Mykel Through the Looking Glass or Mykel Board's Post MRR Column no. 30

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FEEL GOOD RACISM or Mykel's Post MRR Column no. 29

So this English teacher walks into a bar. “Give me an Anchor Christmas ale,” he says to the bartender.

“We don't got no Anchor Christmas,” says the bartender.

“Then you have some,” corrects the teacher. “Two negatives make a positive.”

“So two positives make a negative?” asks the bartender.

“No,” says the English teacher, “two positives do not make a negative.”

“Yeah right,” says the bartender.

Mykel's

Post MRR Column no 29

Feel-good Racism

by Mykel Board

My prostate is killing me. It's like at the gym. You work a muscle too much... the next day: You pay in pain. You know those machines where you spread your legs against some weights to strengthen your outside thigh muscles? Then, on another machine, you press your legs together to strengthen your inside thigh muscles.

I figured I'd be much better at spreading my legs than keeping them together... like in real life. But in real GYM life, I can take more weight on the inside. What a surprise! Post-exercize, though, the inside hurts more.

My recent prostate exercise... now causing me pain... resulted from exactly the right combination of search terms in the xvideos search box: “18” “ethnic” “orgy.” BOING! Bring on the pain.

After I mop up, I flip from the PRIVATE internet window to CNN. BANG! Yet another cop-goes-free case... no charges. A 12-year old boy... just a kid... shot to death... without warning... for playing with a toy gun. #blacklivesmatter Yeah, right.

Predictably, liberals are outraged. Conservatives say “It looks like a real gun and anyway ALL LIVES MATTER.” Cleveland stays calm. Unlike in Baltimore and Ferguson, there is no price to pay for killing someone black... at least not in Cleveland.

In Texas, however, conservatives are outraged that someone kills-- or tries to kill-- a cop for “no reason” other than he's a cop. No reason? He's a cop. That's reason enough. Cops don't go to jail in America, so people use other methods. Eye-for-an-eye, ya know?

FLASH TO THEORY: It is an American cliché that business (aka FREE ENTERPRISE) is the way out of poverty. Take Steve Jobs... please. Hipsters blow an internet bubble making themselves rich... THE AMERICAN WAY. Yeah, right. These guys did not start out poor! They had money... education... computers. They did not get rich. They got RICHER.

There are only two ways for poor people... especially poor colored people... to become rich in America: Entertainment-- and its fuck-buddy, Sports: colored folks put on shows for white folks and get paid for it... paid a lot. See a rich Negro and you can bet s/he's in SHOW BIZ!

Liberals and conservatives alike complain about how sportsmen and actors make too much money! “They don't DO anything!” Unlike bankers who shift numbers in computers and steal people's savings, entertainers don't deserve what they get.

Get it? The tip of the glans peeks through the foreskin... see it?

MORE THEORY: A great debate foments among those few Americas smarter than a pig rectum. In the land of the highest prison population in the world-- the debate is about the purpose of prisons. There are three camps in the discussion:

a prison cell in Sweden

It's like a dorm room. A simple bed, bookcase, TV, some internet access. No bars on the windows... open doors... You walk in and out as you please. You could easily mistake a cell in a Swedish prison, for a dorm room at most any college campus.

Some Americans say prisons are to correct criminal behavior. People commit crimes for economic, (lack of) education, psychological, emotional, or political reasons... or simply because it's the only job they know. The purpose of prison is to eliminate those reasons. Supporters of the correctional idea want prisoners to learn skills, socialize, learn how to become integrated non-criminal members of society. In Sweden, where prisoners live better than poor people in the US... former prisoners rarely return to prison when they're released. In fact, the country has been closing prisons because they don't need them.

Despite the name correctional facilities, the U.S. prison system is a system of punishment.

Most U.S. prisoners return to prison soon after being released. The punishment system just doesn't work. Liberals (including me) believe correction is the proper function of prisons.

FLASH TO SAUDI ARABIA: A posse of cops brings a thief into the public square. Crowds jostle each other to get a view. A large table is set in the middle of the square. The cops drag the thief to the table and press hard on his shoulders until he kneels. One cop grabs a hand and stretches it along the wooden surface. Another cop takes a knife... more like a saw. GUILTY OF THEFT IN THE FIRST DEGREE!

AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEE!

