Monday, August 31, 2009

Few years ago Victoria Shem was my student at I.EC, She read one of my poems and i believe got inspired. Few weeks lator Vickie Shem wrote this poem!


THE UPROOT MISSION

To us a girl was introduced
Promised so much
She produced

Out of her beauty
We treated her
Like a deity

We would tend in morning
Yet in the evening
Yawns, and more yawns

Should we go with her keeping?
When we are reaping
Nothing!

Or should we end her persistence
And then risk our existence

To uproot her is a vision
But in real
A suicide mission.


Copyright © Victoria Wangari Shem 2003

This poem was written by one of my students, Victoria Shem, who had passion for performing arts.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Last week I posted a very interesting poem- Letter To My father, The response has been overwhilming. So is it in a Mans' Gene? Enjoy the Dying Hobo



A HAZY TOMORROW

Hoary hoary
Slave of vision
So much dreamt of
Today a total hokum
Brain arching with
Honet sting of regrets
Doom is inevitable

Outlandishly you lived
Mistresses haunch always your hassock
You were study and hoity toity
Today womby and despondent
You have no place for haven
Nor a shade for rest

Cirrhosis an enemy
Inextricable though
A cryptography too complex
you cant not decipher or stop either
Your youth totally wasted
leaving a lean future for you

Hoary and helpless
Waiting for cirrhosis throes
feasting on honeydew
your last option
and absolute resort

A would be successful pundit
is now reduced to a dying hobo!


All Rights Reserved. Last week i posted a poem titled Letter to My Father. I was very glad to read your responses. One reader asked me in my email inbox: fafdays@gmail.com What genes are men made of? Well i must admit it was a tough question.
This made me remember a poem i wrote sometimes in 2002. A Hazy Tomorrow that you have just read. So is it in a mans gene to drink, stray, smoke and all that women use to refer to 'a failed man?' Ok, that is a topic for another day.


I read todays daily nation and I felt the zeal to watch 43rd Tribe of Kenya. The talking point really moved me......! "A fat man has an ass! 2. My Daddy is fat...... Well for anyone who is having a kid in the lower primary, you must read the Talking Point on todays DN 30-08-09

Saturday, August 29, 2009

DEATH HAS ALWAYS LEFT US WONDERING WHY.....! NOT UNTIL IT HAPPENS TO CLOSE FRIEND AND YOU JUST WISH IT WAS A DREAM. "WE LOVED YOU SHEM........R.I.P"




THAT HOUR







That fateful Wednesday
Is undeletable,
Sometimes, we may forget
But your memories remain.
We thought it was a bad dream
We hoped it was a dream after all
However it was neither of them
It happened, very fast.

That morning you cheered your
Lovely son
You joked with your charming wife
Not aware of the roaming danger
Jimmy- some of us saw you,
At least make your last movement
It never occurred to you or us
That we were bidding farewell to you

As early as the day started
The angle of death had been traveling
With each second tickling away
He neared
His wings flapping rhythmically
Each second tonating the flapping

Unaware of the impeding fate
You joked, smiled and laughed.
Unknowingly, time was flying out fast
We too, joked, laughed and smiled back
All this time
The angle of death was advancing
Now swiftly

A few meters from home
He finally caught up with you
And off he went
Holding you securely on his flap
Or else you slip back to us

In a short while Jimmy was gone
We watched the angle disappear with you
His face was not happy either
Guilt spread across it
“What have I done?”
He seemed to wonder.

At your young age you slipped
Past our fingers
Our minds are now numb and blank
Trying to restructure the jigsaw
But the pieces are still missing

Now that you are gone
In heart we got your memories
The joy you shared with us
Still oozes from your undeletable memory
We live your ambition- to be happy

Jimmy, our dear brother
We know you are in the next room
Laughing, smiling and giggling- you always did.
You may be locked behind that door
But we can peep thru and see you
We are more unified than ever
Because your memoirs are
Etched in the tablets of our innermost feelings
We love you our brother.


All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in part or full is strictly prohibited. Simon Mwangi Muthiora.
SHEM died in a grisly road accident that raised more questions than answers. His love for Art inspired me to write this poem. To Vickie- Though I never hardly enjoyed the luxury of holding you close to me, you always lite my heart whenever I entered that class to teach you literature or Geography. It was my dream that one day I would tell the world that I once loved you. This a special one for you and your family. I believe that Shem is smiling and wishing you all well

THIS IS THE UNKNOWN STORY.....SET IN ILLUSION



THIS IS THE STORY

The untold story
The story of the past
The story of today
The story of tomorrow
The story about a story- untold

This story has no plot
Neither does it has characters
Its characters have no characteristics
Their characters already dead
It’s a utopic story.

It’s a story about everything
The story tells us nothing
No one likes telling the story
But everybody listens to it.

It’s not written anywhere
It has no narrator
Nobody knows its origin
The only story that makes one laugh
And cry at the same time

Its prologue is unending
Just like its epilogue
It’s a story about many stories
Stories about other stories

It talks about birth
It talks about death too
It’s the story about the righteous
It’s a story about the wicked

The only story about the
Past, today and tomorrow
It’s the story that compares men to beasts

This is the story about the unknown
It talks about America, China, and North Korea
The story is strange
It even mentions Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Israel
It idolizes Wall Street



However, the story is shy
It is the only story that misses the word Dafur
The story does not talk about Zimbambwe
Nor does it mention DRC

It’s about rape- fathers raping their daughters
Mothers fornicating with their sons
It’s a strange story
Where characters abuse human dignity
It’s the story that compares the incomparable

The story is set in unknown country
A wonder country
Where true stories are told in whispers
They are not written
Nor sang or narrated- only in whispers
It’s a story of sorrow
A story of bewilderment
Set in illusion


All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in part or full is strictly prohibited. Simon Mwangi Muthiora.

