October 18, 2009 archive

Learning only a few hours ago that the great Frederick Chopin passed away exactly 160 years ago today, the compulsion to create a memoriam in his honor was indeed compelling. Similar to the fate of far too many of our greatest musicians, his life ended early at thirty-nine years of age. Some of you may be very familiar with his work, and for some, perhaps you’ve never heard of him.  That said, there are few who haven’t heard his work at one time or another.  In the event that you might want to learn more about his life and his legacy, you can go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…

As a child learning to play the piano, Frederick Chopin became my idol, and by junior high school, I was able to play some of his work, however, nothing more challenging than two polonaises (Military Polonaise in A Major, Opus 40 and the more difficult Heroic Polonaise in A Flat Major, Opus 53), and Fantasie Impromptu, Opus 66.  My piano teacher left town after ninth grade, so further formal training ended at that time.

Chopin’s music, perhaps more than any other composer (at least in my own estimation), conveys the entire range of human emotion and would likely touch the hearts of many who otherwise do not care for classical music.  Even now, his music, well over a century and a half later, conveys a freshness that suggests something much more contemporary.

Perhaps Artur Rubenstein conveyed it best when he said about Chopin:

Chopin was a genius of universal appeal. His music conquers the most diverse audiences. When the first notes of Chopin sound through the concert hall there is a happy sigh of recognition. All over the world men and women know his music. They love it. They are moved by it. Yet it is not “Romantic music” in the Byronic sense. It does not tell stories or paint pictures. It is expressive and personal, but still a pure art. Even in this abstract atomic age, where emotion is not fashionable, Chopin endures. His music is the universal language of human communication. When I play Chopin I know I speak directly to the hearts of people!

I’m sorry, but if this doesn’t leave you feeling completely sick to your stomach, you just haven’t been paying attention.

This is one of those times where the transparency is cranked up to 11, the veil falls away, and no pretense is made as to a political figure’s true position.   This is right up there with GWB’s “I call you my base” speech, one of those sickening moments that you will probably only see in a Michael Moore film, a moment that will leave you wondering “how come nobody noticed this when it happened?”

I’ll just get right to it, even though I’m tempted to go on about how disgusting it truly is:

In a glowing tribute to a Republican predecessor, President Obama on Friday praised President George H.W. Bush as an example of someone who eschewed “a life of comfort and privilege” and instead devoted himself to public service – inside government and out.

During an evening speech to honor the public service institute that Bush founded two decades ago, Obama called for cooperation between Republicans and Democrats. The former president, he said, proved that “the R or D next to your name is irrelevant” in challenging times.

“You might not always know it from watching the cable news shows or listening to folks on the radio,” Obama said, but “I think we’re standing in one of those moments.”

They were joined onstage Friday in the Texas A&M University auditorium by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who also served in the previous administration and was CIA director under the elder Bush.

Okay, I don’t even know where to begin here ….

For one thing, here’s the statement that is so ridiculously true, it’s like they are mocking us on purpose:

“the R or D next to your name is irrelevant”

That really does say it all.   There is no difference between the R’s and the D’s, especially when the D’s are honoring one of the great criminals of the 20th century, George Herbert Walker Bush.   The Bush family is nothing more than a criminal enterprise, literally a crime family, who are responsible for literally countless deaths, destruction, coups, wars, trickery, assassinations, corporate/government malfeasance, conspiracies, and worse.  

Yet here he is being “honored” by the member of the supposed “opposition” party who was swept into power by one of the greatest con jobs of all time, that of convincing the desperate American public that he was an agent of “hope” and “change”.

Wow.  

Next is the “you must think we’re really stupid” bullshit of this whole “public service” thing.   Public Service?   Are you fucking kidding me?   PUBLIC SERVICE from the BUSH FAMILY?   Is THAT what you’re CALLING IT these days?

Gangsterism, pure and simple, is now being called “Public Service”?

Sure, it’s a public service to start wars, destroy governments, conspire to assassinate folks who don’t play ball with you, to give your sons entire states to play with, to manipulate presidential elections, to con, to steal, to bankrupt …… You call that Public Service?

Okay.   In a world turned completely upside down and gone completely fucking MAD, we’ll call that Public Service from now on.

And it is utterly appropriate that they these two assholes, these two criminal fucks, were joined onstage by another monster criminal fuck, one Robert Gates, who Obama had the sheer audacity to keep on as head of the Pentagon, knowing that we wouldn’t give him one iota of shit for this.   The Obama-Con was so complete that Obama could literally wipe his ass with the Constitution on live television and everybody would swoon and cheer, and this is basically what he is doing at this point — he has done nothing but go out of his way to continue the policies of George Bush, one of the three criminal sons of the master criminal he is honoring here, knowing that nobody would say a peep and what’s more important, nobody could stop him even if they wanted to.

I don’t even know where to begin with Gates.  He’s a criminal from the GHWBush school, a crony, a former CIA guy along with “Poppy” Bush, and his rap sheet is a mile long.  Here’s just a tiny sample: