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MEET THE FOUNDING DOCUMENTS

I am the Constitution of the United States of America. Often, I am confused with the Declaration of Independence, which was written some time before the United States of America formally came into existence as the result of my creation. Our functions are completely different. WE will let it tell its own story.

The Declaration

As the Declaration of Independence, I am the founding document that makes the case against the king of England and his attempt to, from a...

(A tribute to Herbert E. Long, Jr., on his birthday.)


“MONK” to MOGUL

When we were kids, my brother’s son
Was known to us as “Herbie.”
“Dad” called him “Monk,” and they had fun;
‘Cause little Monk was nervy.

Sofa-cushion as punching bag,
His dad would urge him hither.
“Come on, Monk; you’re tough,” he would brag;
And Monk not once would dither.

Times were hard; “Depression,” they said.
But siblings kept on coming.
Went North to South, in search of bread,
To keep the table humming.

Then ...

ARGENTINA via APPALACHA

The Palmetto State
Became so hot,
I opted to go hiking.
Preferring a date
Where I was not,
Not walking, neither biking.

So able was I
In days of yore
To win the game of “catch-ya,”
This time, seemed the sky,
Still not too high,
I went for Appalacha.

The media did
Make noise and moan:
“Where is he?” they all sputtered.
But, eas’ly I hid
From mail and phone.
Not one damn clue was muttered.

A great hue and cry
Did rend the air;
My staff was left bewildered.
No soul kn...

OBAMA BOO-BOO OBSCURES OAXACA

President Obama soon will learn (unless an alert staffer already has informed him) that it is chancy to make on-the-spot historical comparisons without proper research on the subject.

Today, in his ending press conference from Trinidad-Tobago, President Obama had an “assume” moment. In response to a journalist’s question as to U.S. policy regarding the upcoming U.N. conference on racism, the president, to his credit, stated before a Latin American and world aud...

“OUT, OUT, DAMNED SPOT!”

Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth was protesting against the indelible stain of homicide-related blood she imagined to be imprinted upon the skin of her hand. In the century following the end of the very literate Elizabethan era, those descendants established upon a new continent a society that considered a natural coloration of human epidermis a real stain—one to be disdained.

Often, I have described that Homo sapiens self-abomination as being woven within the warp and w...

PRIESTS, PIRATES and PILOTS of PEOPLE

At this time, there appears to be an eerie confluence of political and religious historical events. This is Good Friday, the celebration of the Last Supper that Jesus, the self-intimated “Messiah of the Hebrew People,” shared with his twelve disciples, just prior to his crucifixion—brought about by that insolent intimation. That ritual meal, iconically and inaccurately represented by Leonardo Da Vinci in a wall painting, was in fact a celebration of the ...

A “TAIL” OF TWO SPECIES

The Contradiction of Tail-End Fashion Emulation
rants@curtiswlong.com

[:4622:]Curtis / SYNAPSE-SHOTS 2009-25

Respond at http://www.curtiswlong.com/


SYNAPSE-SHOTS 2009-25

A “TAIL’ OF TWO SPECIES

The Contradiction of Tail-End Fashion Emulation

We are aware of the contretemps created when two women show up at an affair wearing the same dress. It must be just the nearness of the duplication that poses a problem. Several years ago, the haute couture industry discove...

MASTER ARTIST
at
RosArt MULTILMEDIA


(It gives me great pleasure to reprint the following article from <http://www.sdcitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/bob_nelson/7930/ >)

Bob Nelson is a long-time colleague at RosArt Multimedia, Inc. He designed my Web site, indicated above, as well as the subsequent inclusion of this blog portion thereof. Additionally, apart from being the direct contact-person for the translating I do at RosArt, Bob also has worked closely with Tommy Dodson and me with ...

JUNKYARD DOGGEREL

When first we into space did bound
With spirits just as high,
A pristine ambiance we found,
To set our compass by.

The capsules did their duty well
And splashed back down to earth.
Red Sputnik’s flight had rung the bell;
Space had lost all its mirth.

Then, J-F-K set up the mark;
The moon was now Goal One.
We had perforce to fly or park;
Before ten years were done.

The moon we touched and left our print;
The future now was breached.
We carried on with other stints;
Naught...

WHO is BERNIE?

I find it odd that Bernard Madoff, the arch rip-off artist of all time, seems so generous when it comes to honoring his debt to Lady Justice. It is a dichotomy that bears examining. In his final statement before sentencing, seemingly Madoff admits to everything with which he is charged. He even apologizes to those he might have wronged. That seems so inconsistent for a person who, over twenty years, is alleged to have constantly, systematically and coldheartedly extracted ove...

RED, WHITE and . . . --. BROWN and BLACK and YELLOW

Although Black Americans, by far, received the worst treatment in America’s insidious war against the kaleidoscope of humanity, the truth is that America hated color—period. Its practice was as diabolical as that of South Africa’s apartheid, but more internationally hypocritical and domestically sarcastic and subtle in application.

Without the up-front, personal experience of White Supremacy as it was practiced in the United States, it is ...

LIPS of POISON

There is an old movie, “The Strange Woman,” starring Hedy Lamarr, which plot I cannot remember. But, I cannot forget the verse from Proverbs that appeared in the prologue:

The lips of the strange woman drip honey;
Her mouth is smoother than oil;
Her tongue as bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edge sword.

Exchange “right-wing radio host” with “woman,” above, and you have a perfect description of the former.

Sean Hannity, impatient in his zeal to besmirch further the person ...

BITS ABOUT BLACKS LOST IN THE CRACKS

(At the behest of a faithful reader, re-printed below from Wikipedia is an interesting account which, if prompted by other readers, would allow me to establish a series under the above title.)

Eugene Bullard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eugene Bullard (9 October 1894 - 12 October 1961) was the first African-American military pilot.

He was born Eugene Jacques Bullard in Columbus, Georgia, in the United States. His father was known as "Big...

(Sometime ago, I wrote a poem in protest of the Bush Administration’s cynical policy of literally hiding from public sight the bodies of those killed in the war. I re-print that poem below in celebration of the Obama Administration’s reversal, today, of the contemptuous Bush policy.)

SHOW ME NO FLAG-DRAPED COFFINS

By Curtis W. Long

Show me no flag-draped coffins.
“Out of sight is out of mind.”
Run, work up those endorphins—
Stay you all mentally blind!

Hide those with limbs gone missing,
...

