Saturday, April 06, 2013

MRR column for no 359 APRIL 2013 (Mykel Takes Over)








 

You're Wrong

An Irregular Column

by Mykel Board

Column 359 April 2013



"What does a guy want with his arms and legs? He doesn't need arms and legs to write with. He needs security... peace... protection. If you could be sure of that I'd say let's have a war tomorrow. I wouldn't give a fuck about the medals-- they could keep the medals. All I'd want is a good wheelchair and three meals a day. Then I'd give them something to read, those pricks.” --Henry Miller


It's a small turd. Just a brown chili, floating halfway down in the toilet. If I pasted it atop my clenched fist, the guy across the hall might think I was flipping him the bird. So small... so neat... yet what a mess!

Takes a whole roll of paper. The smear half way up my back... covers both cheeks... thick... like dark brown tofu... I need to wipe down the toilet seat...the backs of my legs... Sheet after sheet... leaking off the paper... my fingers covered... dripping... then the phone rings.

Fuck. If I pull my pants up, it'll make a worse mess. The this month's laundry'll smell like shit. So I waddle from the bathroom to the bedroom/livingroom/den... pants around my ankles, naked below the waist... covered in smeared feces.

I pick up the phone.

“Yeah?” I say.

“Mykel?” comes the voice.

“Of course, it's fuckin' Mykel.” I don't say. “You called me!”

“Who's this?” I do say.

“Hi,” comes the female voice on the other end. “I was hoping to get you at home. I'm just calling to tell you we finally decided on the new editor of MRR.”

“Great,” I don't say, “like I need to know the name of my next task-master. What do I care?”

“Who?” I do ask.

“I'm talkin' to him right now,” says the voice.

Yeah, I know this is probably old news to you. Such a long long search and it turns into a great circle and bites you (me) on the (shit-stained) ass. But it takes me by surprise. I sit down.... yeah, I know. That chair is out on the street right now... attracting flies. But the rest, is future.

This is the April issue of MRR. Starting next month, May, I'm in charge. Do I expect to make any changes? Will you notice a difference? You bet your shit-covered ass you will.

What changes? What's the problem with MRR the way it is?

Ask anyone... just go out on the street... stop that housewife on the way to Walmart... that homeless guy picking through the trash... that bike courier on the way from C-squat to the Apple Store... just stop 'em and ask, “What's wrong with MRR?” You'll get the same answer. Always... it's been that way for 30 years:

THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH PICTURES OF NAKED PEOPLE.

You know without asking... you don't need me to tell you. It's as plain as the twat on your face.

Well, I'm gonna change that. Under my regime, every issue will have dozens of 'em. Any (legal) age... any gender or race you can name. Dwarfs, amputees, nursing home residents. All of 'em. Naked people up the wazoo.... every month. Bands... cartoonists... MIT intellectuals... everybody.

A stimulating publication? Yeah, you'll find that famous rub-off ink on more than your hands. You ain't seen nothing yet.

More changes?

Start from the front. The cover. Right now: if it's not a crappy line drawing, it's some band of white people from some hillbilly town in some state you wouldn't touch with a six foot hog call. Under my reign? NO WHITE PEOPLE ON THE COVER OF MRR!! MAYBE we'll have an exception if the band agrees to appear naked, but it would require a substantial endowment.

And the columns? What about the columns?

The columnists would not change. I like everyone who writes, though I'd include bigger pictures as column headers... and, of course, every columnist will appear naked in those headers.

Columnists will have absolute freedom to say whatever they want. Although, if I disagree with anything, they will be required to spend time in the notorious MRR Special Room. After all, if you say something you have to take responsibility for it. We have ways of MAKING YOU take responsibility. Get it?

AND, I will replace the current random order of columnists with a strict order... the same every month... in exact order of the AGE of the columnists... oldest first, of course.

