It's been awhile since I posted to the blog.

For that I am truly sorry. I've had the combination of the house, two bands, and of course the war weighing on me.
You would figure what with the war and all, I would be writing up a storm, and it quite true that my mind is boiling with ideas and feelings about what's going on.
But photos like this and these here at scoop.. I mean, these are just fucked up.
It has gotten very difficult to read the newspaper or listen to the radio in these here United States. Everyone from the fascists at Fox to the New York Times have jumped on the pro-war bandwagon. You can't get an honest answer from your "representatives" in Congress about anything. I mean, is it a hoot or what seeing John Kerry appropriating the language of the anti-war crowd, "We need a regime change at home," when he was one of the many Democratic senators to support giving Bush the authority to attack Iraq? And what about that Joe Lieberman? He supports the war even though he knows how horrible the last one was for the children in Iraq. how can I say this? Read this article in the otherwise crapulent Valley Advocate. Never mind that Lieberman's voice alone is enough to cause a catatonic trance in the most hardened speed freak, the guy just doesn't give a shit (unless you're in the insurance, pharmeceutical, or securities industry, and then he's got the knee-pads on, nome sane?).
During the Enron scandal (and just what happened to the investigation, asks Brendan. Why is Ken Lay still on the loose? For that matter, why is Cheney still on the loose? Why won't the press touch these guys the way they went after Clinton for his blowjob?), my mother called me up livid. "Now is the time for good people to get cudgels and torches," she ranted, calling to mind images of the villagers heading up the path to castle Frankenstein. My mother is prescient. I would like to see Dick Cheney try to stand up to my mom in one of her famous rages; the woman would rip his mechanical heart out of his chest and stuff it right down his neck. And if my grandmother was able, I am sure there would be even more neck-wringing.
Well. I will evade Homeland Security regulations by eschewing a call for violent revolution. That only transfers power from the ruling class to the middle class anyway, who become the ruling class all over again.
Instead, I will do my Christian duty and pray to God. Some of you may not believe in the power of prayer, but as W says, "there is power, wondrous power, in the blood." (I realize that's a reference to Jesus's blood, not the blood of Iraqi children as a certain Shrub clearly believes). So here I go.
Oh God in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Please hear the prayer of Brendan, Your humble servant. I know it's been awhile, and I know I've flirted with eastern religion and philosophy, but I am ready to return to Your flock if You answer this one prayer. I promise, if You answer my prayer, I will go to a Christian church, even if it's a Unitarian church, every Sunday for the rest of my life (but not a Southern Baptist church, they don't count as Christian). I will accept Jesus, Your only son who got nailed to a pole, into my heart and being. I promise You this, if You will only answer my prayer.

Cancer. Give cancer to every single one of the warmongering crooks who have taken over the US government. Give cancer to every senator and representative who supported giving the occupant of the White House sole authority to wage war, and to every single one of them who supported the Patriot Act and the ban on late term abortion. And don't make it cancer that they can hide. Give them melanoma and Kaposi's Sarcoma on their faces, give them colorectal cancer so bad they have to walk around with colostomy bags, give them testicular and protate cancer so they can never breed again. Don't worry Your mind about how they'll pay for it; all of them have free health coverage (our reps in Congress believe it's their right, but not for ordinary Americans), so they'll get on. And visit Carlyle and Halliburton and Bechtel and Fox News and MSNBC and the New York Times (please skip Paul Krugman and Nicholas Kristof and Mo Dowd) and the Washington Post (especially the Post) and the National Review with Your holy cancer.
If You could compound that cancer with facial leprosy, I will tithe every month. I will play bingo in the church basement. Please God, do this for me and I will be a true believer and spread Your good Word everywhere. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell always say You answer prayers, and now's Your chance to really do some good.
And Lord, while I'm at it, let me thank You personally for calling Michael Kelly home.