3 Chords & the Truth: This one's for Danny

This episode of 3 Chords & the Truth is for Danny -- Danny Federici, longtime sideman for Bruce Springsteen who lost his battle against melanoma Thursday. He was 58.

FEDERICI HAD BEEN a member of the E Street Band, playing keyboards and accordion, since 1973's "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle" LP -- and he'd played in various bands with the Boss since the late '60s. If you've heard his accordion solo on "4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy)," you know you'll never forget it.

This episode of the Big Show, which will feature the music of Springsteen and the band, also is for the people -- the country -- he lovingly writes about. This episode of 3C&T is for the people who bust their butts chasing the promise America makes -- a promise that is looking more and more like mere national mythology -- but too often can't deliver on.

This episode is for the folks with piles of broken dreams, who wonder what went wrong as they soldier on against the odds.

This episode is for the E Street Band's America. God help us, every one.

Much happier and far less bitchy 2.1

Get over your insane notions of the sanctity of life and you'll be much happier and far less bitchy.

(Anonymous) 4:06 PM

Much happier and far less bitchy 2.0

Get over your insane notions of the sanctity of life and you'll be much happier and far less bitchy.

(Anonymous) 4:06 PM

Much happier and far less bitchy

Get over your insane notions of the sanctity of life and you'll be much happier and far less bitchy.

(Anonymous) 4:06 PM

Godwin's Law: I call bulls***

Godwin's Law is the informal combox protocol stating that the first person to call another a Nazi automatically loses the argument.

Faced with a culture where a Yale "art student" can claim to have inseminated herself and then taken herbal abortifacients so she might smear the menstrual blood and any "products of conception" all over a cube, upon which she intended to project video of herself "miscarrying" into a cup . . . I call bulls*** on Godwin's Law.

If you can't call that evidence of a Nazilike disregard for humanity and the sanctity of human life, then you are left with no words at all to describe the horror afoot in this "culture." In fact, "Nazi" only begins to cover the degree of evil to which Yale's malevolent maven of murder art and her ilk have handed themselves over.

And whether what Aliza Shvarts, Class of '08, has committed is "merely" astoundingly sick "performance art" or, instead, some monstrous neo-Seinfeldian display of "murder about nothing," what we now face is a historical replay of the point at which Weimar debauchery and decadence intersected with the Nazi death cult. All that is required now is some appeal to the greater good beyond the freedom to rut with impunity.

Then again, for all the Aliza Shvartses of the world, I suppose rutting with impunity would be reason aplenty.

AND THERE ARE other Aliza Shvartses out there, though not all have her proclivity for blood-soaked "artistry." Take this comment left for the "Devil and Woman at Yale" post. I won't post it there, but I will put it here for all the world to behold -- and with the expletive partially deleted:

Who gives a s***? At 2 days old it's a bundle of cells and nothing more.

Get over your insane notions of the sanctity of life and you'll be much happier and far less bitchy.

(Anonymous) 4:06 PM

ALIZA SHVARTS' stated purpose of highlighting ambiguity and constructing an "artwork" entirely out of uncertainty is nothing more than a postmodern, mumbo-jumbo recasting of Pontius Pilate's "What is truth?" Likewise, mindless, callous and death-dealing comments such as the one above is just another contemporary echo of a sad and ancient tale.

Ancient Israelite idol-worshippers offered up their children to Moloch. Aztec priests cut the hearts out of virgins to appease their blood-thirsty gods. The Turks killed a million Armenians. Josef Stalin starved between 6 million and 7 million Ukrainians. Pol Pot slaughtered millions of Cambodians in the 1970s.

And we all know what Adolf Hitler did.

Obviously, none of these genocides were marked by "insane notions of the sanctity of life."

I wonder whether Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot were "much happier and far less bitchy."

Danny Federici, RIP

Terrible, terrible news this morning for those of us who, for all these years, have counted on Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band to get us through.

From The Associated Press:

Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band’s sound on hits from “Hungry Heart” through “The Rising,” died Thursday. He was 58.

Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen’s official Web site.

He last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.

“Danny and I worked together for 40 years — he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much ... we grew up together,” Springsteen said in a statement posted on his Web site.

Springsteen concerts scheduled for Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed.

AND GO to the Springsteen site and watch this video (scroll down a bit).

The 'art' was a hoax. The depravity is real.

Oh, OK. So now Yale says that Aliza Shvarts was faking the whole thing about inseminating, then aborting, herself for an "art installation."

That it was "a creative fiction."

AND THAT is supposed to make it much less barbaric, disgusting and -- yes -- demonic?

