Notes From The Silent Week

Notes From The Silent Week

And The Winner Is . . .

RageBoy gets the coveted award for ìBest Use of Fleetwood Mac Lyricsî for this entry [1].

Since I have all sorts of difficulty with anchor tags, in the event that you clicked on that link and just ended up at the top of RBís blog, what you need to do is scroll down about 20 inches from the top of the Friday November 21, 2003 entry, entitled Sacred Reflections. There youíll see a red-background box with checkmarks on the right, lyrics selections on the left in white and yellow font.

The award is actually for subtext and subtlety, if you follow the not-so-hidden but not exactly hit-you-over-the-noggin-obvious train of thought and communication coming from RB.

Let me also add that RBís note during my period of absence was greatly appreciated. RBís got soul.

Other Notes

Much e-mail came in with kind words and notes of condolence. Too numerous to mention, but all greatly appreciated. I lost a close relative. Memories remain, spirit certainly perseveres.

In a day or so I will post about the very busy year it seems to have been for The Angel of Death. It seems that this blog-entry-in-progress is taking a longer time to hone than do most. Must be closer to the bone, yes, that's it.

It was a week of significant instrospect and of feeling like I was operating at a slower speed than usual. Many thoughts and ideas swirled around in my head. Some, of course, rather somber. Some just memories, with a tinge of melancholy and adjustment to the new state of family affairs.

And this event occuring just as the holiday season approaches adds an certain acute pointedness to the whole new reality. Life goes on, death is a part of life, we adjust, we move forward.

I also found myself wondering which of the younger generation will name a child after this relative, as is the custom. It is a Talmudic belief that the soul does not rest easily or at peace until a child is named for the departed.

It is also the belief that the soul travels through very specific chambers or passages in the first days after departure. It hovers over the gravesite for a certain period. It lingers among the relatives for a period. And then as a year passes the soul makes its way to where it will rest.

I am not sure that I believe all that, but it is a concept I have always appreciated. There is comfort in giving consideration to this travel path for the soul of the departed.

Rush To Judgment

I was driving from the cemetery, going back to my relativeís house when Rush Limbaugh returned. Being as I was in a very somber mood, this seemed like a possible pick-me-up. I was in the car, alone, and had just shoveled some dirt on the grave, as is customary. I was rather upset. I turned on the radio to see if something could occupy my mind as I made the drive from the cemetery.

There are many family members in that cemetery. I recall each and every trip there, who died, when, how, and all the circumstances. As I drove away, checking out what was on the radio seemed like a way to help pull myself together as I drove to the gathering after the burial.

Limbaugh came on, and he was gangbusters. Like he hadnít missed a beat. Not even maudlin! He did an extended monologue, talked a bit about the addiction, about the detox and rehab procedure, and then he went right on to assure the audince that he had not been turned into a linguini-spined liberal by the treatment or those administering it. He lambasted Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, he complained that nothing had changed in his absence.

And he was his entertaining self. Much as his content and slant are putrid and packed with lies and hyperbole, the man is great on the radio. And listening to him did alter my somber mood a touch. My thoughts ran toward how good he is at what he does, and how wonderful it would be if an equally talented and entertaining talk show host from the other side of the political aisle would emerge.

Avert War? Not an Option for Dubya

Remember, the man is known as Dubya. And dubya is the first letter in his favorite word: WAR. This man loves war. He prefers it to peace. This is another of those news items that gets lost in the shuffle, falls through the cracks. We can learn all about Michael Jacksonís ranch and his idiosyncracies. We can hear about Kobe Bryant, who may or may not have raped a young woman. And what is a day without some Laci Peterson trial tidbits? But continued coverage and investigative journalism on Dubya and his regiministas ignoring an opportunity to avoid waging war? Nah, this gets relegated to the bare minimum of coverage, and is a forgotten story.

ABC News, among others, reported a deal [2] offered to the CIA by supporters of Saddam Hussein was ignored by the Dubyadministration. In this deal , Saddam would have surrendered in order to ward off the war. This story carries an April 24, 2003 dateline.

The Courier Mail, an Australian paper in Queensland carried a story about it [3] earlier this month.

So did the New York Times [4]. (Many thanks to Dave Winer [5] for showing the light to The Times, to Aaron Swarz [6] and The New York Times Link Generator [7] (for which he seems to be responsible), and to Calpundit [8] for that piece on how to access NY Times RSS links for blog usage [9]. And also to Jason Kotke [10] (whom I sat two stools down from at The Oyster Bar a week ago last Saturday, but wasnít aware that it was he who was him) who posted the link to the Generator [9]in a comment on the Calpundit page.

So what does this proposed olive branch from Saddam mean? That war might have ñwould have ñ been averted? That Iraqi and American and Coalition forces lives might not have been lost? That cooperation might have occurred?

What! Cooperation with the Iraqis? Dubya wouldnít hear of that! How could he go down in history as the President who foisted a form of Democracy on this nation (like it or not, want it or not, understand it or not, accept it or go into cultural shock or not), how could he give all those plum contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel, et al if he didnít throw himself and us a good old fashioned pre-emptive invasion, war and occupation?

Death in the name of war and democracy. Invading a nation to show them that his way is the right way, and they will accept it or be subject to more brutality. Hmm, didnít a certain European leader try that approach in the 1930s and 1940s?

Of course that guy wasn't a draft dodger with a record for Drunk Driving. But they both found a source of strength and unity in pinning the problems of the world, particularly the economy, on a seemingly different and insidious sort of people.

Hmmm. "The War On Terror" "The Final Solution" Yes, there are certain similarities. Maybe he shouldn't be called Dubya. How about Der Bushmeister?