How & Why

One April 27, 2009 I had a heart attack.
My second heart attack.
The blocked artery was the same artery that was unblocked by an angioplasty in July of 2006.
News to me that I would "need" two angioplasties, two stents, in the same artery.
Must be crowded in there.
I look like I got beat up badly by a gang.
Many bruises, holes and wounds in my body.
Plus rashes, courtesy of my eight day stay in the hospital. on my chest, back and legs.
And now 10 medications, taken at three different times a day are required to keep me "alive".
Plus a home nursing visit and a blood draw required to monitor the medication, which could also kill me.
I fact one medication, being mainlined into me during my stay, was a bit too much, and my heart actually stopped beating for 7-8 seconds. A nurse rushed in and turned the IV off, and my heart kicked in again.
Talk about the cure being worse than the disease...

More later.
Maybe...

TAX IS THEFT

This will replace oil, natural gas, wasting trees, create jobs and allow 25,000 great products to be made in America.

Please call your U.S. Representative.
Ask her/him to support the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009.

Talking Points:
 1) Please become an original co-sponsor of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009.
 2) The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul and Rep. Barney Frank and is scheduled to be introduced this Thursday.
 3) The legislation is identical to HR 1009 introduced in the 110th Congress.
 4) If you would like to learn more about this agricultural issue, please read the latest version of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report "Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity," which is dated March 23, 2007 and has the order code RL32725.
 5) Please send me a reply.
 6) Thank you.

Of course the smarter, more practically intelligent Canadians already grow industrial hemp.
My mother was Canadian. We should have moved when I was a kid. Or during the Viet Nam war years. Too many dumb GOP capitalists and not enough smart DEM leftists in the USA.
We are just corporate pawns in their game.

Or maybe I should have stayed in Ireland when I visited 39 years ago.

Please call your U.S. Representative.
Ask her/him to support the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009.

Help yourself, help our nation.

Hemp Is Not Pot: It's the Economic Stimulus and Green Jobs Solution We Need. LINK

(an open letter to the usual suspects)

IF THE SHOE FITS, THROW IT.

I want to make it clear that I am not defending the uber-criminal Bernard Madoff. But I was amused/appalled/surprised when NBC Nightly News Talking Haircut Brian Williams called Madoff a "shyster". The use of a blatant anti Semitic remark says a great deal about the mainstream media and how anger about money & theft trumps the usual boundaries applied to what passes for news reporting on NBC.

And is Madoff a lawyer? I don't recall hearing or reading that... But. once again, the words of Billy the Bard fit.

Madoff is certainly scum who let his status in the National Greed Industry drain whatever drop of humanity might have been within him when he landed on earth. I doubt any Big Money News Organization/Corporation will ever whisper the simply truths that Wall Street is all about Gambling, banks thrive on Debt, and that Speculation is not Investing. The tenants of our so called American Economy are pure fantasy, lies in support of the class war that politicians, economists, bankers or lawyer dare not speak of. The few Intelligent elected officials, no matter their party, persuasian or ideology know they must not reveal these secrets. It would result in their removal from office by employees of their Ruling Class Masters. Most politicians can be bought off. But the memory of Lincoln, the Kennedy brothers, and Martin Luther King reminds all what extremes can be taken if a ethical, truthful rebel decides to actually change things.

Madoff is obviously protecting his son, wife and business partners in crime. He and they should be locked in dog sized cages to sleep. But they should also be put to work, using their specialized criminal skills to make back all the money they stole and paying it back to their victims. I suppose their will be a made-for-tv movie starring Sam Waterson, but Howie Mandel or Penn Gillette would be my casting choice. Or maybe Michael Douglas.

There is something very wrong in the fact  that GWB and his NeoCon Crew are free and the brave Muntader al-Zaidi is in jail. The Faux Pres Bush and his gang should be housed in one tiny cell in Gitmo. Elite Israeli Commandos should be dispatched to break  al-Zaidi out of prison. He and his family should be brought here. He should then be given a TV game show where the latest bank, Wall Street, corporate and political thieves would be pummeled with American made brogans, cross-trainers, galoshes, mukluks, and oxford,, five nights a week. Shoe throwers would pay a buck a throw. The money could solve much of our fiscal chaos.

The rest of our national and local money, energy and employment problems could be easily solved by legalizing Industrial Hemp growing in America. Sadly the elected and appointed gatekeepers are more interested in serving their corporate masters, as they fleece We The People, aka their Working Class Cash Cows.

St. Paddy's Day is here. Hope you don't have The Luck Of The Irish, but it seems in 2009 we all do.

