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Just a Game
Some of my favorite lyrics from the musical Blood Brothers, by John Lennon contemporary and fellow Liverpuddlian, Willy Russell go like this:
"But you know that if you cross your fingers,
and if you count from one to ten,
you can get up off the ground again.
It doesn't matter the whole thing's just a game."
"Kids' Game"
Does art imitate life? You'll have to decide for yourself. The example is from the LA Times: The Right Wing's Deep, Dark Secret
Excerpt from the top:
"One of the secrets of conservative America is how often it has welcomed Republican defeats. In 1976, many conservatives saw the trouncing of the moderate Gerald Ford as a way of clearing the path for the ideologically pure Ronald Reagan in 1980. In November 1992, George H.W. Bush's defeat provoked celebrations not just in Little Rock, where the Clintonites danced around to Fleetwood Mac, but also in some corners of conservative America.
"Oh yeah, man, it was fabulous," recalled Tom DeLay, the hard-line congressman from Sugar Land, Texas, who had feared another "four years of misery" fighting the urge to cross his party's too-liberal leader. At the Heritage Foundation, a group of right-wingers called the Third Generation conducted a bizarre rite involving a plastic head of the deposed president on a platter decorated with blood-red crepe paper."
As I said, you'll have to decide for yourself. In the wee hours I find it almost perfectly ironic in an imperfect world, that what US citizens take so seriously -- political conventions, elections and the like -- seems so absurdly like a game to the people "chosen" to rule.
Posted by Kate Storm on July 28, 2004 at 04:24 AM | Permalink
Comments
I just realized that you might need to do the hated "registration" to read the full article at the LA Times. It's a good read. If you don't want to use your own information you might try Bug Me Not where you can plug in the URL you want to view and get a login. I've never tried it, but I know people swear by it.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 28, 2004 4:43:06 AM
Another registration tip:
name: dailykos (or dailykos@dailykos.com, if they want an email address)
Password: dailykos
Markos has set these up in most major news outlets, and encourages you to set up a new one if it isn't already registered. Has worked every time for me, and it's easy to remember.
Oh, and by the way - biggest reason the Repubs might like to lose? Becuase they know it's going to be a horrendous mess to clean up the last four years.
Posted by: semper ubi | Jul 28, 2004 8:25:00 AM
Here's a low-down on the Heritage Foundation.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 28, 2004 10:24:37 AM
Well, the dailykos thing didn't work for me at the L.A. Times, so I set up this account:
User Name: lemmereadit
Password: lemmereadit
Hope this helps.
Posted by: prof fate | Jul 28, 2004 11:33:58 AM
Hey Kate-- regarding semper ubi's point above....do you think it works in reverse?
Specifically, are the BohoGRovians, you know those whose real agenda is to keep the expansion of the Kleptocracy under the radar, getting a little worried that the true believers, PNACWankers and the EndTimers are going to ruin a good thing by going too far, thus causing people to open their eyes and see that their country is gone?
And if that's the case, would the Bohos like maybe like to see a little mid-course correction to keep things on track?
Posted by: RossK | Jul 29, 2004 1:51:11 AM
Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon - 1914
Posted by: SME in Seattle | Jul 29, 2004 3:06:16 AM
SME--
Very poignant and spot on.
Have your read Johnny Got His Gun?
Posted by: RossK | Jul 29, 2004 3:34:07 AM
Thanks SME in Seattle -- the Election Orgy and the Media Whores' docility in regards to Bush Felons' ostensible "handoff of responsibility" have caused me to forget too often the on-going and awful price of America's unprovoked War of Aggression in Iraq: the soldiers' and the Iraqis' unending anguish and misery because those truly responsible insist on perpetuating a fraud upon the world and the American public.
Posted by: x174 | Jul 29, 2004 3:43:11 AM
Ross: And if that's the case, would the Bohos like maybe like to see a little mid-course correction to keep things on track?
I don't see why not. Especially, if as I suspect, "said Bohos" are looking a bit further into the future than the next three months, or even three years. Also since the complement of the extremist PNAC-ers in the political tango is not a polar opposite group ... you know ... they hover more toward the middle of the continuum in their attitudes and goals. I read somewhere in the last year how people like Soros, et al are pretty miffed at the hamhandedness of BushCo & company, and their obvious "giving the game away".
