Pretty War

Crusade

Via Dark Bilious Vapors, the following essay by Robert Kuttner is the most thoughtful, well-written observation of the current climate in America purported by Religious zealots:

WHEN John Kennedy was running for president and passions were running high about whether a Catholic could serve both the American citizenry and Rome, a joke made the rounds about a priest and a minister whose friendship nearly came to blows. Finally the priest phoned his old friend. ''What a pity," he said. ''Here we are, both men of the cloth, fighting over politics." ''It's true," said the minister. ''We're both Christians. We both worship the same God -- you in your way, and I in His."

America, which separated church and state precisely to protect the private right to worship, has long had its share of religious absolutists who have wanted to harness the power of the state to their own view of revealed truth. But never before in our history has the government deliberately and cynically intervened on the side of the zealots.

President Bush, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and company are playing with serious fire. As the joke suggests, there is no challenging revealed truth. That's why the state stays neutral.

What's under siege here is nothing less than the Enlightenment. Please recall that what we benignly remember as the Renaissance coexisted with centuries of vicious religious persecution -- Christians persecuting heretics like Galileo, expelling and slaughtering Muslims and Jews, then doing bloody battle with each other following the Protestant Reformation.

The philosophers of the Enlightenment were men of science who understood that faith could not be disputed but that reason could be subjected to the test of logic and evidence. The American Revolution was a triple triumph -- for political democracy, religious tolerance, and for the free inquiry demanded by the scientific method.

Today's religious extremists are not only trying to use the state, with all its power, as religious proselytizer. They oppose science when it happens to conflict with their version of revealed truth. They twist history to claim that the Republic's freethinking Founders, like Jefferson, Adams, and Madison, were really theocrats like themselves. They long for the predemocratic world of absolutes circa 1500.

Although proponents of state sponsorship of ''faith-based" activities claim that all faiths are equally eligible, the politically dominant soon attempt to dictate the approved faith. Leon Wieseltier has observed, ''It is never long before one nation under God gives way to one God under a nation."

Last December the far right declared that religious pluralists were waging war on Christianity itself. ''They hate the idea of Christmas," said Pat Buchanan. ''Seasons' Greetings" became politically incorrect. Merry Christmas became a battle cry instead of a tiding of good will.

Frist, the Senate majority leader, continued this theme last Sunday, lending official comfort to a convention of religious extremists calling itself Justice Sunday. This confab of judge-bashers, nominally ''people of faith," is actually promoting a particular, fundamentalist Protestant faith. Some of its leaders do not even consider Catholics to be Christians.

As if to prove the wisdom of Jefferson (and the priest/minister joke), the latest pope richly reciprocates. Despite going through the motions of ecumenical outreach, Benedict XVI in his prior life as Cardinal Ratzinger made it all too clear that people who did not embrace the one true church and its dogmas were going straight to hell. Happily, most American Catholics disagree.

For now, this coalition of the faithful (who literally believe that many of their allies of convenience are destined for eternal damnation) is willing to put aside differences that will be settled in the next life and join forces on behalf of the faith-based public trough and the ecumenical crusade against an independent judiciary.

I never thought I'd live to see a time when the Enlightenment -- the Enlightenment! -- was politically controversial. Democracy, like science, depends on debate, tolerance, and evidence. And in a democracy, nothing is scarier than a political force convinced it is getting irrefutable truth directly from God.

Mercifully, religious extremists do not represent anything like a majority. We still have a proudly independent judiciary--in the Schiavo case, Governor Jeb Bush could not find a single Florida judge willing to overturn the testimony of countless doctors. And mainstream denominations like the Presbyterians have begun speaking out vigorously on behalf of religious tolerance and pluralism.

But let's be clear: Our very democracy is under assault. History is filled with cases where a small minority was able to overturn democratic institutions.

Zeal on behalf of tolerance seems almost a contradiction. But the large American majority that believes in freedom of conscience and inquiry had better get organized with the same enlightened passion that drove America's Founders.

Amen.

What's on Jesus' iPod??

Protest anthems, Zeppelin, gospel, classical and, of course, Nine Inch Nails. And, yes, Jesus does P2P

Mark Morford provides an irreverent, yet spot-on observation of what Jesus would have on his iPod if he had one.

"Nukular" Option

According to Media Matters, the media is repeating false GOP claims that the Democrats coined the term "nuclear option".

Major media outlets have recently miscast the term "nuclear option" as a creation of Senate Democrats. These include even National Public Radio (NPR), the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times, all of which had previously reported accurately that it was Senate Republicans who originated the term.

