Mumford and Sons – Roll Away Your Stone

What’s on your mind tonite…?

Since we’re all apparently doing it wrong when it comes to the Star-Spangled Banner (and really, as a good old drunken warbling tavern song, it has its moments, but it’s not the only good old drunken warbling tavern song out there), what would you choose for America’s New Kickassingest Theme Song?

Remember: It has to sound good at everything from baseball games to military funerals, it needs to be able to be sung by schoolchildren and grandparents alike, and it must not be specific to male or female voice.

A.

So I’m reading a review of Stephen King’s new novel 11/22/63 by a guy, Charles Taylor, who I know from past experience of his work to usually be honest almost to a fault and therefore trustworthy as a reviewer.

And it’s going good so far — Stephen King, under appreciated: check. Reference to Leslie Fiedler praising King: check. Mention of prior misapprehended novel written in the wake of 9/11: check.

But then I stumble onto this paragraph, written to describe his take on how different King’s treatment of 9/11, especially in its immediate aftermath, has been from other writers:

That alone put him at odds with much of the commentary and decision-making that followed 9/11, from the sanctimonious pronouncements made on the left about the cause of the attacks before anyone had claimed responsibility for them, to the right’s use of them to justify its slavish militarism and contempt for human rights. Implicit to many of these responses was the belief that nothing had happened that couldn’t have been anticipated, and consequently that not only the causes of the attacks but the proper response to them was self-evident. Against these arrogant certainties, King focused on uncertainty as the very currency of American life.

Um, what?

I certainly don’t recall any “sanctimonious pronouncements made on the left about the cause of the attacks before anyone had claimed responsibility for them”. I do recall one very accurate piece by Gary Kamiya, Taylor’s fellow Salon writer at the time, and done after the attacks had been linked to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. (By contrast, PNAC member Donald Rumsfeld, hours after the 9/11 attacks, while the Pentagon fires were still burning, urging his people to “go massive” in trying to find a link to Saddam Hussein, so as to find a way to carry out the wishes of PNAC guru and Iranian government operative Ahmad Chalabi and attack Iraq. Most sane people would find this, ah, somewhat more reprehensible than Gary Kamiya’s being right about 9/11.) [cont'd.]