder aside.
The strongest characterization would have been somewhere in between. And you can tell that that is where Dominik and Pitt were going, but due to several characterization decisions and a really weird scene where James slaps a lil kid around and then starts crying like a baby, Even the most objective of viewers sides with plight of James over ford. This precise characterization and resulting audience allegiance could also be a very carefully crafted commentary. We as participants in western culture and our love for gangsters will make us side with them given any opportunity, so maybe we are made to fall for James as an exercise in how easily our affinity for all things uncompromising and powerful manipulates us into an amorous relationship with the thug. Who knows? But really James coulda been Tupac or Biggie, or Scarface, he exists inside a pantheon of deified Anti-Heroes presented as thugs, who arguably did or said more dumb or corrosive things than positive and endearing ones. As a doppelganger for this archetype Pitt falls just short, it is however a wonderful exercise in the pursuit. Go see it.
JANUARY 24, 2008 • AARON MCGRUDER YOU ARE MY HERO
Aaron Mcgruder, you are my hero, please run for president, you can do no wrong
Boondocks - Hunger Strike against BET (Banned)
JANUARY 24, 2008 • HOPE HATERS AND DOCTOR PIMPS, EVERYTHING IS SOOOO ALMOST RIGHT WITH THIS
ZERO
i just want everyone to vote for obama because he is the best thing we got, and i have enough faith that after he manipulates his way into office through the semantics of centrist politics, he will flip the script and actually do the right things.
FIRST
Still here in paris, making it ok, im getting a little home sick, this place doesn't feel like my home really, it still feels temporary, unlike my other travels, i think that is most likely due to the fact that my room is too small.
SECOND - OBAMA
is messing up my initial glint of optimism at the dawn of his candidacy. Ive been on the fact finding hunt to defend myself against all the negative stuff they report on him and his agenda, most notably him taking money from the health insurance companies, something he apparently doesn't need to do because he makes enough off internet donors, he has made over 20mil alone from donations of 200 dollars or less. This accusation was debunked by a little research apparently all of that money has come from mid level executives at health insurance companies who donate the same as everyone else, on Obama's site, but he still has to report it as money received from "the health care industry." googleing the facts on campaign finance and its link to policy making turned up not much but smoke and mirrors, CONVERSLY attempting to find any specifics about OBAMA's plan to provide universal health care has provided me with this explication of his plans.
looks pretty good to me - national healthcare plan, same as for the senators, but how much will it cost? well in this summary it just says it will be "affordable" i don't like that word, its too relative, it says the same thing when it addresses the perscription drug issue. the lowest point is at the top where obama is quoted as saying "My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums." i for one know, from having healthcare, that more than premiums need to change for our healthcare system to even approach progress.
But more important than what is written on his site (cause no one reads) is how he fields the health care question in debates, he beats the line, "we are going to work with the health care companies to lower the price of insurance" like a dead horse. which is to me not only hyper capitalist and counterproductive, its not politically savvy, i don't think at this point that any of the working public has any soft spots for insurance companies in general, let alone health insurance companies. It is generally agreed upon that they are bottom feeders and that their business model is basically an inhumane institutionalized scam. this notion was first cemented in the film John Q and then slightly less suspensefuly in SICKO. So the fact that he even thinks that to progress the system, the input of these doctor pimps is necessary makes you think that he is either taking money or getting complacent and preparing for the next round where it will be important for him to appear as conservative and capitalist as possible.
We the voting public are forced to follow the notion that he might be putting on "sheeps clothes" for the next round, somehow thinking that he will need to appear softer and more cuddly to conservatives and centrists than he actually is. cause no body likes to get bit.
following the sheeps clothing theory, why did he say anything... at all... about Ronald Reagan... let alone something positive? this is sort of an abstract point but lets be real Ronald Reagan's policies in the developing world killed tens of thousands of people, and or sustained conditions of abject poverty and isolation and exclusion from the global economy - what is sad is that this is a completely undisputed fact. Watch this Video for an indepth look at the situation. The Video below is a very quick look at it and should hold you over until you have an hour on your hands.
or actually just read any book on the subject, even the conservatives don't dispute his actions, they just think that they were productive in protecting us from the russians. Machiavellian bastards.
