2008: The year when sexism trumped racism because holding women down is what men do to stay on top and keeping other women out is what women do to stay on bottom.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
One Tin Soldier
History might repeat itself, but never the same way. Thus purpose and revisionism conspire to create the delicious ironies of history.
William Ayers put Barack Obama in charge of ACORN. The Board of Elections in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and the .S. Attorney’s office in Michigan accused ACORN’s paid workers of submitting fraudulent registration cards.
But wait, there are more recent heart warming associations.
This week, Barack attends a do at the Standard Club ballroom last night, where he raised about $1 million for the Obama Victory Fund. That’s ok. Not the grassroots image, but no one buys that anyway. Then he was off to the $28,500 a plate “Greeks for Obama” Victory fete where he lavishes a two minute meaty praise on Alexi Giannoulias.
What do the ChiTown papers have to say about Alexi?
He is a “man who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure” and “who became Illinois state treasurer” in 2006 after Sen. Barack Obama vouched for him”. Alexi then “pledged to raise $100,000 for Obama.”
The September 5, 2007, Chicago fundraiser was omitted from Obama’s public schedule and the event was closed to the press,” Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael ‘Jaws’ Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution.
“Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state’s speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama’s help.
“Giannoulias was the bank’s vice president and chief loan officer for most of the more than $15 million in loans,”. The Obama campaign disputed any suggestion that Obama is tarnished by the association.”
The phrase that comes to mind is ‘lay down with dogs’.
Now consider this: the left has been aching for the Great Get Even ever since the 1972 election when a man with known mob associates, banking improprieties and a campaign willing to ratf*** its opponents won by 60+ per cent. Two years later, he was resigning in disgrace.
So in this election, the left presents a man with mob associates, strong links to the financial crisis and a campaign using illegal registrations.
Barack Obama isn't Jimmy Carter. He's Richard Nixon.
The irony of that is delicious.
William Ayers put Barack Obama in charge of ACORN. The Board of Elections in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and the .S. Attorney’s office in Michigan accused ACORN’s paid workers of submitting fraudulent registration cards.
But wait, there are more recent heart warming associations.
This week, Barack attends a do at the Standard Club ballroom last night, where he raised about $1 million for the Obama Victory Fund. That’s ok. Not the grassroots image, but no one buys that anyway. Then he was off to the $28,500 a plate “Greeks for Obama” Victory fete where he lavishes a two minute meaty praise on Alexi Giannoulias.
What do the ChiTown papers have to say about Alexi?
He is a “man who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure” and “who became Illinois state treasurer” in 2006 after Sen. Barack Obama vouched for him”. Alexi then “pledged to raise $100,000 for Obama.”
The September 5, 2007, Chicago fundraiser was omitted from Obama’s public schedule and the event was closed to the press,” Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael ‘Jaws’ Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution.
“Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state’s speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama’s help.
“Giannoulias was the bank’s vice president and chief loan officer for most of the more than $15 million in loans,”. The Obama campaign disputed any suggestion that Obama is tarnished by the association.”
The phrase that comes to mind is ‘lay down with dogs’.
Now consider this: the left has been aching for the Great Get Even ever since the 1972 election when a man with known mob associates, banking improprieties and a campaign willing to ratf*** its opponents won by 60+ per cent. Two years later, he was resigning in disgrace.
So in this election, the left presents a man with mob associates, strong links to the financial crisis and a campaign using illegal registrations.
Barack Obama isn't Jimmy Carter. He's Richard Nixon.
The irony of that is delicious.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Gift
Craig Carodine asked me to write something for the church contemporary Christmas program. The theme of the program is The Gift.
My contribution is HERE. Not fancy but fun. Sorry about the cheesy midi. This stuff takes about fourteen musicians to record right.
The lyrics follow.
My contribution is HERE. Not fancy but fun. Sorry about the cheesy midi. This stuff takes about fourteen musicians to record right.
The lyrics follow.
The Gift
Moses reached out with a mighty hand
Holy Father won't you part the sea?