As several weblogs have noted, the term "nuclear option" -- referring to the Republican-proposed Senate rule change that would prohibit filibusters of judicial nominations -- was coined by one of its leading advocates, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS). But since Republican strategists judged the term "nuclear option" to be a liability, they have urged Senate Republicans to adopt the term "constitutional option." Many in the media have complied with the Senate Republicans' shift in terminology and repeated their attribution of the term "nuclear option" to the Democrats.

Read the whole thing. It's another in a long list of examples of how the media is helping to push the Right's unconstitutional agenda.

Microsoft Paying Religious Right

Via Eschaton ... this is just sick. As if you needed another reason to switch to Mac.

Whack a Whackjob!

The following comic strip is taken from Jen Sorensen's Slowpoke Comics. Take a stroll around her website, good stuff there.

Gonna Fly Now

I reserve Monday night midnite trips to Vintage Vinyl for those extra special artists, near and dear to my heart. Albums that I have to listen to the moment they are officially released. This is why, for those particular albums, I don't like to hear the online leaks. This is probably the same reason I've never liked to shake my Christmas presents to find out what they are prior to Christmas morning. It ruins the surprise, and makes it less of an event.

Aimee Mann is one of those artists. I fell in love with her epic character study, and her gorgeous yet forlorn melodies after seeing Magnolia, to which she wrote and sang the songs on the brilliant soundtrack, and have loved everything she's done since.

Her new album, to be released on Tuesday, May 3rd is a concept album called "The Forgotten Arm". It is set in the '70's and is about a boxer on drugs and his girlfriend who works at a carnival. It's Rocky meets Carnivale meets Tapestry. Well, not really. Here, I'll let you read a (glowing) review in Paste Magazine:

With her latest release, The Forgotten Arm, Mann finally seems to have discovered a format that gives her characters room to breathe: the concept album. According to Mann, The Forgotten Arm follows the travails of a Virginia carnival worker and a down-and-out boxer who meet in Richmond not long before he’s sent to Vietnam. Inevitably the boxer returns with a drug addiction and the carnival worker spends most of the album contemplating the relationship’s fiery tailspin, trying to muster the courage to eject. Though the scenario is a bit too familiar, Mann has time over the course of the record to develop nuance and believability. This freedom is a blessing and a curse: while the emotional payoff of the album proves more satisfying than anything she’s done so far, the individual tracks don’t stand alone as well. But as anyone who’s followed Mann’s toils in the record industry can tell you, she probably isn’t all that concerned with crafting a Billboard Heatseeker at this point. It may turn out that Mann’s best record is also the least radio friendly.

See you at Vintage vinyl on Monday, May 2nd at 11:30. It's always nice to grab a pint at Blueberry Hill before hand!

Agony

Tired of hearing about the Michael Jackson trial? Sick of seeing American Idol results on CNN.com? Want more from your news than the latest serial killer trial? Then point your mouse to The Agonist: Thoughtful, Global, Timely. The Agonist is an invaluable website for those who want news that matters. It should be on your daily read list.

Typical Hypocrisy

From Billmon's Whiskey Bar ... which if it's not on your daily must read list, should be ... we have this example taken from the infinite file cabinet called "IOKIYAR".

"Bankruptcy should always be a last resort in our legal system. If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them."
George W. Bush
Signing Ceremony for Bankruptcy "Reform" Bill
April 20, 2005

___________________________________

As world oil prices plummeted in the winter of 1985-86, George W. Bush faced the most serious crisis of his 11-year career as a West Texas oilman . . . Bush's company owed more than $3 million in bank loans and other debts with no hope of paying them off in time. . .
Bush's name, however, was to help rescue him . . . A big Dallas-based firm, Harken Oil and Gas, was looking to buy up troubled oil companies. After finding Spectrum, Harken's executives saw a bonus in their target's CEO, despite his spotty track record.

By the end of September 1986, the deal was done. Harken assumed $3.1 million in debts and swapped $2.2 million of its stock for a company that was hemorrhaging money, though it had oil and gas reserves projected to produce $4 million in future net revenue.

Harken, a firm that liked to attach itself to stars, had also acquired Bush, whom it used not as an operating manager but as a high-profile board member.

"One of the reasons Harken was so interested in merging was because of George," said Paul Rea, a geologist who had been president of Spectrum 7. "They believed having George's name there would be a big help to them. They wanted him on their board."

Washington Post
Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings
July 30, 1999

Par for the course, wouldn't you say? Are we becoming immune to the hypocrisy? Will our "liberal" media point this out? Will pigs fly out of my ass?

Gimme Spoon!