SEVERAL YEARS AGO MARTIN LUTHER KING HAD A "DREAM" ITS A DREAM THAT CAME TRUE,BUT LAST NIGHTS' DREAM WAS DIFFERENT......!


THE DREAM

A mystery unknown
Unknown and not solved
Whether a thriller or not
Still a complex experience

Last night I traveled
The country very new to me
A place I have never been to
I recall the food
Very new to me
I was somewhere in Monaco
The streets glittering with neon lights
Or this is Holly Wood?
The swings and pods
All resembling the ones in Navada Ranch
I was there last night.

The limo was striking
Life has never been this beautiful
The chauffer always smiling
Pouring their hearts out
Innocently I smiled back

A few days before
I was languishing in poverty
I knew nothing beyond
That kiosk next door
Despondent but hoping for the best
I never thought my dream
Would come this fast.

A few days ago,
I was running away from a vicious
Animal- a very big predicament
Indeed, I tried to rise and run
Walking away was
Too risky business
Flying a way was an option

My will too strong
My limbs too weak
To rise and walk,
Run,
Fly or
Swim away.

Some fresh I lost,
When the animal
Caught up with me!
All in my dream
Last nights’ dream.
My wails were even weaker
They were mere whispers
No ear could hear
Its roar was not bare
Ready to snarf and devour

It was no ordinary night
It’s the night I had a dream
The dream that lied to me,
That I was in Monaco

It’s the dream that lied to me
It told me a story
A story about my home far away
About the new chief in our area
It also lied to me about the
Former chief who was now ‘dead’
The ‘cancer’ had finally taken toll on him
I now missed home without him

He too was a liar
“I will repair the roads,
I will build a clinic, I will
Revive the water taps…..”
He had severally promised

Last nights’ dream lied to me,
That he was now gone.
We now had a new chief
The new chief had finally
Agreed to listen and reason.


All Rights Reserved. This an original poem by Simon Mwangi Muthiora. Reproduction in print or any other media is strictly Prohibited. AURTHOR: MWANGI S. MUTHIORA

Thursday, August 27, 2009

EVEN AT THE DARKEST HOUR THERE THIS THIS RARE STAR THAT WILL STILL SHOW UP! BUT IF YOUR EYES REMAIN SHUT, YOU ARE LIKELY TO MISS THE SPLENDID SHINE *



THE MORNING *STAR*

In this part of Africa
It’s a rare gem
Illuminating the golden yellow horizon
The morning star
Shinning with splendor

Eyes as clear as ice
Revealing untold beauty
Pupil as black as coal
Hanging in precariously
In a ball of wool
The morning star

Curvaceous nostrils
Rare in this part of Africa
Breathing life to
The morning breeze
With every beat,
Warm sweet breath escapes
Nagging though
To leave such a haven

The morning star
Has a smile too
A smile of all times
Too sweet to describe
A mother of all smiles
The morning star
Smiling with style
A shy smile

The morning star
Have two dimples
Deep as they are
The secret of the smile
The two cute dimples,
Tonates the plains of the star
Giving it a feeling

The morning star
Have two full lips
Upper pouting lip
Full as a balloon
Giving the morning breeze
Wrenching osculates

Trapped inside
Two set of grinders
White as wool
The morning star
Has a sweet bite

The morning star
Has a voice
Its whispers are so sweet
That you dance to them
This morning star
Smiles
Laughs
Sighs and cares
The morning star
The morning blossom
Shine shine shine
The morning star


Author: Simon Mwangi Muthiora- All rights reserved, Picture: Julia Polly- A special friend who regardless the human suffering i ever faced in life still showed up when very few. appeared. I may not have the right words for you Julia, but you are one in a million and i treasure your company even thou we may never live to realize a lifetime together. This a special one for you and my mother.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU INSPIRED TODAY? I MEET THIS PUPPY WHO REALLY GAVE ME A REAL TOUCH.... IT MADE ME THINK HOWMUCH BETTER I CAN TOUCH AND INSPIRE


A TOUCH OF FORMALITY

Where is the touch
To console a suffering soul
Where is the touch
To end, endless conflicts
Where is the touch
To expose unspeakable clandestine
Where is the touch
To touch the untouchables

A real touch of formality

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

THIS WEEK I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT RIGHTS. HOWEVER I AM HAVING A STRONG FEELING ABOUT HOW WE TREAT ANIMALS IN OUR FARMS...TODAY I HAVE THE COTE....!



THE COTE

Confined into a cote
Though rarely feed
You call it zero grazing
To me its total zero

Denying me the ultimate freedom
Condemned me into a cote
Where yesterday left me
And tomorrow will find me

With nothing to call mine
Not even my skin
Hooves
Horns or even
Dung
My kids suffer malnutrition
Yet your kids charming and healthy
My milk their quencher
Leaving me skinny and womby
With no reason to live

Can’t escape this flak
From my sisters and brothers
Facing similar predicament
Let me leave this cote
Or this world all together!

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Dream of a Loving Father still elusive to many of us. This taught me the art of Loving my Mother. Anyway you have a loving daddy? You are Lucky!



LETTER TO MY FATHER

Dear dad,
I don’t know what you will
Say about this,
But, I have to let you know

One: I am not dubious
You sired me- certainly
You did.
Mom can’t lie, nor cheat!
However this fact has been put to
A test,
Moreover, am not alone, we are many of us
From your own blood

It hurts to write this down,
You don’t seem to be my dad
Despite the fact that I resembles you

Dad- Father, you know…..
I detest you!
I hate you!
You did it first
The distance between the two of us
Is enormous, its growing each day
Why are you this mean?
Why is your heart this rotten?
Where did you get this cancer from?

