Fighting for America

The reasoning of the day seems to be: "Be glad that you live in a free country where you can say nice things about the president and not be arrested for it."

Braceros

There was a gardener in the pond. I'd never seen him before. He waded in the ale-colored water and scooped out the algae with a small, clear plastic box and a couple of large soap buckets.

Cool and Dry

I ought to crack one of those weather guides and learn something. I want to know how to milk clouds.

Valyermo - Sacred Dance (1)

Game?

Valyermo - Holy Imposters and an Angel

Lynn and I rooted our tailbones and did not join in the singing which, as it passed from the first song to "God Bless America", began to resemble the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene out of Cabaret.

Valyermo - Approach and Retreat

I checked the roofs of oncoming cars to see if people had lashed personal belongings to them....Caltrans called the halt to weld in a new guardrail, not to evacuate Wrightwood.

Observing States of Mind

Are my friends who believe in the Not in Our Name statement but won't sign paranoid or did I make a mistake to come out? It happens in my life, in my mind. Therefore, I note it.

Off to the Festival
I mentioned to some friends online that I was planning to attend the Fall Festival at St. Anthony's Abbey in...

The Jigsaw Woman

You couldn't look at her. Not right at her. Not in those eyes that ballooned out of their sockets. I looked away from her face, but I saw her leg.

American Fear
I asked a progressive friend why she wouldn't sign the Not in Our Name statement. She said: I don't want...

The Unknown American Mind

The only sound I hear is the crack and snap of the pages as they flip from the front page to the continuations and then on to the sports page.

Aortal Link - Techfluid

Like myself, Chari treats her blog as an ongoing letter to the world. Though she codes well and possesses a fine eye, her first concern is to give her readers something readable and truthful.

Santa Monica - 3

I signed this

From Not in Our Name: We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for.

Post-Equinox

Today the clouds looked like the fluff that the cats pull from the rug or off their scratching post. Some great sky tiger scattered the stuff over the entire seaboard between the Peninsular Range and the sea.

"Where are the Bush Supporters?"

They live all around me, with "God Bless America" signs skewering the turf next to their doorways.

The Latest #politics tragi-comedy

I honestly don't know, but if you're going to claim to follow Jesus when you go off gunning for Bin Laden or Sadam Hussein, I am going to remind you about turning the other cheek.

The Future of Money
Look! I can be flippant when I'm paranoid!: [18:47] * EmeraldPunk has to remember--most ppl seemingly worship money [18:48] *...

A Personality Disorder Explicated
I'm all too aware that I fall into an invisible class, a dirty class that makes some people take an...

New Site Logo
Here's the link code: <A HREF="http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/" TARGET="_new"><IMG SRC="http://www.notfrisco2.com/webzine/Joel/paxnortona.gif" WIDTH=143 HEIGHT=125 BORDER=1></A> Here's where you can buy t-shirts, mugs, and...

Santa Monica - 2

Rhino Gear
New designs! Get your t-shirt, mug, mousepad, tote bag or sticker today!...

Half Asleep

What heir species will mine our remains and not recognize them as the deposits of an intelligence?

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Did you know that President-Elected-By-The-People Al Gore spoke out against Mr. Bush's war in San Francisco yesterday?

Santa Monica -1

Oafs

Has anyone else noticed that Keith, Jason, and myself seem to have this little rivalry going on over who was the biggest oaf at the gathering?

Blog Meet Santa Monica - 2

Poetry or Psychosis?

open to suck 

the 

American military machine

Blog Meet Santa Monica - 1

If You Saw These People Coming Down the Street, Would You Run?

My head's feeling like I've let the whole sky in, clouds and all.

The Secret
"You don't seem nervous and shy to me at all," Alan averred when I told him that people made me...

Refugee

This is a spoiled cat. Her frame is no larger than that of Tracy, but I think I can make out the letters "Goodyear" hidden among the stripes on her convexly distended sides.

American Religion

The people who practice this aren't being Jews or Christians or whatever first. They're practicing the American faith which, conveniently, has as one of its tenets a mocking adherence to individuality ~as long as you don't face off against the American military machine and its ways of violence~

Season of the Dragon

A few weeks from now, the first drops of rain will pierce the hard-baked crust left over from summer and bathe the woody roots of the pallid scrub that clump along the sandstone spines and domes of Whiting Canyon like fresh hair implants on a stark scalp.

Gratuitous Blog Chalking Post
This is my blogchalk: United States, California, Trabuco Canyon, Portola Hills, English, Joel, Male, 41-45, Writing, Photography....

Crystal Cove 5

Parings

Do you recall my mentioning that a rhino's horn is made of the same stuff as a fingernail? The thought occurs to me that I could save my parings, grind them up, and sell them to desperate Asian businessmen.

Two Dreams
1. I am riding a train that is part of a tour I am taking with other people. The back...

America the Seralgio

The eunuch who is supposed to be working for us and following our commands is running the show as he pleases.

A Communion of Xanax

I broke a xanax and ate half. Fifteen minutes later, I took the other half, entering the benzoid communion.

Family Pictures

The AC Saga

Insurance will cover the most brutal of the costs, but we have to pay the taxes, get a new programmable thermostat (I'll try to talk the insurance into buying this and save us $85), and carry the old flutter box to the dump.

Woe

I'm pretty useless as a husband.

A Teeth Cleaning
April conducted me through a long fishhook of a hall to a room that occupied the place of the barb....

Pickings
Something's eating me. The evidence is on my fingers, three of them in particular. The two index fingers and the...

