Webster’s 1847 edition, which I had the pleasure to see a while back, gave the etymology as private rule.

Webster’s Unabridged again: Anarchy: [Gr. anarchia, lack of ruler or government, from anarchos, without chief or ruler, an private; and archos ruler.]

Private rule. Formal government is uneccessary. That is, we rule ourselves. Each and every one of us, as adults, are capable of doing so. This is, after all, what we mean by adult. Without direction or laws from any outside source, except our Creator.

All governments and people in entrenched positions of power fear this word and concept and treat it with the greatest of hate and loathing, for it would, you see, put them directly out of business. Our rulers have no desire to be put out of the business of telling us what to do and taxing us because they work so hard telling us what to do. Therefore, they have smeared and emasculated this word and concept every chance they got, down through the bloody centuries of human history until the connotations of "anarchy," self-rule, have come to mean lawlessness, bomb-throwing, disruptions, mayhem, riots, everything scary to a law-abiding citizen. This is how the word is currently used, although it means something entirely different, and always has. It means Rule Yourself.

Listen to our rulers and others in power and you will hear them use this word often. Should there be a trial jury that decides upon its conscience that a law is unjust and unfair and so vote aquittal, listen to the rulers howl: "There will be anarchy!" Should the people decide not to send their children to public schools for the common sense reason that schools no longer teach anything worth learning, listen to the education bureaucrats howl: "There will be anarchy!" Should a colonial people decide to rule themselves according to the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, listen to the King howl: "There will be anarchy!" Should Americans wish to uphold their God-given right to bear arms, listen to the elites howl: "There is TOO MUCH FREEDOM! There will be anarchy!" In other words, you people cannot rule yourselves! WE must rule youu2014or else "there will be anarchy!"

Home rule. Private rule. Self rule. Responsibility for self and family. Willingly taking on the care of ourselves. Limiting ourselves in times of hardship when we must, and going without. Defending our own lives and properties. Using the brains God gave us to learn what is best for us, and knowing in our hearts our Creator’s laws and most important of all, following them. This, it seems to me, is what is meant by self-rule, and forgive me, but by anarchy.

And keeping the money that would be taken by "rulers," as taxes, to ourselves, thank you very much.

Is it any wonder, really, that our rulers cry "anarchy" whenever the people seem like they might make a common sense decision, all by themselves, without all the layers of "experts," lawyers, doctors, clerics, professors, politicians and all the rest of the crass parasites of the "ruling class"? This ruling class did not become rich and powerful without a few tricks up their sleeves, after all, and a damn good propaganda wing, and without being willing to be as brutal as need be when they deemed it necessary to send us cowering into our corners, willing to hand over the fruits of our labors for their "government."

The question is simple: can you govern yourself, or do you need to be governed?

An immoral and irresponsible people are not capable of anarchy, of ruling themselves. However, there is no such thing as a perfectly moral and responsible people, though humans have come close a few times. There is no utopia here on Earth, but we can take a few steps in the right direction.

As for me, I willingly submit to the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God, but by God, I have an anarchistic heart. Let those who purport to be my rulers hear this.

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

Give me a break, folks. In all of the various opinions I’ve heard concerning Elian Gonzalez, I continue to hear such phrases as "Elian should be allowed to grow up in a free country," "Elian’s mother died bringing him to freedom," "land of the free," etc. And I have to ask, what free country are these people referring to?

Certainly they cannot mean America. America is not a free country. It may be a prosperous country, even rich in ways beyond our reckoning, but it is surely not free. Not for about a century and a half.

We have so many laws that no one can keep them straight. I probably break more than a few laws every day, and these are the ones I break inadvertently. We won’t even discuss my scofflaw propensities. I don’t even know what is against the law these days. How could I? How can anyone? This is what comes of having lawyers dominating every branch of the government, of course. Lawyers love laws, especially silly, long, vaguely-worded ones. They bring in the big bucks, those laws.

What pictures have we shown the world lately that would represent freedom? Waco burning? The INS gang breaking into a Miami home to kidnap Elian with a gun in his face?

Is this a picture from a free country? Just ask any unarmed citizen who’s been shot by the machine-gun carrying militarized police. Sure America is a free country — if Nazi Germany was free, if Stalin’s Russia was free, or say, Castro’s Cuba. The only difference between those countries and this is we do not yet have huge pictures of the Dictator all over the place. If Algore becomes president, I suspect that may change.

It is hysterical that Bill Clinton could actually mention "the rule of law" with a straight face. That was very funny coming from him. Too bad the mainstream media is simply too dense to recognize such a fine example of irony. This same impeached perjuror is allowed to rule by Executive Order by the other two castrati branches of government, who could at least squeak, but don’t. Like Castro, like Stalin — what our dictator Clinton says, goes. And it matters not that we have a Congress or a Supreme Court. Clinton rules. Period. For now, we are minimally more "free" in that we get to keep 50% of our labor and money. We’re only half slaves, which is like half pregnant.

Cuba has a totalitarian communist government. America has a totalitarian fascist government, which my Webster’s defines as "… regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible repression of opposition." Sounds to me like what America has become. The State is exalted above the individual here. We certainly have a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. You can ask Bill Gates about severe economic regimentation, or anyone who has been denied their property rights by nonsensical boobs in the EPA. As for social regimentation, just take a gander at the Supreme Court and what it has been up to lately. You bet we have social regimentation. What else would you call 20 years of "political correctness?" Forcible repression of opposition? There are too many examples to mention. What happened in Maimi is the merest drop in the bucket of government thugs with automatic weapons breaking down doors and terrorizing unarmed citizens.