Then too, in the back of my cabal-fascinated little head, I have the clever Simpson's episode where Homer joins the "Stonecutters" ... the fraternal order. All of them singing around the table about what they control. Did you ever see it? It was perfect. The episode was called Homer the Great
The Stonecutters Song: "Who controls the British Crown?
Who Keeps The Metric System Down?
We Do, We Do...
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We Do, We Do...
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Gutenberg, a star!
We Do, We Do...
Who robs kegfish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We Do... We Doooo!"
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 29, 2004 5:49:52 AM
@SME and ROSSK:
I imagine that the number 58,000, sticks in all our memories. We can go to some memorial in Washington and read each one.
Sasoon's world was a bit more primitive.
On July 1, 1916(D Day, Battle of the Somme), the British Army, took 57,500 casualties, including about 22,000 dead.
WWI must have been hell on earth.
and SME: I appreciated the poem you posted over at Chat Noir.
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Jul 29, 2004 7:59:59 AM
Thanks SME. Here's some from a home-boy:
John Akins
55 years old
Seattle, WA
Marine infantry Vietnam, 1968-69
"The American Dream Sells It Out"
School, job, family -
Boys fight for their country.
At war I learn the truth:
Taboos are broken.
Kills gain nothing.
You cheapen your life.
A sniper kills a Marine.
Our artillery pounds the ville.
A mother holds her shredded baby in her lap.
His head lolls back.
I sink into the underworld.
The dream sellers keep their distance
And wave flags.
Politicians claim the price of freedom
Is worth a few lives.
The men who know never the mother's eyes.
- John Akins, Marine rifleman, Viet Nam 1968-69
"Shooting Blind"
We march to the brink again.
Our cowboy president puffs his chest.
The one who ducked his time fights.
Men who fought no longer lead.
I'm sick of pompous wannabes.
Why let the uninitiated send in troops?
A council of warriors
Who fought on the ground
Should weigh the threat to peace.
I'm sick of foolish blowhards.
"Tell-tale Stain"
What to do about the blood on our hands?
America has so much on its hands.
Violence is our credo.
The politicians stand by it,
But seldom get bloody.
Maybe if they just got a little on their shoes....
"Black Tattoo"
Hope dims in cordite smoke.
Dreams are trod into the jungle loam;
The Green War twists my brain.
Taboos sink into the muck of sanctioned violence.
When a few enemy move into a village,
The area becomes a free-fire zone.
Grandfather, grandmother, mothers and children suffer.
My heart's tattoo is solid black.
I met Honest John in a trailer court.
Jungle memories haunted his spirit -
His emotional radar, a blank screen.
One day I found him on my way to work.
He'd blasted his heart, then holstered the Smith and Wesson.
I ached for his wife, his loosed tether.
I showed up at work -
Ran seams of molten metal under hooded blackness.
My eyes locked on the rod's tip of fire -
The only way I could pierce the darkness.
"War Wimps"
Oh these war testosterone blowhards
In their big-talk dramas.
And our president,
Who slithered in shadows
While his peers slugged
It out in Viet Nam.
Oh come on, George.
This brave talk of backbone —
When you couldn’t even handle
Week-end warrior meetings.
You never saw babies
Shredded by shrapnel,
Never bled on useless missions.
Yet, you talk the talk —
Strut about in
Stacked-heeled boots.
Big, bad George,
All swagger and thunder.
Captain of your gravy boat.
Sailing to your biggest blunder.
- John Akins, Feb. 2003 –
Posted by: beq | Jul 29, 2004 8:16:21 AM
Good morning, FLASHHARRY. I think (I hope) the others are having sweet dreams now on the left coast.
Posted by: beq | Jul 29, 2004 8:28:15 AM
@BEQ:
God Akins is good. I wonder what might happen if Akins teamed up with this old Southern boy, wrote some music, and took the show on the road:
Check out Hag's editorial at:
http://www.merlehaggard.com/
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Jul 29, 2004 8:51:39 AM
@FLASHHARRY:
Yeah, Merle's come a long way since "Okie From Muskogee".
Believe it or not, he used to have an office right next to where I'm now working; still had his sign up (Hag Enterprises) when I started here in January.
So, anybody want my autograph? ;-)
Posted by: prof fate | Jul 29, 2004 9:55:56 AM
Thanks FLASHHARRY, it's good to see that a full range of Americans are awake and aware and not afraid to speak out. You have a gift with words yourself. I found the above at poets against the war. Take a stroll there. I do when I need to hear hearts speaking.
