When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
quote by Martin Luther King
Added by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
U R Wrong
u were wrong... so wrong.. uh uh uh huh uh.
u were wrong dead wrong.. uh uh uh whoaaaaaaa
Girl U R said your wrong wrong said your wrong wrong
Girl U R said your wrong wrong said your wrong wrong
verse1: can i take you back to happy times..
oh oh oh uh oh
everyday was paradise.. dinner and candle lights
oh oh oh uh oh
i never thought you'd change i didn't expect no games
i wanted you to bare my child i wanted you to have my last name
now we was right we was wrong
i really don't care cuz i gotta move one
i'm gone be a man about it
the headache i can live without it
chorus: Girl (you act so shady) U (spend all of my paper R ( one heck of a lady) said ur wrong wrong said ur wrong wrong
Girl ( i don't codone it ) U ( and you can't erase it) R (one heck of a lady) said ur wrong wrong said your wrong wrong
Girl ( u tired to play) U (had a house and a baby) R ( one heck of a lady) said ur wrong wrong said ur wrong wrong
Girl ( u were wrong ) u( so wrong ) R (dead wrong said your wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
verse2: now i admit sometime i make mistakes..
oh oh oh mmmhmmmm
the responsibility of this household was your to take
"well"
i gave you the keys to the range.. broke you off a lil bit of change
ain't no need to explain.. your gonna miss a good thang
and when it's gone away i ain't got time to play
women you had a chance a chance to stay baby baby
chorus: Girl (you act so shady) U (spend all of my paper R ( one heck of a lady) said ur wrong wrong said ur wrong wrong
Girl ( i don't codone it ) U ( and you can't erase it) R (one heck of a lady) said ur wrong wrong said your wrong wrong
Girl ( u tired to play) U (had a house and a baby) R ( one heck of a lady) said ur wrong wrong said ur wrong wrong
Girl ( u were wrong ) u( so wrong ) R (dead wrong said your wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
i picked you up when you were down( when your luck ran out.. baby yes i did)
i took you in when theyput you out ( do you remember that cold monday morning?)
i treated you kids like they was mine( i ain't even they real damn daddynononnono )
when you were dim i made you shine( i was the diamond in your life baby)
chorus: Girl ( girl) u (u) R ( are) wrong wrong wrong wrong
Girl ( girl) u (u) R ( are) wrong wrong wrong wrong
Girl ( girl) u (u) R ( are) wrong wrong wrong wrong
Girl ( girl) u (u) R ( are) wrong wrong wrong wrong
can i break it down fora mineut baby
tell you.. why your wrong
you were wrong staying out all night
coming in sloppy drunk baby
and you were wrong for letting your friend direct your mind
and you were wrong for running up my credit card
and you were wrong for everything you've done to me.
(chorus)
ain't no explination this time.
song performed by 3pc
Added by Lucian Velea
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2045 Radical Man
{Spoken with crowd cheering in background
How can a non-musician discuss the future of music from anything other than a
consumer point of view?
These few people make decisions for the bulk of us, without consulting any of
us.
Sales and distributions of our futures, uh!
If this world were fair and right, they'd give up the car keys this very
night./Damn!
(Hit it!)
Two, three, four, five, six, seven
Flash forward, 2045
What did you stand for in the life of your pride
When faced with the final judgment of today
Who profitted from the game
That you and your niggas play
Radical man/Save the life
Come on take a stand
Give that money back
Let's make a plan
The brand new currency
Taking care of one another
You and me
(Radical man)
Flash backwards, 1999 (backwards, 1999)
In a world shot full of viruses, see (Tell me)
How'd y'all stay alive? (Everyone of y'all)
Depending on this so called man
For everything you got comes from his hand
Food, water, the clothes you wear
How many of y'all niggas really care?
To care (to care)
Let's define this word nigga (define, define)
Someone who stays high (high)
Watching their life go by (by, by)
Someone content with riding behind (ride that)
Nigga
They come in all colors
White, black, Puerto Rican
Is that the main niggas we're speakin' about?
