Daily Ramblings:
To Be Alone With You ...11/28/2004 03:54:49 pm
CBS's 60 Minutes website has its own entry on the Dylan interview. So far, it's the only topic scheduled for that December 5th show. Time to hold hands and will them not to add anything else.
Happy Thanksgiving ...11/25/2004 12:02:17 pm
In the words of the original George W.:
WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour ...
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war ... and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
(signed) G. Washington
And in the words of the current George W.:
... This Thanksgiving, we express our gratitude to our dedicated firefighters and police officers who help keep our homeland safe. We are grateful to the homeland security and intelligence personnel who spend long hours on faithful watch. And we give thanks for the Americans in our Armed Forces who are serving around the world to secure our country and advance the cause of freedom. These brave men and women make our entire Nation proud, and we thank them and their families for their sacrifice.
On this Thanksgiving Day, we thank God for His blessings and ask Him to continue to guide and watch over our Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 25, 2004, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship to reinforce the ties of family and community and to express gratitude for the many blessings we enjoy.
And check out one of the best columns to come in a long time from this George W.: Remembering Lena.
It's Unbelievable ...11/24/2004 11:01:15 am
... but true. It'll be on Expecting Rain tomorrow, but 'round here we don't wait for Norwegian time. In discussing his "rocky" times at CBS and his decision to resign with USA Today, Dan Rather quotes Bob Dylan:
"If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, just remind me to show you the scars."
That's "Where Are You Tonight?" from Streetlegal. What can you say? A kudo to old Dan for coming up with a relatively little known Dylan song, and quoting it quite appropriately to his situation.
Here's another Bob quote:
Of-course it's also just been announced that Dylan will be seen in his first television interview since 1985, on CBS's "60 Minutes" on December 5th. Ed Bradley got the gig, and talked to Dylan - apparently on this past November 19th - for ninety minutes. I just pray they give him the whole hour (minus commercials), and don't compress that ninety minutes into one viciously edited fifteen minute segment.
I mean, this is history, folks.
That last interview he did in 1985 was for ABC's 20/20. If you've seen it, you'll know it's about fifteen minutes of various old and new concert footage and stuff, with a voice-over by the self-important ABC journalist telling us what we should know about Bob - interspersed with brief clips of the actual interview with Dylan, which probably amount to little more than two minutes total.
Do better this time, please.
I'll even promise to forgive CBS for all past transgressions ... we can start with a clean slate after December 5th! Please, guys ...
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Devil's In The Alley ...11/24/2004 10:09:32 am
From the BBC, a little bit of the real story from an embedded reporter. The editor titles it "Hunting 'Satan' in Falluja hell," which would feed into some readers' preconceptions of Bible thumping rednecks wreaking havoc, but the article itself by reporter Paul Wood is just the facts and worth reading in full. There's this on the comportment of the comander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment in the midst of battle:
Lt Col Brandl, the 1/8's commander, came striding across the roof top, wearing wrap-around shades and a broad grin.
A cigar was sticking out of one side of his mouth. Everyone else was moving around bent double.
The marines called this building "Fort Apache" since in any particular direction you cared to look, someone was attacking them.
"What's our situation, Colonel?" I asked, a little nervous.
"Our situation is good," he said, pausing for a volley of gunfire. "The enemy is coming to us. And we're killing him."
And just one of the stories we're not hearing of the heroes of our time:
Lt Malcolm's squad went up on to the highest roof top they could find - but not higher than the two minarets on either side with snipers.
There was a wall about 40cm (16in) tall for cover. Everyone tried to get close to it while bullets skipped across the paving stones.
When he heard his men were in trouble - the men he'd been giving chess tips just the day before - Lt Malcolm came to get them.
As he ran onto the roof, one of the sniper's bullets hit his helmet, bouncing off.
He kept going, and did not leave until he had shepherded all his men down.
He was killed by the second bullet. It got him in the back, just below the flak jacket, as he jumped down the stairwell.
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Al-Zarqawi: I'M MELLLLTTTTTING! ...11/24/2004 09:29:02 am
In his first public performance since the rout of his band of torturers and beheaders in Fallujah, and as operations continue south of Baghdad, terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi put the blame for the defeat of his thugs squarely at the feet of his co-religionists.
With his term apparently nearing its end and his thoughts now likely to be turning to his legacy, he addressed Muslim scholars on the recently released audiotape:
"You have let us down in the darkest circumstances and handed us over to the enemy… You have quit supporting the mujahedeen. Hundreds of thousands of the nation's sons are being slaughtered at the hands of the infidels because of your silence."
He went on:
"You made peace with the tyranny and handed over the countries and the people to the Jews and Crusaders. … when you resort to silence on their crimes, when you refused to hold the banners of Jihad and Tawhid, and when you prevented youth from heading to the battlefields in order to defend the religion ... Instead of implementing God's orders, you chose your safety and preferred your money and sons."