The knife has sawed through the skin... the muscle... the bones... from one side to another. Viewers gasp. Off comes the hand. The man faints from the pain and loss of blood. The public takes iPhone pictures. Let people learn what will happen to them if they steal a loaf of bread... or a diamond broach. Want to eliminate crime? Make it scary to commit crime.

This second group of Americans believes that prisons should be a deterrent. The consequences should be painful and ugly... like the hands-chopped-off-for-stealing justice of Saudi Arabia. They believe the more horrible the prison conditions, the more scared the public and the fewer crimes committed. This may work in Saudi Arabia. It has not worked in the U.S. where prisoners subject to torturous conditions are released only to commit more crimes. They're caught again, subject to more torturous conditions... released again to commit more crimes... you know the story. Most conservatives, however, believe DETERRENT is the proper function of prisons. 

NOTE: The U.S. prison system has an added bonus for conservatives. Prisoners convicted of a felony lose the right to vote... forever. They can never have a say in their own political lives. In relation to the population, a much higher percentage of prisoners are Negroes... so prisons perform the additional function of keeping colored people out of voting booths.

FLASH TO AMERICA: Sammy wrote an internet message... said he was going to move to Syria to fight with ISIS... get him! He deserves punishment for talking to people who want to hurt Americans. Do something awful to him. Cut his balls off. Rioters? Put 'em in jail! Colored thieves and drug users? Lock 'em up! Conservatives love REVENGE

Bernie Madoff! Why that bastard! He took the hard earned money from hundreds of homeowners... and used it to buy a fuckin' Ferrari! Kill the guy! Cut his balls off. He deserves punishment for hurting people. Do something awful to him. Killer Cops? Put 'em in jail! Liberals love REVENGE.

Everybody believes that prisons should be a form of revenge! A biblical eye-for-an-eye. A person who commits a crime should PAY for that crime with some horrible retribution in the form of prison. You hurt me, the government (or society) will hurt you. How angry are liberals when Citibankers get off with NO JAIL TIME! No penalty... only Daddy Citibank paying their fines for them? How angry are conservatives when “welfare cheats” get no jail time... and continue to get enough money to (barely) live, even after their cheating is exposed?

This REVENGE prison is the special province of liberals when it comes to Negroes. It is the only socially (liberal society) acceptable way to be a racist.

FLASH TO LATE LAST CENTURY: What was the trial of the century? Was it Bill Clinton's impeachment trial? Was it the trial of the Chicago 7 after the 1968 Democratic Convention? Was it the Scopes evolution trial? Yeah right.

It was the Las Vegas trial of a Negro celebrity, OJ Simpson, for killing a white lady. And more than that, even though the guy was found INNOCENT... he was hounded and followed and driven until there was SOMETHING he could be jailed for. All those nice liberals, who tsk tsked the killing of an unarmed black guy in Ferguson,or a 12 year old in Cleveland, cheered when the colored football player went to jail.

The battered sports star was only trying to retrieve stolen property. He violated no one... didn't touch a soul... No violence... No one was hurt! Yet he got NINE YEARS in jail!

This is the way NBC news reported OJ's sentencing for armed robbery... really a sentencing for murder... that the blood-thirsty public didn't get earlier:

A weary and beaten-looking O.J. Simpson was put away Friday for at least nine years — and perhaps the rest of his life — for an armed robbery in a hotel room, bringing a measure of satisfaction to those who believed the football star got away with murder more than a decade ago.

Yeah, we had a colored guy... a rich colored guy... an uppity colored guy... who was accused of killing a white... very white... very pretty... girl. In the South a hundred years ago, there would have been a lynching.

In Las Vegas, the lynching was via Judge... but no less a lynching.

But wait, there's more:

Take Bill Cosby... another uppity rich colored guy. I don't know the race of his 57 accusers... my guess is it's a mix... with a lot of white girls. Of course, they smell money... that lawsuit... decades after the “fact”... will pay for a lot of retirement vacations.

In most states, the rape statute of limitations is long over. Only in Pennsylvania could they find a place for their revenge. So they went to Pennsylvania.

And how do my fellow liberals react?

“Go get him! Put him behind bars. Give him the lynching he deserves.”

Bill Clinton used power rather than Benadryl as his agent of seduction. Otherwise it was the same “crime” as Cosby's. Liberals love Clinton... think he got a raw deal in the impeachment. Get it?

Am I saying that anyone who thinks Bill Cosby should go to jail is a racist? Do I believe that those who get a not-so-secret joy from seeing the old man appear before a judge are all racist? Do I really think that O.J. Simpson was persecuted for his race rather than his crimes?

