FAMILY

-New Model Army, 1987

Joey puts her make-up on really well

She looks cool in the flashing lights

And all the boys gossip about the shape of her legs

On these muddled up and drunken nights

And if it's all got to end up between the sheets

She can coo like a virgin dove

But really she just doesn't want to be alone

And if you want you can call that love

M6 southbound roadside cafe on a wild wet and windy night

There's a kid in a sleeping bag huddled in a corner, trying to beg a light

He's got mum and dad tattooed on his arm

From when he thought that that would make it alright

He's got hope and fear on his young boy's face

Another innocent taken to flight, saying

Give me some place that I can go

Where I don't have to justify myself

Swimming out alone against this tide

Looking for family searching for tribe

They said go, get out, we've got our own lives to lead

Now that water is thicker than blood

And every house is divided into single flats

With their very own little welcome rug

The shopping mall it is teeming with life

Fighting for the goodies on the shelf

But there's those funny old people on the escalators

Talking to themselves, saying

Give me some place that I can go

Where I don't have to justify myself

Swimming out alone against this tide

Looking for family searching for tribe

Well I survive on my own for a while or so

Upon a whim or a bottle of wine

Just trying to make sense of these new surroundings

I only changed my name a couple of times

Please take me back Joey, I'm really sorry

Can we try to make a happy home?

But she's gone with someone else and they're starting a family

Trying for a clan of their own, so

Give me some place that I can go

Where I don't have to justify myself

Swimming out alone against this tide

Looking for family looking for tribe

When I read anything that assigns altruistic notions to the U.S. Government, or the governments of other countries, for that matter, I often find myself awake at night, thinking about corporations, their agendas and peoples' often collective and erroneous tendencies to place human characteristics within an entity that is anything but human.

I grew up hearing the buzz words 'corporate America' and 'corporate agenda.' While I had some idea what they were, I wasn't able to articulate the bad taste left in my mouth when I heard them and I noticed that often others weren't able to either.

Until I ran into an author ( Jerry Mander ) who made a few succinct statements that knocked me on my butt in one of the biggest ah-ha moments of my life.


These are the thoughts that run through my mind when I think of corporations:

A corporation is an identity (nothing more concrete) that belongs to an organization, consisting of a number of people. The people are nameless, or more to the point, interchangeable, as is the location (and the identity for that matter). The corporation receives the same legal protections that an individual does, but it does not have the same accountability that individuals have. (example: 'organization' can sue individual, individual's actions are separated from 'organization' in order to escape fault by entire company, despite individual's connection or affiliation, or even motivation)

Corporations spend a lot of money on advertising. They advertise precisely that which they wish to give the appearance of having or having more of; that which they lack (hence the need to advertise), often creating half-truths and outright lies that go largely unnoticed by the public. GE has never brought good things to life. A woman screaming about her ineffective laundry detergent has never shouted loud enough to make a washing machine burst through the roof of her house and land on the street (nor does Tide really get things that clean.. notice the 'simulation' clause). Time/Warner is not our friend and certainly doesn't believe that the term 'Rush Hour' is a misleading term. Their advertising leg decided it would be a catchy phrase that would get the attention of their target audience, the ones they think will buy their product/service. It's as simple as that. GM was never our friend, but they'd have you think so.

You're aware of this already? Funny, the advertisements seem to be working.

The Government..

Our government is a corporation. So many people either don't realize this, never take the time to think about it, have their heads buried in the sand, are unable to articulate it in these terms or simply are too indoctrinated to see it for what it really is. It is a corporation. That's the all of it. Our military is the executor of this corporation (ig-zek-yuh-ter) or (ek-si-kyoo-ter), take your pick. And it operates as a corporation. The government does business as a corporation and enjoys all the protection of a corporation without having to accept the accountability that individuals have with regard to their actions and decisions. (think of any gov scandal that's ever broken lose and how it was handled, or rather the damage control employed)

Corporations have only one mission. To grow. Expansion, forward movement, manifest destiny, whatever one wishes to call it, that's the mission. Stagnation and backward movement are the enemy. There are mouths to feed. More importantly, their are heads-of-corporations' mouths to feed. There are profits to be made, money to be gained, acquisitions, opportunities, etc. etc. etc. This is where it gets a little fuzzy for most folks..

