Largehearted boy has linked two songs from the upcoming Guided by Voices release.
posted by Jeff 5/19/2003
More Fun with William Bennett
An interesting article from the New York Times in which more of William Bennett's hypocrisy is brought to light. I'm sure the Bennett defenders will immediately hop on the "look at the source" bandwagon. O well, take it for what it's worth.
Mr. Bennett was recognizable as a phony (at least to anyone outside the Beltway) long before he was captured on video at a casino. He was always out to score a jackpot for himself first — and let culture take the hindmost. Even as he lambasted Time Warner for trafficking in gangsta rap and told a fellow anti-rap crusader (Bob Dole) to return some of his Time Warner campaign contributions, he took money from one of that company's divisions, the Book of the Month Club. When caught by The Washington Post in this apparent philosophical conflict in 1995, he defended it by saying that the club "doesn't give me that much money" (the sum was a mere bagatelle to him — only six figures). At the height of the mid-90's Republican revolution, he joined Newt Gingrich in the campaign to vilify public television — and then sold his own "Children's Book of Virtues" to PBS as an animated TV series. To answer charges of hypocrisy on that occasion, he said that only private money would be used to produce the program, conveniently ignoring the fact that public money is essential to support the stations that would broadcast his cartoons.
My apologies for a weekend off. I spent three days at Qualcomm Stadium watching my Atlanta Braves sweep the San Diego Padres. I won't go into details, but let's just say it was ugly. I'll return to regular posting tomorrow. In the meantime, here's something for you:
Come, my songs, let us express our baser passions.
Let us express our envy for the man with a steady job and no worry about the future.
You are very idle, my songs,
I fear you will come to a bad end.
You stand about the streets, You loiter at the corners and bus-stops,
You do next to nothing at all.
You do not even express our inner nobilitys,
You will come to a very bad end.
And I? I have gone half-cracked.
I have talked to you so much that I almost see you about me,
Insolent little beasts! Shameless! Devoid of clothing!
But you, newest song of the lot,
You are not old enough to have done much mischief.
I will get you a green coat out of China
With dragons worked upon it.
I will get you the scarlet silk trousers
From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella;
Lest they say we are lacking in taste,
Or that there is no caste in this family.
