My phone winks at me

I stare at that phone a dozen times a day, half-expecting it to stare right back. Maybe even wink and nod. But it is still, lifeless for the majority of it's existence- perhaps even siphoning my life away everytime I search and fixate on it's digital display.

I know my phone is an inanimate product of 1's and 0's, but given the amount of attention we focus on various other digital displays, you would think they would soon begin to talk; or at least acknowledge our existence the way we do theirs.

But electronics don't have emotions. They are silicone-based aliens, sucking our lives into themselves- offering no explanation for their silence, while we declare like a crazed lover that we cannot live without them!

Members of Congress get $4,000 Pay Raise

AP
updated 2:44 p.m. MT, Wed., Jan. 9, 2008

WASHINGTON -
Fortunately for members of Congress, their pay isn't tied to their approval ratings.
Lawmakers in 2008 will receive salaries of $169,300, a boost of $4,100 over the pay they have lived with since January 2006.
That 2.5 percent increase is mirrored by similar raises for associate justices of the Supreme Court, who will see their pay go from $203,000 to $208,100, and Chief Justice John Roberts, whose pay will rise to $217,400 from $212,100.

Veterans recieving disability compensation, like me, recieved a 2.3% cost of living adjustment for 2008. That is a $26 increase for me, compared to your $4,100 raise. Thanks congress!

Members of Congress get $4,000 Pay Raise

Veteran's Compensation Rate Tables

An undoing

Isn't this today like
any other?
Predictably impaired with
restless hands
idled by
restless thoughts
as you shoot in and out
out and in
like once before
and once again
we make amends
and allege that
we are the best of friends,
(so long as
we never talk again)

Mike Brande 1/8/08

The War in Iraq

These pictures speak volumes. Warning: Graphic

The Corporation

ABC GOP Debate Shorthand Analysis

Mayor Guliani - Something about you and your lisfp makes me wanna punch you in the teeth.

Sen. Thompson - You're a fucking actor. Go away.

Sen. McCain - Seniality is setting in. You've lost touch.

Congressman Paul - You didn't impress me so much tonight, but you were the only candidate who got applause.

Governor Huckabee - You are starting to appeal to me more, but I think it's because you are adopting Ron Paul's original positions.


Governor Romney - *Deeeeep sigh* Just watch this video.

Nietzsche on Hardship

They'll Be Watching You

"Progress and reaction have both turned out to be swindles. Seemingly, there is nothing left but quietism robbing reality of its terrors by simply submitting to it."
-George Orwell

FBI prepares vast database of biometrics

FBI prepares vast database of biometrics
$1 billion project to include images of irises and faces

CLARKSBURG, W. Va. - The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.

The story continues in the link.

FBI prepares vast database of biometrics

From the Declaration of Independence -

"...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 new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

..."when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Look under Indictment and see how many usurpations have been seized by the government over our right to privacy and freedom.

Great Movie - Great Song

"A Lack Of Color"

And when i see you
I really see you upside down
But my brain knows better
It picks you up and turns you around
Turns you around, turns you around

If you feel discouraged
That there's a lack of color here
Please don't worry lover
It's really bursting at the seams
For absorbing everything
The spectrum's a to z

This is fact not fiction
For the first time in years
all the girls in every girlie magazine
Can't make me feel any less alone
I'm reaching for the phone

To call at 7:03 and on your machine I slur a plea for you to come home
But i know it's too late
I should have given you a reason to stay
Given you a reason to stay

This is fact not fiction
For the first time in years

-Death Cab For Cutie

A Picture of Myself

Hello world. I thought it would be nice to see the face behind the writing. I must tell you though; I am Piscean and so this face is everchanging. Pictures from 2 years ago look almost nothing like me now. Here, I'll prove it to you

See. This is also me, circa 2005. Want to see something else?

I'm the marine in back with "me" above his head. This is circa 2003.

Like I said - everchanging, evolving, growing.

About Me

I guess you could say I'm an avid collector of subjective experiences. I like to weigh them against each other, sort them out by category, sometimes blend them all together, add, subtract, multiply, and divide your input against mine to shape a consensus reality with those I hold close to my heart - and in simpler terms, to create the story in which we all have active or passive roles, and the occassional cameo appearance.

I was born into dogma, as were we all, perhaps because it was necessary for me to understand the difference between personal truth and myth, though both are equally subjective. I suppose I had to learn the box exists to get outside of it.

I've been told that I have a way with words, as I should, because they were my first friends to shape my impressions of the world into something symbolic and intangible. Like our own minds, they are powerful and it is my opinion that it is of dire need for every single person to master their own words. Their reckless use inspires destruction, just as their masterful use inspires creation.

I've never quite fit well inside any institution, social or public, I suppose because I regarded external, unadapted, and idealogical conformity as a subtle, yet dangerous entity of slavery. I believe it is ok for a time to adopt others ideals and stories while we are learning about ourselves, but that we must eventually break free of those adopted models to create our own. To me, this is adaption. This is evolution. This is the ultimate source of creation and the path of personal freedom.

