AWAPE from Paris—Obama Uncloaked

AWAPE from Paris—Obama Uncloaked

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,

Some pious drops the closing eye requires;

Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,

Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires.

~~Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

 

Absent Without Any Plausible Explanation (AWAPE) is the condign label for Pres. Obama’s not joining the Solidarity March in Paris last Sunday.  However, for any astute observer the message is outrageously clear: in the war against the soldiers of Mohammed, Pres. Obama is on the side of the Muslim Brotherhood, and against the Judeo-Christian cultural traditions of Western Civilization.

So much airwave chatter had delved into the political implications of Pres. Obama’s all too visible absence from the Sunday Solidarity Rally in Paris.  No talking head has even tangentially touched a semblance of relevance, with the notable exception of Lt. Col. Ralph Peters who does not have the habit of pulling any punches.  The Obama Regime’s grotesque non-representation in the event was painfully consistent with the ideology that underpins the Regime’s paradigm for governance.  {See, e.g., pp. 210 ff, Flirting with Misadventures, etc.}

It would have been a relief of ambrosial proportions if the omission were merely due to the bungling incompetence on the part of the Secret Service who allegedly could not come up with adequate security measures for the Presidential trip in such a short, thirty-six hour notice.  The more plausible explanation would be that the President opted to showcase his version of American Exceptionalism by emphasizing that the Obama Regime is not in the business of honoring victims of Islamic terrorism.

On the contrary, as he emphasized before the U.N. General Assembly on 25-Sep-2012, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam [original emphasis].”  Ergo, the publication that made journalism out of caricaturing the features and practices of Islamic traditional orthodoxy deserve no future on the planet.  They should be done away with post haste, and with extreme prejudice.  The Obama Regime is therefore organically incapable of expressing solidarity with the victims of Islamic terrorism by the sheer inertia of its undergirding ideology.

Pres. Obama is the quintessential “Wretched of the Earth” of Franz Fanon fame or notoriety, depending on which side of the ideological divide you examine the evidence.  That the American electorate sent him to the Oval Office twice should rank as one of the most grievous tragedies in the short history of the Republic ranking worse than the Civil War.

The predicament is the worst in history because for the first time we are forced into a war, whereby the Commander-in-Chief is unwilling to engage, let alone being committed to defeat the enemy.  Moreover, it can be shown conclusively that he is more invested in weaving a tangled web of deception designed to obfuscate the issues, appease the enemy, and overwhelm the citizenry with legerdemain of the subtlest genre.

As I emphasized earlier elsewhere {see,e.g., pp. 234 ff}:

Voting present on anything is a most appropriate euphemism for the subterfuge of opting to do nothing of consequence that can possibly influence the unfolding of events. Or more precisely, it is Obama speak for obfuscating the landscape to make it appear to a credulous public that the regime is doing something worthwhile and consequential. The approach works brilliantly under two conditions, namely, 1) when you don’t know what to do or what you are doing to change the situation, or 2) when the unfolding of events is trending towards your desired outcome, thus it serves well to let it ride.

President Obama has long established his bona fides as an ideologue.  It was his malignant ideology which compelled him to stay away from the Solidarity Rally.  In football parlance which is a most appropriate metaphor for the Obama Regime’s obsession with “leading from behind,” the President is deploying his no-huddle quick-snap offense playbook.  Again, revisiting the Flirting book {pp.209 ff}:

The danger is mortally grievous because the ideologue has the drive of a jihadist, especially if an annoying obstacle blocks his way, such as the patriotic resolve of the overwhelming majority of the populace. Then the operative battle cry becomes "Allahu Akbar " or some secularist variant thereof but doubtless as devastating if not more so. On perception of adversity, an ideologue is akin to a wounded beast, sensing its mortality, insisting on survival. The blinders of ideological delirium and retrenchment instincts are a lethal combination.

The longer this egregious usurpation of customary decency is beset upon the nation the more toilsome would the recovery and rehabilitation process be.  Ergo the sooner we can restrain this President from running roughshod over everything decent that this country stands for, the better the prospects would be for the country’s well-being.

