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SMOKE & MIRRORS - THE SHARK POOL: Our Editor, ROD AMIS, explains his "Michael Corleone Moment" and why he's still here; provides a new editorial but has a lot less to say about his personal life.
SMOKE
"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.
23 March 2007: Yeah, I know, I'm not supposed be here. But I was sent money and compelled to write:
MICHAEL MALLEN who I once dissed in this space came to my rescue this week and insisted that I NOT LEAVE THIS EFFORT. He sent me enough money - and has promised much more when we get together here in Texas - so that I might achieve my goal of getting out of debt by this summer.
Imagine the prospect, if you will, Gentle Reader, a Rod not always worried about his debts but focused on what he wants to accomplish. Dream World.
So In case you wanted to know, like the Aquilera vid sang on last week's cover: "I ain't going no place!"
There. I said it. Now I've gotten that off my plate and I can tell you what else I've been thinking about.
28 March 2007: I ASKED MYSELF a question this morning: "Self, is there anyone you can think of, with the primaries not starting until about ten months from now, who isn't running - or talking about running - for President of the United States?"
Myself answered: "You mean besides me? Well, Ah-nold isn't running because we won't let him. That should give you some kind of consolation."
But not much. If there is any truth to the claim that the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a lame duck that the American people are exhausted with, it would be how excited everyone is about rushing who will take over the place next. It's like the entire country has gotten together for a sing-a-long to the tune of "We'd Like to Miss You but You Ain't Gone Away."
By waging a steady war of words to make us fearful, this Administration in the United States has succeeded in making us angry and impatient, the evidence would suggest. Angry and impatient about shrinking resources, shrinking privacy and individual rights, shrinking quality of life and the shrinking of a generation of young people who are the wealth of our nation in a vision of Perpetual War that is UnAmerican at its core.
Longtime Loyal Readers will remember that I spent some time visiting the widow of the great Black historian W.E.B. DuBois in my youth. She and her husband were labeled UnAmerican by the a U.S. Congressional committee and told to leave this country never to return.
When I met with this obstinate, opinionated, challenging woman - despite our disagreements - I could not but poignantly feel that there was something unethical and sinister in labeling anyone Un-Whatever. That sense has stuck with me over the years.
You see, my dears, I am a fool for inclusion and acceptance. My personal experience in this life has infused me with an anger and impatience with people who go out of their ways to exclude, ridicule and reject those who aren't carbon copies of themselves. One of the great gifts of thoughtful consciousness, I've always felt, is the ability to engage with and have civil disagreements with people unlike oneself. Here's the Point: I can't grow and learn and explore if all you have to say to what I say is "That's right! That's right!"
I h ave learned more from people who don't hold the same opinions as myself than from people who did. If you've listened, I suspect you have, too.
This latter conceit steps into the notion of "free will." I don't mean the theological notion but rather the philosophical (and, perhaps, psychological) one. There is a libertarian streak to the latter but it is libertarianism infused with a dash of sympathy and empathy. It is an important value, in this view, that recognition of common human experience be brought to the fore, even at points of disagreement. The human project, if we consider it, has been centered around family relationships. In this late-stage age of nuclear families, we have often forgotten the tribal roots of that development - or perverted them (more on that I continue this essay) - and thus lost the sense of value that we once gave to legacy and memory.
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Let me attempt to explain this last postulate. The end of the extended family, historically speaking and, for the most part, in the industrialized countries, produced a new way of looking at the world that has proven both liberating and isolating. I don't have to work as a janitor because my father did; I can choose my own path. At the same time and in that very act of attempting new options, I separate myself from a system of support.
[Brief Rhetorical Note: I could have used the pronoun "you" instead of the personal pronoun. Any decent rhetoritician knows the power of the world "you" and its misuse. "You" - particularly in rhetoric - is a manipulative locution. I share this with you, my lovelies, because I caution you to parse what politicians say. That was a "Rod Loops Back on His Own Rhetoric" moment.]
Much of what most of us learn about life, how to live it, how to deal with interactions successfully, is taken from our familial experience. The rest is part of the youthful experience of seeking acceptance from our peers. One example of this truth is that the children of abusive parents often become abusers themselves. There is a way out, of course, but that takes a leap to self-actualization. It requires a conscious effort to disconnect from learned patterns of behavior. Then comes adulthood.
Adulthood, if you've followed this reasoning, has to do with free will and making determinations based on reason, memory and the legacy of the tribe. In others words, on wisdom passed forward. Unlike insects, we don't get genetically hard-wired to resist mistakes or weaknesses. We only learn from having the ability to listen to and learn from what those have come before or those we encounter can provide us.
The ability to listen and consider what has been said is one of the greatest of human gifts.
I find that I spend a great deal of time going back over what people have said to me; how they have said it; what seemed most important, exciting or interesting to them. I conduct this mental exercise not only to understand my interlocutor better but also to understand myself and the rest of humanity better. I consider taking seriously what I'm told part of the larger search for knowledge about what it means to be human and how information is passed from one person to another.
The second part of this ruminative process I engage in is a consideration of what the other person felt was important in the information I shared with them. I'm often amused with what another person takes away from interaction, phrases they remember or fail to remember; incidents that they might determine were important or not to me.
Going from the personal and social, back to political, where I started this essay, I would suggest that it is only when one can listen to opinions and ideas that are diametrically opposed to one's own that growth and learning are possible. It's called heterodoxy.
