Cross of Air
 
Modern sculpture consumed by fire. Elegant men and women dining on the recently dead. A soiled diaper worn inside out. There are few things more churning to witness than an arrogant but well-informed blowhard remake himself into an arrogant, pandering blowhard. For my friends who live outside the United States, Lou Dobbs is a TV News personality, handsome and lean as your correspondent, who first reached a large audience with a business show and now earns a comfortable living arguing against free trade and immigration as a protector of the American middle-class. Americans have just been through an absurd debate on immigration during which Dobbs was one of our most vocal advocates for the more foolish side. Given his history as the advocate for business interests and beneficiary of global trade in grains and meat, it was a little startling to read that he now includes outsourcing and trade as the menaces approved by politicians on behalf of their corporate masters. I know the Church as a place of forgiveness and respite. I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Socialist People’s Party would be as well. While the final costs and benefits of outsourcing to the domestic economy may not be obvious to everyone yet, the value of trade and liberal immigration are in the category with global warming as deniable for political purposes but only sinister ones. Even the left, once devout charlatans of a protected economy abandoned this nonsense a generation ago. Dobbs has positioned himself as the twenty-first century’s William Jennings Bryant. He has only to deny the divinity of Darwin. In that regard, Dobbs may be at the forefront of an authentic reactionary progressivism which seems to be rising in this country. Nationalism, Statism and a controlled economy are ideologies of the past, debunked half a century ago and proven inferior to their replacements and yet, with a straight face, Lou Dobbs and a large number of politicians across both parties have resurrected the concepts as alternative demagoguery to speaking sense and leading. In the end, the conversion of Dobbs and others, the rise of the Sensenbrenner wing of the Republican party with the Barney Frank wing of the Democrats reflect the lack of faith and leadership of, by and for the people. Leaders innovate new lies while common thugs rely on the old. During the previous three presidencies, scoundrels and cut-throats posed as peace-makers and entrepreneurs. Today falseness favors the luddite, the mystic and the middle-class. This portends a future for our national dialogue of watching the arc of ravens in the sky and counting unhatched hens. The Prattler Wordbook GASEOUS, n. Rarified as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or wisdom in a speech, produced by heat and illuminated in a pocket. GASTROLITH, n. Research. GASWORKS, n. A forum for news and information.. GATEWAY, n. The alternative to fence-jumping used intentionally by cattle and compulsively by commentators. GATHER, v.t. To steal. GATHER, v.i. To join to divide. GATHERING, n. An assembly at which songs are sung, food shared, spouses swapped and virtue proclaimed. GATOR, n. A pundit content to be seen in the swamp. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/01/dobbs.August2/index.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
Saturday, August 5, 2006
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0