Tag Archives: Halls

Neocon regalia

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Neocon Bald-faced EagleFor decades after the Second World War, German vets would get together in beer halls to remember the great days of the Third Reich. The Nazi cause may have become perverted, but its ideals were certainly grandiose: a Germany reborn as the worker’s utopia, a master race unshackled to bring order to a never-before united Europe.

My father grew up in occupied Norway. He remembers the incomparable German swagger. To this day he judges the authenticity of war movies based on whether the actors capture the arrogance of the German officers in their walk. I remember reading a Wehrmacht soldier’s autobiography reflecting on the initial ease with which Germany had overrun its neighbors. “It was impossible in those days not to feel immense pride in being a German.”

German regalia is highly collectible now, though my father remembers the days immediately following the war when Norwegians wouldn’t deign to pick up the Nazi medals, ribbons and flags strewn outside the German headquarters in newly freed Oslo.

Of course the German WWII regalia is collected fervently also because it was esthetic. A deliberate malevolence was courted by the fascists, a darkness amplified by the visual design of their uniforms, equipment and printed material. Albert Speer and Leni Reifenstahl were widely condemned for their contributions to the glorification of Nazi culture.

So when old SS veterans are clanging their glasses in memory of Germany’s grab for the brass ring, the nostalgia has quite a bit of pomp and polish. It was an Aryan dream in smart costumes and effective looking machinery.

Are ex-American servicemen going to look back at the U.S. adventures in Fascism with equal nostalgia? What trappings do the Neocons offer to distinguish their racist machinations? Wrap-around Oakleys? Kneepads and leggings? The mercenaries’ gold chains and Hawaiian shirts? And what stateside? Yellow ribbons? Cheap suits? Americans exude nothing but our simpleton arrogance I’m afraid. Yankee Fascism has probably required banality to disguise it. Later Americans will have to own up to our inhumanity and hubris with the additional shame that we couldn’t even transcend our ugliness for the occasion.

Mexico starting to unravel

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Tomorrow, 4 PM, is the day of the big demonstration in Mexico City to protest the brutality of the federal police attacks on the people of Oaxaca this last weekend. Friday is to be the day of the inauguration of the declared victor of the Mexican presidential election, America’s puppet, Felipe Calderon, or ‘Fecal’ as he is best known by those who oppose this electoral fraud. Mexico is beginning to unravel, and the situation of Oaxaca is just one sign of this.

Today in yet another sign of unravelling government control, the halls of the Mexican congress erupted into fist fights. Calderon’s popular support is as thin as it could come, and six years of this US propped up clown in power is more than anybody really wants to tolerate. Mexico is beginning to unravel out of control of the neoliberal regime in DC just as have other parts of Latin America. People are fed up with their native elites following the commands they get from the White House. They are fed up with their elites living high off the hog, while their own children go hungry and die from easily preventable diseases. There is no patience or desire to tolerate D.C. control any more.

And in Mexico, many people will not just sit back and watch while yet another unpopular candidate, winning by fraud, is installed into power over them once again. Many are no longer deluded that the PRI dictatorship has been replaced by genuine democracy. A two party corporate elite dictatorship is no better than a one party one in their eyes. The PAN is no longer seen as being a democratic replacement to the old PRI dictatorship, but rather as being nothing more than a neo continuation of the same old thing. Mexico is no longer waiting for real people’s democracy. They are demanding that it be theirs now, without any more false promises from their elites of change that never comes.

see Oaxaca: The End of Tolerance

MILFs and the state of public education

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Yes, I know. I’m lucky. I was born under a lucky star. I have my health and my wealth. I have a big house, two fantabulous cars, and six exceptional children. I recently won the Filling the Deep End of the Gene Pool award. “Oh my goodness. I am so honored. I’d like to thank the Catholic Church, especially Father Foxhoven for his guidance during my difficult teenage years.” I have big boobs, a small butt (think upside down pear), and I’m generally considered a MILF, my daily affirmation. If you don’t know what a MILF is then (A) You don’t know any high school boys or (B) You don’t watch WEEDS.

My point? I am supposedly part of the elite….the people who have NO WORRIES….NO HEARTACHE….GOOD HAIR EVERY DAY. We wake up each morning and weep tears of joy at our good fortune. We drink mimosas before school and feel compassion for those who have less. “God, why? Why, oh why, isn’t everyone as blessed as I?”

