HAUF & HALF

It’s one thing to be half-something, but it’s quite another for them to be dissimilar halves.

In my case it’s Scottish (my dad was born in Glasgow, Scotland ) & Polish (my mother was born in the Salem MA Polish-speaking community.) He was allegedly monolingual; she was perfectly bi-lingual

Anyone familiar with Scotland knows that most Scots speak a dialect of English, but also 'The Scots' with its distinctly Scottish vocabulary.

When I was living in Fife, Scotland, the father of my poet-friend Tom Hubbard suddenly turned to me and said “D’ye ken the braid Scots?” (Do you understand the broad Scottish dialect?) I carefully answered in Boston-American: “I ought to, my dad was born in Glasgow.” Thereafter, he comfortably spoke broad-Scots when I was around.

All my life I’ve switched (mentally & vocally) between multiple linguistic frequencies: Belarusian Polish, Glasgow Scottish, New England American & std. American English. In prep-school & undergraduate college I also learned Latin, French, & Russian. All of them have filtered what I say or hear.

I feel it makes me not quite what I appear to be. Indian- & Asian-Americans must feel this even more acutely.

But who ever bothers to ask them? How to begin? Q: “What’s it like to live with embedded linguistic filters?”

Would they be startled to know that anybody else knows?

(01 SEP 11, Santa Clara CA)v2

On Class & Wealth

I've admired Barbara Ehrenreich ever since I read about how she worked as a hotel-maid to experience & expose the actual social-class relations between Maid & Mistress. (Mistress expected Maid to tipple & steal, but not have a Ph.D!)

Generally, Americans don't want to admit that social-class position rules this society like any other; & so a great many Americans prefer to imagine they're 'middle-class' - a presumption that's now being relentlessly eroded.

Once Americans realize how & by whom, they should have an overdue re-awakening; but what they'll do about it (post FDR vs Reagan, Clinton vs Obama) remains to be seen. Meanwhile:

Many think Social Security & Medicare are the 3rd-rail. The Tea Party thinks it's levying totally unnecessary Taxes.

It's much more than that. It's also about the disparity of 'wealth' & where that puts each of us as members of a spectrum/hierarchy of classes (fiscal, material, occupational, technical, etc. )

Speaking of 'wealth', how many people admire Warren Buffet? Bill Gates? Because of what they do with their wealth? To & for...whom?

Where CHENEY Hid

WHERE {CHENEY} [HID]

exVPOTUS CHENEY now

admits he hid [in a bunker]

under his DC home "behind

a massive steel door secured

by an elaborate lock, w/a

narrow connecting hallway

lined with shelves filled w/

communications equipment,"

& @ Camp David, Maryland

& wayback home in Wyoming

(27 AUG 11, Santa Clara CA)v5

DISPARITY

When you think of it

(if you do think of it),

money's relative:

tiny amounts of money

prime the dry sumps

of crushing poverty;

obscene money creates

overwhelming disparity.

FINANCIALLY: CHINESE

Current Chinese academic research reveals:

Chinese companies have a genetic disposition
affecting their financial performance; although
generally, genetics affects only 25% of one’s
financial decisions, by buying Chinese you
increase that percentage & by contracting
with Chinese manufacturers, you participate
in Chinese finance. Chinese genes add value.

(17 AUG 11, Santa Clara CA)v3

Tea Party trumpets

The Tea Party trumpets

from delusional peaks:

The rich & tax-free

deserve H-2B!

(15 AUG 11, Santa Clara CA)112

CRUEL RULES (ctd)

Whose rules are the Cruel Rules? Are they religious?

Where belief (in something) is required; religion may not be.

You can now be a capitalist even in Communist China, but you cannot promote Falun Gong (a 'traditional' religion which is severley outlawed for irs fallacious science) which means that in Communist China political belief is separated from economic belief & religious belief.

In western capitalist countries, spiritual religion may be a matter of personal option, but capitalism is nonetheless the reigning state economic religion. Capitalism can be severe (notoriously so in empires' colonies) & is becoming increasingly so in these times of economic distress which I call The Time of Resolve, whose 3 Cruel Rules

Only the least expensive get paid.

Only the most efficient survive.

Only the most productive prevail.

apply in this case in the present world crisis and might be more severely applied under The Tea Party. Does this make the Tea Party religious? Economically yes, but not religiously as normally understood. The vulgarly assertive use of 'religiously' to mean absolutely or stringently is a corruption of the term. If those 3 rules seem acceptable to you, you are definitely not a Christian, no matter what you claim.

(TBC)