sw00933d44-darkflag

sw00848d8

 Good morning.  My being here is a bit of a surprise
since thunderstorms passed through Springfield during
the night and today and tomorrow are forecast to be
rain days.  This is the first Sunday after Easter.  Went
back to reading my Lawrence Grant White translation
of Dante's Comedy.  Read seven sections of the
Paradiso.  Also read some more pages of Art and the
Intellect by Harold Taylor.  Both of these books I have
read before, but years ago.



words from one of my unpublished journals

 Each human is unique.  Each human is a creature who thinks and
a creature who feels.  And some of the deepest human feelings
are fueled by beliefs: beliefs that should not despise uniqueness,
but often do; beliefs that should not cancel thought, but often do.
I know that the ability to feel is just as necessary for our species'
survival as the ability to think.  I know the reptile brain in each of
us is quicker to act than the new brain.   //   But I also know that
howevermuch the flames of feelings, and all too often negative
ones, rise from our moralities, the cores of the great moralities
of this planet favor the flames of positive feelings, feelings possible
only for those who are able and willing to honor thought: Jesus
of Nazareth's, for example, when He urges us to love not only
our neighbors but also our enemies.  Please: whenever you and
I disdain others, we first of all disdain ourselves; whenever you
and I disdain others, we are saying that it is all right for others 
likewise to disdain us; whenever you and I disdain others, we join
those forces that disdain humanity.  The less we are willing to
live with each other, the more we will have to die with each other.

                                                                                    1983




Brian A. J. Salchert    2008-03-30

sw00735st53-electoral.college

Our nation's forefathers were highly intelligent, but they created 
a structurally-flawed nation.  It is a democratic republic, and 
republic is the key word.  For many years I have maintained in
one-on-one conversations that this country may well be "the 
home of the brave" but it has never been "the land of the free".
"These United States"--see the morrisonhimself comment--need  
to be reconstructed.  However, this post will only address the
Electoral College issue because it is the core reason so many of
this nation's citizens do not vote.  The Maine-Nebraska method
is an insufficient improvement.  Inherently, the Electoral College
cannot be fixed.  The Electoral College idea subverts democracy.
(Of course, "democracy" is a dirty word; and "of the people, by
the people, and for the people" is a pile of doo-doo.)  "Politics
is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which
properly concern them."  Paul Valéry Tel Quel 2 (1943).  See
Quotation #163.  Before any other federally-mandated institution
is, the Electoral College must be garbaged.  There is not one
argument in its favor that stands up.  The distribution of US
citizens cannot be accurately accounted for by even a census
every year.  Circumstances, natural and otherwise, constantly
keep people on the move.  Giving a state to a candidate who
won by 70% is not the same as giving a state to a candidate
who won by 55%, even if the population in each is relatively
equal.  Red states, blue states, purple states: the conception
itself is anti-freedom.  Wyoming gets 2 senatorial votes and
California gets 2 senatorial votes: what kind of crock is that?
What I'm saying is not that California ought to have more than
2 senators, but that the supposed checks and balances the E C
provides is untenable.  There are other problems:  1) the voting
age     2) citizens who don't vote (for whatever reasons) are
automatically disenfranchised     3) balloting systems are too
diverse and unreliable     4) the ways in which campaigns are
conducted, to say nothing of the cost of them.  About point 1:
The age at which one is allowed to vote should be the same age 
in every state.  Sometimes states' rights = states' blights.  Maybe
each state should be its own country.  Wouldn't that be the cat's
diapers.  Have so far not founda state-by-state voting age chart.
Read this pertinent cogent argument for lowering the age to 16.
About point 2:  Say that in a general election 30% vote for Bluu,
25% vote for Redd, 5% vote for Purp, and 40% vote for Nota.  I
think every ballot should include a "None-of-the-above" option.
I think such an option would encourage more citizens to vote, 
especially if it were accorded its rightful power.  That is, if the
majority of citizens chose that option, then the election in which
it occurred should be considered null-and-void.  Well, do you or
don't you want a democracy?  & what about Americans who are
in prisons in this country?  About point 3:  Every ballot across the
land should have the same look.  None of this filling in an oval or
punching this or that with a machine.  A simple X to the right of a
name, of a yes, of a no would suffice.  Special assistance should
be given to those who are handicapped but are able to choose. 
About point 4:  We live in a capitalist society, a fate which is
both good/ and evil.  How/ many/ of our leaders are poor?  We
persist in a veritable oligarchy which, if it had its way, would
happily become a tyranny, if it hasn't already.  Alexis Tocqueville
saw this coming.  The birth of These United States was marked
by an undesired but necessary violence.  Nothing prevents it
from being reborn by a similar undesired but necessary violence.  
Our own Declaration of Independence recognizes that possibility.

