Academic as well as anecdotal historians have pretty well established the fact that information gatherers in Naval intelligence, Army G-3, and the State department all had scraps of information that, cobbled together by a fifth grader, would have forewarned the U.S.A. about the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan on December 7, 1941.
That’s why we have the CIA today. That’s why FDR tasked his Harvard classmate and political adversary Colonel “Wild Bill” Donovan to create and develop the CIA’s precursor Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
This infuriated the Army, Navy and Diplomatic establishments all of which laid claim to the important job of analyzing and evaluating information from overseas for the Chief Executive’s National Security Council.
America had never had a central clearing house for espionage, covert operations or “dirty tricks” before, and it all tehn accreted rather like “Topsy” in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
But the military intelligence and espionage work has a long history, of which many Americans in 2009 are not aware.
George Washington was a magnificent and successful Spymaster—as every one of his biographers attests. He hanged every British spy he caught, despite whimperings of many lily-livered colleagues, who begged him not to. We only have full account of the handsome, debonair John Andre’ who was very popular among America’s new politico-military elite.. He was General Benedict Arnold’s cohort on the Hudson and elsewhere.
But General Washington had a genius for disinformation and strategic and tactical legerdemain also. He could “shuck and jive” with the best of them, poker-faced.
That is one of the secrets behind his losing so many battles and winning a war of revolution.
His manipulation of the Hessian mercenaries was one of his masterstrokes.
Well, they weren’t REALLY mercenaries, because they got none of the paid money. King George III, who was Hanoverian Prussian himself, made a deal with Prince Frederic II of Hesse-Cassel for about 30, 000 soldiers to bolster the British expeditionary force in the “colonies”. In the deal, the Hessian Prince received a flat sum for the lot and a BONUS payment for each Hessian killed by the Americans.
Having learned all this from some of the 900 Hessians he captured on Christmas Day at the Battle of Trenton, General Washington got Benjamin Franklin to craft a letter, in the best traditional Teutonic-Hessian style, (and in diplomatic French) ostensibly penned by Prince Frederick, complaining that “not enough of our officers and soldiers are in harm’s way” and “we are not receiving the promised amount of bonus” agreed upon for use of our army”.
Dissemination of this letter, printed by Franklin in Philadelphia and circulated throughout New York and Pennsylvania brought about the disaffection, mutiny and surrender to Washington of 6,000 Hessian officers and troops in 1777 and 1778 and declining morale on until 1781. There were only 13, 000 of the original 30,000 Hessian troops remaining to be captured at the final battle of Yorktown in 1781.
The rest were already either supporting Washington’s army or setting on their 50 acre far-acre farms in Pennsylvania—in the heart of what is now “Pennsylvania Dutch” Country.
Therefore, the CIA did NOT (as the bed wetters would have you believe) invent horrid, nasty, ungentlemanly, unsavory “Dirty Tricks” in U.S. armed combat.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Prescient Policeman ?
Tonight, it has been difficult to grasp real things.
First within a few hours I heard of the deaths of two people close to me. I was able to digest those with some aplomb.
Then, I saw a VERY unsettling video posted on YouTube of a protest at Reston, VA outside Democrat Congressman Jim Moran’s “townhall” meeting.
A man was carrying a poster opposing “Obamacare”.
A policeman started hassling him, ordering him to “put down” the placard, or else he would be arrested for “tresspass”. They exchanged questions and the policeman got VERY agitated and threatening.
The protester asked, plaintively, “Isn’t this America ? ”
“No !” the policeman announced, “It aint no more…
Okay ??? !”
I have played it four times. Is this cop a prophet ? He IS of pro-Obama persuasion, apparently.
Does he know a secret the rest of us have not been told yet ? Or is he just a prescient seer ?
See the video at: http://tinyurl.com/ly6t2g
Friday, August 21, 2009
Captain! O My Captain !
When George Stephanopolis on ABC’s morning show divines from an “in-house” poll of bodies on the street (showing approval for Obama at 56%) that “Americans think he’s in over his head...”.....
AND, when liberal pollster John Zogby’s Interactive Internet poll comes up with only a 47% approval rating for Obama....
And when, for nearly two weeks, Scott Rasmussen’s daily tracking pool of 1,000-plus Likely-and-habitual” voters hovers between 47% and 49% for the president....
THEN you may pay attention.
And you may be sure that the president and David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel are paying attention, because THEIR “in house polls” are producing much more dire information that ABC Steffy’s or Gallup’s historically tortured figures.
Then you hear Obama using words like “wee-wee” and savaging Sara Palin and “Republicans”. We get intimations that the president has not read ANY of the five “health” bills stalled in Congress when he must be corrected or have his slaveys explain “misspeaks”.
And this is just the third week in August.
Dr. Charles Krauthammer is explaining that while there are no “death panels” actually spelled out in Section 1322 of the House “health” bill, there IS a provision to pay physicians a bonus for “counseling” the elderly REGULARLY on living wills and life-end choices. A tortuous exercise, and irrelevant Dr. K agrees.
And finally, Peggy Noonan a level headed and generous patriot, has decided that the best decision is to “pull the plug” on Obamacare.
From This day, Friday, Aug. 21, the fog is definitely clearing for the passengers on this Ship of State.
There be BERGS!..Large, craggy, threatening monstrosities, fully visible:
Unemployment in California at 11.6 %.
Cash for Clunkers on the ash heap–an awkward and costly failure.
A “ruling” majority party chasing its tail and cannibalizing.
And, who is in charge of the ship ? Its Amateur hour, with mutterings about “wee-wee” !
And as the fog thickens again, we can only see one-tenth of the icebergs’ bulk.
AND, when liberal pollster John Zogby’s Interactive Internet poll comes up with only a 47% approval rating for Obama....
And when, for nearly two weeks, Scott Rasmussen’s daily tracking pool of 1,000-plus Likely-and-habitual” voters hovers between 47% and 49% for the president....
THEN you may pay attention.
And you may be sure that the president and David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel are paying attention, because THEIR “in house polls” are producing much more dire information that ABC Steffy’s or Gallup’s historically tortured figures.
Then you hear Obama using words like “wee-wee” and savaging Sara Palin and “Republicans”. We get intimations that the president has not read ANY of the five “health” bills stalled in Congress when he must be corrected or have his slaveys explain “misspeaks”.
And this is just the third week in August.
Dr. Charles Krauthammer is explaining that while there are no “death panels” actually spelled out in Section 1322 of the House “health” bill, there IS a provision to pay physicians a bonus for “counseling” the elderly REGULARLY on living wills and life-end choices. A tortuous exercise, and irrelevant Dr. K agrees.
