the neverness hoax
I finally started to decompress over the weekend, in great part resultant of a few factors. One, I rarely if ever jump online at home nowadays and so, isolated from the internet blitz, blogs and emails re the issue(s) of the day, home is something of a sanctuary. Though my wife continues to suffer from nausea associated with her pregnancy, being home together with our bimbo, Adrien, sure is a panacea. Sure I read numerous newspaper articles re the election post mortem, and now, the second battle for fallujah, but when you're home and reading these things with your son sorting and organizing his cars (endlessly), the animus to explode is rather diminished. Moreover, I made the time to make two new compilation cds, to be jointly called, "Whorehouse Desert of the Patriot's Heart." It's a line taken from one of the featured songs, American Music Club's "Patriot's Heart," which is, as you may have surmised, the inspiration for the name of this site. I'll post details on the compilation shortly.
Another thing. It's funny that in the heat and turmoil of the election results there was/is for many an "end of the world" mentality about what is to come, including the outrage/disappointment/embarrassment re the electorate's ultimate focus and/or lack of focus. But then you're driving around to the dunkin' donuts for a coffee, or you're outside with your son cleaning windows and putting up the storm windows and you realize that it's just a different day, same shit.... People outside are suddenly back to the typical norm of NOT talking about issues and politics, but rather who should pay for the removal of a tree leaning over a fence, sidewalk, etc. Another guy (bush supporter) was staining his deck all day listening to talk radio. Another neighbor debated which neighbor's dog was responsible for depositing a turd on my front lawn -- a turd on which I naturally stepped. One young girl, 11 years old, did at least ask me on sunday who won the election. She said she was for Kerry. I told her he lost and, a few minutes thereafter, was back to riding her bike with her sisters by her side. So life goes on, sort of.
This mentality was perhaps best summarized by Linda, Adrien's former daycare provider. When I asked her on election day how she was doing (fine), and whether she would still be able to say the same if bush was re-elected, she said: "I don't think that, whatever the outcome, will affect me sitting here in my little old living room. Not very much does." And that is the point I've been stating over and over about how in my opinion the Bush administration could be given a pass for so much about what they've done and haven't done, re Iraq in particular, but one could easily go beyond that. America is so damn big, and things are so damn easy -- living isolated and disparate from bigger things, larger issues is not merely easy, it is moreover all that most people know and care to know.
Also, congrats to my friend Scott and his wife Eileen and son CJ on the arrival of son/brother Michael Lee Hess. Would that everyone be blessed/fortunate to have healthy children. Finally, I'm posting this email from my friend Casey from the blue State of Ohio. Casey was an awfully staunch conservative back at Kalamazoo College, but I always found -- and still find -- him to be reasonable, logical and unequivocally intelligent. Regardless of how he voted, this says a lot about the new furor of the religious right and their perhaps newfound, unbridled importance in the wake of the perception that they were THE reason Bush was re-elected:
"In short--Nobody but nobody deserves to be re-elected based on the record of the past 4 years, and I include in my assessment of that record the much ballyhooed response to 9/11, which any elected official of even remote competence could have managed on a comparable level. Simply stated, the President was not extraordinary....anyone could've rallied a nation under those circumstances...anyone could've climbed atop the rubble with a bullhorn. Hell, Rudy Giuliani, one of the most monotonous technocrats ever....even he managed to appear inspirational and evoking of leadership-like charisma.
Regardless, I found myself even more repulsed, long before the campaign began in earnest, to the panderings directed towards the religious right...issues such as flag burning, prayer, gay marriage ban amendments....The very idea that they would throw around sacred Constitutional amendments in order to push a moral "values" agenda was sickening. My alarm bells went off long ago. I can't cohabitate in a political party with religious fundamentalists. That's my bottom line...and while Ronald Reagan consistently gave lip service to their agendas, he also left them wanting when it came to substantive advancement of their issues. That's why he was able to manage the diverse interests within the Republican tent (pro-business moderates...hard right neo-cons...religious right, etc.). Bush the Elder failed to placate the hard right (he was always affiliated with the country club rotarian/business wing, as opposed to the fundamentalists and conservatives), and lost because of it (don't forget he lost the Michigan primaries to Pat Robertson in 1987). Bush Junior learned well from the lessons of his elders....he gave the religious right a prominent role and they delivered. There will be no more Reagan lip service, I fear....time will tell. In any event, he and Rove have made their bed, and they will have to sleep with the religious fundamentalists in it....the rest of us will move on."