Ronald Reagan in all his charm and wit and hair gel, could have been jesus in other walks of life (hmmm), unfortunately nothing he supposedly did well, can save his soul or his historical legacy from the death and damnation he caused. So praise on any topic in RR's direction is probably never a good idea if you are trying to get people to like you and think you are smart.
Barak said something about how Reagan saved us from the excesses of the 70's, a completely topical (and wrong) observation that lauded Reagan for spending less on govt programs and lightening the tax burden. what he didn't mention is that Reagan didn't end any excesses in expenditure he just moved the money to places that hurt people, most notable to the Nicaraguan Contras, the moutajib in Afghanastan (that one was ok tho) and record military spending here in America (it was the cold war cousin) including genius programs like star wars whose goal was to shoot down intercontinental nuclear ballistic warheads with lasers on satellites or something like that. *
so why cousin? why would you even say that?
I know my beleifs are not even within American political spectrum cause im on some free Mumia, hands off Assata, Jimmy carter was and ass (he supported somozas), dismantling the health care industry and nationalizing it along with public education, standardized funding for schools based on population and need, re-zionising israel in the little square at the top of Utah (we will get along great with the Mormons) and a complete military economical, and political break with israel until they dismantle their nukes, leave Gaza and commit a quarter of their tax revenue for social programs in Gaza and occupied territories, and support the creation and sustenance of a Palestinian state, actual decolonization of all countries (i.e. Cape verde Guadulupe, Puerto Rico, Reunion, etc...), no death penalty, slice military spending 80 percent, re direct that money to completely eradicate our dependence on oil and develop several cheaper and cleaner energy sources, etc... etc... etc...etc...
and i know obama ain't stupid enough to be as right as me about soo many issues, we all know that you can't be right in america and win. so im not blaming him for not being... publicly... progressive enough, becuase if he was he would have no chance to win (i.e. kuccinich)
but, damn you gotta stay away from bonehead shit like big upping Reagan. and even more stupiderer shit like raising the roof to REAGANOMICS! (also supply side economics)** which is considered by most economist with a middle school diploma as not responsible for the economic changes that happened in the early 80's.*** and considered by everyone working class person that has ever known a crack head or crack dealer as more neo-con / Reagan policy falling through the ether to non-concentually sodomize them and their communities.
i can go on - he did condemn the war, but then voted to fund it several times, which made no sense practically or politically, practically because those bills all would have passed with or without his vote. politically cause it makes him look like a liar and someone easily influenced by his peers. Additionally, he said in the Nevada debate that he would end combat missions and withdraw troops by the end of 2009 but leave some troops in Iraq to help fight al queda and defend the embassy...
the embassy my guy? why pray tell does he think we deserve/need/would be in our interest too, build or maintain an embassy. A.) that is begging to get attacked... like praying for it to all known gods.... b.) the war was entirely baseless and illegal, if you agree with that, and you say you do, why would any presence in the illegally invaded country be... legal. C.) i think that if you were to ask president bush what we are doing in iraq now he would say. "mostly pursing al Qaida and defending the embassy" so basically you just want to ceremoniously bring mufuchkahs home. can't say that im excited about that. i know i'm exaggerating a little and that a reduced military presence is a great thing but i think you would have to assume that it won't be enough given the damage done. more than anything American's and iraqi's need the image of a MASS exodus of military AND political presence in iraq and the simultaneous influx of humanitarian personnel. Barak's plan is ceremonial in a way that still makes the US look like the perfect democracy attempting to have a hand in the diplomatic creation of a certain type of iraqi state. we in america treat the notion of submission and accommodation like its the devil now more than ever we just need to do what they want us to do. We were in the wrong.
and maybe the most troubling thing about him is his support of isreal's government and their "security policies." he said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago in March, "We must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs. This would help Israel maintain its military edge and deter and repel attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza."**** that to me is some punk shit. no sane person of any religion should be able to rationally defend israel's "security policies" in fact, that big ass wall they are building (that clearly isn't working) and the occupation are entirely illegal according to the UN court (international court of justice read this article on it ) so not only is he supporting an illegal position, he is doing so without any attempt at rationalizing it other than saying, "they are our allies" im sorry but if my best friend starts beating the shit out of a helpless child, im not just gonna join him JUST cause he is my friend, in fact, i'd probably tackle him and try and slap some sense into his crazy ass. actually since we helped create isreal we hold even more responsibility for their idiodic and reckless behavior, they are more so our children than siblings, and if i see my child beating up on someone that is opressed, best believe some dicipline will follow.