And finally, Peggy Noonan a level headed and generous patriot, has decided that the best decision is to “pull the plug” on Obamacare.
From This day, Friday, Aug. 21, the fog is definitely clearing for the passengers on this Ship of State.
There be BERGS!..Large, craggy, threatening monstrosities, fully visible:
Unemployment in California at 11.6 %.
Cash for Clunkers on the ash heap–an awkward and costly failure.
A “ruling” majority party chasing its tail and cannibalizing.
And, who is in charge of the ship ? Its Amateur hour, with mutterings about “wee-wee” !
And as the fog thickens again, we can only see one-tenth of the icebergs’ bulk.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Pressure ? Sure...But Whose ?
First the White House solicited myriad sneaky snitches, spies and trolls to rat out their neighbors and co-workers who opposed DeatCare.
Next, the Chief Magistrate and all his sycophants averred that there was no provision for end of life counseling in euthanasia for the elderly. (THERE IS ! IT’s Section 1322.)
Then, He and They dismissed Townhall protestors as “orchestrated” yawpers.
Next, this servant of the Republic's citizenry announced he did not want people talking…he wanted them “out of the way”.
Now cometh his slavish lower house legislators in a SUNDAY newspaper editorial branding all who oppose DeathCare as “Un-American”.
Will all this work?
Well.... I am an ancient watcher of the American “passing parade”. I can remember in 1941, when every third adult in Georgia was suspected of being a Klansman, and the Governor threatened and intimidated and, finally, PHYSICALLY removed professors from their University positions. It did not work. The voters threw him out.
FDR tried to enlarge the Supreme Court to bypass SCOTUS edicts that his policies were unconstitutional. At the zenith of his popularity, he was trumped and sent to "reset" by a national uprising and despite some media hysteria in his favor.
There are all kinds of overreaches in American history that were rebuffed. World history is cluttered with them.
The best known and most grimly impressed on our political psyche is the Richard Nixon crowd’s stupid, blind, tonedeaf exerecise in Hubris.
It just will not work, no matter how hard they try to fix the wheel with union thugs, Acorn and media whores.
In this republic, the embers of Liberty always flare into a blaze of Triumph.
Tyrants are always tone deaf, and eventually defeat themselves. Watch !
Next, the Chief Magistrate and all his sycophants averred that there was no provision for end of life counseling in euthanasia for the elderly. (THERE IS ! IT’s Section 1322.)
Then, He and They dismissed Townhall protestors as “orchestrated” yawpers.
Next, this servant of the Republic's citizenry announced he did not want people talking…he wanted them “out of the way”.
Now cometh his slavish lower house legislators in a SUNDAY newspaper editorial branding all who oppose DeathCare as “Un-American”.
Will all this work?
Well.... I am an ancient watcher of the American “passing parade”. I can remember in 1941, when every third adult in Georgia was suspected of being a Klansman, and the Governor threatened and intimidated and, finally, PHYSICALLY removed professors from their University positions. It did not work. The voters threw him out.
FDR tried to enlarge the Supreme Court to bypass SCOTUS edicts that his policies were unconstitutional. At the zenith of his popularity, he was trumped and sent to "reset" by a national uprising and despite some media hysteria in his favor.
There are all kinds of overreaches in American history that were rebuffed. World history is cluttered with them.
The best known and most grimly impressed on our political psyche is the Richard Nixon crowd’s stupid, blind, tonedeaf exerecise in Hubris.
It just will not work, no matter how hard they try to fix the wheel with union thugs, Acorn and media whores.
In this republic, the embers of Liberty always flare into a blaze of Triumph.
Tyrants are always tone deaf, and eventually defeat themselves. Watch !
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Wake up Frank and Sam...Their Law's Broken...
This is where I came in.
Are they changing reels yet ?
Where are Frank Church and Sam Ervin ?
They broke all records for hurry-up legislating, back in 1974 collecting a consensus in Congress to pass statutes making it illegal for ANYONE in the Untied States Federal Government to send out a clarion call for a list of enemies, or to collect such a list...OR to expunge one once it is / was collected.
Now we have the ward rat hustlers in the White House and the Chief Magistrate also, using the White House Internet Site (paid for by taxpayers) to recruit sneaks, snitches and tale bearers to spy on and , probably, defame ordinary citizens availing themselves of the protection of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
I do not remember even Jimmy Carter or Lyndon Johnson doing this.
When Code Pinksters assailed George W, Bush with unfounded lies I do not believe his White House ever sought to take names and do dirt in return.
Even the Clintons' Craig Livingstone did not "recruit". Whatever computer files he had around were collected during political campaigns and NOT with taxpayer funds.
This may seem a smudge of smoke from a distant Native American's blanket signal right this moment .
But I have seen this show before. Put my slippers on. I'm outta here !
Are they changing reels yet ?
Where are Frank Church and Sam Ervin ?
They broke all records for hurry-up legislating, back in 1974 collecting a consensus in Congress to pass statutes making it illegal for ANYONE in the Untied States Federal Government to send out a clarion call for a list of enemies, or to collect such a list...OR to expunge one once it is / was collected.
Now we have the ward rat hustlers in the White House and the Chief Magistrate also, using the White House Internet Site (paid for by taxpayers) to recruit sneaks, snitches and tale bearers to spy on and , probably, defame ordinary citizens availing themselves of the protection of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
I do not remember even Jimmy Carter or Lyndon Johnson doing this.
When Code Pinksters assailed George W, Bush with unfounded lies I do not believe his White House ever sought to take names and do dirt in return.
Even the Clintons' Craig Livingstone did not "recruit". Whatever computer files he had around were collected during political campaigns and NOT with taxpayer funds.
This may seem a smudge of smoke from a distant Native American's blanket signal right this moment .
But I have seen this show before. Put my slippers on. I'm outta here !
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Orwell & Jane; Mike & Charlie
“In a time of Universal Deceit, telling the truth is a Revolutionary Act.” runs a quote from George Orwell that I use in my email signature.
I was thinking about this...again...and I remembered another precis on the subject.
It’s a short story by W. Somerset Maugham titled “Jane”, about a rather plain lady who became the toast of the upper crust society salons as a superior wit and humorist. The story’s raconteur was baffled at this phenomenon, until the “secret” exploded on him:
She spoke the truth, always, and in matter-of-fact manner no matter what the subject being discussed, without artifice or subterfuge !
Voila !, she was absolutely unique in those circles.
This accounts for the indestructible and devastating effect of a select few commentators on the political scene these days. Two are especially noteworthy.
