I'm always amazed at how well people know fairy tales because I have no memory of anyone ever reading them to me. Maybe my folks did, at least my mom, but I don't remember it and I don’t see that being part of my mom’s maternal repetoire. Too much ghastliness for her tastes and I’m damn sure her mother never read them to the little girl who became my mom.
I know my grandmother, Cruella de Ville, didn't read anything to me either or to my brother except maybe the Riot Act, preferring as she did to smoke in front of the TV while my brother and I cowered in our bedrooms afraid to come out. God forbid one of us should be in the bathroom when she needed to go. "There's only one bathroom in the house AND I'M AN OLD WOMAN!" she'd yell and I know that at least for me it had the effect of constricting whatever progress I might be making. My God, I thought to myself, is she gonna punish me for peeing or is she going to . . . . oh my God! . . . COME IN HERE?
Like I said, I don't think my parents read to me either; not that I recall anyway. Well, there was the one time when I'd stolen some milk money in the first grade and my mother suspected as much -- after all, what's a 6 year old doing with ten dollars of bills and change? -- so she read me the story of the boy who stole and got his hands -- that's hands as in the plural -- cut off. I confessed and feared books thereafter.
Okay, my mom didn’t read me a story of hands being cut off of some boy who stole something. She just sat me down and read a pleasant story that both calmed me down, I suppose, but also prodded some guilt in a boy whose mom was so nice and warm that she didn’t deserve a thief for a son and so I confessed, knowing, instinctively, that life would be better for it.
So, fairy tales? No, but I do recall going to the drive-in with my parents and probably with my little brother to see "101 Dalmatians" and being entranced by the whole spectacle of something so joyous, so engaging as an adventure with 101 spotted, happy pups appearing as they did on the largest screen I'd ever seen there in the middle of a warm summer night fragrant with popcorn, motor heat, and my parents' Winstons.
The book you that your mother read to you that you can't remember was probably the Bible. You confessed because the Word of God spoke to you. Just like it does with Nancy Pelosi.
ReplyDeleteNancy just recently said she believes she must pursue public policies "in keeping with the values" of Jesus Christ, "The Word made Flesh. And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word. The Word. Isn’t it a beautiful word when you think of it? It just covers everything. The Word."
Everything except partial birth abortion.
I expect there will be a full condemnation of Speaker Pelosi accompanied by the same level of disgust and vitriol that was heaped on to George Bush when he said he relied on God to guide his actions.
Not much mention of abortion in the Bible.
ReplyDeleteSpeaker Pelosi says she reads the Bible. President Bush, by comparison, says that God spoke to him and told him to invade Iraq. So, no, he didn't just "rely" on God. He actually had chit chats with him. Which doesn't seem necessary since conservatives can find just about whatever they want in "the word of God" which is what they call the Bible. Must've been some word missing for President Bush, so he just had to have a conversation with the Almighty.
"Dude, I can't see nothin' in this Bible about whether I should invade Iraq. Goddammit, I need some guidance here! . . . What's that you say? Invade? Is that what I heard? Invade?!!? YES! Thank you, God"
Now, as it turns out, God actually said, "In vain," as in "Don't take my name in vain."
How do I know? I just had my own little session of shootin' the shit with God. But you gotta listen carefully to the old dude.
No, Nancy says that "we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word." Those are Nancy's words, which you don't seem too bothered about.
ReplyDeleteThat other quote about Bush is bullshit. It has never been corroborated, it was denied by the Bush White House, and soon after, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz carried a Palestinian transcript of the meeting, containing a version of Mr Bush's remarks but the Palestinian delegation was reluctant publicly to acknowledge its authenticity.
But this lives in liberal lore as gospel. We have Nancy on record saying she looks to Jesus to set public policy, you have hearsay. Nice try. It is bullshit.
You guys didn't blink when our current Secretary of State said she channeled Elanor Roosevelt.
Inconsistency is the hallmark of liberal debate.
I'm not a liberal. I'm a socialistcommunistfascist.
ReplyDelete