anyway all this shit has really made it difficult for me to be an active supporter of Barak, he, to me has maybe the simplest task of any candidate in history, George Bush is quite possible the easiest act to follow since william hung or pol pot, and because his cultural and racial affiliations alone make him nothing short of the face of a revolution, he need only stick to basically articulating well researched and popular knowledge of already formulated ***** progressive solutions to our countries biggest problems. The WARS, health care, the environment, and the economy, but he has at least in some of the above cases publicly fumbled the ball.
but you know what he's the best we got,
hillary is in the pockets of the insurance companies far deeper than he is, on her website the plan for healthcare is completely topical and vauge and doesn't really answer any hard questions. and keeps using the word "affordable", and her iraq war plan looks copied and pasted from barak's website, she pretty much isn't a factor to consider as far as credibility because her current positions are in some cases vastly different from votes she has made specifically concerning the WAR.
in a perfect world: someone could transplant the uncompromisingly progressive Dennis kuccinich's brain into the uncompromisingly charismatic barak obama's body, but the world is not only imperfect, it is subtly un-accommodating in ways that slowly vex until acute anxiety arrives. every thing is sooo almost right with this.
lu, yall
Terence
OBAMA 08 VOTE!!!!!!!!
this is the first entry in my "hope haters series,"in which i will talk about all the things that are oppressing my normally quixotic, and positive world outlook.
in the next issue we will talk about how post colonialism is a misnomer cause colonialism aint went no where, and the problem with participating in occidental society - yes me and you are responsible.
* from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative The initial focus of the strategic defense initiative was a nuclear explosion powered X-ray laser designed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by a scientist named Peter L. Hagelstein who worked with a team called O Group, doing much of the work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. O Group was headed by physicist Lowell Wood, a protégé and friend of Edward Teller, the "father of the hydrogen bomb"
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
***The disinflation had been initiated by Fed chairman Volcker before Reagan assumed office. An anti-inflation monetary policy program had been begun by Fed Chair Volcker in the latter days of the Carter administration, but it took a while to take hold, so that inflation was still near a historical peak around the time of the 1980 elections.
**** http://www.nysun.com/article/69154
***** he should hire me to research them, or maybe dennis kuccinich and al gore
DECEMBER 4, 2007 • LIVES
you know people that glow? i want to add something else about people who illuminate places with their presence but nothing that isn't corney, is coming to mind quickly enough. but you know people like the people i want to describe, ones that glow.
my friend, lets call her... celeste... is just that person, she rivals mother teresa on moral fortitude, and no one famous on - down to earthed ness - cause famous people usually aren't - she is hyper intelligent in the academic sense but her sharpness transcends the class room, she can DANCE! she smiles like she is still 3 yrs old some where and there is some un sayable positive quality about how she stands contra-pasta and looks over her nose at you.
i hope you know her. you would be better for it.
a few weeks ago celeste sent an email informing us that her sister had passed away at the age of 37, she left behind 3 kids and a husband...
3 days later celeste sent another email that informed us that her brother (a veteran) had been rushed to the hospital with an exotic infection similar to strep. at the time he had a 50/50 chance of surviving.
1 day later celeste sent an email informing us that her brother had passed at the age of 27...
They are strong people, with a large family, rooted in faith, and love, i would say (from what i observe) well equipped to manage the grief... if that amount is even manageable.
i can't remember ever feeling this amount of empathetic sorrow for someone i know - the word unfathomable comes to mind - which is ironic - the word "un-fathomable" being..."fathomed"
left speechless sorrowful and sort of thoughtless - one sentiment emerged - no one deserves anything that happens to them on any end of the spectrum,
having typed that out tho, i don't think that sentiment is either correct or fair... but i don't know what is soo im gonna ride with it.
if anyone would like to send words of support to my friend and her family email me and ill pass it on. terence.nance@gmail.com
of course hug your loved ones, live every day like its your... you get it.