There is no end to how, in fiction, this "art" is no less troubling than if Shvarts' hanging cube had really and truly been smeared with the cellular remains of murdered fetuses. The evidence starts with this update in The Washington Post:

Shvarts told classmates that she had herself artificially inseminated as often as possible for much of this past year, then took legal, herbal abortifacient drugs and filmed herself in her bathtub cramping and bleeding from the miscarriages. She said her work will include video, a sculpture incorporating her blood mixed with Vaseline wrapped in plastic, and a spoken piece describing what she had done.

She declined to comment yesterday. Shvarts presented a mock-up of the project in class last week -- the final piece will go on display at the undergraduate senior art show at Yale on Tuesday -- and told the Yale Daily News that she wanted to provoke debate about the relationship between art and the human body but that the intention of the piece was not to scandalize anyone.

(snip)

In a statement yesterday [Thursday -- R21], Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said: "Ms. Shvarts . . . stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman's body.

"She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

"Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns."

Shvartz, an arts major, told the Yale Daily: "I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity. I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be."

WELL, THEN. Let it be understood that, at Yale, a woman who depicts an act of unutterable evil in an approving -- and most graphic -- manner for the sole sake of stirring up s*** is considered to be an "artist" by the highest authorities. Furthermore, these university authorities consider a pseudo snuff film projected on a blood-smeared cube to be "art."

Yale officials also contend that Shvarts "has the right" to engage in "performance art" that is not only indecent -- if the final piece resembles what was advertised -- but assuredly obscene in the broad sense of the word. (And maybe debatably so in the legal sense.)

And so long as a student's "art" doesn't get you raided by federal or state authorities, more power to the little wretches, right? One is compelled to ask, when considering the modern university, who is teaching whom? And what?

Don't answer that. I think I know.

What's equally troubling is how -- before we knew Shvarts' "art" was a scam -- this was as worked up as Yale's pro-lifers could get:

CLAY member Jonathan Serrato '09 said he does not think CLAY has an official response to Schvarts' exhibition. But personally, Serrato said he found the concept of the senior art project "surprising" and unethical.

"I feel that she's manipulating life for the benefit of her art, and I definitely don't support it," Serrato said. "I think it's morally wrong."

Later, in The Washington Post, the president of Choose Life at Yale was worried about matters of taste:

Students gathered in Beinecke Plaza near the administration building to protest yesterday afternoon [Thursday -- R21], said sophomore John Behan, president of Choose Life at Yale. "CLAY and the entire Yale community, I think, are appalled at what was a serious lapse in taste on the part of the student and the Yale art department."

TO BE FAIR, it wasn't clear from the Post story whether the reporter interviewed Behan before or after the hoax became public. Nevertheless. . . .

Serious lapse in taste?

Surprising . . . unethical . . . morally wrong?

No. Janet Jackson giving God and everybody a Super Bowl peek at her ta-tas was "a serious lapse in taste."

An average day in the life of the Hillary Clinton '08 campaign might be characterized as "surprising," "unethical" or "morally wrong." As would Bill Clinton's canoodling with Monica Lewinsky in the Oral Oval Office.

ABORTING ONE'S CHILDREN for "art's sake" is monstrous on the Hitlerian end of the scale. Pretending to do so in the name of "creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman's body" is equally high on any moral-depravity index, with the only mitigating factor being that no human fetuses actually died in the process.

When one is "pro-life" but still unable -- or afraid -- to call evil by its rightful name, that in itself is a compelling sign that what remains of our Western "civilization" is being sucked into a politically correct vortex that ultimately defines all deviancy, no matter how glaring, down to something approaching . . . normality.

In dealing with lost souls in a fallen world, our culture needs modern-day St. Francis of Assisis. But it needs its Jeremiahs, too:

26
As the thief is shamed when caught, so shall the house of Israel be shamed: They, their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets;
27
They who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." They turn to me their backs, not their faces; yet, in their time of trouble they cry out, "Rise up and save us!"
28
Where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up! Will they save you in your time of trouble? For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up for Baal.
29
How dare you still plead with me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD.
30
In vain I struck your children; the correction they did not take. Your sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
31
You, of this generation, take note of the word of the Lord: Have I been a desert to Israel, a land of darkness? Why do my people say, "We have moved on, we will come to you no more"?
32
Does a virgin forget her jewelry, a bride her sash? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
33
How well you pick your way when seeking love! You who, in your wickedness, have gone by ways unclean!
34
You, on whose clothing there is the life-blood of the innocent, whom you found committing no burglary;
35
Yet withal you say, "I am innocent; at least, his anger is turned away from me." Behold, I will judge you on that word of yours, "I have not sinned."