Michael Barone, a former Democrat pollster, researcher and author of the seminal political Encyclopedia of American Politics is rarely off base. He is so effectively honest and detailed in his analyses that he produces pain on the Left that is palpable.
Dr. Charles Krauthammer, whose years as a psychiatrist of note, published in the journals of that discipline long before he wrote speeches for a Democrat presidential candidate, is another truth teller of note. His epeé intellect is both disarming and unassailable.
Here is an exercise for you. I do it regularly, utilizing the Real Clear Politics website.
On days after a Barone or Krauthammer tour de force appears, survey the output of the bedwetters. Like frog carcases assaulted by galvanic current, they will jerk and snatch and twitch with paroxysms of defensive dudgeon.
This liars' drivel is often veiled, but it is always there. They are so very afraid someone will take Mr. Barone or the Good Doctor as “gospel”.
It is good that some of us do. And it is good for the corps politique bon nationale, also.
Strange indeed are the masks of confirmation.
I was thinking about this...again...and I remembered another precis on the subject.
It’s a short story by W. Somerset Maugham titled “Jane”, about a rather plain lady who became the toast of the upper crust society salons as a superior wit and humorist. The story’s raconteur was baffled at this phenomenon, until the “secret” exploded on him:
She spoke the truth, always, and in matter-of-fact manner no matter what the subject being discussed, without artifice or subterfuge !
Voila !, she was absolutely unique in those circles.
This accounts for the indestructible and devastating effect of a select few commentators on the political scene these days. Two are especially noteworthy.
Michael Barone, a former Democrat pollster, researcher and author of the seminal political Encyclopedia of American Politics is rarely off base. He is so effectively honest and detailed in his analyses that he produces pain on the Left that is palpable.
Dr. Charles Krauthammer, whose years as a psychiatrist of note, published in the journals of that discipline long before he wrote speeches for a Democrat presidential candidate, is another truth teller of note. His epeé intellect is both disarming and unassailable.
Here is an exercise for you. I do it regularly, utilizing the Real Clear Politics website.
On days after a Barone or Krauthammer tour de force appears, survey the output of the bedwetters. Like frog carcases assaulted by galvanic current, they will jerk and snatch and twitch with paroxysms of defensive dudgeon.
This liars' drivel is often veiled, but it is always there. They are so very afraid someone will take Mr. Barone or the Good Doctor as “gospel”.
It is good that some of us do. And it is good for the corps politique bon nationale, also.
Strange indeed are the masks of confirmation.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Perversity IS Vulnerable...
There is a perversity that persists in this society that tends to restrict the free play of common sense and logic.
Small nuggets of truth are presented almost secretly by researchers, scientists and historians, and are constantly and willfully ignored, in really bad faith, by persons and institutions who boast that they are “Opinion Makers”.
Here are a few facts that have not been widely disseminated by any of the vaunted wire services or “journals of record” :
1. About 60 nations recognize English as their national language. The United States is NOT one of them.
2. More people may have voted in the presidential election in 2004, won by George W. Bush than voted in the 2008 election won by Barrack Hussein Obama. Until now, only "estimates"of 2008 have been available. Latest expert compilations show fewer voted than the enthusiatic talking heads claimed originally.
3. The most accurate opinion polls in the past six national elections query only “habitual and likely voters” , rather than “adults”. Screening for these “likely voters” is NOT based on whether they “plan” to vote, but on their dedication to voting in ALL elections, habitually.
4. Congress maintains the highest negative rating , compared with the executive (past or present) in ALL opinion polls.
5. News reporters rank below auto salesmen and telemarketers in all opinion polls.
6. In a recent UNSCIENTIFIC poll of readers, with nearly four million respondents, A USA Today / Gannet poll reported that 97% of those responding believe the Second Amendment to the Constitution “guarantees the right of an individual American to bear arms”.
That last one was not touted or spread widely by the AssPress, Reuters ----or even Gannett and USAToday. They were apparently poleaxed.
Which more or less begs my question.
If the media “powers that be” do not accept the population’s disagreement with distortions and prejudices so dear to the heart of the communication media, then who is doomed ?
The free public? Or the Liars?
Small nuggets of truth are presented almost secretly by researchers, scientists and historians, and are constantly and willfully ignored, in really bad faith, by persons and institutions who boast that they are “Opinion Makers”.
Here are a few facts that have not been widely disseminated by any of the vaunted wire services or “journals of record” :
1. About 60 nations recognize English as their national language. The United States is NOT one of them.
2. More people may have voted in the presidential election in 2004, won by George W. Bush than voted in the 2008 election won by Barrack Hussein Obama. Until now, only "estimates"of 2008 have been available. Latest expert compilations show fewer voted than the enthusiatic talking heads claimed originally.
3. The most accurate opinion polls in the past six national elections query only “habitual and likely voters” , rather than “adults”. Screening for these “likely voters” is NOT based on whether they “plan” to vote, but on their dedication to voting in ALL elections, habitually.
4. Congress maintains the highest negative rating , compared with the executive (past or present) in ALL opinion polls.
5. News reporters rank below auto salesmen and telemarketers in all opinion polls.
6. In a recent UNSCIENTIFIC poll of readers, with nearly four million respondents, A USA Today / Gannet poll reported that 97% of those responding believe the Second Amendment to the Constitution “guarantees the right of an individual American to bear arms”.
That last one was not touted or spread widely by the AssPress, Reuters ----or even Gannett and USAToday. They were apparently poleaxed.
Which more or less begs my question.
If the media “powers that be” do not accept the population’s disagreement with distortions and prejudices so dear to the heart of the communication media, then who is doomed ?
The free public? Or the Liars?
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Aha ! Dickens Lives !
One of the strangest episodes in my life occurred during a strategy session involving approaching a politician.
To one of the very closest friends and mentors I ever had, I suggested, brightly:
“We might be able to get some real inside track in Washington if we can get Senator (Bob) Graham interested....He’s Phil Graham’s half-brother, you know...the late husband of The Washington Post publisher, Kay Graham....”
“THAT’S NOT SO, “ was the immediate reply.
Well, I KNEW it was so, having delved into the lives of the half brothers through my interest in old “Cap” Graham, the Miami wheeler-dealer who sired them. Phil was born, however in South Dakota, Bob on Miami.
My friend was a bright professional man, an innovator and a risk taker. But he did not know what he did not know.
This country is at the mercy of people just like that right now.
The Great Charles Dickens, in “Little Dorrit”, caused quite a row in Parliament when he set up these people in the Department of Circumlocution.
They were all specialists in HOW NOT TO DO IT. (Finding out how to do it would have put them out of business.) And none of them know what they do not know.
Sound familiar ?