Do we have a free press? No — we have a State-controlled, if not State-owned, press. The mainstream media has proven itself time and time again to be the public relations branch of the government. That could not possibly be more clear than in this case of Elian Gonzalez. America is one of the most heavily propagandized countries on the planet. Otherwise, Americans might revert to their former honorable curmudgeonly selves.

What’s all the fuss about Elian staying in America, or returning to Cuba? If you are still under the hypnotic delusion that America is a "free" country, then remember that the most fully enslaved are those who think they are free.

Are Americans free? Well, for now, free to emigrate, although it can be risky trying to take your money with you. I hear Costa Rica’s nice. I might even consider Somalia, myself. Hell, Somalia doesn’t even have a government — a sure selling point with me! See you in Mogadishu!

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

I know, the State has this depressing habit of shoving its political prisoners into those horrid orange jumpsuits, but I’m a redhead and that just isn’t going to work. And the chains. They are not very attractive. But they are almost certainly symbolic rather than functional. Remember the pictures of Ted the K? He was surrounded by guards with guns and yet he was covered with the chains. I rather doubt there was much chance that he could plant a letter bomb in the courtroom, so the chains probably weren’t all that necessary. So, Ok, I’ll take the chains. Lots of them please. They’ll ruin the outfit, but at least they will create the impression for the conscious viewer that I’m dangerous to the health of the State. For my chains, I would like to request, in advance, that my leg irons be attached to one of those big heavy balls we used to see prisoners in movies wearing. Just for fun. Helluva fashion statement, and one I’m sure my mom would appreciate. (Hi mom.)

But let’s say I can choose what to wear, besides that orange jumpsuit. If I have to wear that, I ain’t going. I’ve been thinking about this floor-length gray dressu2014a very nice elegant number. It would make me look quite sedate, maybe even historical, kind of like a modern Patrick Henry’s sister when she’s not being mouthy. It goes nicely with my hair and eyes and it makes a serious, intelligent statement. It would be nice to go down in history as being serious and intelligent, although I rather doubt that I’ll succeed. However, since I won’t have to read any of the blather that will get written, I won’t mind all that much.

On the other hand, I have this great pair of red silk pants and a nifty little black velour jacket trimmed with white rabbit fur and I know for a fact I’m cute as a button in this outfit. It is much more … well, bratty, but it is cute. And it is an entirely different sort of statement to make at one’s sedition trail. I guess this is Patrick Henry’s sister when being mouthy, and so I would have to make a Speech of Import from the dock. The Irish are good at those, having had centuries of practice, so I should be fine. I’ll start practicing one soon. And the chains will look OK with this outfit, not great, but OK.

I know. You’re thinking that I’m just a lightweight. That I should be thinking serious thoughts about, oh, I don’t know. The Constitution, maybe. Or reforming the system. Or whether I should invest in the Chinese SKS or another load of dehydrated veggies. What can I say? I am thinking about those things. But I guess I need some advice on this question as well. I ask readers to send me their votes, for the gray dress, or the red silk/black jacket getup.

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

So, the guns are quiescent, at least in terms of violence. But in terms of bragging? You oughta hear them! They LOVE being the center of attention! Hell, you ain’t seen such braggadocio since Daniel Boone laid down his last brag!

What the anti-gunners don’t know is that all my inanimate objects are near revolt since the media harp and twitch ONLY on the guns. Report after reportu2014and it’s gone directly to the guns’ heads. The other objects are furiously jealous at the fame the guns are getting, while the guns only make things worse with their puffed headed bluster. Trouble is not only brewing, it is beginning to boil!

There’s the Louisville Slugger by the front door. That’s where he wants to be, so that’s where he is. He sez he will beat the everlivin’ crap out of anyone who bothers me on his turf. I can appreciate that protective nature of hisu2014he is one hardwood sumbitch. But now he’s grumbling and complaining. "Damn guns getting all the press. Hell, the press don’t even know I’m HERE," sez he.

The Estwing hammer who lives by the back door is just as protective and just as pissed off about the gun thing. "Damnation! I’ll CROWN anyone who bugs you coming in at this entrance! I’ll pound them just like I do your thumb and worse iffen they try it! Where’s MY glory, dammit! Damn guns have had 15 YEARS of infamyu2014I want at least my 15 minutes."

Sigh. And those are just a few of u2018em. Can you imagine what the boomerang is saying? I can imagine, but I’ve never been able to understand its Aussie accent. And the Egyptian bedouin knife that lives under my pillowu2014bloodcurdling Arabic curses are keeping me awake at night. I can’t understand Arabic, but it sure sounds like it wants to disembowel and decapitate somethingu2014probably the Winchesters. (Hmmmmmmmmm.)

Even the intelligensia are in on it: the Globe Complete Shakespeare, the Webster’s Unabridged and the Britannica (combined they weigh a TON) are conspiring in whispers to leap off the shelf and brain anything in the vicinityu2014which will probably be me!

From the silverware drawer I hear an incredible racket and some squeaky gutter French, "Va foutre!" "Batard!" "Tu vache!" "En garde!" Damn knives are brawling again.

My headache grows apace.

Out from under the sink danced the box of Rat Poison, swaggering around with its chest out, claiming that it really IS dangerousu2014I sighed and kicked its ass back into the cupboard.

And then there’s the damn microwave. It thinks it can probably blow stuff up (it can, it has, but I ain’t telling it that). And even the GE Iron wants to get into the act. "I’m gonna get medieval on yor ass . . ."