THOSE STILL CAPABLE of seeing evil for what it is need to distinguish between St. Francis moments and Jeremiah moments in the hard slog of redeeming a culture on its death bed. It's a matter of life and death.

For the culture . . . and for us.



UPDATE: If you want another example of how far gone we really are -- particularly in academia -- read this. It really is possible to be so "open-minded" that your brain falls out.

Devil and Woman at Yale

What's the difference between Aliza Shvarts, Yale '08, and Goebbels, Himmler and the Big Kahuna himself, Adolf Hitler.

I don't know. You tell me:

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock, saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for "shock value."

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," Shvarts said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."

The "fabricators," or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases. She said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.

Shvarts declined to specify the number of sperm donors she used, as well as the number of times she inseminated herself.

JOSEPH GOEBBELS, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler murdered millions and millions of Jews (and others as well) because they wanted to build a "master race," to "perfect" humanity. According to their sick and murderous ideology, the Jews and Gypsies, etc., etc., were in the way.

According to the Yale Daily News, Aliza Shvarts repeatedly inseminated herself and aborted herself -- repeatedly killed her own offspring -- for no grand cause or ideology, but instead for the sake of dubious "art." And to facilitate "some sort of discourse."

That's it.

If you want to do a comparative study of abomination, at least the Nazis of the Third Reich had going for them the mitigating factor of having committed unspeakable evil in a quixotic, whack scheme to "better humanity." At least as they understood it.

Aliza Shvarts enticed men to "donate" their sperm, inseminated herself like breeding stock and then aborted her children -- over and over and over again -- for the sake of a glorified snuff film. For a senior project at an Ivy League university.

And some professor approved it.

And the university, apparently, is going to "exhibit" it:

"I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts said. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be."

The display of Shvarts' project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Shvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Shvarts' self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

Shvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.

School of Art lecturer Pia Lindman, Schvarts' senior-project advisor, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

SNUFF VIDEO AND BIOHAZARD for a senior project. This is the level of complete depravity we have come to in this country, in this time.

I can't even make myself pray "Lord have mercy" anymore. Mercy we've received, and we've crapped upon it and thrown it back in God's face.

If the sick, pathetic spectacle of Aliza Shvarts represents, in any sense, who we are and what we do as Americans nowadays, the Lord needs to take us out as soon as possible -- before we destroy the rest of His creation. It will not be pretty.

Congratulations, Aliza Shvarts and Yale University. You've made the Third Reich look comparatively reasoned and sober, because when it comes to one's reasons for atrocity, you just can't beat "What the f***."



UPDATE: Yes, I know Aliza Shvarts has turned out to be a hoaxer -- a.k.a., performance artist.

That changes the particulars, but not the metaphysics. Go here to the newer post.

Taking the bishops to school?

Some commenters have reacted with surprise that Pope Benedict XVI has tackled the monster so directly.

OTHERS THINK he's whitewashing over the depth of the American episcopal rot that allowed the monster -- the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse crisis -- to run so amok for so long.

I think, given the occasion -- vespers with the U.S. bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington -- and that he's a guest in this country, of the American Church, and that his remarks were shown live on EWTN and the cable-news channels, what we saw just might have been an exquisitely diplomatically correct taking of the American bishops to the woodshed. And not just over the sexual predators who hid behind their Roman collars . . . and behind their enabling prelates.

Among the countersigns to the Gospel of life found in America and elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of minors. Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior. As you strive to eliminate this evil wherever it occurs, you may be assured of the prayerful support of God’s people throughout the world. Rightly, you attach priority to showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.

Responding to this situation has not been easy and, as the President of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was “sometimes very badly handled”. Now that the scale and gravity of the problem is more clearly understood, you have been able to adopt more focused remedial and disciplinary measures and to promote a safe environment that gives greater protection to young people. While it must be remembered that the overwhelming majority of clergy and religious in America do outstanding work in bringing the liberating message of the Gospel to the people entrusted to their care, it is vitally important that the vulnerable always be shielded from those who would cause harm. In this regard, your efforts to heal and protect are bearing great fruit not only for those directly under your pastoral care, but for all of society.

IN HIS REMARKS, the pope didn't have to note what a mess some bishops made of things. But he did. Definite slam.

And did he have to remind the roomful of "shepherds" that "It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust . . . "? Ideally, no. Practically, yes.