'I doubt that the point of our government is to get bigger.'

Really? Explain the gaping hole that is our deficit. By the way, the 'deficit' is merely what we call the additional amount of money we overspend compared to what we actually have; the amount we are in debt... to ourselves. It doesn't even address the amount spent each year. The government budget and deficit are testaments to their over involvement and ever-expanding agenda. But many people just don't want to think about it, don't want to consider a problem involving numbers too big for us to wrap our heads around or are comfortable enough to swallow that song and dance about how much better our lives are with our government's assistance. (it's someone else's problem)

I sound like a Libertarian. Or maybe even a member of some mountain-side, anti-government ex-militia group..

I'm not. I declare no affiliation, save my own.

Our government makes decisions based on what's good for our government. It has nothing to do with us. We are as expendable as the students in Tienanmen square in 1989. And this isn't even necessarily about the current regime, of which approximately 70% of the nation disproves. This goes back way before them. Every decision made by the U.S. government has a money trail. We didn't enter WWII in order to liberate the Jews from concentration camps. Sorry, folks. We didn't. We entered that war at the point and time of our government's choosing and for reasons that had nothing to do with stopping the naughty little totalitarian regime. The same can be said for every war we've ever fought (outside the civil war).

Blowing off that fact is accepting the lie, that our government does make decisions based on what's good for Americans, and has a humanitarian streak to boot.

People who question the established authority of the U.S. government get quickly labeled conspiracy theorists, extremists or unpatriotic. There's so much wrong with that, I don't even know where to begin. But I do know that anyone who swallows the idea that our government is here to help us, or anyone else, for that matter, isn't seeing the government for what it is: a corporation. We can talk about what corporations should be doing until we're blue in the face, but corporations were never designed to do anything but expand and preserve themselves, so it's kind of pointless. Would be like arguing that oranges should cure malaria; robots should be nicer to people.

The president is not a king, despite how he acts and thinks (or how he's treated by his lackeys). We are not his subjects, despite how they act and think (or don't act and don't think). The president is a public servant. This country belongs to the people who live in it (*cue V for Vendetta music, I guess*). As it stands, the government is not here to help or protect us. The moment a program becomes a big money loser, they'll pull the plug on it (think: social security).

Despite what many see as a generous country with a large portion of funding being diverted to foreign aid, in fact, we're embarrassingly stingy. We're at the bottom of the barrel. The government would throw out some big number to the masses (think: advertising), like sixteen billion dollars, contributed to foreign aid. In actuality, it ends up being something like between six and ten cents per capita as compared with 33 cents in the UK, well over a dollar in Norway.. that phrase, 'we should be taking care of our own before we try to help others...' - I'll leave the ignorance of that comment alone and merely concentrate on it's falsehood. We do put ourselves before others.

I won't bore you with a lot of refs and sources, here's a simple table I lifted from infoplease.com that puts it in perspective. Most sources vary, but typically calculate foreign aid per capita and we generally find ourselves in about the same spot.. somewhere toward the bottom.




Among ourselves, as private citizens, Americans are generous. Just look at the numbers. It's our government that's stingy.

Foreign aid isn't a money making program, and therefore, receives far less of our funding. The appallingly small amount we do give is often ear marked for military spending or political leaders with agendas that suit the purpose of.. the American peop-er, government.

Government=corporation. Corporation=money. Still want to keep your head in the sand?

People who declaw cats should be declawed.

Or defingered.

People who abandon animals should be abandoned. If there's something salvageable in their souls, they'll be rescued by someone like me, as opposed to animal 'control.'

People who own guns for fun have become unhinged somewhere along the way, despite how sane they are absolutely sure they are.

People who think guns are the answer to self-defense are as much idiots as people who own them for more 'aggressive' reasons. It's all the same color in the wash.