With the water before us
And the Pharoah behind
There's not an awful lot of desert between
Jehovah looked down with a mighty grin
Like the ocean rolling out from the shore
And when the gift was given
It reached down from Heaven
Saying, "Pharoah, let my people go!"
His Gift His Gift is Given (repeat)
Shadrack stood in the fiery furnace
Shouting, "King on your worldly throne
For as warm as it is
I'd rather be with my friends
In the company of all I adore
There's a Heaven above you
There's a Hell below you
What you think about that, I don't know,
But when the gift is given
It rains down from Heaven
To the fire on the valley below.
His Gift His Gift is Given (repeat)
Oooooh His Gift is greater than the power of the sun and the sea
Oooooh His Gift is promised to the people that they shall be free
Oooooh His Gift is strong enough to last for eternity
Oooooh His Gift is given by the man from Galilee!
Jesus stood on a hill in Canaan
Looking out at their beautiful souls
They had come to hear about the gifts of God
His joy His peace His love
Come as children to my Father's house
For his love is as great as my own
And when my gift is given
It will reach right up to Heaven
Praying, "Father let your blessings flow"
When The Gift is given
God reaches down from Heaven
Giving Peace
Blessed Peace
Lord Your Peace!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Hacking Sarah
No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
For there are many here among us
Who think that life is but a joke
'All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan'
A message I received following the hacking of Sarah Palin's email:
What worries me though, is always the possibility that something underhanded could also be taking place, and everyone is rushing to get their stories straight, and cover things up, and that it will be two years from now, just like with Watergate, before we find out who lies at the end of the money trail.
Trust but verify.
This release has all the signs of an amateur and a kid. So I believe the story out of Tennessee.
Think about this: Obama's camp is a coalition of forces that hate each other only slightly less than they hate the Republicans. That's been the Democratic Party for years, but this time Obama's message has stirred up a hornet's nest of accusations of racism sexism, ageism and the other isms. On top of that, the millenials are out for themselves and Obama is the golden path.
That is a LOT of rage, anger, whoopee and hurrah. This cranks up the mammal brain. It's called endorphin addiction. It results in oxytocin going to the brain, the so-called 'pleasure' hormone. The rage is making them feel good. It affects all of us and if you stir up enough of it, you can drive an election like cattle to the slaughter house. This was the trick of George Wallace, Huey Long and yes, George W. Bush. All you have to do then is play multiplication by division, such as playing the evangelicals against the hispanics, thus the double message out of the Obama camp last week.
Along the way, this activity causes the fringes to become active. People feel empowered and they take rash actions because they are trapped in that endorphin/oxytocin cycle. So kids toss rocks at cops and the technically trained hack web sites. It's not different from what we did in the 60s.
Don't attribute to malice that which may be simple stupidity, the sign says.
There is one thing to watch out for. Endorphin-addiction is just like any other. Once the rage is removed, the body is still hungry for it and tries to get the same high, so it will transfer the addiction to another substance or cause. When done to large groups of people, post event, they start to mill around like cattle looking for fresh grass and a watering hole. That makes them easily led.
Note that the feminist movement followed hard on the heels of the anti-war movement that followed hard on the heels of the civil rights movement. Once these things are spun up, it's hard to stop them and easy to direct them. Thus in the early 70s, we saw those posters that said "Beware leaders regardless of their calling cause."
Dampen the paranoia. My guess is this was just a kid with connections and some simple social hacking chops. It's a lesson to any of you using Yahoo and Google Gmail. It isn't secure and it is harvested for fun and profit.
That's the Web. Let the buyer beware.
You've Got To Serve Somebody
This week:
o Federal crime. Emails hacked. Obama supporters only disappointed that dirt wasn't found. Guess what? There isn't any. Palin is a good egg.
o CBC columnist Heather Mallick says Palin's look is that of a "toned-down porn actress." husband is Todd a "roughneck," son Track is "terrified," and pregnant teenage daughter Bristol is a "pramface," boyfriend is a 'ratboy', her supporters, "white trash", Alaska as a “frontier state full of drunks and crazy people.” and "Canada's ugly stepchild".