ILL WIND BLOWS GREEN

The economic tsunami rolling over the world is of tectonic proportions. In the United States it is the perfect storm of collapses that will cause a paradigm shift and bring about a new order in our national makeup. Adding to the preceding clichés, is the maxim, ”There is no ill wind that does not blow some good.” The stimulus package will allow us to begin the weaning process that ultimately will free us from foreign petrol dependence.

T. Boone Pickens has been a P...

THE MYTH OF POST-RACIALISM

This is not a theatrical review, although the advent to Broadway of a new play, “Irena’s Vow,” by Dan Gordon, is a good lead-in to this thesis. Simply, it concerns a young Catholic woman who witnesses the Nazi horrors in Poland. With that reminder, it is no wonder that the Jewish people have adopted the slogan, “Never Again!” Even with their two-thousand-year history of being run from pillar to post throughout the world, by the time the twentieth century arrived, t...

“SOME MAY CALL IT TREASON” –
THE GOP TAKES A TIME-OUT

Many (not all) of the ultra-patriots peopling the Republican Party, are pulling a hissy fit of post-election pouting. They opt to sit it out while their “beloved” America finds itself hostage to a plethora of economic pitfalls. Along with the grand poobah of the mean mike Rush Limbaugh, they have decided to remain on the sideline and kibbitz as Barack Obama, the Democratic Party and the rest of the American people ride the rest of the way...

OF VALENTINE DO I OPINE

(Meant for one Millie McCoo
And her precious wee dog, too.
Sans the canine vehemence
A là hate-borne Wicked Witch.)

Some send roses and such,
Which Valentine’s Day disburses.
I send purses of verses—
Which, unlike ephemeral, insignificant trivia,
Tend to stick to the ribs and live with ya.

So, take the day to heart and mind,
And pass it on intact, in kind.

“SAY IT AIN’T SO,” ALEX

I don’t give a damn about baseball; but for those who do, it is time for hairshirts, great wailing and self-flagellation. The Black Socks scandal of another era was child’s play, as referenced in the above title. The complicity of Shoeless Joe Jackson and his cohorts in waging on baseball merely stained the brand. The anabolic steroids the current players are pumping into their veins literally are INFECTING the brand.

The latest revelation in this scandal sets the sp...

MON FRÈRE RICHARD

(My brother, Dr. Richard A. Long, was given a tribute in Atlanta, Georgia, several years ago. Upon this occasion of his birthday, I repeat the poem I then wrote in French, in recognition of his reputation as a dedicated Francophile. It is followed by my English translation.)
Mon frère Richard
N’est pas bavard—
Selon de lui on dit.

C’est vrai, je suppose,
Parce que sa prose
Toujours parle pour lui.

Je suis ici,
Avec les autres
Qui à Atlanta son venus.

La ca...

(The following letter is re-printed from <shreveporttimes.com>)

December 12, 2008


Andrew M. Manis: When are we going to get over it?


For much of the last 40 years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African-Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African-Americans finally going to get over it?" Now I want t...

A HUNDRED GROUNDHOG DAYS

Inez, today,
A cent’ry would complete.
That is to say,
She had four years to beat.

So, what the heck,
She had a splendid run.
On shipboard’s deck,
She traveled and had fun.

But, that came last;
The struggle came before.
The South was past.
Up North, and twenty-four,

The New Deal had
Barely left the stable.
The times were bad;
Less food on the table.

Her mother lost,
Two brothers did she raise.
But, such a cost
Her own two did not faze.


The steady job
Her husban...

THE 3rd AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Revolutions are like volcanoes and earthquakes. They are paradigm shifts of tectonic proportion. Revolutions are not created; they are not planned. Revolutions begin imperceptively, speaking in a voice less than a whisper. We know that volcanoes do erupt; that earthquakes devastatingly do occur; and that tsunamis tragically do roll over everyone and everything in their path. We know that these phenomena happen, but never know exactly when to expect them. Hence, we...

BLACK IRAQIS???!!!

(This is based upon a report by Corey Flintoff of National Public Radio.)

Who knew that one of the positive aspects of Dubya’s incursion into Iraq’s “White-man’s business” was to launch a liberation movement for Iraq’s depressed Black minority? The telling of this seems to echo the experience of Africans on the American continent, but apart from the fact that the number of Africans in America is considerably much larger, they are novices when it comes to long-time suffer...

GITMO GIT’S MO’ GRIEF in SAN DIEGO

Although the immediate closure of the U.S. prison facility at Guantánamo (Gitmo), Cuba was a constant staple of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, all of a sudden there is great consternation and shock, shock that he has done what he said he would do. That shock has been especially resounding here in ultra-conservative San Diego. This is an area that had been “protected” for many years by Congressman Duncan Hunter, the elder, and whose namesake son ...

BEWARE of the CULT of PERSONALITY

It is hoped that the enthusiasm of those millions of people gathered in Washington and other parts of the United States and the world who received transmissions therefrom via radio, television and Internet was generated by the good it perceives will be brought to the country and the world by the PRESIDENCY of Barack Obama—as opposed to a cazrte blanche endorsement of Barack Obamaper se. Recently, Ashton Kucher and Demi Moore participated in a tributary film ...

BROKEN LINK / BROKEN LOCK

The United States of America is just completing a journey that began at the moment President Abraham Lincoln—saddened and frustrated by the gore and futility of the conflict that threatened to snap the young nation in twain--decided to take the radical step of severing the first of the many links to the chain that bound the forced immigrants from the African continent. That historic act led us to this moment, when a major lock has been disabled—a lock that has barre...

The MASTER of the AIR

There was a master of the air
Who one cold day was tested.
The takeoff went without a care,
O’er where some birds were nested.

The passengers, before the flight,
Were at the gate assembled.
They, none, could have divined their plight,
Or well they would have trembled.

Once in the air, this massive bird
Wild geese was to encounter.
The master of the air then heard
Both of his engines founder.

He made a turn, but it was late;
He could not make a landing.
He now had to ...

PRAY FOR OPRAH

You don’t have to look for Oprah; she’ll find YOU. Who knew the girl was so NEEDY?! We had heard about her helping people with their books; giving away cars; and dispensing all sorts of sage advice and counsel. You would think that being a guru to a gaggle of fawning sycophants would suffice to fill the void of any empty soul. Apparently, that’s not the case with Oprah.

With all the problems abroad in the country and world, why is it necessary for Oprah to appeal to the entir...

BLAGGO: “BLEEP IMPEACHMENT!!!”

“Ooohhh--I’ll bet he’s scared now!” NOT! Rob Blagojevich has been impeached by the Illinois legislature. So what? All that means is that they have set up the real trial of the century. Impeachment is merely an indictment; that is, an accusation. The best part of the trial is that it will provide Blaggo with an unimagined starring role; the worst is that he will be booted from office. That is nothing compared to what his fate may be when the U.S. attorney is thr...