         We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
     are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
     with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life,
     liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That, to secure these
     rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving 
     their just powers from the consent of the governed; that,
     whenever any form of government becomes destructive
     of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
     abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its
     foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers
     in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
     theirsafety and happiness.

And it goes on, though in a more cautionary tone.  Read it.
-
This is an annotated text of the Declaration.  Scroll down to it.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00684st30-about.us

In This USA

the logical endpoint of states' rights is the dissolution of the federal government
and the morphing of each state into a nation of like-minded selfish isolationists.
Live only with those you agree with, and the rest of the world can spit peanuts.
The Constitution of the United States is NOT a sacred document.  If we cannot
live with each other, we will die because of each other.  The AI's are waiting.
After the demise of ugly Homo sapiens, Earth will throw an Edenic celebration.
Prepare yourself for the crossover.  The requisites are: peace, love, community.
-
The logical endpoint of federal government primacy is the death of statehood
and the consequent invalidation of even altruistic legislations of sovran states. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00650st21-human-brain

Went to bed early last night but woke twice during the night.  Each time the
wind was into its end-times yeowling.  Shortly before my third sleep period
ended I had a weird dream in which in placing my left foot on a step I hurt
it.  Then I actually did hurt my left foot, which harshly woke me at AM 7:55.
I haven't slept so late since who-knows-when.  The wind had abated and
as I pushed open the drapes I noted the sky was cloudless and the bush at
the southeast corner of the apartment building north of this one/ still.  Had
to change my morning routine since it was nearing time for me to take my
ep med.  Moments later when I peeked out the west edge of the drapes in
the living area, the bush was quivering.  Windy is part of the description of
today's forecast.  
-
Yesterday it occurred to me INFP 
could be an acronym for 
Internationally Nefarious Fugitive Person.
How that relates to its M-B meaning is an unknown.
Games/// brains// play.
-
For the last few months my electricity bill has been under $25.
Not anymore.  Looks like my monthly budget's going to be
so tight/ I'm going to have to eat my shoestrings.
-
A note on ego:  My conception of ego is such that a person who
was either born with a severely depressed ego or who had found 
a way to radically supress his or her ego/ would cease to commu-
nicate in more than a minimally conscious manner.  Therefore, all
the pronouncements about excising ego from the creative arts are
ruses.
-


-------------------------
brain of Homo sapiens: from a book by Robert Jastrow -- see credit beneath text


-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00639o-earths.environment

homepage

Opinion Earth's Environment PM 10:30 Springfield, MO 
- 
Thanks to a notice on Collin Kelley's blog, earlier this evening 
I registered at Blog Action Day to participate
 in a special environment day.
That day-- from their location on this planet--will arrive 
15 hours before it does here. It is Monday, October 15, 2007. 
Even if you cannot register in time, post something on your blog 
about the environment. About 14,000 blogs have registered so far.
 ~ 
AM 10:24 2007-10-14 Over 14,000 and/ it appears they have 
closed registration, but there are codes for banners available. 
There is also other participatory information. 
Wyland Foundation and its Clean Water Challenge