Meanwhile, Obama says nothing as usual and goes camping with celebrity advisors until Pelosi sends him instructions while the American economy melts like cheese on a flame-broiled burger.
This isn't that complicated. We've been ripped off and we want
1. Our money back.
2. Heads on pikes in front of the White House.
Get a clue.
o Federal crime. Emails hacked. Obama supporters only disappointed that dirt wasn't found. Guess what? There isn't any. Palin is a good egg.
o CBC columnist Heather Mallick says Palin's look is that of a "toned-down porn actress." husband is Todd a "roughneck," son Track is "terrified," and pregnant teenage daughter Bristol is a "pramface," boyfriend is a 'ratboy', her supporters, "white trash", Alaska as a “frontier state full of drunks and crazy people.” and "Canada's ugly stepchild".
Meanwhile, Obama says nothing as usual and goes camping with celebrity advisors until Pelosi sends him instructions while the American economy melts like cheese on a flame-broiled burger.
This isn't that complicated. We've been ripped off and we want
1. Our money back.
2. Heads on pikes in front of the White House.
Get a clue.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Chinese Menu Party
Want to join the Chinese Menu Party? In our party, you get to choose one from column a and one from column b. So now an Obama/Palin ticket is a winner, and you can still get Hillary with the fortune cookie.
People want to say this is the people against the rich Republicans. This is actually two parties of the rich spending half a billion dollars to capture the larger half of 10% of the voters who will turn into pumpkins the day after the votes are confirmed.
Oh sinner man, where ya gonna run to.
People want to say this is the people against the rich Republicans. This is actually two parties of the rich spending half a billion dollars to capture the larger half of 10% of the voters who will turn into pumpkins the day after the votes are confirmed.
Oh sinner man, where ya gonna run to.
Monday, September 15, 2008
If This Train's Going To Hell, Get the Best Seats
Ok, yeah, it's all going to hell. Greed. The usual suspects. Left screaming at right; right screaming at left. Chains rattling. Doors Creaking! Piggy banks breaking! BoogeyMan at the back door!
BOO!!
Here's the thing: if you've been around awhile, you've seen this before. In 1974, the economic chickens of a long war without raising taxes to pay for it came a roostin'. Oh what shall we do?
We stayed home. We watched TV with friends on Saturday night with lots of snacks. We played in the parks. We rode our bikes. We went to free concerts. We staged free concerts. Our Dads worked on the cars of our friends. Our friends painted the houses of our Dads. We slowed down.
It was drab. It was glorious. WE made do.
America only changes when her back is against the wall and now is such a time. WE took out the loans. WE bought the SUVs. WE voted for the (insert your favorite demon here)s!
It can be terrible for the ambitious social mavens to have to dance to a folk singer instead of a rock band, or listen to a recording instead of going to an opera, or cook with neighbors instead of being served by strangers...
But it can also be the best times of your life. Go out and see what you can find.
BOO!!
Here's the thing: if you've been around awhile, you've seen this before. In 1974, the economic chickens of a long war without raising taxes to pay for it came a roostin'. Oh what shall we do?
We stayed home. We watched TV with friends on Saturday night with lots of snacks. We played in the parks. We rode our bikes. We went to free concerts. We staged free concerts. Our Dads worked on the cars of our friends. Our friends painted the houses of our Dads. We slowed down.
It was drab. It was glorious. WE made do.
America only changes when her back is against the wall and now is such a time. WE took out the loans. WE bought the SUVs. WE voted for the (insert your favorite demon here)s!
It can be terrible for the ambitious social mavens to have to dance to a folk singer instead of a rock band, or listen to a recording instead of going to an opera, or cook with neighbors instead of being served by strangers...
But it can also be the best times of your life. Go out and see what you can find.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Gas
Pray for the people in Galveston and Houston. Please.
3.99 per gallon @ J&W Market in Hazel Green. Limit $20 or roughly 5 gallons.
What can we do?
1. Full-car policy: on Sunday, call your neighbors who attend your church. Work out a carpool with them. Heck, pick up the Baptists too if their church is on the way.