"SHUT UP RIGHT NOW, Objects!" sez me. "I’ve had ENOUGH! Everyone just hush up and settle down or I’ll set the damn house on fire. I WANT PEACE AND QUIET IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

The cacophony gradually died to a dull roar, then to a low-level murmur.

"That’s better," I sniffed.

Damn, I wish NPR would shut up about the guns. Aren’t they aware of the trouble they’re causing? Not just in my houseu2014everyone else must be having this trouble too!

You can see the chaos this totally unfair "gun violence" thing is creating among my objects. It is driving them all nuts, and I can’t tell you what it is doing to me. It is, as polite Southerners would put it, making me "nervous."

Insurrections are never tidy. This one is gonna be a real bitch.

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

You are, in the words of one of the philosophers writing today, moral vultures.

You squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and the more the people of any nation yelp and protest, the more brutal you become.

Good. The more brutal you become, the more the people become aware of your game.

People will stand for quite a bit of your nonsenseu2014but you know that. It also helps when you brainwash them silly and stupid with that scourge of modern times, the television. It is by means of television that you enure them to your violence, and your generic nazi tactics; as long as it isn’t happening to them, they can bear watching it happen to their neighbors. Go right ahead and roast some more Somali kids. We’ll watch.

But slowly, under all the layers of your televised sexuality and your televised violence, and the stupidity of your "news," the idea grows in millions of minds that they are watching the creation of the ugliest totalitarian/fascist beast yet.

Good. Please squeeze harder. Send out more of your goons masquerading as gang members in their cool black suits. Terrorize and kill even more citizens in "the drug-glazed informant told us the wrong house" drug raids. Jack more young pregnant wives up against the wall so they miscarry, and shoot more kids in the back. Use even more tanks.

Please continue, most of all, your policy of stealing property rights through land-grab environmentalism. This is the most important of all. After all, the great mass of humans can live without a free pressu2014we’ve seen that in America for this entire century. By the insidious work of your televised sex and violence, you’ve made sure that people have lost their moral compass, so freedom of religion doesn’t much matter to them. You’ve doing great with the "guns are evil monsters" routine as well. Very few care about justice, so all your illegal searches and seizures have profited you greatly.

Keep it up. Squeeze harder. Some blood needs to leak from our eyeballs.

Do it. Squeeze, baby, squeeze.

Please force more of our young daughters to spread their legs for your unnecessary and invasive government gynecological exams in the schools. Do not listen to their saying NO. Make them do it anyway. Please press all of our young men and women into involuntary servitude via your newest mechanism of "volunteerism." Make them suffer for it. Your doublethink on this issue alone is wonderful: involuntary volunteerism. Orwell would be very impressed.

Squeeze. Squeeze harder.

Indoctrinate the young men and women of the Armed Forces a bit more. With your new sex trials, the men will vacate the service, leaving an armed force of whiny females to defend this country. Good job, that one. Do keep killing all the officials and journalists who discover your tricks and disagree with your policies via Apparent Suicide Syndrome. You’re doing great with this tactic, teaching people who is boss and what thoughts they are allowed to think and say.

With civilians, property rights will be the crux of the issue, which is why the people have had "Save the Earth From Humans" shoved quite prettily down their throats for the past 30 years. Please keep taking away our rightu2014bought and paid foru2014to do what we wish with our houses, our property, our land. This is good. In fact, if you can manage it in the Congress turned Comintern, raise the taxes on producers, employers, and property owners until they cannot be borne. Put more people out of business and out of work with your "endangered species" ploy. They won’t realize that truly they are the endangered species. Make more species "endangered," for that matter. Take a risk. You’ve earned it, and you’ve become quite good at the Big Lie: make cows and pigs and chickens unavailable for human consumption by putting them on the "endangered" list. Put all animals currently hunted or fished for food or sport "endangered" and then you can outlaw all small arms for civilians.

Squeeze. Squeeze much harder. It is, after all, what totalitarians do best.

You’re doing really well on the death front, with the older ones crying for Dr. Kevorkian to give them his tender mercies, and an entire generation of young women willing to kill their own blood and bone wholesale, aided by the Lords of Medicine. A fine job on this, since now the people can kill and be killed for the sake of convenience.

We’re coming to the historical point where you really start culling the herd of humansu2014but be careful here, since, after all, it’s those inconvenient humans who provide the money to support your totalitarian agenda. At least, don’t take too many all at onceu2014a few invented in laboratories diseases will do to startu2014AIDS, Ebola, whatever. Don’t overdo it until the big push, of course.

But keep up the squeeze.

Use your free labor in prisons, where many of you have money invested, to make clothes and other goods for your consumption. This works well, too. Privatize prisons and run them on the Chinese model. If you run into trouble on this, note that most current (and rapidly becoming so) totalitarian governments can easily intimidate their herds of humans by using tanks against the people, and, needless to say, televising it.

Keep using informant lowlives to frame your enemies as well as the innocent among the people. Give the ones you catch extremely hard sentences for not knowing, say, that a government snitch had buried "pipe bomb material" on their property. That’s a nifty tactic, and one some people learned from mightily.

Do not prosecute your agents of the government bureaucracy no matter what laws they break, people they kill, or perjury they commit, whatever they may have done in the "line of culling the herd" just let it pass and cover it up. Make it very clear where the lines are drawn and for whom your laws apply. Among the people, the very very few are appreciative and aware of the lesson.

Squeeze Real Hard.

Keep lying through your teeth. Various current and former rulers are quite adept at this and it teaches the people discernment. This is a fine point, but important. The people learn when they hear when rulers or their agents say "No wrongdoing was done" in the face of blatant and obvious wrongdoing.

