This upgrade fixes some minor problems that most users would not have noticed anyway and it includes many, many more features than the other one. I'm not certain if this will effect how members use it, but it's going to make me one happy administrator.
During this upgrade, the shout box will be unavailable. Stay tuned.
Last edited by Kiros; August 9th, 2007 at 08:25 PM.


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Home > Reference > Indian Temples > North Indian Temples > Temples of Punjab > Shri Sheetala Devi Temple
Shri Sheetala Devi Temple
Shri Sheetala Devi Temple also known as a 'Shakti Peeth' is dedicated to Mata Sheetala Devi.
Shri Sheetala Devi Temple is one of the major Hindu pilgrimages in India. This temple is also known as a 'Shakti Peeth' and is dedicated to Mata Sheetala Devi. The idol of Mata Sheetala Devi is made up of metal and coated with gold. The temple is visited by the devotees throughout the year except in the month of July to August, which is the Hindu month of Shravana.
Location of Shri Sheetala Devi Temple
The temple is located at Gurgaon in the culturally and historically rich state of Haryana. The temple is situated near a holy pond. Gurgaon is a suburb of Guru Dronacharya's birthplace.
History of Shri Sheetala Devi Temple
There are a number of legends connected with the present temple of Shri Mata Sheetala Devi. According to one legend, a poor carpenter living in Farukh Nagar had a beautiful daughter of marriageable age. The Mughal ruler of the time had heard of her unspeakable beauty and he expressed his desire to marry the girl. The carpenter was not agreeing to marry her daughter to some other religion and so he appealed to King Surajmal of Bharatpur. The matter was outside his jurisdiction and so he refused to interfere. The carpenter was worried. While returning home he met with Prince of Bharatpur and had a talk with him. The Prince assured him to have a talk with his father King Surajmal. But all went in vain. As a result, the Prince revolted against his father. He went to attack Delhi. On his way, he passed through Gurgaon and pledged to Shri Mata Sheetala Devi to build a temple in her honour if he would return victorious. The Prince won and then he built the temple.
Another legend describes that Prince Bharatpur and his army while proceeding towards Delhi had rested at Ballabhgarh. The horses refused to move any further. The court astrologer was called upon to explain the strange behaviour of the horses. He found that the Prince and his army had paid no obeisance to the Goddess after entering Gurgaon. This had angered Her. The Prince, hearing this, had arranged an elaborate worship of the Goddess and then the horses started moving. The Prince then pledged that he would build a temple on his victorious return.
The third legend describes that on a pilgrimage to Pushkar, there took place a verbal fight between the Queen and the King of Bharatpur. They were arguing on who would first jump into the waters. The man finally took over and it resulted to King Bharatpur attacking the King of Ajmer. The latter was defeated. The Queen was thrilled and urged the King to build the Shri Mata Sheetala Devi Temple and King Bharatpur and Chaudhary Jawahar Singh sanctified the idol made of eight metals in this temple.
Ceremonies of Shri Sheetala Devi Temple
The ceremony that is celebrated at this temple with great veneration is the 'Mundan Ceremony'. A section of the visitors come to the temple for the first hair cutting ceremony or 'mundan ceremony' of their children. They offer the crop of hair at the altar of Goddess.
The other important occasion celebrated in the temple is the 'Sheetala Mata Ki Mela' or 'Mela Masani Shri Mata'. This goddess is believed to help her devotees to ward off smallpox. This is done by a ceremony known as 'Jal Dema'. The devotees have to pass a sleepless night at the temple chanting hymns and songs in honour of the goddess.
Connectivity of Shri Sheetala Devi Temple
The temple can be accessed by air, train and road. The closest airport is IGI airport. The nearest railway station is Gurgaon Railway station and closest metro station is Iffco Chowk Metro station. Road is also well connected; one can travel by buses or hire Auto Rickshaw.
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Eagle Eye: Dena Diorio
She has an open attitude and a talent for slashing budgets. Can she fix Mecklenburg County government?
Greg Lacour,
As Mecklenburg County's new manager, Dena Diorio says she will be transparent and "over-communicate."
All the problems Dena Diorio has to contend with as Mecklenburg County's new manager—the budget, service delivery, a citizenry still chafed by a botched county property revaluation—huddle under one big issue.
"In terms of overall trying to restore trust, county managers have to be transparent about the work that we do," she tells me on a cold January morning at the government center.
"We're going to spend a lot more time putting information out for the board to see, for the public to see."
Diorio, whom the county commissioners named manager on December 17, doesn't mention her predecessor, Harry Jones. She doesn't need to. Jones's opacity and standoffish attitude were primary reasons for his firing a year ago.
So here's Diorio, the longtime financial director, left to repair the county's relationship with taxpayers, plenty of whom were overcharged in the 2011 revaluation and have reason to distrust local government. She has to mend that breach quickly, by finishing the review of the reval and refunding taxpayers who were overcharged.
Contact Dena Diorio at 704-336-2228 or
Dena.Diorio@
MecklenburgCountyNC.gov.
"That's a project I started as assistant county manager, and I'm committed to seeing that through," she says. "We will over-communicate as opposed to under-communicate. The more the public knows and the more the board knows about what we're doing, the better off we're going to be."
Diorio says she wants to make county government function better, which informs another goal: a system that consolidates the delivery of all human services—the Department of Social Services, Public Health, and Community Support Services—to allow citizens to access them more easily.
It sounds like dull administrative stuff, but that's why it's important. It's what we pay people like Diorio for—efficiency that saves taxpayers time, money, and energy.
"If you need services," she says, "you should be able to get them."
Diorio has also shown a willingness to read the fine print. Around 2000, when she was budget director for the city of Stamford, Connecticut, she noticed the city's telecommunications bill seemed high. So she combed through the itemized records and discovered the city was on the hook for dead and unused lines, along with other charges no one had bothered to question.
"I remember sitting in on a pretty tough negotiating session with her and the company, and she was pointing out the charges: 'Well, what about this?' " says her former Stamford boss, Tom Hamilton. "I think they were surprised she had done her homework. They were a little sheepish about it: 'OK, OK, you're right.' And I didn't tell her to look into that. She just kind of picked it up and ran with it."
Mecklenburg County is a far heavier ball. Hamilton's story is a good sign, though—an indication that Diorio's willing to bring the same sort of diligence and tenacity to the long run she has ahead of her.
This article appears in the March 2014 issue of Charlotte magazine.
Categories: Opinion, The Buzz


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Q: Excel - creating csv file I want to enter the data manually in a excel file and generate the below CSV File format.
Problem is I entered the data in 11 rows(Excel).  First row has 10 columns. Second row has 15 columns. Last row has 4 columns.  Some columns can have empty data also.  When i save the file as csv file first line and last line has 15 columns.  How can i generated the csv file. what i need to do to include the empty columns in the csv file
H,TEST_w99999999999_f101203001,03/12/2010,02:45:28,MIS,MISC,MIS,NEW,,
D,,0027940622,,,MISC,030100059566901-000000452312108,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,57.25,,
D,,0027940622,,,MISC,030100059566901-000000452312109,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,56.00,,
D,,2000003318,,,MISC,030200059566901-000000452308586,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,0.92,,
D,,2000004473,,,MISC,030300059566901-000000452176305,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,-0.45,,
D,,2000004439,,,MISC,030300059566901-000000452243016,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,-38.28,,
D,,2000003460,,,MISC,030300059566901-000000452251974,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,-267.77,,
D,,2000006846,,,MISC,030300059566901-000000452300634,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,-0.05,,
D,,2000006846,,,MISC,030300059566901-000000452300636,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,0.05,,
D,,2000004059,,,MISC,030300059576013-000000452317628,MIS,03/12/2010,,,1,272.50,,
T,TEST_w99999999999_f101203001,9,80.17

A:    Sub SaveAsCSV()
      ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
          "C:\NewCsvDile.csv", FileFormat:=xlCSV, _
           CreateBackup:=False
   End Sub

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With the recent heavy snowfall across much of West Virginia, the approaching spring season has turned our attention to the potential for flooding. The NWS offices that serve West Virginia recognize that the flood threat this spring will be higher than in previous years with the deep snow cover, especially across the northern and eastern sections of the state.
In order to increase the public's awareness of this and other spring/summer weather threats, Governor Manchin will be declaring the week of February 28 - March 6 as West Virginia Hazardous Weather Awareness Week. Governor Manchin is tentatively scheduled to present the proclamation at 1030am on Thursday March 4. The NWS, in conjunction with WV DHSEM and WV Citizen Corps, will issue information throughout that week about severe weather and flooding in West Virginia.
Please click here for more details on how to prepare for hazardous weather.


Gov. Neil Abercrombie today is scheduled to introduce a new coordinator for state programs on programs addressing homelessness. Star-Advertiser.
Governor Neil Abercrombie will make the announcement Friday afternoon when he signs off on a senate bill that will officially establish the Hawai'i interagency council on homelessness. KHON2.
State Lawmakers established a 9-member Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force last year to examine why Native Hawaiians are overrepresented in our prisons and criminal justice system. The Task Force is conducting a two-day summit this week to solicit public input and recommendations from community leaders. Hawaii Public Radio.
Laura Thielen is fighting for her identity as a Democrat. But campaign contributions to both Republicans on the ticket for governor in 2010 could undermine her claim. Civil Beat.
More than a year after a tsunami devastated Japan, killing thousands of people and washing millions of tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. government and West Coast states don't have a cohesive plan for cleaning up the rubble that floats to American shores. Associated Press.
New figures show 1 in 6 high school students in Hawaii report being bullied online or via text messages, and 20 percent say they have been bullied while on school property. Star-Advertiser.
State roundup for June 8. Associated Press.
Oahu single-family homes' median price soared last month to its highest level in nearly five years and is approaching its all-time high. Star-Advertiser.