2. Going to a high-school football game tonight? Same thing. Going to Sam's to get groceries? Same thing.
3. If you are thinking about complaining, imagine you are in a car packed with your family, the dog and two of your neighbors heading out of Houston right now and paying the same amount for gas and still limited to 5 gallons per stop.
4. We are a city of some of the best engineers in the world. Start a Get Off Gasoline Club and hold contests for the most novel workable ways to cut down on consumption.
5. Turn off the AC in your car at night and open the windows. 4/40 worked for our grandfathers and our fathers and it will work for us. Make the wind blown look trendy.
Adapt. It's the American Way!
3.99 per gallon @ J&W Market in Hazel Green. Limit $20 or roughly 5 gallons.
What can we do?
1. Full-car policy: on Sunday, call your neighbors who attend your church. Work out a carpool with them. Heck, pick up the Baptists too if their church is on the way.
2. Going to a high-school football game tonight? Same thing. Going to Sam's to get groceries? Same thing.
3. If you are thinking about complaining, imagine you are in a car packed with your family, the dog and two of your neighbors heading out of Houston right now and paying the same amount for gas and still limited to 5 gallons per stop.
4. We are a city of some of the best engineers in the world. Start a Get Off Gasoline Club and hold contests for the most novel workable ways to cut down on consumption.
5. Turn off the AC in your car at night and open the windows. 4/40 worked for our grandfathers and our fathers and it will work for us. Make the wind blown look trendy.
Adapt. It's the American Way!
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Obama: Too Good to Be Black?
If there is any sea change in the current election, it is that for the first time, no one is running for sainthood. All of the candidates have public flaws. One is an adulterer, one is a former coke head, one is a loudmouth and the other shoots Bullwinkle's relatives and skins them.
You mean we are finally prepared to elect real human beings?
Wow! That is new.
On the humor front from the real culture wars, The Onion is still finding and exploiting those inconsistencies that are the mothers of our befuddlement.
Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans
You mean we are finally prepared to elect real human beings?
Wow! That is new.
On the humor front from the real culture wars, The Onion is still finding and exploiting those inconsistencies that are the mothers of our befuddlement.
Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans
Amos Moses Is Gone: Jerry Reed
Among the pickers that are my personal heros is Jerry Reed. Most of you probably remember him as Burt Reynolds' sidekick in the Smokey and The Bandit movies, but for me he was first and always one of the hottest country rock players on a nylon string. He was good, he was funny, he was full of love and on fire. Jerry passed away last night and I don't know any details but I'm sad as sad can be about it. I usually post a video to accent some point I want to make on this blog, but this time, there are several posted just to remember what a fine fine picker this man was. Once again, God bless YouTube for making this stuff available.
Although better known for songs such as When You're Hot You're Hot and Amos Moses, the first song I ever heard him play was his first hit, A Thing Called Love.
Jerry was a fast hand but never better than when playing duets with Chet Atkins. Here's Jerry's Breakdown with Jerry and Chet Atkins.
Here is Jerry playing as he says, a song guitar players associate with him called The Claw.
And last, Jerry sings a Jim Croce song, and right well, an old man in a hat still doing it. Pick it, Amos!
Although better known for songs such as When You're Hot You're Hot and Amos Moses, the first song I ever heard him play was his first hit, A Thing Called Love.
Jerry was a fast hand but never better than when playing duets with Chet Atkins. Here's Jerry's Breakdown with Jerry and Chet Atkins.
Here is Jerry playing as he says, a song guitar players associate with him called The Claw.
And last, Jerry sings a Jim Croce song, and right well, an old man in a hat still doing it. Pick it, Amos!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
God As Cave Painter vs The Sorceror's Apprentice
ABC claims that the image campaign for Palin is already lost given the recent US cover. As always, ABC claims we bitter typical small town types can't make up our own minds until we see what's on aisle eleven next to the mashed potatoes.
If anything, the Palin selection demonstrated that relying on emotional vectoring to steer the election is unreliable. Notice that in one day all of the effort to build up Obama leading to the Big Spectacle was undone and the poles switched to the other side. So I wouldn't count on that cover to change the outcomes. Expect a lot more of that kind of thing though.