BUZZ
The online BUZZ in Bay View is about the (1) unprecedented wave of vandalism. Some of it is gang tagging, some might be non-gang tagging and some seems almost incomprehensible as far as motive. That would include five teenagers invading Bellas Fat cat on a Sunday afternoon and proceeding to destroy a laminated tabletop right in front of everyone on site. When confronted by the owner, one of the Vandals assaults him (nose punch), the profane puncher is detained (a patron calls 911) and the other four criminals escape. Even weirder, the girl in the group returns to the scene of the crime. As I write I have seen no media coverage of the strange event.
(2) Parking and snow, including an Entrepreneurial City Parking Checker who has been breaking the law herself for years. Neighbors have identified her as an Officer Heron.
(3) URBAN  AQUACULTURE: Citizen Godsil, Milwaukee's own poet, Entrepreneur, writer, publisher and activist is working towards urban farming, both vegetables and fish. James ideas can be read at his WIKI Publication: The Milwaukee Renaissance

PAGE & SCREEN
I used to do pop culture criticism and I've decided to do a bit again on this blog. The Avalon Theatre, once planning to reopen in 2009 has not found the funding. So there is no movie theatre in my neighborhood. That means travel, TV or DVD are the options. I am a fan of both Jim Jarmusch and Bill Murray. Check out the excellent COFFEE AND CIGARETTES (DVD). A star studded film shot over a decade or more with the actors appearing in the film Jarmusch was working on at the time. Cate Blanchett acting as herself and her cousin, and Murray with two of the Wu-Tang Clan (RZA & GZA) are only two of the wonderful segments. Then go to hulu.com and watch another cast of stars in BROKEN FLOWERS.

I will always encourage people to find a copy of GEEK LOVE, my favorite American novel of the last century. You will love it or hate it, but never forget it. I've heard that Tom Wolf is coming out with another book, about class, wealth, this economic depression, set in Miami. Due this year. And if you wanna try a few more of my obsessions try anything by Don DeLillo (FALLING MAN is the latest) and William Gibson (SPOOKS is the latest from the Canadian author who coined the term "cyberspace". Online you can get a free copy of Scott Adams humorous and controversial GOD'S DEBRIS.

One last thing: help save our City, State and Nation. Tell your elected sevants to leagalize industrial hemp. Save the trees, reyclable hemp plastic, no more foreign oil, lots of jobs, etc. Tell them now. ( Hemp, hemp, hooray )

PART ONE: A SHORT HISTORY OF THIS BLOG

For a period of time in the 1990s I worked at the Milwaukee Access Telecommunication Authority. That was the too long name of the Public Access Cable TV nonprofit organization. Public Access was an amazing, visionary, paradigm shifting idea.

MATA (as it was called) was funded by money from Milwaukee cable subscribers that passed thru the evil monopolistic franchise holder for the City, Time Warner Cable. When the 15 year franchise was renewed Time Warner Cable renegotiated the franchise contract with the City of Milwaukee. All but a couple of the members of the then serving Common Council were bribed (campaign contributions) to sell out the citizens in favor of becoming business partners with the evil monopoly.

In the process they gutted the Public Access funding and screwed over the public they were sworn to, hired to serve.

During the first 15 years one could pay $4.95 a month for cable TV. Now the lowest fee is ten times that amount.

While all but a couple elected politicians serving then sold out the citizens, MATA was not faultless. We fought a good fight and many citizens and community groups showed up at a hearing to speak for continued full funding of Public Access. Even the then afternoon daily newspaper giant (the Milwaukee Journal) wrote an editorial supporting Public Access funding.

But in the end money talked again, the soulless corporation won and the people lost, again.

The City had a watchdog Cable Regulation Office. The office was closed and the staff laid off. The City Clerks Office was supposed to "regulate" cable in Milwaukee. But there is actually no regulation for the life of the 17 year period of the franchise. More recently State politicians further screwed the citizens by removing cable franchising from local control and moving it to Madison. Greed was the reason.

MATA was, and is, maybe the worst managed & administered non profit agency I have ever encountered. The rather highly paid (compared to the rest of the staff) Executive Director is as devoid of those qualities requisite for effective leadership of any person I have ever worked for.

Back then I wrote a column: THE HOW OF WHY. The column originated as a monthly element of the MATA newsletter. It was then mainly a media literacy column. Next it became a column in a print publication, THE BAY VIEW COMPASS, which basically serves the Bay View neighborhood on the Southeast side of the City of Milwaukee. My column expanded beyond media literacy content at that time. I was paid $35 a month to write my column. I got lots of positive feed back from readers, but it had a short print life when the publisher (who lives in Wauwatosa, not Bay View) fired me and a couple of other writers. Now it is in the present form, an online blog for a big monopoly media corporation. And it is less neighborhood centric in content. And the name of my blog was changed from THE HOW OF WHY to HOW & WHY (which sort of misses the point). Oh, and now I am a “Community Voice” which means “No Pay”.

With the INTERNET now in the middle of the ongoing battle to either stay somewhat open or go the way of commercial sponsored media, who knows how long the present diversity of blog forms will survive? As long as it remains possible the  HOW & WHY will continue to be one version of thousands of Milwaukee voices online. Check back from time to time, won't you?


PART TWO:
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones." – John Cage

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." – Pablo Picasso

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." – George Santayana

Almost spring, and almost a decade into this new century. Time to attempt to revisit THE WHY OF HOW roots. What is/was the purpose of calling a column/blog THE WHY OF HOW? Stay with me here, while I remember.

HOW we do things is very important. Part of any discussion or proposition involves HOW something is created, HOW it works, HOW you and I can master it. But HOW is always a secondary understanding. It's a good question, an important question. Its also a question that should not even be asked until the most important, primary question is answered. WHY?

WHY is always the first and most important question. HOW is meaningless and silly unless we know WHY. HOW will be determined by the answer to WHY. Leave out WHY and you create HOWS that are at best useless, at worst, ignorantly destructive.

Lets look at several examples.