To one of the very closest friends and mentors I ever had, I suggested, brightly:
“We might be able to get some real inside track in Washington if we can get Senator (Bob) Graham interested....He’s Phil Graham’s half-brother, you know...the late husband of The Washington Post publisher, Kay Graham....”
“THAT’S NOT SO, “ was the immediate reply.
Well, I KNEW it was so, having delved into the lives of the half brothers through my interest in old “Cap” Graham, the Miami wheeler-dealer who sired them. Phil was born, however in South Dakota, Bob on Miami.
My friend was a bright professional man, an innovator and a risk taker. But he did not know what he did not know.
This country is at the mercy of people just like that right now.
The Great Charles Dickens, in “Little Dorrit”, caused quite a row in Parliament when he set up these people in the Department of Circumlocution.
They were all specialists in HOW NOT TO DO IT. (Finding out how to do it would have put them out of business.) And none of them know what they do not know.
Sound familiar ?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Yo' Lyin Eyes ?
There is something very comforting about being convinced that it is okay to believe one’s own “Lyin’ Eyes” rather than some spastic knee-jerk scam from a jive Con.
There are a lot of them around, even teaching in gubmint schools and in academe.
This whole country has been hammered by a plethora of globaldygook for more than 16 years about the melting of the ice caps and subsequent inundation of Boston, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego ALLEGEDLY attested to by “30,00 scientists” (some without a degree) whom no one can find or identify now that the ice caps are growing.
A young "college man" of 42 started to “uncover” something a CIA director had allegedly done; speechifying to me, but he did not know that the man he was about to “nail” served for only an event-less nine months more than 34 years ago. Whe HE was eight.
The worst disease our society—--our whole COMMUNITY, to use a revered term----is the bold pronunciamento with authority of something that is not true, is without foundation or reason, and the sheeplike acceptance of it and subsequent dissemination of it as “fact” by a lazy, whorish communication elite....the DriveBy Media.
Veritable fountains of WISDOM hold sway over us , who do not even BELIEVE in anything that happened before 1968----and would be shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to have to admit that it is Historical Fact that John Fitzgerald Kennedy sent the first 35,000 U.S. men into VietNam combat.
Well, I am sick of it.
As annoying as it may be...as offensive as it appears to be, I will begin to isolate and bring to the attention of this page a succession of these travesties, for as long as I can.
The first one is that our president was never enrolled in an educational institution as “Barrack H. Obama” until he matriculated at Columbia University. All the records that I have been able to pry lose have him listed as “Barry Soetoro.”
Did you read that in your local fish wrapper?
Stay tuned.
There are a lot of them around, even teaching in gubmint schools and in academe.
This whole country has been hammered by a plethora of globaldygook for more than 16 years about the melting of the ice caps and subsequent inundation of Boston, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego ALLEGEDLY attested to by “30,00 scientists” (some without a degree) whom no one can find or identify now that the ice caps are growing.
A young "college man" of 42 started to “uncover” something a CIA director had allegedly done; speechifying to me, but he did not know that the man he was about to “nail” served for only an event-less nine months more than 34 years ago. Whe HE was eight.
The worst disease our society—--our whole COMMUNITY, to use a revered term----is the bold pronunciamento with authority of something that is not true, is without foundation or reason, and the sheeplike acceptance of it and subsequent dissemination of it as “fact” by a lazy, whorish communication elite....the DriveBy Media.
Veritable fountains of WISDOM hold sway over us , who do not even BELIEVE in anything that happened before 1968----and would be shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to have to admit that it is Historical Fact that John Fitzgerald Kennedy sent the first 35,000 U.S. men into VietNam combat.
Well, I am sick of it.
As annoying as it may be...as offensive as it appears to be, I will begin to isolate and bring to the attention of this page a succession of these travesties, for as long as I can.
The first one is that our president was never enrolled in an educational institution as “Barrack H. Obama” until he matriculated at Columbia University. All the records that I have been able to pry lose have him listed as “Barry Soetoro.”
Did you read that in your local fish wrapper?
Stay tuned.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Nocturnal Visitations
Visitations and bad dreams, escalating into nightmares are plaguing me, although I haven’t eaten any Thomas de Quincey opium, or consumed a Doctor Jekyll potion in 34 years, now.
They always begin the same way..with my grandmother, “Mur-Mur” opening her illustrated volume of Bullfinch’s Mythology . Or the classical History of Athens.
“Here”, Charlot Miller Allen announces in her rich contralto that she cultivated by smoking Murad Turkish cigarets, “ is Prometheus !”
When I looked at the illustration of the “Titan” it was a Michael Ramirez cartoon of a sad Ol’ Uncle Sam, dressed in Old Glory uniform, chained to Washington’s monument, with his liver being eaten by flying Congressmen...The liver regenerates and the carrion feed on.....
WHAM ! I wake up.... and am really afraid to go back to sleep, so I run to the computer, go to Wickipedia and check my memory of Prometheus. This is worse than the nightmare. Prometheus really COULD do anything. He stole fire from Zeus / Jupiter, the Chief God of the Athenians and gave it to mortals. But he was subverted and chained by Zeus, angry with Envy. ENVY...
My eyes faded and back on my pillow, I dropped off.
Only to be confronted by Mur-Mur again, this time with her classical history tome. She opened it languidly and pointed to ANOTHER frightful Mikey Ramirez cartoon. I shrieked, and could not hear myself.
It was Uncle Sam in his Stars and Stripes garb again. He had a coon-hunter’s long-john six cell flashlight in his hand, wandering around the Mall in D.C., gazing at the capitol dome. The sun shines brightly at its zenith.
My grandmother asked, “ This is Diogenes, at the center of Western Civilization. Do you want me to read the words in the Balloon over his head ?
“It says, ‘I been searching around here a long time. These are the last of my batteries, and my light is almost out, and I can’t find ary- one !”
In a cold sweat, I woke up again. I didn’t have to check Wikipedia this time.
We all know Diogenes never found his “honest” man...And he wasn’t foolish enough to search Sodom-on-the-Potomac.
They always begin the same way..with my grandmother, “Mur-Mur” opening her illustrated volume of Bullfinch’s Mythology . Or the classical History of Athens.
“Here”, Charlot Miller Allen announces in her rich contralto that she cultivated by smoking Murad Turkish cigarets, “ is Prometheus !”
When I looked at the illustration of the “Titan” it was a Michael Ramirez cartoon of a sad Ol’ Uncle Sam, dressed in Old Glory uniform, chained to Washington’s monument, with his liver being eaten by flying Congressmen...The liver regenerates and the carrion feed on.....