The median price of a home on Oahu rose 11.6 percent year over year to $664,000 in May while sales volume remained unchanged with a total of 243 purchases, according to the Honolulu Board of Realtors. Pacific Business News.
Mayor Peter Carlisle went on the offensive in the race for Honolulu mayor Thursday, criticizing opponent and former Gov. Ben Cayetano for embracing a segment of a Bus Rapid Transit plan Cayetano had dismissed 10 years ago when he was in office. Star-Advertiser.
Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle Thursday blasted the bus rapid transit plan being pushed by his mayoral opponent, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, as an alternative to rail transit. Hawaii News Now.
Even under Honolulu rail chief Dan Grabauskas' own timeline, a deal guaranteeing $1.55 billion in federal funding might not be done until after the election that could see anti-rail candidate Ben Cayetano elected mayor. Civil Beat.
Emails Show City's Rail PR Firm Personally Targets Council Member Cachola in Lobbying Efforts, Ad Campaigns. Hawaii Reporter.
Honolulu's pro-rail mayor is accusing anti-rail challenger Ben Cayetano of knowing key components of Cayetano's revived bus rapid transit plan will not work. KHON2.
A call to accommodate population growth with more housing won out over a desire to protect farmland Thursday, as the state Land Use Commission approved the bulk of the planned Koa Ridge community with 5,000 houses, a hospital and a commercial center in Central Oahu between Mililani and Waipio. Star-Advertiser.
Honolulu Judge's Redactions Hide APEC Shooting Details. Civil Beat.
On Wednesday, the Honolulu City Council passed an operating budget for fiscal year 2013 that contains $100,000 for Chinatown to repair or replace broken security cameras. KITV4.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has announced plans to construct a 40,000-square-foot medical office building in Honokhau, North Kona, to replace its existing clinic in Kailua-Kona that services 22,000 Big Island members. Pacific Business News.
Promised for early 2014, Kaiser Pemanente Hawaii will open a new state-of-the-art clinic in North Kona, officials announced Thursday. West Hawaii Today.
Construction on a public shooting range at Puuanahulu could begin as early as 2014, a consultant told about 50 West Hawaii residents Wednesday evening. West Hawaii Today.
Environmental group Friends of Lana'i wants the state to require that Hawaiian Electric Co. complete a long-range statewide energy plan before being allowed to seek bids for an undersea cable developer and other large renewable projects. Maui News.
The state Natural Area Reserves System Commission voted Monday on Oahu to recommend a two-year extension of the closure of environmentally sensitive areas of the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve in South Maui - one year more than an advisory group to the reserve had wanted. Maui News.
Although the Maui County Council's fiscal 2013 budget isn't "all sunshine and apple pie" because it includes hikes in property taxes, water rates and bus fares, council members said Wednesday that they passed a "responsible" $549.9 million budget plan for the county. Maui News.
Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of "The Descendants," is a special guest artist today at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort on Kalapaki Beach. Garden Island.
Longtime community leader and former Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Trustee Walter Ritte has announced his candidacy for the At Large seat for OHA. Molokai Dispatch.


Cafe Paradiso is possibly my favourite restaurant in Cape Town.
Delicious food, a bakery, awesome coffee, a selection of divine wines, friendly staff, a lunch buffet and free wifi, what more could you ask for?
Outside seating, a little romantic courtyard at the back and two cosy fireplaces inside, perfect for dinner, lunch with friends or a quick breakfast.
The Winter lunch buffet runs from Monday to Friday.
R35 a small plate and R45 for a large plate, including soup.
Fresh salads, stews, pasta, bakes, freshly baked bread and pates, you can't go hungry here.


Edgar is in the basement.
Lukas is about 33% cuter than Claire.
I need to hide these Christmas presents somewhere that Stanly can't find them.
Do you like Billy's tattoo?
Tammy doesn't even know how to say "thank you" in French.
I want Sanity to have a chance for a decent life.
Raanan took a nap for thirty minutes.
Kari knows the kind of risks involved.
I can't get along with Ilya.
Patty was having a great time.
Why isn't Hirotoshi doing something?
Marlena didn't have the courage to go there alone.
Kit asked me why I couldn't go.
Brender often stays up most of the night.
Barbara replied that he'd be glad to go.
If only Stefan could see you now.
Shahid went to see Andy.
I didn't know about Olof.
Steven knows a lot about Ray.
Hello everyone! My name is Seymour.
You must know Ronald very well.
Jennifer is really hard to get along with.
Jeffrey is in town for the weekend.
Kusum and Calvin have always gotten along well.


Meet Clint Harp, carpenter and craftsman from "Fixer Upper" on HGTV and "Wood Work" on DIY Network Saturday, 2/9/19 at 3 pm and Sunday, 2/10/19 at noon. Clint will delight audiences, sharing stories and discussing his new book, "Handcrafted." Seating is limited.
Saturday 7 – 10 am.
Enjoy a live broadcast of Lou Manfredini's HouseSmarts Radio Show on WGN, sponsored by Perma-Seal Basement Systems and Lindemann Chimney and Fireplace. Lou's vibrant, hands-on and humorous approach is a great tool for every homeowner when it comes to maintenance, repair and home improvement. Meet Lou Manfredini in the Perma-Seal Booth #505 in the Mega Center on Saturday from 11:30-12:30.
Explore new trends in Kitchen Design with the talented and accomplished, Christine Jurs of Advance Design Studio. Christine will share expert insights on what's new in the industry as well as basic design strategies for creating successful, appealing and functional spaces.
Join Jenny Rice of Icon Building Group and discover design strategies to create the bathroom of your dreams. Explore new technologies, surfaces and styles and learn design tips from this savvy, insightful expert.
Join JC Licht's Julie Diorio, Designer and Lead In-Home Color Consultant, for an exciting exploration of paint color trends. Julie's enthusiasm and expertise for color palettes and light are excellent tools for homeowners building a successful color story in home surroundings.
Register for your chance to win a $1000 home show gift certificate to use with the exhibitor of your choice. No purchase necessary. Registration and contest rules are located in the Lobby of the Ballroom and attached here.
Workshops and Attractions are included with admission. Seating is limited.


text:
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May312017May 31, 2017May 30, 2017NoCommentby micmaca25
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back as Terminator
Posted in Actors, Movies
As the actor and former governor of California prepares to turn 70, he's also preparing for his comeback as The Terminator. At the eve of his 70th birthday, Arnold Schwarzenegger confirms he is doing the sixth film of The Terminator.
He said he has recently met with producer James Cameron to initially discuss the 6th installment of the blockbuster series.
"It is back. It is moving forward. He (Cameron) has some good ideas of how to continue with the franchise. I will be in the movie," Schwarzenegger revealed.
The latest movie Terminator Genisys was released in 2015. The next film is expected to be out in 2019. Cameron, who is producing the film is reportedly teaming up with Deadpool director Tim Miller and Skydance director David Ellison.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron
Cameron originally sold the rights to the original film to Gale Anne Hurd with an agreement that he will still be allowed to direct the film. After directing Terminator 2: Judgment Day which grossed $519.8 worldwide, he stepped away from the franchise. In 2019, he will regain his rights over The Terminator.
There is still much to be discussed on what form the movie will take but with Schwarzenegger's return, fans will surely look forward to watching it.
Tags:Arnold SchwarzeneggerJames CameronThe Terminator
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"The Scourge of Bendis"
by: Protoclown
Brian Michael Bendis is one of the most popular and prolific writers currently working in the comics business. He's also probably the most overrated. I liked Bendis well enough when I first discovered him, back when he was writing Sam and Twitch for Todd McFarlane (and it was a much better book than Spawn, although that's not saying much). He was a fresh new voice in the comic writing stable, but next thing I knew it seemed like there wasn't a single book at Marvel Comics that Bendis wasn't involved with in some way. And now he's gotten stale due to overexposure.
These are just a few of the million books that Bendis has written for Marvel.
The thing about Bendis is that he's not necessarily a bad writer�it's just that his overexposure has taken him well outside the realm of where his strengths lie. He's pretty good at writing crime books, and now that his run on Daredevil is over, he's only doing one of those (Powers). He used to be pretty good at writing Spider-Man as a teenager (in Ultimate Spider-Man), before he started making him sound Jewish. And if Spider-Man, like Bendis, was Jewish, I wouldn't have a problem with that. But he's not. And even if he does live in New York, where it's probably fairly common to hear Yiddish slang on the street, it still feels just as out of place to hear Spider-Man speak it as it would to hear him suddenly start spouting off ebonics or cockney rhyming slang. It just plain doesn't fit the character. Peter Parker is now dating a Jewish girl (Kitty Pride, the X-Men's Shadowcat) and she doesn't speak any Yiddish� only he does.
Okay, so he said "oy" a couple times. No big deal, right? I can let him get away with that.
But "shmendrick"? No, I don't believe for a minute that anyone who's not Jewish is going to have any idea what that word means.
Speaking of out-of-character dialogue, let's take a look at this Wolverine moment that really just speaks for itself:
I don't care what kind of drugs Wolvie is on�he could be tripping balls after drinking an entire swimming pool of PCP�there is simply no way those words would ever come out of Wolverine's mouth in a single sentence�in any order. It's simply not possible.
And I ask you, has posh Emma Frost ever sounded more dignified than she does when Bendis puts words in her mouth?
As I recall, Bendis never used to have this problem before Ultimate Spider-Man really took off. But he's starting to have so many bizarre "what the fuck!?" completely out-of-character moments that I feel like I'm reading some 12-year-old kid's Marvel fan fiction based on his role-playing game experiences. I have a theory about this. Bendis has such an extreme hard-on for Spider-Man that the more he writes, the more his characters all sound like a 15-year-old Peter Parker (except for Peter Parker who is starting to sound like an old Jewish man). Eventually, every single line of dialogue by every character is going to sound exactly like this. My guess is that these crazy out-of-character moments are just bumps along the road as the transition to Total Parker Takeover takes place.
