Uncategorized – Page 123

Sunday Sermon

Triumph of the Shill“There are times of famine and poverty coming, for all the nation as well as for each one of us…for no matter what you say, it is upon the soul that the body depends. How then, without heeding it, can one expect to have everything go right?”(…)“The point is the time hasContinue reading “Sunday Sermon”

Bathrobe Wisdom

Here Sara Silverman steals an old National Lampoon bit for use as a promo (I don’t know if that makes it better or worse) for her show. I refer of course to the classic 1973 “If you don’t buy this magazine we’ll kill this dog” cover. In Silverman’s version, she is wearing a princess costume,Continue reading “Bathrobe Wisdom”

INTERIOR, AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, TWILIGHTA room of dark leather and mahogany, sectioned by odd angles and shadow. Bright sunlight and the dim echoes of a large celebration leak in around the edges of the drawn blinds. TENET is standing, hat in hand, in front of the VICE PRESIDENT, who is seated behind his desk, toyingContinue reading

Impotence in the Summer of Love, 2007

“When we catch you playing a nonconstructive role, there will be a price to pay.”–President Bush, to Iran, in a news conference last Thursday. “Your name’s Lebowski, Lebowski…You’re not dealing with morons here.”–dim thug;“It’s a complicated case, Maude. Lotta ins. Lotta outs. And a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands…”–The Dude,Continue reading “Impotence in the Summer of Love, 2007”

Insult Following Injury, or, Ugly Rumors:

+ = Who, me, envoy? No disrespect intended to Mr. James

The Ever-Expanding Expansionist Compact

One reason why a democracy cannot survive empire, and why empires are increasingly short-lived things, is that citizens of conquered and occupied nations, and cultures, half a world away, thereby become people to whom the leadership of the imperial power is answerable, in one way or another: “The Americans know everything, they can do everything,Continue reading “The Ever-Expanding Expansionist Compact”

The Deep Pockets of Denial

Owing to the difficulties with America, no progress has been made in developing the oil…If we remain, shall we not be answerable for defending their frontier? How are we to do this if the Turk comes in?–Winston Churchill, writing to David Lloyd George, September 1922 When we have made Mesopotamia a model state there isContinue reading “The Deep Pockets of Denial”

Support the Truth

But the most ingenious excuse ever made for St. Bernard is to be found in his life by Geoffroi de Clairvaux, where he pertinaciously insists that the Crusade was not unfortunate. St. Bernard, he says, had prophesied a happy result, and that result could not be considered other than happy which had peopled heaven withContinue reading “Support the Truth”

I Was Young Once Too

Funny the things you find out there.I came across this on the blog of a man I served with, way back then. Ben Hanson, Canadian immigrant, naturalized U.S. citizen, veteran, patriot, and still, apparently, with a camera permanently affixed to his shooting eye. For some reason Ben deleted the comment I left on the post.Continue reading “I Was Young Once Too”

Siege of the Emerald City

President Bush is not handing a war off to the next president. He is handing him, or her, what will likely become the most humiliating defeat this nation has ever known. The first President Bush famously declared the “Vietnam syndrome” dead after the first Gulf War. If he became the nation’s hubris, his hapless sonContinue reading “Siege of the Emerald City”