Tell it to Tezcatlipoca

EARTHLINGS need to know that I don’t feel interested today in a long post on any given topic. Yet—dammit—the planet requires my input on certain subjects and I’m not going to stand in between humankind’s need for that input and…me. Because that would just be selfish. Aside from spatially impossible.

1. Firstly, the illo above does not appear in, but spins off of (black and white) art I did for Gods, Gachupines, and Gringos: A People’s History of Mexico, a book by a fella who’s been a reader at  UMX since back in El Grito days, Richard Grabman over at the MexFiles. You’ll see comments from him usually under some variation of “El Pinche Guero.” We’ve banged heads a few times, but anyone who stays my friend can give and take lumps with the best of ‘em!

2. The Sanctuary. You may have heard of this group that I’m a part of. If you search this blog you’ll see that we are getting more media attention lately, and this is because we are taking on some issues head on. Issues like human rights, even as they apply to measly ole Mexican migrants, and because we have a core group of smart, dedicated, passionate people. We could use all hands on board, so if you feel that you want to get in on the act, speak out, join the community, write diaries, please come on by. And if you’re not ready to do that, and even if you are, please visit this page I’ve created to grab a badge for your sidebar and help us spread the word and show solidarity.

3. On the topic of Stinking Badges, you know I’ve already offered you a page where you show your UMX love. But now, in the hopes of recruiting even more of you to give Nezua your very best link-love, I’ve made another page with even juicier badges. They are shown at full-size (200px wide) for those with the newer, wider sidebar you see a lot of lately, but they are coded to display at no wider than 150px, for the thinner sidebars that still are the standard. If you want them to show in all their wide glory, just strip out the piece of code that says width=”150″ and in its place, make sure there is only one space between the remaining attributes. If you paste the provided code as-is, the badge will simply show as 150px wide. Included are AlienCholo, the No-Boundaries icon, the Calavera Cosmica, Sailing el Sexto Sol, and The world-famous Melting Pot image. Grab ‘em while they hot!

And if you are a site or blog or business that wants a page like that, so you can offer your readers badges and code and make it very easy for them to use, drop me a line, I can cook up one of these pages to match your current theme/logo/colors (prices vary depending on how much art I am creating/do you have your own art, are you a non-profit/business/personal).

4. Anthrax. Do you buy this stuff about Ivins? I don’t, not for a minute. Granted, I haven’t read the evidence. But the story as presented? Dunno. It feels real thin. A number of details jumped out at me right off the bat. For one thing, people who plan violent massacres with shotguns (and statistically most males) do NOT SUICIDE WITH PILLS. I don’t say this out of guessing. I did spend some time being educated on matters psychological and was a counselor for a short time. Sure, that statement is nothing more than circumstantial. Men still do kill themselves with pills. But a homicidal maniac? I’m sort of laughing at the idea. Anyway, Tylenol??? A brilliant scientist with scientist friends can’t secure anything better than Tylenol to off himself with? Thats too much. And we could go on. Did you read about some of the FBI’s tactics? Showing up at a mall when he is with his family? Bullying him and scaring his family? “Do you know your father killed someone?” Bribing his own son with millions to testify against him?? Sorry, folks. This is not an investigation. This is mob tactics. The USGOV sent out its goons to threaten and scare this man and make it clear that they were going to set him up, that they were setting him up and there was no way out. Government needed a fall-guy. And for now, that’s how I’m writing it, that’s how I’m filing it.  Why? Because you know what this government has earned from me in almost eight years of holding power?

TOTAL DISTRUST.
 

5. Email. Do you ever feel like there is a certain amount of your email that just goes into a hole in the sky? Letters nobody replies to that you don’t follow up on because you are sure they didn’t reply on purpose. So you let it go. But maybe they just never got the email and somewhere….somewhere there is a massive clustered orb of ballpoint pens and unanswered emails and they are dancing with the blackboxes from the planes that disappeared on 9/11, and the whole party will be joined before long by our melting ice caps which will make Indian Santa shed tears of acid rain down upon all our thirsty oil derricks.