What about English? Fuckin' English. I've said before that people spoke Spanish in America way before they spoke English. You think Nina, Pinta, y Santa Maria are English names? What the fuck? First thing: the NAME of the magazine changes to MAXIMUM VERGA Y CULO. Maybe we'll have a small English section-- at the end of the zine-- the last page or two to tell you what you're missing. For the rest: HABLAS ESPAÑOL O MUERTE!

And reviews? Those fuckin' reviews? MRR reviewers are a bunch of prissy whitefolks (or at least native-English speakers) who think eating a California roll with a dab of soy sauce is oh so exotic and foreign. That's gonna change.

NEW RULES FOR REVIEWS:

All reviewers have to ACTUALLY LISTEN TO OR READ what they review. Don't say, “Well, it's not my taste.” If you don't like the style, don't fuckin' review it! If you don't understand the language then give it to someone who does! Why does every issue of the German zine TRUST have an MRR review-- in English-- and every MRR has a review of TRUST that says, “I wish I could read German.” I know seeing your name in print is an ego boost, but speak what you're gonna review or don't review it. SPRICH DEUTSCH ODER VERRECKE!

Scene reports? What's up with those? If I see one more band name written with the Roman alphabet, I'm gonna shit. There are hundreds of languages in the world. Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Thai, Urdu, Bulgarian... the list goes on. Why do we see... month after month... scene reports from places that use A,B,C,D instead of ALEPH, BET, GIMMEL, DALID? No more of that under my reign! New Rule: No more scene reports from places that use the Roman alphabet. A,B,C, is for wimps. Hey, buckaroos! Wake up! This is PUNK ROCK! Learn to read.

It won't be just changes. No sireebob. There'll be a ton of new stuff. More things people actually want:

BODY FLUID OF THE MONTH, TIMMY Y SPEAKS FROM THE GRAVE (transcripts of monthly séances held at the MRR house on night of the full moon.), THE SELL-OUT REPORT (listing what bands it's cool to like and which are on the boycott list), and a new scanned letter section. All letters written entirely IN BLOOD! Anyone answering those letters, must also write in blood.

That's a taste of things to come... a teaser...the start of the change from a punkrock zine to a PUNK ROCK ZINE. Like my turd in the toilet, MRR is not all that big in the world... but it's gonna make a HUGE mess!



ENDNOTES: [email subscribers (god@mykelboard.com) or blog viewers (mykelsblog.blogspot.com/) will get live links and a chance to post comments on the column. Your zines, Cds/records, and... er... private videos... can and should be sent to me at: Mykel Board, POB 137, Prince Street Station, New York NY 10012]

-->Irony on irony dept: In the Martin Luther King days, The Southern Poverty Law Center was a good group. Then it ventured into "Anti-Defamation" territory. Like the Jewish Anti-Defamation League who calls every critic of Israel "anti-semitic" (and even accuses Arabs, who are Semites, of being "anti-Semitic") the SPLC jumps on any group it disagrees with and labels them "racist" or "terrorist."

Reuter's now reports SPLC is coordinating an "anti-bullying program." (That's ironic since they themselves use bully name-calling tactics.) As part of their anti-bully program, they've organized 3000 schools to have a "Mix It Up at Lunch Day." Students in those schools are encouraged "to sit by someone in the cafeteria they would not normally sit next to.”

The right-wing American Family Association, is boycotting the event because they say it's "a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools." Doubly funny because the intolerant name-callers are getting name-called for promoting tolerance.


-->Sissy Bradford, a criminology professor at Texas A&M University lost her job after complaining about a taxpayer-funded tower with four Christian crosses. The tower also featured the official university seal. Thanks to her protest and a letter from the legal department of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the crosses were removed. Then followed several threats from cross defenders. These that got so bad that Ms Bradford asked the campus cops for protection. Her request was ignored. Now she's without a job and no campus for the campus cops to protect her on.


