Monday, February 24, 2020

You're Still Wrong.. Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 4)


You're Still Wrong.. 

Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog 

I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 4)






NOTE: This is my fourth WEEKLY blog. I’ve heard from several readers that a monthly blog "...is too long” Maybe they’re right. I know the feeling of reading on a screen. An old friend from the band The Apostles sent me a 65 page book he wrote. It’s a great read, but I can only manage 10 pages at a time on the computer. Something about the media shortens attention or concentration. For me, this is a test. Please let me know what you think. So far, these segments seem too short. Next month: BI-WEEKLY! 



YOU’RE STILL WRONG

Mykel’s Post MRR

Feb 2020 Part Four of

I Don’t Get It


by Mykel Board


(I've written about a couple things I don't understand... at least I don't understand who people think these things. In the first I asked how people could both eat at KFC or McDonalds and be opposed to bullfights and cockfights. The next was to ask how people could support gay marriage with claims of equality... when marriage itself makes inequality. Now I'm asking one more think...)


Lastly… at least for this time... is the idea of choice and how people somehow naturally have choice and THE GOVERNMENT, especially in the form of taxes, and work regulations, takes those choices away.

Let’s get this straight. The BASIC CHOICE… at least half of it… is available to everyone. If we are unhappy, we have the choice to kill ourselves. For the non-Jeffrey Epsteins among us, only prison suicide watch can take away that choice. OK, I get it.

For anything else, we hardly have choices at all. First of all there’s biology… and chronology. I do not have the choice to be 21 years old or to get a non-chemically induced hard-on only from looking at pictures of Jada Fire or David Cassidy. Five foot three inch me does not have the choice to be an NBA star. For the most part, there is NO choice.

And can someone please tell me what the difference is between being forced by the government to work in a coal mine… and being forced by hunger to work in a coal mine? You think my lungs are any better with one over the other? That is NOT choice.

I don’t get the libertarians who say if the government DOESN’T give you money, you have more choice. I don’t get the idea that being forced to GET A JOB is choice, but being supported to do what you want with your time is “taking freedom away.” Can someone explain that to me?

I look forward to the discussion. I hope it can be rational, intelligent, respectful, considerate and open-minded. Discussion –and reaction-- from the head... not from the facebook.


-end-

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at god@mykelboard.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Subscribe to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]


A touch of integrity dept: US Attorney General William Barr asked facebook to build a “back door” into its encryption of Messenger and WhatsApp messages and calls. Why? For SECURITY, of course, so criminals can’t send messages without the cops reading them. (Of course, in pre-internet letter-writing times, the cops did open a few letters… but not in anywhere near the number they do or want to do now).
"The 'backdoor' access you are demanding for law enforcement would be a gift to criminals, hackers, and repressive regimes," WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger executives wrote. I’m still not a fan of facebook (though I use it too much), but you gotta give punk points where they’re due.

LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends --and enemies-- in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.


Here's a start:

David Goldberg's Busy Microbes Blog

And another Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

Then there’s the link for people who hate links. Real live XEROS, a zine in a world of e-zines and virtual ideas. Check out ASYMMETRICAL ANTI-MEDIA “The Review Zine with Lunatic Fringe Tendencies.” What’s the URL? Hah! You need to put a crisp (or wrinkled) dollar bill in an envelope and MAIL IT (With a stamp. Get it?) to: Jason Rodgers, PO Box 10894, Albany NY 12201 And you should.

My pal Matt Sheahan has a contrarian political blog: https://matthewsheahan.com/ Hard to imagine that I’d have a contrarian pal, huh?

Then there’s the transgressive Harry Palm… https://harrypalmesq.wordpress.com/ Crank up the psychology!

Then there Dumbkat Press… more than a blog, but you gotta see for yourself!

Let me know if you have a blog… or a PRINT zine and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com

Monday, February 17, 2020

You're Still Wrong.. Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 3)

You're Still Wrong.. Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 3)


NOTE: This is my third WEEKLY blog. I’ve heard from several readers that “it’s too long.” Maybe they’re right. I know the feeling of reading on a screen. An old friend from the band The Apostles sent me a 65 page book he wrote. It’s a great read, but I can only manage 10 pages at a time on the computer. Something about the media shortens attention or concentration. For me, this is a test. Please let me know what you think. So far, these segments seem too short. Next month: BI-WEEKLY! 



YOU’RE STILL WRONG
Mykel’s Post MRR
Feb 2020
Part Three
of
I Don’t Get It


The focus of this column is feedback from others... explaining how they think on topics I don't understand. Last week I asked for an explanation of how omnivores can excuse the horrors of factory farming, yet condemn less-horrible cock-fighting and bull-fighting. This week I ask about...)