Remember this;
When you beat my love
The many times she cried because of you
How your mistresses scolded her
They did it the way you do it.
Dad- a man called dad, recall all this,
Your brutality to innocent souls
You see why I hate you dad?
You are ballooning each day

Dad I don’t like you to say the least
I will always do
The more you hate my love
The more I hate you

I know you don’t care
But the world cares
I will tell the world
What you are,
What you breaths and what you smells
HATE!
Brutality and bitterness

Had my mom not met you,
She would be happy today
But you mean misery to her
I know non of my sisters and
Brothers would dare tell this
But, certainly they don’t like you.
Just like the way you detests each of them-me

Why did I resemble you?
Why
Fate, who is to blame?
Dad,
Mom?

I like several things about you
Your smile- dry!
Big shoulders
Intellect and academia
But not your heart
Black as coal
And that is my greatest worry
That my love sees’ you in me
And you know what that means

Finally, am giving the world
A copy of this letter
Because I know you care not
Not because I cares either,
But, so that they can get to
Read your epitaph- His Hate Killed His Love
No one will come to bury you
But you’re loving family.
Your loving son,
Ekwe.

WITH THE CURRENT WORLD ECONOMY RECESSION IT IS A COMMON TREND TO ENTER AN OFFICE TO THE OTHER LOOKING FOR JOB. WE HAVE TO SOILDER ON ANYWAY.




RECEPTION

My ears shot awake
As the sharp shrill
Forced it way through
“Wait on the bench”
She repeated

Stalted, I recoiled
Shamefully as I looked for
Some space
The benches having been full
I stood next to the door.

Everybody expect her, stared at me
Then I realized I
Was in a top fashion blazer
Only that it’s green colour didn’t
Match well with my yellow shirt
In the mirrors of their eyes
I saw my worn out collar.

Shying from their stare
My eyes landed on my
Feet
Atleast I had something to be proud of
The Addidas label
Suddenly I realized my blue
Trousers hanging a few inches from
My ankles.

Chameleonly, my pupil
Revolved and met theirs
Many were no better
Only a few were

The room was grave silent
I could ‘hear’ all the heart beats
Some were slow others moderate
But many were fast.

Suddenly!
The door flung open
Atleast I was happy
It saved me further scrutiny.
The lips were red as blood
Coal laced the eye blows
The generous bust half open
This made me a man!

Skirt wide up the knees
Showing more of Eve
Then, behind followed him- Adam?
Flashing bow and tie
Tire and exhaust written all over his face
He was after all ‘busy’ half a day,

He gave the wall clock a quick glance
Then his wrists watch,
Then whispered something to the secretary
They stepped out majestically
He nodded to us, and gave a
Quick smile, as he walked out

Then it dawned on me
She got the job-
And I recalled the advert
‘Women are encouraged to apply’
As we walked out
I no longer wore primary colours
Everyone was in their own world.
Unaware of us,
The cars hooted and horned.


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL WORK BY SIMON MWANGI MUTHIORA.
(I wrote this poem one evenning after i had visited over five publishers and non of them could show an interest with my Short stories.)

Sunday, August 23, 2009

IS IT LOVE GONE SORE? DONKEY THEY CALLS ME...BUT WHO AM I


WHO AM I?

Donkey they call me
They overwork me
Underfeed me
Whip me
Within no time
Death awaits me

Dog is my name
Chain me whole day
At night am free
Many names I get
Stupid!
Silly!
Lazy!
All my names
In the east, I am a hot dish!
But not before am old
They poison me
End of my game

Elephant is my name
Jumbo they calls me
My habitat is ruined
Making it their home
Sending me to doom
My tusks their shoes soles
My skin their wallets
They say my meat is delicious

Fish or Pisces my identity
Each day trying to suffocate me
Factory wastes choking me
Killing me for pleasure
They like me deep flied
At times I donate to make their belts!

Who do I blame?
Who owes the blame?
This shame!

No more fresh water
The streams drying fast
The forest dying out
The deserts encroaching

Where is my ancestors dream?
When streams were full
The jacaranda is almost gone
The splendor gone with it!


UNKNOWN KNOWNS

I don’t know what these are
Knowns unknown
That our society knows
It don’t know
I don’t know whether the
Society knows it does not know
I guess it doesn’t know it knows.

The best thing is that
We all knows something
At least a thing-that there are
Many unknown knowns
That we ought to know
Those unknown to us
Are known to others who we
Know or are unknown to us

There are a few however
Known who knows the unknown
They pretends they don’t know
But we are obviously know they know
Many of the things unknown to us

The few who knows, fears that
Should we know what we don’t?
And is known to them, we shall be equal.
The unkown knowns by those who don’t know,
They know not, will be known to all.

Someone knows how general Kimathi died
It’s known! By those who knew he would die.
Someone knows who shot Pinto Gama
He is unknown to many because he
Died when he was about to be known
He was known better to those who knew him,
Today, this great Sun of Africa is no more
Someone knows why- or better!

J. M. Kariuki followed, his, a different story.
A great known!
He was well known, his is a known case
Those who don’t know should know
From those who knew about this known.

Before long, another known
Tom Mboya, unknown happened to him
Unknown to many of us, he
Knew a lot about us and the unknowns
Knowingly he was eliminated, by,
A few unknowns known.

You know the ninety’s foreign minister
Known as Ouko
Another great known
Whispers! He climaxed the unknown knowns
He knew a lot, they knew he knew
His knowing made him become unkown
Today, known in his grave.

Not long ago, another unknown,
Crispin Adhiambo Mbai,
Until Oranges and Bananas he was little known
Known only to who is who
He is no-longer known to us
His breath flushed out
Who knows? Probably somebody knows who did it.

Recently, just not long ago.
The father of the known Oscar Foundation,
With him, fell a young known scholar- Olulu
Theirs is a different story,
A cry for justice! Elusive though.
How about the incidence, - the Mathira massacre,
Some known masterminded these killings.