The man who recruited others to fight and murder by using DVDs glorifying the brutal and ritualistic beheadings of innocent people continues:
"You left the mujahadeen facing the strongest power in the world. Are not your hearts shaken by the scenes of your brothers being surrounded and hurt by your enemy?"
Later on in the tape he exhorts his surviving goons to keep fighting.
None could be reached for comment at press time.
Writers And Critics ...11/21/2004 08:32:07 pm
Back to Bob for a minute. In the NY Times last Sunday, the following letter to the editor was published, in reaction to Tom Carson's review in the Times of Dylan's Chronicles. I already critiqued his review here for being the snide piece of irony-worshipping garbage that I believe it to be, and this letter to the editor from someone with special knowledge just underlines the fact that Carson's studied and insistent skepticism with regard to Dylan's reminiscences is utterly misplaced.
Tom Carson's review of Bob Dylan's ''Chronicles'' (Oct. 24) punctures a lot of the mystique, but also reveals some basic ignorance of the Greenwich Village folk scene. Having spent the last two years editing the memoir of Dylan's mentor Dave Van Ronk, I can assure Carson that both Dylan's romantic primitivism and his fascination with history were the common coin of that scene. Dylan certainly would have known at 20 that the Café Bizarre ''used to be Aaron Burr's livery stable'' -- that is the first thing anyone who played the club remembers about it. Before Dylan transformed the folk world into a mass of self-involved singer-songwriters, it was populated by amateur historians posing as what Van Ronk liked to call ''neo-ethnics,'' and they all treasured both their carefully honed hayseed accents and their links to previous self-mythologizers like Walt Whitman. Dylan's memoir, quirky as it may be, gives a straightforward sense of that time and place.
Elijah Wald
Cambridge, Mass.
Published: 11 - 14 - 2004 , Late Edition - Final , Section 7 , Column 1 , Page 4Thank you, Mr. Wald. And since the book has now been out about 6 weeks, it's worth pointing out that for anyone who believes it to be purposely deceitful, they have a little problem with a dog that doesn't bark. That is, there has been no rush of contemporaneous figures - and people Dylan mentions in his book - coming out and saying, "Hey, that's not how it happened. I was there, I know." Though it's likely that a few people are miffed at their portrayal, or lack of one (Robbie Robertson only gets mentioned for that dumb question he asks on the car ride), no one seems to be seriously questioning Dylan's veracity. Aside from reviewers like Carson, that is - of which there have been blessedly few.
And while I'm on the subject, thanks to visitor Russ for mentioning this, Dylan's recent Q & A with Rolling Stone, of which I was completely unaware. It's a nice little exchange. Here's something he says about Chronicles:
With the book, what I try and do is put a feeling across. It's not the kind of book where it's a short life and a merry one. It's more abstract, drawn out over long periods of time. I worked the book, if you want to call it that, in patterns. I portray life as a game of chance.
Bang on, as it should be coming from the author. But the phrase "Simple Twist Of Fate" occurred to me a great deal while reading the memoir. He's highly cognizant of the moments when his life could have gone one way or another, and so the book is filled both with a sense of chance and, I think also, the implicit sense of an unseen hand.
More from the telephone Q & A:
What's the last song you'd like to hear before you die?
How 'bout "Rock of Ages"?
I heard you've written songs for a new album.
I have a bunch of them. I do.
When will you crank 'em out?
Maybe in the beginning of the year. I'm not sure where and when.
Can you tell me about them?
No, I couldn't explain them to you. After you listen to them, call me back. It's difficult to paraphrase them or tell you what kind of style they're in. You won't be surprised.
Why not?
The musical structure you're used to hearing -- it might be rearranged a bit. The songs themselves will speak to you.
I love that - when he says about his next album, "You won't be surprised." Anyone else would say exactly the opposite, "Oh, just wait, it's gonna be something different for me, something you haven't heard before." And of all artists, Dylan is one who could claim to consistently surprise. What the heck do you call Nashville Skyline, Slow Train Coming, Highway 61, Time Out Of Mind? Some of those, and others, were more earthquakes than mere surprises. Yet he can laconically say, hey, I can't describe them, but you won't be surprised. Hilarious, and true on some level Dylan's brain operates on.
What a gift it is that he's still with us and making music, and grown adults can await his next album with the giddy anticipation of fifteen year olds.
And with Dubya kicking ass in the White House and beyond!
It frightens me, the awful truth of how sweet life can be
Bushwhacked!! ...11/20/2004 08:52:12 pm
I just wanted to steal the likely tabloid headline tomorrow. Below is the picture of President George W. Bush moments after he personally settled a fracas between one of his Secret Service agents (the man behind Bush in the picture) and the Chilean security agents who were trying to deny him entry.
I expect we'll all see the video footage in due time.
Did we elect the right guy, or what?
Addendum: Just think, if this Bush/Secret Service incident had happened before the election, we would have been treated to an instant lefty conspiracy mill, claiming that it had been staged to make Dubya appear more manly and commanding. It's so sweet not to have to hear that kind of garbage anymore.
