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The years go by and one after another source of precious joy in this life becomes troublesome for a body past its sell-by date (which seems to be somewhere around 23).

Meanwhile, read a few books in May; one year since these reviews began.

War Like the Thunderbolt, Russell S. Bonds. I’ve reviewed this in detail elsewhere, already. In brief, a decent and very readable account of the Battle of Atlanta, though not quite the riveting narrative which was Bonds’ earlier Stealing the General.

Go Down Together, Jeff Guinn. A recent biography of Clyde Barrow and his paramour, Bonnie Parker, better known as the legendary Bonnie & Clyde. An absolutely fantastic work, rich in absorbing detail. Definitely the best of the month.

I’m far from being an expert on Bonnie & Clyde, so I can’t evaluate this against any other works on the pair. But it certainly seems like Guinn did a lot of research, and used it to very good effect. Unsurprisingly, there’s no Hollywood glamour in the story; yet for a tale of two largely inept, ineffective small-time criminals, it’s a remarkably dramatic and even moving story.

The element of inevitable doom in Bonnie & Clyde’s tale probably contributes a lot to this, and while Guinn makes it a very real presence, he hardly had to invent it; throughout much of their brief criminal careers, B&C knew there was only one possible ending to their story, and were often completely frank and casual about it.

Perhaps the most effective and surprising ramification of this, though, is how Guinn convincingly calls into question just how much Barrow and Parker ever really had a better alternative. The story of their dead-end world in Dust-Bowl Texas, and particularly of the Barrows’ utterly dispiriting poverty, comes across as just unremittingly bleak. Unless the prospects for a young person in Depression-era Dallas slums were significantly brighter than Guinn’s account suggests, one has difficulty seeing any reason Bonnie & Clyde would have particularly preferred lives of impoverished drudgery to brief careers as famous criminals, even allowing for the deglamorized reality of the latter.

In all honesty, though written as a biography of two celebrated bandits, Go Down Together is one of the most effective works of social criticism I’ve read in a long while. (more…)

As world leaders, and particularly America’s government, fret and squirm at the possibility of democratic fervor empowering “dangerous extremists” in Egypt…

I just can’t help wondering whether any of them have considered that, to many people throughout the world and to at least some right here at home, in America democracy has already led to empowering dangerous extremists, on many occasions.

“And I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.”
- Barack Obama, 6/7/10

uh huh. i’m sure the boys in the BP boardroom are shitting their pants in terror even as we speak.

seriously, i like barack and all, but when has he ever kicked anyone’s ass? not counting little old ladies, that is.

speaking of which, how sick is it that this is apparently the only event of obama’s presidency about which the white house has been moved to muster any kind of real official outrage from the press secretary’s podium?

overstatement? let’s do a little exercise. here’s the official white house statement on the freedom flotilla raid last week:

“The president affirmed the importance of finding better ways to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza without undermining Israel’s security,” the statement said. “He underscored the importance of a comprehensive peace agreement which establishes an independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state as the way to resolve the overall situation and the United States’ continuing commitment to achieving that goal by working closely with Turkey, Israel and others with a stake in a more stable and secure Middle East.”

ouch! remember, that torrent of blistering rhetoric came in response to the murder of 11 peace activists by israeli commandos aboard a humanitarian aid convoy in international waters. when pressed for a statement on the actual killings and how they were actually, kind of, maybe a little bit, wrong, the best robert gibbs could do was to quote a UN security council statement that “deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force”, and then point out that the united states is technically a security council member. so, y’know. next question?

now, let’s hear gibbs’s take on the ouster of the most senior member of the WH press corps, maybe the last and most respected practitioner of what was once called journalism, who in an unguarded moment as a private citizen last week said some shit that was admittedly over the top, regarding a situation in the middle east that is clearly way, way over the top:

“Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible,” Gibbs said today during a press briefing. Thomas was absent from the front row seat reserved for her in the White House press room.

“She should and has apologized,” Gibbs continued. “Obviously, those remarks do not reflect the opinion, I assume, of most of the people in here and certainly not of the administration.”

if you didn’t already know, thomas apparently lost her shit during an argument she didn’t intend to be public and said something to the effect that the israelis should just get the hell out of palestine. not a very nice, or a very thoughtful, thing to say. certainly a goof worthy of a public apology. maybe even bad enough to justify hounding her out of the profession dan rather style, ending a trailblazing career of half a century — obama himself thinks so, calling thomas’s forced retirement “the right decision.” but on the “offensive and reprehensible” scale, can we agree that it’s hardly on par with state terrorism? can we get a little motherfucking perspective up in here?

for the cherry on top of this sundae of shame, we go back to that same white house press briefing from last week on the flotilla massacre, in which the administration was taken to task by one ornery correspondent for its appalling nonchalance about the killings:

Q The — our initial reaction to this flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful. What do you mean you regret when something should be so strongly condemned? And if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms. What is the sacrosanct, iron-clad relationship where a country that deliberately kills people and boycotts — and we aid and abet the boycott?

MR. GIBBS: Look, I think the initial reaction regretted the loss of life as we tried and still continue to try to gather the relevant –

Q Regret won’t bring them back.

MR. GIBBS: Nothing can bring them back, Helen. We know that for sure because I think if you could, that wouldn’t be up for debate. We are — we believe that a credible and transparent investigation has to look into the facts. And as I said earlier, we’re open to international participation in that investigation.

Q Why did you think of it so late?

MR. GIBBS: Why did we think of –

Q Why didn’t you initially condemn it?

MR. GIBBS: Again, I think the statements that were released speak directly to that.

who was that uppity reporter, you ask? the only muckraking bastard in the room asking the relevant question? well, let’s just say it was one 89-year-old whose crap robert gibbs doesn’t have to put up with any more.

and if you’ve managed to keep your lunch down through this entire post, congratulations — there may be a job open for you in the white house press corps.