Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Internment/Mill-Bill-Trill/Chris Rock/Early 1%ers/Sliding Philosophy Game/

(P1) Poetical

Unwritten Note

The news is on everyone's lips
like flies gathering on excrement:
President Roosevelt has ordered

our removal. Will we be
taken from our homes like vermin?
I know it must be a misunderstanding,

gossip spread in these
harsh times. I choke
on acrid laughter.

It is not possible.
After all, I served
my chosen country in the Army,



in the Great War. So I go to see
my longtime friend and sheriff
of Monterey County.

It is no joke, Hideo. You'll have to go.
He can't look me in the eyes.
When he finds my body hung

in this rented room, with
my certificate of honorary citizenship
expressing honor and respect

for your loyal and splendid
service to the country,
he will understand why

I could not allow
this noble country to tarnish
its honor, or mine.

- Jodi Hottel poem
 - Ansel Adams photo

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(P2) Political

Conceptualizing Million, Billion, and Trillion


A million seconds is 12 days.

A billion seconds is 31 years.

A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

Money works the same way!!!

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Barack Obama's 30-game Winning Streak

I recently read Chris Rock's responses to 10 Questions in the June 18th issue of Time.  After comparing the country to a ship, Rock astutely answered the following question:


"What kind of a captain do you think Obama has been"


"Pretty good.  People are complaining, but it's like complaining about your team winning by one" 'I can't believe we keep winning by one!  What the hell's going on?  Another close victory?'  Meanwhile, it's like a 30-game win streak!"

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Ben Franklin Against the One-Percenters

Reading in Walter Isaacson's fine biography Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, I came across this demonstration that even back in the Philadelphia of 1755, the filthy rich were intent on getting even filthier.Following Braddock's defeat by the French and Indians,

"The Assembly quickly passed a bill (of appropriations) for defense, but again it insisted a tax be placed on all lands, 'those of the proprietors not excepted.'  Governor Morris rejected it, demanding that the word 'not' be changed to 'only.'

  "Franklin was furious.  No longer casting himself as a mediator, he wrote the reply that the Assembly sent to Morris.  He called the governor a 'hateful instrument of reducing a free people to the abject state of vassalage'...Franklin became particularly enraged when he learned that Morris was required by a secret clause in his commission as governor to reject any tax on the Proprietary estates."

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 (P3) Philosophical

Enjoy the Following Philosophy Sliding Game - press "Philosophy joke Sliding Puzzle" below to begin
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4 comments:

Lawrence DiStasi said...

I've never seen this one. It reminds me that no less than 5 enemy aliens of Italian descent committed suicide in response to the restrictions placed on them during WWII. See www.segreta.org.
Larry DiStasi

jeanne powell said...

Such a powerful poem. I am reminded of Nellie Wong's new anthology, BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER, from Meridien PressWorks. She lived through that traumatic period and recalls vividly what happened to those of her friends who were of Japanese ancestry.

Inna Talantova said...

Thanks, Ed.
Good poem and the picture is great! Don't you think it's echoing our time?

The previous posting is a little confusing. "People are complaining, but it's like complaining about your team winning by one" ... is main purpose of governing mainly a victory of your "team"? Besides, Obama is not my "team". He is truly a 1%-er.

Cheers,
Inna.

Ed Coletti said...

Inna,

Good to hear from you. The poem is by a local woman, Jodi Hottel whose mother or father is Japanese. Certainly resonates with our time.

I'll add your comment to those at the site. Come on though, Barack Obama is not part of the one percent. He does not have billions of unearned dollars. I sense that you and I are, more or less politically on the same page, but we do a disservice to our cause by badmouthing Barack. There definitely is a difference between him and Romney! There are also similarities. But I'll stand by my man in this election!

Thanks for commenting, Inna. I have no problem with disagreement.

Yours,

Ed