-->Bad news for Christians and Feminists dept: A new study has found that porn stars have "higher self-esteem, self confidence and a more flattering image of their bodies" than others. Of course! If you've got hundreds of folks jerking off to your image, it's only logical that you're gonna think a lot of yourself. You can get the full article at: http://tinyurl.com/selfestemeArt



-->Secret major label dept: If you're suddenly seeing advertising for a "micro-brewery" called SHOCK TOP, you guessed right. It's Anheiser-Busch, the Budweiser giant, now owned by a Belgian company. The beer sucks anyway, too sweet and I donno... wrong. But don't be tricked, like Blue Moon, it's a FAKE micro-brew.



-->12 years for NOTHING dept: Of course I'm talking about prison. There are millions of such stories. People who hurt no one languishing in jail under FEDERAL SENTENCING LAWS. I've written a lot about this. But a spot of maraschino cherry in the diarrhea of our legal system is GORILLACONVICT publishing. It's a company that gets the word out FROM the men behind the bars. They publish books (remember them?) by the 2%... the 2% of Americans, that is, who are behind bars. Their website is gorillaconvict.com.



-->Is that a screw in your kneebone or are you happy to see me dept: First Class Magazine reports that Australian airports have introduced full body scanners for all international air passengers. The scanners use wifi length radio waves to scan, rather than the X-ray machines that are used in the US.

Both Europe and Australia have banned the US machines as too much of a cancer risk. The US government doesn't care. It's SECURITY, ya know?



-->Help, 'em but don't let 'em help themselves dept: In Ashland Oregon, public officials have removed three boxes for public donations to help the homeless. The reason is that the boxes were pilfered and the money stolen. After an investigation, a man was arrested, fined and jailed for the theft. You guessed it. He was homeless. Now, please tell me how a homeless person can steal money meant for the homeless. I guess the answer's easy. That's DIRECT giving. If you do that, how does an ADMINISTRATOR get paid? It would destroy the whole American concept of charity.


-->Mix government and religion at your own peril dept: Germany's top court has ruled that Catholics who do not pay religious taxes must automatically leave the church. The judges ruled against Hartmut Zapp (great name!) who wanted to leave the church as an institution, but remain a member of the Catholic community. Germany's bishops announced that believers who refuse to pay the religion tax won't be able to receive the sacraments, become godparents or a have a religious funeral. In Germany, the government subsidizes religions through taxes on members of the religion. In the US, the government subsidizes religion through taxes on EVERYBODY. They call it "faith-based."



-->Good suggestion bad reason dept: Israeli Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky ordered his followers to "burn their iPhones" in order to maintain Jewish insularity and keep the outside world away. I'm not sure iPhones burn very well, but they probably flush nicely down the toilet.






Sunday, February 03, 2013

MRR Column for no 357 (Mykel does election day)



 

You're Wrong

An Irregular Column

by Mykel Board

Mykel's Column for MRR # 357 (January)



"Democracy today is just a polite term for highly developed totalitarianism,” --Laibach
       ELECTION DAY 2012: One of the many things I love about toilet stalls is that you can close the door and be in your own world. You can experience the joy of release... sometimes the double joy. I now stand stall-pissing. Ridding myself of the morning coffee, with a touch of last night's beer. My whole body relaxes as the yellowtude pours out of me. Gas rumbles through my intestines. It too demands release. Yes! That's the double joy... a standing pissing fart. The morning's flatulence out with the morning's liquid. The gas bubble nudges downwards as the yellow stream slows to a trickle. I tense my abdomin... give it a final push... I'm already late for class... I gotta hurry.

Uhhh, uhhh, ugggg, whoops! It's not just gas that passes from my anal sphincter. A turdball... grape-sized... escapes and rolls down into my boxers... down the back of my leg... inside my knee... to my calf... to my ankle where it lays trapped by my pantsleg stuck into my army boots.

Damn! I wish I were a girl. Then, when I pissed, I'd be in the right position to aim those turdballs directly into the toilet. Now I'm stuck. No time to undo my boots and fish it out... and who knows what an extra mess that'd make? I'll have to let it rest until after class. Then, I can sit down and get rid of it... It's probably left a trail that'll need cleaning up... Delightful!