------------------------- 

Brian A J Salchert 

sw00541o-credit

Opinion                 Credit


 The idea of credit is a work of the Devil; and if not the Devil,
 it is the work of an entity or entities similarly evil.  The value
 of a human being is not proved by her or his credit score.  As
 I have written other places in my passage, these United States
 may well be "the home of the brave" but they are not "the land
 of the free" and the presence of the tapeworm of credit is just
 one of the reasons why.  We are taught that the only equitable
 way one's trustworthiness can be measured is by how well one
 manages credit.  That is a lie.  What is worse is that our ruled-
 by-the-rich government blatantly supports usury.  For many
 years I labored in the hospitality industry, and could tell story
 after story, but just this one: there are bankers who do not use
 credit cards.  Would that they were the ones who/ made laws.



 
valuable FTC credit information


Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00460o-Internet.decorum

 [ last modified: 2007-06-10 ]

Opinion       Five Internet Decorum Thoughts
                  or
                     (opinion Internet Usage Notes) 



 1)  Mistakes abound.  Even if one produces an errorless manuscript,
     the chances are high that in the process of placing it online errors
     will be made:  letters or words will be left out, transposed, or put
     in the wrong places  /  punctuation marks will be incorrect.

 2)  Someone gives a name to a style of writing, or of whatever, and
     your style of writing, or of whatever, happens to abide therein.
     Until you can find a better name for your creative style, don't be
     angered by it.  Wear it as a badge of honor, or just ignore it.

 3)  The idea that in the creative arts only the newest is the truest,
     that older ways are spent ways, is a power stance which under-
     mines that idea.  There isn't a final way to use words, or colors,
     or sounds, or ______, or ______.  There are, however, examples
     which approach perfection.  Every use of a language (e.g., the one
     I am using here) is intimately bound to the state of that language 
     at the time of use.  English is presently an amorphous, volatile 
     language which is showing no signs of solidifying other than via
     certain computer programs and high-end usage books.  During the
     years Shakespeare wrote, the state of the English language was
     a zenith state.  Shakespeare interiorized and moulded it.   

 4)  Because I am highly eclectic, because my subconscious allows
     me to write in any style and even at times forces me to invent 
     a style, I have had firsthand experiences that proved to me why 
     one conception requires a marked conjunctiveness while another
     requires a marked disjunctiveness.  Further:  I am a natural risk-
     taker.  Too often (sadly) I have lacked an attendant wisdom.  In
     his 1974 Ketjak Silliman wrote these three consecutive
     "sentences":
               What if these words don't mean what I believe they 
               do.  Crash city.  It is or is not your cup of tea.
     Luckily (as well as unluckily) for me: I do not have a cup of tea.

 5)  The late Stanley Kunitz believed poems came as a blessing.  A
     position I/ tend to agree with.  Implicit in that position is that the
     receiver (the poet) must proceed by the rules each such blessing
     imposes.  To say the blessings I receive are better than those you
     receive is to deny you your right to be who you are.  When I read
     a poem I try to appreciate it on its own terms.  Just because a par-
     ticular creative act is difficult for me to appreciate does not mean
     it is not worthy of being appreciated.  This is not to say I am with-
     out standards.  Many poets in the last century and in this century
     have subconsciouses attuned to jazz.  My subconscious is not.
     Should I, therefore, denigrate them; or they, therefore, denigrate
     me.  Marvin Bell has said:  "Shame on better poets who belittle
     lesser poets."  Even if I here have misquoted a tad what he said,
     I know I have the gist of it right.  I thank him for it, and praise him.    



 Adorno from the SEP


Brian A. J. Salchert                      

sw00387a-ego

Autobio



Beyond the Ego


So many these years are trying to
Get
Beyond the ego
And yet the ego
Remains
Remains

I "know" we dont need to
Use the word "ego"
Or the word "id"
Or the word "libido"
Or even the word "subconscious"
And i "know" one could say
i stink  therefore  i am

I "know" the "ego" has dangerous side effects
Inside effects
But i do not see where there is a way to
Escape to a oneness or an
Eternal nothingness
Imbued with wonder  beauty  love
Imbued with an exquisite emptiness
Obliterating "i"

For so long as I
Am able to sense
I am an "I"
A spirited body
An embodied spirit
Such sensing will of necessity
Correlate  integrate  propagate
Each of my continuances
Each of those  whatevers which  individuate me

Were disease or accident to rob me of my
Abilities   to individuate  to discern  to will
Would I then be in a holier condition  though less whole?





Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00355o-trapt

Opinion


The Internet giveth; the Internet
taketh away.  All praise be
to the Internet.




Security | Security | Security


Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

If things keep going 
the way some
would
have them go,
each of us will be
(if we aren't already)
trapped in a cube
from which there is
no escape;
and freedom of speech,
along with many or all
of those other freedoms
each human 
has a right to,
will be dead and gone.

But this is an opinion;
therefore,
you do not need
to feel as I feel.

Blessings on all.



Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00349o-langpo

Opinion

 6

Of Language Poetry (as I Presently Understand It) and My Self


A heavy haze inhabits the sky.  It is 8 am.  It may take me many days
to enter this.  Last night, getting eye-weary reading The New Sentence,
and seeing the weather was improving, I re-engaged my computer, &
spent the next 4+ hours learning about the political scientist langpo:
Bruce Andrews.  I read about Language Poetry and him.  I read a 
lengthy talk he gave.  I took peeks at some of his creations, two of
which were similar to two years-ago creations of mine.  I read an
interview.
-
My major conclusions are:  Language Poets (if one is willing to view them
as a special breed of Homo sapiens) may be proof of Darwin's survival-of-
the-fittest theory.  They have definitety been aggressive in finding each
other, in promoting each other, and in proselytizing their social & linguistic
beliefs.  Had they not had their religious ardor in their difficult early years/
they would not have made it through those years, and would not have risen
to the cardinal pulpits they now enjoy.  This is not to say I find they are dis-
agreeable.  It is to say I have not (over the years) been aggressive enough,
but my salient differences from them are my eclecticism and my inveterate
inwardness.  The eloquence of their prose statements tells us they indeed
are knowledgeable, word-wise, and sincere.  Some feel they are the final
language avant-guard (my spelling).  That may be, especially since the  
robots in our computers are on track to become the progenitors of every 
thing.  But I digress.  Attention to the word as word with all its attendant
nuances is at the core of their poetics.  Such attention results in deeply
strange poems, but that is precisely what they want/ as they are trying to
unsettle the prevailing worldorder-tending / peon-controlling usages of
language.  Odd.  (I am going to let you figure out why.)  They are trying
to lead readers of their poems away from those industrial/governmental/
military usages of words by which they are being continually duped, and
toward/ seeing anew the words we use.  In this respect they are somewhat
succeeding, though it may be a futile effort.  The central problem, as I see
it, is this: The corporate culture has become so adept at subsuming 
whatever might threaten it/ there no longer seems to be any viable way
of escaping from that culture's control.  I once read a story (a story which/
may be/ just that) about a Japanese poet who climbed high into a mountain
and there committed suicide because/ he could no longer face/ the blank
page.  Are we as a race, an evermore enlightened and enlivened race, we
Homo sapiens (of genders known and unknown), facing such a blank page?
-
Zahv-trah, wonderers/wanderers; or later today.
-
So, the without-which-humanity-is-doomed need is this: to convince each
and every entity wherein power is the ruling tenet/ that only that which is
good for each and every human is good for it.  Only as a world community
will humanity survive and thrive on this planet, which does not mean a one-
world government is required.  If we cannot/ rise beyond/ greedy egos, we 
will not/ rise beyond.
-        



Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00308o-english.language

 -
 Opinion


 When it comes to using the English Language, I am not a purist.
 In a currently offline short old essay I somewhat detail why, but
 this morning I wish to progress beyond that.  Behind me a copy
 of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries, a book
 published in 2004 by The University of Iowa Press, and edited
 by Reginald Shepherd, waits on my bed.  It is on loan to me 
 through Springfield's Library Station.  Shepherd's "Introduction"
 pleased me deeply/ as it espouses positions I have long held/
 and have written of.  My "At First to Poets" is a core example. 
 -
 From late 1959 until mid 1965 I was an undergraduate.
 During one semester I took a History of the English
 Language course.  Two opinions the professor shared
 seemed to me quite startling:  that the ( ' ) apostrophe
 would fall into disuse, and that eventually grunts and
 groans would be the fate of the English language.  If
 I write "its its" instead of "it's its"/ will you not under-
 stand, even so, what I mean?  What about qs or qz
 instead of q's; or 4s or 4z instead of 4's?  At least,
 it is something to ponder.  As to the grunts/groans
 foretelling, "though" has--via journalists mainly--
 become "tho".  More extensively, however, is the
 ongoing shorthand fueled by Internet chat rooms/
 with "laugh out loud" becoming "lol" being the most
 widely known.  One day, I, perturbed by an error I made,
 created "dau" for "dumb as usual".  This language I use
 every day has risen to an emperialistic status because it 
 subsumes new words with relative ease.  English, in some
 ways, especially American English, is like a landfill.  Yes,
 there are those who monitor said landfill, but that duhznt
 change it into a manicured garden.
 -
 Beyond all this are the poetics/linguistics stances of poets/critics
 wherein endless arguments both liven and deaden our insights.
 No matter what, every word denotes and connotes; and the ways
 words are used in relation to other words denote and connote/
 dissimilarly.  "Red White" is not the same as "Red Yellow", nor
 is it the same as "red white".  As an inveterate eclectic, I peruse
 varieties ofencompassing.  In the end, one's stance/stances are
 centered in one's personality; and how one expesses oneself 
 reveals aspects of one's personality.  Each poet, each critic,
 however good/indifferent/bad relates the story of who s/he is.
 Like a school of fish, each school of poetics/linguistics has its
 beauties, its truths.  Thank the Lord (the Universe) each person
 is a royal (a universe), for it is in our differences that the human
 race zestfully continues.  I am a dump of differences, a sky of
 differences.  My preferences today may not be my preferences
 tomorrow, or even a minute from now.  Does my telling you this 
 mean I have a disintegrated/disintegrating personality?  No.    
 I simply am constantly sure: the Muse lives.  Be the best   
 who-you-are you can be.   



Brian A. J. Salchert                  

sw00300rtj-introverted

Regarding This Journal - E11



 Along with my changing this journal's name from Salchert's Weblog
 to Sprintedon Hollow, the tone of this journal will become more
 introverted--its readers, however few, will be eavesdroppers on the
 ongoing conversations in my mind--and it will also be more serious.
 As much as I enjoy non-frivolous lightness, and know that a sense
 of humor helps to preserve spiritual, mental, and physical health,
 I am going to curtail displaying my odd, too-British wit.  That is
 one reason why I have ended my This Day's Poem project.  I will
 continue to write and rewrite poems.  Even my math investigations
 will not be more than an equal with my need to make poems.  I
 am at base an INFP: a thinker, a dreamer, an imaginer.  It seems,
 therefore, peculiar to me copyright law does not protect one's
 ideas or the facts those ideas may uncover.  Sprintedon Hollow is
 the day-to-day record of who I am--at least of that "I am" I care
 to reveal--and whether this "I am" is worth dropping in on does 
 not matter.  What matters is--for all my desire to communicate--
 its value to me.  It is not easy to do what I am doing here, but
 without it I would either wilt or be doing something other which
 would not sustain me (other than possibly materially) as this does. 
 -
 This Internet/WWW noosphere we humans more and more inhabit
 and participate in our evolution toward transcendence through/
 could one day crash, or be taken over by evil robots, or become 
 the sole property of profiteering tyrants.  Envision an/ otherwise
 prayer.
 -
 Among my favorite poems is John Clare's "I Am".  If you have 
 read it/ you know why. 
 -
 -
 3:51 PM                      In E7 my colors are
                                   - - - - - - - - - - - -
                                    b          cccccc
                                    i           770000
                                    n          000088 
                                    o          0000ff
                                    t           000000



