Flinging Poo

It would be fair to say that some of my earliest memories of childhood were of my mother being beaten by my father. They weren't the only ones, but they were the strongest and have had the most lasting effect on me emotionally. I recall many memories from back then. I had many normal experiences and it was like I led a normal life, but had this other part of my life that I kept hidden from others, like a second life where I stood witness to the brutalities of my father. My mother has said he used to beat me, but I don't have memories of this. They are all of my mother. I remember her being pulled around part of the kitchen by her hair. I remember him yelling and throwing a ketchup bottle at her and it smashing against the refridgerator and all the red spraying against it's side. I remember him beating her with his belt, or asking her to get a coat hanger for him. When she wouldn't he demanded that I get one for him. I remember panicked and crying because I would have to...

Shorty- -Was a roommate with Jason Miller (actor, priest in Exorcist), for a summer at his mothers summer stock (?) -Was a driver for Paul Newman and his wife during one of his movies - "Rachel, Rachel" (Paul's wife talked about publishing his poetry, which he wrote on the stock sheets). He smoked pot with the screenwriter (Stewart Stern?). Promised a part in a new movie being produced in NYC. He turned it down. He knew the guy they went with instead and how they got him to blush for the camera ("He was a young guy and kind of innocent and Paul shouted as they were shooting 'Look at her nice tits'"). -Sat on Buster Crab's knee one a kids show on ABC that his father producted/directed. -There's a picture of him in a crib, being strolled by the elder Carradine (Keith's father). My mother has the picture. - Invited to have lunch with Elvis; decided against it because he wasn't 'cool anymore'. - Greenwhich Village - Harper Bergoff Sch...

Like many Americans, I find the issue of Health Care (as an oxymoron, ironically enough), a leading issue. Unlike many Americans I don't see the correlation between a Single Payer system reform and Communism. Let me give a few reasons why moving to a Single Payer system offers many advantages over what we presently have. From a purely macroeconomic view moving to a Single Payer system of health care in America gives advantages to our businesses, whether a Mom and Pop shop or a major multinational corporation. If you ask a small or medium-sized business owner what makes his service or product uncompetitive in the marketplace, he is likely to point out the crushing burden of having to pay health coverage to his employees. We certainly don't have to look so far down the ladder for that insight, however. General Motors has priced itself out of competitiveness and likely in the future out of business entirely due to weight of it's health care costs to its employees, especially t...

Tuition was raised by an average of 6.6% over last year. Overall, it could be said that inflation ( Consumer Price Index), has outstripped average wage increases. It is so much a part of common knowledge that it no longer outrages anyone and people just shrug their shoulders and say 'what can you do?' in resignation. Clearly, this is not the case for everyone, but for a large number of Americans, it is. If there was one thing that some of the Post-WWI Democratic Presidents did, it was address the gaping difference in income between the wealthy and the poor. What this did initially was to increase the size of the Middle Class. It was soon discovered that a well-financed Middle Class was the key to powering an economy, especially if they were in the majority. This expanded our economic power and enabled us to have enough money to throw around to field foreign armies without blinking. Then, Reagan came in with his "Trickle Down Economics". The assumption here was that y...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html The German-based Energy Watch Group ( EWG ), says that peak production occurred last year (2006) and will decline steadily at about 7% a year, with half of current levels produced by 2030. The International Energy Agency suggests there are 42 years left at current consumption rates, but the EWG says that real reserves left is about two-thirds of that. This suggests we have 28 years left at current consumption rates. However, as populations increase and as emerging industrial powers require heavier consumption (like China), this will increase demand and decrease the time left until these reserves are depleted. My own speculation is that we are very close to peak productive capacity now and that increasing prices will reflect a declining supply. I believe a more predictable figure to be closer to 23-25 years. This means that renewable energy sources will have to be embraced and pursued with much greater vigor so that demand for oil...

Art is supposed to imitate life, right? Well, often art doesn't. Let's take the role of hospitals in television. Some very respected and long-running shows give us the 'insides' (pun intended), of hospital life. More often, in movies and television hospitals are a prop. They are like automobiles to further the plot. You get hurt? Hey all, let's carry this party to the hospital! It's a field trip. Someone gets a broken arm? To the hospital! Got an elbow to the face? To the hospital! Granted; If you get a broken arm there's not much choice. It needs to be MRI'd, X-Ray'd, Scanned, gotten second opinions over, wheel-chaired, and oh yeah... set. How about a black eye? Oh, don't be a ninny! Go to the hospital! It's no big thing. Well, as long as money means nothing to you, that is. I fell off a bike. A couple of hours later I was driven to the hospital by my mother, who insisted that I go. They ended up throwing an IV of water put in my arm, seen ...

It was night in the city. It was a club like many others. Music blared and echoed and young bodies writhed and wiggled under it's tempting beat. Word had come down that the younger sister of Jose Callero had blown into town, was spending high and been seen with another man. No one knew this other man but he seemed at home with her and her entourage. The glint of steel had been seen peeking from beneath some of their suit coats but the word was hands off for now. They would just keep an eye out and make sure nothing went down without them being on top of it. Not even an hour ago a routine traffic stop netted a mid-level boss that pointed the finger straight at Jose's sister as the source. It was a fortunate turn of events at a fortunate time. The club had been cased out and young, hip men packing heat had been dispatched to be there long before she and hers did. They were there, in trendy clothes and trendy hair styles, flashing fancy watches and ready smiles. Behind their grin...