COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, April 20, 2012

"Ophelia, Where have you gone?"



Rolling Stone


Levon Helm, on his second run, burned it out.



Levon Helm, singer and drummer for the Band, died on April 19th in New York of throat cancer. He was 71. 
"He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon surrounded by his friends and bandmates," Helm's longtime guitarist Larry Campbell tells Rolling Stone. "All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity. It was even two days ago they thought it would happen within hours, but he held on. It seems like he was Levon up to the end, doing it the way he wanted to do it. He loved us, we loved him."
In the late Nineties, Helm – whose singing anchored Band classics like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Up on Cripple Creek," "Rag Mama Rag," and "The Weight" – was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent 28 radiation treatments, eventually recovering his voice. In recent weeks, however, Helm had canceled a number of shows, including one at the New Orleans Jazz Fest on April 27th and another in Montclair, New Jersey. A note posted to his website on Tuesday from his daughter Amy and wife Sandy said that Helm was in the "final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration...he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage." 
Born May 26, 1940 in Arkansas, Helm was literally a witness to the birth of rock & roll; as a teenager, he saw Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis in concert and was inspired to play drums after seeing Lewis' drummer, Jimmy Van Eaton. (Helm went on to play mandolin and other stringed instruments as well). In 1960, Helm joined the backup band of rockabilly wildman Ronnie Hawkins – a group that would eventually include Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, all future members of the Band.



The musicians broke from Hawkins to form their own group – their names included the Crackers and Levon and the Hawks – but it was their association with Bob Dylan that cemented their reputation. After Dylan saw the group in a club (either in Canada or New Jersey, depending on the source), he invited Helm and guitarist Robertson to join his electric band. "Bob Dylan was unknown to us," Helm wrote in his 1993 memoir This Wheel's on Fire. "I knew he was a folksinger and songwriter whose hero was Woody Guthrie. And that's it." Robertson and Helm were in Dylan's electric band for his controversial, frequently booed show at New York's Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. Afterward, various members of the Band played on Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and toured with him in 1966. (Helm left temporary in 1965, tired of the ongoing hostility from Dylan's folk fans.)
Recuperating in Woodstock after his 1966 motorcycle accident, Dylan again hooked up with the band that would soon be the Band. Before Helm rejoined them, they recorded the landmark Basement Tapes, and the Band's crackling, homespun take on American roots music began to take shape. Rechristening themselves the Band, they signed to Capitol Records and released two classic albums, Music From Big Pink (1968) and The Band (1969). Although Robertson was the Band's principal songwriter, it was Helm's beautifully gruff and ornery voice that brought the Canadian Robertson's mythic Americana songs to life. He was also one of rock's earliest singing drummers.
In 1976, at Robertson's urging, the Band broke up after its farewell concert, known as "The Last Waltz." In meetings before the concert and as recounted in This Wheel's on Fire, Helm was adamantly opposed to the group disbanding. "I didn't want any part of it," he wrote. "I didn't want to break up the band." He begrudgingly went along, but his relationship with Robertson was never the same. After the show, Helm formed his own band, Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars, featuring fellow legends Dr. John, Steve Cropper, and Booker T. Jones, and recorded several solo albums. Helm also ventured into acting with an acclaimed role in 1980's Coal Miner's Daughter, playing Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek's) father. But he couldn't leave the Band behind, and with Danko, Manuel, and Hudson, he formed a new version of the Band in the early Eighties, recording three new studio albums with them.
The Band continued for a while after Manuel's suicide by hanging in 1986, but Danko's death in 1999 of heart failure ended the Band once and for all. By then, Helm was dealing with throat cancer. After his recovery, he began holding intimate concerts in his combination barn and studio in Woodstock, called the "Midnight Ramble," in part to pay his medical bills. The low-key, woodsy performances became must-see shows and attracted a rock who's who; Elvis Costello, Natalie Merchant, the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh and Donald Fagen were among the many who joined Helm and his band. The Ramble shows led to two acclaimed Helm solo albums – 2007's Dirt Farmer, which won a Grammy in the Best Traditional Folk category, and 2009's Electric Dirt, which resulted in a Grammy for Best Americana album. "This go-round has been a lot more fun," Helm told Rolling Stone in 2009. "Now I know I've got enough voice to do it."
When the Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, Helm didn't attend, revealing that his feud with Robertson was still on. "I thought Levon was going to show," Robertson told Rolling Stone a few years later. "Then that evening they said he changed his mind and wasn't going to come. And I thought, 'Oh, God, it would have been better if he was here.'"
Helm's throat cancer had taken a toll on his singing voice. On stage and in recent interviews, his voice was sometimes strong but other times was reduced to a low rasp. But at one his last shows, in Ann Arbor on March 19th with a 13-piece band, the audience roared when he sang the Band classic "Ophelia." "I'm not the poster boy of good health," he said in an interview last year. "But I'm not doing too bad. I still got the energy to make music. As long as I can do that, I'm great."



