And it begins...

It's only a matter of time until they declare martial law and start shooting people. Teargas fired at Oakland protesters? Because the People are pissed and occupying a public space? What is this? A third world dictatorship? It's certainly beginning to seem like it. (Actually, it's seemed like it for a while now, we're all just in denial.)

An answer to the right-wing pundits and tea-baggers:

Since reading the news about the Occupy Wall Street protests I noticed a few common themes in the comments from tea-bagger types. I'd like to take this time to refute the corporate shills' tea-baggers' ideas (which are absolute nonsense).

Teabagger: Aren't these protesters just a bunch of whiney rich kids with nothing better to do?

Me: Um, no. If they were rich they'd be on a yacht off the coast of Monaco thinking about all the ways they can get out of paying any taxes on their capital gains.

Teabagger: The government would have an easier time of it if they just didn't have to pay everyone their "entitlements" like Social Security.

Me: Last time I checked, Social Security is not an entitlement. The government has been taking money out of my check since I was sixteen years old. When I retire, they give it back plus interest. Maybe the teabaggers should take a simple course in economics before they decide to lecture about it.

Teabagger: These kids took student loans out of their own choice and therefore it's their problem.

Me: No, it's really society's problem. When millions of Americans desire an education and cannot afford it and therefore must go into debt to get it, something is terribly wrong with the system. Australians and Europeans get free higher education if they do well in school, and are not saddled with debt the second they get out. We have twenty-something year olds in debt before they even get started in a career path, and then add to that the massive unemployment and the fact that possibly 50% of recent college graduates are either unemployed or working in jobs that do not require a degree, and we (yes we!) have a huge problem on our hands.

To add to that, we waste human capital (not that that matters to the Corporate elite, although it should). Just because you're born into poverty doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a chance at things. Isn't that what the so-called American Dream was all about? If someone is intelligent, they should be given an education free of charge. The teabaggers are a cabal left over from feudalism, wishing to see us return to a time when (corporate) lords protected people (serfs) from the ravishes of the world in exchange for absolute bondage to them. They stand for something that is the very anti-thesis of a free and democratic society.

What is wrong with these teabaggers and those who share such ideology? I'd start with the fact that besides the psychological problems and ignorance they obviously have (signs held up at their "parties" about government staying out of Medicare say it all), they also have no empathy. Why else would you boo a veteran of our armed forces? Or cheer because someone without insurance dies? Or absolve yourself of all interest in your fellow Americans.

Obama was quoted as saying that's not who "we" are. I want to know who these asshats are. Is it just ignorance? Is it that they can't think for themselves so they just parrot whatever they've been spoon-fed by Faux News? Whatever it is, it's refreshing to see that there are still intelligent people left in this country.

"Because if this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition -- and then admit that we just don't want to do it." --Stephen Colbert

Black Children were better off under Slavery

Yes, you read that correctly. Or at least the right-wing wackos in Iowa think so. Maybe it's really just a tempest in a teacup, but I have to rant for a moment, so keep your arms and legs inside the car and hold onto your ass.

Where do these people get off? Who in the hell do they think they are? What do they think gives them the right to upend our democracy and impose on us a western style Sharia (aka theocracy)? WHAT THE FUCK?!

Okay, I feel better now. I'm sure it won't last. Between the mess with the economy and these fucktards running around begging to flush their freedom down the toilet, I don't hold out much hope for humanity or this country.

And the right-wing bloggers are complaining that the "liberal media" took it out of context. I'm sorry, but there's nothing to take out of context. I know that their reading comprehension skills rival a first grader's but really.

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President."

What do you think that says? Hmm? I think it implies that a child was better off under slavery solely because they had two parents. And the kicker, it's not even fucking true. Children were often sold away from their birth families. Parents were often sold away from their children.

I have a suggestion for these "pro-family" (and I use that term loosely) asshats, and that is, if the corporations that are backing them would pay people a fair wage, one parent could stay home with their children. But right now, that's usually not possible. The behavioral problems with children stem from having to rely on daycare. Daycare teaches children that the peer group is in charge because one adult to twenty plus children is bullshit. And that has nothing to do with marriage or divorce, but rather with economics, like everything else that has had to do with economics, from slavery and the Civil War right down to the war in Iraq. It's all about money. And you can take that to the bank.

