A Mean Kind of Justice

A song by Carrie Newcomer has been running through my head.

My usual techniques for when a song gets stuck haven't had any success. When I was hard into the jingle whoring I found that if I had a song, and it happened all the time, one of those incessantly intrusive advertising jingles would climb into my head and torture me like I was an Arab from Jordan who was stupid enough to have a two year old passport stamp from Pakistan and then tried to go through US customs. The most effective technique is to play it all the way through. Then, I'd repeat that the same way I would repeat holding my breath to handle a case of hiccups.

Not lately. I read something in the paper, or the web, or catch a snippet of dialogue from the TV or radio and I hear Carrie's harsh and beautiful lyrics. I can't find a downloadable or uploadable (I get so confused sometimes anyway the upshot is that I can't fucking post the song here) version of this song. I urge you to do some looking. Give Ms. Newcomer a listen.

Here's what's been happening.

I read Preparing the Battlefield by Seymore Hersch, about how Bush and Cheney are trying to cement their legacies by starting yet another, this time bigger, and probably more disasterous war. Then I hear Carrie start singing. . .

There's a ring around the moon,
There's a chill in the air.
There's a mean kind of justice,
Coming down coming down.

Then I read about how John McCain is all butt hurt because Wes Clark questions whether or not simply getting your ass shot down and being captured is really a qualification for being President. Frankly, I've questioned the same thing. McCain always brings up his record as a Naval Officer, and with the exception of his time as a POW, it's not anything to shout about. He was an indifferent student who used family connections to get into the academy, his performance while a middie would have gotten anyone else who wasn't the son and grandson of admirals sent for a four year tour of chipping grey paint in the fleet. McCain graduated near the bottom of his class and got jets. His position of highest command was as a prisoner. I don't hold the fact that he made a "confession" or even the video tape he made under extreme duress against him, I would defy anyone to hold out as long as he did. I know, everybody breaks. His performance as a prisoner under horrific conditions shows me where his heart was. I'll give him props, sailor to sailor, he did the best he could in a situation where a great many did worse.

Does that alone qualify him to be President?

Nope.

Angels wring their hands and put ashes on their heads.
There's a mean kind of justice coming down.
It don't ever stop a thing,
An eye for eye, tic for tat.
And I've never seen nobody truly satisfied like that.
It just rolls around the head eating holes in your heart.
There's a mean kind of justice coming down.

Then I make my weekly stop at James Howard Kunstler's blog on the economy Clusterfuck Nation and read about how there's a good chance that the coming economic meltdown will make 1929 look like a bush league game.

There is a goodness on this earth
That will not die will not die.
It bears all, and seen it all, and still it survives.
I know that we have failed,

After all, Barclay's Bank is losing faith in the Federal Reserve.

But I I've seen that we can fly.
There's goodness on this earth that will not die.
Oh no, forgiveness never sleeps.
But the devil wants its due and says human life is cheap .
When we give up any hope we could ever change the past ,
Then at last. . .

Then, all it takes is to see another made-up furor in the political realm and I'm off into the chorus, repeat and fade. . .

There's a ring around the moon,
There's a chill on the breeze.
There's somebody with their hands clasped,
Down on their knees.
Angels hold their breath for what might set them free.
There's a mean kind of justice coming down

I encourage you to track this song down, drop a few pennies into Carrie's purse and get it for your own.

3B's