The Pre-Read

Veteran's Day

Thank you to my father, and all those who served and continue to serve in our armed forces.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:

His day is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on."

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,

Our God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

Really? How Childish Can Politicians Be?

http://www.calitics.com/diary/10361/unbecoming-of-a-governor

Funktionide

So the premise is that, in time, we (and by we I mean those people who invent things) will create non living "things" that act or react like living things.  One such example is the video below. Not to be unusually negative, but I can't imagine buying anything with the word Funk in it, or following a line of products that are listed as being Funktion-able...Func as in Functional, sure, Funk as in .... well Funktionide among other words. Well I don't think so.

And yes, it's been a very long time since I've had a long term relationship. But as cold as I expect the winter nights to be this season I just can't imagine me running out and ordering this thingy. In fact, it's a little creepy.

And while the guy in the video is attractive enough, his attraction to his blob is ... well it just doesn't look very healthy.

Anyway, I'm sure you've seen it before, but I couldn't let it go without comment.

Ladies and germs, Funktionide:

Funktionide Part II from eltopo on Vimeo.

Yes, It's True. "X"-mas In December

I hadn't realized that the great LA Band X was performing shows this December.

Talk about going back in time:

Gorky's in downtown at midnight. Smoking clove cigarettes. Smoking Vantage. Having someone buy me a Mackeson Stout. Driving up PCH. Driving the Hollywood Hills. Driving North Hollywood before it was NoHo. Just being young and enjoying being young. Man oh man. 

Ladies and Germs .... X

Comedy Is Not Pretty

Steve Martin was right oh so many years ago.  Here's proof.

Because It's Friday

When the week is as long as the one that just passed. Sometimes the only thing that can help usher in the weekend is a Scottish Violin player, a hunky guy in a turban and a cute guy in leather pants singing Istanbul not Constantinople with a full contingent of back-up puppets.

I think I've posted this clip before. And if not, my apologies because it's one of my faves!

Because Letterman Is A Liberal Show

Few will argue, I am sure, with the idea that David Letterman leans a bit to the left. I guess there will be those who say he does more than just lean, and I can't argue with that.

I remember during the 2000 election, he would show a clip over and over of Governor (he was Governor then) Bush's visit to his show. The clip is below:

And I will admit that I was a bit surprised. Actually I was horrified. I figured either the Governor lost his place and was unknowingly inconsiderate, or he knew exactly what he was doing which is just as bad because he was being terribly inconsiderate.

Anyway, fast forward some eight years later and President Obama is on Letterman. I will admit to having missed his introduction, but I hear this morning someone talking about that very intro. The comment? 

"Why did they stand up for him?"

I'm assuming the person is talking about the president getting a standing ovation. The reply from the other person?

"Because Letterman is a liberal show. The audience is packed with liberals."

Well to be fair. I can't argue with that either. But I would imagine the real reason is that the President of the United States entered the room. I don't care if it's President Obama, President Bush (well I would care actually as I prefer one over the other) or another president. It is just the honorable thing to do.

People stood up because he is the President. Because whether they voted for him or not, whether they like him or not he embodies the office and it is the office they stand in respect of.

I promise you, were President Bush to have entered a room at which I was in attendance, it would have been nothing short of automatic for me to stand. Again, it's not the person, it's the office.

And there's where the problem lies. Not in that people stand, but that someone actually had to ask why.  If we were to follow that logic, then the president really is only the president of those who voted for him. A military general commands only those people who like him and laws are to be obeyed only if we feel like it.

I know FDR was called a Socialist, I know people screamed bloody murder about MediCare when it was first introduced, but I just can't believe that it was ever this bad. I hope it was, and I only say that because if it wasn't, than I am truly frightened by where this all may lead.

Because Sometimes ...

It's just better to laugh than think about all the craziness in the world.

From the great people over at icanhascheezburger

Goodbye Mr. Press Secretary

It is reported that former president Jimmy Carter went to a nursing home where Jody Powell's mother lives to tell her of her son's death before she could hear it on television news.

I was pretty shocked to hear of Powell's death. He, of course, was press secretary to President Carter and before that to Carter when he was the Governor of Georgia.

Powell arrived at the White House in 1976 when Carter unseated President Gerald Ford in that very contentious election. Of course Ford and Carter would later become friends, but it was the friendship of Powell who many say was among his closest and most cherished.

They met back in 1966 when Jimmy Carter thrust his hand toward Powell at a shopping center and, with a wide smile, said "I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for Governor."