WHAM ! I wake up.... and am really afraid to go back to sleep, so I run to the computer, go to Wickipedia and check my memory of Prometheus. This is worse than the nightmare. Prometheus really COULD do anything. He stole fire from Zeus / Jupiter, the Chief God of the Athenians and gave it to mortals. But he was subverted and chained by Zeus, angry with Envy. ENVY...
My eyes faded and back on my pillow, I dropped off.
Only to be confronted by Mur-Mur again, this time with her classical history tome. She opened it languidly and pointed to ANOTHER frightful Mikey Ramirez cartoon. I shrieked, and could not hear myself.
It was Uncle Sam in his Stars and Stripes garb again. He had a coon-hunter’s long-john six cell flashlight in his hand, wandering around the Mall in D.C., gazing at the capitol dome. The sun shines brightly at its zenith.
My grandmother asked, “ This is Diogenes, at the center of Western Civilization. Do you want me to read the words in the Balloon over his head ?
“It says, ‘I been searching around here a long time. These are the last of my batteries, and my light is almost out, and I can’t find ary- one !”
In a cold sweat, I woke up again. I didn’t have to check Wikipedia this time.
We all know Diogenes never found his “honest” man...And he wasn’t foolish enough to search Sodom-on-the-Potomac.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
My "Tolerance" Wager
It was certainly informative to hear the president speak at Cairo Thursday.
I obsessed on just one statement that was more grievous than just misleading.
It was a Lie.
He told the crowd and everyone that heard him that "Islam has a long history of Tolerance..."
Well, I did not have to look it up, but I did, in the Free Online Dictionary. But..Dean E. Heber Rece first taught it to me in 1943 at Emory University.
The word "Islam" in Arabic translates to "SUBMISSION" in English. And, according to the Prohet that is on the pain of Death. That is how the "religion" got its jump-start in 622 A.D. Submit or...adios !
So to ingratiate himself with Muslims, our president would try to lie to us and to the whole world.
Well, if this is some kind of poker game, I will see his "Tolerance" and raise him, one suicide bombing mission (say, 9-11 frinstance ?) and two beheadings, three fatal stonings and a cloakroom full of Burkhas and a chorus of mutilated teen girls.
That;s my bet and I believe I win the pot.
I obsessed on just one statement that was more grievous than just misleading.
It was a Lie.
He told the crowd and everyone that heard him that "Islam has a long history of Tolerance..."
Well, I did not have to look it up, but I did, in the Free Online Dictionary. But..Dean E. Heber Rece first taught it to me in 1943 at Emory University.
The word "Islam" in Arabic translates to "SUBMISSION" in English. And, according to the Prohet that is on the pain of Death. That is how the "religion" got its jump-start in 622 A.D. Submit or...adios !
So to ingratiate himself with Muslims, our president would try to lie to us and to the whole world.
Well, if this is some kind of poker game, I will see his "Tolerance" and raise him, one suicide bombing mission (say, 9-11 frinstance ?) and two beheadings, three fatal stonings and a cloakroom full of Burkhas and a chorus of mutilated teen girls.
That;s my bet and I believe I win the pot.
Friday, May 22, 2009
How's Yo' MANDATE, Kiddo ?
Despite the speed of the world wide web, the blogosphere, all the TV news channels and thousands of pseudo reporters underfoot, everyone appears to be asleep to my way of seeing it.
Neil Cavuto gave 'em all a shot in the head, as Milton Berle used to say, when he pointed out Friday that the Congress, the Media (such as it IS) and even the Hip White House is following a seven month old "Mandate".
I mean, what has the Populi VOXED lately ?
On April 15, somewhere between a half million and three quarters of a million people turned out to protest runamok spending and stratospheric taxes in cities (San Antonio and Atlanta, markedly) and hamlets (Lima and Lake Azu) all over America.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet (II) Napolitano warned of "dangerouus terrorist right wing extremists" and MSNBC yammerheads made nasty homophobic jokes. The president pretended he was "unaware".
Then, just this week---last Tuesday, the citizens of California (the most "Hip" of ALL states and the "Garde" than which there IS no more "Avant" --voted hugely, 66% to 30% (Two to One) against four large tax increase and spending propositioins.
So, are MY ganglia more raw than the average American? Is Neil Cavuto an alarmist, right wing extremist BOO!-boy ???
Or has the paradigm of the popular mandate shifted...and is it still hurtling ?
We will probably find out for certain on July 4, Independence Day.
And, also...next September 11. Another painful day of memories for America-Lovers.
Do stay tuned for the mating call of the Mandate.
Neil Cavuto gave 'em all a shot in the head, as Milton Berle used to say, when he pointed out Friday that the Congress, the Media (such as it IS) and even the Hip White House is following a seven month old "Mandate".
I mean, what has the Populi VOXED lately ?
On April 15, somewhere between a half million and three quarters of a million people turned out to protest runamok spending and stratospheric taxes in cities (San Antonio and Atlanta, markedly) and hamlets (Lima and Lake Azu) all over America.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet (II) Napolitano warned of "dangerouus terrorist right wing extremists" and MSNBC yammerheads made nasty homophobic jokes. The president pretended he was "unaware".
Then, just this week---last Tuesday, the citizens of California (the most "Hip" of ALL states and the "Garde" than which there IS no more "Avant" --voted hugely, 66% to 30% (Two to One) against four large tax increase and spending propositioins.
So, are MY ganglia more raw than the average American? Is Neil Cavuto an alarmist, right wing extremist BOO!-boy ???
Or has the paradigm of the popular mandate shifted...and is it still hurtling ?
We will probably find out for certain on July 4, Independence Day.
And, also...next September 11. Another painful day of memories for America-Lovers.
Do stay tuned for the mating call of the Mandate.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Vast, Indeed
Among the many sentences this struggling scrivener wishes he had come up with is this description of an itenerant farmhand by Stanley Taylor:
"His mind was a vast and hollow cavern with small crannies of resolute ignorance...."
We were re-introduced to this phenomenon recently with the re-emergence of Janeane Garofalo giving America a glimpse of her wasteland.
Content of her dribble-babble is less important than the fact that a cable television network obstensibly attempting a commercial presentation of discussion would allow her a michrophone-platform.
My exposure to this hag was on YouTube. Like millions of cable watchers, I prefer even the Mississippi simpleton Shep Smith to the cellar dwelling molerat Ms. Garofalo was visiting.
What baffles people who think like me---indeed, people who THINK at at all, is how the ailing, failing media (and NBC eminently qualifies), continues to grimly clutch and cling to these suicidal practices.
Maybe like the people they hustle, they look forward to a "stimulus" or "bailout" from the new Socialist-collectivist theroriticians in Washington. It beats thinking and working, they opine.
