"Red meat"?

*

"Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord."~ Romans 12:19~

Well, yours and the people of A-merry-ca. They can avenge, too, right? At least I think they can. Osama bin Laden was a really bad guy, and he was responsible for the deaths of a lot of people. Truly evil. So when that SEAL split his wig I thought it was cool for us all to have a party. Now I am having second thoughts, because even though I am not too sure about you there big guy, I am thinking that maybe there is something to this revenge thing only being reserved for certain people.

I didn't lose a family member or a loved one on September 11th, and I suspect that the hundreds of thousands of people who were celebrating Sunday night didn't either. But yet, they took joy in knowing that the man who has made life so miserable for them (miserable being a relative term) over the past ten years will never live to see that long beard of his ever again.

Long lines at the airport. Parking spaces taken away to make room for security barriers. Background checks for $8 an hour jobs. Big Brother data banks that can access our personal records. This is all OBL's fault. Some of you would have pulled the trigger your damn selves for those inconveniences.

There is a reporter in my town- who I consider a friend- who thinks that the folks breaking out in cheers and chants of U.S.A.! U.S.A.! after hearing of OBL's death was a bit much:

"When I told my husband what I was planning to write, he offered a furrowed-brow warning.

"You may not want to go there."

Too late, honey.

See, while I may feel uneasy writing this, it's still not as bad as the uneasiness I felt hearing fans at the Phillies game break into a chant of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" after news broke of Osama bin Laden's killing the other night.

Our brave soldiers had taken down an elusive enemy - finally. They had won.

But somehow, the red-meat celebration that erupted at the game, outside the White House, and at Ground Zero left me feeling troubled.

Cheering death? Really? [More of her article]

Yes Annette, really. "Red-meat" celebrations are reserved for terrorist, despots and serial killers. Although I don't remember us breaking out in such celebrations when Saddam had to jump with that rope around his neck. I guess we didn't think he was responsible for 911 after all. But, as is the case with so many other things, timing when you kill an evil doer is everything.

This couldn't have come at a better time for us here in A-merry-ca. The folks needed a little red-meat, they haven't been eating here in A-merry-ca like they are used to. A little OBL meat is all they needed. "Revenge is a dish best served cold", and these folks would have eaten that meat right out of the refrigerator.

But, take comfort Annette, you are not alone, there are others who feel just like you. Most of them hang on to the big guy's every word and pray to him every chance they get. They are called Christians.

*Pic from the New York Daily News.

Dead Man Rising

by Linh Dinh  
Dissident Voice 
May 2, 2011

Upon hearing that Bin Laden has been officially pronounced dead, I thought 1) Since this man has been dead for nearly a decade, the US killed a look-alike; 2) Maybe previous rumors about Bin Laden’s demise, reported in the New York Times, The Guardian and Fox News, among many other places, were false, after all. Still, the US has long known where he was, but only decided to kill him now to a) Lift up American spirits as economic despair becomes ever more acute; b) Help Obama get reelected, since he is such a great tool of the establishment. Although his policies hardly differ from Bush, his charms and skin color have dampened protest from many quarters; c) Set up a false flag “retaliation from Al Qaeda,” which would renew sagging support for the War on Terrorism. In any case, it would be interesting to get all the details of this operation and see the physical evidences. For every assassination or murder, there must be a corpse, but alas, there is no corpse! Less than six hours after news came that Bin Laden had been killed, it was announced that he had already been buried at sea. The official explanation: The US must respect the Islamic tradition that a corpse be buried within 24 hours, and since no country was willing to be his final host, not even Saudi Arabia, his homeland, Bin Laden had to be dumped into a place where he could never be exhumed. How convenient. Case closed!

Such respect for a Muslim corpse from a country that seems to be fighting Muslims everywhere, that kills, imprisons and tortures Muslims, whose soldiers draped panties and smeared shit on Muslim heads, raped Muslim women and collected Muslim ears as trophies. America hasn’t exactly been shy about abusing Muslims, dead or alive, so why this sudden delicacy? Remember also that Uday and Qusay Hussein were killed by American troops on July 22, 2003, then buried on August 2, 11 days later.

Had Bin Laden been captured, and I will insist there was never any intention of catching this man alive, he would have to be tried in court, where his involvement with 9/11 would have to be proven, counter theories could be introduced and questions about 9/11 raised. In short, a nasty can of worms to be avoided at all cost.

Though long gone, Bin Laden had been extremely useful as a boogeyman for the American military industrial complex, but this ruse was running out of gas. Even with a fake, CIA-produced audio every now and then, the Bin Laden brand no longer captured, so it was time to close out this product line, not with a bang, exactly, since there’s no cadaver, but with plenty of noise nevertheless.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Comment: Could not have said it better myself.

Once the US has murdered Gadaffi it will need to construct a new enemy (bogeyman). It will need a new player to represent the 'force of evil'. The good guy (the US) needs the bad guy (fill in name here) to keep its brand of insanity balanced.

A short walk through its history will reveal that the US cannot exist without an enemy. There can be no force for good without the adversarial bad. And, enemies make for huge profits.

