An extract from Laurie Anderson's "Oh Superman", a song written in 1981

"Here come the planes.
They're American planes. Made in America
Smoking or Non-smoking?

And the voice said 'Neither snow nor rain nor gloom
of night shall stay these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed rounds.'

'Cause when love is gone, there is always justice
And when justice is gone, there is always force
And when the force is gone, there is always Mom. Hi Mom!

So hold me Mom, in your long arms. So hold me.
Mom, in your long arms.
In your automatic arms. Your electronic arms.
So hold me Mom, in your long arms.
Your petrochemical arms. Your Military arms.
In your electronic arms".

Anderson, who is touring Australia right now, said "I wrote 'O Superman'
during the Iran/Contra scandal, Americans have short memories.
They don't realise that this is the same war that's been going on for
20 years." ... "I really believe that when something big happens,
whether it seems good or seems bad, it's a chance to jump out of
your preconceptions. I was very disappointed that there was no
dialogue in the year since then."

hotwired.lycos.com/popfeatures/96/23/laurie.guide.html

A page of Laurie Anderson links
Homepage of the Brave (needs Flash plugin)

Another aspect of the 'Knowlege & Certainty' point below
In late January 2003, the Australian Financial Review published a
piece by billionaire financier George Soros, first published in the
New Statesman. [Unfortunately you have to pay to read it on either
website.] He wrote that the Nazis and the Russian communists
had one thing in common: "a belief that they were in the possession
of the ultimate truth" - and that America too now shared this fatal flaw.

Of course, this is also true of, say, the Taliban, the Inquisitio
Haereticae Pravitatis and its other incarnations, as well as current
fundamentalist Christian groups, other fundamentalist religious groups
(e.g. Hindus & Sikhs have been massacring each other in the Indian
subcontinent for some decades), the aforementioned political movements, and
even the economic hardliners who are willing to "break a few eggs to make an
omelette".
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 2/15/2003 11:33:00 pm