LLINOIS’ ANNOYING NOISE

When he departs Hawaii, Barack would do well to bypass Illinois and go directly to Washington. Not that the raucus fracas from his adopted state would not reach him there, but in Chicago it would drown out the copious post-inaugural preparations so furiously being planned by him and his people.

Ya gotta love ol’ “Blaggo!” Among the felonious Illinois governors, Rob Blagojevich is by far the ballsiest and most entertaining. After being wiretapped during his crudest an...

All the weaklings ought to be happy now because you now have a president who is anti-gun; but I wonder how he would be protected without all those guns around him to protect him from the many who would like to see him dead.
It is also a myth to think that with the outlawing of guns that violent deaths would disappear. I know of a dozen ways to kill you without a gun.
There are many crooked lawmen from whom a gun can be obtained with the proper sum of money. Do you really think that all the il...

DO NOT PISS OFF SANTA CLAUSE!!!!

The Christmas Eve massacre-arson-suicide, perpetrated by a a Santa-clad lad of 45 (NOT calibre), is but the latest in a long series of such Americana tragedies, from Columbine to Christmastime.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and Charlton Heston have a death grip on keeping guns well in distribution throughout the United States. They can now mark upon their cave walls the umpteenth chapter of the sordid and bloody tale their disproportionate political ...

SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN

Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church, is complicit in creating a mountain of controversy, following his invitation to deliver the invocation at next month’s inauguration ceremonies. Preselect Obama’s staff obviously failed their due diligence in vetting Pastor Warren. If they had, it is assumed they would have anticipated this hullabaloo, which already has marred the planning of the inaugural. Obama’s people either overlooked or found inconsequential the followin...

FLYING FOOTWEAR

There once was a certain World leader
Who failed miser’bly at the task.
He turned out to be just a bleeder
Of nations—a crook in a mask.

His own country learned to detest him.
His lies and tricks caused them great shame.
His own intellect was, at best, dim;
But others acted in his name.

He set out to chase those who hurt them,
A venture quite noble, indeed.
But soon he began to desert them;
Their doubts and fears he did not heed.

It turned out, he had an agenda.
He wanted ...

SOCIALISM PERFORCE?

Irrespective of the desires or intentions of either of the major political parties:

• Is the United States-under black-hole attraction--imperceptively and inexorably being drawn into a situation wherein the federal government may be obliged to directly control the financial and economic lifelines of the nation?
• If this were to occur, would it be transitory or permanent?
• If transitory, how long might it last?
• In other words, are we on the verge of becoming a nationa...

MYTHOCLAST: PILGRIMS’ PROGRESS

In England, there was a offspring class of the Catholic-light religion promulgated by King Henry VIII, after Rome refused to go along with his nasty habit of divorcing and/or beheading a succession of wives. This group was harassed because it refused to conform to Henry’s refusal to conform to the Pope’s decree. They decided to leave England and join up with others of the same disposition in the Netherlands. Finding Holland equally inhospitable, they agreed to ...

WHITE FOLKS’ BUSINESS

It is obvious that Barack Obama was not brought up in a proper, African American milieu—regardless of all of those folks out there who refuse to take responsibility for at least half of our new president-elect’s heritage. Obama betrays his lack of a Black background simply by the fact of his running for the presidency at this very dire moment in American history. He probably never heard the term before, for if he had, he certainly would have done anything to avoid runni...

ABULA RASA

The newly minted president, Barack Obama, has been presented with a blank slate upon which to write the next four years of United States history. It will be fraught with all manner of opportunity to succeed magnificently or fail miserably.

Righteous conservatives who had surrendered their fortunes to a Republican Party that had been co-opted by the right-wing, religious crazies, must take their medicine and go into the desert for the time required for them to recoup the true mean...

MARRIAGE UNDER SIEGE

There has been considerable concern throughout the country--accompanied by legislative, ballot initiative, judicial and constitutional action—with regard to preventing the infection, deterioration and possible extinction of the institute of marriage. There is a great dissonance in the tone of pronouncements issued by those factions who claim to want to “defend” and “save” the “sanctity” of marriage by legally controlling who may marry whom. The dissonance arises when one...

McCOO / DAVIS – STILL TWO / STILL BEST

In today’s popular entertainment, when much of what we see and hear is bland, unimaginative and one-dimensional, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. demonstrated last night at the Sycuan Casino in San Diego a style of entertainment that reaches the fifth dimension and beyond. For those who remember the super-popular singing group, “The 5th Dimnension,” it was as though the years never really had passed. These two stellar artists, in vision and voice, hav...

DUST to DUST

I perceive Planet Earth as an infinitesimal speck of dust, floating in an infinite sea of other infinitesimal specks of dust.

Omar Khayyam, in his Rubaiyyat, put it thusly:


Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!

Based upon what is known about the movement of planets in this solar system, astronomists have calculated what must be a similar activit...

ABE and BARACK

(President Barack Obama is at his desk in the Oval Office. Suddenly, Abraham Lincoln appears.)

LINCOLN: (Looking around curiously) They’ve gussied it up a bit, but I remember the shape. Whet year is this, and what’s your name?
OBAMA: This is 2009 I’m Barack Hussein Obama.
LINCOLN: Sounds kinda Mohammedan-like. I thought they made ‘em all take American names.
OBAMA: You mean “European.”
LINCOLN: Yeah, yeah, I know the history. How did you keep yours?
OBAMA: My father was from...

JENNIE, the JAUNTY JOSTLER

Jennie Hamilton is the sweetest person in the world. As such, you don’t notice the iron fist in the velvet glove that grabs your arm and jauntily jostles you to think or do something positive with regard to her beloved “Community Actors Theatre” (CAT), of which she has been the lifetime director.

More than twenty-six years ago, when Jennie Hamilton was an active educator in the San Diego Unified School District, she and others with the same interest acted upon the...

REDEMPTION

Breathe freely, America—
Thy tremendous weight is lifted.
Breathe freely, America—
Thy most noxious stones are sifted.

Breathe freely, America—
Thy long, rough-hewn course was well run.
Breathe freely, America—
Thy rude demons, now, are undone.

Breathe freely, America—
In “these truths” we find redemption.
Breathe freely, America—
Thou hast now eschewed exemption.

Breathe freely, America—
“We the people,” all, support thee.
Breathe freely, America—
As they wrote then, we’re now...

