In Honour Of The Murrican Elekshun

      From those of us with the feeling like our father or our dog just died:

Everybody Knows

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows it’s coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

--- from the album I'm Your Man (1988)

Leonard Cohen: singer, songwriter, poet, sometime-novelist, cavorter, aphorist, and now, it seems, prophet. America, or that mad majority of you, you took reason and tolerance and slapped them like the little bitches that they are. You must be proud. My sympathies to those of you that didn't. But it seems the theocrats now more worried about dykes and nancy-boys gettin' hitched than about matters more national and global have won. Gawd help us all. America has just taken a big step towards becoming the new Iran.

      As for me? Canada, you're a goofy, awkward, shy, often silly oaf of a country, but you have your heart in the right place, and you know what you're really about. (Or aboot.) You have no idea how beautiful you really are.

      ADDENDUM: Pause for hope (against hope) that things aren't going to be as bad as they now seem.