Yes! That's exactly what I think. I'll make it plainer. Bill Cosby and OJ Simpson are the acceptable face of racism. They let liberals express their inner racist without the reproach of fellow liberals.

The “victims” were women. That makes it easy. Since Birth of A Nation, it's been okay to lynch colored people if their victims are women. They're not being lynched for their race, but for their deeds, right? Yeah right.

“We can sympathize with you as long as you stay poor and helpless... just don't get uppity. Don't earn more than you deserve. Don't get rich or stick out. We gotta set some examples... like cutting hands off in public squares.”

You can see the whole crew of liberals... cheering the persecutions of Cosby and Simpson. They'll tell you how much they care. How #blacklivesmatter. Their prostates (if they have them) are as pure and white and painless as freshly fallen snow. Yeah right.

-end-

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me 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 by subscribing to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]

→ Taking Baby from a Candie dept: The Candie Foundation “is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to prevent teenage pregnancy through educational campaigns.” Their abstinence ambassador has been paid over $260,000. That ambassador is Bristol Palin, daughter of Sarah Palin. And, oh yeah, Bristol, an unmarried mom since 2008, just had her second child. And, no, she STILL isn't married.

→ Tax cuts... well okay for rich people dept: The Week Magazine reports that Republican lawmakers in Kansas have approved the largest tax increase in the state's history to close a $400 million budget deficit. The deficit was caused by the Republican's income tax cutting. The new taxes raise cigarette, and sales taxes. The new taxes will also cause the state's poorest 20% to pay 1.5% more taxes than they did in 2012. The richest will pay 1.9% less.

-->Great idea dept: Business owners in Gaspe Quebec will accept 10 and 20 dollar bills cut in half. (As 5 and 10 dollars). Since no one else accepts these half bills, the locals can ensure the money stays local and doesn't go into some nasty bank coffers somewhere in New York. The Bank of Canada says the practice is not illegal, but is, somehow, “unpatriotic.”

        I say, “Yeah! Right!”

→ Wet pantslegs dept: The city of San Francisco has begun using a special paint near bars and areas “frequented by the homeless.” The paint is piss-repellant. It splashes the yellow stream back at the streamer, soaking his socks and pants.

The problem? The REAL reason people piss in public! There is no place else to go! Instead of punishing the victim, why not build some bathrooms? Or better still, change the law... make EVERY bar bathroom, a public bathroom.

       Naw, people pissing on themselves is much more fun, right? Yeah, right.

→ Keeping the Pressure on Dept: I want to thank reader George Metesky for suggesting a continuing Bring Back Mykel effort directed at Maximum Rock'n'Roll for censoring me.

      As their revolving editrixes move on to commercial ventures, each blames her predecessors for my demise... as if they had no control over the business... and couldn't simply invite me back.

     Send your comments to mrr@maximumrocknroll.com (or post on their facebook page) with the subject line: BRING BACK MYKEL! Let me know how they answer.

-end-

The Only Good Thing or Mykel's Post-MRR Blog #28

Mykel's

Post MRR Column #28

The Only Good Thing

by Mykel Board

Imagine a country whose foundation is subjugation... a country where slaves are written into the constitution... officially “3/5 human.”

Imagine a country whose national anthem talks about bombs and rockets... where citizens trust God and not each other.

Imagine a country that holds more of the world's prison population than any other... most of the prisoners descended from slaves... Where jail terms never end... where the right to vote is permanently taken away... your debt to society can never be paid... You are always a slave.

Imagine a country whose people are so stupid that they can't find their neighboring countries on a map... where more people know the names of movie stars than scientists or philosophers... where people have more guns than passports.

Imagine a country where students aren't challenged to think. Where they're warned about “upsetting ideas” and can opt-out of learning. Where “education” has nothing to do with learning, but is only a means to a job where you work to make other people rich.

Imagine a country where the top 1% owns more than the bottom 90%... where huge, greedy corporations pay NO taxes. Where the answer to any violation of corporate interests is to kill people.

Imagine a country that defines “success” as being rich. That exports its love of money around the world, making fetishes of brand names, charging in foreign branches of its stores, a days wages for a cup of coffee... and through advertising and bribery... makes people want to pay it.

Imagine a country where the solution to EVERYTHING is WAR. Instead of looking at problems with a medical metaphor... like a wound that has to be healed... it looks at problems as THE ENEMY that has to be killed. WARS on drugs... Muslims... terrorism... hunger... even a (long ago discarded) WAR ON POVERTY.