6. The McCain Ads on the site. A person has complained on one of these posts. A friend has alerted me through Twitter with a four-fire alarm. THERE ARE MCCAIN ADS ON YOUR SITE!! It made me wonder if I should be more upset. Do I support McCain? No. I think he is a fool and a dangerous one. Do I think he has the right to advertise? Sure. Have any ads brought UMX more money than McCain ads so far? Nope. Do I want them there? Well….nah. Not really. Two people have inquired lately about ads on UMX and I don’t mean to ignore them, I will be speaking with you this week. I’ve been really really nariz to tha grind with illustration job above, and my administrative assistant thinks her law school education is more important, lately, than assisting me so some things have got slacky. But I am guessing I will be replacing some of those google ads with ads I feel better about soon. Just give me a little time. Come on, you know Johnny McCain smiling at ya makes you feel like buying a ninth house and bombing Iran!

7. The Continued Sadistic Behavior of our Police. You do know what they are after? The same thing that our government is after with their insane and brutal GWOT tactics. Nobody really expects these things to “work.” The idea is simply to terrify people—as well as get their rocks off, of course. They use the “non-lethal” weapons as pain compliance, as “told ya so”, as “fuck you punk”, as “I can get away with this” weaponry. They rarely if ever are convicted for it, just like the twisted old men in government office who have carried out crimes against humanity so far have escaped their rightful due. And they want you to carry in your mind that this could happen to you at any time, and that there will be no recourse available to you. It’s part of the War on Freedom. The most successful war ever launched, unannounced, and enforced daily. They want you to begin treading lightly, shutting up, bowing down. They want to look at you and have you flinch. They want no more protests and no more free speech and the fact that some people can be punched senseless, tased to death, blackholed, tortured, disappeared, spied on…it all lends itself to better controlling people. I’m not saying “THEY” all get together and plan this. But certain mindsets desire certain outcomes and this informs certain actions and not even one of them ever has to articulate their sick condition for it all to work just so. Tasers. And now they are talking about putting them in schools? Giving taser guns to police in schools? Oh, that sounds like a good idea.

Someone needs to design an underclothing that sends that shock back to the sender. Make the triggerfinger think twice.

8. Denver. I’m still going! I think. I mean all plans are on. I still need to take care of a few things. I am lucky enough to benefit from the brains and hard work of Liza Sabater (an amiga who is both involved with The Sanctuary, as well as the publisher of CultureKitchen, where I sometimes blog) and the monies of Kenneth Cole. I am an officially credentialed blogger for the DNCC under those auspices, and as such, have been given a grant that is making hotel and airfare possible. (I am the official videographer on this gig.) I am very grateful, because that is 95% of what is making this possible. A couple generous and very cool readers here at UMX have also sent some donations, and if you would like me to suck an olive in your name, please chip in and know that I will make this happen. You have my word. (Related, I’ve been accepted as a blogger for Huffington Post’s Off the Bus, and will soon be setting up that profile. Will drop links when ready.)

9. Batman. I came home after seeing it and was so overwhelmed by the feeling that GWBush had been praised by proxy that I typed a writeup that focused on that. I got a little pushback and not that in and of itself that warrants a stutter-step, but because I did feel it was an enjoyable movie with a lot going on, and because it was written without notes or review, I also felt it wasn’t fair to just leave it at that. So it will take me a few days to finish viewing and taking notes and then gathering screenshots and polishing up a second review, but lo! I have been working on it, and we will soon have a new first for UMX, and that is a second pass at one movie. I did play with the idea for a few of my reviews, but this time it shall be done!

10. Sometimes Justice crawls backward. Thanks to an incoming link from resist racism, I see that this situation has been rectified! Yeah! Nice!

And with that, I’m outta here! Enjoy another beautiful day alive, amigos. For some, and I hope not you or me, it will be the last. Precious stuff, precious gift. Yours today, free.