Thursday, December 3, 2009

Time for Me to Move On - Maybe

I've been thinking about hanging it up - this thing we call "blogging". Rather, I've been thinking of taking my blogging shingle down and hang up something in its place. For most of its history, The Vigil has attempted to address and unravel the major issues of the Bush Era and in the Bush Era's wake. There have been some minor, self-absorbed, detours maybe. But that is what we've tried to do.

Of late, I've been afflicted by a growing sense of deja vu stalking me. Suddenly, in the aftermath of the Obamanation abomination of the President's West Point speech, I realize I'm firmly in its grips. The last time I experienced the same sense of helplessness was in 1965. That was the year I woke up to the fact that (1) governments lie to citizens they govern, and that (2) my government was lying to me. I was a babe in the woods (er, college) then. I took it personally. I was hypersensitive. Not so, now.

Now that I am a jaded old codger who thinks he's see it all, there is another problem: a dismal prospect that I will have to live through another national nightmare like that of the Johnson-Nixon era. Because you see - as so often has been pointed out - all of the arguments pro- and con- about the Vietnam War were fully developed, delineated, understood and repetitively rehearsed by 1965. All of them. But we had to go through eight more years of grinding a generation (
58,236) of American youth into hamburger, before we were out of where (we had known all along) we never should have been into in the first place.

This is going to happen again, I realize now, after Obama's West Point moment. And I ask myself, why watch this re-run again? What more is there to say? Why repeat the same old tiring truths? Why trot out the same tired-out ol' sermons for the same ol' semi-comatose choirs? Like,

If the only tool you have in your tool chest is a $1,000,000,000 jackhammer,
every problem you encounter is gonna look like cement.

It won't take that much more from Obama, that slick-talking used-war salesman for whom I happily voted last year, to get me to quit blogging. For good. I mean it. Why bother?

OTOH, maybe I won't be able to quit. 'Cuz maybe I understand Descartes now:

I blog.
Therefore, I'm not chopped liver.

27 comments:

  1. Hey Vig,
    I know what you mean, but let's not do anything hasty. I often think that I'm just pissing in the wind but I realize from reading the other articles from our little group of bloggers that you all give me ammunition in the fight against the (oh, how can I put this without being insulting) uninformed. And it does provide with the comfort that this country is not totally populated by idiots. So I would ask you selfishly to keep up the good fight if only to reassure me of the fact that there are people who are willing to form an opinion based on the facts as opposed to what people on TV tell them to think.

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  2. VIG; The speech should have shown the people that we exist under a one party system. His feet have to be held to the fire. The super Dems are goose stepping behind him into wars without borders. That speech could have been written for the shrub. They are making excuses. [[[[i do not support the policy, but i support our president.]]]what kind of fucking nonsense is that. [[[he said during the campaign that he would focus on Afghanistan.]]]] as if this surge was his only option. etc. etc. as i always say ---they select so we may elect---

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  3. I don't know, guys.... Today I feel like chopped liver... I thought I would always prefer to be chopped liver than concede that we live under a one-party system.... I just can't deal with that.... Thanks, R-Zone, (very little).

    Mycue, is he right? I can't face up to it, not before coffee. A Republicrat party?

    I donno......

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  4. MY last two threads are about how disgusted I am. Not just about the speech, which was predictable. But how the American people responded to his speech. Especially the Democrats, that are condoning endless wars without borders.

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  5. VIG; You need to keep being a truthsayer, the battle continues. If not, then go in the kitchen and prepare this.LOL
    Chopped liver recipe.
    Ingredients
    nocoupons

    * 2 pounds chicken livers
    * 1 cup rendered chicken fat
    * 2 cups medium-diced yellow onion (2 onions)
    * 1/3 cup Madeira wine
    * 4 extra-large eggs, hard-cooked, peeled, and chunked
    * 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
    * 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
    * 2 teaspoons kosher salt
    * 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    * Pinch cayenne pepper

    Directions

    Drain the livers and saute them in 2 batches in 2 tablespoons of the chicken fat over medium-high heat, turning once, for about 5 minutes, or until just barely pink inside. Don't overcook the livers or they will be dry. Transfer them to a large bowl.

    In the same pan, saute the onions in 3 tablespoons of the chicken fat over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, or until browned. Add the Madeira and deglaze the pan, scraping the sides, for about 15 seconds. Pour into the bowl with the livers.

    Add the eggs, parsley, thyme, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and the remaining chicken fat to the bowl. Toss quickly to combine. Transfer half the mixture to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse 6 to 8 times, until coarsely chopped. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Season, to taste, and chill. Serve on crackers or matzo.