Ah well, it's back to class. I just hope I don't accidentally squash the turdball against my ankle. Besides slopping up, it'll stink. The Japanese, that means all my students, are extremely sensitive to smells. They don't even like GOOD smells. They want NO smell. (There are exceptions, but that's another column.)

Shit, it's not even 2PM and today's been hell. I tried to vote this morning... waited on line (IN line, as they say in America) for an hour... got to the front: “You're on the wrong line.... You're in the wrong building...”

Fuck, I'll have to come back during a break. I have to get to class....

When I do get to school, I complain about being kicked out of the poling area.

“Hey,” says a fellow-teacher.. a rabid Democrat, “that's not allowed. Governor Cuomo issued an executive order. Anybody can vote anywhere... It's on account of the hurricane.”

“Nobody told the guys where I vote... didn't vote,” I say, now even MORE pissed off.

She shrugs.

So here I am... in class... private... one-on-one... a turdball resting at the top of my boot, against my ankle.

My student is Takashi, an attractive young man from Osaka. His business casual clothes limp what would be an oriental-induced erection. Good, I don't need another pants problem.

Like my other students, Takashi is fascinated by today's election. He doesn't understand it, but it looks like fun.

“Are you a Republican or a Democrat?” asks the young man.

“I'm neither,” I tell him. “I hate 'em both.”

He looks puzzled.

“Then you're not going to vote?” he asks. “I thought all Americans vote. It's like football. Everybody has a team, right?”

“It IS like football,” I tell him. “I hate football.”

[Aside: Do they play THE RAMONES at football games? I honestly don't know. I hope not.]

“Okay,” he says, “then it's like baseball. You've got a team to support.”

“I support the Green Party,” I tell him. “I'm going to vote for Jill Stein.”

“Who?”

I repeat the name of my candidate of choice.

“Is that your mother?” he asks.

After class, I run back to vote again-- still with the turd in my pantsleg. This time the line is shorter, but it moves slower than the singer in a junkie band.

I finally get my paper ballot: a long confusing list of names. I fill in the little circle next to JILL STEIN. Then I fill in the rest of the WORKING FAMILIES PARTY choices. I'm not much for WORKING anything, but they have good taste in politics and-- except for supporting Obama-- are the best of the bunch.

But wait a minute... one of the working families guys is running for the SAME OFFICE (Senator) as the Green Party guy. I marked 'em both... screwed up the ballot... have to get a replacement. How the hell is some uneducated shlub gonna do this? I've got a fuckin' Master's Degree and I can't do it!

I bring the spoiled ballot back to the desk.

“Can I have another one?” I ask, handing over my mistake. “I fu... er... made a mistake on this one.”

The pimply adolescent whiteboy behind the table makes a tsk tsk sound as he takes the paper. He looks at it, tsk tsks again, (isn't that unconstitutional?) gets a folder, marks something on the ballot, hands me another, and says, “This is your last chance.”

I walk to the metal marking booths, open for the world-- at least for the TV cameras which are EVERYWHERE-- to see. I carefully mark my choices and bring it to the vote-counting scanner where a big Aunt Jemima blocks my way.

“I'll take that,” she says, “the machines aren't working right. I have to feed in the ballots very slowly.”

She takes my ballot and looks at it. She does not tsk tsk, but carefully inserts it into the machine, looks at me, smiles, and says “Thank you citizen.”

I immediately like her.

No time to chat. It's back to school for two more classes, then home.

I need to call WCSB at 10PM to record an interview. It's the second one in a week. The first was with Blag, yeah that one... from the Dwarves. He wanted to talk to me after the MRR no-column fiasco. He's got an internet radio show called “Radio Like You Want.” I don't even know if the show aired, but I was on it.

Now, I'm talking to... oh no! I forget his name. On Facebook, he's DRICORE. He has the late night show on WCSB in Cleveland. He must be old because this is the second interview he's done with me. The first was in 1997!

“Mykel,” he asks, “have you voted?”

“You bet,” I tell him, “and it wasn't easy.”