Posted by: beq | Jul 29, 2004 9:58:20 AM
@Professor Fate:
Perhaps a little missionary work, Corleone
style, would be in order.
And if you have to buy an autograph to get
in, I'll spring for it: I hate these bastards so.
And thanks BEQ, for THAT link!
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Jul 29, 2004 11:07:02 AM
Kate way up thread--
Soros for sure wants to push the bugger back to middle, but, unless I'm mistaken that is also ideological (in a good sense). I'm wondering more about people who are driven almost entirely by the bottom line folks like heavy shareholders of, oh say, Bechtel?
Posted by: RossK | Jul 29, 2004 8:32:18 PM
Harry...
from here a song... I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier
"Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again.
Ten million mothers' hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrowin her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur thro' her tears:
Chorus:
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
(Chorus)
What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back,
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the year to be,
Remember that my boy belongs to me!"
(Chorus)
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 29, 2004 8:35:13 PM
Yeah, Ross. I'm there with your thoughts. Have you ever read this? on the public revocation of corporate charters? This is another something I read a number of years ago. It's galvanzing. Scroll through the links and read the article when you can.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 29, 2004 8:41:31 PM
Throw Your Hatred Down
Here in the conscious world we place our theories down
Why man must bring us to our knees
Before he sees the weakness of his sinful plan
The power in his hand
Will never touch a friend
Throw your hatred down
Meanwhile in the underworld, the weaknesses are seen
By peasants and presidents who plan the counter-scheme
Children in the schoolyard finish choosing teams
Divided by their dreams while a tv screams
Throw your weapons down
The wheel of fortune keeps on rollin' down
The street that's paved with sinful plans
There but for circumstance may go you or i
Dressed in gold lame
Find a place to stay
Throw your hatred down
Throw your weapons down
-Neil Young
Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 29, 2004 9:39:06 PM
Thanks Kate for the revocation of corporate charters link....
Good stuff there and it's something that many, like me often think about, but only in a vague, nagging manner because we can't figure out how it could possibly work. Thus, the codification of how to invoke change is both thought provoking and pragmatically useful. I especially liked this part:
"....(corporations) have spent the last century or more consolidating their power and insulating themselves from meaningful democratic control.... (W)e need therefore to try to change a body of legal doctrine rather than fight case after case after case of corporate transgression."
I also think we need to blast the crap out of that tired old NeanderCon Mantra #37 which insists that 'anything that government can do, business can do better'.
Of course, if #37 had any validity at all KBR would actually get those minor niceties like, say, food to people in the middle-eastern theatre when they actually need it.
Posted by: RossK | Jul 30, 2004 1:41:04 AM
Of course republicrat movers and shakers controlling the end result of elections is only part of the equation ... and maybe they are only intermediaries. This is a tough topic, gentle people,... not something not a lot of US citizens' brains would like to digest. I challenge you to read the article. Grab your tinfoil if you must, but my source is as reputable as any. Let your true tinfoil self come forth. I have a surplus of tinfoil from my Y2K days. We'll be safe.
;-)
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 31, 2004 6:09:17 PM
I really love poltical and anti-war poetry ... and appreciate others who have posted, but I'm stumped. What is the reluctance to read my major link and make a comment? It isn't really a tinfoil thing people ... the movers and shakers already know about this. Why don't you want to know?
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 31, 2004 6:39:14 PM
Kate,
I bookmarked it and am going through your link a bit at a time. It's awesome.
What really slowed me down -- stopped me dead, in fact -- was the great phrase, "colonization of the mind."
Wow.
I mean ... Wow.
I just sat and stared out the window at that one.
So I'll have comments in a few days. Thanks for the link.
Posted by: SusanG | Jul 31, 2004 8:59:00 PM
Maybe it's a denial thing. Maybe because this comes too close to the realization that our democracy is a Game of Houses, that our government is itself being manipulated as those who hold the real power congratulate themselves on their clever schemes. Imagine that Republicans could actually put togther a substantive coalition government if they allowed themselves a party leader who was not a waldo. Not gonna happen as they are scavengers who will devour anyone and anything if the mood strikes. So, that is why I didn't initially respond to this post, it was just too painful. Then I had a tequilla sunrise and feel much better. Now where can I get some of that Prozac?
Posted by: SME in Seattle | Jul 31, 2004 8:59:10 PM
