spoke the cat

Crime

2011-11-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to think there is something wrong with New Orleans. God knows I love this city but it can wear you down. The crime is out of control. How many times have I written that? How many more times will I write it. Wake the fuck up New Orleans! We are complacent about this city's problems. We see drug dealers and ignore them. we hear gun shots and think nothing of it. Sirens wail in the distance and it just so much background noise. There is something wrong with us. We cannot even keep an area as small as the French quarter safe. It is enough to make you dream of moving. I wonder what it must be like to feel safe. How wonderful it must be to walk the streets after dark. I expect i would feel slightly out of place after having soldiered through this city's war for so long. Hmmm...Portland. They say Portland is very safe. You can walk after dark. You can feel safe.

spoke relearns the aloofness of a cat

2011-02-27T16:58:00.000-08:00

you reach an age when you realize that you cannot please everyone all the time, nor should you try. i am not perfect and that is ok. so you can talk shit about me and i will be just fine. you can walk away thinking horrible things of me and i will survive. i will come away from all of this stronger than when i entered into it. i will walk away knowing that i am a good person at heart and that i tried to treat you well. i will take with me all the good that you brought into my life and try hard to leave the bad by the road side. it has been a hell of a ride but onto new adventures. the world is waiting and damn but it is beautiful.

trying to understand the new l.s.u hospital

2011-02-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

there is no level one trauma center in new orleans and despite this fact, the powers that be have decided not to rehab the existing charity hospital in favor of a much more expensive and disruptive new facility. this medical behemoth will sit atop land where family homes once stood, homes recently renovated from the katrina deluge. these homes were a part of the city's architecturally significant landscape which has become all the more precious after the flooding literally disintegrated so many where they stood.

the project is full steam ahead. empty land spreads out where families once played out their lives. all those beautiful old homes just gone. there is one building of historical significance remaining and that is the old mcdonogh school. this beautiful german gothic style structure will fall to the wrecking ball if something is not done to save it. i fail to see why l.s.u cannot incorporate it into their plan for the area rather than tear this building down. new orleans is a slow, sleepy city where the residents rarely get riled up about anything but if we as a city do not start standing up to save our historic gems, then soon we may look like dallas or atlanta.

if anyone reading this is interested then let's start making some noise. let's try an organize a "save mcdonogh school"

great quote

2011-01-30T15:35:00.000-08:00

"children are loud and you can't understand what they are saying. they are like tiny cab drivers." fantastic!

the crazies of christmas are out

2010-12-27T15:28:00.000-08:00

i was in the thick of french quarter combat parking when this lady, that looked like a romanian goth version of miss piggy, stepped out into traffick. she was daring me to hit her and i took her dare, forcing her to stop mid-waddle. aghast, she hexed me old world style complete with strange signs and a vitriolic pox on me and my children.

3 things

2010-12-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

1.)the senate repealed "don't ask, don't tell." finally gay men and lesbians can serve without the fear of being drummed out of the military simply for being who they are. it is a good day in this country.

2.)there is a lunar eclipse tonight on the eve of the winter solstice. if that does not conjure your inner pagan then nothing will.

3.) nash roberts died. in my 15 plus years of living in new orleans, i have never made a decision about evacuation in the face of an approaching storm, without knowing what nash roberts suggested. if he said stay then i stayed. he was always right even when every other meteoroligist said something contrary. they do not make them like nash roberts anymore.

stoned

2010-12-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

spoke the cat is stoned on cold medicine and wondering why my shoes are always so hungry that they insist on eating my socks. it is a scary world to be a sock. you go into the washer or dryer but you don't always come out.

Kristallnacht

2010-11-09T08:05:00.001-08:00

It is the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht when Nazis burned 250 synagogues, smashed shop windows of Jewish owned businesses, and arrested thousands of Jewish men. I would like to take this opportunity to remind us all of the importance of tolerance. We should never allow our our differences to morph into bete noirs so powerful that our fear of them becomes irrational and turns into hatred. Let us preach tolerance when it comes to Muslims and mosques. we must afford homosexuals the same freedoms as every other citizen of this country. It is acceptable to criticize a president for his policies but not for the color of his skin. We must remember that the United States was a country founded by immigrants. If we allow fear to turn into hate then we open the door for atrocities to take place such as what happened on Kristallnacht 72 years ago to the day. Remember the person next to you is wonderfully unique and that is something to be praised not abhorred.

republicans

2010-11-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

it would appear that health care for all in this country is not nearly as important as one might hope. the people have spoken, allowing the republicans to take back the house, thus affording them the opportunity to repeal the so-called obamacare. as one of the multitude of uninsured in this country, i find this dazzling sweep of stupidity offensive and frightening. yet despite the level of fear this generates, it is nothing compared to the chills up my spine sensation over the many judges voted out of office nation wide. why were these judges ousted? was it because they were corrupt or failed to uhold the law? no, it was because they failed to vote according to republican party lines in matters such as gay marriage and abortion. these judges did not vote based on personal or political bias. They actually cast their votes as a part of their job, which is to champion the freedoms guarunteed to all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation or political affiliation. it is a dark day for american justice when judges are punished for doing their jobs. if we as a populace continue to punish our judges in this way, we can expect justice to be bought and sold like so many of our other ideals are in this country. if we disagree with a judge then there are recourses. we can draft an amendment to the constitution and vote on it. DO NOT PUNISH the judges for voting according to the letter of the law just because you personally disagree with it. as a wiser person pointed out, this would be like running umpires off the field every time they made an unfavorable ruling. how long would we expect the game to continue to be played were that to occur. without the umpires, the game dissolves into chaos on the field. without the judges, american society devolves into anarchy.

God has a sense of humor

2010-10-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

the basin street station visitor's center has a mini replica of the city of new orleans as it would have looked circa 1900. it was created for the movie "pretty baby." when it was created, it incorporated the entire city's 1900 boundaries. at one point, the display went to paris and was stored in a warehouse there. the warehouse had a leak in the roof and i am (giggle)sad to say that most of the mini new orleans was lost to the ensuing flood. the french quarter remained in tact. it is on high ground after all.

observation number two

2010-10-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

freedom of speech allows you to say whatever pops into your head but it does not protect you from the negative reactions of others, so do not complain when people call you names or you get fired.

observation number one

2010-10-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

today, i saw a woman walking down the sidewalk wearing a shirt that read: "POSSE life skills" that proceeded to list them. 1.positive
2.optimistic
3.socially skilled
4. self motivating
5. enthusiastic.

she had curlers in her hair, fuzzy slippers on her feet, and a bottle of beer in one hand. it was noon. hmm.

masturbation for all!

2010-09-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

in light of tea party pooper, christine o'donnell, i am designating october 20th as national masturbation day. that's right, october 20th is now national masturbation day so stock up on your porn, practice those wrist limbering exercises, and get that day off from work so you can indulge in a little self love. don't forget; when you are in that frenzied, oh so LUSTFUL moment of orgasmic pleasure, to cry out loudly "oh...oh...o'donnell"!!!!! she is after all the inspiration for this greatest of fun filled days.

pass on the word! she bop. he bop. we bop.

love

2010-09-17T17:23:00.001-07:00

True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
Send quote to a friend
François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French writer.

five years later

2010-08-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

pierce lewis called new orleans "an inevitable city on an impossible site." and there you have it; a history of storms, fires, floods, diseases, violence, oil spills, and one earthquake. somehow, despite it all or maybe because of it all, new orleans still stands. i have loved this city from the first moment i laid eyes on her. new orleans, the pleasure capital of the country. she is the lure of gypsies, bohemians, musicians, and artists. my new orleans, a fucked up, broken down, debauched, corrupt banana republic sexing up the steamy swamps and driving us all a little mad with her seduction.

the city was founded in 1718 in the middle of a sinking, sweltering swamp. in 1722, a storm blew through and knocked down most of the buildings in the city. bienville situated his colony near the mouth of the river in order to ensure french supremacy over river trade. by the 1830's, new orleans was the wealthiest city in the country. it quickly became the nation's 2nd largest port. it lured men with the promise of financial gain. fortunes were won and lost. despite new orleans' victorian era ascendancy, there was always an air of decay about the city, being both moral and physical. prostitutes brazenly plied their trade with carpets under their arms and when solicited, they unfurled them and took the men right there on the streets. in 1857, yellow fever claimed some 12,000 lives. bodies were stacked up in the streets rotting beneath the infernal haze of tar being burned to combat the swampy miasma. new orleans was dirty, dangerous, and terribly exciting. it remains so to this day.

i came to new orleans to escape the suffocation of my conservative, religious upbringing and here, i found a freedom that i had never known before. it was a freedom to love the things about me that my childhood had taught me to hate. i will always be grateful to this city for that.

katrina hit and the city flooded. i sat huddled around the battery powered radio, listening in disbelief as the reports of multiple levee breaches came in. i remember the announcer's voice breaking as he said, "it's all gone. the whole city has flooded." i will never forget the phone calls of people coming into the radio, saying they were trapped in their attics with the water rising fast and no way out. they had the sick. they had children. they had the old. the announcer was crying when he said that no help was coming and their lines, one by one, went dead. how can i forget the dead pit bull on the corner of my block that i watched decay until there was nothing left but the bleached out bones? what about my dead neighbor? all the hours i spent searching houses? all the times i had to flag someone down to report another one dead? it is five years later and sometimes it seems like it is still happening.

new orleans, you have survived the wreckage of your years. you stand up, only to fall again. yet when you rise, you rise like no other city. you rise up with music...the second line sweetness of jazz. you refuse to stay down. god knows you deserve a rest but you RISE up. we all rise up. we all rose up, the living and the dead...their ghosts parading our streets. so rise up new orleans. rise up like no other city can.

why i hate home depot

2010-08-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

i am painting the trim in my front two rooms and after days of inhaling the volatile compounds and being ever so high from the aroma, i decided to head to the home depot for a low-voc alternative. i walked up to the paint counter to be greeted by a bleached blond, heavy set girl that oozed a disgruntled, slovenly air while loudly smacking on neon yellow chewing gum. as a greeting, she collapsed upon the counter and grunted, "yeh?" i placed my order for no or low-voc paint. i did not expect this to be a problem. she stared at me for several seconds, blinking her eyes repeatedly before asking what that was. really?? i explained it. she had never heard of such a thing and since she was unaware that such paint existed, home depot could not possibly carry it. i could not help but notice that her bright orange apron not only gave her a vague resemblance to an over sized orange but that it also had "EXPERT" sewn into the fabric. i wondered what she could possibly be an expert in. i assured her that they carried that type of paint. it is after all hot to be eco-friendly. she shrugged. i suggested getting a second opinion at which point she hollered across the store like a pig farmer calling the hogs back in for the night. another supremely intelligent being approached the counter, mumbled something about "fresh air" paint, vanished in search of it, and came back empty handed. they discussed it for a few minutes, when orange number one said in between bubble gum smacks, "yeh so what then, i'll have to match it?" yes i thought, you will have to match it. you work at the paint counter. you have to match paint all day. that is the majority of your daily duties at the home depot. she called an off duty employee, another expert in the field no doubt, and vanished down one of the many aisles. at this point i noticed a display of clearly marked LOW-voc paint. hmmm, i thought. she returned to tell me they had discontinued such a thing. i repeated what she said because it was so nutty to me on so many levels. one, i was looking at the product behind her and two, in this "green" friendly state of things there is no way in hell they discontinued it. i took a deep breath and pointed out the display and what the display said. she grunted, shrugged and said, "Uh we don't have it. he said we discontinued it." well then if joe the home depot off duty expert-in-his-field employee said it, it fucking must be true. i quietly exited the building, drove to lowes where the wonderful gentleman did not greet my question incredulously as though i had spoken in an alien tongue.

sometimes...

2010-08-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

i woke up the other morning, stretched and was promptly stricken by a charlie horse. in my state of panic to get up and walk it out, i became tangled in the sheet and fell to the floor. this disturbs me on more than one level. first, charlie horses are stupid and painful. secondly, i must now face the fact that i have reached the age where i suffer from charlie horses. damn.

charlie horses are caused by low potassium so i set out for the kitchen to make myself a banana smoothie. the bananas are frozen so that the smoothie takes on the wonderful consistency of ice cream. i put all the ingredients into the blender and let it do its magic. when i poured the smoothie into my glass, the still whole, frozen banana hit the rim and fell to the floor. it fell to the fucking floor!! no potassium and my smoothie was bland.

days and days and days into this heat and i am murderously weary of it. i walk and walk and walk; conducting tours in the thick air, sweating out my body weight so that no matter how much water i consume, i still can only manage to urinate once or twice a day. my stomach is water logged and still the sweat rolls down my face.

is there anyone out there that practices voodoo or knows the secrets of native american rain dances?? if so, please call down the merciful, cooling, blessed rain onto our febrile brows...we who writhe in hellish agony,screaming out from parched throats. it is enough to make me rethink my climate choice.

the ugly tourist

2010-07-26T13:24:00.001-07:00

today i heard the most ridiculous excuse for backing out of a tour. it was a cemetery tour and the lady actually expected us to put on a jazz funeral for her. i kindly pointed out that we save jazz funerals for people that have actually died and therefor she would not be witnessing one on the tour today. she got mad at this. she actually got angry over the fact that there would not be a convenient death and consequent jazz funeral for her amusement. the tourists are getting so demanding. perhaps this is our answer to all the criminals sitting on death row...we execute them for the tourists' enjoyment and then send them off to the cemetery in fine fanfare a la a jazz funeral. the funny thing is, even if we had given her just the spectacle she was looking for, she probably still would not have tipped. the gall!

cabin fever

2010-07-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

i was thinking on lands where the winter comes in harshly and locks down the countryside for extended periods of time and dreaming of snow,snow, snow. i would settle for a breeze that whispers of autumn but we won't be blessed with that until october. in those places accustomed to cold, summer is pure freedom. it is a time to get out and enjoy endless sunny days but here where winter is a ghost of itself, the summer is the real boogey man. it is a truly brave soul that ventures from the dark, air conditioned cave of a home and into the noon day streets where the heat rises, shimmering and distorting the look and feel of things. it is a wet wool blanket drawn tight about the face so that you panic into thinking you might literally drown in such a tepid soup. every day there is the unsettling feeling that maybe you are the frog in the boiling water as the temperature is slowly increased.

my girlfriend just left for the north and that has further accentuated my suffering in this circle of dante's inferno. new orleans settles in the summer. it is a slow sagging, pulling down into the miasma of this swampy mess of a place. we ooze, drip, and radiate dissatisfaction. the air is still. the air is heavy. the heat index has surged above 100 degrees. we drag ourselves along like weary soldiers burdened with shell shock, all of us inflicted with the ten mile stare. we have seen too much. we have felt too much. storms. oil. heat. stagnation. crime. decomposition. everything is slowly rotting in this heat under the odor of french quarter trash, stale beer, piss, and the ever present stench of oil. every year i say, there is no good reason to suffer another summer in the not so easy "big easy" and yet here i find myself.oh well...there is always next summer. russia? finland? alaska? in the mean time, i am sipping my pimm's cup and losing myself in reveries of snow, snow, and more snow, falling like sweet relief.

comfortis

2010-07-20T17:04:00.002-07:00

comfortis is a new flea medication that is administered orally to dogs. it kills fleas within four hours thus making it something of a hit with veterinarians. my vet recommended the drug and we administered it to our three dogs on wednesday and by thursday morning, two of our dogs had vomited. as the day progressed both dogs became increasingly lethargic and depressed to the point of being nearly unresponsive. we grew worried and began some online research into comfortis(which admittedly we should have done prior to giving the drug). what we discovered was frightening. they only tested the drug for 90 days before unleashing it on the public. it has killed dogs. people report giving it to their otherwise healthy dog, only to have seizures and death occur. as the night wore on, one of our doge exhibited neurological ailments...his face began twitching and he suffered from dizzyness. as we read on, we discovered that these symptoms could get increasingly worse, dragging out for weeks at a time before the dog died or got better. i discovered that the drug elevated the liver enzymes of the dosed animals and made the executive decision to give our three dogs milk thistle to combat the toxicity. by friday morning, our dogs seemed much better and we have continued the milk thistle to maintain healthy liver enzymes and ensure that the toxicity is totally abated.

i write this as a warning. please DO NOT give your dog comfortis. some of you may have already given your dogs the drug and they tolerated it just fine but discontinue its use anyway. i read countless testimonials of people that had dosed their dogs numerous times prior, only to have them go into seizure, coma, and die. this drug is dangerous. there are non toxic ways to combat fleas and i should have gone that route. i thank God that our dogs survived. please do not put your dogs at risk.

mccrystal

2010-06-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

...maybe the question we should ask is why general mccrystal; in the middle of his afghanastan policy, has the time to give rolling stone an interview? his troop build up initiative is way behind schedule and may very well be on the verge of collapse but by all means, take time out to bash government officials in a pop culture magazine. i think perhaps mccrystal is not mature enough to lead the operation.

the plan

2010-06-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/video/bestoftv/2010/06/12/gp...

the above link that i actually cannot decipher how to properly link is of fareed zakaria lamenting the focus by the media on getting an emotional rise out of the president. it is such an excellent commentary that there is little to add.

i guess what i would like to see from obama is an actual plan. we all know that the government cannot stop the gushing oil. we simply do not have the capacity to do so. yet, there are measures that can be taken.

1.)make relief wells mandatory on all deep water drilling rigs. immediately begin drilling them to offset the economic loss oil rig workers. this buys time to over haul the safety practices.

2.)begin an energy over haul in this country where we create thousands of new eco-friendly jobs that radically begin to detox this nation from its oil addiction. the goal is to be oil free and give the country a time line. we all need structure.

3.)pass a law that states no politician can take money from oil companies.

we need a plan. we need a radical plan to move this nation forward, creating new jobs, weening us off of oil, and thus weakening terrorists by hitting them in their pocket books. we need to act as a nation and stop looking back to fossil fuels and concentrate on a cleaner future.

israel

2010-06-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

do we really live in a society that so cowards before israel that citizens cannot speak out against the rogue nation without fear of public castigation? israel is a terrorist state, routinely engaging in acts that we accuse al-queda of doing. you do not get to steal land from palestinians under the guise of "returning home" to a place you have not occupied in 2,000 years. it is an act of terrorism to massacre 254 women, children, and old men in the palestinian village of deir yassin only to turn around and declare yourself a nation.

here is a news flash...israel is not the chosen people. they are not better than the rest of us that live on this planet. they are a rogue nation. they engage in terrorism. israel has repeatedly abused the palestinians while stealing their land. i applaud anyone with the guts to stand up, risking their job to tell the truth and what is the truth? the truth is that israel should get the hell out of palestine and the united states should stop supporting their petulant behavior.

top kill

2010-05-30T11:07:00.001-07:00

is it just me or does it seem like the so called best minds in the business have no idea what they are doing? i have a suggestion that i think is just as viable as the junk shot...let's just wrap the whole thing in duct tape. it is strong, water proof, and can withstand an amazing amount of pressure. i mean as long as we are letting our imaginations run free and if that does not work, we can zap it with our giant ray gun.

my god!

2010-05-26T14:28:00.001-07:00

i fail to understand what the hol up is exactly. where is the coast guard? build the damn sand barriers! no more excuses. is there not one fucking administration that cares about louisiana and new orleans. the oil will kill the marsh grasses. when the marsh grasses die, the land erodes into the gulf of mexico. the more land we lose, the more vulnerable new orleans becomes. is there someone in the government that wants new orleans to die? i am starting to wonder. what a disgusting disaster. what the fuck? storm season is coming and we had all better pray that nothing comes into the gulf. fuck.

chris myers

2010-05-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

in a perfect world, people would not blame the victims. imagine the horror of standing on your roof top watching bodies of your neighbors float by and wondering when help will arrive. factor in the relentless august heat, no shelter, no water, and the fear that your house might be next to collapse. i guess i fail to understand how people sitting comfy in dry homes can somehow compare the fortitude of one natural disaster victim to another. all i know is that there were real heros operating that day. ordinary people that took boats and rescued person after person off their roof tops when there was no government help in sight. i never met a stranger after the storm and i saw people collapse on the street under the weight of such loss in this city post-katrina, that were helped up by people previously unknown. we may have a reputation but in new orleans, i learned that we take care of our own. we weathered katrina and gustav and we will weather this damn oil spill. we are the city of new orleans and fat mouthed sportscasters and stupid b.p officials can go fuck themselves. we are new orleans!

cnn

2010-05-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

the cnn weatherman said that the water temperature off the coast of africa is two degrees warmer than it should be for this time of year and that has not happened since 2005 when katrina hit. he then drew a straight line from africa to new orleans and call the situation a cow. "what we have here is a cow but that does not mean we will have cow soup though we will get beef broth but not necessarily cow soup. but we do indeed have a cow." the cnn bobble head standing next to him, who is clearly a wise man replied, "so what you are saying is that we don't want cow soup?" so i learned that cows are to be feared and cow soup hated but we might as well get used to beef broth because there is no escaping it. what this has to do with storm season, i have no idea but i feel cow savvy.

now what is it we are fightingfor again??

2010-05-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

this so called war on terrorism is supposed to be war against those that would destroy our way of life. what is our way of life?? is it freedom? because if it is then maybe we should not allow our government to erode our civil liberties. it is appalling that the current administration is contemplating the suspension of miranda rights of any citizen accused of terrorism. once upon a time, a united states' citizen was innocent until proven guilty. maybe we should become like the countries that we are fighting against. countries that stone their citizens without trials. i guess if we take on the characteristics of our enemies then they need not be called our foes. hmmm...perhaps this is our new fucked up road to peace.

the texas tour

2010-05-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

I had a rather large family from texas on my tour the other day. it consisted of a mother and her brood of children, ranging in ages from 8 to 21. now i'm no prude but i was shocked to look over and see this skinny, pimply skinned kid no older than 13 and 75 pounds soaking wet sucking the life out of a cigarette like a damn pro. as the tour progressed all the kids save for the very youngest were not only smoking but knocking back the hurricanes and even absinthe. wow, it's true that texas really is a whole other country. i just don't think i want it stamped on my passport.

maybe now we can reconsider offshore drilling

2010-04-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

well, i think now we can put to bed the notion that offshore oil rigs are safe. perhaps president obama might reconsider opening the gulf to new offshore drilling. this is not a minor spill with a limited amount of oil. this is a catastrophic event, spewing thousands of gallons of oil into the gulf of mexico, threatening the delicate ecosystem of our already fragile wetlands. we have the technology to free ourselves from this oil addiction but we continue to be held hostage to oil lobbyists. it has to start with the american people demanding an alternative to oil. we have to put the fear of god into washington. they have to be more afraid of us and our voting power than they are of the power that big oil wields. we can change our country's energy policy but we have to act now! we have to act together.

something to think about

2010-04-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

general motors borrowed $50 billion from u.s taxpayers. it is investing $250 million to build a research center in china as part of its new "international" headquarters. they continue to expand their engineering team in china. they are hiring more people in china. now, i just want to emphasize that they borrowed $50 billion from u.s taxpayers and yet they seem more concerned with aiding the chinese economy than the u.s one. perhaps they could pay that money back and borrow what they need from china.

says it all

2010-04-22T15:53:00.001-07:00

wondering...

2010-04-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

do you think dogs have bad dreams and if so, what would be a bad dream for a dog?

you know...

2010-04-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

i really am an optimist but sometimes, things can really depress and frustrate me. i think it is very sad that a mississippi teen was forced to miss her prom simply because the school withdrew their sponsorship in the face of the aclu charges of discrimination. so basically this girl was punished for being gay and wanting to share her prom with her girlfriend. way to go mississippi...you really are the state that continues to make louisiana look good.

california, with all of its progression(you can actually buy raw milk in the stores)is only now debating whether they should repeal a state law designed to find a cure from homosexuality. a cure makes it sound like a bad case of strep throat or ebola. i can just hear parents now, "now run along to school and remember don't touch any effeminate men wearing pink or any short haired girls sporting a tool belt lest you catch the gay disease." now that is tax payer money well spent.

it has been awhile

2010-04-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

it is spring and i have been out of the loop though if asked, i would be hard pressed to say exactly what i have been doing or where i have been doing it. i think i have been mostly hiding.

i love spring in the city. warm days. cool nights. it is the season when every hour is the perfect hour for a cocktail. perhaps a pimm's cup with muddled up cucumber to infuse the taste of spring throughout.

we just painted the spare bedroom orange and are contemplating a garden in the backyard. we have to get the soil tested before we can plant edibles since the area flooded in katrina and also because of the history of lead paint in new orleans.

we have begun juicing and taking some tentative steps into the raw food life style. i will be writing more blogs on this adventure. i am doing some research on what constitutes a healthy diet and feel some rants coming on. they promise to be terribly politically incorrect.

till then.

the ghost of mardi gras past

2010-02-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

another mardi gras has come and gone and i say thank god! there were some observations that i noted and wish to share.

1) there will always be stupid people that decide to drive into the heart of masked revelers dancing in the street and have the audacity to actually get angry over people not moving out of the way.

2)there will never be enough portable bathrooms.

3)you cannot use a bathroom in an establishment without buying a drink that will cause you to need to use the bathroom in an establishment which will force you to purchase a drink that will make you need to go to the...oh bloody hell, you get the point.

4)there will always be the same guys dressed as skeletons with big bones dangling from there crotches and as they consume one big ASS beer after another, they will inevitably come on to women using their boners...ha, ha get it? boner? they are skeletons. yeh, it isn't really very original.

5)it is best to go out to mardi gras early and be home in bed, with a liter of gator aid and a packet of vitamins by no later than 5 pm.

until next time.

it's looking up!!

2010-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

this is shaping up to be a pretty good year. we have a new mayor. the saints won the super bowl and did it just before mardi gras!! this means good international exposure...you know, keeping the new orleans' brand out there but in a good way. maybe now, every other tourist won't be telling me how people thought they were crazy for coming to new orleans because they think it is still under water.
soon, we will have a new police chief. a chief who is articulate enough to string more than two sentences together. a chief who doesn't slander members of the city council and whine over some secret shadow government. i think somebody should take their anti-psychotic pills.
my birthday is approaching and i will be 39. 1 year away from 40 and i can honestly say that i am the most comfortable i have been in my own skin for the entire length of my life.
i have a wonderful girlfriend that i am fortunate enough to now be living with and together, we have three amazing dogs.
i am creating art and getting back into writing. i have some business opportunities. things are looking up. here is to 2010, may it be the best damn year so far. wishing you all a wonderful year.

why georges is not getting my vote

2010-01-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

dear mr. georges, you are not black so please refrain from playing the race card as though you are and while on topic, you are not hip enough either. i am always suspicious of politicians that change their party allegiances simply because they think it will make them more palatable to voters. georges, you were a republican but switched to being a democrat because we love democrats in new orleans. hmm, i wonder where your loyalties really lie. you sold all your gambling machines when you ran for governor because that looked bad but when you lost, you bought them all back. i am waiting for the real georges to stand up. so, you can throw your money around on fancy attack ads but you still won't get my vote.

freezing

2010-01-09T10:14:00.001-08:00

i live in one of those oh so typical new orleans' houses, built back in the 1860's, no insulation, tall ceilings, and floor to ceiling windows. in other words, the heat just flies right out. my house is happily raised, good for floods but bad for exposed plumbing. i left my water running in the front bathroom and the kitchen but not the back bathroom. i only left the cold water running. this leads me to number 601 on the things you should know about home ownership. if your home is raised but not underpinned then you should leave the water running at every faucet and that includes both hot and cold. go team! i did not do that. i now have no hot water in any part of the house and no water of any kind in the back bathroom. we are not going to get out of the thirties today and so there will be no showers. i'm having post-katrina flashbacks. here is the real kicker, i think the pipes cracked a bit but i am hoping that it is just condensation and nothing more.
house ownership rule number 602, if your house is raised and not underpinned then you should insulate your pipes even if you live in the sub-tropics. who knew?
ok, i am off to blowdry the pipes for warmth.

spoke needs to meditate

2010-01-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

it is a brand new year and i intend to have some things to show for it by the time 2011 comes rolling around. this is going to be the year that i get my finances is in order, my relationships tidied up, and my art work off the ground. oh and i am going to travel. i guess i have been stuck in idle far too long and need to kick myself in my own ass to get motivated. i also need to start meditating. i come from rural southwest georgia where the concept of meditating might mean ruminating on the weather or soybean blight but nothing like the soul lifting buddhist transformation. in other words, i have no fucking idea how to go about meditating. do i light a candle? should i take a bath? is it about counting my breaths? what? how do you stop your mind from wandering? spoke is soliciting help from the oh so few readers who are just bored enough to actually be reading this. open the flood gates and let the advice come gushing in!!

trying terrorists in new york

2009-12-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

i guess i fail to see what all the fuss is over trying terrorists in new york. i know, i hear the protestations over the fact that these are not americans and thus not deserving of being put on trial as though they were united states' citizens. when i hear things like that, i guess i wonder what way of life these gung ho, so called patriots think we are fighting to defend? the united states' judicial system is not perfect but over all, it works pretty damn well. i am pretty damn proud of it and i trust anyone being tried as a terrorist or not to that system. if we as americans believe in "justice for all", then that "all" must apply to everyone including terrorists. if you ask me, that is the american way or it should be.

movie night

2009-12-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

wow, just wow. if only i had known just how entertaining last night's debate would be, i would have made popcorn for the occasion. damn but new orleans knows how to do a mayoral debate up right. i laughed my ass off despite the fact that it made me a bit sad for not having thrown my hat into the ring. really sorry to have missed the opportunity to debate with the finest the city has to offer. i mean who would not want the chance to mentally joust with those on last night's stage, those knowledgeable bastards(and a few bitches)who had no idea how much new orleans owes in municipal bonds. in the end i walked away from the debates greatly amused and on the hunt for pot growing amish, the apparent true saviors of this our fine city. popcorn anyone?

passing out free boats at city hall

2009-12-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

i saw a cartoon of two men in suits walking down the street while fighting off flying, man-eating pigs. the one guy says to the other..."I hate this city. it is hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, and in between, there are flying man-eating pigs to contend with." i thought, aah, it is a cartoon about new orleans. it is hot as hell here in the summer time. it gets pretty damn cold in the winter especially when you factor in the fact that none of our houses are equipped to actually keep heat in. the politicians are racist, crooked, and inept. the police department is looking more and more like street thugs as illustrated by the recent times-picayune articles. our streets are in such a state of upheaval, splitting and sinking into holes the size of mini grand canyons that i am not sure why scientists are not convening on new orleans to study the forces that formed the topography of the earth. the water boiling ban is in effect for parts of the west bank and the city has gone under from torrential rainfall and all this while parts of new orleans sit shockingly in disrepair from katrina, mired in neglect and dust as though museum pieces to the wrath of mother nature and the ineptitude of man. someone remind me again why they don't pass out paxil with our morning cup of coffee and why there is not a yellow boat program here much like the yellow bike initiative launched in portland, oregon? i can see it now...little yellow boats moored across the city forever at the ready of pumps that simply cannot keep up with the force of mother nature. perhaps my friend is right, we should give up on the idea of a city on land, turn all streets into canals, and give everyone a free gondola and ten years' worth of mosquito spray. yeh, that and paxil for the masses.