GAY MARRIAGE: I’ve long been an opponent of gay marriage... and straight marriage… at least as government recognized institutions. Again, if you want to see my reasons, just go back and read everything I’ve ever written before.

BUT, I can understand the thinking of those who want to be allowed to partake of the benefits of marriage: Half-price healthcare, automatic hospital visitation rights. the ability to transfer funds without being taxed, the right to social security benefits someone else paid for… and this from Consumer Reports: If there's a large discrepancy between the bride and groom's incomes, the lower-earning spouse might serve as a tax shelter for the higher earner.

I get it. You want those perks offered only to married people. That is… to those who follow a government sanctioned religious rite. I don’t like it. I don’t support it. I think it’s unfair, but I understand it.

What I don’t get is those who claim to want gay marriage on the basis of equal rights! It’s as clear as the blood on the sheets that married and unmaried people do NOT have equal rights. Marriage itself is inequality. The “right” to get married is the “right” to give up your freedom and participate in a fundamentally unequal institution. This has nothing to do with equality. The “right” to marry becomes a duty to marry, with insurance companies demanding marriage before they’ll insure “a partner.” TWO becomes the official number... required before you can avoid estate taxes or gain the right to someone else’s social security when they kick the bucket.

It’s as if, in the 1800s, gay people demanded the right to own slaves… in the name of equality. Slavery, like marriage is an institution of inequality. Allowing more slave owners (or marriages) does not change that inequality. So please… explain to me how gay marriage makes people equal. 

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at god@mykelboard.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Subscribe to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]

A touch of integrity dept: US Attorney General William Barr asked facebook to build a “back door” into its encryption of Messenger and WhatsApp messages and calls. Why? For SECURITY, of course, so criminals can’t send messages without the cops reading them. (Of course, in pre-internet letter-writing times, the cops did open a few letters… but not in anywhere neat the number they do or want to do now).
"The 'backdoor' access you are demanding for law enforcement would be a gift to criminals, hackers, and repressive regimes," WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger executives wrote. I’m still not a fan of facebook (though I use it too much), but you gotta give punk points where they’re due.



LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends --and enemies-- in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.


Here's a start:

David Goldberg's Busy Microbes Blog

And another Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

Then there’s the link for people who hate links. Real live XEROS, a zine in a world of e-zines and virtual ideas. Check out ASYMMETRICAL ANTI-MEDIA “The Review Zine with Lunatic Fringe Tendencies.” What’s the URL? Hah! You need to put a crisp (or wrinkled) dollar bill in an envelope and MAIL IT (With a stamp. Get it?) to: Jason Rodgers, PO Box 10894, Albany NY 12201 And you should.

Let me know if you have a blog… or a PRINT zine and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com

Monday, February 10, 2020

You're Still Wrong.. Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 2)

You're Still Wrong.. Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 2)


NOTE: This is my second WEEKLY blog. I’ve heard from several readers that “it’s too long.” Maybe they’re right. I know the feeling of reading on a screen. An old friend from the band The Apostles sent me a 65 page book he wrote. It’s a great read, but I can only manage 10 pages at a time on the computer. Something about the media shortens attention or concentration. For me, this is a test. Please let me know what you think.



YOU’RE STILL WRONG
Mykel’s Post MRR
Feb 2020
Part two
or
I Don’t Get It


So far I've written about my lousy year 2020 and how this time I want to ask people their thought processes that I don't understand. 


 I get the most of the premises…

  • If the government does it, it’s bad.
  • It’s better to work than not to work.
  • It’s better to do something for yourself than have someone else do it for you.
  • More is better than less.
  • Cheaper is better than more expensive.
  • Climate change is something you either believe in or don’t… like God.
  • “The holocaust” is something you either believe in or don’t… like God
  • There is a group called The Jews and they all believe the same thing.
  • Donald Trump is responsible for everything evil in America.
  • Donald Trump is responsible for everything good in America.
  • There are good people and there are bad people… and they don’t change.

All of these premises, of course, are wrong. If you’re wondering why, just read everything I’ve ever written. But I understand where they come from. They’re cliches. You take them for granted because your parents, your friends, your co-workers just know they’re true… without ever questioning them. They’re what everybody knows.

Here’s the rub. Some things are NOT cliches. They don’t have cultural or common background. They defy logic… at least my idea of logic. So I’m asking YOU to explain

How the fuck can you think like that?

Scene one: A factory chicken farm: Tiny chicks… row upon row of them… in cages not much bigger than their little chick bodies. The chicks grow. The cages do not.

