I am not who I think I am or is I whom?

U.C. Davis pepper spray cop occupies art history - The Washington Post

2011-11-24T09:21:00.000-05:00

U.C. Davis pepper spray cop occupies art history - The Washington Post

Constitutional Progressives

2011-09-20T17:54:00.000-04:00

Constitutional Progressives

Texas executions: the most controversial cases | World news | guardian.co.uk

2011-09-16T10:48:00.000-04:00

Texas executions: the most controversial cases | World news | guardian.co.uk

I AM NOT NOR HAVE I EVER BEEN (9/11)

2011-09-11T00:25:00.000-04:00

I AM NOT NOR HAVE I EVER BEEN

Now (more or less)

This cell is torrid and moist, like the city
in which I’ve resided,
the air fatal
with the disease of fear.

I lie flat on bones, staring at holes in the sky,
hard as a ceiling;
let my prison gown rise to expose my withered orchid.
The guards stare, salivate.
I am so chilled with fever, I tremble;
so petrified I turn into an angry stone.

This is a cave. No, this is my city.
No, this is my tomb.

My city burned and I saw edifices disappear, smelled toxic death.
Even the cats wheezed. The day was a stunning Miro blue, clean as
a new sheet, loud with one collective black sigh, the gasp of millions.
As always, the foreign cities were aflame, fields cluttered with mines,
like our minds and hearts.

We lined up at hospitals, waiting to give our blood to the dead.
There was nothing else we could do.
For months, flyers posted on the storefronts displayed faces of the
dead. We could still smell them. Have you seen Marie, George, Michel,
Ali? I memorized their faces. They come to me in nightmares, asking
why? We could do nothing.

I will do anything to escape. Well, almost.

Flashbacks?

When they brought me to this city it was dark; I could not see
through the black hood. But they forgot to put cotton in my
ears and plug my nose, so I know I was brought to a camp by
a sea or bay, could smell sea, hear waves. Camp --- oh, such
a droll name, reminds me of summers in the Catskills when
I was a child. There I was, gender delicate, so privileged to undergo
summers of fun fun fun with the innocent sadists, those
budding authoritarians in their early twenties, the counselors;
and the kiddies like Tiny Tina, the little curled girls with their
hierarchies of popularity. So I can drink in the smell of girlish
talcum powder in my dreams, revive the Hallmark moments of
childhood: strawberry lipstick, pink pantaloons, finished basements,
and birthday parties on yachts. We Americans have so
many accessories, don’t we; what a bore.

I remember Tiny Tina and Lucky Lulu and the rest of the
flock, age 12. They tied the big, strange, quiet one to the bed,
stripped her, showered her with milk and talcum powder,
poked at her tender, chubby spots, tittered: ominous, girlish
giggles. Too stunned to weep, the strange one covered her eyes
with her hands. I learned later that her uncle had raped her.
Repeatedly.

I think it was a camp on a bay. But it could be this city, here
wherever I am.

As I was Saying

I am not nor have I ever been. But that’s wrong. There’s no
neither for the nor, no either for the or – simply no choice,
either ho or hum. I am not and I have never been. I am God’s
little acre, passive soil. I dare you to cultivate me: come on,
come on! The bloody rain is falling.
Whether I’m in a camp or a city makes no difference. I could
be diving in Belize. It is all the same in my cave.
But I’ll try anything to crawl my way out of here.
I will convince you:

I HAVE NEVER BEEN AN EXISTENTIALIST

That is why I’m here, isn’t it? I swear to God never. I am ruled by white
candles, moved by divine destiny. I pledge allegiance to God, the all
merciful, the All. I fi ght for prayers all over the place, vocal prayers in
schools, banks, restaurants, libraries.

My God is sweet, despite the sin of my birth, nearly an abortion, but the
doctor erred. She’d received a call from her father and missed with the
scalpel. My mother nearly bled to death. And so I’m on this planet but
for His Grace, quite the Miracle, my mother said quite frequently, handing
me the sponge-mop, Walmart special. There were so many things to
clean; there are always so many dirty things. A woman’s work is never
done. The hungry angler arises hours before dawn, before the early bird
begins to catch worms. The rapacious angler catches tiny fish amongst
the trophies, fish with mouths that won’t close, like the accused in monolithic
Mafia trials. Of course, to be fair, fi sh mouths can’t close with all the
shit in the oceans. But who gives a shit, anyway?

No no, I have never been an existentialist, heavens forbid. Never ever
even when I had a lover who placed his hand over my mouth so I
wouldn’t utter a sound when I came. When I came, I said thank the Lord
thank the Lord. He –the lover– was an evil existentialist. He wouldn’t let
me say it.

I can’t possibly make anything happen, but I will try, clandestinely, give
it the old college try, hehe, but nothing upsetting or revolutionary, you
understand. Don’t tell them, they’ll misinterpret. Always good to keep
one’s mouth shut. Forget I said this. Better safe than sorry, have faith in
the Lord.

My god is sweet. He’s capitol! And capital! How about yours?

I HAVE NEVER BEEN A COMMUNIST

After hours of interrogation, I have nothing to confess, although
it’s possible I have no memories left. Please believe me. I have no
politics.

I’ve always loved foie gras, Grey Goose, Gucci Puccis, blue fox
coats, fancy dishwashers, diamonds, and white limos as sleek as
Arabian horses. I am not ashamed.
Even when daddy lost his big job and threw himself out, I loved
the burgundy leather sofa and that ivory statuette of Cupid with
the lampshade hat. I loved so many things in that house I stayed
there much too long. I suppose I wanted more and more and more
– more childhood, more gifts at Christmas, more champagne
and caviar, you know the scoop. They teach you to want. Wanting
is an art. How could I know that my father was suffi cient? Give me
his voice, the lullabies he sang, the adoration in his eyes. I want so
much to go back, sentimental fool that I am. He is dead.
Of course, I was never a Communist. Mother never let me share
my toys. I never give anything away. I can’t live without that Prada
purse. They all have Prada purses.

Mother died in that house. She said the locks were broken; she
couldn’t possibly open the doors. They found her in bed with the
family gems scattered all over the bedclothes, sparkling like babies’
tears. Most of them were fake, it turned out. It usually happens
that way.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A LOYAL TEAM PLAYER

I tell you I swear I will not make waves, never made them. Those who
accuse me are lying.

Proof:

Exhibit A
When M ravaged P in the ladies room, I was hiding in a stall and
heard everything.
When P begged me to testify I said no, what are you thinking?
I support the company. My testimony would hurt the company. M is not
expendable; you are, I said. I said Sorry, life is tough, gotta take the bad
with the good tomorrow is another day forget about it, life is short, gotta
catch the worm catch the worm, bye and may God be with you.

Exhibit B
When the important news reporter wanted to interview me about
financial discrepancies in the company’s auditing reports, I said B &
Y are squeaky clean how can you suggest otherwise. Can you prove
that B and Y are in hiding somewhere in South America? No, you can’t,
I said the phone records have been cooked by the liberals, goodbye no
further comments.

Exhibit C
When G & G could no longer sublet their apartment because of my
co-ops’s new policy, they appealed to me, unemployed and broke,
they claimed. I’m a good citizen, on the board, president
for 16 years, a no nonsense type of person. One must take control
to defend one’s property; one must be decisive. So the residents always
elect me and I have my obligations. Accordingly, I said no
way to G & G, we can’t have transients living here, have to control
the comings and goings, too bad for you can always sell. There’s a
real estate agent on our Board, you know. While we sympathize, we
can’t possibly make an exception, when in Rome do as the Romans do
make haste while the sun shines redo your resumes, tough luck. I am
protecting my investment, mine all mine. I shall not waver. No
exceptions.

Exhibit D
When they started coming for the foreigners, I closed my curtains.
My neighbors and I shut our doors. We refused the children.
They were crying. It was not for us to decide what was best for
the community. We spoke in whispers and cooked big chickens.
We played Frank Sinatra to snuff the irritating sound of the
gunshots and wailing, wrote to our politicians to get rid of the
local porn shop.

Exhibit E
When Billy said I want to fight for democracy, I didn’t think I’d
be staring at a face without eyes, six months later. I said this is
our team and you are right the President said so. Make us proud,
Billy. Make us safe. I knew my duty. It is a mother’s lot to sacrifice
everything for her children, and her children’s lot to defend their
mothers from savages. That is what I know. That is what I was
taught.

We go about our routines, as usual, but we know they are coming and
there is nothing we can do. Our skin is bound so tight we are suffocating.
We sigh. We gasp. We close our eyes, rely on our faith.
We do.

Fox Doctors Hoffa Speech To Fabricate Call For Violence | Media Matters for America

2011-09-07T20:49:00.000-04:00

well, i'm SO surprised! aren't you?

Fox Doctors Hoffa Speech To Fabricate Call For Violence | Media Matters for America

Regulations, taxes aren't killing small business, owners say | McClatchy

2011-09-05T21:27:00.000-04:00

For whatever in denial Republican friends I have left:

Regulations, taxes aren't killing small business, owners say | McClatchy

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout

2011-09-05T18:27:00.000-04:00

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout

Asheville poet captures Sept. 11 experience in verse | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com

2011-09-04T20:30:00.001-04:00

Asheville poet captures Sept. 11 experience in verse | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com

“The GOP war on voting” in ROLLING STONE (MUST-READ—although it’s even worse than this guy thinks) :: News From Underground

2011-09-02T18:25:00.000-04:00

“The GOP war on voting” in ROLLING STONE (MUST-READ—although it’s even worse than this guy thinks) :: News From Underground

"Insurrection" in LIT magazine

2011-08-27T15:34:00.000-04:00

My satirical, apocalyptic tale, "Insurrection," may be found in LIT, in case you can find or subscribe to this literary journal from The New School.

LIT magazine

Literary Review - John Sutherland on The World of Others: From Quotations to Culture

2011-08-26T10:10:00.001-04:00

John Sutherland

SOUNDS FAMILIAR

The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture
By Gary Saul Morson (Yale University Press 352pp £20)

Academics like me are skilled users of turnitin.com. Never heard of it? Ask the nearest undergraduate and watch their cheek blanch. Turnitin is the trade's leading 'plagiarism detector'. You upload the student's essay or dissertation and it's checked against trillions of words and phrases in seconds. Irritatingly, however, Turnitin turns in a lot of zombie quotes. Say, for example, a student opens an essay thus:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Dickens, well aware that he lived in neither the best nor the worst of times, was more tolerant than his Vanityfairean rival of 'great men'. For Thackeray no man was a hero to his valet.

The detector is quite likely to claim six hits here. Should the conscientious student have appended footnotes citing Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, Ecclesiastes, John Bunyan, Carlyle, Goethe?

We think of our use of language as 'fluency'. There are, however, congealed lumps floating in it and, if we look beneath the surface, often more lumps than liquidity. Put another way, most language is pre-owned. The previous owners are, as Gary Morson instructs us, often worth knowing about. Take, for example (not one of Morson's examples), the indisputably most famous and quoted line in English literature, 'To be, or not to be, that is the question'.

Most theatregoers would think the sentence spit new. But should they also go to a performance of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus they would hear the following in the hero's magnificent opening soliloquy, in which he resolves to sell his soul: 'Bid Oncaymæon farewell, Galen come'. The Greek Oncaymæon transliterates as 'being and not being'. Where is Faustus a professor of philosophy? The University of Wittenberg. Where is Hamlet a student of philosophy? The University of - you guessed it. 'To be or not to be' is not a deeply original thought but a hackneyed sophomoric seminar topic. Hamlet is not thinking, he's quoting. ........................

(access the entire article here:

Literary Review - John Sutherland on <i>The World of Others: From Quotations to Culture</i>

CAConrad's upcoming events: poetry chapbook contest...

2011-08-24T12:54:00.000-04:00

The deadline for MadHat Press's first chapbook contest is fast approaching. Details are here on our judge's blog:

CAConrad's upcoming events: poetry chapbook contest...

Genya Turovskaya 'Back From the USSR' Feature | Mad Hatters' Review

2011-08-20T12:21:00.000-04:00

3 brilliant poems from the "Back to the USSR" feature in the current issue of Mad Hatters' Review:

Genya Turovskaya 'Back From the USSR' Feature | Mad Hatters' Review

Evangelicals Question The Existence Of Adam And Eve : NPR

2011-08-18T17:42:00.000-04:00

Evangelicals Question The Existence Of Adam And Eve : NPR

Tell Delta: Union Busting Won't Fly

2011-08-17T19:18:00.000-04:00

There aren't many choices for "reasonably" priced flights out of Asheville to major cities like NYC. Only one non-stop -- from Delta. Do we really want to travel all day to get to NYC? So Delta and not all that savory US Air have the monopoly of flights that won't cost an absurd amount of money and won't necessitate multiple stops.

So hey, we should all protest Delta's union-busting maneuvers. Those of us who rely on their service should protest in front of airports. Those of us who don't, should also protest online and off. Starting at:

Tell Delta: Union Busting Won't Fly

Editorial: If U.S. is serious about debt, there's a single-payer solution.

2011-08-15T00:39:00.000-04:00

Editorial: If U.S. is serious about debt, there's a single-payer solution.