Television is destroying us. Even the smart or moderate viewer. I'm afraid there's no such thing. We are a society unable to regulate with insight. In fact, we've become too big to be regulated at all. We swallowed the hook on technology and are being dragged effortlessly to the promise land that only exists in our heads. Our government sold us the idea that technology would make our lives easier. All it has done is speed things up.

But don't get too caught up in that tv is bad talk, surely I'm not talking about you. It's always a problem 'out there' that needs to be solved.

Living in a communal setting in Texas is a disappointing experience. The pervasive selfishness that drives most decisions by most people create an unsatisfactory living arrangement. No wonder I'm looking for a couple of acres outside the city.

Maybe I'm going to become antisocial in my older age. Meh.

People online are full of bravado, yet most folks seem so spineless in person. Where are all these big talkers in real life? A couple of them may be holed up in their boxed in lives, waiting for a moment to act out their frustrations. But most of them are just.. insincere.

I've got a good story that happened the other day.. speaking of false bravado and insincerity.. but I think I'll save it for a different forum - one that doesn't make my lip curl.

They were negative thoughts.

But they were sincere.

To say that we're kitty proud is an understatement.

After sorting through literally thousands of pictures we've taken in the last few weeks, we've reached two conclusions.

1) We clearly take too many pictures of our cats.

2) We're going to continue to take too many pictures of our cats.

So, without further gilding the lily, here are a few top picks..

Adderbury (left) and Piddle (right) sitting in a basket that was once part of a 'Thunderdome' constructed for their wandering pleasure. Clearly, it no longer fills that capacity for them..

Piddle and Adderbury share everything..

They're very close..

Really, really close!

Katie Colum is my 17 year old British Tortoise Shell. She is from England and I've had her for 14 of her 17 years. She doesn't consider herself much of a Piddle and Adderbury fan. Imagine it from her end.. she managed to outlive her younger counterparts and got the whole place (and her owner) to herself for close to a year. She loved it. Then came.. the little infiltrators. Now, suddenly, she was having to share everything and she wasn't happy about it. She's adjusting, but reluctantly. While Piddle's laid back demeanor has allowed them to come to some kind of understanding and tolerance for each other, Adderbury is a whole different story. Here are Katie and Piddle co-existing.. sort of..

More on Katie Colum shortly.. back to Piddle..

Piddle likes his comforts..

He generally does what he wants, when he wants and where ever he wants..

He's pretty much got the run of the place.. here he is, hanging out in the cat tower we're building that isn't finished yet. We're not worrying about him taking to the thing.. it's already happened..

This picture captures Piddle doing what he does best:

Begging for food.

I've tried to figure out what Piddle's thinking in this one.. there is definitely something going through his mind.. more than likely he's just being patient while I'm in his face with the camera.. any thoughts?

My two favorite pictures I've saved for last.. back to the idea of Piddle doing what he wants when and where he wants to and.. his relationship with Katie..

And my absolute favorite, captured just two nights ago..

Do I really need to add anything to this one? Heh..

It's amazing, what a few months will do for a little guy.

This is Piddle in August.

With a little milk, a lot of food and plenty of romping with (now little) sis, Adderbury, behold.. the bowl's getting smaller..

Dude is huge.

It's too bad that there are some mothers who are unable to respect the wishes of their adult children.

And I thought *my* mom had control issues.. Whew.

If mine followed me around the way Devon's does, I think I'd have to punch her.

Yeah.

That's all I have to say.

*ring*

*ring*

Hi, you've reached 512-xxx-xxxx. No one is here to take your call, so please leave us your name, phone number and a detailed message and we'll return your call as soon as possible, thanks.

*beep*

'Hi. This is Allen Sager, Chairman of the Republican Party in Travis County. Be sure to get out and vote for the republican party tomorrow at-

*click*

'Devon, the Republican party is on the phone at 7:00 pm, spamming me and reminding me to get out and vote for them tomorrow.'

'Uh huh... what was that guy's name?'

'Sager. Allen Sager.' 'Yep. Let's look him up on the-'

'Already there. Here he is. Oh, and look, honey, here's his phone number.'

*ring*

*ring*

'Good evening, this is Amanda with the Republican party.'