.. and here we have Levon Helm and the Band with Bob Dylan, 1969. For some reason the cameraman does not show Levon till 2:25:




Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/levon-helm-drummer-and-singer-of-the-band-dies-at-71-20120419#ixzz1sYGVNZsL

78 comments:

  1. Which would you rather watch, 'Storage Wars' or 'The Band'?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Frank Sinatra, the most hated man in America during WWII, because of his perceived draft dodging, though he had a deferment as "not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint" (before the age of Zoloft) said of Elvis Presley that " his kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people."

    Many have traced the beginnings of the fall of America to Elvis Presley and about the same time, Little Richard.

    Frank's dad was on the Hobokin Fire Department, and his mother a pillar of the democratic party in Hobokin ran an abortion business out of the back of the house.

    Putting in a full 47 days in high school, he never looked back.

    At one point when the career was failing in mid life, he approached the Feds to 'turn rat', for a fee. What came of this seems uncertain.

    He was a member of The Rat Pack, after all.

    My two wiki cents for the post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just love to see the "youngsters" having fun.

    Thanks, Deuce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If only one didn't have to listen to them.

      Delete
    2. We were young, we were thin and we were beautiful!

      Delete
    3. Some is doin' better at that than others. :)

      Delete
    4. Well, Rufus, I have faith that you pretty much can keep up with the best of them

      Delete
    5. Not even in my dreams, Melodya; not even in my dreams.

      dangit. :)

      Delete
    6. It's been a "fun" ride, but not without its toll. :)

      Delete
  4. If you think this doesn't drive the fossil fuel boys, and the utilities crazy you're not thinking it through:

    McCormick and Company and Constellation Energy have announced that McCormick's 363,000-square-foot distribution center in Belcamp, Md., now generates more electricity than it uses.

    The center is considered a net-zero energy building, which means it produces as much or more electricity than it consumes from the grid. For McCormick's Belcamp facility, this was achieved through energy conservation measures implemented by McCormick and the installation of a 1.8-megawatt rooftop solar power system from Constellation Energy in 2011.


    McCormick achieves Net Zero Energy Use

    And, this is in Maryland - hardly the "deep south."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "big box" applications are smart. The residential market is still dealing with skepticism about 25-yr warranties and installation costs. If this country ever moves to one of the so-called "portable" nuclear reactors (thorium), the (smaller) grids become more secure. But commercial/industrial just seems like win-win.

      Delete
  5. And, crazy-assed McCain is bitching, incessantly, that the DOD is spending some money on Renewables.

    The break-down is something like this:

    DOD Budget $781.0 Billion

    Renewables in DOD Budget $0.1 Billion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He really needs to to take up shuffleboard.

      Delete
  6. In places like Iraq, and Afghanistan we lose a Lot of our people transporting fuel, and Half of that fuel is used for Generators.

    If we can eliminate our need for Diesel fuel generators we can eliminate a Lot of Casualties, and Expense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Especially when you consider that Diesel Fuel can cost us as much as $400.00 a Gallon in a place like Afghanistan.