How do you like your rights violated? Bastrop High School Senior rubs it in

Via Friendly Atheist:

A public school district in Louisiana ought to have their asses sued right off them.

"I was initially chosen to deliver the invocation, but I was recently informed that I would be giving a moment of silence. However, before I fulfil my obligation, I would like to say that I am of the Christian faith. Now I respect those who do not share the same faith that I do. But at this time I would like to give thanks to the god who has made the class of 2011 a great success..." (followed by a long prayer)

No. She didn't respect the beliefs of others, and neither did anyone who clapped in that audience. Neither did the school officials who failed to cut her mic and ask her to leave the stage. They violated the rights of other people to not have to be subjected to their drivel. I don't know who that girl is, but she has been done a great disservice by a community that has raised her to believe that respecting the rights of others is the same as trampling all over said rights.

If you don't like the fact that our public schools are secular, then send your little fucking spawn to a private school, where they can say prayers all day long and none of us give a shit.

This is your tax dollars at work, turning out good little morons who can't think for themselves or follow the law, or more importantly, do what is right.

edit:

Via Death and Taxes, the student who trampled all over Damon's rights is named Sarah Barlow. Shame on her. And shame on the entire town.

The end of the world? Not again!

How many times does the world have to end anyway? I guess I could gamble that it really is going to end, and blow all my savings and go to Carcassonne again. That would be nice. But I'd regret it come the 22nd, which incidentally two years ago to the day, Carcassonne is where I was. *sigh*

Why'd I log in to write this? Oh yeah, because I wanted to say that if it really is the end of the world, and if these asshats really are right, just go ahead and toss my ass in the lake of fire, because I have no desire to spend eternity with a bunch of jerk asses and their evil god. That's my feeling on the matter. At any rate, they're more full of it than a turkey at Thanksgiving dinner, so I look forward to the 22nd and all the snark that's going to go with it.

I Have a Bridge in Brooklyn to Sell You...

...if you believe the latest story about the leaked diplomatic memos, that a single army private was responsible for them.

The young Army Pfc. suspected of stealing the diplomatic memos, many of them classified, and feeding them to WikiLeaks may have defeated Pentagon security systems using little more than a Lady Gaga CD and a portable computer memory stick.

The soldier, Bradley Manning has not been charged in the latest release of internal U.S. government documents. But officials said he is the prime suspect partly because of his own description of how he pulled off a staggering heist of classified and restricted material.

If it sounds like bullshit, it probably is. What I really want to know is, where is the classified information? I mean, most of what I've read so far sounds like stuff that either I already knew, or comes as no surprise whatsoever. Among the "top ten revelations" is that Putin gave Berlusconi (of Italy) gifts. Um, heads of state often give each other gifts. Another big one is that Gadafi is traveling with a hot blonde Ukranian nurse! I mean, really? I can't help but Lulz a bit at that. And here is another shocker, Saudi Arabia doesn't like Iran. I know, you'd have no idea about that huh? I suppose most average Americans don't, since all Muslim countries get lumped into the "hated other" category by most mainstream press.

What is also a bit disconcerting is the number of posters at yahoo!news that are calling for the execution of anyone involved in the leak, because they think it's "treason." I'd like to think my fellow Americans aren't so blood thirsty over a bit of gossip, but I guess not. So far, I've not seen anything that looks like it could endanger anyone's life, like the disclosure of troop movements or something, or the security plan at a base in Afghanistan. If it were something like that, I would agree it's serious. But this, this is like a bunch of old women talking about who's screwing who in the neighborhood.

As an aside, in my opinion, I think that this has been published and completely blown out of proportion to cover up something. I don't know what that something might be, but I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Tea Party Schizophrenia: A true mental disease

In a recent poll, it was found that supporters of the Tea Party movement were likely to support the Christian Conservative agenda.

"While the loosely organized Tea Party movement has focused largely on shrinking the size of government and other fiscal issues, its backers are more likely to support government restrictions on gay marriage and other social issues, the Public Religion Research Institute found in its American Values Survey."

This is, in a nutshell, just more proof of how bat-shit crazy these people are. It's not that they want less government, it's not that they want their concept of "moral values" forced upon the citizens of these United States, it's that they want both. They want to have their proverbial cake and eat it too. Except, the cake is a lie. It's always a lie.