Wear suits and buy and sell corporations
With only one thing in mind
(Only one thing in mind)
(Break it up!)
That is the destruction of the so-called radical man
By 2045
(Let's get radical)
Watch me now!
School's in the yard, digital games
When the war broke out we called your name
(What's your name?)
[...] Read more
song performed by Prince
Added by Lucian Velea
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Right The Wrong
An indian woman buried her grampa in the black hills
When she was young he used to tell her
That these hills belonged to her still
And even though injustice took them hills away
One day well get them back, he said
And the suns gonna shine that day
When we say, right the wrong
Before she laid him down to rest
She heard his voice in the wilderness
Sayin I got six feet of it back
And now we can right the wrong
Right the wrong
Hear the song
Before long u wont hear nothin but the crackle of flames
Right the wrong
Hear the song
Would u rather die knowing that u did or keep living in shame
Did you hear the one about the boy just 17
Three years hard time for stealing ice cream
First offence and all his dreams are gone
How long before they right the wrong?
Right the wrong
Hear the song
Before long u wont hear nothin but the crackle of flames
Right the wrong
Hear the song
Would u rather die knowing that u did or keep living in shame
Right the wrong
2, 3, uh
1, 2, 1-2, come on
(right the wrong baby)
Far be it from me to say
It seem like we could stop the flow of snow in the sky today
But I guess the weather man he likes the rain
Aint that insane
Now sing
Right the wrong
Hear the song
Before long u wont hear nothin but the crackle of flames
Right the wrong
Hear the song
Would u rather die knowing that u did or keep living in shame?
(come on, come on, come on)
Did you hear me baby?
Right the wrong
Im 6 feet in the grave
Im 6 feet in the grave
(right right, right right)
(right the wrong right the wrong)
(right the wrong right the wrong)
[...] Read more
song performed by Prince
Added by Lucian Velea
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The Radical Light
He was a poor boy having a hard time
A shoulder chipped and a head for crime
He was destined to be broken
She found a diamond in a coal mine
What she saw in him was a crooked line
She just wanted him to straighten
She said truth lies underneath the radical light
Show you qhat you need what youre looking for
One night underneath the radical light
She said once you see the truth youll be wanting more
She doesnt know why shes got the desire
To lead this boy out of the burning fire
Call it love or call it mercy
See one night she was dreamin
She saw a man who looked just like him br] he said when you find me baby set me free
We can shine standin in the radical light
Take a chance and find your vision
We can feel fine walkin in the radical light
It all comes down to radical decisions
I feel your sorrow
I know youre afraid to let it go
Theres always tomorrow
Come into the light you dont have to be alone anymore
Show me real truth real love
Wake me hold me tonight
Under the radical light
Show me the real truth real life
Underneath the radical light
Someday we will be one
Under the radical light
song performed by Vonda Shepard
Added by Lucian Velea
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Its Wrong Apartheid
The wretchedness of satans wrath
Will come to seize you at last
cause even he frowns upon the deeds you are doing
And you know deep in your heart
Youve no covenant with god
cause he would never countenance people abusing
You know apartheids wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Like slavery was wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Like the holocaust was wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Apartheid is wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong
Its wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
The pain you cause in gods name
Points only to yourself to blame
For the negative karma you will be receiving
cause when people are oppressed
With atrocities that test
The future of all mankind we, the world wont stand seeing
You know apartheids wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Like slavery was wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Like the holocaust was wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Apartheid is wrong (qha), its wrong (qha), wrong
Its wrong (qha), its wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha), wrong (qha)
Ubuqaba babo bucacile
Woqamba kuze kucace
Ngoba nosathane uyabugxeka
Lobuqaba
Oh, freedom is coming
(inkululeko iyeza)
Say it again
(inkululeko iyeza)
Hold on tight, its coming
(qinisani inkululeko iyeza)
(inkululeko iyeza)
Oh, the whole world is with us
(qinisani umhlaba wonke unathi)
Say it again
(umhlaba wonke unathi)
Hold on tight, cause were with you
(qinisani umhlaba wonke unathi)
(umhlaba wonke unathi)
Oh, oh, oh, freedom is coming, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(qinisani inkululeko iyeza)
(inkululeko iyeza)
Hold on tight, yeah
(qinisani inkululeko iyeza)
Freedom is coming
(inkululeko iyeza)
Hold on tight
[...] Read more
song performed by Stevie Wonder
Added by Lucian Velea
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There Is Something Really Wrong About That
There's something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
There is something really wrong about that!
