Wealth Bondage

Poetry for Laura Bush

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Imitations of Martial's Epigrams 

To be hand delivered by Sam Hamill to Laura Bush 

Dressed in her new business suit, the New Hire is tied to a barrel and raped by a bull. Good career move, Melissa! Ratings are off the chart. I hear you got a posthumous promotion too.

Liquidity event: Buck, the investment banker, is torn apart by an enraged bull on prime time. No exit strategy? Poor Buck, how you wish you could exercise your options now.

The day of his death, Jack went to Wendy's to cash in his coupons. The humiliating thing being that he was entitled to only one coupon per sandwich.

Lisping Susan says that snaps are politcally incorrect. They are too, but Susan is so stupid that the first time she used a vibrator she cracked her two front teeth.

Where did your husband, Laura, get those massive welts all over his behind? He went to the Temple to meet his Master, Jesus Christ. (Scourging the Money Changers)

A wooden table, a sponge, a knife, a bucket, and a cauterizing iron: the tools of poetry have not changed since the days of Martial.

A polutice of maggots -- today's infections resist antibiotics: The Roman Cure is still the best.

Sissies No More: A poet who goes to a President must carry a whip. (To his wife bring flowers.)

Behold a wonder! In the Colisseum the rabbit leaps in and out the Lion's jaws.

To a Rabbit - Do you think the King of Beasts would stoop to break your neck? By his lashing tail are Tyrants awed and stunned. Cities perish beneath his paws. You, Rabbit, dance between his jaws.

For more on Our Noble Trade.

Poetry for Laura Bush

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Imitations of Martial's Epigrams 

To be hand delivered by Sam Hamill to Laura Bush 

Dressed in her new business suit, the New Hire is tied to a barrel and raped by a bull. Good career move, Melissa! Ratings are off the chart. I hear you got a posthumous promotion too.

Liquidity event: Buck, the investment banker, is torn apart by an enraged bull on prime time. No exit strategy? Poor Buck, how you wish you could exercise your options now.

The day of his death, Jack went to Wendy's to cash in his coupons. The humiliating thing being that he was entitled to only one coupon per sandwich.

Lisping Susan says that snaps are politcally incorrect. They are too, but Susan is so stupid that the first time she used a vibrator she cracked her two front teeth.

Where did your husband, Laura, get those massive welts all over his behind? He went to the Temple to meet his Master, Jesus Christ. (Scourging the Money Changers)

A wooden table, a sponge, a knife, a bucket, and a cauterizing iron: the tools of poetry have not changed since the days of Martial.

A polutice of maggots -- today's infections resist antibiotics: The Roman Cure is still the best.

Sissies No More: A poet who goes to a President must carry a whip. (To his wife bring flowers.)

Behold a wonder! In the Colisseum the rabbit leaps in and out the Lion's jaws.

To a Rabbit - Do you think the King of Beasts would stoop to break your neck? By his lashing tail are Tyrants awed and stunned. Cities perish beneath his paws. You, Rabbit, dance between his jaws.

For more on Our Noble Trade.

Sam Hamill - Essential Links

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Sam Hamill's books

An interview with Sam Hamill 

Bio of Sam Hamill

Sam Hamill's Copper Canyon Press

Poetry readings by Sam Hamill

Imitations of Martial to be delivered by Sam Hamill to Laura Bush

NY Times story on Sam Hamill's Poets Against the War

Seattle Times story on Sam Hamill's Poets Against the War

Sam Hamill - Essential Links

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Sam Hamill's books

An interview with Sam Hamill 

Bio of Sam Hamill

Sam Hamill's Copper Canyon Press

Poetry readings by Sam Hamill

Imitations of Martial to be delivered by Sam Hamill to Laura Bush

NY Times story on Sam Hamill's Poets Against the War

Seattle Times story on Sam Hamill's Poets Against the War

Open Letter to Sam Hamill and Friends

Posted by The Happy Tutor

RE: Our Noble Trade

An Open Letter from "The Happy Tutor" to Sam Hamill and Friends

Question to postmodern poets: And so? Are any of you satirists? For lessons in spanking, whipping, chaining, cupping, bleeding, and curing, please read Martial, Horace, and Juvenal. If Laura Bush thinks poets are a bunch of wimps, pursuing art for its own sake, is it possible that your reputation (for being ineffectual) precedes you? The body politic has never been more in need of homeopathic cure. Tie it to the table and operate with or without anesthetic. For what ails us, the Roman Cure is still the best. (Roman Empire; Roman vices; Roman cure.)

Sincerely,

"The Happy Tutor"
Bondage Master to the Stars

Open Letter to Sam Hamill and Friends

Posted by The Happy Tutor

RE: Our Noble Trade

An Open Letter from "The Happy Tutor" to Sam Hamill and Friends

Question to postmodern poets: And so? Are any of you satirists? For lessons in spanking, whipping, chaining, cupping, bleeding, and curing, please read Martial, Horace, and Juvenal. If Laura Bush thinks poets are a bunch of wimps, pursuing art for its own sake, is it possible that your reputation (for being ineffectual) precedes you? The body politic has never been more in need of homeopathic cure. Tie it to the table and operate with or without anesthetic. For what ails us, the Roman Cure is still the best. (Roman Empire; Roman vices; Roman cure.)

Sincerely,

"The Happy Tutor"
Bondage Master to the Stars

Poets Against the War

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Via Skimble: Poets agains the War: An Open Letter from Sam Hamill:

I am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war, and to make February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War. We will compile an anthology of protest to be presented to the White House on that afternoon. (Sam had been invited to the White House on Feb 12 for a feel good poetry fest. This is his ungrateful response.)

Poets Against the War

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Via Skimble: Poets agains the War: An Open Letter from Sam Hamill:

I am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war, and to make February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War. We will compile an anthology of protest to be presented to the White House on that afternoon. (Sam had been invited to the White House on Feb 12 for a feel good poetry fest. This is his ungrateful response.)

Strategic Philanthropy Left and Right

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Via Skimble see pla-blogspot for an account of  the Washington Legal Foundation and their efforts to, among other causes, defund lawyers working for the homeless. 

Commonweal Institute provides the context for this kind of hard right "philanthropy." I would strongly suggest that you not F.... with these people.  Speech is free, but it ain't cheap. Check your litigation budget before you disparage well-funded, well-connected Patriotic Litigators. 

Changemakers was formed by Tracy Gary as, in part, a counterpoise to hard right strategic philanthropy. Her approach is to bring rich and poor together in working partnerships in which decision-making authority is shared over the grant-maker's money.  This is a tough model to make work, since the two cultures don't easily mix, and few big donors want to cede control, but Tracy has persisted for decades, and made it work.  See Resourceful Women for another progressive organization of grant-makers founded by Tracy, who is herself an inheritor, and one who has given of her own money to the point of self-sacrifice.  Foundation Exchange is another hub for Tracy-style community-based philanthropy and is one of the organizations that Changemakers supports.

For those who are new to this whole subject of "strategic philanthropy," and who assume that philanthropy is an all around good thing, just remember that money does not necessarily change its color when filtered through a 501(c)(3) (charitable) organization, any more than it becomes Patriotic when given to a Political Action Committee.

The culture wars are fought on many fronts with dollars filtered through many organizations: family foundations, legal foundations, think tanks, lobbyists, Corporate PR and foundations, and political action committees, among others.  What progressive causes have is not many dollars, but many stake-holders, voters, and consitutents. The "wealth" to the left is measured in head count. The dollars are just a catalyst.

Weblogs can help build "social capital" and solidarity among those whose interests are not represented in the hard right's synthesis of wealth, media, politics, and philanthropy. They call it "freedom, and justice." I call it wealth bondage, the ideology of power exercised ruthlessly from the top down, inflicted upon those who apparently love it.

Strategic Philanthropy Left and Right

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Via Skimble see pla-blogspot for an account of  the Washington Legal Foundation and their efforts to, among other causes, defund lawyers working for the homeless. 

Commonweal Institute provides the context for this kind of hard right "philanthropy." I would strongly suggest that you not F.... with these people.  Speech is free, but it ain't cheap. Check your litigation budget before you disparage well-funded, well-connected Patriotic Litigators. 

Changemakers was formed by Tracy Gary as, in part, a counterpoise to hard right strategic philanthropy. Her approach is to bring rich and poor together in working partnerships in which decision-making authority is shared over the grant-maker's money.  This is a tough model to make work, since the two cultures don't easily mix, and few big donors want to cede control, but Tracy has persisted for decades, and made it work.  See Resourceful Women for another progressive organization of grant-makers founded by Tracy, who is herself an inheritor, and one who has given of her own money to the point of self-sacrifice.  Foundation Exchange is another hub for Tracy-style community-based philanthropy and is one of the organizations that Changemakers supports.

For those who are new to this whole subject of "strategic philanthropy," and who assume that philanthropy is an all around good thing, just remember that money does not necessarily change its color when filtered through a 501(c)(3) (charitable) organization, any more than it becomes Patriotic when given to a Political Action Committee.

The culture wars are fought on many fronts with dollars filtered through many organizations: family foundations, legal foundations, think tanks, lobbyists, Corporate PR and foundations, and political action committees, among others.  What progressive causes have is not many dollars, but many stake-holders, voters, and consitutents. The "wealth" to the left is measured in head count. The dollars are just a catalyst.

Weblogs can help build "social capital" and solidarity among those whose interests are not represented in the hard right's synthesis of wealth, media, politics, and philanthropy. They call it "freedom, and justice." I call it wealth bondage, the ideology of power exercised ruthlessly from the top down, inflicted upon those who apparently love it.