Women are mostly

more mature than men
(it seems to me)

but they often let little petulant boys
have their way
so they remain little boys,
that is to say:
little gangsters.

And so we have hideous hierarchies
of childishness,
nation by nation:
patriarchies that petulantly
pillage the world
in childish frustration.

Gloss on a poem by R.L. Stevenson

Love - what is love ? A stupid, aching heart;
rage, tears, more rage, regret and long despair.
Life - what is life ? Expulsion from the lair
into a world that is a world apart.

Testosterone

has wrecked a million
times more lives than heroin.

It is kinder

to be a pædophile
than to be a
meat-eater...

...kinder still

not to have children.

Excess

(the opposite of access)
is also contagious.
We are the only excessive
species, now become
fanatically ignorant.

The keenest Christians have mostly been murderous

- they have made it the only murderous religion, obsessed with torture, blood and murder - on the one hand - and vapid, sickly redemption on the other.
(Of course I know of the tiny sects of Islam and 'Hinduism' - the Hashishin and Thuggs - whose practices were not remotely on the same scale.)

Money :

at best, it's
vulgar -

at worst, it's
mundicidal.

It's often at its worst.

The greatest evil

is the most basic
desire.

One-third of the people who live

condemn the other two-thirds
to death
simply for being
too many
too smelly -
indeed,
simply for being.

A definition of Sentimentality :

loving your progeny
above all others.

A good definition of bad taste :

Christmas.

A Declaration of Intent

I will respect the stone
even if blood
comes out of it
whether love
or nothing comes
out of it
for my respect is moss.

40% of all human beings

(several billion)
have nowhere to shit
but a bush or a ditch
in the dangerous dark.

For them, only numbers
have changed since the Ark.

UNDERSTANDING FRENCH CUISINE

French "haute cuisine" originates in aristocratic circles in the 18th century, some time after the Russian novelty of serving meals in courses (rather than as a kind of buffet or mezze) was introduced to France. It catered to a class which ate white bread and sugar - and had no teeth except those bought from peasants who ate hard brown bread and a great deal of (mainly) wild fruit. This class liked bland and mushy food raised in the Paris area (Ile-de-France and Upper Normandy). The diet thus leaned heavily on butter, cheese (especially local Camembert and Brie) and cream. Butter, cream and white flour were used to make sauces which made chopped-up meats swallowable by the toothless.

After the Revolution of 1789 the rising bourgeoisie took over aristocratic tastes (and aristocratic cooks) with a vengeance. They started eating song-birds, foie gras and other delicacies of the degenerate and amoral. Governmental centralisation by Napoleon ensured that Paris was the fount of all knowledge and fashion. But it took another 100 years for Parisian bourgeois cuisine to penetrate the whole country. Today there is very little indigenous, local cooking. Those recipes which are claimed as regional are Parisian versions or perversions of ancient dishes. Right up to the First World War most people in France ate very little meat. They lived from hard bread (sometimes baked only once a year) and bad wine (since water was often dangerous to drink), wild fruits and herbs, and what they could grow in their 'potagers'. No French people, not even rich Parisians, ever abandoned the traditional eating of bread, hence the strange habit of eating quantities of bread together with quantities of other food. Since bread is often filling, the Parisian baguette came about: a kind of bread with very little bulk, taste or nutritional value.

All this said, it should be noted that the most common dish eaten in restaurants in the 20th century was (English/American-style) Steak & (Belgian) Frites or 'French Fries'!

Bernard Madoff

How the sophisticates laughed
at the naive Albanians
who lost all their savings
to Pyramid Scams
not long after capitalism
and chaos
took over their country.

Perhaps Albanians
are laughing now
at Banco de Santander
amongst many others.

O to have the grace to live

without intentionality,
without intent.

for Louise Erdrich

What is sacred
is secret -
which is why holy books
are no more
and no less
than literature.

Children don't know they are

plans.
Adults don't know they are
ruins.

The object of Democracy

is to ensure that everyone
practises
'decently'
the same hypocrisy.

Before we're old

we little understand
the spinning heartache of the world.

The greatest evil

is the celebration of itself.

The contemplative life has been abolished.

In my life-work
of self-improvement
I had no time
for mere employment.

Love is the other side

of a coin.

The world is ruled

by strengthless dead
in dodgem cars.

The foolish and the spiritless

celebrate the rising
but not the setting
sun.

Those who know

how a political system works
are usually the most corrupt.

If you believe in property

there is nothing but property.

The poor in spirit

are very rich also
in meretricious promises.

Be good; do good.

One does not imply the other.