Keep well your paparazzi pets, the media. They will live as long and prosper as well as you. They serve you well. Have them oblige you even more by ignoring lies, deceptions, thefts and coverups by squeezing them just a touch as well.

Squeeze us even more, oh "kind-hearted" totalitarians. Until our eyeballs bleed.

On that day, we shall see you reap what you have sown.

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

Great Spotted Suck Toad Soup

• 3 Great Suck Toadsu2014kill them first by squishing them (do this outdoors as it is quite messy)
• Hot Water
• 1 Onion, minced
• Garlic clove, minced
• 26 Tablespoons of Cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Pepper

Toss all of the above into bit pot on stove. Bring to rolling boilu2014then simmer. Serve to any nosy bureaucrat/census taker who comes over to your house. Tie them up and make u2018em eat it if you have to. If the nosy bureaucrat/census taker refuses to eat their soup like good bureaucrats should, then add them to the soup. If you don’t want to spoil your suck toad soup by doing that, just pour the soup on u2018em. The cayenne alone will suffice to … ah … tenderize the bureaucrat/census taker. Hell hath no fury like 26 Tbs of cayenne!

Enjoy!

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

George Mason, for instance, received little formal schooling, but was lucky enough to be turned loose in the 1,500 volume library of his uncle John Mercer. (At that time, books were scarce and many families only owned a Bible, if that — 1,500 books was a treasure trove!) Or Benjamin Disraeli — he read his way through his father’s library and that was his education. Whatever I might think of his politics (or his atrocious novels), he was an intelligent and witty man. Thomas Paine, the finest writer of our Revolution, educated himself — read his Common Sense today, and witness his sharp, clear prose and stirring phrases. Thomas Jefferson was formally educated, attending William and Mary College, but if ever a man educated himself, and continually at that, it was Jefferson. Patrick Henry received his education from his father — but read far and wide.

Ben Franklin was sent to school by his father, who wanted his son to be a minister, and Ben easily mastered reading and writing. Strangely enough, like Einstein flunking his mathematics exams, Ben couldn’t grasp arithmetic and so was let go from the school. America lost a minister (which is probably a good thing, since he had an eye for the ladies), but that didn’t stop this original American from becoming an inventor, a scientist, a printer, a writer, a humorist, and masterful American statesman in a time of astounding political thinkers. Frederick Douglass was taught his letters as a slave, but taught himself to write and became one of the foremost orators of his day. H.L. Mencken was conventionally educated, although it sure didn’t harm him any — besides all of his prodigious journalistic writings, he also wrote those wonderful books on American language.

And this, it seems to me, is the solution to what is called "public education," one of the saddest jokes of our time. It isn’t hard to teach children to read, nor is it difficult to instill in them a love of reading. My father, not trained as a teacher, and a very impatient man, taught me to read with great ease, probably using phonics. Mothers and fathers teach children to read all the time. I honestly don’t see how people can fail in teaching children to read, but they sure do in the public schools.

Look at the successes of home-schooled children. They can actually spell. They can actually read, and no doubt at levels far beyond the paltry levels achieved (or not) in the public schools. Private school children do well too. Frankly, it simply is not such a difficult proposition — in fact, it is easy.

But public school children are not even taught to read! At huge taxpayer expense they are taught to look at words and guess what they mean. Can you imagine anything more inane than that? Yo! Public School Teacher — look at this word and guess what it means: STUPID. It isn’t that these children are intellectually deficient — but they are kept ignorant, and it sure looks to me like it is entirely deliberate. Or maybe not. From what I’ve read of the huge numbers of teachers who can barely pass their teacher exams, perhaps they can’t read either.

So here’s what we do: step one, teach the kids to read. Step two, set ‘em loose in libraries. My guess is the quality of real education would go up by 75%, if not higher! And the children might even be able to spell, and speak complete grammatical sentences without a single use of the word "like," unlike most college students today.

We might even end up with another crop of self-taught geniuses!

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

I’ve worked in an English department now for many years, and have sorrowfully watched as all the good, rich wonderful courses on Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, the Enlightenment, the Romantic poets were retired in favor of politically correct nonsense or abstract theory — deconstruction finally seems to have deconstructed itself and died out, but for a while there it was enthroned. Marxist and/or sexuality-based courses became the rage. There may still be a token Shakespeare or Chaucer course, but the syllabus will invariably describe that the students will be looking at the work of these two masters in terms of discrimination against women or how racism "informs" their work.

Gendering the Narrative was the actual name of a course taught here. Who knows what it was about? I recall hearing a description of the course, but like all that PC blather it goes in one ear and quickly out the other. It sounded dreadfully boring. I mean, would you pay $1200 for sexual/gender indoctrination? I hope not!

And more and more, neither will the students. And their parents sure don’t want to fork over that kind of dough for such rot, and so, slowly but more certainly than ever, less and less students are becoming English majors. After all, if all the trendy professors want to do is talk about TV (Star Trek and Twin Peaks were hits of a recent course) and pop culture, why should students want to study what they can just watch on, well, TV?

Other humanities disciplines are the same way, too many intellectually vapid PC courses, and not enough of the strong, resilient, traditional canon. Anthropology is really sterile ground; its course listing shows more PC courses than ever before.

