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From Letters to a Young Poet
by Rilke

"With nothing can one approach a work of art so little as with critical words: they always come down to more or less happy misunderstandings. Things are not so comprehensible and expressible as one would mostly have us believe; most events are inexpressible, taking place in a realm which no word has ever entered, and more inexpressible than all else are works of art, mysterious existences, the life of which, while ours passes away, endures."

Maryland, My Maryland
Well, the world is changing. That's the way things happen.

And before it has gone too far, I'd like to sing you a little tune.

This is (currently, but by the sounds of it not much longer) the State Tune of Maryland.

Maryland, My Maryland
(to the tune of "O, Tannenbaum")
by James Ryder Randall


I
The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland! My Maryland!

II
Hark to an exiled son's appeal,
Maryland!
My mother State! to thee I kneel,
Maryland!
For life and death, for woe and weal,
Thy peerless chivalry reveal,
And gird they beauteous limbs with steel,
Maryland! My Maryland!

III
Thou wilt not cower in the dust,
Maryland!
Thy beaming sword shall never rust,
Maryland!
Remember Carroll's sacred trust,
Remember Howard's warlike thrust,-
And all thy slumberers with the just,
Maryland! My Maryland!

IV
Come! 'tis the red dawn of the day,
Maryland!
Come with thy panoplied array,
Maryland!
With Ringgold's spirit for the fray,
With Watson's blood at Monterey,
With fearless Lowe and dashing May,
Maryland! My Maryland!

V
Come! for thy shield is bright and strong,
Maryland!
Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong,
Maryland!
Come to thine own anointed throng,
Stalking with Liberty along,
And chaunt thy dauntless slogan song,
Maryland! My Maryland!

VI
Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain,
Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain-
"Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain
That baffles minions back again,
Maryland!
Arise in majesty again,
Maryland! My Maryland!

VII
I see the blush upon thy cheek,
Maryland!
For thou wast ever bravely meek,
Maryland!
But lo! there surges forth a shriek,
From hill to hill, from creek to creek-
Potomac calls to Chesapeake,
Maryland! My Maryland!

VIII
Thou wilt not yield the Vandal toll,
Maryland!
Thou wilt not crook to his control,
Maryland!
Better the fire upon thee roll, Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul,
Maryland! My Maryland!

IX
I hear the distant thunder-hum,
Maryland!
The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum,
Maryland!
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-
Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!
Maryland! My Maryland!

I'm making a clean sweep.

All the cobwebs of my life are being washed away.

I'm digging through the files, and burning, shredding, throwing away and posting.

Here's a little scrap I've found:

"a granite tomb for the repose of ruined passions, hopes and woes."
- М. Лермонтов

This can be such a depressing day if you think about it.

It is better to do something nice in hope of invoking a smile than to think about it.

Gore and Obama

Well, I haven't spoken much lately. I wanted to give a nice little overview on "why I support Obama" right before the elections, but never got around to it. All my republican friends, with their tails between their legs, said Obama was going to win for months before the election, so what would be the point.

Nevertheless, I read something today so funny I wanted to share it.

One more word or two about Obama first.

When I listened to McCain's speech on the night he lost the election, I thought to myself: wow, that was good. Why didn't he talk like that while he was running? Maybe more people would have voted for him. (Or maybe what I thought was: good thing he didn't talk like that before, or he might have won the election.) I also thought to myself, Obama is going to have a tough time giving a better speech than this.

Well, of course, like millions of other U.S. Citizens throughout the world, and probably millions of English speaking people throughout the world, I was totally blown away by Obama's acceptance speech. I think that speech rivaled any political speech I've heard in my life time.

One last note: one of the things I've liked about Obama all along is his conciliatory attitude. So, I am very impressed by his Cabinet choices so far and his ability to work with folks on both sides (all three sides? all six sides?) of the fence. I heartily approve of his choice for Hillary Clinton as Sec. of State, because among other things, this may improve her chances of being elected president in 4 or 8 years.

Anyway, today's funny. I was reading this article here, on Gore's Visit to Obama in Chicago. It is an interesting article. Who knows what they are up to? Gore as an Energy Secretary? Everyone seems to doubt that notion. Maybe: "who should be my Energy Secretary, Al?" Who knows.