ALAN SHRUGGED

There was a time when the economic world would stop, and in hushed reverence, listen attentively while a personage from Mount Olympus dictated the terms of its future survival. In guru-like pronouncements, Alan Greenspan would raise or lower interest rates by a quarter of a per cent, and everyone would go, “Ooooh,” and then return to their hum-drum, mortal lives, buoyed by the
Knowledge that all was well in the summit of the gods.

A young nephew, who is a banker, questioned t...

McCAIN: CHARADE and SHENANIGANS

Yesterday, John McCain woke up to the news that he had become an almost 10-point underdog in the presidential sweepstakes. “What to do, what to do?” Then, he received a message from Obama suggesting that they come up with a joint statement regarding the bailout negotiations taking place in Washington. McCain had his answer.

Senator McCain has not had an original idea since the beginning of the campaign. His hackneyed, throw-out lines about country, leadership...

RED(white and blue)LINING

The Crash of 2º008 is beginning to regurgitate a plethora of chargs and counter-charges that eventually may reveal its causation to be rooted in our history of racism—both past and present—and religious bigotry, particularly anti-Semitism. When the final chapter of this calamity is written, it just may show that the noxious system of redlining in the housing and mortgage industry was the underlining catalyst that, in the end, oddly combined 1) the push of equal...

LAISSEZ FAILED

At the beginning of the last century, Teddy Roosevelt had to come to the aid of the put-upon populous by corralling in the Robber Barons and busting up the moneyed monopolies. During that century, which was destabilized by two world wars, a long cold war, proxy wars in Korea, Viet Nam and assorted banana republics, this country rose to an economic, military and cultural pinnacle previously unknown on this planet. The elevator that took us to that penthouse was powered by the ...

GEORGE WHO?

CAMPAIGN AIDE: Senator McCain, Mr. George Smith is on the line. He says he is a high-placed supporter, and that he has a sure-fire scheme to get you over the top.
McCAIN: OK, put him on. – McCain here.
CALLER: Hey, John, this is George Bush.
McCAIN: George who?
BUSH: George Bush, dummy. Don’t you reco’nize ma voice?
McCAIN: Yeah, but they said--
BUSH: Ah know, Ah know; Ah wanted to be sure of gettin’ through.
McCAIN: Look at the time. It’s been nice talking to you, Mr. President...

ITEM: Yesterday’s 9/15, Black Monday, Wall Street implosion is being compared with 1929’s Black Thursday and the physical destruction of September 11, 2001.

With the punctuation mark thus being set for him, why does not Barack Obama divest himself of his professorial gown and nuanced, didactic pronouncements, and get out into the streets with a language tailored for the 51 per cent of the populace he needs to reach:

“I’ve already said, ‘Enough!’ What more do you need? The Bush Administratio...

RENAISSANCE MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN

I met Peter (now “Pedro”) Widdicombe in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico in the early part of 1967, shortly after my arrival on “la Isla del Encanto.” Peter had just come in from New York City, with the intention of never going back. He was a concert pianist who had been attempting to support his studies by working in a community youth center. He was unnerved by that experience, along with that of the general social upheaval of the time. My many years of Spanish-lang...

It is ridiculous that criminals can take over society and everyone sits by and tremble. If we can march into other countries and take over, why the hell can't we keep the lawbreakers in line here.
This is another example of the stupidity of the middle class and those below the middle class for not demanding their government protect them; because you know who suffers at the hands of hoodlums. The very rich and those with mucho dinero usually reside and work in locales where it is not easy to...

TERROR—MEXICAN STYLE

The American press has been remiss in documenting for the U.S. public the insidious horror that has been progressively underway below our southern border, for about fifteen years. It has now crossed the border and spreads its poison in cities of the United States such as Los Angeles and Chicago, where there are large Mexican immigrant populations. This reign of terror is as disastrous to individual Mexican families, and the populous in general, as that other terror we he...

An excellent description of the present situation.
It struck me the way everyone including the phony news media was honoring and accepting the mama to be sitting up their next to the perpetrator of the crime like prince and princess.
One would think that if queen mama was so damn tough, she would have gotten her shotgun and forced that little punk and her wayward daughter to the altar.
The audacity of that whole spectacle was disgusting, and it is a shame the way they keep marching that poor ...

“AH, WILDERNESS!”
(With recognition due to Oscar Wilde)

Once upon a time, in the wild, there existed a herd of donkeys and a herd of elephants. They were perennial political opponents, with well designed, mirror-image ideas on how the wilderness should be run. A large bone of contention between them had to do with how each herd defined “pack values.” The donkeys tended toward liberalization of individual conduct, while keeping a tail’s length from the influence of the controlling authority (...

You’ll never get me to believe that McCain knew anything about the pregnant daughter.

She sounds like real trailer trash to me!

Regardless of what the Republicans say, it is not a good signal to our young to say it’s alright to be pregnant out of wedlock as long as you force the father to marry you. We all know abstinence does not work. This is further poor that we need to pass out condoms to these little dears! They are screwing their butts off whether the “oh so religious” parents believe...

WHAT WAS McCAIN THINKING?

Either John McCain did not properly vet the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, or his desire to placate the right wing of the Republican Party overrode his sense of logic. Whatever be the case, he will be charged with a lack of judgment in the matter.

Whether or not the fact that the governor’s pregnant, unmarried teenage daughter will be a subject for inter-party discourse, it is now ready fodder for the Old and New Media.

However, a politically legitimate point of...

REFRACTION

All at once, it came to me:
My thoughts were flying high,
Endlessly, from sea to sea,
A vision from the sky.

This was home, where I was born,
The mountains and the plains—
Rich soil, from which I was torn,
That courses through my veins.

Here it was, some years ago,
A native voice cried out:
“What thing do the sea winds blow?
“What is this all about?”

Many things, it proved to be—
Some good, some bad—it binds.
It created you and me,
Inhabits all our minds.

We are told the deser...

ELITISM and HOUSING

“Elitist,” cries McCain
To the Obama snob.
“You Shakespeare-reading thane;
“You nerdy kish-kabob!”

“ ‘Arugula!’ ” demands
“Your fancy appetite.
“With outstretched-pinky hands,
“You’re really quite a sight.”

“With San Francisco’s rich,
“You put down grass-roots folk.
“They’re just part of your kitsch—
“A snooty salon joke!”

“You tread the Ivy Halls.
“With Harvard’s Law Review,
“You create C.V.* balls
“With melanin true-blue.

“Oh, how you love to lord
“It over those of ...

