"The Children"

Rudyard Kipling

The Children 1914-1918

('The Honours of War' - A Diversity of Creatures)

"These were our children who died for our lands; they were dear in our sight.

We have only the memory left of their home-treasured sayings and laughter.

The price of our loss shall be paid to our hands, but not to another's hereafter.

Neither Alien nor Priest shall decide on it. That is our right. But who shall return us the children?

At the hour the barbarian chose to disclose his pretences,

And raged against Man, they engaged, on the breasts that they bared for us,

The first felon-stroke of the sword he had long-time prepared for us -

Their bodies were all our defence while we wrought our defences.

They brought us anew with their blood, forbearing to blame us.

Those hours which we had not made good when the judgement o'ercame us.

They believed us and perished for it. Our statecraft, our learning

Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning

Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour -

Not since her birth has our Earth seen such worth loosed upon her.

Nor was their agony brief, or once only imposed on them.

The wounded, the war-spent, the sick received no exemption:

Being cured, they returned and endured and achieved our redemption.

Hopeless themselves of relief, till death, marvelling, closed on them.

That flesh we had nursed from the first in all cleanness was given

To corruption unveiled and assailed by the malice of Heaven -

By the heart-shaking jests of Decay where it lolled on the wires -

To be blanched or gay-painted by fumes - to be cindered by fires -

To be senselessly tossed and re-tossed in stale mutilation

From crater to crater.

For this we shall take expiation. But who shall return us our children?"

Obama thinks most of us are wrong (sigh)

quoted from "Obama Goes Nuclear," by Philip Klein in The American Spectator:

"...When CBS asked Americans in April 2001, “Do you favor or oppose George W. Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut for the country over the next 10 years?" supporters outnumbered opponents by a 51 percent to 37 percent margin. In June 2003, a Gallup poll found Americans supported the second round of cuts by a 47 percent to 43 percent plurality, while Harris found that 50 percent thought the tax cut was a “good thing” compared to 35 percent who said “bad thing.”

Yet polls show a majority of Americans oppose the health care bill and a CNN poll released last week found that just 25 percent of Americans want Congress to pass something similar to the two existing bills. A Gallup survey taken last week found that Americans oppose using the reconciliation procedure to pass a health care bill by a 52 percent to 39 percent margin. There has been a sustained national outcry against this legislation that first manifested itself in town hall meetings last August and culminated with the election of Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts in January.

Yet Obama, whose entire candidacy was built around the idea that change must begin from the bottom up, is now pursuing a top down strategy.

“It is a complicated issue,” Obama said of health care on Wednesday, continuing, “it easily lends itself to demagoguery and political gamesmanship, and misrepresentation and misunderstanding.” And he observed that “The American people want to know if it's still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future.”

Evidently, according to Obama, Americans only oppose his favored proposals because they aren’t smart enough to understand them, and are incapable of looking out for their own interests and future."

__________________________________________________

The Rasmussen polls, which predicted Barack Obama's 2008 presidential win, show a strong majority of likely voters oppose the proposed health care plan - 52% oppose it, and 43% strongly oppose it - almost as many as the 44% of likely voters who favor the plan.

Why don't I like this plan? To quote Cecil Day-Lewis, I'm defending the bad against the worse.

Based on my experience working with Louisiana's state-owned health care system, I can say that the opportunities for rampant corruption are vast in any governmentally-controlled health care system, where politics, bribery, favoritism and not bottom-line cost-benefit analysis drive every fiscal decision.

And the Party of the late John Murtha will be making every one of those decisions. The earmarks on any health care appropriation bill (which I freely admit are a bipartisan issue) alone would probably dwarf the cost of the Golden Parachutes under which health-care executives bail out of their careers.

Any claims that government control of the entire health care economy will result in efficiencies are farcical, based on Louisiana's experience. It took Bobby Jindal to sort that rat's nest out, and I haven't heard Barack Obama reaching out for Bobby Jindal to run the national health care system. We're not likely to, either.

Busting the AMA's Union Rules: A partial solution to health care costs?

As a pre-med who couldn't jump through the hoops necessary to get the 3.8 or so grade average minimally necessary for admission to medical school, I firmly believe that the British system (in which a Bachelor of Medicine, four-year college graduate can perform most primary care treatment tasks) bears looking at.

You don't need four years undergrad schooling, four years medical school, a two year internship and a residency that can last several years to diagnose upper respiratory congestion and work down a differential diagnostic tree. One of the reasons National Health Service works in the UK is that the cost of educating and hiring physicians is much lower. There are MDs there, most of whom specialize in non-primary care.

I think that a little re-thinking and marketing is in order. Import the British Commonwealth's Bachelor of Medicine degree program, or adapt current nurse practitioner and physician assistant programs so that they are equivalent to the British basic physician level of competency (and for all I know, they may be already - the only English physician I ever consulted took three weeks to clear up an oropharyngeal infection that an American practitioner could have cleared up with a ten-day course of Keflex).

It's time to break up the AMA's union rules. They are part of the impasse we face. If becoming a practicing physician only took four to eight years and didn't require unrealistically high grades in a four-year undergrad program before medical training even began, medical care WOULD be less expensive. Certainly, if or when "health care reform" goes through, the flood of uninsured patients into the existing primary care physician pool will swamp available physician resources. We need more primary care practitioners.

And that is something I think that conservatives, liberals, libertarians and Tea Partiers could ALL get behind.

The Sons of Martha

Editor's introduction to The Sons of Martha by Rudyard Kipling



There is more than one kind of aristocracy.

Luke tells us the story: Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, were
entertaining Jesus and his disciples. Martha rushed about the kitchen
and household, seeing to the cooking, bringing wash basins, changing
towels, and doing the other things needful when one's home has been
unexpectedly invaded by a celebrity and his entourage.

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain
village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

"And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet, and
heard his word.

"But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said,
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid
her therefore that she help me.

"And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou are careful
and troubled about many things:

"But one thing is needful: Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall
not be taken away from her."

(Luke 10:38-42)



Much has happened since then; but Rudyard Kipling tells us, we sons of
Martha have yet to pay the final reckoning.

Imperial Stars Vol. I: The Stars at War, Jerry Pournelle, ed. p. 227







The Sons of Martha

Rudyard Kipling 1907

The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited
that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the
careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she
was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without
end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and
cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that
the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care
to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by
land and main.

They say to mountains, "Be ye removed." They say to
the lesser floods, "Be dry."
Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not
afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the
bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly
sleeping and unaware.
They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece
and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry
behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into
his terrible stall,
And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn
him till evenfall.
To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till
death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden - under the
earthline their altars are-
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to
restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again
at a city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a
little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop
their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark
and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's
day may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path
more fair or flat -
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha
spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness
to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their
common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they
know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for
them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word - they see
how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the
Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!

We've had enough government by the Sons of Mary, who expect someone else to clean up the messes they make in Congress.

We need to find Sons (and Daughters) of Martha, who know what it means to serve without glory or fame, and who are dedicated to fixing what's broke.

It would be nice if we could get 60 of them elected to the House this November....

Just sayin'