And now the millions unknown known
Known only to their fellow unknowns
All known to be victims of few
Who knows!
Uncelebrated heroes and heroines
Engine of the few knowns
Wheel of a nation
You know, to know you have
to be know-to those who know
Unknown knowns, known to few
Known unknowns who we don’t know
And know we know

Copyright (0) Simon Mwangi Muthiora

Lookout, Obama! The Peace Train Goes Sailing Around Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineuard is abuzz over a presidential visit for which locals are even sporting caps featuring an image of the presidential pooch.

But according to The Times of London, the presidential vacation comes at a time when Obama is also catching "a cold wave of unrest".
Three of the top five titles on the New York Times nonfiction hard-back bestseller list are currently anti-Obama screeds ...
and of course they are all attacking Obama from the right:
Currently topping the bestseller list is Culture of Corruption, the latest right-wing outpouring from Michelle Malkin, a popular conservative columnist who recently declared of her book: “What I have done is to help shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington by scouring every inch of this administration, and showing how in a very short span of six months they have betrayed every principle and every promise that they have made.”
That's from Michelle Malkin? Am I the only one who thinks that's funny?
Also selling well is Dick Morris’s new book, Catastrophe, which is summarised as: “Stopping President Obama before he transforms America into a socialist state and destroys the health care system.” Third on the list is Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny, yet another conservative manifesto taking aim at “Barack Nobama”.
Out of the discussion, as always, are much more reality-based criticisms coming from the left, which in my cold opinion are far fewer in number than they ought to be.

I do not expect the corporate media news to mention anti-war protests in conjunction with the presidential family's vacation -- or in any other fashion, for that matter. Nonetheless:

Cindy Sheehan is inviting other proponents of peace to join her for a sail!

It's to be a "shipboard peace summit" and if you read anything about it at all, it'll probably be at some low-traffic blog or another.

Excerpts from Cindy Sheehan:
"I am calling in the Peace Movement to encircle our country with our united demand for an immediate return of all U.S. forces around the globe. Bring every one of our troops home NOW! We need them in our families and towns. We need our troops back to help us fix our broken country. Our ships of state must make their voyage home, with our countrymen out of harm's way."
NOW! Imagine that!!
"This is our time to finally draw an end to America's wars. We must abide by the saying of ancient scriptures: Let peace and peace and peace be everywhere. I declare this to be our new national defense policy."
If only our national defense policy could be so declared.

Want to join Cindy Sheehan aboard a sailing ship of peace?
Sheehan will co-captain daily excursions ... aboard the grand sailing vessel dubbed the SS Camp Casey ... [and invites] peace movement leaders, international news 'anchors' and pro-peace members of the public to sail around Martha's Vineyard [with her] as she holds this seaside peace summit. ...

For information, contact:
Laurie Dobson
lauriegdobson@yahoo.com
207-604-8988

or Bruce Marshall
brmas@yahoo.com
802-767-6079
The full details are here.


To comment on this post, please click here and join the Winter Patriot community.

ScoopIt! please help to put this article on Scoop's front page!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Fafdays is back

Am back. watch this space.

FOR A MOTHERS LOVE


Mom


Sometimes I lost the sunshine
That used to be my shepherd
In this world of calamities
That robbed my maternal love
I keep wondering why:
You left me; in this chaotic world
A burden to the society
That cant give the ultimate rest


Mom, who is worth your smile
In those golden days
Of cheap expensive advices
That washed bleakness of
My life like Jesus washes sins


But, I met a glimmer of hope
An angel, whose rays;
Washed my unhappiness
And brought a wave of passion
That reverberates my peace
Of tones of happiness


(C) 2003 Joseph kariuki

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Drowning In A Giant Cesspool I: Consultation

Hi. Can I help you?

I hope so, Doc! I really do.

What seems to be the problem?

I suffer from a recurring ... sensation ... that I'm drowning ...

That's not uncommon.

... in a giant cesspool!

Well, that is uncommon. Why do you say "a giant cesspool"?

It's so dark, and so foul. I can't see anything. I struggle just to keep my face above the surface. I breathe through my mouth because the smell is so horrible. And every now and then I bump into something that's floating, and I want to grab it, and hold onto it ... but ...

But what?

... but I know I shouldn't ... because it's probably ... well, why do you think I said "cesspool"?

I see ... You say this is a recurring sensation?

Yes.

How often does it come on? When did it start?

It started in November of '63. One day I was an innocent little kid and the sun was shining; the next day the President was dead, everything was dark, and I was up to my neck in slime. It got worse in the summer of '68, and it's never really gone away -- and never got any better, either. But in the past eight years or so, it's been getting a lot worse, and even more frequent, and now it's a constant feature of my life ... I fight it every night.

So, this dream...

Oh no! It's not a dream! It happens when I'm awake.

When you're awake?

Yeah.

What triggers it?

Reading the paper. Watching TV. Listening to the radio. Surfing the net. Talking to idiots who think they're geniuses, and fools who think they know everything. There are other triggers, but these are the main ones.

And how does it happen? Is it always the same? Or is it always different?

Oh no. It's different every time.

Can you give me an example?

Are you kidding? I could give you a thousand.

Let's start with one, shall we?

OK. Let's start at the bottom of the tank. Look: If I lose it for a second -- if I slip under the surface -- my feet get into muck like this:
Why You Should Love Your Carbon Footprint

By: Paul A. Ibbetson (Right Truth Exclusive)

America, with all its imperfections, is still truly the land of opportunity. This has been the unique component that has brought people from around the world, in every way imaginable, and even some ways not. This opportunity to succeed and, yes, to also fail, is a product brought about by individual freedom that has been unique to America since our founding fathers placed their lives on the line to create a better future for themselves and their families....
You see what I mean? This isn't floating. This is not something I would want to hang onto. This is the sort of poison I am trying to get away from!