The Obama Regime’s legerdemain is as to America what to Humpty Dumpty was the wall off which Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.  Lest we forget:

All the King's horses, And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again!

We definitely need more than a knight in shining armor to accomplish the rescue.  We need the visionary acumen of a nation builder at par with those of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.  Maybe even just the shining city on the hill imagery invoked by Ronald Reagan would suffice.  As I earlier admonished in a somewhat different context:

With debtors' need false leaders agonize,
For credits, they may make your people bleed;
Bleeding, you may yet seek to galvanize
To life true leaders of a bolder breed:
By visionary men are nations built
Thy lack of vision is this nation's guilt!!

Failing the appearance of a visionary nation builder, America shall be destined to languish in political Purgatory, sharing the profound rhetorical questions of Thomas Gray:

Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Icons on the One-Thousand-Piso Philippine Currency

Yesterday, 30-Dec-2014, the occasion of my 24^th Wedding Anniversary which we did not celebrate with festivities, I inadvertently had the following exchange on Facebook with one I have come to consider as among, if not the best of my virtual friends in that venue:

Constancio Sulapas Asumen Jr Pardon my ignorance, but whose faces are these featured on the 1000-Piso bill? 

Ten Mac Airolg Jose Abad Santos, Vicente Lim, Josefa Llanes Escoda. 

Constancio Sulapas Asumen Jr  Thank you Nette for the info on the 1000-Piso Bill. I confess I only know off hand about Abad Santos. I had to research on the other two to learn they were WW2 hero and heroine.. The ignorance is a disgrace because I got exempt from Phil History finals in MSU Marawi.  Maybe those pictures were there long time ago but I have not seen an actual 1000-Piso bill, ever.

Having been exempted from Philippine History finals was noteworthy, no matter that it might be deemed a very trivial event.  It was the first instance that my bona fides as an independent thinker was established and publicly acknowledged by a figure of authority. 

It was explained in class by Prof. Delor delos Angeles who was teaching it.  I merited the exemption for having coherently and persuasively argued that when Lapu-Lapu vanquished Magellan’s landing party in Mactan he was not defending the Philippines, the country, but only Mactan Island, the local realm of Lapu-Lapu’s.

Around that time, circa 1962~63, in a surge of vainglorious emotional nationalism, there was a movement afoot to change the name of the country from Philippines to something else.  One of the candidates for a prospective new name was Lapu-Lapu.  The history class sessions allotted an entire week to debate and resolve the merits of the movement.

I spent the duration of the debates arguing consistently and passionately that giving the country a new name was very superficial to have any vital impact on the travails of the country.  I was flabbergasted that nobody seemed to have grasp the point that accidents of history cannot just be reversed by a change of name.  Moreover, before the Spaniards colonized the islands, we had nothing but an archipelago of warring island tribes defined by accidents of geography.

Particularly, Lapu-Lapu being thrown into the mix of possible new names was a major source of my intellectual umbrage.  To begin with, the term happened to be the name of a coral dwelling grouper fish.  It is one of more popular gastronomical fares served on festive occasions.  It added an element of the ridiculous into the debate.

I was to learn later that what really earned the admiration and approval of Prof. delos Angeles was my repeated emphasis that Lapu-Lapu did not do anything different from what my grandfather would have done.  Namely, if a group of strange looking people came to my grandfather’s front yard demanding he knelt before them for any reason, whatever, Grandpa Asumen would have not spared any weapon in his arsenal to dispatch the audacious strangers with extreme prejudice.

Ergo, Lapu-Lapu’s dispatch of Magellan’s landing party earned national significance only by virtue of Spain’s colonization of the Islands into a national entity.

Yuletide 2014 Greetings Package

Seasons Greetings

[In Lieu of a Greetings Card*]

Often the truth we sadly miss
As we see only what we know.
Nor each occasion could reveal
The gravity of what we feel,
On things we dare and dare not do.
Yet, though in vain, let me express
One simple thought, one sincere wish:
That may with love and peaceful bliss
Replete you find the Holidays!

