Hey I thought we had the ACLU on retainer, WTF are they doing supporting religious freedom? Oh thats right there is no EAC (thats what we tell the public) and the ACLU defends civil liberties, they protect the rights of the people who still think the ACLU is a subversive group. Oh well.
Ok so this is a nothing little case about a woman fired from the library because she didn't want to work a Harry Potter release party or some such shit. I only link to it to point out the stupidity of folks who hate the ACLU despite not knowing what they stand for. Thats all.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Church Insulted By Zombies
Yeah theres only one zombie we revere around here buddy! I'm not your buddy friend! I'm not your friend guy! Jesus loves you, and your brains!
Friday, May 23, 2008
I love this country
Because of things like this, disgraced politician? Smells like a publicity stunt/joke to me!
Have a nice Memorial Day!
Have a nice Memorial Day!
Holy Crazy Wingnut Batman
Poor wingnuts, they were just a nut that thought they would help people out by having two big flat surfaces so they could be tightened (or loosened) by hand, save people from needing a wrench, and now the crazies have gone and tarnished their good names. Poor poor wingnuts.
If you want to read one hell of a good (by which I mean terrible) rant by a crazy christian then I highly recommend you take a ride on the intertubes over to P to the aryngula and have a read.
If you want to read one hell of a good (by which I mean terrible) rant by a crazy christian then I highly recommend you take a ride on the intertubes over to P to the aryngula and have a read.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A lil bit of Rude love
A post on racism and politics in America, as only the Rude Pundit can. But be warned it drops the N-bomb more times than a hip-hop album. The Rude Pundit: N****** Haters for Clinton. Yup pretty much says it all.
Domestic Terrorism
Another case of the FBI infiltrating a civilian organization in order to spy on possible domestic terrorists, they're watching out for the Skinheads, Neo-Nazi's, the KKK, Abortion clinic bombers, Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists like McVeigh or Eric Rudolph.... wait what? Oh no it seems they've set there sights on the real dangers, Vegans. Yeah you know how violent those people are, I mean hell they won't even kill an animal to eat, shit they won't even drink milk from a cow cause its mean. I know they keep me up at night, they'll make me eat tofu NOOOO!!!!!!!! Ok there was a time when the left-wingers were a threat the Weathermen, and various groups that include the term Liberation. Anytime someone mentions Liberation you should be worried, just ask an Iraqi. Unfortunately for the FBI most of these groups haven't been active since the mid 70's. To there credit they are trying to ensure safety for the GOP Convention, most likely the right wing isn't going to attack there, so my question is are they doing similar measures around Denver infiltrating right-wing groups?
Of course the big concern here isn't the possible one-sidedness of these investigations, its the fact that the FBI is spying on law abiding citizens. 1984 anybody? Oh right no one expects their rights to be respected anymore.
This could and should have been far angrier, but I'm just not feelin' it today.
Of course the big concern here isn't the possible one-sidedness of these investigations, its the fact that the FBI is spying on law abiding citizens. 1984 anybody? Oh right no one expects their rights to be respected anymore.
This could and should have been far angrier, but I'm just not feelin' it today.
Fuckin' Classy
Ok I'm a huge fan of freedom of speech, but damn people have a little decency, plus freedom is irrelevant in this case because its China. So what happened? Well a magazine was recently closed in China because it "seriously violated propaganda discipline and went against social morals" and the report constituted an "extremely evil social influence." Ok first off I'm glad I don't live in a country where I can get in trouble for violating propaganda discipline, although Bill O'Reilly will shut off your mic for that. So what was the extremely evil social influence? They took photo's of scantily clad models on top of the rubble from the earthquake..... yeah ok thats pretty twisted. I'm not sure how I would respond to this if I was a person in power and this was done in the US, then again in the US I could picture Larry Flint shooting porn on ruble after a natural disaster, but parlay people's disgust by then donating the profits to the victims. Eh, maybe not. But generally we're ok with having a twisted mind so long as your heart is in the right place, or if you fake it well.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Appeasement
It's a words thats being thrown around a bit lately, generally in a negative connotation, and understandably so. Giving in to a despot is generally a bad idea, but there's a huge difference between appeasement and diplomacy. Obama has said that he would like to talk to the leaders of Iran and other countries with whom we have rocky relations, no shit. Obviously the first step in foreign relations is to talk to people, why does this piss people off so much? I assume people saw the Chris Mathews video from Hardball where he made a complete ass of some complete ass from the GOP, if not go here. All of us on the left are loving that video, even though we generally aren't very big fans of Chris, but when someone decides they aren't going to allow talking points to go unchallenged then we're going to cheer. Seriously we need more of this, when someone make a historical reference, we should make sure they know what they are talking about. So thank you, on that day Chris you acted like a journalist, congrats, now keep it up.
Now that we've talked a little about appeasement, how about some more on the subject from Pandagon. They also have a big of a laugh about the possible re-making of the right-wing cult classic "Red Dawn." First off I gotta say I used to love that flick. I haven't seen it since I was a kid (which might explain a lot) but I just loved the idea of a band of kids fighting of one of the worlds most powerful armies, how could they do that? Guerrilla warfare, terrorism, whatever it took. Then again if you wanted to re-make it in a believable context then instead of mid-western kids they would probably be Iraqi kids blowing up American soldiers, and somehow I doubt that would go over well. If they still want it to be American kids defending our country from foreign invaders then I'm not sure who the enemy would be, China maybe?? They'll probably make the enemies Arab terrorists because who gives a shit about realism in "Red Dawn" remake? Other than me.
