Scoffing is Prohibited, page 454 [Ken Anderson]

(D)ude: Man! There are not just dangerous levels of water pouring into our homes and cars and businesses in the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex due to severe climate conditions and torrential rains, but peaking levels of hate for the federal government being communicated in the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspapers.

(M)an: Dude! I’m petrified of the levels of hate rising amongst the White Flight neighborhoods hit hardest as a result of these ferocious storms. The supremacist GOP Republicans duped White Flight residents into voting for them, promising change that never came. The change the GOP Republicans are instituting right now, is to not declare states of emergencies until it is too late for people to plan their escape and recovery. Hence, our police officers and firefighters and military personnel end up rescuing preschoolers from floods when the water rushes into school classrooms and when school buses become stranded en route.    

D: Man! These delayed reactions are costing us lives! But that is exactly what the GOP Republicans want! Just look at the levels of flooding that have hit DFW so far. The dilapidated infrastructure, the roads and bridges we utilize while those who can afford the cost take the newly built toll roads, has been made even more dangerous with the flooding downpours as those roads and bridges were already in need of repair and now have sustained further architectural blows because of the floods rushing forth and wiping out entire towns underwater for hazardous lengths of time.   

M: Dude! The water damage the roads and bridges have sustained will result in further collapses as the federal money being requested by the municipal and state governments right now will be pocketed by the delegated GOP Republicans. Have you noticed just how frighteningly trashed Fort Worth and Dallas look since the 2014 Midterm Elections ushered into office Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick? The local parks and the municipal and statewide grass running through these two cities is not being maintained and people rely on that maintenance because they must trudge through those parks and grasses to and from work, the transit stops have been so neglected that the grass obstructs to the point where bugs begin to become bothersome as one is awaiting the arrival of the city bus.    

D: Man! Federal funds are being consumed by neoconservative politicians for personal wealth purposes, taxpayers mistakenly believing there are inspections being done and investigations being made into the structural breakdown of our levees and other preventative infrastructures that could have saved so many from harm’s way if the GOP Republican majority in our government had allocated funds with timeliness and honesty. Trust but verify should not apply only to other nations with whom we negotiate, but to the politicians we elect into office as well. I am appalled that there is no one auditing where exactly the money coming in from the federal government went and how the state budgets were dispersed amongst greedy politicians, not programs meant to sustain communities like ours.  

M: Dude! People who have seen the severest conditions from the floods are susceptible to bacterial and respiratory infections. Hospitals must provide free access to physical exams to determine just how much damage the victims, who must slog through such polluted sludge waters, have sustained. Such Third World conditions are being witnessed but going unreported by the neoconservative United States Press Corps and political majority. The only available coverage of the horrors unfolding in the DFW Metroplex is being broadcast by sportscaster Dale Hansen’s WFAA.     

D: Man! That sludge people are trudging through these days is poisonous hazardous material. The whole DFW landscape is covered with fracking infrastructure that is not being regulated nor held accountable for polluting the creeks and ponds and rivers surrounding the Metroplex. I am scared that the major bodies of water and the pipelines underground are colliding and producing flammable remains of homes and businesses that cannot afford to deconstruct entirely and clean out before rebuilding. The funding to finance such an endeavor will never reach the people of DFW, only to be pocketed by the Republican GOP Majority across the State of Texas.       

M: Dude! People who are without medical insurance must be mobilized and transported to nearby hospitals. You know, the overwhelming rest of us cannot afford helicopters like Chris Christie in the public sphere and Tom Brady in the private realm. Doesn’t Mitch McConnell’s Senate and John Boehner’s House of Representatives not understand that they cannot tarnish anybody but themselves as a result of deliberate inaction? Don’t the GOP Republicans know by now that their efforts to kill and maim the American People and the American Military by rendering climate change ridiculous make them come across as foolish dolts?  

D: Man! You just had to bring up the NFL Cheat Tom Brady! Look! The guy left his first wife in middle of the second and third trimester of pregnancy in order to court the underwear model Gisele Bundchen. The guy’s a dirt bag like no other and Gisele is an other woman like Julia Roberts, who broke up Daniel Moder’s first marriage to become his second wife. The four ought to get together in Tom Brady’s helicopter and whisk folks like us out of these swamplands that did not have to become the harsh realities that they are as a result of cheats like the Republican GOP.  

M: Dude! Would there be room in that helicopter for Leon Panetta and Robert Gates?

D: Man! Yeah, those two could also use the company of likeminded cultural degenerates.

M: Dude! That would include the people in charge of Vogue and Teen Vogue magazines. They’re selling ISIS and journalism as eroticism, with front page titles like [June 2015’s Vogue] “My ISIS Seducer: The Journalist and the Jihadi” alongside gross misrepresentations of the niqab and burqa inside.