So necessary that Benedict said it twice . . . "it is vitally important that the vulnerable always be shielded from those who would cause harm," coming just a paragraph later.

To tell you the truth, the entirety of the Holy Father's remarks to his brother bishops struck me as a comprehensive reminder to -- in short -- do your job, dammit.

Here in America, you are blessed with a Catholic laity of considerable cultural diversity, who place their wide-ranging gifts at the service of the Church and of society at large. They look to you to offer them encouragement, leadership and direction. In an age that is saturated with information, the importance of providing sound formation in the faith cannot be overstated. American Catholics have traditionally placed a high value on religious education, both in schools and in the context of adult formation programs. These need to be maintained and expanded. The many generous men and women who devote themselves to charitable activity need to be helped to renew their dedication through a “formation of the heart”: an “encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others” (Deus Caritas Est, 31). At a time when advances in medical science bring new hope to many, they also give rise to previously unimagined ethical challenges. This makes it more important than ever to offer thorough formation in the Church’s moral teaching to Catholics engaged in health care. Wise guidance is needed in all these apostolates, so that they may bear abundant fruit; if they are truly to promote the integral good of the human person, they too need to be made new in Christ our hope.

As preachers of the Gospel and leaders of the Catholic community, you are also called to participate in the exchange of ideas in the public square, helping to shape cultural attitudes. In a context where free speech is valued, and where vigorous and honest debate is encouraged, yours is a respected voice that has much to offer to the discussion of the pressing social and moral questions of the day. By ensuring that the Gospel is clearly heard, you not only form the people of your own community, but in view of the global reach of mass communication, you help to spread the message of Christian hope throughout the world.

Clearly, the Church’s influence on public debate takes place on many different levels. In the United States, as elsewhere, there is much current and proposed legislation that gives cause for concern from the point of view of morality, and the Catholic community, under your guidance, needs to offer a clear and united witness on such matters. Even more important, though, is the gradual opening of the minds and hearts of the wider community to moral truth. Here much remains to be done. Crucial in this regard is the role of the lay faithful to act as a “leaven” in society. Yet it cannot be assumed that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church’s teaching on today’s key ethical questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.

YOU THINK THE BISHOPS would have figured all that out by now. And, by almost any measure, little of what the pope said needed to be done is being done -- at least effectively -- by the American Church. That is clear from the statistical data of the recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, and it is clear to anyone who has toiled in the rocky fields of religious education or youth ministry.

You think a pope would have been content to stick to generalities and a review of the bright side of life. But he didn't.

Somebody had to say it. And, if you consider the speech and the context, you might conclude that the pope said a lot, indeed.

Can't wait to see what else Benedict has to say this week.

Back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSA

I don't know how to beat a dead horse with any degree of panache, nor do I have the inclination to try, but the dead horse of America's present proto-fascist torture regime -- alas -- does still require more flogging.

And it needs to be kept up until the impeachment proceedings and criminal trials begin -- or until the war-crimes trials begin in the Hague, Netherlands. Whichever comes first.

That is the ugly business of democracy which, unfortunately, we have no stomach for at present. Along this present path lay tyranny.

I really have nothing else to add. I'll just let MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and law professor Jonathan Turley fill you in on the particulars.

HAT TIP: Catholic and Enjoying It.

No, not 'no-knock' warrant. . . .

I guess legislators in my home state also missed the memo about how, in what used to be called Christendom, we don't mutilate people as punishment for crimes.

THAT'S ALL ABOUT to change in what -- when I wasn't looking -- must have become the Islamic Republic of Louisiana, as this Associated Press report indicates:

The most serious sex crimes should be punishable by castration, with drugs or surgery, the Louisiana Senate voted on Tuesday.

The bill by Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Meaux, would give judges the option of imposing chemical castration on those convicted of sex crimes including aggravated rape, simple rape and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Chemical castration would be mandatory on second offenses, and the offender would have the option of choosing physical castration instead.

Senators voted 32-3 to send the measure to the House.

(snip)

The drug treatment would be mandatory on a second offense, though a medical expert would have to determine that the treatment would be effective.

Once ordered to undergo the treatment, the offender would have the option of physical castration — which Gautreaux said some offenders might prefer to avoid any drug side effects or in hopes of permanently curbing impulses that led to his offense.

WELL, IF THIS BILL becomes law, and if the Gret Stet becomes truly vigilant about ferreting out and prosecuting sexual abuse, the population of some corners of, say, Livingston Parish might be decimated.