So who will be the next US enemy? (Will the next Muslim despot please stand up.)

If it sounds like reality programing it is because most of what is the American way is programmed.

Onward!

Death, Be Not Proud: Osama The Caveman?

by Ferzana Versey
Cross Connections
May 2, 2011

We cannot say it was only a matter of time. We can say it is good timing. Barack Obama makes an announcement about the US killing Osama bin Laden, but there is not a word from him about NATO forces murdering the Libyan leader’s youngest son and grandchildren even as there were rumours that Muammar Gaddafi may join the al Qaeda, as though he is some ordinary recruit looking to use his skills.

The US forces have been in Pakistan and Afghanistan for a long time now, so what happened on Sunday, May 1, that finally brought the strapping “most wanted terrorist” in the line of fire, not in some hideout but in Abbotabad, not far from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad? If he was in that country for a long time, what prevented any “targeted operation” earlier? They had got leads since August. Al Jazeera states that the intelligence authorities traced him through his couriers. Osama bin Laden had been openly using identifiable couriers to connect with his team? Are we to believe that a man who has eluded every attempt to be caught for over ten years, even after sending videotapes of himself, left himself open to such assault? Since none of the “small team of Americans” died, it was obviously not a bloody skirmish.

Read the rest here.

Comment: The manner in which the US says it disposed of the body raises many questions.  Islam does require that the body be buried before the lapse of a 24 hour period.  Islam, however, mandates that a body be buried in a grave of soil and facing Qibla (Mecca).

Muslims across the board do not bury at sea.  So I am wondering who advised the mighty US and what exactly was buried and how and by whom?

Versey raises important questions about the timing of this killing.  It is all so convenient for Obama and the crumbling empire.

In this context it is even funny to see the unemployed masses dancing in the streets.  It is all misplaced nationalism.

The US was hated before Osama and it will be hated after Osama (Obama too).  And it is so because of its historically undemocratic and downright evil role in global affairs.

If the US wants to survive and to redeem itself it has to look deep.  Sadly, its built-in arrogance will not allow for such stock-taking.

Onward! 

TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS AND WE STILL HAD TO DO IT OURSELVES.

*

Somewhere in Pakistan there is a government official saying, "That would be IBAN z BA108254. When can I expect all the money to be in my bank?"

So the tall skinny man with the kidney issues is dead. Ironically, he died on the same day that a certain German leader was killed. -Shout out to the DevGru crew for doing their thing.- It took almost ten years, but A-merry-ca finally got their man.

The celebrations across the country has been dizzying. A-merry-cans really needed this. A chance to celebrate a victory. Make no mistake, getting OBL was a victory for A-merry-ca. A chance to say that you cant just orchestrate the death of over 3,000 of our people and die of natural causes.

Some of you have sent me nasty e-mails about my side-bar: "Field, how dare you make fun of Islam and the man's death like that?" Save it. OBL was a murderous coward who did not represent true Islam. (He tried to use his wife as a shield for crying out loud! And, BTW, he was chilling in a million- dollar mansion, not a cave.) Personally, I am glad I won't have to listen to his garbled 911 speech ever again. That s*&^ was getting old.

All you Obamaholics should be proud of your boy. I know the wingnuts will try to kill your joy, but f&^% em. He gets credit for making a gutsy cal. If that SEAL team had botched the job the winguts would be measuring the curtains in the White House as I type this. This will by no means guarantee him a win in 2012, (-ECONOMY- ECONOMY- ECONOMY-)but it can't hurt. And Mr. Bad Hair better keep him out of his Casinos, that man would be a serious player at the poker table. Just think, he knew all of this was going on while he was making fun of Mr. Bad Hair and FOX NEWS at the WH Correspondents' Dinner.

Folks, look at it this way; If OBL had masterminded another September 11 style attack on us here in A-merry-ca while O was in office, what do you think they would say? Who do you think they would blame? If you guessed the beige man in the people's house move to the head of the class. So shouldn't he get the credit when something good happens on his watch? Don't answer that wingnuts, it made too much sense for you to comprehend it.

But I am not going to rip the wingnuts tonight. I want to join the rest of the country in a spirit of unity. If Mr. Bad Hair of all people can post an oped calling for unity, why can't we all just get along? Just for now. At least until our memories of OBL start to fade.

*Pic courtesy of TIME Magazine.

Live and Learn

Today is not a usual day.  I'm in more than two minds and I'm filled with dread and anxiety about the back-to-work routine at salary hell.

I made it to the gym after lunch. Changed my routine from running mostly to running and lifting equally.

I found that my bench-press numbers belong to a little boy or girl. Yeah the pump was there but I was glad the gym was mostly empty except for a huge man with bulging arms made smaller by a middle-age paunch I want to avoid even worse than taxes.

After a week of spending time with me moms and the folks who treat our family home like a bus terminal I have a tune playing in the back of my head.

It has played before under different contexts. I put the draw to the tune down to being a Gemini. You know, a two-faced jackass who can like and dislike the same thing inside of mere seconds.

