Identified as a trouble maker by the authorities since childhood, and resolved to live up to the description, Charles Carreon soon discovered that mischief is most effectively fomented through speech. Having mastered the art of flinging verbal pipe-bombs and molotov cocktails at an early age, he refined his skills by writing legal briefs and journalistic exposes, while developing a poetic style that meandered from the lyrical to the political. Journey with him into the dark caves of the human experience, illuminated by the torch of an outraged sense of injustice.
Everybody Wants To Be Like Paris Hilton, by Charles Carreon
Who's useless? And clueless? An accidental nudist With a smile perfect for TV?
Who's famous? Who's gorgeous? An ego that's enormous Whose shoes are trimmed with purple mink?
Everybody wants to look like Paris Hilton So it could be anybody, Just like you are nobody, 'Cause today is just another day, and Hey! They're towing your car away Yeah, they're towing your car away.
On TV, we see them, Dressed up in crazy clothing Then we all wanna do the same
We're boring, we're stupid, And no one wants to see us-- I hate my stupid name
If only we could all be like Paris Hilton, Free to charge it and take it away If only I could be like Paris Hilton I'd fly to Hollywood and there I'd permanently stay. But everybody wants to be like Paris Hilton Where it's always recess and time to play Because when your name is Paris Hilton Every day is a beautiful day.
Who's useless? And clueless? An accidental nudist With a smile perfect for TV?
You don’t believe in evolution You think it messes with your soul You want a spiritual solution That gives the President control And as for stuff like Revolution Better keep that shit down in the hole
Yeah, old Jehovah drives a Caddy He keeps the Devil in the trunk They drive all over hell and Vegas Playing shows and getting drunk They do some massive entertaining No time for scientific junk.
The Holy Spirit’s like Big Pharma Creating custom DNA So an immaculate conception Was nothing more than child’s play As for the vaunted resurrection That was a clone we packed away
Now science fiction makes it easy Mix truth and fantasy and luck Combining television shaker With ice and soda shake it up. Serve to an ignorant population They’ll drink it down and then shut up.
You don’t believe in evolution You think it messes with your soul You want a spiritual solution That gives the President control And as for stuff like Revolution Better keep that shit down in the hole
The sun comes up on another day People in a land they call holy Droppin' bombs and burnin' families Looks like it's just another stage In our planetary nightmare
It's the human condition It's the human condition Tooth for tooth Eye for eye That's why the whole world Has gone blind We waste the fruit And eat the rind Makin' hell on earth In search of Paradise It's the human condition It's the human condition
Long ago in a desert land A tribe of herders got a bit too wise They said, we’ll claim we are a special people And all the men will get circumcised
We’ll make a deal with God Almighty Claim he gave us lands of milk and honey, We’ll write a book of fantasy And claim impressive ancestry.
And each successive generation Bought a slice of their deception Claiming God was on their side.
From Constantine to Martin Luther Witchhunts to the Inquisition Good had nowhere left to hide.
It's the human condition It's the human condition Tooth for tooth Eye for eye That's why the whole world Has gone blind We waste the fruit And eat the rind Makin' hell on earth In search of Paradise 'Cause it's the human condition It's the human condition
Long ago, but they wrote it down He was born in a little town Visited by three wise men I wonder if they knew how it would end.
The chosen people said he wasn’t theirs The Roman ruler washed his hands of it They hung him up where people could see What happens to a revolutionary.
Skip ahead a thousand years His sacrifice provided cause, For murder, theft and roguery.
Religious teachers spread confusion Creating madness and delusion For they know not of the thing they speak
They promise us eternal life Deliver us to endless strife And advocate a strong defence.
The years advance But we regress Humanity cannot progress Until we get up off our knees.
It's the human condition It's the human condition Tooth for tooth Eye for eye That's why the whole world Has gone blind We waste the fruit And eat the rind Makin' hell on earth In search of Paradise 'Cause it's the human condition It's the human condition
So stop your worshiping of other gods And bow your heads to each other Take the gold from the priestly class Give it to our children and mothers
Stop contributing to our destruction Let’s save the world for our children Say no to the priest’s seduction And put the Pope on welfare
Let’s try to build a human future Get rid of the mental cancer -- Life could have a fighting chance
A warning at the vital hour Could save us from the worst disaster Change the course of history
Let’s change the human condition Let’s change the human condition No more tooth for tooth No more eye for eye No more killing In the land of the blind We’ll eat the fruit and Compost the rind Make Heaven on earth To hell with Paradise Let’s change the human condition Let’s change the human condition Let’s change the human condition Now!
> WORK VERY BUSY > Lama in town > Weather cold & windy > Coffee > Grass > Cognac > Christmas food > War-weariness re work > Stunted creativity re lawpoets > Hardcore rock and roll > Eating pastas and pastries > Wall outside my office window > Pizza > Cops <off-duty> > Wall Street Journal > Debt > Revising one document until it's a psychic shred > Dreaming of lying at the bottom of a pool > Grasping at something uncertain > Beautiful sky and light <can't grasp sky or light or beautifulness ... anxiety> > Speed ... from one event to another > Suffering of others ... my business, not my business > Good boy Bad boy (repeat) > Smart-aleck LA Weekly (Weakly?) > Topic of discussion ... discourse on relative concepts ... clever talkers shut up! > Muscular efforts to "make it" > It only works for a while > All breaks down eventually (then you build it up again) > Nihilism (I made my mind up about nihilism the other day but now I can't remember what I decided) > Reinvent the wheel (Why not? Get back to basics.) > Clever ... doesn't matter if I'm clever, I don't need to hustle girls anymore; nobody listens or cares (or if they do, what does it matter?) > The boring that folks do stays after they leave; the cleverness is oft forgotten with the slamming of their departure > Impute, impute, impute meaning to things ... oh yes ... this makes a Difference ... a big, big Difference. > What makes a difference? Lying down in a warm bed Having peaceful vibes in your heart Treating other people decently Being able to bear sorrow Without inflicting it on others.
In an hour of darkness In an hour of grief When we look to the news And find no relief
A clown in the White House Rules a vampire ball Where the blood flows freely Right through the halls
A front man is needed For the main freak show So out to the barracks They presently go
They find a pliable man With shoulders like stone Who says what he means And does what he’s told
And he’s got FOUR STARS That General Petraeus He’s got FOUR STARS That’s four more than you He’s got FOUR STARS That’s enough to betray us He’s got FOUR STARS So what you gonna do?
When the refugees are in millions And the prison’s filled with innocents When car bombs detonate routinely Still criticism’s unseemly
When a man with a multi-colored map Sits down and tells you where it’s at And answers every question In just the perfect way You gotta say
That’s why he’s got FOUR STARS Good ole General Petraeus He’s got FOUR STARS What’s that mean to you? He’s got FOUR STARS That’s enough to betray us He’s got FOUR STARS Just enough to pull us through
When history judges men It does so with a mighty pen A name may be forgotten Or forever engraved in stone
For villainy, for virtue For loyalty or treason, For General Petraeus They won’t have to find a reason
They’ll say he had FOUR STARS That he used to betray us FOUR STARS And a shell game on the news FOUR STARS Yeah that General Petraeus He has FOUR STARS That’s four more than you _______________ New York Times, September 10, 2007
Cooking the Books for the White House
General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before the election, he said there was "tangible progress" in Iraq and that "Iraqi leaders are stepping forward." And last week Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops in Iraq, said, "We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress."
Every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge strategy has failed. Yet the General claims a reduction in violence. That's because, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon has adopted a bizarre formula for keeping tabls on violence. For example, deaths by car bombs don't count. The Washington Post reported that assassinations only count if you're shot in the back of the head -- not the front. According to the Associated Press, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than in any other summer we've been there. We'll hear of neighborhoods where violence has decreased. But we won't hear that those neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed.
Most importantly, General Petraeus will not admit what everyone knows: Iraq is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war. We may hear of a plan to withdraw a few thousand American troops. But we won't hear what Americans are desperate to hear, a timetable for withdrawing all our troops. General Petraeus has actually said American troops will need to stay in Iraq for as long as ten years.
Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.