They want less government interference in regulating things that keep us safe. They want more government meddling into the private lives of homosexuals, wanting the government to pass laws to keep them from being able to marry or share their partner's insurance benefits, some going so far as to say that laws should be passed making homosexual acts/partnerships illegal. They want less government funding of education (wanting to dismantle the Department of Education and quit funding college loans and grants, because ask any slave master from the 19th century about the best way to keep people as chattel). They want more government interference with the bodies of women, to tell them that they must have children, whether they want them or not, whether they are mentally and emotionally fit to have them or not, whether they've been raped and abused or not.

It's really a complete schizophrenia, to sit there and say that the government should have no influence in the corporate lives of businesses but at the same time that same government should be in our bedrooms telling us what to do, who to be with and forcing women to carry a pregnancy they don't want, or is dangerous to their health, to term. I'll call it for what it is. It's goddamned fascism, pure and bleeding simple. It's so Orwellian, it's almost un-fucking-believable, for these ass-hats to sit there and scream that they are the denizens of freedom and democracy, and at the same time wanting to put their jackboots at the throats of their fellow Americans to make them follow their own twisted version of "morality".

Let Them Eat Cake

So, on BookTV they're going to be talking about a book, "Generosity Unbound: How American Philanthropy Can Strengthen the Economy and Middle Class". Whenever I hear something that sounds like it's advocating making the filthy rich, richer, alarm bells go off in my head. Now, I obviously have not read the book, and to be honest, probably wouldn't waste my time now that I have looked up who the author is. Or rather, who she's affiliated with. Her name is Claire Gaudiani, and she's a senior fellow at a non-profit, the 'Institute for American Values' (guess who's probably paying her money to say that there should be no regulation of non-profits, you get three guesses). They don't want divorce, they want "traditional values" (again, I say alarm bells go off in my head every time I hear these words), and they have a 'Center for Marriage and Families' that promotes such homophobic people like Maggie Gallagher. They say that gay marriage isn't good for children, and I think, imply that it would be better for a woman to stay with a husband who's beating her "for the sake of the children." Bull shit. Absolute utter tripe.

I don't need to say that the last thing we need to do is make the uber-rich, richer is it? What is this? Serfdom? In America? So that the poor can go and ask for alms at a church service like our ancestors did in Europe seven hundred years ago? What's next, are we going to have to swear fealty to some overlord? Really?

This shit is the antithesis of everything democratic. Making the rich, richer, does NOT strengthen the middle class. A lack of regulation means that those with the money get away with things they shouldn't, and they trod all over the poor. No middle class means no more democracy. No middle class and you have France prior to the French Revolution (gee, how did that turn out for the uber-wealthy?) or Mexico today. And they're trying to pander to the Center and Left by saying that it's "for everyone". Bull shit. I call it a bunch of lies. They can take their right-wing, facist tendencies and shove them where the sun doesn't shine.

When Books Burn...

I'm sure ya'll have heard about the certifiable (as in, insane) pastor in Florida that is planning on burning Korans on 9/11.

A fine example of asshattery

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The government turned up the pressure Tuesday on the head of a small Florida church who plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, warning him that doing so could endanger U.S. troops and Americans everywhere.

But the Rev. Terry Jones insisted he would go ahead with his plans, despite criticism from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, the White House and the State Department, as well as a host of religious leaders.

Jones, who is known for posting signs proclaiming that Islam is the devil's religion, says the Constitution gives him the right to publicly set fire to the book that Muslims consider the word of God...

First of all, hiding behind the mantra that "the Constitution lets me do it" is a cowardly act. It's in some ways like blaming the devil because you cheated on your spouse. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. One could go and call random black people on the street terrible names, it's a constitutionally protected right after all, but there are consequences. They'd probably get the shit beat out of them, and would anyone be surprised? I think not. So Mr. Asshat here can burn the Koran and piss off a bunch of fundamentalist Muslims. The only problem is, it won't be him getting the beating. It will be some poor bloke, probably some 19 year old kid who enlisted in the military half a world away from home who gets the shit beat out of him because Mr. Asshat is well, an asshat.