How do you know it's poison?

First of all, look at the name of the site. Right Truth. It's a contradiction in terms, flashing in neon, right out in the open for all to see. What does that tell you?

What am I supposed to see in it?

"Truth" is not "Right" or "Left"; those are political labels. Principles of "right" or "left", or the use of any other simplistic labels, get in the way of the truth more often than not -- as ideology always does! -- as ideology is intended to do!!

So when I see a site that's openly marked in such a political way, claiming to tell me the truth, I'm more than suspicious. It's as if they don't even have enough guile to pretend to be neutral observers.

And such is the case here. Paul Ibbetson starts with a mass of lies and then builds on them. And what do you think he builds? More lies!

Ibbetson is opposed to Obama's Cap and Trade bill, which I do not support either, but I see no reason to support my position by telling lies -- such as the claim, advanced by Ibbetson, that Obama's deeply flawed policy is
a symptom of the liberal environmental psychosis, of which capitalism and the free market (and the prosperity both bring), are seen as dangerous and destructive. It is through this derangement that CO2, a naturally occurring substance - crucial for life on this planet, can be seen as a poison and we are all told to hate our "carbon footprint."
It is true that CO2 is a naturally occurring substance, but like every naturally occurring substance, there are limits to how much can naturally occur and still leave the planet in a condition to support life -- any life, not to mention complex social systems such as we "advanced" and "prosperous" "free-market" humans have evolved.

Oxygen is naturally occurring, but if we had too much oxygen in the atmosphere, the next spark would ignite us all.

Water is naturally occurring as well, but if the oceans were a mile deeper ... well, you get the idea, don't you?

The larger point is: environmental destruction is real. It's not a liberal derangement. It's happening -- here in a big way, elsewhere in much bigger ways. The rich export their garbage. And even though our economy is in a spin, we are still the rich of the world. We consume the bulk of the resources. We generate the bulk of the pollution. Our prosperity comes at great cost to the planet, and to the other people with whom we allegedly share it. Everybody else in the world knows this. And to deny it ... is ... so typically American!

But then denying reality is typically American. According to Ibbetson, America is "unique" in offering personal freedom, plus the chance to succeed or fail! What could be more stupid? Do they not have personal freedom in any other country in the world? Can foreigners not succeed? Or fail?

To hear Paul Ibbetson tell it, such opportunities are uniquely American, and therefore foreign success stories must be fiction. Forget Ferrari, Mercedes, Toblerone, Abba; they just don't exist for the bottom-feeders who call themselves "Right" and call what they're selling "Truth". If it weren't so poisonous, it would almost be funny.

Well, it may be incorrect, but why do you say it's poisonous?

Because these introductory lies are used as building blocks for the next layer of lies, and they form a foundation for an edifice of fiction that goes on forever ... with nary a glimpse of reality to be found.

Here's another example, from the same website. "Breaking Big Government", by R.J. Godlewski, contains astonishing admissions of ignorance and hatred, such as:
... we are constantly drilled on the perceived injustices that we supposedly unleashed upon the planet.... We would rather be suckered into believing that our nation has done the world great harm instead of understanding that that [sic] world had [sic] suffered us into nearly every war that we fought.
These lies are multi-faceted, multi-layered and multi-purposed.

We are in no sense "constantly drilled". What America has done to the rest of the world is the best-kept secret of all -- never allowed in American schools, from elementary to university; never allowed onto TV news; only mentioned on the most truth-telling of blogs! -- but the whole sorry saga is well-known to those who have bothered to look for it, and, of course, to those upon whom the damage has been inflicted.

The "perceived injustices" that we "supposedly unleashed" include countless millions of innocent people dead; tens of millions of other innocent people displaced; scores of democratic governments overthrown; dozens of other countries thrown into states of violent chaos that have lasted a generation or longer -- sometimes much longer. Add in chemical, biological and nuclear pollution that runs in the hundreds of thousands of tons, and we're just getting started.

Furthermore, nobody wants to believe that our nation has done the world great harm. Liberals and conservatives both deny it outright, albeit in different ways. Most of us can't even be "suckered into" contemplating the truth for a moment, let alone embracing it long enough to begin to understand it.

As I read him, Godlewski was trying to type "the world has suffered us into nearly every war that we have fought", which makes syntactic sense, even though it does little else -- at least on first sight. On the other hand, it may reveal more than Godlewski intended, for surely the world has "suffered" mightily because of nearly every war we have fought.

As for the world having "suffered us into" those wars, one might struggle a bit with the semantics, but as Merriam-Webster makes clear, "suffer" is indeed the correct word, in more than one sense.
1 a : to submit to or be forced to endure
1 b : to feel keenly : labor under
2 : undergo, experience
3 : to put up with especially as inevitable or unavoidable
4 : to allow especially by reason of indifference
It is no doubt true that the world has "submitted" and been "forced to endure" damage it has "felt keenly"; and that it has been "undergoing" and "experiencing" great pain, which to this point has indeed been "inevitable" and "unavoidable", at least as far as the victims have been concerned.

But to claim that the world has "allowed" America to attack and destroy one defenseless country after another for the past 60 or 100 years by reason of "indifference" is as misleading as any lie you'll ever read.

Clearly the international scene is dominated by the often unspoken but occasionally explicit threat: Who wants to be the next Iraq?

Nevertheless, the stack of lies gows ever deeper, and Godlewski even says this:
Since 2006, our Congress and Presidency have exceeded that which caused the colonists to fight back against King George III; the United States to fight back against Nazi Germany; and America to fight back against Soviet Russia. Yet, we remain silent and submissive. We allow the traitor-ship of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and, most recently, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, to quickly dismantle the very foundations of our liberties and rights while we attentively “listen” for explanation of these transgressions. There is no excuse for treachery, no justification for thievery.
I agree with some of his sentiments, but it's obvious that the problem did not begin in 2006 -- when the Democrats "took control" of the Congress -- and that the list of treacherous thieves is not confined to -- and doesn't even begin with -- Peolsi, Reid, Obama and Biden.

