E. Michael Harrington

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I AM IN LAS GALERAS on the Samana Peninsula of the Dominican Republic. My flight left JFK on Christmas morning at 1 AM, arrived in Santo Domingo about 4 hours later, was greeted by Customs and given the mandatory opportunity to purchase a $10 Dominican Republic card. I bought that and then 10 minutes later it was collected so I could go through another Customs tradition, the who are you and why are you Dominicizing this week custom. It was fine though. I was then greeted by a nice man who took me to a van and drove for six hours to one of the most beautiful and isolated spots on Earth, the Villa Serena. I am on the second floor with a beautiful porch and like all of the rooms, have a perfect view of the ocean and islands. Almost all of the guests are from Germany and are a very fun bunch of people, although privacy is extremely easy. The grounds of the hotel are extraordinary and just insanely beautiful. The food and beverages are perfect as are the kind Dominican women who serve you at anytime throughout the day and night. The only drawback can also be a very large plus. There are no telephones, radios, or Internet here. I am managing to steal a very weak signal from the lobby right now. I am very sorry to be so removed and isolated from family and friends at this time. Much more later…..

So much has happened....

The weather has been perfect but fast changing, 90 percent sunny, very windy, some strong and short outbursts of rain, some very soft unnoticeable rain, but mostly sun and strong tropical breezes.

I will return to NYC on December 30.

To be continued....

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Posted by EMH at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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FATHER ROBERT DRINAN

THE BOSTON GLOBE is rushing the "let's look back on the deaths of great people" thing that always happens at the end of the year, so I thought I would play along and read a few of these but I quickly came to the death of someone I loved and admired so much and worked on some of his congressional campaigns, the first back in 1974, Fr. Robert Drinan. Fr. Drinan was our local U. S. representative for District 4. He was a graduate of Boston College and had taken at least one chemistry course with my grandfather, Harold Fagan. I was a great fan of his for his compassion, intelligence, courage, hard work ethic and humor. (All of those words should go together as they can be/should be complementary.) Fr. Drinan introduced me to a woman I had a large crush on (such bad use of a preposition....) - the daughter of a famous person and a famous woman in her own right. When I met her, I developed an extra tongue or two and could not speak well. I hope that I didn't become too stupid or drool too much. More on that later.... I know I'll have some explaining to do because of those last remarks..... I have some other very good Fr. Drinan memories but they need not be printed now.

I am so proud that Fr. Drinan was the first person to call for President Nixon's impeachment, and it was not due to Watergate - it was due to the secret and illegal bombing of Cambodia.

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YOUTUBE and the 3 STOOGES

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS this afternoon came in discovering some of my favorite 3 Stooges clips on YouTube. I think the Alphabet song they teach at the women's college goes like this:

"Bee-A-Bay, Bee-E-Bee. Bee-I-Bickee-By, B-O-Beau, Bickee-By-Beau, B-U-Boo-Bickee-By-Beau-Boo."

And near the end, after the "L-A-Lay, L-E-Lee...," , comes the great, odd and unexpected line, "Curly's a dope."

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Posted by EMH at 08:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I GET MY PHONE SERVICE FROM BELL SOUTH, MY CABLE TV AND INTERNET from COMCAST (one awful quasi-monopoly), and my cell phone service form Sprint. So, what's left? My biological urges and surges and swells and deep wells? Really, there's nothing left for which I have to pay. But somehow, a company with orange letters named, "Cavalier," has seen fit to charge me for something for many many months, to the tune of $482 plus dollars, and better yet, they are going to turn off this phantom service - (maybe their service gets me biologically aroused)- on December 12. Oh no! What will happen to me on December 12 and how will it effect the orange letter company and me?

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It's time to go hide from everything. Christmas season will not last much longer. The only good things about this season are, 1. buying an XO computer for some little kid in a poor country, 2., giving some money to some good causes, and 3., doing something good for someone. As for the rest of it, I look forward to mid-January. The only temporal thing I dislike more than Christmas and its superficiality is the absurdity that surrounds New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and New Year's resolutions. I've always thought that if something needed change, it should be changed sooner rather than later.

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THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS and Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox and City of Boston and its fine soft-spoken quiet modest and humble people are peaking. All is too damn well. All is so great.

We Bostonians are not like this. We are not this. We don't know him or his type.

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IT'S GETTING VERY HARD TO RENEW A PASSPORT - is it because I frequently criticize the bad government that is now governing me? On Tuesday at noon, I'll be in a U. S. Passport office trying to prove that I am a United States-er. Damn those 911 bastards and the Republican president who decided to view us as GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT, aka, terrorist until proven American. I think they think I am this woman. Or perhaps this woman.

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I once knew how hard love was, and so many I know are in bad love situations. I wonder why this is? It's too deep a subject for me to ponder now so I'll just move on to a few pressing matters, and one very nice one. I get to speak at Vanderbilt University tomorrow. I feel fortunate. Hopefully I'll do no harm!

Here's to more fun, laugher and humor from the wrong sources (politicians).....

