Poetry Week Concluded

Forget to post a poem yesterday--but here's a bonus one to make up for it, plus todays. One by E. E. Cummings, the other by Robert Frost.

next to of course god america i
e. e. cummings

"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water


Fire and Ice
Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

John Edwards on the Senate Floor

"Mr. President, my Republican colleagues are calling this 30-plus-hour marathon ``Justice for Judges.'' Now, I'm all for justice for judges. And that's exactly what every single one of President Bush's judicial nominees has gotten.

But I ask my colleagues, where is Justice for the American people? They seem more concerned about Justice for a handful of judges--the 2 percent of those Bush's nominee who haven't been confirmed--than justice, fair play and opportunity for the American people.

The Republican majority claims that we're facing a vacancy crisis in our Federal courts. Ninety eight percent of Bush's judges have been confirmed and this is a crisis? Two percent of Bush's judges have not been given lifetime appointments and we're in a crisis?

. . . We have confirmed 168 of President Bush's nominees. I voted for the vast majority of these judges, even though many of these judges have held conservative ideologies with which I strongly differ, because I believed they would ultimately enforce the Constitution and the law.

But I cannot and will not vote for these four nominees, for good reason. These nominees not only do not represent the mainstream, but they have demonstrated an unwillingness to set aside their personal views to uphold the law and protect civil rights. We have good reason to oppose these nominees. And we not only have the right, we have a constitutional obligation to stand up to the President when he makes unacceptable nominations to the bench.

I hate to say it, but I might have underestimated Senator Edwards. Here's the link, but you have to scroll down and find it.

Should Democrats be Mean to President Bush?

This is a tough question. I don't know about the moral side of it, I'll deal with that later. Let's just look at the political side of it, or even better, let's look at what Salon has to say about it.

"As long as the nomination remains undecided, all the contenders, including Edwards, will keep trying to "get Democrats on their feet cheering." Party activists have been applauding attacks on Bush and screaming for more. "Bush gets Democratic base voters very angry -- more even than Reagan," declares Democratic pollster Geoff Garin. That's because Bush ran as a moderate "compassionate conservative," won a disputed election, and proceeded to govern as a confrontational conservative, with three consecutive top-bracket tax cuts and a new doctrine of preemptive war. Also, if the Democrats are an uneasy coalition of the underpaid working class and the overpaid meritocracy, Bush seems genetically engineered to offend them all: a president's son who, by his own admission, stumbled through life until age 40, after which he acquired a baseball team, a governorship, the presidency, and an aura of unearned entitlement.

With nine contenders competing for the favor of any angry party membership in a primary season that's starting sooner and probably ending earlier than ever before, Bush bashing is smart politics. But is it the ticket to beating a sitting president who is most comfortable casting himself as an ordinary guy beset by overly aggressive adversaries, from Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who called him "Shrub" in 1994, to Vice President Al Gore, who hovered over him during their debates in 2000?"

Well, there it is. Nobody questions that playing to the base is the way to win primaries, and then you move to the center for the election. Since President Bush will face no serious threat during the Primary Season, he can position himself early as a centrist, and so capture the undecided vote. But what if, as some have suggested, the base is the key to Election 2004?

I took a poll on two message boards and collected a whopping 49 opinions. Of those 49 participants, 18.37% accept the proposition that the Base will decide the election. 81.63% voted the opposite way. This suggests that I have too much time on my hands. What do you think?

President Bush and Nation Building

Michael Kinsley writes today on President Bush's changing foreign policy, pausing only to take several swipes at the legitimacy of Bush's presidency.

"In 2000, Bush said that the Clinton-Gore administration had been reckless in overcommitting the United States, and the military in particular, to exercises in "nation-building." By that he meant trying to establish institutions of democratic government and civil society. The intervention in Somalia, for example, begun by Bush's father, "started off as a humanitarian mission and it changed into a nation-building mission and that's where the mission went wrong." Just as with his current nearly opposite philosophy, Bush stated the principle in the categorical terms of someone who has adopted it and checked it off his list without diving for subtleties.

. . . A man who sincerely has changed his mind about something important ought to hold his new views with less certainty and express them with a bit of rhetorical humility. There should be room for doubt. How can your current beliefs be so transcendentally correct if you yourself recently believed something very different? How can critics of what you say now be so obviously wrong if you yourself used to be one of them? But Bush is cocksure that active, sometimes military, promotion of American values in the world is a good idea, just as he was, or appeared to be, cocksure of the opposite not long ago."