Obama is insulated because... well.. umm... because he is.... ummm...a .... lawyer.
But the press only runs with what sells. Someone may find out that Obama's daughters sell their lunch for lipstick or something equally depraved.
The experience drum is loose at the rims. If there are two issues that will cause people to think, they will be:
1. EXTREME conservatism. It scares people when you tell them their children will be taught nonsense science and be unable to compete for a job with an Indian who was taught combinatorics at age ten while you were allowing your children to be told that considering all sides of a question means seriously considering the world was created 5000 years ago.
2. Leadership: at the end of every election cycle we are left with endorphin-addicts who fed on the hate generated by sites like Daily KOS. They have to do something with that energy so the question is can the winner actually redirect that destructive force to positive means or is he merely the Sorceror's Apprentice? See the history of the Sea Peoples in the Mediterranean. Now find a HUD map of the foreclosures in Detroit near the lake. These people will be on the move soon. Ask the Los Angeles police about the connections of uncontrolled immigration and organized crimes in the Bel Air area. Desperate people organize desperately.
Goals vs leadership. Bill Clinton had it exactly right. Are we in trouble? Yes we are. How shall we choose? I don't think that cover sells me against Palin, and that speech in Denver didn't sell me on Obama.
On to the debates. Maybe there will be an essential clue. It seems to be coming down to who can best lead and what are their achievable sustainable goals.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
On Changes
Anyone familiar with my politics knows I've been against the Bush Company from Day One. I swore I'd never vote for a Republican. I'll probably keep that promise but by staying home on election day. A promise is a promise.
On the other hand, anyone familiar with this blog knows I won't vote for Barack Obama. He is the classic Southern-style Elmer Gantry with a Harvard degree in law and so far, a charismatic speaker without an ounce of credible experience to back up his lofty and inspiring but ultimately hollow promises. And a promise is a promise.
McCain's choice for VP is generating controversy, but it does signify change. I'm sure we'll hear more, but on the political blogs, all I am hearing is smear from the left. One pundit went so far as to accuse Governor Palin of being responsible for the condition of her youngest child.
Downs Syndrome is a chromosomal defect caused by extra genetic material (21st chromosome). The facts are all there. All Governor Palin did was decide to let the pregnancy proceed to term and then raise her child. If you have a problem with that, take it up with your pastor, your spouse, shrink or fellow Obamabot.
My son told me last night why he objects to Obama. He said, "They don't support him. They worship him. That's scary and wrong."
If we admire Sarah Palin, it is because in the face of hard choices, she made the right choices. If we don't admire Obama, perhaps like my son, we don't like what he represents, mindless adoration, subservience to the media machine, and in the end, a man who cannot choose between a pastor teaching hatred from the pulpit and his own political ambitions.
The Democrats put on a good show, but their smugness and superiority over the people who get up every day and go to work, who when faced with a lifetime of caring for a child that will almost certainly never be able to care for themselves completely in their life, choose life, that reveals the depth of the hypocrisy at the center of their campaign. These people are about The Great Get Even, and that is not something I can vote for.
Whatever else you think of Sarah Palin, she promised her child a life. A promise is a promise.
Maybe that is the change we need: elected officials who keep their promises.
On the other hand, anyone familiar with this blog knows I won't vote for Barack Obama. He is the classic Southern-style Elmer Gantry with a Harvard degree in law and so far, a charismatic speaker without an ounce of credible experience to back up his lofty and inspiring but ultimately hollow promises. And a promise is a promise.
McCain's choice for VP is generating controversy, but it does signify change. I'm sure we'll hear more, but on the political blogs, all I am hearing is smear from the left. One pundit went so far as to accuse Governor Palin of being responsible for the condition of her youngest child.
Downs Syndrome is a chromosomal defect caused by extra genetic material (21st chromosome). The facts are all there. All Governor Palin did was decide to let the pregnancy proceed to term and then raise her child. If you have a problem with that, take it up with your pastor, your spouse, shrink or fellow Obamabot.