It was the Bush administration -- "Conservative" "Republicans" of the "Right" -- who neglected their national security responsibilities enough to allow terrorists to strike us (or worse!) and then used the resulting "crisis" to implement a regime featuring indefinite detention without charge or trial (but with enhanced torture), warrantless surveillance on an unprecedented scale, unprovoked wars against two (or three) (or four!) different countries, and on and on and on ... not that it was all Bush's fault. Most of this has been brewing since Bush I, if not Reagan, if not Truman, if not Wilson, if not Teddy Roosevelt. And all the while they told us that only they -- and not the Democrats -- could be trusted to provide national security. These clowns who had failed us, or traitors who had sold us down the river, made this ridiculous claim, and the media broadcast it far and wide, day and night. None of these problems started with Obama, or in 2006. But of course such a wide historical perspective is not "Right" or "Truth", and so Godlewski is not selling it.

He's selling this, instead:
We permitted the indiscretions of Bill Clinton and the inconsistencies of George W. Bush to open the doorway to transnationalism and the breakdown of the Republic when it is “Big Government” that deserves our wrath.
Could any analysis ever be more shallow? If only all we had to worry about were Clinton's "indiscretions". And what are we to make of Godlewski's claim about Bush's "inconsistencies"? When has a president ever "stayed" such a brain-damaged (or criminally corrupt) "course" so steadfastly?

As for "the doorway to transnationalism", that's something the US "business community" has been trying, not to open but to obliterate, for more than a hundred years. Having bashed it down is an "achievement" both parties can be "proud" of.

Piling on is a foul in football, but in "Right" "Truth" "journalism", piling on is a proven tactic, and so Godlewski throws in one more lie to close the paragraph, saying that it's "Big Government" that "deserves our wrath" when in fact the problem with our government is not its size but its orientation. If the government were large and powerful and working on our behalf, that would be another story -- a very different story indeed.

Perhaps it's asking too much of Godlewski to tell us some truth. By his own admission, he's spent his adult life immersed in the mother of all giant cesspools:
While Mr. Obama was basking in the glow of his liberal professors, I was actively serving my nation in order to keep the Red Menace off Main Street. While he was practicing law, I was defending America. Later, when Mr. Obama left college he went on to become a “community organizer”. When I left the Navy I went on to organize efforts to defeat global terrorism.
Perhaps it's asking too much of Godlewski to understand that there was never any "Red Menace" to Main Street; on the contrary there were many years when the lion's share of the "membership" dues collected by the Communist Party of America came from FBI agents who had been assigned to infiltrate the Party.

Perhaps it's asking too much of Godlewski to understand that he has spent many years "defending America" against a "threat" that never existed at all, except insofar as it was fomented by the Pentagon and her Mossad friends, and exaggerated by politicians and media moguls.

And given all that, perhaps it's not very surprising that a man who has been immersed in toxic waste for his entire life could write:
I begin every day with a simple prayer that God drops a large asteroid upon our planet for I cannot bear seeing a future without my beloved United States of America at its helm.
But I can't help starting every day with a similar prayer -- that God drops bolts of lightning on J. R. Godlewski and every other ignoramus who "thinks" the way he does, and who spreads manure so vile that it sinks to the bottom of the cesspool immediately!

Perhaps you're over-reacting?

Perhaps you didn't understand me! But that's ok, because we're just getting started.

We may just be getting started, but unfortunately our time is up. We can schedule another session, if you like.

Sure. What does it cost? Oh, never mind. Just send my bill to the White House!

To comment on this post, please click here and join the Winter Patriot community.

ScoopIt! please help to put this article on Scoop's front page!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Obama's Pakistan Campaign: Brilliant President Plus Smart Bombs Equal Humanitarian Success

I note with proud amazement a new article from Dubai's Gulfnews dot com, describing the ongoing campaign of bombing attacks by unmanned planes against Pakistan (which the American government and media will not usually talk about -- officially -- but which are widely understood to be undertaken by the CIA at the direction of the president).

Unofficial government sources have been weighing in lately, all unequivocally in favor of continuing the attacks. For instance, a July 14 editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that
Far from being "beyond the pale," drones have made war-fighting more humane.
This point of view may seem a bit strange, given that the "success" claimed on behalf of the drones has been rather spotty. In fact, according to Pakistani government sources, as of April 8 of this year, US attacks on Pakistan had killed 14 al Q'aeda terrorists and 687 civilians.

The success ratio -- with alleged terrorists accounting for nearly one-fiftieth of the people killed -- may have been slightly over-estimated in this government report, since one of the "high-value targets" allegedly killed in these attacks (and included among the 14) is Rashid Rauf, the alleged leader of (or at least an alleged key figure in) the supposedly dangerous transatlantic-airline liquid-bombing plot (which I have discussed at great length in the past: for a technical overview of the plot, see "Ludicrouser And Ludicrouser: The Alleged Liquid Bombing Plot, Revisited Again"; for an explanation of what this means, see "Inadequate Deception: The Impossible Plots Of The Terror War").

Rashid Rauf was reportedly killed in a drone attack in November of 2008, but his body has never been produced and his family's plea for the return of his remains was ignored by the Pakistani government; Rauf's family and his attorney say he may be dead, but they dispute the claim that he was killed then and in that manner.

You don't have to be a lunatic moonbat conspiracy theorist or a Pakistani terrorist-sympathizer to claim that Rashid Rauf probably wasn't killed in a drone attack. Long War Journal proprietor Bill Roggio, who usually gets inside information before the marginally-less-complicit-but-still-criminal mainstream press, declared back in April that Rashid Rauf is still alive and dangerous and plotting against us all.

