Maggie's Farm

"Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can't jump it
Sometimes it gets so hard, you see
I'm just sitting here beating on my trumpet
With all these promises you left for me
But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Well, I waited for you when I was half sick
Yes, I waited for you when you hated me
Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic
When you knew I had some other place to be
Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

Now, I been in jail when all my mail showed
That a man can't give his address out to bad company
And now I stand here lookin' at your yellow railroad
In the ruins of your balcony
Wond'ring where you are tonight, sweet Marie."

From "Absolutely Sweet Marie" off 1966's Blonde On Blonde

We carried you in our arms
On Independence Day,
And now you'd throw us all aside
And put us on our way.
Oh what dear daughter 'neath the sun
Would treat a father so,
To wait upon him hand and foot
And always tell him, "No"?
Tears of rage, tears of grief,
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know
We're so alone
And life is brief.

It was all very painless
When you went out to receive
All that false instruction
Which we never could believe.
And now the heart is filled with gold
As if it was a purse.
But, oh, what kind of love is this
Which goes from bad to worse?
Tears of rage, tears of grief,
Must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know
We're so alone
And life is brief.

From "Tears Of Rage," officially released on The Basement Tapes and covered by The Band on Music From Big Pink.

"Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin' at his last meal
Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield
For dignity

Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass
Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin' through painted glass
For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun

Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure
Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
for dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams"

"Dignity," outtake from Oh Mercy, officially released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol 3 and MTV Unplugged.  Download a live 2004 version of this song here.

Drifting Like A Satellite: Dylan To Hit The Airwaves

If various news outlets are to be believed, Bob Dylan will begin broadcasting his own music show on XM satellite radio next March.  In addition to playing music hand-picked by Dylan, the show will apparently feature Dylan conducting interviews of special guests and providing commentary on music and as-yet unspecified "other topics."  The news is all the more surprising given Dylan's notorious reticence, not to mention a rigorous touring schedule which takes up a good portion of the year.  Perhaps the shows will be taped right from the tour bus?  Either way, this is quite the coup for XM, which is in a fight with rival Sirius for the subscription satellite radio market.

Learn more about satellite radio here.

"Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just glides
Upon four-legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun
Though its glow is waxed in black
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden

The lamppost stands with folded arms
Its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail
Though it shadows metal badge
All and all can only fall
With a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden

With a time-rusted compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side saddle on the Golden Calf
And on their promises of paradise
You will not hear a laugh
All except inside the Gates of Eden."

From "Gates of Eden," from 1965's Bringing It All Back Home. Buy it if you don't have it.

Conservatives Finally Wise Up

Perhaps it was the Miers nomination which pushed conservatives over the edge and made criticism of Bush at last widely acceptable among Republican ranks, but the dissection of Bush's recent remarks on immigration policy represents a real and significant shift on the part of the Right.  Everyone from Rich Lowry at the National Review to Tucker Carlson has seen Bush's assurances of increased border security for exactly what they are: empty promises that cover for Bush's long-desired guest worker program (i.e., amnesty) and stated goal to actually increase legal immigration. 

In the midst of all the debate over illegal immigration, the equally valid debate over the proper role of legal immigration has been somehow pushed beyond the pale of debate, as those who oppose illegal immigration often give tacit approval to legal entry with no consideration given to the scale or quality of such immigration. In truth, the numbers of immigrants and their skill levels matter a great deal, whether or not one has a green card.  Yet, as Lowry notes, every time the public has risen up in alarm over out-of-control rates of immigration, Congress has acted to increase legal immigration.  Bush's proposals are only the latest act in this sad series of events, but this time it appears the public is not going to be fooled by the same tired old rhetoric.

AP: Urging self defense "racist and extremist"

Now, while I usually assume that our readership is all too well aware of the political leanings of the mainstream media, a particular sentence I came across today jumped out at me and has been nagging at my brain ever since.  In an AP article covering DeVillepin's vain promises to provide jobs to the disaffected rioters, there is a mention of "Muslim leaders" afraid of a backlash in which the following tidbit appears:

"On Sunday, authorities discovered racist and extremist slogans — including one that said "Defend yourself, France" — spray-painted on a mosque being built in Saint-Etienne in the southeast."

