Falling Leaves, Aching Back

Oggy, Hard at Work on His Resume

I've been playing tennis and researching the transmission project. The parts have been ordered and with the cold weather I feel in the air this job has to be tackled asap. I changed the starter solenoid in Laconia in January in the snow and I had to run back and forth to the halfway house to keep warm. I don't want that kind of pressure when I'm under the van with transmission fluid dripping in my face.

I am scared of my own shadow and hesitate to apply for any job because I keep thinking that's where the movie of my life will end, with me walking into some factory. Speaking of scary shadows, I watched The Kings Speech and found it mostly maudlin. The final speech, as presented, was grotesquely manipulative. ("Forget everything and just speak to me like I'm a friend.") but it did remind of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony which is perfect. If you have 8 minutes to devote to cultural betterment, Beethoven will not disappoint. He never ever disappoints.


In other news, I've done a bit more research to support my ranting and the "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" reads quite a bit like my own "Motion to Dismiss" essay I wrote in Santa Cruz. They both are a little vague but mostly accuse the status quo and a mysteriously anonymous "THEY" as being evil and unsustainable and wrong.
Ex: "They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts."

"They" refers to "corporate forces"

Oh, where is Thomas Paine when you need him?

The New Hampshire Gazette gamely tries to legitimize the protest: "What the protestors are saying is that the system is not working for 99 percent of the people. That's their bottom line."

In Santa Cruz the law that banned sitting on the sidewalk (used to criminalize the poor) was found to be "Constitutionally Vague" and thrown out. It was "prone to selective enforcement". In effect, it was a Jim Crow law aimed at hippies. Well, on the flip side, I'd say this "Declaration" is "Philosophically Vague" and "Devoid of Inflammatory Content"
I mean, The Simpsons series has been mocking this very problem for 20 years. You think we need some hipsters to remind us that shit is fucked up when Bart and Homer perfectly embody the inequity? The Onion has built a huge readership on making fun of the absurdity of our country. The protestors might as well include in their declaration, "NY Taxi Drivers are not considerate." Ok, real groundbreaking stuff.

I would not call it a "bottom line" to point out:

"They have profited off the torture confinement and cruel treatment of countless animals and actively hide these practices."

Really? You mean McDonalds Hamburgers don't grow on trees?




The worst thing I can say is that I'm not entertained by their declaration. Beyond that, I'm not impressed. At the very least they need to call for the end of a rent based housing paradigm. That would shake some apple pie trees up. I mean, Lisa Simpson has been the voice in the wild for 20 years regarding vegetarianism. IT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING. People will laugh at her righteous futility probably until mankind becomes extinct from cancer and AIDS.

The IWW is an interesting crew that is heavily represented in my Santa Cruz saga. The idea behind the wobblies was to have every worker in the world in one union and then we could all go on strike whenever we want better conditions. The reason it hasn't caught on is because ethics and philosophy aren't big crop producers. Migrant vegetable pickers from Mexico and Honduras have no problem getting short money because at least it is money. If you need a scab to cross the picket line then you only need to speak Spanish. "Trabajo Aqui. Mucho Dinero para ti!" I sometimes worry that the protestors think manna from heaven will fall from the sky if the supply chain (corrupt though it is) collapses. I would personally not cry many tears if famine eradicated 200 million people from North America, but at least I know that's what would happen if Monsanto decided to Go Green.

America is like Germany except on steroids. And anyone who has ever taken performance enhancing drugs knows, you can never stop or the crash is often a disaster. The declaration of Occupy Wall Street basically asks corporations to clean up and stop taking steroids. That would leave America on a par with Argentina and Iceland...which I wouldn't mind. I'll plant cucumbers. I'll hoe beans. But how many cappuccino drinkers would go belly up? Instead of an urban utopia like on Friends where everyone hangs out and worries about the next vapid job promotion, I'm pretty sure the east coast would morph into something that resembles Ghana. I'm all for it. Are they?