28.8.06

naderisms

Quote of the day

"The major public housing project in this country is building prison cells."

-- Ralph Nader

(Hat tip Texas Students Against the Death Penalty)

technorati tags:,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

24.8.06

every time the bubble bursts

i have a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around what it's really like for mike in prison. when we talk on the phone, it just feels like he's far away. i have this almost delusional naivete, the ability to just laugh and tell him so much trivial crap, and i picture him playing in the band room in the joint, finishing the new york times crosswords i send him in every letter, reading my letters, writing me letters, eating "railroad tracks", i picture him playing handball and football and working out.

i put the fear and negativity out of my mind, i shove it all so far down that sometimes, i just forget he's in prison and things get real light and real easy. but something always happens that bursts my little ignorance bubble every once in a while.

the first time i experienced this was when he disappeared for 6 months a while back. he'd been writing, and then he wrote a short note that some shit had come up and he'd write soon and he loves me, and then he stopped. for 6 months. i had no way of knowing what hd happened, so my mind went to some very, very dark places. i read so much about prison and every scenario i'd ever read about passed through my mind. turned out he was in the hole for some bogus shit he didn't do. he was fine.

so things get a little lighter again, and we write back and forth, and he calls every now and then and i just feel so immediately happy when i hear his voice, or get his letters. back into this happy, giddy state and i forget again bout the threats he faces, the seriousness of where he is.

another time, he'd been threatened by a gang, and being a pretty proud, stubborn guy, he decided he would face them himself. he didn't back down and was cornered in the yard by a bunch of the gang's members, and sucker-punched in the face. they broke his cheek bone and he had to go to the hole again.

i just remember this feeling of ecstacy he always gave me, just run out of my body, retreating in reality. i was utterly shocked and so sad and terrified for him.

so, lately i've been feeling all light-hearted about the whole thing again, sending him letter after letter about my friends and their drama and work and jokes and crossowrds and really light goofy stuff. he loves all that, but i know i just am pushing the reality of it all down again, it's just disappearing, i'm losing sight of it. it's important to me to not lose sight of it, because i never, ever want to come off as insensitive to him. ever.

but, finally, last night i saw the video i posted about the fight at pelican bay state prison. my happy, stupid, bubble of naivete was burst so violently and now i can't stop thinking about it. it's haunting me. that's the reality of prison. that is the fucking reality. that is where the man i love more than anything on fucking earth is. THAT can happen where he is.

it bothers me so tremendously that someone would set that footage to the type of music they did and put the titles "owned" over the dead bodies of real people. fuck the fact that those people were criminals. fuck the fact that they did something wrong. shit they could be the biggest fucking assholes on the fucking planet for all i care, fuck the inmates if you absolutely must. but realize, please realize, that someone, somewhere may have loved them.

technorati tags:, , ,

Labels:

Prison Blog - genpop.org

love, daddy

everyone's gotta check this out:

Love, Daddy - Letters and Stories From My Jailed Deaf Dad

Prison Blog - genpop.org

23.8.06

shit, this totally made me sob

this is by far, one of the most horriffic, saddening things i've seen in so long.

the saddest thing about it is that, odds are, someone loved the guys who died, and yet some of us out there find it perfectly acceptable to make light of this.

technorati tags:,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

hot shit, i love pinback

fortress.

technorati tags:,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

racism, prison and victory gin on the horizon

i love ze frank.

i love ze frank so much that i joined his forums. i hang around there a bit and read lots of stuff, most of it a little goofy but some of it is really thought-provoking. like the discussion i am currently in with another very challenging, very intelligent user in this thread.

i figured since it's right up the whole prison alley, i'd just post my latest in the thread:

Technically, since he doesn't live in our country, and hasn't committed any crimes himself, Bin Laden hasn't broken the law.

