FURTHER AWAY THAN EVER

I WANT TO LIVE

words and music by John Denver

There are children raised in sorrow

On a scorched and barren plain.

There are children raised beneath a golden sun.

There are children of the water,

Children of the sand.

And they cry out through the universe

There voices raised as one.

I want to live, I want to grow.

I want to see, I want to know.

I want to share what I can give.

I want to be, I want to live.

Have you gazed out on the ocean,

Seen the breaching of a whale?

Have you watched the dolphins frolic in the foam?

Have you heard the song the humpback hears

Five hundred miles away,

Telling tales of ancient history, of passages and home?

I want to live, I want to grow.

I want to see, I want to know.

I want to share what I can give.

I want to be, I want to live.

For the worker and the warrior,

The lover and the liar.

For the native and the wanderer in kind.

For the make, and the user,

And the mother and her son.

I am looking for my family

And all of you are mine.

We are standing all together

Face to face and arm in arm.

We are standing on the threshold of a dream.

No more hunger, no more killing.

No more wasting life away.

It is simply an idea and I know its time has come.

I want to live, I want to grow.

I want to see, I want to know.

I want to share what I can give.

I want to be, I want to live.....I want to live.

Copyright 1971 Cherry Lane Music Co.

It's almost forty years since John Denver wrote this song. Forty years and the dream not only hasn't been fulfilled, it gets further away every year.

There was another so called debate with the Republican candidates last night. They fell all over themselves justifying the use of torture. More than one of them has threatened to “carpet bomb” the Middle East. Some of them seem to believe that nukes are just bigger and better TNT. The forced birthers insist all children have the right to be born. It seems to be the only right they have.

And we have hundreds of thousands of refugee children, or children in war zones whose hopes don'e go as far as seeing dolphins or whales. They are reduced to just trying to get enough food, shelter or simply surviving for another day only to be branded as "terrorists." God/dess save us. 

Forget about decent food, clean water, jobs that pay enough to raise a family, an education or some kind access to basic health care. You and your family are on your own and frankly we don't give a flying fuck what happens to you. Roll the Republicans into one candidate and you still would be stuck with a psychopath or a sociopath, certainly nothing resembling a human being.  

WHOSE GARDEN WAS THIS

I've posted this before and I see no reason to change a word. Except that it's getting worse all the time. There's a methane leak in California that's at one hundred plus days and counting. It could have been prevented if the well had a shut off valve. But the state didn't require one, so.....

WHOSE GARDEN WAS THIS

Whose garden was this, it must have been lovely.
Did it have flowers?
I've seen pictures of flowers.
And I'd love to have smelled one.

Whose river was this, you say it ran freely.
Blue was its color.
And I've seen blue in some pictures.
And I'd love to have been there.

Tell me again I need to know.
The forest had trees, the meadows were green.
The oceans were blue and birds really flew.
Can you swear that it's true.

Whose grey sky was this?

Or was it a blue one?
You say there were breezes.
I've heard records of breezes.
And I'd love to have felt one.

Tell me again I need to know.
The forest had trees, the meadows were green.
The oceans were blue and birds really flew.
Can you swear that it's true.

Whose garden was this, it must have been lovely.
Did it have flowers?
I've seen pictures of flowers.
And I'd love to have smelled one.

Tell me again I need to know.
Tell me again I need to know.
Tell me again I need to know.
Tell me again I need to know.

Words and music by Tom Paxton. Covered by John Denver about 1970

I don’t really know what to make of these lyrics. But listening John Denver sing this song is enough to break your heart.

Is this a nightmare of now or the far future? God/dess knows we have enough nightmares in our own time. The dates suggest the song is pre EPA era. And here we have a concerted effort to gut the EPA. Supposedly this will create jobs. I’ve even run across comments that take the stand that given a choice between jobs and the environment, the environment comes dead last. And you can’t get through to them. If we destroy the environment the jobs aren’t going to matter very much.