The whole thing is just insane, seriously we now chastise a politician because he wants to try talking to world leaders who we have major problems with rather than do as his opponents and simply shout abuse at them while threatening to bomb, or even nuke them. WTF?!?!?! I've said this many times but it sickens me think think back to being a kid at school and what I was taught about our country and the ideals we were founded on and how 15 years later we are debating which humans have human rights? Do all citizens have equal rights? Is torture acceptable? I think about the pride my teacher had when telling us about how our country has the two longest unfortified borders in the world. That was a point of pride because as a nation we were so loved by our neighbors that we didn't even need to put a fence or (Gasp) soldiers along our borders. It's going to take a whole lot more than a new president to fix the fear we have embedded into our collective psyche. Good luck to us all.
Now that we've talked a little about appeasement, how about some more on the subject from Pandagon. They also have a big of a laugh about the possible re-making of the right-wing cult classic "Red Dawn." First off I gotta say I used to love that flick. I haven't seen it since I was a kid (which might explain a lot) but I just loved the idea of a band of kids fighting of one of the worlds most powerful armies, how could they do that? Guerrilla warfare, terrorism, whatever it took. Then again if you wanted to re-make it in a believable context then instead of mid-western kids they would probably be Iraqi kids blowing up American soldiers, and somehow I doubt that would go over well. If they still want it to be American kids defending our country from foreign invaders then I'm not sure who the enemy would be, China maybe?? They'll probably make the enemies Arab terrorists because who gives a shit about realism in "Red Dawn" remake? Other than me.
The whole thing is just insane, seriously we now chastise a politician because he wants to try talking to world leaders who we have major problems with rather than do as his opponents and simply shout abuse at them while threatening to bomb, or even nuke them. WTF?!?!?! I've said this many times but it sickens me think think back to being a kid at school and what I was taught about our country and the ideals we were founded on and how 15 years later we are debating which humans have human rights? Do all citizens have equal rights? Is torture acceptable? I think about the pride my teacher had when telling us about how our country has the two longest unfortified borders in the world. That was a point of pride because as a nation we were so loved by our neighbors that we didn't even need to put a fence or (Gasp) soldiers along our borders. It's going to take a whole lot more than a new president to fix the fear we have embedded into our collective psyche. Good luck to us all.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Mental Separation of Iraq, with a dash of Hope
Sometimes its easy to lump people together, people talk about a country like Syria or Lebanon and we get images of AK toting extremists. They seem to forget that we call them extremists because they are the extreme, they do not represent the majority view, most people just want to live their lives, raise a family and do it in relative peace, they would also prefer not to be oppressed. In the same vein we think of Iran and similar scary thoughts pop into peoples heads but this time we included a mushroom cloud over Israel. Yes the government of Iran is a nasty lot, that doesn't mean they represent the majority views of their country. Just like how our government does not always represent the view of the majority of Americans, they sure as hell don't represent mine, and we're a democracy. I think its critically important to remember that when we talk about nuking Iran, does their government deserve to be taken out, probably, does that justify killing millions of people who are just trying to get by? Hell no.
It's this same type of thinking that I use when I think about the war in Iraq and our troops. The war is heinous evil and every other derogatory word I can think of, many with some four letter words added to spice it up. But the troops are people, theres some great ones who really want to help, theres some mediocre ones, and while no one likes to say it, theres some terrible ones, like the one who committed the massacre in Haditha. I want to focus on the great ones for a moment. A friend of mine is there, hes an old college buddy and I don't get to see him often, we only knew each other for one semester of school but through the joys of the internet we still talk. He had every intention of joining the military after college which always surprised me cause he just didn't seem the type. He was a little crazy but in a generally harmless sense, nothing made him happier than getting a nice big e-brake slide going on the dirt roads in his little Saturn. I never seemed worried about joining the military, I think it had been his plan for a long time. Of course this was also before we went into Iraq that I saw him regularly, wow I've been out of school that long? Damn I need to do something with my life... That might have been what he was trying to avoid when he joined up. Anyway he's just a genuinely good person who would do anything to help out a friend, pretty much all the happy stories I've heard from Iraq have come from him. He was the one who told me about working with the Iraqi police/army and cracking jokes with them, the simple line he said, "sure theres a lot of differences, but they're just people like anybody else." That was the greatest thing I had ever heard from Iraq. Now he sends me a photo, actually he tagged me in the photo as if I was one of the kids which was pretty funny. So without further ado here is another positive moment in Iraq, I hope there are many more.
Thank you Josh. I owe you a beer when you get back.
It's this same type of thinking that I use when I think about the war in Iraq and our troops. The war is heinous evil and every other derogatory word I can think of, many with some four letter words added to spice it up. But the troops are people, theres some great ones who really want to help, theres some mediocre ones, and while no one likes to say it, theres some terrible ones, like the one who committed the massacre in Haditha. I want to focus on the great ones for a moment. A friend of mine is there, hes an old college buddy and I don't get to see him often, we only knew each other for one semester of school but through the joys of the internet we still talk. He had every intention of joining the military after college which always surprised me cause he just didn't seem the type. He was a little crazy but in a generally harmless sense, nothing made him happier than getting a nice big e-brake slide going on the dirt roads in his little Saturn. I never seemed worried about joining the military, I think it had been his plan for a long time. Of course this was also before we went into Iraq that I saw him regularly, wow I've been out of school that long? Damn I need to do something with my life... That might have been what he was trying to avoid when he joined up. Anyway he's just a genuinely good person who would do anything to help out a friend, pretty much all the happy stories I've heard from Iraq have come from him. He was the one who told me about working with the Iraqi police/army and cracking jokes with them, the simple line he said, "sure theres a lot of differences, but they're just people like anybody else." That was the greatest thing I had ever heard from Iraq. Now he sends me a photo, actually he tagged me in the photo as if I was one of the kids which was pretty funny. So without further ado here is another positive moment in Iraq, I hope there are many more.