Yes, Right Wing Bob is still gloating ... just a little. Does it show?
Addendum II: Real Player footage of the incident is here - relevant action begins in the 18th minute of this 45 minute clip, so skip ahead, unless you really enjoy this diplomatic rope line stuff.
Addendum III: And the best detail on the incident and its interesting background that I've found is here, in the Washington Times (surprise, surprise).
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Living The Blues ...11/20/2004 02:10:47 pm
A protester in Santiago, Chile (where President Bush is attending an APEC summit) conveys his preference for the more nuanced foreign policy ideas of John Kerry, and his dismay at President Bush's continued pursuit of a more assertive American agenda:
It's A Restless Hungry Feeling ...11/19/2004 04:22:15 pm
The dreadful fallout from the re-election of George W. Bush continues apace. We'll be lucky if any of us are left alive at the end of the next four years to vote for Hillary. (That must be his plan!) The following article left me stunned and all but in tears: More New Yorkers At Risk For Hunger, Survey Finds.
More New Yorkers are having trouble putting food on the table, according to a survey by the Food Bank for New York City.
The study found 31 percent of city residents are “at risk for hunger,” finding it somewhat or very difficult to afford the food they need for their families – that’s up from 25 percent a year ago."Somewhat or very difficult to afford" food. This when a 10 lb bag of rice (enough food for about 6 months) costs $3.99 in the New York area!! A pound of dried black beans is 89 cents! Clearly, 31% of New Yorkers are not just poor, they are hopelessly desititute, prostrate, penniless and possibly already dead.
The statistics from this inarguably impartial organization's astounding poll march on, in a pitiless indictment of the cruelty of our laughable "society:"
Breaking it down by borough, 32 percent of Queens residents are at risk for hunger, up 8 percent from a year ago; in Brooklyn, 31 percent are at risk (a 7 percent rise); 19 percent are at risk in the Bronx (up 6 percent); 13 percent of Staten Islanders are at risk (a jump from none a year ago); and in Manhattan, the number held steady at 21 percent.
21% of Manhattanites!! At least the figure is holding steady, and not increasing. Thank God for small mercies, as they say. But how is it that in the Capital of the World, filled with tourists, media people (at least dozens of whom must have cameras) and every left wing activist group one could hope for, that this tragedy can unfold virtually unnoticed? The truth must be that the brave and stoic Manhattanites are hiding their hunger. Not for them the wages of pity from the burgeoning bellies of the Red State folk. No, Manhattanites will not complain of their terrible malnourishment, not one bit - not if it kills them.
Therefore we must track down these one in five Manhattanites who are finding it "somewhat or very difficult" to afford food and reach out, if necessary anonymously, to quench their appetites and ease their horrid suffering.
To wit, here are five residents of Manhattan island. One of them must be our first example of this terrible, shameful thing hiding in our midst: the hunger that dare not speak its name. Our job is to find out which one that is.
It's well known that extreme cases of starvation cause bloating, in the horrible end. And just to think, people have been making fun of his swollen belly!
People have criticized her post-election columns for being filled with a vile hatred of Middle America. Her poor empty stomach is just crying out for them to share their hamburgers, for chrissakes!
Did he step down from National Review for the reasons he stated, or was it because he could no longer afford to expend the calories necessary to continue in the job?
Did little Jazzy really die in that upstate kennel (as if the gossip maven of Gotham would send her pooch to the stix!), or was Cindy forced to seek life-saving sustenance from the only creature she loved?
Oh, sweet Jesus! Forgive us ...
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Get Up Near The Teacher ...11/19/2004 02:46:03 pm
VDH kicks ass. What else is new? But it's how he says it.
We are living in historic times, as all the landmarks of the past half-century are in the midst of passing away. The old left-wing critique is in shambles — as the United States is proving to be the most radical engine for world democratic change and liberalization of the age. A reactionary Old Europe, in concert with the ossified American leftist elite, unleashed everything within its ample cultural arsenal: novels, plays, and op-ed columns calling for the assassination of President Bush; propaganda documentaries reminiscent of the oeuvre of Pravda or Leni Riefenstahl; and transparent bias passed off as front-page news and lead-ins on the evening network news.
Germany and France threw away their historic special relationships with America, while billions in Eastern Europe, India, Russia, China, and Japan either approved of our efforts or at least kept silent. Who would have believed 60 years ago that the great critics of democracy in the Middle East would now be American novelists and European utopians, while Indians, Poles, and Japanese were supporting those who just wanted the chance to vote? Who would have thought that a young Marine from the suburbs of Topeka battling the Dark Ages in Fallujah — the real humanist — was doing more to aid the planet than all the billions of the U.N.?
Original text copyright © 2004 by RightWingBob.com
Quotes from the works of others are linked to their source or are as otherwise attributed, and are used in accordance with Fair Use guidelines. Contact: rightwingbob(at)gmail.com
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