'Yeah. I just got spammed by the republican party during dinner. I just received an unsolicited phone call from the republican party while I was eating dinner with my family.'

'It was just a reminder call for you to get out and vote tomorrow.'

'No, it was an intrusion while I was eating dinner with my family - a pre-recorded message from Allen Sager telling me to go out and vote for the republican party. I find that reprehensible and don't appreciate it one bit.'

'Okay, what's your phone number? We'll be sure to take you off our list.'

(like they don't have it)

*click*

Isn't one of their big kicks about being better than democrats something to do with family values? Aren't they always ragging on other parties because they all lack the family values that republicans most definitely have (as evidenced in the news of late)..?

Excuse my bluntness here, but don't freaking call me during dinner on a phone number you don't have permission to call, interrupting FAMILY TIME for your pathetic (and failing) political message.. do you not SEE THE EFFING IRONY HERE?!?!?! PATHETIC.

This isn't much better than all the parents who sit around during family time at PTA meetings, talking about what's best for their kids, and all the while, the kids are where? And with whom? Yeah. Irony.


You'll not be getting my vote.

Corporations.

You're all a bunch of corporations with corporate agendas motivated by greed and personal gain - a good ol' boys club designed from the top, down to keep things as they are, despite the particular affiliation you wear on your sleeve.

I'd say the same thing to the democrats if they dared come calling in such fashion. One party isn't better than the other - it's all just a matter of displaying the sloppy spill from the current regime in order to get your five minutes up there before the next batch of boys comes along for their turn. Beh. I'm disgusted.

*grumble grumble*

Maybe Allen Sager would be so kind as to leave his bloody home phone number on his web site so I can call him directly like he did to me.

This bowl of gumbo is getting stale.

I've gotten pretty good at leaving things in the past, once they've been arrested in their proper place. Occasionally, I'll dredge something up to keep what I've learned from it active in my life.. mulling over it in search of its lessons buried within the folds of time. Looking back helps me remember where I've come from and know better where I'm going. But I know it ought not to be done often, as I'd prefer not to trip due to my inattention toward the road in front of me. That said, I looked over my shoulder this morning.

And found an old voice bleating a sob story, their own, of course. As I applied my impression of them to the meaning behind their words, I rolled my eyes in recognition of the same old story.. poor me, I'm so misunderstood, tinged with implication that they've done nothing wrong and that others are culpable. Had I not witnessed first hand, their responsibility for the hurt feelings some feel toward them, I'd have walked away with merely pity in my thoughts. But alas, it's just not that innocent, in spite of their sad words, dripping with eloquence. Maybe the better one gets at phrasing it, the better one gets at believing it. I left my two cents and pointed out the inconsistency, but I wasted my time there, as they are likely to apply their impression of me to the meaning of my words and devalue them to suit their needs in the moment. Life is funny, isn't it?

Misunderstood.. Aren't we all. We are such an inconsistent race. A constant contradiction, reshaping with every unique instance - and they're all unique. We'd give the clothes off our backs to help someone we've come to know and deem worthy of our sacrifice, yet turn a blind eye to a hurting innocent child we've never seen; a Vietnam Veteran standing on the side of the road with a sign. I'd give twenty dollars I can't afford to someone who has touched my life, but haven't gone to the unicef site with that same twenty dollars to give it to someone likely even more in need. And I wouldn't know about them, but for this damning technology that has gripped the world without so much as a whimper in protest. We talk of independence, yet see what isolationism has wrought on the world (even if we pretend not to know the true culprit). We talk of moving forward, yet here I am, stepping backward for a moment, after issuing a well-worded disclaimer that makes it okay to do so. We talk of the world needing more personal accountability, but implement laws that rob us of exactly that. What is personal about a corporation that enjoys by court of law the privelges and rights of an individual person without the responsibility and accountability that we, as individuals have? We promote a lifestyle that requires no accountability. What can you expect from words on a page? We advertise an insistence on individuality in a world where we're all the same, coupled with indifference to others' opinions, despite that the world is our mirror; our benchmark, if you will.

If you bark at the world and the world barks back - you're a dog.

