my new favorite poem

i came across this poem this morning.

The poem is from the Pangur Ban Party site. I've been reading things off it all morning and having a really good time.

My favorite poem on it is my Ryan Manning, it is called Kendra from his Softcore Lolitas collection.

Plagues

Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill. This is a realy good book about how plagues and diseases have effected civilizations over the course of history.

The Antonine Plague fucked up Rome in the 170s

The Plague of Cyprian which fucked up Rome in 270

Plague of Justinian fucked up Rome and the Byzantine Empire in the 500s.

Black Death

Also if you ever go to the Rocky Mountain National Park there are signs telling you not to go near the marmots because they have fleas on them carrying the Bubonic Plague. When I got to the top of Lawn Lake mountain I saw a marmot, it was cute.

The Spanish Influenza

Poem

An Empty Pic

Could you take a pic
with nothing in it

I'm tired
looking at pics
of people standing
amongst objects

or objects standing
amongst other objects

i could put up a white sheet
and take a pic of that

no

that would be a pic
of a white sheet

I could turn
off all the lights
and take a pic
in the dark

no
the darkness
would be there
i would know

I have really
great pics
of me
getting drunk
would you like
to see those

i need to get published again

i keep thinking i need to get some things published

i have a book coming out in December

i need to get new readers and remind people i'm still alive.

I looked at lit sites and contemplated poetry

These poems are on sell for free

if you want one, i'll take it down immediately

here is my email noah.cicero@gmail.com

so here it goes:

POEMS WERE TAKEN BY GUSTUF

have woken to summer

today I woke up at my roommate's parent's house couch.

I went to sleep there watching the news.

I woke up to a 60 year old man diabetic man drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

He said the phrase, "There was so much damage done. After they came back there was no straightening them out."

Then he talked about Jack London and suicide.

Then I talked about John Locke.

He eventually had to leave to go to the eye doctor to find out if he's going blind.

I walked outside and stood in the untilled garden.

"The garden will soon be tilled," I thought.

The neighbor who had spent four years in prison for killing a person with a car while drunk was working on his lawn.

A dog was barking in the distance.

Birds were making their little bird noises.

Everything was really good standing there alone with fresh cups of coffee in my belly.

Now I'm at the computer and soon will be time to take a shower, put my boots on and clean off the garden because we will till the land and everything will be okay.

I only have one exam worth thinking about.

And my bipolarism is on the upswing.

I hope it stays there for at least two days.

Things I've learned after this sweet year of college

on the fourth floor of debartlo hall there is a foreign language lab that has computers with headphones.

*

There is Sumatra coffee at the beat.
There is blue note coffee in the library that makes me burp an hour after i drink it.
Kilcawly has mexican organic coffee.
Cushwa has henry's blend.

*

if you take a class on Plato's Republic, don't expect anything awesome to happen.

*

There are three hot asian chicks that get coffee at cushwa MWF around 9:35.

*

College did not teach me that life is pointless, i learned that at work.

*

College is very big in promoting life.

*

If you decide to talk to a professor about something discussed in class they will go into a long weird monologue regardless of what you say.

*

professors who wear jogging suits are funny.

*

professors who wear jogging suits don't grade hard.

*

Professors wearing ties think they are badass and will demand you memorize Griswald V. Conn..

*

Eisenstadt v. Baird is about condoms.

*

The Republic takes place in a porn theater.

*

How to make thought experiments: if there is a toad on an island and he wants the palm trees to get along with the ocean he needs to design a system of justice that patterns a zero end game.

*

Even though there are many attractive women at colleges, that does not mean any of them will talk to you.

*

I'm going to start a heavy metal band and name it Amicus Curiae and still not get pussy.

*

I was doing silverware at work three weeks ago and felt really bored. I starting thinks thoughts that could only arise out of boredom and I realized, I haven't dated anyone in three or four years.

It never occurred to me to date anyone.

I've had drunken sex but not dated anyone.

I started to think I needed to get a girlfriend and then nothing happened.

Then I started to think I needed money and then nothing happened.

Then I considered what it would be like to swim better and then nothing happened.

Then I pondered having a better smile and then nothing happened.

Then they led me to the gallows.

If anyone wants to be my girlfriend.

You can be.

This is was a romantic poem to the all powerful vagina that lies between your legs.

I probably need to be less embarrassing.

But you don't live in Youngstown and I don't have to see any of you and it doesn't fucking matter what I say.

*

In college a person may have a lot of time to do nothing.

*

I'm doing a poll

has anyone's life improved since google bought blogger

i feel like a bird soaring high above the clouds everytime an internet company buys another internet company which I suppose consists in buying nothing but a brand name.

i feel really good about it

i buy a cake from dairy queen everytime i hear about a merger

Finding things to do

Today a professor came up to me in Plato class and said, "Noah, do you think intelligence is genetic."

I said, "Not at all, intelligence doesn't really matter."

He walked away mad because I didn't respond properly.

I look at the word intelligence

then i look around the world to find it

i see one of my political science professors who is a constitutional law expert and fits the description of really smart. But at the same time he is a straussian and doesn't believe in sociology.

