02.17.06
Books
I’ve been weeding the religion section here at work. It allows me to get rid of books that are no longer relevant, books we probably never should have ordered, and books that need to be replaced.
It also allows me to grab books for $.50 that I’d like to have for myself and a first edition Merton book I’ll be sending to some guy way down south.
Today’s haul:
Money and Power. Jacques Ellul
02.16.06
A Poem
Here, Bullet
If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta’s opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you’ve started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel’s cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue’s explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.
Brian Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and lived abroad in South Korea for a year before serving for seven years in the US Army. He was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq beginning November 2003, with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. His poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name.
The Jesus of Suburbia is a Lie.
Say, Hey!
Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
The shame
The ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called “Faith and Misery” (Hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protestor has crossed the line (Hey!)
To find, the money’s on the other side
Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday(Hey!)(Say, Hey!)”
The representative from California has the floor
“Zieg Heil to the president gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that’s meant for me
Just cause, just cause, because we’re outlaws yeah!
02.10.06
Economic Violence
So, no doubt some of you have seen the figures from the proposed 2007 national budget. Some of you probably haven’t. Here is a little snippet of what you might have missed:
The following are some of the programs that are being completely cut out of the budget:
Agriculture:
Commodity Supplemental Food Program – provides about 5000 poor people, mainly seniors, with nutrional boxed lunches. Savings: 107 million.
High Cost Energy Grants – Assists low income families in paying utility bills. Savings: 26 million.
Public Broadcast Grants - Helps defray costs for public broadcasting. That would be the broadcasting that isn’t dominated by corporations. Savings: 5 million.
Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Operations – Pretty self explanatory. Savings: 75 million.
Education:
Educational Technology State Grants - Provides money for new and refurbished technology in public schools. Savings: 272 million.
Vocational Education State grants - Provides money to technical schools to train students (mostly low income who are not able to attend college). Savings: 1182 million
Upward Bound – provides low income student, students from lower educated parents, and military veterans with training and classes to better prepare them for college. Savings: 311 million.
Arts in Education – Self explanatory again. Savings: 53 million.
Elementary and Secondary school counseling – Savings: 35 million.
Alcohol Abuse reduction – Savings 32 million.
Dropout Prevention Program – Savings 5 million.
State Grants for Incarcerated Youth Offenders – Assists youth offenders in their education, one of the very few programs that cuts repeat offenses. Savings: 23 million.
Perkins Loan Cancellations – Savings: 65 million.
Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity – Provides low income students with assistance in applying, preparing and succeeding in the college realm. Savings: 3 million.
Leveraging Educational Assistance Program – Provides need based grants and community service opportunities. Savings: 65 million.
Health, Human Services
Real Choice System Change grants – Assists with children’s medicare costs. Savings: 25 million.
Community Services Block grant – Provides Native American tribes with money to assist low income families and other social services. Savings: 630 million.
Job Opportunities for Low Income Individuals - Savings: 6 million.
HOPE VI - Provides assistance for low income and native american individuals. Savings: 198 milllion.
Interior
Land and Water Conservation Fund State grants - Savings: 28 million.
National Park Service Statutory Aid – Savings: 7 million.
Rural Fire Assistance – Savings: 10 million.
Justice
Byrne Discretionary grants – Provides education and assistance in anti-violence and gun laws. Savings: 189 million.
Juvenile Accountability Block grants – Privides funding for community based education towards reducing crime. Savings: $49 million.
Labor
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Training Program – Savings: 79 million.
Reintegration of Youthful offenders – savings: 49 million
EPA; Unrequested projects – Projects that the EPA runs in to during the course of the year. Savings: 277 Million.
Total cuts in areas:
Agriculture: 511 Million
Commerce: 150 Million
Education: 3,468 Million (so much for not leaving children behind)
Energy: 114 Million
Health/Human Services: 866 Million
Homeland Security: 229 Million
Housing, Urban Development: 198 Million
Interior: 61 Million
Justice: 1.116 Billion
Labor: 180 Million
Transportation: 74 Million
EPA: 277 Million
Other Agencies: 70 Million
All of this occurred while Defense spending hit another all time high, without even including the cost of the war in Iraq for next year, Katrina cleanup or possible military action elsewhere.
