Dan Riley's Blog, page 6

Kentucky Vermin

How about a little soundtrack to go along with the estimable Jane Meyer's incisive autopsy of Mitch McConnell's soul?

My Easter Playlist

  Paul Newman as Cool Hand Luke sings Plastic Jesus
I’m putting my Spotify song list together for this Easter. Here are the ground rules: They have to be songs that mention Jesus, though not necessarily be about Jesus. They have to make direct reference to Jesus himself, not oblique references to Messiah or Lord (so, apologies to the Georges…Handel and Harrison). They have to be songs that I have really liked for a long time and not just songs I’m pulling off Google for the sake of this post. So, here goes… Suzanne, Leonard Cohen—I didn’t set out to rank these songs in order, but if I had this would’ve been the easy #1. It remains one of my 2-3 favorite songs of all time…sublimely beautiful and profound one verse to the next. And unlike that other Cohen masterpiece so badly abused by misuse and overuse, it retains its preciousness
And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him
He said all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them
But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him, and you want to travel blind
And you think you maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with her mind <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Times; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}
Fire and Rain, James Taylor—I have mixed feelings about James Taylor…a little too sleepy for me in much of his work, but if he had never done anything more than write Fire and Rain, that would’ve been more than enough to gain my undying respect…just a sweet bit of biographical lyric writing striking a stunning balance between being evocatively detailed and elusively ellipticalWon't you look down upon me, JesusYou've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way

Levon, Bernie Taupin & Elton John---Well you never know, do you? Is the Jesus in this lyric simply a Bernie Taupin creation that riffs somewhat on the original Jesus story…or is it a retelling of the original Jesus story? Levon's sells cartoon balloons in townHis family business thrives
Jesus blows up balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly
And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus
Leave Levon far behindTake a balloon and go sailing,While Levon, Levon slowly dies

I have a fondness for it because it reflects a Jesus take of my own from The Diary of Jesus H. Christ …that of a savior who’s pretty burnt out from playing savior, especially given the return on his original act of sacrifice:

Dear Diary,

            They’re starting to talk Second Coming around here again, and I’m getting a headache just thinking about my first coming. My side still hurts every time I laugh, and when the wind whistles through these holes in my hands and feet I sound like an ocarina.              “Jesus,” they’re saying, “the world’s going to hell in big, green Hefty bags, and we’ve got to do something about it.”              Yeah, sure, I say. We’ve got to do something about it all right.  Let’s deck Jesus out in human form and trot him on down there to do his sacrificial lamb thing again is more like it.             Well, not this time they don’t. I can think of better ways to spend Easter vacation (Helloooo, Cabo!). They can just get themselves another boy. There are plenty of others running around up here that’d jump at a second chance to save the world —Father Flannigan. Mother Teresa. Che. Michael Jackson (just a short hop, skip and a jump from King of Pop to King of Kings, wouldn't you say?). Break out the swaddling clothes for one of those semi-demi-gods, and let them go down and beat their head against the bloody wall for mankind. But not me — not this time — not for all the frankincense and myrrh in the world. -- JHC

Jesus Christ Superstar, Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber—Speaking of blasphemy…ha! Yes, a little bit blasphemy, a lot of campiness…maybe even a bit provocative, but definitely a whole lotta fun once you get pass the audaciousness. 
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?
Jesus Christ
Superstar
Do you think you're what they say you are? <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Times; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}

Jesus is Just all Right, Arthur Reynolds—Okay Jesus or not…Doobies or Byrds…just a great rockin’ song that does suitable honor to the savior, though it could be about anyone or anything made up of two syllables…pasta, Netflix, Merlot, Biden, Bardot… 

Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright, oh yeah
Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright 
I don't care what they may say
I don't care what they may do
I don't care what they may say
Jesus is just alright, oh yeah
Jesus is just alright The Rebel Jesus, Jackson Brown—A twofer…Easter and Christmas…one of the best Christmas songs ever with as good a Christian message as one could ever ask for: 

But pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
There's a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure and I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus Hello , Jeff Marx / Matthew E. Stone / Trey Parker / Bobby Lopez—Blasphemous, funny, hummable…and the opening song that perfectly kicks off the most kick ass musical of all time…roll over Oscar Hammerstein and give Richard Rogers the news...
Hello 
Did you know that Jesus lived here in the USA? 
You can read all about it now 
Hello
In this nifty book, it's free no, you don't have to pay 
Hello
Hello, my name is Elder Smith
And can I leave this book with you for you to just peruse?
Hello
Hello
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Operator, William Spivery—What can I say? Revival pop…even our friends the atheists (Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, et al.) could not resist its toe tapping allure…Operator…informationGet me Jesus on the line