I remember a kid in high school who scored in the top 1 percentile on his ACTs in math and now works at a pizza shop.

I think of a writer who went from being a little college student to a semi famous writer in a few years who rarely ever speaks and barely ever lives his room.

I see one my history teachers who has memorized everything that happened between 1600 1800 in france but doesn't realize that teaching the industrial revolution is essential to post 1500 history.

I see Allen Greenspan who became the head of federal reserve, everyone loved him, was convinced of the theory of 'market correction' and now everyone hates him and thinks he's a moron.

I can think of twenty authors who wrote one great book and never wrote a book worth a shit for the rest of their lives.

Einstein thought of e = mc square and then basically doodled for the rest of his life.

So at the end of this journey to recognize that the word 'intelligence' represents in reality i find nothing.

I think you can say:

Joe is good at being an engineer.

Which means every time Joe has to design a new part he shows up to work on time, he is professional, and the part he designed works.

Lisa is a good teacher.

Lisa shows up to work on time. She is helpful and understanding to the students needs. She shows concern that none get left behind.

With writers it doesn't work that way though:

Richard Yates was a genius every time he sat down to write the lines contained in Revolutionary Road and Easter Parade. While writing A Special Providence he was okay but not a genius. When he went to the bathroom and wiped his ass during writing breaks he was a normal human being.

I keep on living and other people keep notifying me I'm alive

it's april 23, 2009

9:06 in the morning

i got the robert johnson channel on on pandora radio

drinking gas station coffee

just ate two donuts that had to be at least four hours old

I haven't heard anything about texas secession lately, somebody must have called Rick Perry and told him that America would embargo cable television from them and rick perry was like, "Without cable television my population would revolt against me."

Dick Cheney tells Hannity that being stupid as possible is okay if you have money.

Yesterday at work a 40 year old man told on me for eating a french fry. A single french fry that was cut from a potato.

Then two people told that britain and france are the same country, then laughed at me because I thought they were two separate countries.

I got Sam Pink's book in the mail. I'm waiting for Brandon Scott Gorrell's book. When i get kennedy, pink, and gorrell's books I'll write an article for all three of them at once, stating something like moral relativism creates funny people.

I've been smoking a lot of cigarettes lately.

The movie people came last weekend, pirooz and henwood. They came. We went to strip joints, they got permission to film in the lampost lounge and the royal oaks for free. We watched three hours of auditions together. I watched people act out my book. It was creepy. We decided on a few actors to do it. pirooz and henwood have done really cool things with the script. I'm really amazed by it. I usually don't feel amazed about anything. But what they did with the script makes me happy.

Watching the auditions makes me wish i had actors with me when i write. When i write dialogue, i could be like, "Act this out." And they could act it out, and i would be able to figure out better if what i wrote made sense or needed something added to it.

But that isn't how writing works.

Writing is done alone.

You can't have sex and write at the same time.

Texas secession and rights

The tea party fucks are against government and taxes.

Now there are probably some reading this that are liberal and think government is stupid or something.

But this is what government does:

I'll use my local congressman and the local Youngstown area.

In most areas where humans live there is a type of mafia, be it oil men, business men, christians, whatever that want to skim some money off of the people and who will do it ruthlessly if given the chance.

I have a congressman named Tim Ryan.

Tim Ryan is not an awesome person.

He has connections, he has a law degree, he is above average intelligence, but never goes on liberal radio or television or makes an appearance bitching at Bernanke or anything special.

But he brings money to the area and gets some projects going. For taking over an area that is complete shit he is doing as much as a person can do.

But the congressman we voted in does something with the mafia. He operates making sure they don't completely fuck up the area and blow up people on the sidewalks with car bombs.

We vote and have congressman because they are supposed to get us federal money and make sure assholes from the mafia don't go around fucking things up. And they vote on things concerning the direction of the country. If it be an embargo on some country or a stimulus plan. Things that involve every state.

But lets look at a republican congressman in Texas

His or her mafia is the local church and their preachers and businessmen that want to screw over their employees.

But Texans don't think they should be protected from the church because there is sad belief that churches help people in America. And they don't want to screw with businessman because they love Leo Strauss and Russell Kirk and believe in an Oligarchy because God makes oligarchies.

Well the congress in Texas doesn't protect his citizens from the church mafia or from businessmen, they provide no protection.

And if Texas refuses federal funds there is no reason for the congressman to be there.

And Texas congressman and senators don't care what the nation is going.

So I guess it makes sense why they would want to secede.

They have no interest in voting for anything that has anything to do with the nation as a whole and they don't care about regulating the church mafias or business. And they don't care about getting federal money.

Which means they aren't doing their job.

So the question is:

Does Texas have the right to secede?

I'm not concerned with legal documents here.

Rights go beyond legal documents.

If you reduce rights down to legal documents than there would be no bill of rights, because before the bill of rights there was no bill of rights.

If the state decides that they don't want to participate in being part of America, that means supplying income tax to fund the military and help out other states that are in trouble, that means they don't want to be part of America.

It is no different than Quebec wanting to secede from Canada and the rule of the queen.