So, what is the world in this song? Is it the remains a jungle in Viet Nam after Agent Orange was dropped on it? The remains of an equatorial rainforest? The spreading of the Sahara? The wrecked neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn?

Or is this a nightmare out of the finale of Soylant Green or the novel Stand on Zanzibar? A future when flowers, trees, blue skies, free flowing rivers, unspoiled oceans, and even birds are remembered in pictures and folk tale? Something your doddering great grandparents tell stories about? “I’ve seen pictures of flowers. And I’d loved to have smelled one.”

Goddess, may it never come to that. 

BACK IN THE GAME, I HOPE

I've been out of the loop for awhile. It's a long story. 

And frankly there's not a lot of new things I can say about this election cycle, but this caught my attention. 

What on earth were these so called educators thinking

Granted this story is a few months old, but this is wrong on several levels. Oh, the poor little girl whose feelings were hurt when her class mate said he didn't believe in God or go to church. Who the hell has been brain washing this kid? And get used to it, honey. You are going to run into plenty of people who don't share your beliefs during your life. Might as well get used to it now rather than later.

It was none of the teacher's business. It's never too soon to impart the above information to his or her students. Politely and briefly. Don't ask who put the kid up to it, but do keep your eyes and ears open in case little Sally pulls the same stunt again.

Then another adult got involved, sympathized with the little darling. The boy was forced to sit by himself during lunch period for three days for "upsetting" his classmate.

Can you imagine how her fellow classmates are going to feel around this little sociopath in training? Harsh words I know, but this is one of the reasons so many of us learned to keep our opinions and beliefs to ourselves. And now look where we are as a result of not standing up for our beliefs twenty or thirty years ago.

Fundamentalist intimidation at its finest (worst).

And to the seven year old. Hang on to your truth with both hands.

As I said, who is brainwashing the first kid. Whether my class mates were going to church was the last thing on my mind when I was seven. Now, being bored to tears with See Spot run? That was near the top of my list.

WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Several county clerks in Kentucky are refusing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples based on their "Christian" beliefs. Basically they're arguing nullification. An idea that rears its ugly head every couple of generations or so.

One clerk's argument is that the voters in Kentucky passed a ballot measure and how can the Supreme Court say that it's wrong? Well, like it or not the Supreme Court is the final arbiter on what is constitutional and what isn't going back to Marbury vs. Madison under chief justice John Marshall. Frankly, which of your civil rights would you want to leave to the tender mercies of your neighbors?

As an example. Back in the seventies Oregonians had a bumper sticker "Don't Californicate Oregon." I'm sure there were some of us would have liked to pass laws that kept "furriners" out. The Courts would have ruled such laws were unconstitutional, and rightly so.

The constitution has a mechanism to deal with his complaints. It's called an amendment.. You don't like what's happening? Try to amend the constitution. Good thing that it only takes thirteen states to block you.

You aren't being persecuted, far from it. Being required to respect the rights of others is not persecution it's just a fact of life. Live with it.

THE HIRED HELP CONTINUED

I totally forgot about the police, fire fighters and EMT's when I wrote yesterday's post. I'm a fan of Blue Bloods and a first season episode pegged rookie Jamie Reagans's pay at under $47.000. Subtract the standard deduction and I guess Jamie isn't "pulling his weight." Even though like most other cops he's basically on call 24/7.

Big brother is a detective and their average salary is in the upper eighty grand neighborhood. Which is probably why the wife went back to work as an ER nurse. Still I'm betting their combined salaries don't put them in the $42,000 tax bracket. With two kids I guess they "aren't pulling their weight" either. Even though one of them is periodically risking his life and the other is trying to save the lives of ungrateful asshats like OldMan. 

I suspect that firefighters and EMT's probably pull down similar wages to run towards events that the rest of us run AWAY from. And remember that seventy one cops and over three hundred fire fighters died when the towers collapsed on 9/11. 