Spirit in the Sky, Norman Greenbaum—Norman Greenbaum joining a parade of Jewish songwriters in embracing Christianity...musically anyway...from Irving Berlin to Bob Dylan. None perhaps brought as much panache to the task as Greenbaum who turned Jesus into an object of psychedelic worship...kind of a Jesus in the sky with rainbows…Prepare yourself you know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He's gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky
Gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the skyPlastic Jesus, Ed Rush / George Cromarty—I don’t know that I ever heard Plastic Jesus on radio or the American Bandstand or on my own record player…none of the usual places where I got my music. I knew it first as a Catholic kids being naughty sing-along…and then ultimately as the keynote piece of music in Cool Hand Luke, a cinematic take on the Jesus story that is, to this day for me at least, the best movie messiah metaphor there’s ever been, as explained in the first Nobby Easter post ever:
I don't care if it rains or freezesLong as I've got my plastic Jesus
Ridin' on the dashboard of my carThrough my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nation
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far
Update!
Sam Stone, John Prine--This a major D’oh! I sent the link to this post to friend Doug Fiske, who wrote back asking, what didn’t you like this one:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.



On the one hand I’d been so intent in mourning the passing of the extraordinary John Prine  to coronavirus, and on the other hand I had been so very intent on putting out this blog post before Easter that never the twain did meet…until Doug’s email. Salvation, indeed.
Bonus And now in the interest of being fair and balanced, how about a song for the Antichrist?  It took Bob Dylan 50 years to write a song about the JFK assassination, but I didn’t think I could wait 50 years for him to write about our current national tragedy. (Sorry about the awkwardness of presenting this in two parts, but this blogger platform cannot handle videos of more than 100 MB.)
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Let's Play Doctor!

This, from 2017, has proven to be one the most popular posts in the history of the Nob. In it, I argued that the media should be more open and robust in discussing Donald Trump's quite evident mental imbalance. I began with reference to the Mayo Clinic’s list of signs and symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder without first mentioning Trump by name. Then after the list, I asked my readers if the list reminded them of anyone they know. Just today in response to Trump's latest campaign rally disguised as a Covid19 national health update, former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt questioned Trump's mental health. As the now daily display of petty grievance, gross distortion, juvenile finger-pointing, and abject incompetence unfolds live on our TV screens, Trump's mental illness can no longer be in doubt and serious journalists can no longer ignore it. To help them along, I'm going to revisit that list of signs and symptoms from the Mayo Clinic, but instead of leaving it to readers to figure out who it reminds them of, I'm going to leave it to Donald J. Trump's exact words
Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance"I can fix anything""I mean, I know insurance companies better than anybody""I think nobody knows more about campaign finance than I do" "I know more about people who get ratings than anyone." "I know more about ISIS than the generals do." "I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook maybe better than almost anybody""I know more about courts than any human being on Earth." "[W]ho knows more about lawsuits than I do? I'm the king.""I understand politicians better than anybody""I know more about re-newables than any human being on Earth.""I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world." "Nobody knows more about trade than me.""I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me.""I understand money better than anybody." "[L]ook, as a builder, nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump." "Technology — nobody knows more about technology than me." "I know more about drones than anybody.
Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration“We have done a job the likes of which nobody’s seen. I think they should be appreciative, because you know what, when they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA, it’s not right.”
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it“You’re talking about a potential of up to 2.2 million. And some people said it could even be higher than that. So you’re talking about 2.2 million deaths—2.2 million people from this...And so if we can hold that down, as we’re saying, to 100,000—that’s a horrible number—maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 [thousand] and 200,000, we all, together, have done a very good job.”  
"Honestly, if they don't, it's just fine. I can win it either way. I mean, I may be better off winning it the opposite way than the more traditional way."
“The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing. And we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion.”
Exaggerate achievements and talents"Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is. But as of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test — that’s the important thing — and the tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect, right? This was not as perfect as that, but pretty good," 
"And as you know, even before this development, we've been doing more tests -- tests than any other country, anywhere in the world."
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or perfect mate"Something we did very well is, when we stopped the inflow from China at a very early level, that was a good thing to do, a great thing to do. We would have had thousands and thousands of more deaths."
"It would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles. I think I know most of it anyway. You're talking about just getting updated on a situation"
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people"Today I spoke with Wolfgang Puck."
"I spoke to great people today that have done a great job.
“And you know the interesting? When I did it, and I was really being tough, and so was he, and we were going back and forth, and then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they're great letters. We fell in love. 
Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior"You didn't hear me. That's why you used to work for the Times and now you work for somebody else. Look, let me tell you something: Be nice. Don't be threatening."
"I don't have to call because I'm probably better off not, because we don't get -- he's a failed presidential candidate. He's a nasty person. I don't like the governor of Washington.
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations“I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government. Michigan is a very important state, I love the people of Michigan … but she is a new governor who has not been pleasant. We don’t like to see the complaints,”
“He calls all the governors. I tell him, I mean, I’m a different type of person. I say Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan. If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call"
Take advantage of others to get what they want“We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from — you know who I’m talking about — from Michigan. She is a new governor and it’s not been pleasant. She doesn’t get it done, and we send her a lot. Now she wants a declaration of emergency and, you know, we’ll have to make a decision on that."
“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine...”
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others"Even though this is different, something is going on, and you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000? So I think people should check that because there's something going on, whether -- it's not -- I don't think it's hoarding; I think it's maybe worse than hoarding."
“They are not our friend, believe me. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
"I think if this country gets any kinder or gentler, it's literally going to cease to exist."
"Don't worry about that baby. I love babies. I hear that baby crying, I like it. What a baby. What a beautiful baby. Don't worry, don't worry. The mom's running around like—don't worry about it, you know. It's young and beautiful and healthy and that's what we want. [...] Actually, I was only kidding, you can get the baby out of here. That's all right. Don't worry. I, I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I'm speaking. That's OK. People don't understand. That's OK."
Be envious of others and believe others envy them"[Hillary Clinton] lacks judgment, she lacks temperament and I'm the one that used unfit many, many months ago. And now they've turned it around, use it on me, unfit? I'm unfit? That's — that's a first. But she lacks the temperament and the moral character to lead this country, its very simple. She really does. She's a dangerous person who doesn't tell the truth which has been proven very loudly. I've never seen a — I don't think we've ever had greater proof of that, of anybody. And she has disregarded the lives of Americans — you see what's happening — with what she has done with her server? And you know why she did that. So, I just look at this, and I said that if she gets elected, she will cause the destruction of this country from within. Remember that. ... She is disdainful of the rules set for everyone else and she hasn't changed a bit. This is — that was the good thing. I couldn't say the bad things. It was too much. Nobody would even — nobody would even believe it. You've got to see this book. Nobody would believe because it's so terrible, so terrible. And she comes across like this woman — nice, easy — but she's not. And — and she's — listen — she's not a leader, not a leader. And she is a liar."
Insist on having the best of everything — for instance the best car or office "My philosophy is always to hire the best from the best"
“Because the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high, ‘Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers’ according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!
Behave with arrogance or haughtiness or appear as conceited, boastful and pretentious“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."
“You people with this phony Emoluments Clause”
"I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president."
"You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, "How do you know so much about this?" Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for President."
"I've been briefed on every contingency you can possibly imagine. Many contingencies. A lot of—a lot of positive. Different numbers. All different numbers. Very large numbers. And some small numbers too, by the way."
"No, I don't take responsibility at all"
The sourcing for most of these quotes can be found here, along with thousands of others. They would be grounds for medication and straight jacket for most ordinary people, but what we have instead is a madman running the country at one of the most dangerous moments in history.