Imagine a country that has, in this millennium, killed more people than all other countries on earth... combined. Image a country that continues to kill people, correcting past mistakes in killing people by killing other people.

What benefit could there be to such a pisshole of a country? What right would such a country have to exist? Why should the rest of the world tolerate such a gaping wound in its earthly body? Is there anything that fetid offal has to offer? Can we find one thing that hell-bent-on-world-destruction nation has done to justify its existence?

FLASH TO NOW: I'm in a 777 airplane flying from Manila to New York... via Taiwan. I've been in the plane for seven hours... with another eight to go. I can't sleep, having stupidly taken the aisle seat so there's no window to put my head against. When either of the two passengers next to me needs to take a piss... I gotta get up and move.

This is the end of my six weeks in Asia. The first four were in Japan: tightly planned... familiar... sleeping on friends' floors... couches... tours of sake breweries... a ton of drinking... a ton of innocent nakedness at public hot springs... a bit of not so innocent nakedness. Friends... familiar... comfortable... like slippers and a bathrobe.

Then there was The Philippines. I quote from my travel blog (mykelsdiary.blogspot.com)

Manila is a maze of narrow streets choked with barely moving traffic, blaring horns... people walking... hanging out... sleeping on plastic bags filled with trash.

Food stands sell Chinese pork buns or wooden sticks with your choice of pig's ear, pig's blood or pig guts. The narrow streets hold the auto exhaust of the immoveable traffic. Walking a block is like smoking a pack of cigarettes.

Every few meters, one young woman or another will smile at you... showing her braces and ask, “Hey Joe, you like me?” If you shake your head, she'll offer you her younger sister... or her daughter. My upper arm still has a bruise where a street hooker pinched me to keep me from walking away. Every few steps bring you to another encounter.

Backpacks become frontpacks here... watch your step...means a fuck of a lot more than be careful crossing the street. The heat is oppressive... a wet-heat. Your sweat mixes with the filth from the car exhausts. Simply scratching your neck leaves your fingernails black.

I love the place.

I've been sleeping on a thin mattress on the floor in Taytay, a Manila suburb. Johnny Deadbrain lives here... with his mother who barely makes a living selling ice to the neighbors out of her refrigerator.

I get the mattress. Johnny sleeps on the other side of the living room... on a cardboard box. 

The toilet, as most in this country, doesn't have a seat. You flush it by filling a plastic bucket from a cold water wall spigot and pouring the water into the toilet bowl. A plastic dipper floats in the water. It's not clear whether the dipper is used to scoop water to flush the toilet... or to scoop water to wash your ass in lieu of toilet paper. There is never any toilet paper. Whenever I buy anything in the country, I demand a receipt. That paper comes in handy.

[NOTE: A few places-- mostly high class-- have toilet paper HOLDERS built into the wall. They are for decorative purposes only. There is never any actual toilet paper in them.]

At Johnny's place, the wall spigot is also the shower and bathroom sink.

The Philippines are punk rock.

It's like New York in the 70's... when/where punkrock was born. Dangerous, mysterious, sexy, anarchistic, musical. Everybody and his father... grandfather... is a musician. Even the poorest homes have a turntable... and a collection of records that would make the Rev Norb envious.

Johnny shows me an original of the first Ramones album. From a small speaker attached to his android, comes The Ramones, GG Allin, and his own band DEADBRAINS.

Rock'n'roll came to the Philippines with American servicemen during and after World War II. Navymen wanted more than local nookie from the natives. They wanted their music.

They brought records... 78s... 45s... 33s... to these islands. Local musicians quickly learned the music to play for the sailors. It was as profitable as-- and less painful than-- an American maritime turgid sausage in their anuses.

From the songs learned from those sailors' records, the Philippines developed its own brand of rock... its own bands... its own style. Punk rock came here before anywhere else in Asia except possibly Japan.

BINGO!

That's it! The American contribution... America's ONLY contribution... its only value in the world. ROCK'N'ROLL... That great merging of cultures: black Jazz/Blues that came up the Mississippi River from New Orleans smashing smack dab into white Country music from the heartland. When Hank Williams buggers Muddy Waters... Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley are born.

That freeing, open, rockin music. That rock... that glitter... that punk... that hardcore... That rebellious, liberating, loving, aggressive force. That may be the only real gift America gave to the world... but it's a damn good one.