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  6. Vig, it's not my place to tell you what to do, but I'm going to try anyway. Before I went offline before the election, I declared my support for Obama, but cautioned that he was not a progressive. He was a centrist. Compared to Bush and his GOP Reich, even Barry Goldwater would have appeared progressive, so it's no wonder that the left was taken up in euphoric Obama-mania. As I feared, Obama is governing from the center, which has moved much too far to the right in recent years for your taste or mine. Nevertheless, with all his failings, Obama's election is still a victory. Change in this nation rarely happens quickly. It's a gradual thing, so I respectfully submit that your depression is premature. I also respectfully submit that your mind and voice are resources that are too valuable for you to hang it up as we're taking the first steps, albeit too small, in the direction away from GOP tyranny. Dust yourself off and hang in there. Now tell me to mind my own business, but you're too good a friend not to tell you to stay.

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  7. Thanks, Tommy. You're big!

    R-Zone, LMFAO!!!!!

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  8. Vig,
    Don't you dare quit! We who oppose this war and this plutocracy must NEVER be silenced, and must persevere ALWAYS! That's what the status quo wants: a nation of muted, disjointed, powerless opponents. Take a week or two off, and then resume hitting them hard!

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  9. Hang in there, Vigil. And ... What Jadk said.

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  10. It's clear from reading these comments that "left", "right", and "center" are indeed highly subjective terms.

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  11. VIG; I just spotted you H.L. Mencken quote on Radicalism. Very fitting for the times. I guess my despair makes me an uber radical. LOL.

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. @Vig,
    Pull over for a while if you need to.

    For my part, spending the last couple of months reading the work of Tom Cat, Stimpson, Reality Zone, Jack Jodell, my colleague who posted above from Random Thoughts, Mad Mike and many, many others has given me the ease of mind to not post a full entry on every single aspect of what's happening (which was just burning me out and felt very repetitive considering that one half of the country seems to be holding on to the GOP's lunatic core tighter than ever, like they were a baseball team and not a political party) and instead throw myself into the pit on the blog comments posts of others. I don't know there are many more ways I can express that Rupert Murdoch ought to be jailed or somehow deported, and that only idiots listen to Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck as though they have something to say. I'm afraid work and other pressures will necessitate that I Post on the Random Thoughts blog less often, but I'm okay with that, as long as we all don't go dark at the same time:

    We are the response to the Right's Fundamentalist, NeoCon echo chamber. A corporate-funded machine patronized and consumed by the fearful, the gullible and the exclusively self-concerned citizens of our nation.
    They may not know our names, but they know we don't fall for lies.


    None of us should ever forget it.

    Keep posting when you are able Vig, and I'll keep reading.

    @Mad Mike, before I forget:
    "Iraq was never an occupation"
    in name only.
    I think given the current state of things, the name fits although contemporary politisse forbids, as it did when the American people and the press allowed the policy makers of the 1950s and 60s to get away with calling the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam "Police actions" instead of "wars."
    Only delving into technicalities of domestic and international law and our own political process allow these kinds of "distinctions" to fly in the face of material reality.
    -SJ

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  14. For the record I think Iraq is currently both.
    -SJ

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  15. i don't know if it worked but a few days ago Sunshine at "Love at Home" spoke of being burned out and quitting the blogging sphere. I threatened to head up to Canada and camp out in her yard and eat her dinners if she didn't change her mind. The next day she had three new posts up and seemed newly energized with comments on many other sites.

    So I now say the same to you, if you give up I will camp in your yard until you change your mind. By the way, what's for dinner?

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  16. LMFAO! Nice try, Beach! Leftovers for din-din!

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  17. SJ: The Iraq occupation thing is sort of an inside joke between Vigil and I. Regardless I do not consider a country with a legal and functioning and independent government to be "occupied" by a foreign force. France was "occupied" by Germany and there was a puppet government in place. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the National Socialists were in charge.

    Hey Beach: Want some company?

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  18. Oh yeah, to really keep you on the blogging straight and narrow I'll bring the double disc DVD edition of Red Dawn.

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  19. Okay, Beach. You got me. Anything but Red Dawn.

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  20. It's a guilty pleasure to be sure.
    The actor who played "SuperFly," played the evil "Col. Ernesto Bella"
    -also it's the first film in history to receive the bullshit PG-13 rating.

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  21. Hang in there, Vig. I think "the people" may have some influence yet.

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  22. Thanks, Mac. I am looking for non-political diversions now, more than ever. But it's hard to 'just go shopping' & put up what's in my face every day.

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  23. Vigilante,

    I know what you mean. Sometimes your original purpose to blog changes with time, and then there are times when you don't want to blog period. Believe me, I understand. That's why I switched to WordPress and gave myself a new beginning.

    Hang in there.

    --Rock

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