Take education. Please. Public schools, school choice, charter schools, for profit schools, vouchers – all of these are HOWS, none of them are WHYS. And so the entire school/education debate in Milwaukee (and the nation) is basically ignorant and useless at this point, because we have not started out by asking the very simple all–important first question: Why do we want to educate our children, here and now at the beginning of the 21st century. To be compliant and productive future workers? To be curious adults and life long learners? To be critical, intelligent and informed citizens of a democratic republic? To keep young children and adolescents out of the job market until they reach a specific age? To sort and authorize children according to intelligence, talent or class? To help all children reach the optimum potential as individuals and members of society. Advocates of educator John Dewey will have quite different answers than most members of a MMAC. There are many possible answers, but since educational policy and process is public and societal, we have to come to some agreement on WHY. Once that is agreed upon we could try all the HOWS we could think of as long as they supported the WHY. But first we must ask WHY.

How about Politics?

WHY make politics the main way we determine public policy. Given that we can all observe and study history, its not hard to make a case that the WHY of politics is and always will be the seizure and maintenance of power. Is that compatible with the WHY of social order, economic stability or cultural progress in a democratic republic?

It should not be hard to see that we, as a people, have confused HOW with WHY. Many of our best and brightest only talk about HOW, never venturing into the realm of WHY. It is as if we assume that the WHYS are all a given, worked out by our ancestors. Of course that is nonsense. Each generation, each culture, each individual needs to ask WHY anew. Actually asking WHY every seven years or so is the most functional way of keeping any organization, association, collaboration, corporation alive and vital.

So, WHY the present electoral process? What is the overall purpose of the process in light of the relatively new and rapidly converging and developing technologies? What purpose could print, broadcast, cable, satellite TV and the Internet, be in the electoral process? To merely sell the attention of the viewer to the highest party or corporate bidder. Or should the HOW of this unprecedented set of advanced communications technologies serve a less pedestrian, more democratic, more socially progressive, more ecologically sustaining, more educational and more humanly scaled guiding ideal? Mass communications as it now is commercially employed primarily to sort and market human attention for a reductive industry called Marketing. What would it look and sound like if its main purpose was to interconnect the minds of people in order to advance human understanding, wisdom and progress?

Pick any topic of public concern/debate and apply the WHY/HOW equation. The viability of the human race is now in question largely because of HOW we employ our extraordinary abilities to create and apply technologies. It is high time for every discussion to begin with the question WHY.

It may already be too late.

The elected officials work for you and I. We are the boss of them. And every good boss, or the H.R. pro who works for the boss, knows that you HIRE FOR ATTITUDE, TRAIN FOR SKILL. Wanna place blame for the bad elected politician of your choice. Trace the responsibility to We The People.

Most of the time...

It is comforting that We The People, at Least most of us who voted, did not vote for George W. Bush. The 1st term we voted for Al Gore. Hindsight is 20-20, but even mid-Cheney/Bush 1st term, it was plain that while we might not want to have a beer with Al & Tipper, the nation and the world would have been better off with anybody but a Bush.

Now it is plain that with President Obama, We The People elected a man with the right attitude to mobilize the citizens of the United States of America to fix what Cheney, Rove, the Bushes and the other neocon criminals did in their 8 year campaign to destroy our nation. Apologists sat, "Well, I think they actually believed that they were doing the right thing". People who think that are either Republicans, brainwashed, liars or all three. President Obama should keep a Gitmo cell block open just for Cheney, the Bushes, and their posse.

And now, despite the election, the facts or just plain common sense, the remaining Republican Senators and Representatives are saying, "No, do not listen to the new Administration, listen to us. We can tell you how to fix the economy that we completely ruined. Do more of the same." Expand the space at Gitmo for these traitors too.

One more thing. Yes, Obama is different from every other President of the United States.

Correct me If I am wrong, but I think he is the first Hawaiian born President. But let's stop insulting his mother and African Americans. An honest analysis of history would admit that Barack Obama is not black. He is the first mixed-race politician ever to get elected to our highest national office. In our two party nation, separate ethnic categories always labeled as class, ethnic and race are politically ghettoized as commonplace two party business-as-usual. In such a dysfunctional organized society, President Obama's achievements are all the more astounding since he, in reality, fits neatly nowhere in the carefully maintained little boxes

Yes, I know, in one specific and singular sense can Obama be historically termed "black". In the US, as in the UK, until pretty recently, "black" was a political identification/shorthand/buzzword for "not white" by those controlling the game of power dominated by white, wealthy, male hands. For Republicans such as Colin Powell and Condi Rice, the recent historical shift was some top jobs finally did get into the hands of non-white Americans. But the adjective has become an identity and racial marker for the Democratic nominee, and used in that manner, "black" is disingenuous, and ethically and morally objectionable.

Accomplished mixed-race Americans have been encouraged to call themselves "black" as a "badge of honor," evidence that they are not ashamed of their multiracial roots. And that too is weird, to me. When the celebrity golfer, Tiger Woods, said that he was African, Caucasian, Native American and Asian, he was denounced by many African Americans for denying his "true" heritage. To put it mildly, that is a load of crap.

