So, I'm generally a big fan of madmen who lead potentially cultish rebellions against oppressive forces and governments, as I'm sure is no surprise. I think it's sad that before his death (yesterday was the anniversary) Louis Riel became a Christian, but I think it works in this, one of the only (and final) poems he ever wrote in English, two weeks before his execution for treason by the Canadian government.
The snow,
Which renders the ground all white,
From heaven, comes here below:
Its pine frozen drops invite us all
To white — keep our thoughts and our acts,
So that when our bodies do fall,
Our merits, before God, be facts.
How many who, with good desires,
Have died and lost their souls to fires?
Good desires kept unpractic'd
Stand, before God, unnotic'd.
O Robert, let us be fond
Of virtue! Virtues abound
In every sort of good,
Let virtue be our soul's food.
I really wonder how much damage the grandson of Aleister Crowley (now that's funny) will still do — the restructuring of the economy for the rich is bad enough, but I still keep reading rumblings about an invasion of Iran, which I don't understand at all… And really, if the US pulls out of Iraq, in some ways that's worse because it leaves a highly destabilized player in a now nuclear Middle East. But I think that the core purpose of Bush's presidency was the economic changes — the war just kind of happened.
Here's some UCLA cops tasering a student for being Muslim:
Well, you should be doing something more useful right now.
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