Someone wrote into to my site and said he loved my work, but called me a "goofy liberal."
He objected to my supporting Barak Obama. I understand, believe me I understand. But the "goofy liberal" tag got me to thinking.
Goofy Liberal
You see he said I was a goofy liberal, And you know what? He may just be right. I have always had a pseudo-intellectual leaning, and what's More I know I am not wrapped that tight.
But it’s the “goofy” adjective that gets me, Though it’s true I am a little loose. No Doubt I am outspoken when it comes to how we treat each other, And I rail against abuse.
Yes I have a gentle side and I'm no loose cannon, I choose my words with reasonable care. But I don’t get the “goofy liberal” thing it doesn’t feel right, As if ripples through the air.
OK my songs are rather fanciful, and I Do support a lot of human causes. But then I wonder what’s so terrible about that? What gives conservatives such pauses?
He does not like my somewhat liberal leanings, But hey I’m just trying to be fair. He says that I’m a “goofy liberal”, but Maybe a goofy liberal shouldn’t care.
bent
OCT 11 2008 (as performed at Smalls these days)
ASAP
For years and years I’ve thought about this interesting acronym, And wondered what it meant. I’ve ASAP, ASAP, I never really got, No matter how much time I spent.
Then recently it dawned on me, it came to me out of the blue, As if riding on the breeze. ASAP means As Slowly As Possible, As Slowly As Possible Please.
ASAP means that no one’s in a hurry, so And you should not be either. Your attention is not needed nothing urgent need be heeded, Just relax and take a breather.
ASAP simply means that no one’s in a panic, so Take your time, procrastinate and stall, Get back to us when the spirit really moves you if the Spirit ever moves you at all.
A-S-A-P as slowly as possible. Do not worry do not fuss Get back to us when you find the time, and Any time will be just fine with us.
A-S-A-P is it not a blessing. They don’t need the facts. ASAP ASAP it’s anti-depressing, They want me to relax.
Make this matter the least of your priorities, Make it the last thing that you do. Take this letter and throw it in the trash. We Simply do not want to hear from you.
Return this registration ASAP means Do not fret your pretty little head. We don’t need your registration information, Send it to us when you’re dead.
Send that money to us ASAP means, Take your time, procrastinate and stall, Send that money when your really really ready, if you’re Ever really ready at all.
A-S-A-P as slowly as possible, No one really wants your point of view. So Get back to us by 2021 or Never, would never work for you?
ASAP, ASAP as slowly as possible, Do not fill your self with stress and strife. A-S-A-P as slowly as possible, Just relax and have a lovely life.
Oct 11, Thinking About Stock Bubbles Bursting.
Tulips
In the 1620’s back in Holland Every Dutchman sang a song They had all the money all the milk and honey The Dutch could do no wrong.
That is until they fell in love with tulips, es- pecially the more exotic breeds. From Amsterdam to Yonkers, the Dutch went totally bonkers, Lusting for those tulip bulbs and seeds.
So It was not surprising that tulip prices started rising, The tulip was in such demand Soon the little tulip bulb was worth its weight in gold, Things were getting out of hand.
The average Dutchman sensed a golden opportunity, a Situation he could not ignore. You Buy a tulip bulb on a Monday morning, the Next day sell it for much more.
So Very quickly tulip speculation markets did appear where People bought and sold with great abandon, People would do anything to raise a little cash, Anything to get get a hand in.
Soon the Dutch economy was all tied up in tulips, As prices soared into the sky, People mortgaged, bought and sold, begged and borrowed, lied, cajoled, They would do anything to buy.
I gotta get some tulips. Gotta get some tulips. Raise some money and buy some more tulips. Just a few more. I’ll sell the wheelbarrow, the windmill, the kids little wooden shoes, yeah. And the cow. yes the cow. We don’t need the cow. Ok Maybe just half the cow. Gotta get some tulips.
Ah but then one dreary Monday morning, The purser rang the market bell, Suddenly nobody wanted tulips any more, Just like that the market went to hell.
Collapsed, succumbed and disappeared, disintegrated, vanished, it was Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. Just like that no wanted wanted tulips anymore, And no one knew the reason why.
The present owners of the tulips sat their quite dumbfounded, Uh well what do I do now? I owe a lot of money for this box of dirty tulip bulbs, and the Only thing I own is half a cow.
The Present owners owed the previous owners who owed the previous owners, Liens and loans and IOU’s prevailed, No one had the money to pay back what he owed, because the Tulip the market had completely failed.
So everybody started suing everybody else, What else was there to do? Everyone dragging everybody else to court, Those who escaped the wrath were few.
Judge Judy would have had a field day, Yelling staring scolding getting pissed. She would have solved it in a second, but - fortunately she did not yet exist.
