This old essayist thought that one set of musings and ponderings while Ms. Chicka drives the car would be sufficient. Obviously, that is not the case. It appears that several other thoughts have occurred while the Chrysler is not in my control. Try these musings, for example.
Is 2004 a rerun of 1928?
During the 1920s, the Republicans furnished three presidents who ranged from mediocre to catastrophic. First there was Warren Gamiliel Harding followed by Calvin Coolidge. In 1928, Herbert Hoover headed the Republican ticket with Al Smith, the New York Governor as his Democratic opponent.
Al Smith, a Catholic candidate carried the torch for the Democrats. At the time, the states of the old Confederacy were referred to as the “Solid South for Democrats.” As it turns out, Al Smith lost the Solid South and the presidency. Much of his failed candidacy flowed from his Catholicism. The success of Hoover in that election led, of course, to the Great Depression starting in 1929.
During the 1920’s under the three Republican presidents, American industry controlled the strings of government. Unions were largely verboten. The captains of industry were triumphant and wiped their feet on their workers.
Under George Bush, much the same thing has happened. Bush has permitted the military-industrial complex to call the shots. Eisenhower would be appalled. In the 1920’s, the Republicans oversaw Prohibition, one of the more disastrous laws ever imposed on the American people. Under Bush the Pious, the message is to do away with all forms of abortion, to give faith a formal role in the secular American Government, and to have a Constitutional amendment barring same sex marriages. The captains of industry and the religious right were united in the 1920’s and under Bush, again they are flexing their righteous muscles.
One more coincidence between the 1920’s and 2004. In 2004, the Republicans defeated John Kerry, a church-going Catholic. Some people who voted for Kerry found it necessary to go to confession.
The question arises, are we headed for another Herbert Hoover type depression where religiosity replaces reality? It may work out that way with deficits at an all time high and the dollar at an all time low, and borrowing at unheard of levels. While we wait to see how things work out on the financial front, don’t forget that Bush has two daughters who may find use for abortion and same sex marriages.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
Without a doubt, Americans have been guilty of cruel torture in these two prisons. The word is torture, not strong discipline. Yet the lawyer who said that the Geneva Conventions are “quaint” gets promoted to be the Attorney General of the United States. The National Security Advisor who should have demanded that prisoners be accorded decent treatment, has now been designated as our next Secretary of State.
My ponderings and musings tell me that sooner or later, there will come a time when Americans soldiers will have to pay for our abuses at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib prisons. Wait till some of our soldiers find themselves in an Arab prison. Will Bush send John Ashcroft to rescue them?
Jerry Falwell’s Prescription for Gays
Early in December, Falwell was being interviewed by Chris Matthews, a mouthy employee of MSNBC. When asked by Matthews about homosexuality, Falwell stridently claimed that gayness is a choice. People are not born gay; they deliberately choose to be gays and lesbians. According to the rural reverend, young men of 13, 14 or 15 begin to look at off color magazines and also begin to smoke and to think about sexual matters. This of course, alters their approach to life and according to Falwell, makes gay people out of normal kids.
Unfortunately, time ran out before Matthews could ask Falwell how lesbians are made. Without a doubt, backwoods Jerry would say something like chewing bubble gum and blowing bubbles would turn good girls into lesbians. Do you suspect that Chaney’s daughter was one of those loose girls?
During the debates, when Bush was asked about homosexuality, he replied, “I just don’t know,” which if you read code correctly, means that people make a choice to become gay. Falwell has Bush’s ear so perhaps it is the official policy of the U.S. Government that gays are made, not born that way. And to think we have four more years to deal with such stupidity.
Could it be that reading Ed Carr’s essays are a precursor to homosexuality? As Bush said, “I just don’t know.”
Election Results
From the viewpoints of many people, the election represents the triumph of ideology over reality, fantasy over truth on the ground, and the triumph of faith over facts. To illustrate the last point, my eyesight no longer permits me to safely drive a car. But certainly, if faith was my guidepost, there is no reason why a NASCAR drivership should be denied me.
Faith permits the American public to say that the war is going formidably well in Iraq. Faith will tell us that prisoners at Abu Ghraib and at Gitmo are enjoying their country club vacations. Faith will tell us that deficits don’t matter. We can spend tons of money in Iraq and there will be no consequences at home. And we can borrow tons of money and never have to repay it.
And finally, there is this thought about faith and the Iraqi elections which some people hope will occur in January. If Iraq votes to have an Islamic government along the lines of Ayatollah Sistani’s Shia organization, how can Bush complain? Left alone, Bush would impose religion much more heavily into the American government. My bet is that the Iraqis may well tell Bush to take his democracy ideas and shove it. An Islamic government may well be in the works. And what can Bush do about it? Not much!