When I read the first part of the sentence, I assumed the author might quote something to the effect of "Africans must die" or "expel all Muslims" or something at least plausibly "racist."  But no - apparently the worst they could find was a simple plea for France to stand up to those who seek to profit by violence and destruction.  (What irony, to think that during the German occupation of the second world war, a Frenchman scribbling such a message on the side of a building would been held in much the same regard by those in power.)

The implications of this statement go beyond the rioting in France, however, to encompass all of Europe and indeed all of the West, which faces charges of "racism" and "extremism" for even the slightest efforts to control its borders or restrict the free movement of immigrants.  Now, if in France's case, continued immigration will inevitably result in a Muslim- and African-majority France, with all that implies for French culture, nationhood and government, surely France is within its right to seek to prevent such a future.  Not so, says the left: racism no longer constitutes only the oppression of the non-white or non-Christian other, but also resistance to their oppressing you. 

The implications of this are vast, since acceptance of this principle essentially robs the nations of the West of the ability to control and shape their own futures.  The demographic changes underway must continue, therefore, since to oppose one's transformation into a Muslim nation would be racist.  Likewise in the United States, one cannot oppose giving in-state tuition and driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, since to do so would be racist.  Calling for France to defend itself in the face of rioting by African Muslims?  Racist, of course.  Sadly, this insidious ideology has worked its way into the highest reaches of political power throughout the Western world and shows no signs of losing its grip.  Unless it is challenged and destroyed, and soon, France's future looks to be already set.  

We'll Always Have Paris

Eleven straight days of worsening rioting and French authorities are still "vowing" to restore order.  A first fatality was reported today, yet as VFR notes, the AP stories on the topic all follow the same structure, calling the rioters simply "youths" or "French youths" and blaming the violence on unemployment and racial discrimination.  Chirac, in a latter-day imitation of Emperor Nero, has simply stood by for 10 days while the city burned, only emerging to issue feeble calls for calm when it became clear that closing his eyes wasn't going to make the problem go away.

The entire government seems to be paralyzed by a fear that tough action will only inflame the rioters, but the conciliatory rhetoric and promises to deliver special, affirmative-action style privileges to African and Muslim immigrants - in direct opposition to France's cherished equalité - worsens the situation still further by legitimizing the use of violence to achieve political ends.  If the government is willing to be blackmailed so easily, who can blame the rioters for escalating the violence?

More on the Paris riots here- things seem to be rapidly spinning out of control.  Every day I read that De Villepin is "vowing" to restore order, yet the situation only seems to get worse as French authorities are paralyzed by their own politically-correct inhibitions.  Meanwhile the mayor of a nearby town recommends that France "give these people a message of hope" to remedy the situation, a textbook example of 60s thinking that views criminals merely as victims of societal oppression and exclusion, thereby excusing and even justifying their violent behavior.  Amazing that Sarkozy seems to have received more criticism from calling the rioters "scum" than the rioters themselves have received from their own actions.

Misrepresenting Roe v. Wade

With all the buzz surrounding Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito and his views on abortion, the same tired old fallacies regarding the Roe v. Wade decision have again been hauled out by the left, always eager to show how overturning Roe would force women to seek Ted Kennedy's infamous "back-alley abortions."  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the MSM has been complicit in this distortion of the truth, as seen in the AP article here.  A couple choice excerpts:

"Samuel Alito's nomination on Monday fanned immediate concern among liberals, but sparked joy among religious conservative groups keen to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion."

"Other opponents think Roe v Wade was improperly decided, quarrelling with legal reasoning that banning abortion would infringe privacy rights enshrined in the Constitution."

