Mid-May Musings

The guilty-pleasure A.I. episode was cool tonight. Taylor Hicks knocked off a cool version of Bruce's Dancing In the Dark. Now, if there was one song that was probably misunderstood by Bruce, this one's it. Lyrically, it is brilliant; it's the only way I can make it through the song, even with the new live guitars-a-rockin' version. Bruce has several songs where the lyrics just don't quite match up with the music and every time it is to take away from the words. Dancing is a song that I find myself singing without the music, often when I'm having one of those days. Hungry Heart is another song that the music just screws up the song. READ that song and what a great pop-song cry about shaken foundations; put the music to the words and you have pop pap. I like the song out of obligation but it's a weak one. "Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk" type give me a break weak junk stuff. However, Taylor put some soul into the song, even as he ripped off the worst dance maneuvers. We also have to fault Bruce for unleashing Courtney Cox on the world. Yet, Taylor moved on with some Joe Cocker and Otis and brought the house down. He will win as he's picking up momentum, Elliot is losing steam and Kat has yet to convince that she's a pop singer and not a broadway bombshell.

Speaking of bombshells, last night's speach by the President has again divided the GOP. Militarizing the border with tired National Guard soldiers? Go lightly on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens in order to keep costs down? Throw in "protecting the borders against terror"? Houston, we all what the deal is. I'm all for protecting this nation, its ideals and the states of this nation from invasion. However, Bush's policy will fail because, while he kowtowed to the extreme right, he failed to please it today. Since he's already irked liberals, moderates and most other people with rational thought, how much worse could he get last night? The fact is that Bush's immigration policy and its reactions is proof that the president is a lame duck. The true leaders of the GOP want him gone (these are the extreme right-wingnuts who wish to install theocracy) and yet, while the farthest of the right, they truly run the show. Most Republican leaders and the younglings claim to be much more moderate than the Jerry Falwell-James Dobson if-you-speak-out-of-context-of-the-i.e. "OUR"-interpretation-of-the-supreme-will-of-the-universe-you're-dead types. And yet, the party has been dicatated to by this cabal that wishes to return the nation to pre-Scopes Trial America, which is akin to the Taliban and 19th century Know-Nothing status. With that, the reason I most pity the president from his last-night's speech is that his position, a moderate but strong position, is one that I most agree with. Employers need to be disciplined, the border does need to be patroled, people need to have the opportunity to enter the country and system and this country needs to take heed of the fact that as long as it borders Mexico, we will have Mexican people coming here. As I further digress, anyone notice that poor, poor North Dakota will continue to be a target of illegal immigration, it being the center of massive Canadian coyote-smuggling and drug running. Aren't those Canadians bringing drugs into the country, those cheap over-the-counter save-your-life prescription drugs? My mom and I got into it tonight over this issue and she brought up religion, which nearly sent me through the roof. My mom and I share, for the most part, similar religious beliefs. We believe in the same God. We follow the same Trinity. The church she attends is the church that represents so much of what makes me nauseated about the church in this country. It represents Old Testament mentality - enforce the rules, expose anyone not towing the line and protect the body politic. As my mom thought that those in this country who are religous ought to support the closing of the borders, I reminded my mom that Christians are supposed to help others, support those who believe in the same God and give to others, especially the meek as they will be the ones who inherit this mess we've made. Shouldn't Christians shun the idea of protecting a nation that pushes to supercede allegiance to the church? Shouldn't Christians love and seek to reach out to all people, regardless of national identity and political affiliation? Are Chrisitians to support the United States or peoples' souls? If Christians in this country believe that we are to protect an arbitrary political entity before meeting the needs of humans, than the church further shows its irrelevance and worthlessness to people in need of help. If the church exists to enforce the rules in the name of exclusion, than the fishers of men truly are obsolete. Good luck, George, let's see how the next five months until the midterms go. I don't know who'll stab you in the back first, the Democrats champing at the bit or the radical right as they kiss on the lips for all that silver.