As I look at the current crop of political candidates then, with these thoughts and beliefs in mind - when not being totally amused with the histrionics - I have decided that heterodoxy will be the scale by which I judge them. When I write a more traditionally political commentary on any of them, in future, keep in mind that I shall be asking, "Is this person capable of listening to an opinion that does not parrot their own?"
Let me include this videocast for your consideration. YOUR TAX DOLLARS are being used to pay government employees to support political planning. Look at the head of GSA for yourself, my lovelies. Please note that the incident around which this hearing is being held happened in January of THIS YEAR. Lurita Doan Video.
Finally, my friend Ric Williams sent me the URL for this wonderful address from Bill Moyers. I hope you enjoy it, my loves, as much as I did.
I believe everything inside Your World's Magazine is excellent. I'd be a fool to publish it otherwise. Thus, henceforth, in this space I'll only mention those articles I suspect you'll miss or ignore if I didn't mention them.
My personal Spotlight this week are on ALISON WEIR's contribution. If you don't read the article, though I hope you shall, at least watch the video. You'll find it in our G21 MIDEAST section. I also recommend you look at MORAA GITAA's great commentary on the importance of International Women's Day 2007.
Don't let these recommendations keep you from reading the other two (2) great pieces in this edition.
23 March 2007 It's the day before Harry Houdini's birthday and mine. I am sitting on a Greyhound bus ready to go to South Texas. I'm going down to Shenandoah, as I told you during my last outing, to see Becky and Kent. The Plan is that Becky will pick me up at the bus station in Houston on her way home from work in Sugarland. So here I sit wondering why this bus is schedule to leave at three (3.:00) is still sitting at the station at ten after. Everything works the way it is supposed to here in America, no?
Because of my look, I noted that the ticket agent gave me the Senior Discount. Okay, yeah, tomorrow I'll be fifty-five (55) but I thought most of that stuff didn't kick in until you were sixty or so. I'm not complaining about saving money, my lovelies, I just didn't think I look that old; my wrong.
The photo with this entry is from when this column was called "My Glass House." The woman cutting the cake with me? That's my ex-lovely-wife. You know, I was a little insulted, back before Hurricane Katrina when I was a bartender in New Orleans, when a woman nearly fell off her chair when I mentioned I had been married. What? Do I strike most people as a rake? Hmmnn...
Oh Hell! Yes, I was once in love.
[Editor's Note: What would Freud say about the fact that the majority of my typos this week appeared in the small paragraph where I spoke about my ex-wife?]
Visit this page when you get a chance The Writings of Valdas Anelauskas. It's an eye opener.
One of my Guilty Pleasures on YouTube is watching the on-going "Chad Vader" series from BlameSocietyFilms. You can find the latest episode, posted on the 27 March by following the link.
1 April 2007: I took up an old habit of mine this weekend, once I actually got back to work on doing all the background work that it takes to produce a new edition of this magazine: I fired up my iTunes and listened to a couple Internet channels in background as I did updated the templates, tables and other refresned the pages that it takes to make the links network work coherently here.
The music was a great way to keep from focusing on the Grunt Work I have to here with each update. It made the time pass less onerously than it usually does. I found a great station that broadcasts samba, bossa nova, international lounge music and Latin jass. Ahh, what a nice way to have the work hours pass...
2 April 2007: IF you want "Enjoy What Rod Does" this week, I'd first suggest that check the video on our Homepage/Cover, Music Lovers. After that, check out this great video from Cuba's legendary Pedro Luis Ferrer. It's another great feature from our friends at Calabash Music.
Insha'Allah, tomorrow I shall be able to pay my rent. My lease is now up and - though I have indicated I'm willing to re-up and sign a new lease - my property manager's here tell me that the landlord hasn't indicated to them whether my rent will be raised or not, so-o-o I'm on month-to-month until the owner of these buildings in my complex deems to send me a letter. The Good News is that I can stop worry about my rent being raised.
The second thing I should be able to accomplish tomorrow is buy more food. I NEED to buy more food. It's looking pretty spare around here these days, though I am writing for someone every day because my bank is being hinky. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say I have made thousands of dollars in deposits lately and must wait until tomorrow, I'm informed, until I have access to ANY of the money. So, God willing, if this information is true, I'll spend a few hours traveling to stores and shopping. When you use public transport this country, the Car Culture people, want you to feel how much you are going against the grain. You already know what I think about that.
I am sanguine, Little Loves. I have decided not to worry about the circumstances of living in this Evil Empire that cannot change. I'm being very Berkeley about all of these circumstances.
Ohmigod! I devoted more time to "Smoke" this time than to "Mirrors." Milestone.
Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.
Thanks for coming back this week.
Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS Internet magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, r eaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.
He did stints as the Resident Philosopher at three separate gin mills in that city in the French Quarter and the Marigny, earning his stripes during two successive Mardi Gras seasons. Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. When he's not busy here, he writes technology columns for EnterpriseLeadership.org. Rod's more leftist writings can be found at Atlantic Free Press. (Don't tell his potential employers.) He writes a weekly column on social media issues for Leverage Social Media.His work will appear this summer in print and online for PR TACTICS. Rust never sleeps. He is being courted by California software company into going back into being a Made Man.
Our Resident Philosopher has decided to return to Austin, Texas, after over two decades away. Wish him luck..
In his spare time, Rod chases women in the way a fly chases a spider.. 
He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.
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E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your kudos, brickbats and suggestions to rod@g21.net.