WordPlay | Asheville FM | Community Radio

2011-08-14T13:06:00.000-04:00

CATCH PART 2 OF THE MAD HATTERS' REVIEW SHOW TODAY, 5-6PM -- Recitations of contributors' writings.

WordPlay | Asheville FM | Community Radio

Civil War: Collaboration with Jean Detheux, with music by Guthrie Lowe & Dave Nagel

2011-08-12T10:05:00.000-04:00

Civil War from Jean Detheux on Vimeo.

First collaboration with writer Carol Novack, done in 2007.
A more recent one, "Destination," is also on Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/26782140.

Music of Civil War is by Guthrie Lowe, with additional music by Dave Nagel.

Destination: My prose poem with music by Don Meyer -- made into brilliant Visual Music by Jean Detheux

2011-08-07T20:16:00.001-04:00

Destination from Jean Detheux on Vimeo.

Destination from Jean Detheux on Vimeo.

Daily Kos: Iceland's On-going Revolution

2011-08-04T21:07:00.000-04:00

A country with guts and brains that nobody talks about.

Daily Kos: Iceland's On-going Revolution

Fatal politics: Quotes for America these days of OUR LORD of the tall fairy tales: I

2011-08-03T12:32:00.002-04:00

If you lead an ass by its tail, it will drag its head backwards where you want it to go. If you don't give it water, the ass will swallow its own shit.

copy right, please, CN, 8/1/11

The 6 Biggest Lies About the U.S. Debt | | AlterNet

2011-07-31T10:22:00.000-04:00

The 6 Biggest Lies About the U.S. Debt

As Congress nears a vote on the various debt ceiling deals, let's look at the lies and misinformation that got us into this mess.

July 28, 2011 |

Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to reflect more accurate calculations.

There is one simple truth about the discussion of the looming U.S. debt crisis: it is largely a compendium of half-truths, distortions, myths and outright lies.

For example, is it true that the U.S. debt is unsustainable, which is spurring the budget-cutting fever? Far from it. While U.S. debt is at one of its highest levels ever in terms of gross domestic product, the estimated interest payments for all of 2011 on the $14.3 trillion public debt will be a mere $430 billion. This is only 18 percent more than the $364 billion paid way back in 1998, while the U.S. economy has grown nearly 30 percent since then. Rock-bottom interest rates on U.S. government debt account for the low payments today, but the practical effect is that servicing the debt as a percentage of GDP is near the lowest it’s been in decades.

Or what about hysterical headlines like “U.S. Debt Default Looms” (courtesy of NPR) unless Democrats and Republicans agree to raise the debt ceiling? They are completely untrue. Richard Wolff, professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, says, if there is no agreement by Aug. 2 to allow the U.S. Treasury to borrow more funds, then “the government instead would choose among cutbacks on various expenditures such as state and local aid, medical aid, for war, for infrastructure. It would extraordinarily unusual for a government in such a situation to attack its creditors.”

If no deal on the debt ceiling is reached this sucks for the rest of us, such as the millions depending on their portion of the $23 billion in Social Security payments scheduled for Aug. 3. A short delay would do no serious harm, but a longer delay, perhaps just a week or two, would be devastating.

For one, removing income support payments would have a major ripple effect in our consumer-based economy. Spending would drop precipitously on items like food, medicine, transportation, clothing and household goods. Peter Bratsis, a professor of Political Theory at the University of Salaford in England and a Greek-American, says his home country is a cautionary tale. Speaking from Greece, Bratsis said since the debt crisis hit last summer many people’s income have dropped up to 25 percent as wages, pensions and social welfare have been sacrificed to please the banks. As a result “Greece is in an economic depression. In Athens, on every block, you have shuttered bakeries, cafes, shoe stores, plumbers and other small businesses that are closed because either people don’t have the money to spend or are afraid to spend.”

Second, says Wolff, “The U.S. Government is one of the largest buyers, if not the largest purchaser of commodities in the world of oil, of computers, of weapons. In an already shaky global economy, the biggest buyer of goods would be making cutbacks. This would be stupefyingly dumb.” He adds that by playing chicken with the national debt, Washington has already irreparably wounded the economy. “The world depends on the U.S. economy running smoothly. A default would lead governments and companies to rethink their relation to the United States, and this has already happened.”

The point is while the dangers are rife in a delay in raising the debt ceiling the doomsday scenario of a government default on debt is not going to occur. The creditors will be kept happy and there will be no default because that is how government works in a capitalist economy. And even if the impasse dragged on, the Fed could dip into its $550 billion in reserves, including more than $400 billion in gold at current prices, to keep making debt payments.

One blatant lie is that Republicans and Democrats, the Congress and the White House are serious about reining in budget deficits to reduce the long-term debt. They are not. The Congressional Budget Office calculates that the deficit from 2011 to 2013 will be $3.5 trillion. Over the decade it will be $8.5 trillion. Now, lots of numbers are being thrown about on spending cuts over a 10-year period, but they keep dropping – the Senate Democrats are proposing $2.2 trillion in cuts and costs savings while the Republicans weigh in at $915 billion.

------- ACCESS THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE VIA THE LINK:

The 6 Biggest Lies About the U.S. Debt | | AlterNet

the short review: Carol Novack

2011-07-29T09:24:00.000-04:00

Interview and "Necessary Fiction" Review.

the short review: Carol Novack

Daily Kos: With Voter Suppression, the Right Wing Rolls Out a Dubious, Nationwide Attack on Americans

2011-07-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

Daily Kos: With Voter Suppression, the Right Wing Rolls Out a Dubious, Nationwide Attack on Americans

LITnIMAGE

2011-07-20T11:46:00.000-04:00

My flash fic, "Sophia's Secret," may be found here:

LITnIMAGE

MadHat's July Newsletter

2011-07-15T23:25:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends:

We’re going sawed off shotguns with our new Blog and getting impressive submissions to the MadHat Press poetry chapbook contest, judged by CA Conrad. So please consider submitting to either or both and spreading the word. And don’t forget to tell every poor cooped up urban dweller about MadHat’s Little Mountain Retreat (& B&B) in gorgeous Asheville, NC.

Former & Forthcoming Review & Blog Contributors & Book Reviewers:

We’re seeking book reviewers to write short reviews Review and Blog contributors’ new books for our Blog, which means that both putative reviewers and contributors with new books are invited to send requests with details/links to mhrblog@madhatarts.com. If you already have a reviewer searching for a venue, have her/him send the review to us, bearing in mind the guidelines listed on the blog. We will also publish a few reviews in our Review issues. We are not ruling out reviews of art, inventive electronic literature, et al. Query and we’ll respond.

Contributors are also invited to submit news of book publications and readings/performances. Please write “NEWS” in the subject line of your email to our blog staff and limit your descriptions to seven lines max.

And: Contributors are invited to curate MadHat/Review readings/performances/multimedia spectacles/fundraisers in their home towns. Email askalice@madhatarts.com if you want to host an event.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

If you haven’t had a chance to peruse our new, inclusive organization’s website, please do. We’re really excited about our new projects, which include the expansion of the reading series to Asheville, as well as maintaining a presence in NYC. Our Mad Hatters’ Review Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes Series will be represented in NYC at 4 pm on July 30^th at The First Annual New York Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island. Our next Asheville reading, once again at The Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, will take place on August 18^th, and I’ll be flying up to NYC in October for a Mad Hatters’ Review Editors’ Reading at our old haunt, The KGB Bar (October 27^th). All readings and performances will be posted on the blog.

Contributors Jeff Davis (Issue 12) and Lori Horvitz (Issue 13) will join me in hosting a Mad Hatters’ Review radio show this Sunday on Jeff’s Word Play series. Tune in to Asheville FM 5 – 6pm (EST USA) to hear recitations of works published in the Review.

MadHat Press is embarking on its first full-length publication, a book of poems by our wise and exceptionally prolific friend Hugh Fox. We hope to have the book out by October. It will be available for purchase via our Press page, as well as amazon.com, et al.

The expenses of preparing to open a Retreat have been an enormous strain on the bank account of the Publisher. There will also be expenses associated with the Press, the non-profit organization, and ongoing expenses to produce the Review. So once again, I’m asking for contributions, fully deductible for US tax payers. Your gift of any amount will no doubt yield beneficial Karmic consequences, as well as this Publisher’s heartfelt gratitude. We need donations to survive!

Wishing you a wonderful, relaxing season without tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, toxic spills, and nuclear fallout,

Carol Novack, Publisher

askalice madhatarts com

P.S. If you’re on Facebook, please LIKE MAD ABOUT MADHAT ARTS.

Man wins right to wear colander in license

2011-07-14T10:46:00.000-04:00

Now, here's a religion worth joining!

Man wins right to wear colander in licence

PANK Blog

2011-07-08T12:05:00.000-04:00

PANK Blog

Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack: A Review by Ethel Rohan

Carol Novack’s Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack is a quirky and remarkable collection of forty-one poetic fictions, fusions, and prose poems. This exceptional collection makes for a challenging and absorbing read. To read this book is to set out on a journey that stretches the mind and imagination in surprising and wondrous ways. The language and imagery here are both unexpected and often exquisite, as are the elements of magic and the absurd. Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack is unlike any other collection I have read and is welcome nourishment for me as a reader and writer. ...

Bill Clinton: GOP Voting Crackdown Worst Since Jim Crow | TPMDC

2011-07-07T20:12:00.000-04:00

Our poor Constitution. It's in shreds and will be a slab in the morgue of democracy very soon.

Bill Clinton: GOP Voting Crackdown Worst Since Jim Crow | TPMDC

Opening B & B/Mt Retreat for Visiting Artists, Writers, Musicians, etc

2011-07-03T10:48:00.000-04:00

Opening B & B/Mt Retreat for Visiting Artists, Writers, Musicians, etc
Asheville, NC

Special opening discounts.

Michele Bachmann and evangelicals: Can a woman really be accepted as a leader? - By Libby Copeland - Slate Magazine

2011-07-01T20:06:00.000-04:00

Michele does everything God tells her to do and obeys her husband. So what if God tells her to ban all non-Christians from the USA and arrest them in their homes? What if God tells her to bomb the Muslims? What if? A frightening thought. Ya gotta love the Repugs. Each candidate is scarier than the next.

Michele Bachmann and evangelicals: Can a woman really be accepted as a leader? - By Libby Copeland - Slate Magazine

Don't Look on the Bright Side: Pessimism, Not Magical Thinking, Is What Will Save Us | | AlterNet

2011-06-29T11:58:00.002-04:00

Precisely what I've been saying for years. Pollyanna (that blindfolded little girl) is killing our country.

"Instinct paralyzes the populace with numb plumped lips, viola hips, deals the finishing touch with its sting. No matter that rations dwindle in recession and there’s naught but figments left to bring to the picnic. The Players believe they will find the solution. It’s a cinch, really, they say, Greek chorus style: Where there’s a will . . .

Oh, yes, cock your eyebrow; cock it like a gun. Now lower it, lower it. Admit it. I am not the enemy. It is not my fault that everything will not be alright. It is not my fault you have nothing to bring but rhetoric." (from PICNIC in Exquisite Corpse, Giraffes in Hiding)

Don't Look on the Bright Side: Pessimism, Not Magical Thinking, Is What Will Save Us | | AlterNet

By Marty Kaplan, Smirking Chimp
Posted on June 28, 2011, Printed on June 29, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151454/don%27t_look_on_the_bright_side%3A_pessimism%2C_not_magical_thinking%2C_is_what_will_save_us

It gets worse. If you pay attention to the news, the prospects for the future look grim. The new normal of high unemployment and stagnant wages will likely not turn out to be just a phase. The next generations may indeed do worse than the ones before them. Thanks to the Supreme Court, big money will keep tightening its stranglehold on elections and lawmaking. Financial reform and consumer protection will never survive the onslaught of lobbyists. Reckless bankers will go on making out like bandits, and the public will always be forced to rescue them. The Internet, along with cable and wireless, will be controlled by fewer and more-powerful companies. The world will keep staggering from one economic crisis to another. We will not have the leadership and citizenship we need to kick our dependence on oil. We will not even keep up with the Kardashians.

Add your own items to the list. Whatever global threats scare you -- climate change, the Middle East, loose nukes, pandemics -- and whatever domestic issues haunt you -- failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, rising poverty, obesity -- the odds are that the honesty, discipline, resources and burden-sharing required for a happy ending will not, like Elijah, show up at our door.

Sure, there's some good news around, and there are advances ahead. Gay marriage is legal in New York, and perhaps one day the resistance to it will seem as unfathomable as the opposition to women's suffrage. Technology is growing exponentially, and today's iGizmos will doubtlessly seem like steam engines tomorrow. We will some day actually be gone from Afghanistan. Justices Scalia and Thomas will eventually retire. French fries or salami will turn out to be good for us, at least for a while. Some Wall Street slimeballs will be nailed, some good guys will win elections and some little girl will be rescued from a well.

