Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

So what if we might conquer A, or perhaps B?
We once tried to kill ourselves in the 1860's.
What the hell do we know about
conquering anything?

This country has a way about wanting to fight all the time. It can't live with the peace.
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Lukumi Forum

This country talks a good game about "liberty", I'll say that much.

Oh sure, the SS hasn't busted down my door at 3 AM or anything like that. Well, not yet. So what? There's a nasty undercurrent about us in some ways. I'll try not to dwell on it.

You know, I'm still trying to sort out the significance of the "rebel" (Confederate) flag.. why it won't die in our culture of cultures. The best I could hope for is that it has come to symbolize (for some) rebellion against authority in general, beyond anything specific about the Civil War and the Old South.. I mean, the image turns up surprisingly often-- it even turned up on a Legendary Shack Shakers CD cover last year, and I'm pretty sure those guys aren't racist rats-- my sis met a couple of 'em at a show. I went to one of their gigs too. Maybe they invoked the image in protest. Who knows?

Anyway, ramble on, ramble on.
And on.

We are a special nation no doubt.

Why can't we be more civilized like those Europeans?



Confederate National Flag

The one we associate with the south was the battle flag of the army of Northern Virginia.

Six Flags over Texas, most Texans cannot name them all, at least according to my informal survey. They can sometimes name five, but I have yet to meet a native Texan who will name the confederate flag.

Maybe in another two hundred years we will be civilized too. Maybe not, Britian seems pretty hot to fight along side us.

Good god those bloody Brits! Have you ever read the History of The English Speaking People? Makes our bloody history seem like a tea party.


fifty four forty or fight
remember the maine
remember the alamo
a volkswagon ran over alice


Another day another mindless ramble
sorry

My education continues. I didn't know that about the Confederate flag. Thanks, Jack. It's just something that buzzed me a couple of Sundays ago while Ennio Morricone played on the CD player... Yeah, I know... it's an Eastwood spaghetti Western, but it's a gritty statement of a film as well. Just another flash. All that talk of a "New American Century", or this is "our unipolar moment" and such.. Ok.. who are "we"?

Also, the thing about Europe (as war-ravaged as it's been for centuries)... I think maybe most of "it" figured out that militaristic aggression and war and blind nationalism are obsolete "paradigms" for the race and the planet, while some of the rest of us just keep going... Just some thoughts..

Yes they learned a lesson, and left a hell of a mess in their former colonies. The Congo for example. Yes it is good that the Europeans can take the high moral ground. Africa is paying a for their education.

A few words in defense of cour country Randy Newman

King Leopold of Belgium. That’s right.
Everyone thinks he’s so great
Well he owned The Congo
He tore it up too
He took the diamonds, he took the gold
He took the silver
Know what he left them with?

Malaria

Five million dead in the Congolese wars since the end of WW2. More than VIetnam.


Not trying to make an excuse for us, just saying we are not so special.

That's another dying "paradigm"-- imperial/corporate exploitation. Sometimes I think World War 2 and the bomb signaled the inevitable moving away from large-scale "conventional" (or "symmetric") war-- army against army, nation against nation, while events such as the 9/11 attacks and "asymmetric" conflict in general (along with unchecked pollution and planet rape) point to the unsustainable nature of an exploitation-based economy. It seems odd calling deadly conflict "asymmetric"-- I mean, killing is killing-- it's just a term I heard thrown out there by the generals..

Anyway, yeah, we aren't that special. Hell, we exploit ourselves. Look at the sheer magnitude of the incarceration industry in this country for example. We could learn as much as we would profess to the teach the world.

We are special in one way...

Of all the Western powers

we alone do the Lord's work

Twenty four seven our vast military

is on call to defend G-d

and spread the Word

True. And G-d knows a thing or two about 'conquering' things, it would seem. G-d is obsessed with real estate sometimes, you know, defending it and all, mostly.