Thanksgiving Prayer William S Burroughs

Thanksgiving Day, Nov 28,1986 first appeared in the chapbook Tornado Alley, with illustrations by S. Clay Wilson. Gus Van Sant then made a short film of Burroughs reading the text.
This poem resonates today as exposing what has gone horribly wrong in the USA, or maybe what has always been wrong.
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986

William S. Burroughs
For John Dillinger
In hope he is still alive
Thanks for the wild turkey and the Passenger Pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts
thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison
thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger
thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot
thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes
thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through
thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces
thanks for Kill a Queer for Christ stickers
thanks for laboratory AIDS
thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs
thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business
thanks for a nation of finks — yes,
thanks for all the memories all right, lets see your arms you always were a headache and you always were a bore
thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

Punishing Bush & co

Truth and reconciliation: Crimes of the Bush administration.

The country is faced with a dilemma: What to do about the high crimes and misdemeanors of the past administration. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has suggested a "Bush Truth Commission".

Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, plans to hold hearings on creating a panel to investigate crimes of the Bush administration. The proposed truth and reconciliation committee would investigate the use of torture, warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.

However, there are objections to such an approach. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejects Leahy's proposal. Pelosi objects to giving anyone immunity, something Leahy's proposal would grant to those who cooperate. Pelosi wants all those guilty prosecuted.
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Is Leahy right? Is immunity the best means for truth and reconciliation? Or is Pelosi correct? Does justice demand a pound of flesh? What course of action is in the best interest of the country?

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The truth is more important than retribution.

The Bible and Truth

(this is my reponse to a post on current: http://current.com/items/89777589/the_bible_and_truth.htm
The Bible is a huge document with many authors, many strands, and indeed two distinct volumes - old and new testament.

To say the bible is true or false is a meaningless claim. The bible is a multiplicity and can not be reduced to a singular, binary, true/false proposition.

The short answer is this: there is no god, no heaven or hell, no life after death. There is only this natural world, which is much older than the bible claims. Man evolved from lower species; there was no creation and no creator.

Jesus was a man, albeit a great moral teacher, as was Socrates and Buddha.

Ultimately the bible and it's supporters encourage ignorance and fear and shun reason and knowledge. Hence, religious superstition is responsible for much of the worlds pain and suffering.

I encourage all good people to step out of the darkness of religious superstition and into the light of reason. Be brave; be strong; be an atheist!