If that's true, then the numbers would be more like: 13 terrorist leaders dead, and 688 innocent people. And that's giving the official statistician the benefit of every doubt. As Bill Roggio wrote just a few days ago,
Reports of senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in Pakistan have been highly unreliable. In the past, al Qaeda leaders Ayman al Zawahiri, Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, Abu Obaidullah Al Masri, Adam Gadahn, Ibn Amin, and Rashid Rauf have been reported killed in strikes, but these men later resurfaced. Similarly, Sa'ad bin Laden was recently reported killed, but he is now thought to be alive. And Abu Khabab al Masri was reported dead several times before he actually was killed in a July 2008 strike.
Given all the billions we spend on intelligence gathering, and all the billions we spend on developing smart weapons, you might think we should be doing a better job of killing terrorists and sparing innocents. But that's a shallow criticism, because after a shaky start we did start doing a better job, as you can see when I break the statistics down chronologically.

According to the report from Pakistan which I mentioned above,
Two strikes carried out in 2006 had killed 98 civilians while three attacks conducted in 2007 had slain 66 Pakistanis
for a total of 164 civilian deaths -- and no terrorists were among the dead in either 2006 or 2007!

By contrast, according to the same report,
385 people lost their lives in 2008 and 152 people were slain in the first 99 days of 2009 (between January 1 and April 8)
for a total of 537 innocent civilians killed, along with the "14 wanted al-Qaeda operatives".

It may not seem like much, but considering the opening phase of this campaign, these reports reveal a double-dose of success. The total of "wanted al-Qaeda operatives" allegedly killed has ballooned from 0 in 2006-7 all the way to 14 in 2008-9, and at the same time the number of innocents killed per terrorist has dropped from 164:0 (an infinite ratio) to only 537:14 (about 38:1) -- provided of course that Rashid Rauf and all the other terrorists described as dead are actually dead, and were actually terrorists.

Some people may have felt these improvements were good enough, but clearly Barack Obama was not among them. As we know, anything is possible for can-do Americans, and as the newest report from Dubai indicates, we have enhanced our performance significantly since the Pakistani report was compiled in April.

Here's the most amazing part: According to Gulfnews, the number of Pakistani civilians killed since the beginning of 2008 is now only 480! That's down by 57 since the total was 537 in April!

So think about this: In the last four months, we have continued bombing Pakistan, killing (or at least claiming to have killed) more and more "high-value targets", such as Osama bin Laden's son Sa'ad (who in addition to probably surviving the attack in which he was "killed", may not have had anything to do with terrorism at all, other than being sired by an undercover CIA operative), and Baitullah Mehsud (who in addition to probably surviving the attack in which he was "killed", has likely been the CIA's most powerful weapon in South Asia since Osama bin Laden died in 2001).

We have been able to do all this without killing any additional civilians, and -- even more amazingly -- we have managed to revive 57 innocent people who were dead back in April but who are not dead anymore!

This is the sort of "humanitarian intervention" we were always hoping for but could never achieve -- not under Republican scoundrels such as Bush, Bush and Reagan; not under Democratic scoundrels such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Of all the presidents in the history of our great nation, only Obama The Wonderful has managed to turn America's awesome firepower into a healing force.

Clearly, none of this would be possible without Obama's brilliance. He's the first President we've ever had who has been smart enough to use our wonderful smart bombs to their maximum humanitarian potential.

Similarly, none of it would be possible without our fantastic remote-controlled planes and the computerized bombs they carry. The Wall Street Journal was right! Drones have made war-fighting more humane!

What? You doubt me? Oh, please!! You'd have to be awfully naive to think we could raise scores of people from the dead with conventional weapons!

To comment on this post, please click here and join the Winter Patriot community.

ScoopIt! please help to put this article on Scoop's front page!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Anti-Semitism In Action: UK Lowers Terror Threat Level; Guardian Reports On The Change

Is anti-Semitism on the rise? You bet it is, and for good reason. It's well-funded.

Consider, for example, the following piece from Alan Travis, home affairs editor of The Guardian, which appeared on July 20, 2009. The headline reads: "Britain downgrades al-Qaida terror attack alert level". The sub-heading says "Officials reduce assessment of threat from 'severe' to 'substantial', its lowest level since 9/11", and the text of the article reads:
The official assessment of the threat level of an al-Qaida terrorist attack on Britain has been lowered from "severe" – where an attack is deemed highly likely – to "substantial", where an attack is considered a strong possibility.

The decision to lower the official threat level follows a new assessment by MI5 and the joint terrorism analysis centre, based on intelligence gathered in Britain and abroad on how close terrorist groups may be to staging an attack.

The designation of a "substantial" threat level is the lowest since 9/11. It confirms that the swine flu pandemic is now a bigger threat to the life of the nation than terrorism.

The home secretary, Alan Johnson, acknowledged that fact on Sunday, when he told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme that swine flu came "above terrorism as a threat to this country". He said the long-term preparations had involved the whole "Cobra machinery", a reference to the Cabinet's emergency committe [sic] that handles major disasters.

The decision reportedly follows an official assessment of Operation Pathway, one of MI5's biggest counterterrorism campaigns, which led to the arrest of 11 Pakistani men in April. All those arrested were released without charge, and no explosives or weapons were found.

The system of threat levels is made up of five stages. At "critical", an attack is expected imminently. At "severe", an attack is regarded as highly likely. At "substantial", an attack is a strong possibility. At "moderate" an attack is possible but not likely. And at "low", an attack is deemed unlikely.