ENDNOTES: [You can contact me 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 by subscribing to the MYKEL'S READERS Yahoo group readmboard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]

→ It ain't music, it's a concept dept: Chuck Shephard reports that the group Matmos released their new album, "Ultimate Care II." The LP consists entirely of "music" made by an Ultimate Care II washing machine. The machine's 38-minute wash cycle was "sampled and processed." Matmos previously played canisters of helium on stage at Radio City Music Hall and a cow's uterus at the San Francisco Art Institute.

→ Tax dollars at work dept: One of the many evils of the Obama administration was the bank bailouts and lack of anybody going to the clink for the tragedy. The government claims a victory because it took in billions of dollars in fines from those banks. Same for corporate polluters like BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

Not so fast.

The New York Times reports that the money those banks and corporations paid is considered “tax deductible.” So those same corporations just listed the fines on their tax returns as a “business expense.” They paid no taxes on that money.

→ Bathe in this dept: Brandon Terry and Casey Fowler of Spartanburg South Carolina were arrested after calling 911 five times to report possums jumping out of their refrigerator and microwave, worms emerging from their floor, and midgets in camouflage. They denied any drug use, but police said it was likely "bath salts."

→ Sex & The Serviceman Dept: It probably didn't make the U.S. newspapers, but a Philippine jury convicted a U.S. sailor of murder. He strangled a prostitute and drowned her in the toilet, when he discovered she had... er... extra equipment. The Navy removed the sailor from the country before he could be sentenced. At last report, the prostitute was still dead.

→ Further Evidence Dept: The Daily Mail reports that they've seen video footage that shows Israeli commandos rescuing wounded ISIS fighters from the Syrian warzone, Many of the rescued are enemies of Israel and some may even be fighters for groups affiliated with Al Qaeda. Almost every night, Israeli troops run secret missions to save the lives of Syrian fighters, all of whom are their sworn enemies.

Clearly, toppling Assad is more important to the Israelis than fighting ISIS. No wonder that Israel-obedient Obama calls for REGIME CHANGE in Syria, while the Russians just fight ISIS.

→ Endorsements Dept: Also on the Russian front. The Washington Post reports that Vlad Putin has damn near endorsed Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency. He called The Apprentice star, “the absolute leader in the presidential race.”

In October, Trump said that he would “get along very well” with Putin and applauded the Russian president for his intervention against the Islamic State in Syria.

→Vote Jew Dept: Next year it looks pretty sure I'll be voting for a Jew in November. If, by some (from my mouth to G-d's ears) miracle, Bernie Sanders gets the Democratic nomination... I'm there. If not, I'll have a difficult choice between JILL STEIN on the Green Party, or my pal SID YIDDISH on the Lincoln-Republican party. In any case, I'll be voting Jew in November!

-->Keeping the Pressure on Dept: I want to thank reader George Metesky for suggesting a continuing Bring Back Mykel effort directed at Maximum Rock'n'Roll for censoring me.

As their revolving editrixes move on to commercial ventures, they blame their predecessors for my demise... as if they had no control over the business... and couldn't simply invite me back.

Send your comments to mrr@maximumrocknroll.com (or post on their facebook page) with the subject line: BRING BACK MYKEL! Let me know how they answer.

-end-

Frenching in Japan or Mykel's Post MRR Blog #27

[NOTE: I write this from Japan... soon to leave for The Philippines. I have a lot to say, but my schedule's been so packed, I've had little time to write. I'm uploading this without the help of my usual double proof-readers... and making this MUCH shorter than usual. In the meantime, you might enjoy my travel blog at: mykelsdiary.blogspot.com. That's more friendly-- and detailed-- than this.]

You're STILL Wrong!

Mykel's 27th post-MRR Blog

ARE WE FRENCH?

by Mykel Board

"Believe me, there's nothing like "war crimes" to perk up solidarity. --J. G. Ballard

My NO DRINKING BEFORE NOON rule has flown out the paper-covered window since I got to Japan.

“Mykel! The sake brewery opens at 8AM... tours-with-tastings start at 8:30... one at 11. Time to get up or you'll miss it.”

I struggle out of bed... actually a futon on the floor... morning wood competing with last night's food-drink orgy. Into the bathroom... high-tech toilet (washlet, a Japanese combination toilet-bidet)... seat electrically warmed... but even that high-techtitude cannot easily contain what I have to offer.

