WhimsyLand

It always amazes me to find out how inexpensive it is to buy a Congressman.  Some examples:  Jim Saxton (R-NJ) obtained $7,500 in campaign contributions from L-3 and they got an earmark in the defense budget for $3 million.  Lockheed Martin's PAC contributed $36K and got a contract worth $25 million.  All in all, Saxton obtained $91,000 from defense firms and earmarked $74 million in projects for them.  Brad Ellsworth (D-IN) obtained $15,000 in contributions from AmeriQual and earmarked almost $6 million for them.  Joe Courtney received $7,500 from the employees of Electric Boat and got them a $70 million submarine contract.  And so on, and so on.  In pure financial terms, contributions to the right legislators appear to offer returns of over 500 to 1, or 50,000% return on investment.  I really have to dream up some juicy defense-related project and go find a Congressman.  I figure I can scrape up $5K and get some software development deal worth at least $2 million. 

And you wonder why our defense budget exceeds the total of the rest of the world.  Somebody said it best:

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

That's from President Eisenhower's parting speech upon leaving office.

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I'm catching up with things I didn't know, or did know and forgot.  For example, Simon's poem and poetry book reviews. 

I didn't realize that Kate had done these terrific first-book interviews.

Robert has been tagged as a "thinking blogger" by Steve Burt by way of Ron Silliman.  Quite an honor, I'd say.

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I've just discovered the big red box in Safeway that rents movies for $1.00 or so.  I don't suppose NetFlix should be worried, but Blockbuster should.  It takes 30 seconds to get your movie and they have all the most recent films.  You can also rent online and go to a redbox and pick it up.  Junie and I rented Déjà Vu from one of the kiosks.  It was, by the way, a very good action film. Denzel Washington was terrific, Paula Patton was beautiful, Val Kilmer was decent, and the plot was good, even if a little much to swallow.

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This month's Poetry is all poetry.  No reviews, no essays.  Here's some that I liked well enough:

Ange Mlinko, Gallimaufry:  "... Bridgitte Bardot lashing out at the leash law in Zurich; / on an uncle's fourth percussive sneeze the baby wakes / – interrobang –"

David Biespiel, Rag and Bone Man:  "When he is old and has removed the gothic armor, / Groomed his macho cogs into a moth's whisper, "

Heidy Steidlmayer, I Say So Long to the Hedge-Rider:  "Hey, edge-stepper carrying your bag / of quicklime and larks, I thought you'd be gone, / hitched your sad self to some old words"

Of the poets included, I really love the work of Mary Jo Bang and A. E. Stallings, but the particular poems weren't to my taste.  MJB's poem was from her upcoming work Elegy, which I think I know the motivation for.  I read her poem "You Were You Are Elegy" to Junie, who liked and appreciated it.  It is very different from her usual work and I was a little disoriented. 

Oh, well.  I'll go scour the house and find that pesky Colorado Review and report back tomorrow.  In case you were wondering, I'm still trying to subdue the Hogriders.