broken golden rules

"we call homer a myth because he based actions on gods;
we look at al-qaeda like cretins because they kill for allah;
and we elect a president who invokes christ with a gun.
if hypocrisy is beliefs minus actions,
then there are some long hard miles of answering to do
and a ways to run on our hands back to zero.

at home we extol the vote but stick a long bloody nose in elections around the world
when things haven't gone our way.
here comes hamas, there goes the NED.
the lesson, as always, is who cares about putting our money where our mouths are
as long as our mouths are where the money is.

it's a dog and pony show facilitated by an information gap;
they're capitalizing on capitalism in a social climate dominated by trivial bullshit and celebrity gossip.

all of this leaves us in a place where a political sleight of hand,
manipulation of emotion created by some well-timed tears of a justice-to-be's wife,
a color-coded system of controlled fear, a hostage, a gas spike, or a dead teenager from iowa,
creates a smoke screen for human rights violations and moral atrocities.

and the absolute worst part is that if you happen to have the wherewithal to look past it,
the only thing you find is that every day, every minute, every second,
it's getting worse than the worst you've ever thought or screamed.

to tell you the truth, these days, liberty is a luxury;
i've lowered the bar on battle cries:
give me honesty or give me death."

- Dear Tonight