We should be outraged that he burns any book at all. Or that anyone burns any book, be it a Bible or Harry Potter. Why you ask? Because this type of sentiment leads to hatred of other human beings. First they burn books, next they burn people. It's happened before, plenty of times. If we're not careful, it can and will happen again. Most of the people of Nazi Germany probably didn't realize the path their country was headed down in 1933 when they vilified Jews and burned Torahs and Synagogues. What path are we on? Vilifying Muslims and burning Korans? The next step will be genocide if no one puts a stop to this crap.

One Nation Under [Her] God

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." --Sinclair Lewis

Reagan bankrupt this country and yet he's still their darling. I curse his memory by the way. Then G.Dubya took his ideology to the extreme and it has plummeted us into another Great Depression. And the fact that she blames the Department of Education for No Child Left Behind crap is moronic at best. It was a bill introduced in congress and signed by their beloved G.Dubya. That's fucking rich that is. Let's just lie, lie, lie, and pretty soon no one will even know the truth. Our education system here sucks, and you know why? Because it's funded by property taxes. The rich get a great education and the poor, as usual, get fucked over. And NCLB has nothing to do with it.

That she would cite Bachmann, means she's crazier than batshit. I guess it takes one to know one.

Americans For Prosperity? One might mistake that they're for the prosperity of Americans, but that would be a mistake. They're for Americans supporting the Corporatocracy. Yes, let's cut taxes for the rich and fuck the People over by refusing to extend the unemployment insurance and by shipping jobs overseas so that CEOs can make more profits. Why don't they just dispense with the pretense and just call it what it is. Americans for the Fascist Corporatocracy. Or maybe The Fascist Corporatocracy for the Support of American Serfs.

I often wonder why politicians who want to be in control of government, pander to the "small government" group, and then when they get in there, they do the same damned thing every other politician has ever done, LIE LIE LIE and back corporate interests in spite of the people they're supposed to be representing. They don't do anything to make the government smaller. They do everything they can to put more and more of our government into the pockets of private business interests.

Border patrol is the job of Immigration and Customs. By advocating that the States should have the right to practice border patrol, means that they are advocating succeeding from the Union, de facto, because that means next they'll be saying they ought then have the ability to issue visas and passports so they can control who comes into their state. Maybe Nevada ought to succeed, and we can ship all the nutty neo-Cons there and they can live in a great utopia of oppression of the lower classes. I suppose the gambling capital of the country will have to go somewhere else (or we'll have to be really rich and go to Monaco to gamble) and I also suppose that we'll have to grant refugee status to anyone from Nevada with a brain and half a thought in their head.

"What caused the problems [with the economy] in the first place"?!?!?!? I can answer that for you Mme. Angle. YOUR PARTY is the cause of the economy collapsing! That's what happens when you deregulate every fucking thing. MORONS. All of them.

*sorry if I've rambled tonight, I blame the beer, it makes my thoughts meander =P

**edit**

SeeingEyeChick pointed out that she looks a lot like "The Chicken Lady" (Sue Lowden, left) who I must have missed (terrible I know)... why does the party of red wear blue, the color of the opposition?

Target the Gays

Target is in hot water. They donated money (albeit a bit indirectly) to a Christian hate rock band that calls for the deaths of gays and lesbians. They donated to a Minnesota PAC, who donated to Tom Emmer, who donated money to a band/ministry known as You Can Run, who's founder, Bradlee Dean said on a radio show back in May,

““Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America... This just shows you they themselves [Muslims] are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.”

“If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that,” Dean continued. “That is what you are seeing in America.”

“The bottom line is this… they [homosexuals] play the victim when they are, in fact, the predator,” Dean said, before going on to make a claim that has no basis in fact: “On average, they molest 117 people before they’re found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?”

So this asshat has basically said that Muslim countries who kill gays are moral and righteous and we should follow their example. It's so nice to see that they took a moment to stop hating on Muslims to resume hating on gays. Because what better place to be than dragged back into the dark ages. {/sarcasm}

A group has been started on Facebook to boycott Target, and this is the form letter everyone is receiving in response to their letters to Target:

"In fact, if you look at our Federal PAC contributions year to date, you will see that they are very balanced between Republicans and Democrats. For more information please visit www.target.com/company, and view the Civic Activity page."

