Memorial Day 2004
- At May 31, 2004
- By Bob Howe
- In Blog Posts
0
Taps
Day is done,
gone the sun,
From the hills,
from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well,
safely rest,
God is nigh.
There is no official set of lyrics for Taps; the above is the first verse of the most frequently cited version.
Jorie Graham’s poem of remembrance, Soldatenfriedhof, in today’s New York Times.
The American Battle Monuments Commission page of American War Dead.
To find out about war dead in Iraq, visit Lunaville.org’s Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.
The Washington Post has a moving lead editorial today: Memorial Day.
For an unromantic view of “The Good War” from one of its infantrymen, read Paul Fussell’s Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War .
A Spy in the Temple
- At May 23, 2004
- By Bob Howe
- In Blog Posts
- 11
Theological Spelunking
On Tuesday past I went down the rabbit hole with silvertide, Laura, Jim and Liz on the Apostasy Tour of the soon-to-be-dedicated Manhattan Temple of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You can see Bill’s blog for the in-depth report, Part One of which he’s already posted. It is, as always, fascinating to follow Bill as he unpacks Mormon theology and sociology. I was just there for the hot chicks.
Song Sung “Blue”
- At May 20, 2004
- By Bob Howe
- In Blog Posts
- 1
Eric Idle’s screamingly funny ballad to the Bush administration: The FCC Song.
From silvertide
Kurt Vonnegut In These Times
- At May 20, 2004
- By Bob Howe
- In Blog Posts
- 13
Kurt Vonnegut on the current administration in an interview in the January 2003 issue of In These Times:
I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”
Vonnegut’s current article, Cold Turkey is also a good, if depressing, piece.