Okay, the more I read about the new Spoon album, the more excited I get. I first heard Spoon in San Francisco on my honeymoon. We were in the Virgin store in Downtown with lots of wedding present cash, and I saw "Kill The Moonlight" on display. On a whim, I picked it up and digged it immediately. Not one of those growers that takes several listens to discern. I mean, Bam ... right away ... loved it. Popmatters has a great interview with Britt Daniel about their new LP.

Spoon's new album Gimme Fiction, out May 10 on Merge Records, is yet another installment in a streak of modern-day instant classics, following 2001's Girls Can Tell and 2002's Kill the Moonlight. Like Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction is marked by a highly meticulous and creative approach to sound; this time around, little discrepancies run wild (snippets of studio chatter, tape reels rewinding, unadorned instrumental bloops) that give insight beyond the record's curtain, as if you're privy to the recording sessions while listening to the final product. Although the band's influences are felt (McCartney bass vamps, Lennon vocal howls, and Ringo drum fills abound), the record's sound is ultimately Spoon's alone. Few bands are making records as consistently exciting and alive.

Ever since Diatriber pointed me to the new single, "I Turn My Camera On", a few weeks back, I haven't been able to stop listening to it!

PopMatters: What were you guys listening to while you were recording this? "I Turn My Camera On" kinda sounds like the Clash covering Prince, you know?

Lotsa Prince channeling this year!

Geek ... and damn proud of it!

Via Largehearted Boy comes this article about Wilco, and more specificaly Jeff Tweedy from the Houston Chronicle.

Time has been kind to Tweedy. He wasn't a wunderkind who dazzled folks during his youth. And he isn't inclined to spend much time obsessing over his early days in the much-loved country-punk troupe Uncle Tupelo. (Tupelo obsessives obsess enough to cover him.)

He classifies himself as a "late bloomer" and is making some of his most exciting music at an age, 37, when many artists freeze while trying to determine where to go next. And he's blooming at an especially good time: during a period when rock 'n' roll doesn't have much direction or any prevalent personality, allowing leeway for experimentation.

It is one of the more interesting pieces I've read of late on the band, and there is really only one statement I'd disagree with. Andrew Dansby writes,

Only Wilco's pace seems off compared to that romanticized era. Five albums in 11 years is glacierlike compared to the Beatles, the Beach Boys or Dylan.

With Mermaid Ave. 1 &2, a couple of Golden Smog albums, a solo project for a film, and a Loose Fur cd, Tweedy has been anything but glacierlike.

Okemah God!!

More good news on the music scene with St. Louis resident Jay Farrar's new version of Son Volt and the release of their new CD.

‘Okemah and the Melody of Riot’ the new album from Son Volt, will be released by Legacy Recordings on July 12. The album features Jay Farrar (vocal, guitar, piano, harmonica), Dave Bryson (drums), Andrew Duplantis (bass, backing vocal), and Brad Rice (guitar) with guest appearances from Eric Heywood (pedal steel), John Horton (electric slide) and Mark Spencer (slide guitar, slide dulcimer, organ, backing vocal). Anchored by Jay’s songwriting and propelled by a renewed rock and roll aesthetic catalyzed by a cast of new players, Son Volt’s 'Okemah and the Melody of Riot' was produced by Jay and recorded straight to analog tape in St. Louis during October 2004. Here is the album’s tracklisting:

Bandages & Scars
Afterglow 61
Jet Pilot
Atmosphere
Ipecac
Who
Endless War
Medication
6 String Belief
Gramophone
Chaos Streams
World Waits for You
World Waits for You (Reprise)

In addition to that, a "Greatest Hits" or Retrospective as it were, is due out on May 24th and it contains Son Volt material from 1995-2000, including some rarities. Here is that tracklist:

1: DROWN
2: WINDFALL
3: ROUTE
4: REX’S BLUES
5: LOOKING AT THE WORLD THROUGH A WINDSHIELD
6: TOO EARLY
7: BACK INTO YOUR WORLD
8: PICKING UP THE SIGNAL
9: I’VE GOT TO KNOW *
10: CREOSOTE
11: STRAIGHTFACE
12: TULSA COUNTY
13: DRIVING THE VIEW
14: AIN’T NO MORE CANE *
15: FLOW
16: HOLOCAUST
17: TEAR STAINED EYE (Four Track Demo) *
18: LOOSE STRING (Four Track Demo) *
19: MEDICINE HAT (Live – Acoustic Café) *
20: OPEN ALL NIGHT

Tale of 2 Stadiums

In honor of baseball season, I've posted a limited edition photo of both Busch Stadiums.

Beginnings...

Welcome to prettywar. Here you will find ponderings on music, religion, politics, sports, the "liberal" media, mainstream propaganda, and photos of my hometown of St. Louis.