LU' YALL
NOVEMBER 22, 2007 • LONLINESS, THE FARCE THAT IS THANKSGIVING, AND THE BATTLE OF ALGEIRS
loneliness will crack you open sometimes, feed you to the pigs, with only your own flatulence to smell and your own skin to rub a great chasm of "this shit ain't right ness" implants it self in your inner notions of the distance between how things are... and how things should be. Nature gets personified the sky dresses different everyday, you look everyone in the eye so that maybe you can provoke them into contact, sit in public places with no purpose, work to hard in an attempt to distract yourself, pray for some insanity that will produce a really really realish imaginary friend.
but you won't really want friends, although that would be good, you won't want like a general noun of a being, you will want something or someone whose presence is your standard of intertwined ness... most likely your mother, then probably your bestess significant other, or your worst depending on your class of masochism. and i know not yet the next step cause it ain't happened yet. i am a biologist tracking a disease and right now there is something in me, that wants to leave me and go to where all the other people are slamming the door on his way out in a not so subtle display of his anger toward massa.
do not believe the hype they have marry poppins fed you since you were but a babe. there wasn't no dinner where the natives brought some meat and the pilgrims bought veggies, there was small pox blankets planted among tribes with no natural immunity to the disease, there was capturing and enslavement. and of course a lot of theft. a lot.
eat in tribute to the native americans who lost their lives, land, culture in the genocide committed against them by western europeans. in the 15th century. that is the end of the rant.
MOVIE REVIEW • THE BATTLE OF ALGEIRS
Banned in France upon its release this film attempts to provide an even handed account of the independence movement in Algeria during the late 50's. The film's documentary esque depiction of torture committed by the French Army was largely the rational for the french governments ban. despite the accurate and wholly negative depiction of the French Agenda and the French Army, the film makes no attempt to romanticize the targeting of civilians by the FLN (the militant organization who violently revolted against french rule ). Instead of taking sides, the film provides a rather existentialist commentary on the nature of violence as a means of social or political progress, making it seem inevitable but entirely ineffective. At the end of the film it is impossible to advocate the tactics used by either side, but it is also impossible to formulate a plausible and logically effective alternative to the trajectory of either sides violent transgressions. despite the even handed ness the film stays morally on the side of the Algerians by above all else sticking to the facts and illustrating their oppression at the hands of the french as the most absurd, vulgar, and bold form of colonial dictatorship.
a lil history ripped from wikipedia:
On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded Algiers in 1830.[4] In contrast to Morocco and Tunisia, the conquest of Algeria by the French was long and particularly violent and resulted in the disappearance of about a third of the Algerian population.[5] France was responsible for the extermination of 1.5 million Algerians. According to Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison, the French pursued a policy of extermination against the Algerians.
Meanwhile, however, the French made Algeria an integral part of France, Tens of thousands of settlers from France, Italy, Spain, and Malta moved in to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy significant parts of Algeria's cities. These settlers benefited from the French government's confiscation of communally held land, Algeria's social fabric suffered during the occupation: literacy plummeted,[7] while land confiscation uprooted much of the population.
Starting from the end of the nineteenth century, people of European descent in Algeria (or natives like Spanish people in Oran), as well as the native Algerian Jews (typically Sephardic in origin), became full French citizens. After Algeria's 1962 independence, they were called Pieds-Noirs. In contrast, the vast majority of Muslim Algerians (even veterans of the French army) received neither French citizenship nor the right to vote.
as you can see all the violence committed by the algerians was easily rationalize. any community pushed to this extreme should be expected to react with the same level of malevolence that they were disremembered with. On the contrary the violence committed by the French is left un rationalized visually in the film. they act as world renowned imperial sadists. figuratively and literally raping, destroying, maiming, and laughing while doings so. The characterization is thoroughly disturbing, scene after scene shows the french army torturing completely innocent people, pillaging, and looting, and yes...laughing...alot. The main commentary on the disfiguration that oppression causes on the humanity of the oppressor is placed in the mouth of The refreshingly enlightened and starkly ambivalent french general who throughout the movie reminds us of the shallowness, and thereby meaninglessness of the french armies job in contrast to the depth and cruel complexity of a French imperial disposition that would put the army in the position of fighting with civilians, in a country they are occupying. in once scene the general asks the press bluntly, "the question is not weather our methods [torture or not] are appropriate, the question is should the french be in Algeria? (the press doesn't answer) as long as the french people want to live here then we must do the job we are told to do, and these methods, are the only way of doing it effectively."