Can anyone spot the problem here?  Since all Roe did was to prohibit states from legislating blanket bans on abortion, to say that it "legalized" abortion, or worse, as implied in the second quote, that overturning Roe would result in a ban on abortions, is simply dishonest, if not duplicitous.  Prior to 1973, all state legislatures were free to legalize abortion, though many of course did not.  It follows, then, that if Roe were overturned, no state would be compelled to ban abortions, though at least a few most likely would, with others enacting tighter restrictions on access.  The matter would simply return to the states to decide - no more and no less.

Roe was not exactly the black and white result that many on the left make it out to be, either, as it did allow exceptions to be made after the first three months of pregnancy, and left open a window for bans on abortion during the period when the fetus would be viable outside the womb (e.g. the notorious issue of "partial birth" abortions).  Casting the debate strictly in terms of "banning" and "legalizing" abortion hardly helps the public understand the complexities of the decision.

In any event, I think the true threat to the right to abortion in any state would not come from a repeal of Roe v. Wade, which makes its case from the perspective of an established right to privacy, but from a law which sought to establish the fetus as a legally protected entity with rights of its own.  The beginnings of such legislation are in fact already on the books as the so-called "Laci's Law," which makes it a separate crime to kill or injure a fetus, and which allows the for a charge of murder for killing the fetus even if the mother survives.  Though the law provides a specific exemption for abortion, the contradictions apparent in this distinction seem to have already laid the grounds for future lawsuits.

Dylan Download Of The Day

Dylan may have left the most outspoken part of his so-called "born-again period" behind in the early 1980s, but he continued to perform many of the songs from his three most religious albums well into the 1990s.  Today's selection from the vaults is a 1994 performance of "In The Garden," off "Saved," an album of explicitly-Christian gospel songs that has been received with everything from harsh criticism to glowing praise since it came out in 1980.  Even if you aren't a believer, however, you should still be able to appreciate the sheer naked honesty of Dylan's vocal performance of the song, as moving to my ears as any choral hymn ever composed by Isaac Watts or Charles Wesley.  Get the MP3 of the November 1994 performance at the link found here.  Buy the original album here.

(The Dylanologist should add that readers will never find copyrighted versions of Bob Dylan songs available on Maggie's Farm: everything we provide is taken from audience recordings of live performances or else unreleased studio work.  Our hope is that hearing these commercially unavailable recordings will expose the listener to a vitally important side of Dylan's craft and encourage the purchase of albums and concert tickets.)

Dylan Download Of The Day

Thanks to new websites which allow the uploading of large files, The Dylanologist is pleased to be able to share some rare audio and video clips of Maggie's favorite "recording artist."  Today's selection is from the 1996 tour, where Dylan - foreshadowing the direction his live act would take in years to come - debuted the Elizabeth Cotten classic "Shake Sugaree" with an understated, almost country-style arrangement that diverged sharply from the hard rocking/spare acoustic sets of the mid-90s.  Get an mp3 version of a June 1996 performance of the song by going to this link and hitting "download now." Buy the original, listen to a clip, or just learn more about Elizabeth Cotten here.

Laura Ingraham v. Harriet Miers

NRO has a piece up comparing the credentials of Dartmouth's own Laura Ingraham to those of recently-nominated Harriet Miers to point out the pure silliness of the President's assertion that Miers was, bar none, the most qualified person for the job.  

Elsewhere, Captain Ed wonders whether Bush has the necessary senate votes to push Miers through, but admits that the fear of infighting and division may force Republicans to unite behind her.  My question is: why would such a situation even be worth risking?  As much as a partisan battle over a clearly-enunciated conservative might have taken out of this administration in the short run, a pick that divides and demoralizes the party has the potential to cause even greater, long-term damage.

