America Is Not The World
Taken from Morrissey's brilliant current release You Are The Quarry. The song is called "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores."
Lamenting policewomen policemen silly women taxmen, Uniformed whores, Educated criminals, Work within the lawHave fun watching the "debates" tonight.
This world is full, Oh oh, So full of crashing bores, And I must be one, cos no one ever turns to me to say
Take me in your arms, Take me in your arms, And love me, And love meWhat really lies, Beyond the constraints of my mind, Could it be the sea, With fate mooning back at me
No it's just more lock jawed pop stars, Thicker than pig shit, Nothing to convey
They’re so scared to show intelligence, It might smear their lovely career.Lamenting policewomen policemen silly women taxmen, Uniformed whores, They who wish to hurt you, Work within the law
This world is full, So full of crashing bores, And I must be one...
Daily Douglas
...Because I think about how old I am," John replied, "and I wonder, Hey, John Johnson, you've pretty much felt all the emotions you're ever likely to feel, and from here on it's reruns. And that totally scares me...Taken from Douglas Coupland's Miss Wyoming.
I Don't Believe In Television
Taken from David Sedaris' book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. I found this to be rather poingnant.
...the only place that seemed truly different was owned by a man named Mr. Tomkey, who did not believe in television. This was told to us by our mother's friend, who dropped by one afternoon with a basketfull of okra...In the words of Ned's Atomic Dustbin: Kill Your Television. I've always liked that setiment. The trouble is, TV's nice to have around for DVDs, don't you think?To say that you did not believe in television was different from saying that you did not care for it. Belief implied that television had a master plan and that you were against it. It also suggested that you thought too much. When my mother reported that Mr. Tomkey did not believe in television, my father said, "Well, good for him. I don't know that I believe in it, either."
"That's exactly how I feel," my mother said, and then my parents watched the news, and whatever came on after the news.
Gospel According to Luke
Admission by silence?
"You are the Son of God, then?" they all said, and he replied, "It is you who say I am." They said, "Need we call further witnesses? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips."With that the whole assembly rose, and they brought him before Pilate. They opened the case against him by saying, "We found this man subverting our nation, opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar, and claiming to be the Messiah, a king." Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" He replied, "The words are yours."
The first paragraph of Hey Nostradamus
I believe that what separates humanity from everything else in this world-- spaghetti, binder paper, deep-sea creatures, edelweiss and Mount McKinley-- is that humanity alone has the capacity at any given moment to commit all possible sins. Even those of us who try to live a good and true life remain as far away from grace as the Hillside Strangler or any demon who ever tride to poison the village well.Douglas Coupland's novels are compelling, insightful, funny, and in a very quirky way...very Dostoyevskian.
Enjoy.
Instead of an introduction
Taken from chapter one of Demons.
...then too, he used to get tired of standing and would often recline.
Taken from the first chapter of Dostoyevsky's masterpiece, Demons.
He was, for example, greatly enamored of his position as a “persecuted” man and, so to speak, an “exile.” There is a sort of classical luster to these two little words that seduced him once and for all, and, later raising him gradually in his own estimation over the course of so many years, brought him finally to some sort of pedestal, rather lofty and gratifying to his vanity.
The Federal power increases as the States' individual power decreases
Here is a quote from a Supreme Court decision in 1936. From the inception of our nation, to 1936, the sovereignty of the individual states was highly valued (for good reason).
The 1936 decision also marks the ending of an era, for from 1937 to 1995 Congress begain using it's "commerce power" to regulate or otherwise control more and more of the individual state citizens' activities. For example, not one single Federal law or regulation passed by Congress was found to be unconstitutional during this 58 year period of federal government growth.
Again, the first quote demonstrates our nation's past...what I would argue is more in tune with the Founding Father's intentions for our nation's politic.
Every journey to a forbidden end begins with the first step; and the danger of such a step by the federal government in the direction of taking over the powers of the states is that the end of the juourney may find the states so despoiled of their powers, or -- what may amount to the same thing-- so relieved of the responsibilities which possession of the powers necessarily enjoins, as to reduce them to little more than geographical subdivisions of the national domain.If my study of the history of Constitutional law is accurate at all, I'm afraid we as a nation are quickly headed to that "forbidden end"...