As Rich Tafel, the former president of the gay Log Cabin Republicans, pointed out to me last week, what Iowa giveth to the Democrats, Iowa taketh away from his own party.
WHAT profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
The first is an allusion to the "Lost Generation," a term coined by Gertrude Stein referring to the post-war generation; the other epigraph is a long quotation from Ecclesiastes: "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
From the first song, "I Taketh Away," Mulcahy's dense, enigmatic lyrics jut out of his energetic, jangly arrangements like a series of punches: "You couldn't tell them anything / They lived hard and they died hard / On all fours for everything / They kissed the ass that was presented".
As he investigates suspicious deaths in the underworld and dodges internal affairs, Harry begins to suspect that his armlet possesses uncanny powers that giveth but also taketh away, while dark forces seek to reclaim it.
Murphy giveth, Murphy taketh away.
The Lord giveth and He taketh away.
But as Congress giveth, Congress also taketh.