Thank you Josh. I owe you a beer when you get back.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
How far have we fallen
First off this post I'm going to link to is a bit foul even by the standards of the rude pundit, don't worry its just words but damn that dudes a bit deranged, unfortunately he has a point. The basic point is that one of the saddest legacies of this administration is an idealistic one, its the fact that horrible atrocities no longer have the ability to shock us. We now debate the role of torture around the dinner table, can we give a person a label which in essence strips them of their very humanity by saying they no longer have any legal rights at all? What sort of a country have we become when the military admits that it has been delivering propaganda straight to your living room and no one is the least bit concerned? I know I wasn't surprised when I heard it. I should have been furious I should have stuffing rags into gasoline filled wine bottles and marching on the pentagon, but I didn't I shrugged my shoulders and said yup, that seems like something they would do. What has become of us?
Oh right the economy, shit I can't even afford the gas to fill a molotov cocktail these days.
Oh right the economy, shit I can't even afford the gas to fill a molotov cocktail these days.
Freedom can be awkward
Theres a few ways I can look at this here article about a school with a mural that has offended a few people. The mural does contain various religious symbols, so those who say that it violates the first amendment have a legitimate point. Schools should not be endorsing any religion, unless they are private schools obviously.
The flip side of this is that the students decided what images to include and with the help of a hired artist and a grant they painted a mural inside their building which as been there for five years without bothering anyone. Then a mother sees it and raises a hissy fit. I'm not sure which part is stupider the fact that shes a mother, who HOME SCHOOLS her children AKA they don't go to school there, or the fact that she initially was offended by the Hindu god Shiva dancing on a demon of ignorance which she somehow mistook for an promotion of abortion.
The irony drips.
She also claims that this could confuse the christian students who she apparently assumes are just as stupid as she is, personally I think it would be great to have truly controversial paintings in schools then if a kid takes offense they can bring it up in the appropriate class and start a meaningful conversation.
Again these kooks stumbled onto a point, yes the law says that schools cannot endorse any particular religion, seeing as it depicts at least four different religions it would be hard to say which they are endorsing, although one option had this been brought up when the mural was in its design phase would have been to include at least one of the abrahamic religions symbols. Of course any true christian would scream blasphemy at this suggestion considering that creating an image of god is the first of the Ten Commandments......
(jews and muslims do follow that which is why muslims flip out over pics of mohammed, and jews even write G_d, hence I pick on christians)
It also tells me that some people's faith is incredibly fragile, do they really think that the simple image of another religions god is going to make their precious snowflakes abandon there beliefs? Are they admitting that any knowledge of the outside world will destroy what they've spent years indoctrinating?
Ultimately I'm not really sure. If I was on the school board I know what I'd do, tell the lady to STFU you're kids don't go here, then I'd let the kids decide. Talk to the social studies teachers and if they can give up two days of class then they will lead a round table discussion on the social and legal ramifications of said mural, then let the kids vote on it. Also have them talk about ways they could show unity and diversity without infringing on the law. Kids are smart, and its their school, let them figure it out. Oh but only the kids that go there.
(STFU = shut the fuck up)
The flip side of this is that the students decided what images to include and with the help of a hired artist and a grant they painted a mural inside their building which as been there for five years without bothering anyone. Then a mother sees it and raises a hissy fit. I'm not sure which part is stupider the fact that shes a mother, who HOME SCHOOLS her children AKA they don't go to school there, or the fact that she initially was offended by the Hindu god Shiva dancing on a demon of ignorance which she somehow mistook for an promotion of abortion.
The irony drips.
She also claims that this could confuse the christian students who she apparently assumes are just as stupid as she is, personally I think it would be great to have truly controversial paintings in schools then if a kid takes offense they can bring it up in the appropriate class and start a meaningful conversation.
Again these kooks stumbled onto a point, yes the law says that schools cannot endorse any particular religion, seeing as it depicts at least four different religions it would be hard to say which they are endorsing, although one option had this been brought up when the mural was in its design phase would have been to include at least one of the abrahamic religions symbols. Of course any true christian would scream blasphemy at this suggestion considering that creating an image of god is the first of the Ten Commandments......
(jews and muslims do follow that which is why muslims flip out over pics of mohammed, and jews even write G_d, hence I pick on christians)
It also tells me that some people's faith is incredibly fragile, do they really think that the simple image of another religions god is going to make their precious snowflakes abandon there beliefs? Are they admitting that any knowledge of the outside world will destroy what they've spent years indoctrinating?
Ultimately I'm not really sure. If I was on the school board I know what I'd do, tell the lady to STFU you're kids don't go here, then I'd let the kids decide. Talk to the social studies teachers and if they can give up two days of class then they will lead a round table discussion on the social and legal ramifications of said mural, then let the kids vote on it. Also have them talk about ways they could show unity and diversity without infringing on the law. Kids are smart, and its their school, let them figure it out. Oh but only the kids that go there.
(STFU = shut the fuck up)
Hagee
Fuck that guy.