And if you fail to get my drift, let me just say that 25 years ago, while working on a news story in that parish, I had a school administrator tell me -- without any hint of humor or irony -- what a horrible problem his school faced with incest. That, sadly, only confirmed what was common knowledge about that neck of the woods at the time.

Last I heard, incest is a sex crime -- even in Louisiana.

So let us hope for swift and vigilant enforcement of the Louisiana criminal code. In a generation or three, we well might be rid of the kind of inbred morons who can elect an assembly such as this.

It's the 'My town's in a song' post

This is the provincial, not to mention stereotypical, "Hey, there's a song about my town on the radio" post. Right now, that song is "Omaha Nights," off of ex-Jayhawk Gary Louris' new album.

Of course, it helps when the song with your town in the title doesn't suck. Louris' "Omaha Nights" passes that test. Good melody, great chorus, well written.

Can't ask for more.

The ass-backward state. Really.

Louisiana state Sen. Derrick Shepherd is so concerned about young men in droopy pants showing their asses -- or at least their drawers -- to God and everybody that he thinks there ought to be a law.

So he has introduced an anti-droop bill . . . again, says The Associated Press:

While it's been in fashion for years, the saggy-pants look also has been an affront to many authority figures, including state Sen. Derrick Shepherd. After losing a vote on the issue in 2004, Shepherd is again trying to pass legislation to ban droopy trousers.

"All the different municipalities around the state saying they want it tells me that a state ban on this type of idiocy is needed," said Shepherd, D-New Orleans. [Marrero, actually. -- R21]

About a dozen Louisiana municipalities have enacted or are considering their own bans on "sagging." They reason that those adopting the dress are emulating the beltless look of prison inmates, that baggy clothes could conceal weapons or that exposure of underwear is offensive and just plain indecent.

Not all cities are joining in. St. Martinville Mayor Thomas Nelson said leaders there have decided against a ban, fearing a lawsuit.

"My concern was - don't get me wrong, I'm not for the saggy pants - you're leaving yourself open, especially with the (ACLU)," he said.

Indeed, the American Civil Liberties Union has consistently opposed efforts to ban low-slung pants and helped defeat Shepherd's 2004 effort. The ACLU will oppose it again this year, the head of its Louisiana office, Marjorie Esman said Friday, citing issues of freedom of expression and concerns the law would be used to target black youths.

"I welcome a challenge," Shepherd said. He dismisses complaints that the law violates the First Amendment or that it could be used to target young black men who adopt the fashion.

"I've heard that from some more liberal-minded blacks and some liberal-minded whites," said Shepherd, who is black. "But my counter to that is: Why is it that we believe that young black men or black women, whoever would show themselves in such a manner, can't simply follow the law and pull up their pants?"

The future of his bill is uncertain. Aside from any court challenges, and the Legislature's 59-34 defeat of his last effort, Shepherd faces a new distraction in his fight for moral rectitude. On Thursday, he was indicted on money laundering and fraud charges. Shepherd proclaimed his innocence and will continue serving while fighting the charges.

LOUISIANIANS MUST BE pretty amused by our amusement at just how ass-backward one state can be. Otherwise, they'd be mortified at their own civic, educational and economic ineptitude and insist that their elected representatives worry instead about pulling up Louisiana's abysmal education statistics, pulling out of a vicious cycle of crime and poverty, and pulling in a new culture of excellence and honesty.

And they would make sure the indicted senator from Marerro got a nice pair of day-glo orange Sansabelt pants as a thoughful cell-warming gift. Just the thing for the well-dressed felon.

The news from 1951 Wistful Vista

If you were a broadcasting student at the University of Omaha during the winter of 1951, the future before you seemed limitless.

RADIO WAS STARTING to feel the heat from this upstart called television, but it was still kicking -- with disc-jockey shows, public-affairs programs, comedy, drama, cooking shows and news, news, news. And that was just the local stations.

Nationally, four national radio networks still provided all those same kinds of programs -- and soap operas, too -- to their affiliates from coast to coast. In coming years, NBC, CBS, ABC and Mutual would change -- refocusing on news and program syndication -- but they still would remain in need of talented men and women to produce high-quality programming.

Programming like, for example, NBC's Monitor, which would debut in 1955 and provide an all-weekend "kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria" (as NBC President Sylvester "Pat" Weaver coined it) of news, features, interviews, comedy, live remotes and music.

And then there was television.

Back in 1951, local TV stations were signing on in city after city, looking to fill the broadcast day with local shows featuring local talent. And Omaha U. students were itching to get in on the action.

NOW IT'S 57 years later. The University of Omaha long has been the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Local TV shows are few and far between, excepting the "If it bleeds, it leads" newscasts.

