"Who are these people that keep telling us lies and how did these people get control of our lives and who'll stop the violence 'cause it's out of control? Make 'em stop."  These are the words of Burt Bacharach.  Yes, the words of Bacharach.  Mr. Bacharach decided for his latest album called 'At This Time,' that he had to write the lyrics, not his usual forte, because, "Stuff just kept going more wrong and more wrong here as I was writing...'

What kind of 'stuff'?  Oh, you know, like the war in Iraq; no WMD's and the like.  The argument being that we had no reason or right to interfere in a sovereign nation that has done nothing to us.  Mr. Bacharach's heyday was in the sixties and seventies.  Yet, by his own admission, he didn't say a word about America's involvement in Vietnam, the 10—year war there, and its aftermath.  He says he was too busy 'writing love songs.'  Could his lack of engagement at that time be attributed to the fact that it was the Kennedy and Johnson administrations that spearheaded our military efforts in Southeast Asia?

What's really interesting about sixties—liberals like Bacharach, is that they still hold Kennedy as the model of presidential smartness.  Yet it was Kennedy who first sent troops to Vietnam and (gasp!) tried, but failed, to first assassinate and second eradicate Fidel Castro.  How do Bacharach and friends at once hail Kennedy their hero and then hold Castro's Cuba has the ideal in societal evolution? 

In other words, what the patron saint of the Left, Kennedy, failed at (the removal of a brutal dictator), George W. Bush has succeeded at (the removal of Saddam in Iraq).  Rush Limbaugh always points out that for liberals, the greater your failure, the greater you're stock rises in the ranks.  Recent examples are Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

As for 'At This Time,' I think I'll just 'walk on by.'

J. James Estrada   10 21 05