Here’s a really choice example:

"ANTHROPOLOGY 202 Modern Social Theory: Key Texts and Issues Description:

This course involves close reading of selected texts by three authors who established the framework of modern social theory. Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. Readings will focus on each author’s attempt to comprehend the possibilities and pathologies of industrial capitalism. The course addresses both the future of the US in a global capitalist economy and the search for community in contemporary American society. In addition to classic works, readings will include contemporary books such as The Work of Nations by Robert Reich and Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault."

Classic socialist political correctness, in other words. And boring as hell. Can you imagine paying to read a book by the intellectual (and otherwise) pipsqueak Robert Reich?

Students are not enrolling in these courses — or at least enrollment is down. Hmmmm. Maybe some of these students even have brains beneath their pink hair and nose rings. It is a possibility, albeit remote.

The upshot is, we’re losing students, and the humanities in general are losing our share of the University pie. And frankly, that’s a good thing.

It just might teach everyone a real lesson.

Patricia Sharon Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Sharon Neill

Patricia Neill Archives

And what a delicious, wonderful burst of laughter it was! It came right up through me from the depth of my belly, as if molten lava out of the center of Vesuvius.

Thank you, National Public Radio! This is, of course, why I listen to you gasbags and your mush and propaganda pretending to be "news." And why I allow you to annoy me 99% of the time. These particular moments are priceless!

Thank you for the story of a black preacher "praying" this morning. The story was, of course, about getting out the black vote (though how you can call that "one of the top stories in the news" is beyond me).

Getting out the vote of most solid, decent American voters is not the object of the Democrats, one notes. However, getting the Whiners to the polls is not only the entire platform of Democrats, but also its absolute focus. I’m tired of having to discriminate amongst the Whiners (something these days I’m told not to do anyway), whether they be black, brown, guilty, feeble-brained whites , speak Spanish or Yiddish, or have tits (real or transgendered). So I’ve taken to lumping all the screeching voices into the one party they are: The Whiners. And they are ALL Democrats. (We’ll reserve the Department of "Defense" for another time.)

NPR played this splendid bit about a black reverend, and his prayer to his Heavenly Father to get behind Al Gore in the coming election. To steal from Barry, I am not making this up.

This slick black dude, supposedly ordained of the Lord, was asking Him to help Al Gore become President. I mean, can you imagine? Oh what a hoot, straight from Heaven!

I don’t know about you, but I think American politics have become so horribly embarrassing that if it were me, I would pray for God to ignore the entire situation! I sure wouldn’t ask Him to help out a scheming liar politician (any of u2018em).

But it struck me pretty funny this morning! I mean, they heard me down the street I laughed so hard. My neighbors, black and white, started laughing just from hearing me laugh, and they didn’t even know why they were laughing. You should have heard that smarmy sanctimonious voice actually daring to ask GOD to make Algore win.

"Of course, Heavenly Father, we’d like Al Gore to win" — so we can get more of other people’s tax money.

God is supposed to help Al Gore take power? AL GORE? That slimy clone of wormspit?

Right.

Pray on, Preacher. I hope God actually heard you.

Patricia Sharon Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Sharon Neill

Patricia Neill Archives

Upshot is that these so-called "developing" nations would be far more aptly named beggar nations. All we ever hear out of most African countries is how we should do more for them. Send them money, drugs for AIDS, condoms, etc. and etc. Hands out, they continually ask for aid. And we’ve continually given it — and still they’re not developing.

Here’s a prime example of what I mean by beggar nations:

LONDON (Reuters) — The West’s failure to invest all the money it promised into world population programmes has resulted in a deadly shortage of condoms in the developing world, the United Nations (news – web sites) said on Wednesday.

In a sharp rebuke for the world’s biggest economies, the retiring head of the UN Population Fund said her biggest regret about the job was the crippling lack of resources.

"These are large countries which should be doing a lot more," said Dr Nafis Sadik, executive director of the UNFPA.

"The resources are just not there and especially for the products that require foreign exchange," she told reporters. "Condom supplies are getting disrupted" at a time when demand is soaring.

See what I mean? That sub-Saharan Africa can’t keep its collective dingdong in its collective pants is all our fault. And out comes the hands, begging for condoms. I like that "especially for the products that require foreign exchange" — how awful that we might ask something in return for all the shipments of condoms.

And there you have that "developing" world nonsense again. Unfortunately, all these countries do is beg through their UN spokesmen. Too bad they can’t see fit to put some of that begging energy into making their own lives a bit better. But, ah, that requires work, hard work.

So get to developing, all you "developing" nations. I might be a bit more willing to help you then. As it is, I’m sick of hearing about all your sad troubles.

Patricia Sharon Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Sharon Neill

Patricia Neill Archives

So let’s hire us a king. Didn’t England at one point hire themselves a couple of Germans to monarch it over them? So there’s precedent for such a move, and it would shock the hell out of America and the world, which at least would save me and millions others from death from terminal boredom at the charade that American elections have become.

I think an Amish guy would be good. He wouldn’t want the job, probably, but maybe we could convince him. And I favor a Chechyan, too. I like the ferocity of those folks. Ideas, of course, are welcome. We could put ads in all the classifieds of every newspaper on the planet, asking for a male (no queens, please, unless there’s an Elizabeth I out there and I doubt it) with certain rulership/kingly qualities. All we’d have to do is decide what those kingly qualities might be, and then we could get on with the show.

This way, we could rid ourselves of that horridly expensive sham known as Congress, a useless blob of excrescence we could easily do without. And we could trash the entire judiciary while we’re at it. Who needs that whole shell-game anyway? When was the last time either Congress or the judiciary did anything for Americans that was worthwhile? Let’s ditch the entire thing.

I think America needs a king. The hell with letting the rabble and women vote — look at what they elect! Twice!