D: Man! The niqab and burqa are not to be misinterpreted as terrorism! They serve the same purpose as the religious habit. Tunic, scapular, cowl, and veil! Muslim women wear the niqab and burqa with the same sign of consecration that Christian women avail the tunic, scapular, cowl, and veil. The former Marine Jon Ritzheimer ought to know better by now to want to desecrate the Father of Islam, Muhammed, and bring scoff onto Phoenix, Arizona. As the Bible warns us, scoffing is never an answer.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963).

Sahir’s untitled poem from page 350, as translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

There is no set criterion as to how you perceive me.

I am shutout. I am naught! 

This much love from such multitudes nevertheless, how shall I manage?

To secure this much love, there is not sufficient space in my heart nor life.

My friends, do not bestow upon me this much love and affection.

Consider it, my friends.

How shall I be able to attend this much love?

I am shutout. I am naught!

Respect, renown, resolution, regard – Nothing in this world remains.

Where I am today is where someone else once was.

This is one epoch, and that which once was is another epoch.

My friends, do not bestow upon me this much love today,

That nothing is spared for tomorrow’s sake.

Spare something of today’s love for tomorrow’s sake.

Tomorrow, that which is unknown

Tomorrow, that which is deserted quietude

Tomorrow, that which is awaiting question

Tomorrow, that which is solitude.

I am shutout. I am naught!

I am shutout. I am naught!

Sahir’s untitled poem from page 350, as translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

"The State of Perversion within a Society starts with Disrespectful Language & Lack of Discipline"

Man! Dude! Session #339

(M)an: Dude! The Republican Party is bringing unneeded attention on the Jade Helm 15 military training exercise on purpose because it is itself planning to react violently towards the 1,200 United States Military troops scheduled to participate in the exercise from Monday, July 15, 2015 to Tuesday, September 15, 2015, all in the name of state rights. Why? Because the Republican agenda and American Press Corps are monolithic and rotting in absurdities and supremacist doctrines as a direct result of American Voters not showing up to cast their ballots in the 2014 Midterm Elections.

(D)ude: Man! American Voters are responsible for the chaotic inaction on part of the Republican-led United States Congress? I agree. Why aren’t Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders not addressing the importance of American Voters participating in this nation’s representative democracy? Did Stephen Colbert’s cankered commencement address at Wake Forest University get rave reviews from the presidential nominees from either party, as Time and Huffington Post did dispense such excessive praise on the foul-speaking cultural exudate reporting to CBS late night on September 8, 2015?  

M: Dude! Foul-speaking cultural exudates Lara Logan and Steve Kroft have returned to 60 Minutes to craft their so-called investigative reports with a biting neoconservative slant. Actually, all of the Sunday political talk shows were selling war as the only answer militarily for the United States of America. Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation formally designated John McCain as opening the way towards strategic change in the Vietnam War, emphasizing forgiveness on part of John McCain for having been imprisoned five years in North Vietnam but still overseeing diplomacy with the Vietnamese nevertheless which ultimately led to Saigon’s fall in 1975.  

D: Man! What is to become of our military if eighty percent of the American Press Corps is partisan and leaning towards the Republican Party’s doctrine of fear and warfare? American Imperialism has never been a success in the Middle East, President Eisenhower ordering the CIA to assist the Iranian Army in overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh for the intent and purposes of private companies within the United Kingdom and United States gaining control over the Iranian oil industry through restoration of the Shah of Iran. Mosaddegh was challenging the British and American oil companies through the campaign for oil nationalization. You see, the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company refused to offer Iran the 50-50 profit sharing deal that Aramco had offered Saudi Arabia.          

M: Dude! Lara Logan’s interviews with United States Army General John Campbell and Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani were craftily edited to present both men negatively. We must understand that journalists like Lara Logan are the kind that survive combat coverage because they have the support of the Republican Tea GOP in the United States of America, specifically Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both of whom travel into the United States Military’s active duty exercises in the Middle East with such fluidity and confidence that our sons and daughters in uniform entrust them with intelligence which McCain and Graham use to directly forewarn the opposition forces over there. The money that is allowed through the Citizens United decision of 2010 is utilized by the neocons to finance the opposition forces on the ground in the Middle East. The Republican Tea Party and the Teabag Democrats do not desire a world culture and nation-building, only Trickle Down Reaganomics that allows for the top 2% to accumulate gross amounts of wealth while the rest of the United States suffers financially and the middle class vanishes. That’s why Lara Logan gets away with brashly suggesting to President Ghani of Afghanistan that he is laughing when, in fact he is crying visibly inwardly for the generations of his people lost because of American Imperialism. That’s why General Campbell appears questionably and mistakenly antagonistic, because Lara Logan is a journalistic sellout, trained and placed by the Republican Party for the price of American military lives senselessly lost due to the GOP’s avarice.   

D: Man! What about the lives of the children inside the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar home? What about Chris Wallace agreeing to not question Mike Huckabee on his ties with the Duggar family and Josh Duggar’s record of molesting at least 5 underage girls as a teenager being destroyed last week by Judge Stacey Zimmerman’s orders, the judge herself appointed to at least two judicial committees in Arkansas by Mike Huckabee when he was governor of the state?   

