July 4, 2007

America part 2



The unanimous Declaration
of the thirteen united States of America


When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

— Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


Toonage:





3 comments:

manicgirl said...

I'm afraid of americans: David Bowie


Johnnys in america, low-techs at the
Wheel
No-one needs anyone, they dont even
Just pretend
Johnnys in america

Im afraid of americans
Im afraid of the world
Im afraid I cant help it
Im afraid I cant
Johnnys in america

Johnny wants a brain, johnny wants to
Suck on a coke
Johnny wants a woman, johnny wants
To think of a joke
Johnnys in america

Im afraid of americans
Im afraid of the world
Im afraid I cant help it
Im afraid I cant
Johnnys in america

Johnnys in america, johnny looks up at
The stars
Johnny combs his hair and johnny
Wants pussy and cars
Johnnys in america

Im afraid of americans
Im afraid of the world
Im afraid I cant help it
Im afraid I cant
Johnnys in america

God is an american
Im afraid of americans
Im afraid of the world

Im afraid I cant help it

Im afraid I cant

Im afraid of americans
Im afraid of the words
Im afraid I cant help it
Im afraid I cant
Johnnys in america
Johnnys in america

Anonymous said...

REAGAN'S PUNK ROCK.
Reagan Youth
by Spencer Ackerman
Only at TNR Online
06.14.04

By the time Ronald Reagan was laid to rest this weekend in Simi Valley, it seemed as if every aspect of his character, his presidency, and his legacy had been unearthed and examined. Not without justification--even Reagan's detractors conceded the late president's iconic stature. His supporters deified him, making Reagan almost metaphysically identical to the very concept of human liberty, and proclaiming freedom to be Reagan's greatest bequest. Yet some Reaganites seemed less than confident that their Reagan would be history's. Rush Limbaugh sought to interpret Reagan to the "millions of Americans under the age of 30 [who] have no concrete memory of Ronald Reagan's presidency," explaining in National Review that he "defines the utter beauty and blessing that is America and reminds us all of our destiny."

But for a large portion of those under the age of 30, their portrait of Reagan emerged through another of Reagan's gifts to the country--one that went almost completely ignored throughout last week's memorials. They could tell Limbaugh that no accounting of Reagan's cultural legacy is complete without noting a simple truth: Ronald Reagan is responsible for some of the best punk rock ever recorded.

While not as eloquent as Reagan's Brandenburg Gate address--Bad Religion perhaps best summarized the contemporaneous punk understanding of Reagan's America by declaring "Fuck Armageddon, this is hell"--the hardcore records of the early 1980s age a lot better than Knute Rockne, All American. As long as there are disaffected teenagers in America able to seek out (and, now, download) that era's music, Reaganites won't just have to battle liberal historians to convince young America that their vision of the Gipper is the right one. They'll have to go up against the Dead Kennedys.

If Reagan embodied everything sunny and inspiring about the United States to his supporters, to the preternaturally angry punk rockers of the early '80s, he represented anomie, arbitrary authority, and an ignorance that was socially acceptable, even valued. At the dawn of the Reagan era, pioneering singer and guitarist Bob Mould was a student at St. Paul's Macalaster College. "I remember watching these kids getting up in the morning on my dorm floor, putting on a suit and tie and a briefcase, talking about this guy from California named Ronald Reagan and how he was going to be the next president," Mould told journalist Michael Azerrad. "And I'd be sitting there arguing with those fucks in speech class and poli sci and just hating that, thinking 'This is not acceptable behavior. This is not what we're supposed to be doing with our late teens.'" His response was to start the Minneapolis juggernaut Hüsker Dü, whose musical evolution away from the stifling formula of hardcore punk--blisteringly fast rhythms with the barest patina of melody, performed with all the precision of a prison tattoo--would lead to some of the greatest rock and roll of the decade. The same held for Joey Keithley, who didn't let his Canadian citizenship stand in the way of his Reagan-hatred. "I didn't like the rock 'n' roll I was hearing, and I didn't like Ronald Reagan," he recently recalled, explaining why he started hardcore legend D.O.A. and rechristened himself Joey Shithead.