Housekeeping Note:I have opened a Nobby Works dedicated page on Facebook in order to resolve ongoing issues with Google's comment function for this blog. Google seems so busy taking over the world that it has no time to address a simple problem that effects all the bloggers who use its platform. I hope that the new Facebook page provides an easy commenting option for those who've been frustrated in the past by an inability to share feedback. It's been frustrating on my end as well. I know this contradicts the recent blog post where I announced I was quitting Facebook. I have in fact deleted my personal page and will run this new one strictly as an adjunct to the blog. (Besides, as a humanist, I long ago learned to embrace my contradictions.) So if you have something to say about this or any future posts I reluctantly invite you to follow this link to Facebook and leave your comments there (and "like" the page while you're at it!). Hopefully a dialog will ensue. 

And now a word from our Corporate Overlords:  Now Playing Black Panther






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That Woman

I wrote what I believed would be my last post about Hillary Clinton in August of 2017 upon the publication of her memoir, What Happened. I believed then, as I believe now (this post notwithstanding) that her ultimate fate now lies in the hands of history. As I wrote then:

Those who have admired and supported HRC must accept the fact that there is a hatred of her that’s visceral, irrational and permanent, and there’s nothing to be done about it at this point. The damage has been done…not just to Hillary but also the nation.

Recently, however, I was persuaded to check out the well-received documentary playing exclusively on Hulu by reviews such as this:

Hillary, in its candid approach, offers a sober rendering of reality and lets the audience fill in the emotional blanks. In trying to cover 70 years of history, the episodes can come off rushed, even messy, as the series hopscotches throughout time, but the strategy ultimately helps the viewer see the big picture…