One of the more controversial books Bendis is writing right now is The New Avengers, which has gone for 17 issues now and has still not gotten particularly interesting. The problem is that Bendis took the old Avengers team and replaced many of them with characters that we were seeing too damn much already. So now characters like Wasp and Giant Man have nary a mention in any Marvel titles, while Spider-Man and Wolverine have added their zillionth in an already long list of monthly appearances. And to make things even more boring yet, Spider-Woman appears on the team along with Spider-Man, because apparently one spider-themed hero just isn't enough.
I can just see how the conversation between Bendis and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada went now:
QUESADA: Alright Brian, who's in your New Avengers line-up?
BENDIS: Spider-Man.
QUESADA: Christ, he's in a lot of books as it is. But he sells well, so sure. Who else?
BENDIS: Spider-Woman.
QUESADA: Okay, you can have her on the team too. Who else?
BENDIS: Spider-Girl.
QUESADA: Okay, look. You've got ENOUGH Spider-People on the team as it is. This is the New Avengers, not the New Arachnids. Pick someone else.
BENDIS: Venom.
QUESADA: NO!
BENDIS: I like spiders.
QUESADA: I know you do, Brian. I know you do.
Even from a purely visual standpoint, the team is boring, with three of the members now having a red-and-gold color scheme (Iron Man and the Spider-Twins) and two of the others having a blue-and-gold color scheme (Wolverine and Sentry). One of the main reasons superheroes wear such outlandishly colorful costumes is so they can be easily differentiated from their teammates. It keeps the art visually interesting, and helps the reader figure out who the hell they're looking at, even if the artwork for that issue happens to be really bad. Nowadays when you look at a battle scene involving the team, all you see is a muddled sea of red, gold, and blue spandex attached to god knows whose firmly muscled buttocks.
Evil beware! The shrunken-headed heroes are on the case! I mean, look
at Captain America's head, seriously. It looks like a pin stuck in a potato.
Bendis has proven himself to be much better at writing books about one or two main characters rather than those involving a large cast, so he's probably not the best person to write a major team book like New Avengers anyway. If you want an example, take a look at Bendis's House of M series, which was supposed to impact the entire Marvel Universe, but really only focuses on a small handful of characters, leaving the others all but forgotten in the background. Now compare that to DC's Infinite Crisis, written by Geoff Johns. Johns really knows how to balance an insanely large cast of characters, giving everybody ample page time while still bouncing around between various divergent plot threads, and conveying rather well the idea that the entire universe of heroes is involved in the events. Give them both a read, and you'll see a world of difference in their writing styles in terms of handling major universe-wide catastrophic events.
Bendis has a massive hard-on for a very small group of characters in the Marvelverse, working them into just about every story he writes, whether their presence is appropriate to the situation or not. I've decided to measure his level of affection for each of these characters using what I like to call the Bendis Bone-o-meter�.
Like Spinal Tap's amps, Spider-Man goes up to 11. There is nobody in the Marvel Universe that Bendis has a bigger man-crush on. If Bendis were to someday sign an exclusive contract with DC Comics, you can bet your ass that he'd find some way to work Spider-Man into his stories over there. Rumor has it that Bendis sent out Spider-Man valentines this year, and by that I mean they were all addressed to Spider-Man.
Second only to Spider-Man, Wolverine finds a way to keep popping up in many of the books Bendis writes. In fact, he and Spider-Man teamed up several times in his stories before becoming New Avengers teammates. So now this "loner" who doesn't like to work with others is on the X-Men AND the Avengers. At any given moment in Marvel continuity, Wolverine can be found in New York fighting alongside the X-Men and the Avengers, in Japan or Canada seeking out his past, and in the Savage Land fighting dinosaurs. In fact, the team recruited Wolvie after bumping into him in the Savage Land, because it's a rule that anytime anyone goes to the Savage Land for anything, they have to encounter Wolverine.
Tony Stark, Marvel's resident drunkard, finds himself high up on Bendis's favorites list. He always seems to dispense sage-like, fatherly advice to the other heroes and has an annoying tendency to avoid using contractions when he speaks.
Despite having an obviously huge fascination with Daredevil, Bendis showed a surprising amount of restraint by not having him join the New Avengers team. They did try to recruit him to the team however, where in a fit of angst he told them that he was a loner and there was no way he could join them.
Even though he killed off Hawkeye, it's pretty clear now that he always intended to bring him back in the House of M storyline. I'll probably get shot with an acid-tipped arrow by some obsessed fanboy for saying this, but I've never seen the appeal of Hawkeye. I'm one of the rare people who finds DC's Green Arrow to be the cooler archer.
Whereas Tony Stark plays the part of the alcoholic dad of the Bendisverse, Steve Rogers is the kind of dad who can make you pee your pants in shame by standing in front of a backdrop of the American flag and staring you down, all because you weren't patriotic enough to satisfy him. It seems that if Cap stands around posing with his shield long enough, he'll eventually make the bad guys cry.
Bendis did for Luke Cage's career what Tarantino did for John Travolta's. Which is cool and all, because for years Luke Cage didn't get any page time at all. Now he's getting so much page time that I'm actually starting to get sick of him. And I like Luke Cage too. I don't want to be sick of him.
Spider-Woman is another character who is having a resurgence in popularity, largely because of Bendis. Frankly, I'd much rather have her on the Avengers than Spider-Man, because she definitely fits into a group more than he does.
To be fair, this character is Bendis's own creation, so he has every right to use her as much as he likes. And I loved following her through her book Alias, where she first appeared. Then that book went away, and she started showing up in The Pulse instead, where she couldn't curse anymore. Then she got pregnant, and then she got really annoying by getting herself into dangerous situations, and doing everything short of running into the middle of a superhero fight just so she could berate the combatants for fighting around a pregnant woman.
Bendis apparently has no love for this burly Viking god, as after his death around the time of the Avengers: Disassembled story arc, there was barely even a mention of him. My understanding is that his death took place in his own book, but Bendis couldn't even spare a "Hey, where's Thor? What!? He's fucking dead? That's a bummer, man" in the Avengers title.
For someone who reputedly excels at writing realistic dialogue, Bendis not only makes most of his characters sound the same, but he frequently has pairs of characters fall into the same formulaic speech pattern "rapports" with one another. Anyone who's read more than a handful of Bendis books knows exactly what I'm talking about. For those of you who haven't, it goes a little like this:
ME: Man, I hate that Bendis dialogue thing.
YOU: Bendis dialogue thing?
ME: Yes.
YOU: He has a thing?
ME: He does.
YOU: A dialogue thing?
ME: Yes. A dialogue thing.
YOU: I can't say I've noticed.
ME: You wouldn't.
And so on and so forth, over and over again. I don't know how many conversations I've read by him that are built in that same annoying way. Most people don't talk like that, but in the Bendisverse, apparently everyone talks like that. So now I'm going to show you how to write dialogue the Bendis way. This is his secret formula.
STEP 1: PERSON "A" MAKES A STATEMENT.
STEP 2: PERSON "B" REPEATS STATEMENT AS A QUESTION.
STEP 3: PERSON "A" GIVES BRIEF AFFIRMATION, WHILE OFFERING NO EXPLANATION.
STEP 4: PERSON "B" REPEATS QUESTION IN A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT WAY, IN A FEEBLE EFFORT TO PUMP PERSON "A" FOR MORE INFORMATION.
STEP 5: PERSON "A" GIVES ANOTHER CURT AFFIRMATION, WHILE STILL OFFERING UP NO EXPLANATION FOR THE STATEMENT.
STEP 6: REPEAT STEP 4.
STEP 8: PERSON "B" DISMISSES PERSON "A" IN SOME WAY
STEP 9: PERSON "A" PLAYFULLY INSULTS PERSON "B" OR MAKES A JOKE AT THEIR EXPENSE.
STEP 10: BOTH CHARACTERS REVEL IN HOW WITTY AND CUTE THEY ARE BEING BY TALKING IN THIS ANNOYING WAY.
In a recent story arc of Bendis's creator-owned title Powers (which is the best book he's currently working on), he's framed the action of the story with these seemingly unrelated stage rants given by random people who have nothing to do with the story. Presumably, these rants are given in a comedy club, although none of them have been remotely funny (just ranty). I don't know why anyone would go to a club to hear people whine about shit that annoys them if they're not going to at least be funny about it, but one of these rants was a thinly veiled rant by Bendis himself about people who anonymously talk trash about him on the internet. There's a lot of that going on, and Bendis obviously revels in the attention (and if you don't believe me, read a few issues of the Powers letter column�he encourages these people). But in the interests of not being anonymous, on the off chance that Bendis ever sees this article, my name is Jason Grunert, and I live in Richmond, Virginia. There. I'm not anonymous anymore.
And again, Bendis isn't exactly a bad writer. But he should never, ever be compared to the likes of someone like Alan Moore, who I've seen him compared to several times. Bendis is a case of a decent writer who blew up too big too fast, and I think the quality of his writing has taken a severe nose-dive as a result of his newfound popularity. Compare his early graphic novel Torso with his recent work in Ultimate Spider-Man and I wager you'll find a world of difference between their levels of quality. Bendis needs to get over his own popularity and get back into the creativity that he used to be capable of.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans brag about how Joss Whedon is so good at writing dialogue that you can often take a single line by a character, out of context, and still identify who said the line. Even if you haven't seen the episode it came from. There are online quizzes out there based on this premise. My argument is that with Bendis's dialogue you won't know your Luke Cage from your Spider-Man. So in the interest of testing that theory, I've created this brief BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS DIALOGUE QUIZ! Enjoy!
1) "Yes! Yes! He is ALWAYS alive!! His legs are broken and he shattered a rib! But he ALWAYS LIVES!!!"
a) Luke Cage
b) Daredevil
c) Sentry
d) Captain America
2) "Wow, woof! I can't believe that worked... I saw it in a Jackie Chan movie. Jackie Chan is my newWHATCHA!!"
a) Iron Fist
b) Steven Seagal
c) Spider-Man
d) Luke Cage
3) "Aaagghh!! My baby!! My baby!! I'm PREGNANT!! HE KILLED MY BABY!! Oh God!!! He killed my baby!!"
a) Iron Man
b) The Hulk
c) Jessica Jones
d) Dr. Strange
4) "And the next time you even THINK about comin' around here trying to sell that stuff I want you to remember that name!! Say it�SAY MY NAME!!"
b) Spider-Man
c) Jesus Christ
d) Daredevil
5) "House of Magnus!! House of Magnus??!! Logan, we're gonna�we're going to find Magneto, and oh! That is IT!! THIS IS IT!! We're going to KILL him! AND his kids!"
a) Hawkeye
b) Spider-Woman
c) She Hulk
d) Emma Frost
6) "Listen�I got some mutates on my tail for a good six hours now. I was keepin' them at arm's length but happy pants over here broke my stride."
a) Wolverine
b) Nick Fury
c) Hawkeye
d) Cyclops
7) "Listen to me, all you B-list jokers have bitten off a #$@% load more than you can chew�I already called in the cavalry and an army of gun-totin' S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are about to swarm right up your armored patooties! So do yourselves a big favor now... and stand down!"
a) Black Widow
b) Captain America
c) Spider-Woman
d) Nick Fury
8) "You're an idiot monkey!! The entire city hangs in the balance over what happens here and you're sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!!"
a) Spider-Man
b) Moon Knight
c) Black Cat
d) Namor
9) "You listen! You sanctimonious piece of crap!! You listen! You're dead to me! I've never said those words in my whole #$@%ing life, but I'm saying them to you. You're dead to me!"
a) Nick Fury
b) Jessica Jones
c) Galactus
10) "Sucks to be you, peppy! Because I can absorb all kinds of energggAAGGHH!!"
c) Ms. Marvel
d) Scarlet Witch
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This unit described a unique and not often addressed aspect of financial literacy, the psychology of money. As you learned, people act and react differently to the different demands that money poses for them. This course focuses heavily on the understanding of the emotions and the feelings that money generates in the individual. Critical to the development of this section and to your control of your money matters are understanding terms like self worth, buyer's remorse cycle, stress, rational and irrational beliefs, and the A-B-C-D's of your own believes. Throughout Education Cents, every unit will have an informative head section and a revealing heart section. The heart section will be based on the ideas discussed in this first unit. If you properly control your feelings, you can also control your money.
The last step to complete the Psychology of Money Course is to test your knowledge with a quiz. Just click "Next" to begin your quiz.


text:
Category Archives: Cleaning
What Trump in 2017 and My Dad in 1984 Have In Common
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Cleaning, culture, Eclectic, High Rise Buildings, Jimme, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, New York City, Politics, race, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Work, Youth
45, American Narcissism, Delusions of Grandeur, Father-Son Relationship, Internalized Racism, Jealousy, Materialism, Resentment, Self-Loathing, White Supremacy
Donald Trump greets supporters after a rally, Mobile, Alabama, August 27, 2015. (Mark Wallheiser/Getty via http://www.telegraph.co.uk/).
The first time I ever heard of Donald J. Trump was while working for my father in the fall of 1984. It was in the context of having to work for our money with my dad from August until December that year. Not to mention, Walter Mondale's sad and forlorn presidential run, Jesse Jackson's "Hymietown" sound bite, and my Mets making themselves relevant again with Strawberry and Gooden. So many Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday mornings in that part of the year, me and my brother Darren spent on the 2 Subway going to the Upper West Side to clean co-ops and condos, offices and hallways with so many industrial cleaning and buffing machines. And usually, my father was either drinking, hung over, or jonesin' for a drink during these nearly weekly weekend job duties for nearly four months.
My father would often name drop as part of his constant yammering about "The City," and how he was "a big shot doctor an' lawyer" working carpet cleaning machines on the eighteen floor of a co-op off 68th and Broadway or 77th and Columbus. For two weekends, we worked the Upper East Side off the 86th Street Subway stop. It was during those weekends on the blocks between White Manhattan and Spanish Harlem that I learned who really ran the city.
King of New York (1990) with Christopher Walken screen shot. (http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/).
"You know who really run dis city? Milstein," my father said, as if I had asked him about New York's movers and shakers. I remained silent as I worked the buffing machine in an office building lobby.
"But dere 'nother one comin' up. That Donal' Trump a good bid-ness man dere! Yep, yep!," my father continued while waging his right index finger in admiration.
I didn't think much of the comment at that moment, because it was part of my dad's typical "Lo' at dis po' ass muddafucka! I make fitty million dollas a week!" delusional diatribes. But soon after, I remembered seeing something about Trump and his first wife Ivana in the Daily News. It was probably related to one of his business deals, either for the eventual Trump Tower, the hotel deal near Grand Central, or his fight with Koch over being snubbed out of the work for the new Jacob Javitz Convention Center. I thought nothing of the man beyond the truth for people like me, people who tended to be repulsed by narcissistic self-aggrandizers seeking attention and praise.
But in those Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous times, it was obvious Trump believed in host Robin Leach's closing words. "champagne wishes and caviar dreams." The man always talked about making deals, making money, and living as if he were a single man with an insatiable libido and without kids. More than once, in listening to this unseemly rich man, I thought, "Sounds just like Jimme."
To think that an eventual US president would have the same ways of viewing the world as an inebriated man in his mid-forties is beyond troubling. At the very least, it makes me wonder what kind of drugs 45 has snorted over the years. But it also is proof of the pervasiveness of American narcissism. That a Black man with a seventh-grade education — not to mention, an alcoholic with a $30,000-a-year job — could see himself as a "big shot" in the same way as 45 sees himself as a "successful businessman" with at least four bankruptcies, a $200 million trust fund and a $1-million loan courtesy of his dad to his credit. It points to a society that seethes with an egocentric penchant for money, riches, and power to lord over others. It points to a people who self-loathe so much that jealousy can be normalized, that using precious psychological, emotional, spiritual, and even material resources to one-up themselves over unnamed others whom they see as their lessers is an everyday thing.
Luckily, my father sobered up about whom he had been, his narcissism, the many slights he absorbed as a late-era Black migrant in New York, the many jealousies he harbored, and his own self-hatred. And that was all before he stopped drinking at the end of 1997. That doesn't mean that my father now qualifies for sainthood. But he is at least in touch with who he is, and the need to be a better person every day.
Losing brain cells, September 27, 2013. (http://www.dailyhealthpost.com).
45, though, hasn't grown a single self-reflective neuron in the past thirty-three years. Matter of fact, as evidenced with so many verbal explosions over Charlottesville and "Rus-shur," 45 may have destroyed at least five billion neurons since Ivanka was a toddler. America, to its collective detriment, has a 71-year-old less psychologically able to be president than my father would've been during the worst of his alcoholic times. What makes this unsurprising, sad, and anger-inducing, is that the US has had at least a half-dozen other presidents who also shouldn't have been trusted to sit next to my dad and remain civil at the same "Shamrock Bar" on East 241st Street, where he frequently gave away his paychecks.
So America, 45 is "a shame and a pitiful," as my father would say. A shame to the US and the world stage, and a pitiful mess for anyone to watch in action.
On the Levi Brothers and Trump-esque People
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Cleaning, culture, Eclectic, High Rise Buildings, Jimme, Movies, My Father, New York City, Politics, Pop Culture, race, Upper West Side, Work, Youth
45, Christopher Walken, Crash-and-Burn, Crassness, Criminal Activity, Exploitation, John Gotti, King of New York (1990), Levi Brothers, Narcissism, Ostentatious, President Donald J. Trump, Racism, Stupidity
Darth Sidious, Star Wars VI (The Return of the Jedi) screen shot, 1983/1997. (LusoEditor via Wikipedia). Qualifies as fair use due to lower resolution and subject matter.
There are a plethora of people to pick from in making comparisons between President 45 and examples of narcissistic evil operating in positions of leadership. Andrew Jackson, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, 45's hero Vladimir Putin, Jacob Zuma, and Recep Erdoğan all have served as examples in op-eds and other articles over the past couple of years. And these are all potentially good picks. Mercurial, vengeful, and even erratic actions, combined with dehumanizing speeches and screeds, all characterize this cabal of soft despots and fascist dictators, and match 45 well.
But the level of ostentatious stupidity that 45 has exhibited as President and a presidential candidate has made think of people closer to home. After all, 45 has always been a New Yorker, a crass rich White guy who has spent his entire adult life attempting to make himself look even more wealthy and powerful than his relative position in elite circles would've otherwise justified. He's also always seen himself as the most important person in the room, maybe in the world. So much so that he has also seen himself as the smartest person in any context, even as everything 45 has touched has been tarnished or turned to shit by his callous, narcissistic stupidity.
In totality, this could describe any upper-crust New Yorker I encountered growing up looking to own more, buy more, be more than they already were. But in light of all things 45, I am thinking of two folks from my teenage years, the Levi brothers. They owned cleaners in Midtown Manhattan and ran a building-cleaning company, and my father worked for them all through the 1980s. The Levi brothers were two of a kind, some of the most flashy people with wealth that I would ever meet.
As I described them in Boy @ The Window
I can confirm with absolute certainty that the Levi brothers wore not-so-thin gold chains. I can also remember how uneasy my encounters with them made me feel. It wasn't just the fact that they often questioned my intelligence. For nearly all of the years my father worked for the Levi brothers, they paid him under the table. They enabled his alcoholism, in exchange for $500 a week, for eighteen years. No retirement plan, no raises, no sick or annual leave, no unemployment insurance, in exchange for no child support payments and no tax payments. A Faustian deal if there ever was one.
