Author: The 40 year old magpie

Dharma Dueling Satirist and Time Traveling Bunny Rabbit. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
15 Minutes

Tell Me Why

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

We don’t recall the 1979 shooting at Grover Cleveland Elementary School, and the Shooter, Brenda Ann Spencer? her bizarre comment inspired the song “I Don’t Like Mondays”

We memorialize the dead and wounded of Columbine, holding the shooters up as kind of folk heroes in the process. Why the double standard? Why no folk-hero status for Brenda Ann Spencer? oh, yeah, right… she didn’t actually go INTO the school wearing a black trench coat shooting, making the children beg for their lives and she’s still living.

I would say,  on this Anniversary of the Columbine shootings, that it’s three-fold: She wasn’t bullied, only two were killed, both adults, and eight children and a cop were wounded  & she’s a girl.She has been denied parole. Repeatedly. We have issues with “violent femmes”.  Men, since the time of Medea, fear feminine violence.

A  San Diego resident, Brenda had her own problems: Epilepsy, drug-addiction, petty theft arrests, divorced family. She was also considered a “loser”. Had fantasies of being a sniper. On January 29, 1979, she acted on that fantasy. That Monday morning she picked up the .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle she had been given as a Christmas present by her father, loaded it, and proceeded to shoot the children and adults at Grover Cleveland Elementary School across the street. She killed two, wounded eight kids and a cop.  She then barricaded herself in the family home and threatened to “come out shooting”. when asked by a reporter about her motivation, she replied:

I just did for the fun of it. I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day. I have to go now. I shot a pig, I think, and I want to shoot more. I’m having too much fun

“I had no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun,”

“It was just like shooting ducks in a pond,”

“[The children] looked like a herd of cows standing around; it was really easy pickings.”

Newspaper account

Follow up stories

Tell me why.

Ghimeabragh, Rumours Gin Mill

Prayerful Silliness or Why does God need a Crew?

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

Do you know the difference betweem a REAL Invocation to god and a unreal one?

Take the test:

In the name of The Almighty El Shaddai, and by the power of the archangels, angels, spirits, powers and intelligences of light, I invoke the miraculous power of The Most Holy name of God, The Samech Aleph Lamed (one of The 72 Names Of God) so that I may connect to the sphere of financial abundance.

Can you spot it? No? It’s this:

In the name of The Almighty El Shaddai, and by the power of the archangels, angels, spirits, powers and intelligences of light….

Why does El Shaddai (God is Sufficient/Provides/Destroyer/Overthrows(Remover of Obstacles) the Name He is called by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob know Him as,why does he have to have assistance? It’s like Superman asking Jimmy Olsen to help him move a mountain. It place doubt upon the Power of God

But then, the  above  “prayer” was written by a Christian, and they  all know God is weak since Satan has an all access pass and a “get out of Hell  Free” card, while God is stuck up on that Throne.

El Shaday, as sung with duende by Israeli-Yemeni Pop Star, Ofra Haza:

and, the sterile contempoChristian song “El Shaddai”, by sung by Amy Grant.

Think they were freaked by the mooslimeee sound of the music?

Uncategorized

Why I don’t ask for help

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

when I do, it is never forthcoming. It resists my advances like a jaded lover. Kicks me to the curb like a dog and then, shits on me

I finally swallowed my pride and asked for help from my friends in averting eviction. It’s now past the time my rent is due, and well, I know if I were to take ill, and incur massive medical bills or need surgery, well, they would let me die. except for ONE person, a deafening silence, and a cold shoulder. Yet, I’m there for them and their needs.

That ends, now.

15 Minutes, Vocal Booth

background work as metaphor

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

I’m working background for short film, and I’ve realized it’s the perfect metaphor for my life. In spite of all the interesting and curious things that I’ve experienced, I’m still living an unnoticed, nondescript life. My question is: WHY? how can this be? Am I just “not trying hard enough” or “applying myself” or is it a bit more than that, like “unhealthy brooding”?

Stay tuned.

Reprints & Crossposts

Beck is Head Faking the Left, & we are falling for it

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

Two Americas. Two Consensus Realities. We are witnessing a breakdown in what we define as “Glenn Beck” Nowhere more clearly can this be seen in articles from the NY Times regarding Beck’s departure: The article in the business section toes the “declining ratings” line gives us a fuller story to , whereas mediadecoder’ blog shares this consciously ignored by all other outlets, morsel of FOX’s vertical integration with Beck, but BOTH share this:

Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, which have clashed over the making of the program, will “work together to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties,” the companies said in the statement.As expected, a senior Fox News executive, Joel Cheatwood, will join Mr. Beck at Mercury Radio Arts starting later this month.