Welcome back to the real world. I am glad to see that one of Obama's folks is beginning to see that this dream is begining to slip away from him. Welcome back to the real America!

I still put my bet on the “Dark Horse”.

He knows exactly what he is doing. He has to have someone with tons of experience, older that him, and well known. Hillary had all of this, but in addition, baggage which would become a hindrance. Joe Biden is his very best hope. There are many more Hilary haters who would not vote the Obama/Clinton ticket than those who will not vote for him without her on the ticket….

Just you wait and see. I think history will prove you wrong on this one, my friend...

HILL’ or NIL

Politics is not mother’s milk! Despite the Kabuki dance the Obama ballet is mounting with potential vice-presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton is Barack’s only hope of overcoming John McCain in November. It has been my opinion from the get-go that he would have been much better off had she gotten the nomination. In that way, he would have become a very attractive adjunct to the ticket, as well as to have been in the cat-bird seat, positioned for White House access for a sixteen...

THE ANGST OF AUGUST ARRIVAL

For Kenneth L. Nash

The sixteenth of August
Auspicious is not.
It’s not worth a caucus
Or computer “bot.”

However…

Perhaps one is hasty
Or counter to Zen;
So, let’s say a gamely
H-B-D to Ken!

* * *

For James W. Richardson, Jr.

August eighteen—
How quickly it returns!
Since ‘twas last seen,
‘sAmazing what one learns.

Ergo, Jim…

What can one do?
Whatever can one say?
One year gone through;
Another on its way.

“DO AS i SAY…”

Now we see the real danger of the military, intelligence, financial and moral bankruptcy into which the United States has been placed by the Bush Administration. Why did not our bottomless-black-budgeted spooks know that Vladimir Putin was going to use the Olympics as a cover to pull off a Sedenland-like “rescue” of “put-upon” Soviet citizens, politically bound within the limits of the former Soviet state of Georgia? It is just as well; it did not matter. Dubya continued to ki...

THE BUSH TRIFECTA

We are in the waning months of an administration in Washington, D.C., whose tenure has been constitutionally, historically, politically and culturally devastating. Three principal, contributory factors come to mind, as the elements responsible for creating a perfect storm of misbegotten national leadership.

1. A Desired “Unitary” Presidency
2. The Neo-Conservatives
3. September 11, 2001

Of course, the laboratory would not have existed for an interaction among these three ...

BATMAN – A RIGHT-WINGER?

It was between 3 and 4 a.m. when I awoke. The radio was still on, and several young talking heads were taking the cinematic measure of the latest Batman flick. I had assumed that super motion pictures about super heroes were products fostered by and contained within the Comicon universe. Wrong! As this early morning conversation continued, it became evident that my suppositions emanated from a long-ago era, when super hero comic books, talking movies and I were prepu...

THUS, IT CAME TO PASS . . .

(This is another one I wish I had written. It is a skillful piece of satire.)

From The Times of London
By Gerard Baker
July 25, 2008
He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers
Gerard Baker
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores o...

Unlike Evita, Mr. Barak has thought well in advance on his travels. I took note of his statement while standing on Afgani soil. He said that the current administration needs to get additional troops into the country ASAP. If we wait until the nest administrations, it will be too late.

Of course this sets the stage for him. Because of escalated Taliban activity, G.W. has no choice but to step up the troops. Obama can then say “see I told you so”!

He’s absolutely brilliant. I like him more a...

EVITA / BARACK REDUX

(Of course, doing this is an admission that I failed in the premise of my previous posting. A reader whose opinion I respect was confused by the similes I cited. That is an indication that, perhaps, others also were left at sea. Consequently, here is an explanation of the comparisons I made between Eva Perón’s social and political trajectory and that of Barack Obama’s. BTW: The same reader corrected my spelling of “Barack”)

I noticed that, invariably, in every disc...

DON'T CRY FOR ME, AMERICA

In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Evita,” a major portion of the piece consists of Eva Perón being lavishly prepared for a European tour. It is hoped that would burnish her image and provide her with a cloak of respectability. She intends, afterwards, to be vice president, next to her husband Juan Perón, the president of Argentina. Tweaking that scenario just a bit, with regard to gender, politics, countries and the haute couture wardrobe, we have, pretty...

McCAIN’S BANE: ANACHRONISM

President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain are a generation apart in age, but they both seem to be stuck in early 20th century. Although this piece has age references, pointedly, it is not ageist. This writer is almost ten year McCain’s senior.

Both Bush and McCain appear to be affable on a personal basis, but their lack of intellect and curiosity about the quotidian quick-step* and the time-space continuum are dangerous to you and me when they pose as natio...

LAXITY IN LEADERSHIP
and
DEARTH OF DIRECTION

Washington is bereft of guidance. There is no noticeable national direction emanating either from the White House or the Capitol Building. As the country sinks deeper and deeper into an economic morass, the causation is not being explained to us, nor is there any effort being made to explain how to stop the bleeding.

In the past, presidents have violated the Constitution in order to take momentous, decisive action for the benefit of the entire na...

CRAB FEST

Jesse Jackson, in his latest faux pas, suggests two crab similes: 1) a crotchety, old grouse (consumed by the green monster); and 2) One of the crabs in the bottom of a barrel, furiously attempting to prevent the escape of one of their ilk.

The hot-mike syndrome can be devastating in politics. Ronald Reagan was caught ostensibly ordering an attack upon the Soviet Union. Because of one regrettable, disparaging term, George Allen lost the senatorial race in Virginia and the very lik...

Alex Rodríguez
Succumbed to the teases,
And now he is out on his butt.

What’s more the pity,
In such a big city,
He chose such a high-profile slut!

THE WILLIAMS GALS AT WIMBLEDON

There once were two sisters from Compton,
Whose dad had his eyes on big wampum.
He said to his gals,
“You’d better be pals;
”At Wimbledon, each other you’ll whomp on.”

Venus and Serena Williams tread upon a path laboriously forged through Jim Crow tennis by two former African American tennis greats: Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.

Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe existed in the same apartheid America in which I grew up It was a time when the Ku Klux Klan was a ...

HEROES / HEROINE

The world was proffered a genuine 21st century heroine, yesterday, when writer and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was freed from her six-year imprisonment by the FARC-Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), in that country’s mountainous jungle.

Two years of planning and intrigue, skill and daring culminated in a military rescue operation that exceeds any of those invented on film. The Colombian militar...

Fourth ÷ 2 = FRACTURED USA

Would that I had written the below piece by Chris Satullo of the Philadelphia Inquirer. His concept of the meaning of this Fourth of July is an intelligent reading of the direction this country has taken over the past seven plus years.