That my father knew who Paul Milstein was — the late real estate mogul for whom a program within the Columbia Business School is named — is amazing to consider in hindsight. It meant that he was privy to many conversations between the Levi brothers about their master plan for generational wealth. It meant that the Levi brothers believed themselves to be kings, or at least princes, of New York. But only because they cut corners in their shops and business, and looked for ways to literally get rid of their competition. Things that would later lead to alleged criminal activities and the loss of their businesses.
If I could interview them in their mid-1980s milieu now, I would've ask them, "Who were you trying to emulate, John Gotti?" But given those Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous times, I suspect the person the Levi brothers were most trying to ape was Donald Trump. Only, 45 came from more money, and wanted to do more than corner the market on cleaners and cleaning contracts for Manhattan high-rises. Beyond the differences in a couple of zeros, the braggadocio, the seeing of people not like them as "others" or "not human," the need to show the world their wealth, their stunning stupidity in their attempts to monopolize their market. It's as typical a New York story as I ever got the chance to see. And with 45, I get to see it again, this time on a massive scale, a crash-and-burn that the universe of intelligent beings won't be able to ignore.
There's Know Place Like Home…
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Carnegie Mellon University, Cleaning, culture, Eclectic, High Rise Buildings, Jimme, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, New York City, Pop Culture, race, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Work, Youth
241st Street Subway, East Side, Father-Son Relationships, Gramercy Park, Home, Levi Brothers, Manhattan, Metro-North, Sense of Direction, Street Knowledge, Subway, The Bronx, Wakefield, West Side
Dorothy's heel-clicking in screen shot from The Wizard of Oz (1939), August 29, 2014. (http://vivandlarry.com). Qualifies as fair use under US copyright laws – low resolution and relevance to subject matter.
Yes, the title's a deliberate play on words. In no small part because of Facebook and Boy @ The Window, I am reminded every day of where I grew up, Mount Vernon, New York. But all too frequently, those who think they know me either assume that Mount Vernon's so far from New York City that I seldom spent time there. Or, more recently, some have assumed that my experience of The Big Apple is a recent phenomenon, as if I only started spending time in the five boroughs when I hit my mid-thirties.
Neither is true, of course. In many ways, I'm as much of a child of The Bronx and Manhattan as I am of Mount Vernon. I spent countless hours catching the 2, 3, 5 and 6 trains between 241st, Dyre Avenue, 180th, Pelham Parkway, 149th, 110th, 125th, 72nd, 86th and so many other stops. I used to know where to get the best brownies in the area, in Wakefield, at a bakery near some taxi stands and between the 238th and 241st Street stops. I could tell you which bars my father Jimme frequented, which bars he didn't, what pizza shops had slices to die for, and what places to avoid near Times Square. I'd been to Mets games, Ice Capades, the Bronx Zoo, a Puerto Rican Day and a Pulaski Day parade, concerts at Van Cortlandt Park, even MOMA before I graduated high school.
One of the reasons I could do all of this by the time I was fifteen was because of all the times Jimme had taken me and Darren down to the Bronx and Manhattan. Mostly to watch him pick up his paycheck from the Levi brothers at their cleaners on 20 West 64th or on East 59th. But between '82 and '85, I learned where nearly all of my father's watering holes were, and on the most desperate of weekends, could track him to one of them in order to get money for myself and to help out my Mom at 616. While my classmates would occasionally take the Metro-North into the city to take in a Broadway play or go to a Knicks game, I was learning about the city in all of its varying inequalities and nuances by looking for and working for my father.
Fast-forward to the end of August '93, just a few days before I began the Carnegie Mellon University phase of my grad school and doctoral journey. I had been short on money that whole summer, unemployed for six weeks after transferring from Pitt, working as an "intern" for six dollars and hour, and nearly $600 behind on rent at one point in late June. I'd survived the eviction notice and a summer in which I learned who my truest, closest friends were. I took a few days from my personal drama to visit my Mom and my siblings at 616, and in the process, decided to track down my father for a few extra dollars, as well as to see him for the first time in over a year. It had been that long because Jimme had accused me of faking my master's degree when I lasted visited him.
Central Park, looking out toward Midtown's West Side, New York, NY, August 5, 2014. (Donald Earl Collins).
But I wasn't fifteen anymore. Instead of a long walk and the Subway, I took the Metro-North down from Pelham to Grand Central, took the S (Shuttle) over to Times Square, and the 1 train to 66th, and walked over to the Levi's cleaners on West 64th. Only to find out Jimme wasn't in that day. I then remembered that the other Levi brother had a dry cleaner on East 59th. I walked the ten blocks over there and found the other Levi brother in the midst of arguing with clients and barking orders to his Latino and Afro-Caribbean underlings. My father was doing a cleaning job for him at some high-rises down near Gramercy Park.
I rode the 4 train down to 23rd Street, got my east-west bearings, and walked toward a set of high-rises near FDR Drive. Though I'd forgotten the address, I knew somehow that Jimme would be in the most expensive-looking high-rise or set of high-rises in the bunch. I found a guard, who sent me to the floor where Jimme and his co-worker John were working.
As soon as Jimme saw me come off the elevator, he said, "Bo' watcha doin' up here? How the hell yo' find me?"
"You're not the only one who knows The City, you know" I said.
It's no wonder I feel a bit insulted when people either tell me I'm from upstate New York or that I'm not a New Yorker. I know the city better than at least a third of the people who live and work there every day.
Mothers' Meeting Day, 1997
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Carnegie Mellon University, Cleaning, culture, Eclectic, Jimme, Marriage, Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, Pittsburgh, Pop Culture, race, University of Pittsburgh, Youth
Abuse, Alcoholism, Baggage, Betrayal, CMU, Insomnia, LaGuardia Airport, Laurell, Misogyny, Mother's Day, Mother-in-Law, Mother-Son Relationship, PhD Graduation, Pitt, US Air, US Airways
Normally I do a post every May 18th on a topic related to my PhD graduation ceremony at Carnegie Mellon. They usually revolve around two subjects: Joe Trotter and my Mom, betrayal and burnout. For once, I have no intention of doing a post on the seventeenth anniversary of officially becoming "Dr. Collins" and all of the baggage that I brought/came with that. Instead, today's post is about the day before, Saturday, May 17 '97. It was the day that my Mom and my future mother-in-law would meet each other for the first time, during my Mom's one-and-only visit to Pittsburgh during my twelve years there.
I covered the cost of my Mom's round-trip flight on US Air from LaGuardia to Pittsburgh, knowing that she wouldn't have been able — or, as it turned out, willing — to see me graduate otherwise. That Friday evening, May 16th, was my Mom's first time on an airplane since she was pregnant with me, the summer of '69, when she visited her family in Arkansas. She'd already missed my ceremonies at Pitt for my bachelor's and master's in '91 and '92 respectively, and, as a result, I hadn't gone to my graduations those years either.
So I made it easy for her this time around. Or rather, me and my then girlfriend Angelia made it easy for her. I gave up my studio apartment that weekend, because my Mom wasn't comfortable with me putting her up in a hotel. Angelia cleaned my apartment from top to bottom — including the moulding at the bottom of my apartment's walls. The place wasn't this clean the day I'd moved in back in '90!
But with so many other things that week, my Mom showed little appreciation for the significance of this trip, or for what we were doing to make this trip as convenient for her as possible. I went through Friday night and Saturday at Angelia's apartment on the edge of East Liberty, about a twelve-minute walk away, where I hadn't done an overnight before. I spent the first half of the next day going back and forth between my Mom, Angelia, my high school friend Laurell and her sister Naomi and unofficial surrogate (who were all staying at the Downtown Marriott). I took my Mom to both Pitt and CMU, to show her the place of my ten years' working toward something much more important than a second high school diploma. I might as well have been taking my son to both campuses when he was a newborn!
Around 2:30 pm, I realized we needed to get to Angelia's mother's place in Homewood for a mid-afternoon meal. That was next on the schedule. I think we took the bus, the 71D from a block off CMU to Homewood, and walked the three blocks up a steep hill to Monticello Street. There, Angelia's mom extended a long greeting, a hug for which my Mom hardly seemed prepared. Angelia was also there, and had bought a KFC bucket meal for the four of us to share.
After a few pleasantries, it started. How my mother and eventual mother-in-law, in their first-ever meeting, spent three hours discussing their failed marriages and the horrible nature of Black men the day before my graduation, I really don't know. I was in a fog, worn out from a week's worth of insomnia and from the growing realization that my Mom didn't really care about my journey or accomplishments.
I stayed and respected my elders, maybe too much. Three hours listening to stories I already knew, between my first-hand knowledge of my father Jimme and my idiot ex-stepfather Maurice, not to mention the stories Angelia had told me about her mother's trials (luckily, Angelia never witnessed these, because her mother's marriage was over by the time she'd turned two). A concussion here, a bruised lip there. A broken jaw, a fractured arm. Alcoholism and abuse, and men, working or unemployed, not paying any bills. "Men are no good," my Mom said over and over again.
Of course, I didn't count, for as far as my Mom was concerned, I wasn't a man, because I'd spent the previous decade as a student. But that wasn't the worst part. My Mom did a bunch of revisionist history in telling the story of "raisin' six kids" and her doomed two marriages, somehow writing me and Darren and the decisions she had some degree of control over out of this story.
I'd never been part of a conversation like this as an adult. As a six or ten-year-old kid on The Avenue in Mount Vernon with my Mom and her hospital friends, yes, but not since those times. I felt as if I might as well found some stoop outside, sat down with a 40, and fallen into a deep sleep.
Even Angelia's mom wanted to change the subject by the middle of hour number three. Instead, she used her elderly-ness as a excuse to beg off more conversation on the topic of misogyny, told me that she was proud of me, said that she was excited about going to the CMU ceremony, and retired for the evening. I wish I could've gone upstairs with her and done the same. I instead had the distinction of dropping my Mom off at my apartment, picking up Angelia and going down to Station Square to eat dinner with Laurell, Naomi and Archie. And that was all the day before the graduation ceremony!
