Sunday Drive: There but for Fortune

My dream girl once upon a time . . ..

Cher, 1967.  An old favorite of mine.  The message still resonates in today's world.

Backup music - by turns ethereal and dramatic - provided by the Wrecking Crew.

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Sunday Drive: There but for Fortune

 Cher, 1967.  The lyrics are particularly poignant just now.

What I Say:  The Ukrainian situation poses a terrible moral dilemma.  It tugs at the heartstrings to see the defiant Ukranian people erecting barricades of used tires and empty crates, making Molotov cocktails out of empty liquor bottles, or manning their defenses with handguns, knives, and hammers, whatever they can lay hands on.  And this in the face of overwhelming odds against a wicked and implacable foe.  

The miracle of modern communications, showing us the happenings in real time, makes it all quite vivid and deeply moving.  One wishes of course to send them every help - including what they most need, friendly troops with the firepower to vanquish the enemy decisively and send him scurrying from Ukrainian soil.  That would be an immensely good deed in the checkered annals of humanity.

But wisdom requires us to look beyond the current moment, and to recollect that there is more to the world than just Ukraine.  It is necessary to balance the fate of 40 million Ukranians against that of the other 7 billion people on this planet.  It might well be that a concerted strike by NATO forces could rid Ukraine of the invader in a week's time or less - but then what?  We now know for certain that Putin will stop at nothing to get what he wants.  

Is saving Ukraine worth turning New York, or London, or Paris, or Berlin into a parking lot?  And much more besides just those cities?  We might save a million lives in Ukraine - but what about the 100 million lives, or more, that would be lost in a nuclear war?  Which way does the moral compass point?

It is a long established rule in the common law that one is not under obligation to go to another's aid if it requires endangering one's own life.  If someone is drowning, you do not have to jump in the lake with him.  We have no treaty obligations to Ukraine that compel us to act in her defense; and to do so on the scale needed would almost certainly open the nuclear door and unleash who knows what horrors upon the rest of mankind all around the globe,  If it came to that, the heartbreaking scenes in Ukraine we see today would be repeated endlessly and with even greater anguish in many other countries.

And yet, one feels greatly ashamed of not jumping into the lake to save that drowning man.  Must we sacrifice the many to save the few?  A horrible dilemma of the heart and the conscience - glib phrases and quick answers are not helpful when such weighty questions must be weighed in the balances.  Students of history will remember that this is not the first time humanity has confronted such a dreadful choice.  

And all because of one bitter, frustrated old man, without conscience or remorse.  Would that he had never been born!  The news at noon reports that he has now put Russia's nuclear forces on alert.  Does anyone in Russia have the courage to say No for once?  Must one evil man's hunger for domination consume the whole world?  Will no one rid us of this ruthless monster, this loathsome blot upon the earth?  

Must all mankind suffer to make the world safe for Putin?

Suddenly, the world has turned a corner and entered a frightening new era.  This is the most dangerous hour in our lifetime; it is a good time to put one's affairs in order.  If Putin were to lob just one nuke against any NATO country, there would be hell to pay.  It may be that there is some happy way forward not apparent to me at the present time.  If so, I pray that the leaders of the world will find it, and soon.  

May God bless the brave, beleaguered Ukrainian people, and deliver them and us from every evil.

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Sunday Drive: Time

I still like the young, unsophisticated Cher best - whom I had a totally-not-sexual crush on for years - my imaginary girlfriend in a time when I still thought I was supposed to have a real one.    Her songs from that era, and her voice, always spoke to my heart.  Still do.

Sunday Drive: There but for Fortune

Pop Tops: It's the Little Things

Way back when your Head Trucker was young and still thinking he was supposed to grow up to be straight, he had a major crush on Cher. Here's a wonderful clip I found that I've never seen before, from 1967. Just look at how lovely Mrs. Bono is at 21 in that babydoll dress, so young and spirited and naturally beautiful - who wouldn't fall for a girl like that?



I made a little playlist of Cher's songs from the sixties, if you want to listen to more. Just open this video in YouTube, and you'll see the playlist at the bottom of your screen.

Strong Enough

Your Head Trucker has just survived possibly the worst weekend of his life:  I'll spare you the gory details, it's just too gruesome.  All I can say is, whatever this bug is that hit me, it was a strong man.  But your Head Trucker, no candy-ass city boy, comes from a long line of good strong pioneer blood, and is happy to report that he was strong enough to prevail against the foe, and by the old-fashioned method:  sweating it out. 

(You young'uns don't know anything about that; you think you have to run to the doctor for some pretty little pills every time you have a pain or ache.  What do you think cowboys and country people did before there were pretty little pills, and a doctor on every street corner - or even paved streets?  Ask your grandmother.)

The proof being, I'm still alive and able to write these words to you this morning; though there was a time or two, all alone here, half-delirious with fever, running off from every outlet and seriously dehydrated, the outcome did seem a bit doubtful - but at those moments, you are so goddamn sick you don't really much care what the outcome is.

I'm still too shaky to work or concentrate for very long, but it seemed the crisis had passed by late yesterday afternoon, and I was able to eat (and retain) some solid food for the first time about 1 o'clock this morning.  The good news is, in four days I've lost 10 pounds; though I can't really recommend that as a diet plan. 

No pictures:  it would fracture your screen to show you my haggard, wild-eyed face after this ordeal.  So blogging may be light till I get my strength back but I'm okay.  Hope you guys are having a good week and preparing for a happy turkey day.

Here's Cher singing my motto for the week.  Skip the goofy visuals, just enjoy the music and the thought.