But it would pretty much take a miracle for our intractable problems to become tractable. Without one, political polarization is not about to give way to kumbaya. Cultural coarsening is not going to reverse course. The middle class will not be resurgent; the gap between rich and poor will not start closing; the plutocrats calling the shots will not cede their power. No warning on its way to us -- no new BP, no next shooting, no future default -- will bring us to our senses about the environment, assault weapons or derivatives for any longer than it takes for the next Casey Anthony or Anthony Weiner comes along. .................. (click on link to access the rest of the article)

Vispo by Tray Drumhann | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

2011-06-28T11:09:00.000-04:00

The gems keep coming. Check out the recent creations on the Mad Hatters' Review Blog!

Vispo by Tray Drumhann | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

Brow Beat : Peter Falk, RIP

2011-06-24T21:49:00.000-04:00

A wonderful actor. Feeling so sad.

Brow Beat : Peter Falk, RIP

kaffe in katmandu // SAME AS by CAROL NOVACK at:

2011-06-23T21:48:00.000-04:00

kaffe in katmandu // SAME AS by CAROL NOVACK at:

Video by Cecelia Chapman & Friends | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

2011-06-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

Video by Cecelia Chapman & Friends | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

Dr. David Ansell — 'Life, Death And Politics' Treating Chicago's Uninsured : NPR

2011-06-16T20:34:00.000-04:00

Dr. David Ansell — 'Life, Death And Politics' Treating Chicago's Uninsured : NPR

The first time Dr. David Ansell went into the men's room at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, he immediately ran out. "It was so bad, I couldn't use it," he says. "I ran across the street and had to use the bathroom there. It was quite an introduction to my first day at County."

Ansell is now the vice president for clinical affairs and chief medical officer at Rush University Medical Center. But he began his medical career in 1978 at County, Chicago's public hospital, where he worked as an attending physician for almost two decades. His social history of the hospital, County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital, details his own time on the wards — and examines health care in America from the perspective of the uninsured.

Working at County, Ansell says, made him realize just how much the current payment system drives health care inequalities. "There's a misunderstanding that if you just go to the [emergency room], that's health care," he says. "It's not. ... And I don't think the public or politicians really understand that. I think the last health reform attempt which is being bandied about — we don't know what's going to happen — is likely to fall short with regards to equity."

County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital
By Dr. David Ansell
Hardcover, 256 pages
Academy Chicago Publishers
List price: $29.95

Read An Excerpt

Doctors Within Borders

Cook County Hospital, where Ansell worked, was a public hospital, a place that treated people with nowhere else to go. Physicians and residents who worked at County, meanwhile, were entering an environment with underfunding, mismanagement, high patient demand, safety concerns and antiquated equipment.

"I went into medicine because I wanted to help people, and when I went to medical school, I found it very disillusioning," Ansell says. "County was a place that many of us went because we believed that disease had social etiologies — the idea that disease just emanated from the individual and wasn't somehow constrained or influenced by societal factors. Going to a place like Cook County Hospital was a place where we could live those beliefs out."

Health care at County was very different from care at private or university hospitals. When Ansell first started treating patients, County had no air conditioning, poor sanitation and limited patient privacy. "The beds were lined up one after another, separated by curtains, but there was really no privacy," he says. "Patients would roll in and they'd be lined up around the walls of this one room, and the middle was lined with stretchers and wheelchairs. You were forced to take histories and examine patients under these conditions."

In 2002, a new hospital called the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital opened in Chicago, replacing Cook County. The facility provides more dignified conditions for patients. But the new facility, Ansell says, cannot compensate for social inequalities and limited access to preventive health care.

"Just yesterday I had a conversation with a physician [who] says there's a many-months wait to see the eye doctor," he says. "There are 4,000 patients waiting to get a colonoscopy. This is not a screening colonoscopy — they've got blood in their stool. ... The new hospital and the doctors and the nurses and the clinics are spectacular, [but] if you look at the whole system and you look at the outcomes we're getting ... people are going blind waiting to see the eye doctor, in a country where it doesn't have to be." ---- ( click on the link to read the rest of the article)

Some wonderful works on the new Mad Hatters' Review Blog

2011-06-14T13:38:00.000-04:00

CAConrad Interview & Video, Poetry by Howie Good, Ric Carfagna, & Larissa Shmailo, and today, a dazzling

New Vispo Video by Nico Vassilakis and James Yeary

Why Women Don't Get Caught Up in Sex Scandals - NYTimes.com

2011-06-13T23:16:00.000-04:00

Why Women Don't Get Caught Up in Sex Scandals - NYTimes.com

Mad Hatters' Review Blog | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

2011-06-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

MatHat Press Presents:

CAConrad

THE WILD AND WYRD POETRY CHAPBOOK COMPETITION

Get your manuscripts ready. Send us your 26 – 36 pages of poetic delights.

Entries will be accepted from June 15, 2011, 12:00 a.m. US E.S.T.

Each and every manuscript will be read personally by the fabulous, poetic magus CAConrad, with blindfolds on.

GUIDELINES HERE.

Our madhattrish judge, CAConrad, is the author of The Book of Frank (Wave Books, 2010), Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), and a collaboration with Frank Sherlock, The City Real & Imagined (Factory School Press, 2010). He has a new book of poetry forthcoming, A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon (Wave Books, 2012). He lives in Philadelphia and writes with his friends at PhillySound, and he is a co-founder of PACE: Poet-Activist Community Extension. Look for him here.

Click on the link to access the video excerpt from CAConrad’s mind-boggling collection, The Book of Frank.

Mad Hatters' Review Blog | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

Fieralingue Poet's Corner - Fieralingue

2011-06-10T14:37:00.000-04:00

Fieralingue Poet's Corner - Fieralingue

Anthology: 100 Thousand Poets for Change

The BRAD BLOG : The 'Judicial Insider Trading' of Justice Clarence Thomas and Wife 'Ginni'

2011-06-09T22:47:00.000-04:00

what a sick joke ... the Dems and (of course Republicans) think that Weiner should resign.

The BRAD BLOG : The 'Judicial Insider Trading' of Justice Clarence Thomas and Wife 'Ginni'

Funny Russian News Anchor Can't Keep Straight Face RE: BC Pot Marijuana Story

2011-06-03T22:34:00.000-04:00

New Website for New and Continuing Projects of MadHatArts

2011-06-02T21:28:00.001-04:00

MadHat, Inc. is a non-profit organization, registered as such in the State of North Carolina. Its mission is to encourage innovative literature and collaborations among and between writers, visual artists, composers, and film-makers. Its President/Chairman of the Board is Carol Novack. Click on the website link for details of our exciting new endeavors. Click HERE to LIKE us on facebook.

MadHat, Inc’s current projects include:

Mad Hatters’ Review, a multi-media online journal, first published by Ms. Novack in 2005, with the assistance of Managing Editor Alla Michelle Watson and our wonderful webmaestress Shirley Harshenin. The journal is currently an annual, issuing every winter. Please see its masthead for a list of current editors.

MadHat Press is launching formally with the publication of a poetry chapbook authored by the first prizewinner of a contest judged by poet CAConrad. Please access the Press via the tab for details of the contest and submission procedures; submissions will open on June 15, 2011 and end on August 31, 2011. Poet, fiction, and non-fiction writer Marc Vincenz is Managing Editor of MadHat Press.

MadHat’s Little Mountain Retreat, to be hosted/run by Carol Novack in her home overlooking The Blue Ridge Highway, fewer than 10 minutes’ drive from the gorgeous, artsy city of Asheville, North Carolina, opening this summer. Details via the Retreat tab above.

The Mad Hatters’ Review Blog features selected fictions and poetics submitted for publication. Hosted by Review editors Marc Vincenz and Susan Lewis, the Blog will also feature short book reviews/comments about contributors’ books, mini interviews of arts professionals, and other items of interest, including Review and contributors’ news and events. Access the Blog tab for information.

MadHat’s Poetry, Prose & Anything Goes Reading/Performance Series. Formerly, the series, sub nom Mad Hatters’ Review, was curated for several years by Ms. Novack at The KGB Bar in New York City. Its present, physical hub is in Asheville, NC. Related readings have been and will be held in other locations. Access upcoming events via the tab Events; the tab will take you directly to the News and Events page of The Mad Hatters' Review Blog.

Art, Perception and the Search for Intrinsic Worth.

2011-06-01T14:20:00.000-04:00

Art, Perception and the Search for Intrinsic Worth.

By my friend Jean Detheux, creator of the Giraffes in Hiding cover and many other works of art in my book.

from Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack

2011-05-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

RATIONS BULLETIN: 56th Quadrant December 19th Update

To: Qualified Consumers:
From: Agitant Erwin B. Oleander
Southwest Northeast Regiment

As you must be aware, you still can only get one of them after a minimum
month’s wait and only if you have the right credentials (Refer to
RB August 7th). You must be patient; after all, the queue’s your choice.
But of course we all realize that every patriot has to have at least one of
them, and for very good reason. No wait is too long in the service of one’s
country.

We repeat. You must have health insurance and sufficient insulation to
weather the elements. The Generals do not coddle. Emergency medical
services will not be provided. If you desire more than one of them, you
will have to apply three months in advance. There will be a thorough
background check. Choose your Region, Race and Gender and click
HERE. If you are not on the map, click THERE. You will have to choose
height, width, weight, color, gender, taste, voice, smell, texture, language,
sect, race, age, and education level. You may not get what you ask for.

All of the major quadrants have reported numerous incidents of queue
kill. Since August, the crime rate has been rising with the falling barometer.
Panic will not be tolerated. As always, exercise extreme caution.

Last week’s most grievous incidents are as follows:

Sunday: A Mr. N of XXX threw a tantrum that landed in Mme. Z’s
lap and started to bite. Mme. Z fell back loudly, upset Mr. C’s newspaper,
exposing headlines: War in Mesopotamia Begins: Untold Millions Flee.
Unreasonable reactions ensued. Thousands were shot as a reasonable precautionary
measure. Speaking in cognito, it is said that the President said
the “shocking actions” of the untold were “unpresidented.” Why would a
war in Mesopotamia upset my fellow Americans?

Tuesday: It has been alleged that one Ms. L. of BBB asked one Mrs. M of
DDD to hold her place behind Mrs. M while she slipped off to the fi eld of
the portable toilets. When Ms. L returned, Mrs. P of DDD was standing
behind Mrs. M and refused to step aside. Accusing Mrs. M of nepotistic
betrayal, Mrs. M retorted, in substance: I am not my sister’s keeper, and
you’re not my sister anyway, so fuck off. A Mr. T of FFF positioned himself
between Mrs. M and Ms. L and chided: Now, now, girls will be girls!
Whereupon Ms. L, Mrs. M, Mrs. P and seven unidentified ladies struck
Mr. T with umbrellas, causing fatal injuries. A riot ensued. The police used
reasonable force to intercede. 41 people were injured; 29 died, and several
ladies were arrested and quarantined. This incident is under investigation.
There are indications.

Thursday: An elderly man claiming to have been a senator of great renown
threw a copy of the former U.S. Constitution at General Bourbon
and his men, as they were inspecting the queue. The Constitution grazed
the General’s head; he was momentarily stunned but unharmed. His men
grabbed the elderly man and shot him on the spot. 26 bystanders were
shot, as well, as a reasonable precautionary measure. Authorities suspect
that the alleged former senator was a Mesopotamian terrorist, connected
to the Meso Soup network. He had a briefcase filled with Constitutions.
The quadrant bag inspectors were immediately arrested and quarantined,
awaiting interrogation.

Saturday: There were 88 casualties and 36 life-threatening injuries due to
slippages on ice, severe frostbite, fi stfights and assorted tantrums, the
police employing reasonable force to contain same. Extinct seal-skin snow
boots are highly recommended.

Joy of Destruction

2011-05-29T19:15:00.000-04:00

JOY OF DESTRUCTION from Xaver Xylophon on Vimeo.
together with Laura Junger

A film about the human drive to destroy and the absurd entertaining value that's attached to it.

paper collage & stop motion | KHB Weißensee 2010

http://loragearrive.free.fr
http://xaverxylophon.de

In New York, Tight Times for Court-Appointed Lawyers - NYTimes.com

2011-05-27T21:45:00.000-04:00

Tri plus billionaire Bloomberg is successfully destroying an essential component of public criminal defense in NYC. As a former assigned counsel attorney, I know that those of us who were zealous, dedicated attorneys worked long hours for little pay, while "celebrity" lawyers, nearly all males and former assistant district attorneys (who can always afford exceptionally skilled legal associates), reap/ed exhorbitant fees.

Assigned attorneys handle cases that would represent a conflict for public defender organizations and Legal Aid, eg., multiple defendant cases in which (obviously) the defenses conflict, where one accused implicants another. One of the finest of 18B attorneys, Enid K. Gerling, who died early last year, lived a modest life in a rented apartment, despite her successful, but much maligned representation of homosexual sexual offenders. While William Kunstler, a private civil rights attorney, was lauded publicly (posthumously) for championing the rights of "repugnant" defendants, Ms. Gerling died without a word of praise. There was no memorial to celebrate her years of brilliant work for indigent defendants. Nothing. I was a good friend of hers; didn't learn till recently of her death, as her heirs didn't bother to inform me, a named executor in her will.

