Monday, November 26, 2007

Animal Mirrors/Madison vs. War/"Answers"/SoCoCo


(P1) Poetical

Bambi & Thumper


What Is To Be Given

What is to be given,
Is spirit, yet animal,
Colored, like heaven,
Blue, yellow, beautiful.

The blood is checkered by
So many stains and wishes,
Between it and the sky
You could not choose, for riches.

Yet let me now be careful
Not to give too much
To one so shy and fearful
For like a gun is touch.

Delmore Schwartz


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(P2) Political

James Madison Quote Worth Studying

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honours, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . .

[There is also] an inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and. . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . .

The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the power of declaring a state of war. . . the power of raising armies. . . the power of creating offices. . . A delegation of such powers [to the President] would have struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments."


-- James Madison, 4th President of the
US

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(P3) Philosophical

Gertrude, Paul, and Carl On "Answers"

"There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer." - Gertrude Stein



"That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false." - Paul Val
éry


"The race of men, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity." - Carl Van Doren

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4th SoCoCo Poetry Reading

Friends of Bill Vartnaw

Thursday December 6th

7:30 PM

Sonoma Coffee Company
521 4th Street
Santa Rosa-Free Admission


(Jack Crimmins)

Sonoma County Poet Ed Coletti invites you to a

reading by 6 poets including

Jack Crimmins,

Bill Vartnaw,

Jeanne Powell, Nancy Wakeman,

Geri DiGiorno, Q.R. Hand, Jr.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, Ed. I enjoy your blog--it's lively and provocative.

Anonymous said...

Ed-your selection of art is wonderful. It inflates my EGO (see previous posts)---without which I would be DEAD. HOWEVER IT IS DEFINED and what ever its value is. THANK YOU VERY MUCH Jim

Anonymous said...

I agree with the 4th President of the US said. Congress did approve of what the Cheney/Bush administration proposed as far as Iraq is concerned and have done little to alter their position since. I hold Congress responsible.

LAF

Anonymous said...

Eddie:
Thanks for sending the Madison quotes which I had not seen before. I was inspired to look him up and learned that he wrote 29 of the 85 Federalist Papers on the Constitution.
The Brittanica article also had this:

His influence produced ratification by Virginia and led John Marshall to say that, if eloquence included "persuasion by convincing, Mr. Madison was the most eloquent man I ever heard."

Anonymous said...

Love the statement by Carl Van Doren. It so perfectly describes our electorate.

Spitzer has the true vision of a genius. I hope the world will soon discover him!