There are many more tough words about our present politics in Kurt
Vonnegut's last book "A Man Without a Country," but today's Tom Paine
site newsletter recommended the link below -- a wise choice of a talk
that hasn't lost relevance since spoken four years ago.

Also: AlternativeRadio.org rebroadcast an hour-long interview with KV today,
on NPR stations in "better cities." It's also worth another listen, if you
heard it when first aired (also in '03). Tapes are available for $15, a
transcript sets you back $9.

-Richard R.

===================
VONNEGUT from T. Paine

1922-2007

Kurt
Vonnegut Jr. died yesterday at the age of 84. The brilliant and
prolific writer remained an astute social commentator and critic of
American politics throughout his life. Read about his re-definition of
"shock and awe" here.
=================================================

The TomPaine.com listing:
http://www.boingboing.net/2003/05/14/vonnegut_on_shock_an.html
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Vonnegut on "Shock and Awe"

Kurt Vonnegut's stirring address at Mark Twain house in Connecticut is a
wry, sharp indictment of war and the Bush presidency.

    I
note that construction has stopped of a Mark Twain Museum here in
Hartford -- behind the carriage house of the Mark Twain House at 351
Farmington Avenue.

    Work persons have been sent home from
that site because American "conservatives," as they call themselves, on
Wall Street and at the head of so many of our corporations, have stolen
a major fraction of our private savings, have ruined investors and
employees by means of fraud and outright piracy.

    Shock and awe.

    And
now, having installed themselves as our federal government, or taken
control of it from outside, they have squandered our public treasury
and then some. They have created a public debt of such appalling
magnitude that our descendants, for whom we had such high hopes, will
come into this world as poor as church mice.

    Shock and awe.

    What
are the conservatives doing with all the money and power that used to
belong to all of us? They are telling us to be absolutely terrified,
and to run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off.
But they will save us. They are making us take off our shoes at
airports. Can anybody here think of a more hilarious practical joke
than that one?

    Smile, America. You're on Candid Camera.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Tom!)
(http://us.f832.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?action=welcome&YY=579267362&.rand=4
ccanu6n066te)