Will Gets Fired Up

Amidst all this vacation blogging, The Dylanologist, who remains on duty, must link to George Will's excellent piece on the Miers nomination.  Finally, after years of betrayals from this president on issues ranging from social spending to immigration, even tepid, equivocating conservatives like Will are awakening to the fact that "their man" in the White House might not be on their side after all.  He reserves some of his most scathing comments for Bush's mindless deference to the "diversity is our strength" mantra:

"Under the rubric of "diversity" -- nowadays, the first refuge of intellectually disreputable impulses -- the president announced, surely without fathoming the implications, his belief in identity politics and its tawdry corollary, the idea of categorical representation. Identity politics holds that one's essential attributes are genetic, biological, ethnic or chromosomal -- that one's nature and understanding are decisively shaped by race, ethnicity or gender. Categorical representation holds that the interests of a group can be understood, empathized with and represented only by a member of that group.

The crowning absurdity of the president's wallowing in such nonsense is the obvious assumption that the Supreme Court is, like a legislature, an institution of representation. This from a president who, introducing Miers, deplored judges who "legislate from the bench."

Stronger Than Katrina

Amazingly, just three weeks after Katrina reached an atmospheric pressure of 902 millibars out in the Gulf, Hurricane Rita has been measured at 897 mb, making it the third most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin (behind only Gilbert in 1988 and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935).  Conditions have been perfectly suited for intensification thus far (stormtrack has details here), but as the storm continues on a collision course with the Texas coast atmospheric patterns should become somewhat less favorable, hopefully helping to weaken it somewhat before landfall.  While we here at Maggie's Farm are praying for the safety of everyone in the path of the storm, it's still awe-inspiring to look at the satellite images of this astonishingly powerful hurricane.

Well Shiver Me Timbers

Grab your cutlass, drink some grog and work on your "Aaargh," as today the nation observes "Talk Like A Pirate Day," a great opportunity to indulge your buccaneer fantasies or simply annoy your friends and coworkers.  The official site has information on the "history" of the holiday as well as a helpful pirate glossary to inform ignorant landlubbers. 

"Tryin' To Get To Heaven," from Dylan's 1997 Time Out Of Mind

The air is getting hotter
There's a rumbling in the skies
I've been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes
Every day your memory grows dimmer
It doesn't haunt me like it did before
I've been walking through the middle of nowhere
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

When I was in Missouri
They would not let me be
I had to leave there in a hurry
I only saw what they let me see
You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I've been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

You Got To Be More Than Street-wise

Some of the reports of looting and lawlessness in New Orleans have been quite shocking: police officers joining in the looting, an entire Walmart ransacked and all the guns stolen, gangs of armed men roaming the streets, officers getting shot by looters, prison riots, citizens breaking into jewelry shops, pharmacies, clothing retailers and the like directly in front of watching police and national guardsmen. 

This activity is no doubt fueled in part by New Orleans' already very high crime rate, which has risen in the last several years despite rapid decreases in almost all other major U.S. cities (as this article reported just two weeks ago, also here).  Not coincidentally, New Orleans also has only 3.14 officers per 1,000 residents, half of what Washington D.C. has and less than most big cities, and those relatively few officers have had to deal with uncooperative, suspicious citizens and even charges of police brutality when attempting to carry out their highly dangerous jobs.  As the foremost priorities for the city are rescuing stranded residents and plugging the massive breaches in the levees, it looks as though this situation may deteriorate further. 

Crash on the levee, mama, water's gonna overflow

Swamp's gonna rise, no boat's gonna row

Well you can train on down to William's Point, you can bust your feet, you can rock this joint, but hey, ain't you gonna miss your best friend now

Gonna have to find yourself another best friend somehow

Well the high tide's a risin', mama don't you let me down,

Pack up your suitcase, mama don't you make a sound

Well it's sugar for sugar, salt for salt, you go down in the flood, gonna be your fault

Oh, mama, ain't you gonna miss your best friend now, you're gonna have to find yourself another best friend somehow...

Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)

Hurricane Katrina has now strengthened to an extremely powerful category 5 storm with 175 mph winds, making it one of the strongest storms ever to threaten landfall on the United States.  The storm's pressure of 907 millibars is lower than any storm other than the 1935 "Labor Day" hurricane that devastated Florida (though that storm was considerably smaller and more compact than Katrina).  The only really comparable hurricane is Hurricane Camille, which caused massive damage to the Gulf Coast back in 1969.  Check out post-Camille photos here, and note how the satellite images of that storm correspond to those of Katrina. 

