Keep on rockin' in the free world

Just got back from the Steve Earle concert. Nearly three hours! Three words: Steve Earle Rocks!

Oh, the irony!

I came across this in a column (dated March 25, 2005) by political writer Maureen Dowd of the New York Times:

"As the Bush White House desperately maneuvers in Iraq to prevent the new government from being run according to the dictates of religious fundamentalists, it desperately maneuvers here to pander to religious fundamentalists who want to dictate how the government should be run."

Well stated! Oh the irony of it all! The Terri Schiavo case and how Bush and his republican buddies reacted to it is very telling. The great king W. even cut short his vacation to come in and sign the legislation. Thank God there wasn't any authority to act. Whatever happened to separation of church and state? If we're trying to prevent it in Iraq, why are we letting it creep in here at home?

Wake up America!

What I really want to say is...

At some point in certain situations we all must come to terms that maybe what we really want isn't ever going to happen. You can cry, get angry, blame someone (someone else, yourself, God), or plead (with someone else, yourself, God), but none of it will change the facts.

At some point you just have to realize that you can sit there and wallow or simply move on. I find that somewhat troublesome, but eventually it is necessary to move on.

So, then what? You can put up walls to protect yourself or you can throw caution entirely to the wind and be really wreckless. Neither is particularly healthy, but what are you going to do? I guess we all just chalk it up to experience and try to build on what we've learned. Someone once said when God closes a door he opens a window. What the hell does that mean? It's not the same thing, but I guess things are never exactly the same, are they? Suck it up and keep moving, damn it!

What I really want to say is that sometimes the facts just suck!

If...

So, if I'm ever at a point where I've been in an accident, and for the past fourteen years I've been in a verified persistent vegetative state, and my spouse wants to remove my feeding tube, and a U.S. circuit court has upheld a decision to allow the removal of said feeding tube... PLEASE DO NOT LET THE U.S. CONGRESS CREATE SPECIAL LEGISLATION TO KEEP MY BODY ALIVE!!!

Oh my GOD! What has this country come to?!?! I guess the radical right republicans are flexing their powers to play God--the vengeful, old testiment God they want to force on the rest of their visionary new Amerika.

It's the same Amerika where they have the power to do their will, Constitution be damned. It's the same Amerika where the only people who get to attend presidential rallies are those who support the president. It's the same Amerika where the press corps includes insider "journalists" whom the president can call upon to ask easy, uncontroversial questions. It's the same Amerika where you are required to pray at work and in school to that old testiment God. It's the same Amerika where it's okay to discriminate against two men or two women who want to commit to a monogamous relationship. It's the same Amerika where they protect your right to be born but not to die. It's the same Amerika where the rich get to keep all their money and the poor get to be their servants. It's the same Amerika where they tell you to do as they say, but not as they do. It's the same Amerika where the president can tell an outright lie and then rewrite his rationale for actions taken based on that lie. It's the same Amerika where they won't let the arrival of the caskets of the soldiers killed because of that lie be shown on the news because the war is being won. It's the same Amerika we are currently living in. What happens tomorrow?

I find it incredibly ironic that the U.S. Congress is fighting so hard to keep a singular dead woman alive while more of our living sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces are dying every day in Iraq.

Some Stuff

A few things that seem to sort of go together at this very moment...

"We are constantly invited to be what we are" -- Henry David Thoreau

***

"There are two kinds of Christmas people," Mark Oliver Everett (of the band eels) says, "those who like their Christmas lights to stay on solid and those who like them to blink. As a kid, I always had a thing for sitting in the dark and watching the lights blink on and off at random." Now he says this fascination goes much further. "In the end, what we have are these little, great moments. They come and they go. That's as good as it gets. But, still, isn't that great?"

***

Ten Days, by Missy Higgins:
So we've put an end to it this time. I'm no longer yours and you're no longer mine.
You said this hill looks far too steep if I'm not even sure it's me you wanna keep.
And it's been ten days without you in my reach,
and the only time I've touched you is in my sleep.
But time has changed nothing at all - you're still the only one that feels like home.
I've tried cutting the ropes and I let you go but you're still the only one that feels like home.

You won't talk me into it next time, if I'm going away your hearts coming too.
'Cos I miss your hands I miss your face. When I get back let's disappear without a trace.
'Cos it's been ten days without you in my reach,
and the only time I've touched you is in my sleep.
But time has changed nothing at all - you're still the only one that feels like home.
I've tried cutting the ropes, tried letting go but you're still the only one that feels like home.

So tell me, did you really think...
oh tell me, did you really think I had gone when you couldn't see me anymore?
When you couldn't...
'Cos baby time has changed nothing at all - you're still the only one that feels like home.
And I've tried cutting the ropes, I let you go but you're still the only one that feels like home,
Yeah, you're still the only one that feels like home,
you're still the only one I've gotta love. Oh yeah...

***

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost

Spork, spork, spork!

Ah, the beauty of the spork--park spoon, part fork! I love these bizarre, if-they-mated permutations! Vanocolate (vanilla flavored chocolate), Repocrats (very conservative Democrats), giggups (hiccuping when giggling), and their imaginary ilk. What kind of drugs am I taking?!? Maybe I'm just intaxicated (rapturously dreaming of what I'm going to do with my tax refund). Maybe it's one too many sugar free Red Bulls...

I Heart Huckabees

Just watched I Heart Huckabees on DVD last night. It's an interesting, funny movie about the meaning of life. It had an almost stream-of-consciousness quality that made me think it was either: 1) extremely profound or 2) directed by someone experiencing a fantastic drug high.

It involved existential detectives who watch every aspect of people's lives. What it comes down to is that we struggle with finding meaning in life between the polar concepts of everything being intimately connected and potentially joyful and everything being disconnected and filled with misery.

I have to admit it's one of those movies that I hope is enhanced by multiple viewings. There are some very funny moments, to be sure. Made me think about a lot of stuff. I think I lean toward the idea of everything being connected... So ask yourself, is reading this entry somehow connected to what you have going on in your life? No? Okay, nevermind...