They're losing it....
By the time the next general election rolls around, Americans are going to be so sick of President Bush and the Republican rule, whoever the Democrats run for president will win hands down.
Bush and the Republicans are living in a dream world populated by right wing extremists, religious nuts and corporate executives. And those are the only people Bush is hearing. He is in over his head because his advisors have told him to go there.
Read
this from Paul Krugman and tell me he's wrong. OK. I know some of you will not only say he's wrong, but you'll say he's crazy. But statistics anda whole bunch of polls don't lie.
What goes 'round..........
May years ago during the Vietnam War, John Prine, one of my favorite singer-songwriters wrote a song about patriotism and the nature of it.
In an interview I heard recently, Prine said he has resurrected the song sings it at concerts.
No Wonder:
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
© John Prine While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.
Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.
Repeat Chorus:
Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...
"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."
Bad Guy! Bad Guy!
I knew I was stirring up a hornet's nest with
my column about Public Broadcasting. I have probably lost some friends who work for public television. But that's OK. Like L.T. Anderson, I don't plan on having a funeral so I'm not trying to solicit mourners or flowers.
I find it incredibly ironic that we have schools in this state with virtually no classes other than the basics. There are no advanced classes at too many schools in an era when advanced classes are not just nice to have. They are absolutely necessary.
What is West Virginia Public Broadcasting doing to bring advanced education to these schools? Could it do more? Absolutely. What about public radio? Could it do more in the afternoons to offer something akin to education rather than hour after hour of classical music?
All I am trying to say is that I believe West Virginia Public Broadcasting needs to focus - really focus - on education. And for God's Sake, it needs to stop holding its listeners hostage until it meets it giving goals, part of which goes to Rita Ray.
There must be a better way of dealiing with public broadcasting in West Virginia. I brought the topic up for discussion. If that makes me a bad guy, so be it.
I've been called worse.
Blame Democrats?
To hear Don Surber tell it in his
blog, about 99.8 percent of West Virginia's problems are caused by Democrats.
If that is true, then it may be extrapolated from this theorem that electing an all-Republican Legislature, Board of Public Works and Governor will solve our problems.
Everyone who believes that, please raise your hands or anotherimportant appendage if you're Vic Sprouse.
The atmosphere in Charleston coupled with the misinterpretation of what is good for West Virginia by the electorate is at the root of the problem. Simply replacing Democrats with Republicans will produce the same toxicity.
Despite the fact Republicans are going into a Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., this weekend to pray to Jesus to throw the liberal judges out and replace them with right-thinking jurists, it doesn't give that party any more morals or ethics than Democrats. All it does is remind me why I don't belong to any church.
Give the Republicans the majority in the House of Delegates and the State Senate and GOP shennigans will simply replace Democrat shennigans.
The problem is with the electorate that puts these jokers in office and expect rewards for their bowling alley, Little League team of volunteer fire department.
Jerry Mezzatesta brought the bacon to Hampshire County and frankly, I am amazed the folks in that county (a) voted him out of office and ( b) fired him from his school system job. Mezzatesta was doing exactly what he thought - no, what he knew - his constituents expected of him. Harold Michaels is doing the same.
The problem doesn't lie with a political party or even the people we choose to send to Charleston.
The problem lies with the people who send them there and their pathological expectations.
Until day before yesterday, I was bummed out by the oncoming Great 21st Century Dark Ages certain neo-con Republicans are planniing for this country.
That's until a friend reminded me that great things come from repression.
All one need do is look at the 1950s when folks were about as repressed as they could be and still live in America.
What came out of the 1950s? Sure, Joe McCarthy and HUAC came out of that perilous decade. So did "Leave It To Beavuer" which was supposed to be the snapshot of the typical American family. Ha!!!!
But look what else repression in the 50s produced:
William S. Burroughs
Neal Cassady
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Allen Ginsberg
Jack Kerouac
Lenny Bruce
And in music?
Fats Domino
Muddy Waters
Sam Phillips of Sun Records
B.B. King
Jerry Lee Lewis
Johnny Cash
Roy Orbison
Elvis the King
In their own ways, all these folks screamed "Do what you want but I will not be repressed." And in doing so, their contributions became lasting.
So bring on the repression, dark agers. It's futile and it brings on revolution. The 1950s proves you can't make us into your image.
Remember: Robert Novak is but a fleeting memory. Elvis and Lenny Bruce are forever.
Devlis and Dust
Without comment, here's the title song from Bruse Springsteen's new album "Devils and Dust."
I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
We're a long, long way from home, Bob
Home's a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust
I got God on my side
I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
The smell began to rise
We've got God on our side
We're just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Now every woman and every man
They want to take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands
I've got my finger on the trigger
And tonight faith just ain't enough
When I look inside my heart
There's just devils and dust
Well I've got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a dangerous thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
The motto at the top of the page makes a lot of sense:
"If people concentarated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."So begins BearWaller Hollar, which you can get to by clicking
here. I have no idea who writes it, but the writing is good. From what I can discern about the anonymous site, it's written mostly by a person or people from Logan and/or Mingo counties.
The latest essay begins:
"I'd rather be bathed in honey, strapped naked to the slicky slide, and left to fend off piss ants at the Twisted Gun Campground and Carry-out, than to have to sit through another PowerPoint presentation." Amen.
And if anyone knows who writes for this site, I'd love to know. They deserve regognition.
Hoppy Kerchival, my friend from Metronews, writes an
interesting column and asks the question: Who do West Virginia liberals look to for leadership these days.
The answer, of course, is no one.
West Virginia and probably the entire country are entering a period I like to call the Dark Ages of the 21st Century. The causes for which liberals are famous aren't being offered as solutions and they aren't even seen as American.
I see a nation soon to be ruled by Robert Novak clones. Those who don't toe the neo-con mark will be ignored at best and sentenced to infamy at worst.
I told Hoppy on the radio this morning I expect this neo-con period to last more than 10 but less than 20 years. It will be a time when the rich will get most of what they want and the poor will get less than what they need. Ideas outside the comfort zone of neo-cons will be dismissed as insane or anti-American.
But it doesn't meant hat liberalism is dead and the fact west Virginia lacks a liberal who can carry the banner of liberalism to the people doesn't mean it's gone forever. It simply means the pendulum is swinging wildly to the right. But when people realize the right doesn't have any better solutions to our problems than the left, it will most assuredly swing back.
Meanwhile, if you want to be comfortable, and you're not to old to change, go right. That's where the action will be for the next couple of decades.
Spout the neo-con mantra. Show disdain for the poor by giving welfare to the rich and powerful. Believe this country and this state can succeed if only we suck up to business entirely. It won't work, but at least you won't be marching to a different drummer. Heck, you might even get a job in the Mancin administratioin.
Thor and Mud Balls
My Daily Mail column about the end of the world brought some really good e-mail.
Emile Holroyd, West Virginia Democrat par excellence sent this story:
Dave, I enjoyed your column today tremendously.
Fear of "last days" evaporated for me when I was nine. I no longer can depend on the end of the world to get me out of trouble.
A traveling Bible thumping preacher visited Ahoskie, NC, my home town, when I was nine. He prophesied that Jesus (angry as you say) would bring on "last days" on a hot July Sunday night. He wasn't waiting on Arabs and Jews to start the last great war...Hitler was already doing that.
Several of my friends and I decided it would be safe under the circumstances, to stand on the corner of South and Church Street and throw mud balls at some stuffy neighbors as they drove by coming from a local event. We'd done our homework and knew they'd be passing the corner at about 5 or 10 minutes to nine.
We made mud balls all afternoon. Stacked them like artillery balls in pyramids...and waited.
Sure enough, at about 5 to 9 along came Mr. and Mrs. Camp (grumpy old coots). We hit their car with all we could pitch.
The end of the world did not come. My Father came. No way Jesus could have been that angry.
Anyway, I gave up believing in Armageddon. Revelations holds no fear for me. I know better. Besides this last election, with radical evangelicals pushing Bush, is far more frightening than Armageddon could ever be.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then there was this e-mail from another reader:
Mr. Peyton,
I too was "churched" the way you were. Only my God was more like Thor the god of thunder with a BIG HAMMER looking for mortals to squash. I'm so glad I finally figured out that He loved me warts and all. I was finally set free by Grace. Here is a funny poem a friend sent me. It dovetails nicely with your 4/18/05 column. Enjoy
I Dreamed I Went to Heaven
I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
By the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics, the trash.
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, "What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.
And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber? Give me a clue."
"Hush, child," said He. "They're all in shock.
No one thought they'd see you."
Walkin' Around Money
What's the deal with the West Virignia Legislature squirrelling away $65 million in "undocumented funds" ? No one seems to know but you can be sure there's an ulterior motive. There is an ulterior motive to
everything those crack-smoking freaks do.
It's not that West Virignia is flush with money. It isn't. In fact, the state is still in line for a major fiscal crisis in 2009 or thereabouts, just about the time that what passes for major cities in West Virginia will go belly up. Of course, if Joe Manchin is able to attract 400 trillion dollars worth of new business to West Virginia, it will soften the blow a little. Go Joe!!! Keep telling the world that West Virginia is open for business. Maybe someone will be fooled into believing it.
My best guess is they are putting this money aside for cheerleading costumes, Little League baseball fields and all the other things that legislators (and the governor) like to give personally as a sign of their genuine love for West Virginia.
If they really want to do something positive with the money, they ought to give economic development grants to prospective meth makers along with instructions on how to make safe meth labs that won't explode and endanger the lives of their kids and neighbos.
But, as Richard Nixon said "That would be wrong."
Yea, as if building private facilities with public money and thereby buying votes isn't wrong.
