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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Poetry

One of the oddities of being a samizdatista is that comments are often attached to things you wrote weeks or even months ago, in a way that no one else is ever likely to see. Usually such comments are of no great note, but two yesterday, attached to a posting on a completely different subject, definitely got my attention. First, there was this, from Victoria Miller:

DEMOCRATIZING BEGAN IN IRAQ

coalition troops set heavy weapons
thousands of marine soldiers,
airplanes, tanks, uniformed lapdogs and bulldogs
open and secret machines of modernized war industry
general Shurk in Pentagon says;
we bring democracy.
meanwhile they systematically bombed
showed fake pictures, Ghurka-media served
massacred civil people of Basra, Baghdad, Mosul
like Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin
on the blood of children, they declared victory
at least, the thieves celebreting everywhere
world witnessed similarly scenes under WW II,
americans saving the plunderers
the Jews, steal wealth of whole Continent
and escaped to Jew York, Sweden, London, Australia
like that, looting continues all over Iraq
general Shurk in Pentagon says;
democratizing continues

And then there was this, from Martin Brandberger:

“I AM AN AMERICAN NOW!”

“when the criminals released from prisons of Iraq
most bloody pedophile ones didn’t delay
to embrace these uniformed human butchers
Evangelian Jewish coalitioned bastards, followers
same day he killed two children more
“I am cleansing Saddam’s guards”. explained
when a journalist witnessed him on next deal
manouvred well, joined plunderer masses of thieves
the journalists almost took his group’s photo
because he was most active provocator instrument
on all the cold-bloody scenes, what Big Brother needs
to manipulate the opinion centers of the communities
most useful traitor like many other willing whores, everywhere
I saw him when he climbed on Saddan Hussein’s statue
like a monkey danced on the ruined wealth of the museums
“democracy saver army” saved such nonsense actors during looting
weared American flag
on an american tank cried
showed his knife and a handfull bloody dollars
yelled like an true Texas jackal:
“I am an American now
I love you Bush double U Sharon!..
from and now I am an AmeeeeriiiiiCoww!..”

These two poets were, for some reason, only following in the footsteps of (I kid you not) “Aisha Maria Oilworkperson”, who for equally opaque reasons appended to the same posting, not long after I wrote it, a screed that was somewhat less nasty but in a similar vein. And she has “intifada” in her email address. And you’ll see that another blogroach (who wrote at truly psychotic length, as I recall) had to be removed by Perry.

Several thoughts occur to me concerning these various exhibits.

I’m guessing that Mr Brandberger’s first language is not English and that he is European. If so, Mr Brandberger, in particular, is the best argument I know for not bothering with racial profiling, because this is suicide bomber talk. Guess/prediction: the next suicide bomber will be a white European, probably from Germany or Scandinavia. If this poem is any sort of clue concerning how a certain sort of person in Europe is thinking, and I’m guessing it is, then we don’t only need to be concerned about Muslim nutters or Muslim convert nutters with white skins but middle eastern names. Suicide bombing may be about to become an equal opportunities career. (In fact I rather think it may already have done so. I vaguely remember David Carr saying something here along these lines. Did not some Scandinavian strap a bomb to himself and blow up a shopping centre? Perhaps he, or someone, can jog my memory and supply a link back.)

But second, if that turns out to be right, the name of the suicide bomber is unlikely to be Martin Brandberger, because Mr Brandberger has already very publicly identified himself as a rather threatening sort of person who ought to be watched by those whose job it is to watch such people.

What we have here is an argument, paradoxically, for freedom of expression. I think it is good that people like Mr Brandberger are allowed to warn the world concerning the sort of persons they are and the sort of thoughts they are having. Mr Brandberger should not be locked up for his poetry, horrible though it is both poetically and morally. But I think that I am in favour of someone tapping his telephone from time to time, preferably in a rather obvious way involving lots of clicks and buzzes that makes it clear to him that “AmeriCow” persons are observing his every move and scrutinising and pondering his every thought.

Imagine how the world would be if such people were not allowed to write such things and fling them about on the Internet, and thereby identify themselves as the nasty and perhaps dangerous nutters that they are.

As for “Victoria Miller”, she doesn’t sound like a European, does she? But if you follow the link from her comment, you get to a Swedish website of what looks to be some variety of socialist persuasion. No doubt someone can translate and explicate.

It all seems to me to be further proof of the depths to which a certain sort of European anti-Americanism and anti-Anglo-Saxonism has now sunk.

This is the stuff that some of the most prominent leaders of continental Europe have spent the last few months, with their every public pronouncement, encouraging.

24 comments to Poetry

  • Whackos/Sickos come in all flavors and sizes!

  • mad dog barker

    We know where these people live. When the sad societies thay live in are liberated they will be called to account for their comments. They can run bu they can’t hide from the all seeing eye.

    So keep courage friends, courage untill we are victorious!

  • Byron

    Victoria sounds like a cross between Eminem and Maya Angelou. How degrading that must be to Eminem.

