freddie hubbard, rip

the great freddie hubbard, one of the better trumpeters of the 1960's, has died. he was 70 years old. for the first few years of his career, there were few better. his playing on "blues and the abstract truth," "roll call," "outward bound," "ole," and "ready for freddie," among others, stand with the great recorded trumpet efforts. as time went by, he wasn't quite able to equal these earlier performances, but he remained a powerful player for muct of his life. we lost another giant, and it doesn't seem that the jazz world is replacing the heavyweights of yesteryear. in any case, thank you freddie, for those must have recordings of the early 60's, and for a lifetime of dedication to the great artform known as jazz.

israel has killed 364 and hamas has killed 4. this is a ratio of around 90 to 1. even bush himself must be jealous. went to another rally today. this time, the crowd was evenly split, with israeli supporters on one side and gaza supporters on the other. at one point, i lost it, and challenged a guy to cross the street so i could "kick his fucking ass!" yes, not a revolutionary sentiment, but one that i felt strongly at that moment. one guy had a sign that read "hamas = nazism" funny, but i wasn't aware of the concentration camps run by hamas. as i stated earlier, hamas has killed 4 people so far. now, i'm not a big numbers guy, but that means they have killed 1 person for every 2.75 million killed in the holocaust. (if we use the accepted numbers of 6 million jews killed and 5 million non-jews. and this number doesn't include the 20 plus million killed in russia by german forces, and others killed in poland, france, britain, and elsewhere.) rather, it is israel that bombs densely populated areas. it is israel that possesses a strong military. it is israel that forces millions of people to live in ghetto like conditions. it is israel that places sanctions on gaza. it is israel that doesn't allow the media, human rights activists, and aid organizations to have access to gaza. now, perhaps we bring up the holocaust too much, but i'm not the one who mentioned it; this idiot with the sign did. personally, i am deeply offended by the comparison. this militaristic supporter of the brutal state of israel does a disservice to the millions of jews who died in the holocaust by making such a comparison. he and his ilk should be ashamed of themselves for standing on the side of state terrorism and unmitigated militarism. and while i might not be the guy to do it, someone should kick their ass. and one more thing; i'm not a big fan of hamas trying to hit israel with rockets, but let us remember that they make their own rockets. the rockets don't go very far, and have so far been able to kill only a couple of people. on the other hand, israel uses state of the art weaponry supplied by the united states which can kill untold numbers of people.

another sign read "hamas targets civilians. israel targets hamas." so why have a documented 64 women and children, as well as an untold number of civilian men, been killed so far in gaza? why have university students been killed? why have school students been killed? why has a family of 7, including 5 sisters, been killed? why has a mosque been bombed? why has a university been bombed? why are gazans without electricity? the fact is, hamas arose because of how israel has treated the palestinian people. let us not confuse cause and effect, and then use the effect to then justify further brutality from the israeli military, which is the source of the strife to begin with.

and of course, iraq goes on and on. and no one talks about it anymore. reporters have stopped talking about it. you know, it is no little thing to go in and destroy a society. you think it would be news.

and what of the big o? he has had little to say about the crisis in gaza, reminding us that we only have one president at a time. well, that didn't stop him from condemning the attacks in mumbai, which brutal as they were, were surely not as devastating as what israel is doing to the people of gaza. this didn't stop him from pontificating endlessly about his so called plans for the economy. of course there is only one president at a time, but big o, are you not still a human being capable of compassion and decency? as it turns out, the small o seems to be speaking through david axelrod, who made a statement in sympathy with israel. hey axelrod, i thought there was only one president at a time? i guess everytime obama doesn't want to comment on something, he throws that line in, but when he does want to say something, he speaks his mind. what a bunch of shit.

2009 will soon be on the scene. millions of nimrods will descend on boston. very few will take a minute to think about iraq, or gaza, or the injustice of the cuban embargo, or mumia, or anything else of import. they will blow horns, and get drunk. the money they will collectively spend could have done some good. they will mainly be well fed white people, with a few people of color thrown in to cater to our democratic illusions. quite a few will wave little american flags. some fuckheads may even chant "usa, usa" as several assholes did at an irish bar i was sadly sitting in a few years back. my guess is those idiots are just as dumb now as they were then. each drink they buy will cost more than half of humanity makes in a day. millions of americans will spend more on new years related travelling and vacations than many will make in a year. they will count down the new year, and then watch a fire works show that sounds quite a bit like the bombs that our government drops on millions of others, who will have little, if anything, to celerate come tommorow.

fuck you america.