Why You Know: 

 wuss and wuss 

I hates the nasty eagle,
With all his brag and fuss,
The lyin’, thievin’ Yankees,
I hates ’em wuss and wuss.    —Still Dew

The fluid exchange is covered fairly well in The Spitting Image.  

Writing in the 21st Century is discussed by (passive voice) Steven Pinker, and of course I get paid (not much) to teach this: expository writing.

I am setting myself up for the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do trap because the beginning  exploratory stuff for Gettysburg Opera has been generally trashed by the few readers I have because it is obtuse and largely unintelligible… which it is.

The excuse could be that the Gettysburg Battle is obtuse and largely unintelligible to me.  Yeah, I know more than most people do about the Battle; names of Generals, troop movements, weapons and such.  But that taint it.

Lincoln framed it as well as any contemporary could in the Gettysburg Address, which is “literally’ carved in stone. Have we learned anything else about An Explosion in Washington?    Throw some shells over toward Coon Town.

Oh- Jonny don’t like politically correct,   How about this: your King Jesus is Elmer Fudd in a dress.  That’s because yer dum as a chicken-poop cupcake and you think The Flintstones is a documentary.

Goobers who can read beyond Dr. Seuss still argue that the war was not about slavery but states’ rights, high taxes, big government or other teabag issues. Turkey-poop muffin with a mortarboard. They never shut up.

The line for a hundred years has been they were all “brave American patriots.”  Nope.  They were all victims of the same clown-show cartoon that continues to this day.

Southrons.  Meh.

Now we can whip out our smart phones and Google it:  fascism is a form of authoritarian nationalism.  Patriotism in the USA is nationalism wrapped in a flag and thumping an authoritarian bible.  We are not going to send troops to Iraq.  Well, yes we are, but to protect our interests: corporate oil profits.

Now come the gladdened multitudes complaining about high gas prices.  Meanwhile, the true cost is killing us. Theater of war is a distraction.  Political process as we have been taught to recognize it no longer exists. Authoritarians have made religion an obscene joke.  See global warming through the mirrors and smoke.

Energy is the issue, not liberals or conservatives or fake political parties.  That is the union that will tear the fascists down. Fascists privatize the profits, socialize the costs and try to distract us with another war of choice.  Put the yellow ribbons away and recognize the difference between fantasy and physics.

We have no other choice.

Meanwhile back in 1863

“”“In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls…  JL Chamberlain

Between fantasy and physics is magic.  Symbols ;) gestures ” ” and language which is what you are looking at right now.  Magic happens when make-believe things become real.  Not always good, not always bad, you can Google magic on your phone.  Magic is at Gettysburg, and it is still a vision-place of souls.  It is difficult enough to understand the physics there.

Armies could not move much faster than horses, and they could not fly.  No cell phones.  Patriotism is the magic still at Gettysburg , but today it is nationalism in a Halloween costume dressed as patriotism.  Google the difference and while there, check out Elizabeth Thorn and xenophobia, immigrants and XI Corps. Now hydrocarbon overlords want another war. Global warming is physics.

Rosa Meade Thorn is born.  She returns with a message.