In the article in the business section, we get a fuller reading on that little morsel:

Notably, descriptions of Mr. Beck’s future plans drew derisive comments in some quarters of Fox News, where they argued that Mr. Beck needed the huge platform of his Fox show to build his media empire.At times, Mr. Beck and his managers said they sensed that Fox was retaliating in public, although they did not prove it.

Last month, when Mr. Cheatwood was first said to be moving over to Mercury, his Fox salary was suddenly leaked to a reporter. That day, a staff member who had been working with Fox on Mr. Beck’s show was asked if he could imagine working at an institution that would leak a salary figure. The staff member replied, “Not only can I imagine it, we’ve done it for 27 months,” referring to the precise number of months Mr. Beck had been at Fox. “It’s not fun.”

Let me repeat and emphasize that last sentence: As expected, a senior Fox News executive, Joel Cheatwood, will join Mr. Beck at Mercury Radio Arts starting later this month.

So, while my fellow Progressives pat themselves over this “victory” they cannot see the massive head fake in the story, and claim FOX is “well rid of Cheatwood” (he had the temerity to talk to Beck without Royal Leave to do so), I call shennanigans and bullshit. As an actor, I have to analyze a script, to get “into the head” of the character and circumstances. I apply the same standard to entertainment news – if there is more than one article on the same subject, I’ll look at all of them as things are always “left out”. like the statement above. As far as I know, THAT is the ONLY reference to FOX involvment with Beck’s production company. Roger Ailes is quite happy that we think that Beck was fired or quit:

Beck said that he went to Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman and CEO, in January to discuss ways they could continue to work together without the daily show.

“Half of the headlines say he’s been canceled,” Ailes said. “The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.”
…
Ailes emphasized that Fox and Beck will continue to work together.

“We like each other,” he said in a dual interview with Beck. “We’re not drawing pictures of each other on the walls, having staff fights and stealing each other’s food out of the refrigerator or any of that stuff.”

Beck sees himself as “Howard Beale” are we seeing the beginning of Beck’s desired end?

The proof is in the pudding with my claim that the Vertical Integration between Beck and FOX is being studiously ignored:

WaPo

ABC News

even media matters gets it wrong

UPDATE: AS I SAID, I CALL SHENNANIGANS, and I am correct: From a “press release” over at glennbeck.com regarding Joel Cheatwood’s “defection” from FOX:

Joel Cheatwood, SVP/Development at FOX News, will be joining Mercury Radio Arts effective April 24, 2011. Part of his role as EVP will be to manage the partnership and serve as a liaison with FOX News.

Ailes said, “Joel is a good friend and one of the most talented and creative executives in the business. Over the past four years I have consistently valued his input and advice and that will not stop as we work with him in his new role.”

Activism, Ghimeabragh

wanna avoid getting sick from your dog or cat?

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS! While dealing with the typical hate on dog owners seem to have towards cat owners, blah blah bla disease… like your dog is the healthiest thing on the planet. A liitle research turned up this CDC article:  Animals: Dogs | CDC Healthy Pets Healthy People.  Yes, your dog can transmit the following illnesses: giardia, or hookworm, Crypotsporidium, Lyme Fever, Ringworm, Tapeworm, Salmonella, or Rocky Mountain Fever among others.

How do avoid the possibility of contracting any  of them? Simple:  just as it is with avoiding illnesses transmitted by cats, inlcuding taxoplamsis, is to wash your hands.

If you’re healthy, you probably won’t contract any of the above from your dog, but if you have a compromised immune system, then you need to be more careful.

 

 

Activism, Reprints & Crossposts

The First Amendment does not protect your right to deliberate inflame

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

Terry Jones is directly responsible for this. Arrest Jones for giving Aid & Comfort. The 1st Amendment does not protect one from the yelling of “FIRE” in a crowded theater if there is no fire, and done purely for the panic response. Jones is a fifth columnist who needs to be tried as such. He cannot hide behind “we gave it a trial and found it guilty”. That’s the same as holding a fencepost responsible for embedding a splinter in a rancher. The teaparty and people of Jones’ quasi-religious ilk refuses to understand that words have consequences. and some are very very fatal. Just ask the 20 people who died as a result He knew the CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER  to Life and Limb should he go forth with the book burning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. […] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

Yet, he just didn’t give a shit. It wasn’t HIS life or HIS limbs that would bear the scars of retribution. from the NY TIMES article

Unable to find Americans on whom to vent their anger, the mob turned instead on the next-best symbol of Western intrusion — the nearby United Nations headquarters. “Some of our colleagues were just hunted down,” said a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Kieran Dwyer, in confirming the attack.