Reaching Level 42
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Cleaning, culture, Eclectic, Marriage, Mount Vernon New York, race, Youth
616, 616 East Lincole Avenue, Darren, Hebrew-Israelites, Life Roles, Mount Vernon New York, Responsibility, Role as Eldest Brother, Youth
We all get used to playing certain roles in life, no matter how uncomfortably those roles fit. Privileged, rich, powerful and entitled Americans are accustomed to shitting on the little guy and using all of their resources to maintain their separation from the rest of us. Attractive women — especially White blondes and Black women with music video bodies — tend to act as if the world's purpose is to serve them. Religious people who somehow believe that it's their role to tell every person they meet how to deal with all of the issues they face in life, without a real understanding of those people or their lives.
I've gotten used to the role of the eldest sibling over the past thirty years. This despite all of the growing pains I went through in the '80s to take on this role, in spite of the fact that I have an older brother, one two years and eighteen days older than me.
My older brother Darren, as I put it more than twenty-five years ago, "abdicated the throne" of eldest brother by the time I was in the middle of puberty. That happened twenty-nine Decembers ago. Once our family went off the cliffs of the Himalayas and plunged into the hell of Hebrew-Israelites, abuse, abject poverty, responsibility became my motto. Add to that four more mouths to feed between '79 and '84, but with only enough food in the house to feed us twenty out of every thirty days, and it became obvious that someone had to do something.
Darren withdrew into the fantasy world that he'd constructed through his psychological imprisonment at The Clear View School in Briarcliff Manor, a school for the mentally retarded (see "About My Brother" post from December '07). Except that Darren wasn't mentally retarded. But he played up that role as life at 616 became tougher after the '81 no-Chanukah, no-Christmas, no-Kwanzaa season. Darren would rock back and forth in his too-small twin bed, as if in a catatonic state. Or he'd spontaneously jump up and down by himself in our bedroom or while in the bathroom, making a high-pitched "Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee" sound while nearly hitting the top of his six-foot frame on the ceiling.
Mostly, my older brother would make himself sound as stupid as he possibly could to get out of anything to do with all of the craziness at 616. His favorite answer to any question from our mom or from our idiot ex-stepfather Maurice was, "I Dunno." And he's say it over and over again. For nearly a year, stupid ass Maurice attempted to conduct a version of Torah study with us on Saturdays. Every time Maurice asked Darren what he learned, my brother would say, "In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth…," regardless of what book we were charged with reading. By August '82, Darren was permanently excused from Torah study.
Darren did what he did to get out of going to the store, or washing dishes, or helping out with "those kids," or anything that meant him acting like his IQ was higher than eighty-five. Some neighborhood guys who knew my brother then would ask me, "What's wrong with yo' brotha', man?," and I'd say, "Nothing."
How did I know? Because for three years, every time he boarded his 7:40 am school bus to go to Clear View, off came his kufi or yarmulke. Because outside of 616, Darren ate whatever he wanted, whether it was a lard-based Hostess' Apple Pie or a ham and cheese sandwich. Because Darren was smart enough to realize that perception for most people — most of us undiscerning and self-absorbed Americans, anyway — is reality, and that acting like he was severely mentally retarded would save him from the worst effects of living with a family that had fallen apart.
So everything fell on me. At first, it was going to the store and watching over my younger siblings Maurice and Yiscoc. By the time I began puberty, it was taking punches from Maurice and tracking down my father Jimme for money. By the time of Michael Jackson's last single release from Thriller in early '84, it was cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, protecting my four younger siblings, and maintaining some sense of sanity for myself and them. I did it because I had no choice, but I helped grow a jealousy and competition in Darren that he's yet to give up on.
It's safe to say that I wouldn't be who I am today without growing up the way I did. But who in their right mind would want to go through what I went through? At the time, it was so much better to be Darren. Only in the last ten years have I realized how much Darren gave up. His sanity, his piece of mine, his development as a human being, as a Black male. All shredded in his well-practiced Clear View persona.
At forty-two years old today, I'm forever learning and relearning, but my ironic, goofy, sarcastic, contrarian, honest and caring, disdainful and cocky persona is well-marbled. Darren's, sadly, remains trapped in jealousy and misery, and there's nothing I can do about it.
A Baseball Bat and a Father's Absence
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, Cleaning, Eclectic, Jimme, My Father, New York City, race, Religion, Youth
616, 616 East Lincoln Avenue, Black Males, Dad, Darren, Father, Father Figures, Fatherhood, Hebrew-Israelites, Jimme, Louisville Slugger, Mount Vernon Daily Argus, Mount Vernon Hospital, Mount Vernon New York, Preteen, Religion. Male Authority Figures, Starling, Starling Churn, The Clearview School, Wolf-In-Sheep's Clothing
One Louisville Slugger, July 19, 2011. (Source/http://businessweek.com)
Today my father Jimme (his birth certificate name, as he actually goes by Jimmie) turns seventy-one. He's in better health now than he was ten, twenty, and especially thirty years ago. That's because this time in '81, my father had apparently died for a few seconds on the operating table as doctors drilled into his brain to relieve pressure after a man did his best to dispatch him from this world. The incident, operation and time in the hospital meant that Jimme would be out of my life for almost fifteen months. It meant that I'd have a question to answer: what does a preteen boy do when his father is absent, and his best friend has shunned him? For that matter, what does a Black kid do under those circumstances?
But I'm jumping ahead of my story here. For over a week in July '81, my father lingered in an ICU bed in Mount Vernon Hospital after he'd been reported dead in the Obituary section of the Mount Vernon Daily Argus. Jimme ended up in the hospital because he'd made fun of another, bigger drunk, calling him a "po'
Grandpa, Me, and Noah, September 12, 2010. (Source/Donald Earl Collins)
ass muddafucca" at what we called "Wino Park" on South Fulton and East Third. So much was the humiliation that the man marched home, grabbed a Louisville Slugger, and returned to repeatedly smash my dad in the head until he was unconscious. Luckily, Jimme has a classic Collins head, hard enough to be used as a wrecking ball or 120 mm shell.
His near-death experience was not all that shocking for us, at least not obviously so. My father's life in the New York City area had turned into a slow motion tragedy of errors long before I was old enough to witness one of his drinking binges and hangovers. And Jimme regularly went on alcohol-laced benders, ones that began on payday Friday and ended on Monday or Tuesday. As he liked to say, he "got to' up" almost every weekend — "tore up" for those unfamiliar with Jimme-ese. This was going on for years before Mom had filed for divorce in July '76.
Jimme also had a habit of saying, "O' bo', I can't do dis no mo'. Gotta stop doin' dis. Nex' week, nex' week. I'll stop drinkin' nex' week." All while shaking his head, his eyes down, ashamed of how he felt and looked once the binge had ended. Jimme never said "now" or "this week." It was always next week with him. If there was any week where "nex' week" should've been the week, it was that Friday in early July.
With that incident, the next time I'd see my father would be July '82, being threatened by my stupid stepfather, who chased Jimme out of 616 for trying to see me. Dumb ass Maurice was in the middle of his five-week, abuse-and-break-Donald program, and didn't want my real father interrupting his efforts to turn me into his prag. Witnessing that incident wasn't a pleasant experience.
From July '81 through August '82, with Jimme absent and Starling no longer my friend, I really had no other Black males in my life with whom I could draw inspiration. My older brother Darren? He was already jealous of me and had withdrawn into the world of The Clear View School, acting out his role as a mentally retarded kid who wasn't mentally retarded. My uncle Sam (my mother's brother)? Really? I've seen him more in the past ten years, with me living in suburban DC, than I saw him through the '80s and '90s.
That left my idiot stepfather, who, at least in the summer of '81, was there, and had gotten back together with
Wolf in sheep's clothing, a false prophet (a symbol of my ex-stepfather), November 2008. (Source/flickr.com)
my mother, and had converted us into Hebrew-Israelites. This must've been why I clung so hard and so long to my kufi identity, even when I knew that something was wrong. With this sudden change in religion, from lethargic and unacknowledged Baptists to Afrocentric Black Jews. With me treating my stepfather as if he really was a parent of mine. With me wanting to prove myself to others in ways I never felt I needed to before.
This wasn't something I was conscious of, at least in '81 or in the first half of '82. I wish I had been. At least, then, I would've realized. That, more than anything else, I missed my dad and my best friend. And I was using my stepfather and his religion as a piss-poor substitute for both.
What A Fool Believes
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Cleaning, Mount Vernon High School, Religion, Youth
616 East Lincoln Avenue, Domestic Violence, Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon New York, Pittsburgh, Poverty, Race, University of Pittsburgh, Urban Decay, Violence
Wall Collapse Rattles Mount Vernon High School - wcbstv.com, April 13, 2010
Mount Vernon really has changed, and unfortunately, not for the better. I'm talking about in the past four years, and not just since I left for college and Pittsburgh twenty-three years ago this week. As some of you may know, I was threatened the week of my sister's death and funeral by a young thug because I stopped him from choking his girlfriend in front of me and her three-year-old daughter.
That's not a completely accurate description. I yelled "Hey! Stop!" as I ran toward the side gate of 616. I saw a short, nappy-headed, unkempt-corn-rowed-haired, light-skinned thug. At first, he was yelling, "Get out the godd**m car you B***H" at a young woman in a blue older-modeled Toyota Camry, punching his fists on the driver's side window at the same time. Then, when she did get out, she grabbed her three or four-year-old daughter and attempted to get toward the side gate. The fool then pushed her up against the back right side of the car and proceeded to wrap his hands around the young woman's neck, as if no one else was around.