But... wouldn't that be morphing Socialism into Fascism, just like Jonah Goldberg of the LATimes predicted, in his bestseller "LIBERAL FASCISM" ?
That's the only way these helium heads will get another gig, right ?
"His mind was a vast and hollow cavern with small crannies of resolute ignorance...."
We were re-introduced to this phenomenon recently with the re-emergence of Janeane Garofalo giving America a glimpse of her wasteland.
Content of her dribble-babble is less important than the fact that a cable television network obstensibly attempting a commercial presentation of discussion would allow her a michrophone-platform.
My exposure to this hag was on YouTube. Like millions of cable watchers, I prefer even the Mississippi simpleton Shep Smith to the cellar dwelling molerat Ms. Garofalo was visiting.
What baffles people who think like me---indeed, people who THINK at at all, is how the ailing, failing media (and NBC eminently qualifies), continues to grimly clutch and cling to these suicidal practices.
Maybe like the people they hustle, they look forward to a "stimulus" or "bailout" from the new Socialist-collectivist theroriticians in Washington. It beats thinking and working, they opine.
But... wouldn't that be morphing Socialism into Fascism, just like Jonah Goldberg of the LATimes predicted, in his bestseller "LIBERAL FASCISM" ?
That's the only way these helium heads will get another gig, right ?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Is the Law the Law ?
Frequently, posting here, it has been stressed that Islam is more correctly defined as a SYSTEM than as a "religion".
New and scary evidence erupts that this fact will sneak up and gnash---if not, indeed, CRUSH---some clueless, nice people in the very near future.
"It" can happen in the USA, you know. Look around.
Over in Pakistan, a very articulate and literate member of the "moderate" muslims being appeased by the new Pakistani Regime, on Saturday, Apeil 18, announced to the Appeasers and to the World, that Sharia Law will not allow him to "lay down or relinquish" his guns or those of his Taliban cohorts, no matter what Islamabad says.
Now what this means, my children, is that when the Hope and Change administration makes nice with the so-called "moderste Muslims" in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security,(Janet II), will disarm all the EXTREMIST RADICAL demobbed military veterans, under emergency unconstitutional "regulations" while the "nice, moderate Muslims" invoke Sharia Religious Law to keep their AK-47 cache (s).
Thus, the SYSYEM, under guise of religion, trumps Constitutional guarantees WITH constitutional guarantees.
Hey !!! Was that Alice and the Red Queen I just saw on stage ?
New and scary evidence erupts that this fact will sneak up and gnash---if not, indeed, CRUSH---some clueless, nice people in the very near future.
"It" can happen in the USA, you know. Look around.
Over in Pakistan, a very articulate and literate member of the "moderate" muslims being appeased by the new Pakistani Regime, on Saturday, Apeil 18, announced to the Appeasers and to the World, that Sharia Law will not allow him to "lay down or relinquish" his guns or those of his Taliban cohorts, no matter what Islamabad says.
Now what this means, my children, is that when the Hope and Change administration makes nice with the so-called "moderste Muslims" in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security,(Janet II), will disarm all the EXTREMIST RADICAL demobbed military veterans, under emergency unconstitutional "regulations" while the "nice, moderate Muslims" invoke Sharia Religious Law to keep their AK-47 cache (s).
Thus, the SYSYEM, under guise of religion, trumps Constitutional guarantees WITH constitutional guarantees.
Hey !!! Was that Alice and the Red Queen I just saw on stage ?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
A Vote For the Green Death & Kicking "A"
For some time now, I have suspected that the PeeCee virus and state socialism are cut from the same cloth.
An encroaching choking globbby fog of Nannyistic cold shoulder and tin ear to natural giggles, chuckles and simple sense of humor has accompanied the trend.
Everyone knows fascists, communists and similar doctrinaire totalitarian types are humorless.
As, a matter of fact, very serious historians believe the anti-statist jokes in Spain, Italy, the Soviet Union and East Germany to have been as important as western efforts in dismantling the dictators' yokes and chains.
Now we have, in the American state of Taxachuesetts, a prime example of the death dealing unsmiling joykillers of the stupidity so unaware of its own unlovliness.
A wittyu young man coaching a kiddies' soccer team of six-and-seven-year-olds in Quincy, nicknamed his charges The Green Death and, in an email to the parents, enthused that he expected them to consistently "KICK ASS!"
For that, he was forced to resign as coach of the Kinder Kickers.
Somewhere the ghost of Mark Twain, who lived his last days in New England, is sobbing...if not blubberiung.
A society that has lost its ability to relax and smile is already in the throes of death.
An encroaching choking globbby fog of Nannyistic cold shoulder and tin ear to natural giggles, chuckles and simple sense of humor has accompanied the trend.
Everyone knows fascists, communists and similar doctrinaire totalitarian types are humorless.
As, a matter of fact, very serious historians believe the anti-statist jokes in Spain, Italy, the Soviet Union and East Germany to have been as important as western efforts in dismantling the dictators' yokes and chains.
Now we have, in the American state of Taxachuesetts, a prime example of the death dealing unsmiling joykillers of the stupidity so unaware of its own unlovliness.
A wittyu young man coaching a kiddies' soccer team of six-and-seven-year-olds in Quincy, nicknamed his charges The Green Death and, in an email to the parents, enthused that he expected them to consistently "KICK ASS!"
For that, he was forced to resign as coach of the Kinder Kickers.
Somewhere the ghost of Mark Twain, who lived his last days in New England, is sobbing...if not blubberiung.
A society that has lost its ability to relax and smile is already in the throes of death.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Old Media Flunked Math
They do not teach math in journalism schools...
If we take the 2008 election results, 53% of the adults agree with and believe in the mainstream media, the alphabet networks, Time and Newsweek.
Thirteen percent of the voters are black dependents on the Marxian Plantation, and half of them have no money at all. So, we subtract 7 from 53 and got 46 %. Then, we face facts that half the legal Hispanic population has no money, and are illiterate in English, so we subtract another 6% from 46 and get 40%.
Of that 40%, probably 10% were teens and near-teens who do not read ANYTHING but the labels on hip-hop CDs.
Now we are down to 30%.
Newspapers cannot survive with just three out of ten people buying the rags...and so there goes the Audit Bueau of Circulation rating and the advertising and the Sunday paper sells for $5 in a losing deal.
If the media bigwigs who have bashed Bush since 2003, had just "balanced" their approach to at least RECOGNIZE a solid 46% of the potential readership, they would not be dying.
But they're dead because they failed math.
I want to live long enough to see what a world without TIME, Newsweek, the New Yorker and the other socialist rags will be like.