Incredibly, Rush Limbaugh, this morning on his radio program, read Chris Satullo’s entire column. The purpose of doing so was not laudatory; rather, it was used as an example of how such “liberal” thoughts are causing our count...

THE UNIVERSAL MOTHER

I was jotting down the words to, “Momma, Bless You, Momma,” the song that was to be the centerpiece of Tommy Dodson’s and my one-man musical, “Blues, Booze and Attitude. It was before Tommy had the opportunity to wrap his haunting melody around the lyrics. We had no idea when—or even if—the musical play would get a public hearing. As it turned out, about two years later we, ourselves, gave it a one-time performance in Los Angeles on May 10, 2008, with Tommy portraying, S...

BROTHER PRESIDENT -- (KINDA)

Now, as the presumed nominee of the Democratic Party, Barak Obama is taking on the mantle of almost-inevitability of being elected the first “brother” president (almost). These parentheses and those of the above title allude to our beginning to decipher Barak’s DNA with more specificity.

With recent re-introductory ads in a variety of “red” states, Barak subtly is emphasizing his Midwestern “whiteness.” Then, there are grumblings in the old civil rights circles...

GOODBYE, FAREWELL, ADIÓS: “TOODLE -OO“

A song of farewell is dedicated to all components--active, reserve and retired—of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Cortps, Coast Guard and National Guard.

The men and women we dispatch within and outside the borders of the United States, in furtherance of our national interests, constantly find themselves in the “farewell” mode. It is “goodbye” when leaving home for the first time; from training to assignment; from assignment to dep...

A TEMPORAL ANOMALY AND
PARADIGM SHIFT OF
TECTONIC PROPORTIONS

Imperceptible. A low-decibel rumbling at a distance beyond the horizon. There was no hint of the potential tumult. There were no instruments sensitive enough to detect it. Life continued as usual, oblivious to the coming of the unexpected. Night became day; day became night. The seasons changed. Besotted clouds collected, strained and released their burden--sometimes pleasantly, sometimes with fury. The deceptive air—at times, sti...

PROUD ‘MERICANS

Much to the chagrin of many, the ultimate, controlling, legal document of the United States, the Constitution, makes no mention of “God.” Likewise, others seem to insinuate therein the inclusion of some requirement of “pride” in one’s country. The business-like founding document does not deal with emotion or religion--except to exclude “religion” from the functioning of the national government. It is a straightforward legal document. The various oaths used by governmental ent...

NO, NO TO GITMO

Again, I am vindicated—along with everyone else who understands that the Constitution of the United States covers each and every individual within the scope of its authority. This includes the 48 contiguous states and the two non-contiguous states, as well as off-shore possessions of the U.S. Additionally, the nationality or the legal status of the individual are of no concern; the Constitutions assures them the same protection that is given to citizens and other residents o...

I REMEMBER D-DAY

On June 6, 1944, I was in the 11th grade. After everyone had gone to bed, I stayed up most of the night listening to broadcast radio transmissions of crackly short-wave reports from London, giving (as well as was possible) the play-by-play of the long-anticipated invasion of Europe.

It would be three years before we witness the first baby-steps of commercial television. Most of the radio news came from the 5 O’clock reports and the comforting but ominous tones of Gabriel He...

PROS/CONS OF McBAMA ROAD SHOW

Mixed metaphors be damned: Could John McCain be soliciting Barak Obama’s assistance in digging his own grave? Or, could he be luring Barak into a deadly spider’s web?

Senator John McCain has suggested that he and Senator Barak Obama squeeze in ten town meetings around the country, prior to the Democratic and Republican conventions. These appearances would be fraught with a variety of factors, both negative and positive. for both of them. These meetings would co...

(NOTE:

Reflecting on the extraordinary historical event of last night, I cite a personal connection that will place the following piece in a shockingly short, temporal perspective.

Through the diligent research of my nieces Stacy and Fannie, it has been revealed that the 1860 South Carolina census records that my paternal grandmother Mary Jane—of whose lifetime I shared about twenty years—was born of mulatto parents around the beginning of the Civil War.)



GREAT EMANCIPATOR: 2008


(Jus...

ASTRAL ARTISTRY

Mars, O storied planet,
Who once seemed so remote,
Thou art, now, Earth’s palette—
Not just a scholar’s note.

From thy native colors,
Earth strives to find the way
To portray like others,
Within this grand array.

Minerals of hue will
A founding base comprise,
Then, course a brand-new rill,
Far from Earth’s current eyes.

Neath thy hanging canvas,
Awash with specks unknown,
Wealth lies in thy atlas,
Revealed to thee alone.

Earth, intrepid painter,
Avidly will explore
All th...

And don't forget the tens of thousands of Iraqis that have been killed, the millions driven out of their homes and the thousands who've helped the US troops at the risk to their own lives and who can't get visas to come to the US!!

Better late than never, but he should not be given carte blanche to the millions of dollars that is certain to be generated by the pubublication of his tell all book.
He may or may not have been kept out of the loop very often, but he knew most of the time that something was amiss.
The punishment for Scott McClellan should be that all proceeds from the sale of his books be donated to some type of fund to be dispersed to returning military personnel from the Middle East as a bonus for services...

HALLELUJAH!

It took a worn-down, mistreated, ol’ houn’dog from the (kinda) inner circle of the Bush Administration to plainly substantiate what I, Barak Obama and a host of others perceived and wrote about from the very moment Dubya unartfully began to morph the name of Osam Bin Laden into that of Saddam Hussein. The flim-flam was patently apparent to anyone with a modicum of moxie about political intrigue and human nature. We were being led right down the Rose Garden path.

Former White Hou...

Hillary has just about blown her chances for the number two slot, which we now know that if she had accepted, it would have probably only been because in the darkest recess of her mind existed the idea and maybe even the hope that some of her white brethern would do the American thing and take out the president; thus, enabling her to ascend the throne (presidency).
GOD BLESS AMERICA!

THE RING OF CLOVER

Hail, Caesar!
Hail, Hillary!
Hail—Girl, are you mad?

“Appeaser!”
“Let’s pillory…!”
Strong, but ain’t that bad.

The Roman
Emperor crossed
His own Rubicon.

You, woman,
At last, have lost
All legs to stand on.

My goodness,
Dear Senator,
Just where is your mind?

May God bless
Your blinding blur—
Not pay you in kind.

You call up
From darkest hell
Thoughts long laid to rest.

So corrupt,
So final-bell—
Is this the real test?

Ambition
Unbridled is
A dangerous game.

