“What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin’, the say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed.
He’s the neighborhood bully.”
“What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
He’s the neighborhood bully.”
- Bob Dylan – “Neighborhood Bully” (1983)
On Monday of this week the press took the President to the woodshed for his use of the dreaded “s” word. Now this is the same press and mass media that serves up soft core pornography, violence, and other assorted mayhem to America on a daily basis. Amazing!
Back in 1968 I was stationed in Panama. One of my friends was a devout and unassuming as a man could get. Squeaky clean couldn’t begin to describe the guy; he was as good as good can be. One of his great pleasures other than church was being a bench-warmer on a squadron intra-mural basketball team. There came a time in one game for the bench-warmers to get their thirty seconds or so of Canal Zone fame. About ten seconds into his tour on the hardwood he got the chance to make a meaningless, breakaway lay-up, which he proceeded to miss. As soon as his feet hit the floor the pounded his hands together and shouted, “Ssssshhhhhh.” The crowd assembled sat in silence, waiting for more. He pounded his hands together again and let it rip for all it was worth. “Sugar cakes…..Sugar cakes.” The gymnasium erupted in laughter, which I recall, took about a minute and a half to subside.” After the game I went and talked to him. “Man, everyone in that place knew exactly what you were thinking and wanting to say. You’d have been better off to just go ahead and say it. Everyone knew you were thinking “shit” when you said “sugar cakes.”
To tell you the truth, I think the President of the United States is perfectly within the bounds of decency and morality to suggest that Syria insist that its surrogate in Lebanon cease and desist from the “shit.”
If our American press were around today in King David’s time they would have had a real field day. They’d have been absolutely mortified as soon as they heard the man who would one day be the king of Israel utter these words in response to having been rudely treated by the head of a family of sheep shearers (today we call them journalists, drug dealers, or used car salesmen).
The inspired transcript of David’s statement, from the un-sanitized King James version of the Bible, follows for your edification and enlightenment:
I Samuel 25:21-22 (King James Version)
“Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.”
The Almighty, in His infinite wisdom, had a habit of calling this often intemperate leader “a man after My own heart.” I figure that if David’s colorful use of language was good enough for God, it’s good enough for me.
Of course, the press complaints have little to do with language. This is principally about ideological agendas, particularly the press’s hope to destroy George Bush, even if it means lionizing terrorists and excoriating America’s friends, especially Israel. If George Bush supports Israel, then they are against Israel. The best way they can accomplish their goals, they rightly believe, is to destroy him and Israel rhetorically. There’s no other weapon in their quivers. That’s where the language used becomes important.
I spent some time this afternoon going through some old archives of Neville Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler statements along with some more contemporary stuff. I found one statement by Chamberlain, the great appeaser, that compares quite favorably with something Richard Cohen wrote in the Washington Post yesterday. I also found something from der furher himself that compares quite favorably with the Hezbollah manifesto of 1985.
Read them, if you will, and I think you’ll see that words can sometimes be crafted in many ways to achieve a common end:
“I can well understand the reasons why the Czech Government have felt unable to accept the terms which have been put before them in the German memorandum. Yet I believe after my talks with Herr Hitler that, if only time were allowed, it ought to be possible for the arrangements for transferring the territory that the Czech Government has agreed to give to Germany to be settled by agreement under conditions which would assure fair treatment to the population concerned.”
- Neville Chamberlain (Radio address to the people of Great Britain – September 27, 1938)
“The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.”
- Richard Cohen – “Hunker Down With History” (As cited on Real Clear Politics – July 18, 2006)
“If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz-as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew!”
- Adolf Hitler (in a 1922 interview quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler. London: Book Club Associates, 1977, p.116)
“We see in Israel the vanguard of the United States in our Islamic world. It is the hated enemy that must be fought until the hated ones get what they deserve. This enemy is the greatest danger to our future generations and to the destiny of our lands, particularly as it glorifies the ideas of settlement and expansion, initiated in Palestine, and yearning outward to the extension of the Great Israel, from the Euphrates to the Nile.”
“Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.”
“We vigorously condemn all plans for negotiation with Israel, and regard all negotiators as enemies, for the reason that such negotiation is nothing but the recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of Palestine. Therefore we oppose and reject the Camp David Agreements, the proposals of King Fahd, the Fez and Reagan plan, Brezhnev's and the French-Egyptian proposals, and all other programs that include the recognition (even the implied recognition) of the Zionist entity.”
- The Hezbollah Manifesto (February 16, 1985)
A respected journalist can say that Israel’s existence itself is a “mistake.” A British prime minister can feel great empathy for people he’s abandoning to Nazi terror. Or an un-requited Austrian lunatic and his latter-day admirers in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran can use language as a blunt instrument. The bottom line to it all is that someone has to go for the sake of peace. In the 1930’s it was the people of Czechoslovakia and eventually the Jews of Europe; today it’s the people of Israel and eventually America, the Great Satan.
With that in mind, I have something to say to Richard Cohen and the folks at Hezbollah headquarters – “I ain’t buying the shit you’re sellin’.
Adolph Hitler
Hezbollah
Israel
Neville Chamberlain
Richard Cohen
Nothin’, the say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed.
