Dunce’s Chair

It’s not ideas or discontent.
It’s an empty stomach.
It’s not an ism of any kind.
It’s a decent place to live
And we’re willing to die for it.

It’s not being told what to want.
It’s choosing for ourselves.
It’s not someone else’s agenda.
It’s a way of life
And we live and die for it.

Who is in the seats of power deciding,
Knowing better the things to want?
Remove them to the dunce’s chair,
Out of the way in their tall white hats.

Trade them for something to eat,
For the little things we want.
Remove them to the dunce’s chair,
Out of the way in their tall white hats.

It’s not the party line.
It’s the desolation of an empty table.
It’s losing faith in our fellow man,
In our fathers and mothers,
In a better life for our sons and daughters.

Who is in the seats of power deciding,
Knowing better the things to want?
Remove them to the dunce’s chair,
Out of the way in their tall white hats.

From the seats of power deciding,
Remove them to the dunce’s chair –
Out of the way in their tall white hats

To the dunce’s chair.
Out of the way
In their tall white hats.

Pieces of a Place

Don’t go somewhere new and just see the things everybody sees there. Bring home your own pieces of the place. Pieces that are just yours, and that make the place just yours. I will always remember the places where these images became mine.

Punkin’s Playlist 00330

This is why I look forward to new lists – there’s new stuff here I’ve never heard of. I can’t wait to listen.

Song Time Artist Album
All I Really Wanna Do 4:38 Bob Dylan Another Side of Bob Dylan
Lola 4:08 The Kinks Lola vs. Powerman
When I Grow Up 3:24 Garbage Version 2.0
To Be Alone With You 2:48 Sujian Stevens Seven Swans
Vanished 4:03 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles
Gymnopedie No. 1 3:28 Erik Satie Gymnopedies & Gnossiennes
Love You ‘Till the End 4:35 The Pogues Pogue Mahone
How It Ends 6:59 Devochka Little Miss Sunshine
House of Cards 5:28 Radiohead In Rainbows
Let You Down 4:07 Dave Matthews Band Crash
Anthems For a 17-Year-Old Girl 4:35 Broken Social Science You Forget It In People
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? 6:24 Al Green Let’s Stay Together
6 Underground 4:06 Sneaker Pimps Becoming X
Somersault 6:57 Zero 7 When It Falls
You’re A Wolf 3:35 Sea Wolf Leaves in the River
15 Songs/1.2 Hours

Waters Edge

This group of images are all taken on or near the water – along the Pacific Coast Highway or at a lake in North Texas. There is something primitive about water, evoking our greatest pleasures and darkest fears. It is a part of everything in our world, the cradle of our very lives.

Mimi’s Books

Mimi cheated. She didn’t rank the books – they’re in alphabetical order by title – and she gave me twelve. We’ll let it slide this time, Mimi.

No. Title Author
The Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis
Citizen Soldiers Stephen Ambrose
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Steig Larsson
The Living Bible
Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkein
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
The Poetry of Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost
A Soldier of the Great War Mark Helprin
The Stand Stephen King
The Sunne in Splendor Sharon Kay Penman
The Thorn Birds Colleen McCollough

John Womack’s Albums

Not bad for a baby brother – there are only a couple here that aren’t in my iTunes Library.

Album Artist
Animals Pink Floyd
Meteora Linkin Park
The White Album The Beatles
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine
One of These Nights The Eagles
Physical Gaffiti Led Zeppelin
Second Helping Lynyrd Skynrd
Achtung Baby U2
Blood Sugar Sex Magic Red Hot Chili Peppers
Life’s Rich Pageant R.E.M.

Under God

America is the greatest country the world has ever known, save God’s chosen people. It’s greatness is not found in capitalism nor democracy, not even in freedom. America is great because we were founded under God. But that all disappeared on a Sunday night on the second day of Spring. We sold capitalism to government-run. We replaced democracy with mandates. And freedom was lost to the ones we chose to represent us.

Slowly, inexorably, suddenly we abandoned our foundation, and like the Jewish nation of scripture we will suffer the fate of nations professing faith in God and then turning from Him. The wall of separation we have erected in this beloved America is not between church and state, it is between us and God. And we should be prepared as a country to live without God on our side. For the Jews that meant a divided nation. It meant they would be delivered into the hands of their enemies and scattered, dissipated, lost. That is our fate now.

This country is already divided between conservative and liberal, between Christian and secular, not between black and white or rich and poor. And now the states will line up in opposition to the federal government, unable to meet its demands. And our enemies will build bombs or buy up our credit. And we will help them to destroy us by embracing them while we chastise our friends. Because when we turn our gaze from God, we see the world instead. A world that sees man as master, that believes we make the choices of life and death, that has the arrogance to suppose we can destroy God’s creation.

For everything good God provides, the world debases. Responsibility becomes entitlement. Love becomes sex. Murder becomes a choice. How silly we become, mere pawns in the battle between good and evil, between God and the Great Deceiver. We are helpless to defeat the lies of this world and do not see it. We must understand we are powerless. We must petition God for guidance. Our founding fathers understood that, and His guidance is what produced our prosperity, our very supremacy. If we do not submit we are lost, and like Bart Stupak we will sell our souls for a promise from a liar.

Always, though, there is a remnant that continues to believe in the God of our fathers. And God has made specific promises to those accepting the salvation of his Son. And unlike man’s promises, God’s word can not be rescinded or altered. That may be just a quaint concept in this secular world, but some things are true whether you believe them or not. When the Jews in their despair turned back to God, He was always there waiting for them. He is waiting for us, too. But America must decide what we will become, one nation under God or just another fallen empire.