In the midst of one of the worst political seasons ever, I toss this idea out there for discussion. Frankly, before we head into rank, real communism, I think feudalism is an option we could at least discuss.

Hah!

Patricia Sharon Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Sharon Neill

Patricia Neill Archives

Many of our beliefs are semi-conscious to subconscious. We are not aware of why we think and feel the way we do. And this makes us easy prey for those who want to manipulate us. To strengthen your mind, and to slap some hardwood into your backbone, question everything.

For instance, for about a decade or so, the media has taken to calling every death a tragedy. Every single death I hear about on the radio (I’m too lively to watch TV) has been called a tragedy until the word tragedy nearly yawned me into an early grave. So I ask, is every death so ultimately horrible? Hell, no. Considering that death is the Exit Door for the human race and everything else that lives, it is only a rare and startling death that can be called a tragedy. Death is merely a fact of life, one coin, two sides. I’d like my death to be by firing squad, please. I love the dramatic aspect: Blam, blam, blam, and I’m out of here!

Ask. When some X-spurt claims that one out of four women are raped, don’t just believe him. Ask lots of women you know, and see what they say. The way silly feminist thinking has taken over these days, some women might actually think they had been raped when they haven’t — just a rough date or a bit of harassment. Women who have really been raped in any of its ugly or brutal forms won’t much like to talk about it. Rape is another word that has been cheapened out of its horrible but very real meaning.

I’ve asked awkward questions all my life, and I intend to keep on it until I actually scare up that firing squad. It makes life interesting. I’ve learned many fascinating things by being willing to inquire into seemingly taboo areas. It is hard to imprison a mind that keeps asking questions and that is unwilling to put up with pat or accepted answers.

You can expect hard times, some dislike from those around you, perhaps a beating or two. Certainly there is danger involved. But also expect fun, for fun is what you’ll find. You will find that 99% of X-spurts are so dumb as to believe the lies they tell you, but you’ll also find out that they are lying, or at least not presenting the whole truth.

Read books you think you will hate. Go to political meetings that you think you will abhor. You’ll find people there. Just folks like you, for the most part. Some will be ideologues, another breed entirely, but most are just people. Ask them questions. Tell them you are from the enemy camp if you really want to have fun, but do not disrespect them. Unless they are ideologues, then feel free. I can’t stand ideologues.

Ask anybody anything, within reason, and with an honest interest. To this day you can see blinders on a horse’s harness. The blinders keep the horse from seeing too much, and thus spooking. That’s fine for horses, but it is very limiting for a human. Get spooked! Get enlivened! Kick up some of that dust on the long road from here to there. Your life will be far richer, and you much better for it.

Oh. As to the emperor’s new clothes? Who sez that naked man is an emperor? Quick, let’s hang a snapping turtle off the end of him. I just know I’ll be successful in finding that firing squad!

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

"According to a variety of observers, it is conceivable that a final peace agreement could cost as much as $100 billion to implement" (UPI, seen at newsmax.com yesterday).

Would it be asking too much for these boyos to at least have a little war first? You know, nothing too big or too ugly. Something that could play on CNN for a few weeks and we could then at least see a reason for a $100 billion "peace accord."

As it is, I’d have to fork over a whole bunch of money for the same sort of "peace" that I’ve been seeing for what feels like my entire lifetime in the Mideast. And frankly, I’d rather not. The price is just too high. I’ll wait for the sale, thanks.

The principal shysters of this deal are all too smug for me. Here’s another one of those no-name spokespeople (may their tribe decrease!), this one from Israel: "While funding will ultimately be critical to implementing a deal, it seems reasonable to assume that the nations of the world will find a way to provide funding for an historic peace accord."

One might ask, reasonable to whom? To the tribe of no-name spokespeople, apparently, but it ain’t reasonable to me!

Well, hell. How many "historic peace accords" do I have to pay for? And will some accountant out there do the figuring and let me know if a plain, simple war just might be cheaper than this peace deal? My bet is it could be. After all, my country wouldn’t be involved, and lord knows, we’ve given both Israel and Palestine enough money to have themselves a nice little war to solve their interminable, neverending disagreements.

And why is it that I see that both sides of this longest-running ever situation comedy known as a Israel/Palestinian peace process seem to have Bill Clinton’s "legacy" shorthairs in their greedy little mits? Tug them hairs, boys. This fella’s so desperate for a legacy that there is no telling what he might do. Then again, he left the brilliant Madeline Albright, that wonderwoman of calming down the Balkans fame, in charge. Someone is going to have to take the fall for this one, and it might as well be Mad.

Well, I’m going to take an even approach on this one and wait for the Sale on the Peace Accord.

Better work on bringing down that price, Ms. Albright. Bill Clinton’s "legacy" already stinks to high heaven, and it will be tough selling a load of rotting fish, even to Americans.

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

Ignore all the pretty diplomatic words for a time and what actually goes on becomes clearer.

The Israeli/Palenstinain "peace process" has been a daily bit of news since the days of ol’ mealy-mouth peanut farmer Carter. And things have gotten worse, not better. The fight has become much more bitter and more people have died.

Who benefits from all these "peace processes"? Do the Irish and the British benefit? You can tell me all you want that at least they are not blowing each other up — but tomorrow I’ll hear of a bomb set off by the IRA, or that the Brits or the Orangemen have killed some Catholics. This is known in modern parlance as a "peace process." It is another name for constant, low-level war.

