"Even if I got rid of all my problems, I'd just go out and get new ones..."

Lyrical hindsight
8:37 p.m. on 2004-11-16

I've discovered a second hand record store about fifteen minutes walk from my office. Just near enough for me to reach in my lunch hour, have a good shufty round, and then return to eat my butties.

Today's purchases were a Tom Waits CD and a Christine Lavin live album. Woo! Considering I think I'm one of very few to have heard of her, to find one of her albums (a recent one at that) in a second hand store in Manchester is pretty cool.

Anyway... I googled her and found THIS song by her. This was Christine's response when asked to write a song welcoming the Republican convention to New York.

*sighs* I found this song just a few weeks too late.

Never had we felt our country more divided
Than when Republicans came to New York
To sway those few undecided

Three miles south of where they gathered in this town
There�s a deep dark empty hole in the ground
All of us who live here
Were shaken by that day
And the weeks and months that followed
Some pain never goes away

The delegates all made the pilgrimage down to Ground Zero
Posed for photographs with each reluctant hero
After 911 we had the sympathy of the world
Though we cried we felt pride
Every time our flag unfurled
But three years down the line that sympathy is gone
He said �Mission Accomplished� as the battles raged on
How can mission be accomplished with the battles raging on

We know exactly how many Americans have died in Iraq
But we never see the photos of the coffins coming back
We see photos of the torture that was done in our name
Lots of fingers pointing but no one taking blame

A film maker from Flint Michigan makes a movie you won�t see
He shines a spotlight on the dark side of our democracy
You�d rather close your eyes than engage us in debate
Platform of the uninformed breeds the politics of hate

New York city is everything so many of you fear
Chinese, Korean, Russian even Arabic spoken here
The civic Jews and lesbians living right next door
Two single mothers raising kids while daddy�s off to war
There are single fathers raising kids
While mommy�s off to war

Sent there by a leader
Who never had a clue
Who never had a single doubt about what he should do
He thinks God made him President
Heaven knows we didn�t do it
Is it time for us to say
Oh lordy somebody blew it

Or are we witnessing the Peter Principle at work?
The highest level of incompetence still expecting every perk
Enjoy it while you can
Your time is almost done
As lucky streaks go you�ve had quite a run
One term is all you get
Like father like son

- Christine Lavin, "Like Father Like Son"

Bugger it. Think I'll go listen to some Tom Waits to cheer me up.

Listening to: Athena Andreadis

Quote: "On the one hand, I'm quite proud of the extraordinary achievements of our proteges, yet on the other, I wish them to be the victims of a disfiguring automobile accident."

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