I was watching one of my favorite shows the other day, and the characters paid homage to one of the worst songs in pop history. No, everything Britney Spears has ever recorded is vastly superior to this idiotic slime. Yes, I said it. And I mean it. The sick, twisted part of it all is that the artist (justly, probably) and his former band define popular music itself. But the song that inspires me to want to punch someone in the face every time is "Imagine," by John Lennon. This 4-minute bucket of dog-piddle is the reason we have a culture-war in the first place, and not that this is a good thing. If you attended university in the US any time in the last forty years or so, you know the grubby guy with the crappy goatee who is always blathering about "corporate interests" or some such? This is his favorite song. Ditto, Marxist college professor. I don't even have to think war is a good idea to think, "You'd have to be a first-class buffoon to believe that" every time I hear the song. And I just figured out why, beyond a palpable antipathy for the paradigmatic college-age bearers of such a message. It is the "religion is the source of all our troubles" canard set to music. Does anyone with a shred of sense (and the willingness to pick up a history book) actually believe this? Apparently. And what is more, the record of history shows precisely the opposite: the most vicious crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by committed secularists. Oh, the most annoying of us Christians will preach Jesus in a public school assembly after being told to go easy on the Jesus (God bless you, Kurt Warner). But are you kidding? Do you seriously want to make this argument? More than that, the most militant Marxist regimes imitate religious practice. A popular fictional example is Marko Raimius' description of the Soviet Union in Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October." I think David Horowitz makes the case powerfully in his autobiographical work, "Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey." (A must-read; he made me cry. He said everything I had ever felt, he explained my coming-of-age as an anti-socialist so well, even 40 years later.) Same point made (though more from the left) in "Torture and Eucharist" by Cavanaugh. The New Atheism terminates in anti-humanism. So one can tell me to settle down if you wish; it's only a song, after all. But the logical outworking of those ideas--and the power to enforce them--ends in state-sanctioned murder.
Today, you’re 35. Or at least you would be, in this place. You probably know this, but we’re OK. Not great, but OK. We know you wouldn’t want us moping around and weeping all the time. We try not to. Actually, I guess part of the problem is that you didn’t know how much we loved you. And that you didn’t know how to love yourself. I hope you have gotten to Love by now. Not a place, but fills everything in every way. I’m not Him, but he probably said, “Dear daughter/sister, you have been terribly hard on yourself. Rest now, and be at peace.” Anyway, teaching is going well, and I tell the kids all about you. They all say you are pretty. I usually can keep the boys from saying something gross for a few seconds. Mom and I are going to the game tonight. And like 6 more times, before I go back to South Carolina. I have seen Nicky twice, but I myself haven’t seen your younger kids. Bob took pictures of the day we said goodbye, and we did a family picture at the Abbey. I literally almost a...
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