America’s right behind you

There are few things worse than being forced to pander to your boss's unnatural Henry Luce fetish. ("Oh, oh, I love it when you talk about the China Lobby, Billy. Don't stop!") I have left more than one job because of similar circumstances.

Another July 4th, another day spent contemplating the dissonance between America in theory and in practice. It shouldn't have be this way; not because I ever assumed the pursuit of a truly egalitarian society was going to be effortless, but because the current roster of issues should be no-brainers in a nation that supposedly prides itself on the ideals of liberty, equality, and opportunity.

Yet we, as a nation, have gotten stuck in the wilderness, repeating hollow catechisms that pay lip service to high ideals while offering insidious qualifiers -- "but not for them." What had once been rooted in hope, in the faith of progress and the inherent (if not ubiquitous) decency of humankind, has sunk its roots deep in the noxious swamp of fear and bigotry...to benefit of all sorts of opportunistic parasites.

Throwing Muses - America (She Can't Say No) (from untitled, 1986) - 4AD says the album is self-titled, but the band stated that it has no title. This is the shit that drives compulsive CD collection organizing types up the wall. Good.

Au Pairs - America (from Sense and Sensuality, 1982) - This track, included on a budget-priced "politics of punk" box set, is what converted Maura into a fan of the band, thus leading me to dust off my collection of their material and fall in love with them all over again.