Models are predicting the storm to track almost directly over New Orleans, a city that is located below sea level and which keeps the waters at bay only by a system of pumps and levees.  A direct hit from a category 5 storm could potentially flood the entire city, in addition to the severe wind damage that can be expected from such a storm.  Stormtrack has a discussion of potential damage here - this sounds downright scary.  Probably a good idea to pack up your suitcase if you're a New Orleans resident - this could be the meanest flood anybody's ever seen.

(Note: Hurricane Gilbert, which struck the Yucatan in 1988, had the lowest recorded pressure of any system in the Atlantic Basin, with 888 mb, but the above link only refers to hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S.  Some typhoons in the Pacific have had even lower barometric pressure.)

Accutane v. the FDA

As anyone who has visited a pharmacy or turned on a television knows, there are nearly as many available remedies for acne as there are people to buy them.  Drying creams, antibiotic ointments, facial peels, exfoliating gels - the sheer quantity is mind-boggling, yet the vast majority of these treatments have no effect on acne (as any dermatologist will freely admit). While some other moderately effective remedies do exist, for those with severe acne, there is really only one medication that has a significant and lasting impact: Accutane, the vitamin A-based drug that acts to shrink the oil-producing sebaceous glands, resulting in a face that is free of both acne and excessive oiliness.  Furthermore, these effects are often permanent, providing relief not only from the physical symptoms, but from the low-grade psychological torture of going through one's day-to-day life constantly expecting breakouts.  For many teenagers enduring the shame, humiliation and peer ridicule accompanying a case of severe acne, Accutane is truly a miracle drug.

Why am I bringing this up?  Well, the one nagging problem with the drug has always been its potential to cause serious developmental defects in fetuses exposed to Accutane.  The risk has always been known, and in the past several years preventative measures have been increased to such a degree that women wishing to take the medication must pledge to take two forms of birth control while on the medication - even if they do not engage in intercourse! - and submit to monthly blood and pregnancy tests.  Given that Accutane is prescribed to hundreds of thousands, the odd pregnancy still does occur (and is usually promptly aborted), but apparently even the unprecedented safeguards surrounding the drug were not enough for the FDA, which yesterday announced that all patients (men included, despite their presumably low risk of pregnancy!) taking the drug and doctors prescribing it must enroll in a goverment registry and undergo even more stringent tests.  If such safeguards still do not prevent further pregancies, the drug may be taken off the market altogether, the article claims.

Now, since our government, thankfully, cannot control what people do in the privacy of their own homes, it is virtually guaranteed that some extremely careless, irresponsible or just plain stupid folks will still find a way to get pregnant.  The question here can be simply stated: is it just to ban a drug that has been enormously helpful to millions of people because of the lack of responsibility of a tiny minority (160 "Accutane babies" born in the last 20 years out of more than 20 million users)?  No one wants to see babies born with severe, incapacitating defects, but if doctors and the FDA enact the most stringent possible safeguards, shouldn't patients assume the remaining share of the responsibility?  And given that the average male has an exactly zero percent chance of pregnancy by my calculations, what logic would compel the drug to be banned for both men and women?  Would allowing only men to take Accutane violate some unspoken equality-of-access clause that the FDA secretly maintains?  Given that at least one recent medication has been approved by the FDA for use in preventing heart disease among African-Americans only (it does not have a beneficial effect on other races), this theory doesn't seem to hold any water.  In any case, at a time when hundreds of thousands of abortions are performed every year on healthy fetuses, it seems odd for the FDA to zealously target a medicine for endangering the health of a scant handful of unborn children.  There are tangled ethical issues here, for sure, but speaking as someone who has been a beneficiary of this amazing drug, it would be a great shame if it were taken off the market. 

