Before diving into today for "this day in history," I must touch on an event for yesterday with advanced thanks for your patience & kind indulgence. Allen Ginsberg died 12 years ago yesterday, and I remember exactly how I found out about it. Hubby & I had just returned from a long weekend in a state park south of Indianapolis. I opened up the Indianapolis Star, and there was the awful headline. The news that Mr. Ginsberg had terminal liver cancer had just broken a few days before that, so I thought I had a year to "get used to" the idea of him not being with us anymore. I must have cried out after reading it because Hubby came running down the stairs of our townhouse. Not long after, in observance of National Poetry Month, I participated with a public reading of portions of "Howl" & "America." The looks on a lot of people's faces when I got to the line "Go f*ck yourselves with your atom bomb..." was PRICELESS. ;D Mr. Ginsberg would've been pleased.
I had the thrill of actually meeting & talking with Allen Ginsberg at a poetry reading at nearby Butler University. He would've been pleased, I think, with the President we have now, but he would've been absolutely angered & broken - hearted at the path our nation had to take to get here. Here is a clip of him reading "Father Death Blues," a poem he wrote on a plane on the way back from Boulder, CO upon hearing of the death of his father. I cry every time I hear it, but, if I have the composure to do so, I'd like to sing this at my father's service, which I hope will be a long, long, LONG time away.
HA! There's actually an event for "this day in history" that sort of relates to Mr. Ginsberg. On this date in 1983, Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock 'n' roll bands attract the "wrong element."
HERE'S TO "WRONG ELEMENTS!"
Let's Countdown!
#5 "Obama Overseas" AKA "Reaching Out" AKA "Diplobamacy" AKA "Newt’s Active Fantasy Life" AKA "Fantasy Camp" - I have a feeling that President Obama is going to be very happy to be back in the good ‘ol US of A; I bet he misses the girls like crazy. In Turkey today, he said clearly that our country is not at war with Islam. Uh – oh...no wonder Michele Bachmann is worrying about "re – education camps." Her whole world view & the world view of a very ornery minority are gonna be shot to hell! North Korea set off a long – range rocket over the weekend – in case y’all hadn’t heard. But, don’t forget, according to David Frum, President Obama didn’t accomplish a damn thing. Here’s a recent photo of Mr.Frum.
Jonathan Alter, then – candidate Obama COULDN’T talk about the Muslim part of his life because people were already calling him "socialist," "palling around with terrorists," etc. Can y’all just imagine how bad the rhetoric would’ve been if he HAD talked about it?! OK, if our country doesn’t "negotiate" with our enemies, then who the f*ck was President Reagan meeting with in Iceland, Moscow, DC, etc.? If memory serves, he looked & sounded a whole lotta Soviet to me, and we weren’t exactly BFFs with them during that time. But, when HE did it, it was apparently OK. That recent pic of David Frum could apply to the whole damn GOP! Of course, Newt said his little shtick on FAUX News. Newt wanted us to use freakin’ laser beams attached to something to fight the North Korean rocket?! AH – HA! I’VE GOT IT; NEWT GINGRICH IS REALLY DR. EVIL WITH A BAD RUG!
#4 "Honoring the Fallen" AKA "Dignified Transfer" - We all can finally now see the final journey of American treasure return to American soil &, like Keith said, shoulder a bit of the pain with the families of those fallen in defense of our country. I can only imagine that Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers family didn’t want to have to be first, but, also as Keith said, the first return was going to be SOMEONE’s story. This whole "not showing coffins coming home" policy was just asinine! It’s almost like previous administrations thought that if no one saw those coffins come to Dover that no one really died. The policy originated because GWB’s Daddy was caught making an a$$ of himself during the Panama invasion.
** Pillow fight! I wonder if any of those pillows had bricks in ‘em? We’re back to lifting object with ears in India! A Countdown viewer has made the Cubs’ roster! ALL RIGHT! The Virginia GOP "leader" has been sacked! **
#3 "Wasilliness" AKA "Daytime Drama" AKA "Palintics" - Levi Johnston is making the talk show rounds! I wonder how Tyra Banks managed to snag this all – American family? Levi was ORDERED to go to the GOP convention. And, Grandma Gov. TurkeyLover ain’t happy! Of all the things going on in her state & in our country, THIS is the most important thing she can talk about? Next time ‘ol Levi goes hunting, make sure he puts the ‘ol former future MIL in a wolf suit & send up the armed helicopters! Was that too much? Sorry...I’ve said before; I’ll say again. "That woman" brings out the worst in me. Gee, I wonder if Craig Crawford volunteered to chat up this story? ;D Bristol’s an "...advocate for abstinence..."? Huh...didn’t someone vaguely resembling Bristol say abstinence wasn’t realistic?
WPITW – BillO has accused the Spanish lawyer investigating GWB officials of collaborating with terrorists even though he helped bring down Pinochet’. Glenn Beck is pi$$ed that SNL hasn’t parodied him yet.
#1 "Marie Olbermann 1929 – 2009" - OMG...I don’t know what to say; I really don’t. OK gang, Keith has told us what to do. I know times are tough, but let’s do what we can to honor the family of Marie Olbermann. www.KOMEN.org or St. Jude’s Hospital <WWW.STJUDE.ORG>.