Speaking as just this one viewer, I can attest to how effectively the documentary conveys the big picture. When I finished watching its four parts, I was reminded of the Linda Ronstadt documentary Sound of My Voice that I’ve now watched multiple times. Both docs had the effect of serving up in necessarily condensed, if messy, fashion two contemporary lives that unfolded in parallel with my own. Although as a longtime fan of La Ronstadt and an admirer of Hillary I was always aware of the trailblazing arcs of both their lives, it really takes a moment or--in the case of these two documentaries--a few hours to step back and take in the full scope of their respective arcs. You can be a lifelong fan of Linda and have all her recordings from country rock to punk to light opera to American standards to Mexican, but experiencing that over decades diffuses the artistic daring that went into it and it really requires a documentary to reveal it in whole. The same goes for Hillary. You can remember either vaguely or keenly her arrival on the national stage as a college senior with a commencement speech, her enduring advocacy for women and children’s rights, her speaking truth to power in China and Russia; the cultural controversies over baking cookies, keeping her maiden name, working outside the home; the public humiliations over her husband’s infidelities, her failed health care initiative, her emails; her swirl in a crucible of liberal aspirations, centrist illusions, rightwing conspiracies and progressive left disappointments; her ascent in politics from First Lady to senator to Secretary of State to first female nominee of a major political party for President of the United States. So much more that became a blur over time and really did require this documentary for proper perspective. In addition to the benefit of comprehensibly summarizing two long, rich public lives, both documentaries reveal the current of misogyny that ran against those lives. I addressed how it delayed Ronstadt’s long overdue election into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame here. I also addressed it in a post that is only peripherally about Hillary.
Though a father of two and happily married to the same woman for 52 years, I must confess I was limited in my understanding of the impact of misogyny until the 2016 Democratic primary between Hillary and Bernie Sanders. It was then that I was invited to be a member of a private page on Facebook, inhabited by mostly women who had found it impossible to advocate online for Hillary without being harassed by what would become known as “Bernie Bros”. They were not just online trolls, but often male significant others, classmates and co-workers. On that private page these women often shared the emails and text messages they received that pilloried Hillary and demeaned them for supporting her. It was eye opening for me. In the Hillary documentary we see how widespread and persistent the misogyny against her was…and cruelly how it crossed gender lines.Given the accumulation of nasty barnacles that had attached themselves to the hull of her career, it is actually a wonder that she came as close as she did to winning the presidency in 2016. The weight of it all surely would’ve sunk a lesser person. The fact that her loss gave rise to not just a lesser person, but the least of all possible persons only adds to the tragedy of it. Among all the daft reasons people put forth for voting Trump…from giving vent to economic resentment to expressions of tribal fears and loathing to simply wanting to “shake things up"…the most indefensible is refusal to vote for “that woman”. That for all of Trump’s well-publicized sleaze, incompetence, ignorance, and boorishness, they still preferred him as their national leader because of some nebulous, incoherent distrust of Hillary. It is the most shameful failure of democracy in our nation’s history. As we suffer the consequences of that failure on a daily basis through this most perilous time, we can only hope that we’ve learned our lesson before next November.I don’t wish to pimp for Hulu, but I strongly urge anyone who supported Hillary or anyone who has a thirst to know more about “what happened” in America during her 50-year rise and fall to take advantage of Hulu’s 30-day free trial and watch this compelling and moving documentary. Post Script: There's a segment in the documentary resonate of today's headlines. After 9/11 the Federal government passed an aid package and like the just passed $2 trillion aid package for the coronavirus pandemic it grossly short changed New York (btw, what's with that?). Hillary, as New York's new senator, went to George W. Bush to ask for more money. He asked how much they needed. She told him. He said, "You've got it." In reflecting on the exchange decades later, Hillary says that for all her disagreements with George W. Bush, she will never forget he did that. Would that her enemies could have been as fair and generous. 

Housekeeping Note:I have opened a Nobby Works dedicated page on Facebook in order to resolve ongoing issues with Google's comment function for this blog. Google seems so busy taking over the world that it has no time to address a simple problem that effects all the bloggers who use its platform. I hope that the new Facebook page provides an easy commenting option for those who've been frustrated in the past by an inability to share feedback. It's been frustrating on my end as well. I know this contradicts the recent blog post where I announced I was quitting Facebook. I have in fact deleted my personal page and will run this new one strictly as an adjunct to the blog. (Besides, as a humanist, I long ago learned to embrace my contradictions.) So if you have something to say about this or any future posts I reluctantly invite you to follow this link to Facebook and leave your comments there (and "like" the page while you're at it!). Hopefully a dialog will ensue. And now a word from our Corporate Overlords:  Now Playing Black Panther

TV in the Time of Coronavirus

It seems that in addition to coronavirus tests, medical masks and ventilators, Americans are badly in need of programs to watch to fill the sudden abundance of free hours at home...or not so free if you're taking care of kids. You can hardly go online these days without running into an SOS that usually goes something like this: Help I’ve run through every season of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. What should I watch next? I try to make suggestions, but sometimes get overwhelmed with both the number of choices and the reasons for the choices that I could not possibly respond cogently within Twitter’s 280-character limit. So this week’s post is going to be an extended list of programs and films that I think would help people like myself through this apocalypse. Like myself is the key phrase there because tastes differ, and I don’t expect everyone to like the things I like. I’ll never forget the experience of excitedly introducing my in-laws to Seinfeld only to die a thousand deaths under the weight of their cold stone reception of it. With that lesson in mind, I begin my list with shows and films I’ve already blogged about (with links) in order to give unwary readers a taste of my taste.·       The Wire·       The Simpsons·       How We Got to Now ·       The Leftovers (and here)·       My Brilliant Friend ·       Italian Gardens·       Finding Your Roots ·       Greatest Hits of 1968·       Films from TCM's Days of Oscar·       Il Postino·       My Fair Lady and Westside Story·       The Interview·       Stardust Memories·       2001: A Space Odyssey·       Cool Hand Luke and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest·       Skin Tight·       Perfect Sense·       Mother·       True Romance·       PassioneDanny Award Winners
Now some I have not written about specifically, but I believe are worthwhile viewing….