He's just another evangelical creep with way more influence than can possibly be justified, the fact that McCain feels he must snuggle up to a psycho like this in order to appeal to the religious right shows just how far this country has slipped. Yeah I could make the connections between the Hagee and McCain, Wright and Obama, but McCain didn't actually attend that monument of hate, er church. It's honestly not the same. I'm not even going to rag on McCain for previously saying that televangelists are "agents of intolerance" (there was a time when McCain was one of the few good republicans) then turning around and courting them, then turning around again when everyone pointed out Hagee wears an asshat. He's a politician hunting for votes, of course there is hypocrisy. The reason this bothers me is exactly what I said at the start, Hagee is the embodiment of what I hate about religion, yet in this country a distinguished politician like McCain is forced to kowtow to quacks in order to get elected. That is in no way an endorsement of McCain, but I have enough respect for the man to say that he should be way above needing to do this in a modern society. The only way out of the dark ages is Education
He's just another evangelical creep with way more influence than can possibly be justified, the fact that McCain feels he must snuggle up to a psycho like this in order to appeal to the religious right shows just how far this country has slipped. Yeah I could make the connections between the Hagee and McCain, Wright and Obama, but McCain didn't actually attend that monument of hate, er church. It's honestly not the same. I'm not even going to rag on McCain for previously saying that televangelists are "agents of intolerance" (there was a time when McCain was one of the few good republicans) then turning around and courting them, then turning around again when everyone pointed out Hagee wears an asshat. He's a politician hunting for votes, of course there is hypocrisy. The reason this bothers me is exactly what I said at the start, Hagee is the embodiment of what I hate about religion, yet in this country a distinguished politician like McCain is forced to kowtow to quacks in order to get elected. That is in no way an endorsement of McCain, but I have enough respect for the man to say that he should be way above needing to do this in a modern society. The only way out of the dark ages is Education
Racism, 9/11, Obama oh my! ..... a classic ramble
I've been slacking so heres an old school ramble covering a few topics, hope you enjoy.
It's no secret that I support Obama, its no secret that his race is going to play a factor in the general election. The question is how big a factor? It's a tough thing to poll because even if asked anonymously the vast majority will say that race isn't their reasoning, even if it is. It should also be no surprise to people that there are still plenty of racist fucks in this country, and it's absolutely not a north south thing, but I would put money on a urban/rural divide when it comes to racism. Shit I live in New York, along with California we pretty much define white liberal america, at least in people's minds. But I don't live in the city (and yeah NYC is simply The city) I live in upstate NY, in a dying little town called Elmira. This town hit its peak when it got connected with the Erie Canal, so that should give you some hint as to how long its been in decline. It's pretty much your typical small town USA, although we do have a rather shocking amount of crime for a small town (about 30,000), 80% of whom are honky's like me, er more accurately they share my skin tone, most of them aren't the least bit like me. Most people here are just struggling to get by, economics have been our chief concern since long before bush came into office, although recently crime has also been climbing our list of concerns. Ok, that was off topic, but at least you have a little background on where I come from.
So while NY can be thought of as a liberal state thats mostly due to the city, head up into my neck of the woods and you'll find a lot more rednecks than yuppies. And I live in a moderate size town, head into the hills and it you'll find some crazy ass rednecks waiving confederate flags, the irony of which seems to entirely escape them. Oh and thats a perfect example of how keeping the confederate flag in an american history museum makes sense, to try to claim that they guy with a shotgun in the back window and a confederate flag waving from his antenna is promoting anything but hate is bullshit. I'm not saying to ban it, that would only increase its popularity. I'm saying that as a country where assholes will question a presidential candidate's patriotism (which is pretty fucking stupid in the first place) based on whether or not they wear a chinsy flag pin on their lapel (unbelievably stupid) then I think we should be calling out those who fly the confederate flag as hating america. They claim it's not just about racism so then its about going to war with america, its about tearing this country apart and hoping to create a new nation from the ruble of the one we live in now. Thats great. But remember I'm the one who hates america because I said going to war with Iraq was a stupid idea, oh and they had nothing to do with 9/11.
Speaking of 9/11, I've never been much of one for conspiracy theories, I find them amusing but usually are at least as full of holes as the "official coverup" they are trying to expose. Some such as the JFK assasination simply leaving wondering the truth because I don't for a minute believe Oswald acted alone, the film may be grainy but it clearly shows that the president was not shot from behind. Then their's the folks who think the moon landing was a hoax, it wasn't, and while I thought they raised interesting questions, I easily found out the answers to the questions and they make sense. Then there is the biggest conspiracy theory of recent time, 9/11. For years I have said that I think our government could have done more to prevent it, such as read the memo titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in the US," I don't think thats an outlandish statement. But when people tried to claim that our own government planned and executed the attack I quickly switched off, sure they've profited immensely off it, sure he never would have won a second term without it, but seriously? I'm a pretty rabid bush hater but even I can accuse him of that. But I think it gives credence to them when we hear statements about how we could use another attack. I doubt they would do it, but if they knew of one of the right scale being hatched, might they turn a sharp eye towards November by turning a blind eye to a threat? I can't say it would shock me.
So whats all this have to do with race? not much, I warned you this was going to ramble.