When hatred of entrepreneurs, small businessmen, and gritty, empty envy of the successful, driven man and woman is gone or at least muted...TRUTH will stagger naked to the Dais and receive the Sceptre.
If we take the 2008 election results, 53% of the adults agree with and believe in the mainstream media, the alphabet networks, Time and Newsweek.
Thirteen percent of the voters are black dependents on the Marxian Plantation, and half of them have no money at all. So, we subtract 7 from 53 and got 46 %. Then, we face facts that half the legal Hispanic population has no money, and are illiterate in English, so we subtract another 6% from 46 and get 40%.
Of that 40%, probably 10% were teens and near-teens who do not read ANYTHING but the labels on hip-hop CDs.
Now we are down to 30%.
Newspapers cannot survive with just three out of ten people buying the rags...and so there goes the Audit Bueau of Circulation rating and the advertising and the Sunday paper sells for $5 in a losing deal.
If the media bigwigs who have bashed Bush since 2003, had just "balanced" their approach to at least RECOGNIZE a solid 46% of the potential readership, they would not be dying.
But they're dead because they failed math.
I want to live long enough to see what a world without TIME, Newsweek, the New Yorker and the other socialist rags will be like.
When hatred of entrepreneurs, small businessmen, and gritty, empty envy of the successful, driven man and woman is gone or at least muted...TRUTH will stagger naked to the Dais and receive the Sceptre.
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Snob
It is a terrible admission.
When I began reading a polemic screed that began in a way that promised it would agree with ALL my prejudices, and came across the word "fosted" obviously meant to be "foisted", I just deleted it.
When I read the lead paragraph in an AssPress Sports story that announced Phil Mickelson had "blown his largest-ever lead" (when I saw him leading by eight in Atlanta the year he first won the Masters), I deleted it without going on.
When I heard a screamer on cable TV claiming Israeli aggression in Gaza, when I had SAVED five years of 6,000 enumerated Gaza-based rocket assaults on Siderot (where I have a real, live Israeli friend who emails me) I clicked the remote to the TRU channel.
When I got a cassette tape that mislocated three Alaska population centers, and mispronounced the names of Russian-Aleut historical figures, I sent it back.
The world is---more amd more---the victim of poorly informed, partially educated, narcissistic people hell-bent on bending our mnds.
This behavior was a tipoff, a hallmark you might say, of falsification by journalists who celebrated Mussolini's fascism and Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NAZI) in the 1930's and Nicky Lenin's Bolshevik communism in 1917.
It is subtle, feckless, ignorant and clumsy in the beginning. But once you accept and make way for the small lie, the eager overkill, the decoration, you give it growth and before you can regroup, numbness spreads and the Foggy Lie is accepted as "The Way"...Like in Chicago.
So, about spelling, about grammar, and certainly, about facts, I plead guilty.
I am a Snob
When I began reading a polemic screed that began in a way that promised it would agree with ALL my prejudices, and came across the word "fosted" obviously meant to be "foisted", I just deleted it.
When I read the lead paragraph in an AssPress Sports story that announced Phil Mickelson had "blown his largest-ever lead" (when I saw him leading by eight in Atlanta the year he first won the Masters), I deleted it without going on.
When I heard a screamer on cable TV claiming Israeli aggression in Gaza, when I had SAVED five years of 6,000 enumerated Gaza-based rocket assaults on Siderot (where I have a real, live Israeli friend who emails me) I clicked the remote to the TRU channel.
When I got a cassette tape that mislocated three Alaska population centers, and mispronounced the names of Russian-Aleut historical figures, I sent it back.
The world is---more amd more---the victim of poorly informed, partially educated, narcissistic people hell-bent on bending our mnds.
This behavior was a tipoff, a hallmark you might say, of falsification by journalists who celebrated Mussolini's fascism and Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NAZI) in the 1930's and Nicky Lenin's Bolshevik communism in 1917.
It is subtle, feckless, ignorant and clumsy in the beginning. But once you accept and make way for the small lie, the eager overkill, the decoration, you give it growth and before you can regroup, numbness spreads and the Foggy Lie is accepted as "The Way"...Like in Chicago.
So, about spelling, about grammar, and certainly, about facts, I plead guilty.
I am a Snob
Friday, January 16, 2009
A Very Bad Year: 1957
They just don’t make years like 1957 any more.
It's lodged prominently because I left the daily newspaper / wire service whirlwind and opted for magazine writing.
But some other stuff happened that year:
The Russian Soviets crushed the Hungarian Freedom Uprising, and publicly lynched the student leaders.
Israeli, French and British troops fought on the same side in the Suez War to stop the Nasser / Naguib grab by Egypt of the "international" waterway.
(The U.S.A.’s Secretary Of State, John Foster Dulles just admonished everyone for being like “naughty children”. A huge turning point squished...muffled.)
And Soviet Russia's German rocket scientists beat the U.S.A.’s German (Werner von Braun) into outer space with the “Sputnik” metal basketball.
All very exciting stuff. I am surprised no one talks about all that at all any more, because all across this Earth of ours, all the America haters of the day were celebrating the demise of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.
And this was compoundedly strange because it was about this time that Kruschev deep-sixed the Stalin myth. And, stories were being VERIFIED about Siberian concentration camp slaughter and torture.
Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn were putting together indictments of the Gulag. Piecemeal revelation of the hitherto cemented-by-Fear Potemkin nation was in silent progress.
The international communications conspiracy of silence would not begin to crumble until after Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel prize (in 1970) and all three volumes of the Gulag Archipelago were available everywhere and he was exiled by the hapless Kremlin.
It was 42 years after Sputnik, and 20 years after the World heard Solzhenitsyn’s historical account of mass murder, torture and atrocity before the Evil Ghost died at the fall of the wall at the Brandenburg gate.
In the meantime, millions of America-haters, and even one American president announced the decline and fall of the United States. Jimmy Carter bemoaned what he christened a fatal desuetude...a “malaise” dooming the nation!
How many “recessions” have we had in the United States since the Fabulous Fifties? One in Eisenhower’s last years, one hidden by Vietnam; one in Tricky Dick’s watch, all of Carters four years, early in Reagan’s time, blunted by tax cuts; another for Bush 41, and another as Clinton faded. Now we have the Bush low point.
But, the machine is still laboring away, albeit missing a beat or so.
But all those people who are applauding the trouble in the USA are echoing one another from their respective toilet bowls.
The “invisible hand” of the market is driving its dagger deep into the gross economic and totalitarian plans of Red Hugo Chavez and Iran’s I’m-a-Dinner-Jacket blowhard.