The home secretary said in a statement: "We still face a real and serious threat from terrorists and the public will notice little difference in the security measures that are in place, and I urge the public to remain vigilant. The police and security services are continuing in their thorough efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity."
Did you catch the anti-Semitism in this piece? Don't feel badly if you didn't; it's very subtle and it takes an expert to detect it. Fortunately, such an expert happened to be available -- eventually. But first, a number of Guardian readers made comments reflecting the obvious absurdity of the situation, such as this from nega9000:
Hang on a minute, weren't we being told just last month that a, quote, 'spectacular' attack was being planned?

Oh, I get it, whoever's our equivalent of Jack Bauer averted said attack in the nick of time, killed all the terrorists and is, as we speak, copping off with the foxy but feisty young agent who was there for no discernable reason other than to offer expository dialogue.

Phew. Was getting worried there for a minute.
and this from metalvendetta:
Let me get this straight, they arrested eleven Pakistanis and couldn't find anything to link them to terrorism, so now the threat is reduced? Could it be that they just arrested the wrong people? Or is this decision based on intelligence - the same kind of intelligence that led them to believe that those eleven innocent men were terrorists in the first place?
Haywire asks:
Does this mean i now have to stop rifling through my neighbours' bins looking for empty 'chemicals' containers which may well have been used for making bombs, as was suggested by a recent publicity awareness campaign? If so, what the hell am i now going to do with my Sundays? Go to church??!!
nimn2003 asks:
Does this mean we no longer need ID Cards and the Database? Thank the Lord for that!
and ChrisWoods answers:
No we still need ID Cards and database because although there is more chance of dying by eating peanuts, the risk of death by terrorism is still too great and we need total surveillance of you all the time and also need to know all your private details, phone conversations & email just to make sure you will be ok in the future.
Do you see it yet? Nobody has mentioned Israel, and nobody has said anything about any Jew or Jews in particular, nor has anyone said anything about Jews in general. But still, for those with the correct viewpoint, there's anti-Semitism dripping from every word.

Eventually -- belatedly but better late than never -- comes along GnosticMind, with a comment to set them all straight:
I am shocked at the inhrently anti semitic slant displayed in the entire article , not to mention in the tone of the public responses-- Only in the Guardian is such blatant anti semitism, and anti israel rhetoric allowed, and even considered manifestly praiseworthy.
The very next comment was from butteredballs, who wrote
@ GnosticMind

please explain yourself
but GnosticMind was busy elsewhere, apparently. And the comments on this article are now closed, so GnosticMind could not come back and explain, even if she wanted to. Not -- as I see it -- that she would want to.

You see? It's so ineffable, you could never explain it.

It's inherent. It's blatant. But it can't be put into words -- at least not by GnosticMind, or any of her cohorts... and not by anybody else who just happens to be working for the Israeli government.

According to an article published July 5th in Calcalist, a Hebrew-language paper based in Tel Aviv,
Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The Foreign Ministry’s department for the explanation of Israeli policy* is running the project, and it will be an integral part of it.
We're reading an English translation prepared by George Malent for Occupation Magazine, courtesy of MuzzleWatch.

In a footnote, Malent explains the asterisk: for "the Foreign Ministry’s department for the explanation of Israeli policy" you can read "the Ministry of Propaganda".

The piece continues:
“To all intents and purposes the Internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” Elan Shturman, deputy director of the policy-explanation department in the Foreign Ministry, and who is directly responsible for setting up the project, says in an interview with Calcalist. “Our policy-explanation achievements on the Internet today are impressive in comparison to the resources that have been invested so far, but the other side is also investing resources on the Internet. There is an endless array of pro-Palestinian websites, with huge budgets, rich with information and video clips that everyone can download and post on their websites. They are flooding the Internet with content from the Hamas news agency. It is a well-oiled machine. Our objective is to penetrate into the world in which these discussions are taking place, where reports and videos are published – the blogs, the social networks, the news websites of all sizes. We will introduce a pro-Israeli voice into those places.
Yes, of course! That's exactly what's missing today, among the endless array of pro-Palestinian websites: a pro-Israeli voice!!
Will the responders who are hired for this also present themselves as “ordinary net-surfers”?

“Of course,” says Shturman. “Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the policy-explanation department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis. They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the Foreign Ministry developed.”
What will they be required to do? Shturman continues:
Their missions will be defined along the lines of the government policies that they will be required to defend on the Internet.
and here -- finally! -- is the explanation of the anti-Semitism in The Guardian.

The Israeli government wants you to be frightened of the militant Islamofascist suicide bomber jihadis and jihadi-wannabes who are everywhere and who are always plotting against you. The Israeli government wants you to be afraid of them, even if they don't exist, not because it's good for you to be afraid of things that don't exist, but because it's good for the Israeli government.

From the correct -- Israeli -- point of view, it's bad enough that Britain has downgraded the threat level. That's a blatant betrayal by a close ally, and it's inherently made worse by the Guardian's having the nerve to report on the government's downgrade. But worse still are the comments, making fun of the British government for taking so seriously -- or pretending to take seriously -- a threat which -- dare I say it? -- has been vastly overblown, if it existed at all.

But how can employees of the Israeli government say this? They can't, unless they are very highly placed, with chutzpah in professional abundance and a swarm of faux-journalists running interference for them.

Ordinary Israeli government employees can merely mouth the party line, as supplied by the Foreign Ministry's department of policy-explanation: the official propagandists cannot say "You must believe this lie even though it's bad for you, because it's good for us."

That would be just a touch too transparent.

Instead we get nonsense like this:
I am shocked at the inhrently anti semitic slant displayed in the entire article, not to mention in the tone of the public responses -- Only in the Guardian is such blatant anti semitism, and anti israel rhetoric allowed, and even considered manifestly praiseworthy.
which -- let's be honest -- is not transparent at all!

To comment on this post, please click here and join the Winter Patriot community.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

QUESTION

If you live for your partner, what do you do when they disappoint you, hurt or leave you for someone else?