I left that miserable, underpaid and undervalued career choice nearly 10 years ago. I'm disgusted by Bloomberg's actions. There's a strong sixth amendment case to be argued against Bloomberg. I hope that all of the appellate judges aren't in his pocket. The judicial system is no less corrupt than the other branches of government.

In New York, Tight Times for Court-Appointed Lawyers - NYTimes.com

A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR

2011-05-26T22:32:00.000-04:00

Some psychologists have a theory that many of the world's ills can be blamed on psychopaths in high places.

Why are we not surprised?

A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR

FEMA Declares Eric Cantor a Disaster Area

2011-05-25T17:12:00.000-04:00

FEMA Declares Eric Cantor a Disaster Area

Congressman Denies Funds to Self

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – One day after Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) stirred controversy by withholding funds for tornado relief, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took the extraordinary step of declaring Rep. Cantor a disaster area.

Within hours of the declaration, FEMA officials were dispatched to assess the damage to Mr. Cantor’s status as a human being capable of empathy.

“I’ve seen a lot of hurricanes and tornados, but this is something new,” said FEMA spokesman Tracy Klugian. “Rep. Cantor appears to have been caught up in a moral vacuum.”

While concerned FEMA officials looked on, the morally ravaged House Majority Leader took to the floor of the House to make the case for denying funds to repair himself.

(access the rest of this news-breaking article via the link)

Borowitz Report

Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith -- Dr. Andy Thomson

2011-05-20T10:06:00.000-04:00

Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith -- Dr. Andy Thomson from Kurt Volkan on Vimeo.
Dr. J. Anderson "Andy" Thomson discusses his new book, Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith, which provides a brief and accessible guide to the exciting new discoveries that allow us to finally understand why and how the human mind generates, accepts, and spreads religious beliefs.

Psychology Today trashes black women's beauty for press

2011-05-18T22:13:00.000-04:00

Psychology Today trashes black women's beauty for press

MadHat, Inc. : MadHat's Little Mountain Retreat (96)

2011-05-15T21:32:00.000-04:00

My Asheville, NC retreat for artists of all stripes and dots will be opening in July. Read all about it at:

MadHat, Inc. : MadHat's Little Mountain Retreat (96)

Guest Post: Eric Beeny reviews Carol Novack’s Giraffes in Hiding « BIG OTHER

2011-05-13T15:54:00.000-04:00

Another fantastic review:

Guest Post: Eric Beeny reviews Carol Novack’s Giraffes in Hiding « BIG OTHER

Huckabee Adviser: Obama is a Soviet Spy | Mother Jones

2011-05-11T23:35:00.000-04:00

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the vilest of them all?
Well, it's tough. But this one's so transparently off-the-wall and vicious, makes you wonder what planet his fans come from. All aliens. Let's see his birth certificate!

Huckabee Adviser: Obama is a Soviet Spy | Mother Jones

AP IMPACT: CEO pay exceeds pre-recession level

2011-05-07T18:16:00.000-04:00

It's time for the Repugs to shut up about their impoverished corporate bosses, don't you think?
If you haven't figured out that the USA is a corporate oligarchy, no matter who's in charge, go to your room and watch Fox.

AP IMPACT: CEO pay exceeds pre-recession level

Borowitz Report

2011-05-06T10:47:00.000-04:00

Poll: Given Choice Between Palin and Trump, Most Voters Choose Suicide

Survey Spells Trouble for GOP, Pollster Says

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – A new survey of likely voters indicates that in a hypothetical match-up between former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and billionaire Donald Trump, a majority would choose suicide over either candidate.

The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, shows Mr. Trump drawing 21%, Gov. Palin 18%, and various forms of suicide 61%.

Read on:
Borowitz Report

Now the Republican Party Wants the IRS to Audit Rape Survivors If They've Had an Abortion : Mike the Mad Biologist

2011-05-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

Now the Republican Party Wants the IRS to Audit Rape Survivors If They've Had an Abortion : Mike the Mad Biologist

Even movie villians aren't this twisted. And, no, I'm not making this up (italics mine):

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans' "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops--that is, during an audit, they'd have to determine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

................................. (access article via link)

What will happen to us? - The Boston Globe

2011-05-04T22:51:00.000-04:00

What will happen to us? - The Boston Globe

Necessary Fiction

2011-05-02T16:11:00.000-04:00

Surprise: a wonderfully insightful review of Giraffes from this very groovy journal.

Necessary Fiction

Stephen Colbert expresses his support for the Donald Trump candidacy

2011-04-26T19:45:00.002-04:00

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Picnic Game with Nudes: In honor of Earth Day

2011-04-23T13:33:00.000-04:00

INTRODUCTION

In the game “picnic,” a designated leader creates a secret rule concerning what other players may bring to a picnic. Players must attempt to guess what rule the leader (Player 1) has created in order to participate in the picnic. PICNIC, a conceptual play by the author (Player 1), is a reworking of her part (interior and exterior monologues, plus the omniscient voice) in the unfinished collaborative play, PICNIC, co-authored by four players who departed from the playing field.

PLAYER 1 BEGINS IN MEMORIAM 
It is picnic time thinking. We women are naked, men ill suited. Children are fluttering in breezes like daffodils, la dee da la di da da. Should the Players bring a hippopotamus or pantaloons, strawberry shortcake, Slivovitz or plums before they're pickled? How should we know? You ask. YOU have the information; you see we have nothing but empty hands. That is not our fault. It’s expected.

One of you whispers we are at war, awaiting orders. We cannot begin yet. Wait! Electricity is dead and the planet remains inaccessible. Ice water is everywhere, molting fast and spilling over

the rims of seas onto continents. Wait! Can we find it on Google Earth, whatever it is?

Some claim I burned with fever, or was it an effect of summertime in war? Rumor says Grandmother left the information amongst the lavender sachets in a boudoir drawer. Some time ago unknown and then soon after, inevitably, the Romanian relatives opened the grave to look inside her drawers, then, shamelessly opened her up.

Imagine delving all that way into the voluminous folds of Grandma, untying the rainbow of ribbons wrapped around her organs. Many aver she was a deity, the head of a cult somewhere in Bavaria. I come from a long line of leaders, have Grandma pride, adhere to my heritage bereft of extension cords.

There is a taped statement by a relative, a portion of a memoir, date deleted: “We were all there peering into the open coffin where Grandma lay in a gay yellow dress. The Romanians sang and snickered, shouted Dada, Dada, confusing d’s with t’s. During the opening ceremony they became so tipsy on moonshine and violin music, they lost our children. We were tipping so much over. We may have lost the information. There were so many losses during the war.”

Define information, what we'll need, you command.

I say the information is data coming from hearts and intestines and ears and asses, data from clitorises and cerebella, warthogs, potatoes, rats and solar systems. Everything inside and outside Grandma is information. Someone once said. Imagine in early summer, artichoke season, olives o lives singing swinging on vines. I say everything arrives from collective memory, emerges from selective memory.

May we bring olives? You ask. So literal you are, Player 2, so impatient, Player 3.

Remember? We proceeded to a park a field yes a field everywhere planted ourselves in that field, park, perhaps pasture, we with our voices, subject to the elements, storms of stones and broken bits of bones from falling stars, sharp spurs from asteroids. We exposed our selves to hysterical winds and loud rains.

We planted ourselves and sang a song, forget which. possibly a lullaby.

Out of the exquisite corpus of Grandma and appearing from air and cosmic gasses there could come anything, adhering from gravity or unbecoming with levity. Voila! Now arrives a donkey bearing a basket full of ashes. The burden is unbearable; in time the donkey must be returned.

The music is clangorous, as gauche as the times. There are children everywhere asking for fast food and aliens. Someone forgot nappies and nannies. Tut Tut.

PLAYER 1 BEGINS AGAIN, DOUBTING THE FIRST BEGINNING
Player 1 (I in denial they say) is already rosy in the cheeks and the champagne has not been uncorked. There are battles to be won, announcements to be made, antes to be upped, rulers to be uprooted. The stench of leftovers hangs out in the corridors. From this field on the top floor of the tallest building we see oceans coming, a putsh rising with ghoulish grace off the Asian coast afar. We will be overcome by pirates and terrorists from the outside. We must guard our own.

We must guard our pirates and terrorists!

We need information, phone taps, black lists, grenades, and torch. All we have are olives and pickles, black bread and a picnic basket. You cannot eat without the information. We cannot partake.

PLAYER 1 SAYS OBJECTION
is peeved . . . is ripping rhizomes from the field as if they were hairs on her head. Herr Doctor’s daughter states Diagnosis: Trichotillomania.

But I name it weeding the tangents, preventing the spread of malignancies, warding off maelstroms. Player 1 wants to execute Grandma's will; indeed, she must. She wants smooth gliding, gladiolas and sextets. She wants a Wagnerian style execution. The skies darken with terrified birds as the winds grow fierce. This is not a picnic.

I shout: Why does there have to be all that when there is this? You're all over the place but here, you with your I-pods, guns, and cell phones. Your world is a cell phone booth of bullet-proof glass. You can barely see your own feet! You want information, yet attempt no answers. You want free admission. You want Grandma's breast, want more and more of what she has given you. You wouldn’t get a clue if it flew into you.

In uncertain terms, you are late and sneezing at the donkey, Player 2. You must never sneeze at an enslaved beast. Shame on you, a mess with your waffling, piffling and wanting, aches and pains, tonsillitis, tinea . . . existential groans! Waffles for breakfast --made with whole-fat butter-- maketh the rectum and memory stutter. Your intestines coil about your brain like a clique of leeches. How about a colonoscopy, free of fee? You've arrived at the wrong picnic, one of the thousands full of other people's children, yet again. Perhaps a lobotomy on the house?

PLAYER 1 INTERJECTS
You are veering off the course, chasing after your own balls, Player 3. Off the course, what course? You might ask naturally, always asking yourself questions you don't understand. You are breaking o lives not bread. You are full of static. I cannot hear your voice amongst the many. I heard you ask Grandma: Is it essential to stick to a course, to go from A to B, B to C, logically? Decide for yourself -- don't bother me. Do you know how to ride a donkey? Do you know how to see? Watch the Valentine roses and beware. Their mouths open, displaying eloquent pink tongues. Flies swoon and drop, head first, into the roses. Promises promises. When will the primaries end?

In these fields of mine, Player 1 loses score of the supplicants. What does Player 3 say? I lost my hearing aide. Who is coming? No one is really here. I am looking for nourishment, as usual, so boring I am. No one has brought anything of use to the Picnic. The Players come and go. Those who drop by cough and stutter, claiming helplessness, inoculation, family crises, weddings and anniversaries. There are CEO's around. We are afraid to speak. What did you say, Player 4? Focus!

I hallucinate Players in a fog, cough from the stench from the oil refineries belching the new fuel: lard from the bodies of prisoners, the cellular energy of the putrefied dying and dead. When will the hurley-burley end?

Don't lose the evidence. Place it in baggies as if it were peanut butter sandwiches for the detainees. Continue to drown them, but keep them alive: they’ll talk sooner or later. Tell me what they say.

PLAYER 1 PONTIFICATES
Yea, these are grave times in deed and thought. The survival of the saps is a roll of the die, dying is a child’s game. Pin the head on the tail of the donkey.

Unsettled in her grave, Grandma snores in the mansion built in place of donkey dung, high on the hill overlooking the dead. In the valley, children rip daisies out of her breasts. We are all here, nitpicking in the cemetery plot, plot less amongst loose stones and mausoleums.

In a dead zone of sleep, Grandma opened up her olive eyes and removed her gown. Her body was a polluted mound of desiccated soil. She cried for water. Maggots fell from the sky.

What was your question? Player 5 queries, non-committal with his parenthetical opticals, a product of bad mom and popping, blighted fruit of unwanted pregnancy. Mother was devout, the rumor goes, so Player had to come out, ready or not, was premature. Her fault, his, fissure. Father would not tolerate the child's crawling back into the womb, disappearing into vacancies he could not see. So many empty residences beyond our selves, Player 1 ruminates. Too much real estate, too many supermarkets.

Thinks Player 1, I think: poor petrified Player 5, polishing his pistol, a person of thought not deed, persona non grata without a set number, an identity of her or his own, could be their own, unwanted bastard, name and capitol dropper, poor self image/s flatulent from a surfeit of Wagner and lard or hip hop and hops. Not to forget the media stars on play stations.

I feed my donkey sweetmeats and sour dough, shoo shoo the coughing Player 4, fly in the champagne, away you go into your pyramid, but don’t forget your Bavarian hat to ward off clogs in the arteries. Danish cheese hardens the heart, someone warns. Dutch cream, as well. I'll take my green tea dark in the comforting shade of the belladonna tree, its poisonous fruits tinkling seductively in the summer wind.

Someone always gets sick at these picnics; most complain of insects and summer. It's the foul air of war, you know, says Player 3, leaping over the fields of mines with his orange parasol, in his staccato style, pas de deuxing in the dew. Player 10 suggests Schubert. Player 10 is a delusion.

Players 2, 4, and 5 sit on Grandma's crotch with their guns, listless and afraid. They fill the churches and pray Oh merciful Lord, I have sinned. Any moment, the bird of the apocalypse is coming. A common crow arrives with a worm in its beak.