yes, he has, except we call the laws he broke, "International"
You can't quote statistics that are based on guesses - you can only prove who commits more crime based on who is convicted.
I want to amend your statement.  Black people don't get convicted more than white people.  POOR PEOPLE get convicted more then RICH PEOPLE.  OJ and Michael (still *technically* black) got off (mj literally).
no, actually, crime stats go a little deeper than that. they use what they call deductive logic [this has come up in my life like 40 times in the last week. the best was the professor joke, thanks garth, hahaha].
In 2000, 22 percent of those in federal and state prisons were convicted on drug charges. - human rights watch
from this we can deduce that  one of the most-convicted for offenses are drug related. but
from eurweb.com:
According to the Federal Household Survey, there were "an estimated 9.9 million whites (72 percent of all users), 2.0 million blacks (15 percent), and 1.4 million Hispanics (10 percent) who were current illicit drug users in 1998."

Despite those figures, Blacks constitute 36.8 percent of those arrested for drug violations and over 42 percent of those in federal prisons for drug violations. African-Americans comprise almost 58 percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies.

i have a friend in prison who was convicted of a crime that would be considered unrelated to drugs in any way. but he did it for drug money, hooked on the horse, yadda yadda, you know the story.
i bring this up because we all know, with or without stats, that a lot of crime, violent crime, robberies, etc, a lot of crime stems from the illegality of drugs. people have to find ways to fund their illicit habits. prostitution, burgalaries, hold ups, mugging, etc. the majority of crime in our society is related either directly or indirectly with drugs. and if the majority of drug users are white, why are there so many blacks in prison?

this has been studied to exhaustion by such respected groups as the ACLU, human rights watch, Amnesty International and they've all reached the same conclusion. racism in the criminal justice system in the united states of america is a very real and far reaching force, filling up prisons with black people who've comitted the same crimes as white people who are on house arrest, probation or have lighter sentences. this isn't just something you can will away because you saw two black (well, in mikey j's case, black-ish) celebrities within the span of a decade, walk. celeb cases are different, in that they're in the spotlight, everyone is carefully scrutinizing every move of every lawyer, judge and freaking court reporter. to have a case in the public eye like that turn into a white on black lynching, would be absurd. of course you won't see a realistic taste of what the criminal justice system is like.

besides, michael jackson and oj simpsons cases represent maybe .000000001 per cent of all cases involving black people. you cannot even pretend to think these two cases are representative in any way.
I have a poor white friend who went to jail.
i have a rich white friend who went to prison. he got 9 years. he's still serving. no one ever tried to claim that no white people go to prison. your one friend and my one friend are simply not enough to deduce any real information from. the prison population in the US is 2.2 million. you think two guys gives us a representative slice of the prison pie? no. that's absurd. that's why we form human rights groups like the ACLU, to collect funding for research projects where the researchers actually look at a representative number and from that they deduce the actual stats. it's all very scientific, not just "i know this guy, and this happened so i think this".
Do I want things to be this way?  No.  Everyone in prison for a non-violent drug offense should be let out of prison, and room made for violent offenders of all types.  In a perfect world.
amen.
By your logic, since buying fertilizer is legal, Timothy McVeigh never should have been arrested.  By my logic, better to be safe than sorry
you know, cell phones and fertilizer aren't the only things people use to make explosives. unfortunately what you say is flawed because if we arrested and investigated people for anything that could be related to explosives, or criminal activity in general, we'd all be in line waiting for the interrogation room. this is what i mean. why aren't people who buy semi-automatic weapons investigated? and by investigated i mean detained and interrogated like the arab boys were. i don't mean answering the question, "are you of sound mental health?" by the gun store clerk to fulfill a legal obligation.