The FLN used violent and non violent means, in an attempt to drive the french from Algeria, they bombed public places in the european quarter and shot police in broad day light at random, as well as organized a peaceful strike which shut the city down economically,they were systematic and unbelievably covert in their tactics. they employed a clandestine, guerilla, military structure that allowed them to blend in with the population and maintain anonymity even from each other. their failure was the result of their incorrect assumptions about the nature of the enemy.they assumed a level of humanity and decor from the french army that at the end of the day didn't exist. they assumed that the french would adhere to the western laws of police work, and for instance, wouldn't stage unannounced raids and imprison every arab man who walked in their direction.
long story short, after the most unlawful policing in the history of police, all of the FLN member's identities and location are known by the french army. the FLN's tactical failure and the french's tactical victory, is one half of the films centerpiece, The FLN's noble notion and purpose combined with the most human yet sophisticated of tactics gets them no where. The other half of the film's centerpiece is THE FLN's huge moral/sociopolitical victory, and the French's failure on the same front. The FLN won the hearts and minds of the Algerian public, and their action spawned the revolution moment. theirs was a victory of inspiration and unity, shortly after the FLN was eradicated. the Algerian ppl began to stage non- violent rallies and marches some of which ended in bloody massacres where the french army opened fire on huge crowds of protestors. The people - now so used to genocide it could not deter the, pushed forward into independence.
At the end of the day that is what the film is about, the power of a people, but not only in the romantic socialist sense but also how a people with "power" can be as such corrupted and thus violent and sadistic. the film is a sincere portrait of those who support tyranny and those who fight it, and the broad dichotomy of expressions that grow out of these psychographics.
NOVEMBER 20, 2007 • GENEROSITY, A REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT, AND MOVIE REVIEWS
So, here is a little news from france, The transit workers are on strike for the second time in the last month or so, they are striking because the government is trying to make them retire a few years later than they do, the government wants them to retire with everyone else because of the fiscal quagmire that their social security system is in, but the train conductors ain't havin that, I'm not so clear on their stance/argument but i think it has to do with the fact that it is unsafe to have an old person operating a train, and also, the job is somehow more stressful or harder than other jobs. Any way they are putting the public at a huge inconvenience including me, but I'm for standing up against the man in general, so pending further research i support them.
additionally, the french government has passed some sort of order to make all the schools essentially independent, in a big flattery by mimicry move toward the US. of course unlike the US the students AIN't havin it and have took to the streets and created human chains and blocked entry to the school buildings at their colleges. they have been thus tear gassed and arrested for their refusal to cooperate with the new law which essentially makes the schools able to raise tuition and accept private donations, the desired effect would be a situation like the US where elite schools would develop and wack ones would... i guess just be wack, and thus your college degree would be more marketable in the MECILESS french job market... of course everybody's gut feeling says that this will work and thinkin with your gut has gotten us... well everyhwhere.
all this civil unrest is really interesting coming from a place where people are almost entirely apathetic about any and everything unless it directly effects them at that moment . Not that the public in the US will lay down completely, there was a transit strike in NY recently and there is currently a WGA strike, but the energy is more immediately revolutionary and communal here, even if they are wrong. and the students are particularly fiesty, which is refreshing because in the states moblizing young people is like pulling teeth.
The strike left me stranded in paris and A proffessor at the school where i teach who lives in paris was generous enough to take me in for a few days. generosity is such a prevelant thing in the world nowadays for me. it had me thinking about how much generosity ive been on the recieving side of in my short life. additionally, most of this generosity is completely unreciprocated and random. i think it would be worthwhile for me to do some stategic thinking on how i can be more generous, randomly and without the expectation of reciprocation.
ive been watching alot of movies while here, they don't have netflix but they have a card you can get for the movie theater 20 dollars a month and you can go to the movies anytime any place, unlimited. ive decided to write some short reviews.
