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 "You
need gas money and a car that works. Of course, my preference is to
do it in the middle of the night! Leave them little presents, you
know what I'm saying? Like the Easter bunny."
 "If
you don't think of Cubans or Iraqis as actual human beings
with jobs and day-to-day lives, if you don't see them or hear
their voices, then it's easier to be against them. They're
faceless. It's a tried-and-true way of dealing with people
or nations that the ruling elite finds troublesome or inconvenient,
whether it's Native Americans, Germans, Russians, Iraqis,
Cubans, even the French -- whoever gets in our way. They're
simply lumped into the enemy pile. "
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Elegy To Ronald Reagan
by Ross
Levine
(with apologies
to Jonathan Swift...)
Ronald Reagan,
can he be gone?
We knew the porch light wasn't on,
And yet we figured he'd prevail --
He seemed confused when he was hale.
But as happens
with old timers,
He got sick, it was Alzheimer's,
A diagnosis, some insist,
He had earned while in office.
Shame on them, Ron was heroic
(if a little Mesozoic).
In movies he
did very well,
Bedtime for Bonzo ring a bell?
In Hollywood, he kept long lists
Of all suspected communists.
A red was something to deplore,
It helped make him a governor.
His wisdom knew
no boundaries.
Who knew smog was caused by trees?
And, he added, 'twas no fable,
Ketchup is a vege-table.
And so they made him President,
His leadership so evident,
The Soviets had to kowtow,
Lest he radiate Moscow.
His chest, Hinckley
shot a hole in,
A cancer grew inside his colon,
And still the Gipper wouldn't quit,
All that Teflon kept him fit.
He remained a mediator --
Please, just don't bring up Grenada,
Nor comment on that unpopped cork,
When the Senate spared us Robert Bork.
Or when, in Europe, to appease,
He laid a wreath down for Nazis.
And forget, too, ol' Ollie North,
And arms-for-hostages, of course
(When, with each extra buck they made,
A Contra got a hand grenade).
And those rumors
about his son,
Implying he liked manly fun?
Come on, how could he be gay?
He wed on Dad's inaugural day!
But let's not
dwell on sordid things,
Since all in all, his record sings.
Reaganomics, now that was cool,
A system plain to any fool:
The rich as they keep earning more,
Cast their pennies to the poor.
Trickle down's how he described it
(Us trickle-ees barely survived it).
He gave America
his all,
Made Gorby tear down the wall,
He charmed in ways that weren't fancy,
Provided you could get past Nancy.
In short, you shouldn't find it odd,
That Reagan's deemed a demi-god,
Canonized by the GOP,
Their leader for eternity;
They will not rest till his visage,
On Rushmore is securely lodged.
So if friends
assert he's gone to hell,
Just look befuddled and say, "Well..."
Then tell them that their spite demeans,
This leader wrought from jellybeans.
07 June 04
Ross M. Levine is
an author, Marcel Proust marathoner and manatee-hugger who feels safer
on the edge; i.e., in New York or California. He agrees with the King
of Brobdingnag that we're "the most pernicious race of odious vermin to
crawl the surface of the Earth." He thinks Americans have too much freedom
-- fries, that is.
 "We
Have to Get Beyond Our Pain"
With the success of slams and the explosion of hip-hop,
poetry is more alive than ever. But if you ask Saul Williams,
it's not doing its job unless it's making uncomfortable connections
for a country too used to its own version of truth. Our interview
explains . . . MORE
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Deja Coup
Where have we seen this before? United States is at odds with popularly
elected leader who initiates a series of economic
and political reforms, screwing the fat cats in the process.
U.S. summarily funds violent overthrow and installs puppet
regime, screwing the job force in the process. Haiti? Iraq? Panama?
All of the above? . . . . MORE
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Extra! San Francisco Joins Axis of Evil!
It's election year and you know what that means -- it's diversion
time! Which is another way of saying that the Bush administration's
jihad against the gay community couldn't come at a
worse moment in history. But is a constitutional amendment
really such a bad idea? . . . . MORE
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2004: Year of the Monkey (or Donkey)
Every year, Morphizm peers into its crystal ball to
see what the future will bring. And boy is 2004 a wild card!
But we're still betting on a few things, like Jacko doing
time for ethnic cleansing, a few more mulatto Thurmonds,
homos splitting the church wide open and, of course, a Bush-whacking
. . . MORE
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Hollywood Uncensored
In this age
of FCC jihads against one of Janet Jackson's titties,
you may be forgiven for thinking that we've come a long way baby.
But before Madonna and Sex in the City, there was
Hollywood's Production Code, legislating decency into pop
culture with deadly boring results. Thank god for these pre-Code
standouts . . . MORE
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Unhappy Birthday!
Time to blow out the candles, America! We've been in Iraq
for a year and what do we have to show for it? More terrorism, more
graft, more bombs, and more chaos than anyone can
handle. In other words, it's going just as planned! But just because
it smells like Vietnam doesn't mean it is. . . . . MORE
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