In the vast, barren stretches of the Sadlands in the Land of Sir Real, cut off from all hope of comfort or civility, where the magenta, brooding sun stood forever still, doomed in perpetual twilight, Steve knew he would find only other woeful souls as lost as he. It surprised him not to see the shape of a deformed character appear on the horizon.
He was the Man of a Thousand Sticks, unbearably bent with his load of despair, pressing him inevitably to the hard, rocky surface. But stop he could not, for to stop was to die.
"Woe is me! Woe is me! Sir Real rebukes me because I be!"
Steve, a fucked man himself, could relate to that. But one question begged to be asked.
"Dude! Why don't you just drop that bundle? It's obviously killing you."
"Enemy thine! Oh sure, drop my bundle and remove all meaning and purpose from my life! It is my despair that drives me, keeps me alive!"
As happened so many times before in the Land of Sir Real, Steve's mind brainlocked before he could answer. "You can't get meaning from despair! There's no point in killing yourself."
"I only know what I know and I know nothing! But this I know: my life must have meaning!"
"But look at you! Don't you care about your dreams and your hopes?"
"You think me insane? Of course I care!"
"Then why not drop your load?"
"It's the duality of man: I don't care that I care."
[Sarcasm Alley]
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Pogue Colonel: Marine, what is that button on your body armor?
Private Joker: A peace symbol, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Where'd you get it?
Private Joker: I don't remember, sir.
Pogue Colonel: What is that you've got written on your helmet?
Private Joker: "Born to Kill", sir.
Pogue Colonel: You write "Born to Kill" on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?
Private Joker: No, sir.
Pogue Colonel: You'd better get your head and your ass wired together, or I will take a giant shit on you.
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Now answer my question or you'll be standing tall before the man.
Private Joker: I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.
Pogue Colonel: The what?
Private Joker: The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Whose side are you on, son?
Private Joker: Our side, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Don't you love your country?
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Then how about getting with the program? Why don't you jump on the team and come on in for the big win?
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Son, all I've ever asked of my marines is that they obey my orders as they would the word of God. We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out. It's a hardball world, son. We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over.
Private Joker: Aye-aye, sir.
[Full Metal Jacket]
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DOWD: I don’t have a great public support – I don’t publicly support the president anymore, but I think it’s an awful stretch to say the guy would call terror alerts and sort of to get votes out of the deal. [audience reacts with vocal skepticism] I wonder where the audience is on this. [laughter]
MAHER: Yeah, right. Well, because his reputation as a man who deserves honor and integrity is so strong. [laughter] [applause] [cheers] But—
DOWD: People can be honest and stupid.
MAHER: Yes, and they can be honest and – dishonest and corrupt. And he is both. [applause] [cheers] But, okay.
GOLDBERG: The source of his corruption is what? What’s the evidence of his corruption?
DOWD: You need evidence?
GOLDBERG: Oh, that’s right.
MAHER: [overlapping] Oh, George Bush is not corrupt?
DOWD: What’s the evidence of his corruption? [audience reacts in disbelief]
MAHER: Oil companies.
DOWD: Listen, I—
MAHER: [overlapping] He didn’t drag his feet on global warming—
DOWD: [overlapping]—you could say – you can accuse him of mismanaging many things—
MAHER: [overlapping]—because his money came from oil companies? [applause] I do.
DOWD: You can – you can accuse him of being in over his head. You can accuse him of many things.
MAHER: Right.
DOWD: I don’t think you can accuse him, in my view, of being somebody that’s corrupt.
MAHER: You’re not serious? [audience reacts]
DOWD: Yes. [voices overlap] I don’t – I don’t think you can.
MAHER: [overlapping] When he was running – when he was running in 2000, he said that he would cap CO2 emissions from power plants. He completely forgot that after he got into office. Why? Because the people who gave him his campaign contributions are the people he used to work for, the oil business.
You’re not really – you don’t really think that he’s not aware of global warming, that he suddenly got religion on. [applause]
DOWD: No, my assumption – my assumption, which I think is what’s missing in politics today, on the left and the right – is we all attribute bad intention for bad policy choices. We all attribute bad intention for bad policy choices. Somebody can pick a bad policy – be ignorant, be misguided – and not necessarily have a bad intention.
[Real Time with Bill Maher]
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When Jesus spoke of the doom of Satan, it was because Satan is divided against himself. To be an angel and yet also un-angelic is to erase any future. Sure, it can be done for a time, but it's not a time that lasts. So when one speaks of the duality of man - to be an inhuman human - one speaks of the same short time. In the end, for humanity to survive all inhumanity must be eliminated. It's a simple fact of nature.
But today in the Age of the Snake, many are the serpents who'd have us believe such a time lasts forever. It was that last statement of Matt Dowd that drove me to post this blog. What an insane fucker. He's a man who'll tell you with a smile on his lips and holding a casual cup of coffee of how any mistakes our current President (and by proxy, himself) have made were done with a good heart - that competency is not a part of morality. He says with a straight face that, in effect, an incompetent brain surgeon who makes a vegetable of his wife can still be a good guy as long as he's inept with good intentions. The surgeon was simply misguided or ignorant. Others, of course, may say if you can't do the fucking job, don't take it! Some jobs are just too important - like leader of the free world.
It's an Asian proverb that the opposite of good is good intentions. But even leaving out the issue of competency as a component of integrity, this man Dowd calls Jesus a liar (Chris Matthews has made this same assertion). He's saying Jesus was wrong when he said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." That those who wreak havoc and despair on this world can do so with a good heart, that Hitler was sincerely trying to make Germany a better place. No one's perfect, you know.
What a serious fucking asshole!
Call me crazy, but I'll put my money on Jesus. One day, the Age of the Snake will end and the serpent's lies will be no more.
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