I...WE... have seen much worse. I was around and VERY alert when the whole world went to Hell and America was “through” in 1957.
Fifty two years ago.
It's lodged prominently because I left the daily newspaper / wire service whirlwind and opted for magazine writing.
But some other stuff happened that year:
The Russian Soviets crushed the Hungarian Freedom Uprising, and publicly lynched the student leaders.
Israeli, French and British troops fought on the same side in the Suez War to stop the Nasser / Naguib grab by Egypt of the "international" waterway.
(The U.S.A.’s Secretary Of State, John Foster Dulles just admonished everyone for being like “naughty children”. A huge turning point squished...muffled.)
And Soviet Russia's German rocket scientists beat the U.S.A.’s German (Werner von Braun) into outer space with the “Sputnik” metal basketball.
All very exciting stuff. I am surprised no one talks about all that at all any more, because all across this Earth of ours, all the America haters of the day were celebrating the demise of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.
And this was compoundedly strange because it was about this time that Kruschev deep-sixed the Stalin myth. And, stories were being VERIFIED about Siberian concentration camp slaughter and torture.
Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn were putting together indictments of the Gulag. Piecemeal revelation of the hitherto cemented-by-Fear Potemkin nation was in silent progress.
The international communications conspiracy of silence would not begin to crumble until after Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel prize (in 1970) and all three volumes of the Gulag Archipelago were available everywhere and he was exiled by the hapless Kremlin.
It was 42 years after Sputnik, and 20 years after the World heard Solzhenitsyn’s historical account of mass murder, torture and atrocity before the Evil Ghost died at the fall of the wall at the Brandenburg gate.
In the meantime, millions of America-haters, and even one American president announced the decline and fall of the United States. Jimmy Carter bemoaned what he christened a fatal desuetude...a “malaise” dooming the nation!
How many “recessions” have we had in the United States since the Fabulous Fifties? One in Eisenhower’s last years, one hidden by Vietnam; one in Tricky Dick’s watch, all of Carters four years, early in Reagan’s time, blunted by tax cuts; another for Bush 41, and another as Clinton faded. Now we have the Bush low point.
But, the machine is still laboring away, albeit missing a beat or so.
But all those people who are applauding the trouble in the USA are echoing one another from their respective toilet bowls.
The “invisible hand” of the market is driving its dagger deep into the gross economic and totalitarian plans of Red Hugo Chavez and Iran’s I’m-a-Dinner-Jacket blowhard.
I...WE... have seen much worse. I was around and VERY alert when the whole world went to Hell and America was “through” in 1957.
Fifty two years ago.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Where is Sam ?
Other than all the Uhs and Ums and y’knows and word searches, the president-elect’s news conferences are as exciting as watching paint dry.
He obviously has a list of attending reporters he is going to call on. They, obviously, have been alerted. Sooooooo...
Why the room full of newspaper people? Why not just send the ones who get the face time and one extra pool man for the wore services and keep it cozy?
It’s the old Ben Hecht-Charlie MacArthur “Front Page” coming out in me. I used to cover the state Capitol when Georgia had two...no, THREE... governors, 52 years ago. I followed Atlanta mayors like Ivan Allen, Jr., into angry student mobs. I scooped the wire services on tornado deaths by 45 minutes from my assistant state editor’s desk.
But, I was watching his “briefing” and I wondered:
Where is Sam Donaldson when we need him ? Man, he could stir things up, tormenting presidents like no other newshawk in history.
There was a post online from a Chicago (hometown ??) Sun-Times reporter predicting an era of Lap Dog journalism. She was really shrill about it. As if to threaten she might roil the waters.
Stay tuned. Somebody will. They will catch Hell when they do.
But it’s inevitable that some unruly wretch will refuse to worship.
He obviously has a list of attending reporters he is going to call on. They, obviously, have been alerted. Sooooooo...
Why the room full of newspaper people? Why not just send the ones who get the face time and one extra pool man for the wore services and keep it cozy?
It’s the old Ben Hecht-Charlie MacArthur “Front Page” coming out in me. I used to cover the state Capitol when Georgia had two...no, THREE... governors, 52 years ago. I followed Atlanta mayors like Ivan Allen, Jr., into angry student mobs. I scooped the wire services on tornado deaths by 45 minutes from my assistant state editor’s desk.
But, I was watching his “briefing” and I wondered:
Where is Sam Donaldson when we need him ? Man, he could stir things up, tormenting presidents like no other newshawk in history.
There was a post online from a Chicago (hometown ??) Sun-Times reporter predicting an era of Lap Dog journalism. She was really shrill about it. As if to threaten she might roil the waters.
Stay tuned. Somebody will. They will catch Hell when they do.
But it’s inevitable that some unruly wretch will refuse to worship.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Have a Thoughtful Christmas
“O grandfather, how old is Christmas ?”
Her eyes were bright and dark blue at once,
A Wonder as well as a wonderer.
How should I answer ?
For the longing for forgiveness was always there
Wasn’t it?
No one gave it worth or voice in the Maelstrom
Of Creation and its early aftermath.
And little was known of forbearance or redemption for Aeons, even.
Not even when the Macabees won righteous Way
Over pagans and repristinated a Temple.
For Vengence ruled all struggle and all men all those years.
And then, the very Essence of Forgiveness came, as a Child
To flesh out the bones that never knew a pardon or an unencumbered Death.
So was that Christmas just two thousand of our “years” ago ?
Or have we celebrated Hope and Love without account ?
And do these years of lying to our best efforts fade
In misplacement to the Winter solstice?
How can I tell her that it limps on Mammon’s fuel ?
She’s waiting. So I say:
“Your Christmas is as young as your delight in giving...Today.
“And it is Timeless as your longing for a love...and peace...and your rebirth...”
Her eyes were bright and dark blue at once,
A Wonder as well as a wonderer.
How should I answer ?
For the longing for forgiveness was always there
Wasn’t it?
No one gave it worth or voice in the Maelstrom
Of Creation and its early aftermath.
And little was known of forbearance or redemption for Aeons, even.
Not even when the Macabees won righteous Way
Over pagans and repristinated a Temple.
For Vengence ruled all struggle and all men all those years.
And then, the very Essence of Forgiveness came, as a Child
To flesh out the bones that never knew a pardon or an unencumbered Death.
So was that Christmas just two thousand of our “years” ago ?
Or have we celebrated Hope and Love without account ?
And do these years of lying to our best efforts fade
In misplacement to the Winter solstice?
How can I tell her that it limps on Mammon’s fuel ?
She’s waiting. So I say:
“Your Christmas is as young as your delight in giving...Today.
“And it is Timeless as your longing for a love...and peace...and your rebirth...”
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