The "machine" is the guitar, and the message is that the music will overcome the evil. It's not a particularly bad message, however in the hands of the performer last night it was a bit presumptuous.
Say what you will about Woodie, but at least he backed up his claim with passionate action for his (wrong) point of view.
Loved the show, glad you guys were there, you could tell Ann was glad to have the cheers, it strengthened her. You probably shocked those who were ready to boo, which was also good -- a lot of times a small "booing" contingent gives the audience the idea that it's OK to be uncivil.
I've always liked George Carlin, and I liked him tonight. Of course, my most extensive esposure wasn't with his comedy, but when he did a stint on Thomas the Tank Engine, which I watched incessantly with my children.
I know he prepared his quip about "moving to the right", but it was a funny and civil way for him to make his point.
When Ann's book first hit, I was critical of her comments about the Jersey Girls. But I've come around -- she managed to draw the fire, get them out, and make her point through the controversy.
It didn't hurt when Zarqawi got killed and Berg's dad came out to talk about how bad it was that our government killed the man who beheaded his child -- because he was the perfect example of what she was talking about, and in that moment everybody saw clearly.
Last year I got the most hate mail I ever got for a column, when I contrasted Cindy Sheehan's statements about the president from right after her meeting with him, and a year later, and said one of the two was a lie. One woman said someone should push me under a bus for attacking a woman who lost her son.
Would the woman who wrote that letter then praise your own mother as "a woman who lost her son"?