And may the seasons thereafter
Be seasoned with mirth and laughter.
The rare occasioned somber sky
May not but serve to amplify
The happiness of days gone by,
And glories of unyielding prime,
And promises of days that lie
Uncharted in the blue abyss
And daunting vagaries of Time!

May each grief find sweet redress;
Alien to fears, much less to tears,
May triumphs and exploits increase
All through the fast succeeding years!

Merry Christmas and the New Year's Best To You!!

==<+>==

Author Notes

*This is easily my favorite of all the poems I have written  I have recycled it every year since I had it.

© Constancio S Asumen Jr. All rights reserved

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/11423167-Seasons-Greetings-by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.jAZHPMwK.dpuf

Our Joyous Hour*

(1)
Joyful is the occasion
We find near our side of glory
Where regales our attention
Lucent countenance of vision
Bless this home, for whose patron
We gladly croon our dedication
Timeless song of devotion
For all Christmases’ full celebration!

(2)
Happy New Year, brings new joys of living
Deign harmonize with our love for giving
Sing loud praises for boundless,
Timeless dish of happiness!

[Repeat (1)]
Timeless song of devotion
For all Christmases’ full celebration!
[End]
==|==

Author Notes

*This is, arguably the most popular of Filipino Christmas Carol melodies.  It has lyrics in every major regional dialects in the country.  The Bisayan lyrics on which this rendition is based were audio-transcribed from the attached three video clips as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmU4lwzKE2E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdgSXAxJi54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyXjjTCJtkI

© Constancio S Asumen Jr. All rights reserved,

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/11814834-Our-Joyous-Hour--by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.hsB5Y4Fh.dpuf 

Alas, It’s Christmas*

[Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit]
(1)
Alas, Christmas is nearing
Let us sing our song of cheering
With rich melody driving
Votive tune of Divine loving.

(2)
When Christ was born our Savior
Three wise kings paid Him royal homage
Each of them bearing treasure
Unique vestige of each one’s vassalage.

(3)
Let the New Year bring new mode of living
With the whole country helping when giving
Let’s all persevere until we attain
Vaunted bounty, soundly maintain.

(4)
Let us join in joyful singing
While the world listens in silence
The day is fast approaching
When this heaven sent Child Savior reigns

(5)
Let’s all love one another
The Golden Rule practice as gospel
And from this day prepare
That goodwill, beyond Christmas shall still prevail!

[Instrumental (5), Repeat (1) thru (5)]
[End]
==|==

Author Notes

*Anglecized rendition of “Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit” based on the Mabuhay Singers’ version of the Tagalog lyrics posted on the webpage which accompanied this video clip ~> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ6BWKvm8RE; sung in tune with the melody herein.

© Constancio S Asumen Jr. All rights reserved,

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/11817880-Alas--It-s-Christmas--by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.WGt2JFuD.dpuf

Soul Kerfuffle Carol*

(Coda)
Prime fortune yields Yuletide
Fateful decision season to abide!!!
(1)
Is it just by force of habit
That we become an acolyte
Or by profound deliberation
We claim to own our devotion
Be it rapture or delirium
We secure some equilibrium
Affording solace to the soul
Chore to settle the kerfuffle
(2)
No matter how trite the process
Or how fraught with wit and prowess
We use up much contemplation
To sort and patch our emotion
Faith in doubt, practice as gospel
Validates the power of free will
Whose seeds were planted with the soul
When first sown in life’s crucible.
(3)
The years shall turn in every calendar
Each turn we reckon just how far our star
Has kept its sojourn in locus well known
Else drastic correction we need make now not soon!!!