      Delete
  7. "With these six solar power systems in Colorado, we reach an exciting milestone of 100 solar power installations on U.S. Walmart stores, clubs, and distribution centers," said Marty Gilbert, Walmart director of energy.

    Walmart aims for 100% Renewable Electricity

    ReplyDelete
  8. I never confirmed but always suspected ego tension between Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson. Anyway RIP. Regardless of individual players, those days are over as they always are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Not to those who lived through them and refuse to let go.

      .

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    2. Those gold chains hanging defiantly under a careful cut of two inches just over the collar ... the good times do linger.

      Delete
    3. .

      A few us bi-passed the gold chains even when gold chains were in.

      There were/are others pleasures that are harder to give up, the music just being one of them.

      :)

      .

      Delete
  9. Days over with the modern technology we have? Tupac is back with us :O

    NYTimes had a editorial on the Tupac thing. Seems it wasn't a hologram but an old magicians trick. Not so amazing technology after all.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 2D projection on an invisible screen, not a 3D hologram.

    The cultural traditions sustained by books, movies, music and good old fashioned story-telling, not various laser technologies.

    The dustbin of history.

    ReplyDelete
  11. As the investigation into the Secret Service sex scandal unfolds, one of the agents driven out is set to sue, a congressional insider tells CBS News. Congress expects more resignations in the matter within days, according to Rep. Peter King. While reports have held that three agents have been forced to leave, a lawyer for two of them—David Chaney and Greg Stokes—says that's inaccurate, according to Reuters. "Nobody has been involuntarily separated from the agency as we speak today, nobody," he says.

    Shades of Dominic Strauss Kahn.

    It's always about money.

    Much as we convince ourselves otherwise.

    My radar started to ring in when I read about the $30, as in pieces of silver, vs the $800 dream.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I, Cartagena hooker, Speaks (some more.)

    ReplyDelete
  13. She doesn't look like an $800.00 gal to me.

    'course, she don't look like no $30.00/gal, either.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I wonder if getting drunk and hiring hookers in Chile is a firable offense under their employment contract.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm also thinking 11 (allegedly) out of 3600 in the Secret Service. Either a handful left the farm (so to speak) or someone was set up. I understand that the talks did not go well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I haven't been following the story that much; however, it's funny they all left the farm together.

      Anyone who has been following the current GSA scandal or for that matter the way the military handled those pallets full of Benjamins that were flown into Iraq knows this isn't an isolated event.

      Corruption in all its forms is rampant in the government.

      [And not just in the government]


      When I was dealing with our assembly plant (20 years ago) periodically we would have people in procurement or SQA caught accepting gifts of TV's, etc. (the max gift allowed was $25 dollars and it was preferred if it had the vendors name on it). The employee was invariably fired. So in exchange for a $400-$500 TV, the emplyoyee gives up a job making $60k-$70k (decent money back then), some of the best benefits available, his pension, and his seniority. Hardly a clever move.

      Can you imagine what the other agents who were caught up in this thing think of the nitwit who brought it about by arguing about a $30 tab?

      .

      Delete
  16. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

    Too much training and all of a sudden, every flyswatter is a nuke.

    Danger everywhere we look.

    The United States Has Gone Mad (Link)

    America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams.


      I was going to comment "Hey, you stole my line;" but then I noticed the date on Le Carre's article was January, 2003.

      Prescient.

      .

      Delete
  17. J. McNutz, and the other MIC sock-puppets are singing the same old song, this time about "Syria," but no one is much in the mood for dancing in 2012.

    They will try, though.

    And, they'll Keep Trying.

    It's their job.

    ReplyDelete
  18. From LeCarre's wiki entry:

    Cornwell left the service in 1964 to work full-time as a novelist, as his intelligence officer career was ended by the betrayal of British agents' covers to the KGB by Kim Philby, a British double agent (of the Cambridge Five)[7][10]. Le CarrƩ depicts and analyses Philby as 'Bill Haydon', the upper-class traitor, code-named Gerald by the KGB, the mole George Smiley hunts in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974).[11][12] Credited by his pen name, Cornwell appears as an extra in the 2011 movie version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, among the guests at the Christmas party seen in several flashback scenes.