YOU ACHIEVED YOUR AIM. HOPE YOU WERE WELL PAYED BY THE DESTROYER OF SOULS.

WITH FREE SPEECH, COMES RESPONSIBILITY

 

NOTE: This originally appeared as a note on my facebook page, which led to a lively and civil discussion on the limits of free speech and its repercussions. One friend brought up flag-burning. No one, to my knowledge or reporteed in the news has been killed for that act. Beaten up and/or arrested, but not murdered.    

update: Jones has called the repercussions in Afghanistan “tragic”, but he isn’t repentant, and the death toll due to this incident ha passed 50

1
oil on velvet

R.I.P. Republican “Grand Old Party” Party 1854-2010

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

The “Grand Old Party” a/k/a GOP a/k/a The Republican Party a/k/a The Party of Lincoln was finally laid to rest after succumbing to neurodegeneration. It was 146 years old. The Grand Old Party had a long and distinguished life beginning with its fight against extending (but not ending) slavery into the Territories. It’s earliest members were former Whigs, Know-Nothings, and Free Soil Democrats. In 1856, it’s slogan was “Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men”. However, it wasn’t until the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, that they suddenly became abolitionist rather than simply “containists”. After Lincoln’s assassination, and the election of US Grant, GOP saw rot set in in the form of corruption. Under the stewardship of GOP, America saw the disenfranchisement of Americans in the South, the driving of former slaves off plantations, away from the only work they knew, and, the re-classification of Creoles as “Negro”

Tell me, does American Composer Louis Mareu Gottschalk, a Creole, look “black” to you?

Well,  GOP thought so, simply because his mother was Haitian. and, so legislated him to the ranks of historical error, and thus gave birth to the “tragic mulatto” meme. GOP lost interest in the fate of freedmen, and came to fear the freedmen (blacks) as “potentially dangerous to the economy” by perhaps demanding a fair wage?

GOP used churches from its birth to gather support:

Historians have explored the ethnocultural foundations of the party, along the line that ethnic and religious groups set the moral standards for their members, who then carried those standards into politics. The churches also provided social networks that politicians used to sign up voters. The pietistic churches emphasized the duty of the Christian to purge sin from society. Sin took many forms—alcoholism, polygamy and slavery became special targets for the Republicans. The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (during the war), the Methodists, along with Scandinavian Lutherans. The Quakers were a small tight-knit group that was heavily Republican.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Republican_Party

Continue reading →

Ghimeabragh

The FBI uses AOL?

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

this arrived in my email spam. Just too good to pass.

ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONITORY CRIMES DIVISION
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535-0001

This is an official advice from the FBI foreign remittance/telegraphic dept. it has come to our notice that bank of Nigeria has released us$10m of your payment into Account of BANK OF AMERICA in your name as the beneficiary, The bank Nigeria knowing fully well that they do not have enough facilities to effect this payment from Nigeria to your account, Their used what we know as a ìsecret diplomatic transit paymentî (S.T.D.P) to pay this fund through wire transfer, but this means of transfer can not reflect to your account as this was wrong method of transfer.

The already transferred funds, which was made in secret transfer so that they can do final crediting to your account but it can not work. Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities why must your payment be made in secret transfer, if your transaction is legitimate, if you are not a terrorist, then why did you not receive the money directly into your account, This is a pure coded means of payment, Records which we have had with this method of payment in the past has always been related to terrorist acts, we do not want you to get into trouble as soon as these funds reflect in your account, so it is our duty as a world wide commission to correct this little problem before this fund will be credited into your personal account.

Due to the increased difficulty and unnecessary scrutiny F.B.I crime commission has (STOPPED THE TRANSFER)on its way to deliver to your account and pay you through a secured diplomatic transit account (S.D.T.A). We govern and oversee funds Transfer for the World Bank and the rest of the world. We advice you contact us immediately, as the funds have been stopped and are being held in our custody, until you can be able to provide us with a DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY SEAL OF TRANSFER(dist) within 3 days from the world local bank that authorize the transfer from where the funds was transferred from to certify that the funds that you are about to receive from Nigeria are not antiterrorist/drug free or we shall have cause to cross and impound the transfer, we shall release the funds immediately we receive this legal documents mentioned.

