somewhere down in hell, karl marx is high-fiving freddy engels whilst doing the "i told you so" dance

happy thanksgiving, everyone.

not to mention it told me a few things about myself, too

for those regular readers of this blog who know how i live to unlock people, lemme just say that this little video gave me the master key to about 75% of the guys i've slept with over the last 15 years.

as i've said here before, unlike most guys, i really don't have much use for porn--to me, most of it looks a lot more like work than any kinda sex i'd wanna have--but i think what's presented here holds true for most any activity in which people tend to overindulge.

or put another way, it just reinforces my long-held belief that the human brain handles scarcity so much better than it does abundance--it really, really, does.

give it a watch--i think you'll find it enlightening.

have i mentioned i have one of those voices that carries?

so tonight at work:

"hey mike, you wanna come in on sunday?"

"no."

"you sure?  it's for [toothsome young first-year associate]."

"look, the only reason i'd drag my hungover ass in here on a sunday morning is to see how [toothsome young first-year associate] looks in sweatpants.  that'd be good for an hour or so, but if he wanted to keep me here any longer than that he'd have to start taking shit off."

i watch my co-worker's guffaw in response to this brilliance freeze into a wide-eyed, fixed smile, and i know without even turning around that...fuck.

and, sure as shit, here his pretty lil' ass comes, studiously looking down at the document he's holding, through the open door.

did he hear me?  dunno, couldn't tell.  but i expect that if he did, i'll probably hear about it.

excuse me, now--i need to go count my fuck-you money again.

another day in congress

1.  the last honest man

representative ron paul of texas delivered his farewell address to the house today, using fifty minutes of the hour alloted to him for that purpose to summarize his core philosophy concerning the role of government--a philosophy and message which has varied little in the 36 years since he first set foot in that chamber--and to leave his fellow members, and his fellow americans, to consider some very pointed questions.

his speech--which i watched in its entirety, and will watch again--can be found starting at about 2:08 in the below CSPAN clip, and i would encourage every reader of this blog, whether you think you agree with dr. paul about anything or not, to listen to every word of it.  because this isn't cheap political rhetoric designed to play to the masses, folks--this is hard truth from a man who can't be bought, and i don't know of anything coming out of washington more rare or more precious than that.




and now, moving to the other end of the spectrum, we have

2.  the least honest men

today, the house financial services subcommittee concluded its yearlong investigation into the MF Global collapse and concurrent outright theft of $1.6 billion of customer funds by announcing it will issue a report tomorrow essentially assigning principal blame for said epic criminal incompetence to its wholly rightful owner, MF's CEO, jon corzine.  the report was unanimously endorsed by every member of the subcommittee--every one, that is, except for the democrats, not a single one of which felt there was sufficient evidence pointing to the guilt of their good friend (and top democratic bundler) mr. corzine to warrant such drastic action.*

the corruption, the conflict of interest--they don't even try to hide it anymore, because they know that, after all these years of it, we're so passively numbed and accepting of whatever it is they choose to foist on us, they can pretty much do whatever they want.  and so they will.

scroll back up there, click play, and cue up dr. paul--it'll be an hour well spent, i promise you.

__________________
* and please don't imagine that i'm painting the republicans as the heroes here by any means.  if mr. corzine had been one of theirs, you can be assured that the vote would've been exactly opposite

it's because we see

they'd asked me, i coulda saved 'em some research money.  it's nice to put the booze goggles on and view the world through the same pinhole that everybody else does; there's comfort in that sometimes.

link

casey

"wow, you're up.  why didn't you come out?"

he's sitting on the edge of my bed in my darkened room, fully dressed, hands folded in his lap.  drapes still drawn against the morning sun, just as i'd left them so he could sleep.

he looks up, gives me a wan smile.  "i did, but i couldn't find you.  i knew you'd come back."

"i was out on the deck with my laptop, having a smoke--you shoulda looked for me.  i feel terrible--how long have you been sitting here like this?"  i had been out there at least an hour.

he shrugs. "it doesn't matter," he says, and i can see that he means it.

this is a very different boy than the one i'd picked up last night.  that one had been a hundred twenty-five pounds of semi-drunken bravado; that one wasn't gonna let the fact that his folks had thrown him out and his friends were getting tired of him crashing on their couch get in his way.  that one had places to go and things to do, goddammit.

i flop down on the bed, pull him into my arms and we lie there like that. after awhile, i ask him, "you hungry?"

at jack-in-the-box, his destination of choice, i tell him he can have whatever he wants and smile as he shamefacedly orders half the menu.  when we get to his place, he kisses me on the cheek, says, "thanks--you're really nice," and i think, "yeah, i'm a prince."

i tell him not to lose my number, to call it if he needs to.  he gives me that smile again, gathers his paper bags full of treasure, walks away.

and all the way home, and all day today, all i can think about is a boy sitting on my bed in the dark, patiently waiting for whatever's gonna happen to him next.

so they did

if they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy

mitt romney

july 11, 2012