“From reading your columns, I guess you voted for Jill Stein,” he says.

That's what I like: a man who does his homework.

“You bet,” I say. “You think she'll win?”

“Is your dick gonna grow another three inches?” he doesn't ask. As a matter of fact he doesn't say anything... at least not then. After a throat clear, the conversation continues.

We talk more about the election. He tries the Obama line about healthcare, jobs, I donno. He wants me to be realistic. Sorry, I'm the wrong guy for that job.

People need employment because we've got a fucked up slave system that says work or die. I hate that system. I can't say it's GOOD to put people to work. Is it better that people work than die? Yeah, it's better that I have a turd in my pantsleg than a mass of red ants... but that turd is still a turd and I don't want it there.

The week before, Blag asked me about my rejection of jail for “abusers.”

“What's the alternative?” he asked. “We just let these violent people go and do nothing?”

What the fuck? I don't know the alternative. If someone says you can cure cancer by nailing your nipple to the wall, should I let people do it because I have no alternative? Because I can't cure cancer myself? I don't know what the answer is, but I know what it ISN'T. Same with jobs, abusers... and Obama.

What it comes down to: Am I happy Obama won? No.

Even a tinge that Romney won't be president for four years? No.

Even a bit... selfishly... that the world will think SLIGHTLY better of Americans because they re-elected a colored president? It will be easier to travel than it was during Bush times. Okay, a TINY BIT... selfishly... but that's it.

See you in Suriname... or hell... whichever comes first



ENDNOTES: [email subscribers (god@mykelboard.com) or blog viewers (mykelsblog.blogspot.com/) will get live links and a chance to post comments on the column. Your zines, Cds/records, and... er... private videos... can and should be sent to me at: Mykel Board, POB 137, Prince Street Station, New York NY 10012]



-->One of my facebook friends sent me a YouTube of a news report about a pizza delivery. A colored mother ordered a Domino's pizza. On the bottom of the receipt was printed: Niggahs don't tip. The woman complained. Domino's fired the driver who wrote the comment. That's as far as the video goes. But that's not far enough for me:

    1. How do we know what color the driver was? We don't. Black people are a lot more free in their speech than white people. And they know the difference between Nigger and Niggah. The news made this sound like a racist incident, but was it?
    2. Did Domino's settle to avoid a lawsuit? How much?
    3. Did the family tip? Do they now?




-->Voter base dept: Ann Coulter said that Obama was campaigning with women's rights activist Sandra Fluke because he "is so desperate to get the base Democratic voter-- stupid single women-- to vote for him"

I ask, is Ann Coulter married? If so, does that mean the Republican voter base is stupid MARRIED women?



-->The Real Entrepreneurs dept: The Progressive reports that the Republican convention used the theme WE BUILT THIS to show how private entrepreneurship trumps government action. The convention itself was held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, built with 62 percent government funds.



-->So that's why dept: On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh blamed a 10 percent decline in penis size on feminism. Says Rush “it has to be the feminazis, the chickification, and everything else.”



-->I'll tell you when I get to the Middle dept: A study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting found that of 10,489 election campaign stories, only seventeen talked about poverty. I can't remember hearing ONE. It was Middle Class this and Middle Class that. As the Republicans move to take the vote away from the poor, I bet we're gonna be hearing the word “poverty” even less in times to come.



-->Speaking of poverty dept: The National Federation of the Blind picketed dozens of Goodwill stores demanding equal pay for the company's disabled employees. The group says Goodwill has consistently paid sub-minimum wages to disabled workers, sometimes as low as twenty-two cents an hour. There goes my Chanukah shopping!

At least the workers of Walmart are finally going on strike. It's about fuckin' time! Black Friday too!!

I hope the store doesn't pick up thousands of scabs who need a few bucks and will do ANYTHING in for a job in Obamaland. Looks like Walmart's getting a black eye for this. But you don't care. You'll be shopping there... feeling like shit about it... but doing it anyway, right?