Nobody gets it. Nobody knows what to bring to break the wind, to brake it before . . . Reason and Heart have been banished to the outhouse can. PowPow paw pow, there goes Iran!

PLAYER 1 CONCLUDES TEMPO CONTRARILY
Everything is rational, the Players believe, even the number chosen for a lotto ticket when a cashier says, "Your total comes to $9.94," and that number wins; that's rational, they say I can figure it out. And this is rational, too: making babies who will make more babies. See them at it in the fields of mines.

Instinct paralyzes the populace with numb plumped lips, viola hips, deals the finishing touch with its sting. No matter that rations dwindle in recession and there’s naught but figments left to bring to the picnic. The Players believe they will find the solution. It’s a cinch, really, they say, Greek chorus style: Where there’s a will . . .

Oh, yes, cock your eyebrow; cock it like a gun. Now lower it, lower it. Admit it. I am not the enemy. It is not my fault that everything will not be alright. It is not my fault you have nothing to bring but rhetoric.

Like old money, you want the information fast and inherited. You want it, no effort. A baker’s dozen of data and you will figure it out. You will sit at the picnic table and partake of the spoils. What spoils? Whatever. I see your pouting lips trying to kiss themselves. You know you could easily end up alone with yourself, as they say Grandma once said.

You cock that eyebrow again, so coquettishly. You'd like to shoot me now, wouldn't you!

The Real American Exceptionalism « Defending the Public Good

2011-04-21T21:41:00.000-04:00

For Republican presidential candidates the phrase American Exceptionalism has taken on almost talismanic qualities. Newt Gingrich’s new book is titled, A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters. “American the Exceptional” is the title of a chapter in Sarah Palin’s book America by Heart.

And woe be to those who take issue with the phrase. 2008 Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee declares, “To deny American exceptionalism is in essence to deny the heart and soul of this nation.” 2012 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney insists, “The reorientation away from a celebration of American exceptionalism is misguided and bankrupt.”

What is this American exceptionalism Republicans so venerate? After interviewing many Republican leaders, Washington Post Reporter Karen Tumulty concludes it is the belief that America “is inherently superior to the world’s other nations”. It is a widely held belief. Indeed, most Americans believe our superiority is not only inherent but divinely ordained. A survey by the Public Religious Research Institute and the Brookings Institution found that 58 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “God has granted America a special role in human history.”

Let me make it clear at the outset. I too believe in American exceptionalism, although I don’t think God has anything to do with it. But I suspect my perspective will find little favor among Republicans in general and Tea Party members in particular. For I believe that America is exceptional in the advantages we’ve had over other nations, not what we’ve done with those advantages.

Indeed, to me there are two American exceptionalisms. One is the exceptionally favorable circumstances the United States found itself in at its founding and over its first 200 years. The second is the exceptional way in which we have squandered those advantages, in the process creating a value system singularly antagonistic to the changes needed when those advantages disappeared.

Access the rest of the article at: The Real American Exceptionalism « Defending the Public Good

Damning New Study: Eco Bulbs Cause Cancer

2011-04-20T22:36:00.000-04:00

Damning New Study: Eco Bulbs Cause Cancer
Americans will be forced to use CFLs that contain poisonous carcinogens after government ban on traditional light bulb begins to take effect in January

Thanks, Bush Baby! You must have friends in the industry. Duh, dummie! You're killing your progeny. And aren't we all the dupes of the corporate oligarchy yet again. So many ways to die. Let us count the ways.

Yes, the Latest Right-Wing Paean to Sociopath Ayn Rand Is Really, Really Awful | | AlterNet

2011-04-19T17:28:00.000-04:00

Yes, the Latest Right-Wing Paean to Sociopath Ayn Rand Is Really, Really Awful | | AlterNet

& so are the sociopathoillogical ravings & rants of Rand Paul. Coincidence?

Robots of the R&D Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems, Computer Science Department Happy Passover Wishes

2011-04-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

Leading atheist publishes secular Bible – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

2011-04-18T21:42:00.000-04:00

Leading atheist publishes secular Bible – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Tea Party Jesus: Koch's Americans For Prosperity Sidles Up to Religious Right for 2012 Campaign | | AlterNet

2011-04-17T20:42:00.000-04:00

Surprise, surprise!

David Koch's key operative, Tim Phillips, is moving to merge the religious right with the Tea Party movement -- just in time for the presidential race.

April 15, 2011 |

TAKE ACTION

Petitions by Change.org|Get Widget|Start a Petition �

Jesus, it seems, is a fiscal conservative. Make that a tax-cut-loving, labor-union-busting, supply-side fiscal conservative. How else to explain the presence of Tim Phillips, president of the Koch-funded Tea Party astroturf group, Americans for Prosperity, as a presenter at the Awakening conference sponsored by the religious-right group, Freedom Federation?

Now effectively in the employ of the libertarian David Koch, who founded Americans for Prosperity and chairs the board of its foundation, Phillips has deep ties to the evangelical Right, most notably with Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, who now heads a new entity, the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Reed and Phillips go way back; the two were partners in Century Strategies, the political consulting group through which Reed played a role in the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal. Now, it seems Phillips is partnered with Reed and other Religious Right leaders in a much greater conquest: a merger of the Religious Right and the ostensibly secular Tea Party movement to create an electoral juggernaut that will determine the outcome of the 2012 Republican presidential primary. ........ (read on)

Tea Party Jesus: Koch's Americans For Prosperity Sidles Up to Religious Right for 2012 Campaign | | AlterNet

Hedge Fund Gamblers Earn the Same In One Hour As a Middle-Class Household Makes In Over 47 Years | Economy | AlterNet

2011-04-16T10:26:00.000-04:00

Hedge Fund Gamblers Earn the Same In One Hour As a Middle-Class Household Makes In Over 47 Years | Economy | AlterNet
By Les Leopold

How do they make so much money? Where does it come from? How can hedge fund firms with fewer than 100 employees make as much profit as firms with thousands of employees?

April 11, 2011 |

We live in a very, very rich country. Yet we seem to be utterly consumed by a collective hysteria that we’re about to go broke. Historians are certain to look back at this period and wonder why the richest country in history consumed itself in a struggle over how many teachers to fire.

How rich are we? ..........

GOP Shock Doctrine: What Gov't Shutdown And Other GOP Assaults on Democracy Are Really All About | | AlterNet

2011-04-07T21:44:00.001-04:00

GOP Shock Doctrine: What Gov't Shutdown And Other GOP Assaults on Democracy Are Really All About | | AlterNet

"Like the Right's assault on public sector workers, none of this has anything to do with the budget." (As if you knowledgeable folks didn't realize this.)

OpEdNews - Article: Is the Demise of the Tea Party Near?

2011-04-05T17:50:00.000-04:00

Well, duh, Americans. Medicare's on the way out and the government's about to shut down. The half-brained Tea Party reps and sens and assorted homicidal Republicans, plus liver-bellied, corporate, blue-dog Democrats, along with our reversible leader (just like a mattress you can turn over) are making mincemeat of the middle and poor classes, not to mention that once venerated doc, the Constitution (remember the Guantanemo). Yeah, those of us with half a brain know, as I always say, and if you want to leave detritus on my blog, good luck, as always -- I'll flush it down the toilet. This plus the drastic climatic ups and downs are killing us and it may be too late, suckers.

OpEdNews - Article: Is the Demise of the Tea Party Near?

The Last Word - Which Rep. needs a civics lesson?

2011-03-30T21:12:00.000-04:00

The Last Word - Which Rep. needs a civics lesson?

Cheap Flights with Subtitles!

2011-03-30T21:10:00.000-04:00

madhat tip to Rae Desmond Jones for the find!

Trump 2012

2011-03-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Back in Black - Trump 2012

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

The Lighter Side: Five Lessons from AWP (Or, Why We Hate Poetry Readings) - the editors - Contemporary Poetry Review | Contemporary Poetry Review

2011-03-23T10:39:00.000-04:00

The Lighter Side: Five Lessons from AWP (Or, Why We Hate Poetry Readings) - the editors - Contemporary Poetry Review | Contemporary Poetry Review

Nuclear power report: 14 'near misses' at US plants due to 'lax oversight' - CSMonitor.com

2011-03-20T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to resolve known safety problems, leading to 14 'near-misses' in US nuclear power plants in 2009 and 2010, according to a new report from a nuclear watchdog group.

This 2005 file photo shows two then-active cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pa., located on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna River. Exactly 31 years after the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, on March 28, 2010, the HB Robinson nuclear plant in South Carolina experienced electrical failure that led to a 'near-miss' accident.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Nuclear power report: 14 'near misses' at US plants due to 'lax oversight' - CSMonitor.com

Frog orchestra spring tuning Asheville NC

2011-03-19T00:48:00.000-04:00

James Goodale Esq on the USA's Persecution of Assange

2011-03-15T20:22:00.000-04:00

Anyone offering a huge discount for a one-way spaceship trip out of this planet?

James Goodale Biography

‘Monkfish’ by Carol Novack « Whale Sound

2011-03-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

Nic Sebastian, in her melodious, British voice, reads the third part of my poem/flash/poem, "Fish Triptych."

‘Monkfish’ by Carol Novack « Whale Sound

The latest review of Giraffes - from unlikelystories

2011-03-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

By Gabriel Ricard

The full title for Carol Novack’s latest is Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack. That seems fair. The book establishes the concept of a mythical memoir at the preface and builds on that reputation from there. It’s not an accident that the preface features quotes from both M.C. Escher and Lewis Carroll. Including herself in their company is meant to set the tone before the first actual piece in the book. This isn’t merely a random collection of pieces with no rhyme or reason behind their inclusion and order of appearance. Those quotes are not there simply for the sake of being there. Everything in this book is very structured and very attentive to the discipline of organizing and controlling the surreal. It just might not seem that way once you’re pulled into Novack’s weird, compelling prose. Every aspect of this book comes out an eye for creativity that is not merely limited to the writing. It can be found all throughout its form and even within the general layout. Should it turn out that Novack had her approach to this collection figured out from day one; it would hardly be a surprise. Giraffes in Hiding has the face of something whose creator never doubted for a second how it would all come together and look at the end of the day. That’s impressive enough.

However it doesn’t end at just impressive enough. You’re going to be absorbed by the sheer volume of the visual shock and awe moving through each and every piece. It might be in the very first offering, “Minnows”. This story drops us right in the middle of Novack’s thoughts and then leaves us to fend for ourselves. One could even say she does this a little faster than we’re probably used to. No complaints there. Sometimes it’s not enough to just have a really good story to tell. Often enough it might take a little more. Novack has an instinctual understanding of this, and there’s no doubt that she makes the most of however long she has your attention. “Minnow” might be the one to grab you. It’s a fantastic, strange bit of prose that easily stands on its own. Then again “She Was a Dancer, He Was a Canadian Mountie” might be the one that sinks its teeth into you the hardest. It’s a gorgeous mediation on passion and the kind of love that crushes your chest from the inside in the best way possible. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself reading that one at least two or three times. Or you might only read it once, move breathlessly through the onslaught of sights and sounds in the other pieces and stop cold at “9 Foibles about a Woman from The Left Bank of Limerick”. Nothing ever remains the same for very long in Novack’s literary world. That’s a constant throughout Giraffes in Hiding. This piece in particular is like a voice that’s so unique and startling that it can only break through a whirlwind of a dozen conversations and photographs coming at you all at once.

That might be the one you find yourself revisiting over and over again. Or maybe the whole book will elicit that reaction. It’s possible. Endless potential is the heart of Giraffes in Hiding. It’s the common theme of every story, of the book’s constantly changing landscape and even within the gorgeous, varied artwork provided by artists from every corner of the creative universe. The hope of this collection is that you can leave everything at the door and just see what happens when someone else is pointing out the landmarks. That hope is easily realized by the end. Novak stands at the forefront of that insight. When it’s all over she proves herself capable of being creative at so much more than just telling a good story.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 11:24 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Unlikely 2.0

Asheville FM Wordplay Interview & Reading of Works on August 1, 2010

2011-02-22T14:43:00.000-05:00

Jeff Davis, the host of the show Wordplay, has given me the permanent link to the first part of my August feature. To hear the show, click on the green title.

A book to keep you in/sane: Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack | Smash Cake Magazine

2011-02-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

The sweetest birthday gift a writer could ever want.

Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack
A review by Marcus Speh

Dear friends, I’ve been to a few places carrying this book of stories. At each site, I opened the book and found an excerpt that perfectly suited the environment and my mood.

For example, I visited a hobo camp near Vladivostok in Russia. The camp was full of shadows of dead hobos. It lifted my mood because they were all smiling. I read to these ghosts from “A Tourist in Siberia”:

.
In Siberia, the trains are exhausted from the smells of potatoes, onions and sots; and they are never fast enough. Frigid air leaks through the floor reaching for flesh, like knives. The passengers ache for the end of the line. Even those who disembark along the way gaze wistfully at the departing trains. They wait at the stations in suspended animation. What are the awaiting? Reindeer? Uncles? Camels? Nothing is comfortable, neither in nor out. Nobody really hopes for comfort in this terrain. Well, one does, but it’s not expected, even at the terminal. Others would laugh at the concept; well, others always laugh.

