Saturday, September 13, 2003

Via the Marprelate Tracts:  Mark Fiore's animation "A Nation Remembers." 10:12:46 PM    comment []

Just watched Bill Clinton give a brilliant stump speech at Senator Harkin's "Steak Fry" in Iowa (online via CSPAN).  He plays a crowd the way Itzaak Perlman plays fiddle.  Still the master elvis of political rhetoric, he had a repeated trope about the Republicans giving Bill Clinton the millionaire a tax cut while cutting benefits or funding to your...insert your cut here.  He said snotty things in the nicest way about the Supremes and the Bush League, and you could feel the love, baby.  The speech has been over for five or ten minutes and the crowd is standing in the rain chanting "We want Bill! We want Bill!"   The man could have been reelected in the last election, and could be reelected in the next if it weren't for term limits.  Even the Repugs would love to have and to hate Clinton again.  Tho' I'm sure some sleeper wingnut somewhere is still polishing a bullet with Bill's name on it. 9:53:22 PM    comment []

Fiona asked if I lived in Denver.  Once upon a time, I did.  PoD 49 4:10:26 PM    comment []

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black, Why you never see bright colors on my back, And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone. Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on. I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read, Or listened to the words that Jesus said, About the road to happiness through love and charity, Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me. Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose, In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes, But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back, Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black. I wear it for the sick and lonely old, For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold, I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been, Each week we lose a hundred fine young men. And, I wear it for the thousands who have died, Believen' that the Lord was on their side, I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, Believen' that we all were on their side. Well, there's things that never will be right I know, And things need changin' everywhere you go, But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right, You'll never see me wear a suit of white. Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day, And tell the world that everything's OK, But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, 'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.   Man In Black By: John R. Cash, © 1971 House of Cash, Inc. Recorded February 16, 1971 Number 3 - Country Charts; Number 58 - Pop Charts 2:03:42 AM    comment []

Lest we forget:  Two years ago today, and two days after "9-11," while the smoke was still rising from Ground Zero, the Reverends Falwell and Robertson had this to say about that:   "You helped this happen." Partial transcript of comments from the Thursday, September 13, 2001 edition of the '700 Club.' JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters - the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats--what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact--if, in fact--God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population. JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this. PAT ROBERTSON: Well, yes. JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen." PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system. JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time--calling upon God. PAT ROBERTSON: Amen   1:46:48 AM    comment []