Sidebar
Past items featured on the ‘Sidebar’ to your lower left.
Through February 6, 2008
“Now I know we all live happy-happy lives full of nice-nice things, that the wind still blows and the rain still falls, that coffee still warms your belly on a fall morning and whiskey on a fall eve, that the earth still goes ’round the sun, that there are still beautiful books, lovely melodies, artworks transcendent of their mere moment, that the touch of skin to skin is still pleasure, that, after all, it’s still possible to have some small measure of happiness in our lives. So long as there exist orgasms, red wine, and the works of Bach, let it not be said that I’m a cynic. On the other hand.
On the other hand, I think it’s high time to face a set of uncomfortable facts, all of which are best expressed in that Orwell line I’ve lately quoted: There are no laws in Oceania. Curiously enough, though, there are plenty of jails. We live in a nation that practices the most vicious and unforgivable forms of torture. We live in a nation of men, not of laws, in which what is or is not prohibited depends on the day of the week, the inclination of the earth’s axis, the waxing or waning of the moon, the steam from the chicken entrails, the grotesque boondoggledom of the venal Democratic congress, and the halting utterances of the Warlord. Our laws are even more imaginary than our money, and that’s saying something. We live in a nation that has effectuated the death of a million people in Iraq. A million! The displacement of millions more. God only knows what we’ll do in the next year. But it don’t take no God nor angels to know for durn sure it’ll be a sight worse. To some degree, these things have always been true of America. To some degree, they’re true of all societies, everywhere, anytime. But as the saying goes, that don’t make it right.
IOZ - October 24, 2007