Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin

bird

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I’ve been working on some old journal files. Lots of things need to be put on computer, if I ever want to find out who I was. Plus there are perhaps hundreds of bits of poems, abandoned as larvae, in those old scribblings. Anyway, here’s something that struck me as interesting:

11:52 AM 8/21/2000 Monday
I saw a dead bird by the freeway, just as I was getting up speed to leave town. No hawk or seagull, this was huge; a pelican or heron perhaps. One wing still jutting skyward: Look! I came from there, from grace, and I am not one of you.

it’s people!

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Have you heard the news about plans for the presidential library of our fearless Decider in Chief? It’s estimated to cost half a billion bucks to build it, and the imperial minions are searching for a place for it in the great state of Texas. One front-running site is Southern Methodist University, the faculty of which has voiced concerns. They wrote a letter to the president of the university, saying they would …

..regret to see SMU enshrine attitudes and actions widely deemed as ethically egregious: degradation of habeas corpus, outright denial of global warming, flagrant disregard for international treaties, alienation of long-term U.S. allies, environmental predation, shameful disrespect for gay persons and their rights, a pre-emptive war based on false and misleading premises, and a host of other erosions of respect for the global human community and for this good Earth on which our flourishing depends.


I suspect their concern may be a bit premature; the president may have overestimated his legacy. Does he really have $500 million worth of friends left? Would he know what to do with a library if he had one? I doubt it. And I fear that when all the donations and payoffs are in, he may have just enough to buy a used VHS copy of Soylent Green from amazon.com.

bid defiance

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I just sent the message below – opposing the Real ID Act of 2005 – to my state assemblyman and senator. I can’t believe the US Congress would pass such a thing, but they’ve surprised me several times since we were all terrorized on 9/11.

On perusing Senator McClintock’s site for his e-mail address, I found the following quote, rather prominently placed:

“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown – it may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter, the rain may enter, but the King of England cannot enter; all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.”
— William Pitt


Compelling, don’t you think? But Pitt and Jefferson and Washington are all dead. We have to go to work on the legislature we have, not the one we wish we had.

Please oppose Real ID Act

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Dear Senator McClintock,

I’m writing to urge you to pursue a resolution opposing implementation of the Real ID Act of 2005, mandating federally approved state identification. Such resolutions have already passed in other states, such as Montana and Maine. [News Link]

The Real ID Act is another Orwellian infringement on states’ rights and personal freedom, and an unnecessary and expensive unfunded federal mandate. Inflicting paternalistic restrictions on the people will not make us any safer from terrorists. It just gives the federal government more power, not granted by the U.S. Constitution, pushing us ever closer to being one nation under surveillance.

Please act quickly. Thank you.

Respectfully …

lies hatched in hell

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That’s what my grandmother used to call it when someone told an especially malicious whopper.

Today we read this news from Minnesota:

A St. Paul man charged with snapping the necks of 10 puppies last summer could become the first Minnesotan ever banned from pet ownership for life.

Kimanie Carter, 20, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge of mistreating animals. Under a plea agreement, Carter will face up to 12 months in jail, will undergo behavior counseling and be prohibited from owning a companion animal for life.

Knowing me as you do, and how more than anything I hate cruelty to animals and children, you can predict my reaction. You might expect me to say that a year in this prison – where said lowlife waste of biology currently sits for shooting someone with a BB gun – is far too little. And it is. You might expect me to cheer an order barring him from ever owning a pet, and I do.

But I’m thinking about how, all through the process of his arrest, arraignment, trial, etc., everybody told him the truth. He was read his rights, and his public defender explained the procedures. The judge made sure he understood his position, and he made an informed decision on his plea.

I have a friend back east whose grandson, for reasons passing understanding, recently enlisted in the US Marines. He has just signed up, hasn’t even reported for duty yet, and already the Marines have lied to his face about the training school he was promised he would attend.

What kind of society have we brewed from the fetid mists of human misadventure, in which excrescence like a puppykiller gets due process of law, and a law-abiding young man who volunteers to serve can’t even get a square deal? To paraphrase Confucius, this just isn’t good enough.

Don’t let me forget the kicker:

Police say Carter killed the 2-week-old pit-bull mixes and threw them in a trash bin either because they weren’t purebreds or as a way to threaten his girlfriend. Witnesses said he threatened to do the same thing to his girlfriend if she didn’t give him a ride.


At the risk of pushing this post over the top, letting it drop with a loud thump and slamming the lid, I happen to know where we can find this guy a big empty dumpster all his own.

short term memory

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On the day that E Howard Hunt died, I happened to hear Sweet Home Alabama come up in random shuffle on my iPod. Pure coincidence? Sure. But it makes you think. The institutional memory of an administration actually brought down by its own arrogance and corruption is passing from our lives, one conspirator at a time. And it has been replaced by the appalling rise of an administration that won’t fall no matter how manifest and clear its amoral malignancy. How soon we forget.

In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

hotsoup?

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Keith Olbermann mentioned this site on his show tonight. He said it was founded after Bush v Gore, as a forum for neutrality.

It’s a new site to me. It looks cool, but I don’t have the presense and patience to figure it out right now. It’s not a blog. It’s not a site for essays, exactly. It’s some sort of community opinion site, based on “loops.” I don’t get it, but I’m pretty into intuitive, accessible content. I couldn’t find the article that Olbermann referred to, which discussed the fact that Bush has lost the important commodity of public trust.

If you figure out hotsoup.com, let me know.

violating common sense

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Want to watch Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General, deny that the Constitution grants habeus corpus, and get his watch set by Arlen Specter?

“You may be treading on your interdiction and violating common sense, Mr. Attorney General.”


It’s good Tube, kids!

unacceptable

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The latest from the indominable Rep. Jack Murtha. I love this guy.

Unacceptable. A rapid escalation of troops is just simply unacceptable. About five months ago, we put more troops in Baghdad and unfortunately, attacks increased and a record number of Americans and Iraqis were killed. President Bush’s “new strategy” just demonstrates his plans to once again ignore the will of the people, the advice of his commanders, the Baker-Hamilton commission, and even some in his own party.

If you want to read the whole thing and sign his petition, e-mail me and I’ll forward it to you.