So Mr or Ms I pay eighty grand in taxes just what does it take for the folks who risk their necks to save your life and property to "pull their weight," If you're telling the truth about you taxes you are a sorry excuse for a human being. If you're putting out talking points to echo Romney's forty seven percent you are still a sorry excuse for a human being, 

A WEEK OR TWO WITHOUT THE HIRED HELP

Some folks can't seem to think past the ends of their noses.

“If you don't pay at least $12,000 a year in Federal Taxes, you aren't even paying your own way! And less than $2,000 of that is for welfare. So if you have 2 children and a wife, you need to be paying $48,000 a year in Federal Taxes, just to be paying YOUR OWN WAY!

So for all you Party Of Stupid (POS) Whiners...You're welcome! I pay almost $80,000 a year, so I'm paying your way too! 

Unless you are in the 5%, you should stop whining, as it makes you look like an entitlement baby!”

Ran across this charming bit of philosophy on the net yesterday. Frankly I don't know if this person really pays $80.000 a year in taxes or if this is the opening salvo in this election cycles's version of Mitt Romney's “47 percent.” Anyway I decided to have a little fun. 

After spending some time with the IRS tax tables you'd have to be pulling down about sixty grand a year to owe about $12,000 in taxes. And then to have this sorry excuse for human being tell us that if you have a family you should be paying a hell of a lot more. How many average Joe's do you know who make close to two hundred thousand a year?

Anyway that got me thinking. In my scenario this person lives in a big city, say New York or Boston, has a nice apartment and their very own parking space.  Perhaps this is how a  couple of weeks might play out if the little folks who really keep the country going just don't show up.

You're getting ready for work, your housekeeper is due in today. She calls in sick, doesn't know when she'll be in. You usually stop at the local deli for breakfast. It's closed. The owner, the cook and the person who runs the register haven't shown up. Hungry, you head for the office. The doorman is missing. The guy/gal at the front desk is missing. You get to your office. No receptionist, no office assistant. Your computer is wonky. No techies available. The phone is ringing off the hook and you have to answer it yourself. Too bad.

Time to head home. The engine sounds a little rough so you swing by your favorite garage. Nobody there. Guess you'll have to take a cab tomorrow. You get home to your grubby apartment and fix dinner (I'm assuming this doofus is single) cupboards are starting to look a little scant. Better swing by the neighborhood bodega in the next couple of days,

The engine may be running rough but you still have to get to work. The streets are strangely quiet. No cabs, no buses and almost no subways. Nobody to drive them. Ignoring the chattering engine you discover that the situation at the office is the same as yesterday. Recalling the state of the larder you head out a little early via the bodega. It's closed. Not even the owner is in sight. Did you really think that guy made that much money a year?

Your favorite place for dinner is closed. No cooks, bartenders, wait staff or bussers. They sure as hell don't make that kind of money. Hell, tipped staff often don't even make federal minimum wage. The engine may still be missing but tomorrow is Saturday; a good time to head for a real grocery store. Unfortunately the shelves are looking bare. There haven't been any grocery deliveries for three days and most of the stockers, checkers and deli staff appear to have also disappeared into the unknown.

You manage a loaf bread that's a little stale, some lunch meat that hasn't hit the expiration date, some wilted vegetables and some canned goods. To make life even more interesting your gas tank is below half full. The gas station is open but you can't get all you need because there haven't been any fuel deliveries for several days and the manager is trying to stretch supplies. Between explanations he/she is manning the cash register. Don't bother to go searching for another station. They're in the same straights.

You manage to get through the weekend. Comes Monday, oh did I mention it's July and there's a heatwave, and your neighborhood is beginning to smell a little “ripe.” The trash haulers are AWOL, too.

First of the week and no improvement. When you stagger into your apartment that evening the lights are flickering. Turns out your power comes from a coal fired plant and they haven't gotten any deliveries for more than a week. By midweek your apartment is a mess. You're being hit with rolling blackouts and “please don't use the AC” because we don't know when the coal is coming in. As the lights go out again you find yourself wondering if living near a nuclear power plant would be a good or a bad situation.