I also read parts of this book to my wife who instantly started painting after being blocked for months. This shows that the book is more than a book, it’s a guide to the right side of the brain, a corpus callosum of creativity, a bridge from the dreadful drought to the land of the dead and back. It’ll change you if you like. Here is what I read to my wife from “The Architect’s Play”:

The otiose man is in one of his moods. This morning he awakened with another red mole on his nose. He says the moles are taking over his nose and blames it on poisonous lunar fumes. The moles on the moon on the moon, the jester sings out of tune. That is not funny! says the man. He wants a spire on his tower, an acute scimitar of a spire to spear passing swans. He wants swans for his little Dovey.
[...]
The architect will spare no sense. He will create a ladder to curve like a swan’s neck bending into the sea. There will be a yellow gondola at the bottom of the ladder, a gondola to bear them to Tuvalu.

I looked up “lunar fumes”. The moon doesn’t have an atmosphere though. This book, however, does. It even smells like a good book. I also looked up “Tuvalu”. It’s a Polynesian island. Without wanting to go off on a tangent: I’d like to go there. With this book. And if I don’t get to go there, a little like you, at least not right now and perhaps never, this book can be a gondola to get you there at least some of the way.

But I do digress. This is regrettable but if you owned this book as I do, if you bought it, you’d also be prone to tangents and digressions: the book does this to you. It is all over the place, in a good, brainwave-like way.

The book has quotes, too, one by Lily Tomlin and another by Gertrude Stein – two chicks that I really dig, for different reasons of course. And men! There’re also quotes by Woody Allen and by Roger Penrose (admittedly not the manliest of men but we must accept it). The book also has illustrations that don’t look like illustrations. Let me explain: I loathe illustrations. I was introduced to them when I read Balzac’s La Comédie humaine – with engravings by Gustave Doré. I loved the drawings but I felt they took something away from the text much like a movie, no matter how good, takes away from a book it is based on. The illustrations in Giraffes in Hiding aren’t illustrations, though. They were created by fourteen different artists and they are a book of their own inside the book. If anything, they focus the author’s intention.

I live in Berlin where it snows all the time now. So I took the book to the Reichstag and walked up the spire, created by Sir Norman Foster, on top of the building. People followed me with their eyes. They seemed hungry for stories and I was glad I had the book with me. There were many children and I felt a story with animals might be best. At the end of the path, overlooking the city in all its white winter splendor, I opened the book and, thinking of an abandoned space station, I read this out loud from “Blah Blah”:

Nobody knows why the manatee hurled itself headlong off the curb into the oncoming traffic. Officially, the Secret Police don’t know, though of course one never can tell with them. Obviously, I stopped short the instant I noticed the animal, but I couldn’t help tossing the tee into the sky, and when the poor creature fell, it was mangled and inedible. Actually, I recognized it immediately as a mutant side effect of oil spill; its eyes were lopsided and one ear was missing. And you could taste the oil in the air, feel it seeping through the intricate loop-ah-dee-loops of your cerebrella if you hadn’t been lobotomized.

The faces of the parents told me that most of these parents did not like me reading this to their children. Perhaps they did not wish to hear about oil spills? Only the men of the Secret Police which was present of course, smiled and clapped.

Lastly, I traveled to India to comfort a woman who had had quintuplets. She was desperate. I read this to her from the story “What should I do with the babies” because it seemed suitable:

The babies are in the wash. Where else could I put them? Never mind you, now without teeth, memory all over the place, nothing to tell me. Just know I must feed the laboring men. They will come after they’ve herded the animals into barns, pens and stables; they will come stomping in boots like rocks and sit around this table here, tipsy from hunger, wanting moonshine, my breast, waiting to be fed.

and later in the same story:

People say lots of things. If you listen to them you’ll stay under the table with the dogs. Best to put your hands over your ears, I say.

This is a clear sign that there is a lot more in this book than just a book. It might keep you sane. Or it might drive you insane, it really depends where you’re at. But you need to get it to find out.
Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (September 2010) is available from Spuyten Duyvil Press or from Amazon, ISBN 978-1933132839. Novack is also the publisher and editor of Mad Hatters’ Review.

A book to keep you in/sane: Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack | Smash Cake Magazine

CAROL NOVACK Unanswered Love Letters | Mad Hatters' Review Columns

2011-02-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

CAROL NOVACK Unanswered Love Letters | Mad Hatters' Review Columns

Hard Lessons from the HuffPost Sale

2011-02-13T01:11:00.000-05:00

Hard Lessons from the HuffPost Sale

giraffes in hiding

2011-02-11T13:12:00.000-05:00

New review of "Giraffes in Hiding," but note, please, that I don't write "magic realism." I employ surrealism, irrealism, and magic realism only as metaphorical devices.

giraffes

ISSUE 12 OF MAD HATTERS' REVIEW IS OUT!

2011-02-08T21:27:00.000-05:00

February 8, 2011

Dear Friends of Mad Hatters’ Review:

After a very long hiatus, during which The Mad Bunkers’ Mash Issue was emerging slowly, with birthing pains, we are back as an annual and in rarer form than ever with the largest issue since our first baby scream and gurgle in March, 2005. So now we are (nearly) six, way beyond the crawling and drooling stage and quite capable of distinguishing a raven from a writing desk. Well, on second thought . . . but I digress.

Our reading period for Issue 13 will be March 1 – 31. Please see our Submission Guidelines if you want to submit! Just bear in mind that the Hatters aren’t cliquish. If you’re a contributor in 12, you’ll have to wait till 14, et seq.

So on to address Issue 12, aside from the glorious fictions, poems, whatnots, wit & whimsies, non-fictions, the lone drama in homage to Beckett, the texts and vispo’s by our Knock Our Socks Off contest winners, and the mind-bending artworks and music accompanying contributors’ texts. On top of all that, we are thrilled to present two features: “Moving Words,” selected offerings of electronic literature co-edited by Camille Bacos and Jeremy Hight, who will stay on with us as “new media” editors; and “Back From the USSR,” an impressively comprehensive issue in itself, packed with fictions, poems, and artworks by a bevy of crème de la crème contemporary Russians and Ukrainians, mostly in translation. Thanks so! to guest editors Alexander Cigale and Mariya Gusev.

Thanks also to our former art director, Marty Duane Ison, and the poetry editor for this issue, the talented Jefferson Hansen. Welcome poet and visual artist art director Gene Tanta, and Ann Bogle, former contributor and our book review and “creative non-fiction” editor. Ann has a new fiction and non-fiction e-book out. Gene has a new non-virtual poetry book out. Read Gene’s fascinating interview of the eccentric New Zealand-born poet and visual artist Christina Conrad. Paul Gibbons, who created some fine music for this issue, will join Steve Kane, Don Meyer, Suchoon Mo, and Paul Toth in the music department.

We’re acquiring two brand new-to-us incoming editors. Marc Vincenz will join Ann Bogle on “creative non-fiction” and poetry. Born in Hong Kong of Swiss-British descent, Marc has spent much of his life on the road. He lived in Shanghai for 10 years before moving to Iceland where he now works as a freelance journalist and literary critic. His books include Benny & the Scottish Blues, Genetic Fires, and Upholding Half the Sky, which was released by MiPOesias in 2010. Susan Lewis, a contributor of whatnots in this issue, will join Marc Lowe (also the author of a recently published book, as well as a forthcoming one) and Matthew Maxwell as a fiction editor. Why a fiction editor when Susan writes so much poetry? Opines the publisher: that’s the best kind of fiction editor!

Our columnists for this issue include the infamous and insanely prolific Tom Bradley, who’s published far too many books, and Ann Bogle, who hasn’t published enough of them. We’re pleased to welcome back the former mayor of Ashfield, N.S.W., Australia, poet and gadfly activist Rae Desmond Jones, the astute political commentator, Fatima Shanaz, Professor of political science and President of the India Peace Organization, and the satirical Richard Haber, who stirs up trouble somewhere in the American desert. Poet Jeff Davis, of Asheville, NC, discusses the work of former Black Mountain College resident, poet Charles Olson. And I, Loopdeeloopy Lala, the author of Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2010), present a bunch of unanswered love letters and a lawyer’s letter from my collection for (I hope) your amusement.

Expect news of MadHat Press’s first soft cover book: “Knock Our Socks Off: A Little Book of Curious Delights.” Marc Vincenz designed and laid out the collection of winning entries, and the book should be available soon. Also, expect news of our next contest.

Well, that’s the wrap, friends. We hope you enjoy our issue and please do let us know what you think! We’re open 24 hours 10 days a week at madhattersreview at gmail dot com, and we’re always happy to receive comments, suggestions, and donations that are tax-deductible for U.S. residents.

In dementia perpetua,

Carol Novack
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Olbermann's Disturbing Departure

2011-02-05T22:20:00.001-05:00

Olbermann's Disturbing Departure

Consortium News

By Franklin L. Johnson
February 3, 2011

Editor’s Note: When George W. Bush was at the swaggering height of his power, there were few voices in the major U.S. news media who dared to take him on, especially among the high-paid TV news personalities. One exception was MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

That is why Olbermann’s sudden ouster from his Countdown program last month was so stunning – and why it portends a less pugnacious response from American liberals to the new surge in right-wing political power, as Franklin L. Johnson notes in this guest essay:

On Friday evening, Jan. 21, after reading a short story by James Thurber, titled The Scotty Who Knew Too Much, Keith Olbermann abruptly closed his program by informing his viewers it would be his last. This out-of-the-blue exit will go down in broadcast history as one of the most bizarre.

It was no mystery Keith Theodore Olbermann had a rocky relationship with the front office of parent company NBC Universal. Often, there were signs his head was on the chopping block for some of his fiery rants which rankled the corporate sensitivities of many NBC sponsors.

Olbermann was able to defy his critics and arrogantly soldier on because he had strong support from CEO Jeff Zucker. He acknowledged Olbermann's value in growing the viewer base for MSNBC's evening news programs.

Infotainment increased briskly as cable service expanded across the nation. Olbermann played an important part in this process.

Furthermore, his opinion was an indispensable expression of liberal perspectives on current issues. And he was a bulwark against the rise of the right-wing propaganda machine known as FOX-hole news.

A terse statement on Countdown's website noted Olbermann's contract ended. It didn't say why or how.

The four-year deal for $30 million was set to expire in 2012, just after the presidential election. MSNBC thanked Mr. Olbermann for his contribution and "wished him well in his future endeavors." A comprehensive explanation was nowhere to be found. There is obviously more to this story.

The public has been left to speculate about the few facts available to draw a reasonable conclusion. Here are some bits and pieces which could be helpful in the pursuit of the truth.

It was no coincidence Olbermann was promptly sacked after the Comcast/General Electric joint venture relating to NBC Universal received final regulatory clearance. This deal also released president Jeff Zucker from his executive obligations.

With Mr. Zucker gone, Olbermann had no one in a position of power to protect him from dismissal. The very fact no further details seem to be forthcoming strongly suggests his firing was driven by office politics and/or personality clashes.

The evidence supports the view that politics rather than personality was at the heart of this incident. Keith was suspended for two days without pay in November 2010 for donating to the campaigns of three members of Congress.

He was sanctioned despite his protests he was unaware of NBC's corporate policy against such donations and he had every intention of informing his viewers about these donations, including one to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, who later became a victim of an assassination attempt in Tucson.

There are several more points worthy of consideration. The Republicans intend to wage a vicious campaign against Barack Obama during the next election cycle. They're emboldened by their seizure of the House at the polls last year and by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

That ruling, which was handed down one year to the day of Olbermann's ouster, basically nullified Buckley v. Valeo which had declared money was protected speech but set limits on its use. Citizens United opened up a Pandora's Box of unlimited corporate contributions to our political process which could ultimately destroy what's left of American democracy.

Olbermann's axing threw MSNBC's weekly schedule into serious disarray. The evening opens with Chris Matthews in his regular spot at 5 p.m. Then, he's followed by newcomer Cenk Uygur and a repeat of Chris' Hardball show.
Olbermann's flagship 8 p.m. slot is filled by Lawrence O'Donnell, an old political hand and worthy replacement with a dull delivery. However, there's a big difference between the two O's.

Rhodes scholar Rachel Maddow holds her usual slot at 9 p.m. with labor watchdog, Ed Schultz, ending the evening at 10 p.m. A close examination of this lineup suggests that Olbermann indeed was fired for political reasons.

Rachel Maddow was the heir apparent to Olbermann's cleanup batter position. A superstar in her own right, Maddow earned this promotion as a result of hard work and perseverance. Yet, the fact she was passed over for somber, sleepy Larry O'Donnell speaks loudly about how NBC and the media in general intend to cover the 2012 presidential election cycle.

Moving labor advocate Schultz from 6 to 10 p.m. further diminishes labor's impact on U.S. politics. Also, contract restrictions will probably prevent Olbermann from returning to broadcast TV until the fall at the earliest.

All of these actions are setting the stage for a virtual conservative monopoly of the U.S. national political debate going into next year's election cycle.

Keith Olbermann chose Thurber's The Scotty Who Knew Too Much very carefully. The "Who," rather than "That" or "Which," in the title personalizes the pooch. It's a clear reference to himself.