M: Dude! The Republican Party’s shamelessly infiltrating multimedia worldwide with its double standards and criminal oversight. Google bought YouTube and now YouTube is optimally functional as an App available to download at the Apple App Store. However, when I tried to download the YouTube App onto an original iPad purchased in 2010, the following message came up over and over again,

This application requires iOS 7.0 or later. You must update to iOS 7.0 in order to download and use this application.  

D: Man! The detrimental implications of that move by Google, YouTube, and Apple are apparent. Are we supposed to throw away our devices and buy new ones nowadays? What will become of the waste generated by people disposing of their old tablets and phones for newer models? My mother’s friends take old tablets and phones overseas to give to developing schools and to gift to families who otherwise could not afford such technologies. But now those impoverished communities will not have unfettered access to YouTube and, pretty soon, Wikipedia, because the tech discards they get will no longer support complete access to the hugely popular websites that have been or will be turned into apps. Countless folks abroad know where to get free internet services and connections and rely on YouTube and Wikipedia and countless other websites to stay in the know about current affairs and issues effecting their lives.    

M: Dude! What about the detrimental implications of the move by the Duggars and Mike Huckabee and Judge Stacey Zimmerman to destroy Josh Duggar’s police records and insisting that the children molested thirteen years ago are being revictimized by the public disclosure of the records prior to their demise and the move now to fire the police officer who released the reports? Springdale, Arkansas Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley is a hero, like the two female police officers who detected something very wrong in the dynamics between Jacey Duggard and her captor as they traversed the UC Berkeley campus that fateful day when Duggard was finally rescued and her captor arrested.    

D: Man! The Republican Tea GOP under Sheldon Adelson and David Koch are attempting to raise the country’s tolerance and pain thresholds and the United States Press Corps is complicit in the movement towards perversion. The state of perversion within a society starts with disrespectful language and lack of discipline as exhibited by Stephen Colbert’s commencement address delivered Monday, May 18, 2015 and conspicuously celebrated by the American Press and their careful selection of Wake Forest University students’ feedback, although upon careful observation one can detect boos from the audience and even disgust on part of the faculty sitting behind Colbert. I found a copy of that commencement address on Wake Forest University’s website under the heading “Commencement News” and subheading “Speaker Stephen Colbert” and was disappointed by what I read, statements such as the following,

And you look amazing. Although it’s a little embarrassing you all showed up in the same outfit. Really. Even all the accessories are the same. Everyone has a black and gold tassel. Or, is it blue and white? Grandparents, just know this was the issue that divided a generation. You had the Vietnam War. Your grandchildren had an ambiguously colored Tumblr post.

Wake Forest has always been a leader. In the late 19th century, this was among the first Southern schools to teach biology in a lab. Before then, you weren’t supposed to learn biology until marriage.

Still, while Wake has been a trailblazer, this is a school that respects tradition. Traditions like rolling the Quad with toilet paper after big wins. And this is actually an eco-friendly tradition because, looking at this season’s win-loss record, you guys saved a lot of paper.

Yes, you are graduating into an election year, which is the technical term for “two years before an election.” A lot of candidates will be vying for your attention, and you will perform the ultimate civic duty: deciding for whom you will swipe left and for whom you will swipe right. Because I think we’re voting on Tinder now. At least the Republicans are. Democrats might be voting on Grindr. I don’t know.

So do yourself a favor: Be an easy grader. Score yourself on a curve. Give yourself extra credit. You have the power. You are your own professor now. Which I know is a little creepy because that means you’re showering with your professor. But you have tenure. They can’t fire you.

So I hope you find the courage to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong. And then, please expect as much of the world around you. Try to make the world good according to your standards. It won’t be easy. Get ready for my generation to tell you everything that can’t be done — like ending racial tension, or getting money out of politics, or lowering the world’s carbon emissions. And we should know they can’t be done. After all, we’re the ones who didn’t do them.

M: Dude! Highly inappropriate, of course. Just like the guy who introduced Senator Elizabeth Warren with an expletive at the 2015 California Democrats Convention.

D: Man! Speaking of that particular expletive spoken a the 2015 California Democrats Convention, Jon Stewart and his team of writers were celebrated by the Huffington Post for having run the hashtag “FUCO” episode in which children as young as elementary schoolers said that expletive alongside the word cooperate. Why can’t you ____ing cooperate, that was the phrase over at Jon Stewart’s show.

M: Dude! Did you know that Jon Stewart is leaving for CBS as well? Yeah! The 3 major television networks are lowering the intellect of our young adults and teenagers by instituting late night bores who cannot function without a script. Lightweight geese like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, the latter will be replacing Cordon Bleu at CBS.

D: Man! Cordon Bleu at CBS?

M: Dude! James Corden!

D: Man! Oi!

M: Dude! Advertisers are pulling ads but TLC hasn’t cancelled the show that follows and films the Duggar family, even People Magazine chose to continue following up on Jessa Duggar and her husband Ben Seewald in this week’s issue.