  • Johan

    I thought I could enlighten you Brian about

    1) Yes, the website is a socialist website – in Swedish. And I don’t think you need a translation of what the website talks about. The usual “It’s all about the oil in Iraq” and other socialist “concerns.” They have a link to a small English version of the site, but don’t waste your time.

    2) Yes, you’re correct about the guy strapping bomb on himself and blowing up parts of a shopping center. In Sweden. He killed himself (of course) and I don’t recall any deaths but many children were injured since this was done close to a childrens store. Palestinian suicide bombers are not the only one killing innocent children.

    I find it very hard to express in words the disgust I feel over the above and the “poems” (poems? What a joke). My day is ruined. I feel like throwing up. Sweden might be the next stop for US on the way home. Here the tyranny is massive indoctrination in socialism/communism for the past 60 years by the same (socialist) party ruling, mental torture and the one of the highest taxes in the world.

    I can’t stay here in Sweden much longer…God help me…

  • paul

    The statements which I’ve seen from suicide bombers are actually much more sensible and coherent than the above quoted “poetry”.

    Also that Swedish socialist website does have an English language section. It’s to the left, second button from the bottom.

  • Chris Goodman

    Johan stay strong. At least you have Samizdata 🙂

  • Brian,

    Yes I did post on this incident in October of last year and it actually occured in Finland when some dorky social misfit exploded himself in a shopping mall killing several people.

    Finnish suicide bomber

  • Carl

    There was a suicide bomber attack last year in a shopping mall in Helsinki, Finland:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2322275.stm
    Is this the one you were thinking of?

  • Is that what passes off as poetry these days? Hell, if I had known that I would have become a professional poet a long time ago and made big bucks churning out piles of utter crap passing it off as art. Would it be a problem that my poems typically start with “There once was a girl from Nantucket…” ?

  • brian

    Johan – my ancestors decided they couldn’t live in Sweden anymore, in about 1890! They did alright here in the US. Maybe you’d dig somewhere in the Anglosphere?

    Somebody said (can’t remember who) that perhaps the most dangerous weapon the Anglosphere has is to threaten the world (Europe in particular) with a massive brain-drain campaign. Right now we let people in from Europe, but there’s not like a massive campaign to encourage it. I wonder what would happen if there were?

    (Not that we don’t have our own problems *cough* Ashcroft *cough* . . .)

  • mad dog barker

    Thank the almighty for libertarian reason and the hope it brings to the civilized world…

    ..if it were not for samizdata many of our lives would have no meaning. I pray that one day everyone thinks like us and we are all united in common ideals and purpose.

    In an individual way, of course!

  • It just sickens me to see the extent to which these groups are so viciously anti-semitic. Where does this come from?

  • Snide

    These people are a joke without a punch line…and my cat could write better ‘poetry’ than them.

    Hands mad dog barker some Prozac

    Take two pills and call me in the morning… or better yet, take the whole pack and don’t.

  • Johan — see the American embassy about a visa. We’ll evacuate the sane ones from Europe before it’s too late.
    As for these alleged poets, if it were up to me, anyone caught practicing vers libre or any other French perversion without a poetic license would be forced to lodge with a bagpiper for a room-mate. The requirements for a poetic license would include a demonstration of mastery of the sonnet, the villanelle (that will stop most of them), and the only native English verse form, the limerick. Points deducted for clean language in the limerick.

  • Should that not be ‘mad dog barking’.

    These are two very good reasons why state subsidy to poets should cease. Current subsidised works tend to be obscure and without merit except amongst a small group of academic apparatchiks – a nomenklatura of culture.

    I know these are not examples of subsidised poetry but they do reflect the general state of the medium and the cultural influence of state sponsored poetry.

  • CBK

    Okay. I’m game. If they can do it, I can too…particularly since they kept the standards so low.

    Let the poetry begin…

    The hypocrisy of crocodile tears
    for those lost in American pursuits
    How convenient to cry for others
    When the blame can be twisted to the Jews
    to America to anyone as long as it is anyone who is either America or the Jews
    How Europeon to wear chic blinders to
    Palestinian autrocities, Francofascism, pseudo-pacifism…
    rose colored shades worn backwards to obscure the obvious.
    They goosestep past reason, past compassion, past logic, past morals, past decency, the uphill march to find a fantasy of relevance, of eurelevance.
    How comfortable to walk the well known path. So much more convenient than forging new directions
    This disgusting collective march to blame the Jews.

    CBK

  • Amy from Texas

    “Guess/prediction: the next suicide bomber will be a white European, probably from Germany or Scandinavia.”

    Or Berkeley.

    And for the record, jackals are not found in Texas!

  • The soldier who placed the U.S. flag on the Saddam statue’s face is Cpl. Edward Chin. His ethnic Chinese family moved from Burma to Brooklyn just before or just after he was born. Chin got the flag from Lt. Tim McLaughlin, a New Hampshire native, who got it at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. McLaughlin was out of the building when it was hit but got back in time to help rescue his co-workers. By the way McLaughlin earned a college degree in Russian and poetry.