Deaths with no end in Iraq
During the Democratic primary campaign, Howard Dean said that deaths in Iraq would soon reach 400. This was about a year ago. During the summer, the number of American deaths rose first to 800 and then to 1000. The count in early December is close to 1300.
In the meantime, no one has successfully challenged the British publication, the Lancet, that 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives.
The question obviously arises: Is this American democracy in action? Are we any safer today than when the killing started with Bush’s pre-emptive invasion? The answer is clearly not. Never.
We are now sending 12,000 soldiers to Iraq to bring our occupying army to 150,000. When are we ever going to learn that every nation fights occupiers? Now the Iraqis have 150,000 American to hate – and that is what they will do.
The sooner we bring them home, the better.
Bush and his handlers often use the absolutely imbecilic idea that by fighting the insurgents in Iraq, saves us from fighting the Iraqi insurgents in Washington, in New York, in Kokomo, or in Gary, Indiana. What a specious argument this is. Until Bush invaded Iraq, against his father’s advice, there were no insurgents in Iraq. The campaigns of the American military have been the greatest recruiting tools the Iraqi insurgents ever had. When the cruelty imposed on Abu Ghraib prison was exposed, Arabs of all kinds flocked to Iraq. When one of our Marines shot an unarmed man lying on the ground, thousands more joined the insurgency.
On no occasion, have the Iraqis ever engaged American armed forces or civilians in the United States. To contend that our soldiers are fighting for a noble cause is a lie of the first order. There is no way that an American today can feel safer than before Bush launched his insane crusade against the Islamic world. Bush is once again engaging in his fantasy world where every encounter is “Mission Accomplished.”
World War II Monument
On a rainy day in early November, we set out to see the monument devoted to veterans of the Second World War. The fact that it was raining did not alter the thought that the WWII monument is somewhat overwhelming.
Everyone knows that the war ended in 1945. And the monument was dedicated in 2004, an interval of 59 years. Lots of people don’t live 59 years. With all this time to plan, the monument struck me as antiseptic. It was a sterile piece of work. It was a full blown symphony where a folk singer with a guitar would have made the point much better. It is a monument, not a memorial.
Three other memorials that are more impressive than the WWII affair spring instantly to mind. The wall with the names of 58,000 American dead from the Vietnam War will grab you. The platoon of soldiers which marks the Korean War where our losses exceeded 50,000 men will say, “Hey, look here.” The Irish Hunger Memorial in Manhattan will make you weep. But the WWII Monument seems to me to be impersonal. It doesn’t grab me by the neck and say, “400,000 men died here. Think about that.” It is a nice monument, but it is far from impressive in spite of its size.
As a veteran of that war, the designers could have designed a memorial that is more impressive. A flame in front of the wall marking the 400,000 men lost might be all that is needed. It took 59 years to produce this monument. Surely, in 59 years, a better one could emerge to mark the sacrifices of the men from the Great Depression who fought World War II.
Let me make one thing clear as we conclude the story of our visit to the WWII Monument. In all the 59 years before the monument was dedicated in the Summer of 2004, the thought that our war was unmarked by the U.S. Government was never given more than a passing thought. For this old Sergeant, the fact that he was able to make it home largely in one piece after 3½ years was quite enough. In my mind there was no urgent need to build a monument for the ages. But now that it is done, it seems to me that a simpler more poignant memorial would have done a lot better. Politicians designed this monument. Next time, we should use artists and sculptors. It is a monument designed by a committee and it has no heart. It is feared that the same thing is happening at the World Trade Center.
Getting mugged on Sunday evening religious TV broadcasts
It seems to me that as far as TV broadcasting is concerned, Sunday evening is a vast wasteland. Ordinarily, book reading takes place here on the seventh day or perhaps, some people call it the first day of the week. But there is a sad fact that applies to me. All things considered, it seems to me that my failing is to be attracted to scoundrels, particularly in politics and in religion. It is not that they have my support. Not at all. But scoundrels more or less seduce me.
On Sunday evenings at 8PM or 8:30PM on the Black Entertainment Network, a white preacher appears offering his “Wisdom Keys.” He claims to have written something on the order of 1500 books including many on the so-called “Wisdom Keys.” He also claims to have written 500 religious songs. At the beginning of each program, the scoundrel who is called Doctor Mike Murdock, starts with a description of one of his books. He will offer to send you a set for $20. But that is only Murdock’s warm up.
During the last half of his broadcast, Murdock, a man from Fort Worth, Texas, comes close to demanding that listeners “Plant a Seed.” Seed planting works like this. Murdock asks that the listeners send him $58 per week for 58 weeks. The listener who has planted a seed in Murdock’s garden, may now expect a dramatic turn-around in his life. He may get a big raise at work. He may win a lottery. He may find that a long lost relative has left him a fortune. By planting a seed in his own garden, Murdock has been rewarded with automobiles costing more than $100,000. There are occasions when Murdock tells his audience that Jesus has told him he ought to ask for planting of $1,000 seeds instead of $58 seeds.