D: Man! Reminds me of the story of the great ballet Abyss as described by George Balanchine and Francis Mason in the 1977 Edition of the book Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets,

Based on a story by Leonid Andreyev, Abyss shows what might happen when an innocent young couple encounter bestial forces… A young girl and boy, not old enough yet to be seriously in love but close since childhood and certain one day to marry, walk one day alone in the forest. There they are suddenly attacked by three menacing figures. The boy is powerless to protect the girl and she is carried off by two of the men. When the boy eventually finds her again, she is distraught and half out of her mind. He is about to leave her in horror at what the attackers have done. But he finds himself also curious and attracted. The abyss opens before him and he, too, seizes the girl.

M: Dude! The Republican GOP is taking US back to February 21, 1956!!

D: Man! Ora pro nobis!

"Like a Song of Love that Clings to Me" [Nat King Cole]

Nigel-Wright Intra-galactic Relations #6

(K)ehkashan: Daddy? What will become of Bibi Saano’s sons and daughters and their children’s children? India and Pakistan are not the rivals they are portrayed to be in the media, the politicians in these countries are corrupt. Like the Republican Party in the United States today, the newspapers and magazines and Google News—How can Fox News and Breitbart be considered in the same category as Mother Jones and USA Today?—pitting everyday people against their own good judgment.     

(D)addy Anwar: I have no answer, Love. I too worry about Bibi Sanoo’s descendants being left to suffer alongside the Indus River Valley farmland they call home and the major Indo-Pak cities where they work as, essentially, indentured servants. There are harsh ramifications that the world is facing as a result of the Republican Party’s completely taking over both houses of the United States Congress due to the lowest voter turnout in United States history last year.     

(P)ape Harry: Of course, the Republican Party insists on voter restrictions and then interpreting the low voter turnout as representative of the American people. And the media is choosing to submit to the Republican Party as if it is immobile and dumbstruck. Look at the decline in journalistic standards at The Atlantic, where President George Walker Bush 41’s speechwriter David Frum is promoting war pastimes and global dissention amongst nations by perverting the literary works of Herman Wouk, whom he titles as The Great War Novelist America Forgot.      

(K)ehkashan: Papa? What’s to become of US if George Clooney’s barrister wife Amal Alamuddin Clooney is being declared by New York Magazine as The Consummate Feminist Superhero? I mean, she is, after all, Julian Assange’s attorney. I guess in the world according to the Republican Party of the United States, you can fight for a sexual predator like Julian Assange and be considered a human rights attorney regardless. If American voters choose not to turn out and vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton next year, the Republican Party is going to take my generation’s reproductive freedom and healthcare by making a mess out of sexual assault charges on top of that abortion bill Representative John Boehner’s Congress passed in the House last week. Like Amal Alamuddin Clooney defending Assange and Sweden’s Chief Public Prosecutor Eva Finne’s dismissing charges of rape and molestation against the creepy predator, the United States of America will also succumb to the wrath of another creepy predator, sitting on its Supreme Court – Clarence Thomas – and his rightwing, Citizens United, Bush-defending accomplices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito. Who knows how many venereal diseases will be lost on the courts in the United States, as was the case against Assange, the two women who brought forth the rape charges contracting the exact same sexually transmitted disease from their perpetrator, but the Swedish police never carrying through an investigation via blood testing Assange.

(P)apa Harry: You’re deeply sad, Darling. Let’s let Daddy figure out a plan of action to get us back up from the brinks of hopelessness and into some bursts of happiness.

(D)addy Anwar: Your anguishing is unbearable, Love. How about a trip to the TCU campus? We can park near the Kroger over there and walk the entire length of the track around the university.  

(K)ehkashan: I’m not interested in some bursts of happiness! It’s raining outside and I’d rather cry anyways! I’m really hurting and think the biker gang violence in Waco, Texas over the weekend was a deliberate move by the Republican Tea GOP to bring in a new era of politically divided campuses and homegrown terror on the motorways. Grampa and Grammom met, married, and were professors at Baylor University, the first of many academic institutions to be located off that one highway that leads to the University of Texas at Austin and San Antonio onwards.    

(D)addy Anwar: Okay. How about just hanging out at the bookstore? Hunter Davies wrote a bestseller about the Beatles’ lyrics titled just that, The Beatles Lyrics, last year. He brings up an interesting perspective about John and Paul and George’s first years together as part of The Quarrymen. Their passion as musicians flourished after their big breakthrough in 1963. But they stuck together through everything, including their individual and collective growth as a nascent band touring all parts of England and, later, cultural icons and megastar sophisticates who embraced diversity and humanity in all forms and fashions.   

(P)apa Harry: Wait a minute. Darling? How was the biker gang violence in Waco over the weekend intentional?