  • Byron

    In response to the idiotarian poetry Brian discovered, Eminem has become fed up and has joined the Libertarian cause. Check out the new lyrics to one of his recent hits, Business:


    Verse#1:
    Your bout to witness acumen in its
    Most purest, most rawest form flow, almost flawless
    Most hardest, most honest, remonstration
    Chip off the old block but ol Locke is back!
    Looks like John Galt, brought his von Mises
    Oh god, Fonda’s goin to pieces
    With Hayak’s own plane, his own pilot
    Set to blow college dorm room doors off the hinges
    Principles, logic… tenets truths axioms
    *VRRM VRRM* Yeah, here it comes
    My inches away from you, here fear none
    Statism is in a state of 911, so

    Chorus:
    Let’s get down to business
    I don’t got no time to play around with socialists
    Must be a protest in town that shut the shit down
    Oh these clowns, and I gotta witness

    Verse #2:
    Gotta move fast, gotta perform miracles
    Gee Sarandon, only abject syllables
    Look at all the bullshit that goes on in Gotham
    When I’m gone time to get rid of these bad criminals
    So, skip to your lou, while I do what I do best
    You ain’t even impressed no more, your used to it
    Spoke too strong, not even close to wrong
    People stepping over people just to rush to the net
    Just to get to see my Sam-i who speaks so freely
    Ease over Jacque’s bleats, and be so breezy
    Jesus, how can shit be so easy?
    How can one Alice be so Bachini?
    Turn off de Villipin, TV’s don’t see me
    Believe me, BBC and Al Jazeera
    Your gonna beseech that we leave, dawg fo sheezy
    Can’t leave yall alone the free world needs me
    Till we grow beards, get weird and disappear into the mountains
    Nothing but clowns down here
    But we, ain’t fucking around round here
    Yo Perry!

    Perry: Whuddup?
    Eminem: Can I get a hell yeah?
    Perry: Hell Yeah

    Chorus 2x:
    Let’s get down to business
    I don’t got no time to play around with socialists
    Must be a protest in town that shut the shit down
    Oh these clowns, and I gotta witness

    So there you have it folks
    Samizdata! has come to save the day
    Back with our friend Thomas Paine
    And to remind you that statism does not pay because
    Samizdata! and the Anglosphere are here to stay and never go away
    Until our dying day, until we’re old and grey
    So until next times friends
    Same things to say, same Sky channel
    Goodnight everyone, thank you for coming
    Your host for the evening:
    Samizdata!

  • Byron

    It just sickens me to see the extent to which these groups are so viciously anti-semitic. Where does this come from?

    I feel the same way. Here’s one theory for it. Don’t miss the second page.

    Why the Europeans and Arabs hate America & Israel

  • Byron

    Basically, there are a few cultures and civilizations in the world that have obtained wealth by creating it rather than by stealing it. Throughout most of its history, Europe obtained wealth by plundering it from other cultures, especially Africa and the New World. Whereas, Jews tended to make their money through shrewd capitalism & trade and Ameircans through invention, innovation, and industry. Jews and Americans don’t hold a monopoly on that – the Industrial Revolution actually began in Britain, and Japan and South Korea are notable success stories. among others. But the intellectual and cultural elites of Europe and the religious elites of Arabia hate us b/c wealth = power, and our system of creating wealth works better than theirs. Instead of simply adopting the working system, as the Japanese did in the 1800s and 1900s, these elites choose to try to sabotage it, to bring us down to their level. They can’t beat us economically, so they figure their best chance is to play their mind games on our collective consciences, and guilt us into castrating ourselves. The hatred arises when their mind games fail to work, as they so far have, in the face of the clear-headed pragmatism of the “Bourgeois”.

  • The thing that I’m trying to grasp is how on earth any reasonable, rational, person could possibly refer to that horseshit as “poetry”.

    I’ve always generally disdained poetry as a cheaply-decorated hedge shorted on the near side of the hard work of fully forming and explicating one’s thoughts. I hold about a half-handful of provisional exceptions.

    However, the whole project went completely to pot in the 20th century. This bloody drivel only makes my point.

    And that’s before I consider what it presumes to say.

    What next?

  • Moe Lane

    “As for these alleged poets, if it were up to me, anyone caught practicing vers libre or any other French perversion without a poetic license would be forced to lodge with a bagpiper for a room-mate. ”

    While I recognize that certain art forms are not favorably regarded by a large portion of the planet, and that it is easy and cheap to sneer at them, and that the people who practice them are easy to make fun of…

    …Dammit, that still doesn’t mean that you can just capriciously punish a bagpiper by locking him into a room with a free verser. Some things just aren’t done in polite society.

  • Johan

    Sorry for the misinformation on the Finnish(!) suicide bomber. Could’ve sworn it was in Sweden… hmm, I’ve seen too many Palestine scarfs around here..I might see Israeli tanks just around the corner (wouldn’t mind that).

    Yes, a visa sounds great. I’m actually planning on getting myself an American citizenship. Too bad my ancestors didn’t leave 1800-1920 (when 1 million Swedes did the only right thing: go to USA).