Shock and Awe

Shock and awe people. I'm stunned. I'm speechless. I'm lost for words. I'm repeating myself.

Garrison Keilor is a middle American christian radio show host. His style is that comforting kind of country hospitality and he tells tales of the legendary small town, Lake Wobegon, in a deep mellow voice. The show has been going for 25 years now and I remember my parents laughing along to jokes of his I was too young to understand whenever we went on one of our road trips (eg. once a month from Newcastle to Tamworth for a while there). What I'm getting at is that the man is an institution, particularly in christian circles.

He's also your all-American country roots kind of guy which stereotypically is associated with apolitical blind support of the government. Well, like I said earlier, shock and awe people:

"Here in 2004, George W. Bush is running for re-election on a platform of tragedy --- the single greatest failure of national defense in our history, the attacks of 9/11 in which 19 men with box cutters put this nation into a tailspin, a failure the details of which the White House fought to keep secret even as it ran the country into hock up to the hubcaps, thanks to generous tax cuts for the well-fixed, hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent, even as we engage in a war against a small country that was undertaken for the president's personal satisfaction but sold to the American public on the basis of brazen misinformation, a war whose purpose is to distract us from an enormous transfer of wealth taking place in this country, flowing upward, and the deception is working beautifully."

Why is it that when someone you would never expect to talk about politics actually does they always get you square between the eyes. Like the Anglican bishop who very publicly reversed his position on the war and spoke out articulately and damningly against the whole mess, Keilor knee-caps the whole Republican machine in one thundering paragraph.

Maybe this answers my question on Michael Moore: there isn't a need for radio-talkback tactics among the movement for peace. The voices and the ability is there to speak lucidly through all the shabby lies and politics. And as Keilor writes:

"Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It’s a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning."

A brief history:

"It was after he began work on an article for the New Yorker magazine about the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville that [Garrison Keilor] developed an idea for a radio show with musical guests and commercials for imaginary products. And on July 6, 1974, Keillor hosted the first live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion at the Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College, Saint Paul. Producer Margaret Moos sold tickets for $1 for adults (50 cents for children), and the audience of 12 produced a total gate of something less than $8."

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