During the unfortunate times of when our nation participated in transatlantic slavery, biracial children (many born out of rape by a master or overseer) were branded "black" to deny them white paternity and concomitant rights accorded to offspring. Now some of the descendants of that history demand that same denial, because it appears that too many of them also despise amalgamation. That was then. We now have a chance to move, transform and improve our nation and make race not less of an issue, but no issue at all.

Tiger Woods and Barack Obama are fine examples to, and of, that growing change within many nations. The revolutionary tide of individuals and families made up of many parts, who cannot be held in evil, political man-made prisons of biological and cultural "purity". We are taking baby steps from sterile gene puddle, into vital, exciting, unpredictable seas full of unknown, hybrid creatures who are the latest evolution of the human beings. The journey will have perils, we will navigate them, for we are heading where we always wanted and needed to go. Towards freedom.

Obama's parents were an African man and white American woman. Like many couples, they were unable to be parents together. Their son, however, came through stronger, wiser, more adaptive, because he had to. Some with the same stories do make it, others don't and self destruct.

Obama has admitted, he would be nobody – he would not exist – without his mom. She wasn't perfect. She made mistakes. But she was a brave woman and defied the social order of her time. By calling himself loudly and proudly "biracial" Obama can integrate his mother into his success story. We must do the same. How do many white parents feel when they are systematically demeaned, diminished and sometimes removed altogether from the biographies of their mixed-race children, even when they have been the ones doing the parenting. At long last in this troubled country, we have an opportunity to move on from the views expressed by bigots. Assertive mixed-race couples and children have enabled that progress.

I have heard others wonder how many African-Americans would have supported Obama if his wife was Anglo-Saxon, Hispanic or Asian? As for me, I am ready to give up being a white man, an Irish American - hell, even the identity of a man. I feel no pride in any of those labels. I did nothing to be any of them. Luck of the draw. I'll settle for "human being".

Join me. Do your best. Treat others as you wish to be treated.

Then we can all be accomplished, brave and PROUD Americans.
 

moron (plural morons)
(obsolete) A person of borderline intelligence in the former classification of mental retardation, having of an intelligence quotient of 50-69.
(informal) A person who makes uncool, unfunny, uninteresting, or irrelevant (see lame) attempts to impress others and draw attention to himself, especially in a flawed attempt to act like someone else.

No surprise here. The appointed, unelected moron who played President of the United States of America during the last eight years, also appointed another moron lawyer as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Roberts proved too stupid and too arrogant to take a copy of the oath of office wording to the Inauguration. So he mangled, bumbled, stumbled and totally screwed up the Ceremony of the Day. He had the same dazed and confused look on his face as we have endured as Baby Bush tried to follow his Boss Cheney's direction as he attempted to compleatly destroy our nation.

It is good to have a smart, kind and intelligent President.

When he was Senator Obama, he voted against Roberts. He was kind enough to help the dummy through the televised moment. So President Obama could say a national "I told ya so!" But President Obama has way too much class to mention it.

Roberts is and was never the right lawyer for the job. If he had any class, ethics, honesty, common sense or intelligence he would resign from the Court and disappear under the rock where all the rest of the Republican NeoCons crawled under on January 20th.

WEDNESDAY 01/21/09 UPDATE: "Obama Takes His Oath of Office Again
By Anne E. Kornblut
President Obama took the oath of office -- again -- on Wednesday, out of what a White House lawyer described as "an abundance of caution."

'We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time,' said White House Counsel Greg Craig in a statement issued early Wednesday night.

And so, at 7:35 p.m. today, according to the White House pool report, Roberts again administered the oath in the Map Room of the White House.
'We decided it was so much fun -- ' the first time, Obama joked while sitting on a couch.
Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with the pool reporter as Roberts donned his black robe.
'Are you ready to take the oath?' Roberts asked.
'I am, and we're going to do it very slowly,' Obama replied.
The private swearing-in ceremony took 25 seconds.
After a flawless recitation, Roberts smiled and said, 'Congratulations,
again.'
'Thank you, sir,' Obama replied, to a smattering of applause."
Oh that all the mistakes by the Cheney/Bush appointee's and flunkys cold be undone by a simple "do-over". 

 THURSDAY 01/22/09 UPDATE: The New York Times op-ed piece Oaf of Office explaind how Chief Justice Roberts's "habit of grammatical niggling" has been an ongoing problem in the Court (like Justice Thomas wasn't enough of a problem). To be AMUSED and/or embarrased for our nation, follow this > L I N K.

"No man is an Iland, intire of its selfe: every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine: if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were: any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde: and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee." - John Donne

Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke the above verse during Nobel Lecture, on December 11, 1964. His lecture was entitled “The Quest for Peace and Justice”, delivered in the Auditorium of the University of Oslo, Norway. At the age of thirty-five, he was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
Each year one Monday designated as a American National Holiday commemorating the birthday of Dr. King. He was born as Michael Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta on January 15, 1929 (his father was also originally named Michael). He was renamed when he was about 5 years old when his father decided that they should both change their first names to Martin.

The authorized, sanitized version of Dr. King’s life story is that he fought for racial justice in America. The reality is markedly different. In the last years of his life, Dr. King articulated a far bolder, broader and radical American revolutionary vision, encompassing a clear minded analysis and a severe criticism not only of the role of the United States in the world, but of the very nature of our political and economic system.