look at human rights like a wooden table. the legs are made up of each right we have as members of a free society. suddenly someone carves out the section that gives you the right to buy cell phones without being investigated. the leg gets weaker. then someone carves out your right to have a phone conversation in privacy. weaker. next thinng to be knocked out is your right to keep your bank records confidential. weaker. and so on and so forth until finally the whole table collapses and we're living under big brother drinkin' victory gin.
and since he isn't a farmer, he would have been investigated.
he had land. he had just as much right to buy bulk fertilizer as anyone.
As far as not stripping people of their rights, its already been done.
fortunately there are optimists out there such as myself, that believe this can be reversed.
If you put an old lady in the seat of a bulldozer, its going to knock a house down just as much as a muscular construction worker; who is at the helm doesnt matter, its the vehicle. The vehicle we are all in is fucked. The difference between me and all of you, is that a lot of you seem to think it can be fixed with some caring and compassion, and adjusting who is in office or the like. You see the war and want to protest and end it.
this, sadly, is where the american people have failed miserably and why the rest of the world suffers for it. and yes, i said the people. not the administration.

understand what democracy is. it's a government for the people, by the people. yes, bush is just a front man for a much larger behind the scenes machine, but american citizens outnumber their civil servants. that's what the government is, a band of civil servants who're paid BY YOU.

throughout history there have been times when people have stood up and said we're not going to take this anymore and it's worked. ghandi in india, women for suffrage, black people for equal rights. it just goes on and on and on. but the vast majoity of you just have this defeatist attitude, like it's a lost cause and we might as well play tombraider until someone activates the doomsday machine. and the rest of the world stands by in awe and disbelief that such a powerful and once incredible nation, once a nation to be more than proud of, has just withered as a people... it's very sad and very angering.

technorati tags:, , , , , ,

Labels:

Prison Blog - genpop.org

22.8.06

cnn: douche of the day

so cnn sends me this email entitled, "get the facts, not the fear" and my curiosity gets the better of me because i know cnn is in the business of selling fear, so i open it and the first thing i see is osama and the giant red stamp, "know your enemy". haha. cnn, you slay me.


technorati tags:, , , ,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

18.8.06

more absolute ridiculousness re: cuba

In Washington, U.S. State Department characterized the temporary leadership hand over as a "dynastic succession," saying it is not acceptable to the United States and would be rejected by the Cuban people over the long run.

USATODAY.com - Raul Castro says Cuba open to normalized relations with United States

dynastic succession, dynastic succession... why does that feel familiar?

oh. right...

The image “http://www.abbn.com/george%20bush%20senior.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

http://archiv.radio.cz/nato/fotogalerie1/bush.jpg

and possibly:

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/06/foreign.visitors.ap/vstory.jeb.jpg

"b-b-b-but it's a democracy, we can vote for who we want!" no, you childish airheads, it's a two party system. that's not even close to democracy. "at least we can vote for the other party, though!" right, let's take a peek at that shall we?

The image “http://parallel.park.org/UnitedStates/bill-portrait.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

and possibly:

http://clinton.senate.gov/images/home/topmast/topmast_hillary.jpg

but no, dynastic succession is unacceptable to the US. unless, of course, it's happening within their borders. arrogant fucks.

technorati tags:, ,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

raving motherfucking lunatic

“Our desire is for the Cuban people to choose their own form of government,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference on Aug. 7, a week after Fidel Castro’s illness was announced.

Cuba Mobilized for a U.S. Attack, Raúl Castro Says - New York Times

answer me this simple question, PLEASE. what the FUCK place is it of anyones but the cuban people?

mr. bush, a lesson from che:

"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves."
- Ernesto Che Guevara

technorati tags:, , , , , , ,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

howdy hunter... again?

ahem.
Critics Take Aim at Plan for "Nonfatal" Deer Hunt

A proposed pair of tournaments that involves shooting deer with tranquilizers instead of bullets has animal-welfare groups and pro-hunting leagues up in arms.

ok, you know what? at the risk of coming off as anti-green, i'm gonna go ahead and just blurt out that hunting doesn't bother me. *gasp* that's right, kids, it doesn't bother me. but let me explain.