(K)ehkashan: The Republican Tea GOP is trying hard to sell the Democrats as being the same as the Republicans. But underground, they are maligning the United States Constitution, especially the parts concerning militias, in their quest to privatize all forms of government in the United States, federal and state, by creating tensions and terrors through the Press Corps depicting the White House through prejudicial lenses that they really believe History will not hold them accountable for because they will have torn down all government structures and diplomatic alliances upon President Jeb Bush and VP Marco Rubio taking over the White House in 2016 and destroying all evidence through the United States Press Corps’ rightwing-slanted writing and reporting on the current administration’s innovative and painstakingly brilliant designs concerning nonviolent intervention methods in domestic and foreign affairs.      

(P)apa Harry: President Jeb Bush and VP Marco Rubio? I think I’d rather cry too if I had such a dreadful outlook on 2016. All generations will have to come out and vote in 2016 to get rid of such a malignancy as a Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio combination of jackasses presiding over this nation of promise and potential because of a rotting national press corps creating scenarios that are propagandist falsehoods about government reach and responsibility.    

(D)addy Anwar: Going back to the Hunter Davies chronicle of Beatles lyrics, he brings up a point that had me thinking about teardrops and shameful societal constructs a couple of moments back when you were upset.

(K)ehkashan: I still am!

(D)addy Anwar: Of course! Rightly so! Nevertheless, Hunter Davies brings to light the phenomenon of the skiffle that got me thinking about free speech and self-expression and group dynamics. A skiffle was essentially spontaneous music-making that just happened at the spur of the moment, without any need for the musician to use instruments and know how to read and write musical notes. It was a great premise as so far as John and Paul were untrained music lovers with an ear for tunes and a sense of humor that really helped their music thrive as long as it has, Davies mentioning that the release of their albums today causes an even greater commotion than they did when they were originally released.   

(P)apa Harry: A skiffle?

(K)ehkashan: I finally have a word to describe my use of pots and pans to make sounds as a toddling tot?

(P)apa Harry: Maybe?

(D)addy Anwar: The point is the karaoke speech bar that the CEO of Starbucks was promoting earlier this year could have been a tidal wave in shifting the group dynamics that exist as a result of the top 1% having a hold over 38% of total private wealth in the United States and the bottom 90% having a hold of over 73% of the total debt in turn.    

(K)ehkashan: A karaoke speech bar at Starbucks? Didn’t Huffington Post and the Daily Beast writers basically obliterate the idea, of people from all walks of life being given a platform with a microphone in a coffee shop, immediately upon its proposal? And, by the way, the music service TIDAL is cheap and lame, choosing not to stream the video from Prince’s “Rally 4 Peace” concert on Sunday, May 10, 2015. I just hope video from that brief but brave concert will be made available sometime soon by Live Nation Entertainment. Which makes me think of Bibi Saano’s offspring and the generations of oppression they continue facing. When Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush claim Russia and China are autocratic and that the United States needs to be feared, not revered as it is right now under President Obama’s Administration of diplomacy and transparency, don’t the American people understand that Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are wanting to take us back into the past in order to wipe out regulations and the country’s treasury that reported an April 2015 budget surplus?   

(D)addy Anwar: Bibi Saano cannot come to the United States of America as we did back in the 1970s. The prospect is not even on her radar. I take that back! The prospect is there but she is not financially capable of contemplating such a possibility if Indo-Pak is mired with graver unrest if American voters refuse to show up to the polling places in 2016 and, hence, apathetically butcher the helpless worldwide. The refugee crises right now are being handled compassionately, but with a Republican Party candidate in the White House, apathetic American voters will be reading about deaths of the destitute in countries across the globe. There will be countless mass graves.  

(P)apa Harry: But with the United States Press Corps slanting towards the Republican Party, those atrocities will be sealed for several generations. Did you know that there were harsh immigration restrictions in place in the United States that kept those of the Jewish faith from seeking shelter in our nation way before the Holocaust? Likewise, writings addressing the concentration camps did not enter the mainstream American conscious until the 1970s. The 1970s were also when Lev Vygotsky was being rediscovered for his genius and reconsidered for full academic standing alongside Piaget and Erikson and Bandura, although he had died at the age of 37 on June 11, 1934.

(K)ehkashan: Amal Alamuddin Clooney is a casualty of talent because of greed. She makes me cringe because this past January she launched an effort to get the Armenian Genocide of 1915 recognized by deniers like the current Turkish Government, but in  2012 wrote a convoluted piece, available through Wikipedia, about technicalities of the United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court that made me conclude in wonder, Amal Alamuddin Clooney is creating physical danger for displaced persons seeking refuge in Turkey today through intentionally mistimed actions that will only further sever ties between the three Abrahamic religions in the Middle East. Amal Clooney is an opportunistic mis-handler of justice.

"Friendship is my chief article of belief, and a friend is my life." [Gulshan Bawra]

Gulshan Kumar Mehta, aka Gulshan Bawra’s “Yari Hai Imaan Mera, Yaar Meri Zindagi,” translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

“Friendship is my chief article of belief,

And a friend is my life.”