Dr. King’s vision was articulated most powerfully in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. He gave the speech on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. He was quickly condemned by the NAACP, civil rights leaders, the Democratic Party (he had campaigned for Lyndon Johnson) and the mainstream media.

It is doubtful that Dr. King would even be allowed to speak at any of the memorial events being held in his name were he alive today. But he does speak to us still as we again find ourselves at a time, well as he said in 1967:

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

He also said:
“These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born.

The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions.”

Others much more experienced and articulate than I have pointed out that these are still revolutionary times.

Our country was born of revolution.

I would argue that our democracy can only be served by continuing the American Revolution each day. But we have given in and given up. The shirtless and barefoot people of the world continue to rise up. But we do not support them and in fact, in many places, we support and are the very forces who use our overwhelming military power to enforce the conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice.

I would suggest that we revisit Dr. King's words and read them in the light of the present day.

“…A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

Dr. King's words are as meaningful, powerful and dangerous as they were in 1967. At least half of adult Americans condemned anyone speaking out against the Bush/Cheney administration's invasions and wars during the last eight years. Now there is a new President of the United States about to be inaugurated. Will Dr. King's words, thoughts and ideas of a more peaceful world be welcome in the Barack Obama/Joe Biden administration? Time will tell.

Exactly to the day, one year after breaking his silence and speaking out against his nation’s injustice, materialism and war waging, Martin Luther King, Jr. was silenced.

Assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Those who call for us to celebrate his birthday but dishonor his life and work and spirit, dishonor all human beings. King spoke well to use Donne’s poem to remind us of who we can be, who we need to be.


“…therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee.”

(Originally published on 01/17/05, I have updated and republished the essay each year  - mjm)
 



`

"Strange things have happened like never before - My baby told me I would have to go - I can't be good no more, once like I did before -I can't be good, baby - Honey, because the world gone wrong. Feel bad this morning, ain't got no home

No use in worrying cause the world gone wrong" -Bob Dylan

World over, war and killing. Jews & Muslims killing each other - world gone wrong.

Iraq, Afganistan, Iran, Muslims killing Muslims, Christians & Muslims killing each other - world gone wrong.

Killing for oil, for natural gas, for beliefs, soldiers mostly killing civilians, children, the innocent - world gone wrong.

People sick, starving, homeless, being forced out of homes, out of jobs, no healthcare, no food, no help right here in the USA - world gone wrong.

Criminal Chertoff in charge of protecting the Obama family - world gone wrong.

International Criminals Cheney and 3 generations of the Bushes are free and richer than before, all the while the untried, uncharged, unconvicted, rot in tiny jail cells - world gone wrong.

United States Attorney's, Federal & State Elected & appointed officials, in charge, ignoring the law - world gone wrong.

Right here, right now, County Executive works against the citizens - world gone wrong.

Right here, right now, educators fighting environmentalists - world gone wrong.

A giant, corrupt monopoly corporation unloads a toxic brownfield on nuns, while it pumps toxins into the air and into the water for an outrageous profit - world gone wrong.

"Strange things have happened like never before - My baby told me I would have to go - I can't be good no more, once like I did before -I can't be good, baby - Honey, because the world gone wrong. Feel bad this morning, ain't got no home - No use in worrying cause the world gone wrong"

Everything above can be changed.

The world wrongs can be made right.

You and I - WE can do the right thing.

please support rational/radical/revolutionary change - practice compassion in all thought/plans/actions.
"Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."
http://charterforcompassion.com/

F O L L O W  T H I S  L I N K.

I have only one New Year's resolution for 2009. I will work all year to ask friends, family, acquaintances and strangers to join me. If it were adopted and practiced by enough people, it would cause a worldwide revolution. It would, literally, change life on earth. And we, you and I, and everyone we know could choose to work for this revolution. Thanks to the technology of the internet, we are able to contact many, many people all over the world.

Each year a conference called TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is held in California. People pay a substantial amount of money to attend. Then they sit, listen and watch days of 20 minute presentations and they get to give their own presentation. In the last few years, videos of these presentations are shown free online. "IDEAS WORTH SHARING" is TED's catchphrase. 15 million people have watched these presentations, according to TED organizers.

Every year, three people are each awarded $100,000 and granted a "wish to change the world," which is presented at TED. In 2008 one of the people was Karen Armstrong. I had been a reader of her writing for a number of years. Ms. Armstrong is British. She was for many years a Catholic nun. She left the church and in the 1980s, became a writer, mostly doing research in comparative religion. Having been confused and interested in religion since the age of seven, I was pleased to discover and read her books The History of God, Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time,The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Buddha and Islam: A Short History. To date she has authored over 20 books.

Also in 2008, she was awarded the Freedom of Worship award by the Roosevelt Institute, for her achievements in demonstrating a commitment to the Four Freedoms proclaimed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and of worship, freedom from want and from fear.

Ms. Armstrong's TED prize was awarded for her "wish": to initiate an International Charter for Compassion. That is the idea that I am supporting as my one 2009 New Year's Resolution. You can see and hear her present her wish below (if this software allows me to embed the video. Or you an just click on this L I N K. The you can spread the idea and even take part in forming the Charter by following this L I N K.

All during the last presidential campaign we have been told that people want change. I do. I want a peaceful revolutionary change. I think the revolution we need has been explained many times by many people. I hope you will commit to creating this revolution of human behavior, understanding and respect.