I was on the telephone with my father, talking to him about the rough week it had been, standing outside to get away from folks for a moment or two, staring across the gates and driveway to the five-story red-brick sister complex 630 East Lincoln when I witnessed this episode of domestic violence. After I yelled and distracted the dumb ass, the young woman ran inside with her daughter. Then the short butt attempted to run up on me, telling me to "mind your own godd**m bisness, you stupid f**k!" He tried to get in my face, but at five-foot-four, he was much too short to intimidate me with rage. I told him if he took another step, that I'd call the cops. He did, and then I dialed 911.
"Oh, you think your life's miserable now! It just got a whole lot worse for you and your family. And for what? You willing to risk your life for her? For a b***h?," the stupid ass said as he gradually backed out of the yard and then outside the 616 gate. Apparently he wasn't as stupid as he looked, as he kept moving farther away while yelling "I ain't goin' nowhere, you stupid f**k!" Finally, I said something. "Yeah, I'm a stupid f**k. You and your homies could beat me up, kill me, put me out of my misery. But I'm not the one walking away, you are!" Mr. Thuggish Ruggish Bone then disappeared.
There were numerous other reminders that what was once my hometown would never be again. The fact that neighborhoods that were once affluent White ones were now a mixture of White, African American and Latino, and weren't so affluent anymore. The closings of Athena's and Baskin-Robbins and other businesses in once ritzy Fleetwood, the rundown sense that I saw in faces Black and White and Brown all during that week.
Other parts of the city had long succumbed to poverty, crime and neglect, but with the middle class regardless of race in full flight, the uphill battle for a thriving bedroom suburb was now an unorganized retreat, with carnage all along the way. The newest thing I saw in Mount Vernon during my midsummer night and day-mare was the track behind Mount Vernon High School and the construction crew working on a new wall for the southwest corner of the building.
I know that a fair number of my Mount Vernon-based or nostalgic readers will think me biased, ungrateful even for having grown up in a town that they themselves found enriching and enjoyable. If that is the case, then that's wonderful. Your Mount Vernon wasn't the one I experienced, and "your blues ain't like mine" (as the late Bebe Moore Campbell would say), sorry to say.
Aside from the atypical experience of dealing with the death of my sister, the Mount Vernon I grew up with and the one I witnessed last month were one and the same. My time growing up there included unpleasant moments with young punks and thugs, far too much rage and violence and poverty for me to stick around after high school. The difference now is, the city as a whole has become a reflection of my worst experiences, and not a "city on the move." Silver linings like Ben Gordon or Denzel Washington or not, anyone who refuses to acknowledge that this is the reality for most living in Mount Vernon should tune into a 70s station and look up Michael McDonald for advice on foolishness and wisdom.


text:
Transparent, Desperate Lies from No on 8 Campaign
Maggie Gallagher, writing over at National Review addresses the question of whether same-sex marriage will be taught in California Public Schools if Proposition 8 fails. It would have to be. In Public School health classes, they teach about marriage. If marriage in California includes "marriage" between a man and another man, that will have to be part of the curriculum. Maggie's column is below. Interpolations are in black.
"The latest Protect Marriage Yes on 8 television ad in California shows an incredibly cute 8 year old Hispanic girl bringing the book King and King home to her mother saying "Guess what I learned in school today. . . I can marry a princess!"
The anti-Prop 8, pro gay marriage crowd is running ads charging this whole idea that public schools will teach gay marriage is just a "lie."
The latest press release from the Protect Marriage Yes on 8 campaign in California rather cleverly points out the same groups now charging its a lie public schools will teach about gay marriage whether parents like it or not — were just in court in Massachussetts filing amicus briefs arguing parents don't have any right to opt their children out of the pro-gay marriage curriculum.
From the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Amicus Curiae Brief:
"In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where the right of same-sex couples to marry is protected under the state constitution, it is particularly important to teach children about families with gay parents." [p 5]
(Note: The ADL is a leading member of the No on 8 campaign, and publicly announced they had joined the campaign opposing Proposition 8 on September 9, 2008.)
From the Human Rights Campaign Amicus Curiae Brief:
"There is no constitutional principle grounded in either the First Amendment's free exercise clause or the right to direct the upbringing of one's children, which requires defendants to either remove the books now in issue – or to treat them as suspect by imposing an opt-out system." [pp1-2]
(Note: The Human Rights Campaign has organized one of the largest recipient committees to oppose Proposition 8. The committee, Human Rights Campaign CA Marriage PAC (ID# 1307246) has received more than $2.2 million in contributions (as of 10/8/08), including over $100,000 from the Human Rights Campaign itself in non-monetary contributions. The committee has funneled over $2 million of its funds to No on 8, Equality for All (ID# 1259396), the main No on Proposition 8 campaign committee.)
From the ACLU Amicus Curiae Brief:
"Specifically, the parents in this case do not have a constitutional right to override the professional pedagogical judgment of the school with respect to the inclusion within the curriculum of the age-appropriate children's book…King and King." [p 9]
(Note: The Northern California Chapter of the ACLU has also formed a Proposition 8 opposition committee: No on Prop 8, Campaign for Marriage Equality, a project of the ACLU of Northern California (ID# 1308178). This committee has collected $1.6 million in contributions (as of 10/8/08), including more than $70,000 from the ACLU of northern California, as well as $8,000 from the ACLU Foundation. This committee has contributed $1,250,000 to No on 8, Equality for All (ID# 1259396), the main No on Proposition 8 campaign committee.)
Which side is really telling the truth here about its aims?
Posted by A Shepherd's Voice at 7:01 AM
Labels: Choose Life; Defend Marriage
Reuven said...
I'm a CHRISTIAN and I'm voting NO on 8.
Because it seems that all the funding has come from false Christian groups like ROMAN CATHOLICS and "MORMONS" both of whom are idolaters (worshiping Men, Mary, beads, little statues of saints, etc).
IDOLATRY is a worse sin. Voting yes on 8 supports idolatry.
Wow, there's logic for you:
1. Catholics are idolaters.
2. Catholics support prop 8.
3. Therefore voting for prop 8 is idolatry.
I'm very impressed by your razor-sharp intellect.
What does one expect from a Church run by pedophiles and nazis?
I am a mother of 4 children that have all been educated in the California Public School system. NOT ONE of my children have been taught about marriage in any of their classes. Not heterosexual marriage, not same sex marriage, no marriage.
The State Superintendent of Schools has gone on record stating that there is no marriage education in CA public schools.
Salt H2O said...
Reuven-
You're a genius..but you're going to have to do a bit more to spite those 'idolators'
Both the LDS church and the Catholic church make huge donations to the Red Cross. So you better boycot the red cross.
Both the LDS church and the Catholic church made huge donations to hurricane victims and worn torn nations- so you better stop donating to charity.
And I have it on good athority that all mormons and catholics BREATHE! 100% of them. Can you imagine. So if you're breathing you're totally support idolotry.
Better stop fast!
Anon-
The LA Times Disagrees with you.
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text:
What is Anti-Imperialism? Notes on the decline of the Left
Veröffentlicht am 15. Juli 2015 von E&F
by Emanzipation und Frieden (Emancipation and Peace)
Thanks to korynmalius for the translation (Original in deutsch)
In 1910, Finance Capital: A Study of the latest phase of capitalist development, by Rudolf Hilferding, was published. The author was a member of the SPD and became finance minister, in 1923 and again in 1928/29. In 1916, Vladimir Lenin, who was to be the leader of the Russian October revolution, wrote Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism. This text founded what we know as Marxism-Leninism, it was the essential source of Soviet foreign policy, and serves many anti-imperialists, even today, as a basis for their political views. Although Lenin, already in 1916, wrote strong polemics against Hilferding's party, he draws on him for this book, and broadly agrees with him. Thus, the spreading of the anti-imperialist world view to the whole society began, from the Left, the Centre and the Right. And although "Left" anti-imperialists, state-supporting bourgeois and Nazis imagined their respective political positions to be light years apart, they still shared this underlying anti-imperialist similarity.
The valorisation of capital as an evil conspiracy
Of course it is very fashionable, since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, to have something against capitalism, but what is re-branded anti-capitalism is nothing more than blatant resentment against capitalists. The existence of capital and its expansion remain entirely not understood. They hold evil masterminds and "greed" "responsible" for the crisis by means of their manipulation. They are accountable to the collective of "honest, swindled workers". Labour is held to be a good thing, and something completely distinct from capital, although labour is what capital is, although purely accumulated. In "finance capital", they see a completely different, especially harmful form of capital, which should "especially" not exist, although capitalism without fictive capital is unthinkable, today less than ever. Speculators are seen as monsters from hell, although the commodity-production of specific products for the market, that is, capitalism, is in itself already speculative. "Evil finance capital strangles good labour", this absurd conception, unfortunately very catchy for the prisoners of the market economy, underlies the world view of regressive anti-capitalism (for more on this issue, see "What is regressive anti-capitalism?"). This conspiracy-theory way of thinking, which has never understood, what money and capital actually are, is less far away from antisemitic resentment than many of its supporters believe. It regularly culminates in the only supposedly critical question: "Money rules the world, but who rules money?" Each anti-imperialism is based on this pseudo-critique. Its central question is of very mediocre quality and sounds like: "How do the masters of money rule the world?"
Lenin's imperialism theory
Already in Lenin's theoretical thinking, there are oversimplifications and fatal misjudgements, which have essentially contributed to cause the catastrophic history of the Left during the 20th century. Lenin perceived something about the crisis of commodity-production: "the development of capitalism has arrived at a stage when, although commodity production still "reigns" and continues to be regarded as the basis of economic life, it has in reality been undermined…", he writes. But instead of connecting this to the Marxist idea that the commodity-producing society is prone to crises by principle, because it lives off abstract labour, which must always make itself superfluous, Lenin goes on to say: "and the bulk of the profits go to the "geniuses" of financial manipulation. At the basis of these manipulations and swindles lies socialized production; but the immense progress of mankind which achieved this socialization, goes to benefit […] the speculators." Lenin's interest does not lie with the contradictions of commodity-production, but with the manoeuvring of the speculators. Consequently, he builds a somehow "other" capital: "finance capital". Hilferding had also already written: "Finance capital […] is the climax of the dictatorship of the magnates of capital. At the same time it makes […] the internal domination of capital increasingly irreconcilable with the interests of the mass of the people, exploited by finance capital but also summoned into battle against it." Lenin makes from two types of capitalists (industrial and financial capitalists), two types of capital: "It is characteristic of capitalism in general […] that money capital is separated from industrial or productive capital […]. Imperialism, or the domination of finance capital, is that highest stage of capitalism at which this separation reaches vast proportions." A characteristic of the anti-imperialist world view, which regressive anti-capitalism also shares, can be seen here openly: the separation between a so-called "productive" and a so-called "finance" capital.