Carter didn't win then, but in his next race he found the young Powell an eager volunteer and before long an unofficial chauffeur. Carter, it is said, was so impressed with the young Powell's knowledge of politics and policy that they immediate struck up a strong and long lasting friendship.

It probably also helped that both were from small towns in Georgia, religious and had similar outlooks on life.

Much like the Clinton years that would follow, the Carter White House received criticism by the Washington establishment that it was overrun by young turks who had more ambition than sense.  

Of course that would prove to be wrong as President Carter made it a point to tackle as much as he could in one term as others might in two and he had the backing of his young, bright and energetic Georgia team. When told by friends to slow down and not take on too many controversial issues, Carter famously responded that he was elected president and it was his duty to do as much as he could, not to parse issues out so that he could stand a better chance of reelection.

Powell was not just a close friend of the president, but a fierce defender of him as well. And that defense would come to the forefront most recently when Senator John McCain, in his most recent bid for president, would call out former President Carter on any number of issues. It was Powell who was quick to point out Carter's early warnings about the nation's dependency on foreign oil and the fact that it was Carter who, in an effort to ween the country off of that oil, instituted plans that would include conservation, solar and other efforts that would have make the United States largely energy independent by the early part of this century. Of course once out of the White House those plans were scrapped by the new administration.

While I was probably first aware of Ron Nessen (press secretary to President Ford) and the duties to which they are charged, it was really Jody Powell who I came to recognize as the voice of the president.I became so intrigued at his ability to convey issues in a calm and folksy manner and realized that the message can better be delivered if done so in a friendly almost conversational manner. He was also rather adept at deflecting difficult questions with ease, although sometimes with a little heated exchange.

While I know I'm getting older and those who are older than me are doing the same. It's sad to lose those who we held in high regard. And Jody Powell was someone who I held in high regard.

It is probably a testament to how highly the former president regarded him as well. It seems to be telling of a different era, when people went out of their way to try to make things better for one another. And it is a testament to President Carter's good will and his deep friendship for Powell that he opted to be the one to share the heartbreaking news with Powell's mother.

I hope there are more Jody Powell's and Jimmy Carter's on the horizon. But from the way politics look these days, this may truly be one more step in the passing of an era.

I Shouldn't Be Surprised

I am enough of an idealist that I honestly believe we have one of the, if not the, best forms of government on the planet.

Yes, I understand that a parliamentary form can allow a variety of different groups the ability to have a bigger say by forming coalitions in order to govern, but I still prefer ours and I think ours does work.

My religious faith is paramount in my life. Even so, I can't adequately express the feelings of awe and reverence I feel for my government. When I visited the great rotunda at the US Capitol a few years ago I was transfixed by thoughts of the very ideals that caused the building of that structure.

When I sat in the Senate gallery and was lucky enough to hear Senator Edward Kennedy's impassioned plea for health care, the latest of thousands of pleas by hundreds of Senators over the last couple of centuries on everything that directly affects the people of our nation ... well, there was no doubt I was in hallowed halls.

So imagine my disgust a few years ago when I learned that the president of the Senate, the Vice President of the United States while in the senate chamber told a colleague, a member of a different party, to "go fuck yourself."

So I guess it shouldn't surprise me that when President Obama delivered his speech tonight, to a joint session of congress, that some ignorant representative (Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina) would heckle the president by calling him a liar.

We don't have a parliament. Members of each party do not shout down others in the chamber. We are respectful to the president because, like him or not, he is the president of the United States. Members elected to Congress should be respectful to one another because those other members are representatives of citizens of the United States.

And while I'm on the subject, I remember a person being ejected from the gallery before a State of the Union speech to be given by President George W. Bush because this person wore a shirt that had a written message on it. Well, why wasn't Representative Louie Gohmert, R-Texas ushered out for wearing a sign around his neck?

I am disgusted by Representatives WIlson and Gohmert. They epitomize what is wrong with politics in this country. It is that attitude, that disregard for common decency that makes people throw up their hands and disregard politics and news all together.

And maybe that's their goal.  Maybe it is frustration that they are trying to sow; hoping enough people will be disgusted with politics and news in general that we'll all turn into lemmings. We'll just follow whomever screams the loudest, makes the quickest retort or lies most convincingly.

Well, if that is what it is they're trying to do, I have only one thing to say; and my apologies for uttering this; but to them I say, "go fuck yourself!"