In three years of seeing this scoundrel operate, he has never said that by planting a seed, the planter gains a leg up in heaven. Murdock says that ecclesiastical awards give way to worldly rewards. Murdock usually reads messages, signed with a first name only and with no home address, claiming that the seed planter has gotten a lucrative job or has stumbled into a fortune. And it must be supposed that the suckers keep on coming in.
It is clear that Murdock is reaping large sums of money from unsuspecting people who believe that a man who loudly proclaims his intimacy with God means good fortune for his audience. And Murdock is not alone. In Oklahoma, Robert Tilton is loudly announcing how his followers who have planted a seed are rolling in new found money. In California, the authorities have moved against a man named Close who has offered the seed idea. Close has a least five homes here and abroad and his own airplane to ferry him away when he tires of one of his homes.
Clearly and absolutely, Murdock and Tilton and Close are scoundrels preying on poor people who have faith in religious figures. In these cases, the Bible is a prop for a fleecing of ignorant people who think they can win the lottery. My attraction to scoundrels like these three comes from the obvious fact that poor people are being swindled – and the authorities seem afraid to lift a finger.
A question to my readers. Maybe Murdock does know something unknown to me. If this old essayist planted a $58 seed, do you think these essays might win a Pulitzer Prize? If you see me in a convertible Bentley, you will know the seed paid off. Until then, it appears that my transportation lot is the street car.
Preacher, Bishop, Doctor Shammah Womack
Another scoundrel who attracts my attention is this fellow Womack. This loudmouth is black who offers televised preachings to his flock at a church near Newark, New Jersey. In former days, seven or eight years ago, Shammah had a name like Harold or Donald. He opened a store adjacent to his father’s church where he claimed, among other things, that organs of the body could be medicated by eating fruits and nuts that resembled that organ. He claimed, for example, that when a walnut is opened, each halve of the shelled walnut resembled the brain. According to young Donald or Harold Womack, eating walnuts would do away with everything from headaches to cancer of the brain. This is not hearsay. My own ears and eyes were witnesses.
When young Womack’s father died seven or eight years ago, he stepped into the role of preacher. Before long, he announced his promotion to Bishop. As a bishop, he wore a clerical collar and a chain across his chest. He then took a new name of Shammah. That name has something to do with the Old Testament. Never one to read much, Preacher-Bishop Womack has recently called himself Doctor. For a young man from the suburbs of Newark, his ascension to higher ranks in the church is electrifying to those of us who watch what he may do next. Is sainthood the next step after Doctor?
Doctor Womack is now a distributor of an oil called Tanzi which is sold through his house of worship. Now here are Bishop Doctor Womack’s exact words: “It makes for good meditation and the production of miracles.”
My attention span is limited so it is unclear to me where Tanzi Oil is to be rubbed on or drunk. It is also unclear what sort of meditation or what sort of miracles may be produced. My shipment of Tanzi Oil should arrive here in a few days. As soon as my walnut halves therapy for my headaches is completed, Tanzi Oil will be tried in an effort to produce a sizeable income from these essays. Everything is owed to Doctor Shammah Womack. Tanzi may be better than Geritol.
 
Well, my Musings and ponderings have been temporarily exhausted, so for a while, my gaze will be out the windows of the car without much musing. As you can see, my Musings have almost got the better of me taking three volumes to overcome the buildup.
One of the nice facts about musings is they do not necessarily lead to a conclusion. A musing is a musing and not much more. On the other hand, when Jerry Falwell appeared on Chris Matthews Hardball program, he made it clear that reading stuff like mine would cause 13 and 14 year old boys to take up whiskey drinking , cigar smoking, wearing big rings, spitting on sidewalks and homosexuality. It is incumbent upon me to warn you of the consequences of reading such writings as Musings.
Some of the Musing series may wind up in expanded form in future essays. If that happens, my readers are asked to start afresh as though they had never heard of Musings and ponderings.
If my efforts to plant a seed in Mike Murdock’s garden and my use of Tanzi Oil from Doctor Womack are successful, it may be that everlasting life will occur right here in New Jersey. We’ll have to see. The bankers at Chase Bank were unimpressed when they were told of my need for a second mortgage to insure that the religious scoundrels would think well of me. Naysayers are everywhere.
E. E. CARR
December 10, 2004
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“An Islamic government may well be in the works. And what can Bush do about it? Not much!” — oh hi, ISIS! A lot of people saw this coming, but it’s still fun when essays from 04 are this prescient.
The closest thing I could find online to “Tanzi” oil is Tansy Oil. It seems to be of limited use outside of inducing abortions and repelling insects, which is a curious combination.
The seed fund racket is still going strong. John Oliver did a fantastic piece on it, which you can watch here. It continues to be a work of pure exploitation.