nagin

2009-12-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

i always find it tragic when politicians play the race card as nagin is doing now by hinting that new orleans is on the verge of electing a white mayor. he has come to this conclusion since our former district attorney was replaced by a white man. for too long ,nagin has put the interest of himself and the minority few above the needs of the city. i fail to understand how race should even factor into the electoral process. i simply do not care if my mayor is white, black or green from mars as long as he or she does a better job than nagin. what is right for new orleans is for the city to move forward and rid itself of the shackles of racism, no matter the form it takes. it is racism when it comes from a white man and it is equally just as racist when it comes from a black man. it is a shame that this is the legacy nagin chooses for himself. what a way to be a role model.

spoke for mayor

2009-11-29T20:39:00.000-08:00

ok, seriously, no one wants to vote spoke in as mayor? it is not like i could do worse. i promise not to visit totalitarian regimes and talk about how they know exactly where their citizens are in order to move them out of the way during a hurricane. i will not accept made up awards in my honor. this could be fun...spoke for mayor!! catnip for everyone!! good times are on the way. vote for spoke and we will stray cat strut all the way to city hall.

can't seem to shake this mood

2009-11-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

i cannot quite seem to get out of this mood. i am feeling out of sorts. thanksgiving is coming up and i am looking forward to going home but it is the everything in between. i don't know...maybe it is just this time of year. maybe everybody is slipping a bit. maybe it is not just me. i know one thing, i would very much like to spend the rest of the evening curled up on my couch with a really good book and a bottle of jameson. well enough of this pity party. i am off to do a tour.

i want to be mayor

2009-11-20T15:28:00.000-08:00

i'm broke. tourism sucks right now. i think that i need a new truck tire to drive home on during thanksgiving but i do not think that i can afford one right now and pay for gas as well. i wonder what a bus ticket would cost? i mention all this because i am stressed the fuck out. i really need a vacation someplace exotic like...china, australia, cuba, or mexico. i want to travel around the world and have the taxpayers foot the bill just like our dear nagin does. it really must be nice. so, spoke is wondering can i count on your support if i run for mayor? spoke the cat for mayor...yeh that has a ring.

remembering the velvet revolution

2009-11-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them.
-Vaclav Havel

it has been twenty years since massive demonstrations in the former czechloslavakia led to the fall of totalitarianism in that country. i am not sure that as americans we fully appreciate the courage and sacrifice of such oppressed people. the foundation of our country in the blood of the american revolution is lost on most of our citizens, who cannot even seem to place that war in the right century, let alone recall the actual dates. a country born in revolution should remember that such a revolution would not have been possible were it not for true patriots rising up to question the status quo. somewhere along the way, we as americans have removed ourselves from this line of thinking. under the bush administration it was all but treasonous to speak out against the policies of this government, especially the war in iraq. there is a stephen decatur quote that says,"my country, right or wrong, my country." i have always hated that quote. it has a lazy passive quality about it. my country, well if wrong, then let us fix it. i am not sure that americans have it in them to speak out against our government in defense of freedom. we could learn a lot from those average citizens that rose up against brutality to defiantly tell the communist government of the former czechloslovakia that they had already lost. many were beaten for their trouble. i am not a terrorist if i say the war in iraq is wrong. i am not less of a patriot if i say our country is on a wrong course. we, as americans need to find our voice. we must speak out. we must consult the example of history and learn the valuable lessons of events like the velvet revolution.

damn flying bitches

2009-11-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

is there a reason that mosquitoes seem to be drawn to your ears during the most wonderful and deepest levels of sleep?

more disturbing

2009-11-03T15:50:00.001-08:00

disturbing

2009-11-02T19:59:00.001-08:00

new orleans has a deficit

2009-10-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

seems to me if we were really concerned about our deficit, we might post pone the city council pay raise or have our mayor restrict his travels to exotic locales on tax payer money.

in other news

2009-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

thanks be to the powers that the new hate crimes bill passed that now includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

nagin has gone communist. since he likes china and cuba so much, perhaps he could relocate immediately.

vitter refused to vote for the hate crimes legislation despite the fact that it was attached to war spending legislation. you have to be one fucked up biased son of bitch to be a republican and not vote for war spending just to avoid giving gays protection.

i'm bitter. just tired and bitter.

ah good ole robbie burns

2009-10-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

sometimes you just have to stop in the middle of the game

2009-10-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

we are not open yet. the preliminary health inspection is today. it will probably be a week before we get our actual health inspection. the stress is mounting and the money is growing sparse. i'm still sick. i took a lovely little trip into the emergency room last week and still have no idea as to what is wrong with me. the doctors seem to think it is asthma but having endured asthma my whole life, i can honestly disagree. so it is off to the doctor tomorrow to try and get an actual diagnosis that is correct. my truck tire blew out. sam is in the hospital and maybe, just maybe mercury is in retrograde.
oh and to all the idiots that think we don't need to overhaul the health care industry, i say suck on it! but would also like to say that despite the red tape, i am very grateful for LSU and free health care.

behind

2009-09-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

well...the october 1st opening date just might pass us by as a result of equipment difficulties. in order to get a health inspection, you need a fridge and freezer on sight and in their proper places. as luck would have it, they dropped the freezer when delivering and pretty much destroyed it. we are now a bit behind as a result. i am letting this roll off my back.
a couple of days ago and i would have lost and crumbled under stress but that was before i felt like i was going to have a heart attack. i have dropped about 20 pounds in a very short time and think that i am taking a new approach with life. i am letting the stress go. go stress, go away. who cares if we are behind. things will work themselves out anyway. they always do. besides, art for art's sake is coming up the first saturday of october and even though we will not be officially open, we hope people stop by and try some free samples of our food. i also hope to have my art work up for showing.so, despite the set backs, things will be just fine.

it's different when they are your children

2009-09-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

i have been around dogs my whole life. my grandfather used to raise bird dogs for hunting and i have seen many a bird dog born. i have also witnessed many a dog fight and am thus quite familiar with the very wise rule of never, ever getting in between two dogs who have tied up. it's different when they are your children. my girlfriend has two boxers and they both get along quite well with my dog, that is until the other night. one of her boxers got into quite the bout with my dog and try as we did, we could not separate them and i was terrified that it would end in an emergency vet visit for one or both dogs. they are both my children. i did the thing you are never supposed to do and that was, i put my leg in between them to separate them. my own dog bit me. oh boy. it is one thing to get bit by a stray and quite another to have your own adorable dog puncture the oh so tender flesh of your left leg. oh well. at least the puppies are ok, if somewhat scarred. my dog got a nasty cut on her ear that seemed so much more horrific since ear wounds bleed like head traumas. thank god for level headed girlfriends that staunch ear wounds and then tend to bite marks on their dumb girlfriend's leg. thanks S, you are really so much more than i ever could have hoped for.

wow

2009-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

it seems the critics are backing off after hearing obama's speach to school children. it is amazing to me that every one got so up in arms over the president of the united states addressing our nation's school children. imagine, the president talking to the youth of this country! what was he thinking? presidents never address the children except for all the ones that did it before obama, like reagan. hmm. of course reagan was an actual united states citizen, right? there were no rumors aswirl over his nationality. he also had a good american name, not like obama. obama...hmm, sounds like a manchurian candidate to me. and reagan was in no shape or form a socialist. he was such a card carrying capitalist that he deregulated everything he could get his hands on. obama wants to make health care available to every one and well, that is definitely something we should be fear. i mean, imagine not having to choose between eating and getting your prescription refilled? yeh, you are right, that is not important and besides that only applies to the poor and everybody knows that the poor are poor because they are lazy. right? right! so maybe it really was some subversive message that obama sent to the country's school children. i wonder if anyone has thought to play the speech backwards like we all did with mr. roboto. i am just sure it says something like, "rise up and over throw the capitalist loving pigs!!" or "death to infidels!" or "smoking is good for you!" wait, i know..."brocoli is bad!" damn, when will these stupid left wingers just shut the fuck up?

stress

2009-09-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

well...as the dead line for opening looms, the amount of stress rises. we are all working ourselves into states of exhaustion in order to open by october 1st. it has begun to take its toll. we are all cranky and performing tasks at less than optimal levels. i, personally seem to be misplacing items of extreme importance. i work on the restaurant all day and then go do tours at night and i am not sure where i should be at any given time or what it is that i should have with me. i miss the gym. i miss crossword puzzles and lazy sunday sipping coffee days. i miss me time.

yet...i must say that as the opening date gets closer, i get more excited. more nervous too. i could vomit every second of the day but i am still excited.

not understanding

2009-08-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

every year i say i will not be in new orleans come august and every fucking year i am here. i must be insane. it is not good for my psyche to be in this city in august. why, why, why am i here? everyone in this place goes fucking nuts in august. dumb people become dumber. mean people get meaner. violent people more violent. lazy people lazier. if there is going to be a glitch in the system, it will be in august. if there is going to be a fuck up, rest assured it will take place in august. if you are going to have a nervous fucking breakdown, you will probably notice the first signs in august.

two certified money orders have been lost by the post office, leaving a somewhat large sum of money out there in the great ether. two! one, i could maybe understand but two?? i swear sometimes i believe the mailman is drunk or having a heat stroke or stricken by depression or just doesn't give a damn.

why must the city of new orleans pick august to rip up every fucking street from here to metarie? so now we are herded through detour after detour, all the while increasing the burning intensity of this the most stupid of months.

i want to close my eyes, snap my fingers and be transported to paris. i can just picture it now...a little sidewalk cafe, good wine, cheese, and bread. a cool breeze blowing. maybe if i click my shoes together enough times i can get there.

stupid people

2009-08-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

i was watching the news featuring the mob mentality of the nation wide town hall discussions on health care when i saw this gentleman saying, "all we want is for you(meaning the government)to leave us alone." ok, i think that man should get exactly what he wants. no more medicaid. no more highways. no more government interference at all. hell, i am wondering why chose to live in a country at all. he clearly is one of such stalwart character that he does not need anyone or anything. i say we pick him up and put him on an island where he can live out his days in peace with absolutely no government interference.
it is the ignorance of this country that keeps us in the dark ages. we take one step forward and 500 steps back, screaming "socialism" all along the fucking way. we will all choke on our stupidity before it is said and done. pathetic.

because i could not write it better myself

2009-08-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Case For Single Payer, Universal Health Care For The United States

Outline of Talk Given To The Association of State Green Parties, Moodus, Connecticut on June 4, 1999

By John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine McCabe, Ph.D.

1. Why doesn’t the United States have universal health care as a right of citizenship? The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. 28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems, while 1 (Germany) has a multipayer universal health care system like President Clinton proposed for the United States.