-->World Bully Dept: As Israel is acting like big brother America: invading other countries, mass murdering, destroying everything in a wide path, I frantically look around for some Jews I can be proud of! I found 'em! Rabbis for Palestine! They seem to understand the problem best... and they have the right answers.

On the other hand, Israeli rabbis are shouting “Palestinians to the Ovens!” Oy vey!






Sunday, January 06, 2013

MRR column for 355 (The Column In Between)

This is the column in between the two that the editors refused to print. I guess there's nothing controversial in this one. Uh oh!




You're Wrong

An Irregular Column

by Mykel Board

Column for MRR 355 (Love and Marriage go together like..., or Mykel sees history abused)


How can an American woman go out with a Japanese man? They never say “I love you” or buy flowers or things like that.” --A Japanese woman showing surprise at my white female friend moving to Japan to live with a Japanese guy


Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage.” -- Sammy Cahn lyrics; Frank Sinatra record 1955


Yes! It's so rare to find a girl who'll do your balls. One like her... right now... sucking first one, then the other, between her lipsticked lips.

I sit over her, my feet on either side of her head. My throbbing five inches alert.. at attention... as she runs her tongue over my hairitude.

Releasing my twin robins eggs, she moves her tongue through the taint, to the sensitive brown hole. Pick... pick... poke!!

Yowsah! Not only does this girl do tea-baggin... she's a rimmer too! I'm in love!

“Marry me!” I shout. “Quick marry me, before I come!”

Fortunately she can't answer. Her tongue is busy on other matters.

Part One: I've squirted screed against marriage ever since I first took chisel to rock to write for MRR. It didn't help. More and more screamed out for “the right” to marriage. Even homos got in the act.

These days, if I get an invitation to a wedding, I no longer fork over the tens of dollars necessary to buy some exotic gift... like a veg-o-matic. For what? A temporary team, that'll break up in 2 years? I don't think so. Sorry, from me, you'll get a five pack of beer-savers resealable bottlecaps. That's it.

But... what if the problem isn't marriage at all? What if it's the Shakespearean... the John Donne... the Harlequin Romance. What if it's the WAY we get married, rather than marriage itself.

Type feminist and arranged-marriage into the BING® search box that Microsoft® forced on you. You'll get 2,760,000 results. Most will be like: Arranged marriages: a subversion of feminism.

The idea that someone's parents... or a professional matchmaker should choose a mate is repugnant to Personal Freedom®. To me, that's like saying the idea of someone else choosing your slave master is repugnant to personal freedom. We should be free to chose our own slave masters, right? I vote for ending slavery... but that's another story.

Even if you think there's something wonderful about marriage. That a family is the best way to raise some stinking brat who'll end up hating you anyway. Even if you believe all that, look at the numbers!

If marriage success is determined by the length of the marriage, marriage-for-love loses. The US, land where love rules, is first in divorce. (Or second to Sweden, depending on whose statistics you use.) The most stable marriages are in India, country of arranged marriages.

It's logical. People fall out of love. Their partners change. What they used to like about each other, they begin to hate. Or something's empty. Marriage-- or even dropping puppies-- isn't like they imagined. After the rim job, there's still someone else's dirty underwear on the floor... and that dingleberry on your tongue. People fall out of love. They don't fall out of an arrangement made by their parents.

Part Two: One of the few other columnists that I actually read criticizes me as being a Free Speech Absolutist®. Like the muckrakers of old, it's an epithet I wear proudly. Let's check out the alternative view. I'll call it, No-free-speech-to-those-who-would-deny-it-to-others®.

The Scene: The big square in front of City Hall in Republicanville, Kansas. A rally... at least 50 people from Nazis for Romney. The speaker, a short man with deepset eyes and Frida Kahlo eyebrows stands at a makeshift podium. He addresses the crowd with a little click of the heels.

“My fellow white Americans...” he starts.

There's a commotion... some shouting... a scream. Some people charge into the crowd from the back... fists flailing... there's a chain...ski masks... black leather jackets. They push through the crowd to the small podium.

