North is north and south is south

And the twain rarely meet.

Dunkin' donuts is now taking Nashville by story. Unlike dd's in the nyc metro, here when I dash in and bark out "medium coffee light and sweet" they have no idea what to do. I had to interrupt a small conference of employees to teach them that means "with cream and sugar, pretty please".

Also, kinda scary, my receipt here carried a blessing.

Home sweet

Or bongo at least.

This will be a curious trip, as all adventures are. But coming back to this porch, where I always return, well, it's something.

Many stories, many friends, many romances started and ended, countless cigarettes, a few thousand cups of coffee, and my power chair in the corner of the porch.

And, nod to el jefe, green onions.

раскулачивание!!

Still Red october, I realize, and I have failed to update on the progress of the Communist revolution of the house GOP.

Because, alongside other matters and political questions, I have been trying to find, quite desparately trying to find, an answer to this:

What the hell is an "elite?" They seem to come in so many flavors right now, liberal elites, east coast elites, university elites, media elites, liberal media elites, mainstream liberal media elites... though i was briefly thrilled to discover that Caribou Barbie appeared to make a momentary discrimination and distinction between the "elite" and "regular" media this weekend, only to realize it was Tina Fey speaking.

As a Republican apostate and or marxist republican I assume I'm an elite. This is nice! Though I always hoped "elite" status would involve making more than $15,000 a year.

But then it occurred to me: yes, all of this has happened before, all of this will happen again.

So what exactly is an "elite"? кула́к.

That seems to be it, huh? Best go ahead and slaughter the cattle now, the purge will be coming any day now.

It is wrong, but I don't care.

So perhaps, as his meanness declares, purple is the new red and blue. And maybe in a post partisan world, it makes sense to find a Hudson news and a peet's coffee in the same airport.

Oh god I'm so happy right now.

I hate airports, yes. Air travel too. But several thousand feet over Indians it occurred to me - there's a Peet's in cincy. No skyline chili, mind you. But peet's!!

Peet's is noteworthy for one reason. They have good coffee. I mean good. Really good. not starbucks "good", where you convince yourself it's worth the high price and burnt taste and silly jargon I tend to call "starbonics". Peet's is just good.

There was a brief and ridiculous 15 minutes of fame for the nor Cal coffee favorite. As the world watched the O.J. Trial, judge Ito insisted on having Peet's brought to him. With props to the Fugees, I can judge a coffee like ito judge a verdict.

I can't emphasize enough that I am right now a happy man. And the fact there's a dank and wretched ill ventilated little room across from peet's where I can not go through security and smoke only improves things.

I may just stay here in the cincy airport. Who knows.

Delights of postmosdernism.

There is some intense charm to Absurdist theater, something that let's you suspend all disbelief and just lean back and laugh - for life is not a paragraph, nor death a parentheses you know. Especially when that theater is the supposedly "real" of life and love and politics. It's like living in a movie! I keep thinking, wait, this is too bizarre, things like this only happen in books, or bad french films. Like the miraculous reversals of my fortunes, miracle pharmaseuticals, The Drama, or, as the ultra realist of most careful deliberation has named it, Dramasaurus Rex.

One of my professors will quietly admit holding dear the gift someone once have him, a tee shirt with Picasso's Don Quixote that reads, "postmodernism saved my life".

Ah yes. It's hip to be pomo. But what is it? Oh, who knows. Three possible approaches: Lyotard, from "The Postmodern Condition", says it is the breaking apart of master narratives. Whether that of liberalism (the thing in the 19th century, folks) or what have you. The narrative structures and controls, so the story of Bob and Sally in Anytown is as much a controlling device as it is an explanation.

Or it is fragmentation and taking seriously the many bits of the puzzle, no longer as parts of a whole but a heap of broken images or a rat's nest of rhyzomes.

Or, with jameson, it is the present trying to think historically having lost all historicity. To wit:

Miss Alaska to Katie Couric: "if having god in the pledge was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me. "

Ah, yes. Postmodernism saved my live. When I was a modernist these things gave me ulcers.

Breaking news! House republicans declare the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Washington, DC: in an unexpected move this morning, congressional republican leaders brought an abrupt end to bail out talks, the presidential race, and a la carte lunch options by declaring the beginning of the worldwide dictatorship of the proletariat. As part of the new measure, triumphal peace parades featuring the entire American nuclear missile stockpile will begin touring, the largest ever government expenditure on art has been ordered to construct a 7 mile high statue of Reagan, and federally funded schools and offices will only serve corndogs and tater tots, staple favorites of the average, hard working American.

Welcome to red October, or, may those who do net learn the lessons of history make fools of themselves in tommorow's vice presidential debate.

A rant may be soon forthcoming, as a response and contribution to the ever brilliant pie and policy Blog. But this news item is of note and deserves immediate mention.

I really do think the house GOP has declared the dictatorship of the people. World communism at last!

Really, folks. Check the spin. First, all of a week ago, there was a post-partisan yet bi-partisan economic bailout attenpt, quickly turned into a McCain campaign bailout, which eventually went through the sausage grinder and became a palatable compromise. Until the ideologcal core of neoconservatism, the house republican study committee, decided to embarass the republican president, and its presidential nominee.

First, claims of bravery and conviction. Or was it first, blame Nancy Pelosi for being mean? Some jumped the gun and went to the telos of blame: Obama! But as Macbeth said when he clued in that the woods really were moving, oh yeah, and his wife died, there would have been time for that hereafter.

But now, red October indeed, the spin is this: it was the will of the American people. Universal turnout and universal sufferage in the biggest referendum ever. The voice of the American (it's always and increasingly modified, n.b.) People has spoken.

This makes the GOP the vanguard party. Welcome back, lenin!