My son told me last night why he objects to Obama. He said, "They don't support him. They worship him. That's scary and wrong."
If we admire Sarah Palin, it is because in the face of hard choices, she made the right choices. If we don't admire Obama, perhaps like my son, we don't like what he represents, mindless adoration, subservience to the media machine, and in the end, a man who cannot choose between a pastor teaching hatred from the pulpit and his own political ambitions.
The Democrats put on a good show, but their smugness and superiority over the people who get up every day and go to work, who when faced with a lifetime of caring for a child that will almost certainly never be able to care for themselves completely in their life, choose life, that reveals the depth of the hypocrisy at the center of their campaign. These people are about The Great Get Even, and that is not something I can vote for.
Whatever else you think of Sarah Palin, she promised her child a life. A promise is a promise.
Maybe that is the change we need: elected officials who keep their promises.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Palin
Palin is the perfect contrast to Obama. She is honest, smart, articulate, and passionate while still being funny.
McCain has an ace: Marge Simpson as America's first female vice-president.
Hillary wouldn't give them Mom. Palin will.
Wow! Go Navy!
So then the question is, can she be commander in chief?
At my house, that rank is held by a woman. Yes. She probably can.
Her majesty's a pretty nice girl.
:-)
McCain has an ace: Marge Simpson as America's first female vice-president.
Hillary wouldn't give them Mom. Palin will.
Wow! Go Navy!
So then the question is, can she be commander in chief?
At my house, that rank is held by a woman. Yes. She probably can.
Her majesty's a pretty nice girl.
:-)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Shooting In Little Rock
The shooting in Little Rock is about to erupt into Spy vs Spy before the facts are in.
Take note:
Quit thinking two-dimensions. Think in terms of dynamic statistical distributions. For any large polytropic sample, there will be edge cases in every dimension or trope. As the stress increases marginalizing some members of the population, they will exhibit ever more extreme behaviors in an attempt to reassert control. Both sides have been building with extremes, but it is the left that has the most diverse coalitions which are fragile.
That doesn't mean the left is the source. It means it is contributing the most stress to the overall polytrope.
McVey was far right. Oswald was far left. There is no reliable predictor of where it comes from just that it will come.
Take note:
Quit thinking two-dimensions. Think in terms of dynamic statistical distributions. For any large polytropic sample, there will be edge cases in every dimension or trope. As the stress increases marginalizing some members of the population, they will exhibit ever more extreme behaviors in an attempt to reassert control. Both sides have been building with extremes, but it is the left that has the most diverse coalitions which are fragile.
That doesn't mean the left is the source. It means it is contributing the most stress to the overall polytrope.
McVey was far right. Oswald was far left. There is no reliable predictor of where it comes from just that it will come.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Culture and Politics and Who Is Worth Watching
I read blogs that decry the current state of popular culture asking the question, why were artists in the 1960s and 70s so much more politically aware, expressive, and yes, powerful? Has our modern culture become deadened? Are musicians just in it for the bucks? Are we that shallow?
Yes. Yes. and Yes.
And No.
One, the retrospective analysis of the 1960s like retrospective analysis of the post-Civil War era relies too much on self-reflection. The yearning for days gone by is far too colorful a filter.
Two, when looking back and comparing, we try to compare apples with apples and sometimes the present is not a season for apples. A common thread among these bloggers yearning for a collective sigh is they are Bob Dylan fans and covertly, fans of Paul Winchell. They keep looking for the next Howdy Doody with a guitar and not finding him, they claim no one is trying hard enough.
Perhaps they are looking in the wrong place. Art forms shift in their dominant power over a society at different times. Music, particularly rock and blues and their bastard children in pop, is largely mined out. The trestles are still running, the water is still being drained from the tunnels, but for the most part, the stripping of cultural landscapes to feed the pop music conveyor belts has exhausted most of the rich veins.
On the other hand, the comedy circuit has been doing very good work for at least a decade and a half. It may be the case that the mavens of zeitgeist despair lack the one quality they need to see where art is indeed reflecting society: they are unable to laugh at themselves. It just doesn't fit their self-image as much as despair and the societal loathing that allows them to lift themselves above the common masses.