Another thing. It's funny that in the heat and turmoil of the election results there was/is for many an "end of the world" mentality about what is to come, including the outrage/disappointment/embarrassment re the electorate's ultimate focus and/or lack of focus. But then you're driving around to the dunkin' donuts for a coffee, or you're outside with your son cleaning windows and putting up the storm windows and you realize that it's just a different day, same shit.... People outside are suddenly back to the typical norm of NOT talking about issues and politics, but rather who should pay for the removal of a tree leaning over a fence, sidewalk, etc. Another guy (bush supporter) was staining his deck all day listening to talk radio. Another neighbor debated which neighbor's dog was responsible for depositing a turd on my front lawn -- a turd on which I naturally stepped. One young girl, 11 years old, did at least ask me on sunday who won the election. She said she was for Kerry. I told her he lost and, a few minutes thereafter, was back to riding her bike with her sisters by her side. So life goes on, sort of.
This mentality was perhaps best summarized by Linda, Adrien's former daycare provider. When I asked her on election day how she was doing (fine), and whether she would still be able to say the same if bush was re-elected, she said: "I don't think that, whatever the outcome, will affect me sitting here in my little old living room. Not very much does." And that is the point I've been stating over and over about how in my opinion the Bush administration could be given a pass for so much about what they've done and haven't done, re Iraq in particular, but one could easily go beyond that. America is so damn big, and things are so damn easy -- living isolated and disparate from bigger things, larger issues is not merely easy, it is moreover all that most people know and care to know.
Also, congrats to my friend Scott and his wife Eileen and son CJ on the arrival of son/brother Michael Lee Hess. Would that everyone be blessed/fortunate to have healthy children. Finally, I'm posting this email from my friend Casey from the blue State of Ohio. Casey was an awfully staunch conservative back at Kalamazoo College, but I always found -- and still find -- him to be reasonable, logical and unequivocally intelligent. Regardless of how he voted, this says a lot about the new furor of the religious right and their perhaps newfound, unbridled importance in the wake of the perception that they were THE reason Bush was re-elected:
"In short--Nobody but nobody deserves to be re-elected based on the record of the past 4 years, and I include in my assessment of that record the much ballyhooed response to 9/11, which any elected official of even remote competence could have managed on a comparable level. Simply stated, the President was not extraordinary....anyone could've rallied a nation under those circumstances...anyone could've climbed atop the rubble with a bullhorn. Hell, Rudy Giuliani, one of the most monotonous technocrats ever....even he managed to appear inspirational and evoking of leadership-like charisma.
Regardless, I found myself even more repulsed, long before the campaign began in earnest, to the panderings directed towards the religious right...issues such as flag burning, prayer, gay marriage ban amendments....The very idea that they would throw around sacred Constitutional amendments in order to push a moral "values" agenda was sickening. My alarm bells went off long ago. I can't cohabitate in a political party with religious fundamentalists. That's my bottom line...and while Ronald Reagan consistently gave lip service to their agendas, he also left them wanting when it came to substantive advancement of their issues. That's why he was able to manage the diverse interests within the Republican tent (pro-business moderates...hard right neo-cons...religious right, etc.). Bush the Elder failed to placate the hard right (he was always affiliated with the country club rotarian/business wing, as opposed to the fundamentalists and conservatives), and lost because of it (don't forget he lost the Michigan primaries to Pat Robertson in 1987). Bush Junior learned well from the lessons of his elders....he gave the religious right a prominent role and they delivered. There will be no more Reagan lip service, I fear....time will tell. In any event, he and Rove have made their bed, and they will have to sleep with the religious fundamentalists in it....the rest of us will move on."
posted by Paul V. Regelbrugge at 1:58 PM
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