Click on the image to enlarge.
Category Archives: The State Of the Union
GUNS
I totally don’t buy the terms of the American debate about gun control. Those who oppose it tend to want no restrictions on gun ownership at all, while those who favor it sometimes seem to want to get all guns out of private hands.
This is a false conflict. There’s no reason you can’t support the right of Americans to keep and bear arms and yet want the strictest sort of regulations in place to keep them out of the wrong hands.
I like the idea of the Second Amendment because I don’t like the idea of all guns being in the hands of government officials. I don’t trust government officials. I also think there could be highly intrusive limitations on gun ownership that wouldn’t significantly abridge the right of Americans to own guns.
One such intrusive limitation might involve forcing all members of a household where guns are kept to pass the same background check as the household member who purchased the guns, or for the purchaser of the guns to offer proof that he or she has taken reasonable precautions to insure that other members of the household have no access to the guns.
The extremist opinions on both sides of this issue are somewhat lunatic, to my way of thinking.
Click on the images to enlarge.
JOHN BOEHNER WEEPS
. . . over the harsh dilemma he faces — plunge the national and world economy into chaos or anger the lunatic fringe of his party . . . misery for millions or pique from a few hairpins. Talk about a rock and a hard place!
LINCOLN
The trailers for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, and the poster above, which depicts the man as a kind of bas-relief sculpture, suggested that the film was going to be a chore to get through — a pious civics lesson about the martyred saint who freed the slaves and saved the Union.
In fact, the film is quite entertaining, thanks to Tony Kushner’s lively and intelligent screenplay and a number of very good performances, by Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones in particular. Lewis’s interpretation of Lincoln is the best of all those that have been done in movies, simply because he makes Lincoln seem like good company, as by all contemporary accounts he was. This is something even Henry Fonda, likeable as he was as a screen presence, couldn’t quite pull off except in brief moments.
The film takes a brutal look at the mechanics of American democracy, at the skulduggery and corruption that grease the wheels of even the most idealistic legislative achievements. This is paralleled by a visual evocation of the shadowy and grimy physical world of the 19th Century — you get a sense from watching this film of how bad most people of that time probably smelled.
The film fudges a bit on Lincoln’s views about integrating freed blacks into American society as citizens — he probably wasn’t as sanguine about the prospects of that, as open to the idea, as he’s presented here. On the other hand, it’s fair to suggest that his thinking on the subject might have evolved had he lived longer — that there were the seeds of such an evolution in his heart.
What’s less forgivable about the subtext of the film is the suggestion that the questionable legal and moral tactics Lincoln used during the greatest crisis that ever faced the nation, a time of armed conflict on a massive scale, might be applicable to our own current President, whose legal and moral transgressions against the Constitution and liberty itself haven’t unfolded in a similar context.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Kushner and Spielberg had some such apology for Obama in mind when they made this film — and wanted to imply that noble intentions can justify almost any act by a President. That’s a stretch — and a dangerous one.
KENNEDY-NIXON DEBATE
. . . in a New York bar.
KILLED
. . . by Barack Obama in the name of the American people on no authority but his own say-so, without even a pretense of due process. Some people voted for Obama because he was the “lesser of two evils”, but do they have any idea how evil he is in his own right?
A DREADFUL PRESIDENT
. . . but a pretty cool guy.
Click on the image to enlarge.
NO-NOS
General Petraeus does no-nos with drones — nation snoozes.
General Petraeus does no-nos with pee-pee — nation riveted.
OBAMA CRIES
. . . addressing his campaign workers. I’d like to see him cry over the destruction of the Constitution, at Arlington National Cemetery in front of the graves of the soldiers who died to preserve it. Don’t hold your breath for that.
ELIZABETH
Women are going to save this country — not because they’re better or stronger but simply because, in the absence of manly men in politics, they have no choice.
CONGRATULATIONS
. . . to all those who support Barack Obama, the good shepherd. I rejoice with you in your victory on Tuesday.
CAESAR
Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom.
– Gibbon, The Decline and Fall Of the Roman Empire
With thanks to Tom Sutpen . . .
LANDSLIDE!
SWEET LIES
Obama — one of the great political speakers in the history of the republic. I know he’s going to skulk back to the Oval Office, huddle with his Wall Street cronies and national security advisers and continue his program of robbing us of our heritage and future as a free people . . . but isn’t it sweet when he lies to us? He’s like a whore who makes you believe she’s fucking you for love, not money. It’s a lovely idea, but remember to leave the cash on the dresser before you go — I mean, if you know what’s good for you.
THE FUTURE
My great nephew and great niece watch the election returns — they might not know precisely what’s at stake, but they seem to know something big is happening.
Click on the image to enlarge.