I’m an American taxpayer who pays tribute so these inane diplomatic smoke-and-mirror games can be played, but I can’t see that I benefit in the least. And this "peace process" industry is threatening my health with death by boredom! How many thousands and thousands of times have I read a "news" item like the following? You pick up any newspaper in the land, and you’ll find a nearly identical paragraph.

"WASHINGTON (AP) – Facing a deadlock and a deadline, the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to meet at Camp David, Md., next week with President Clinton, who announced the summit blah blah blah blah. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, facing increasing political trouble at home, said both sides need to "seize the opportunity."

Hah — I’ll bet you didn’t even catch the secret message because your eyes glazed over immediately at the very idea of reading another such paragraph!

My fervent wish is that these "peace talks" would not only get bogged-down, but fully and deeply buried in a bog, along with all the participants. There are some excellent bogs in Ireland they could use.

Orwell got it right, but backwards. He wrote "War is Peace." What we see in our version of 1984 is that "Peace is War."

And "peacekeepers"? They carry machine guns and roast Somali children over fires, while running a black market in food and medicine, raping and killing their merry way through starving, desolate populations all over the globe. Just ask the Bosnian Serbs.

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 2000 by Patricia Neill

DIGG THIS

First, of all, I’m sorry about the Holocaust. Really, really sorry about that. I’d also like to apologize for the fall of the Roman Empire, for Napoleon’s effectiveness, for China’s brutality and for Jimmy Carter.

I want to apologize for the Irish potato famine, and for the Irish in general. Shame on me for inflicting the world with a race of poets, scholars, monks, and cops, not to mention Brendan Behan. I’m sorry for the Hutus using their machetes on the Tutus. Very sorry.

I am hugely remorseful for Rasputin.

I apologize for anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, ageism, lookism, heightism, smartism, cuteism, artism, jazzism, and no doubt I’ve left something out there — for which, I apologize. I’m really quite sorry about the Spanish Inquisition, indulgences, corporal punishment, the British Empire, and the Roman Catholic Church. I’m very sorry about the Crusades, especially that silly Children’s Crusade, which was really a big mistake on my part.

I’m really, really, really sorry for Death, Destruction, Plato, Sesame Street, and mosquitoes.

Please forgive me for fast food, rap music, and disco. How horrible I’ve been. I’m really sorry.

I’m very, very contrite that the Clintons were elected twice, and I am sorry for all their lies. I’m sorry for the poor quality of wood that makes up Al Gore’s head. I could have used teak, and didn’t. Please forgive me. I’m remorseful about all the endangered species, even, in my better moments, for the Great Spotted Suck Toad. I am miserable about all the beached whales, creamy-breasted bed thrashers, and red-tailed goots.

I’m sorry for black slavery in America, and I’m sorry for the welfare state.

I apologize for public education, the Industrial Revolution, and Windows 95. I’m really sorry about the Rape of Nanking, Pearl Harbor, the desert in sub-Saharan Africa, and the French.

I apologize for any modern invention that has ever inconvenienced anyone, like when your car won’t start on a cold morning, and I’m sorry about all the landmines, bombs, and boring speeches of politicians. I’m sorry about Hillary Clinton’s hairdos.

I repent the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and of course, the Holocaust.

I apologize to my cats for them not having been born dogs. I’m real sorry about the invention of the television, and for the devolution of the human race. I apologize for the Moon, winter, and the color mauve.

However — and get this straight — I am NOT sorry about the clarinet. I had nothing to do with the damn thing.

Patricia Neill [send her mail] is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

I am a woman, I am 41, I’ve never been pregnant because I have chosen not to be, and I am here to witness that there are a throng of decisions to make before one comes to the ultimate moral choice of life or death. There is no denying that the fetus, the child, is alive and that an abortion kills it. An abortion is a choice for death of the child. Birth is a choice for life of the child. This is simple reality and the sane cannot argue about reality.

If the debate on this issue is to reflect reality, rather than a political agenda, it is necessary that we hold the facts of the matter firmly in our hands and regard them with the solemnity necessary to the matters of life and death. We would all, I believe, wish our own lives to be so held and regarded.

The slogan "a woman’s right to choose" only relates to abortion and not to all the other choices and decisions at hand. This is its entire meaning: a woman has the "right" to choose to destroy her unborn child, should it be any kind of problem for her to bear it.

Almost every woman and man my own age I know has had, or been involved with, an abortion. As a nation, we have been needlessly killing our young, and, most of the time, merely for the sake of that ugly item convenience. In witness of this fact, I have seen powerful, sad tears welling up in our eyes and rolling down our cheeks at the most surprising times and in the most surprising places. We have hurt ourselves for the sake of convenience, but we do not need to continue to do so. Deep and damaging pain results from immorality and irresponsibility and as a nation we feel the product of that pain, which is guilt. Let those tears flow. They are necessary.

Like other women, I have practiced all of the choices before "the right to choose" arises. For a woman, these decisions must be based on her physical nature. We are different from men: if a child is conceived, it will live and thrive in our bodies until it is ready to be born. Please excuse this basic lesson in human biology, but it seems necessary today. Every human life must come through a woman’s body. This is not the sum of any woman, but it is part and parcel of our sex. I have decided for various reasons not to exercise this power; nevertheless, until the "child-bearing years" are over for me, I have to consider this every time I look at a man with desire.

As women, our choices begin at the very thought of physical intimacy that could lead to pregnancy. In order to have sex some males will push females to the point of aggression and attack — but there is a name for this and it is rape. However, except in the case of rape (which rarely results in pregnancy), pregnancy is the result of certain decisions, each of which contributed to the probability of becoming pregnant. These are decisions we have made without taking full responsibility for the consequences.