I'm not sure if I've ever agreed with Al Gore about his notion that the earth is going to hell in a handbag because of everything we've done to it. Sure we are finding thawed men on icy mountain tops that died there in the snow thousands upon thousands of years ago. But what were they doing there mountain climbing in shorts anyway? Our weather flows in cycles. The mountains have thawed and frozen many times over the course of the history of this planet, and we don't really have a clue why. It is all speculation, but scientifically speaking it is more likely to do with cycles of the sun than anything else. Saying that man can affect the weather with anything other than global nuclear war is like saying that I can affect the weather by lighting up my barbecue on a snow-covered deck. But, I digress...

The article I was reading was interesting until I got to this sentence here (at which point I basically just busted up laughing, because this wasn't on the tonight show or some other comedy routine, but on regular news, apparently):

"The Gore trip is for more than just a chat," a close friend of Gore told CNN's John King. "He wouldn't burn that much carbon flying to Chicago just to talk."

Cheers!
Basil

Lipstick on a Pig?

Let me see if I get this straight. When McCain hears the phrase "Lipstick on a pig" he immediately thinks of his own vice-Presidential running mate?

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-campaign11-2008sep11,0,4703724.story

Very interesting insights into how the man's mind works.

Cheers!
~ Basil

The U.S. No Longer a Major World Power

Democracy. We love democracy. We live for democracy. We promote democracy throughout the world. And how do we promote democracy, let me ask you: Do we promote democracy by encouraging free market conditions throughout the world, or do we promote democracy by bullying other countries with our military might?

It might seem like an oxymoron. How can our country promote democracy by forcing other countries to do things a certain way? Isn't democracy all about allowing the people of any given country to express themselves freely through open-market, creativity, and a political structure in which the government is established electorally by the will of the people? How can "the will of the people" of any given land be established under coercion?

So, let me ask you: in what respect is the U.S. a major world power? Is this thought due to our military might, or our economic might? I propose that the U.S. became a major world power by economic might. But how do we continue to be a major world power today? Unfortunately, the U.S. has become in debt to every major country on the planet, and we can no longer hang onto our status as a "major world" power by economic might. Therefore we have been attempting for the past 20 years or so to hold onto this title by military might alone.

Some interesting facts on U.S. foreign debt were recently published in a Russia on-line journal: Kommersant. The bottom line is that the U.S. is in debt to Japan ($583 billion) and China ($503 billion), a whole host of other nations, and EVEN Russia to the tune of $65.3 billion dollars.

While other nations continue to grow stronger (producing and accumulating credit) the U.S. continues to grow weaker year by year.

All my friends don't understand why I support Obama in the upcoming election. They are worried government spending will blossom out of control with some of the crazy ideas that guy has. But my major concern in this upcoming election is not with domestic issues, but with foreign policy. The U.S. foreign policy decision of the past years is untenable. We have set ourselves up as a great world bully, bullying other nations into submission to OUR own unique definitions of what constitutes a valid electorate and a valid election (rather than allowing countries to pursue their own local unique versions of democracy). We have set ourselves up to have military presence and military conflict all over the globe (far worse than Brittan of the colonial era) and EXTREME cost.

It pretty much doesn't matter what Obama may do state-side. It won't cost as much money as our constant stream of billions of dollars a day into the U.S. Military presence in foreign lands. And if there is one thing that is clean in my mind about McCain, it is the fact that he intends to continue the U.S.-as-bully mentality of "Might Makes Right".

My friends are concerned that Obama will do things that are costly. But as for me, I'd rather our tax dollars were poured into healthcare for everyone than tanks and guns in Iraq, Afganistan, Georgia, and some hundreds of other places on the globe where the U.S. has a military presence in a foreign land.

The U.S. has lost any credibility that it ever had to claim itself a Major Political Power by years and years of out of control military spending and debt. We may soon reach a point where foreign powers refuse to lend us money, and then what are we going to do? Invade someplace that has plenty of resources claiming that there were irregularities in their last election?

~ Basil