MoveOn.org. POLITICAL ACTION
Paid for by Moveon.org Political Action, polical.moveon.org, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
My ass is wrapped in plastic ... This nipple's plastic, too, And all the food they feed me is mushy, pasty goo. My parents don't seem to talk a lot, They sit and watch a glowing box; I'm stuck inside this plastic cage, The only one who acts his age. I don't know why it is so stupid here; There's dullness everywhere -- It seeps inside me day by day And though I scream won't go away. I haven't really learned to form these questions in my head, But like something out of focus, Coming nearer every day, I get this nasty feeling That things won't go my way.
Now years have passed and I have learned to speak and wipe my butt; So now it's time to go to school -- An ugly place -- so what? Mom works and works and now she's getting wrinkles in her face -- Dad seems so tired when he comes home -- He sits in just one place. And now it's growing louder All this racket in my skull -- Please get in line, don't touch those things, Please try to think; it's time to sing. I'm a schoolboy, and I'm really thinking 'bout Nancy's underwear; I'm a schoolboy, but they treat me like a convict everywhere.
Now nailed inside this TV coffin, I'd like to die; I'm seventeen. She turned me down one too often, And I've been smoking too much weed. The world outside my window's glum, I won't get a job because I'm too dumb The shoes aren't hip, My face has zits And my whole life is in the pits. I'm a teenage nervous breakdown, My karma is givin' me the shakedown; If I had two horns I couldn't be weirder; I hate that face in the mirror -- Don't know how I got hooked up with it Between me and him, we're a losing pair -- Even schoolchildren stop and stare And say "Freak, he's a weirdo;" They aren't afraid of me -- Please let me out oh god if you are there; Since I was a child I've looked for you everywhere -- The nuns were fronts for a hollow scam, And the Pope doesn't yell about Vietnam; The whole damn earth just holds me down And businessmen scare me with their frowns. I'm a freak -- a weirdo -- A loser at the starting gate -- Freak -- a weirdo -- Don't worry 'bout me, I'm always late, Don't worry 'bout me, I can't get a date; Don't worry 'bout me, Don't worry, Don't worry 'bout me.
I dreamt of one of my ancestors, an Ainsa from the colonial era, that he was writing this --
"I have been pictured in reports wearing arms and carrying a musket, but I must clarify that I was never one of those valientes who fought for the King with weapons, and should not be so honored. All of my service has been with my quill pen, keeping records of the stocks of material and other properties of the King, which I did to the best of my ability.
And as for the meteorites that have been in our keeping, though it is said they fell from the stars, we do not know this to be their origin, for we did not see them fall, and if they did, we cannot explain how they came to be in the sky, so it is only conjecture from their molten appearance. As for those who say they fell from the buckets of angels sent to stoke the fire of the stars, we cannot know, but the notion seems far-fetched."
From the Lair of the Defense Command Comes the order Destroy all men Destroy all creatures That walk on two Legs are verboten And tits are, too.
How it began we can't recall First we drove them Now they drive us all We're like cattle And they're the prod Lay down and worship The mechanical god
Do you remember when we used to play In the land called the USA? Little children and mothers too On the swings in the skies of blue Then there came that Terrible day When they burned the skies away
Now it's black from border to border You know the law It says we torture Stay inside Till the curfew's over We're rounding up some terrorists So where's your son? He's on the list
Wake up Wake up The bad dream's over Wake up, wake up, We crossed the border Wake up, wake up, We killed the monster Wake up little child And hug your father
Oh no you don't You little shit You thought you'd get Away with it We caught you now The fun is over Your little friends Your little games Your big ideas They're to blame.
In the movie The hero finds the great device Plants it behind the monster's eyes Pulls the pin And pays the price Then it's off to paradise
So this is it The brand new order No one is Free Where are your papers? This isn't you In this picture These prints are fake she's not your sister You're just another war resister
You should have stood When you had the chance Now you're a victim of circumstance They give the orders And you kneel down Last thing you feel Is the stony ground Just wish you could have said
Fuck you And your fucking order Your fucking guns And fucking borders Fuck you and your dollar bill Fuck you and your torture skills You'll have to kill me to shut me up Does anybody Wanna back me up?
A gargoyle face Greeted me This Morning. I patted its leering chops, and it purred. Heavy paws on my chest eased back and the stone colored face Turned feline gold. The growl, the warm breath on my nostrils Is the rising sun.