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Memorial Day 2012

 

 

 

 

Mrs McGrath 

Bruce Springsteen

"Mrs McGrath," the sergeant said,
"Would you like a soldier out of your son Ted?
With a scarlet coat and a big cocked hat
Mrs McGrath will you like that?"

With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Now Mrs McGrath lived on the shore
And after seven years or more
She spied a ship come into the bay
With her son from far away

"O captain dear, where have ye been?
You been sailing the Mediterranean
Have you news of my son Ted
Is he living or is he dead?"

With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Then came Ted without any legs
And in their place two wooden pegs
She kissed him a dozen times or two
And said, "my God, Ted, is it you?

Now were ye drunk or were ye blind
When ye left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it walking upon the sea
That wore your two fine legs away?"

With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

"Now I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
A cannonball on the fifth of May
Tore my two fine legs away"

"My, Teddy boy," the widow cried
"Your two fine legs were yer mother's pride
Stumps of a tree won't do at all
Why didn't ye run from the cannonball?"

With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

"All foreign wars I do proclaim
Live on blood and a mother's pain
I'd rather have my son as he used to be
Than the King of America and his whole Navy"

With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With your too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
Too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Hey!

 

 

Dear Pro-Killin - Pro-Warrin Fellow 'Merrkins,

If you could unwrap yourselves from Old Glory for a few minutes, I have a few questions for you:

How has the last decade of war been?  

Ready for another?

Who should we bomb next?

Has it made you safer?  

Do you really believe the old saw "We fought em over there so we didn't have to fight em here."?  

Can you truly be that gullible?

Are you ready to continue Merrka's military adventures at the cost of 'Merrkin healthcare, national infrastructure, education, and poverty?

How many more dead bodies are you willing to pile on the stinking pile we've already made as a cost of spreading 'Merrkin Exceptionalism all over the globe?

Do you know how many bodies it's been so far?  Here's a reminder:

Iraq:

American dead: 4486

American wounded: > 100,000

Coalition Troops dead: 319

Contractor Dead: 1487

Iraqi Deaths Due to US Invasion: 1,455,590

Afghanistan:

American Dead: 1984

Coalition Troops Dead: 1028

While you all whine about our Muslim Kenyan President Barack Obama's socialist spending programs, you've never ever uttered a sound about how much money it takes 'Merrka to kill our way out of the War on Terrorism.  Maybe it's because you've forgotten how much all this killin and warrin has cost us.  Here it is, a little memory jogger for Memorial Day 2012:

 

$1,336,181,071,321

Happy Memorial Day, 'Merrka…

 - roy

Bruce does Church Music - Here comes everybody

 

 

 

 

Land of Hopes and Dreams

Bruce Springsteen

Grab your ticket and your suitcase
Thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin'
But you know you won't be back
Darlin' if you're weary
Lay your head upon my chest
We'll take what we can carry
And we'll leave the rest

Big Wheels rolling through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

I will provide for you
And I'll stand by your side
You'll need a good companion for
This part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there'll be sunshine
And all this darkness past

Big wheels roll through fields
Where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

This train
Carries saints and sinners
This train
Carries losers and winners
This Train
Carries whores and gamblers
This Train
Carries lost souls
This Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train
Bells of freedom ringin'
This Train
Carries broken-hearted
This Train
Thieves and sweet souls departed
This Train
Carries fools and kings
This Train
All aboard

This Train
Dreams will not be thwarted
This Train
Faith will be rewarded
This Train
Hear the steel wheels singin'
This Train 

 

After I saw the "Rocky Ground" video (Thanks to Slacktivist), I started listening to the Wrecking Ball album again - and found this gem.  It slew me - especially the part about "this train carries saints and sinners - this train carries losers and winners - this train carries whores and gamblers - this train carries lost souls - thieves and sweet souls departed.."  Honestly - I started crying like an idiot while driving up Route 114 because I started thinking - wow - if that's the way things worked - there would be a place even for me. 

How could things work any other way?  

As James Joyce was reported to have said - "Here comes everybody.."

 

 

enduring catholicism

 

 

 

 

Bruce's music was the first music that my sweet baby boy ever heard. I used to rock him to sleep to Bruce's Nebraska album most evenings after work.  As a young Dad raising a young son, many of Bruce's songs spoke to me through the years and helped me get through the messy business of parenting and becoming an adult. Bruce's music sustains my son and me to this day.  I tell people that 'A' had three Dads, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, and me.

One of the things that always struck me about Bruce's music is how Catholic it sounded. Not Catholic in the way that the Magisterium or the American Bishops or the Pope are Catholic, but in the way of Clint Eastwood in "Grand Torino" or Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"  or Jim Caviesel in "The Thin Red Line".  Messy, flawed, struggling-to-be-upright-but-most-times-failing catholics…catholics like me. Indeed in a recent article in Commonweal magazine, Bruce had this to say about his Catholic background:

"The album shifts towards the spiritual uplift of gospel music in its rousing finale, evoking Jesus and the risen dead. “I got brainwashed as a child with Catholicism,” joked Springsteen, who says biblical imagery increasingly creeps into his songs almost unbidden. “Its like Al Pacino in The Godfather: I try to get out but they pull you back in! Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.”

Words of wisdom, Lloyd. Words of wisdom..

 

 

antidote for despondence

 

 

 

 

I look this clip up every

once in a while

when my spine needs

stiffening and my outlook

needs adjusting.

Arundhati does the trick

every goddamned time.

This time too.. 

Big love, Arundhati.

Big.

Love.

 

 

 

Yay War!