This was a subtle slap at his and our corporate overlords who reward conformity and punish rebellion. The story ends with the moral "It is better to have asked some of the questions than to know all of the answers." If we are to survive as a nation, we should fervently heed this warning.

After The Rapture Pet Care

2011-02-02T00:08:00.001-05:00

After The Rapture Pet Care

Ayn Rand Railed Against Government Benefits, But Grabbed Social Security and Medicare When She Needed Them | | AlterNet

2011-01-29T12:05:00.000-05:00

A writer I've always loathed:

January 29, 2011 |

"Ayn Rand was not only a schlock novelist, she was also the progenitor of a sweeping “moral philosophy” that justifies the privilege of the wealthy and demonizes not only the slothful, undeserving poor but the lackluster middle-classes as well.

Her books provided wide-ranging parables of "parasites," "looters" and "moochers" using the levers of government to steal the fruits of her heroes' labor. In the real world, however, Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits under the name of Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor).

As Michael Ford of Xavier University's Center for the Study of the American Dream wrote, “ 'In the end, Miss Rand was a hypocrite but she could never be faulted for failing to act in her own self-interest.' " ........

Access the rest of the article at Ayn Rand Railed Against Government Benefits, But Grabbed Social Security and Medicare When She Needed Them | | AlterNet

America's Culture of Cruelty

2011-01-24T21:31:00.000-05:00

America's Culture of Cruelty

Borowitz Report

2011-01-24T10:19:00.000-05:00

Borowitz Report

Republicans Rehearsing Grouchy Facial Expressions for State of the Union

Boehner Leads Weeklong Seminar

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – Preparing for what most political insiders agree is their most important performance of the year, congressional Republicans have spent the past week rehearsing their grouchiest facial expressions for Tuesday’s State of the Union Address.

For seven grueling days, GOP congressmen have been behind closed doors, refining their best winces, grimaces, and other sourpuss mannerisms under the tutelage of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio).

“Looking like you’ve just sucked on a lemon is harder than it seems,” said Mr. Boehner. “It doesn’t come naturally for everyone like it does for Mitch McConnell.”

Mr. Boehner has been employing a “method acting” approach with his House colleagues, urging them to imagine “the most unpleasant thing they can think of – like Keith Olbermann being back on TV.”

But given the new vogue for “civility” that has swept Washington in recent weeks, Mr. Boehner is instructing House Republicans to restrain themselves from outbursts like that of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who famously shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s congressional address in 2009.

“If you feel an outburst coming on,” Mr. Boehner told his colleagues, “I ask that you instead limit yourself to a simple, tasteful jerking-off hand gesture.”

Mr. Boehner said that while he wants his Republican members to look as grumpy a possible throughout Mr. Obama’s speech, “I want them to show him the same respect we would show to any other foreign visitor to our shores.”

Immediately following the President’s speech, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis) will give the official Republican response, followed by Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), who will give the official moron response.

Get the Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox for free here.

‘You’re going to have to shoot them in the head,’ Beck said of Democratic leaders | Raw Story

2011-01-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack

2011-01-19T10:01:00.000-05:00

The GIRAFFES want YOU because YOU want the GIRAFFES!
Here are the reviews at amazon, thus far:

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Singular, October 10, 2010

Shoshana - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Paperback)

Giraffes in Hiding is gourmet fare, full of strange new literary flavors, but, delicious. To fully enjoy it, you might want to travel a dimension or two beyond the surface plane...but, once you let yourself step into Ms. Novack's world, you'll be rewarded with rueful, hard-won wisdoms, cynical and hopeful meanderings, bright new metaphor and allusion.

In a way, this book seems multi-media, clearly it's influenced by the barrage of images and sound that are constants in 2010. The fresh takes on sibling rivalry and brutality, the impossibility and need of Love, the obstacle course of creativity, and more...make this an absorbing read. There are edgy fables and myths here, Ms. Novack writes prose poetry and is an Aesop of the 21st century.

This book demands an adventurous reader and is not for people seeking more traditional fiction.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courvoisier and Caviar, November 14, 2010

Rich Andrews "jpom22" (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Paperback)

I NEVER want to finish this book! Reading Ms. Novack's work gives my life meaning - without a constant intake of her magic, I will jones somethin' awful. Carol Novack is a Master Juggler, of words, connotations, denotations, inspiration, perspiration. Even the title itself... giraffes can't hide, yet they do quite well, heads far above most other animals. This is a new genre, not a cross between stream of consciousness and free verse; comparing this in any way to any other genres is instantly ERROR CODE 404 - PAGE NOT FOUND.

Here, read this and tell me the style/content/choices are like anything you've EVER experienced before:

"That is what I recall, I said, trying once more to shake you out of the shadows of your sleep, still as old bones. Still I held a mirror to your mouth and saw only my own, grotesque gash, split by a hare. You stirred and parted your withering legs. Ah, how divine! I peered inside of you with the eye of my knitting needle, pushed the eye all the way up to the dead roots of your brittle white hair."

Now, before you go all William Burroughs toothsome and fierce, imagine that paragraph at the end of a 4-part onslaught of visions, half- and quarter-seen through a prism balanced on a rhino's horn. The paragraph reverberates, re-noun-erates, as the case may be, sounds, smells, images, tastes and textures from YOUR unconscious, whipped to a froth just from reading the story! Oh, you say, I must be overstating the case; surely I meant the author's unconscious. Oh Nay! She's like acid, whose micrograms have dissipated so thoroughly as to be invisible, leaving YOUR mind spinning off to inner space while hers just hip-skip-dances away, merrily singing sing-songs...

Are you catching just a glimmer of the miracle that is Ms. Carol Novack? Buy the book. You won't believe what happens to your own writing! Better than drugs, better than caviar and cognac.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey, Buy This Book!, January 18, 2011

C. Mehrl Bennett - See all my reviews

This review is from: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Paperback)

I recommend this book to anyone looking for fiction that challenges the traditional need for a plot, for a central character with defining features, for someone that tells you what to think or feel. Because all that, Carol Novack is NOT. Why go with tradition, where creativity can so easily languish? Various artists/illustrators spew forth into this world of colorful language and trails of thought -- PLUS the author includes LARGE words on each page that add a poetic dimension to the book design.

Also, check out Carol's online magazine, [...] ... While you're there, also see ARCHIVES link for issue 10 and click on the VISUAL POETRY GALLERY. I had the honor of editing that gallery, so thought I'd mention it within this review. Kudos to Carol Novack for reaching out to to promote other experimental writers with the MHR online magazine.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming Not Drowning, January 2, 2011

Marcus Birkenkrahe "MSB" (Berlin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Paperback)

Few books tell it as it really is: "People say lots of things. If you listen to them you'll stay under the table with the dogs." Carol Novack's "Giraffes in Hiding", subtitled her "mythical memoirs", flashes many lives in your face. Novack, the publisher of the respected literary online magazine Mad Hatters Review, is a keen word stylist. But no matter how wild her high hair flies, she keeps the reigns:

"This town's windows need insulation in the frigid seasons when the voices grow colder and louder. Nothing grows and the kitchen shelves are vacant. One can hear the real estate agents screaming in their white rooms. One can see their angry shadows through white curtains. Always white - that is what the denizens want: a neutered town in which you may disappear into your shadows. they say that colors invite arrest. They think they are invisible, the fools. Perhaps they are invisible and I am the fool."

Though "Giraffes in Hiding" is a collection, I almost read this in one sitting-and I do have a postmodern attention span, adequate to the creation and consumption of flash but not much else. Novack's language and her ear for the absurd tied me down and lifted me up at once as few books have done lately. "We need to dream before we drown", says the narrator in the short "Spawning babies". This book, read by everyone under Milk Wood, will inspire you and help you dream.

"Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack" is also exquisitely illustrated by fourteen different artists, making it an even better more beautiful buy for the holidays. Highly recommended!

(From my mini-review for Metazen, 12/2010)

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh and innovative, December 16, 2010

Kyle Muntz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Paperback)

Giraffe's in Hiding, a collection of literate prose that hinges on every line at becoming poetry, gives us a spectrum of feeling, an array of imagery, unlike anything else. Each page is its own form of acrobatics; the duel streams of images and writing combine to form a shifting extraction of life(?) in many pieces, many different gradients of experience. Very prominent, there is a sense of magic--of these subjects beginning to take new shapes. Babies fly, and children really do live within their own "secret countries"; emotions contort until they become physical and seem to override the narrative itself.

This is excellent work from a very fresh talent. It jumps off the page, in many different senses.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack

What if Jared Loughner were a Muslim? - CNN.com

2011-01-14T21:07:00.001-05:00

Friday, January 14, 2011

By Dean Obeidallah, Special to CNN

January 14, 2011 5:49 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Reaction to shooting suspect arrest: "Please don't let him be Muslim or Arab"
If suspect's name were Jamil or Mahmud, not Jared, U.S. reaction might change, he writes
Obeidallah: No one mentions Loughner's religion or ethnicity because it's irrelevant
Presumption when a white guy commits heinous act, he says, is that he's a "deranged loner"

Editor's note: Dean Obeidallah is an award-winning Arab-American comedian who has appeared on various TV shows including Comedy Central's "Axis of Evil" special, ABC's "The View," CNN's "What the Week" and "The Joy Behar Show." He serves as the executive producer of the annual New York Arab-American Comedy Festival and The Amman Stand Up Comedy Festival.

New York City (CNN) -- When the news first broke that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot at a political event, all Americans were united in our response of shock and outrage.
Shortly afterward, the media reported that a 22-year-old male had been arrested in the shooting. His name had not yet been released. I believe your reaction to that piece of news depended greatly on your status in American society -- namely, whether you're a Muslim.
If you are a typical white person, I would imagine your initial response was relief the suspect was caught, and an attempt to make sense of why he committed this horrible crime.
But if you are Muslim or of Arab heritage, your reaction to the news of the arrest was likely: "Please don't let him be Arab ... please don't let him be Muslim." Believe me, that was my reaction.
This reaction in not unique to American Arabs and Muslims -- most minorities in America have a similar response when a horrific crime has been committed and the identity of the suspect is still unknown.
We desperately don't want the person to be one of "us," for fear that our entire minority group will suffer a backlash.
I doubt any white people hope a suspect isn't one of them -- it's just not relevant. They don't suffer as a group because of the actions of a few bad white people such as Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph.
Americans are trying to figure out why someone committed this heinous act. Was it because he was ostracized by society, or because his parents didn't hug him enough?
But let's be brutally honest. If the suspect's name wasn't Jared but was Jamil or Mahmud instead, America's reaction might have been different. What if a Muslim-American had made anti-government statements and shot a U.S. congresswoman at a political event?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week called the suspect Jared Loughner an "extremist" -- but not a terrorist. Would Clinton and others be so hesitant to apply the terrorist label to an American Muslim or Arab-American?

If the suspect's name wasn't Jared but was Jamil, America's reaction might have been different.

By the way, what is Loughner's religion? It's not part of the news coverage, but we certainly know he isn't Muslim. If he were, the media, elected officials and law enforcement would be discussing that issue extensively. When a terrible crime in America is committed by a non-Muslim, the suspect's religion is simply not relevant.
In contrast, after Nidal Hasan, a Muslim-American, committed the despicable Fort Hood shootings, many called for him to be labeled a terrorist, including Rep. Peter King, R-New York.
Indeed, in King's op-ed in December 2010, he labeled Hasan a "home-grown terrorist" and a big part of the reason his Homeland Security Committee will investigate "the radicalization of Muslims in America." It's unknown whether King has any interest in investigating non-Muslim threats to America, such as the ones that led to the attack on Giffords.
Yes, I know Nidal yelled "Allah Akbar" at the time of the shooting, but does that mean he had a political agenda or was he just a delusional, sick person no different from Jared? When you compare the psychological profiles the media has painted of both, they are very similar: "Outsiders," "troubled," "loner." Even their photos share the same crazed look in their eyes, but because one American is Muslim and the other isn't, the presumption of terrorism differs.
Why can't a Muslim-American be considered a crazed lone gunman? I'm not a psychiatrist, but I doubt mental illness distinguishes between religions.
And why is that every time a white American commits a horrible act -- be it flying a plane into an IRS building or attacking a Muslim cab driver in New York City because he is opposed the proposed Islamic cultural center near ground zero -- the presumption is that he is not a terrorist, just a poor delusional guy who has lost his mind.
My point is not to divide us as a nation any further -- we are polarized enough by angry politics, race and, sadly, religion. But as we look for ways to heal our nation, which desperately needs it, applying the same standards to all Americans would be a great step.
If a Muslim-American is a terrorist under U.S. law, I have no problem applying that label, if the same goes for a non-Muslim.
As our Declaration of Independence famously states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." and I believe they should be treated that way as well.

Poor, Poor Sarah

2011-01-12T22:05:00.000-05:00

Poor, Poor Sarah

William Rivers Pitt | Wednesday 12 January 2011

So let me get this straight.

Twenty people were gunned down at a supermarket in Arizona on Saturday. Six were killed, including a nine-year-old girl. Fourteen others were wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was the main target of the attack, and who was shot through the head. She is currently lying in a hospital bed with half of her skull removed because brain swelling from her bullet wound could kill her.