2. Myth One: The United States has the best health care system in the world.

* Fact One: The United States ranks 23rd in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990

* Fact Two: The United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for women down from 1st in 1945 and 13th in 1960

* Fact Three: The United States ranks 21st in life expectancy for men down from 1st in 1945 and 17th in 1960.

* Fact Four: The United States ranks between 50th and 100th in immunizations depending on the immunization. Overall US is 67th, right behind Botswana

* Fact Five: Outcome studies on a variety of diseases, such as coronary artery disease, and renal failure show the United States to rank below Canada and a wide variety of industrialized nations.

* Conclusion: The United States ranks poorly relative to other industrialized nations in health care despite having the best trained health care providers and the best medical infrastructure of any industrialized nation

3. Myth Two: Universal Health Care Would Be Too Expensive

* Fact One: The United States spends at least 40% more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country with universal health care

* Fact Two: Federal studies by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting office show that single payer universal health care would save 100 to 200 Billion dollars per year despite covering all the uninsured and increasing health care benefits.

* Fact Three: State studies by Massachusetts and Connecticut have shown that single payer universal health care would save 1 to 2 Billion dollars per year from the total medical expenses in those states despite covering all the uninsured and increasing health care benefits

* Fact Four: The costs of health care in Canada as a % of GNP, which were identical to the United States when Canada changed to a single payer, universal health care system in 1971, have increased at a rate much lower than the United States, despite the US economy being much stronger than Canada’s.

* Conclusion: Single payer universal health care costs would be lower than the current US system due to lower administrative costs. The United States spends 50 to 100% more on administration than single payer systems. By lowering these administrative costs the United States would have the ability to provide universal health care, without managed care, increase benefits and still save money

4. Myth Three: Universal Health Care Would Deprive Citizens of Needed Services

* Fact One: Studies reveal that citizens in universal health care systems have more doctor visits and more hospital days than in the US

* Fact Two: Around 30% of Americans have problem accessing health care due to payment problems or access to care, far more than any other industrialized country. About 17% of our population is without health insurance. About 75% of ill uninsured people have trouble accessing/paying for health care.

* Fact Three: Comparisons of Difficulties Accessing Care Are Shown To Be Greater In The US Than Canada (see graph)

* Fact Four: Access to health care is directly related to income and race in the United States. As a result the poor and minorities have poorer health than the wealthy and the whites.

* Fact Five: There would be no lines under a universal health care system in the United States because we have about a 30% oversupply of medical equipment and surgeons, whereas demand would increase about 15%

* Conclusion: The US denies access to health care based on the ability to pay. Under a universal health care system all would access care. There would be no lines as in other industrialized countries due to the oversupply in our providers and infrastructure, and the willingness/ability of the United States to spend more on health care than other industrialized nations.

5. Myth Four: Universal Health Care Would Result In Government Control And Intrusion Into Health Care Resulting In Loss Of Freedom Of Choice

* Fact One: There would be free choice of health care providers under a single payer universal health care system, unlike our current managed care system in which people are forced to see providers on the insurer’s panel to obtain medical benefits

* Fact Two: There would be no management of care under a single payer, universal health care system unlike the current managed care system which mandates insurer preapproval for services thus undercutting patient confidentiality and taking health care decisions away from the health care provider and consumer

* Fact Three: Although health care providers fees would be set as they are currently in 90% of cases, providers would have a means of negotiating fees unlike the current managed care system in which they are set in corporate board rooms with profits, not patient care, in mind

* Fact Four: Taxes, fees and benefits would be decided by the insurer which would be under the control of a diverse board representing consumers, providers, business and government. It would not be a government controlled system, although the government would have to approve the taxes. The system would be run by a public trust, not the government.

* Conclusion: Single payer, universal health care administered by a state public health system would be much more democratic and much less intrusive than our current system. Consumers and providers would have a voice in determining benefits, rates and taxes. Problems with free choice, confidentiality and medical decision making would be resolved

6. Myth Five: Universal Health Care Is Socialized Medicine And Would Be Unacceptable To The Public

* Fact One: Single payer universal health care is not socialized medicine. It is health care payment system, not a health care delivery system. Health care providers would be in fee for service practice, and would not be employees of the government, which would be socialized medicine. Single payer health care is not socialized medicine, any more than the public funding of education is socialized education, or the public funding of the defense industry is socialized defense.

* Fact Two: Repeated national and state polls have shown that between 60 and 75% of Americans would like a universal health care system (see The Harris Poll #78, October 20, 2005)

* Conclusion: Single payer, universal health care is not socialized medicine and would be preferred by the majority of the citizens of this country

7. Myth Six: The Problems With The US Health Care System Are Being Solved and Are Best Solved By Private Corporate Managed Care Medicine because they are the most efficient

* Fact One: Private for profit corporation are the lease efficient deliverer of health care. They spend between 20 and 30% of premiums on administration and profits. The public sector is the most efficient. Medicare spends 3% on administration.

* Fact Two: The same procedure in the same hospital the year after conversion from not-for profit to for-profit costs in between 20 to 35% more

* Fact Three: Health care costs in the United States grew more in the United States under managed care in 1990 to 1996 than any other industrialized nation with single payer universal health care

* Fact Four: The quality of health care in the US has deteriorated under managed care. Access problems have increased. The number of uninsured has dramatically increased (increase of 10 million to 43.4 million from 1989 to 1996, increase of 2.4% from 1989 to 1996- 16% in 1996 and increasing each year).

* Fact Five: The level of satisfaction with the US health care system is the lowest of any industrialized nation.

* Fact Six: 80% of citizens and 71% of doctors believe that managed care has caused quality of care to be compromised

* Conclusion: For profit, managed care can not solve the US health care problems because health care is not a commodity that people shop for, and quality of care must always be compromised when the motivating factor for corporations is to save money through denial of care and decreasing provider costs. In addition managed care has introduced problems of patient confidentiality and disrupted the continuity of care through having limited provider networks.

8. Overall Answer to the questions Why doesn’t the US have single payer universal health care when single payer universal health care is the most efficient, most democratic and most equitable means to deliver health care? Why does the United States remain wedded to an inefficient, autocratic and immoral system that makes health care accessible to the wealthy and not the poor when a vast majority of citizens want it to be a right of citizenship?

Conclusion: Corporations are able to buy politicians through our campaign finance system and control the media to convince people that corporate health care is democratic, represents freedom, and is the most efficient system for delivering health care

9. What you can do about this through your state Green Party

* Work to pass a single payer, universal health care bill or referendum in your state. State level bills and referenda will be most effective because a federal health care system might in fact be too bureaucratic, and because it is not politically realistic at this time.

* Bills or referendum must be written by and supported by health care providers for the legislature to take them seriously. It is thus imperative to form an alliance with provider groups. The most effective provider group to go through is Physicians For A National Health Program which has chapters in every state (see hand out for partial listing of contact people). A number of states already have organized single payer efforts: Massachusetts, California, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, and Maryland. Join with them.

* A first step is to contact state representatives from PNHP and offer to join with them to write and support a bill bringing single payer, universal health care to your state if this has not already been done. The Connecticut and Massachusetts Bills can be used as models to make this task easier (email us at riverbnd@javanet.com and we will send you copies of the bills). A referendum is another way to go, in which case the California referendum can be used as a model.

* A second step is to contact state legislators and find a group who are willing to sponsor such a bill.

* A third step is to create a coalition of groups to work together to support and publicize this work, or to try to bring together existing groups to work together on this project. Labor unions, progressive democratic groups, Medicare/Senior Advocacy groups, the Labor Party, the Reform Party, UHCAN, existing health care advocacy groups, and state health care provider groups are all imporatnt to work with and get to join such a coalition. The state medical society and state hospital association are critical to work with in order to get any legislation passed. Try to get them to work with you to design a new model for health care delivery. They will be particularly concerned about who will control the system, and be very mistrustful of government. A public trust model with participation by providers, hospitals, business, the public and government is like to be much more acceptable to them than a pure government system. Emphasize doing away with managed care, and get them to try and work with you to find other ways to control costs (necessary to convince politicians) such as quality assurance standards, which will also protect them from malpractice

* A fourth step is to give talks in support of your bill or referendum where ever possible. Senior groups, medical staffs, church groups, high school assemblies, and labor unions are particularly good sources. Excellent materials including slides, a chart book and videos are available through PNHP.

* A fifth step is to raise money through fund raisers, contributions and benefits held by entertainers. Benefits are particularly useful in bringing out people who you can inform about single payer, universal health care and your efforts.

* A sixth step is to develop media access. The creation of videos that can be shown on local cable access TV stations is very effective. Newspaper articles, letters to the editor, and articles by the press are critical. Radio interviews and radio talk shows are important.

* Getting the public to write and call their state representatives in support of a proposed bill is critical, as is coordinating testimony at a public hearing.

* Because the data about single payer universal health care are so revealing of the problems with corporate America, and because the US citizenry is so concerned and dissatisfied with our health care system these efforts may yield surprisingly positive results and be helpful in establishing the Green Party in the US as a party of the people, by the people and for the people.

We would be happy to help you. Contact us by email at riverbnd@javanet.com, by phone at 860-354-1822, or by mail at 88 Cherniske Road, New Milford, CT 06776

Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care l PO Box 771l Simsbury CT 06070

august in new orleans

2009-08-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

well, it is august in new orleans and is anybody else starting to get the blahs? it's hot. it's humid. the weeds in the backyard have taken on a life of their own and are actively trying to strangle my dog. my dryer quit working. my washing machine sucks and the banana trees are in full on riot mode off my side hall porch. i am in need of a vacation. it occurs to me that i have not had a vacation in years. i do not count the gustav evacuvacation, since that is not exactly the definition of getting away from stress. especially considering that at the time that my truck died and i was at the mercy of my then girlfriend, who took that incredibly stressful moment(coming as it did so close to the anniversary of katrina)to tell me just what a complete fuck up i really am. having the person you are dating tell you that you are a fuck up is always enjoyable especially when you are terrified that the life you have built in new orleans could just go away. needless to say, we are no longer still dating. but i am still in need of a proper vacation.

my wonderful new girlfriend and i are planning a trip to this wooded retreat and i intend to savor every minute of the get away. we can take the dogs and while away the hours hiking in the woods and hunting for fossils in the creek bed. aah. this is not happening for some time. it is best to go to the woods when cold out and so i am left dreaming of a proper vacation.

i think as we go deeper and deeper into the sticky month of august, with its glorious memories, i just might need a mini break or two. damn, i hate august.

seriously, can we get past the gates thing??

2009-08-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

you know what i think? i assume you want to know what i think because you are reading my blog and the only reason i have a blog is to tell you what i think, because yeah, i think i am just that important. i digress. i think gates being arrested had nothing to do with race and everything to do with a testosterone fed pissing contest. gates, being the lion-king of his home felt threatened by the arrival of another male, who dared to question whether he belonged in his own house. gates then began to beat his chest and mouth off, which included a verbal assault on the police officer's mother. the police officer, not to be outdone, then pulled out his dick to show that it was bigger and arrested gates on the spot when he should have just left it alone. hmm, this is how wars start.

i really do not think that gates being arrested was anything more than this. i wonder if gates had been white, would we still be hearing about this? let's save the race card for when it is actually needed.

palin's farewell speech

2009-07-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

"we eat, therefor we hunt." palin said this in reference to an ashly judd commercial damning palin's position on the areal hunting of wolves.

i thought i would put a little space there for contemplation. hmm. do you think that palin has a freezer full of wolf steaks just waiting for the grill? just thought i would ask.

awsome day

2009-07-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

sometimes a really magical day comes along and today was just such a day. girlfriend, good food, happy dogs romping in the dog park, and the joy of rain. it was domestic bliss. i am content.

racial profiling

2009-07-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

i know racial profiling exist in this country and it is wrong. racial profiling exist but that does not mean that every black man being arrested by a white officer is an example of this. if police officers get a call of two men that seem to be attempting to break in to a home then that is a legitimate reason to investigate and ask to see some identification. it is not racial profiling. if gates did become disorderly when asked to see his identification, then he deserved to be arrested. plain and simple. i would think that gates would be grateful that the police bother to investigate such calls in an attempt to protect property, his included. perhaps if gates lived in new orleans, where police rarely show up to such calls, he might sing a different tune.

i also find it incredibly irresponsible of president obama to weigh in on the subject without having all the facts. this sends the wrong message. racial profiling is wrong but if people cry wolf when there is no wolf at the door, then the very real misery of targeting someone based on their race is lost.

we have a black president and i am incredibly proud of our country for that feat but it is time to move forward and stop playing the race card. not everything is motivated by racism. sometimes people just screw up and make wrong decisions. sometimes people are just evil and their brand of evil does not see the color of someone's skin. the only way this country can continue to move past the horrors of racism is to seek it out where it truly exist not expend precious energy crying racism where it does not exist. all that does is make the public numb to a very real issue and when there really is a need for public support, there will not be any.

i am back

2009-07-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

well, i intend to be posting more often now that i have my internet back up and running.

wetlands

2009-07-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

i went to the imax today and finally saw hurricane on the bayou. the footage of katrina was heartbreaking as it always is but the film was beautifully shot. i have been somewhat depressed about the wetlands lately, since that new study was revealed,stating that the mississippi no longer has the sediment load to keep up with the rising ocean levels and consequent erosion. it seems we will have to work smarter, strategically redirecting the river to areas where it will do the most good. is that good enough? some areas will suffer and continue to vanish at an alarming rate and not only will communities in those areas be vulnerable but the entire ecosystems of those areas. all the birds. all the animals that call those wetlands home also vanish. this is incredibly sad to me as is our continued need to discuss the problem without at least beginning to implement changes. my god, if something is not done we will lose it all! we will lose the ecological diversity. we will lose the unique cajun culture. the beauty will be lost and the greatest city in the united states(and quite possibly on earth)will turn to open gulf. what else is left to talk about? must we continue to fiddle while rome burns? let's at least start saving parts of the wetlands before there is nothing to save. when it's gone it is gone. and when it is gone, we will have lost a place of such heartbreaking beauty and mystery that none of us will ever be the same. it will be the kind of tragedy that dims the light of the world.

thinking of you over coffee

2009-06-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

XVII (I do not love you...)

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I do not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

remembering stonewall

2009-06-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

today marks the 40th anniversary of the stonewall riots of greenwich village, june 28, 1969. this kicked off the gay civil rights movement at a time when homosexual sex was illegal in all states, save one. in seven states it was punishable by castration. we have come a long way since the dark days of police raids on gay bars but we still have much work to do. we cannot become complacent. the defense of marriage act must go, along with the military discrimination of gays. we must all act up and demand equal rights from the president on down! we must never forget where we have come from and those brave men and women that helped to drive our cause forward. so get out there and show some fucking pride people.

a little poetry

2009-06-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

We Did Not Make Ourselves
by Michael Dickman

We did not make ourselves is one thing

I keep singing into my hands

while falling

asleep

for just a second

before I have to get up and turn on all the lights in the house, one after the

other, like opening an Advent calendar

My brain opening

the chemical miracles in my brain

switching on

I can hear

dogs barking

some trees

last stars

You think you’ll be missed

it won’t last long

I promise

I’m not dead but I am

standing very still

in the back yard

staring up at the maple

thirty years ago

a tiny kid waiting on the ground

alone in heaven

in the world

in white sneakers

I’m having a good time humming along to everything I can still remember

back there

How we’re born

Made to look up at everything we didn’t make

We didn’t

make grass, mosquitoes

or breast cancer

We didn’t make yellow jackets

or sunlight

either

I didn’t make my brain

but I’m helping

to finish it

Carefully stacking up everything I made next to everything I ruined in broad

daylight in bright

brainlight

This morning I killed a fly

and didn’t lie down

next to the body

like we’re supposed to

We’re supposed to

Soon I’m going to wake up

Dogs

Trees

Stars

There is only this world and this world

What a relief

created

over and over

my friend turned me on to the michael dickman's poetry and i am in love. this poem is beautifully nostalgic and wonderfully melancholy. it makes me cry. this evokes the feeling of childhood for me and the sense of enormous potential, waiting to be fulfilled. i do not think that we frail humans can ever live up to that wonder of what the world holds and all that we might one day become. it is that loss that i am mourning.

waiting for godot

2009-06-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

i wonder when sitting beneath the tree in my backyard, attempting to remove my boot,and ruminating on suicide while waiting for godot(in this case the cable guy, dish network technician, ups, or any of the hundred other people that force you to be home bound between the hours of 8 and 5), who exactly it is that gets their appointment over with first thing in the morning so that they might be free to frolic? i have cleaned and re-cleaned my house while waiting and made forays into the miniature world of matchstick art. i built a french quarter out of matchsticks and fully intended to show it at my next art show but alas, it burned. it seems that new orleans, even a tiny version of itself is still prone to great conflagrations. we, the mites of this mighty metropolis are scurrying about in our own theater of the absurd.
and i got all that without even checking the morning paper, which i am sure will only reinforce my belief that the universe makes no sense. it is like the anonymous crack line in new orleans, that when you call, a recording tells you to leave your name and number and someone will call you back. alrighty then!

104 degrees

2009-06-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

it was 104 degrees in the city of new orleans yesterday. that is not just breaking the records, that is bloody well shattering them and it is not even august yet. i am scared of august.
my air conditioner, which is a portable r2d2 unit, responsible for cooling the front two rooms of my house cannot combat this kind of extreme heat. consequently, i am sitting in cc's coffee shop in the quarter, trying to keep cool. it also helps me rehydrate since the water i consume at my house cannot quite keep up with the water that i sweat out.
i bought a pair of seersucker shorts yesterday and am currently wearing them. it pays to be fashionably attired in the wilting summer months. these are red striped and i am so enamored of them that i do believe i will be going back to purchase the more traditional blue ones.
i realize that my blogs have less and less to do with politics and more and more to do with the heat induced madness of personal ramblings. it is too hot to be political. politics gets me angry and that in turn gets me hot under the collar and damn but i am already hot under the collar. so i think for now at least, that i will sit here, sipping ice tea and chatting about the weather.

switching from cox cable

2009-06-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

i am trapped here in my house waiting for the dish network technician to come and hook up my new services. he is expected sometime between 8 this morning and noon. i called around to shop for the best price and certainly hope that i made the right decision. dish network gives more for less. so we shall see. in the mean time i am bored. i should be cleaning the house but without the joys of central air condition, much of my house remains hellishly hot. the air condition in the living room is barely keeping these two rooms cool as we approach record breaking temperatures again today. so i am not cleaning but playing on the computer instead. i am forced to recognize that summer is not my super productive season. really, i just feel like sleeping.
i have a tour tonight. the taxi cab folks have been out in force checking our licenses and making sure all is on the up and up. i have been stopped three times now. i know of two tour guides that got their licenses yanked. as a result, i will be pulling in another shift come friday night, at least until he gets his license back. this works out wonderfully well for me as i always get a bit nervous come summer, when tourism drops off a bit. still, i am very optimistic about our dreaded season this year. the hotels are looking good and i think we can stay fairly busy right up until the heat breaks.
i have another appointment lined up for tomorrow at noon to interview a guy about his katrina tattoo. the more people we get, the more excited about the project i become. i think we might actually be able to pull off not only the book but also a documentary as well. so if you or someone you know has a katrina tattoo and a story, please have them contact me at faolnua@gmail.com
alright, it is time for some ice cold water.

hot

2009-06-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

it is hot. it is sticky august hot. pasty little doughy tourists from canada and other gentler climes are passing out on my tours. the rest of obese america can be seen oozing down the steamy sidewalks of the french quarter, carrying big gulps and huge ass beers. their money aside, my tolerance for them goes down as the temperature goes up. they melt and stick to everything, sizzling like bacon in the sun.

the other day i was in the cemetery where it is at least 30 degrees hotter than the rest of the city and i swear, i think the soles of my shoes were melting. i could feel myself puddling up and i slipped into daydreams of beautiful bags of water dripping into my veins from an i.v. then the head ache set in and i rushed to finish the tour.

today, against what would have been the best medical advice had i actually sought medical advice, i ventured into the jungle of banana trees threatening to take over my side hall porch. i was armed with a machete. they were armed with root systems that plunge downward until they hit bedrock, which in new orleans is a feat in and of itself. i sweated. i hacked. i drank water. i slashed. banana trees fell. i grew dizzy. i drank water. a little before noon, i called for reinforcements via the axe and shovel. the banana trees solicited the aid of the sun which moved into an overhead position, getting me squarely in its sights. i fought gallantly but the banana trees won. now i am sitting in front of the fan, blood red, feeling every beat of my heart and thinking there is no hangover like the one the sun and heat can give you. my eyes are glowing and i no longer think it is possible to drink enough water to hydrate myself. i must recover soon, i have a tour tonight.

i am praying for rain. sweet rain, like a cool compress on feverish skin. rain and air conditioning and maybe an ice cold beer if i can ever get hydrated. see you in the inferno.

as smart as mold

2009-06-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

in japan at the hokkaido university, scientists have discovered that a particular type of mold(that has no nervous system) is actually capable of negotiating its way through a maze in order to reach food located at the end. this begs the question of why our mayor, city council, and chief of police can't be at least as bright as mold? it really is worth pondering.

something to make you laugh.

2009-06-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

a university creative writing class was once asked to write a succinct essay incorporating the following things: 1)religion 2) royalty 3) sex 4) mystery.
the winning essay read:
"My god," said the queen, "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it?"
beautiful!

6 things to get off my chest

2009-06-01T20:02:00.001-07:00

1.)why would SUNO appoint gill pratt to sit on their cabinet of advisers when she has been indicted on federal racketeering charges? really? i don't know why it amazes me that this type of thing goes on here but it still does.

2.) i am a pacifist by nature but peace loving nature has a limit. i am over north korea's saber rattling. let's just go in and blast their fucking nuclear plants and missiles to hell. look, there's a missile waiting on the launch pad...bombs away! no more missile. problem solved. next.

3.) the first day of storm season is upon us and still we do not have the proper funding to restore our disappearing coast line, which is our best defense against storms. hey, obama! you made some promises to the gulf states devastated by katrina and it is time that those promises were fulfilled. remember? yes we can but not without money!

4.) can we please stop giving labruzzo air time? he is a fucking nazi in disguise as a good upstanding christian fucking family man, who needs to get his ass kicked out of office. news flash: being poor is not a crime so let's not treat the poor as criminals by forcing drug tests on them.

5.) the plan to raise the minimum academic standards for athletes was defeated in the house. wow! the proposed bill would have raised the gpa from 1.5 to 2.0 in order to be eligible to play sports. really? they defeated that? we honestly do not expect more of our children than a 1.5 grade point average? my god! no wonder we are graduating functionally illiterate children. our priorities are screwed.

6.)california, you have let the country down with your failure to provide gays with the right to marry. since when do we allow the desires of the many to rump the civil liberties of the few? oh, wait, i was being an idealist again. it is a sad turn of events when the california supreme court upheld proposition 8, thus denying tax paying american citizens of their right to marriage. then again, i guess i really don't expect much from a state that elected arnold as governor.

i'm going to bed now.

in response to cal thomas

2009-05-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

i was reading cal thomas' article in the times picayune today with clenched fists and vein popping anger. he was basically writing in defense of "enhanced interrogation" techniques, as if this orwellian turn of phrase might somehow hide the fact that the bush administration sanctioned torture. we, the united states; ever mindful of other countries' human rights abuses, hypocritically engaged in the very same activities that we have criticized others over. in the article, he takes obama to task for wanting to alter these barbaric practices. he cites that the president stated that enemy troops surrendered because they knew they would be treated fairly but makes the point that they raised the white flag out of fear instead. i find fault with that logic. in world war two, u.s soldiers were brutal when it came to the treatment of japanese soldiers. they often tortured and killed those japanese that surrendered. the response was not more mass surrenders, it was the birth of the kamakazi. faced with insufficient fuel to return home, japanese pilots crashed their planes into american ships, rather than risk falling into american hands, where death would most likely come slowly.
we claim to be fighting terrorists for our way of life. well, our way of life should not condone barbaric acts of torture, where men are forced into contorted positions for hours on end or deprived of sleep for days at a time. they are left to freeze, starved, beaten, and sensory deprived. some of these people are united states' citizens that have never been charged with a crime. i shudder to think of what agonizing hell their lives have become. and what of the american soldiers that carry out these so called enhanced interrogation techniques? how can you ask of them to shed their humanity and engage in brutal acts of torture, only to send them home again, where they are expected to miraculously integrate back into society. torture does not just hurt the victim, it slowly destroys the abuser. how can you ever lift a child up with tender hands after beating a man half to death. how can you ever be whole again? if there is evil in the world that threatens us, is it right to do evil to combat it? and if we defeat it, who then protects the world from us, when we have become the very thing we feared and hated. america, we are the bully.

if we can't get money from a democrat...

2009-05-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

i voted for obama. i happily voted for obama. i utilized my powers of democracy, in part because i fully expected that louisiana would get money for coastal restoration. i was wrong.
the louisiana coastline is the fastest disappearing land mass in the world. we are losing the land more rapidly than the amazon rain forest. every ten months, an area the size of manhattan slips away.
without coastal restoration, new orleans is doomed. it will not matter how high they build the levees, if we are sitting in the middle of the gulf of mexico.
i love this city and the bush administration nearly finished what the failed levees started, with their inept response and failure to appropriate proper funding for coastal restoration. i looked to obama. i am still looking.
state officials were looking to the obama administration for money to begin 10 major coastal restoration projects at a cost of 1.2 to 1.9 billion. the obama administration is only allocating 25 million for the plan.
hurricane season begins june 1st and once again, we find ourselves in the most precarious of positions. our levees still are not up to par and the miles and miles of wetlands that once lay between new orleans and hurricanes has all but slipped into the ocean. we need action. we need money, not empty promises. the clock is ticking and if we can't get money from a democrat, who the hell can we get it from?

looking for the peace time

2009-05-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

in my mind i am picturing 5,000 people marching on city hall in protest of our crime problem. above the fray, i can see a white banner flying with the letters "sos" written in splattered red, like so much blood washing the new orleans' streets. in one week, more people were killed here than died in iraq. this is a war zone. i do not remember ever joining the army or signing up to fight and yet i have been on a 14 year long tour of duty and my god, but the things i have seen. there was a man i watched be beaten to death. the sixteen year old with his brains splattered all over frenchmen street and his pregnant sister bleeding in the car nearby. there were two guys that crashed into charity hospital as a result of gunshot wounds that i saw on my way to work one fine spring day. the boy shot in the leg. the little girl shot in the ankle. the kid blown of his motorcycle. and damn but if the list does not go on and on. after the storm, i stood looking at all the destruction and for the first time the city looked like the war zone it had so long been. there was an eerie quiet after the storm. no gunshots. no screaming mothers. i thought, maybe the peace will hold and we can go on without the war. then the drug dealers came back, lured by the prospect of hungry contractors with fast cash burning holes in their pockets. i don't remember when i heard my first gunshot after katrina, only that it startled me in a way i think no noise ever had or will again. the peace was broken. the war was back on and the names of victims started to grow. i don't know all of them. i don't know all of their faces. there have been so many. but i did know helen hill and wendy byrnes. i did know others. it seems that nothing changes here. people shoot and kill and if someone witnesses the murder, they are either intimidated(blown up vehicles and such) into silence or murdered. the latest casualties appear to be an elderly couple, shot to death in their lower ninth ward home in an apparent attempt to silence their nephew who was scheduled to testify in an upcoming trial. the wife was found in the bedroom clutching a knife and i can only imagine the fear and horror she must have felt, hearing her husband killed in the next room, knowing what was coming for her. and for what? for fucking what? all because her nephew was trying to do the right thing. we so rarely do the right thing here. gunshots? oh well, roll over and go back to sleep. drug dealers? what drug dealers? i didn't see anything. and if you do go to the police, nine times out of ten, they fuck it up anyway. so you want to do the right thing and testify? good luck. it might just get you or someone you love killed. that's how it goes down in new orleans. meanwhile our mayor is trying to remember if his first class trip to jamaica was paid by someone else and our city council has disintegrated into a damn day care center with bickering and back biting. riley...fucking riley never seems to take responsibility for anything. you know what guys? the ship is sinking. it's fucking sinking and i'm not sure we can bail the damn water out fast enough to save us.

looking for katrina tattoos

2009-05-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

i am working on a book featuring katrina tattoos so if you or someone you know has that kind of a tattoo and also a story about their katrina or post-katrina experiences, then please contact me. you can either post a comment here or reach me at faolnua@gmail.com. i am looking for what it is about the city of new orleans that makes people love it so that they would tattoo their bodies over it. so, let me know!! spread the word. thanks.

more on swine flu

2009-04-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

swine flu fear generates big money for pharmaceutical companies. the associated press reported that at least one financial analyst estimates that Tamiflu sales will jump to $388 million in the near future. Tamiflu, you might remember took a hit in sales because it caused many of the same symptoms as the flu itself. already, companies like gilead sciences have seen a rise in their shares of stocks in only one day! they are making money off of a mild case of the flu because they and the news media are over inflating our cause for concern. this is not the first time the public has been alerted to swine flu. it happened in 1976. their was a panic in this country and talks of forcing people to get vaccinated were bantered about. the swine flu pandemic never materialized but the flu vaccine killed more people then than the flu.

malaria kills about 3,000 people every day but is little more than a foot note on the nightly news, if it gets any press coverage at all. put things into perspective and relax. it is very difficult for a virus to mutate into a strain that is both deadly and easily transmissible. it rarely happens. this really is just another attempt for an elite few to make a lot of money in these hard economic times but they can only do so, if we buy into the fear.

calming the fear

2009-04-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

there is a lot of fear being spread in the media over this so called swine flu. many people like to look back to the 1918 flu pandemic that had death tolls soaring and use it to dredge up new fears. scientists researching that strain of flu have now come out and said that the high death rate was not because of the flu itself but rather as a result of strep infections. it is easy to pick up strep infections in hospitals, which are known breeding grounds for bacteria or in areas where sanitation is not up to par. this may be why mexico is faced with a higher death toll from swine flu than elsewhere. i believe this fear is being spread not just because it makes a good news story but also so that money can be made off future flu vaccines. flu vaccines have not been shown to effectively reduce the risk of contracting the flu and they come with risks of their own, such as paralysis or even death. so, sit back and relax. get plenty of rest and up your vitamin c intake. we will all be just fine.

late posting on beaten artist

2009-04-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

"On the morning of April 10th there was a horrible tragedy in Jackson Square.
One of the artists there, Gang Hu (known to all as Kenny) was attacked and
beaten badly as he was setting up for a day of work.
Many of you know him, a really sweet, talented portrait and caricature
artist that is always ready with a smile and well wishes. The front and
back of his head were beaten in and he was rushed to the hospital where he
has had surgery. The last I heard he was in ICU. He is not conscious and
they won’t be able to tell much for a few days until the swelling goes down.

The police who were called to the scene made ridiculous comments about the
character of the victim, stating he was drunk and probably his fault. This
is an outrage. They did not conduct any sort of investigation as far as I
heard they did not even classify it as a crime scene. When another local
artist insisted that he did not drink and that they should investigate, he
was told he would be arrested if he said anything else!

This artist is a dutiful husband with two small children at home, a dear man
who gives everything he can to help those in need even when he has so little
himself. Jackson Square artists are considered a huge draw for New Orleans
tourists and they should have more support and protection from NOPD. We pay
taxes to the city as well as license and permit fees to set up there. We
should have the right to protection as citizens and as workers at one of the
city’s top tourist attractions.