Two of the old radio networks still stand, sort of. ABC- and CBS-branded newscasts still air on affiliate stations.

And local radio isn't so local anymore, with studio computers too often playing -- between the same few hundred overresearched tunes -- canned patter from assembly-line disc jockeys behind microphones in far-off places.

That was not the future anyone had in mind in the winter of 1951, when this article ran in Omaha University's alumni publication. The Injun:

FM at OU?

While most of Omaha and vicinity beheld their newborn television industry with passive awe last year, the university was pulling on a pair of seven-league boots, ready to match the lusty infant stride for stride.

One of the boots was a new Speech Department head, 27-year-old Bruce Linton, who spent a year as a radio announcer at WHIZ, (Zanesville, Ohio), then picked up a speech MA at North­western University.

The other half of the long-distance footwear was a $5,000, acoustically treated studio and control room, stocked with the finest professional sound equip­ment — microphones, turn-tables, re­corders, amplifiers.

Thus newly shod, OU took its first step: the addition of three new radio courses, designed to prepare a student for a beginning in radio or TV.

The frenzy of preparation at Omaha U didn't go unnoticed by the local broadcasting industry. The ink was hardly dry on the first draft of plans when WOW-TV invited the rejuvenated Speech Department to produce a 15-minute show twice a month. Omaha area viewers watch the OU production every other Thursday at 5:15 p.m. KMTV has asked for film-produced shows and special studio productions as soon as they can be supplied.

On the AM side, OU's radio talent puts out a weekly on-the-spot interview over KOIL (9:30 Wednesday nights). Called Let's Hear Them All, the KOIL program presents interesting visitors to OU and Omaha. (Samples: Mrs. Pahk of Korea, the Ice Follies' lighting director.)

Sandwiched between the regular shows are one-shot productions over other Omaha stations, e.g. the pre-Christmas A Dickens Christmas, featuring OU actors and choir over KFAB.

KBON Day will have its fourth an­nual showing on March 7, when OU speech and journalism students will take over Omaha's Mutual outlet for exper­ience in all aspects of radio station operation.

Although the present courses dwell mainly on AM radio technique, Linton is bringing television in gradually ("we have to be careful of over expansion"), with TV lighting problems brought into Speech Department stage productions. Next summer, Linton plans to have a simulated monitor scope installed in the control room. Movies supplied by the Audio-Visual Department will be shown on a ground glass screen to give an­nouncers a chance to practice TV nar­ration.

With all his plans and dreams, OU's Linton is rocky-realistic. "We don't assume that everybody who leaves here with a speech degree is going into 50,-000-watt production," he points out. "There are lots of smaller stations in need of announcers who can spin their own records; in radio, it's best to start out small and work up big."

Even beyond that, the new courses have something for students who have no notion of going into radio work. They can get a better understanding of the radio industry and see how it fits into their own business.

But how about the real stuff? Is Omaha U planning to have a station all its own? Once again, Linton points up the problem of over expansion, but he adds that an OU FM station is "not at all improbable."

In the meantime, OU radio students get pressure experience from the present radio and TV shows, with an occasional fling at covering football and basketball games on the public address system. And as student interest increases, so will the list of radio shows. A forum TV pro­gram and musical AM performances will be regular productions, and there will be special productions for holidays.

OU's radio training has already paid off for one student. Undergrad Ralph Carey is a full time announcer at KOIL. Then why stay in school? "In the radio profession, you never stop learning," he answers. "Anybody in the business can pick up pointers out here."

What's wrong with being a hick?

I love Omaha, but one might argue -- contra the theme of the "Eastern Nebraska State Song" -- that one sign of being a "hick" state is going to great and self-conscious lengths to convince the rest of the country that you're not a hick state.

Besides, what the hell is so wrong with living in a hick state? I fell in love with Nebraska a quarter-century ago when I moved to a "hick" town in the "hick" part of the state.

I FELL IN LOVE with the Sandhills and that feeling of complete freedom you get when you look out over the grassy dunes that stretch as far as the horizon . . . and beyond. And I fell in love with living in a town where, if you don't know everybody, soon enough you probably will.

I fell in love with friendly and unpretentious people. And with giving folks a little wave when they were driving one way on a lonely road and you were headed the other.

Finally, during my stay in a hick town in -- yes -- a "hick state," I fell in love. And I married my sweetheart in a hick ceremony, in a hick house, in that wonderful hick town.

