Night Drive

Lane change behind
a multicolored UFO
my exit comes
with drops on the windshield.
Virga curtains obscuring
mountain mass
late Sunday;
a hint of sun still aloft.
The freeway
is driving sex--
liquid smooth flowing
through nights'
endless rapture,
lovers travel
entwined--
occasionally to
horn bleated
frustration.
A drive from her
just as satisfying as
the drive into,
leaving hints
of moisture behind
on every stripe and
mile marker.
Rumble strips moan
5,000 RPM's
shriek my name,
cruising undulating
pathways every night,
looking for an exit,
a new road to fuck
with black rubber
exhaust fumes
and gauge lighted smile.

Scare Tactics . . . For God

I watched Jesus Camp recently, and it sent my head spinning with trepidation for all the poor children who have their innocence stolen from them and have it replaced with fear and a blinding faith, when they should be acting like kids, not preparing to be martyrs. This kind of sick perversion of faith is everywhere these days, as radical and fundamental Christians tighten the nooses around their children's neck and continually force society to live by its rules.
I understand completely why there is such an increase in atheism in the US; people are getting sick and tired of these bullshit scare tactics used to lure the fearful and weak into the bonds of religious fanaticism. Organizations like this one use ignorance against people, claiming ancient parables as fact and using a cohesive religious pride to keep people scoffing at reason and reasonable people.
There was another murder of a doctor who performed abortions this weekend, by some fanatical, hate-filled chickenshit who shot him IN CHURCH as he was performing his duties as an usher while his wife was in the choir. I can only assume that they had mentally prepared for this moment, and that his wife can take some consolation in the fact that her husband stood by his beliefs and that they caught the bastard about three hours later.
Why do people who believe themselves to be the righteous, moral authority in our country end up being the ones who murder doctors, protest their hatred for homosexuals, and slur anyone else that doesn't agree with them? Not very Christlike. Not at all.

Musical Integrity - 1, WalMart - 0

One of my long-time favorite bands, Green Day, just raised themselves up a little higher in the pantheon of musical gods for me. Their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, will not be sold at WalMart. The company wanted them to edit (censor) their album so they could sell an edited (censored) version of the album, and GD said no. Billie Joe continued by saying. "We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something." So kudos to the boys, I'm glad their sticking up for what they believe in while so many other bands cave and edit their albums just to appease the mega-corp. Are the few extra sales really worth the slow loss of your integrity and soul? It would seem so. What WalMart is doing is dumbing down music, making it safe and palatable for everyone, so your teenagers and tweens can have those new, top-ten albums without the bad words and messages and reality and all that terrible stuff.
When I was younger, dumber, and more naive about the world, I ended up with a few edited albums. I always felt something was missing, and got annoyed by the skips and reversed words in the middle of songs. It totally changed the mood of a song, pulling you out of a vibe and wrecking the continuity. I couldn't have said that then, but I still knew something was wrong. I turned completely against edited music within a few short years, got rid of my tainted albums, and started appreciating music. I still have a hard time listening to the radio because many songs, particularly good ones, end up edited. I cringe every time I hear an edited Pink Floyd or Alice in Chains song. But radio is a whole other problem.
The problem here isn't necessarily rooted in WalMart, it's the customers. WalMart is just trying to cover their asses while getting the maximum sales possible. I'm sure a team of lawyers concocted this to end the angry letters and phone calls because poor, innocent little Jimmy ended up with a CD that had a few swears on it. It's not right, it's just business.

Harrumph!

Our country is in an economic recession, banks and major automakers are failing, unemployment is rising and our infrastructure is falling apart, but the GOP can only give us economic plans with no numbers, place Reagan on an even higher pedestal, and continue to drive their party farther right and remaining stalwart against any type of change to their party, with even Cheney saying that it would be a mistake to 'moderate.' Republicans are leaving the party like rats from a sinking but obdurate ship, and even prominent members like Scarborough are telling them that it's time to change and drop the pure hatred they have for everything they don't agree with.
It seems that Obama can't do anything without fueling the ire of Republicans, at least the pundits. The man can't ever order a burger without being called an elitist. The GOP and its attack dogs are doing nothing but creating a larger political gap in our country, in a time when we should be joining forces to get back on track and fix our economy. Giving banks and corporations billions of dollars isn't helping much, but constantly attacking everything our President does instead of coming up with other solutions does even less. When voices of reason are coming from the likes of Jeb Bush, you know your party has some serious issues. Political parties emerge, change, evolve and disappear, no matter how they think it should be in the GOP. Right now theirs is dying, because they refuse to look forward and change with the rest of the country. I would almost feel sorry for them if not for the scary, ignorant, hateful things that come out of their mouths. O'Reilly offered some advice on how to 'save' the party, but couldn't do so without constantly attacking Obama and America-hatin' Democrats in general.
If they continue heading the way they are going, the GOP is going to end up being the party of the radical, fundamentalist, evangelical , homophobic, racist, hateful, fearful, ignorant and Reagan-worshipping Republican Americans. If it comes to this, with the FOXNews fear-mongering pundits at the helm, then so be it. I'll gladly watch them lose all power and influence in the government, but I will truly be sorry for the minds--especially the young, impressionable ones--lost to them. America needs to lose the GOP, and if the Republican party can reform out of it into a more accepting, creative and worthwhile party, then America can truly benefit from this mass of ignorant, misdirected hatred.

The Pundit

Weary from your
recidivist tongue,
driving down, staking
me in place,
watering down my rage
with your tired
self-righteous
siren songs and screams
of traitor, wails and moans,
gnashing of teeth--
and the followers
can never
get enough.
Logic and reason
escape
on ethereal winds,
pushing the boundaries
of dissonance
past imagination
into realms of insanity
fed on fear mongering
scapegoats,
fallacies
and ignorance,
until I feel
the strain melt
my synapses.