(P1) PoeticalThe Redheaded Paradise Finch
came to my fountain to drink.
to see more clearly
had come to my fountain to drink,
then flew away
beneath the sky, cloudless blue.
It did not.
god does not want
Wanting the paradise finch
whatever that is.
(P2) Political
I like to think of myself as being open-minded. Therefore, readers, please do not be surprised, or at least don't think ill of me for publishing a column by conservative Charles Krauthammer. Mr. Krauthammer is a Washington Post columnist. He is also a psychiatrist and exceptional chess player. I've long admired his fine mind if not always his opinions. The following, although controversial, makes a lot of sense to me. Please give it a full reading and then let me know what you think by pressing the word "comments" below.
Give Grandma a Pass
Politically Correct Screening Won't Catch Jihadists
by Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
July 29, 2005
Full Text of Krauthammer Column
(P2) Philosophical
Is Life The Incurable Disease
by Erica Jong
Is life the incurable disease?
The infant is born howling
& we laugh,
the dead man smiles
& we cry,
resisting the passage,
always resisting the passage,
that turns life
into eternity.
Blake sang alleluias
on his deathbed.
My own grandmother,
hardly a poet at all,
smiled
as we'd never seen her smile
before.
Perhaps the dress of flesh
is no more than a familiar garment
that grows looser as one diets
on death, & perhaps we discard it
or give it to the poor in spirit,
who have not learned yet
what blessing it is
to go naked?
Please comment here (choose "other" as your identity when asked)
or, if you prefer, please email me at
edcoletti@sbcglobal.net
6 comments:
dan ziagos wrote:
Hi Ed,
Nice blogging. Sounds like life is treating you & Joyce well. T & I are doing well too.
re: Krauthammer article, there's a certain logic to his article that is seductive. However on an emotional level I just don't agree with singling out people based on their tribe. Historically we have always regretted it, from Japanese internment, etc. I think this country has the ability to perform screening on all.
I also don't agree with his simplistic view that all minorities love the US, while the minorities in Britain are allowed to express hatred. Too simplistic.
my 2 cents!!!
cheers,
Z
5:05 PM
ED: I finally had a chance to go through your Blog. Some very interesting
and creative work here. Good for you for taking the time to share it. I
like your poetry (At Sixty, and The Redheaded Paradise Finch). Even found
the Krauthammer article interesting although I, too, often disagree with
him. This made me think of what I would include if I did a Blog.
Best,
Larry Carlin
Did you ever wonder why not a single communist guard, dictator, prison administrator or executioner ever went to trial in the defunct Soviet Union or in China, Cambodia or other countries where 150 million were slaughtered in the name of Lenin? Have you wondered why leftist 'liberation' army's in all the worlds theaters have license to bomb, murder, rape and hold hostage while those on the right defending against such atrocities by using the same methods and tactics are hunted down and brought to trial?
Weston Comments
Hi Ed,
I like your blog - nice job!!!
I could not disagree more with the Kraut's opinion
piece. Singling out young muslim men for invasive
searches is ridiculous and will only turn good people
against the government.
The answer is that there is no way to meaningfully
check everybody who gets onto a bus or train. Airline
security is as tight as they can make it and still it
is little more than show.
We keep responding to the last attack and the
terrorists just come up with new ways to attack us.
Somebody tries a shoe bomb and from that moment on
everybody has to remove shoes. We can see in Iraq
that there is really no way to stop determined
resistance.
My biggest question is how we have been drawn into a
religious war. Throughout our history we have managed
to keep enough separation of church and state so that
we never felt compelled to launch a crusade in the
middle east. Now that we are being controlled by
fundamentalist christians, they want to have a holy
war with islam and we all suffer.
It is not too late to mend fences with the arab world.
The only long term answer to terrorism is to remove
its causes. That means getting out of Iraq and out of
bed with Israel.
Weston
Weston adds further comment:
The question is why are they doing all that searching
anyway. It costs billions and I don't know anybody
who thinks it deters anybody who is serious about
bringing down a plane. They are so intent on taking
away fingernail clippers that they are blind to other
potential threats. For example, I have taken bottles
of homemade wine onto planes dozens of times without
being checked. The bottles could have contained
gasoline or nitroglycerine. Like I said they just
watch out for the previous attack but terrorists have
shown they are creative and don't often repeat
themselves.
The unpopular but more realistic view is that we are
probably going to have to get used to terrorism being
an unpreventable cause of death. When you compare how
many people have died in this country (including 9-11
and Oklahoma City) by terrorism compared to other
causes of death, it is a very minor threat. In 2001,
the number of people who died on 9-11 didn't equal the
number of handgun deaths in New York in the same year.
As an overall cause of death in the USA, terrorism is
not even significant compared with preventable
diseases, drunk driving, aids, etc. And yet we are
willing to spend untold billions,sacrifice our civil
liberties, attack and occupy countries by mistake and
re-elect fearmongering politicians.
Our country has been far more damaged by our misguided
reactions to 9-11 than by the attack itself.
You can quote me.
Weston
...or in the words of "Curly".... Woo - Woo - Wooo Woooo!!!!
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