Thus, they fail to see they are exactly the kinds of people the people they admired from the Sixties abhorred. The logic of time is that it only comes once. The logic of culture and politics is that we can't tell what role history will assign to us because we can't be out of a time and in it at the same time.
Yes. Yes. and Yes.
And No.
One, the retrospective analysis of the 1960s like retrospective analysis of the post-Civil War era relies too much on self-reflection. The yearning for days gone by is far too colorful a filter.
Two, when looking back and comparing, we try to compare apples with apples and sometimes the present is not a season for apples. A common thread among these bloggers yearning for a collective sigh is they are Bob Dylan fans and covertly, fans of Paul Winchell. They keep looking for the next Howdy Doody with a guitar and not finding him, they claim no one is trying hard enough.
Perhaps they are looking in the wrong place. Art forms shift in their dominant power over a society at different times. Music, particularly rock and blues and their bastard children in pop, is largely mined out. The trestles are still running, the water is still being drained from the tunnels, but for the most part, the stripping of cultural landscapes to feed the pop music conveyor belts has exhausted most of the rich veins.
On the other hand, the comedy circuit has been doing very good work for at least a decade and a half. It may be the case that the mavens of zeitgeist despair lack the one quality they need to see where art is indeed reflecting society: they are unable to laugh at themselves. It just doesn't fit their self-image as much as despair and the societal loathing that allows them to lift themselves above the common masses.
Thus, they fail to see they are exactly the kinds of people the people they admired from the Sixties abhorred. The logic of time is that it only comes once. The logic of culture and politics is that we can't tell what role history will assign to us because we can't be out of a time and in it at the same time.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Rubber Dolly
We seldom can share our memories without the pain of what is unrecoverable in our lives. Sometimes when people ask me about my family, I tell them "We are the Darlings from the Andy Griffith Show" and they think I'm joking.
Here is an intimate glimpse of my life growing up playing the old songs with my Dad and brothers. That's my younger brother, Mike, on the mandolin, brother Chuck with the gray hair on rhythm guitar, and myself next to him. Dad of course, is the fiddler.
As Dad died in the next room, my brothers and I went into the little bedroom you see here and played his favorites for two hours. When we stopped, he passed. It seems right.
Here are the Bullard's playing "Rubber Dolly".
Here is an intimate glimpse of my life growing up playing the old songs with my Dad and brothers. That's my younger brother, Mike, on the mandolin, brother Chuck with the gray hair on rhythm guitar, and myself next to him. Dad of course, is the fiddler.
As Dad died in the next room, my brothers and I went into the little bedroom you see here and played his favorites for two hours. When we stopped, he passed. It seems right.
Here are the Bullard's playing "Rubber Dolly".
Friday, August 01, 2008
Laughter IS The Best Medicine
This gets funnier and funnier. The world is ending because of a video. Last time it was a magazine cover. When will it ever end? Scandalous!
Look folks, all week you argued like crazy people about the race card, and you know racism is like herpes: no one really wants to talk about it or give to it anyone else. It's a bummer.
But a good joke where lots of people laugh and Friday comes easy? That is pure gold. So thanks! Laughter is the best medicine as Reader's Digest said.
Have a good weekend!!
Look folks, all week you argued like crazy people about the race card, and you know racism is like herpes: no one really wants to talk about it or give to it anyone else. It's a bummer.
But a good joke where lots of people laugh and Friday comes easy? That is pure gold. So thanks! Laughter is the best medicine as Reader's Digest said.
Have a good weekend!!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sibelius: My First Published Score
Just a note to those who express interest in my musical scores. I put the first one up at Sibelius.com today. You can find "Epiphany" there under "Claude Bullard" (defaults to my first name).
Epiphany was originally an instrumental piece for the University in Perth (Western Australia) 3D web world project headed up by Chris Thorne who commissioned the piece. (Thanks Chris and OZ!!) I used the funds to buy Sibelius V. The score is a choral version with lyrics and orchestration I wrote at my wife's request for a piece for her ladies section at Hazel Green United Methodist.