I started off rolling my eyes at a sob story that lacks a few shards of truth (which sullies the entire story and person writing it) and find my thoughts turned toward something much bigger. Well, the nice thing is that each of us have our excuses all lined up in orderly fashion to account for our part (or lack thereof) in it all.

Even escapism; moving to a remote location has a down side in terms of accountability. But perhaps I can kid myself that I'm leading by example.

I've had quite a few directions take hold of my thoughts this morning... it occurred to me that I'm now keeping up a less known journal and this one with very different content. It would be one thing to double post, with perhaps a few editions to the more public of the two, but no, that would prove too easy. Instead, I continue to write more privately about the things in my life I want to remember in a few years, when Depends diapers beckon me and my girls are shaking their heads at my bumblings, etc. And when a few thoughts come to me that might prove better shared with others, I come here. I could have sworn I was out of that business, but.. oh well. I'll shut this one down if it feels anything like the last time I went through this. I've grown allergic to popularity namely due to the expectation that takes over my motivation for writing.

Topics of the morning:

A patched up argument with Devon the other night. Our communication is rock solid and we ended up laughing about it, after disecting it to death. I continue to be actively thankful for our symbiosis.

Adderbury and Piddle. Two of the cutest kittens on earth who proved last night (all night) that they aren't ready to be footloose and fancy free throughout the night. By 3:45 am, I'd had all I could take of double tail chasing and tag team scampering across my face. They were sent back to their cozy little bathroom and Devon got up with me and played a few hands of Gin Rummy and Kings Corners. Suddenly, I find myself with company during bouts of insomnia. That's love.

The line of thought I've entertained most this morning pertains to voting participation, or lack thereof, in the US. I found myself thinking back to the 'Rock the Vote' campaign launched by several celebrities (or perhaps corporations who probably got some kind of payoff for it) on MTV to motivate young people to vote. I'm not sure that it was successful in increasing our turnout. All I remember was Madonna, shocking people as usual in her naked-draped-flag pose and Lenny Kravitz looking his usual cool self in a 'Got Milk?' kind of spread.

To think that President Bush is in office because of a questionable 537 votes is mind boggling. I wandered over to the Rock the Vote site to see what they were up to these days. It's a busy site, crammed with MTV-esque bites and blurbs that frankly left me wanting to head to calmer grounds. But I stuck around and tried to find some history and instead, found myself watching clips of more famous people telling us to vote. Is a 30 second blurb from Samuel L. Jackson, speaking about the possibility of a new draft really going to bring more people out to vote? And a spread on the Dixie Chicks.. hmm, I love their candor and courage, but I'm not sure that a promotional video is going to move the masses into action, so to speak. What is this organization doing to improve the turn out, I asked myself. Sure, the Rock the Vote site is there, the slogan is established, they've got lots of big names that contribute to it looking like an extension of MTV, but what are they doing to promote the message in our communities, in our colleges? I got too lost in the site to ever find that out.

I got to thinking about things celebrities could do to really help get young people involved in voting. They could volunteer their time and presence at the voting booths. They could commit to spending the day at the beginning of the line, meeting and greeting voters as they show up to cast their ballots. Imagine the power of promoting such appearances. We could take it a step further and include people from older generations and other genres, if you will, such as political activists, actors, news anchors, athletes, artists and other known personalities who might prove a real motivating force in bringing people out on voting day. No matter how much money we throw at celebrities, it would require personal sacrifice on their part and for a much greater good. I wonder if they'd do it... I wonder if a national committee charged with bringing two well known people to every ten thousand voters could get the job done...

I wonder why my thoughts led me in this direction. I abhor discussing politics since it's become nothing more than a yes-man club of mud slingers, patting like mindeds on the back. I've always found it amusing when 'learned minds' debate which party is more in touch with the 'common' people. The fact is, neither of them are. And the best way to prove it is to put a common person smack in the middle of one of their discussions. Rather than go about educating such a person, or helping them along in such a discussion, they are almost always quick to rip them apart if they do not come in already agreeing with them, and this includes the hardcore liberals who pride themselves on their openmindedness. Beh.