I have been listening to your program ever since the John Ashcroft hearings, before Ashcroft's appointment to the position of US Attorney General, so many years ago.
For some reason, I was sore at Ted Kennedy for opposing Ashcroft's appointment.
But then, my Student Loan Debt was a lot less.
Nowadays, I see the late Ted Kennedy in a more favorable light. (another story for another day).
Anyway, this week you quoted John Lennon on your show. You said: "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans."
Rush, I am glad you like to quote John Lennon. But I think you ought to remember that John Lennon also said, in his song: "Imagine"
......Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too....
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too....
And I think it was the Conservative, Pat Buchanan, who, in his book: "The Death Of The West" levelled a bit of criticism at the "Social Marxists" and also John Lennon and Lennon's point of view in the Imagine song, as being nihlistic, and even chided Bill Clinton for singing the lyrics aloud at one point in time.
In addition, I will include this quote, by the late Professor Allan Bloom, from his book: "The Closing of the American Mind" (1987) Page 77:
"........In all other things the market determines the value. (Yoko Ono is among America's small group of billionaires, along with oil and computer magnates, her late husband having produced and sold a commodity of worth comparable to theirs.) Rock is very big business, bigger than the movies, bigger than professional sports, biger than television, and this accounts for much of the respectability of the music business. It is difficult to adjust our vision to the changes in the economy and to see what is really important. McDonalds now has more employees than US Steel, and likewise the purveyors of junk food for the soul have supplanted what still seem to be more basic callings......."
Rush, I don't mean to be overly critical, but I think you are slipping a bit. Especially after paying Elton John (another extraordinaily wealthy purveyor of junk food for the soul?) all that money to sing at your wedding.
Bad enough you paid him, but even worse for Elton John to not offer to do it for free, which just proves Elton John's very unappealing greed.
But Rush, I seriously think you need to get back to your Conservative roots, and have a very long and serious talk with Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity about your tendency to nod at the wheel while on the great sea of American Politics.
But to show that there are no hard feelings, and in the spirit of Ann Coulter, I give you an unwonted smile :) and a wink ;)
But no hands on hips. EVER!
But to show that there are no hard feelings, and in the spirit of Ann Coulter, I give you an unwonted smile :) and a wink ;)
But no hands on hips. EVER!
Nothing Personal of course.
Sincerely,
JD Painterguy
One Winsome Way
Anytown USA
* August 20, 8:25PM - Just a thought. In light of Professor Allan Bloom's comment above, perhaps what I am saying is that the (not very highly educated) John Lennon was/is simply another "Culture Peddler" like Mick Jagger and Ozzy Osbourne. The kind that Alexis de Tocqueville might have predicted.
I mean: "I am the Walrus" is like, to borrow a term from William Carlos Williams: Voluptuous water. Interesting, but not high art by any stretch, and with no substance.
And perhaps Higher Education predictably went the same way as the tradition of Western Civilization and Culture: Tossed out with the bathwater.
Under a highly liberal, counter culture academic and administrative regime, with a nihlistic/relativistic world view, Higher Education was turned into a commodity and big business.
The Tax and Spend Liberal academics lined their pockets, and the conservative businesspeople such as Al Lord also got a crack at the Student Loan money.
And take it from a typical painterguy: the same, big business, going on 40 plus year old, Copyrighted and residual earning white guy "Classic" rock and roll music, with all of its teenage or rather children oriented messages, drones on and on and on and on all across the fruited plain on many a construction site.
And the supposed culture peddler sham artists, such as Mick Jagger, continue to reap enormous profits thereby.
Just some thoughts. Maybe I'm wrong.
I don't know.
It's just that Plato said that inorder to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or a society, one must: "Mark the Music"
Anyway. Here is my poem about Mick Jagger The Rich Bully:
And here is my poem about Ozzy Osbourne the Creep:
Sometimes I have a beer in one hand, and a keypad in my other two hands when I do all this stuff. When? Youse will have to guess. (Remember, I am a Venutian, and Venutians have three hands, three eyes, and one middle foot. So , for instance, we can drink a cup of coffee and smoke a cigarette, and jerk off, all at the same time)
And Venutian Politics is neither right nor left as you can guess.
So if my posts seem stupid, silly, contradictory, pissed off, or profound here and there, that might explain it. Then again, how does anyone really know if an a Venutian, and not, in fact, a genial though sometimes hot-headed Mercurian, with five appendages all round, and that I really do in fact have a chilly Budweiser tall boy (OMG) on my desk at the time of writing?
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Anyway, and to return to the Jose story:
It was Jose's left eye that was the "bad" one. He could see out of it, but the lid was always half closed, and the eye itself looked downward. He was born with this condition, and he adapted to it by favoring his right or his good eye which, in all respects, was normal.
When I first met Jose, I had graduated from Law school several months previous. We were both standing in front of a Convience Store in Roslyn New York, drinking our morning coffee while waiting for a Painting Contractor to pick us up in his truck for work that day. Jose was standing on my right, and I couldn't help noticing his left eye when he turned and asked me for the time. But after that first encounter, and especially after a week or so of working with Jose, I hardly noticed the eye at all.
It was probably because of the way that Jose wore the brim of his cap a bit lower than most people would, and also the way in which he habitually angled his head so that the right side of his face was partially, if not fully profiled and turned slightly downward whenever I was near him.
But also, I don't generally go about peering very closely at people's faces during a typical day, be it a day of work, or even leisure for that matter. If I greet someone for the first time-say in the morning- I might shake a hand and smile as that person usually smiles back. Then, if a conversation ensues, I might carry on my part with a lot of inflection in my voice, and a lot of hand gestures-- but all without too much eye contact.
Maybe that is my peculiarity, or maybe it is an American cultural thing. I don't know. I did notice that the Latino "Spanish Guys" I worked along side of tended to do a lot of staring directly at people all day long. Someone once explained to me that this was because many of them did not understand the English language very well, and therefore augmented their informational intake with a lot of visuals.
That person, deceased now, was probably correct, but still, as I came to know the workers more and more as the weeks and months passed, I also mused that perhaps the greater eye contact was an extension of a Latino culture that was more open and honest, and that greater eye contact was simply another way of expressing themselves with greater frankness.
Some of the American white guys referred to Jose as "One -Eye", in a crude way which was both cruel and amusing to them.
Thinking he could not understand English, they would sometimes say it directly to him and, as always, Jose would respond with a smile. Jose never seemed to mind, although his friends did.
There was one large and rather oafish (in my opinion) fellow in particular who latched onto the nickname and used it quite often and with delight; and he always, in the typical and universal pattern of abuse, followed the use of the nickname up with a conciliatory remark such as:
"I'm just kidding Jose." Or: "You know I'm only joking Buddy, right?" Or: "You know we're Pal's right?" and the ex-football player would sometimes buy Jose coffee later on without being asked.
This softening, though still very strong and imposing ex-Jock was, as I say, a large fellow. A big boy who used to play football in High School, and the evidence of heavy weight training still showed in his 220 pound plus frame at the age of 28, especially in his thickly developed neck.
This softening, though still very strong and imposing ex-Jock was, as I say, a large fellow. A big boy who used to play football in High School, and the evidence of heavy weight training still showed in his 220 pound plus frame at the age of 28, especially in his thickly developed neck.
Jose couldn't have been taller than five foot seven, and must have weighed about 150 pounds with not an ounce of fat on him at the age of 42, which made him "viejo" as his friends would playfully remark sometimes.
I was only 31 at the time, and to me Jose seemed pretty old as well, although, looking back from my now 46 years, he really wasn't viejo at all.
To be Continued