Fiesta, Santa Ana

Let Me Give Thanks
Time has come to give thanks to all those who have linked me. Some of these I have stumbled upon...

Archives Moved/Writers Sought

I am also looking for fresh, opinionated writers for two group weblog projects, one called EN's Cabal (to replace ENZine) and another written by cemetery buffs from various parts of the world that will be part of City of the Silent.

Are You Infected?

Someone on #politics said that he'd heard that terrorists were spreading contaminated oranges.

Crystal Cove 4

My Muliple Personalities Redux
Emperor Norton's Web Frontier - The work of a progressive cabal filled with humor, human rights reports, links to...

The Spampires Strike the Emperor

Oh joy. The spam marketeers found a clever new trick. Instead of using their own email address, they use MINE to spam. Zeno- told me that someone had done it to her a few days ago.

Curious Motion
The corrugated purr of a truck engine wakes me. I hear footsteps moving heavy things up a steel ramp. Kris...

An Armchair Warmonger and A Market Warrior
I'd taken two steps into Tully's when the voice boomed across the room: "Let's go to war and kick their...

Crumpled Cats

I thought "Oh no! Has she broken her leg? Did I smash it myself while gadding about in my tiger-striped walking shoes?"

Pundit or Poet?

Good blog is a bit like The Picture of Dorian Grey: there's no moral, just art. And yet does not the art say a lot about the decisions that lead one towards good or towards evil, about being in this world with its issues and conflicts?

Dental Disaster

This time the broke into two pieces. One comprised two of the sides and the other included the other two and the top. They fit together neatly.

Christian Commercialism

Saddleback Community Church dutifully passed out tin signs commemorating 9-11 to its members.

Record of the Day 9-11

I think the greatest respect for the dead that I could give on this day was simply to live. And that is what I did.

9-11 Media Blackout

Alas Poor Yorick!

A 9-11 Sabbath

From midnight Pacific time until the following midnight, I shall watch no televised broadcasts, read no newspapers, listen to no radio broadcasts of any kind, read no mail (including email), chat with no one on IRC, and visit no websites.

Gear!

Dream
I attend some kind of depressive support group. There's a woman who has to leave early because she has to...

I hate asking but....
Those who know me well understand that I don't have a real job, that my websites, including this blog, are...

Check out the Changes
You may have noticed that I've done things to the links page, the archives, and the main index. (I'll be...

A Visit With Frances

She often swirled silently in a narcotic euphoria, bumped over some stone in the way of her memory, and, when prompted by the right question, flowed rapidly, telling us about her grandchildren and the childhood that she, alone of those present in the yellow-tinted hospital room, had seen.

Another Piece of Shrapnel
I've been spattered by reminders of the biggest missed opportunity in my life and feeling helpless about it. Yesterday, we...

Crystal Cove 3

Having Choices

Red's actually touched on one of those vague life issues that I've been trying to put into words for a long time.

Crystal Cove 2

Witness to the Effects of a Spiritual Fragmentation Grenade

I've grown sick because the human rights issues that I have championed over the years are being selectively employed to justify the ultimate human rights abuse, which is murder.

Crystal Cove 1

A Tidepool and A Feeding Frenzy

The fisherman laughed. "I've gone and upset the whole ecology," he said.

Made of Spare Parts

Ass Friday 2

Isn't this a better looking ass than the one I put up last week?

Zoo Animals

[20:36] <EmperorNorton> Do you like zoo animals . ?

[20:36] <dot> why ?

A Monstrous Ingrown Hair

Fawn Ridge Crossing
Orange cones and fresh yellow lines sprung up around the neighborhood. Yesterday, I saw a crowd of candy-pants wearing mothers...

Invisible Rain

When I stepped out onto the deck this afternoon, I caught the faintest whiff of rain.

Flourescent Locusts

Our ancestors, who knew Milton and solved calculus problems on slates, were run out of their homes and into alien mills where the champings of the mechanisms chewed away their very ability to think.

Iced Coffee

....a bit of thick decaffinated and defatted pleasure to tease the tongue and the lips.

The AC Saga

One little neuron wakes up finally, takes note of our problem, fires off, and all the desks, workstations, carpets, telephones, plate glass windows, and potted plants sympathize.

River Horses

Jeremiah Considers What He Has Wanted
If being a prophet means that you are a person who gets in trouble for telling people what you think...

Jeremiad

Yes, all is right in America as we throw billions into preparations for bombing Iraq and let the widows and orphans resort to begging and chasing after vague promises to stay alive.

Prostitution without Pay

It isn't stupidity: it's poverty that drives the numbers.

The AC Saga Continues

You'd think that this would have made their records, but I had to run through the whole story all over again.

Two Symphonies by Sibelius

If I were damned to be inanimate, I would like to be one of the symphonies of Jean Sibelius.

I felt this one

The epicenter appears to be about 12 to 15 miles north of here. 4.6 is a very small earthquake.

Penetration 2

AC Insurance

I suspect that if I fight for it, I will get my air conditioner fixed in time for next summer.

Broken bones, loose teeth, and a couple of hippy grandchildren

"You know me, Frances," I remarked dryly, looking out the window at the sheer chocolate marbled face of the San Gabriels. "I don't like to see people cut up. Especially people I like."

Labor Day

While others howled about the baseball strike, I merely asked for the rest of the story: what about the toilet scrubbers, the counter clerks, and the groundskeepers?

Burning

When a Texan looks at your weather and gasps "That's hot!" it's time to take notice.

Penetration

The Heat's On

September is the time of oppressive days cloaked in charring fogs. You get the gloom of winter and the worst of summer's sweltering rages.