If God commands me,

“Ask for anything. Look here my cherished one. Ask of me anything.”

I shall pray for these assemblies of friends to keep continuing in this manner,

My intimate friends, fellow travelers, confidants,

Accompany me to life’s end,

Keep kindling my course until then.

Friendship is my chief article of belief,

And a friend is my life.

To be a sincere friend is the height of devotion.

Yes! Friendship is the height of devotion!

In this world, when you touch one’s heartstrings,

The word “friend” shall echo forth.

Those heartstrings filled with love,

All the worldly beauty can be sacrificed for them!

Love brought splendor along,

Love brought along happiness.

Friendship is my chief article of belief,

And a friend is my life.

Yes! Friendship is the height of devotion!

Hey! If I am the sacrificial one within friendship,

Then, my friends, I have no grievances against friendship,

If my friend rests sadly in my presence, then what’s the use of being there?

Wherever we are, the surroundings shall sway and dance with happiness.

Friendship is my chief article of belief,

And a friend is my life.

Why does my dear friend look distressed?

My friend is being preyed upon by someone’s Evil Eye!

Don’t hide! Just tell me about the state of your heart!

What is the price of your laughter? Just gesticulate!

If you insist, I shall carry the moon and stars from the sky.

I shall carry too the radiant views from our handsome youth,

At the heights of my devotion and yours,

My gratitude to you for keeping and honoring our friendship.

Your laughter is the best present at present.

The moment laughter adorned my friend’s face,

The moment my friend laughed, the assemblies of friends were completely canopied by joy and happiness.

Canopied by joy and happiness! Hooray!

Yes! Friendship is the height of devotion.

Friendship is my chief article of belief,

And a friend is my life.

Gulshan Kumar Mehta, aka Gulshan Bawra’s “Yari Hai Imaan Mera, Yaar Meri Zindagi,” translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

Civilizations, Doctrines, Mankind [Sahir Ludhianvi]

Sahir Ludhianvi’s “Waqt” (page 383)… “Time” as translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

Where Happiness dwelled in times gone by,

Today that dwelling lays grief-stricken.

Time delivered the pleasure of spring,

Now time steers the sorrow of autumn.

With the time come day and night,

With the time come tomorrow and yesterday.

How many civilizations were disgraced before time,

How many doctrines were erased before time?

Through the circulation of time, the resultant celestial body blueprints

Collide under the big-bang modeled time, whether it is a government

Or whether it is a society [pluralism is preeminent].

All the passings of splendor are bound by time,

Time is a bed of flowers [Guru Nanak], time is the crown of thorns [Jesus Christ],

For mankind should remain uncertain of time,

Not knowing the moment time will change its temperament once more.

Sahir Ludhianvi’s “Waqt” (page 383)… “Time” as translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

"God Superintending Friendship" [Sameer]

Lyrics: "Bade Miyan, Bade Miyan; Chote Miyan, SubhanAllah" [Sameer, poet]...

Sameer’s “Versed Chap & Anointed Chum & God Superintending Friendship,”

Translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

This versed chap is just tremendous,

But this anointed chum is a sacramental ace.

Bravo! Superb!

Very few love us to such great extents,

And even fewer sacrifice their lives for us.

Kudos! Cheers!

When people look at us, they avow, “Wow! What a pair!”

This versed chap is just tremendous,

But this anointed chum is a sacramental ace.

This epoch is state-of-the-art, even our symphony is afresh.

The story we have written together is anew

When we danced, musical instruments shattered and symphonies stopped,

Even crowns and thrones bowed before us

Our graceful attitude is apart from the superfluity of others in our field of work,

Our pride is distinctive.

Don’t think of us as resembling such and such from such superfluity,

We are human beings at variance with others in our field.

We will change the mode of this gathering, nevertheless,

This day onwards, with ease and pride, dance along with us for a while.

This versed chap is just tremendous,

But this anointed chum is a sacramental ace.

Whatever we do, we do so openly and publicly.

People in this place of work defame us for no reason.

Oh! Beloved! Heart! We have knowledge about everybody!

Nobody escaped our sharp sight!

Wherever we went, chap and chum, God superintending our friendship, we excelled at the game: Everytime, we obtained victory and the foe lost.

Nobody ascertained through that discourse of ours,

God superintending our friendship!

After all, we still make two and two equal five!

Bravo! Superb! Kudos! Cheers!

This versed chap is just tremendous,

But this anointed chum is a sacramental ace.

Very few love us to such great extents,

And even fewer sacrifice their lives for us.

When people look at us, they avow, “Wow! What a pair!”

Sameer’s “Versed Chap & Anointed Chum & God Superintending Friendship,”

Translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

Wake Up America & Connect The Dots!!

Man! Dude! #338

(D)ude: Man! Madison, Wisconsin cannot afford the methodical burning up of community centers like the youth homeless center and senior community apartment complex burned down during the riots in Baltimore, Maryland. Like Governor Hogan of Maryland, Governor Walker of Wisconsin is orchestrating an “after the fact of the act itself” strategy to destroy services statewide through riots instigated by a deliberate lack of response until the situation’s out of control.   

