A Bob Dylan lyric that crosses my mind as I'm rereading point #5 of my "10 things I might have live-blogged, if I'd blogged the State of the Union Address last night." Something about "A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bone-tired" — on Obama's list of characters "today in America" — made me think of Bob Dylan's list of characters — and vehicles, including a bus — in "Three Angels." Dylan's song is about this "concrete world full of souls" who never notice the angels. Obama's text is much longer, so it's harder to say what it's "about." It has nothing about angels or other supernatural entities, other than the conventional "God," whom we're not asked to notice. He's asked to notice us: "God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
Obama does refer to "spirit," but it's the workaday can-do "spirit that has always moved this nation forward" and "the spirit of citizenship." The highest aspirations are repeatedly termed "dreams," as in that above-quoted line about the bone-tired man on the bus, which continues with the mind-reading "he's dreaming big dreams for his son." Just before the invocation of God, there's the 2-word imperative "Believe it," but the "it" is nothing religious. "It" is the "dream" of an American where "dreams" really do come true, if we keep "our eyes cast towards tomorrow." In Obama's America, we cast our eyes, aspirationally, and see, not angels, but a decent-enough job, if we work hard and take personal responsibility.
In this concrete world full of souls...
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19 comments:
President Obama Fonzie Robot says:
I'd Like to Tell You About Two Young Single Women, Living in a Basement, Barely Scraping By at Their Jobs at the Beer Factory. Even in Such Circumstances Their Spirit of Citizenship Moved Them Forward. I'd Like to Quote a Song They Sang That Sums Up their American Dream, and Ours:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Sclemeel, schlemazel, hasenfeffer incorporated.
We're gonna do it!
Give us any chance, we'll take it.
Give us any rule, we'll break it.
We're gonna make our dreams come true.
Doin' it our way.
Nothin's gonna turn us back now,
Straight ahead and on the track now.
We're gonna make our dreams come true,
Doin' it our way.
There is nothing we won't try,
Never heard the word impossible.
This time there's no stopping us.
We're gonna do it.
On your mark, get set, and go now,
Got a dream and we just know now,
We're gonna make our dream come true.
And we'll do it our way, yes our way.
Make all our dreams come true,
And do it our way, yes our way,
Make all our dreams come true
For me and you.
God Bless America.
Naked Bob Dylan Robot says:
In an Earlier Post, Althouse Wrote About the Challenges in Being In My Back-Up Band, How I Might Change a Song's Key at a Moment's Notice, and the Players had to Have the Chops and Be on Their Toes.
Alas, Obama Could Never Play with My Band: Everything He Knows is in the Key of 'I'.
It is Good to Be Betamax3000.
In Obama's America, we cast our eyes, aspirationally, and see, not angels, but a decent-enough job, if we work hard and take personal responsibility.
Of course he doesn't believe one damn word of it.
Unless you let him simply redefine what common use words. mean.
Like 'responsibility'. He believes that that word has no baggage with it. That is not linked at all with the concept of 'accountability', or 'taking the consequences.
Hillary is 'responsible' for Benghazi, but only if there not be any consequences.
Worst administration in American history.
Everlasting shame on every voter who helped put them in.
In this world of concrete souls...
"Everlasting shame on every voter who put them in."
AMEN, Brother. And this includes the host of this blog, who had the education, intelligence and the time and ability to read Obama's written and verbal record to supposedly know better..
Naked Bob Dylan Robot says:
Ballad of a Thin Naked President
You walk into the Oval Office
With your Executive Pen in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say am I that Man?
You don't try too hard
But you understand
the Pointlessness of what you said
When you get home
Something is happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you President 'O'?
You have many fabricated contacts
Of Waitresses and lumberjacks
That Count as facts
When someone attacks your audacity
But no one has any respect
Anyway they just expect
You to hand them another check
To the poor and to wealthy organizations
The Speech Writer walks up to you
And he kneels
He crosses himself
And then he clicks his Bic Pen
And without further notice
Asks you how far you can Bend
And says, "Here's your Words Sir
Frothy with Foam"
Something is happening
And you don't know what it is
Do you President 'O'?
Dylan says dignity ain't never been photographed but there's so much dignity in that photo IMO.
"...Vehicles, including a Bus..."
Bruce Springsteen Naked Robot says:
Hey bus driver, keep the change
Bless your children, give them names
Don't trust men who walk with canes
Drink this and you'll grow wings on your feet
I am Very Thankful that Althouse Responds to Dylan More than Springsteen in Her Posts. I'd Hate to Have to be a Naked Bruce Springsteen Robot on a Regular Basis: Clunky, Self-Righteous, Smug, Condescending Faux Empathy and the Occasional Faux Dyla, like Above.
I Do Not Like Springsteen.
Obama lies. about nuclear Iran are so pathetic that spin masters are dizzy.
Israel was told there would be no US cooperation with Israel bombing the nuclear facilities in Iran until the Embargo was tightened up to convince Iran to surrender its nukes, but the USA would never permit the Iranians to get a nuke . Word was passed to Israel that the US would shoot down Israeli bombers on their way if Obama was not obeyed.
The last weeks before the Obama bluff was called, Obama and his ally Iran pretended to have a Peace in Our Time deal that released the embargo and 5 billion dollars impounded now, and provided that the US had to wait 6 months and recheck the Iranian weapons status.
Obama had made the USA into the air defense force for Iran until the Iranian bomb was operational.
What Obama has done to destroy the USA is insignificant compared to what he has done to destroy Israel.
Tenth ave. goes north or south.
Sometimes even the President of the United States must have to stand behind me and put a medal around my neck.
I think he's wearing the shades because he did not want anyone to see him if he got misty-eyed. I believe Bob takes some of these awards and medals very seriously.
The photograph was taken right before Dylan twerked the President.
oh I get it, betamax is Meade
@ Carol 12:46
What Were the Clues That Gave Us Away?
I saw that Betamax3000 never mentions dogs in his visions. That is "the Dog vision that did not bark" clue.
old Bob doesn't perform like he used to much anymore. Thanks Obama :(
I Am Meade as You Are Meade and We Are All Together.
Meade Will Not Respond to This Because He is Me.
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