The State is a half-hour sketch-comedy television show, originally broadcast in the USA on MTV between December 17, 1993, and July 1, 1995. The show combined bizarre characters and scenarios to present sketches that won the favor of its target teenaged audience. The cast consisted of 11 twenty-something comedians who created, acted, wrote, directed and edited the show.
Several memorable characters were created for the show, and for a short time their catchphrases entered into the vernacular. Often, the cast would appear as themselves and address the audience to promote fake contests or to deliver mock public service announcements. Much like Monty Python, The State's sketches were sometimes linked to each other in some way: a punchline or image that ended one sketch often provided a lead-in to the next.
After years of legal issues related to the soundtrack to many of the episodes, the series was released on DVD on July 14, 2009. A State film featuring all of the original troupe members is in the works, but was delayed by the 2007-2008 screenwriters strike, and no release date for the project has been announced.
Llewellyn Harrison "Lew" Rockwell, Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman/CEO of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Rockwell was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1944. His father was a "Taft Republican", and Rockwell was exposed at a young age to military non-interventionism. He was introduced to the laissez faire thought of the French Liberal and Austrian schools of economics when he received Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson as a gift from a family friend on his twelfth birthday. Later in his youth, Rockwell describes feeling alienated from mainstream conservatism,
"Over time, I became aware that I was not only dissenting from the left but also from the conservative establishment, which was embroiled in the Cold War as a first principle. I grew increasingly skeptical of the official right, especially during the war on Vietnam.... I had been a reluctant Goldwaterite in 1964, but by 1968 I worked briefly for Gene McCarthy."
Henry Rollins (born 13 February 1961) is an American spoken word artist, writer, journalist, publisher, actor, comedian, radio DJ, activist and formerly singer-songwriter.
After performing for the short-lived Washington D.C.-based band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore punk band Black Flag from August 1981 until mid-1986. Following the band's breakup, Rollins established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, as well as forming the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups from 1987 until 2003, and during 2006.
Since Black Flag disbanded, Rollins has hosted numerous radio shows, such as Harmony in My Head on Indie 103, and television shows such as The Henry Rollins Show, MTV's 120 Minutes, and Jackass. He had a recurring dramatic role in the second season of Sons of Anarchy and has also had roles in several films. Rollins has also campaigned for various political causes in the United States, including promoting LGBT rights, World Hunger Relief, and an end to war in particular, and tours overseas with the United Service Organizations to entertain American troops.
You say you don't want it
Just watch and you'll flaunt it
You stare at the ceiling
And ignore what I'm feeling
Well that's fine, hey I don't mind
I can find nothing wrong with it
And you say in your polite way
Oh, by the way can you get on with it?
Now that I've seen
Not really diggin' this
Did I ask for your input?
How's the taste of your own foot?
To speak and not be right
You'd like to just rewrite
My life and take what you like
And decide with all of it
And to know that if it goes right
You'll never find out if I wanted it
Now that I've seen
Not really diggin' this
Now that I know
Not really diggin' this
I called him twice today
They said he went away
I never wondered why
They tried to hold him, hold him
Ain't never comin' back
Pull out the welcome mat
I never wondered why
They tried to hold him, hold him
The way that it's goin'
To laugh without knowin'
The way that I'm feelin'
Inside is unappealin'
Well that's fine, hey I don't mind
I can find nothing wrong with it
And you say in your polite way
Oh, by the way can you get on with it?
Now that I've seen
Not really diggin' this
Now that I know
Not really diggin' this
Diggin' this
i was free to live and love
and kill as i saw fit
i was at peace, there really was
no one i was at war with
the only common good
was that we understood
that laws unjust
were only good for breaking
that difference legalized instead of sameness
left nobody free
that was the day before
i married my conscience to the state
my taxes paid, these roads were laid
to places of my choosing
there were no eyes up in the skies
looking down into my bed
there was no government without our consent
keys were made for anyone who just claimed it
glass was all of every wall that framed it
from sea to shining sea
that was the day before
i married my conscience to the state
right and wrong were written on my heart
and not just in the laws that condemn me
now with caesar satisfied i can even do the things
In my darkest hour I breathe out the name and sigh
I'm for her to devour to rape with whips of shame... and I sigh
The state I ache to be in, the state I crave for
The bringer of the night
Reveals the blessing disguised with one touch
A shepherd for her blind, a light into these eyes... with one touch
The state I ache to be in, the state I crave for
So, can you see I believe by the blood that I seep
That it's worth all the hurt
And the tears that I desperately weep
Can you see I believe and no longer grieve
state oh state on my mirror,
state oh state is my little baby here.
here it's hard to suicide you all,
here it's free the state is all.
state state state on my mirror,
state state state is your little baby.
gray materials wearing all the state,
and white cathedrals built for your state.
i am the state, you are the state
those girls are brave and are praying for the state
i am the state, you are the state.
i am the staaa-aaa-aaate
I'm so glad we met when we were kids
And I'm so glad you never moved away
You can always stay
Never be away
Never be taken
I'm so glad we met the way we did
I'm also glad we never tried to be more than that
You can always stay
And you can always be
A better friend than me
Better friend than me
But if someday you'd like to change your place
I understand
I can't blame you if you want to leave the state
Your state
Well go
Just don't be a stranger
And I know you
You like to leave your place
But me up on the way
I'll be begging you to stay
If you leave your place
I shouldn't have stayed here
I shouldn't have stayed here
Yeah I shouldn't have stayed here
Oh, The State cut off my arms
and the state tore my eyes with her nails.
Hey, I was just put on this earth––a bad wind to trash the sails of all you evil men!
You should know somewhere in the night
There's a blue broken drum playing dead.
And that's... good to know!
Oh, The State tore out our hearts
and The State exposed our hearts
and wounded me, gave me this bad knee, tore down my baby's favorite tree...
But, oh!
You should know somewhere in the night
There's a blue broken drum playing dead.
And that's good to know!
Loose lips sink the lives of disgusting women,
so the State rolled me up into a ball.
I crushed diamonds in the fall and traded them for bread!
Turn away if you should hear me begin to sing!
I look like a fucking monster with this wing!
Craving new experiences, so what––
Oh but maybe you should know!
Somewhere in the night