the way we feed our overly carnivorous world it's meat, is disgusting. the problem with being a carnivore isn't that we eat meat, the problem with being a carnivore is that we a) eat way too much meat, and b) we produce too much meat, don't use every bit of the animal and we end up throwing away a good chunk of something that lived only to feed us.

today's meat industry is wasteful and disrespectful of the animals that gave their lives for our sustenance. they haven't the opportunity, as every species on this planet should have, to live a normal life. we, as human beings, obviously feel that he planet belongs to us and no other animal, and that we can do with it and them what we wish. it's sick.

go back a couple hundred years and take a look at the native north americans though. they ate meat as well, but they only killed what they needed, used every last bit of the animal for something, and had ceremonies thanking the animal for giving it's life.

but they hunted. they worked for their meat. they realized what horrors had to go into killing an animal and butchering it to be consumed. they saw the animal at it's last moments of life and thus, they respected it.

this is the type of hunting that doesn't bother me and quite frankly, i think if we all had to hunt for our meat, there'd be a helluva lot more vegetarians out there. we're all about instant gratifcation and consumption and over-consumption and waste and laziness. we're actually probably the most ridiculous animal on the planet, cause even dogs won't piss where they sleep and here we are destroying our home and the ecology that makes our lives possile in the first place.

where i take exception to hunting, however, is when it's for game. and a tournament is probably the most revolting thing i've ever heard. killing random shit for fun. i'd lay ten bucks on the line right here and now and say that a good majority of men who find pleasure in killing animals for fun most likely have tiny penises.

technorati tags:, , , ,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

howdy hunter


YouTube - Hunter S. Thompson on David Letterman 1983

man johnny deep had him down in fear and loathing, even the walk...

technorati tags:, , , , ,

Prison Blog - genpop.org

17.8.06

bitches and hos, it's like a cock fight only i can handle it

so i've been getting assloads of hits lately from the technorati tags "aryan" and "brotherhood". great. wonderful. fuck off.

alright (stop, collaborate and ) listen, i moved (check out the sweet pad here) and pulled out the digital video camera somewhere in my adventures in unpacking boxes. being as i moved in with two guys (three's company 2006 anyone?) and we're all friends and we all share friends and we all usually hang out on weekends, there were many many people at my house over the past two weeks. i decided to film some of the shit we do and start a video blog of sorts, mostly to share amongst all of my friends, but also because i've been hooked on ze frank's the show and the whole idea of video blogging itself has sparked my curiosity and i must work that to perfection, too. what can i say, i'm a web 2.0 addict.

so in the process of setting up the 3House youtube account i found myself watching some of the featured shit on youtube and have really stopped doing anything of worth because for some reason, 12 minutes of a barely adult boy's opinions on the da vinci code seemed like a helluva lot finer thing to do than read the 30 or so newspapers from around the world i sub to.

you see, i sub to so many in order to get the real picture. you gotta read the spin every country and every political viewpoint puts on a story, whittle it down, chip away the shit and find the commonalities, cause usually when there is something in common in every article about one story across 30 newspapers from 30 different countries, you can have a little more faith in it having actually happened.

this is because i live in a state of constant scoff. i don't believe anything. i don't believe 9/11 happened even remotely close to how we're told it did. i don't believe kim jong il is as bad a guy as they say, i don't believe saddam was as bad a guy as they say and i most certainly do not believe that a plan by the "evil-doers" was "thwarted" by members of the "coalition of the willing" to destroy and conquer commercial jets from britain and the US with liquid explosives. the second i read this shit, i scoff. scoff scoff scoff (miss you, emanuel).

i don't know what kind of a world i live in cause god knows the media won't tell us, so i read and cross-reference and check headlines every 30 mins or so until i have so many little criticisms, questions and comments running around in my head that i simply must get them down in some form. the majority of the time, i torture the lovely, the wonderful, the patient michael, in my daily letters to him which often cost more than the regular postage cause i get so much into em. but the rest of the time i type the rants up here.