Not exactly about BV or MKE, but a distincly urban gift.

A gift for all blog readers.
From one of my favorite movies,
my favorite Christmas Story,
"Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" ---> L I N K

Wishing all warmth, safety, community and health!

- michael john moynihan

TIME FOR  BAILOUTS, BLOCKBUSTERS & BOOKS (or money, movies & manuscripts)

12/13/08 UPDATE: I guess this would be about "follow the money" now, and a bestseller (maybe blockbuster movie) later. Once Mr. Obama assumes office, the President-elect Barack Obama will face a severe "trial by fire," as Joe Biden predicted.

But this  "trial by fire" will be thanks to U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Normally when the presidency passes to the "other" party, the new President puts in U.S. Attorney's, who serve at the President's pleasure. Mr. Obama was planning for a more left leaning crew. Mr. Fitzgerald would probably have been moved or even let go.

Now Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald is killing two political birds with one charge. He insures his own job security (showing him the door now would look like an Obama admin cover-up) and he takes down Governor B., who was actually fishing for a Obama/Biden cabinet position. And Fitzgerald, who angered Repub-neo-cons by taking the Cheney boy, Scooter, down, now has a strengthened Republican right wing nut case fan club.

I'm sure the urber ambitious Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald is disappointed he lost out for Attorney General to Eric Holder.

Lawyers! What can you say? Shakespeare was right again. And so it goes...

My father wanted me to be a lawyer...
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,'' Dick the Butcher in ''Henry VI,'' Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73.

12/11/08 Since the corporate owned elected officials are in the bailout biz with we-the-people's money, it seems high time for a People's Bailout. Just Google "people's bailout, start with THIS WEB LINK.

12/10/08 UPDATE: Regarding manuscripts, that is books. My all time favorite novel : GEEK LOVE. If you have not read it, please do. It has been done as a play. Tim Burton is stting on the movie rights. It would be a very interesting film.

JUST ONE OF THE GEEK LOVE WEB LINKS

12/09/08 UPDATE: I used to love watching 2nd/3rd run movies at the Avalon Theater on KK.
I also loved attending live theatre shows there, by the Polaris Puppet Theatre, The Dead Alewives, The Milwaukee Youth theatre and The Milwaukee Public Theatre. I co-founded The Milwaukee Public Theatre. At one performance our show was stopped by a MFD raid. The (then) owners of the Avalon had failed to pay for some City permits, and the honchos at the MFD decided that a raid during a live performance would be more fun than during a movie!? The actual firefighters did what they were told. But after a short discussion, they agreed that the kids and adults in the audience deserved to see the show and the problem was not with we, the thespians, so the show continued (with appreciative firefighters in the audience as long as they didn't get an actual alarm call).

So when the news of the Avalon's sale, renovation and revival as a movie theatre, live theatre venue, small hotel and eatery was revealed, few people were as excited as I. But now the website charting the multi-million dollar renovation no longer can be found. And some still hold hopes for a 2009 re-opening. But in this business closing economy... I'll remain hopeful. I won't be holding my breath.

So me seeing movies in BV means 1)TV or 2) DVD. And that is what I intend to write about in the next update. Until then, a suggestion: Rent, borrow or get the DVD: MICHAEL CLAYTON. (The best father/son scene I have seen in decades. Amazing cast, performances, script and direction. The best & most amazing movie of the year imho.)

MICHAEL CLAYTON WEB LINK

- check back soon for updates -

Apologies to the late, great Dr. Hunter S. Thompson for appropriating and mangling his famous quote, but as the Weiner-Geeze power technology set a Bay View utility pole aflame, and the electricity went on and off again and again in a winter storm, and then more recently the ongoing storm chaos knocked out Time Warner phone, cable and internetz overpriced service, and the news showed people trying to deal with the storm and reporting not seeing the City do the job they are paid to do, I had some time to meditate on the condition our condition is in.

If you need any more evidence that establishes "when things turn stupid, the stupid turn pro"

GWB's delusional daddy (still on the Federal dole) announced he will sky dive again to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Georgia Senator the plainly insane Saxby Chambliss credits his re-election to Sarah Palin.

GWB lil' bro Jebster announces a Senate run in 2010.

The Dept. of Labor reports 533,000 nonfarm jobs were eliminated in November

The UAW volunteers to take cuts to save the Detroit auto industry.

Members of the evil, criminal Bush family are alive but Odetta is dead.

Despite the trampling death of Jdimytai Damour by crazed consumers at a Wal-Mart,
   1) Shoppers refused to stop shopping.
   2) Local & national shoppers & local & national apologists are still supportive of more Wal-Marts being built.

Residents struggle to keep the last bookstore in BV alive (by forming a cooperative). Gee, for years nothing in BV, then 3, now...

And the Fed-Gov, just to cover their behinds and sow a bit 'o fear, announce the high odds of another terrorist attack, this time betting on nukes and or germs.

Just in time for the Holiday season.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30 SAVE THE LAST STANDING BOOKSTORE IN BAY VIEW> L  I  N  K

ONE question

says it all

watch the clip > L I N K 

From the IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE DO IT YOURSELF DEPARTMENT.

Why has the MKE mainstream media ignored a MKE neighborhood story reported in the Huffington Post, and picked up by NEWSWEEK?