The thing this country does have going for it is that we don't want to be racist. The label of racist is a pin that almost no one in this country wants to wear, especially people with any kind of standing in society. There are plenty of racist fucks out there, but most of the overtly racist ones are sitting at the bottom of the totem pole and its easier to blame people of another color who are in the exact same boat as you than to blame the rich man who probably has the same skin tone. The irony of which is that the problems of the broke ass redneck in the hills are mostly the same as the problems of the poor black man in the city, both of which are entirely different problems than the millionaire in the suburbs who needs to figure out how to hide his money to avoid paying any more taxes than he can get away with. The republicans were able to play the poor white folks like a fiddle, using racism as a bow to make them fuckers howl, but without explicitly saying it, masterful work honestly. I personally want to just rip into these fucks who think that being white and ignorant is a good thing. I want to bitch slap any school board that wants to teach creationism as Science. I want people to understand that education is the key to everything, we are falling behind as a nation because we are not prepared for the global economy. Education is about no just reading and writing it is about understanding who we are, where we came from, our struggles and our accomplishments. We need to educate ourselves about our differences so that we can see that they pale in comparisons to our similarities. Education needs to teach us how to learn, and most importantly how to find the truth. With 20 seconds on the internet most kids can find any piece of information that we could quiz them on. That type of trivial info is meaningless. I want to teach kids to think critically, so pick out the bullshit and call it bullshit when they see it. Only by this route can we raise kids who will encounter racism and call it out for the bullshit that it is. We need to continue to look down on the racist, race is not a problem, diversity is our singe greatest asset as a nation. We embody the best of what the world has to offer, at least we can do that if we want. The other option is to lean out your car window and yell racial slurs to teens who have gotten involved in our other greatest asset, democracy. The choice is ours.
It's no secret that I support Obama, its no secret that his race is going to play a factor in the general election. The question is how big a factor? It's a tough thing to poll because even if asked anonymously the vast majority will say that race isn't their reasoning, even if it is. It should also be no surprise to people that there are still plenty of racist fucks in this country, and it's absolutely not a north south thing, but I would put money on a urban/rural divide when it comes to racism. Shit I live in New York, along with California we pretty much define white liberal america, at least in people's minds. But I don't live in the city (and yeah NYC is simply The city) I live in upstate NY, in a dying little town called Elmira. This town hit its peak when it got connected with the Erie Canal, so that should give you some hint as to how long its been in decline. It's pretty much your typical small town USA, although we do have a rather shocking amount of crime for a small town (about 30,000), 80% of whom are honky's like me, er more accurately they share my skin tone, most of them aren't the least bit like me. Most people here are just struggling to get by, economics have been our chief concern since long before bush came into office, although recently crime has also been climbing our list of concerns. Ok, that was off topic, but at least you have a little background on where I come from.
So while NY can be thought of as a liberal state thats mostly due to the city, head up into my neck of the woods and you'll find a lot more rednecks than yuppies. And I live in a moderate size town, head into the hills and it you'll find some crazy ass rednecks waiving confederate flags, the irony of which seems to entirely escape them. Oh and thats a perfect example of how keeping the confederate flag in an american history museum makes sense, to try to claim that they guy with a shotgun in the back window and a confederate flag waving from his antenna is promoting anything but hate is bullshit. I'm not saying to ban it, that would only increase its popularity. I'm saying that as a country where assholes will question a presidential candidate's patriotism (which is pretty fucking stupid in the first place) based on whether or not they wear a chinsy flag pin on their lapel (unbelievably stupid) then I think we should be calling out those who fly the confederate flag as hating america. They claim it's not just about racism so then its about going to war with america, its about tearing this country apart and hoping to create a new nation from the ruble of the one we live in now. Thats great. But remember I'm the one who hates america because I said going to war with Iraq was a stupid idea, oh and they had nothing to do with 9/11.
Speaking of 9/11, I've never been much of one for conspiracy theories, I find them amusing but usually are at least as full of holes as the "official coverup" they are trying to expose. Some such as the JFK assasination simply leaving wondering the truth because I don't for a minute believe Oswald acted alone, the film may be grainy but it clearly shows that the president was not shot from behind. Then their's the folks who think the moon landing was a hoax, it wasn't, and while I thought they raised interesting questions, I easily found out the answers to the questions and they make sense. Then there is the biggest conspiracy theory of recent time, 9/11. For years I have said that I think our government could have done more to prevent it, such as read the memo titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in the US," I don't think thats an outlandish statement. But when people tried to claim that our own government planned and executed the attack I quickly switched off, sure they've profited immensely off it, sure he never would have won a second term without it, but seriously? I'm a pretty rabid bush hater but even I can accuse him of that. But I think it gives credence to them when we hear statements about how we could use another attack. I doubt they would do it, but if they knew of one of the right scale being hatched, might they turn a sharp eye towards November by turning a blind eye to a threat? I can't say it would shock me.
So whats all this have to do with race? not much, I warned you this was going to ramble.
The thing this country does have going for it is that we don't want to be racist. The label of racist is a pin that almost no one in this country wants to wear, especially people with any kind of standing in society. There are plenty of racist fucks out there, but most of the overtly racist ones are sitting at the bottom of the totem pole and its easier to blame people of another color who are in the exact same boat as you than to blame the rich man who probably has the same skin tone. The irony of which is that the problems of the broke ass redneck in the hills are mostly the same as the problems of the poor black man in the city, both of which are entirely different problems than the millionaire in the suburbs who needs to figure out how to hide his money to avoid paying any more taxes than he can get away with. The republicans were able to play the poor white folks like a fiddle, using racism as a bow to make them fuckers howl, but without explicitly saying it, masterful work honestly. I personally want to just rip into these fucks who think that being white and ignorant is a good thing. I want to bitch slap any school board that wants to teach creationism as Science. I want people to understand that education is the key to everything, we are falling behind as a nation because we are not prepared for the global economy. Education is about no just reading and writing it is about understanding who we are, where we came from, our struggles and our accomplishments. We need to educate ourselves about our differences so that we can see that they pale in comparisons to our similarities. Education needs to teach us how to learn, and most importantly how to find the truth. With 20 seconds on the internet most kids can find any piece of information that we could quiz them on. That type of trivial info is meaningless. I want to teach kids to think critically, so pick out the bullshit and call it bullshit when they see it. Only by this route can we raise kids who will encounter racism and call it out for the bullshit that it is. We need to continue to look down on the racist, race is not a problem, diversity is our singe greatest asset as a nation. We embody the best of what the world has to offer, at least we can do that if we want. The other option is to lean out your car window and yell racial slurs to teens who have gotten involved in our other greatest asset, democracy. The choice is ours.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Joy of Church
This is awesome, the story of a child who suddenly became a member of a Pentecostal Church and loved it.... for the entertainment value.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Happy Birthday to ME!
