yield to power isn’t
that it is legitimate
or that it is just
Most of us have sound enough moral instincts to reject the notion that might makes right. Power alone is not a sufficient marker of righteousness. We may watch people bow to power out of fear or awe, but yielding to power isn’t the same thing as acknowledging that it is legitimate or that it is just.
David French in the opinion piece Why Are So Many Christians So Cruel? (New York Times – Dec. 22, 2024).
appropriate but
mistaken impression things
keep getting bigger
From the last line of the article, The Godfather Part II at 50: Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling masterpiece by Jesse Hassenger in the Guardian.
Mr. Hassenger writes, “The Godfather Part II gave the appropriate but mistaken impression that for a pugnacious American visionary, things could just keep getting bigger.”
Thinking of other big name, pugnacious American visionaries in the news these days.
Mr. Hassenger writes: Some years later, the ambition and scale of peak American 70s film-making would wobble and collapse, after some big-budget epics failed to pay off and blockbuster sequels – a little like The Godfather Part II, but maybe not so dark, not so long, not so downbeat – became even more enticing.
I am thinking these other big name, pugnacious American visionaries will also wobble and collapse.
As Big Bill wrote … ‘Tis a consummation to be wished.’
get punched in the mouth
exactly what we needed
talking to all of us
“What happens is you get used to eating filet, and I’m talking to all of us,” Campbell said.
“And everything’s good. Life’s good, but you forgot what it was like when you had nothing and you ate your (bleeping) molded bread and it was just fine, and it gave you everything you needed, and sometimes you got to get punched in the mouth and remember what it used to be like to really appreciate where you are.
And we’ll do that.
And so we got a bad taste in our mouth, we got kicked around the other day, we lost a few guys and you know what?
It’s exactly what we needed.
This is exactly what we needed.”
From the article, Lions’ Dan Campbell’s epic interview: ‘You forgot what it was like when you had nothing‘ by Dave Birkett in the Detroit Free Press.
I am not saying the football or sports SHOULD define us but I DO think that there are applications of this to many many facets of life on earth today.
Also have to take my hat to Coach Campbell for is awe inspiriting command of the English language.
I once attended a funeral where the eulogy was made by then Michigan Head Football Coach, Bo Schembechler.
It was a funeral but he had the audience ready to run through a brick wall, head first, when he finished talking.
I did it to make
his life miserable, which
I’m happy about
From the article, Trump Sues The Des Moines Register, Escalating Threats Against the Media by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Maggie Haberman, David Enrich and Alan Feuer.
The article states:
In Mr. Trump’s own telling, winning his civil legal actions isn’t always the point.
Mr. Trump, who has often attacked journalists publicly for details in news accounts that he hasn’t liked, famously lost a libel case that he brought against the writer Timothy O’Brien over Mr. O’Brien’s description of Mr. Trump’s net worth as much less than he claimed it to be.
The case played out over the span of years. But during the 2016 election, Mr. Trump told The Washington Post that it was worth it, even with the loss.
“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” he said of Mr. O’Brien and his book publisher. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about.”
“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” he said of Mr. O’Brien and his book publisher. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about.”
There isn’t enough here to move my needle of dismay and disgust anymore.
There is a spoiled little ten year old coming in the run things from the Oval Office again and may God Save the United States.
It’s like when The 19th century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz once said, “Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.
Only we got the poor United States.
So far from God.
So close to Donald Trump.
I am also reminded of what Winston Churchill said when Germany under Mr. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and Mr. Churchill said, “If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”*
I think that I can say if Mr. Trump sues the Devil, I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in Court.
*Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 370.
he tells her earth’s flat —
he knows the facts – the planet
goes on being round …
A Haiku for the incoming Presidential Cabinet.
Based on the poem He Tells Her by Wendy Cope.
He tells her that the Earth is flat—
He knows the facts, and that is that.
In altercations fierce and long
She tries her best to prove him wrong.
But he has learned to argue well.
He calls her arguments unsound
And often asks her not to yell.
She cannot win. He stands his ground.
The planet goes on being round.
Published in If I don’t know by Wendy Cope (Faber and Faber, London, 2001).
No vaccines.
No taxes.
No Department of Justices.
But there will be walls.
Lots of walls.
They tell of the story of the feller who died and went to heaven and was given a tour by one of the angels. They passed a long, single story, low building made of cement bricks with a flat roof, no windows and one solid, closed door. The feller asked the angel what that building was for and the angel said that it was for Baptists. “They think they are only ones here,” said the angel.
And the planet goes on being round.
No Haiku For You 