BILL MAHER IS AMERICA'S GREATEST STATIRIST TODAY

Tom Paine and Mark Twain were the most popular satirists of their times. In the modern world comedian Bill Maher outranks all other satirists of his time, often even sardonic in his cynicism. Dear Ones, Mark Twain, also through humor, chided Americans for their obsession with gun slaughter as so many cheer when aggression is waged. Again, my husband and I were in a restaurant when the first Gulf War was announced. At the bar the young men who had never witnessed bloody combatant cheered and whistled as though war was a rip-roaring football game, with the worst physical scenario being tackled by an opponent. Sadly some of their buddies died in a bomb attack during the 14th Quartermaster attack when a team from Greensburg,PA were purifying water in Iraq. Bill Maher, from the beginning of the 2003 Bush administration invasion, attack and occupation of a nation that never waged war against the United States,has been critical of this illegal war for good reason. Mark Twain in his time wrote profound word regarding brutal, futile war. His famous War Prayer is worth repeating: "O Lord our Father,as our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth in battle–be Thou near them! With them!, in spirit, as we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unbefriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it–for our sakes who adore Thee. Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever faithful refuge and friend of all that. . . seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. Mame helenesmith1.blog spot.com Born during the second term of FDR's presidency and subliminal influence