12,646. RUDIMENTS, pt 996

RUDIMENTS, pt. 996

(you heard it here first)

Like scurvy and like tobacco,

certain things I shunned.

Awkwardly put, but I mean

to say it that way. I hated all

that crazy stuff that other people
did. The cigarette fetish,

well, back then that was

accepted everywhere.There

was a veritable blue cloud of

smoke and crud, ashtrays -

stand-up and countertop types -

people had lighters and matches,

crusty old guys walked around

with pipes in their mouths. They

also had yellowed teeth, weirdly

flattened and dried complexions

(from smoke), and that was just

the way it went. Cars had lighters

and ashtrays built in. A normal

person became inured to it

all, and a kid growing up just

figured it went with the territory

of adulthood. My 'spiritual director'

in the seminary, Fr. Jude, whom

I've already made mention  -  a

sort of in-house psychiatrist

open for consultation at all times  -

he was a constant pipe smoker.

Oral fixation? I probably could

have psychoanalyzed him!

I remember going to the

doctor's office and the doctor

would be smoking. Back when

Keith Hernandez was on the Mets,

I remember him always sneaking

smokes, between innings, on the

rear, hidden, steps of the dugout,

along the ramps to the players'

section. Everyone smoked and

disease was rampant and fun.

Sex was always accompanied by

a cigarette  -  if you remember

that Jack Nicholson joke in the

movie 'Chinatown,' which

'dirty' joke Evelyn Mulray walks

in on the telling of, in the office,

to one of his cronies. It was

about a guy having sex and

taking a cigarette break. I can

recall, NYC, people smoking

on buses, in taxis, everywhere

along the street, and forget

about bars and taverns and

restaurants. Those big, fat

French cigarettes were most

in demand at the Studio School

and the art-people crowd. Gauloise

and Gitane and, I think, Bicycle.

Imported brands. There was a

cool tobacco shop along 8th

street, filled with esoteric blends,

Turkish tobaccos and Metrozian

Shag, I think it was, and sort of

fine, hairy, tobacco for rolling

one's own cigarettes.

-

As it goes now, that's all changed,

and there's even movement underway

now to stop people from smoking

their flavored waters. Steampuffs

from grown boys; go figure. I

remember about 20 years ago on

some corer in Cranford, by the

train station, there was a small

sweet-shop or whatever and they

had all these Asian Indian flavored

and scented cigarettes for sale and

it caused a big uproar as a new threat

to minors, and they had the sale of

such stopped. Now, along with

weird-boy fly-by-night barber

places for indeterminate men who

don't need haircuts anyway, rather

'grooming,' there's an e-cig joint

on every third corner, also all

struggling for business. I used

to think the Military was the

employer of last resort these days;

but now that can just as easily be

said for people opening e-cig

outlets (and/or) men's grooming

salons. I do give up.

-

People basically have become

idiots. Why it's all tolerated is

beyond me. I really think we

could lose a million or two

people tomorrow and be better

for it. It's a funny world now,

to be sure, and one I'd never

thought I'd be alive to see. From

my angle, this is already pretty

deep into the 2000's, and damned

if I was ever sure I'd see 2020.

Bit I'm not sure it's all that worth 

it. It was back in the 1980's, I

can remember all these economics

people berating Americans for

their lousy savings rate. Of course

at the same time the only thing

America ever did was prod 

people into endless purchases 

of crap and the unending and 

ever-latest and better piles of 

shit they'd get that just ended

up who knows where anyway. 

They'd talk people down for not

saving, not maintaining fall-back

accounts, etc, and they'd compare

it all with the post-war German

'miracle' and all those frugal

wise people with a 6 or 8 percent

savings rate, compared to like 

maybe the 1 percent rate of 

Americans. They sure wanted

it both ways, and that was with

5 or 6 percent interest rates

on bank savings. What has

happened over the years since

then has been a complete Statist

takeover, for purposes of control

and manipulation, of our personal

lives. And in 'America,' no less, 

where, supposedly, the original

Constitution would never have

allowed that. It's insidious how it

was achieved; and they've done 

it! They've done it so much so

that at this late date they have

everyone cowering in fear, 

coercively, over some bogus,

manufactured disease scare,

being told what to do and when

and where. No one bats an eye.

We are led by the nose by the

medical industry, syndromes 

and sicknesses, and dependencies,

manufactured out of thin air. 

People have become enfeeble-ized,

passive and reticent to even

think. AND NOW, after 30

years of getting berated, having

our money taken from us, wasted

on wars and useless military crap,

supporting an understructure of

crippled war-wounded and

decimated for life leftovers,

they show no shame, this

Government, for what they have

done and how many they've

gotten killed and maimed, AND

finally having gotten savings

and accounts established (which

is what they pleaded for all these

years), the banks have all the 

money, and they drop interest

rates to zero! We are left with

nothing  -  just try to get your

money turned back into cash and

take it home with you. If there's

no real interest being paid, and

if there's a real plague underway,

what's the use of leaving your

money in the hands of a stupid

bank just loaning it away on you

on other bad-business schemes?

It's each or ours personal monies,

and it's no longer doing a thing

for us. I say let's all go get it,

make out withdrawals and screw

the banks and the system. If they

start saying they can't give us

our money, take them down. Or

is maybe that what all this gun

control stuff is about?
Plain old fear

-

Statism rules, and ruins, people's

minds. As a way to squelch any

resistance, they'll go to any means.

And furthermore, that's what this

whole illicit virus thing is all

about  - keeping people frantic and

distracted while they manipulate

for what they wish to do. It's

not this crisis that'll get us. I say

beware; while they have everyone

so busy, it's the next one that'll

get us. You watch, 8 or so months

from now and see. The  proverbial

'other shoe' is getting prepared to

be dropped. Democracy and our

Republic are both soon to be

dead ducks.

- 

Remember, you heard it here, from

me, first. You flavored-steam puffs,

you dupes, you fall for anything

addicts. This should never have

happened. We should have been

men enough to take back our own

country long ago.