    I have to give the movie a recommendation. It helps to know the story ahead of time.

    John le CarrƩ said he did not know his mother, who abandoned him when he was five years old, until their re-acquaintance when he was 21 years old.[5] His relationship with his father was difficult, given that the man had been jailed for insurance fraud, was an associate of the Kray twins[5] (among the foremost criminals in London) and was continually in debt. A biographer reports,

    "His father, Ronnie, made and lost his fortune a number of times due to elaborate confidence tricks and schemes which landed him in prison on at least one occasion. This was one of the factors that led to le CarrƩ's fascination with secrets."

    The Kray twins, known as Britain's Godfathers are depicted in the 1990 movie "The Krays."

    ReplyDelete
  19. .

    Who cares about renewables when you can get some really interesting news out of the Enquirer.

    It's being reported by a 'source' that Rosen was merely a tool used by her gal-pal Michelle to launch the attack on Ann Romney. It was all Michelle's idea.

    Meeeeooww!


    [The Big O is reportedly furious. Supposedly, if Michelle weren't bigger than him, he would be kicking ass.]


    .

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  20. RE Syria & the MIC.

    Never wise to discount the unpopularity of war among certain interested parties.

    But my reaction is a visceral dislike of Bashar and Alma al-Assad. I'm thinking a pair of little snots if ever there were. Not seeing much depth of humanity in either of them.

    Of course, considering the totality of western leadership, one could conclude they are more representative than outlier but that leads directly to LeCarre's moral ambiguity that the west is no different from the east.

    In narrow terms of leadership, the rebuttal argument becomes dainty.

    ReplyDelete
  21. fuck part II.

    Never wise to discount the popularity of war among certain interested parties.

    Tripping over double negatives like a grammar kid.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Sounds like Michelle is a girl fan of Asma "I'm the real dictator" Assad.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Corruption in all its forms is rampant in the government.

    I hardly now what to say.

    After a month or more of Desperately Seeking Precision in the subject of conservative Christians, and, spin that dime, here comes the blanket condemnation, the hell with gory details.

    I made a similar "Big Picture" point awhile back on this subject, something to the effect that with the wind-down of "hot" foreign policy engagements, the country would begin domestic reforms, which is exactly what is happening. Unlike Wall St, these folks are getting punished.

    The Cartagena 11 episode does not map into the kind of government corruption displayed by the GSA exposure (or the Abramoff scandal or Iran-Contra or Watergate) - in quantity, quality, scope, or damage.

    For that matter, blame it all on Original Sin and retreat back in your cave.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      After a month or more of Desperately Seeking Precision in the subject of conservative Christians, and, spin that dime, here comes the blanket condemnation, the hell with gory details.


      The difference you ignore my dear is that when asked to provide examples of where "religion was being shoved down your throat" or that the totality of "modern conservatism" falls into your rubrics regarding being controlled by religion, you were unwilling or unable to do so.

      When I continued to push, you stamped your little foot and huffed off.

      If you would like me to provide you with examples supporting my statement I will be glad to start listing them as the day goes on.

      By the way, your last comment is an example of expediancy, another logical fallacy.

      .

      Delete
    2. When I continued to push, you stamped your little foot and huffed off.

      Trish was right about you. Retrieving your stock snit rebuttals from the library.

      Predictable and amusing.

      Bars will be bars.

      (FWIW both of your "clinging" questions were answered way back at the beginning, which implies circles - or faulty memory - and I'm not going to "dance around the mulberry bush" with you, "MD.")

      Delete
    3. .

      Trish?

      A name from the past. A smart girl. I would't argue with anything she said, at least, when she's not here for me to do it directly.

      Since you seem to be in touch with her, tell her she's missed.

      As for the rest...well...

      :)


      .

      Delete
  24. Dick Cheney did more to compromise the future of this country than Obama, with or without the evil glint of Marxism in his devious eyes, could ever imagine doing.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Sarkozy in in trouble, as much from political issues as personal style.