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Posted by EMH at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

John Soy Milk haiku to replace More Than Twenty Haiku

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It's 76 degrees in mid-December here in Nashville. It's time to iPod and hike and smell Spring in the air.

Last night I wrote, "More Than Twenty Haiku," posted them here in Tube 43, but removed them a few hours later. Although these haiku, like all haiku, are a form of poetry and/or literature and original expression, sometimes words can offend, shock or hurt. So even if those haiku were written as poetry, they have been saved and removed from this Internet Tube.

Instead I offer these haiku written about a slick hustler/charlatan, John Soy Milk, who preys on beautiful women in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, John Soy Milk is a real character but sadly there are many other John Soy Milks who prey on women everywhere. Preying on women is as easy for John as selling illegal drugs, his past and still-occasional occupation. As the haiku author, I like to see his antics and deviousness expressed in haiku form. (As I've been told for decades, "haiku" are about nature - what you write are not haiku." I'm glad to hear that advice from sages. If I am on the wrong path, may I continue to prod wrongly along in my stubbornly wrong way.) If only these haiku could warn the innocent and stop such lowlife from preying on the innocent.

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More JOHN SOY MILK Haiku

John Soy Milk is at
It again. Here are more of
His guru ramblings

The soy milk ramblings
Are a gift for she who will
Perceive and receive

He fancies himself
A spiritual guru
Force for the cosmos

He's on another
Plane, one without wings and one
you can buy into

He'll offer you a
A chance to connect and share
First, share your money

Your money, although
A trite concern, can lead to
Deep personal growth

And the wisdom of
My spirit from the depth of
My transcendent love

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He wants your money
As he is too advanced and
Deep to earn his own

And besides which you
Are probably great looking
With a nice brownstone

I'll live in your house
Your large house will reflect what
We have together

What we will become
With an immersion into
And through the psyche

I can get closer
To you, seduce my way in
And be your guru

I'll bring you to a
Higher level. I'll also
Better your children

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Your kids will become
Spiritual. They'll be my
Little pawns. For you.

We'll be a fam'ly
They'll be soy and sensitive
And spiritual

"I'll guru for ya"
"Boy George had it almost right
I'll guru for ya"

I'll be doing it
For us, our lives together
A totality

Of sprits and a
Mystical transcendence that
Others will not know

Wond'rous lives as one
Spontaneous happening
Universally

Our coexistence
On a spiritual plane
Revealed consciousness

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The guru and his
Evolved ying and yang given
To you for your soul

The tai the chi the
Master the yogi he who
Knows past perfect lives

Your heart your sublime
Self intertwined with that of
Your selfless guru

Our intimacy
Is because we have become
Part of each other

We're part of something
Much bigger than both of us
It's basked in wonder

It's universal
To us and more than simply
Lodged inside your head

The stunning grace of
Our shared being has always
Existed above

Like helium or
Some delicate flower it
Transcends our being

We have realized and
Availed ourselves of this
Deep intimacy

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Posted by EMH at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I HAD X-RAYS OF MY RIGHT KNEE this afternoon and my meniscal cartilage might be torn. I will likely have an MRI and then have things fixed. There is some info about this orthopedic stuff here. The doctor had this really cool model of a knee in his office and he was so clear and knowledgeable in demonstrating this to me. [My deep and profound knowledge of medical science tells me that the first site Google returned is dead right, right on and rightly dead accurate.] Notice that it says that an accountant or a lawyer can have it done on Friday and be back to work on Monday. I'm neither an accountant or lawyer, nor mineral nor vegetable, but I do work in non-physically demanding environments (time spent in New York City aside). I think I'll write, "but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night." No I didn't but I felt a cliche coming on, like, "I play one on TV."

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While I'm at it, I might as well quote some more. Of course I'll do this without asking for permission. I'll attribute away, however, as for my purposes that will be good enough.

People are strange
When you're a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you're alone

Women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you're down

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STRANGE THAT THAT WOULD COME TO MIND FIRST but Jim Morrison was a profound influence on me. (That was from the opening of the first song on The Doors' second album, "People Are Strange." A song and album with the same name? Oh, yeah. It was and still is eponymous.

Tomorrow is Morrison's birthday and I did mention that to some people today. So, maybe that's why these great Jim Morrison lines just escaped from me.

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Sadly, tomorrow is also the 27th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination by that evil bastard Mark David Chapman. Cheney Chapman and his mental illness. I don't believe he was mentally ill, just evil. Dick Cheney Mark David Chapman.

27th anniversary - we're three years away from doing a big commemoration as 27 ends in a "7" and not a "0" or "5."

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Here's a great quote I just heard:

"WHEN THE POLICY DOESN'T FIT THE FACTS, THEY'LL JUST MAKE NEW FACTS." - Rachel Maddow referring to George Bush and his ilk on their various stories about Iran having nuclear weapons/not having nuclear weapons, being Evil Doers, being quiche eaters, etc., on COUNTDOWN with Keith Olbermann, December 7, 2007

GOD bless Rachel Maddow.

