Mudpuddle

“It seems like everyone we know is making stuff. People are publishing books and photography products, creating tee shirts, posters, stationery, stickers, games, pins, movies, music and toys. Periodically, we receive unsolicited stuff in the mail. We love getting it and most of the time we return the favor by sending back some of the stuff we’ve made.

So let’s try doing this on a slightly larger scale in an attempt to make lots of people as happy as we are when the FedEx guy shows up unannounced.”

“It seems like everyone we know is making stuff. People are publishing books and photography products, creating tee shirts, posters, stationery, stickers, games, pins, movies, music and toys. Periodically, we receive unsolicited stuff in the mail. We love getting it and most of the time we return the favor by sending back some of the stuff we’ve made.

So let’s try doing this on a slightly larger scale in an attempt to make lots of people as happy as we are when the FedEx guy shows up unannounced.”

Just what are the “Skeleton” files, you ask…

They are records of illegal wiretapping and break-ins, failed espionage ventures (including the many, many, many failed, botched or abandoned attempts to kill or otherwise discredit Fidel Castro (the fixation on Castor’s beard by the CIA is worthy of a paper on Freudian psychology!), and other underhanded efforts to spy on American citizens and others. While a lot may surprise, mystify, anger or dismay those reading the files, what is missing — redacted out or not released– is what many experts are disappointed by the obvious gaps in the documentation.

Case in point….

Some see the release of the documents as a smoke-cover to distract from current controversies [Cynics! ].

Of course, others, like Mordecai Briemberg, a former political science professor at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University and other Canadians critical of the Vietnam War who were spied upon by the CIA during the late 1960s and ’70s in an operation code-named “MH Chaos,” finally have a chance to see just what lengths the CIA went to obtain information on those in opposition to the war.

Of course, as with all government activities, one has to wade through the mundane to get to the juicy stuff. Sadly, the juicy stuff is usually pretty unpalatable and quite often, after a lot of effort on the part of the likes of the CIA, turns up very little that could be construed as material of concern. A very clear demonstration of the “If you point a finger at someone, there are going to be three more pointing back at you”….

While we’re on the subject…. you might want to check out this documentary film “638 Ways to Kill Castro“… Enlightening.

Just what are the “Skeleton” files, you ask…

They are records of illegal wiretapping and break-ins, failed espionage ventures (including the many, many, many failed, botched or abandoned attempts to kill or otherwise discredit Fidel Castro (the fixation on Castor’s beard by the CIA is worthy of a paper on Freudian psychology!), and other underhanded efforts to spy on American citizens and others. While a lot may surprise, mystify, anger or dismay those reading the files, what is missing — redacted out or not released– is what many experts are disappointed by the obvious gaps in the documentation.

Case in point….

Some see the release of the documents as a smoke-cover to distract from current controversies [Cynics! ].

Of course, others, like Mordecai Briemberg, a former political science professor at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University and other Canadians critical of the Vietnam War who were spied upon by the CIA during the late 1960s and ’70s in an operation code-named “MH Chaos,” finally have a chance to see just what lengths the CIA went to obtain information on those in opposition to the war.

Of course, as with all government activities, one has to wade through the mundane to get to the juicy stuff. Sadly, the juicy stuff is usually pretty unpalatable and quite often, after a lot of effort on the part of the likes of the CIA, turns up very little that could be construed as material of concern. A very clear demonstration of the “If you point a finger at someone, there are going to be three more pointing back at you”….

While we’re on the subject…. you might want to check out this documentary film “638 Ways to Kill Castro“… Enlightening.

“He grew up in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, which was torn apart by warlords when K’Naan was 10. “It was like a fire coming into your house,” he says, “and you not having a place to exit. You were certain you were going to die, ’cause everyone else was [dying]. I imagined I would not be fortunate enough to live, let alone escape Somalia, so we were just running around careless and wild in the streets.””

“When his family resettled in Harlem, K’Naan was amazed by its size but unfazed by its violence. He recalls, “One day, we were eating dinner … outside of our window, there was a gunshot. My uncle ducked, and me and my brother didn’t flinch. My uncle was like, ‘You see the guns here’ You have to be careful.’ And my brother said, ‘What’ That was popcorn.’ Because in Mogadishu, handguns aren’t considered dangerous. You have to shoot something heavy: AK-47s or RPGs (rocket propelled grenades)….””

“K’Naan has spent a lifetime cheating death. You wouldn’t know it to see him — the 27-year-old hip-hopper is affable, soft-spoken and quick to laugh, and his biggest complaint is the cold Toronto winter. Listen to the stories he tells with his rhymes and a more harrowing picture emerges.

What’s Hardcore? by K’Naan

I put a pen to the paper,
this time as visual as possible,
guns blast at the hospital,
the walls are white washed with tin rooftops,
to show love you lick two shots,
it’s dangerous man,
journalists hire gunmen there’s violent women,
kids trust no one cause fire burnt them,
refugees die in boats, headed for peace,
is anyone scared of death here’ Not in the least,
I walk by the old lady selling coconuts under the tree,
life is cheap here but wisdom is free,
the beach boys hang on the side, leaning with pride,
scam artists and gangsters fiendin’ to fight,
I walk with three kids that can’t wait to meet God
lately, that’s Bucktooth, Mohamed and Crybaby,
what they do everyday just to eat lord have mercy,
strapped with an AK and they blood thirsty…

So what’s hardcore? Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.
So what’s hardcore? Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.

We begin our day by the way of the gun,
rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,
we got no police ambulance or fire fighters,
we start riots by burning car tires,
they looting, and everybody start shooting,
bullshit politicians talking bout solutions, but it’s all talk,
you can’t go half a block with a road block,
you don’t pay at the road block you get your throat shot,
and each road block is set up by these gangsters,
and different gangsters go by different standards,
for example, the evening is a no go,
unless you wanna wear a bullet like a logo,
in the day you should never take the alleyway,
the only thing that validates you is the AK,
they chew on Jad it’s sorta like coco leafs,
and there ain’t no police…

So what’s hardcore? Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.
So what’s hardcore? Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.

I’m a spit these verses cause I feel annoyed,
and I’m not gonna quit till I fill the void,
if I rhyme about home and got descriptive,
I’d make Fifty Cent look like Limp Biskit,
it’s true, and don’t make me rhyme about you,
I’m from where the kids is addicted to glue,
get ready, he got a good grip on the machete,
make rappers say they do it for love like R-Kelly,
it’s HARD, harder than Harlem and Compton intertwined,
harder than harboring Bin Laden and rewind,
“to that earlier part when I was kinda like”
we begin our day by the way of the gun,
rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,
we got no police ambulances or fire fighters,
we start riots by burning car tires,
they looting, and everybody starting shooting…

So what’s hardcore? Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.
So what’s hardcore? Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.