(M)an: Dude! Hogan and Walker are members of the Republican Governors’ Association that is headed by New Jersey Governor Christie.

D: Man! Hattiesburg, Mississippi cannot afford the methodical burning up of establishments there because of socioeconomic discord between its diverse residents due to the police killings of Officers Deen and Tate.  

M: Dude! Governor Bryant in Mississippi is Republican as is Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and Mayor Johnny DuPree of Hattiesburg is an African American Democrat as is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore!

D: Man! Ora pro nobis! Democratic Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin Paul Soglin won reelection with 72% of the vote on April 7, 2015 despite critics labelling him "old, tired, gray, and bland." As a Civil Rights Activist and a Vietnam War Protester in the 1960s and well into the 1970s, Soglin's pursuit for justice is chronicled in the 2004 book They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 and two documentaries, released 26 years apart, 1979's The War at Home and 2005's Two Days in October.       

M: Dude! These manmade Armageddons must stop! 

"an evasive mess: a fjord, ice segregation, and abrasion"

"A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock." [Wikipedia]

Gulzar’s “Golmaal Hai Sub Golmaal Hai!”

Translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is evasively messy.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is evasively messy.

Upon every pathway toward decency, there is a crooked and customary snare.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is an evasive mess.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is an evasive mess.

“If you hunger bread, then earn money!” [and so the rogues, bafflingly appointed, never popularly elected, protest]

But in order to earn money, there are expenses to be incurred in the process itself.

“If you cannot beseech and applaud us for our capital, then go sweat for it yourself!” [hail the rogues]

Just as sweat settles, necessitating a handkerchief!

Hey? All is equivocal. All is an evasive mess.

Upon every pathway toward decency, there is a crooked and customary snare.

Despite the shirt off one’s back enabling one to make a handkerchief by tearing it up,

You will inevitably remain in need of fabric—to make another shirt, of course!

Even if you manage to amass fabric that is a write-off donation,

In a case as such, you will still be in need of a clothier—to get that fabric from handout to made-to-measure shirt.

Hey? All is equivocal. All is evasively messy.

Subsequent to not being charged for amassing its fabric, you need to pay for its stitching in order to avail yourself of another shirt!

All is equivocal. Hey! All is evasively messy.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is evasively messy.

Upon every pathway toward decency, there is a crooked and customary snare.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is an evasive mess.

All is equivocal. Hey! All is an evasive mess.

In the end, you’ll still be in need of money! Hey?

Gulzar’s “Golmaal Hai Sub Golmaal Hai!”

Translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

"Lost In Pain on Mother's Day 2015"

Javed Akhtar’s “Tumko Dekha To Yeh Khayaal Aayaa”

Translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

When I saw you, only then did the idea emanate

Life is an ablaze sun and you are a sweepingly shading tree

Today, once again, the heart longed for one specific

Today I remonstrated with my heart

When I saw you, only then did the idea emanate

Life is an ablaze sun and you are a sweepingly shading tree

That song which I cannot hum any longer [in the absolute absence now of the very physicality of that anticipation to be besides you whenever we’re apart]

Why does it linger with time continuing to sing it?

Life is an ablaze sun and you are a sweepingly shading tree

When I saw you, only then did the idea emanate

Life is an ablaze sun and you are a sweepingly shading tree.

Javed Akhtar’s “Tumko Dekha To Yeh Khayaal Aayaa”

Translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.

We Voted For Chance!!

Man! Dude! Session #337

(M)an: Dude! Where are you going?

(D)ude: Man! My dad dropped off a comprehensive grocery list and generous funds in order for me to “make it special” and “a happy one.” And he meant Sunday, but I don’t know why he’s so anticipatorily requesting so much for mom specifically tomorrow.    

M: Dude! Tomorrow’s Mother’s Day! Yes! I just got back from Randall’s Tom Thumb Page grocery store and the traffic was congested.

D: Man! Are the traffic lights at the major intersections flashing red again and requiring people to await their turn and yield to at least three other jam-packed lanes before being able to go as far as the next stop-and-go flashing red traffic lights intersection exhibit?  

M: Dude! Ugh! It’s inevitable, given the fact that Tarrant County constituents tend to vote for and reelect Tarrant County GOP leaders in municipal elections. Remember to cast your ballot at our assigned polling place by tonight. Polls close at 7PM.    

D: Man! Today’s Election Day for Tarrant County! I forgot! Who are the candidates and which ones lean progressive and Democratic? And how do I get to that courthouse annex again?

M: Dude! Today’s Municipal Elections for Tarrant County, Texas are being held somewhere else for our district, a local church behind the hardware store that is nearer than the courthouse annex. 

