Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Rally to Restore Sanity had MUCH better signage....

...a consequence of being better educated. [PS: the percentage of misspellings is drastically lower than those Tea Parody Parakeets, too]


I masturbate and I vote (but usually not at the same time)

I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.

You're mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I understand the difference between communism, fascism and socialism and don't use the terms interchangeably.

I'll respect your opinion as soon as you stop making shit up!

Historians against the misuse of history.

I'll keep my liberty, open mind and pursuit of happiness. You can keep your fear.

Paul Revere was an Anchor Baby.

RESTORE AMERICA! But not too far because then we'll have slavery! and no toilets!

Mainstream Media... Could you please stop pitting the ignorant versus the educated and framing it as a debate? [Bill Maher]

On the whole, I am rather gruntled.

STOP! You're starting to scare George Orwell.

Being loud, rude and ignorant is not a political movement. It's just bad manners.

This sign is spelled correctly.

Atlas Sucked.

Against Gay Marriage? That's fine.. I don't need your toaster.

Hey Tea Party: Shouldn't you all be in the FEMA Internment Camps by now?

If screaming makes you right then the three-year-old down the street is a freakin' genius.

Facts are like opinions, except they're true.

Hitler called... He wants his hyperbole back.

I put death paneling in my Torture chamber. (OK... I made that one up...)



How Prescient...

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” A. Lincoln, 1864



Saturday, October 30, 2010

To the folks who are upset with the 'Rally for Sanity'...

...because they think we should be fighting the denizens of Greater Wingnutia on their own level and with their own tactics...




You know, I spent a good few hours trying to figure out why I think that take on this rally is ill-conceived. Then it came to me... I absolutely understand that you want to take them on on their own terms...Would that there were a snowball's chance the battle could be won like that.

Democrats, Progressives, Liberals, Free Thinkers - Everyone even vaguely associated with our side of the fence believes in facts and figures, persuasion and provable truths. Our opposition believes in winning. They're willing to lie, to cheat and to pander to get their message across. For good or ill, We, as a collective entity, are not.

I am not talking about political campaigning. As Politifact attests daily, candidates of all stripes lie. I mean that you, me and the regular folk who are trying to communicate these ideas and positions are not going to forsake the moral high ground of truth just because 'Baggers refuse to hear anything but their own doctrine. We're kinds like the folks who help the ex-religious escape their old cultural and philosophical binds. It can't be done by creating an anti-sermon sermon. The atheists are far better spoken than the Fundies, but that hasn't helped them put an end to myths.

We have to stand our ground, live our principles and show the folks who aren't already crazied that we know something the Becks, Angles, O'Donnells, Millers, Boehners and Roves don't know... What will work for the America we ARE, not the preposterous retro-fantasy they are trying to sell the the largely unsuspecting populace.

Maybe the freedoms we have known all our lives are soon to be gone. Maybe the frightened Theocrats and thoughtless profiteering pundits will bring us down to the level of Christian Sharia. It's up in the air right now...

But, I can't lock and load while there is still some chance to bring across the vast majority of people who are NOT allied with one side or another. I goddamn well won't help them make the streets run with blood.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Fear of [Muslims] Flying

There isn't any doctrine to this simple equation... In the last decade there was one major terrorist attack on American soil, and it being used to advance the profiling, the racism and the hatred we see in New York, in Murfreesboro, TN and all across America.

One attack. By radical terrorists... But there are 1.6 BILLION Muslims in the world and the estimate of the number of terrorists by everyone but the uninformed hacks runs between five and ten thousand... Do that math... At the high end it's one terrorist in every ONE MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND Muslims. So how many in America.... four?

There's a higher ratio of gang-bangers in Newark, fer Christ's sake... Point being that this is a goddamn excuse for the rhetoric, and worse, actual violence: The cabbie shot in NY, arson in Murfreesboro, vandalism all across America... and all because the number of ACTUAL, REAL SERIOUS Islamic terrorists IN the USA might be as high as FIVE... A number, by the way, that could be reasonably assumed to be the number of Christians who are willing to bomb abortion clinics and/or murder doctors... but nobody is profiling churchgoers or vandalizing the church in the town Dr. Tiller was from - How come every Christian in HIS town wasn't questioned?

My friend Harry says Americans are not all bigots and racists. I agree, But many American ARE scared. Unfortunately, as any good psychologist can affirm, fear leads people to their lowest common denominator of behavior. Frightened people act with a mob mentality, behaving in ways none of them would individually. Frightened people are absolutely bigots and racists - Hell, there are situations in which good people would let their neighbors die to save their family - How easy it it to hate the image of some unspecified danger called a 'terrorist'.

Do you remember the Twilight Zone Episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"? Nowadays, they show it in schools to teach kids about the dangers of prejudice and hysteria. That's what's playing on the right...all day... all night.

It serves the interests of the Becks and the Palins to use charged rhetoric to keep their base afraid. It's all about 'The Other'...A president who is ...Other.... a religion that is...Other... They are not leading a national discussion to solve the problems, THEIR agenda is ultra-nationalist ultra-partisan rallying - Which does exactly nothing for the national discussion, nor does it in any way improve the chances for reasoned discussion between factions. They are reinforcing the image of monsters attacking us in our homes... a lie that short-circuits the discussion - which is EXACTLY what they intend.

We live in a dangerous time and it has little or nothing to do with anybody but ourselves. If we cannot get back to a world where parties compromise, we are going to be in a world of trouble.