Tuesday, January 10, 2006

A funny smell is emanating from Washington

Canadian newspaper editor, Eric Margolis, wrote today about witnessing the disintegration of the current political order in DC. Let's hope it's true!

A smell of "fin du régime" hangs over Washington, just as it did over the last days of a decaying Soviet empire when an out of touch leader presided over a lost foreign war, and a swamp of influence peddling and bribery, as the secret police struggled to keep a lid on growing dissent.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis11.htmlml

His book is upside down.

2 comments:

Devastatin' Dave said...

From Ludwig von Mises:

"Rhetorical bombast, music and song resound, banners wave, flowers and colors serve as symbols, and the leaders seek to attach their followers to their own person. Liberalism has nothing to do with all this. It has no party flower and no party color, no party song and no party idols, no symbols and no slogans. It has the substance and the arguments. These must lead it to victory."

(He is using "liberalism" in the classical sense.)

beamis said...

I also know what classical liberalism is, which sorta reminds me of these Zappa lyrics from 1968:

"UNBIND YOUR MIND
THERE IS NO TIME
Boin-n-n-n-n-n-g
TO LICK YOUR STAMPS
AND PASTE THEM IN
DISCORPORATE
AND WE'LL BEGIN
FREEDOM! FREEDOM!
KINDLY LOVING!
YOU'LL BE ABSOLUTELY FREE
ONLY IF YOU WANT TO BE
YOU'LL BE ABSOLUTELY FREE
ONLY IF YOU WANT TO BE"

I've been hot with Zappa lately, Larry gave me a rare DVD bootleg collection of Mothers performances from 1967-68. There is one particularly beautiful pachuco doo-wop song sung by Roy Estrada (Mother's bassist) that literally brings tears to my eyes. I was also given Frank's new biography for Christmas from Ross. Somebody trying to tell me sumpfin'?