They're not based in truth of action.
Something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
Absent is the truth of action.
Nothing is said about that.
There is something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
There's something really wrong about that!
They're not based in truth of action.
Something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
Absent is the truth of action.
Nothing is said about that.
Truth has been manipulated.
Something is wrong about that!
And people now themselves they hate.
Something is wrong about that!
Racism is the indicator.
Something is wrong about that!
And how one lives is too debated.
Something is wrong about that!
There is something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
There's something really wrong about that!
They're not based in truth of action.
Something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
Absent is the truth of action.
Nothing is said about that.
We've all been underestimated.
Something is wrong about that!
The thoughts of people are degraded.
Something is wrong about that!
Deceivers seem too much elated.
Something is wrong about that!
And truth for us has been created...
With an ease that's made..
Oh there's something really wrong about that!
Those facts you ration.
[...] Read more
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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All You Ever Needed
( you got me wrong, completely wrong
You got me wrong, completely wrong )
I hope youre happy where you are
Youve been heading there for some time
Itsnot like you to complain
But then its not like you imagined
Life has changed but you shouldnt do
Ill remain the same around you
Dont be blind, look where youre coming from
Its all you ever needed
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
You ll find fault with me warning you
Advice you should have heeded
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
( you got me wrong, completely wrong completely wrong )
Over time you can find a way
Stop looking out for some sign
Theres a place now where you belong
Just to make it right in your mind
Im just trying to make you see
Youre the only one you have to be
Dont be blind, look where youre coming from
Its all you ever needed
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
You ll find fault with me warning you
Advice you should have heeded
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
( you got me wrong, completely wrong completely wrong )
Life has changed but you shouldnt do
Ill remain the same around you
( you got me wrong, completely wrong completely wrong )
You ll find fault with me warning you
Advice you should have heeded
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
Dont be blind, look where youre coming from
Its all you ever needed
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
You ll find fault with me warning you
Advice you should have heeded
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
( you got me wrong, completely wrong )
( you got me wrong, completely wrong ) ...
song performed by Olive
Added by Lucian Velea
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Im A Conservative
Pop
I used to lead a quiet life
In fact it was a bare existence
I passed out on many floors
I dont do that any more
Hello my friends
Is everybody happy?
Hey look me over
Lend me an ear
Im a conservative
I like the small black marks on my hands
Im a conservative
I like the crazy girls that I screw
Hey I know them all well
And when I run out of bread I laugh
All the way to the bank
Sometimes I pause for a drink
Conservatism aint no easy job
I smile in the mornings
I live without a care
Nothing is denied me
And nothing ever hurts
I got bored so Im making my millions
When youre conservative you get a better break
Youre always on the rigltt side
When youre conservative
You walk with pride
Pride is on your side
Pride pride pride
Is on our side
Oh boy
Pride is on our side
I like my beer
I like my bread
I love my girl
I love my head
Im in the clear man
Im in the dear
Because Im a conservative
Im a conservative
I really am
Ohyeslam
And it would mean so much to me
If you would only be like me
Yes it could mean so much to me
Hey look me over
Lend me an ear
Im a conservative
song performed by Iggy Pop
Added by Lucian Velea
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You Know Where You Went Wrong
(tennant/lowe)
---------------
Two men on the street
Drinking something cheap
No home, no family
Its cold, nowhere to sleep
Passers-by never catch their eye
Anywhere, one man drinks, the other swears
You know where you went wrong
You know where you went wrong
(aaaah) you know
You know where you went wrong
You know where you went wrong
(aaaah) you know
The old man cant understand
No one will shake his hand
I gave security, bombs and colour tv
It cost a few lives
Someones son always dies
No one shakes his hand
He dont understand
You know where you went wrong
You know where you went wrong
(aaaah) you know
You know where you went wrong
You know where you went wrong
(aaaah) you know
This is the history of the world
Of every boy and every girl
Who dont understand whats going on anymore
The history of the world
Of every boy and every girl
Who dont understand whats going on anymore
(whats going on? )
Two girls have a photograph
One looks, the other laughs
He could have been mine
Why did I change my mind?