So After twenty years of legal chaos, the Courts in Holland finally decided, that Tulip debts were null and void that nothing was collectable, and That was the solution they provided.
Folks it’s over, finished, done, time to go back to square one, That’s the deal the song has now been sung, I don’t care who owes you what, just go back to your little hut, Clean some fish or maybe scrape some dung.
Today we once again behold the tulip, Just a simple, pretty, pleasing flower. No No longer the object of such need, of avarice and desperate greed, Longer is it lusted for, a bulb that folks go busted for, Now is just grows anywhere, in the park without a care Just and ordinary flower.
What’s the moral of our story? It should be very plain come as no surprise, To Wager your entire fortune on a box of tulip bulbs, Surely is not wise.
Tulips in New York
Oct. 11, 2008
Don't Sell Right Now.
OK those hedge fund fools are selling all their stock and they’re Driving the market down, down, down. But If you do not have to sell you will not actualize a loss, And you will not drown, drown, drown.
Ah yes it takes courage now to simply hold your ground, To sit and wait and just not panic. But you have no bets to cover, you were not ridiculous, This need not be your own Titanic.
Unless something is totally crazy, the market will come back, Someday people will once again want to buy. It's not smart to sell right now and guarantee some major losses, Wait until the market starts to fly.
It’ll take a couple of years, after some remarkable changes, But it will happen wait and see. So do not join the losers and guarantee a big fat loss, Just wait a year, or two, or three.
Oct 11, 2008 Dow Jones drops under 9000!
700 Billion Dollars
Our government will get 700 billion dollars from somewhere and stick it into banks. It’s supposedly taxpayer money that they’re borrowing from us, From somewhere in the ranks. I just don’t know where they hope to really find this money, Unless they simply print the stuff. Make it very colorful just like monopoly money, Print and print until there is enough. If so then I do see remarkable inflation coming, With so much printed money floating ‘round. In my crystal ball I see an almost worthless dollar bill, Backed by a government so unsound. Inflation will be astounding like ten thousand percent a year Just like Germany after world war two. I want to thank the bankers for their incredibly voracious greed, It'll all be fine by 2032.
I have come to the conclusion that the writing and learning of poems is a very good thing. I know for sure that it keeps your mind ticking, especially the learning of the poems part. So here are my daily efforts, some of which might well be turned into songs someday.
September 3, 2008 Seattle
A quick poem I wrote after I encountered two big, fat, pot bellied pilots in their uniforms leaving the hotel in Seattle to fly off to somewhere this morning. They both gave me a big hello and I realized that that is how fat people usually are--very friendly and helpful. I may have to start a band called "Fat Pilots".
Fat Pilots
Two fat pot bellied pilots in their uniforms Sauntered through the hotel lobby, They gave me a big hello like fat people always do, Fat folks are never snobby.
I said to myself "that's the airline for me I like people like that," Friendly and communicative, concerned about humanity, Typical of people who are fat.
Fat people never put on skinny people airs, They try not to look right through you., They have a lot patience with human imperfection, They talk directly to you.
Two fat pot bellied pilots in their uniforms, Give me a big hello, That's the airline I want to fly, That's how I want to go.
Sept. 2, 2008 Vail Colrado. The Vail Jazz Festival
I listened to a beautiful and spirited Gospel Choir at The Vail Jazz Festival yesterday. I was swept into that hopeful feeling of brotherhood and deep rooted togetherness that shows its wonderful face in a good gospel choir. A good gospel choir can clearly reflect the African American's struggle with present day bigotry, as well make us aware of the long term effects of slavery upon all our lives today. The book "The Age of Lincon" by Orville Vernon Burton painted Abraham Lincoln very fairly, in my opinion. For all his faults, Lincoln did learn from Stephen Douglas about the humanity of the slaves, and then acted upon this.
As I listened to the choir, I wrote the following in the margins of the program.
The Right Side of History
A boy was born in the heart of Kentucky where All the farmers had slaves. Captured Africans sent across the ocean to be in Servitude to their graves.
This young boy grew grew up taught to believe what Whites believed back then. These slaves were less than human, these Slaves were less than men,
This young man eventually befriended Stephen Douglas with whom he Surely did debate. But to learn a whole lot about the black man's humanity, Became the young man's fate.
Though he spent much of his life as a typical white man, Eventually it came to be. Abraham Lincoln eventually ended up on the Right side of history.
He sent his country into a bloody civil war for What he learned had to be. And in spite of it all Mr. Lincoln ended up on the Right side of history.
His friend Stephen Douglas taught Mr. Lincoln, Just what had to be. And Mr. Lincoln eventually did end up on the Right side of history.
