Trained killer- the far outreaching hand of policy makers oceans away- now face to face with a young man just like me A man with no answers who only wanted to make the people who loved him proud Picked up a weapon for his nation but he couldn't pull the trigger quicker than me You give me no reason to spill his blood You give me no reason to kill another man You give me no reason to follow Give me a reason to follow, follow you You said we brothers, sons of liberty, would bring justice like light to the dark places in the world - slay tyranny but we found no monsters here only R.P.G.'s and cries for peace and I know what you said, but I don't believe that they don't believe the same thing! You said we have the light You said we are the proper side I say you send someone else to die

Animal rights are a problem; appetites at stake Creatures bred to be torturedl buzzsaws seal their fate Pigs get there throats slit, cows are milked 'til they bleed but I don't care where it comes from when it's on my plate ...and you know it's true! Human rights are a problem, for commerce's sake Ladies in Asia: twelve hours with no break They work for pennies, and pity to put leather on your feet but I don't care where it comes from when it matches my outfit sweet ...and you know it's true! Natural rights are a problem but never one today Unlimited growth vs. a limited resource, unlimited want vs. a limited discourse, and the means of procurement and production often function on a level of perversion and destruction, but I don't care where it comes from if it's fit for consumption ...and you know it's true! You better find some compassion; search your head or search your heart Tell you what you man: I don't care where it comes from, it's starting to become my problem! ...and you know it's true, but it don't change you! you know it's real, but it don't make you feel! One-thousand consequences can escape our minds One-thousand little deaths we cause, but we don't see it and we don't change and we don't change, we don't change what I gotta say to get through to you?

Profits and margins and markups and channels and dollar signs and bottom lines all hide the fact that the fat cat's fat on the blood, sweat, tears, fears of underpaid, under-fed men and women and children that make the labor force of distended nations that cower down before us! As we go, as they go down in the ground to be buried in thier work! As we go walking in line - go grab a cuppa joe, don't ya know - seek and ye shall find: As we go, as they go As we hold a candle for all the merchants and barons and slave owners before us as we go, as they go never look back, don't you look back! The rice rice fields, the diamond mines, the sugar plantations - all indications that NOTHING EVER CHANGES money talks - it always has put up or shut up As we go walking in line - on demand: rape the land, take the man after all this time, it's criminal As we go, as they go And we go, as they go, on the path of least resistance: Horizontal escalator; do as commanded To polite to call it bondage; signed, sealed, and branded The money goes, and it shows how it goes, and it knows that it shows as it goes that it's a killer! It's a killer! ...and this is the killing floor!

Sometimes you gotta do what's right by you, and sometimes I understand there's more important things out there than me, than you, than everyone and you can't help but fight for them Sometimes the world can be a hateful place, and it took you down; you were so young, it's just not fair What about what I wanted: for me, for you, for everyone? You broke our hearts and left us here! This is for them: hopelessly hero we don't understand even if we never see the world make their amends, oh well, this one's for them And I wish I could say the world is now a better place, and I wish I could say that you made a difference, but people are dying and children are crying to keep the flags flying and where are you now? And I'll say it now: I would'nt have had it any other way but, sometimes I miss you so bad I just wanna be dead If you had another chance, you'd throw it all away for this merciless world with cold hearts, cold hearts We can't be afraid to step out of line! So what what others think, what others think is what got us here! I know it feels like we're gunna stand up to get beat back down but, sometimes you gotta do what's right by you! Jordan Feder, say no more!

Soldier, || Step in line face front, || Not at ease state your name || Kill for fun and where you're from || Kill for God Killers || With no face are not machines || built in court when they believe || accountable in the cause || to no God Raised on guns and bombs and overkill, Armed Service seems to be the id's backdoor; the joke's not lost on me and oh! we ask. they tell. and oh! oh for shame! if we really believed, we wouldn't do the things we do in the Name Tell us || As world grows the word || your mind shrinks we found no || they've brought the word answers in law || to your door Tell us || manufactured the word || hysteria we believed || what you see in the façade || is not what is Tell us || it's a cancer the word || there's a cure tell us the name || build you up of your God || break you down Everybody's out to get to, everybody's out to get to you! We have minds but we believe the box the joke's not lost on me and oh! we ask. they tell. and oh! oh for shame! if we really believed, we wouldn't do the things we do in the Name What you see is not what is Beasts and boils || Invite killers locusts, frogs || into your home the river turns || cancer's free to blood || cure will cost pestilence, vermin || such short time hail and darkness || so much pain killing of || sense of humor the first born || all but lost Science grants build germs in labs for war! never thought to make a weapons-grade cure; the joke's not lost on me and oh! we ask. they tell. and oh! oh for shame! if we really believed, we wouldn't do the things we do in the Name