Then hands on hips
The other girl says: admit! admit!
You know where you went wrong
You know where you went wrong
(aaaah) you know
You know where you went wrong
You know where you went wrong
(aaaah) you know
This is the history of the world (of the world)
Of every boy and every girl
Who dont (who dont) understand (understand)
Whats going on anymore (whats going on? )
[...] Read more
song performed by Pet Shop Boys
Added by Lucian Velea
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What Do You Need?
What do you need from me tonight?
I feel you look right through me now
I cant pretend its all right
Maybe well find a way somehow
Why do we need to turn it on?
Why does it always feel so wrong?
[chorus]
What do you need from me tonight?
The truth is so complicated now
You feel so free to say
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Fear makes you fragile darlin
Hate is so heavy when youre weak
Now were both lost in anger
When were alone well find some peace
Why do we need to turn it on?
Why does it always seem so wrong?
What do you need from me tonight?
The truth is so complicated now
You feel so free to say
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Why do we need to turn it on?
Why does it always seem so wrong?
[chorus]
[chorus]
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Youre wrong, youre wrong
Why do we need to turn it on?
Why does it always seem so wrong?
song performed by Goo Goo Dolls
Added by Lucian Velea
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Frankie and Johnnie
Frankie and Johnnie were lovers,
O, my Gawd, how they could love,
They swore to be true to each other,
As true as the stars above;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie was a good woman,
As everybody knows,
Gave her man a hundred dollars,
To get him a suit of clothes;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie and Johnnie went walking,
Johnnie in his bran' new suit,
"Oh, my Gawd," said Frankie,
"But don't my Johnnie look cute?"
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie went down to Memphis,
Went on the morning train,
Paid a hundred dollars,
Got Johnnie a watch and chain;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie lived in a crib-house,
Crib-house with only two doors,
Gave her money to Johnnie,
He spent it on those parlour whores;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie went down to the corner,
Went for a bucket of beer,
She said, "Oh, Mr. Bar-tender,
Has my loving Johnnie been here?
He is my man, and he's done me wrong."
"I won't make you no trouble,
I won't tell you no lie,
But I saw Johnnie an hour ago
With a girl named Nellie Bly;
He is your man, and he's doing you wrong."
Frankie went to the hock-shop,
Bought her a big forty-four,
Aimed that gun at the ceiling,
Shot a big hole in the floor;
"Now where's my man that's doing me wrong?"
Frankie went down to the hook-shop,
Looked in at a window so high,
[...] Read more
poem by Anonymous
Added by Poetry Lover
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Frankie and Johnnie
Frankie and Johnnie were lovers,
O, my Gawd, how they could love,
They swore to be true to each other,
As true as the stars above;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie was a good woman,
As everybody knows,
Gave her man a hundred dollars,
To get him a suit of clothes;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie and Johnnie went walking,
Johnnie in his bran' new suit,
"Oh, my Gawd," said Frankie,
"But don't my Johnnie look cute?"
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie went down to Memphis,
Went on the morning train,
Paid a hundred dollars,
Got Johnnie a watch and chain;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie lived in a crib-house,
Crib-house with only two doors,
Gave her money to Johnnie,
He spent it on those parlour whores;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
Frankie went down to the corner,
Went for a bucket of beer,
She said, "Oh, Mr. Bar-tender,
Has my loving Johnnie been here?
He is my man, and he's done me wrong."
"I won't make you no trouble,
I won't tell you no lie,
But I saw Johnnie an hour ago
With a girl named Nellie Bly;
He is your man, and he's doing you wrong."
Frankie went to the hock-shop,
Bought her a big forty-four,
Aimed that gun at the ceiling,
Shot a big hole in the floor;
"Now where's my man that's doing me wrong?"
Frankie went down to the hook-shop,
Looked in at a window so high,
[...] Read more
poem by Anonymous Americas
Added by Poetry Lover
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Having The Flu And With Nothing Else To Do
I read a book about John Dos Passos and according to
the book once radical-communist
John ended up in the Hollywood Hills living off investments
and reading the
Wall Street Journal
this seems to happen all too often.
what hardly ever happens is
a man going from being a young conservative to becoming an
old wild-ass radical
however:
young conservatives always seem to become old
conservatives.
it's a kind of lifelong mental vapor-lock.
but when a young radical ends up an
old radical
the critics
and the conservatives
treat him as if he escaped from a mental
institution.
such is our politics and you can have it
all.
keep it.
sail it up your
ass.
poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
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Conservative People
Conservative in their ways and in their thinking they do not embrace change in any way
They fear change as a threat to their existence as conservative through their lives they do stay
They resist change as if change is quite harmful as things were they wish them to remain
Their flawed values of rank and class distinction are things that they do fight hard to retain
Conservative people change not known to welcome on any change they like to have their say
They crave respect for their old ways of thinking whilst respect to those who want change they don't pay
No thanks to them that changes are occuring since they want to keep us tied to the past
They cannot accept that time brings with it changes that nothing as it was does seem to last,
Conservative people always in abundance their type never have been known to be rare
They live in Villages, Towns and in Cities you can meet their kind of person anywhere
To them change is something that should be resisted to the old ways with reverence they do cling
They fear change as much as they do fear the reaper as if indeed change were a dangerous thing
Suppose it takes all kinds to make up humanity and conservative people will always fight change
They look on people who to them are different as those who are untrustworthy and strange.
poem by Francis Duggan
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A-W-E-S-O-W-E
Oh yeah!
Alright!
A-W-E-S-O-M-E! so A-W-E-S-O-M-E!
Like tattered sails,
The shreds of my heart in your fingernails
Open my mouth, but I can't get this out
It never fails, a bed of roses, and coffin nails
I hold my breath 'cuz I'm scared to death
We try to lie, and deny
but our secret isn't safe.
[Chorus:]
You're Awesome! So Awesome! You're everything I want in a girl
You're Crazy! Amazing! I'm everything that's wrong with the world
You're great, filled with hate and I can't escape
My lips are sore,
My heart is black to the very core.
This life of crime, I'll get used to it in time.
We keep it low, but I think they know
And out secret isn't safe.
[Chorus:]
You're Awesome! So Awesome! You're everything I want in a girl
You're Crazy! Amazing! I'm everything that's wrong with the world
Don't wait, procrastinate, it's not too late
You're radical!
You're radical!
You're radical!
You're radical. Yeah!
So so so so awesome.
So so so so awesome.
[Chorus:]
You're Awesome! So Awesome! You're everything I want in a girl
You're Crazy! Amazing! I'm everything that's wrong with the world
Don't wait, procrastinate, it's not too late
You're great, filled with hate,
And I can't escape!
And I can't escape!
And I can't escape!
SO AWESOME!
song performed by Reel Big Fish
Added by Lucian Velea
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VII. Pompilia
I am just seventeen years and five months old,
And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks;
'T is writ so in the church's register,
Lorenzo in Lucina, all my names
At length, so many names for one poor child,
—Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela
Pompilia Comparini,—laughable!
