Scarecrows on Madison Avenue Lakewood

Oscar was my favorite, now go away.

random Jesuit

Isaac Jogues (October 18, 1646†) statue. Campus St. Ignatius Loyola Cleveland.

Jogues was a missionary and is one of the seven North American Martyrs. They were killed at Auriesville New York on the Mohawk (then: Ossernenon New France). Their collective feast day is  September 26th in Canada, and on 19th October in the US.

lakewood doggy day afternoon

The 8th Spooky Pooch Parade in Lakewood on a mid 40s day. The pictures are better before the parade. People, most often women, who costume their hound like to have their pet photographed. Me, an absolute stranger to them, and they gladly pose.

 Django is dressed as sushi.

 Finnegan again, perhaps Lakewood's most well known dog.

 Panzer and his guardian have you bewitched.

Sometimes families find an enjoyable theme.

2015 Miscellany #2

 

 

 southern flying squirrel

 

 what sort of patch are babies found in?

 

diatribe № 1

“Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald 

I am not the only one. I am against the death penalty, i am nearly a pacifist; but certain exceptions pass across my mind.

GMC pickup truck commercial has annoying noise that would be background theme 'music', this has become common, and happens during a local 'newscast', as an outro after the 'tease' before a commercial break, and as an intro. That is bad enough, but the most annoying bullshit is one about baseball calling a pitcher 'a Rembrandt'—absolute bullshit. This insults art aficionados, baseball fans, and people with respect for any of the language arts.

Television shows used to have censors who concerned themselves with risqué elements. There should be an office for one concerning mendacity and bullshit, but this the United States where lies are to be respected as if they were not lies. But that might begin an avalanche, to-day lying shysters who defame the language, and then an eventual to-morrow where 'Fox' must disappear.

Please allow for a marked decrease in sales for GMC. And the Matthew McConaughey commercials for Lincoln, well that too. “It’s not about huggin’ trees. It’s not about bein’ wasteful, either. Just gotta find that balance. Where taking care of yourself takes care of more than just yourself. That’s the sweet spot.”. Bullshit.

gun goons

There is something deeply wrong with the United States (well several things). A killer fires his gun and kills several people, and immediately some people cheerlead guns. The sale of guns and ammunition spikes. Mass murder is free advertising for weaponry.

Two things happen again and again as shown in the two cartoons below:

In Roseburg Oregon nine people were shot to death by an armed young Republican. Our president announced that he would meet with the families of the deceased. Normal people, people in other countries would see this as an act of compassion, almost pastoral. But in this bizarre land, gun nuts (some armed) demonstrate their hatred by public protest, which had been immediately organised upon the news of the president's intention to come to Oregon. And of course, we have hypocrisy. President Obama came privately. The demented gun nuts criticised him for politicising a tragedy. One is not allowed to criticise guns after a shooting, and it is always after a shooting. So the gun nuts do not allow free speech.

Now, in one of history's many episodes of repetition and irony, Roseburg was the site of a martyred brother of a martyred president speaking on the folly of easy access to weaponry. That was the day before the Oregon primary, the crowd was not friendly. A few days later Robert Kennedy was shot dead. [click for video]

Now, on another point: anyone who is 'pro-life' must be for gun control, if not they are inconsistent liars. The National Rifle Association is a front for the gun and ammunition industry. They are the salesmen and spokesmen for the merchants of death. They are part of the combined worship of Mars the God of War, and Mammon. It is inconsistent with Christianity to be a gun nut.

O, and there is more. Lanza in Connecticut, and Harper-Mercer in Oregon had mothers who took them shooting. Both boys were noticeably odd to everyone, they were crazy. Mommy has a crazy boy she takes shooting. Both boys had access to an arsenal. When Lanza killed his mother, and twenty-six strangers at a grade school, and himself, Sheriff John Hanlin of Roseburg Oregon thought it was a conspiracy against gun rights. He wrote to the vice-president and said he would not enforce any laws that he considered unconstitutional concerning guns. The father of one of the wounded in Oregon, Stacy Boylan is a gun nut and his family would not meet with the president.

One of the Republicans wanting to be president, Ben Carson writes:

"As a Doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking – but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away."

The gun nuts are saying America does not have a gun problem, but that of mental illness. Well six of one, half a dozen of another.

They had access to legal guns, ones that they (or their mothers) bought. You have a gun store and you sell to customers that look like this? So the gun defenders say now "it's not guns but mental illness". Wanting so many guns, and assault rifles, and armour piercing and exploding bullets are indicative of mental illness, but hey--the cash register sings.

Get a Job

“We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have — for their usefulness. When a man is reduced to his function he is placed in a servile, alienated condition.”
 —Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

“Get a Job” is a dismissive retort. Even moreso in the past. People protest, and this is what they heard directed at them. That bon mot was supposed to be conclusive and final. When you are working, you have neither the time, energy, or freedom for other things. The cries of a slave are ignored.

Doo wop songs were all fun. The Silhouettes in 1957-8 had a great one, “Get a Job”; but the lyrics were about unemployment and how it ruined domestic peace.

And when I go back to the house
I hear the woman's mouth
Preaching and a-crying
Tell me that I'm lying
About a job
That I never could find

Bruce Hornsby in 1986 had the much sadder and political song “The Way It Is”.

Standing in line marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
The man in the silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says, “Get a job”

Republican speak: conservative = ultraconservative

Boehner wants out:

“The Bible says, beware of false prophets. And there are people out there spreading, you know, noise about how much can get done. ...We got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town, who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things they know — they know! — are never going to happen.”

Bernie Sanders, for one, phrased it correctly:

“Well, John has had an impossibly difficult job trying to reconcile the conservative wing of his caucus with the extreme, extreme right wing of his caucus that really will not do anything and pass any legislation that Barack Obama will sign.”

John Boehner is very conservative, yet there is a group within his own party in the House of Representatives that are more so. The press constantly refers to these extremists as 'conservatives'.

Many describe the Republican Party as composed of two large subgroups. Often a term that is used is 'moderate'. This is cloudy and inaccurate. We must start that they are all 'conservative', and the distinction is really that of degree, and there are "ultra-conservatives". The press, and the press teaches the public to shy away from saying 'extremist'; and there is more than one type of extremist in their ranks. The press is owned, and the financial interests of the owners tend conservative (and part of that press is extreme conservative), so they are soft to make such distinctions.

'Ultra' and 'ultras' have been used in other political and historical contexts elsewhere. I propose that the distinction is to be made between conservative Republicans, and ultra-conservative Republicans; and relegate the term "moderate Republican" to join the terms "liberal Republican", "progressive Republican", and "radical Republican" to the historical past. They have no present currency other than obfuscation. To argue that it is relative is incorrect. There is a continuum of degree.

For all serious applications, in the United States the political usage of 'conservative' is an euphemism for 'fascist'. In this country there are two political poles: democracy and fascism. It is not a choice between liberal or conservative, it is a choice between democrat and fascist.

In 1964 Lyndon Johnson defeated a Republican that the country considered an extremist beyond the rational spectrum of politics; and now if he were alive would be the most liberal Republican on the scene. Ronnie Reagan refashioned the Republican Party to begin the removal of all non-conservatives, he also effectively eliminated much of the Democratic 'left'.

Cleveland

Victor Ving is a painter going about America painting murals of local postcards in city after city. He and his girlfriend, Lisa Beggs, travel in a recreational vehicle during the stops. This is their work done in the middle of September. The official unveiling was on the 18th.

Lorain Pirates

On Lorain's east side someone has expanded their Hallowe'en art display. It began with the ship, and now a town. This is a gift to the community.