Speaking of school. I am in a district with an incredible curriculum. We have a college prep program, Gifted and Talented programs, Science and Math Olympiad programs, Music programs, Advanced Placement programs that can get our kids into Stanford quicker than you can say “Will that be MasterCard or Visa?”

So what is my gripe? Well, the Ninth Court of Appeals recently ruled that when we turn our children over to the public school system, we check them at the door. THEY are in charge of MY children. My dynasty. They determine what my children learn, both in and out of the classroom. THEY? Who are they? Do THEY live on my street? Play golf at my country club? WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY?

Here’s who they are. THEY are the administrators who allowed a troubled little girl, out-of-district-but-we-do-like-to-be-inclusive, push my perfect baby boy off the top of the slide and break his arm with absolutely no punishment. THEY are the principal who suspended my perfect baby girl for writing a clever cartoon about how girlz can deal with pesky boyz by spraying them with freeze spray and framing and hanging them in the hallway–something about a specific threat against a named individual. THEY are the government fuckheads who make my perfect darlings walk through the halls with “safe hands” clasped behind their backs so they can’t threaten anyone. THEY are the counselors who called my children in during my very amicable divorce without my permission to tell them about how uncertain their futures are now that their parents have split up.

I am one of the fortunate individuals who has options. I can move my children to another school within the district. I can change districts. I can move to a private school. I can home school. Actually, I’ve opted to do several of these over the years. But since I pay my property taxes and abide by the Constitution, I would rather bitch. Bitch about government overstepping its bounds. Bitch about social engineering. Bitch about the NEA. Bitch about revisionist history. Mostly I want to bitch about people–people who control people. The unluckiest people in the world.

Under thumb

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Under the thumb of remedial thinking. I guess we all have to learn what that’s like. That’s life, but does it have to be? It’s corporate and servile. It’s life of diminished expectation.
 
I met an elementary school principal today who was quite proud of having placed her thumbprint, in just a couple weeks, on the tone of a new school.

She stood before the parents at back-to-school-night, most of whom were unaware of the recent changes. If they had noticed the kids art gone from the walls, or heard from their children about the orderly quiet that has overcome lunch hour, or about the segregated recesses, or about the now cancelled weekly school rallies, or about the new austerity in the hallways, they’d come to see who was behind it.

The new principal wanted to explain some of her measures. “Safe Hands” for example, is a rule for groups of children walking through the halls. Students must now keep their hands clasped behind their backs. “Have you ever seen ten year olds walking down a hallway?” She meant to imply bedlam like it was last season’s lapel. The point she made to me was more telling: she is such a person as cannot handle youthful chaos. Mmm okay.

It would appear for this school year at least the kids are stuck with an overly assertive unimaginative authority figure. What had been a successful little school with a fun social environment is going to be something else.

The principal explained that her summer reading had consisted of the previous year’s comments from parents who wanted to see a different direction from their new administrator. Thus the squeaky wheel got the grease and the vast majority of parents who have been happy, even thrilled, with their little school, were hit and run underfoot.

The lesson here is the usual reminder for eternal vigilance. Don’t take for granted that newcomers can be brought up to speed. If their previous performance does not resemble what you’re after, don’t hire them. Do you want to be magnanimous and give wing to someone’s unproven ambition at your children’s expense?

I asked the principal later if the Safe Hands technique has precedence elsewhere. How orderly must school halls be? For example, is someone elsewhere experimenting with averted eyes, bowed heads, shuffling, maybe ankle restraints? She answered me with a steeled smile and unblinking eyes. Youthful exuberance should be held to limits. Her demeanor reminded me of a junior banker, by the time you see the facade close-up you realize there’s nothing but facade and hairspray.

Oh what a drag for the children. I had teachers like that, I resent them still.

Light summer fare

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Congressman Westmoreland do-nothingHere are some wonderful video clips, if you haven’t seen them already:
 
1. Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland wants to post the Ten Commandments in the halls of congress, if only to be reminded of them himself. Here he is in an interview with Stephen Colbert.

2. If you haven’t seen it yet, Stephen Colbert’s address to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. While you’re at it, read Colbert’s follow-up commencement speech.

3. Jon Stewart spars with Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman, and empathizes with him because “you have to spray perfume on the turds.”

4. Ask-a-Ninja explains net neutrality.

5. A David Copperfield sendup and an amazing juggling finale.