Before long the metal squeezes the young animals like an iron maiden. There’s a small space for the animal’s head and neck... just enough so they can strain to eat the shit and antibiotics thrown to them once or twice a day. They never feel the sun. They never stretch their legs or their flightless wings. They die a horrible death on an assembly line with complete awareness of their spinning knife fate. The males are ground into fertilizer before they develop… except one or two used to make new chicks.

Scene two: A training center for the cockfights: The cocks leave their cages every day. The owner takes them out, pets them, encourages them to run... to fight... to use their muscles. They KNOW their owners, like dogs know theirs. Their last moments MAY be in the ring… but they have a better than 50-50 chance of living to fight again. And the lives they live would be the envy of any factory chicken.

Bullfights are the same.. The beef you eat at Wendy’s is treated like the factory farmed chickens. The bulls that are in the ring… nearly worshiped before they fight.

If you’re a vegetarian, I can understand opposing bullfights and cockfights. You don’t eat animals because it’s not a good thing to cause pain to another animal. I know science says plants feel pain too… but that’s at least controversial. What isn’t controversial is that bulls (and cocks) used in fighting are treated extremely well. They are babied… given room to roam, allowed space to flex their muscles.

What I don’t get is meat-eaters who think cock and bullfights are somehow CRUEL, while the meat on their plates isn’t. I don’t get how nations can make laws against cultural traditions over a hundred years old… but don’t make laws against treating animals worse than iPhones on an assembly line. Yeah, it’s money, okay. But how can you… yeah you with your clothes on… sitting at KFC… complain about how awful cockfighting is, when you’re eating something so much worse. Can you explain that to me?


END OF PART ONE

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at god@mykelboard.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Subscribe to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]

Amazon does it again dept: It had to happen. The Amazon-owned company RING, is supposed to provide security in case your house is empty… or you want to keep an eye on the kids. So what happens when some guy hacks into the system and tells your sweet little girl that the voice she hears is SANTA CLAUS… and Santa tells her to smash her TV? This isn’t the only case of the security system being more than insecure. It ain’t gonna be long before the airport security systems and the bridge toll security systems and the iPhone security systems all become major sources of insecurity. For me, they already are.


LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends --and enemies-- in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.


Here's a start:

David Goldberg's Busy Microbes Blog

And another Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

Then there’s the link for people who hate links. Real live XEROS, a zine in a world of e-zines and virtual ideas. Check out ASYMMETRICAL ANTI-MEDIA “The Review Zine with Lunatic Fringe Tendencies.” What’s the URL? Hah! You need to put a crisp (or wrinkled) dollar bill in an envelope and MAIL IT (With a stamp. Get it?) to: Jason Rodgers, PO Box 10894, Albany NY 12201 And you should.

My pal Matt Sheahan has a contrarian political blog: https://matthewsheahan.com/ Hard to imagine that I’d have a contrarian pal, huh?

Then there’s the transgressive Harry Palm… https://harrypalmesq.wordpress.com/ Crank up the psychology!

Then there Dumbkat Press… more than a blog, but you gotta see for yourself!

Let me know if you have a blog… or a PRINT zine and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com

NO COMMENTS:

Tuesday, February 04, 2020

You're Still Wrong.. Mykel's Feb 2020 Blog I DON'T GET IT (Pt. 1)


NOTE: This will be my first WEEKLY blog. I’ve heard from several readers that “it’s too long.” Maybe they’re right. I know the feeling of reading on a screen. An old friend from the band The Apostles sent me a 65 page book he wrote. It’s a great read, but I can only manage 10 pages at a time on the computer. Something about the media shortens attention or concentration. For me, this is a test. Please let me know what you think.



YOU’RE STILL WRONG
Mykel’s Post MRR
Feb 2020
Part one
or
I Don’t Get It

I write this as the year is twenty days old. I sit at the shaky wooden table I use as my desk. I’m naked... not for any good reason… but just because it’s too much effort to step into my clothes. It’s Monday, 5 o’clock in the afternoon. I was supposed to meet some friends for a weekly get together at The Peculier Pub, my favorite bar in New York. They all bailed.

I’m recovering from the flu… hit January 3… the usual: headache, cough, phlegm greener than Greta Thunberg… the whole kit and caboodle. Urgent Care told me I had the flu. No shirt, Shitlock. I cudda told THEM that. Only the cough is left after the $30 urgent care visit and 5 generic Tamiflu pills… at $11 a pill. Ah America… ya gotta hate it.

Last night I lost a friend of 30 years… not through death… but through facebook. She suffered a molested childhood, and thought my posts were making fun of that abuse. Pow!

I don’t want to see you again. Don’t ever come to where I work. (She’s a waitress in a nearby bar/restaurant…. my SECOND favorite bar in New York.) If I’m not at work and see you in the same place as I am, I will leave.