I am decidedly a brutha who is both "confident and unsure" like my lost friend Rajeev used to say long ago.

Just before entering my local Pick & Pay More I sent the Guru a text confirming his Saturday rendezvous with other middle-aged men from our Rhodes past.  I sincerely hope the words "strip-club" are not in the Guru's noggin for next Saturday.

His Guruness did not reply being that he is most likely too tired after texting all and sundry today about his theories on Osama bin Gone this day(s) of killing.

"Is it halal to bury at sea," he enquired. "No it ain't since the Qur'an calls for the body to return to the soil from which it comes and for it to face Mecca," I replied.

"Well he is Japanese now ..." he replied mouthing something about Sushi and the (un)kind.

With god having died last week I bet the Coronation Guru of all things coloured and mixed-up must be mourning I thought as I entered the grocery store in search of Coke Zero.

And there the tune started playing again. But louder this time.  And not just in my head.

I looked at the white folks around me shopping and the black folks working and could see the tune was not playing in their consciousness like it was in mine.

And so it was. The return of The Boss from 1980 (just two years before I made Baltimore my new home) with a lament about routine, family, and its gluey circumstances. No not that one about riding my motorcycle home in the rain ... that was the Piano Man.

This one:

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack!

I went out for a ride and I never went back.
Like a river that don't know where its flowing,
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart

My "hungry heart" forced me to leave Baltimore in 1987 for South Africa where I met the Guru in training as he smoked copious amounts of whacky tobacco to still his political obsession to bomb all "whites-only" pubs in Grahamstown.

I returned to Baltimore in 1988 after a Cuban-American girl-woman followed me to South Africa and convinced me that being engaged was a good thing (she lived in Baltimore after escaping from Cuba).

It was not.  Turns out having a "hungry heart" is not just a man thing. 

It also turns out that life can sometimes hurt you bad for good reasons.  I was blessed to have escaped.

In the mid to late nineties I learned a new personal mantra from my grumpy but lovable landlady (Nancy) who cared for me and fed me while I wrote a doctoral dissertation ... in Baltimore no less.

Yeah I returned to Baltimore to "live and learn" like Nancy would say.  And like The Boss it pressed me to appreciate some of the words of Ulysses (1833) by Tennyson (particularly the emphasis on "roaming with a hungry heart"):

 Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
  Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
  For ever and for ever when I move.

"Hungry heart(s)" and "arches" aside, leaving it seems is a good way to return.  And to leave again.  "Cause "you live and learn" along the way.

Onward!

Obama kills Osama but Waldo Still on the Run: The Politics of Fanatics

Does this mean that US-Al Qaida cooperation to kill Gadaffi has suffered a major setback now?

The part that interests me the most is Obomber's insistence that killing Osama does not signal a war between the US and Muslims.

Really?

But do you think the vacuous geniuses that make up the greatest nation ever and forever and a little more now know the difference?

Here in the Republic of Mimicry I just heard a white radio voice tell the nation that "removing the scourge is a victory for humanity".

Whose humanity I wonder?  Whiteness?

I wonder if they will be burning Qur'ans in Florida today as a gesture of reconciliation?

And what of the tea loving Republicans?  Does this mean that the alien Kenyan president will win the crack house again?

This blog is no fan/supporter of Obama or Osama or the politics of fanatics both represent.  That said, I must add that there is something decidedly disturbing, disgusting, and immoral about the scenes of jubilation being beamed from the US.

What kind of humanity celebrates killing in any context? 

Onward!

Image Credits

Bring on the "Balders"!

As his O ness said at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, "it has been a rough week".

And it was a rough night for Mr. Bad Hair and FOX as his O ness put his well scripted comedy routine to work. That shot of O' Liely chewing away as everyone in the room laughed at the FOX NEWS table was priceless. Donald looked like he was cool with it for a minute, but O wouldn't let go, and he (Trump) just kept shrinking under the scrutiny.

Hey, at least he didn't make fun of his hair. I know I make light of it, but his hair is serious business. I am not alone with this, there are certain folks in this country (a fraternity to which I belong) who agree with me.

"The president’s done his part; now it’s Donald Trump’s turn to show us some proof—of the authenticity of his hair. “Balders,” Vanity Fair explains in a challenge to the real estate mogul, are “a small but increasingly vocal group of conspiracy theorists” who’ve “hijacked the news cycle,” and it’s time to put the matter of Trump’s scalp to rest. Is it natural, or a hairpiece? Or perhaps a transplant?

Already, a number of theories have reared their head, writes Juli Weiner. The most radical balders believe it to be “a deliberately deceptive hairpiece that only resembles a bad comb-over,” or possibly “several smaller hairpieces stitched together.” Sure, Trump has called it “actually my hair,” but that doesn’t rule out a transplant. “A secondary, long-form follicular examination”—certified by a barber—“is necessary.” If balders remain unsatisfied, “we insist that Trump submit to air, wind, and Dutch rub tests.” [Source]

I couldn't agree more. How can we elect a man to lead us who isn't even honest about his own damn hair? "But field, doesn't Joe Biden have hair plugs?" Yes, and that's why he is the Vice President.