What Mr. Kinsley apparently forgets is that as President Bush has no need to explain himself to us. Others might have to explain themselves to him, but he doesn't need to answer to anybody. He said so himself, to Bob Woodward. Certainly he doesn't have to explain himself to the American People (at least not till about a year from now).

Poetry Week continued - William Blake

I love William Blake, the poet and prophet of London. A very strange man, but mighty in his own way.

The Human Abstract.

Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we;

And mutual fear brings peace;
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpiller and Fly,
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea,
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain.

As you may or may not know, Blake was an engraver as well as a poet. He engraved his poems, illustrated them, and printed them. He then took the prints and colored them by hand. Hence, one of his original works is worth an enormous amount of money. For a picture of how this page originally looked, check this out.

John W. Dean on those Judges

You might have heard the canard from the right that the move to block four judges (and approve 168) is unprecedented. That means without precedent. Well, check this out from someone who knows, Mr. John W. Dean, former counsel to President Nixon.

During the past four decades, selecting judges and getting them confirmed has become far more contentious. According to a report of the Congressional Reference Service, filibusters and clotures have been involved in 35 nominations, most of them since the late 1980s.

Notwithstanding the finger-pointing by the Republicans for filibustering four Bush nominees, this practice started in 1968 with Republicans, with the help of Southern Democrats (who now come to the Senate as Republicans), filibustering President Lyndon Johnson's nominee for Chief Justice, Abe Fortas. Republicans blocked Fortas so Nixon could get the chief justice appointment, assuming, correctly, he would be elected.

It was pure politics, and it began the game that is now being played out. Indeed, Frist, the mastermind of this stunt in the Senate tonight, voted against cloture (and for filibuster) during the battle over one of President Clinton's court appointees. But what is a little hypocrisy when wasting the Senate's time pointing fingers?

Dean suggests we accept that a supermajority (3/5 or 60 senators) is the requirement for a judicial nomination. Why not? Judges are on the bench for life; one bad judge can make policy for decades. And if you can't get 60 senators to support a candidate, well, maybe that candidate isn't good enough.

Cal Thomas, Soft on Crime

In case you are wondering, Cal Thomas never did respond to my question.

But today he takes the dangerous tack of actually making sense when talking about our system of criminal justice. "According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the U.S. prison and jail population exceeded 2 million for the first time in June, 2002. By the end of last year, 33,000 more inmates had been added to the total. That means one out of every 142 residents is incarcerated in this country. The average cost to states per inmate per day is $57.92, according to the 2000 Corrections Yearbook. In Georgia, where about 35,000 citizens are behind bars, it costs taxpayers more than $20,000 per year per inmate and each jail cell costs $60,000 to build.

What are taxpayers getting for their money? They get a false sense of security, as if putting current criminals behind bars insures there won't be future criminals. If locking up everyone now committing crimes would eliminate crime, I'd be all for it, but new criminals are born, or made, every day. Something is wrong with the system.

Violent and dangerous offenders should be locked up and, in capital cases, executed. But violent offenders are just 49 percent of the prison population. Again, according to BJS, the rest of the prisoners are behind bars for property crimes (19 percent), drug crimes (20 percent) and crimes affecting the "public order" (11 percent). This half of the prison population ought to be doing something else besides sitting in prison and costing the law-abiding money."

I don't know what his plan is exactly, but it seems to be that those charged with destruction or theft of property would have to repay those they have wronged. Restore that which was lost. Nice idea, but there's a bit from Matthew (Matt. 5:25-26) I'm reminded of. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."

I guess what I'm saying is I don't know if Cal Thomas is talking about them working off their debt from prison or under some sort of house arrest or what? Certainly there are those who would love a stable prison work force for certain types of work. But I'm going to be charitable and assume he meant that the convict should work out of his community to repay his debt.

Poetry Week Continued

Not sure if this will last till Friday, but here's one more poem.

On His Blindness

WHEN I consider how my light is spent
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.

Not Much Interests Me Today

I mean you have Linda Chavez mad because the Democratic members of the intelligence committee might want sensible foreign policy, and the press didn't jump down their throats enough.