D: Man! Why do the Tarrant County Tea Party Republicans make it so difficult? It’s not like I didn’t try to read up on the candidates listed on the websites of

- The League of Women Voters of Tarrant County,

- “e.thepeople” Citizen Guide,

- Fort Worth Independent School District,

- KERA News,

- The Texas Tribune and the Fort Worth Star Telegram newspapers,

- Lucy Burns Institute,

- Ballotpedia,

- City of Fort Worth, Texas,

- Tarrant County Election Administration,

- “access.tarrantcounty.com”

- alongside Google Searching all the Tarrant County candidates’ personal and campaign pages with lists of endorsements since I was unsure of the races appearing on our ballots.     

M: Dude! You forgot the Teabag Democrats within the Tarrant County Get Out The Vote Political Action Committee! They assisted me with finding a sample ballot for our precinct.

D: Man! Where? Just a sec! Let me get my iPad! You know, I really want to cast my ballot in today’s municipal elections. When I was searching the KERA News website for answers, I instead found the strength to continue my pursuit for answers when I came across Chance Hawkins, a heroic 10th grader at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Fort Worth who is pursuing his studies and will be graduating with the Class of 2017 despite the painful obstacles and physical exhaustion he endures as a result of having Duchenne muscular dystrophy, because of the school district’s hiring an extraordinarily devoted aide to assist Chance Hawkins with his day-to-day maneuverings and academics at school. Chance’s assistant, Edgar Ortiz, grew up with a sibling with the same condition as Chance’s that led him to eventually pursue a career in special education. Mr. Ortiz’s presence in the classroom by Chance’s side has torn down the social hesitations of the other students to where the teenagers now assist Chance in adjusting positions in his wheelchair without a second thought whenever Mr. Ortiz is momentarily away from his side. I want to know who I can elect to office in these municipal elections that will guarantee Chance’s reaching his high school graduation (he is receiving A’s and B’s with the patient tutelage of Mr. Ortiz) and championing his academic and professional pursuits well into the future.         

M: Dude! You mentioned the website in the list of contacts you inquired about today’s municipal elections. It is “access.tarrantcounty.com” and it could easily be more user-friendly in years to come. There is a link to a map where you can enter your first and last names to see if you are registered to vote and your exact election day polling location. I printed your info out as well as mine, but don’t forget to take your voter registration card and driver’s license. The folks in charge of overseeing the activities at our polling place examined my driver’s license as if I were an underage juvenile delinquent or a tween or teen trying to get past the bouncers at a downtown bar and grill.  

D: Man! Did that PAC of Teabag Democrats refer you to that website?

M: Dude! No. I actually was struggling with the website myself for some days and when I received a call from the Tarrant County Get Out The Vote PAC, I referred them to the website as well. The folks on the other line were very polite and upon my conveying interest in trying to figure out what a sample ballot from our precinct would look and which candidates would be listed, one of the voter assistants from that PAC actually began to Google Search for the answers I had already sought. Fortunately, I had not erased the history of websites I had visited on my iPad and ended up informing and educating that non-profit group myself.    

D: Man! How is this PAC comprised of Teabag Democrats?

M: Dude! As I was getting out of the car at the designated polling place, a guy from that particular PAC’s outfit Tarrant County Citizens’ Watch offered me this “Voter Guide” that excluded a candidate from one of the major categories altogether. The candidate that this group had not listed was Keith K. Annis, a supporter of the President of the United States Barack Obama and a strong opponent of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

D: Man! Was Keith K. Annis listed on the final ballot?

M: Dude! Of course! I selected him!

D: Man! Good! Good! The other candidates for the position of Tarrant Regional Water District include a dubious pair, Michele Von Luckner and Craig Bickley, who decry pork but back the Keystone XL Pipeline. Craig Bickley is a member of the Tarrant County GOP, his photographs on personal WebPages reveal him to be shamelessly attending gatherings by the group. 

M: Dude! Just how far-reaching a grocery list did your father draft?

D: Man! It’s self-serving. In fact, I know my mother is not keen on frozen desserts due to tooth sensitivity, let alone mangoes. She loves nothing more than a good laugh and this list will definitely have her doubling over in chuckles. He’s even requested four bags of navel oranges!     

M: Dude! Did your father request that frozen Belmont Mango Sorbet from Aldi? Orangely you amused? Aren’t you?

D: Man! Yeah! He’s also requested a Stonemill Essentials Steak Seasoning. Apparently, the last time he was in line at Aldi, a Randall’s Tom Thumb Page employee and he deliberated for the entire length of the line over steak preparation and the gentleman attested the deliciousness and convenience of this seasoning. You need not marinade the steak beforehand to savor it efficaciously.   

M: Dude! Wow! Doesn’t this gentleman’s place of employment have a spice rack with wider diversity in flavor?

D: Man! He informed my father that his place of employment no longer carried that particular seasoning.

M: Dude! Did your father request a deposition?

D: Man! No! There’s a money back guarantee on all the items returned at Aldi! You’re orangely amused and howling with laughter!

M: Dude! Evidently!