Neat and Clean. . .

. . . we vowed to make our separation. Never mean or condescending recitation. I fought so long and so hard with these feelings inside of me. And you were the last one that I thought again I would ever see. My fortress, strong and tall, has taken its first hit and its beginning to fall. Now the walls come tumbling down; the pieces crashing to the ground; just like the pieces of my broken heart. Now the walls come tumbling down and when they do they make one deafening sound. Just like your footsteps on the floor. Just like the slamming of the door behind you.

Peachy keen was not the color of the picture. Love just seemed to slip away, no more the fixture. Coming to grips with reality wasn't an easy affair. And seeing your face once again made me wonder if you still care. This barricade of mine is crumbling from the front and just as well from behind. And the walls come tumbling down; the pieces crashing to the ground; just like the pieces of my broken heart. Now the walls come tumbling down and when they do they make one deafening sound. Just like your footsteps on the floor. Just like the slamming of the door behind you.

Just like your footsteps on the floor. Just like the slamming of the door behind you.

©1994 Raymond M. Jozwiak
TUMBLING DOWN




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What???...

. . . would. . .

In the 1990s the phrase “What would Jesus do?” became a fad among evangelical Christians. There were WWJD bracelets, t-shirts, and posters, and a host of mocking pop culture imitations such as "What would Scooby do?". The phrase “What would Jesus do?” originated in a novel titled In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?, published in 1897 by Charles M. Sheldon. Sheldon was a Congregational minister in Topeka, Kansas, and a Progressive concerned with Christianity’s relationship to the social politics of his day.Now maybe you have seen it, but I, only yesterday, saw for the first time the "What would Sun Ra do?" bumper sticker and quite frankly, it sparked in me some serious thought.

First, of course, I thought, "WHAT would Sun Ra do about WHAT?" Then I thought that he most certainly would have something to say about the retirement of the space shuttle. He might have two cents to add about which museums in which cities the retired vessels would be displayed. He might have something to say about terrorism, shallow politics, greed and global warming. He always did exhibit concern for injustice.

Then I realized that I was probably barking up the wrong tree. Of course I, and any other fan of Sun Ra (with or without an Arkestra) should know without a doubt, exactly what Sun Ra would do. He would, obviously, PLAY. . . . .







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"Facts . . .

. . . are stupid things. . . " - Ronald Reagan

Following is from FactCheck.org.

"Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has appeared in our fact-checking stories before. We’ll be taking a close look at the claims he makes on the campaign trail, now that the former House speaker has decided he will run. So we’ll be listening to see if he repeats statements along these lines:

At a GOP event in Iowa in March, Gingrich said that he "helped balance the federal budget for four straight years." Not exactly. He was in Congress for only two of those years. The budget was balanced from 1998 to 2001 — fiscal years — and Gingrich was in office up until January 1999.

In February at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he made exaggerated statements on energy, incorrectly stating that Brazil was "totally energy independent" and that the U.S. had an 1,100-year supply of shale gas, or natural gas. Brazil still imports oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela, contrary to Gingrich’s claim that Brazil doesn’t "pay a penny to" any of them. And the Energy Information Administration estimates that the total potential U.S. natural gas resources would last 110 years, 10 times smaller than Gingrich’s claim.

During the health care debate in the summer of 2009, he tweeted that the legislation would result in "[t]ax increases on virtually everyone." Not true. The House bill to which he referred called for a surtax on individuals with adjusted gross incomes above $280,000 a year or $350,000 for couples. That’s about 1.4 percent of American households.

In June 2007, he made false statements about the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill in a TV ad for the group Citizens United. Gingrich wrongly said that the Senate legislation would "put … potential terrorists and gang members on a path to U.S. citizenship" and that it "does not even allow convicted criminals to be deported." But the bill specifically said that an illegal immigrant who "at any time has participated in a criminal gang" could be deported, and anyone suspected of being "a danger to the security of the United States" could be denied a temporary visa. As for convicted criminals, the bill said "aggravated felonies" — crimes ranging from rape and murder to passport alteration and fraud — would be grounds for deportation. And the same goes for illegal immigrants with three misdemeanors on their records.

