The Trouble with Activism

Can We Talk?!!

It was a double bill.  An Israeli singer and an Iranian who I had heard perform on numerous occasions before that day at this new venue. My ticket named a famous celebrity as the presenter – a producer to the stars, practically the Godfather of the recording industry and the patron saint of who’s who on the A-list.   So I figured it must be a marketing plug.  Probably Mr. Big Shot sat on some board and had graciously lent his name to one among many events on the season’s calendar.  After all, the entire cultural scene in this town runs on philanthropy and celebrity horse trading rather than Uncle Sam’s love for the arts who, judging by those head shots pasted all over the country jabbing his finger in my face and yours, is probably more interested in fine arsenal rather than fine jazz – much less in obscure world…

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They just tell stories

thirty summer

When I was younger
I would say
the only reason
people like Poe
or Shakespeare
was because
they wrote with a time
that our language doesn’t
know anymore.
I would say
they just tell stories
that anyone can.

I felt I was right
afterall
when you read it,
with the thous and thines
and all those
little phrases with footnotes
for us to decypher
like linguistic archeologists
and you scrape away
the dead flowers and
then they are all just stories.

I was not aware of
literary devices.
I would read
Bukowski and Crane
and think
this is good.
This doesn’t read
like an effigy.

Yeah,
Bukowski wrote crap
but a good kind of crap.
The kind that makes it
hard for you
to explain to anyone
who doesn’t know.

He wrote of the mundane
and whores and alcohol
and betting on horses
in simple ways and with
simple words.

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Found Wanting

OFF THE GRID

itinerantneerdowell

Under clear blue skies
White clouds of steam
Billowed from sewer grates
Pamela and Alonzo
Ignored the stench

Sat on the curb
Huddled for warmth
Winters, were the worst
Whether, in one hollowed out
Nondescript neighborhood
Or, in the next

Stepped lightly
Careful, to not bruise
Fragile egos of passing elite
Searched for food, handouts
Things, to pawn or steal

It was a battle of wills
Among street corner preachers
Panhandlers, throwaway people
With moral compasses
Pointed in different directions

Clung together for comfort
Security, to avoid getting killed
“What do you want from me?”
Alonzo asked–shook his fist at the sky
“Leave me alone!”
“I’ve got nothing to steal!”
Found comfort, in sameness
Somewhere, off the grid

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Do I Look Like a Baby Killer?

Kat Echevarría Richter

This morning I went to Planned Parenthood.  I go every three months to pick up my birth control pills and again in August just before my birthday for my annual pelvic exam.

My usual concerns when going to Planned Parenthood are:

A)     Where am I going to park?  Parking in Center City is never easy.

B)      How long is this going to take?  The folks at the Locust Street branch are always friendly and seem pretty efficient but if you don’t have an appointment, you can find yourself sitting in the lobby long enough to watch an entire Tyler Perry film.

I’m never worried about getting stopped by protestors because let’s face it: this is 2013.  This is Philadelphia.  We’re not like that here.

Plus, my visit to Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with abortion, which makes sense because 90% of the services offered by Planned Parenthood have to…

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CHILD ABUSE: “Indoctrination of Religion is Child Abuse”

I agree, and it would be a better world

Always Question Authority

h/t: Atheism 411

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Atheist Church Comes to America This Week

 

 

Atheist Church Comes to America This Week.

CYNICS, SKEPTICS, ATOMISTS AND RELATIVISTS

worthy read

Pandaemonium

In completing my book on the history of moral thought I had to cut the original manuscript quite considerably. Much of what has been lost is better off left on the cutting room floor. There are, however, some sections coherent enough to be worth reading. So,  I am running an occasional series publishing some of the more cogent ‘lost pages’ from the book. Previous excerpts were on Machiavelli and on Descartes. This extract is on Democritus, Thucydides and Protagoras. The book itself, which is called The Quest for a Moral Compass, will be published early next year.

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He was ‘the laughing philosopher’ because, wrote Hippolytus, ‘he regarded all human affairs as ridiculous’. Democritus (c460-c370 BCE) was the last of the Presocratics (though many don’t regard him as one), and the most influential.  He was born into a wealthy family – so wealthy, it was said, that the Persian king Xerxes…

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Brazilian protests explained — it’s not the economy, stupid

Great article that explains a lot about what is happening in Brazil

A Brazilian Operating in This Area

Brazil isn’t for beginners. No matter if you are a Brazilian or not, it takes a long time to understand how such a self-centered country works.

I can’t say I do, but as a former student in a state school who had his mother working as a maid, I have explored a part of the Brazilian society which is not popular among the middle class I now belong to. The same middle class that has (poorly) projected our country abroad and is gradually changing. So let me go back in time to try to address the mindset behind the protests that are now rocking the streets of major cities back home.

Violent protests always lose in Brazil. It is just like our politics: if you are too hard on your opponent, no matter how right you are, you will lose.

If you are violent in Brazil you write a blank…

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16 Life Lessons from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

great lessons which we all should learn

Running In My Head

Friday’s inclement weather put a damper on my running plans. Normally I enjoy running in the rain, but when thunder and lightning are involved – or when the Weather Channel warns of high winds with the possibility of hail and tornadoes – I stay inside. My all-time favorite rainy day movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. On today’s run, I pondered the life lessons contained in that classic work of comedic gold.

16. Approach unfamiliar animals with caution.

I worked in an animal shelter for six years; I know the benefits of warning people about strange dogs and cats. Trust me, rabies shots hurt less as a preventative than as a cure. However, many of us fail to impart the dangers of biting moose and rabbits with vicious streaks a mile wide. But mommy, they look so cuddly…

15. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

We…

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