It’s a writer’s dilemma… write honestly and suffer the consequences… or write TV commercials.

But wait! There’s more: Today I'm walking in the 20 degree cold... heading for the subway. This old homeless-looking guy (gray beard, shaggy eyebrows, second hand coat) passes me on the sidewalk.

"Hello Mykel" he says.

I turn to him... I spread the sides of the hood on his jacket to get a better look at his face.

"Do I know you?" I ask.

"Mykel, it's Izzy." he says.

When I moved into my apartment building 30+ years ago, he was the 5-year-old kid down the hall. His parents screamed at each other late into the night. I think they got evicted.

"Mom died last year," he says. "Dementia"

I give him a hug.

"Where are you living now?" I ask.

"I'm homeless," he says, his voice barely more than a whisper. "I live on the street."

I reach into my wallet and take out two single dollar bills and hand them to him. "I hope this helps a little. I wish I could do more."

He gives me a hug.... and another. We pass and I go into the subway station.

2020... I tell ya'... it's EVIL!

My friends have it worse. Death, disease, mom lost a limb to gangrene... the rot, not the band. 2019 was bad enough for so many people. Starting the new year on pain, death, disease and loss of friends... just WRONG… but it does strengthen my belief in God (goddess). There’s just too much shit for it to be a random/accident. God is real… and she hates you… me… us.

But I’m not writing about God… or the New Year. I’m writing backwards. Instead of telling you about the world as I understand it… I want to –for once-- write about the world as I DON’T understand it. Specifically, how people think.

I’ve spent more than 40 years telling you WHAT you should think. It’s taken me all this time to finally realize I don’t understand HOW you think in the first place. Maybe when I get that, I can better comprehend why you’re so fucked up.

END OF PART ONE

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me on facebook or by email at god@mykelboard.com. Through the post office: send those... er... private DVDs..or music or zines... or anything else (legal only!) to: Mykel Board, POB 137, New York, NY 10012-0003. If you like my writing, you can be notified when anything new is available. Subscribe to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]


Take a bite outta this one dept: Fox News reports that a woman bit a camel’s testicles at a Louisiana truck stop petting zoo -- and was cited for criminal trespassing.
The woman was chasing her dog when she crawled into the camel’s enclosure at the Tiger Truck Stop. She told deputies she bit the 600-pound camel when he sat on her. “She said: ‘I bit his balls to get him off of me, I bit his testicles to get him off of me,’”
     I guess it worked.

LINK TRADE DEPARTMENT:

I read that the search engines like lots of links... and it's also nice to support my friends --and enemies-- in their blogs. So facebook me or email me if you have a blog, webpage or something else to connect to. I add you. You add me.


Here's a start:

David Goldberg's Busy Microbes Blog

And another Goldberg: goldberg.wordpress.com

Poetry and humor fans will like Justin Martin in The Latency

And my friend Mike R has a nice site with recipe hits from the past! (He cooked for me once... great stuff.) Check out Yesterday's Recipes.

And here's one by a member of ANTI-SEEN... a tour diary of sorts.

Andy Shelton has an interesting blog here.

Savage Hippie is a guy who has been YouTubing for a long time. Our opinions largely overlap... but he complains that I'm a Communist. I'm not! I'm a communist.

Chris Stecher publishes a zine called PRECIS. You can see the back issue links there... and he promises a new issue soon.

If there’s no link here (I can’t find it temporarily), then Google… er… Duckduckgo him for information.

And my long-term pal Sid Yiddish contributes with his Mishegas Master Blog.

Then there’s the link for people who hate links. Real live XEROS, a zine in a world of e-zines and virtual ideas. Check out ASYMMETRICAL ANTI-MEDIA “The Review Zine with Lunatic Fringe Tendencies.” What’s the URL? Hah! You need to put a crisp (or wrinkled) dollar bill in an envelope and MAIL IT (With a stamp. Get it?) to: Jason Rodgers, PO Box 10894, Albany NY 12201 And you should.

My pal Matt Sheahan has a contrarian political blog: https://matthewsheahan.com/ Hard to imagine that I’d have a contrarian pal, huh?

Then there’s the transgressive Harry Palm… https://harrypalmesq.wordpress.com/ Crank up the psychology!

Then there Dumbkat Press… more than a blog, but you gotta see for yourself!

Let me know if you have a blog… or a PRINT zine and want to be added to the list. You show me yours… you’ve already seen mine. god@mykelboard.com


Mykel's April 2024 Blog/Column: The Obvious Answer

  Mykel's APRIL 2024 Blog/Column     You’re STILL Wrong Mykel's April 2024 Blog/Column The Obvious Answer by Mykel Board He...