[Repeat (2), (3) & (coda)]
==|==

==<+>==

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/poem/11819061-Soul-Kerfuffle-Carol--by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.KEaegwOs.dpuf

Author Notes

*After translating both Tagalog and Bisaya versions of the Classic Filipino Christmas Carol, there is only one thing that remains ~> to mint some lyrics in original English.  So here it is.  Except for the Coda, sung to the same melody as contained in the playlist associated with the predecessor lyrics, “Our Joyous Hour” and “Alas, It’s Christmas.”  As for the Coda, I’ll think of a tune somehow before the year is over.  The beauty about a coda is it can be rendered as a recitative in the tradition of classical Opera.  So I don’t really have to invent a tune for it.   But if somebody out there can, in the spirit of the Season, volunteer a tune for it, I’d be most gratefully obliged. ~> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdgSXAxJi54&index=4&list=PLjC-YRc2AjQBRxeS-CtLE4pf2FaKmfcjd

© Constancio S Asumen Jr. All rights reserved,

Original English Lyrics Catalogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Jpx8HhoBk&list=PLjC-YRc2AjQCGxQ2L01kwG2HB17kRunpl

Below is a catalog of Original English Lyrics compositions as posted in the AllPoetry.com venue in reverse chronological order of opus completion and posting thereabouts.  They are listed in the order played in the attached YouTube playlist above.

I am calling on all adventurous souls to take every one of them [English version of course] for test drive and send me feedback as to how the locutions handle the melody curves ~>  Mighty bumpy or relatively smooth ride?  Don’t pull any punches.  I can take any criticism, good, bad, indifferent or otherwise.

(01)   http://allpoetry.com/poem/11706366-Dawn-Dreaming--by-Ace-Lilacs [Madaling Araw]

(02)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11701912-Prevail-Beholden--by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.R1I7mNAC.dpuf [Silayan]

(03)     http://allpoetry.com/poem/11696121-Soon-You-Return--by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.PF8kkBf8.dpuf [Babalik Ka Rin]

(04)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11690026-Soulful-Serenade-Medley--by-Ace-Lilacs#sthash.7dpP45Wa.dpuf [Contrite Entreaty, You Alone, Pardon In Oblivion, Maroon In Scorn]

(05)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11671289-Seashore-Splendor--by-Ace-Lilacs [Daplin Sa Baybayon]

(06)     http://allpoetry.com/poem/11668805-Salient-Surrender--by-Ace-Lilacs [Matam-is Ang Magpa-ubos]

(07)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11667625-Rumor-Rancour--by-Ace-Lilacs [Matud Nila]

(08)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11664488-Vanquished-Vitality--by-Ace-Lilacs [Patay’ng Buhi]

(09)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11656077-The-Roses-Metaphor--by-Ace-Lilacs [Rosas Pandan]

(10)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11646080-Affectionate--by-Ace-Lilacs [Karinyosa]

(11)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11632098-Lighted-Lamps-Fandango--by-Ace-Lilacs[Pandango Sa Ilaw]

(12)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11615100-Rustic-Rhapsody--by-Ace-Lilacs [Tugtugin’ng Bukid]

(13)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11592634-Songbird-Serenade--Dalawidaw---by-Ace-Lilacs [Dalawidaw]

(14)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11588545-My-Native-Land--Bayan-Ko----by-Ace-Lilacs[Bayan Ko]

(15)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11583046-Rapture-Measure--by-Ace-Lilacs [Dangaw-dangaw]

This is intended to be a work in progress.  So the list may hopefully grow as more titles come out of the crucible of lyrics mongering. 

Here’s to thank you very kindly for indulging an aging old man’s whimsy.  Just one clip per donor, please.  Just for the record, so far not a single soul has bothered with any of it.

Asumen Regimen for Cardinal Sin

Asumen Regimen for Cardinal Sin

This is the historically well-documented “Asumen Regimen for the Condign Treatment of Cardinal Sin,” conceived by my grandfather, a first generation Asumen and refined to perfection by my father.  Below are the essential elements of the treatment:

(1)        Hang the subject by the toenails over a vat of freshly sliced Korean scallions spiked with the freshly squeezed juice of the acrid acerbic wild purplish philodendron;

(2)        The hanging should be suspended to the rafters of a closed woven bamboo alcove covering a half-tunnel dug off of a hillside;

(3)        The open end of the half-tunnel should be upstream of the prevailing wind;

(4)        At the mouth of the tunnel should be maintained a slow-burning bonfire fueled with rain-soaked coconut husks ensuring that it emits a smoke as thick as molasses.

