Be Car(e)ful Out There

Whether winter driving or super striving, there's no excuse not to

 Drive Safely.

“Rude Conditions”, ©Jeff Glovsky

It's Only Winter

"The furious hoarfrost bearing down upon us knows neither mercy nor reason ... Clutch your babes close to your breast and take small comfort in knowing that they will howl for but a few hours before death becalms them forever." -

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

I want cabin fever.

I actually want to be "non-essential" ... so that when I'm forced to stay home from work, losing money and faced with an actual blizzard (of backlog, coming back into it), I don't stress;

I want to believe the "weather team", from whatever "information" source being forced down my throat, throbbing, stuffing my ears full of dire "news" about the fact that it's winter, and sometimes it snows!

... I want to believe them when they tell me, all day, excitedly, babbling repeatedly, warnings about the "historic" storm ... The inexplicably NAMED winter snowfall.  "Why is the snow called 'Juno', Daddy?

"Is snow going to hurt us?"

... The five year old's questions more calm, more rational, more simply reasoned, than anyone breathlessly standing outside in this winter season's first "event", holding a microphone while loudly declaiming and pointing at things:  "Now we're starting to see sanitation workers move into place!" as a garbage truck passes in front of a camera ... "You don't want to be outside in this MONSTER!"

NEWSFLASH:  It's winter.  It's one of four seasons.  Sometimes it snows, hard.

It's NOT "Snowmageddon".

It's ONLY WINTER.  Sometimes, okay, there is even a blizzard (and sometimes, in SUMMER, there's thunder and lightning!).  It's not invitation to fill me with dread ... try and addle me mentally, put me to bed!!!

The "Extreme Threat Alert Message" received on New York City smart phones Monday -- "All non-emergency vehicles must be off all roads in NYC by 11PM until further notice." -- was, to me, as unnecessary as it was vague, discomfiting and deeply unwelcome.  Heavy-handed and Martial Law-like, as "violators" were reminded on local newscasts of summonses, and possibly even arrest.

This is why Americans kill each other.  Everyone's harangued so relentlessly, so kept on the precipice of fear and panic ... bombarded with overwrought, negative messages ... that we're all batshit crazy.

Not in a good way.
Only the five year-olds stand a chance ... if they can be left alone to enjoy winter.

Conversations

"Conversant"

"Conversant 2"

"Conversant 3"

"Talkin' 'Bout a Bike"

Intent, Purpose

In the flurry of world Angst which has defined the past weeks, it's occurred to me, I've gone about as far as I can go here.

With this blog, and these posts, I've said just about all I have to say, and have more or less achieved my goals setting out:  to right the wrongs done to my personal name; my business, but also personal reputation ... I've at least had my say, my quarrelsome days, in the kangaroo court of public opinion.

There's no need left to slag off the lawyer's wife, whose husband, in a rambling, epithet-filled, late night SCREAMFEST, using his law firm's email account, attacked me ... offended, insulted, abused, accused, swore ... because he (WRONGLY) decided he was "scammed" by me;

there is no longer any need to chide the clueless, sometimes mental, entitled-feeling, when they're demanding rental "discounts" or expecting "deals" ... or making threats to me, because they destroy or make filthy a piece of my property, yet somehow don't think they ought to pay for anything!

No more need to waste time ... There are nasty assholes on this planet.  At times, I am one of them.  No one cares, and in the Big Picture, why bother arguing?

There are much more important things to address, fight and stress over ... Messes requiring insights beyond my largely unread blog of personal grievances (received or given), or remembrances only half-heartedly "shared".

I've come to the end of my intent and purpose with "The Fall of Jeff Glovsky"; for all intents and purposes, nearing the ...

 

And Neither Are You

"We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends."-
Dutch cartoonist Bernard "Willem" Holtrop, Charlie Hebdo, Libération

needless ...

 

Je ne suis pas "Charlie".

I'm all for free speech ... our First Amendment ... Religious tolerance ... artistic Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité ... and I feel Voltaire.

100%.  Unequivocally.  Deeply.  Fiercely.

BUT ... Despite these truths, held to be self-evident ... 