Historical Dramas
The Hollow Crown Gentleman Jack When They See UsVersaillesThe Last Kingdom
Pop Music History
Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I AmEcho in the CanyonSpringsteen on BroadwayClive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives
The Down Under Collection
RakeSecret CityPine GapLeaping the Language BarrierOpening yourself up to subtitles pretty much doubles your viewing options. While under lock down, it's a good time to brush up on those foreign language skills. 

Occupied (Norwegian)Babylon Berlin (German)Suburra (Italian)Money Heist (Spanish) Drops off after Season 2La Mante (French)The Hostages (Israeli) Not to be confused with American remakeSpiral (French)Criminal (French, German, Spanish) Each season set in the interrogation room of a different country
Oh, Britannia
House of Cards...the original Brit, far superior to the American remakeThe End of the F***cking World CollateralDr FosterBroadchurchThe State WithinHappy ValleyThe FallLast Tango in HalifaxIntelligence  (Canada, to be precise)Our Mutual Friend
USA...USA...USA
Narcos...Yes, I know it's set in Colombia and later in Mexico, but without America's War on Drugs it doesn't existRiverdaleBloodlineOzarkKids…I'm short on current kid stuff because we don't have kids at home any longer. But we made viewing of classic Hollywood films, especially black and white films, a thing when raising our daughters and I'm glad we did. Not only are so many of them wonderful films in and of themselves, but it's important to pass this rich cultural heritage along. Because I don't want this to sound too much like make them eat their vegetables, I'll recall our girls asking me to play the VHS we had of Murder He Says over and over again., and then dutifully driving us crazy with its famous song. So allow me to offer the following (your children will thank me):

Bringing up BabyArsenic and Old LaceSome Like it HotNinotchkaLady Eve
Great Expectations (the original in b&w)
David Copperfield (ditto)
Fantasia
The Fall (not the Gillian Anderson Fall from above, but a beautiful, magical kids' film)
A few mythical Classics

Miscellaneous Documentary for Film Buffs
The Story of Film

Embracing Biden

To give you an idea of how long I’ve been thinking about writing this blog post, a few weeks ago it was titled, Embracing Bernie. Whoosh! The Nob was clearly on the record early against both Bernie and Joe, so this righting of past wrongs was going to be due no matter which of them came out on top in the Democratic primary. For what little it’s worth, I’m glad it worked out that I’m forced to do this act of contrition for Biden rather than Sanders. Though I believe with all my heart that Elizabeth Warren would’ve been a far superior president than either of them…or most of her 45 predecessors…it’s easier for me to see Biden leading us out of this Trumpian nightmare than Bernie, who I believe would’ve spent his one-and-done, four-year term in war against the “establishment”, which would’ve included many of his presumptive allies.My greatest fear about Biden is that he will spend his one-and-done, four-year term doing just the opposite…trying to make nice with the Republican praetorian guard that protected and enabled Trump’s four years of pillage and betrayal.  As I said in my earlier post about him, Got Epiphany?, Biden seems worryingly naïve about the prospect of bringing mad dog Mitch McConnell to heel. More over, I’m very concerned that he’s going to adopt Obama’s 2009 “turn the page” model, where out of a credulous sense of magnanimity he let war mongers, torturers, scam artists, and greedheads skate free of any responsibility for bringing the United States down to its geopolitical and financial knees. With Biden, I fear there’s a distinct possibility that in the name of "national healing", he'll instructs his DOJ and all its prosecutorial arms throughout the nation to let the Trump crime family go. It will be a de facto presidential pardon the likes of which we have never seen and will never recover. Yet, here we are…with the nomination well within Joe’s grasp…and I suspect his election in November a surer bet than most dare admit right now. I’ve been heartbreakingly wrong on my election predictions in the past. But this time voters have the healthy advantage of 20/20 hindsight and won’t be tempted to roll the dice on a con man just to mix things up or punish an uppity woman who dared overachieve in a man’s world. Add to Trump’s unshakeable disapproval rating among the electorate the ravages of the coronavirus and new uncertainty of the stock market, it is hard to imagine this nation voting itself over the edge of the 2016 abyss.What can Biden do with that precious opportunity beyond his fantasy fellowship with Senate Republicans? Hard to tell. One would like to think that he has enough sense to understand that same-old same-old is not going to do what needs to be done. His public utterances that he sees himself as a transitional figure, handing off to a new generation of political leadership are hopeful. His apparent willingness to accept policies of his more daring primary opponents is reassuring. His basic decency and experience will be a badly needed balm for our battered body politic.But here’s the thing…here’s the biggest reason I’m embracing Biden…and would be the big reason I would be embracing Bernie had he won: Simply by beating Trump in November, Joe Biden will go down as one of the greatest presidents in American history. 