One of the attackers, a tall guy with catcher's mitt sized hands, grabs the little speaker by the upper arm. He spins the man. BLAM, a fist to the little guy's jaw. He's down.

The big guy shouts into the microphone. “NO FREE SPEECH TO THOSE WHO WOULD DENY IT TO OTHERS!”

The cops come... there's a melee... blah blah blah. You got it.

Then the papers. More publicity for Nazis for Romney... more sympathy than they would've gotten if nobody cared. But there's a deeper issue-- a moral issue.

If I say “No Free Speech to those who would deny it to others,” that means I want to deny free speech to some people. According to my own logic, since I want to deny free speech to others, my own free speech should be denied.

See where that goes? It's like the Hatfields and McCoys. EVERYBODY is denying free speech to someone, and then-- because of that denying-- is in turn denied by others. Only the strong can say anything.

Bad/stupid/wrong speech is best countered by good/smart/right speech, not by censorship. Not by government censorship. Not by The People's® censorship.

Part three:

MAP (Mothers Against Penises) marches down Market Street in San Francisco. The women, mostly walking advertisements for Sensa, hold aloft cardboard signs showing pictures of deformed babies. One is missing its arms... just stubs at the shoulder. Another shows an almost normal baby except that in the middle of its head is one enormous eye. The babies look dead, though the enormous eye is open. Under the various pictures is the logo: IF IT WEREN'T FOR PENISES, THESE BABIES WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN TO SUFFER.

Strange? Maybe, but their logic is based on fact. For these babies to have been born, a penis was involved. Even if the mother was artificially inseminated, you need a penis to milk the semen from in the first place. Eliminate penises, and you eliminate birth defects. It's logic. It's science. It's easy, right?

Add history to logic and science and you get the atheist/materialist trinity that radical and feminist intellectuals have been praying to ever since Karl Marx gave Catherine MacKinnon her first rimjob.

I'm reading this book called Lies My Teacher Told Me. It's an alternative® to modern textbooks. The author complains that those gloss over the evils of American history. They don't mention that Thomas Jefferson had slaves... or that the British did not civilize a barren land but destroyed an already present civilization... or that people spoke Spanish in America much before they spoke English.

I've never read On the Use and Abuse of History for Life but, from the title, Nietzsche got it half right.

History itself is abuse. When books use it to gloss over the “bad parts” of American history, it's abuse. When books, like Lies My Teacher Told Me, use it to prove a point, it's abuse.

That book, for example, in an attempt to make it seem like the Civil War was fought about slavery, picks a quote from the South Carolina constitution. If it were honest, there'd be a pro-slavery quote from the Articles of Confederation. There isn't. The only mention of slaves in that document is the 3/5 voting rule... same as in the U.S. Constitution. Not much of a reason for war.

The reality? A bunch of reasons... a complex web... with the rich and corporate as the spiders.

To some, history is a series of big moves made by great men. It is presidents, generals, people whose achievements Changed the Course of History.® That too is wrong.

If I get a particularly good blowjob... one that includes my balls... that changes the course of history. My history, at least. EVERYTHING changes the course of history.

Maybe, history is a series of misdeeds and revenge, then revenge for the revenge, then revenge for the revenge for the revenge. Each time a different side wins, the winners rewrite the history, making themselves the good guys. I donno.

We can look at the past and see things from other vantage points. History is an interesting task, and it may be able to shed some light on the present. But it doesn't teach us what to do in the present. Neither does logic or science.

With free speech, the answer is not to ban it, but to provide a better alternative. With history, the answer is not to provide alternative history, but to let it go.

Penises make birth defects is logical, scientific and historical. It is also wrong.

