Old Skool Wham!

The economy is collapsing. The planet is dying. We're mired in two wars, with another on the way. And, Elizabeth Dole is fighting to have an AIDS relief bill named after Jesse Helms.

Sometimes, you just have to sit back and watch a pre-mainstream success Wham! video and let the worries of the world melt away.

Wham! - Bad Boys - 1982

Drill Here. Drill Now. Destroy Everything!

The price of oil hit another record today. And it probably will break that record tomorrow. And it’s shattering what was left of our economy after the mortgage meltdown and the credit crisis and the nearly $533,000,000,000 that it’s taken, so far, to invade Iraq. And we all knew it was coming.

We had decades from the energy crisis of the 1970s to invest in, and develop, alternative sources of energy. Wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and wave power. I learned about the energy crisis in elementary school, and my school books assured me that the future would be cleaner and healthier with lots of new technologies. Apparently, the leadership of this nation didn’t go to Roosevelt Elementary.

We had 40 years to prepare, and instead we drove SUVs and built McMansions. We sprawled from the suburbs into the exurbs and let our public transportation systems crumble into uselessness. We voted for warmongers and oil barons and made fun of tree-huggers. And we watched as Exxon-Mobil consistently broke its own record for largest annual profits in history. And now, we’re fucked.

And, still, conservatives are ignoring the obvious solutions while fighting to drill more, drill here and drill now. My friend Stimpy received an e-mail forward that’s been making its way around the internets, and of course, he forwarded it to me (with a warning that I should take blood pressure medication before reading any further). It’s too long, and too ridiculous to re-post here, but the gist was that the current energy crisis is Al Gore’s fault because he opposes allowing oil companies to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It also mentions that bears and caribou really like oil pipelines and would actually prefer the relaxing hum that oil drilling provides. Here’s a photo included in the e-mail as evidence.



I really think if they had Photoshopped a few unicorns into the photo as they were adding the caribou, it would have had a lot more impact – but that’s just my opinion.

I know people are now really feeling the consequences of 40 years of inaction. Trust me, I’m not currently big on filling my tank, or grocery shopping or paying the “fuel surcharge” that’s been added to everything over the past couple of months. But, drilling and drilling and drilling is not going to change one fucking thing, except to allow Exxon-Mobil to continue to break their profit records every year until there isn’t a drop of oil, or a spot of wilderness left on the planet.

To a lot of Americans, who are in personal financial panic mode, drilling in the ANWR, or off the coast of Florida, sounds like a quick fix to current gas prices. What hasn’t been conveyed to the public is that even if we started drilling tomorrow, current gas prices would not be affected at all.

Let’s look at a couple of facts….According to the United States Energy Information Administration’s own May 2008 report, we wouldn’t even be able to extract any oil from the ANWR area until 2018. And, in the year 2025, ANWR drilling might reduce the cost of gas by 75 cents. That’s 75 cents in 2025.

In the meantime, other nations are investing in their infrastructures, building efficient mass transit systems and moving away from fossil fuels – while the United States, lost to its addiction, falls further and further behind. Soon, the oil consumption of China and India will far surpass the United States. At which point, it won’t matter how much oil we produce from drilling our federally-protected lands, because, it will all be going to China and India. Will our government require the big oil companies to only sell their black gold to America? Um, yeah. I would guess not. The world’s great superpower will be reduced to competing with the third world for energy, and we’ll lose. It’s already happening.

And suppose, just suppose, that we do get oil rigs up and pumping in the ANWR and off the coast of Florida. Of course, there will, at some point, be massive oil spills. We don’t have far to go to imagine what the coast of Alaska would look like – we’ve seen that several times before. But, picture, just for a moment, Miami Beach after an offshore oil spill. Or Ft. Lauderdale. How about the Tampa Bay area? Or maybe the conservatives hope that any spills in the Gulf would just float north and do New Orleans in once and for all?

And, know that the people standing in the shadows behind the Drill Here, Drill Now crowd are the oil company executives. Ah, those fine Americans, living the American dream of building profitable companies through the natural economic laws of supply and demand. Well, except that their record profits are not based on supply and demand. They’re based on corporate welfare and tax subsidies. And, if we hadn’t been subsidizing the entire oil industry, for the past 40 years, sustainable energy technologies would have been able to compete and win against fossil fuels, thereby ending our dependence on OPEC. But, of course, oil executives continue to argue that they need our tax subsidy dollars, as well as our dollars at the pump. And they’ve got their conservative pundits and bloggers out there arguing their case for them. I mean, without corporate welfare and access to every last piece of plunder-able wilderness, how could they ever put food on their families’ tables?


Yes. Drill Here! Drill Now! Destroy Everything! And don’t listen to those moonbat tree-huggers….the oil in Iraq will more than pay for the war.

Acid House Flashback # 6

"Jack To The Sound Of The Underground" - Hithouse - 1988

No, Really?

I really try not to utter the name of, or even make reference to, that unmentionable evil. But, sometimes you have to stand the fuck up, look evil right in it's beady little red glowing eyes and say "really Fox News? Really?"

A little history...Australian bazillionaire, Keith Rupert Murdoch, became a U.S. citizen in 1985, simply to satisfy the legal requirement that only citizens of the United States can own American television stations. Murdoch's demon creation, Faux News, rose to power in the late 1990s, and really took off when war became the new dot-com investment. Faux News built an empire by tapping into, and promoting, the xenophobic, racist, homophobic, paranoid fantasies of the undereducated, the greedy, the bitter, and the downright mean. It was a market just waiting to be exploited.

But here we are, at the end of the neo-con era, and Faux News has found itself still cheerleading for an administration that has lied to and deceived the American public, bankrupted our nation, neglected our infrastructure, lost an unwinnable war, destroyed our standing in the world, and abandoned the Constitution in favor or wiretaps and waterboards. Sure,there are still a few idiots who think that it was all worth it to stop gay marriage, but they are getting fewer by the minute.

Now, Faux's ratings are dropping. Bill O'Reilly is down. Sean Hannity is way off, and it seems even the hardcore wingnuts can't stand the whiny, and oh-so-attractive, morning fucks on "Fox and Friends". The shows are stale. The graphics are beat and the hosts are all just tired.

The pressure is on, and the desperation is showing. And, it ain't pretty. Just when the right wing needs every moderate voter they can scare into voting for McBush, Faux finds itself having to apologize, near daily, for pathetic and outrageously racist "slips" of the typed headline and tongue.

Honestly, Faux's wretched state and reckless lashing out will only spiral. The more that Obama kicks John McCain's ass in debates on Iraq and townhall meetings about the economy, the more ridiculous the tantrums will become.

And, finally, we will be able to put this Dark Age behind us.

Found But Not Lost

Via Discovery.com...

Dramatic images of an isolated Brazilian tribe believed never to have had contact with the outside world were published by officials Friday to draw attention to threats posed to their way of life.

*snip*

Survival International, a British group lobbying on behalf of indigenous people around the world, said on its Web site there were fears illegal logging in Peru could endanger the Brazilian tribe's habitat, by forcing displaced Peruvian tribes into contact with it.

It said there were an estimated 500 isolated Indians living on the Brazilian side of the border.
"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," Survival International director Stephen Corry said.

His group said there were more than 100 uncontacted indigenous tribes worldwide.

Wireless Internet connections and iPhones and global positioning systems and Google Earth...and there are still groups of indigenous people living in isolation with no connection to the noisy world of things. This is a beautifully diverse and mysterious world that we live in.

I'm so intrigued, wondering what life is like for people who live, as a part of nature, as a thousand generations before them did. What do they think of the planes flying over the forest? Are they happier than we are? How do they perceive life's mysteries? Unfortunately, the pursuit of answers to these questions will mean that the people in the photo will most likely be the last of thousands of generations to live as they have.

My Audacity To Hope

I'm really settling in to the realization that the disastrous neo-conservative era is finally, finally coming to a close. I have hope again that the future may not resemble a Mad Max movie after allm and I have more confidence every day that Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States. So, after much thought and some serious deliberation, I have assembled my Obama Administration wish list.

Vice President: Janet Napolitano

Secretary of State: Chuck Hagel

Secretary of the Treasury: Michael Bloomberg

Secretary of Defense: Wesley Clark

Attorney General: John Edwards

Secretary of the Interior: Barbara Boxer

Secretary of Agriculture: Raul Grijalva

Secretary of Commerce: Kent Conrad

Secretary of Labor: Kathleen Sebelius

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Tammy Baldwin

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Gwen Moore

Secretary of Transportation: Bill Richardson

Secretary of Energy: Al Gore

Secretary of Education: Carol Moseley-Braun

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Joe Sestak

Secretary of Homeland Security: Russ Feingold

White House Press Secretary: Ellen Degeneres

First Supreme Court Justice Appointment: Hillary Clinton

Explain This, Dammit.

Why has Barack Obama been cornered by the media over and over and over again and made to explain his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but John McCain has been nicely asked once, or twice, to explain his BFF relationship with this hateful moron? Why are the "hard-working whites" so offended by Reverend Wright, but think that this guy is just speading the loving word of God? The blatant double standardness is sickening.

Acid House Flashback # 5

"(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" - Nomad - 1990

An Open Letter Of Apology To African-America

Dear African-America,

I am sorry. I am sorry that your strong and proud ancestors were kidnapped and shackled and shipped as cargo across the great ocean to a foreign land. I am sorry that hundreds of thousands of them didn't survive and their bodies were simply thrown overboard. I am sorry that those who did survive had to endure the unimaginable horrors of the Middle Passage.

I am sorry that generation after generation after generation of Africans were enslaved and abused and raped and mutilated and beaten and tortured and terrorized and whipped and burned and branded and bought and sold and murdered. I am sorry that the wealth of this nation was accumulated through the involuntary sweat and blood of your great-grandparents' grandparents.

I am sorry that following the Civil War, your great grandparents were beaten and lynched by mobs of terrorists supported and encouraged by our country's leaders. I am sorry that, throughout their lives, they were intimidated and cheated and threatened and systematically disenfranchised. I am sorry that the laws of this nation were constructed to keep all forms of well-being, financial and otherwise, from being enjoyed by the millions of descendents of Africans who toiled and died of exhaustion. I am sorry that your families were thanked for their involuntary sacrifices with Jim Crow and burning crosses and medical experiments.

I am sorry that your grandparents were relegated to second-class schools and jobs and water fountains. I am sorry that when your grandparents sat down at the counter to join the land of the free, they were met with firehoses and dogs and police brutality. I am sorry that nearly all of the great African-American leaders throughout our history were murdered for having a sense of justice.

I am sorry that today you have to continue to explain your anger and resentment. I am sorry that you have to explain why too many of your families are broken, and why too many of your brothers and sisters live in poverty and prison. I am sorry that you have to explain why, after nearly 400 years of slavery and brutality and murder, you sometimes distrust other Americans.

I am sorry that you still have to explain, and explain, and explain. I'm sorry that Barack Obama has to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, because Rev. Wright tried to explain your frustrations to the rest of America. I'm sorry that European-Americans with political aspirations never have to explain their relationships with Pat Buchanan who says that "America has been the best place on earth for black folks." I am sorry that mainstream America demands an explanation from Senator Obama as to how he could sit in church and listen to a conspiracy theorist, all while eagerly gathering 'round the tube to listen to Good Ole' Bill and Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck enlighten us to the secret homosexual agenda and the hidden Hollywood liberal elite abortion revolution.

Please know that some of us whose ancestors didn't have to endure the American Holocaust, don't need any explanations. Some of us are compassionate and kind and empathetic. Some of us are amazed at your strength and resiliance and ability to overcome and overcome and overcome. Some of us deeply value the gifts of science, literature, art and music that you gave to our country and the world. Some of us stand in awe at your talent and beauty. Some of us are listening. Some of us hear you. But, I'm sorry that so many of us still don't.

Sunshine State Priorities

Ah, the headlines today. The bazillions of dollars we've spent on our War on Iraq has crippled the dollar and pushed us into a spiraling recession. Iraq's oil fields were supposed to fund the invasion, but it hasn't quite worked out that way, and skyrocketing oil prices have pushed the price of transporting food to the point that Americans are having trouble putting dinner on the table.

While the nation is finally awakening to the consequences of nearly 8 years of Republican scheming and nepotism and incompetence, we in Florida are realizing that we may very well take the hardest punch.

Our real estate market has collapsed. Trust me. I work in real estate. I work with people every day who are losing their entire life savings - and few of the people I work with were speculators or investors. Many of them just got behind because of the incredible increases in property taxes and insurance, and the 30% drop in market value of their property has left them without the option of selling and getting out from under.

Recent reports show that South Florida has the highest rate of inflation in the nation. While the national average is currently at 4%, those of us in the Miami - Ft. Lauderdale metro area are seeing 5.3 - 5.8% average increases in prices.

For the first time ever, the big moving van lines have reported more people leaving the state than moving in.

Our educational system ranks among the worst in the nation, and we're becoming well known for the attention we give our children, some of whom have absolutely no conscience.

And, rising sea levels from global warming will likely overtake most of the state in the next 50 years.

Faced with this most sobering and serious set of challenges, our elected state leadership has decided that the discussion that most needs to be had and debated is how can Florida's activist Christians supplement their bumper stickers and stick-on Christian fish, so as to be able to practice Christian humility, and announce to the world in a more profound way their Christian-ness.

The solution to this urgent dilemma has been presented by Rep. Edward Bullard - a license plate that humble Christians will be able to pay extra for, so that I can be certain that the driver of the car in front of me "believes," while I sit in un-fucking-believable traffic on I-95.

The planet is dying. Genocide has become a way of life in many parts of the world. Over 4,000 young American men and women have died in a pointless war. Rice is being rationed at Costco. Looks like we're headed into the Second Great Depression.

And, the leaders of the Sunshine State have set their priorities.

From My Cold Dead Hands

A couple of years ago, when my forward-thinking state of Florida passed the "Shoot First" law the NRA folks cheered and, no doubt, guzzled more than a few beers in celebration. This new law allows us Floridians to shoot each other, and of course YOU should you come to visit, if we feel that our property might be endangered. If someone in Florida tries to steal my car, I have the right to kill him or her on the spot.

And today, thanks to pressure from the uber-powerful NRA, the Florida Senate passed a new bill that allows us Floridians to take our guns to work. Sure, we have to keep them locked in our cars, but we can no longer be told by business owners that we can't have guns on THEIR private property.

I'm just wondering...when an employee comes back from lunch with the gun from the glove compartment and shoots and kills all of middle-management...will the business owner be liable because the gun was stored and used on her property?

Way to go Flor-ee-duh.

Reel Life

One of the most perspective expanding books I’ve ever had the opportunity to breathe in is James W. Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Loewen spent two years comparing twelve typical American history textbooks and the distortions, inaccuracies, Euro-centrism, omissions and outright lies that most of us were taught as our nation’s story. He argues that young peoples’ negative attitudes toward the study of history and the general apathy that has come to help define our national culture are the results of a campaign of misinformation regarding our nation’s narrative. I couldn’t agree more.

In a discussion about the relationship between history and memory, Loewen shares his interpretation of the East African idea of sasha and zamani. According to Loewen:

Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. They are not wholly dead, for they still live in the memories of the living, who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead. As generalized ancestors, the zamani are not forgotten but revered.

For some reason, this concept really resonates with me, and lately I’ve been fascinated by the idea that movie-making has altered the human experience of history on a really fundamentally spiritual level.

Tony has always been a bit of a classic movies buff. I, on the other hand, had never even seen The Sound of Music until very recently. Tony’s been a great guide into the history of cinema, and I’ve seen more old movies in the past two years than in the previous thirty five. I’ve now come to have a deep appreciation for the old black-and-whites and I just keep thinking about the sense of immortality that was created with the invention of moving pictures. For a thousand generations before me, people had no real way of connecting with the zamani. The sasha remained in the memories and stories of living people, but once a person passed from the sasha to the zamani, they were lost to time. But now, I can order a movie from Netflix and connect with people who were born 150 years ago. I can see their movements and mannerisms. I can hear their voices. I can see them laugh and cry. I can, on some level, know them.

I think that’s a real paradigm shift that hasn’t yet been fully recognized. How different would our world be if we had the ability to see and hear and feel those who have been lost to time? I suppose we all sometimes wonder what the people who lived 500 years ago looked like and sounded like. The generations to come will have a powerful connection to their history that we can’t conceive. And, I just think that’s cool.

"Low Life" Insurance

Should I be concerned that Tony is receiving these types of offers in the mail?

Acid House Flashback # 4

"We Call It Acieed" - D-Mob - 1988

Let Me Get This Straight...

Ok. Let me see if I have this right.

In 1989, the oil supertanker, Exxon Valdez, hit a reef in Prince Williams Sound, just off the coast of Alaska, resulting in one of the most catastrophic environmental disasters in history. Nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil contaminated 1,200 miles of ocean and pristine shoreline - immediately killing up to a half of a MILLION seabirds, 5,000 sea otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 orcas and 12 river otters...not to mention the BILLIONS of salmon and herring eggs that were instantly destroyed. Local and Native communities were devastated, peoples' lives and livelihoods were destroyed, divorce and alcoholism rates soared and the mayor of the small town of Cordova committed suicide. The the ecological systems in and around Prince Williams Sound will take at least 30 years to recover, and the residents may never recover.

In 1994, a court awarded some of the victims (about 33,000 of them) $5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon immediately fought the judgement and was able to get the amount reduced to $2.5 billion.

In the meantime, Exxon has recovered a significant portion of the clean-up costs and legal expenses through insurance claims. And, the oil giant took a TAX DEDUCTION on its loss of a supertanker. And, they've been earning $400 million per year in interest on the money that it has set aside, just in case, somehow, it might have to pay for its negligence.

Then, in 2007, while the price of oil and war was crippling the American economy, Exxon-Mobil happily posted the LARGEST MOTHER FUCKING PROFIT IN HISTORY!!! While we were re-budgeting, and downgrading and buying cheaper foods at the grocery store, Exxon-Mobil posted a $404 billion profit. The previous record, ironically, was held by Exxon-Mobil.

Today, the crack team of big oil attorneys representing the interests of Exxon-Mobil sits in front of the Supreme Court of the United States of America and argues that the salmon is back and the seabirds are singing, so Exxon-Mobil shouldn't have to pay any damages to those people who survived the destruction of their lives and communities. They'll say that Exxon-Mobil has suffered enough and that the people of Alaska should just be thankful that they still have oil to export. Then, they'll get exactly what they want, because they own our government and our nation.

And next year, they'll beat their own profit record.

Life's Lessons

All I ever needed to know about life, I learned from the Bugaloos.

Roman Holiday

Guess who got a trip to Italy in September for Valentine's Day? Guess who has the bestest boyfriend in the whole wide world?

Should We Stay Or Should We Go?

Tony and I had a FANTASTIC time in Atlanta. So much so in fact, that we're wondering if it might be time to try out a new city. I have a great life in Miami, and I've definitely laid down deep roots. I know this city inside and out, and, I love the cultural exchange that happens here. And, well, it sure is pretty here.

But, for some time now, I've been longing for another life adventure. Tony moved here a little over a decade ago, and he's always felt a kind of mild disconnect from Miami, so he's up for discussing a relocation. I let you know how the discussion goes.

Oh, and here are some vacation pics...

Up North In The Deep South

Tony and I are heading way up North, to the Deep South today. We've got an unreal estate conference in Atlanta, and we're super-duper excited to be able to hang with Stimpy for a few days. I have only been through Atlanta once before, and I've spent about 12 hours in total there...but I was really impressed with the vibe. I'll have a more complete analysis when I get back. In the meantime, while we're enjoying the Georgia Aquarium, hiking around Stone Mountain and stalking Anderson Cooper, take a look at some of these interesting factoids about the ATL...

1. In 1842, Marthasville, Georgia had just 30 residents.

2. In December of 1847, Marthasville changed its name to Atlanta.

3. Atlanta has the highest elevation of any city east of Denver.

4. The Bank of America Plaza is the tallest building in the United States, outside of New York City and Chicago.

5. Nearly 60 % of the population of Atlanta is African-American, and almost 7% of the city is Latino.

6. At 12.6%, Atlanta has the third highest percentage of Gay and Lesbian couples of any major city in the United States.

7. Atlanta is home to CNN, the CDC and Coca-Cola.

8. Between 2000 and 2006, the Atlanta metro region grew by an astounding 20.5%, making it the fastest growing metro region in the nation.

9. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world.

10. Stimpy lives in Atlanta.

*Factoids sampled from Wikipedia

Acid House Flashback # 3

"Theme From S'Express" - S'Express - 1988