"Riverwest, Milwaukee's Recession Plan: Print Own "River Currency"
Huffington Post 2008-11-24 13:30:27.0
People nationwide may start hoarding their cash as recession fears grow. But in Riverwest--a progressive enclave of Milwaukee--residents have another answer to their money trouble: they'll print their own. The proposed River Currency would be used like cash at local businesses, keeping the area economy humming whatever the health of the country at large. "We can create our own value," explains Sura Faraj, 48, one of the plan's organizers.

It's an attractive idea when times are tight. Communities print what look like ordinary bills with serial numbers, anti-counterfeiting details and images of local landmarks (the Milwaukee River, for instance) instead of presidential portraits. Residents benefit through an exchange system: 10 traditional dollars, for instance, nets them $20 worth of local currency. And when businesses agree to value the funny money like real greenbacks, they also get a free stack to kick-start spending."

And it seems like some BAY VIEW BUCKS could help our local economy, with local businesses leaving or falling like dominos. Are BVNA, Forward Bay View, Bay View Social, BVBA at all even interested? Awake? Alive!

You tell me why we refuse to get ourselves out of this depressive economy. Why we wait for BIG BROTHER to trickle down mis-solutions and promote welfare for big corporate failures. How many paid experts does it take to realize WE THE PEOPLE are too big to let fail.

And where are the elected politicians?

AND NOW ON ANOTHER MATTER: Give the video look & then read the comentary. Viral Video to be Sure!!!

"May You Live In Interesting Times" is thought (by some) to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese Proverb and Curse. I don't know about that. No Chinese person has ever said it to me. And I have yet to find it in a fortune cookie. I do think it wold be a better fortune cookie idea than 99% of the ones I have seen. I think fortune cookies should replace lottery cookies. The tiny paper strip would be your number. I'm sure in this digital computer world the paper could be printed, inserted in an already baked fortune cookie, put in a tiny cello bag and spit out in a few seconds. Add rice paper to the process and you could feed your gambling addiction and belly at the same time. Plus jobs for humans and nanobots!

But that's not why you clicked.

"pin-yin:shi shi zao ying xiong" translates to heroes(leaders) are made over turbulent times. Isn't there an NBC TV show based on that? "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period" comes out as "pinyin: níng wéi tàipíng quǎn, bù zuò luànshì rén". I think that is what THE ANIMAL PLANET cable network has in their corporate charter. Then again in some parts of the planet, humans eat dogs. And visa versa! The saying was used in 1966 by the late Bobby Kennedy in a speech he spoke in Cape Town, South Africa. It spoken on  TV shows Magnum, P.I. and Star Trek: Voyager, Donald Sutherland spoke it in the film Disclosure. Dean Koontz wrote it in the novel Tick Tock. But I digress.

These are Interesting Times in Bay View. Difficult times. Businesses closing. Annona Bistro Cafe, easily the best cafe in Bay View and one of the best in southeastern Wisconsin. Milwaukee Shakespeare closed. The Artistic  Director lives in Bay View and the Theatre's offices and workspace were near Chase and Oklahoma. Jobs lost. The Wall Street/Paulsen/Cheny/Bush/McCain 2008 Depression has touched every single person I know. And  now we approach the holiday season for Christians and Capitalists, and that pretty much defines most of us in Bay View, Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Unemployment and business closings equal less money in the flow. Yeah, the mandatory sick pay referendum past, but for everyone who I know who supported it, I know six or seven who whine, complain and rant about it. And I do not just mean our Mayor or the usual corporate shill apologists that have right wing nut case radio and/or TV shows.

One of my kids worked at Annona. Every Thanksgiving every employee received a free turkey from the owners. That is the kind of people Bay View has abandoned. If more Bay View residents had patronized the well reviewed, reasonably priced, uniquely menued Cafe (winner of an annual chili competition, best pizza around) would still be open today. Serving delicious food and employing a family like staff. Annona even had a piano, live music two nights a week, served brunch, liquor, an outside patio and was life sized and intimate. You could talk to your dining companions without recorded music making you have to shout.

I have two Thanksgiving gifts for you. One is a video, free on the @I N T E R W E B Z  D O T C O M Z@ . One is an amazing book that shaped my life when I cofounded a small grassroots theatre company. (Oh, yeah, and Broad Vocabulary is also closing unless it can become a cooperative owners and operated bookstore. Local homophobes and Republicans can be thanked for that possible loss.) So to the gifts:

THE VIDEO: Happy Thanksgiving       W E B L I N K

THE BOOK:  The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property - by Lewis Hyde      W E B L I N K

breaking news: as of 01/20.09 the word "nuclear" will be pronounced correctly. It will still be laughable when GWB and Gov Palin mispronounce it. GWB's saying "the internets" and "on the google" will always be 1) funny; 2) scary; 3) evidence the disturbing last eight years. Film at 10.

In less than two weeks the annual holiday season will begin.
Given the enormous fiscal storm we are in, there may be much less to go around as far as 'tis the season as we count our blessings. Here is hoping that comfort, joy, compassion and generosity flow from heart to heart. Shared food is often the organizing principle as we approach year's end.

In this blog entry I am asking a question that involves both limitations and thoughts of needs that must be met.
This is about scarcity and choices.