Lost and Found Souls

Some humans like to play God...other humans just be human.
CUCS Director of Street Medicine Bonnie Coover on the streets
of New York tending to a man in need. Andrew Zimmern is a chef I didn’t know about until he launched his What’s Eating America series on MSNBC three weeks ago. James Taylor is a musician who I’ve known about since he burst on the scene in 1970 at the age of 22 with Fire and Rain, which for me remains to this day as one of the most sublime “rock” songs ever recorded. This week their respective life stories converged in one of those serendipitous ways popular culture makes possible. In the recent installment of Zimmern’s series he explored his early--near terminal--struggles with drug addiction and tied it to the surprising (for me at least) scourge of drug use in the restaurant industry. He had been on the brink of stardom in the food service business when his uncontrollable drug use brought him down and landed him--through the intervention of friends--in a rehab facility in Minnesota.  The first two episodes of What’s Eating America introduced Zimmern as one of our new compassionate, crusading cohort of celebrity chefs, inspired I trust by the example of Anthony Bourdain. Episode one focused on our reliance on immigrants to feed us. Episode two focused on the threat of climate change on our food supply.  I won’t demean the efforts of those first two shows by calling them liberal dream programming, though they were. Far more importantly they were acts of humanism in its purest form. Though unfamiliar with the dominance of drugs in the restaurant business, I was well aware of its impact on the rock culture I grew up on. How could one not be given its pervasiveness in rock lyrics and rock biographies.  I knew superficially about James Taylor’s struggle with addiction, but his new memoir which he recently discussed in an interview with Malcolm Gladwell covers it in rich detail. The most striking detail for me was when he seemed to reach rock bottom while pursuing a music career as a teenager in New York City. His father called from North Carolina to find how he was doing and caught him at such a pieces on the ground moment that James did exactly as he was told and stayed in his apartment until his father could drive up from the South to retrieve him. After six months of sobering up at home, he went off to seek his fortune in London, where in a sudden, near hallucinogenic interlude he managed to hook up with Peter Asher, meet the Beatles, and sign a record contract that launched his career.As humanists, we have to love and share these stories about peoples’ triumph over their demons. They give undeniable hope…and often a model…for others in doing the same in their lives. No matter how redundant they may get, I say we can never have too many documentaries or big Hollywood movies or memoirs that support the notion that being down does not necessarily mean being out.  Yet I couldn’t help but think of all the suffering people who weren’t lucky enough to have friends put them on a plane to a Minnesota rehab…or a father who would drop everything to make an 8-hour drive to save a son. How many more possible James Beard Foundation Award winners died in the AIDS epidemic? How many more possible Grammy Award winners have been lost on the streets to homelessness and mentally illness? How many of humanity’s unfortunate never make it on to a Schindler’s List for rescue and recovery?To Andrew Zimmern’s credit, his series does not skirt this profound and perplexing question. In Portland he rides along with cops newly trained in trying to salvage lost lives rather than punish them. In New York he goes on foot with a medical case worker who gets down on the ground to be eye level with those so in need of help they can’t even reach up for it. These are acts of compassion and courage every bit as compelling as the latest gun porn to emerge out of our nation’s endless Mideast adventures. At the end of the episode Zimmern interviews Amy Klobuchar, his home state senator, who tells the story of Casey Jones, a young champion swimmer who became addicted to opioids after a hospital stay for an injury. To underscore the randomness and indiscriminate nature of such plagues, Klobuchar quotes Casey’s last words to her mom, “It’s not my fault, mom."One hundred and thirty people a day die from opioid addiction. How many possible Olympic Gold Medal winners are in that number? The thing about the Andrew Zimmern and James Taylor stories is that they put famous faces on the potential victims of mass deaths, which are too often defined by the numbers. And the numbers can be used to hide behind and avert responsibility by those too strung out on their own narcissism to care:

"I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship" -- Trump explains that he doesn't want to let people off the Grand Princess cruise ship because he doesn't want the number of coronavirus cases in the country to go up.

God Help Us

Posted to a public restroom toilet paper dispenser...
with all the substance and credibility of a presidential Coronavirus press conference.
My learned opinion from years of seminary study is that God was born in and for times like these…dark, seemingly endless, hopeless times. This is why I am far more sympathetic with believers than most atheists are. This is why at times like these I am nostalgic for the days when I could sincerely turn to prayer for help with a degree of expectation that-- as the Manhattan Transfer once crooned--Jesus was on the line. Now when I announce, as I did on Twitter this week, that I was giving up on our human capacity to get us out of the mess we’re in and turning back to God, it came with my usual dose of irony. Irony, however, tinged with more than a little regret that I no longer believed divine intervention was an option.

