Americans may be losing their competitive edge with the world economically, but we can definitely match our international brethren in one area - prevarication. We have become a land of first class liars.
Nayda Sulamen says she doesn't receive welfare and then her publicist has to explain that she doesn't really consider food stamps, AFDC, disability and all the other things she's been mooching on a regular basis welfare. Well what exactly is welfare, Nayda? Now we have 14 more wards of the state. Count me in as one who would like to see her Doctor censured and punished.
Alex Rodriguez was on national television a year ago and denied ever using steroids. Now he issues a lame recantation that still charts real high on the bullshit scale. Ditto Miguel Tejada. Listened to a tired justification for their actions by ex players union jefe Marvin Miller yesterday.
I don't know if you can call Tom Daschle's actions lying but he certainly broached a few ethical boundaries. Madoff and a host of other junior ponzi artists have decimated a wide swath of America with their falsehoods.
Who can forget George Bush swearing to prosecute anyone in his administration that had anything to do with leaking the Valerie Plame information? Never saw the big caveat that said - oh, unless it's me or the vice president. Lucky they had Scooter to fall on his sword. I guess Bill Clinton started the ball rolling when he said that he did not have sex with that woman. Or was it Ronnie Rayguns when he signed the Boland Amendment prohibiting the Iran Contra aid to the rebels while simultaneously issuing orders to go ahead with the aid. It's no wonder we are such great fibbers when our elected officials set the bar so high.
Ann Coulter is being investigated for voter fraud again, you can't officially live and vote in Connecticut and New York at the same time.
I guess there's only one person an American can really trust - Jose Canseco. The only man left that can still tell the truth.
Nayda Sulamen says she doesn't receive welfare and then her publicist has to explain that she doesn't really consider food stamps, AFDC, disability and all the other things she's been mooching on a regular basis welfare. Well what exactly is welfare, Nayda? Now we have 14 more wards of the state. Count me in as one who would like to see her Doctor censured and punished.
Alex Rodriguez was on national television a year ago and denied ever using steroids. Now he issues a lame recantation that still charts real high on the bullshit scale. Ditto Miguel Tejada. Listened to a tired justification for their actions by ex players union jefe Marvin Miller yesterday.
I don't know if you can call Tom Daschle's actions lying but he certainly broached a few ethical boundaries. Madoff and a host of other junior ponzi artists have decimated a wide swath of America with their falsehoods.
Who can forget George Bush swearing to prosecute anyone in his administration that had anything to do with leaking the Valerie Plame information? Never saw the big caveat that said - oh, unless it's me or the vice president. Lucky they had Scooter to fall on his sword. I guess Bill Clinton started the ball rolling when he said that he did not have sex with that woman. Or was it Ronnie Rayguns when he signed the Boland Amendment prohibiting the Iran Contra aid to the rebels while simultaneously issuing orders to go ahead with the aid. It's no wonder we are such great fibbers when our elected officials set the bar so high.
Ann Coulter is being investigated for voter fraud again, you can't officially live and vote in Connecticut and New York at the same time.
I guess there's only one person an American can really trust - Jose Canseco. The only man left that can still tell the truth.
THE LAST HONEST MAN by Stan Ridgway
ReplyDelete"A crowd came in and sat down
And then a man began to yell
About savin' souls to heaven
And for the sinner there was hell
Well later on that night
In a motel room down the road
He kept his meeting for a cat-o-nine beating
From a leather-clad man named Moe
(CHORUS)
An honest man
We're looking for the last honest man
An honest man
Keep searching for the last honest man
There's a man that moves the masses
On a big city radio dial
He shouts and screams at all he's seen
Runs a talk show like a trial
And there's a bartender keeping secrets
About a boxer that took a dive
And in an office way uptown a deal is going down
That could get somebody four to five
CHORUS
Now we'll keep looking high and low
And we'll keep searching 'round
Is everybody, everyone, dishonest in this town?
Well they'll stab you in the back
You get a handshake and a smile
But if one don't get ya, the other one will
And ya gotta walk that mile
CHORUS"
this song came to mind right away; off of Stan's 1989 album Mosquitos; i saw Wall of Voodoo a few times in the early 80's, at a bar on Main Street in Santa Monica called Blackies (now it's a swanky Wolfgang Puck restaurant called Chinois); one of the truly great performing bands of that era; also saw Stan at the Roxy after his first solo album The Big Heat came out; one of the best shows ever.