Perdi...

Obama and McCain are in a wedding chapel
The Justice of the Math: “I now pronounce you,: ‘Opposing, Presumed Nominees’.”
Hillary, stretched out on the floor, with arms wrapped around Barak’s leg: “Noooooo! It ought to be a girl!”

Myanmar: “We are afraid you Americans will take advantage of the situation and steal our oil.”
Dubya: “Didn’t know you had any; but who needs an excuse?”

Dubya to Saudi Arabia: “Take note.”

Dubya: “Whose big idea was it to include that “appeasement” thing?”
McCain...

DON QUI-HILLARY

Don Qui-Hillary,
You’ve had a nice run.
It’s quite chill-ery,
This flight to the sun.

Even Icarus
Would doubt your mad quest.
“She’s not one of us,”
“Says Robin Redbreast.

“Weighed down with armor,
“She’d ne’er leave the ground.
“She’s quite the charmer;
“Alas, not too sound.”

Now, this metaphor
Begins to digress.
It is quite a bore—
This need to impress.

Let’s go back again
To Hill on her horse.
Just what’s in that brain?
What brings out such force?

With her lance in ha...

Terrific! Now if only you could give or sell it to Obama.
I can not shake the notion that all this is some vast Republican plot, and can not really believe that I will see a black person sworn in as president of these United states in my life time.
However, I will be delighted to be proven wrong and offer my congratulations and sympathy.
The vice president will really be the one who will be running the country. The bigots will kill him within the first year.
Read some of their blogs, and re...

ONE RACE / ONE PLANET

If Barak Obama does happen to be the one who raises his hand in that cold, January scene (that long ago should have been taken indoors), this is the speech that only he could give:

My fellow Americans,

I am not just African American. I am not just European American. I am not just Kenyan. I am not just Scots-Irish. No one is just this or just that. The one thing that we all are, completely, is human, Homo sapiens sapiens. Regardless of what our history, culture or poli...

THE BLEMISH OF SUPREMACY

When Europeans set up shop in every available corner of the newly discovered American continent, they also planted the imprimatur of “White, Male Supremacy.” This hierarchical device was first used to wrest away the lands and mineral possessions of the indigenous peoples, and then enslave them or otherwise marginalize and control their existence. It was kicked into high gear when the African slave trade began. This kaleidoscopic totem pole of racial superiority, base...

I wish the damn environmentalist would get the message and get the hell out of the way and allow mankind to advance as far as it can before the inevitable end.
We complain about the price of oil and not being a slave to it, but we allow those idiots who somehow envision themselves saviors of this planet which does not belong to any of us, prevent us from doing the things that could provide alternative energy sources.
They don't want us to dig for oil in Alaska or in certain parts of the ocea...

EARTH: “Humans?”

We should avail ourselves of all of the energy resources afforded by the earth. Any disputes over coal, wood and whale oil pale in comparison to those stemming from the Industrial Age, when oil became both king and jester among nations. We must now make a move toward those equalizing forces supplied by the sun, the wind and the sea. These considerations are necessary, regardless of how scientific evidence stacks up on either end of the human-contribution, global-warming see-...

KATRINA REDUX

During a stay at the Veterans Administration Western Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, California, last December and January, I was encouraged to participate in the National VA Art and Literature competition. I entered poems in several different categories.

I was just informed that my poem in the “other” category has won first prize in the local selections. It will be sent along for inclusion in the national competition, which results will be announced at a ceremony in...

RICE ON RACE

With a Salient phrase in an otherwise wide-ranging interview, the other day, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice takes the cake for the most effective description of the race thing with which we Americans find ourselves permanently saddled: a “birth defect.” That is a most apt description of our national plight.

Here are more excerpts from Rice’s most extraordinary—but right on the mark-- pronouncements on the topic: "Black Americans were a founding population…Africans and...

Dick Cheney is of course the king of Jackasses. However, I don't blame him. I blame the American people for tolerating this idiot for eight years.
I believe most of the poor fools in the volunteer army believed they could accomplish a quick stint in Iraq or some other God forsaken place with a one deployment deal, and get a discharge. Upon arrival home, they could benefit from all the non existent goodies vetrans are supposed to get.
They had no idea that the tours in enemy countries would be...

4,000 DEAD! “So…? They Volunteered”

Upon the occasion of the four thousandth death among U.S. forces in Iraq, re-printed below is a relevant poem I wrote some time ago.

In a recent interview, Vice President Dick Cheney, in response to a reporter’s assertion that two-thirds of the country is opposed to the administration’s policy in Iraq, he responded, “So…?” Upon another occasion, Cheney was asked to respond to the continued increase in casualties in Iraq. He indicated that they are volunte...

The Government will always bail out the big boys because it is natural to protect one of your own. Are they not the ones who by way of the lobby system create the laws with loopholes that allow the lawmakers to react in a favorable way for themselves. Of course, the rhetoric coming from the Government states that the average citizen will suffer greatly if such a large corporation is permitted to go belly up.
Rev. Wright was apparently suffering from hoof and mouth disease when he made his now...

HMMM . . .

Rot in the State of N.Y. – “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark,” wrote Shakespeare in “Hamlet.” A similar stench seems to be emanating from the state of New York. I know nothing of the world of finance. Nonetheless, these institutions are controlled by human beings, and I have a pretty good notion about the ways of human nature. What is behind the sudden, surgical outing of “Client No. 9”--the bane of Wall Street--and the soon-thereafter U.S. government complicity (...

Apparently Barak has never heard that Jews are God"s chosen people and Episcopalians are his frozen people.
You are correct in stating that he would have fared better if he belonged to a standard church.
Obama"s varied background growing up does not really help him in his quest for the presidency. If all of his years had been spent within the continental borders of the good old USA, he might have a more realistic understanding of the country he wants to preside over as president.
H...

IF . . .

IF all of the presidents of the United States had not been men; white’ non-Jewish; non-Muslim; or non-any religion that did not border upon “Christian;” never would they have had a chance to become president.

IF George W. Bush had not been a man; white; a Bush; had not had a brother as governor of Florida; a Florida secretary of state frenzily purging the voting rolls of African Americans; and a 5-4 majority on the supreme court; thousands of families would not be mourning their de...

“Blues, Booze and Attitude” came after my very talented collaborator Tommy Dodson (pianist, singer, composer, arranger) and I had passed through the reality crucible of attempting to stage our first musical, “Playing the Game.” “Blues, Booze and Attitude” is a one-man musical, tailor-made for Tommy Dodson, which we will stage in Los Angeles (Glendale) on May 10, 2008. The particulars appear below.