If you have an answer, please post it as a comment.

If you were told that during all of 2009 you were limited to seven food items, only seven, excluding beverage choices, what seven foods would you choose?

The First World's War was supposed to be the WAR TO END ALL WARS.

Now, a decade short of a century,it appears that war is a constant, never-ending, business as usual, way of life.

November 11th, 2008 is the 90th anniversary of the armistice
that ended the First World War.
"It will be commemorated very differently (LINK)
on each side of the Atlantic and across the borders of Europe."

It was ninety years ago today,
President Wilson taught the band to play
War’s been going in and out of style
But they're guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you
The holiday known for all these years,
The Veteran’s Armistice Day Military Band.

We're The Veteran’s Armistice Day Military Band,
We hope you will recall the wars,
We're The Veteran’s Armistice Day Military Band,
Sit back and let the memoris soar.

We're The Veteran’s Armistice Day Military...
We're The Veteran’s Armistice Day Military Band,
It's wonderful to be here,
There will a parade.
You're such a tiny audience,
We'd like to take you along with us,
We'd love to take you there.

I don't really want to stop the show,
But I thought that you might like to know,
That the vets wanna sing a song,
And they want you all to sing along.
So let me introduce to you
The veterans of 90 years of war,
And The Veteran’s Armistice Day Militartary Band!

Two, one, two, three, four
Ev'rybody's talking about
Terrorism, Patriotism, Republicanism, Democratism,
Greenism, Bushism
This-ism, That-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m
All we are saying is give piece a chance,
All we are saying is give piece a chance
Sing along!
It is Veteran’ Day 2008

(based on the Lennon/McCartney songs)

Artists are often the brilliant, practical, experienced, philosophical, wise and unacknowledged legislators of the world.
And here's the law, as laid down by the merchant marine, stock broker, highly educated, well traveled, and finally great painter, Paul Gauguin.

“YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE STUPID. YOU HAVE A DUTY NOT TO.”

Our less than inspiring, visionary or even practical Milwaukee Mayor, our “I never graduated from college” County Executive and “THE SKY IS FALLING!” Chicken Littles that pass for business leaders in Milwaukee are busy crying “THE END IS NEAR” in regard to the results of the November 4 election.

Most people should communicate with their elected public servants on a regular basis. These folks (our employees) need good, smart, informed direction. Their corporate contributers/masters employ people to tell our elected public servants to ignore our wisdom and ideas.

TWO THINGS

#1 PAID SICK LEAVE
Fantasy, ignorance, lies, hypocrisy or fear should not replace experience and facts in the paid sick leave debate.

77,000 Milwaukee workers benefiting from paid sick leave will save their employers millions of dollars in turnover costs.
The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce Steve Baas, government affairs director, said he had not examined the facts but disagreed when asked about them.
Mr Bass gets well paid to express his ignorance. He enjoys paid sick leave.

"No one should be forced to choose between coming to work sick or staying home and losing income" according to Margaret Henningsen, vice president of Legacy Bank.
Ed Senger, director of store operations for Outpost Natural Foods, said its 285 full- and part-time employees have had paid sick leave for 25 years. The workers appreciate the benefit and it helps reduce turnover, he said.
122,230 Milwaukee workers, 47% of the private sector workforce, lacked paid sick days.
More than 77,000 workers will now get paid sick days as a new benefit.
Milwaukee employers will save $38 million annually, largely from reduced turnover costs.
Half of all workers with paid sick days do not take any days off for illness in a given year.
Workers will use an average of 1.8 days of paid sick leave annually for their own medical needs, excluding maternity leave.
Paid sick leave reduces the spread of serious contagious diseases like influenza.
Getting timely medical care saves money and speed recovery.
These facts were published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

As TV’s Jack Webb used to say, just the facts

# 2  PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
An open letter to our community public servants/leaders:

Dear Milwaukee Elected Leaders,

I am writing to ask you to advance Public Transit in our community to a level of Public Access, Service and National Excellence.

On November 4th I and a majority of our fellow voters voted to do just that by voting to advise you transfer Public Transit funding from the property tax to the sales tax.

I am a 62 year old life long public transit rider by choice and necessity.
Since 2006 I have been handicapped, on a very limited income, so public transportation is even more important to me.
My young adult children, their mother as well as many of my Bay View neighbors all depend on public transportation for work and school.
I attend St. Ann's Intergenerational Center. Many of the children, parents, staff, elderly and disabled clients literally depend upon public transportation, literally, as a lifeline.

I am able to walk short distances with a cane, weather permitting. But when levels of air pollution are high I have great difficulty breathing and functioning. The primary man made element in polluted air are automobile exhaust. More public transit use and less private automobile use is an important solution in making our urban area a more healthy place to live, work, create and study.

For decades before my disability I was an artist and teacher. I founded a nonprofit theatre company that presented free to the public and low cost original performances in schools, community centers, hospitals, nursing homes and in public parks. Air quality and access to public transit was an important factor for our performers and audience. The Milwaukee Public Theatre continues to serve hundreds of thousands of citizens each year. It also employs Milwaukee artists and is often the first professional job for young Milwaukee performers.

Please support the will and best interest of We the People and advance Public Transportation in our community.

Thank you for you kind attention and public service.

Michael John Moynihan
Bay View, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA