Whilst waging war bodily against the false but deeply entrenched Baltimorean idea that pedestrians do not enjoy the right-of-way while crossing a road using a crosswalk, I have had this standard response hurled frequently my way:
“Get the fuck out of the road, dumbass.”
Regardless of his apparent social or economic class, these tend to be the first words from a driver’s lips when forced (by nothing but my raised hand) to abide by the laws of the state of Maryland and bring his gasoline-powered steel battering-ram to a halt using slight pressure applied to a hinged pedal by one of his feet so as to avoid running headlong into a foot-mobile fellow citizen who is seeking to gain lawfully the other side of a roadway. To protect myself in the event of someone violently violating my pedestrian rights in a premeditated fashion, I have taken to using my cellphone to capture video of oncoming vehicles while negotiating a crosswalk, which seems to have the desired effect of forcing drivers to stop. Otherwise, few people operating automobiles appear to find anything wrong with driving in such a manner as to barely miss hitting me as they race toward the next group of cars stopped at the next red light.
Among the worst offenders are Baltimore city police officers, who as a whole don’t seem to mind breaking state law §21-502, which is but one among many of the laws they swore a sacred oath to uphold.
americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan
Showing posts with label right. Show all posts
Showing posts with label right. Show all posts
15 September 2017
16 August 2017
on battling hatred
Tragedy marked this past weekend, with one person killed and many more badly injured in an act of apparent domestic terrorism in Charlottesville, VA. Concurrent with that violent act, in a public display of wild-eyed and misguided extremism, hundreds of middle-class European-Americans marched through said city holding torches and shouting slogans straight out of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’. People who are now suddenly worried about the current rise of alt-right and neo-Nazi mentalities here in America must remember that Donald J. Trump ascended to the presidency on ideas nationalist, protectionist, and us-versus-them in their scope and design. In some sense, the alt-right stands today victorious, having helped vote its champion into this nation’s highest office. Hence, statements by leaders of the white-nationalist movement praising the president for his recent stance on their right to rally and organize with intent to subjugate and destroy.
The city of Boston this year decided to display a poster aimed at teaching people who use its public transportation services how to diffuse Islamophobia. It is this author’s personal experience that the most effective method for fighting violent extremism is to ignore the perpetrator and show love to the victims. In Charlottesville, VA, last weekend, citizens protesting the alt-right sometimes did the opposite, fighting violence with violence and hatred with hatred.
Although he disagrees with them on nearly every point (but for their right to keep breathing), this author thinks it’s important to let the alt-right, neo-Nazi, and white nationalist movements not only voice their ugly opinions but also march in public. If they’re banned from letting their true colors fly, open-minded and cosmopolitan lovers of freedom will never know whom to avoid socially, whose businesses to boycott or divest from, whose places of worship to picket, and whom to deny service as well as the time of day. (Since its financial support of organizations perpetuating homophobic bigotry came to light, this author hasn’t set foot inside of a Chick-fil-A, for example.) One slow, methodical way to crush America’s Nazi problem is to do so economically, a dollar at a time. Another way, is to crush it with clubs and sticks and knives and guns, like many of our grandparents did in Europe and beyond during the 1940s.
To destroy the creeping roots of incessant hatred it is often necessary to resort to violence. So long as one does so with positive intentions and for the benefit of all humanity, resting well at night should come easy. Just remember, though, that America’s white nationalists think that what they’re doing is for the benefit of all humanity, or at least the light-skinned portion of humanity whose ancestors come from Europe. Whichever path you choose in your resistance to bigotry and intolerance in America, stay grounded and don’t panic.
americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan
The city of Boston this year decided to display a poster aimed at teaching people who use its public transportation services how to diffuse Islamophobia. It is this author’s personal experience that the most effective method for fighting violent extremism is to ignore the perpetrator and show love to the victims. In Charlottesville, VA, last weekend, citizens protesting the alt-right sometimes did the opposite, fighting violence with violence and hatred with hatred.
Although he disagrees with them on nearly every point (but for their right to keep breathing), this author thinks it’s important to let the alt-right, neo-Nazi, and white nationalist movements not only voice their ugly opinions but also march in public. If they’re banned from letting their true colors fly, open-minded and cosmopolitan lovers of freedom will never know whom to avoid socially, whose businesses to boycott or divest from, whose places of worship to picket, and whom to deny service as well as the time of day. (Since its financial support of organizations perpetuating homophobic bigotry came to light, this author hasn’t set foot inside of a Chick-fil-A, for example.) One slow, methodical way to crush America’s Nazi problem is to do so economically, a dollar at a time. Another way, is to crush it with clubs and sticks and knives and guns, like many of our grandparents did in Europe and beyond during the 1940s.
To destroy the creeping roots of incessant hatred it is often necessary to resort to violence. So long as one does so with positive intentions and for the benefit of all humanity, resting well at night should come easy. Just remember, though, that America’s white nationalists think that what they’re doing is for the benefit of all humanity, or at least the light-skinned portion of humanity whose ancestors come from Europe. Whichever path you choose in your resistance to bigotry and intolerance in America, stay grounded and don’t panic.
americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan
07 July 2017
a seaside promenade
The dream started inside a building, which I escaped through a side door that opened onto a street paved with cobblestones. The outside was lit by a bright, white light. With me (on the right-hand side) was as always my psychopomp, as well as a female (on the left-hand side) whose face and features have faded from memory.
Together, we climbed through the open rear door into a automobile that looked like a standard, black Londonite taxicab. It was hitched via leather strapping to four-legged beasts that at first glance appeared to be cats. The driver’s perch had been mounted onto the roof, meaning that I had to climb up through the car’s open sunroof to man the reins.
We took off, rounding corners at speed, and were soon riding astride a seaside promenade made using cut blue granite and featuring an iron railing. People in Victorian-era dress strolled along the sidewalk to our right. Below and beyond them stretched the sea - deep blue and vastly calm, nary a wave or ripple. The vehicle stopped and I leaped off to see if there was a beach at the base of the cut-stone promenade. Using a nearby flight of stairs, I climbed down to its blond sands (with someone or something else in tow), and had just dipped a toe in (to check the waters) when I awoke.
americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan
Together, we climbed through the open rear door into a automobile that looked like a standard, black Londonite taxicab. It was hitched via leather strapping to four-legged beasts that at first glance appeared to be cats. The driver’s perch had been mounted onto the roof, meaning that I had to climb up through the car’s open sunroof to man the reins.
We took off, rounding corners at speed, and were soon riding astride a seaside promenade made using cut blue granite and featuring an iron railing. People in Victorian-era dress strolled along the sidewalk to our right. Below and beyond them stretched the sea - deep blue and vastly calm, nary a wave or ripple. The vehicle stopped and I leaped off to see if there was a beach at the base of the cut-stone promenade. Using a nearby flight of stairs, I climbed down to its blond sands (with someone or something else in tow), and had just dipped a toe in (to check the waters) when I awoke.
americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan
18 March 2013
freedom to choose
Some time ago, NPR aired a debate about whether or not Pennsylvania should sell off the liquor stores it owns and operates. During this debate, a woman advocated for the rights of consumers to have access to the best possible selection of booze, saying that choice is freedom and that freedom is the American way. (The author is paraphrasing here). Since 1971, the federal government of the United States of America has waged war on the right of every person under its jurisdiction to choose for himself which drugs to introduce to his body; since passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1971 (CSA), Liberty has been under constant and incessant attack from local, state, and federal government, the very agents who should have been protecting her, all along.
When the state makes some drugs illegal (weed, coke) while profiting from and promoting the sale of other drugs (alcohol, nicotine), it chooses sides, sending millions of non-violent persons to jail for wanting to do with their bodies as they saw best fit. The XIV amendment to the Constitution was designed to protect against just such governmental overreach, stating: “[no] State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law[.]” If a person should demonstrate an inability to handle certain drugs without posing a threat to himself or others, he should be banned from consuming those drugs. Individuals, however, who have not been banned by a judge from smoking weed should feel free to do so as often as they wish; no aspect of the Constitution gives any branch of our government the right to infringe upon the common freedom of all individuals living in America by passing a law as destructive to our inalienable and immutable rights as is the tyrannical Controlled Substances Act of 1971.
In the 42 years since adoption of the CSA, the business of punishing and incarcerating non-violent Americans for consuming and possessing their drugs of choice has become big business. Lawyers, judges, parole and police officers, wardens, jail builders, and drug warlords all continue to profit from the ban on certain drugs. We the People must make the right to choose inalienable once more and strike down the prohibitions currently in place; then, the individuals just mentioned would have to go out and get jobs of actual usefulness instead of being allowed to game a system that punishes freedom-loving Americans for pursuing their Happiness as they see best fit. A person's body is the only piece of property he cannot live without; he may do with it as he pleases so long as he is not infringing demonstrably upon the right of any other person to life, liberty, or property. To lock someone up for changing his brain chemistry by smoking weed is no different from locking him up for changing his brain chemistry by eating a large bowl of sugary breakfast cereal. Let us realign ourselves with this nation's founding principles and legalize the freedom to choose by ending the madness that has brutalized Liberty every day for the past 15,330 days. Fight tyranny; act freely; defend Liberty. Mahalo.
mentiri factorem fecit – 場黑麥
When the state makes some drugs illegal (weed, coke) while profiting from and promoting the sale of other drugs (alcohol, nicotine), it chooses sides, sending millions of non-violent persons to jail for wanting to do with their bodies as they saw best fit. The XIV amendment to the Constitution was designed to protect against just such governmental overreach, stating: “[no] State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law[.]” If a person should demonstrate an inability to handle certain drugs without posing a threat to himself or others, he should be banned from consuming those drugs. Individuals, however, who have not been banned by a judge from smoking weed should feel free to do so as often as they wish; no aspect of the Constitution gives any branch of our government the right to infringe upon the common freedom of all individuals living in America by passing a law as destructive to our inalienable and immutable rights as is the tyrannical Controlled Substances Act of 1971.
In the 42 years since adoption of the CSA, the business of punishing and incarcerating non-violent Americans for consuming and possessing their drugs of choice has become big business. Lawyers, judges, parole and police officers, wardens, jail builders, and drug warlords all continue to profit from the ban on certain drugs. We the People must make the right to choose inalienable once more and strike down the prohibitions currently in place; then, the individuals just mentioned would have to go out and get jobs of actual usefulness instead of being allowed to game a system that punishes freedom-loving Americans for pursuing their Happiness as they see best fit. A person's body is the only piece of property he cannot live without; he may do with it as he pleases so long as he is not infringing demonstrably upon the right of any other person to life, liberty, or property. To lock someone up for changing his brain chemistry by smoking weed is no different from locking him up for changing his brain chemistry by eating a large bowl of sugary breakfast cereal. Let us realign ourselves with this nation's founding principles and legalize the freedom to choose by ending the madness that has brutalized Liberty every day for the past 15,330 days. Fight tyranny; act freely; defend Liberty. Mahalo.
mentiri factorem fecit – 場黑麥
14 September 2012
do unto others
I do not hate the bible, nor do I hate Christians or their religion, but I cannot stand people who gloss over its parts that talk about loving one another and who focus instead on their faith's sinister aspects, such as those demanding that gays be killed (Leviticus 20:13 NAB) and prostitutes be banished (Leviticus 21:9 NAB), persecuted and murdered in the name of god YHWH, Christianity's supreme deity, greater even than Mary, or Yeshua. Matthew, a man who wrote long after the death of Yeshua (if he existed at all), says in the Christian bible's new testament, basically, that what people do to each other, they do to YHWH, their god. Put a different way, Matt is trying to tell people to do unto others as they would have done unto themselves.
Oh what a peaceful and happy world this would be if professed Christians would but hew to this code, treat others as they themselves would prefer to be treated, understand that America was not founded on their faith, mind their own business, and stop trying to ban gay marriage and a woman's right to the contents of her stomach. If we lived in such a world, we would have fewer doctors being killed by Christian extremists, fewer politicians currying the favor (Defense of Marriage) of homegrown Taliban-style Christians (dominionists), and, perhaps, lower levels of industrial pollution, self-neglect, laziness, and materialism. (I am merely speculating that an interpretation of the Christian bible based on a love for the natural world and a respect for the tender fragility of the human spirit, one rooted in humility and moderation and founded on the notion that the godhead resides within each and every one of us and not in a mythical palace in the clouds, that such an interpretation would trump the many of the current interpretations, those being very similar to the hard-line and murderous views espoused by Islamic terrorists who deny women's rights and destroy anything that violates their strict religious codes.) As things stand, however, today's more prominent Christian leaders – similar to their counterparts in al-Qaida and Hezbollah – preach hatred for the unusual, fear of all things strange, unwavering obedience to codes designed for a nomadic Bronze Age desert-people, and discrimination against anyone living a life other than one of gasoline-guzzling, television-watching, Jesus-praising lethargy. How do we convince the Christians to stop their assault on the Liberty of the rest of us Americans? How do we show them just how anti-American are their efforts to restrict the freedoms of women and gays? For a religion that prides itself on its dozens of so-called saints – persons discriminated against and killed because of their faith – Christianity has made a remarkable and shocking about-face; now, it is the Christians who discriminate against and persecute others for their beliefs; now, it is the Christians calling for our nation to be smothered by religious laws similar to those that might exist under a globe-spanning Islamic Caliphate.
If the efforts of today's Christians to force the rest of us to live by the rules of their god YWHW are what they see as doing unto others as they would have done unto themselves, perhaps we who do not share their faith should give them a taste of their own medicine and drive them bodily into the sea, fighting fire with fire; perhaps we should ban their rituals and costumes and force them to live in constant fear of repression, hatred, ridicule, and physical battery, much as they do to our homosexual fellow Americans. We non-Christians, though, are Liberty-loving individuals who mind our own business and who don't care if two men want to marry one another; having fought for centuries to bring about equality and justice, we shall not allow a few thousand bible-thumping lunatics to ruin the fun for everyone else – not on this whorphan's watch, at least. No, friend, we champions of freedom would never infringe upon the inalienable rights of other adults to enter into contracts or agreements that are to their liking. We keep our minds free and our heads on swivels, fighting religious oppression wherever it should rear its ugly head. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
Oh what a peaceful and happy world this would be if professed Christians would but hew to this code, treat others as they themselves would prefer to be treated, understand that America was not founded on their faith, mind their own business, and stop trying to ban gay marriage and a woman's right to the contents of her stomach. If we lived in such a world, we would have fewer doctors being killed by Christian extremists, fewer politicians currying the favor (Defense of Marriage) of homegrown Taliban-style Christians (dominionists), and, perhaps, lower levels of industrial pollution, self-neglect, laziness, and materialism. (I am merely speculating that an interpretation of the Christian bible based on a love for the natural world and a respect for the tender fragility of the human spirit, one rooted in humility and moderation and founded on the notion that the godhead resides within each and every one of us and not in a mythical palace in the clouds, that such an interpretation would trump the many of the current interpretations, those being very similar to the hard-line and murderous views espoused by Islamic terrorists who deny women's rights and destroy anything that violates their strict religious codes.) As things stand, however, today's more prominent Christian leaders – similar to their counterparts in al-Qaida and Hezbollah – preach hatred for the unusual, fear of all things strange, unwavering obedience to codes designed for a nomadic Bronze Age desert-people, and discrimination against anyone living a life other than one of gasoline-guzzling, television-watching, Jesus-praising lethargy. How do we convince the Christians to stop their assault on the Liberty of the rest of us Americans? How do we show them just how anti-American are their efforts to restrict the freedoms of women and gays? For a religion that prides itself on its dozens of so-called saints – persons discriminated against and killed because of their faith – Christianity has made a remarkable and shocking about-face; now, it is the Christians who discriminate against and persecute others for their beliefs; now, it is the Christians calling for our nation to be smothered by religious laws similar to those that might exist under a globe-spanning Islamic Caliphate.
If the efforts of today's Christians to force the rest of us to live by the rules of their god YWHW are what they see as doing unto others as they would have done unto themselves, perhaps we who do not share their faith should give them a taste of their own medicine and drive them bodily into the sea, fighting fire with fire; perhaps we should ban their rituals and costumes and force them to live in constant fear of repression, hatred, ridicule, and physical battery, much as they do to our homosexual fellow Americans. We non-Christians, though, are Liberty-loving individuals who mind our own business and who don't care if two men want to marry one another; having fought for centuries to bring about equality and justice, we shall not allow a few thousand bible-thumping lunatics to ruin the fun for everyone else – not on this whorphan's watch, at least. No, friend, we champions of freedom would never infringe upon the inalienable rights of other adults to enter into contracts or agreements that are to their liking. We keep our minds free and our heads on swivels, fighting religious oppression wherever it should rear its ugly head. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
10 September 2012
things glossed over
When releasing in its platform for the Romeny and Ryan presidential ticket an assault on the liberty of gays and lesbians to get married, the Republican Party in America has proven itself fully ignorant of our founding persons' intent. Since none of our founding persons – not George Washington, Abigail Adams, or Thomas Jefferson – saw fit to speak about gay marriage or to define marriage according to the dustier and more embarrassing sections of the Christian's bible, we can only wonder how the Republicans came up with the fantastical and farcical notion that government should regulate marriage between same-sex individuals but not the amount of pollution emitted by industry.
In the Treaty of Tripoli, George Washington and John Adams wrote: “America was not in any way founded upon the Christian faith,” words that were ratified unanimously by their contemporaries in Congress. Keeping this quote in our minds, we cannot dare to allow the rules of Christianity to become the laws of our land, or stand by as they infect the halls of our secular government with narrow-mindedness and hatred; to do so would reduce us to the level of such murderous tyrants as we struggle to overthrow, the Taliban and al Qaida. Perhaps it is because our troopers by the hundreds of thousands have been battling religious-based terrorism in foreign lands, and that we as a nation have focused most of our attention and a lot of our treasure on making things better for non-American foreigners, that religious-based terrorism is now threatening to take hold of this nation's highest office. Since turning the rules of one religion into the law of the land would subject portions of our population to biblically-justified oppression, theocratic rule is a form of terrorism; if we allow someone such as Mitt Romney to pass a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman (which is spoken of only in the Christian bible's old testament and not at all mentioned by Jesus), we would establish theocratic rule, thus terrorizing innocent queers and non-combatant fags, neighbors and citizens alike.
It appears to me that the Republicans are banking all their hopes and aspirations on a voting block made up of religiously-conservative, born-again-Christian fringe-types, affluent Caucasians prone to shitting themselves with fear upon seeing men in turbans or drag. I admit that the asses' move was a genius stroke of propaganda, using the term Defense of Marriage to define their assault on the rights of homosexual Americans to marry one another; defense, however, implies that something is being attacked, whereas no one is trying to restrict heterosexuals' ability to get married, merely to grant homosexuals rights equal to those granted to heterosexuals. I have mentioned it before, and far better persons have said it before me, but I believe that we are now in the part of this country's life-cycle where things get worse before they get better; I can hardly imagine something worse than being forced to live by the rules of a religion not of my choosing, to have to kill unruly children (Deuteronomy 12:18-21), to have to kill non-virgin brides (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) – to have to kill anybody, for that matter, in order to satisfy the vain and petty blood-lust of YHWH, the Christians' god. If, friend, you feel the same way, if you would like to control your own life, if you mind your own business and could care less whom other people marry, please say NO to religious rule, fight Mitt Romney's and the Republican Party's plans for religious terrorism in America, and help defend fragile, tender Liberty. Mahalo, then, to you, oh brave and selfless warrior.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
In the Treaty of Tripoli, George Washington and John Adams wrote: “America was not in any way founded upon the Christian faith,” words that were ratified unanimously by their contemporaries in Congress. Keeping this quote in our minds, we cannot dare to allow the rules of Christianity to become the laws of our land, or stand by as they infect the halls of our secular government with narrow-mindedness and hatred; to do so would reduce us to the level of such murderous tyrants as we struggle to overthrow, the Taliban and al Qaida. Perhaps it is because our troopers by the hundreds of thousands have been battling religious-based terrorism in foreign lands, and that we as a nation have focused most of our attention and a lot of our treasure on making things better for non-American foreigners, that religious-based terrorism is now threatening to take hold of this nation's highest office. Since turning the rules of one religion into the law of the land would subject portions of our population to biblically-justified oppression, theocratic rule is a form of terrorism; if we allow someone such as Mitt Romney to pass a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman (which is spoken of only in the Christian bible's old testament and not at all mentioned by Jesus), we would establish theocratic rule, thus terrorizing innocent queers and non-combatant fags, neighbors and citizens alike.
It appears to me that the Republicans are banking all their hopes and aspirations on a voting block made up of religiously-conservative, born-again-Christian fringe-types, affluent Caucasians prone to shitting themselves with fear upon seeing men in turbans or drag. I admit that the asses' move was a genius stroke of propaganda, using the term Defense of Marriage to define their assault on the rights of homosexual Americans to marry one another; defense, however, implies that something is being attacked, whereas no one is trying to restrict heterosexuals' ability to get married, merely to grant homosexuals rights equal to those granted to heterosexuals. I have mentioned it before, and far better persons have said it before me, but I believe that we are now in the part of this country's life-cycle where things get worse before they get better; I can hardly imagine something worse than being forced to live by the rules of a religion not of my choosing, to have to kill unruly children (Deuteronomy 12:18-21), to have to kill non-virgin brides (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) – to have to kill anybody, for that matter, in order to satisfy the vain and petty blood-lust of YHWH, the Christians' god. If, friend, you feel the same way, if you would like to control your own life, if you mind your own business and could care less whom other people marry, please say NO to religious rule, fight Mitt Romney's and the Republican Party's plans for religious terrorism in America, and help defend fragile, tender Liberty. Mahalo, then, to you, oh brave and selfless warrior.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
03 August 2012
right of way
Recently, NPR aired a show which included mention of efforts undertaken during the first decades of the Twentieth Century to teach the American public to cowtow to the automobile, explaining that Americans had to be trained to think that roads were the domain of cars, the rightful place of automobiles, and that citizens not driving cars had no right to be on them. As a velocipedist – an avid and regular bicyclist – I suffer daily of the affects of this mis-education of my fellow upstanding Yankee, who now sees the car as an almost sacred thing, whereas persons not trapped within the stifling confines of these glass-and-metal prisons are seen as bothersome interlopers upon our tens of thousands of miles of commonly-owned bituminous track.
A car is nothing more than a hunk of steel and glass and plastic with a person or persons sitting on its plush seats and being moved around through space-time by the internal combustion of gasoline, a byproduct of oil, for which our brave brothers and sister pour out their blood and tears in distant and dusty places; oil is a poisonous thing that must be pulled from deep below the earth and refined before it can be used, whereas a bicycle is a few pounds of metal and rubber that allows a person to move himself around through space-time using little more than the muscles rippling beneath his taut and ruddy skin. And yet – daily – I am confronted by at least one person who considers his souped up, gasoline-guzzling shitbox, and his business, to be far more important than the car, conveyance, or business of anyone else.
Just two days ago, in fact, as I was approaching a blind intersection on my way to the local public library, I heard a motor behind me rev up, as if the vehicle's owner intended to pass me in the scant thirty feet that separated us from the stop sign. Putting myself squarely in the lane, I balanced for a moment, waiting for a gap in the approaching vehicles before shooting down a narrow side alley. Riding squarely in the center of the alley, the impatient driver approached to within a few feet of my bicycle's rear wheel, revving his engine and making as if to pass me where there was no room to pass. Flying into the next, two-landed road (the alley ends in a yield, not a stop, sign) and barely making it in front of an approaching car, I had moved to the far right side of the lane and was approaching my next right-hand turn when I heard that same engine rev up behind me. Turning around to see what was the matter, I made eye-contact with the impatient driver, whose vehicle – a black SUV – was so close to the silver Volvo behind me that I could see neither grill nor bumper. Passing the car in front of it, the truck screeched to a halt directly next to me, restricting all north-south traffic by completely Blocking The Box, the man within it staring at me menacingly.
Turning after having made the appropriate hand-signal (I signal all turns, and am loathe to ride at night without running-lights fore and aft), I glanced back again, laughing at the impatient man and giving him a little fare-thee-well hand flick. These egregious actions caused the man to reverse his vehicle very quickly (on a one-way street, into oncoming traffic), whereupon he, with squealing tires, raced down the road toward me, screeching to a halt next to me on the sidewalk where I had taken refuge near a tall brick building. “You're a real tough-guy, eh?” the man said, pushing his finger against some sort of box on his throat. Scrambling to keep moving, I bounced down the sidewalk and started to pedal onward, glancing back and noticing the black car had a Harley-Davidson front plate. The man pulled into a gravel lane, threw open his door, jumped out, and began to stalk toward me, chest puffed up and face fixed in the tortured rictus of a man whose heart is calcified with fearful hatred. Seeing that I had bruised his ego, and knowing the human ego to be one of the most terrifying and murderous of foul things ever to grace the planes of our fair Universe, I kept moving. “You're a real tough guy, eh?” the man said again, to which I responded with a shouted, “Slow down!” The man, of course, shouted back, “You slow down!”, touching a finger to his tracheal collar before speaking, each time.
A number of things became clear to me during yesterday's altercation. First, the man's business was so inconsequential (even though he seemed in a terrible hurry) that he could take time out of his schedule to run down and harass a bicyclist who had dared to retain right of way. Second, the man considered himself more important than anyone else on the road, riding everyone's ass and generally being a poor sport about things. Third, seeing that his belly resembled a beer keg and that his throat was perforated with a plastic speaking-collar, the man had ruined his health and body by eating too much, smoking too much, and drinking too much, which had obviously filled his heart with such frustration and self-loathing as to make him a Danger To Others. And, finally, he had allowed himself to be brainwashed into thinking that roads were made for cars (or, at least, for vehicles with gasoline-combustible engines), and that roads were the domain of nothing else, causing him to menace persons who happened to have left their own homes a few moments before he did, putting them, unwittingly, in his hateful path, riding, of all fucking things, bicycles.
To persons who insist on driving cars everywhere they go (even though, of course, buying gasoline puts cash in the pockets of Saudi Arabians, who use our money to fund terrorist groups such as al-Qaida), please remember that bicyclists are simply persons who have freed themselves from the prison-like confines of internally-combustible vehicles, flinging off the foul fat-folds of sloth and moving their bodies around using only muscle power. So, dear friends, please give other persons the right of way, even if they are not burning as much oil as you are burning while out-and-about; and, of course, please share generously of our common roadways, byways, highways, paths, alleys, lanes, and streets; but, most importantly, keep a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and your head on a fucking swivel. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri manufactorem fecit
A car is nothing more than a hunk of steel and glass and plastic with a person or persons sitting on its plush seats and being moved around through space-time by the internal combustion of gasoline, a byproduct of oil, for which our brave brothers and sister pour out their blood and tears in distant and dusty places; oil is a poisonous thing that must be pulled from deep below the earth and refined before it can be used, whereas a bicycle is a few pounds of metal and rubber that allows a person to move himself around through space-time using little more than the muscles rippling beneath his taut and ruddy skin. And yet – daily – I am confronted by at least one person who considers his souped up, gasoline-guzzling shitbox, and his business, to be far more important than the car, conveyance, or business of anyone else.
Just two days ago, in fact, as I was approaching a blind intersection on my way to the local public library, I heard a motor behind me rev up, as if the vehicle's owner intended to pass me in the scant thirty feet that separated us from the stop sign. Putting myself squarely in the lane, I balanced for a moment, waiting for a gap in the approaching vehicles before shooting down a narrow side alley. Riding squarely in the center of the alley, the impatient driver approached to within a few feet of my bicycle's rear wheel, revving his engine and making as if to pass me where there was no room to pass. Flying into the next, two-landed road (the alley ends in a yield, not a stop, sign) and barely making it in front of an approaching car, I had moved to the far right side of the lane and was approaching my next right-hand turn when I heard that same engine rev up behind me. Turning around to see what was the matter, I made eye-contact with the impatient driver, whose vehicle – a black SUV – was so close to the silver Volvo behind me that I could see neither grill nor bumper. Passing the car in front of it, the truck screeched to a halt directly next to me, restricting all north-south traffic by completely Blocking The Box, the man within it staring at me menacingly.
Turning after having made the appropriate hand-signal (I signal all turns, and am loathe to ride at night without running-lights fore and aft), I glanced back again, laughing at the impatient man and giving him a little fare-thee-well hand flick. These egregious actions caused the man to reverse his vehicle very quickly (on a one-way street, into oncoming traffic), whereupon he, with squealing tires, raced down the road toward me, screeching to a halt next to me on the sidewalk where I had taken refuge near a tall brick building. “You're a real tough-guy, eh?” the man said, pushing his finger against some sort of box on his throat. Scrambling to keep moving, I bounced down the sidewalk and started to pedal onward, glancing back and noticing the black car had a Harley-Davidson front plate. The man pulled into a gravel lane, threw open his door, jumped out, and began to stalk toward me, chest puffed up and face fixed in the tortured rictus of a man whose heart is calcified with fearful hatred. Seeing that I had bruised his ego, and knowing the human ego to be one of the most terrifying and murderous of foul things ever to grace the planes of our fair Universe, I kept moving. “You're a real tough guy, eh?” the man said again, to which I responded with a shouted, “Slow down!” The man, of course, shouted back, “You slow down!”, touching a finger to his tracheal collar before speaking, each time.
