I was gonna post my favorite Weird Al song today...

...then I wandered over to Monkey Mind and after listening to Leonard Cohen, that just didn't seem right.

And it also doesn't seem right just to crib the song James Ford posted out of the context in which he posted it.

Caesar's week, God's world

A commenter posted this at the Hot Stove Report (the running update on newly named candidates for UU ministry) on Facebook. It is attributed to the late Roger A. Cowan:

And so we come on our donkeys,
Some from Detroit and some from Tokyo and even a few from Seoul.
With horns blaring and brakes screeching,
We enter the city, the holy of holies.
We know what Caesar wants:
Testing ranges and new arenas while the homeless haunt church basements
and the poor shuffle in the streets.
But we march to a different drummer.
Not many rich, not many mighty.
A vagabond crew in a strange land,
Whose ways are not our ways
Nor thoughts our thoughts.
But let us be of good cheer.
Let the word go out.
The donkey is mightier than the missile.
And flowers have been known to split a rock.
This week moves inexorably toward Friday.
It is Caesar’s week.
But it is God’s world.
And so we take heart and rejoice. Amen.

May it be so.
Blessed be.
Amen.
Ho.

A conspiratorial fantasy

A disclaimer:

I don't write much directly about politics here, and I don't profess to be a political analyst, at least in this particular context. I know my own particular points of view on political issues surface from time to time, but generally I prefer to leave a lot of the heavy lifting of debating politics to others.

Now, an exception...

I'll acknowledge being very pleased with the health insurance reform legislation that passed this week. I'll also acknowledge that, if it were up to me, I'd like it to have been a lot different -- probably something much more like a single-payer model. At the same time, I think what we have now is a very good start, and I think the most rabid right-wing critiques of it ("government takeover!" "socialism!" "death panels!") are hooey. Or "bovine feces," as someone else on the net said today about, I think, a somewhat different topic...

But...

I've been reading a lot lately that this is basically Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan -- mandated health insurance and all. Or that it's very similar to ideas that came out of the Heritage Foundation about a decade ago. Or, in fact, the GOP alternative floated in the 1990s to the Clinton reform proposal. And then we hear people like David Frum lament that the GOP should have engaged the actual bill instead of carping on the sidelines and might have gotten more from it...

(An aside: As a newspaper reporter in the early '90s who covered some ideas in health care reform at the time, through the lens of a Business Desk workplace reporter, I recall doing a story about a set of proposals coming from a guy who at the time worked for Liberty Mutual. It was, in essence, a private-sector approach to universal health care. Mandated insurance was an important part of his proposal.)

And I wonder...

What if all the hysteria on the right -- the Tea Party Town Hall protests, the crazy association of Obama with Hitler -- was just some crazy-ass feint? What if the whole thing was the GOP saying, "Please don't throw me in the briar patch!"? Because in the end, they got their plan from 1994 or so, didn't they?

Just sayin'...

"Playing with matches"

David Pyle looks thoughtfully at the emotional state of the far right -- and speaks from the distinct vantage point of one who has been there.

"I do not want to write about this to cause fear, because I do not think there really is much for society as a whole to fear. But for individuals on the political left who have been identified as targets, there is certainly reason to be cautious right now… because I believe the far-right of American Politics is an emotional tinderbox, and certain conservative politicians and media icons are playing with matches."

The rest is here.

(Note: The only reason this one isn't categorized under "Stuff I wish I'd written" is because I simply would never have qualified to write it. But I admire it all the same -- if not more.)

The first March on Washington

A fascinating bit of history, via "Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout"

So Coxey decided to bring the unemployed to Washington to petition Congress. Word of Coxey’s plan spread and attracted wide attention, many came to Ohio to join him.

One very small quibble: Patrick says that last weekend's immigration rally

"...attracted hardly a ripple of interest by the news media or concern from authorities while a couple of thousand Tea Baggers spewing racial epithets and threats at members of Congress over Health Care Reform got all of the attention."

I can't speak for other news outlets, but in fairness, both the Milwaukee and the Kenosha (Wis.) papers played Sunday's immigration rally quite prominently.

Update: When I commented on Patrick's blog, he specified he was referring to national TV and cable coverage. Fair enough.

Fish in a Barrel, No. 2

Montel Williams, Sylvia Browne event canceled

Posted: March 24, 2010

The "Up Close & Personal" show featuring Montel Williams and psychic Sylvia Browne scheduled for Monday at the Milwaukee Theatre has been canceled. The promoter blamed "unforeseen circumstances."

Spokesman Dan King with All Good Productions said in an e-mail that "all customers have been contacted" about refunds. Ticket prices ranged from $202 to $62.

Social Justice: What Glenn Beck doesn't understand, and what Jim Wallis doesn't address

Love Jim Wallis. But Will Shetterly is right:

Wallis fails to take the next step, perhaps because he's trying very hard to give no ammunition to those who call him a commie: Ending slavery required BIG GOVERNMENT. Ending racial segregation required BIG GOVERNMENT. Ending apartheid required BIG GOVERNMENT. The "vital movements of faith" (including atheists who believe in social justice) needed BIG GOVERNMENT to pass BIG LAWS.

Read the whole thing at "it's all one thing."