We have decided to contact you directly to acquire the proper verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this fund, because of the amount involve, we want to make sure is a clean and legal money you are about to receive. Be informed that the fund are now in your name , but right now we have ask the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them unless we ask them to do so, because we have to carry out our investigations first before releasing the fund to you.

Note that the fund is in BANK OF AMERICA right now, but we have ask them not to credit the fund to you yet, because we need a solid proof and verifications from you before releasing the funds.

So to this regards you are to re-assure and proof to us that what you are about to receive is a clean money by sending to us FBI Identification Record and also Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) to satisfy to us that the money you are about to receive is legitimate and real money. You are to forward the documents to us immediately if you dont have it in your possession, do let us know so that we will direct and inform you where to obtain the document and send to us so that we will ask the bank holding your funds to go ahead Crediting your account immediately.

This Documents are to be issued to you from the World Local Bank that Authorized the transfer, so get back to us immediately if you dont have the document so that we will inform you the particular place to obtain the document because we have come to realize that the fund was Authorized by the bank that initialized the transfer Identification Record and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment,naturalization, or military service. These conditions is Valid only for few days after we shall take actions on canceling the payment and then charge you for illegally moving funds out of Nigeria.

Final instruction:
60fCredit payment instruction: irrevocable credit guarantee
61eBeneficiary has full power when validation is cleared
62 Beneficiaries bank in Usa/outside. can only release funds-
62 Upon confirmation from the world bank/united nations.
64 Bearers must clear bank protocol and validation request

NOTE: We have asked for the above documents to make available the most complete and up-to date records possible for the enhancement of public safety welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights. If you fail to provide the Documents to us, we will charge you with the FBI and take our proper action against you for not proofing to us the legitimate of the fund you are about to receive.

The United States Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his or her own Record for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities in U.S and outside. An individual may request a copy of his or her own FBI Identification record for personal review or to challenge information on the Record. Other reasons an individual may request a copy of his or her own Identification Record may include international adoption or to satisfy a requirement to live or work in a foreign country or receive funds from another country (i.e.,Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer, letter of good conduct, criminal history background,etc.)

WARNING: failure to produce the above requirement in the next72 hours, legal action will be taken immediately by arresting and detaining you, if found guilty, you will be jailed. As terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering is a serious problem in our community today. The F.B.I will not stop at any length in tracking down and prosecuting any criminal who indulge in this criminal act. FORWARD THE DOCUMENT TO US VIA EMAIL ATTACHEMENT AS SOON AS YOU OBTAIN IT.

THANKS
FBI Director
Robert S. Mueller, III

What I love: the bad spelling/usage, the “familiarity in the sig, the presumption I bank at BofA, and the hilarity of it all. But it makes me wonder, if any of the Teapartiers have fallen for it.

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Prose & Poetry, Rumours Gin Mill

Like Attracts Like?, or, Why I think the LoA is nonsense

Posted on by The 40 year old magpie

OOOOOOH HERETIC!!!!! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Yeah, you heard me. I think the “Law of Attraction” is bull. It’s hypocritical. It’s all touchy feely “picking up good vibrations” but when the Universe gives you negative “excitations”, suddenly, it stops being “Like Attracts Like” and the back-tracking begins. If my awesome experiences are the result of “Like Attracts Like” then why aren’t the not so awesome experiences? Is it because you can’t accept a “Plutonic Universe”, a Blind, yet potent Force that bestows Fortune and Tragedy without regard for social station, place or circumstance?

“But, Magpie”, you say, “bad things are circumstance. The Universe is a Loving place. We were created out of love. How can it be so cruel?”

“Simple. When I was much younger, I used to pretend I was on a soap opera with a pivotal hospital scene. Circumstance surrounding it are never explained, but sometimes, I would have facial injuries, as that’s what I almost always saw – unless of course it was the dreaded “incurable disease of unknown origin”. May of 1999, my hospital pretend came to pass with my being beaten. Now, according to LoA, I planted that outcome. Except I didn’t. Capice? No? Okay. Here’s another example of why it’s wrong wrong wrong. Friend of mine and I used to make quiet fun of the bag ladies we saw in San Francisco. Bag Ladies. That is what homeless women were called way back in the “good ol’ days” of the 1970’s. I’ve bee chronically homeless. Did I attract that, or just “wrong place, wrong time”? LoA will tell me “wrong place, wrong time” So will the Bergian version of Kaballah.

It’s all about “Touch-Feely” Goodness that like a lot of “modren” neo-paganism as well, cannot accept the duality of their gods. So LoA is also incapable of accepting that “Like attracts Like” for good or ill. and, it ain’t “Rubberband Karma”, either.

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