Yet signs abound that my personal God, Spinelli, the God of Irony, was still on the job—if not exactly defender and protector of humanity itself, at least as amused observer of the human comedy. Signs started flashing anew with a visit to a public restroom before a recent bike ride. The Post-it above was attached to the toilet paper dispenser. On a not so wild hunch, I checked the other three public restrooms and found the same Post-its in the same place, indicating that this was not just some random occurrence but an act of missionary zeal. This did not come as a surprise. The anti-vaxx movement has become deadly serious --and just in time it seems for a global coronavirus pandemic.
Anyway, after the restroom visits, I then headed off on my bike ride, as usual with an Audible book playing into my brain. This one was Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin. And let me tell you right now, the irony blazing out of the chapter of this day was so blinding I nearly drove myself off the bike path. The relevant story concerned the first truly independent newspaper in the American colonies. The paper was launched by Franklin’s brother and employer, James, and upon that launch the skeptical, free-thinking Franklin boys went right after Boston's protestant clergy power structure, personified by Salem witch trial champion Cotton Mather. Here’s where I stated to lose control of my bike…
During one of the regularly occurring smallpox epidemics that devastated wide swatches of the early New England populace, three of Mather’s children were afflicted. Mather, who had turned to preaching from medicine (or what passed for medicine at the time), put his physician’s hat back on to study the disease. In so doing he had noticed a scar on the arm of one of his slaves, and upon inquiry learned that the slave, like other Boston blacks he would interview, had been inoculated against the pox back in Africa. Later, when a ship arrived in Boston Harbor carrying another wave of smallpox victims, Mather--this witch trial loving, slave-owning, Puritan preacher—single-handedly led a futile attempt to inoculate the population against the threat. In this, he was opposed by the Franklin newspaper, owned and operated by design to be free from clergy control. And therein lay the self-made trap. The paper did not oppose inoculation on the merits. Indeed it didn’t even make a pretense of examining the merits. It opposed it as a way of poking a finger in the eye of the church establishment. It labeled Mather’s push for inoculation as just more religious mumbo-jumbo and an attempt to gin up fear of the pox to make people even more beholden to the ministerial class.   As I’ve blogged before , it is not just the gullible, the superstitious, and the religious who can recklessly expose themselves in denying science. People who should know better can stupidly outthink themselves too. We’re all subject to biases, fears, and gaps in knowledge. The general chaos surrounding the current crisis…as regards our personal and planetary health…makes catastrophic consequences more probable. Our dumb, diseased, demonic national leadership makes it a near certainty.
<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Times; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}</style><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-alt:"Times Roman"; mso-font-charset:77; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Times; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}</style><br /><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wEpWYnrxMW..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1324" data-original-width="1436" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wEpWYnrxMW..." width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And locusts. Don't forget <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-c.... </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 21px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Reflections on a Thousand Dreams

Another birthday, another occasion for life reflection. As always with me, there’s a soundtrack, and as often is the case it comes as a surprise. What, for instance, possessed me this year to grasp on to a 50-year old Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song as the theme for my 74thbirthday? Where’d that come from? Don’t really know, but for most of the day I couldn’t get it out of my head: Carry On / Questions
One morning I woke up and I knew that you were gone.
A new day, a new way, I knew I should see it along.
Go your way, I'll go mine and carry on.

The sky is clearing and the night has gone out.
The sun, he come, the world is all full of light.
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but to carry on.

The fortunes of fables are able to sing the song.
Now witness the quickness with which we get along.
To sing the blues you've got to live the tunes and carry on.

Carry on, love is coming, love is coming to us all.

Where are you going now my child? Where will you be tomorrow?
Will you bring me happiness? Will you bring me sorrow?
Oh, the questions of a thousand dreams, what you do and what you see,
Children, can you talk to me?Upon further reflection, I re-imagined this as a song about parents and children, rather than lovers, so I substituted child and children for love and lover in the last verse that appears above and cut out the original last verse, which was too overtly about lovers for me to finesse.  As such, the lyrics now read like an amorphous description of my broad existence as both child and parent. I loved my parents and have written about them with clear-eyed affection. I have never held them responsible for any of my flaws or failings, though I could easily draw lines from theirs to mine. I’ve always used theirs to explain mine rather than excuse me or accuse them. That being said, this reflective moment has made me so very aware of how much I set out to not be like my parents...and how well I succeeded.First, both my parents worked in factories and carried the weariness and numbness of factory work home with them. There were no occasions when we heard exciting tales of grand developments or breakthroughs at work. The drudgery of it was palpable at the dinner table and the few times where I actually got to visit their workplaces did nothing more than impress upon me that Charlie Chaplin was not much making things up in Modern Times. It also filled me with a determination never to work in a factory and to do everything possible from an education standpoint to make sure I was equipped for work elsewhere. At the end of my working life, my resume revealed that I did not entirely escape the occasional demeaning job, but I did succeed at never stepping foot in a factory. Then there was money. Not only was money always in short supply in our home, but awareness of the shortage was heightened to an almost debilitating degree. The incredible lightness of his bank account was a constant burden my father carried with him to the end of his days. Any new demand for money…for everything from home repairs to gifts, from new used cars to a college education visibly made him wince with pain at his financial impotence. Mom handled it differently, as mothers do. She may have been the first ever to utter the expression, “We don’t have much but at least we have our health”--which I believe she stated every one of the 12 days before every Christmas. All of which made me determined to acquire a degree of financial literacy and security. It is the reason that at this typically precarious stage of life, I can enjoy a rich, stable lifestyle, no where near as vulnerable to life’s vagaries as my parents constantly were.  Finally there were the domestic quarrels. In our home the quarreling was as ritualistic as church on Sunday morning. Every Friday Dad would stagger home late after boozing it up following his night shift. Mom would be at the kitchen table lying in wait. I would be up in bed at 4, 5, 6, 7 years old and beyond, already knowing what was to come and what my role was to be. An hour or so of yelling and screaming and then one of them would call me down to join them at the table as mediator. My Dr. Phil-like precociousness would eventually buy us all peace for the night. Dad would try to sleep it off until late the next morning, but then in reaction to mom’s silent treatment he would be off to his favorite local bar again. Saturday night would be a repeat of Friday night, and then Sunday and church and the family dinner and the week of work and school ahead would return us all to normalcy until the next Friday night when the cycle would begin again. Most of my boyhood was like that, which filled me with a determination to make a marriage with a totally different dynamic. In that, Lorna and I have largely succeeded with relatively few breakdowns given our 54 years of marital bliss.  Marie and Cliff...at restOn reflection now I know I couldn’t have done it all without your example, Mom and Dad…no seriously.
And that’s where the lyric from Stephen Stills and company fits in:One morning I woke up and I knew that you were gone.A new day, a new way, I knew I should see it along.Go your way, I'll go mine and carry on.
The sky is clearing and the night has gone out.The sun, he come, the world is all full of light.Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but to carry on.