It's the mother of all beer shits... a sake shit, actually. Twin turds, thicker than my forearm... toilet blockers... like giving birth... Holy shit! brown, shaped like giant loose twin pine cones... If I could preserve them, they'd earn a place in MOMA... Art, I tell you... pure Art.

Forty pounds lighter, I push the WARM STREAM button on the toilet arm and wiggle myself to catch the wave. Wiping off the last flecks of yesterday's salmon, octopus, crab, yellowtail, and oceanic things I've never seen or heard of before... I leave the bathroom an extremely happy man.

Akiko sits in the other room, the TV on... something frantic in the voice of the announcer. Her face is in a frown... much different from the usual... Let's get Mykel plastered before breakfast expression I usually see in the morning.

“Have you heard about Paris?” she asks.

“I've been there,” I tell her. “I love the city. Some of the people are assholes, but there are also great people who live there. What do you want to know?”

“Chow chow!” she says. (Osaka dialect for NO, THAT'S WRONG!) “The attacks... terror... people dead... lots of people?”

“What? I'm in Japan... I don't do news... what attacks?”

She tells me there were gunmen... simultaneous attacks... all over Paris... lots of dead...

FIRST THOUGHTS: My friends! Are they okay? Dead? Hurt? Scared.... facebook... email... text... the are-you-okay tools of the 21^st century.

facebook has already launched a CALL-IN-SAFE page for Paris. They've made one of those stupid SOLIDARITY face masks... like in gay marriage and who knows what else..... as if looking through the French flag changes the reality of the deaths. WE ARE FRANCE? That's so wrong. THEY suffered the pain of the attacks... a French flag over your face helps about as much as a red ribbon helps a dead AIDS victim.

I send out messages... post LET ME KNOW... check on anybody in the world who MIGHT have been in Paris. Then, when there's nothing else I can do... I head out to the Sake breweries.

It's hard to get plastered than it was yesterday.

SECOND THOUGHTS: Hey France! What do you expect? You participate in mass murder... in war on innocents... on bombing and droning... and “coalition” terrorism. You make a war on people. Can you blame them for fighting back? It's a WAR goddamnit! You think it's one way? You attack and that's it? You think you can make war where YOU want? You think there are no consequence? Just pow! pow! pow! Over there!

Listen buster, YOU (and your pals in the US and Germany and England) started this. You expect people NOT to fight back.... to make it easy for you? America-- the country with the least regard for human life.. the country that has killed more people this millennium, than all others combined.... can expect it NOT to get back its own medicinal taste. France, a “coalition” partner... a Middle East terrorist... a Syria bomber... a Muslim killer... What do you expect?

I'm off to meet THE BEAR and MIWA... a trip to Tora-san land. Tora-san is NOT a version of the Hebrew bible, but a famous Japanese TV character... a bumbling salesman who chases after girls all over Japan... visits his favorite sembe shop-- and wears his coat draped over his shoulders. I'm meeting my friends at the Tora-san statue right near the Tora-san museum... in the Tora-san part of town.

I feel like the first foreigner to enter the enclave... that's the way I like it. You can see more on my adventures there by checking my picasa albums. (If you're interested, send me a note and I'll send you the link, or connect through my facebook page.)

After a great day with Tora-san and my Japanese friends, it's back “home” to check the safety of my French friends. Let's see what CNN has to say.... what the fuck?

It wasn't only Paris that was bombed. More than two score people were killed in Beirut... another big attack in Nigeria. Who knew? Facebook does not offer Nigerian or Lebanese flag coverings for your facebook picture. I guess it's because those people are not white enough... it might clash with the colors.

Then...

THIRD THOUGHTS: What the fuck? What did Lebanon do? Who did it hurt? What did it attack? And Nigeria? Fuckin' Nigeria.... the people are as innocent in the world as the US is guilty. Nothing! They've done nothing. Why attack them? It's clear that the US and its allies don't give a shit about “civilian casualties” or dropping drones on weddings... but why should ISIS-- or its allies care about Nigerians? It's crazy... a holy war against... against... I don't know.

Of course the facebook world cares about France... but we can understand fighting France, France is making war. Facebook cares about the U.S. but we can understand fighting the U.S. The U.S. is making war. But those places that facebook DOESN'T care about. Those deaths that are meaningless... not collateral casualties, but distant ignored acts of malice... of murderous death. What the fuck?

And that's where I am now. Stuck in what the fuck? Certainly not ready to come home.

-end-