(5)        The proceedings continue until the subject admits to the trespass and renounces the error of deed’s ways.

Any dispute respecting accuracy of the details stipulated herein should be forthrightly brought to the attention of the author, preferably as a blog-spot comment hereabouts.  They all shall be welcome with gratitude.

Beheading Qualifiers

XCIX 
Ah, Love! could you and I with Him conspire 
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, 
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then 
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

~~Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat

http://classics.mit.edu/Khayyam/rubaiyat.html

Attaching adjectival qualifiers to report the practice of beheading only serves to anesthetize the sensibilities of the national polity.  It blunts the malignant dimension of the phenomenon to make it a more acceptable datum in the continuum of societal consciousness.

If history were honest enough to chronicle the events objectively, it should record that it was during Pres. Obama’s watch that the public beheadings of Americans as a propaganda tool for her enemies gained ubiquitous currency in both the national and international landscapes.  

So inglorious a legacy for a President obsessed with the fundamental transformation of America is worse than an ironically tragic wages for the Apology Tour concluded before his first Inauguration.  It is one of the hallmarks of the vaingloriously celebrated Obama Transformation of the nation.  It is an eloquent testimony that the more his ideological agenda succeeds, the worse he degrades the office of the Presidency.

To make matters worse, journalism as the primary protector and custodian of information in any civilization has conspired to abnegate, in toto, on that responsibility.  All of punditocracy print (hard and soft copies) and airwaves (TV and radio) appear to have been beset by the compulsion to qualify the beheading ritual variously as “ghastly, barbaric, gruesome, horrific, etc.”

It makes this question most urgently compelling: is there ever a compassionate or charitable kind of beheading?  I submit, contend and maintain that in our day and age there is not and there never will be. 

The only appropriate family of adjectival qualifiers that should apply to beheading are those associated with Islamic tenet, i.e., Islamist, jihadist, terroristic, etc.  Couched in poetic parlance, many centuries earlier the Persian verse virtuoso immortalized the practice in the following quatrain:

LX 
The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord 
That all the misbelieving and black Horde 
Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul 
Scatters before him with his whirlwind Sword.

~~Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat

http://classics.mit.edu/Khayyam/rubaiyat.html

My Birthday Gift Wish List

Given that nobody asked me what I wanted for a Birthday Gift, here’s my wish list.  May nobody find it too onerous and exorbitantly overbearing.

I would ask anybody who wishes me well today to send me a YouTube clip of you, the well-wisher, singing any of the following songs whose lyrics I recently minted (using my rendition, of course).  Limit to one clip only per donor, please.  Or I might start charging royalties:J

(1)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11671289-Seashore-Splendor--by-Ace-Lilacs [Daplin Sa Baybayon]

(2)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11668805-Salient-Surrender--by-Ace-Lilacs [Matam-is Ang Magpa-ubos]

(3)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11667625-Rumor-Rancour--by-Ace-Lilacs [Matud Nila]

(4)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11664488-Vanquished-Vitality--by-Ace-Lilacs [Patay’ng Buhi]

(5)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11656077-The-Roses-Metaphor--by-Ace-Lilacs [Rosas Pandan]

(6)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11646080-Affectionate--by-Ace-Lilacs [Karinyosa]

(7)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11632098-Lighted-Lamps-Fandango--by-Ace-Lilacs [Pandango Sa Ilaw]

(8)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11615100-Rustic-Rhapsody--by-Ace-Lilacs [Tugtugin’ng Bukid]

(9)        http://allpoetry.com/poem/11592634-Songbird-Serenade--Dalawidaw---by-Ace-Lilacs [Dalawidaw]

(10)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11588545-My-Native-Land--Bayan-Ko----by-Ace-Lilacs [Bayan Ko]

(11)    http://allpoetry.com/poem/11583046-Rapture-Measure--by-Ace-Lilacs [Dangaw-dangaw]

Here’s to thank you very kindly for indulging an aging old man’s whimsy.   Just one clip per donor, please.  Just for the record, so far not a single soul has bothered with any of it.J