    Seems like the "proletariat" is losing its fascination with the glamorous lifestyle, if not the glamor girls - Asma, Carla, ... Michelle?

    ReplyDelete
  26. I encourage everyone to read the John LeCarre essay linked above.

    We (those of us who supported the Iraq invasion, which included me) were all sucker punched by this group of heathens.

    The ones in the White House.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://2164th.blogspot.com/2012/04/ophelia-where-hyave-you-gone.html?showComment=1334936133827#c7584032021419282221

      Delete
    2. Oh, that article. I think a lot of people back then wanted to believe. Those of us who argued against the Iraq adventure back in the beginning, John LeCarre included it seems, thought the case presented by the Bush administration was a bad one. For example, WMD being one of the main reasons for going in but we had the weapons inspectors moving about Iraq at will saying "we can't find any" yet WMD's were touted as a prime reason for invading. Sad stuff!

      Delete
  27. Some of you might want to take a look at wretchard's Fatland thread (obesity leading to quite a different subject as only wretchard can do.)

    ReplyDelete
  28. WMD being one of the main reasons for going in but we had the weapons inspectors moving about Iraq at will saying "we can't find any" yet WMD's were touted as a prime reason for invading.

    Checking the proliferation of WMD was the only redeeming value of the Iraq engagement. In fact, that was my primary reason for supporting the war.

    The existence and use of bio-chem WMD's against the Kurds and in Kuwait is fully documented, as is the convoy transport out of Iraq and into Syria. I don't have all the bullet point specifics off the top of my head but you will get them (from multiple well-informed sources) by posting that allegation at BC. I'm sure Teresita probably has the details as well. It is quite simply false, in every sense of the word.

    As for nuclear WMD's, A. Q. Khan was moving in high gear with his "portable" version. History will show to what degree his activities were impaired by the Americans entering Iraq.

    That there were "no WMD" is patently false.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was a history of WMD in Iraq, sure, but in the immediate lead up to the war weapons inspectors had full run of the place and there was no need to invade at that point. Yes the mobilization was a factor in Iraq's acquiescence but once obtained the Casus belli no longer existed.

      Delete
  29. Deuce may find this little tid bit I just ran across interesting:

    "The two conservative politicians first got to know each other more than 35 years ago when their early careers overlapped at the Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Netanyahu, then 26, had been at MIT studying management; Mr. Romney, then 29, had just graduated from Harvard. Both had elected to accept offers from the up-and-coming BCG.

    They participated in the firm’s famous weekly discussion groups that showed off both men’s verbal skills and analytical acumen.

    “He [Mr. Netanyahu] was a strong personality with a distinct point of view,” Mr. Romney told the New York Times, the publication that first reported on this interesting intersection in the two men’s careers. He added: “I aspired to the same kind of perspective.”

    Mr. Netanyahu recalls Mr. Romney, three years older and son of a former Michigan governor, as having the much higher profile. He was the one “seen as a winner,” Mr. Netanyahu said, speaking through a senior aide.

    To be sure, the period of overlap between the two men was just over a year and was often interrupted by Mr. Netanyahu’s frequent trips to Israel where he established a foundation against terrorism in honour of his late brother, Jonathan, a commando killed during the famous hostage rescue operation at Entebbe, Uganda.

    Despite the brevity, both politicians were said to have adopted the BCG style of analysis, giving them a certain comfort zone when dealing with each other.

    “We can almost speak in shorthand,” Mr. Romney said. “We share common experiences and have a perspective and underpinning which is similar.”

    Mr. Netanyahu’s aide was at pains to emphasize that the newspaper article “overstated” the closeness of the relationship – “they weren’t soul mates or anything,” he said. But it is clear the two men feel comfortable with one another.

    Mr. Netanyahu acknowledges that he offered advice to Mr. Romney when the Republican was the governor of Massachusetts on how best to shrink the size of government, and that Mr. Romney advised him to whom he should speak on the subject of corporate divestment from Iran.

    The two men had breakfast together in Israel last year, and Mr. Netanyahu called Mr. Romney last month when the Israeli was in Washington.