Emote

The holidays
are hollow days-
getting more difficult
to swallow days
Goodbye warmth
and goodbye light,
I'm retreating to
my cave tonight
to wait you out
and wait
and wait

12.21.07

Sometimes

A tall, sad man that
eats alone,
thinks alone,
sleeps alone.
While the rest of the world buzzes away,
he wonders
can anybody hear me?
He writes his dreams
into a box
for the world to see,
to create a realm
of make-belief.
He takes his pill
and lies down to dream,
that tomorrow won't bring
the very same thing.

My Better Side

I wished all this writing would catch
your eye.
I want to begin a story right now and you
can be my partner in crime.
I say we fight this world, take what's ours,
and leave the rest behind.
This is my story.
This is your story.
This becomes our story
and anything we dream is ours.
I can see it in your eyes,
and in my own,
like a wild fire lighting the way
through darkened skies.
Now is the time to take what's ours.
Now is the time,
my better side

It's not about Time

Is time to remember

or forget

all of the memories

we create?

Is it our deception

to forget

the deepest connections

we have made?

Do they know that time is

ever fleeting-

So we must cherish love

forever.

Time is separation.

Time is not.

Time is made up, but our

love is not.

Mike Brande

12/14/07

23 Tools To Brainwash and Influence People through Media

The opinions and behaviors of people and societies are easily swayed. Every decade, every year, every week, those who control mass media change the climates of human thought. New pop stars, fashions, and fads are paraded center stage and then exit stage left followed by floods of expendable cash, leaving the path of sordid garbage known as "popular culture" in its wake.

Now the power to rule the world and wag the cultural dog is at your fingertips. What follows are simple instructions, a manual, a playbook of sorts, some simple behavioral tools to influence and take advantage of the nervous systems of all your peers.

23 Tools:

http://www.gatecreepers.com/entries/23-tools-to-brainwash-and-influence-people-throu/

Dear Television

Sometimes I think that this television remote is my best friend because I can hear you spouting across the way, a one-directional conversation discussing what kind of upgrades I need and which hotel I should stay at because it's closest to the beach in some remote destination city, forced to smile at us americans, because our dollars feed them.

What a clever disguise you wear, commercial after commercial of product and service after product and service under the umbrella name of quality programming.

Forget you travel channel. I'm not thoroughly interested in how many different types of massages I can get for my money at 'generic name' day spa located closest to said hotel, closest to the beach in some remote destination city.

Dear Television,

Did you ever think you might use your mass appeal, and your infiltration of our cultural psyche for a greater purpose than the bombardment of ad after ad from corporations with legal rights, but no soul, and your "reality" shows that have dumbed down and stolen precious time from the general populace who have all nearly accepted the surrender of their actual lives for your realist escapism programming?

Do you feel any responsibility for generations of children you've raised to see themselves as a product, and your ads for these products, as the accessories they need to define themselves- to feel complete?

When you look into our eyes and spill your pitch, do you see our souls or do you see dollar signs? Do your masters follow their hearts or do they follow their bottom line?

Me and my best friend have decided that it is time to end this this one-sided conversation because you have no soul, and I have already entertained the devil enough for one lifetime.

Michael Brande

You lost your Scarf

I love your old scarf
lying on the ground
somehow,
it followed me
through 6 jobs
and 4 different houses
like a lost memory should
I'd like to think
you'd packed that scarf
away for me
you wore,
smoking cigarettes
on your porch in the cold
escaping walls and tv's
to talk about god
or the world

Mike Brande
8.23.07

Dear Mr. President

Dr. Mr President,I am an ex-marine who served a tour in Iraq in February of 2004 with Alpha 1/11 1st Marine Division. I wanted to ask you directly and I hope this e-mail is not intercepted by one of your aides, but that you can answer me directly.

Mr. President, with your approval ratings falling daily, why do you still support this war on a country that has absolutely no ties to Iraq or Saddam Hussein? Why do you continually risk my own life, and the lives of my fellow marines that has to date, killed more civilians than terrorists?

Mr. President, this is an issue that has run very deep into my blood because of the events I witnessed and in some occassions, I was a part of. I joined the United States Marine Corps because you had me convinced that at 18 years old, I was doing the right thing serving my country in the war on terrorism. What I witnessed in Iraq was not a battle against Al Queda, but against the citizens of Iraq.

Why do you continually ignore the American public's opinion of this war? Why do you consistently re-affirm your position on the war when the American public no longer wants us invading the republic of Iraq? Why are you no longer concerned with apprehending Osama Bin Laden, when he has claimed responsibility for the September 11th attacks against our nation?

I am in awe that you can hold your position on Iraq when I am now 70% disabled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the events I witnessed in Iraq. I am also in awe that you would decided to cut funding from the department of veterans affairs, that is now the only organization that intercepts me when I try to end my own life because the nightmares and the flashbacks I have are so great, that I can no longer cope with them on my own.

Please Mr. President, I beg of you with all my heart to reconsider your positions and stop risking the lives of the brave Marines I had the privilege of serving with for an unjust war that was based on incorrect intelligence.

Sincerely,

PFC Michael C. Brande
United States Marine Corps.