Brian A. J. Salchert                      

sw00282o-thunderers

 On Terrorism / Imperialism / Dogmatism



 Any human who believes s/he has the right (even worse, the duty)
 to enslave, imprison, mutilate, ostracize, kill/ any other human who
 does not maintain the same theological and/or philosophical tenets
 s/he does// is psychologically deficient.  Humility, empathy, love,
 wisdom are not empty concepts/virtues.  Dostoyevsky espoused the
 centrality of a sense of humor: that it is what makes one human,
 thereby intimating it is what keeps one human.  Through Norman
 Cousins and others, we know that humor is beneficial to physical
 health.  I say humor is a powerful intangible antioxidant which is 
 also beneficial to spiritual health.  Avoid tantrums, bullying, lording
 over.  If you want another human to be as you are, to accept what
 you believe is right and true, allow that other human to do so 
 naturally.  S/he who fights evil/tryanny with evil/tyranny is a cancer.


 -
   o = opinion
 -


Brian A. J. Salchert                       

sw00257o-humannature

Two Conclusions Regarding Human Nature



 Yesterday I concluded that consciousness resides in the
 physical part of a human's brain and is therefore under
 the sway of gravity; but that the unconscious, or if you
 prefer, the subconscious part of a human's brain is not
 under the sway of gravity because it resides in the
 spiritual realm.
 -
 This morning I concluded that the apparent existence
 of out-of-body experiences, though to my recollection
 I have never had one despite my having been close
 to death around thirty times, is proof of the spiritual
 component of a human's brain, and that it is akin to
 the angelic aspect and/or confirms the connection of
 humans to a Godhead.



 Blessings from Thinking Lizard,
 a wild and wily metal Dragon, but
 a poet who's physically subdued,
 being less than Keats in size.



 [ Note:
    Yes, I understand I have/ not really
    provided a proof here, and so must
    be seen as merely revealing a theory;
    and that some would say I ought to
    have/ written "mind" instead of "brain"
    or at least written something about
    mind.  Yet, hey, such miniscules we
    are for all that we know or will ever
    know in our Earth-alive states.  I
    simply consider my musings here
    worthy of your attention.  You are
    of course welcome to deal with
    them as seems to you worthy of
    being attended to. ]



Brian A. J. Salchert                       

sw00251aih-thoughtnotes

5      As It Happens   Thought Notes           



Each of the entries in this journal is going to be coded
and tagged with a code specific to it.  An example is:
sw-p00251
which is to be the code for this entry/post/page.
It is going to take me a long while to complete my
code-specific updates.  One further note: the "sw"
refers to "Salchert's Weblog" and not to my actual
full name.  I realize that if others decide to adopt
my method/ I may discover I will need to enhance
mine in order to/ keep it unique.  AOL, as you likely
know, does assign a code to each entry.  For this one
that code is: "Entry1220".

*

I am a supporter of free speech, including speech
which George Washington held was uncivilized,
being crude, and so being unnecessary.  I will be
writing more on this at a later time.

*

I do not support--as I have already made clear in
other places--political correctness, and that includes
attitudes towards me.  Each human is here for one
central purpose: to learn the meanings of/ and uses of/
love, both as they relate to himself/herself and every
other self.  The knowledge that I have failed, and will
yet fail, to love as I ought to/ is now causing tears to
well through my eyes.  T. S. Eliot, who has been an
abiding influence on me because of his sonorous and
intelligent/ use of language, wrote in his Burnt Norton:
"The only wisdom we can hope to attain is the wisdom
of humility."  (Sorry, but I do not remember where the
line break is, and may have made a word error.  I will
look into it, and update the above/ as I need to.)
Eliot corrections:
The quote is from near the end of Part II of East Coker
and it is:
               The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
               Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless. 



Brian A. J. Salchert                      

sw00167o-national.dl.id

National DL ID


For many years I have favored a National DL, 
but when an AOL item regarding what is now
in process revealed some details and asked 
readers to vote yes/no/not sure, I decided to
vote NO, even though I do not participate in
such surveys--I have an aversion to surveys--
regularly.  What I would like to see is a law
which would create a basic commonality on
certain issues so that moving from one state to
another would be less of a hassle than it now is
for someone who wishes to continue to drive.




Brian A. J. Salchert