Gingrich wrongly said in May 2010 that the Obama administration was responsible for a court decision ruling the "National Day of Prayer" violated the First Amendment. Gingrich claimed this was an example of a "relentless anti-religious bias." But the truth is that the Obama administration appealed that federal district court judge’s decision, which was the result of a lawsuit brought by a group of atheists. In fact, administration lawyers recently won a reversal by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the law and the president’s right to declare a National Day of Prayer. Just last month, the president issued a proclamation declaring May 5, 2011, to be this year’s day of prayer.

We also noted a good catch by comedian Jon Stewart who corrected a mistake by Gingrich, a guest on Stewart’s "The Daily Show" in February 2010. Gingrich said Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber," was an American citizen. He’s British.
So that’s a range of claims on the federal budget, energy, health care, immigration and terrorism. Something tells us those topics will come up during the campaign."



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Be Careful. . .

. . . who, or what, you believe. . .

Jessica Dovey, a recent Penn State grad living in Kobe, Japan, posted this as her Facebook status, shortly after the execution of Osama Binladen:

I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive
out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out have, only love can do that." MLK Jr.

The first sentence is Ms. Dovey's own, followed by a quotation from King's 1963 book, "Strength to Love." But thousands of people twittered, blogged and otherwise passed on the COMPLETE STATEMENT and later only the FIRST SENTENCE, identifying it as a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.

But alas, it is not.


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Songwriting at its best. . .

WHATSHERNAME
Stookey/Dixon/Kniss- Neworld Media Music Publishers ASCAP

Jimmy McGregor, hey, Jimmy, come here!
Jimmy you son of a gun!
What 'cha been doin'? How long has it been?
Hell, seven years if it's been one.

How's the preacher? How's Don, did he go back to school?
(No kidding, I thought he was gay!)
Who me? Oh, I'm great! I'm a father you know.
Yeah, two of 'em and one on the way.

Oh, well, she couldn't make it, she gets pretty tired,
She started her last month today.
I only came up for a couple of minutes,
Believe me, I wish I could stay.

Oh, and yeah while I think of it, do you remember,
Not for myself, for a friend.
A girl that I brought here, before I got married
A couple of times at the end.

Whatshername? She hardly knew me;
Now her name means something to me.
I wonder if she ever got over me?

Anyway I should be flattered
For yesterday at least I mattered
Where did it go?

Jimmy I tell you we're two lucky guys
You've got everything that you've planned.
And all things considered I've done fairly well
I mean God's honest truth, man
I love Ruth and Whatshername?

I thought I knew her, Whatshername?
What happened to her,
I don't know why I'll never forget
Whatshername?

Find more Peter, Paul And Mary songs at Myspace Music

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If you feel there's a presence. . .

. . . or uneasiness, but you clearly are all alone, those feelings you're feeling seem somewhat out of sync. Tell me, what would you like to drink? There are so many stories everyone here can tell. History full of of color; tragedy too. Such things may weigh heavy. Filled with fear, eyes will blink. We say, what would you like to drink?

Sometimes the weather can get hot. And passion's sure to rise here. It's happened so much in the past. The poet-son who watched his parents' suicide; the yellow fever victims here, with those long gone, still survive. Back some years, goes the story, controversy abounds; love and murder, some mystery in our town. Such intrigue we get through printed pages and ink. Can I please get you something to drink? Midst of all the excitement, everyone chose their side. RIght or wrong, there's no middle; nowhere to hide. He was one upstanding citizen, don't you think? So now, what would you like to drink?

Things aren't always what they seem or how we'd like them to be. They're only just the way they are. But sometimes, just beneath the surface, something we never saw. We're not sure it's dead or still alive. You can see the old movie. Read the book better still. Fill in all of the details; a little thrill. Bartender on Drayton said "Ghosts sell" with a wink. Say now, what would you like to drink?

©2008 Raymond M. Jozwiak



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Sunday. . .

. . . seems like an appropriate day to quote everybody's favorite atheist. . .

"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."

"[O]wners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."

"Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse."

"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."

"[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction."

"The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that 'if English was good enough for Jesus, then it's good enough for me."

"Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence."

"To "choose" dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid. "

"Organised religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children."

"I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me."

. . . Christopher Hitchens



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