Twenty people shot.

Six killed.

Fourteen wounded.

And guess what?

It appears Sarah Palin is the principal victim of the shooting.

No, really.

Don't believe me? Watch the video she posted to her Facebook page. There she sits, in front of a fireplace and beside an American flag like some cruel joke on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wreathing herself in pity because people are coming to the conclusion that politicians like her - the ones who have spent the last two years talking about guns and civil war and reloading and such - should bear some of the blame for what happened in Arizona.

How on Earth could anyone come to such an irresponsible and reprehensible conclusion?

Hm.

In a message posted on her Facebook page Sunday afternoon, Sarah Palin reiterated her call for supporters to "reload" in the battle against health care reform, a term that provoked controversy last week after critics accused her of inciting violence against members of Congress. Presenting her message as an exhortation to college basketball teams competing in March Madness, Palin stood her ground in using firearm imagery against the administration.

"The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons - your Big Guns - to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win," Palin wrote. In the headline of her update, she mockingly predicted that the message would be "subject to new politically correct language police censorship."

(Emphasis added)

That was supposed to be about basketball, and as usual, all sorts of mean people jumped up and down on her for once again vomiting gun-violence rhetoric into the political debate. Yup, she was the victim then, and is now the victim once again.

Poor, poor Sarah.

Before you start spluttering and staggering in an attempt to comprehend the sheer galactic magnitude of this new round of idiocy - "Who the what the where the when the why the how the what?!" was my initial response - stop a second and remember that this is how people like Sarah Palin operate. This is how they get others to follow them. They make themselves out to be victims, and convince their followers that they, too, are victims.

Don’t miss a beat - get Truthout Daily Email Updates. Click here to sign up for free.

Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Savage, O'Reilly and the rest of the right-wing media machine have turned professional victimhood into a license to print money, and people like Sarah Palin are all too happy to jump on that bandwagon. You're losing your country, your rights, your guns, your family, your religion, the sanctity of your marriage, the supremacy of your heterosexuality, my God, you're losing Christmas, for the love of God! You're losing everything (...psssst...they're talking to White Christians when they say this stuff, by the way, which just cracks me all the way up...), and if you don't "take up arms" to stop it, well, it will just make the Baby Jesus weep bitter, bitter tears.

Speaking of "taking up arms," here is Palin's explanation for such rhetoric: "When we say 'take up our arms,' we are talking about our vote."

Of course. How could we have missed such an obvious reference? Silly us.

Poor, poor Sarah.

Since we're on the topic, here's another hoot from another professional victim: Sharron Angle, the only living human who can make Sarah Palin seem sensible and coherent by comparison. In her own comments on how awful it is that people who think her "Second Amendment remedies" talk might have something to do with politicians getting shot in the head, Angle said, "The irresponsible assignment of blame to me, Sarah Palin or the Tea Party movement by commentators and elected officials puts all who gather to redress grievances in danger."

Let that one sink in for a second.

The twenty people who were shot on Saturday were gathered peacefully with their elected representative to petition for a redress of grievances when they were mowed down like grass. But they are not the victims. Angle, Palin, the Tea Party are the ones in danger here. They are the ones whose rights are in peril. They are the victims.

Or something.

Something else happened here, however, speaking of victims. In her puling, self-pitying video rant, Palin accused her critics of committing a "blood libel" against her. From the New York Times:

The term blood libel is generally used to mean the false accusation that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals, in particular the baking of matzos for passover. That false claim was circulated for centuries to incite anti-Semitism and justify violent pogroms against Jews. Ms. Palin's use of the phrase in her video, which helped make the video rapidly go viral, is attracting criticism, not least because Ms. Giffords, who remains in critical condition in a Tucson hospital, is Jewish.

So was Gabriel Zimmerman, who died on Saturday.

The geometry of all this is a little bewildering, so let me try to sum it up. The victims of Saturday's shooting have caused Sarah Palin and her ilk to become the real victims, so Palin decided to further victimize Saturday's victims by framing her own victimhood with the use of perhaps the sickest anti-Semitic slur ever to exist on the skin of this Earth.

But guess what? It wasn’t even her line. She used it, sure, but lifted it from a Wall Street Journal headline and article by right-wing columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a.k.a. "InstaPundit." So she’s a victim as well as unoriginal. Contain your shock.

Poor, poor Sarah. We weep bitter tears for your travails.

Not. I will save my tears for the real victims here, for the living and the lost, and the America that people like Sarah Palin have been tearing apart for ambition and profit.

Poor, Poor Sarah

Bill O'Reilly Proves God's Existence

2011-01-11T17:53:00.000-05:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bill O'Reilly Proves God's Existence - Neil deGrasse Tyson

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

Video Archive

Borowitz Report: Fox News Panic

2011-01-10T11:33:00.001-05:00

Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will Have 24 Hours to Fill

Would Create ‘Giant Hole’ in Program Schedule

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – Calls for a reduction in violent political rhetoric have plunged the Fox News Channel into chaos, with a Fox spokesperson warning today that such a move “would leave us with 24 hours to fill.”
“Let’s not underestimate the giant hole this would create,” said spokesperson Carol Foyler. “Fox without violent rhetoric would be like The Weather Channel without maps.”
Ms. Foyler said Fox was preparing for a “worst-case scenario” in which it was pressured to air responsible statements in place of its current programming: “If it comes to that, God forbid, we’ll just air 24 hours of ‘24’.”
In contrast with Ms. Foyler’s alarmed comments, Fox host Glenn Beck took the news of a possible programming change in stride: “If I’m kicked off the air, I’ll return to my first love: standing in the back of crowded theaters and yelling, ‘Fire.’”
But Fox commentator Sarah Palin was less enthusiastic about the new call for tempered rhetoric: “For the first time in my life I don’t have anything to write on my hand.”
In other cable news developments, CNN confirmed that it was considering dropping Kathleen Parker from its “Parker Spitzer” program, but said it had balked at Elliot Spitzer’s suggestion of “a different woman every night.”
Get the Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox for free here.
The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has “one of the funniest Twitter feeds around.” Follow Andy on Twitter here.

Borowitz Report

Rich Are Shifting 'An Unbelievable Amount of Wealth' Beyond Reach of IRS | | AlterNet

2011-01-08T17:13:00.000-05:00

How our Change Agent President COMPROMISED the vast majority of Americans. This goes beyond alleged "pragmatism," don't you think?

Rich Are Shifting 'An Unbelievable Amount of Wealth' Beyond Reach of IRS | | AlterNet

Lewis Black Explains Religion

2011-01-08T13:47:00.000-05:00

Dr. Douglas Fields: Rudeness Is a Neurotoxin

2011-01-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

"Americans are rude. I say this not to preach, which is neither my right nor my intention, but as a scientist, a developmental neuroscientist. My concern about American rudeness relates to my scientific research and knowledge about the development of the human brain. My conclusion comes from a recent trip to Japan, and from a reminder of times past, the death of actress Barbara Billingsley, who died Oct. 16, 2010.

Billingsley portrayed June Cleaver, the sympathetic and iconic, nurturing mother on the popular 1950s sitcom "Leave It to Beaver." Remember her signature line? "Ward, I'm worried about the Beaver." She confided her concern earnestly to her husband whenever their young son seemed the slightest bit distressed. The latest scientific research backs up with detailed molecular and cellular mechanisms what June Cleaver (and we) always knew intuitively, that through adolescence, the human brain is molded by the social environment in which a child is reared. A disrespectful, stressful social environment is a neurotoxin for the brain and psyche, and the scars are permanent."

Access the article at: Dr. Douglas Fields: Rudeness Is a Neurotoxin

I am not who I think I am or is I whom?

U.C. Davis pepper spray cop occupies art history - The Washington Post

Constitutional Progressives

Texas executions: the most controversial cases | World news | guardian.co.uk

I AM NOT NOR HAVE I EVER BEEN (9/11)

Fox Doctors Hoffa Speech To Fabricate Call For Violence | Media Matters for America

Regulations, taxes aren't killing small business, owners say | McClatchy

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout

Asheville poet captures Sept. 11 experience in verse | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com

“The GOP war on voting” in ROLLING STONE (MUST-READ—although it’s even worse than this guy thinks) :: News From Underground

"Insurrection" in LIT magazine

Literary Review - John Sutherland on The World of Others: From Quotations to Culture

CAConrad's upcoming events: poetry chapbook contest...

Genya Turovskaya 'Back From the USSR' Feature | Mad Hatters' Review

Evangelicals Question The Existence Of Adam And Eve : NPR

Tell Delta: Union Busting Won't Fly

Editorial: If U.S. is serious about debt, there's a single-payer solution.

WordPlay | Asheville FM | Community Radio

Civil War: Collaboration with Jean Detheux, with music by Guthrie Lowe & Dave Nagel

Destination: My prose poem with music by Don Meyer -- made into brilliant Visual Music by Jean Detheux

Daily Kos: Iceland's On-going Revolution

Fatal politics: Quotes for America these days of OUR LORD of the tall fairy tales: I

If you lead an ass by its tail, it will drag its head backwards where you want it to go. If you don't give it water, the ass will swallow its own shit.

copy right, please, CN, 8/1/11

The 6 Biggest Lies About the U.S. Debt | | AlterNet

The 6 Biggest Lies About the U.S. Debt

the short review: Carol Novack

Daily Kos: With Voter Suppression, the Right Wing Rolls Out a Dubious, Nationwide Attack on Americans

LITnIMAGE

MadHat's July Newsletter

Man wins right to wear colander in license

PANK Blog

Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack: A Review by Ethel Rohan

Bill Clinton: GOP Voting Crackdown Worst Since Jim Crow | TPMDC

Opening B & B/Mt Retreat for Visiting Artists, Writers, Musicians, etc

Michele Bachmann and evangelicals: Can a woman really be accepted as a leader? - By Libby Copeland - Slate Magazine

Don't Look on the Bright Side: Pessimism, Not Magical Thinking, Is What Will Save Us | | AlterNet

By Marty Kaplan, Smirking ChimpPosted on June 28, 2011, Printed on June 29, 2011http://www.alternet.org/story/151454/don%27t_look_on_the_bright_side%3A_pessimism%2C_not_magical_thinking%2C_is_what_will_save_us

Vispo by Tray Drumhann | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

Brow Beat : Peter Falk, RIP

kaffe in katmandu // SAME AS by CAROL NOVACK at:

Video by Cecelia Chapman & Friends | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

Dr. David Ansell — 'Life, Death And Politics' Treating Chicago's Uninsured : NPR

County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago's Public HospitalBy Dr. David AnsellHardcover, 256 pagesAcademy Chicago PublishersList price: $29.95

Some wonderful works on the new Mad Hatters' Review Blog

New Vispo Video by Nico Vassilakis and James Yeary

Why Women Don't Get Caught Up in Sex Scandals - NYTimes.com

Mad Hatters' Review Blog | Mad Hatters' Review Blog

MatHat Press Presents:

CAConrad

THE WILD AND WYRD POETRY CHAPBOOK COMPETITION

Fieralingue Poet's Corner - Fieralingue

The BRAD BLOG : The 'Judicial Insider Trading' of Justice Clarence Thomas and Wife 'Ginni'

Funny Russian News Anchor Can't Keep Straight Face RE: BC Pot Marijuana Story

New Website for New and Continuing Projects of MadHatArts

Art, Perception and the Search for Intrinsic Worth.

from Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack

Joy of Destruction

In New York, Tight Times for Court-Appointed Lawyers - NYTimes.com

A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR

FEMA Declares Eric Cantor a Disaster Area

FEMA Declares Eric Cantor a Disaster Area

Congressman Denies Funds to Self

Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith -- Dr. Andy Thomson

Psychology Today trashes black women's beauty for press

MadHat, Inc. : MadHat's Little Mountain Retreat (96)

Guest Post: Eric Beeny reviews Carol Novack’s Giraffes in Hiding « BIG OTHER

Huckabee Adviser: Obama is a Soviet Spy | Mother Jones

AP IMPACT: CEO pay exceeds pre-recession level

Borowitz Report

Poll: Given Choice Between Palin and Trump, Most Voters Choose Suicide

Survey Spells Trouble for GOP, Pollster Says

Now the Republican Party Wants the IRS to Audit Rape Survivors If They've Had an Abortion : Mike the Mad Biologist

What will happen to us? - The Boston Globe

Necessary Fiction

Stephen Colbert expresses his support for the Donald Trump candidacy

Picnic Game with Nudes: In honor of Earth Day

The Real American Exceptionalism « Defending the Public Good

Damning New Study: Eco Bulbs Cause Cancer

Yes, the Latest Right-Wing Paean to Sociopath Ayn Rand Is Really, Really Awful | | AlterNet

By Marty Kaplan, Smirking Chimp
Posted on June 28, 2011, Printed on June 29, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151454/don%27t_look_on_the_bright_side%3A_pessimism%2C_not_magical_thinking%2C_is_what_will_save_us

County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital
By Dr. David Ansell
Hardcover, 256 pages
Academy Chicago Publishers
List price: $29.95