Also 't is writ that I was married there
Four years ago: and they will add, I hope,
When they insert my death, a word or two,—
Omitting all about the mode of death,—
This, in its place, this which one cares to know,
That I had been a mother of a son
Exactly two weeks. It will be through grace
O' the Curate, not through any claim I have;
Because the boy was born at, so baptized
Close to, the Villa, in the proper church:
A pretty church, I say no word against,
Yet stranger-like,—while this Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
With half his body rushing from the wall,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man—
(To the right, it is, of entry by the door)
An ominous sign to one baptized like me,
Married, and to be buried there, I hope.
And they should add, to have my life complete,
He is a boy and Gaetan by name—
Gaetano, for a reason,—if the friar
Don Celestine will ask this grace for me
Of Curate Ottoboni: he it was
Baptized me: he remembers my whole life
As I do his grey hair.
All these few things
I know are true,—will you remember them?
Because time flies. The surgeon cared for me,
To count my wounds,—twenty-two dagger-wounds,
Five deadly, but I do not suffer much—
Or too much pain,—and am to die to-night.
Oh how good God is that my babe was born,
—Better than born, baptized and hid away
Before this happened, safe from being hurt!
That had been sin God could not well forgive:
He was too young to smile and save himself.
When they took two days after he was born,
My babe away from me to be baptized
And hidden awhile, for fear his foe should find,—
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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This Aint A Love Song
I should have seen it coming when roses died
Should have seen the end of summer in your eyes
I should have listened when you said good night
You really meant good bye
Baby, aint it funny, how you never ever learn to fall
Youre really on your knees, when you think youre standing tall
But only fools are know-it-alls and I played that fool for you
I cried and I cried
There were nights that died for you baby
I tried and I tried to deny that your love drove me crazy, baby
If the love that I got for you is gone
If the river I cried aint that long
Then Im wrong, yeah Im wrong, this aint a love song
Baby, I thought you and me would stand the test of time
Like we got away with the perfect crime but
We were just a legend in my mind
I guess that I was blind
Remember those nights dancing at the masquerade
The clowns wore smiles that wouldnt fade
You and I were the renegades, some things never change
It made me so mad cause I wanted it bad for us baby
Now its so sad that whatever we had, aint worth saving
If the love that I got for you is gone
If the river Ive cried aint that long
Then Im wrong, yes Im wrong, this aint a love song
If the pain that Im feeling so strong
Is the reason that Im holding on
Then Im wrong, yeah Im wrong - this aint a love song
I cried and I cried
There were nights that I died for you baby
I tried and I tried to deny that your love drove me crazy
If the love that I got for you is gone
If the river I cried aint that long
Then Im wrong, yeah Im wrong - this aint no love song
If the pain that Im feeling so strong
Is the reason that Im holding on
Then Im wrong, yeah Im wrong - this aint a love song
If the pain that Im feeling so strong
Is the reason that Im holding on
Then Im wrong, yeah Im wrong - this aint a love song
Yes, Im wrong, yeah, Im wrong - this aint a love song
Yes, Im wrong, yeah, Im wrong - this aint a love song
Yes, Im wrong, yeah, Im wrong - this aint a love song
song performed by Bon Jovi
Added by Lucian Velea
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Culture Shock
(s. kipner/p. bliss)
Ive been trying to tell you
Ive been putting it off, putting it off
Cant wait any longer
Youve been good to me
And that only makes it harder
To say what I gotta say
You gotta know I didnt plan it
It was the last thing on my mind
How can you love two people at the same time?
Now I dont wanna lose you
But I cant give him up
I know its unconventional
Radical but practical
Why cant the three of us live together?
Its a culture shock
But its the only hope weve got
Tell me, why cant the three of us live together?
If I could go back and undo it
If I had a time machine
Id make it unhappen like a bad dream
But honey, you gotta know, I didnt plan it
It was the last thing on my mind
How can you love two people at the same time?
Now I dont wanna lose you
But I cant give him up
I know its unconventional
Radical but practical
Why cant the three of us live together?