THE KINGDOM: directed by Peter Berg, starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner
The political thriller/action movie genre is maybe the most formulaic approach to global political commentary. perhaps most effectivley executed in "The Constant Gardner." it seems to be a difficult task to make a movie about big decisions that (usually negatively) effect the lives of millions, that concerns the lives of 2 or three characters. The burden of the FORMULA is the tyranny that so accutly sabotages THE KINGDOM, for it to succedd in providing a fresh perspective in terms of commentary, it would have had to break down the way that this commentary is presented and make something new. There is however nothing new. There is the hero, cop (jamie foxx), cavalier untouchable by bullets grenades, and RPG's, the hyper intelligent damsel (garner) solving every mystery with her brain in spite of her brawn deficiency, the nobe savage who inspite of his arabness is down to fight the terroristas, and the laundry list of characters and scenarios that if we have scene more than one episode of 24, we have seen a million times.
If the writer and director are good people who have a purpose in life, i woulda hoped they made this film in order to inform with the intent to change attitude, inform people of the unwavering truth of America's vulgar past and continuing corruption in the Saudi Arabia. Unfortunalty, This film is not conceptually clear enough to move anyone from their current position on america's corrupt and shameful history in saudi arabia. if i'm a ant zionist hippi who moved from montana to stand in front of israli tanks in palestine the footage of Saudi "terrorists" blowing up an American worker camp in Saudi Arabia, will only deepin my conviction against the american foriegn policies that breed such feelings of violence, vengence, and desperation, similarly watching arabs with AK-47's trying to take off jennifer Garner's head with RPG's is gonna really make a texan oil exec wary of sitting next to an iranian business man on his next overseas trip.
the images this film puts forth and the conventions it encloses them within are a hair left of irresponsible, withouth the hollywood gloss they would, regress into stereotype and misrepresentation. (one particularlly ludacris scene shows a terrorist making his son watch the mass murder of other children, while taking some sort sadistic pleasure in the jihads fullfment). and while im ranting, why does the arab guy have to guy, of course the motley crew of this film has its prerequisite woman, black guy, and miscellaneouls minority (this time arab), i must say that the arab guy dying is the new black guy dying. when you kill the good arab guy in the film, you do him the diry deed of painting him with the ohh sooo racist noble savage archetype.
ohhh, i must say thought that the movie is not without its strong points. there is som good monolouging that happens, quotables. and there is of course a very slight but sgnificant attempt to homoginize the cycle of violence and evenhandedly judge all the kiling that takes place no matter who is behind the gun. There is some sort of good guy bad guy line blurring that happens where the futility and inevitability of the cylcle of vilence is condmened. (sort of) additionally jamie foxx can act, manages to shout out Terrel, TX very naturally in his dialouge, and the action sequences definatly give you a feeling of suspence and impedning doom, but more so in the vein of transformers than the battle of algeirs, the latter however, clearly the kingdom's conceptual aim.
NOVEMBER 9, 2007 • I PROMISE TO DO THIS MORE OFTEN
OH paris blog how i have negleted thee - i have an excuse, i went to boxing class, which was really fun, (i always thought it was sort of a barberic thing to do but its so technical that you don't think about it) anyway after boxing i have realized that for the following 2 or three days its impossible to type. I think when you clench your fists it tires out your forearm muscles which are essential to stenography.
where to begin where to begin. I really like it here, i have had alot of time to work on art, which was the point of coming, and that has been really liberating but also sort of eye opening and sobering. the gravity of how much work there is to be done has hit me full force, i think i have too many ideas.... i know i have too many ideas, and they are all very labor intensive, and ideas are like children, they want attention, and they beef with each other if you don't pay individual attention to them but working an hour on this and an hour on that makes the progress flow bout as fast as molasses down a tree laden with moss.
it becomes a struggle to maintain balance btw making work and indulging yourself in the mundane maintenance of your lonely existence i.e. showering, organizing your itunes*, playing basketball or staying fit in general, cooking**, flossing, keeping your room clean*** all that fun stuff, it is a job in and of itself just to stay "not funky", fit, and fed if you remove the motivation of a social life.