So Mr. or Ms. (I'm assuming it's a guy since the sign in was OldMan) I pay $80.000 in taxes you've just been brought to your knees because all the peons you dissed in your comment just disappeared a la A Day Without a Mexican. Without all those little people cleaning houses, manning the cash registers, stocking the shelves, waiting tables, delivering the food or gas and picking up the garbage your comfortable life grinds to a halt. It just might be a good idea to show a little respect now and then.

Think about it. 

MASTERS OF WAR

Senator Tom Cotton believes we can bomb Iran's nuclear capabilities back to zero  with no repercussions. Tommy this old Bob Dylan is just for you. 

Masters of War

Come you masters of war

You that build all the guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run further

When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

The runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggeers

For the others to fire

Then you sit back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion

As young people's blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world.

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins.

How much do I know

To talk out of turn

You might say that I'm young

I might say I'm unlearned

But there's one thing I know

Though I'm younger than you

That even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do,

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you thing that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die

And your death'll come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand over your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

Bob Dylan

What else is there to say? 

BEWARE OF THE WAR DRUMS

Agnes Keith married a member of the British Foreign Service, Harry Keith, in the early '30's. She moved with him to Borneo. They had a son in 1940 just as the war started. They were scheduled for leave in Britain and Harry was ordered back to Borneo. Agnes went with him. When Japan entered the war, Borneo was occupied by the Japanese, civilians were interned. The Keith family spent the next three and a half years in what amounted to prison camps. The family survived, barely. She chronicled the story Three Came home. This is the intro to her book.

"I have written this book for three reasons"

For horror of war, I want others to shudder with at it.

For affection for my husband. When war nearly killed me, knowledge of our love kept me alive.

And for a reminder to my son, I fought one war for him in prison camp. He survives because of me. He belongs now to peace. I remind him that is better to give more and to have less - and to keep the peace - than to fight.

The Japanese in this book are as war made them, not as God did, and the same is true of the rest of us. We are not pleasant people here, for the story of war is always the story of hate; it makes no difference with whom one fights. The hate destroys you spiritualy as the fighting destroys you bodily.

If there are tearrs shed here, they are for the death of good feeing If there is horror, it for those who speak indifferently of 'the next war.' If there is hate, it is for hateful qualities, nor nations. If there is love, it is because this alone kept me alive and sane."

Agnes Newton Keith

Her words still ring true today as the war drums begin to beat again.

ONLY OFF BY EIGHT CENTURIES OR SO

Tuned into Burt Wolf''s Travels and Traditions this afternoon. It's a travelogue program on PBS, rather light weight and in this case somebody should have double checked the the script. To be honest, I doubt that one person in a hundred would have caught the error. He linked Attila the Hun with the Mongols. Since Attila went to join his ancestors around 450 CE and the Mongols started their rampages across Central Asia and Eastern Europe around 1200 CE there a bad case WTF are you talking about!!!

Now there's at least one sword and sandal epic centered on Attila and his supposed efforts to marry the sister of one of the last Roman emperors, Valentinian III ruler of the Western Empire until he was assassinated in 455. The USA network also also did a miniseries about ten years ago. Not bad. I wonder if Valentinian was really THAT much of an idiot. Attila was  Hun. His armies included members of his own tribes, soldiers from other tribes, but I'm pretty damn sure there weren't any Mongols. 

The Mongols began their conquests under Genghis Khan in the early 1200's,reaching it's greatest extent by the end of the century, then fracturing into four separate khanates. The Mongols were known for their brutally ruthless battle tactics. If your city surrendered you lived. If your rulers insisted on resisting and the Mongols laid siege to the city, when the city fell you died. Brutal, Incredibly brutal. They ravaged Poland and Hungary. Destroyed the Russian cities of Kiev, Vladimir and Moscow. 

It took me less than five minutes of strenuous research on Google to double check my facts. If I could do it so could who ever wrote the script. And I'll just leave it at that. 

