Rudyard Kipling seems appropriate today.

Mesopotamia

1917

They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young,
  The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung,
  Shall they come with years and honour to the grave?

They shall not return to us; the strong men coldly slain
  In sight of help denied from day to day:
But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain,
  Are they too strong and wise to put away?

Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide--
  Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
  Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour:
  When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
  By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
  Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their
     friends,
  To conform and re-establish each career?

Their lives cannot repay us--their death could not undo--
  The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
  Shell we leave it unabated in its place?

Thanks to my friend Tim, for reminding me of this.

12:59:15 PM     leave/read comments []

A correspondent writes:

Ah yes, the old everyone-who-supports-Bush-must-be-a-homophobe-Christian-jihadist schtick. Well, you just woke me up. I am the resident Southern Baptist, conservative Christian Republican from Texas and I need some clarification from you.

Well, no. Not everyone, just enough homophobes to account for about 4% of the electorate, actually.

1)Define far-right Christian fundamentalist.

Anti-choice, anti-freedom, Biblical literalist. Politically, someone who wants to codify their church's teachings into U.S. law. Bush's "base," as self described by the Bush campaign.

What are you implying here that us Christians are secretly trying to organize a cabal? theocracy?

I don't think it's a secret at all. A relatively small group of Evangelicals are very publicly devoted to making the agenda of their Church the law of the land in the United States of America. Many Evangelical leaders have called Bush "their man in the White House." It's not a secret; it's a Political Action Group.

That's a sure-fire way for the Dems to become even more obsolete. The DP is so out of touch with the issues that the average American considers important, that if the DP resorts to only trying to reach their hardened supporters - rather than reaching a variety of people- they'll dwindle down to nothing. That's a good thing for us, though.

Well, no. The Dems need to pursue things like a living wage for every family in America. They need to pursue a balanced budget that fairly spreads the cost of a first-class civilization across all social strata. They need to shut down the program that starts giving people welfare after they make over $200,000/yr. They need to pursue a fiscal strategy that doesn't outsource jobs to India while borrowing money from the Communist Chinese to pay for wars we really didn't need, especially while that turbaned fuckwad mass murderer Osama Bin Laden is free to make "Survivor- Bora Bora" audition tapes.

They don't need to reach out to people who think that a woman is nothing more than a servant to a man and a fetus life-support system and nothing more. The Evangelicals have their own party- they drive the agenda of the Republican party, so there's no reason at all for them to vote for anyone else- they chose back in the Republican primaries.

hahahahahahaha! Oh yes, all of us eeeeeevil Christians are working on forming a theocracy. First, we will have a secret handshake that will separate the wheat from the chaff.

I suppose it's easy to laugh when you're not looking down the barrel of a Constitutional Amendment that will make it impossible for you to spend the rest of your life building a family with the person you love.

I keep hearing the phrase "the sanctity of marriage" thrown around by supporters of that amendment and the amendment to State Constitutions- it's a religious concept- that marriage is something sanctified by God, a sacrament. Now, this would be the first time that a Constitutional Amendment was created to restrict the rights of a set of citizens based upon the teachings of a particular religious sect. Not unlike the laws of Saudi Arabia that forbid women to drive, due to the Wahabi interpretation of the Quaran, really.

Now, seeing as how not all Christians agree on the wickedness of gay marriage- after all, I know several couples that have already been wed in Christian churches, I can only assume that there is a sect of Christians that wish to impose their particular theology on the civil law of the U.S.A. which, by definition is a theocracy.

Yeah, I know, it's an ugly word. Polarizing. Unpleasant. Pretty much stands against everything our country was founded on. Which is why Democrats need to use it. To remind folks that too much power in the Republican Party resides in the hand of a few would be theocrats that would push their theology on all citizens.

Well, I'm glad I was able to give you a laugh at least.

Nothing heals like laughter. It's the universe's greatest gift, I reckon.

12:50:42 AM     leave/read comments []