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RUDY RUDY RUDY RUDY - "Judy Judy Judy Judy" - Goober Pyle, The Andy Griffith Show

I WANT RUDY GUILIANI to be the Republic candidate for President as all of his scandals ---------

his law firm and what they've done

his consulting group and what they've done

his investment banking firm and what they've done

his friends like Bernard Kerik

his children who are so happy to have learned their values from their Mom.

will make for great fun, and so what if he has three times pledged to love some woman "until death do they [you] part." Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy are morally much better as they've only messed up one marriage one time.

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Posted by EMH at 07:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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WHAT MORE CAN GEORGE W. BUSH DO to make the United States more hated, less believable, less sympathetic and less safe than he has already done? [Rhetorical questions should not be expressed, should they? Whenever the cliches, "how much lower can one go," and "how can things get worse," are heard, or I say them, I should know to stand back and prepare for the now-inevitable future - I've jinxed my self-fulfilling prophesy again, damn it. Things will get worse - "it's always darkest just before the dawn and then it somehow gets darker." From Spinal Tap - "how much more black can it be? Answer - none more black." But my favorite mythical British head banging band must have been wrong on this one thing.....it can get more black.]

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Fortunately some in the intelligence community seemingly did not want to take the blame for our next almost-fiasco. Sadly for the neo-cons, and great for the rest of us, we will not be invading Iran anytime soon, at least not for WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. Iran gave up its nuclear ambitions in 2003. Bush knew this earlier this year and kept using phrases like "avoiding World War III," and stating that Iran was going to start WW III. I've now lived through my government having bogeymen and villains - being a U. S. citizen and a normal one who pays attention to what government leaders say, I've known that we have to hate -

COMMUNISTS

COMMUNISTS

COMMUNISTS

COMMUNISTS

COMMUNISTS

COMMUNISTS

COMMUNISTS

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COMMUNISTS

Once that stopped, and during it, there were always > > > > >

MUSICIANS and ARTISTS and PHOTOGRAPHERS, and worst of all, LIBERALS and COLLEGE PROFESSORS all of whom swear allegiance to secular humanism and tearing down all American institutions and simply wishing to have Marxists run our land. The aforementioned - those of a musical and artistic slant and professors - have always been the enemy even during the time of the GREAT ENEMY - COMMUNISM. But now there's China and those great cheap lead-based products and lead-based vegetables and fruits and fish and plants, all of them dipped in lead, then sauteed and shipped to unsuspecting mouths and customers in the U. s. If they are communists, they're OK because they are commies with capitalists leanings. So what if some of their products can kill - they make for good corporate citizens, don't they?

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BUT BACK TO BUSH

We can still have a war with them but it will have to be because IRAN is providing IRAQIs with weapons in order to kill our invading and occupying forces. If it wasn't for Iran and its weapons, all in Iraq would be good. But going after a country that provides weapons to be used against us? If that is a sound rationale, why didn't we attack China and the U. S. S R. when they were providing weapons to the North Vietnamese way back in the Vietnam War? Those two countries - China and the U. S. S. R - were responsible for killing so many more of our troops than Iran has. But Iran is a small place - 70 million - whereas China and the U. S. S. R. combined, back then, were more than 1 billion people. It's so much easier to pick on little targets.

SO, BUSH CAN still START A WAR with Iran. It will take the usual amount of lies and deception to do it but I have great faith in Dick Cheney and his ilk to pull off another good and justifiable war.

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AS for OTHER STUFF.....

My XO computer has not arrived.

My passport has not arrived.

My "future's uncertain and the end is always near..." Hopefully "the end is always near" can wait...

Comcast is a terrible company. How can we capitalists and superbly great consumers in the U. S. have such limited choice for cable TV and access to the Internet?

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CANADA

I love what the Canadian Songwriters are proposing. As happens so frequently, Canada is ahead of us and better yet, REALISTIC! They are in the real world and want to deal with it, not put on their North Korean thinking caps the way the TROIKA - the RIAA, the MPAA and the U S. Copyright Office - does and sue away and name call and fight the future.

A PROPOSAL FOR THE MONETIZATION OF THE FILE SHARING OF MUSIC FROM THE SONGWRITERS AND RECORDING ARTISTS OF CANADA

REPRINTED BY ME WITHOUT PERMISSION:

"Summary of proposal:

Most Canadians are aware that the Internet and mobile phone networks have become major sources of music. What they may not know is that songwriters and performers typically receive no compensation of any kind when their music is shared or illegally downloaded.
We believe the time has come to put in place a reasonable and unobtrusive system of compensation for creators of music in regard to this popular and growing use of their work.
The plan we propose would not change or interfere with the way Canadians receive their music. No one would be sued for the online sharing of songs. On the contrary, the sharing of music on Peer-to-Peer networks and similar technologies would become perfectly legal. In addition, Music Publishers and Record Labels would be fairly compensated for the crucial role they play in supporting Canadian music creators.
Canada has given the world some of the greatest music ever produced. We believe that implementing a fair way of compensating Canada's music creators for the online sharing of their music will usher in a new Golden Age of creativity."

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Posted by EMH at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)