What we need instead are absolutes... like free speech. We need some basic principles we can judge are right. Then we work from those principles. I propose the following as starters:
  1. People have the right to say whatever the fuck they want, though THE PLACE and VOLUME they say it (like during the scary part of a horror movie) can be slightly regulated. Any regulation must apply equally to everyone. Content of the speech cannot be a criterion.
  2. People do NOT have a right to riches, or money. It's the duty of the government to insure everyone has a basic level of existence: food, housing, clothes, healthcare. The government can and should do this by taking from the wealthy and giving to the poor.
  3. Other countries have other systems of government. Ours should not interfere in other systems except to allow open and unlimited entrance to people who want to leave those other systems.
  4. Consenting people have a right to do anything among themselves, as long as it doesn't physically hurt anyone outside their group.
Other suggestions are welcome. I'm sure they'll come.

ENDNOTES: [email subscribers (god@mykelboard.com) or blog viewers (mykelsblog.blogspot.com/) will get live links and a chance to post comments on the column. Your zines, Cds/records, and... er... private videos... can and should be sent to me at: Mykel Board, POB 137, Prince Street Station, New York NY 10012]


-->Sure corporate taxes are too high dept: The International Paper Company gave their CEO, John Faraci, a 75 percent pay hike in 2010. His new pay? $12.3 million. The company paid in taxes? Er... they got a $249 million refund. Good work John, you earned your pay.


-->T-shirts are speech too dept: The Lincoln Journal Star reports that officials at a Willie Nelson concert at the Nebraska State Fair told a woman she couldn't wear her Marijuana-leaf t-shirt. Why? It had a pot leaf on it.

The fair director said "this is a family event and we don't permit the promotion of illegal activity." Of course Willie Nelson himself is vocally pro-legalization of the herb.

-->Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, attacked Obama's proposal to tax the wealthy. His business took in $6.3 million last year, but he said "my profits are a fraction of that."

"By the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over." Don't you feel sorry for him? By the way, the median US household income is just under $50,000.


-->It should be obvious department: The National Coalition Against Censorship reports that the TEXAS REPUBLICAN PARTY's new platform opposes teaching "critical thinking skills." Why?

"They have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

Of course, they're right. Critical thinking DOES challenge fixed beliefs, but I think there's another reason.

Texas Republicans are afraid that if people thought critically, they'd never vote Republican (except for the 1%®).


-->Merry Xmas Nessie! dept: A religious school in Louisiana uses a textbook asserting that THE LOCH NESS MONSTER is a relative of a dinosaur... and that proves dinosaurs are alive and evolution is wrong. That school will get state funding under a new voucher plan in Lousiana. The plan will also give money to schools that teach that "apartheid preserved cultures" and “the Ku Klus Klan was an agent of reform.”


-->Police Dept. of the Year dept: The Palm Beach Post reports that a Florida cop honored in 2010 as OFFICER OF THE YEAR, was busted for selling meth for the last two years.

I say, meth, huh? No wonder he was OFFICER OF THE YEAR... a real go-getter, I bet.


-->Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you shortsless dept: WTSP.com reports that Polk County FL Sheriff Grady Judd said the county was ending their Free Underwear for Men in Jail® program. Says Judd, “If inmates want to wear underwear in jail, they can buy it, just like had-working Polk County citizens do.”

I guess he means the citizens OUT of jail, earning enough money to buy underwear. Otherwise, it's like asking a slave to pay for his own housing and food. Oh wait... that's capitalism, isn't it?


-->Remember him? Dept: According to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies, 80% of the new jobs in Texas while Rick Perry's was governor went to newly arrived immigrants. Half of those were in the country illegally. The employment rate for native-born Texans actually declined during Perry's regime.


-->Take that Bribe, please dept: There is an international organization that creates a "Corruption Perception Index."

It is a view on how "clean" different governments seem in countries around the world. Cleanest is New Zealand. At the bottom of the list, ranking # 182 is Somalia.

The U.S? Number 24. And I think the only reason America scored THAT high, was that someone paid off the survey takers.


-->Thanks dept: I want to thank the Rev Norb for the inspiration to strategically use those little Registered circled R's(®) to make several points. If those R's don't appear in this column, blame the typesetter for interfering with my free speech.
 
--Mykel Board's barely functioning homepage is www.mykelboard.com, you can also find him wasting way too much time on facebook.
 

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