The Vandals, Happy Birthday to Me.
They Might Be Giants, Older
NOFX, New Happy Birthday Song
And tonight I'm probably going to drink a bit too much and generally have a good ol' time with my friends, probably have a few with my parents too.
They Might Be Giants, Older
NOFX, New Happy Birthday Song
And tonight I'm probably going to drink a bit too much and generally have a good ol' time with my friends, probably have a few with my parents too.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Should She Stay or Should She Go Now?
Oh, Hillary. We've had our fun, you put up one hell of a fight, possibly the most followed primary in our countries history but you've lost, yeah technically Obama hasn't won it yet, but that doesn't change the fact that you have lost. Why not just pack it in while you still can muster up a little dignity? You've still got a job to come back to, BTW as one of your constituents/ boss/ taxpayer/ "guy who helps to pay you eight times what I earn" I wouldn't mind seeing you go back to that job, maybe work on some new laws, ya know that kinda stuff.
But I'm not saying anything new. Hell I'm pretty sure that about half of todays paper was a littany of articles about how and why Clinton needs to concede or simply asking if she will. We can't make her quit, but we can make it obvious that the people have had enough. This battle is over, theres still another huge one that needs to be fought and there is no point delaying the inevitable. I hope she quits, but I don't expect that it will happen.
But I'm not saying anything new. Hell I'm pretty sure that about half of todays paper was a littany of articles about how and why Clinton needs to concede or simply asking if she will. We can't make her quit, but we can make it obvious that the people have had enough. This battle is over, theres still another huge one that needs to be fought and there is no point delaying the inevitable. I hope she quits, but I don't expect that it will happen.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Gas-Tax Holiday
Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Obama.
Even My father who (due to unions) is a die-hard republican gave Obama high marks for this one. Because Obama is willing to due what few politicians are, and that is to tell the truth even when the people don't want to hear it. 18 cents off the price of gas, woo hoo! Maybe it'll sneak in just under $4 for the summer so that we can continue to consume at any rate we please! Hey I'm broke as shit that sounds great, at first. The problem is that tax pays for our roads, and other important infrastructure, maybe you've forgotten about that horrible bridge collapse but those who haven't realize that by taking $9,000,0000,000 out of our transportation budget we might just be running the risk of allowing our infrastructure to degrade a bit further. This is a little band-aid so that people have slightly less to bitch about this summer, that way the politicians can say, "see we care about you poor people that we're forced to talk to before elections. We are doing something to ease your burden, oh and Vote for Me!" But what a real leader does is say, yeah but whats that going to cost you in the long run? How many highway workers are going to be out of jobs or have time cut back if we reduce the budget by $9 billion dollars so that you can get about a half a tank of free gas this summer. We need to increase spending on our infrastructure not decrease it. I'm not advocating increasing taxes, (other than restoring the death tax) I'm saying we've got bills that need to be paid and as a country we need to stop putting everything on the credit card and start paying more than the minimum balance. We need major economic changes to fix our problems, temporarily slashing an important tax for political gain is problem, not a solution, its not even a very good band-aid.
Although the fact that he once supported doing the same thing in his own state doesn't bode well for this, unless he says that he learned from that. Oh and for the last time people Yes ethanol is a good band-aid, making from corn is retarded.
Here's how I'm going to save gas money this summer, its called a Bicycle. "But if you don't drive then your a commie! er terrorist."
Even My father who (due to unions) is a die-hard republican gave Obama high marks for this one. Because Obama is willing to due what few politicians are, and that is to tell the truth even when the people don't want to hear it. 18 cents off the price of gas, woo hoo! Maybe it'll sneak in just under $4 for the summer so that we can continue to consume at any rate we please! Hey I'm broke as shit that sounds great, at first. The problem is that tax pays for our roads, and other important infrastructure, maybe you've forgotten about that horrible bridge collapse but those who haven't realize that by taking $9,000,0000,000 out of our transportation budget we might just be running the risk of allowing our infrastructure to degrade a bit further. This is a little band-aid so that people have slightly less to bitch about this summer, that way the politicians can say, "see we care about you poor people that we're forced to talk to before elections. We are doing something to ease your burden, oh and Vote for Me!" But what a real leader does is say, yeah but whats that going to cost you in the long run? How many highway workers are going to be out of jobs or have time cut back if we reduce the budget by $9 billion dollars so that you can get about a half a tank of free gas this summer. We need to increase spending on our infrastructure not decrease it. I'm not advocating increasing taxes, (other than restoring the death tax) I'm saying we've got bills that need to be paid and as a country we need to stop putting everything on the credit card and start paying more than the minimum balance. We need major economic changes to fix our problems, temporarily slashing an important tax for political gain is problem, not a solution, its not even a very good band-aid.
Although the fact that he once supported doing the same thing in his own state doesn't bode well for this, unless he says that he learned from that. Oh and for the last time people Yes ethanol is a good band-aid, making from corn is retarded.
Here's how I'm going to save gas money this summer, its called a Bicycle. "But if you don't drive then your a commie! er terrorist."