Apart from an unfinished opera and legally prohibitive, aborted attempts at one-person musicals...

AN AMERICAN SONG IN PYONGYANG

There is a flicker of hope of resolving one of the world’s great stalemates. We see now that, “Music hath charms” to stir the stolen soul. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra recently breached the no-man’s land between North and South Korea.

Here is a news flash for the 21st century: “The Korean War Is Not Over.” In the first place, officially it never was a “war.” When the “Korean Conflict” ended in a draw, in 1953, it left the Korean Peninsula politically a...

BARAK TO THE BARRICADES!

”Ready, aim, fire!” Get out your flak suit, BHO, that moment we all knew was coming is here.“ The artillery has been loaded and you have been zeroed in on from all sides. Incoming!”

It was so subtle that it came upon them before they were aware it was happening. The Right-wing was so intent upon destroying the hated Clintons that it took them by surprise. Who would have thought that they could do such a good job on her that she would be finished off in the primaries...

OBAMARAMA

• MICHELLE: Anyone who grew up black in the United States could tell you that what she meant was that for the first time she felt that she was a COMPLETE American.

• FRONT-RUNNER/INEVITABLE: What a rush, but he should not allow it to do to him what it did to Hillary.

• MISCHIEF: Perhaps the overwhelming groundswell may be legit; however, there have been hints that many Republicans who hate the Clintons are voting for Obama, only to opt for the Republican candidate in the general ...

DUBYA Y CUBA

Clarifying the cutesy title: In Spanish, “y” means “and.”

This morning’s announcement that Fidel Castro Ruz, hobbled by illness and advanced age, will resign as Cuba’s “líder máximo” has set the rumor mills a-whir. Experience teaches that these things do not happen in a vacuum. Sometimes it takes a lot of diplomatic back-channeling to get them started. I suspect that the announcement was arranged to take place while Dubya was off, doing his black swan song on the Dark...

You would think that the Rush Limbaugh crowd would have foreseen the present dilemma and had one of their ilk in the running. They are getting just what they deserve.
Pox on them!

IS CONSERVATISM DEAD?

This morning, Rush Limbaugh said, “…this country was founded on conservatism….” “Huh,” I said, “You’ve got to me out of your mind!” The Founders of this country were the best organized and most successful bunch of left-wing radicals in the history of the world. They had the temerity to publish—for all the world to see—charges against the monarch of one of the most powerful nations on earth. They declared themselves free from the ties that bound them to that monarchy, an...

A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

Connie and Ken were wed
Some fifty years ago.
Although some voices said
That it should not be so.

West Philly was their home,
And still it is today.
They tended not to roam;
Now, steamships make their day.

Two daughters grace their world,
Both Dawn, and Kendall, too.
Two spirits were unfurled,
Blended in Lyons’ hue.

Let’s not forget the Longs;
They had a hand in there.
Their spirits float on songs,
To grace those ladies fair.

Imagine all of this,
With Connie and with...

THE ELEPHANT IN DISARRAY


With the ascent of John McCain to “front-runner” status, the right-wing of the Republican Party has gone completely out of sorts. He, who headed up the ranks of those whom the right-wingers designate as “RINO,” (Republicans in Name Only), is now in position, probably, to lead their party’s ticket as candidate for the presidency of the United States.

The extreme of this revolt against one of their own, is Ann Coulter’s assertion that Hillary Clinton is more conserva...

HER SHADOW

When winter comes, the groundhog’s plight
Reminds me of my life.
A lady I knew was born that day,
She filled that life with light.
The mom we knew, left both of us,
And other siblings, four.
A child was I, a mother she,
With two of her own to shelter.

A child like I, a brother, he,
She lent us both her warmth.
The four of us, now brothers we,
She guided through life’s swamps.
The road, of course, was long and hard;
With head unbent, she trudged right on.

At every bend, her sage-...

THE TORCH

When we heard John F. Kennedy speak the words, “The torch is passed to a new generation of Americans,” who knew that soon he would be gone—as well as Martin and Bobby. There were negative forces afoot at that time, bent upon stunting the march toward that “New Frontier” to which JKF so brilliantly led the way. With yesterday’s bombastic imprimatur of Senator Ted Kennedy and the demure endorsement of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg—brother and daugher of the martyred president—it becam...

WHEREFORE WENT THE WASPS?

Prior to the election of Catholic John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1960, it was unthinkable that the president of the United States would be other than a White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP)—and, of course, be of the male sex. The historical withdrawal of the WASPS from contention in this election has been so sudden and imperceptible that it seems to have escaped the notice of all of the news sources of which I am aware. Since JFK, an Italian-American, Catholic woman and ...

RICK’S CAFÉ AMERICAIN

Tweaking it just a bit, the United States in this political season could be that “…gin mill in all the world...” where the Claude Rains character expresses mock shock that talk of racism is “going on here.”

It does not take much to stimulate that which is deeply imbedded within the DNA of this country. Apart from the ridiculous one-drop theory upon which the Southern miscegenation rules were/are(?) based, there are also dark suggestions in this campaign of the dis...

WILL NO ONE RID US OF THESE MEDDLESOME “MEESES”?

Unlike the annoyance expressed in the cartoon line, “I hate these meeses to pieces,” King Henry II’s frustration was considerably more real and ultimately deadly when he incited his barons to action by uttering the plaintive plea against former best friend Thomas Becket, whom he had mistakenly elevated to Archbishop of Canterbury: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Well, my “meeses” are Dubya and company. Of course, the centuries ...

BLACK MUSLIMS AT BIRTH OF AL QAEDA?

Recently, C-SPAN 2’s book review program featured Yaroslav Trofimov giving a first-hand account of how he went about gathering the information necessary to write his spell-binding book, “Siege of Mecca.” It details what is considered to be the event, in Saudi Arabia, that launched the idea of the “Al Qaeda” and modern-day “Jihad” movements.

If this seminal incident has escaped you, it may be because it occurred, in 1979, within weeks of the takeover of th...

THE NUMBERS GAME

One at a time,
The rule is set;
Thus, U.S. deals with blacks.
With more than one,
Must back ye get;
We cannot deal with stacks.

One at a time,
Ye do no harm
Cavorting there onstage.
With more than one,
Ye loseth charm;
They then must turn the page.

One at a time,
Jack Johnson’s great;
His boxing thrills them all.
With more than one,
His choice of mate
Makes mighty egos fall.

One at a time,
Bill Robinson
May with Miss Shirley dance.
With more than one,
Bill Robinson
May ju...