The punk assault on Reagan was relentless. A bunch of Queens high school students called themselves Reagan Youth. Their eponymous anthem took the parallel to its logical conclusion and seig-heiled the president during the chorus. Michigan's gloriously primitive Crucifucks saluted Reagan's would-be assassin in "Hinckley Had a Vision." The Berkeley-based punk rock bible Maximumrocknroll published anti-Reagan screeds in practically every issue. MRR also released what many consider to be the greatest hardcore compilation LP of all time, Welcome To 1984, whose cover featured a mohawked punk defacing a stylized poster of Reagan. The 1983 Rock Against Reagan tour united some of the most potent hardcore bands of the time, including D.R.I. and M.D.C., in a common purpose, and in July of that year they unleashed their vitriol on the National Mall.

But no band inveighed against the president with the intensity of the Rock Against Reagan tour's headliners: San Francisco's Dead Kennedys. The DK's first record, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, was an eclectic and sardonic take on late '70s California. Reagan drained practically all the subtlety out of the band. In 1981, they released their greatest post-Fresh Fruit offering, the raw and furious EP In God We Trust Inc. The sleeve featured a gold Jesus crucified on a cross of dollar bills. On "Moral Majority," singer Jello Biafra got to the point: "Blow it out your ass, Ronald Reagan." That was nothing compared to "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now," a reworking of Fresh Fruit's classic "California Uber Alles," which skewered the "suede-denim secret police" led by Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown. The new version unloaded on "Emperor Ronald Reagan/Born again with fascist cravings" as it built from a low-key lounge groove to a scorched-earth crescendo. In case anyone missed the point, the band took the stage at a show nearby the 1984 Democratic National Convention in Klan hoods, which they removed to reveal rubber Reagan masks.

Of course, not every punk rocker used Reagan as a foil. The very existence of any form of human civilization was sufficient to raise the Nietzschean ire of L.A.'s Black Flag, the greatest of all American hardcore bands. Others, deploring the de rigeur anti-Reagan politics of the punk scene, embraced the president. Beloved New York hardcore band Murphy's Law enthused, "Ronnie Reagan, he's our man/If he can't do it, no one can!" The singer of Chicago's Effigies, John Kezdy, ended up a prosecutor and member of the conservative Federalist Society. (He explained, "There is nothing punk rock about voting for a party that wants to put more government in your life.") Still, without Reagan to use as shorthand for everything undesirable about America, punk's intensity lost a certain focus. As punk rock lurched through the Clinton years, California's NOFX released a 1996 EP of retro hardcore, justifying the project by warbling, "Guess what, nostalgia sucks/But I miss the days of Reagan punk."

The band's front man, Fat Mike, is actively trying to bring those days back. In April, he released the Rock Against Bush compilation, which brought together 26 contemporary punk bands to rail against Reagan's self-proclaimed ideological successor. He wasn't the only one. Tobi Vail, who drummed for groundbreaking punk band Bikini Kill, wrote a widely circulated essay celebrating the Rock Against Reagan phenomenon before declaring, "[T]he time is ripe for Bands Against Bush." Last October, "Bands Against Bush" concerts were held in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and other cities. This time, however, the bands involved are hardly the obscure denizens of marginal record labels. Rock Against Bush features multi-platinum acts like Sum 41 and the Offspring. But the project also acknowledges the debt it owes to Reagan-era punk rock: included is a new track, "That's Progress," by Jello Biafra and D.O.A. Their presence on the compilation is a tacit nod to the inadvertent and surely undesired punk-rock legacy of Ronald Reagan. All that's left is for the Reagan Library to reserve wall space for the In God We Trust Inc. cover art.

Correction: The quote taken from former Effigies singer John Kezdy--not Kazdy, as the article misreported--"There is nothing punk rock about voting for a party that wants to put more government in your life," should have credited the source from where it originally appeared: an article entitled, "Punk Rock the Vote" by reporter Steve Miller in the March 3 edition of The Washington Times. The author sincerely apologizes for the omission.

Anonymous said...

Corrosion of Conformity: Vote with a bullet, just a suggetion (cool blog)