In tight relation with Lenin's definition of imperialism as the "domination of finance capital" stands his positive view of the "national question". He speaks of "imperialist oppression and the exploitation of most of the countries and nations of the world, for the capitalist parasitism of a handful of wealthy states", and, therefore, that "the national question […] is extremely important in itself as well as in its relation to imperialism". It was not much longer before the Communist International discovered a passion for "the peoples oppressed by imperialism" which would bring its leader to become a hero of the anti-imperialist fight for freedom.
Each anti-imperialism applies itself positively to the obligatory group of the "people". This is possible for it, as it imagines two differences which do not really exist: the one between a "normal" and "particularly bad" capital, and the one between a lot of "good" and a few "bad" nations. "Bad" nations are those which the so-called "rulers" of the "particularly bad capital" call home. These "rulers" are "the Imperialists" and are responsible for all the evil in the world.
The regressive anti-capitalism of international politics
The anti-imperialist world view does not only reside in the so-called "fringes" of society. The "centre" also thinks in anti-imperialist terms. The following quotes on the imagined "oppression by (foreign) finance capital" stem from very different political sides and clearly show how strongly these thought patterns are rooted, although with different intensities and expressions:
"The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital […] means the singling out of a small number of financially "powerful" states from among all the rest."
"The fight against international finance and loan capital became the most important point in the program of the German nation's struggle for its economic independence and freedom. "
"The German bank is no longer a German bank […] It is not good that German global companies depend on foreign finance institutions regarding great projects and investments."
The first quote is taken from Lenin, the second from Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf), and the third from our German contemporary political idol Helmut Schmidt (Die Zeit, 15.07.2011).
The beliefs, behaviours and politics which are based on these ideas dominate a large share of society. Green bourgeoisie, pacifist Christians, the trade unionist who fights "parasites", the politicians of all parties who defend "German interests" and the so-called "fringes of society" will always find themselves in agreement about imagined foreign oppression. The best example of this is the so-called "peace movement" which is periodically brought back to life again and again.
Let's all of us good people link up arms…
The anti-imperialists see themselves particularly well as defenders of peace. It is conspicuous that they only then fight for "peace" – or at least for their representation of it – when it is against the US, Israel or the West. If they cannot hitch up on anything despite their best efforts, war and military action throughout the entire world leaves them suspiciously cold. That this world view is based on resentment, we can see it by example in the motto "No blood for oil". As the US started the 2003 Iraq war, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated under this banner. It proved itself capable of driving state-supporting bourgeois as well as anti-imperialists, Islamists and Nazis into rallies in the streets. We want to remain silent here for once on the positive relation to "blood". We will talk here about the other fluid. That the oil from Saddam Hussein's regime was sold to the West and was willingly provided in greater quantities by bypassing the embargo decisions, that it needed consequently no war for the US to get the Iraqi oil, was lost sight of. Also, the idea that half the worldwide demand for oil served to maintain transport, that a "war for oil" consequently would also have been so that German peace-lovers could fill their tanks every day, naturally had to be fended off. A call to boycott gas stations, shared thousands of times at peace demos remained as expected without resonance. It did not fit into the picture of "us good, them bad". Also, ten years since the Iraq war – against which we could have definitely done something for other reasons – none of the so-called defenders of peace wonder where the US tanker fleet is indeed, which stole the oil from the "Iraqi people". No-one wonders why, of all people, Chinese interests made the largest deal when the new Iraqi regime offered exploitation licences for the oil industry (see for example A Chinese Oil Company May Buy Exxon's Iraq Stake, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 17.01.2013). Despite the fact that capitalism functioned differently to what anti-imperialists pictured, a so-called peace movement fished out the slogan "no blood for oil" once again in 2011. Also the fact that the Lybian regime of Gaddafi sold a large part of its oil to the West, therefore not necessitating a war, must not have been true.
…and stand by the inhuman regime
Some with full intention, others de facto, anti-imperialists supported Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya. These would still be in power, if they had been successful. Such supports are no accidents of anti-imperialism, but logical consequences. A call from January 2012, signed by over a thousand people who are convinced that they were supporting freedom and human rights, says: "Stop the preparation for war! End the embargo! Solidarity with the Iranian and Syrian people!" In that respect the regimes in Syria and Iran are legitimised, they pursue "independent politics" and do not wish to obey the "diktat" of the US and NATO, that is why they prepare a war against these two countries and they hold them with Israel "in a state of emergency in order to wear them down." This is in the choice of words the same "argumentation" which serves the Iranian and Syrian regimes. Nothing about the terror of these regimes at home and abroad, about their brutal repression also of their own people in revolt. Instead the call-out: "The preservation of the peace requires that the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states be strictly maintained." A sentence, which could be attributed to the anti-imperialist Brejnev and Honecker, who also deflected criticisms of their rule in the same way in their days. When in the summer of 2009 millions of people in Iran rose up at the risk of their own life against the Islamic terror regime, radio silence reigned at best among our local "Friends of Peace." Many declarations from the Iranian state open on this term. More about this in the pamphlet "Iran: denial of assistance – Resentment and manoeuvring. The tragedy of the pacifist Left."
Such a resentment-filled view of the world is not able to take into account the open antisemitism of the Iranian regime, whose president thinks of "a small but treacherous number of people called Zionists": "Although they are an insignificant minority, they rule an important part of the financial centres and of the political decision-making centres of a few European countries and of the US in a malicious, complex, and surreptitious way." (UN Assembly, 24.09.2008) It's only because of space reasons that we don't reproduce other quotes from leaders of the Iranian Islamic republic. Because of their many similarities with this – also anti-imperialist – regime, anti-imperialists do not have any hope at all that there could be enough mobilisable potential in the Iranian population, in Muslim countries, in the West and throughout the world despite the crisis in order to throw the Iranian regime and its helpers a curve ball. Instead of supporting the demand "No nuclear weapons for Holocaust-deniers!", they take the side of the people in power in this theocracy.
Easy targets: The US, the West, and Israel
To this blindness corresponds also a very narrow perception of the US in world politics. Purposefully the allusion to American human rights' violations and support for brutal dictatorships replaces any analysis and serves as the confirmation for a vehemently loved idea that the centre of evil seats in Washington. The fact that the US is a bourgeois democracy, which – if only half-heartedly, selectively and deceitfully – has laid down and still lays down certain dams against anti-semitic delusions, anti-American resentment cannot accept this idea. (See more about this in our pamphlet "What is anti-Americanism?") In the process, anti-imperialists must tell themselves, that the US and the West at least sometimes let a dictator fall, while they themselves defend to the end of days the most bloodthirsty butcher – most importantly, he is an opponent of the West.
Anti-Western resentment is an integral formative part of this anti-imperialism. As Islamists sincerely believe that anyone who produces US films can only put them on YouTube if they have the permission from the state, Western anti-imperialists fantasise about some sort of "political bureau" of capitalism, which "manipulate the media in favour of capital". In both cases the same reactionary understanding of politics and society is projected on the hated West. Anti-imperialism collective forces like class, state, people and nation, subscribes to the theory of collectivism, and thinks little of individuals or their liberties. It often develops into a proper hatred of "deviants" and intellectuals. In no way does it understand Antisemitism, be it entirely open resentment stemming from regressive anti-capitalism, or unreflective cries against the relations which culminate in a will to annihilate the supposed culprits. Because of that anti-imperialists are also completely confused when it comes to the Jewish state. In a complete mix-up between causes and effects they deem not the Iranian regime, but Israel as a danger for world peace, and insinuate sincerely that they want to launch into Iran "all-destroying warheads" (Günter Grass). (Read more on this issue in our pamphlet "What is anti-Zionism?")
Anti-imperialism is only imaginary anti-capitalism
Capitalism is inhumane. Value and self-valorisation subject humankind and nature to their destructive strife towards maximal profit and never-ending growth. Capital undermines with labour its own substance and is consequently synonymous with crises. This is the case in Brazil, China, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, Angola or Russia just as well as in the US and Western Europe. Anti-imperialists have yet to understand this.
In complement to their pseudo-critique, they propose pseudo-alternatives. While Marx and Engels once dreamt of an "association in which the free development of everyone is the condition for the free development of all" (MEW 4, 482), the anti-imperialist foreign minister of Bolivia David Choquehuanca, in July 2012 proclaimed a "Zona libre de Coca-Cola". This would be the end of capitalism and the beginning of a "culture of social living" (Spiegel Online, 27.07.2012). The regime has banned Coca-Cola and then launched a national Cola drink on the market. Balm for the soul of every anti-imperialist in Stuttgart, who makes a great detour in the deepest abhorrence towards the globalisation monster McDonald's, in order to finally feel linked in the kebab shop with the people fighting in the world. Critical thought does not tolerate anti-imperialist resentment.
Thank you dear Americans. And please stay another 70 years.
Dieser Eintrag wurde veröffentlicht in Alles von EmaFrie, English, Flugschriften, Friedensbewegung, Linker Mainstream, Regressiver Antikapitalismus und verschlagwortet mit Antiimperialismus, Friedensbewegung, Günter Grass, Karl Marx, Mainstreamlinke, non-german, W.I.Lenin von E&F. Permanenter Link zum Eintrag.