National Day of Prayer
"Arthur hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction there and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." - Douglas Adams
Personally I pray for the restoration of the separation of church and state. But we all know how effective prayer is so I should plan on actually putting some effort into that one instead of just talking to myself. I think I mentioned it before but there's a billboard in my town that I absolutely love, there is a picture of the Dali Lama and in big block letters it says, "He doesn't just pray for peace, He works for it." I bet that wouldn't go over well in some places, fuck those places. And I'll finish with another DNA quote.
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." - Douglas Adams
Personally I pray for the restoration of the separation of church and state. But we all know how effective prayer is so I should plan on actually putting some effort into that one instead of just talking to myself. I think I mentioned it before but there's a billboard in my town that I absolutely love, there is a picture of the Dali Lama and in big block letters it says, "He doesn't just pray for peace, He works for it." I bet that wouldn't go over well in some places, fuck those places. And I'll finish with another DNA quote.
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." - Douglas Adams
Seeing our next President
I saw Obama! Like most of the cool shit that happens in my life (Rob you might have a point) this was totally random. A friend calls me up on Saturday night to tell me that his GF is going to see Obama with a friend. I said thats awesome, I'm totally jealous and if theres and more seats or whatever let me know I'd love to go too. About an hour later his GF calls and says shes not sure if she going to go but if she doesn't then I can take her spot. Cool. After thinking about her reasons I quickly deduce that I'll be going to see Obama the next day, and my friend might be going to if his GF doesn't. So I show up at there place and he says, "well I was gunna go but my dad called and so were going to have lunch with the 'rents then ride their go-carts with the kids." See the next president or ride go-carts that your parents own and can do any weekend. Not much of a choice for either of us, he's not political, I am.
So my friend's GF's (who admittedly is a friend too now) friend shows up, and it all, "hey nice to meet you, none of them are going, but I'm still in, cool if I ride with you for a few hours?" It was so perfectly fitting, she was chill but a total hippie, so two young white liberals riding in a Prius to go see an Obama rally. So although we're essentially total strangers it was pretty easy to hold a conversation because obviously we're both into politics. Oh and Rob don't get any idea's she isn't single. I asked that of my friends before she even showed up. There was lots of bullshitting about the chances each person has, how McCain will do better and better until the Dem convention at which point either one of them is going to crush that senile old man. Come on the fucker has repeatedly said he doesn't understand the economy, thats bad, his only real strong points are based on his unending support of a failure of a war, and yet the bastard doesn't know Sunni from a Shiite as he has also made clear on several occasions, three I believe. We had no love for Hillary but we obviously admit that shes much better than McCain and would vote for her if she took the convention. Oh and all this was going on two days before the PA primary so we headed to Scranton.
- Off to the show -
So we show up, theres a plaza and a small sports complex off to the side. We were pretty early so we ended up waiting in a line to get in for a while, turned out to be silly from the fact that it ended up never getting filled, but it was worth it because unlike the people who were 40 yards back we stood with just three rows of people between us and the fence, then the secret service fellas then the stage, oh and did I mention we were directly in front of the podium? Unfortunately there were no seats so this meant a few more hours of standing so we didn't lose our spots. Now I recall the other thing I was going to put in the post about inconsiderate people. So everyone is standing around waiting. a few people get tired of this and decide to sit. No big deal, at first. Pretty soon there are 30 people sitting on the floor, I'm not sure if you've noticed but a seated person takes up a whole lot more floor space than a standing one. Plus if you, like me, are on the edge of the seated people then when some one tries to move through the crowd and you try to make room, theres no where to go. I nearly fell on people a few times, I had to maneuver my feet around to avoid crushing fingers. Now none of this would have bothered me had it been the gray haired people who simply cannot stand for three or four hours straight, but no the senior citizens would only put a burden on others if it was absolutely necessary. No most of the people on the floor were high school or college age. Bastards. Then after much waiting a guy come up to the podium, a huge cheer erupts from the crowd, he sticks a note on the podium and walks away. Damn. Then eventually some local politicians give some talks, Caroline Kennedy give a little talk, there was some other PA big shot, Casey maybe? People were shouting for him to be Vice. Then finally the man of the hour came out, but first a little background on my bias, cause I need to be long winded about everything, hence the "rambling" in the title.
The only other events like this I've been to were either for Eric Massa who as a former military commander is really good at firing up a crowd, he's not the least bit afraid of a Dean moment, he'll yell and holler but at that level you can do that (house of reps). Hillary's event was at the airport so she wouldn't have to spend any more time in this hell hole than absolutely necessary, it was also during her senate run which was essentially uncontested. She was good but again she could say whatever she wanted there was no risk of losing so might as well say what your constituents want to hear. To be fair I was impressed with her, partially because I went in with low expectations.
-Obama- (this was almost two weeks ago, I'll be lacking in details)
He walked out onto the stage and the crowd went nuts. Screaming and hollering, I love you, whistling and everything else you can imagine. His speech was good, it was obviously one he'd given many times along the way, but you can't really expect any of them to write a new speech for every town they go to. He talked about the opponents and the crowd got a little nasty, Obama said now wait a minute they are both great Americans, they both have done many things to help this country. He was very courteous to them, then he laid into their policies. Thats what a politician should do, don't attack the people attack what they want to do with the country. Unfortunately neither of the others are going to play by those rules and I'm not sure how much longer he can, then again if goes offensive now it might hurt him. I personally hate the smear tactics. He talked about the economy, mentioned specific local businesses that have closed, or had lay offs. So thats what the first guy stuck on the podium. At one point when the quickly swung from booing the opponents to shouting praise for him he said, "Man, you guys are feisty" I found that amusing. He talked about how he refuses to take PAC and corporate money, although he does take union money which is just as bad in my mind, but not many others. This is probably the most important part of his campaign and it doesn't get nearly enough attention. This is the "Change We Can Believe In" although in truth I don't think he can do it, but to have a president who sincerely wants to make lobbyists into a thing for the history books would be amazing. It's going to take more than a president to make this happen, he'll have Kucinich on his side in the Senate but probably not a whole lot of others, but who knows, it would be a huge help towards ending the legal corruption that is our legislative branch.