Housekeeping Note:I have opened a Nobby Works dedicated page on Facebook in order to resolve ongoing issues with Google's comment function for this blog. Google seems so busy taking over the world that it has no time to address a simple problem that effects all the bloggers who use its platform. I hope that the new Facebook page provides an easy commenting option for those who've been frustrated in the past by an inability to share feedback. It's been frustrating on my end as well. I know this contradicts the recent blog post where I announced I was quitting Facebook. I have in fact deleted my personal page and will run this new one strictly as an adjunct to the blog. (Besides, as a humanist, I long ago learned to embrace my contradictions.) So if you have something to say about this or any future posts I reluctantly invite you to follow this link to Facebook and leave your comments there (and "like" the page while you're at it!). Hopefully a dialog will ensue.

Strike up the Ode to Joy!

Freude! Freude!
Some months ago I received word from an old friend that he was about to face his second battle with cancer. Early this week he wrote to tell me that his chemo treatments had come to an end and according to his doctor they had done the work. I congratulated him, though admitting that I could not imagine what he had gone through. In response to that he sent me the following email: Thanks, Dan.You hit the nail on the head.Unless a person has been diagnosed with cancer, it's impossible to know what it's like.This one was much rougher than prostate cancer in '05.I wouldn't wish a cancer diagnosis on my worst enemy — even Rush Limbaugh!Every time I go to Moores, I see people who are in much worse shape than I am.That makes me count my blessings.The line that jumped out at me there was the one about Rush Limbaugh. This friend and I pretty much share the same politics, and I’m quite sure his contempt for Limbaugh is equal to mine. But there he was expressing sympathy for the devil…and it made quite an impression on me. I could not imagine feeling sympathy for Limbaugh, but if the agony of chemo drove my friend to do so that’s all I needed to hear to get just a vague sense of how bad it was.  This was a timely realization because ever since Donald Trump had perverted the Presidential Medal of Freedom by bestowing it upon renowned racist and misogynist, Limbaugh, social media had erupted in debate over whether it was appropriate in the light of his dire cancer diagnosis to bring up Limbaugh’s many sins. On the one hand, there was the compassionate Christian take to not to speak ill of the dead…or in this case, the suffering; on the other there was both the human and divine desire as documented in the Old Testament for exacting revenge. By nature and training, I generally lean to the New Testament approach but like so many of our better angels that tendency is taking a real beating these days.I steered clear of getting involved in the online debate because I’d already documented my feelings about Limbaugh for myself, my friends and my grandchildren if ever they have an interest knowing where their grandfather stood on the moral issues of day. I have nothing more to add…and nothing I could say would take away Limbaugh’s ill-gotten gains, preposterous Medal of Freedom, or toxic influence on such a broad swath of American democracy. I plan to greet his imminent death with a similar silence.My compassionate nature notwithstanding, I don’t expect to be similarly silent when--God willing--Donald Trump soon dies. No matter what personal calamities may befall me in the meantime, when that glorious moment comes I know I will not engage redundancy by speaking ill of that dark, dead soul. But I will be noisy that day in joyful celebration…honking my horn, popping balloons, uncorking champagne, firing red rockets into the air and singing at the top of my lungs:


Oh friends, not these sounds!Let us instead strike up more pleasingand more joyful ones!Joy! Joy!
Yes, and anyone who can call one soulhis own on this earth!Any who cannot, let them slink awayfrom this gathering in tears!