A number of things became clear to me during yesterday's altercation. First, the man's business was so inconsequential (even though he seemed in a terrible hurry) that he could take time out of his schedule to run down and harass a bicyclist who had dared to retain right of way. Second, the man considered himself more important than anyone else on the road, riding everyone's ass and generally being a poor sport about things. Third, seeing that his belly resembled a beer keg and that his throat was perforated with a plastic speaking-collar, the man had ruined his health and body by eating too much, smoking too much, and drinking too much, which had obviously filled his heart with such frustration and self-loathing as to make him a Danger To Others. And, finally, he had allowed himself to be brainwashed into thinking that roads were made for cars (or, at least, for vehicles with gasoline-combustible engines), and that roads were the domain of nothing else, causing him to menace persons who happened to have left their own homes a few moments before he did, putting them, unwittingly, in his hateful path, riding, of all fucking things, bicycles.
To persons who insist on driving cars everywhere they go (even though, of course, buying gasoline puts cash in the pockets of Saudi Arabians, who use our money to fund terrorist groups such as al-Qaida), please remember that bicyclists are simply persons who have freed themselves from the prison-like confines of internally-combustible vehicles, flinging off the foul fat-folds of sloth and moving their bodies around using only muscle power. So, dear friends, please give other persons the right of way, even if they are not burning as much oil as you are burning while out-and-about; and, of course, please share generously of our common roadways, byways, highways, paths, alleys, lanes, and streets; but, most importantly, keep a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and your head on a fucking swivel. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri manufactorem fecit
13 December 2011
occupy, sons of liberty
The Sons of Liberty were active starting in 1765, eleven years before the collective colonial bodies agreed to declare their independence. For eleven years they risked life and limb in order to liberate their fellow citizens from the yoke of oppression. At the time, our forefathers were fighting against an aggressive occupation by a foreign regime that had become blind to, deaf to, and destructive of, the rights and liberties of the people of this land. Now it has come to pass that the government of the USA has become blind to, deaf to, and destructive of, the rights and liberties of the people of this land.
What would these brave people say about the state of affairs in our current time? I hazard that they would gape in shock at the level of control under which the population is held. I believe they would cry foul of the inordinate rights and privileges granted to private interest (immunity from prosecution, tax breaks, a lopsided economic system that redirects the wealth generated by the labor of all Americans into the pockets of the people who control these private interests). Our founders did not sally valiantly into the night so that we, their Posterity, could eat fast food, get fat, and drive around, lazily, in gas-burning cars because our city planners failed to plan for public transportation. (One such foul and disgusting failure occurred in Los Angeles, when companies such as Dunlop and Goodyear bought that city's extensive public transportation system and dismantled it in order to sell tires, a process repeated in cities throughout the USA.)
Dig in, comrades of the Occupy movement, and know that our efforts will require time, patience, and sacrifice. It may take us eleven years, and it may take us eleven times eleven years, but we shall prevail!
Spes Mea In Ratio Est - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
What would these brave people say about the state of affairs in our current time? I hazard that they would gape in shock at the level of control under which the population is held. I believe they would cry foul of the inordinate rights and privileges granted to private interest (immunity from prosecution, tax breaks, a lopsided economic system that redirects the wealth generated by the labor of all Americans into the pockets of the people who control these private interests). Our founders did not sally valiantly into the night so that we, their Posterity, could eat fast food, get fat, and drive around, lazily, in gas-burning cars because our city planners failed to plan for public transportation. (One such foul and disgusting failure occurred in Los Angeles, when companies such as Dunlop and Goodyear bought that city's extensive public transportation system and dismantled it in order to sell tires, a process repeated in cities throughout the USA.)
Dig in, comrades of the Occupy movement, and know that our efforts will require time, patience, and sacrifice. It may take us eleven years, and it may take us eleven times eleven years, but we shall prevail!
Spes Mea In Ratio Est - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
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