Men, of course, will push for their desires to be considered favorably. One cannot blame them, this is as natural as a blue sky on a summer day. Desire is natural for both sexes, for that matter, and sweet in its proper place. But we do not have to give in to desire, ours or theirs. To all women and girls everywhere, I say this: if a man says to you that he will die if you don’t participate in sex with him, tell him to go right ahead and that you’d like to watch.

With sex comes the risk of bringing another life into being and we are responsible for that life. Abortion purports to be a solution to a problem; however, what really is the problem? Is it pregnancy, or the lack of responsible behavior? It strikes me that abortion is no solution to the problem of irresponsibility. Deliberately harming or killing another outside of self-defense is wrong. It is also not necessary. Abstinence is the first common sense step.

The next wide level of choices is birth control. Women and men fought long and hard to be able to determine and rule their own reproductive systems. Both Church and State, usually hand in hand, have wished to control people by controlling their sexuality and their ability to reproduce. This is historical fact. Without access to birth control and the knowledge of how to use it correctly, there will be infanticide, abortion, and unwanted children. With birth control, and responsible use of it, all of those are simply unnecessary. They may and do still occur, but they are not obligatory or numerous.

This is the second, and hard-won, choice. With the practice of abstinence and the appropriate, consistent practice of birth control, there is no need for 99% of abortions.

Human beings are not simply another resource, although the State has always thought so. We are not merely a tax-base and cannon-fodder, and people should battle that attitude whenever it raises its ugly head. Nor should we allow the Church to rule us on this matter of reproducing ourselves — it is an intimate, deep, part of our human life, and the bearing of children is a matter of individual conscience and morality, and of ability to care for them.

However, what has happened in America since 1973 is a gradual eroding of that conscience and morality. We have always had abstinence, and now we have cheap, effective, and accessible birth control. And yet we are told, repetitively and constantly, that "a woman’s right to choose" means abortion, and only abortion. Hitler killed 6 million, Stalin killed 10 million, and we the people have killed approximately 30 million, all for the sake of a quick roll in the hay with no forethought and no afterthought. This, when we have all the choices we do, is repugnant. Women and men share equal guilt for this, as we share equal responsibility for engendering children.

Shall we continue to pretend that the only important choice is for us to be able to abort our children legally, cheaply, and indeed, paid for by the State? This is raw, undiluted hogwash. "A woman’s right to choose" is a political slogan for a political agenda, and should be recognized as such.

I used to be pro-abortion. When I even thought about it, rather than "going with the flow" of my generation, I tended to value a full-grown woman’s life and rights over those of "a group of cells." However, as my moral and political thought evolved, I came to realize that this "group of cells" is as much another human being as I am, just as I am equally only "a group of cells." We share human life, that unborn child and I. In all honesty, my former position was lacking in morality, conscience and logic. I am not proud of this.

However, if we make the right choices, we don’t need a woman’s "right to choose." Nor does the State need to be involved in our decisions about human reproduction. The Constitution of the United States is our contract with and our mandate to the State: these things you may do and no others. There is nothing about abortion, birth control, or human reproduction in the federal Constitution or in any state’s original constitution. And that is as it should be.

When there is human slavery, slaves are bred or not bred for their owner’s profit and convenience. When there is human freedom, with its attendant corollaries of responsibility and choice, we may breed or not breed within the limits of our ability to care for the children we bring into the world. The choice is ours. It is a matter, not of convenience, but of responsibility.

"A woman’s right to choose" may seem like the crowning point of the entire battle for women’s civil and political rights. However, women fought for these rights as adult, moral people of conscience. Abdicating that stance is dangerous. "A woman’s right to choose" is an illusion of female control over her reproductive system, for by becoming pregnant, she has lost her right to decide. A woman’s choice ends at conception, for then her only choice, if she wishes no baby to be born, is to kill. This is simply wrong.

Moreover, this political slogan, "a woman’s right to choose" has more to do with the State’s desire to increase or lessen its "human resources" than it does with a woman’s individual choices. After WWII, the State wished to increase its "human resources" so it encouraged women to quit the jobs they held during the war, get married, and have lots of babies. Nowadays, the State wishes to decrease its "human resources," so it makes abortions legal and cheap and encourages "a woman’s right to choose."

If we wish to be free, rather than the slaves the State attempts to make of its "human resources," we need to take full responsibility for our own lives and actions. This is a matter of conscience on the one hand, and of securing greater political power on the other. The more control we are willing to exercise over ourselves, through taking responsibility for our actions, the less we can be manipulated by outside forces: the whimsical and changing laws of the State, and its media-operated propaganda and slogans.

Control, essentially, is at the root of "a woman’s right to choose" and women and men must make better choices if they wish to be free human beings.We must make up our own hearts and minds, act accordingly, and accept the consequences of our actions. There is no freedom otherwise.

A true tale: My brother and his wife created Caitlin, and in the latter portions of Caitlin’s time in Carol’s womb, they learned that Caitlin could not live, her poor little body was not made for life. The doctors recommended abortion, which Terry and Carol decided was out of the question. God, you see, gave them Caitlin. Carol went through the entire pregnancy, gave birth, and three days later, Caitlin died. She is buried next to my father, and was as much a person as any of us. Caitlin was destined to be born and her birth changed all of our lives powerfully. But she wasn’t destined to live.

In my life, I have made my choices for responsibility and thus for freedom. Carol is the bravest woman I know, and she too made hers and willingly paid a much higher price. We have both exercised our "right to choose."

Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist and poet.

© 1996 by Patricia Neill