And while I'm happy for all of Omaha's growth in the two decades we've lived here -- and while it's exciting to see downtown become more and more hip and cosmopolitan every day -- telling the world Omahans aren't "hicks" and we don't live in a "hick state" ain't gonna convince Blue Staters of anything.

Not that anyone ought to give a rat's ass what they think anyway.

IF YOU LIKE where you live, and if your kids are well educated -- if they master their studies, if they likewise learn to be honest and kind and love God and their fellow man -- and if crime is low and neighborliness is high, isn't that good enough?

Because, after all, a lot of the things we value most when we pick a spot to grow roots come from the better, "hick" angels of our nature. Now, call me a hick, but I think it's high time we embrace the best of who -- and what -- we are.

And if that be "hick," "rube," "hayseed" or "Gomer," so be it.

If Noo Yawk don't like that, it can lump it. 'Cause I don't give a flying cowchip one way or another.

3 Chords & the Truth: It ain't the same

What's the deal with this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth?

Perhaps these documentary segments shining a light inside WNEW-FM -- New York's late and legendary rock station -- as it was in 1982 will give you a clue:








BOY, IT WAS GOOD to see the late, great Scott Muni again, back in the day.

Download 3 Chords & the Truth here, or watch the show player pop up here.

Louisiana: Stupid is as stupid cuts

If you want to cut a state budget, the logical place for a chop job would be all the places you can least afford it, right?

Only if you're a legislator in Louisiana.

SOME OF THE STUPIDEST members of the Stupid Party -- which, to tell the truth, could be either one in the Gret Stet -- plan to slash higher education and health care budgets to save a lousy $250 million out of a $30-plus billion spending blueprint. This in one of the stupidest and sickest states in the nation.

Which goes a long way toward explaining a lot of things, actually.

The Times-Picayune reports:

Gov. Bobby Jindal's $30.1 billion budget plan is facing friendly fire from his allies in the state House of Representatives, who are proposing to save up to $250 million by cutting planned spending on higher education, health care and other priorities.

House Speaker Jim Tucker said the goal is to reduce the state's reliance on non-recurring money to pay for ongoing programs in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Tucker, R-Algiers, said doing so perpetuates spending policies that Republicans frequently criticized under former Gov. Kathleen Blanco. "It's got a number of members very concerned (because) they didn't get elected to continue the same-old, same-old," Tucker said.

DEAR JIMBO, I know you may not have gotten the memo, but when you get elected on an anti-same-old, same-old platform, that DOES NOT mean people want you to be an even bigger dumbass than "Mee Maw" Blanco was. When a state lags horribly behind the rest of the nation in education and health care, you don't go around crippling education and health care.

At least if you have a problem with the people around you being disproportionately ill-educated and just plain ill.

A spokesman for the Louisiana State University System said it would mean a $36.6 million cut, and that individual campuses are in the process of combing through their various programs to decide where to trim.

"The impact would be dramatic, if enacted," LSU System spokesman Charles Zewe said.

IMPACT. DRAMATIC. That for a university system that isn't even funded to the Southern regional average. I wonder what the state's GOP legislators plan for the health-care system?

Hospitals with no doctors?

Wheelchairs with no wheels?

Now, if cut $250 million they must, there are ways to do it without sacrificing, say, excellence in education or badly-needed facility upkeep.

Trouble is, the Louisiana Legislature isn't even close to dreaming of having the cojones to pare back the ridiculous number of public universities for a state of 4.2 million people and emptying out fast.

The state, of course, needs the LSU system. And it needs LSU-Baton Rouge as its "flagship" university -- the pre-eminent academic and research institution.

Excellence matters. I know Louisiana has little experience with excellence, but trust me on this. Other states "get it" -- even if many Louisianians don't.

BUT DOES LOUISIANA need Nicholls State University an hour's drive from the University of New Orleans? Does it need McNeese State a hour down the interstate from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette?

Couldn't Southeastern Louisiana University be changed into a smallish liberal-arts college? Couldn't LSU-Alexandria and LSU-Eunice be integrated into the state's fledgling community-college system?

Should the all-but-destroyed Southern University-New Orleans have been reopened after Katrina? Should not the historically struggling historically black school now be folded into UNO or closed altogether?

Which brings us to the 800-kiloton nuclear elephant in the room.

CAN LOUISIANA really afford, both financially and sociologically -- for all intents and purposes -- one state-university system for white people and another for African-Americans?

What, in a larger sense, does this really say to a state where not only isn't the past really past, but neither is Jim Crow?

I understand the rationale for historically black colleges. I do. Likewise, I understand their heroic and proud history.

