nobody's sorry

If the recent events in the Twin Cities have had a certain mephitic familiarity to them, well....


They aren't without precedent.

Oh, I'm sorry. Was that offsides? Too fucking bad.

Yes, the G.O.P. hasn't advocated the liquidation of undesirables...openly, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other parallels.

Claiming a monopoly on patriotism and love of country? Check.

Demonizing the opposition as traitors? Check.

Claiming alliance with the clean-leaving regular folks against the decadent elites? Check.

Stressing ignorance as a virtue? Check.

Sporting perpetual hard-ons for any and all things militaristic? Check.

Emphasis on creepy, necrophiliac rituals of martyrdom? Check.

Led by a jumped up ex-military man with a bad temper and hatful of hollow promises to win the masses over even as he plans to fuck them over? Check.

Still, I suppose that as long as folks aren't being shipped off to death camps, the rest of the disturbing similarties can be overlooked, especially if the bootheel to come rests more heavily on someone else's neck, be they women, gays, blacks, latinos, liberals, foreigners, and the like.

Subway Sect - Nobody's Scared (from a 1978 single) - The death rattle of rationality. I've said it before (in the context of the Dead Kennedys music): When the situation on the ground rivals -- nay, exceeds the most paranoiac of punk prophecies, then we're in dire straits indeed, comrades.

Edit: Before the anonymous faces in the peanut gallery again decide for some cheap point-scoring, I'd just like to say that Godwin's Law can go fuck itself.

are visions but only illusions

Because I've seen this issue come up in more than a few places recently, I feel that it's my duty as a retrologist to set things straight.

The Good Old Days, as seen through a nostalgia filter:


The Good Old Days, as seen through the lens of reality:


I think the point is rather self-evident, but let's use another example that carries a bit more personal resonance for the post-boomer demographic.

How we'd like to remember "those days":

How we truthfully remember "those days":



Yeah, I realize I just violated the music bloggers' equivalent to the Geneva Convention there, but drastic problems call for drastic solutions. Nothing can be ruled out. We must be prepared to use any and all options at our disposal, even if it means injecting a disconcerting double shot of classic postpunk into your recalcitrant cortices.

Joy Division - I Remember Nothing (from Unknown Pleasures, 1979)

Public Image Limited - Memories (from Metal Box, 1979)