(As a side note, Accutane has also been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts in some patients, but studies have shown that the suicide rate for Accutance users is not different in any statistically significant way from that of the general population.  In my own experience, the tremendous boon in confidence and self-assuredness resulting from the disappearance of acne far outweighed any vague "feelings of depression" that could possibly have occurred, and I have seen the same thing in a number of other people as well).

Pinch Me, I Must Be Dreaming

The LA Times reports that illegal aliens are now receiving generous home loans from major national banks, despite their lack of legal status, credit, or Social Security number.  This anecdote was particularly amazing:

Silvia Avalos, a hairstylist, and her husband, Jose Luis Avalos, a busboy, are among the people Mancera is talking about. They were tired of spending their money on rent each month but didn't want to use fake Social Security numbers to buy a home.

After friends told them they could buy legally, they found a two-bedroom condo northeast of San Francisco for $280,000. They moved in as soon as escrow closed.

Two illegals working as a hairstylist and a busboy (!) can easily obtain a loan for a $280,000 condo?  With an assumed lack of any credit rating or guarantee that they even plan to remain in the country?  I would like to see the impression on my Citibank rep's face if I were to saunter in today and ask about receiving such a loan with my (probably higher than those above) salary as a young paralegal.  Not only is this a clear abuse of the law and the public trust, this sort of mindlessly greedy behavior will end up penalizing American citizens as illegals inevitably default on their loans, driving up interest rates for all prospective home-buyers.  Perhaps low-income American citizens who want to own a home should simply run across the Mexican border, toss away their passport and Social Security card, and re-enter illegally?  At the very least, you'll be able to get a driver's license, free, taxpayer-funded education and health care, and if you can land a job washing dishes for six bucks an hour, maybe a house too!

Border Patrol, Israeli Style

Now that's what I call a well-guarded border: at right, the Israeli-controlled border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.  Though Israel is pulling back its settlers, it appears it will not loosen control of the border checkpoints around the territory.  While terrorism is a day-to-day concern for many Israelis, Israel is equally cognizant of the even greater long-term threat posed by mass Palestinian and Arab immigration, which threatens to reduce Jews to a minority within Israel itself.  Hence the need for strict border controls and rigid enforcement of immigration laws.  If this country devoted one-tenth the effort to its own border, I suspect we'd see illegal immigration brought under quick control.  Hopefully it will not take another terrorist attack to convince us of the necessity of securing our highly vulnerable borders.

Immigration Update

This site has a useful overview of three of the so-called "immigration reform" bills currently floating around Capitol Hill.  Two of them, as can be seen through taking even the briefest glance at their provisions, are little more than blanket amnesties that contain clauses which would also vastly increase our rate of legal immigration, already the highest in the world by a wide margin.

Read the rest of the review of the bills - click on continuation page below

The name Bob Dylan would hardly have been a familiar one to anyone outside the Greenwich Village scene before 1963, even with the earlier release of a very first album containing blues and folk covers and a couple short, original compositions.  The appearance less than a year later of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” an album of astonishing originality and creativity, would firmly establish Dylan as one of the foremost songwriters of his time at a mere 22 years old.

Though his sound and style would continually change over the years, “Freewheelin’” contains many of the themes Dylan would later revisit: the social conscience and angry protest of “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “Masters of War;” absurdity and sly humor on “Talkin’ World War III Blues” and “Bob Dylan’s Dream;” the surrealist imagery and apocalyptic prophesying on “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall;” expressions of love and affection in “Girl From The North Country;” and the ever-present theme of the need to change and move on, rather than linger in past relationships and experiences, on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

The structure of the songs is largely constructed from a folk foundation, the musical form that dominated the coffee houses and cafes of Greenwich Village and which Dylan had listened to assiduously since his arrival in the city and before.  In particular, the influence of Woody Guthrie – Dylan’s undisputed icon – shines through, as Dylan virtually channels Guthrie’s spirit on “Talkin’ World War III Blues.”  Dylan, who may have traveled to New York in large part to seek out the dying Guthrie, was also inspired by