We are organizing to raise funds to help pay for his medical costs and to
get NOPD to provide patrol for artists in the morning. Please support this
cause, run a story, tell your friends, post to your social networks and do
all you can to help this wonderful person and his family recover from this
tragedy."
thanks to the chicory for originally covering this and helping to get the word out.

hey nagin, the sharks are circling

2009-04-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

it looks as though nagin is coming under more and more scrutiny over his all expenses paid vacations. the latest allegation is a trip to chicago that was paid for by a city vendor, netmethods.
well, mr. mayor i hope you are enjoying your time in office because i sincerely hope it is drawing to a close and if there is a higher power, it will end with you doing some jail time. we all know you are corrupt as hell and let's hope the sharks get you!

what the fuck is going on??

2009-04-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

there have been two shootings in the span of two days so that my neighborhood is sounding more and more like iraq with the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons fire. last night's shoot out at the ok corral woke me up and had me rolling off the bed with my dog in tow so as not to be hit by stray bullets. once the dust settled and the police arrived, i went out to investigate and found two bullet holes in my truck. my truck! this, mind you is the new to me truck that i just bought and i bought it to replace the mad max vehicle that i was sporting. does anyone else find this ironic? because now, with two bullet holes, i actually have a damn mad max vehicle. seriously? maybe i should just get a mohawk and everything pierced, dress in black leather, horde water and decorate in bones. i mean really, this has to be the set of some bad movie, right? right? on top of it all, i drove my truck to the french quarter today to show the girl the bullet holes and i parked on esplanade, never thinking that it was tuesday, street cleaning day.street cleaning day!! they tow on those days. they towed my damn truck! seriously? so i had to walk all the way to the lot of shame on claiborne, where they are oh so friendly and pay $125 to get it out of impound. i was like, "it's the bullet riddled silver ford f-150." i need a drink but i have to work tonight. damn!

what is going on with amazon books.

2009-04-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

amazon books has pulled the sales rankings on all gay, lesbian, and transgendered books, as well as some erotica. not all of these books fall into the category of so called "erotica", since a college guide for LGBT students also lost its ranking. something reeks of homophobia at amazon. are these books really to suffer the label of "adult" just because they deal with LGBT issues and yet "playboy" has no such label and has yet to lose its coveted sales ranking. if you are having a hard time swallowing such a distinction, i urge you to contact amazon at their express customer service number:1-866-216-1072. thanks to "queersunited.blogspot.com

bargain hunting

2009-04-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

i am all for finding a good bargain but not when it comes the the levee system surrounding new orleans. the army corps of engineers is up to its old tricks again, fretting over dollar signs rather than concerning themselves with the safety of the levee system. their proposed plan relies on miles of faulty levee systems that have already proven themselves failures rather than spend the extra money to replace these structures, which would save more money in the long run. they are cutting cost in the short term but ensuring that billions will be spent after yet another catastrophic flood event. this is the most short sighted plan and it is nothing less than criminal. it is appalling to put the lives and property of new orleanians at risk, not to mention the very real possibility of this city not being able to recover a second time. i believe it is time for the corps to be disbanded. we clearly need an agency that puts the lives of american citizens first and we need it before the next storm.

the high cost of sin

2009-04-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

i grew up in a religious household and thus am intimately aware of the harsh cycle of sin and guilt. i am proud to say that the experience cured me of organized religion. i find it appalling that there are those people who profess that their god is a loving god and yet engage in acts of hate and violence. i guess i'm wondering if christ would really show up to the funeral services of fallen american soldiers to wave anti-gay signs and trivialize the grief of their families. i am horrified when i watch the video of a young man being flogged by the taliban in pakistan because he had homosexual relations. why do these people care? does it really get you into heaven with your horde of happy virgins? my god! it sickens me to watch a young girl being held down while the taliban beats her. i am disgusted by the so called religious rights' signs that god hates fags. i can't even write this. there is no evolution, at least not with man. from all that i have seen of our behavior, we have done nothing but devolve. from the moment we learned to walk upright to the present, we have waged war. we have gorged ourselves on a steady diet of hypocrisy and hate. sure, we have more advanced technology but is it really more advanced to fine tune the art of killing? someone was once asked what they would not take from earth if they were going to another planet and they replied, "humans." i think that would be a fucking safe bet.

crime alert

2009-03-31T21:11:00.000-07:00

i don't know how many of you signed up for the crime alerts text message system but i would like to encourage everyone to do so. we have to protect ourselves. an alert was posted earlier of 3 young men kicking in doors in the marigny, so be on the look out. stay safe and watch out for each other. it is a war zone kids!

john labruzzo is at it again

2009-03-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

clearly john labruzzo takes his cues from nagin, in that he seems incapable of self-censorship. his latest antics have him calling for the drug testing of welfare recipients. i think labruzzo needs a refresher course in constitutional law. this is an illegal body search without a warrant and lacking in probable cause. it, in fact, criminalizes poverty. if you are poor, you must be of the criminal element and therefor in abdication of your civil rights. yes, i agree that the welfare system needs to be over hauled but this is not the way to go about doing that. perhaps, we might start by paying people a decent living wage in this country, because it is impossible to live of minimum wage. you certainly cannot raise a family on it but then again, labruzzo would like to stop that from happening as well via forced sterilization of women on welfare. i guess only the wealthy deserve to breed and they never ever sink into the depths of criminality. i mean i cannot think of any wealthy ceo's that have looted tax payers of their hard earned cash, can you?? john labruzzo, you were elected in part to uphold the constitution not try to subvert it based on your own prejudices. since you seem unwilling to take that aspect of your civil duty seriously, then i think it is time you stepped down. we, the tax payers no longer require your services. thank you and hopefully you will not have to go on welfare once you lose your job because then we would have to drug test you and sterilize your wife. thanks for playing along, we have some nice parting gifts.

my birthday

2009-03-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

i sat in the bar last night, sometime after midnight and so officially my birthday. i watched a man carry feathered pillows down decatur street. he was homeless and it was cold out. i was suddenly grateful for the things i have. it was not a bar that i would normally frequent but i was lured down there with the promise of a kiss from the bartender. i was caught up in the moment and forgot that it was also troy's birthday and the first drink on our birthday is always to him. troy died of aids when we were barely 21. 21, my god! can you imagine ever having been so young? there was nothing that we could not do. everything lay before us. i was caught up in the moment, kissing the bartender and i forgot to toast troy. i feel guilty for forgetting him. well, here is to you my brother. we are 38 and that is a long ways away from 21. i'm living in new orleans just like we always talked of doing but i still think back to all those days at the river park, swinging as high as we could go. every time i think about you plowing your car through the church and all the way to the pulpit just before easter sunrise services, i laugh. damn but you would love it here. new orleans has the same fucked up luck that we always seemed too. the things we could get into together. i miss you troy and i really wish you were here to celebrate our birthday together.

upping the butch factor

2009-03-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

i just bought a new truck...well, new to me. it is a 2007 ford f150 xl and considerably bigger than my last truck, making it a decidedly butcher buy. it would catapult me into a whole new butch bracket so to speak, were it not for the fear that i will in no way, shape, or form be able to park the thing. they take your toaster away for less than that. it is a great truck though. the ride is incredibly smooth and it handles like a dream. there is no carpet, making it dog hair proof and i am happily spoiled with air condition, a rear view mirror, a front bumper, and windshield wipers that work! plus, there is a lot more room and it comforts me as being far more reliable during storm season. so wave, if you see me taking 30 plus minutes to park the beast but don't help me...it just makes me nervous.

just wondering...

2009-03-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

does anyone else find it strange that the auto zone has all the de-icing fluid you could want but no rain-x? i mean, it actually rains here. hell, it is raining right now.

my date

2009-03-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

things went quite well right up to the point that she told me she is bi-polar, off her medication, feeling fine, but is starting to experience some anxiety. basically, she is a skyline that is about to start burning. it is one thing when you are already invested in someone, in love as it were but to plunge into that without the attatchment is nothing short of suicide. oh well, there are other prospects and we shall see. to be continued...

creepy

2009-03-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

sometimes you can just tell when there is something off about the area in which you live. i came home tonight post-tour and there was no one on the street. it was eerily quiet and deserted. when i got out of the car, i remember thinking i should hurry inside because something didn't feel right. when i entered my house, my roommate asked me if i had said hello. i replied no. he swore he heard me say that as if i was already in the house. later there was strange whistling to be heard. we settled in to watch a movie and at some point we heard what sounded like gun shots, loud enough to make me think they were right outside the house. it is always hard to tell if what you are hearing is actually gunshots or firecrackers or a car back firing...etc. so, we waited and what we waited for was the reaction of others, because nothing draws a crowd like a shooting. the odd thing was, no one came out. the street stayed silent. we decided to go outside to investigate. a couple of people were on the street. my roommate thought he heard them say that some white people were riding around shooting and to get off the street, only i did not hear a car with the shots. i thought he said something about us being the white people and they should get off the street because we would call the police. i don't know but there is just an air of something strange and it is not yet dissipating. it may prove to have an interesting impact on my dreams.

aig bonuses

2009-03-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

n a comment aired this afternoon on WMT, an Iowa radio station, Grassley (R-Iowa) said: “The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.”

well, i think that says it all folks!

birthday

2009-03-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

i turn 38 at the end of this month and that is enough to get me re-evaluating my life. i am a reasonably happy person. i love my city and for the most part, my jobs but i can't help feeling like something is missing. perhaps i should be farther along in my life, a famous writer or successful artist. maybe i am just spinning my wheels. i know that i have been wasting a lot of time and energy on relationships that don't work and maybe that is a self-created distraction that prevents me from focusing on the goals i wish to attain. i fail in relationships so i don't have to fail at other things. how is that for a little pop psychological self analysis? turning 38 will do that for you. over all, my thirties have been good to me. i felt more confident in myself and more sure of who i wanted to be even if i have yet to totally become that person. i studied and got my tour guide's license and bought a house. i'm proud of those achievements. i regret the string of failed relationships that are behind me like so many train wrecks. oh, the carnage. i regret not standing up for myself more in my most recent relationship. i am not sure why i endured the abuse and constant teasing. one wonders these things. well, here is to growing up and learning life's many lessons along the way. i have begun feverishly preparing for a new series of paintings and am currently putting together a writing portfolio. here is to hoping that 38 is the year i make my mark on the literary and artistic worlds. and here is to evolution, may we all continue to evolve. damn, i hope i do!