He’s the neighborhood bully.”
“What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
He’s the neighborhood bully.”
- Bob Dylan – “Neighborhood Bully” (1983)
On Monday of this week the press took the President to the woodshed for his use of the dreaded “s” word. Now this is the same press and mass media that serves up soft core pornography, violence, and other assorted mayhem to America on a daily basis. Amazing!
Back in 1968 I was stationed in Panama. One of my friends was a devout and unassuming as a man could get. Squeaky clean couldn’t begin to describe the guy; he was as good as good can be. One of his great pleasures other than church was being a bench-warmer on a squadron intra-mural basketball team. There came a time in one game for the bench-warmers to get their thirty seconds or so of Canal Zone fame. About ten seconds into his tour on the hardwood he got the chance to make a meaningless, breakaway lay-up, which he proceeded to miss. As soon as his feet hit the floor the pounded his hands together and shouted, “Ssssshhhhhh.” The crowd assembled sat in silence, waiting for more. He pounded his hands together again and let it rip for all it was worth. “Sugar cakes…..Sugar cakes.” The gymnasium erupted in laughter, which I recall, took about a minute and a half to subside.” After the game I went and talked to him. “Man, everyone in that place knew exactly what you were thinking and wanting to say. You’d have been better off to just go ahead and say it. Everyone knew you were thinking “shit” when you said “sugar cakes.”
To tell you the truth, I think the President of the United States is perfectly within the bounds of decency and morality to suggest that Syria insist that its surrogate in Lebanon cease and desist from the “shit.”
If our American press were around today in King David’s time they would have had a real field day. They’d have been absolutely mortified as soon as they heard the man who would one day be the king of Israel utter these words in response to having been rudely treated by the head of a family of sheep shearers (today we call them journalists, drug dealers, or used car salesmen).
The inspired transcript of David’s statement, from the un-sanitized King James version of the Bible, follows for your edification and enlightenment:
I Samuel 25:21-22 (King James Version)
“Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.”
The Almighty, in His infinite wisdom, had a habit of calling this often intemperate leader “a man after My own heart.” I figure that if David’s colorful use of language was good enough for God, it’s good enough for me.
Of course, the press complaints have little to do with language. This is principally about ideological agendas, particularly the press’s hope to destroy George Bush, even if it means lionizing terrorists and excoriating America’s friends, especially Israel. If George Bush supports Israel, then they are against Israel. The best way they can accomplish their goals, they rightly believe, is to destroy him and Israel rhetorically. There’s no other weapon in their quivers. That’s where the language used becomes important.
I spent some time this afternoon going through some old archives of Neville Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler statements along with some more contemporary stuff. I found one statement by Chamberlain, the great appeaser, that compares quite favorably with something Richard Cohen wrote in the Washington Post yesterday. I also found something from der furher himself that compares quite favorably with the Hezbollah manifesto of 1985.
Read them, if you will, and I think you’ll see that words can sometimes be crafted in many ways to achieve a common end:
“I can well understand the reasons why the Czech Government have felt unable to accept the terms which have been put before them in the German memorandum. Yet I believe after my talks with Herr Hitler that, if only time were allowed, it ought to be possible for the arrangements for transferring the territory that the Czech Government has agreed to give to Germany to be settled by agreement under conditions which would assure fair treatment to the population concerned.”
- Neville Chamberlain (Radio address to the people of Great Britain – September 27, 1938)
“The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.”
- Richard Cohen – “Hunker Down With History” (As cited on Real Clear Politics – July 18, 2006)
“If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz-as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew!”
- Adolf Hitler (in a 1922 interview quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler. London: Book Club Associates, 1977, p.116)
“We see in Israel the vanguard of the United States in our Islamic world. It is the hated enemy that must be fought until the hated ones get what they deserve. This enemy is the greatest danger to our future generations and to the destiny of our lands, particularly as it glorifies the ideas of settlement and expansion, initiated in Palestine, and yearning outward to the extension of the Great Israel, from the Euphrates to the Nile.”
“Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.”
“We vigorously condemn all plans for negotiation with Israel, and regard all negotiators as enemies, for the reason that such negotiation is nothing but the recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of Palestine. Therefore we oppose and reject the Camp David Agreements, the proposals of King Fahd, the Fez and Reagan plan, Brezhnev's and the French-Egyptian proposals, and all other programs that include the recognition (even the implied recognition) of the Zionist entity.”
- The Hezbollah Manifesto (February 16, 1985)
A respected journalist can say that Israel’s existence itself is a “mistake.” A British prime minister can feel great empathy for people he’s abandoning to Nazi terror. Or an un-requited Austrian lunatic and his latter-day admirers in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran can use language as a blunt instrument. The bottom line to it all is that someone has to go for the sake of peace. In the 1930’s it was the people of Czechoslovakia and eventually the Jews of Europe; today it’s the people of Israel and eventually America, the Great Satan.
With that in mind, I have something to say to Richard Cohen and the folks at Hezbollah headquarters – “I ain’t buying the shit you’re sellin’.
Adolph Hitler
Hezbollah
Israel
Neville Chamberlain
Richard Cohen
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