 

 

 

 

With the run up to another

presidential election

where both manly candidates

will be be trying to "out manly" one

another by saying who they killed or

would kill if given the chance.. 

and the summertime

"let's get gooey

over all our wars"

season

fast approaching,

I offer another in

a series of my

favorite war tunes.

This one - written by

a national treasure (Dylan) and

performed by another (Vedder).

And yes - I'm well aware 

that  some of the sentiments 

expressed in the song

are not particularly

skillful from a Bood

perspective nor 

holy from a 

Christian

point

of

view.

It's how things

are rolling

today

at RTTC,

and 

it's 

fucking art

people..

 

Yay War! 

 

Here's the lyrics if you want to sing along!!

 

"Masters Of War"

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

 

 

 

 

Zen Master Stafford

 

 

 

 

When It Comes

Any time. Now. The next minute.
Years from today. You lean forward
and wait. You relax, but you don't forget.

Someone plans an elaborate party
with a banquet, dancing, even fireworks
when feasting is over. You look at them:

All those years when you searched the world
like a ferret, these never happened - your marriage,
your family, prayers, curses. Only dreams.

A vacuum has opened everywhere. Cities,
armies, those chairs ranked in the great
hall for the audience – there isn't anyone.

Like a shutter the sky opens and closes
and the show is over. The next act
will deny that anything ever happened.

Your hand falls open. It is empty. It never
held a knife, a flower, gold,
or love, or now. Lean closer –

Listen to me: there isn't any hand.

 

 - William Stafford (via Whiskey River)

Who Knows Where You Go At Night?

 

 

 

 

 

If Only It Were This Easy

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings Earthling

 

 

 

 

I have been accused of

anthropomorphizing everything

around me,

mainly by

people

who are unaware

that everything

around us

is alive

and is closer

in nature

to us

than they

would like to think.

 

 

 

In light of the upcoming "Presidential Election" - Let's review

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case you were wondering -

 

 

 

 

 I have it from

an impeccable source:

No one

is a 

jerk

or 

bunghole.

 

Yay War!

 

 

 

WW I

The War to End All Wars.

Except that

it

didn't.

 

 

So many have become

so rich from our military adventures

all I can say is:

Yay War!

 

 

 

 

 

News Flash - US Catholic Bishops to Investigate NAACP

Dateline 'Merrka 2012 - US Catholic Bishops, whose satin-encased hind quarters are already chapped by the very heavy workload of investigating US Catholic Nuns for spending too much time with the poor and Girl Scouts for accepting a transgender child into one of their troops, selflessly launched an investigation into the NAACP.  

The bishops, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in 'Merrka (otherwise known as the Republican Party at Prayer), have ordered the investigation because the organization had the audacity to announce today that it supported gay marriage and went a step further and called it a civil right. The fact that the NAACP is a 103 year-old African American Civil Rights organization did not protect them from the ever watchful purveyors of morality in 'Merrka.  Apparently the group did not first seek the guidance of the Holy Magisterium prior to their announcement, a move that angered many in Rome, including his holiness Bernard Law.

When asked by a reporter how the bishops could manage such a daunting workload, Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles replied "We've freed up some time in our schedules by not investigating child molestation cases and by outsourcing some of our other activities like intimidating victim advocacy groups.  You do what you can do..."  

 

 

"Agnosia* Sunday" Liturgy

 

 

 

 

Celebrant:  We therefore maintain that the universal and transcendent Cause of all things is neither without being nor without life, nor without reason or intelligence; nor is it a body, nor has it form or shape, quality, quantity or weight; nor has it any localized, visible or tangible existence; it is not sensible or perceptible; nor is it subject to any disorder or inordination nor influenced by any earthly passion; neither is it rendered impotent through the effects of material causes and events; it needs no light; it suffers no change, corruption, division, privation or flux; none of these things can either be identified with or attributed unto it.  (silence)

Celebrant: That it that is the pre-eminent Cause of all things intelligibly perceived is not itself any of those things. (silence)

Call: Again, ascending yet higher, we maintain that it is neither soul nor intellect; (each call and response followed by a short period of silence)

Response: Nor has it imagination, opinion reason or understanding;

Call: Nor can it be expressed or conceived, since it is neither number nor order;

Response: Nor greatness nor smallness;

Call: Nor equality nor inequality;

Response: Nor similarity nor dissimilarity;

Call: Neither is it standing, nor moving, nor at rest;

Response: Neither has it power nor is power, nor is light;

Call: Neither does it live nor is it life;

Response: Neither is it essence, nor eternity nor time;

Call: Nor is it subject to intelligible contact;

Response: Nor is it science nor truth, nor kingship nor wisdom;

Call: Neither one nor oneness, nor godhead nor goodness;

Response: Nor is it spirit according to our understanding, nor filiation, nor paternity;

Call: Nor anything else known to us or to any other beings of the things that are or the things that are not;

Response: Neither does anything that is know it as it is;

Call: Nor does it know existing things according to existing knowledge;

Response: Neither can the reason attain to it, nor name it, nor know it;

Call: Neither is it darkness nor light, nor the false nor the true;

ALL:  Nor can any affirmation or negation be applied to it, for although we may affirm or deny the things below it, we can neither affirm nor deny it, inasmuch as the all-perfect and unique Cause of all things transcends all affirmation, and the simple pre-eminence of Its absolute nature is outside of every negation- free from every limitation and beyond them all.

(After last verse,  the sanctuary lights turned down/off. All sit quietly in the darkness for a short contemplative session. Lights are then restored to allow participants to file out in silence)

 

(Text for Liturgy taken from Dionysius the Areopagite's "Mystical Theology")

 

* Agnosia in this instance is taken to mean unknowing