The lights go out; fuse box explodes pop the cork, a little too drunk to change modes The city blinked; it's new disowned spill out into the roads start fires, banging on trash cans -- ward off ambitions of men, and that wakes the children, dark and cold, so they put 'em in the clothes that they put on in the snow then the snow blankets all maybe we'll sleep again, sometime tomorrow but certainly not tonight Got the rooftops shaking and cellar doors are opening and emptying their stores but they don't mind; you get your bowl when your done with the shovel or patrol No sirens, no gunshots, no smoke out of control but the old folk got that look like they're waiting for the other shoe to drop and when it drops I hope you got your head It's no vacation, but I know you're pleased, cuz these strangers don't seem stranger than that thumped out junky kitchen beat Gotta say, I'm not so lucky Here the state was not caught unaware and I'm broken down, broken out Blood on mah hands, I couldn't so it again so I'm stolen out, broken out, but look it -- make a mah salt-shaker, try to shake out the blood you must be ten-thousand volts, mah electric killer queen bee All I got in mah pocket is the keys to rubble and mah lucky five, but that ain't for spending and a half-pint bottle snuck its way in there; I can't hold mah whisky, but I can hold yours and a picture with a note on the back from mah love "hope you're excited, I hope you're dancing, cuz my love knows who you are" don't cry, don't you cry don't cry mah lioness Mah broken hand, this dusty road and a feeling that I don't wanna be killing and it makes mah legs go but mah mind don't feel so sharp can't make sense of direction all the names are Indian, I don't know what they mean and if it don't got palm trees, brother got palm trees it looks like jersey to me Hope you're excited, I hope you're dancing cuz mah love knows who we are What will they they find recorded in the wreckage of our time when who we're not is who we are? Mah broken hand, a broken nose, a broken heart, some broken prose broken promises on this dusty road; this is who we are

The merchants are in the temples the flock is in desire I got this gadfly in my ear we're gunna set your wares on fire Tell us no more of what we've seen before; we've got it, set it, heard it, read it Got it, set it, set us to burn Art lost its erection; its subversion and the fire The teller's tale is up for sale, and tells us who's the buyer Tell us no more of what we've seen before; we've got it, set it, heard it, read it Got it, set it, set us to burn Set us to burn; the world is on fire false what you earn; softly said it, know we meant it -- no, you can't stop it now Now we serve a cancer of the imagination wild Your band name brand name bankable same-same I see dollar signs * * * Where is the fire? Burned all inside for a quick buck, or two, or one, two, three, for every soul a piece to be sold for every feeling wrenched from you gut, a dollar changes hands but moneychangers won't let me change my currency

Peace is a mirage in the desert of dust and bone our own contentment; heat vapors off a master plan and the lingering sense of revolution in no god's name! I can feel the cool of the water, but I gotta tell you brother: You can't win! All the pieces are scattered. Peace is a barrage of decadent advertising, pay-per-view content, very well controlled discontent And I don't want what you want me to want I know that you've got a place for people like that You can't win! All the pieces are scattered. The truth is found in the desert of America, buried under lies- and we fight for crumbs from the table! You can't win, no matter how you try. You can't win! All the pieces are scattered.

There is a master switch || It's killing you in the base of your skull || telling you what to do it is turned on || you think you can read by things in boxes || between the lines There is a master switch || you think you can watch in your bottom-most chakra || between the channels it is turned on || but believe me by things in boxes || the message is getting through It is spectacle hardly credible highly edible almost tastes medical and they count on you to sit, I said they count on it with both hands and feet, and as you watch, they watch you become the product -- most regrettable and we believe the box, I said we believe it with both ears and eyes, and we learn about ourselves at it's base: you are the product It is killing you telling you what to do What do I like? What do I buy? What do I feel? I do not know what I know past what I'm told. I don't what thoughts are my own, and I'm willing to admit it. ...and there are bags for the boxes.

When did I close the book for the last time? Prolly around the same time that I stopped meeting people and started meeting types of people, prolly around the same time that I saw you stray from the path and pretended not to notice You wanted to save the world, man I said I'd be your Judas* Our last conversation was another ring back on the pine, you wanted your soul back! Now we spend our time apart sharing life on the run A little song about life on the run These streets weren't built for no walkin' man I always thought that was illegal or sumthin' I think they're tryin' to tell me sumthin'! You know my toes are all froze! No hat; one glove; wet socks; no home but the swerving headlights of pickup trucks, and the fiery glances of their drunk drivers are enough to keep me warm... and the Lord knows that it's my white skin that's gunna get me through this town Give thanks for borrowed floors, known love behind close doors; I've kept my hands soft, but goddamn my feet are strong! Only this here guitar knows what I've got left What have I got left? Where's home when you got no heart? The open road, a good place to start to find out I want my soul back! Punk-house basements are unkempt places but a good place to warm your feet and let cocaine race through these collapsed veins God, I wanna feel this heart beat and I don't mind seeing you cry, just don't wanna hear your poetry and I won't die 'til my pen runs dry, no I won't! No! Remember are the lonely places? I know the feeling, but I cannot place the faces Oh! I long for the road! We're gunna run out west 'til we run outta west 'til we got no place, 'til we got no place to go 'til there's nowhere left to run life on the run only my guitar knows what I've got left for a soul! * from'The Last Temptation of Christ', not 'The Bible'

WAR! BORDERS! RACE! LANGUAGE! GOD! POLICY! DISEASE! CHANGE! ...gunna keep us apart! I know. WORK! MONEY! NEWS! SARCASM! FEAR! VIOLENCE! PASSION! SILENCE! ...gunna keep us apart! I know. You don't need to know the words to sing! You don't need to know hardships to know these are hard times! You don't need to know about these things, they only gunna keep us apart!