Its a culture shock
But its the only hope weve got
So,tell me, why cant the three of us live together?
Youre not taking this too well
Its out of the question
I can tell
Its not gonna work, is it?
I know its unconventional
Radical but practical
I dont wanna lose you,no
But I not gonna give him up
Its a culture shock
But its the only hope weve got
Tell me, why cant the three of us live together?
I know its unconventional
Radical but practical
song performed by Olivia Newton-John
Added by Lucian Velea
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The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Mark Twain in Notebook (1935)
Added by Lucian Velea
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Smooth And Amiable, Opaque
Smooth and amiable, opaque,
with facades like scrims, genteel,
my friends are ones you ought to take
unseriously, and for a meal
just when you think you’ve nothing better
to do, like watching television,
or sending the White House a letter,
or working out with great precision
your taxes for another audit.
Should it be that you don’t wish
to do these things and can afford it,
invite your friends to where the fish
is tastier than what you eat
at home, and then, when you come back,
resolve that you will not repeat
such invitations till you crack,
or there is nothing on TV,
and you’re not writing letters to
the President––since you can see,
unusually, his point of view––
and you’ve heard from the IRS
that you don’t owe them––this time! ––taxes.
At times like these your friends, I guess,
won’t cause you anticlimaxes.
Inspired by an article in the NYT Book Review, by Ross Dothat, January 18,2009 (“When Buckley Met Reagan”) :
On the night that William F. Buckley met Ronald Reagan, the future president of the United States put his elbow through a plate-glass window. The year was 1961, and the two men were in Beverly Hills, where Buckley, perhaps the most famous conservative in America at the tender age of 35, was giving an address at a school auditorium. Reagan, a former Hollywood leading man dabbling in political activism — the Tim Robbins or Alec Baldwin of his day — had been asked to do the introductions. But the microphone was dead, the technician was nowhere to be found and the control room was locked. As the crowd began to grumble, Reagan coolly opened one of the auditorium windows, stepped onto a ledge two stories above the street and inched his way around to the control room. He smashed his elbow through the glass and clambered in through the broken window. “In a minute there was light in the upstairs room, ” Buckley later wrote, “and then we could hear the crackling of the newly animated microphone.” This anecdote kicks off The Reagan I Knew (Basic Books, $25) , a slight and padded reminiscence published posthumously this past autumn, nine months after Buckley’s death. As a personal portrait of the 40th president, the narrative is sketchy at best: the Reagan whom Buckley knew turns out to be the Reagan most of his friends and allies knew — amiable, smooth and ultimately opaque.
What the book does offer, though, is an expansion on the theme lurking in that opening vignette, in which the man of ideas came face to face with the man of action, and the intellectual famous for describing the world met the future president eager to change it. At its most interesting, “The Reagan I Knew” provides a case study on the relationship between intellectuals and power, and specifically on the marriage between right-wing thinkers and populist politicians that has defined the modern right from the Goldwater era to our own. This union occasioned a great deal of comment during 2008, which turned out to be an annus horribilis for conservatism, and little of it was positive. Populism’s corrosive influence on the conservative mind — or the conservative mind’s cynical manipulation of populism — was cited in briefs against Sarah Palin, against the record of George W. Bush and against the entire run of conservative governance going back to Richard Nixon. Sometimes it was liberals arguing that an earlier generation of high-minded conservatives (Buckley being the prime example) would be horrified by the anti-intellectual spirit that had overtaken their movement in the age of Bush and Palin. Sometimes it was conservatives, your David Frums and Peggy Noonans, hinting at the same. And sometimes it was left-wingers — like Rick Perlstein, in his teeming history “Nixonland” — arguing that conservatives had always been cynical manipulators of populist sentiment: the mask might have slipped a bit more in the Bush era, but beneath the genteel facade provided by wordsmiths like Buckley (or William Safire or George Will or whomever) , the modern right has been Palins all the way down.
1/18/09
poem by Gershon Hepner
Added by Poetry Lover
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