THE TRUE ORIGINS

of tribbles.

Who would have thought that Trump's toupees were really tribbles  LOL

A DAILY KOS RANT

I hope they don't mind me posting this verbatim. Lafeministas says is so much better than I could. When nasty spiteful hate-mongers like Huckabee and Santorum start to appear to be normal.

"When blood-soaked warmongers such as Graham and McCain appear to be reasonable.

When ignorant jerks like Walker, Perry and Jindal represent your intellectual elite.

When you embrace the crazy like Carson.

When racism and white privilege drove both your base and yourselves when an uppity n****r dared not only run but even won, you couldn't even bring yourselves to admit he was an American.

When your shifty good for nothing leader of Senate declared that his sole aim in government was to destroy the President, from day one.

When your Speaker of the House cries over an America that never existed.

When your justices on the supreme court are so out of touch, that they declare racism over and that corporations have religious rights.

You deserve Donald Trump.

You deserve every slight against service, every racist utterance and every look at me I'm fucking rich, you're all little people.

That your base laps up this unadulterated vileness is your own damn fault. When it served your nefarious purposes, it was all well and good.

Now that it is thrown back in your face, you whine.

You deserve him and I hope that he wins your bloody primary.

He is the conscience of the conservative

Deal with it.

You own it."

And I might add that when it looks like the shrub was really the smarter brother, the 'pubs are really in deep shit. 

SCHOOLING A LAWYER

It's kind of scary when a journalist with a public affairs degree is the one to school the presidential candidate with the law degree on the ins and outs of the supreme court and who decides what is constitutional or not.

I always suspected Rick Santorum fell asleep during any classes on constitutional law the article in Salon confirms it. Problem is, he isn't the only one. Congress can't just "pass a law." That's not how it works. You don't like the results, try to amend the constitution. The constitution has a process for that. Thing is it only takes thirteen states to block his dreams of undoing the latest SCOTUS decision.

I believe that what Santorum is looking for  is another trip to the Supremes giving them a chance to admit that their original decision was a "mistake." Good luck on that Rick.

And now he's attacking Scott Walker because he doesn't have his wife and children under control.  It seems that they are supporters of same sex marriage even though Governor Walker isn't. The patriarchy is alive and well. The This is beyond weird and getting weirder all the time. It's going to be a long, long campaign season.

A LONG DRY SPELL

This may just about be the longest I've gone without posting SOMETHING in a long time. We all hit these dry spells. I'm not sure if it's writer's block or total amazement with the political//religious scene in this country right now.

The president (and several other countries) negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran. The likes of Scott Walker and Jeb Bush vie to announce not if they'll bomb Iran; it's just a question of when. Guy's, if you convince the Iranians that your are going to bomb them, assuming that the threat will be enough to lead them to salute to salute when your name is mentioned, what makes you think they're just going to sit there and wait for it. They may not be able to bomb us, but I'm sure they have enough anti air craft and defensive fighters to make the price prohibitively high.

Donald Trump is ahead in the GOP polls and no one outside of the GOP base is sure why. I'm not going to bother to list the "assets" of the owner of the world's worst comb over. Except to say that IMHO the man is batshit crazy and has spent too much time surrounded by people who said yes all the time.

And most of these candidates in waiting just don't look, I don't know, presidential. And I don't believe it's a physical attribute. We've had them all shapes and sizes from imposing Washington or Jefferson to short and dumpy little John Adams. It isn't the physical attributes it's the presence. Although try to imagine Trump getting off his helicopter, hair flying every which way, I can imagine Putin's smirk already. Take Jeb Bush or Scott Walker. I don't know about you, but their eyes remind me of a dead fish. There's nobody home. And I don't want to imagine any of these dweebs, especially Trump or Cruz within forty miles of the codes for the nukes. That is definitely a disaster waiting to happen.

TRUE COURAGE

I've always loved this movie. And I've also felt that courage was also being scared or desperate and doing what you had to do in spite of the fear or the risks.