all the solitude teaches you alot about yourself. Useful things like: i naturally sleep for about 7 hours a night the eight hour i lay awake trying to find the motivation to stage a pre emptive strike against the acute hunger that comes with the morning time****, in order to get anything done during the day i have to write it down somewhere other wise i spend THE WHOLE DAY pusuing tangents, the phenomenon of me pursuing tangents is quite interesting to me, it usually involves the internet and can be blamed on the natural interconnectedness of all things but it makes it very difficult to chk my email in under 45 minutes or research a recipe to make for diner that night cause ill end up engrossed in researching the dietary benifits of garlic that is chopped and left to sit for 15 minutes vs garlic that you chop and use right away*****. the best evidence of the tyranny of my pursuit of tangents can be found in the existence of this paragraph, which is itself a tangent from my original purpose... listing things that solitude teaches you about yourself. soooo... back to that list.
after i eat. i must sleep, however, everytime, i fight through the urge to nap even though i want to sooooo bad, for maybe no other reason than to avoid the stereotype*****
i like learning, or acquiring knowledge, post school what have i pursued? more school in a sense, I'm learning french, and the rest of the day I'm always trying to teach myself something, pro Tools, wordpress, a good black bean recipe, i would feel dead if i wasn't learning something.
that is all for now on that list. maybe more later.
LU' YALL TERENCE
* i spent a week deleting duplicates, now I'm trying to RATE EVERY SONG.. (i have 10,500 songs and I'm only on the letter "B" SHOUT OUT TO BLITZ the AMBASSADOR!)
** I have realized how much time it takes for one person to cook every meal for himself, i never eat out so i have to take all the ingredients to the kitchen every time three times a day and it also exposes you to how few dishes you know how to make, I've got max 10 recipes in me, and that gets old quick.
*** Living alone i have become a neat freak, i think its because there is no one else to blame it on
****I'm trying to get this 7 hrs down to 6 you can't be a prolific person and sleep that much, you gotta be a lil crazy a Little unhealthy
***** M.B.B.F. this is not a real example, thanks for the article
******The Ittis as it is commonly referred to where negroes eat and then...immediatly sleep.
OCTOBER 23, 2007 • TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY
As you may have noticed i haven't updated this in a long while, i was experiencing technical difficulties with my schools internet, but i am back and ready to offer news!
1. my phone number if you want to call me from the states is 214•556•6309 that is my skype phone number
2. my french cell phone number is +33.6.29.08.68.96
3. my address is in the post below
I'm doing well here, I've been teaching for 2 weeks now and it has been very enjoyable, it is difficult to get the students to speak english (they seem very afraid of making mistakes) but every day it gets a little easier, i have different students every day so building a rapport has become sort of difficult but i think the lesson i teach is going to be the most effective and refined lesson ever because i will have done it 20 times in a row!
in other news my heat doesn't work and its cold here and there is a power outage just about every week which is not good for the perishable foods, plus i have the smallest of elevated beds and i am way waaay to old to be climbing up into a TWIN bed every night (get the mental picture outta your mind) so any leads on a small room that is very inexpensive in or around paris would be GREAT! speak soon.
lu yall, Terence
SEPTEMBER 27, 2007 • J'AI TRES FROID
ITS DAMN COLD in france, and i didn't come prepared fo that, apparently my residence wasn't ready either because they aren't scheduled to turn the central heat on for another 2 or 3 weeks. in other news my apartment is a closet, or more accurately it a shower stall, when i took a 10 minute shower this morning the steam fogged up the windows of my apt... that is how small my apt is, details to come... the main purpose of this post is to give you all my address and let you know that there is a (tiny) roof over my head
my address is:
Terence Nance
Chambre Nº
D651
8, allée de l'Université
92000 NANTERRE
France
Lu, yall Terence
SEPTEMBER 22, 2007 • 3 DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE
Hello all! In case you haven't heard, im moving to Paris on September 25th, while there ill be teaching english 2 days a week, and working on my various art projects and of course The Fly Movement and Parallel Movement. Ill be living on a college campus in Nanterre, a northwest suburb of Paris. This Online Diary will be the Main source of information while I'm here, so if you want to know anything.. be it my phone number or the wardrobes of the street performers i run into check here first. Hopefully, I will have the internet in my apartment in Nanterre, so I should be able to keep up with this site more than the South African edition (for all you OGs)
Lu, yall Terence