Epiphany was originally an instrumental piece for the University in Perth (Western Australia) 3D web world project headed up by Chris Thorne who commissioned the piece. (Thanks Chris and OZ!!) I used the funds to buy Sibelius V. The score is a choral version with lyrics and orchestration I wrote at my wife's request for a piece for her ladies section at Hazel Green United Methodist.
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Proper Ettiquette for Adultery
jane sez:
Me too. Unfortunately I'm stuck with these turkeys.
I guess we have a lot to learn from the French about the proper etiquette for adultery. Here, cuckolded wives have to stand next to their husbands at the press conference. In France, wives stand next to the mistresses at the funerals of their husbands.
I would like to finally have a POTUS that I can be proud of.
Me too. Unfortunately I'm stuck with these turkeys.
I can remember being in Paris during the whole Bill and Monica thing and my host saying that French politicans have mistresses, but are smarter than to mess with plump little girls and are too discreet to get caught. UGH.
I guess we have a lot to learn from the French about the proper etiquette for adultery. Here, cuckolded wives have to stand next to their husbands at the press conference. In France, wives stand next to the mistresses at the funerals of their husbands.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Flip Flop and Splish Splash
Predictably, Obama is trying to move to the center and the volatile elements of his coalition are angry. The agent of change is seen to be the agent of the same old same old. Obama is for Obama.
Big surprise. Yawn.
Is he flip flopping? There is a difference between changing one's mind in light of new evidence and doing it to follow polling numbers.
Take the changes individually and ask what new evidence caused his reconsideration. If he replies that a change signifies leadership, in other words, he defends his character but does not present new evidence, he is flip flopping.
Whoda believed Obama could make Dick Cheney look like a man of integrity and character? Sometimes it really is a well-scrubbed, well-polished act but that is all it is.
Now we have the New Yorker page. Liberals go crazy. Yawn.
Some complain "The satire is lost on average folks." and that they will believe it.
How many of them are reading New Yorker? Of course the right wingers will use it to make their case and so will the left wingers.
That's how satire works. People are up in arms because it is Obama and everyone knows he needs to be cuddled and coddled. And after that, they still expect us to vote for him?
Cluetrain: we don't care about white guilt. We don't feel guilty. In fact, the longer this goes on, the less guilt there is to be found. THAT is the cost of this campaign. It isn't making us more aware. It is desensitizing us not because we are haters but because we aren't hypocrites.
Sheesh. They said nothing about Hillary's picture on a urinal target and dozens of other tasteless displays. The elite needs to figure out another way to play Spy vs Spy because no one really cares what that cover means. They want to know how to keep themselves on the road at $4 a gallon and if their money is still IN the bank.
Big surprise. Yawn.
Is he flip flopping? There is a difference between changing one's mind in light of new evidence and doing it to follow polling numbers.
Take the changes individually and ask what new evidence caused his reconsideration. If he replies that a change signifies leadership, in other words, he defends his character but does not present new evidence, he is flip flopping.
Whoda believed Obama could make Dick Cheney look like a man of integrity and character? Sometimes it really is a well-scrubbed, well-polished act but that is all it is.
Now we have the New Yorker page. Liberals go crazy. Yawn.
Some complain "The satire is lost on average folks." and that they will believe it.
How many of them are reading New Yorker? Of course the right wingers will use it to make their case and so will the left wingers.
That's how satire works. People are up in arms because it is Obama and everyone knows he needs to be cuddled and coddled. And after that, they still expect us to vote for him?
Cluetrain: we don't care about white guilt. We don't feel guilty. In fact, the longer this goes on, the less guilt there is to be found. THAT is the cost of this campaign. It isn't making us more aware. It is desensitizing us not because we are haters but because we aren't hypocrites.
Sheesh. They said nothing about Hillary's picture on a urinal target and dozens of other tasteless displays. The elite needs to figure out another way to play Spy vs Spy because no one really cares what that cover means. They want to know how to keep themselves on the road at $4 a gallon and if their money is still IN the bank.
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