    “There was no formal meeting with Romney,” Mr. Netanyahu’s aide explained, “because, at that point, we’d have had to meet with all the Republican candidates.”

    Now the two old colleagues are in a position to help each other. "

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/israeli-pm-criticizes-obama-for-diplomacy-with-iran/article2408381/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with Obama’s reticence to buy Netanyahu’s bullshit about Iran being an immediate threat to anyone. If Romney makes a statement that he is not going to be a free-thinker in regards to the ME, I will not support him. Thanks for the link.

      Delete
  30. awesome Band tune with history
    Battle of the Plains of Abraham: "Acadian Driftwood".

    ReplyDelete
  31. Free Zimmerman, political prisoner.

    (two can play this game)


    I can tell you this, Zimmerman is going to walk, even if he is convicted in the first court.

    He will walk on appeal.

    bobbo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suggest a prisoner swap.

      Ash for Zimmerman. ;)

      Delete
  32. From Wired Magazine (2010):

    But WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal that for years afterward, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins and uncover weapons of mass destruction.

    An initial glance at the WikiLeaks war logs doesn’t reveal evidence of some massive WMD program by the Saddam Hussein regime — the Bush administration’s most (in)famous rationale for invading Iraq. But chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam’s toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict — and may have brewed up their own deadly agents.

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/wikileaks-show-wmd-hunt-continued-in-iraq-with-surprising-results/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saddam and his gang were no docile pussycats that is for sure. Similarly the Iranian regime isn't a warm and cuddly group of people but that doesn't mean the US should go to war.

      War is a very nasty piece of business and the US has chosen to engage in War for reasons they shouldn't have.

      Delete
  33. AshApr 20, 2012 01:57 PM
    Saddam and his gang were no docile pussycats that is for sure. Similarly the Iranian regime isn't a warm and cuddly group of people but that doesn't mean the US should go to war.

    War is a very nasty piece of business and the US has chosen to engage in War for reasons they shouldn't have.



    Iran has been at war with the USA since 1978

    It's time to give them what they give us...

    Not to worry ash, you can hide in canada

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see you've lost the courage to post under your own 'name' WiO.

      Iran is at war with the US are they? They certainly aren't very good at inflicting much damage to the US. What imminent threat do they pose in your view WiO?

      Delete
  34. There is a willow...


    QUEEN GERTRUDE
    There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There with fantastic garlands did she come Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element: but long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.

    ReplyDelete
  35. "Defense lawyers and current and former government officials said the men under scrutiny may well lose their jobs because their behavior would cost them the security clearance needed to work for the Secret Service.

    “It is the classic way and easiest way to fire someone,” said Stephen M. Kohn, the head of the National Whistleblowers Center in Washington, which often represents government employees who face disciplinary action. “For security clearance you have to have a high level of trust and not have associations or relationships that could compromise you. For the government, if you don’t pay your loans or have an affair, you are susceptible to blackmail” and can lose your security clearance.

    “If you don’t have security clearance,” Mr. Kohn added, “you are usually on the street in 90 days without a job.” "


    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/world/americas/secret-service-to-dismiss-2-more-in-scandal-official-says.html?_r=1&hp#

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. and I left out the last paragraph.

      "It is not yet clear whether any of the military members hired prostitutes, Colonel Malcom said. If they did, they would have violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits service members from soliciting prostitutes. Penalties for such an infraction can include a dishonorable discharge and time in military prison."

      Pretty hard to keep to keep the military around with that on the books. Don't ask don't tell would be the operative there I'm guessing and, especially, don't argue the rate in hotel hallways with the hookers and cops.

      Delete
    2. Spoken with a voice of experience.

      Delete

  36. Trish was right about you. Retrieving your stock snit rebuttals from the library.


    heh, take that

    ReplyDelete
  37. I doubt there are 72 virgins in Denmark anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Only in Danish literature, and, I imagine, rarely there.

    Which brings me to a Danish mystic, Martinus....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinus_Thomsen

    ReplyDelete