And I don't think that history ought to be ignored or these universities' role completely relegated to the landfill of days gone by.

That said, the sheer duplication of facilities and programs between "white" and "black" institutions -- usually right next door to one another -- is insane, not to mention increasingly unaffordable on any number of levels.

So here's a modest proposal.

Because it just isn't feasible, culturally or politically, to kill off the oldest such school, Southern University, it stays as is. Indeed, it possibly could be enhanced with some of the resources of closed "white" schools.

On the other hand, it doesn't need a law school. Not unless someone could come up with some desperately needed, specialized niche it might fill -- being, as it is, right under the nose of the much larger and much better law school at LSU.

That leaves Grambling State University, another school that has a proud history but has suffered from terrible leadership in recent times. Grambling, just a short drive down the road from Louisiana Tech in Ruston.

How. In. The. World. Do. You. Objectively. Justify. That?

My solution: Merge 'em . . . probably on the present Louisiana Tech campus. But call the combined institution Grambling State University and commemorate the proud role that school played in educating a people once deliberately cut off from the "mainstream" of public life.

That leaves LSU-Shreveport and Northwestern State as the last candidates for major realignment. I don't see how you can justify the existence of both.

So, how about a compromise? LSU-Shreveport could merge with Northwestern State in Natchitoches, where the new school would remain. It would be brought into the LSU System, would be renamed the University of Northwestern Louisiana and would have a satellite campus in Shreveport.

THAT'S HOW you save money without needlessly sacrificing infrastructure or educational excellence. It's not brain surgery.

It does, however, require a few things not usually associated with my home state's governing class -- political will, intestinal fortitude . . . and wisdom.

Good luck, Louisiana. You'll need it.

Barbarism to a phat beat

In the first Dark Ages, the barbarians were the uncouth louts who showed up at the city gates -- or, rather, stormed the city gates -- to kill, rob, rape and pillage. Fatally weakened by the rot within, even mighty Rome could not hold off the Hun armies.

In these new Dark Ages, the barbarians don't need to storm anything. They're homegrown, they're mainstream, and they're a vital part of the "bread and circuses" distracting a postmodern empire as everything falls apart. But for this multitasking generation, our "entertainment" -- in the name of lawyers, guns and money -- also represents the s*** which has hit the fan.

And now -- as the minstrel Reuters regales us -- one tribe of well-paid savages stands accused of waylaying an unsuspecting teen wearing the mark of a rival tribe, and is thus being sued for a share of their plunder:

The lawsuit filed by James Rosemond and his mother, Cynthia Reed, says Universal Music Group -- owned by Vivendi SA -- and its labels Interscope Records, G-Unit Records and Shady Records, bear responsibility for the assault because they encourage artists to pursue violent, criminal lifestyles.

The lawsuit also names 50 Cent -- whose real name is Curtis Jackson -- Violator Management, Violator CEO Chris Lighty, Tony Yayo, a rapper and a member of 50 Cent's G-Unit hip hop group, and Lowell Fletcher, an employee of Yayo.

All defendants declined to comment.

Rosemond says he was assaulted on a Manhattan sidewalk in March 2007 by four men including Yayo and Fletcher.

The lawsuit claims Rosemond was targeted because he was wearing a T-shirt by Czar Entertainment, a management company that represents The Game. The Game is a former G-Unit rapper who fell out with the group and had become a rival rapper.

PEOPLE OFTEN SPEAK of the "culture of death" solely in terms of widespread, legalized abortion. I think that's wildly inaccurate. Abortion is just a symptom. As is the gangsta cultcha for kicks and profit.

The "culture of death" is all about what we -- as free people in a free society -- have come to value, of our own free will. And in so many ways, for such a variety of souls, it is death we crave.

It is death we sow. It is death we reap.

Somewhere, Atilla the Hun surveys what's left of Western civilization, shakes his head and ruefully observes, "And they called me a barbarian."

Tips for the conscientious Catholic

This is offensive:


This is what the Church thinks is proper fare for cathedral museums:


Does everybody have all that straight? Uhhhhhhhhh, perhaps "straight" was a poor choice of words.

It used to be that "abomination of desolation" was just another scary Biblical phrase.

Why try harder?

It's a bad thing when you have to put a story on your web site acknowledging, in the lede, that you just got scooped by . . . everybody. On a story that you should own.

IT'S A WORSE THING that the next most pertinent thing you can think of -- as you work your way down the "inverted pyramid" of newswriting -- would be "The coach is a WHAT?!?"

Way to go, Advocate! Why try harder when your audience is used to mediocrity?