But do they have the right to secede if our economy will crash because they withhold sending us the 1 million barrels of oil they produce and the 4 million barrels of oil they refine a day?

Do we have the right to attack and occupy Texas if we know 50 percent of Texas doesn't want to secede and they start picking up everyone that looks Mexican no matter how long their family has lived in America and throwing them over the border or if they start killing their small black population?

Now we have to assume this also:

What they are against is a Obama dictatorship.

If Texas does this and withholds their oil and the oil they refine it would cause gas prices to skyrocket and there would be a gas shortages and the economy would be collapse.

Which would lead to a lot of people being so pissed off and scared that they would give Obama dictoral powers like they did Lincoln and think the attack was a good idea.

The two main questions are:

1. Does a state have the right to secede because they don't care about participating in the national scene anymore? They don't want federal money and they don't want to supply any either. And they think or believe things that no longer coincide with the national beliefs.

2. Does the dominate nation have a right to attack and retain a state that wants to secede because they have certain resources that without them the dominate state would collapse? Or should the dominant state learn to live without the resources?

Texas wants to secede

Here's the quote from Rick Perry to a group of chanting and screaming tea baggers, “Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” Perry said. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”

This is pretty serious.

Now, before you say, "It won't happen."

Lets go back in time to April of 1999.

If someone told you that in ten years America would have been attacked by terrorists, crazy republicans will have taken office, America will conquer two countries, there will be no more oil production growth, it will stop at 82 million barrels a day, there will be a total economic collapse what would you have said. a 700 billion dollar bailout and a 700 billion dollar stimulus?

I'm assuming, "That won't happen."

That's what I would have said.

So a lot of people from Texas are nuts.

So lets think about what would happen if Texas seceded.

They don't produce much of their own goods, America and Mexico would for sure embargo them and televisions, cell phones, phones at all, cars, car parts, shoes, boots, plates, cups, all kinds of shit, little shit, we take for granted, but come from somewhere else, maybe china, maybe indiana.

I don't think the people of texas would be happy to realize that their cell phone service was off and when a simple thing like a water pump broke on their truck they wouldn't be able to order a part.

Texas does have OIL

and this is why we wouldn't let it secede

look here

Texas’s 26 petroleum refineries can process nearly 4.8 million barrels of crude oil per day, and they account for more than one-fourth of total U.S. refining capacity.

More than one-fourth of total U.S. natural gas production occurs in Texas, making it the Nation’s leading natural gas producer.

They have no real ability to sustain themselves without being connected to the rest of the world, unless they go back to like 1910.

But without them processing 4.8 million barrels of crude oil a day and without their natural gas it would completely and utterly fuck us in the ass.

Gas would shoot up to 10 dollars a gallon in a minute.

It would be all out war to get those refineries back.

We took over Iraq for oil and we would take over Texas for oil.

Obama would send planes in and have them bomb their food supply and let the starvation and chaos erupt among them.

Who knows how many little factories produce little parts that are important to instruments we use.

Imagine how much beef would disappear.

The oil would be the biggest problem.

It would cause oil prices to rise to 10 dollars a gallon and that would piss everyone off to the point they would enlist or get behind it and kill as many Texans as possible.

Tea Parties

This could be the dumbest thing since Jefferson Davis announced the south was going to secede.

I've looked at pics of the event and watched some videos, it is all white people.

I read some of their forums, one of the tea baggers says that italians aren't americans and I should leave.

This movement is pretty sad.

It was started by libertarians that believe ownership is god, principles of justice should be based on exchanges of ownership.

The conservatives there believe in throwing away the constitution and replacing it with the bible.

I would say the fundemental psychological motivation of this movement is white men's fear of the black penis.

They are afraid of Obama's penis.

The women are siding with the men because they want black penis so much and it scares them.

This doesn't have anything to do with taxes or the constitution, if you read Nozick, Russell Kirk, and Leo Strauss you will instantly find out the philosophers they hold up as inspirations don't believe in the constitution or the seperation of powers.

These people are scared of the black penis.

I watched a video of a tea party and someone told people to not send their kids to college and someone yelled 'burn the books.'

These people are dangerous.

They are scared and stupid and completely irrational.

They keep talking about 'revolution.'

They are so dumb they don't know reactionaries can't start a revolution.

Perhaps it isn't wise to keep spending money like America does.

But I don't see how that has to do with racism, christianity, homophobia, and thinking that communists are coming to get you, make your little boy gay and take your guns.

I haven't heard of any proposals by Obama to raise taxes on anyone making less than 250,000 or to take anyone's guns.

the climate is becoming strange, people are getting scared. The world is very big and interconnected now, but at the same time it revolves around very few corporations, very few farming sectors, very few banks, and oil fields located on the other side of the world.

People are really afraid because they feel small and they have realized their world is unsustainable, there is no independence at all. Everyone is at the mercy of others. People have to get meaningless jobs from corporations, corporations have to get loans from banks, and everyone needs OPEC to keep pumping out oil.

A republican mentions state rights

What fucking rights can a state have?

If everyone fucking state depends on a few banks, few corporations and the same fucking oil wells?

This is an all around bad situation.

Banker Meeting

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”