In the same way one doesn't walk through the streets, loudly swearing or screaming racial epithets ... shouldn't bash and attack, bully, name-call, defame ... wouldn't think (most of us) of insulting one's parents -- an elderly couple, the sick or disabled -- in overtly derisive or hurtful language, simply because we are "free" and we CAN ...

With these same social, civilized, common sense constructs, every culture, religion should be respected.

These filters were often missing in Charlie Hebdo - replaced by offensive antagonism and needless provocation ... not "in the name of", but rather, too often, confused with "freedom".

YES:  Unequivocally, deeply, fiercely - Charb, Cabu, Wolinski and Tignous, the four cartoonists killed in last week's barbaric, 12th century act of non-secular "vengeance", had every right to choose their battles, and (should have had) every freedom to wield their satirical depictions of whichever "intouchable" archetype they wished (whether it's "forbidden" to visually depict one of these, the Prophet Muhammad; or in fact, it's not).

But knowing the 'nothing to lose' hoplelessness and diseased mental functioning which informs fundamentalism, from abortion clinic bombings to Haredi violence to jihadi terror ... Simply put, Why go there?

If you know that what you do -- say, write, depict, draw -- can inflame ... and you choose to do it anyway, defying potential consequences -- announced, threatened consequences -- Are you to blame?

Put another way, perhaps more palatably:  to what extent do you share responsibility for what happens as a consequence of your informed disregard?

This is only food for thought.  In no way (it should go without saying) do I feel anything but revulsion, condemnation and hate in response to the cowardice, barbarism, intolerance and delusional idolatry of the Charlie Hebdo killers ... and all jihadists, terrorists, takers of life, regardless of the color of flags, gods or skin.

"Fuck You." - Charlie

But instead of inciting ... inviting, in fact, causing carnage ... provoking loss of life, dragging colleagues, neighbors, countrymen into what amounts to battles in war ... 

Why not stand down for a minute or two?  Use common sense.  Apply a filter ... not because you're 'forced to'.  But because you CAN.

That's the freedom it makes sense to choose.

UnHappy New Year

What's wrong with this picture?

Look closely.  There is an office chair in the street.

The cops either don't seem to want to be photographed, or don't seem inclined to take any next steps, decisive or otherwise.  Or they don't know which next steps to take.

A bike parked, or abandoned, in the middle of the crosswalk -- its rider, apparently, just stopped  and climbed off -- reflecting either whimsy or chaos.

... An office chair, in the middle of the street.

Something has happened here, is still happening ...

It's a great picture.

Tragically, what happened in the center of Paris, is not at all whimsical.  Charlie Hebdo may be whimsical ... a French Onion, if you will ... a satirical humor publication, today, in the minds of extremists armed with Kalashnikovs and bottle rockets, twistedly perceived to be "paying the price" for its satire, humor ...

There's nothing funny.

Terror has struck in the heart of Paris.  It's time for PEGIDA to march in and occupy.

Then, lights can switch off in Notre Dame ... the Eiffel Tower goes dark, the Bastille gets stormed, its streets clogged with dialogue ... at least there's talking.

What's missing across much of Europe, outside of Germany, it seems, where PEGIDA -- Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) and its opposing movements have grown vocal -- is a sense of engagement.  A willingness, inclination, to take next steps ... and a lack of preparedness and security about doing so.

In too many European quarters (if you want to speak about "white privilege"), there is a strong unease that 'something is happening' - but this weird, fervent hope that it might go away if left alone ... ignored, ridiculed or excluded.

The banlieues are teeming with crime and poverty.  "We" are afraid to go into the banlieues.  Perhaps as a solution, the banlieues should be invited to "us".  I propose, as a tentative outreach toward solution, instead of derision, frustrations and more violence, a simple détente:  a peaceful series of salons, to which all religions, social strata and colors, by invitation and wholly welcome, arrive.

Dinner is served.  You've got champagne and Weißbier ... Red Bull and escargot ... Döner Kebabs with chantilly!  Fear and hatred, pride and prejudice, war and peace, at table together ... Sharing apéritifs with beliefs, ideologies ... cultures, menus, ideas ... art and humor -- what "works" and what doesn't, and why --

Sharing dialogue, human connection, eye contact ... the necessary first steps toward understanding.

Simplistic perhaps.  A utopian wet dream.  A fantasy ... but something's got to start somewhere.

Out and In

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