Posted this in a comment at Sadly, No!
Dave comes by a thread about TORTURE looking for comedy?There are a healthy percentage of Americans who are hateful and angry and sadistic, and get some kind of sick satisfaction at the idea of torturing someone they don't like, whether it is a Latino, a Muslim, African-American, or even a liberal.
What kind of sick fuck?
Look, any American who has read and understood the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and has a smidgen of morality is sickened by the acts that are being perpetrated in our name.
Authoritarian cultists like Patterico are parsing words in a frenzy that makes Clinton's 'definition of is' moment look like an out and out confession in order to justify a morality-free Government that has no responsibility to protect, serve, or help any citizens, but has the ability to jail them, render them, and torture them on the irrefutable and secret word of one arguably illiterate overprivileged clod.
And dammit, fuck me if I don't see the joke in that.
I watched a little Bill Hicks last night. Everybody should do it. I think Bill was prescient and died so he wouldn't have to live through this; he predicted every mother loving act, right up front, on stage, and recorded for posterity.
And he was funny doing it; but he was a genius and he wasn't living through it.
The Founding Fathers would be so proud, wouldn't they? Ben Franklin famously said "The man that would sacrifice essential Liberty for momentary Security is deserving of neither". What do you think he would say about the country that has to resort to torture to maintain an illusion of security?
And without fail, these people are the ones who preach endlessly about morals, and the superiority of their Christianist religiosity, while insisting that atheist have no basis of morality.
If Christian morality, and Christian moralizers, end up at torturing another human being (ironic, considering the Crucifixion, hey?) then it's probably about time we stop using Christianity as a moral touchstone.
Anyway, the Busy has come down and sat on my head like a large Brooding Blancmange, oozing all over my desk and preventing blogging, let alone anything fun. Guess I have to pay for going to see all those bands in November. But Sorry. Refunds of all your dues are in the mail.
I never miss a Friday Musical Clusterfuster though! 30,236 songs, 2471 albums, 119.66 gigs of noises.
1. Flathead - The Fratellis. Made famous in an iPod ad, the rest of the album is great too: sloppy, propulsive, garage band proto-punk. I should have gone to see them at the Pabst a few months ago.
2. In School - Die Kreuzen. Milwaukee speed metal punk from the late 80's. Some of the heaviest stuff around
3. Mo Bhron - Black 47- Gaelic interlude from the Green Suede Shoes album.
4. Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers. I gotta confess, I like the Peppers newer, more refined stuff. Maybe they don't play wearing socks on their diddles anymore, but they can write a nice hooky pop song. And Flea plays a MONSTER bass.
5. The New Pollution - Beck.
6. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert - Roger Waters. one of the songs he played live last summer. Fine piece of anti-war, anti-Thatcher songwriting.
7. Broken A/C Blues - Duane Jarvis. Honky Tonk party song from a Bloodshot Compilation.
8. Frail and Bedazzled - Smashing Pumpkins. There would have been no Pumpkins if not for Die Kreuzen up there. Corgan took the DK sound, polished it a bit with Butch Vig, and hit the big time while DK had to paint houses.
9. Ye Sleeping Knights Of Jesus - Robyn Hitchcock. "I have seen the sleeping Knights of Jesus/ and they look extremely tired to me."
10. Atom Tan - The Clash. A maligned album, but it still has some good moments, and this one sounds pretty good today.
one to grow on and for luck: Susan - Aimee Mann. Sean Penn's favorite sister-in-law. Some mopey Bachelor No. 2 wonderfulness. She does the most wonderfully depressed downbeat holiday concerts. She once sang on a Rush song, Jennifer!
Good commentary up top, BP.
ReplyDeleteAs for Rush, remember, it was not their songs, it was GEDDY'S VOICE!
A Rush song was playing the other evening when I went to pick Grizzled up from the train. I believe I heard you and Brando snickering.
Now get back to work.
... thought you said she "sang" a Rush song. You said she sang "on" a Rush song. Good for her. Not sure I want to hear it.
ReplyDeleteMs. Mann sings on "Time Stand Still" which is a very nice song about the passage of time, growing older, living in the moment and whatnot. It's off of Hold Your Fire which is one of my very favoritest Rush albums. Possibly because Geddy does virtually no screech owl impressions on it.
ReplyDeleteAs to the beginning rant-- it is sad and distressing that so many Christians and/or otherwise rational people are eager to jump on the "water boarding isn't torture" bandwagon. I wish we could bring George Washington back and have him explain to them why it is important-- as well as right-- to treat your enemies with respect and compassion even if they do not afford you the same regard. You think Bush, Gonzalez, Cheney and the rest would be able to parse their words under Washington's cold stare?
Doubt it.
Of course, please do bear in mind that the Right holds no stranglehold on hating. The fact that so many on the Left take a twisted pride in hating George Bush pretty much illustrates the fact that hatred is very much an equal opportunity evil. Glasses houses and stones, kettles and pots... you know, all that stuff.
So if they're Christian, shouldn't they not worry about security in this life and only focus on the next life.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a dollar for every time as a child I had to listen to a radio program about someone standing up to an attacker, confident in the power of Jesus to protect them, I'd be a hell of a lot richer now.
But anyone who's stopped to consider these things has probably also considered that life in a fantastic afterlife and life that's happening now generally create some sort of paradox in the "sons of Abraham" religions.
(sure, I'll just keep telling myself that.)
RF, I especially enjoyed the recent story where a man stood in front of a Tiger cage, loudly proclaimed his faith that God would protect him, took off his shoes, and climbed in the cage.
ReplyDeleteHe had a flavor.