You have David Limbaugh mad because Liberals want a multilateral foreign policy. He seems to particularly dislike the word "multilateralism."

Maybe I'll come up with something later--if you have any ideas e-mail me.

Problems with Cartoons Addressed

For an example, check out this cartoon.

Well, apparently the problem with that cartoon is that it fails to address every single situation in which a person might weblog.

Yep, you see in his little cartoon, Tom Tomorrow mocked those who support the work from their computers without going to war themselves, but he fails to address those people who blog from the front logs in support of this war. So by failing to address that small segment of the warblogging population, his point is completely negated. It's a good thing Instapundit was on the job to point out that Tom Tomorrows little cartoon failed to address every single possible situation in which a person might warblog.

For Mr. Tomorrows response, see here.

On a similar note, I am offended by Tom the Dancing Bugs cartoon of August 28, 2003.



You see the problem. Tom the Dancing Bug suggests that all Bloggers live off of begging from their readers. But I, in fact, do not beg from my readers (which, frankly, would be a fruitless task (although I might get a few tomatoes (are tomatoes a fruit? Did we ever, as a civilization, work that one out?))). Tom the Dancing Bugs comic therefore, does not accurately and completely reflect the real world. So I insist that he offer a full retraction and give me a pony.

Oh wait a second maybe that's an unfair standard, and his point about bloggers begging is accurate most of the time. Actually it's pretty funny.

More Poetry--for Veterans Day

Rudyard Kipling "Tommy"

I WENT into a public 'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, " We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' " Tommy, go away " ;
But it's " Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's " Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' " Tommy, wait outside ";
But it's " Special train for Atkins " when the trooper's on the tide
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's " Special train for Atkins " when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap.
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Tommy, 'ow's yer soul? "
But it's " Thin red line of 'eroes " when the drums begin to roll
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's " Thin red line of 'eroes, " when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be'ind,"
But it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Chuck him out, the brute! "
But it's " Saviour of 'is country " when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An 'Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

From Paul Krugman's column today

One of George W. Bush's major campaign themes in 2000 was his promise to improve the lives of America's soldiers — and military votes were crucial to his success. But these days some of the harshest criticisms of the Bush administration come from publications aimed at a military audience.

For example, last week the magazine Army Times ran a story with the headline "An Act of `Betrayal,' " and the subtitle "In the midst of war, key family benefits face cuts." The article went on to assert that there has been "a string of actions by the Bush administration to cut or hold down growth in pay and benefits, including basic pay, combat pay, health-care benefits and the death gratuity paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty."

President Bush's Judges

This bears repeating.

"Conservative activists have been demanding that Senate Republicans do more to push through the Bush administration's most extreme judicial nominees. So the Republican leadership is planning a 30-hour talk marathon later this week to protest the Democrats' blocking of a handful of candidates. To up the public-relations quotient, there may be calls for votes on three controversial female nominees. Lost amid the grandstanding about a "crisis" in judicial nominations are the facts: 168 Bush nominees have been confirmed and only four rejected, a far better percentage than for President Bill Clinton.

Bush administration nominees have been moving through the Senate at a rapid clip: in his first three years in office, President Bush has gotten more judges confirmed than President Ronald Reagan did in his first four. When Republicans controlled the Senate, more than 60 Clinton administration judicial candidates were blocked."

The way some conservatives talk, you'd have to assume that the Democrats had blocked every nomination, when it appears that the opposite is in fact true.

Sour Times

W. H. Auden "September 1, 1939"

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

It seems a bit more real every day.

Anyway having a hard time finding a good article to comment on today, and this poem is well worth the time one gives to it. But I'll be back later.

Candy Bar Dooms Snow Leopards

Or possibly Snow Tigers.

I was in a local health food store, and saw this candy bar staring back at me as I was waiting in the check out counter.



It was sitting there with four or five other candy bars each extolling the virtues of saving a particular animal, based on your selection. I went with Chocolate Peanut Butter, which looked good. But then it occurred to me; why not save the Snow Leopard. I mean it's not like I prefer Giraffes to Leopards; quite the contrary. But the Snow Leopard was flavored with Mocha which I don't like. So the Baby Giraffe lives, while the Snow Leopard is on its own.

You ever wonder if you are making a mountain out of a molehill?

New Quote

And here's the new Quotes Page. Enjoy.