I can't recall exactly what all was said, but when we left all I could think was, "I just saw our next president... and I like him." Then on the way home we talked about how unless something major happens he's going to win the Dem nomination, then he's going to trounce McCain, the only other questions are who will be his Vice, and how long till someone shoots him?
So my friend's GF's (who admittedly is a friend too now) friend shows up, and it all, "hey nice to meet you, none of them are going, but I'm still in, cool if I ride with you for a few hours?" It was so perfectly fitting, she was chill but a total hippie, so two young white liberals riding in a Prius to go see an Obama rally. So although we're essentially total strangers it was pretty easy to hold a conversation because obviously we're both into politics. Oh and Rob don't get any idea's she isn't single. I asked that of my friends before she even showed up. There was lots of bullshitting about the chances each person has, how McCain will do better and better until the Dem convention at which point either one of them is going to crush that senile old man. Come on the fucker has repeatedly said he doesn't understand the economy, thats bad, his only real strong points are based on his unending support of a failure of a war, and yet the bastard doesn't know Sunni from a Shiite as he has also made clear on several occasions, three I believe. We had no love for Hillary but we obviously admit that shes much better than McCain and would vote for her if she took the convention. Oh and all this was going on two days before the PA primary so we headed to Scranton.
- Off to the show -
So we show up, theres a plaza and a small sports complex off to the side. We were pretty early so we ended up waiting in a line to get in for a while, turned out to be silly from the fact that it ended up never getting filled, but it was worth it because unlike the people who were 40 yards back we stood with just three rows of people between us and the fence, then the secret service fellas then the stage, oh and did I mention we were directly in front of the podium? Unfortunately there were no seats so this meant a few more hours of standing so we didn't lose our spots. Now I recall the other thing I was going to put in the post about inconsiderate people. So everyone is standing around waiting. a few people get tired of this and decide to sit. No big deal, at first. Pretty soon there are 30 people sitting on the floor, I'm not sure if you've noticed but a seated person takes up a whole lot more floor space than a standing one. Plus if you, like me, are on the edge of the seated people then when some one tries to move through the crowd and you try to make room, theres no where to go. I nearly fell on people a few times, I had to maneuver my feet around to avoid crushing fingers. Now none of this would have bothered me had it been the gray haired people who simply cannot stand for three or four hours straight, but no the senior citizens would only put a burden on others if it was absolutely necessary. No most of the people on the floor were high school or college age. Bastards. Then after much waiting a guy come up to the podium, a huge cheer erupts from the crowd, he sticks a note on the podium and walks away. Damn. Then eventually some local politicians give some talks, Caroline Kennedy give a little talk, there was some other PA big shot, Casey maybe? People were shouting for him to be Vice. Then finally the man of the hour came out, but first a little background on my bias, cause I need to be long winded about everything, hence the "rambling" in the title.
The only other events like this I've been to were either for Eric Massa who as a former military commander is really good at firing up a crowd, he's not the least bit afraid of a Dean moment, he'll yell and holler but at that level you can do that (house of reps). Hillary's event was at the airport so she wouldn't have to spend any more time in this hell hole than absolutely necessary, it was also during her senate run which was essentially uncontested. She was good but again she could say whatever she wanted there was no risk of losing so might as well say what your constituents want to hear. To be fair I was impressed with her, partially because I went in with low expectations.
-Obama- (this was almost two weeks ago, I'll be lacking in details)
He walked out onto the stage and the crowd went nuts. Screaming and hollering, I love you, whistling and everything else you can imagine. His speech was good, it was obviously one he'd given many times along the way, but you can't really expect any of them to write a new speech for every town they go to. He talked about the opponents and the crowd got a little nasty, Obama said now wait a minute they are both great Americans, they both have done many things to help this country. He was very courteous to them, then he laid into their policies. Thats what a politician should do, don't attack the people attack what they want to do with the country. Unfortunately neither of the others are going to play by those rules and I'm not sure how much longer he can, then again if goes offensive now it might hurt him. I personally hate the smear tactics. He talked about the economy, mentioned specific local businesses that have closed, or had lay offs. So thats what the first guy stuck on the podium. At one point when the quickly swung from booing the opponents to shouting praise for him he said, "Man, you guys are feisty" I found that amusing. He talked about how he refuses to take PAC and corporate money, although he does take union money which is just as bad in my mind, but not many others. This is probably the most important part of his campaign and it doesn't get nearly enough attention. This is the "Change We Can Believe In" although in truth I don't think he can do it, but to have a president who sincerely wants to make lobbyists into a thing for the history books would be amazing. It's going to take more than a president to make this happen, he'll have Kucinich on his side in the Senate but probably not a whole lot of others, but who knows, it would be a huge help towards ending the legal corruption that is our legislative branch.
I can't recall exactly what all was said, but when we left all I could think was, "I just saw our next president... and I like him." Then on the way home we talked about how unless something major happens he's going to win the Dem nomination, then he's going to trounce McCain, the only other questions are who will be his Vice, and how long till someone shoots him?
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