until youtube. now listen, my obvious reference to youtube user boh3m3 up there a few paragraphs ago wasn't a slight in any way cause he seems like one of the most articulate, intelligent 21 yr olds i've ever heard speak (mike was too - anything, ANYTHING to bring up mike again, im fucking hopeless), but what the fuck am i doing with my time? really? and i even filmed myself talking to becky on the phone? why? why has my mind gone on vacation? why has this trivial bullshit trickled into my daily internet workout?

needless to say, this is why i haven't been posting and why this post sounds like i've finally killed off the one brain cell that was protecting the others that really matter. i've been sitting around wondering why lonelygirl15 posted her argument with danielbeast and how many personalities does stevie ryan have and, hey, renetto don't talk funny after all.

i must call youtube quits. it's like junk. it's 4am and i have to be up by 8am. i swear i will never grow out of my love for the night.

but seriously, don't go anywhere else on yousnooze but here: the boy is fantastic

technorati tags:, , , ,

Labels:

Prison Blog - genpop.org

11.8.06

the very dreams that blister sleep

the title of this post is a short tiny piece of linguistic fabulousness found in the first pages of joseph campbell's, "hero with a thousand faces", mike's favorite book.

holy shit, i have never admired a mind more. mike's. not campbell's.

Labels:

Prison Blog - genpop.org

10.8.06

shakespeare, campbell and the garden of good and evil

in a recent letter i asked mike who his favorite authors were and of course he listed all those beautiful names from history that make my insides flutter, adding "should i even mention shakespeare? he's a given, right?"


of course. shakespeare's the man and if anyone who says they have an appreciation for english literature says they don't like shakespeare, they're full of shit. shakespeare wasn't just a writer, he made artful masterpieces of his words.


sometimes the stories were simple, in fact most of the time the stories were simple, but what most people don't understand is that it takes a fucking genius to be able to write stories that last that long. take, for example, the writers of soap operas like as the world turns and the young and the restless. they're simple, implausible stories that, today, hold no literary or filmmaking relevance, but the audience these shows hold captive are phenomenal. there is some genius to knowing what an audience wants and shakespeare had that down to a minute art, crafting story after story after story that continue to hold captive audiences from generation to generation. it's sheer brilliance, it's marketing in a way. if shakespeare were alive now, he'd be doing what i do and kicking my ass at it. he'd be a marketer. or aaron spelling. y'know, with perhaps a little more class and artistic credibility.

so i was watching midnight in the garden of good and evil last night, one of my favorite flicks, kevin spacey, john cusack and jude law, set in savannah georgia around a trial in which the man on trial may be innocent - what else can you ask for in a flick?

they keep saying there are no coincidences and i wrote back to mike and got to asking the same old questions i've asked a million times over,

mike, how are you always in my head? how is it that every little thing i do see say read hear feel smell, reminds me of you, makes me think of you, makes my eyes get all moist and the sharp pangs of pain and intense missing just shoot through every inch of my body and it hurts so much i almost collapse, my knees beg to buckle and my neck swiftly turns to butter and rubber and jell-o and my stomach threatens mutiny. how the fuck? seriously, how?

how did this happen? how did you infiltrate my mind so easily, so long ago and just stay there? how did it happen? i mean it's just not supposed to happen this way. you meet someone, you fall in love. you don't chat with someone on the internet and not be able to let go of them for a decade. am i fucking insane?

and i left off with some x's and o's and the last page printed out with too much white space so i found a quote from one of his favorite authors, joseph campbell, that read,

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

and, as is the case with most questions, dilemmas and forks in the road i come across, mike, in his far away place, in his prison cell, without being able to say a word to me, led me spiritually, to my own answers. everything that is, just is, and i'm the luckiest human being on the planet to just know him.

technorati tags:, , , , , , ,

Labels:

Prison Blog - genpop.org