The thing is, so many are so self-righteous about avoiding Wal-Mart, but shop happily at Target. Guess what? It's all made by political prisoners in China, it's all cheap plastic crap, and shopping locally is no better (because you can't afford locally made things) unless your filthy fucking rich. And why can't you afford them? Because the corporations you work for don't pay you enough!

But I digress, so back to the quote. As you can see, Target like so many other businesses fund both parties. They want all of the politicians to do their bidding, because as I've said before, and I'll say it again, this is a Corporatocracy. Our government is in the pockets of corporations, and Wal-Mart is used merely as a distraction. The problem is, Corporate entities should not be allowed to donate money to any political anything, nor should they be able to send lobbyists to Washington to buy politicians. They should stay out of government entirely. But really, it's too late for that, the politicians, they're all already bought and sold, and there's nothing we can do about it, except continue working for peanuts and writing letters to people who send back auto-responses.

First they came for the Jews...

It's truly amazing the number of dumb ass people we have in this country. I know, I know. Calling people dumb asses is probably counter-productive, but really, what else can you call people who are so ignorant, so undeniably moronic, that they protest against the First Amendment to the Constitution?

Anti-mosque protests on the rise, say Muslim advocates

By Liz Goodwin liz Goodwin – Wed Jul 21, 5:16 pm ET

Opposition to the construction of mosques has skyrocketed in cities and towns across the country, scholars and advocates of Muslim culture tell The Upshot.

Public protests against three planned mosques have made news in the past week: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined others in opposing the building of a mosque a few blocks from the World Trade Center site. Hundreds demonstrated against a proposed mosque in a small town in Tennessee (pictured above). And some residents of Temecula, California, are opposing the local Muslim community's plan to build a bigger mosque, saying it could become a hotbed of radical Islam.

...

"There is very little counter-thrust in the public debate, and the result is, I think, Muslims are becoming increasingly concerned about their security in the country," Zogby says. "This is a worrisome environment. Something's got to give."

Opponents of mosques feel freer now to openly object to the presence of a mosque in their community, says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy organization.

...

Of course, opponents of mosques do not consider themselves bigots, and many are genuinely concerned that mosques may help produce homegrown terrorists. According to the Washington Post, 34 Americans have been charged by U.S. authorities since January 2009 with direct involvement in international terrorism. But in many of these case, it appears the suspects were radicalized via Internet contacts.

...

A pastor opposed to the proposed Temecula mosque reflected these fears of homegrown terrorism.

"There is a concern with all the rumors you hear about sleeper cells and all that. Are we supposed to be complacent just because these people say it's a religion of peace? Many others have said the same thing," Pastor Bill Rench told the Los Angeles Times.

...

Some opponents of the mosque in Tennessee have told local news outlets they think people will learn jihad inside the mosque's walls, though the local Muslim community has had a smaller mosque in the town for years without incident.

Several hundred people in Tennessee took to the streets of Murfreesboro last week to protest the local Islamic Center's 15-acre land purchase. They were met by a counterprotest of equal size.

"In Islam, a mosque means 'We have conquered this country,' " one man told a local CNN affiliate. "And where are they? They're in the center of Tennessee. They're going to say, 'We have conquered Tennessee.' "

A plan for a separate mosque was tabled in another town in Tennessee this year after public opposition, reports the Tennessean.

Ahmed visited the site of a mosque in Columbia, Tennessee, that had been burned down and vandalized with painted swastikas in 2008, while researching last year.

"The local tiny Muslim community was in a state of shock because most of them were born in America and had lived very happily in the small community," he says. "People say, 'Go back home,' and they say, 'Where do we go? This is our home.' "

I believe that Lewis Sinclair was right, when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. They may come for the Muslims first, but they'll come for you eventually...

Rainbows and Unicorns

So I got some crap in my email from the NRSC entitled "Rainbows and Unicorns". Supposedly it was an April Fool's Joke. For some reason, I'm not laughing. I deleted it, or I'd post the text of it. You can google it and see the retarded video that some vapid, poor excuse for a human being took the time to make.

It takes a lot of cajones to blame the other party when your party is the whole raison d'etre for the economy being in the shite state that it is in.

But you know what, I could give a rats ass. It must be nice to get paid a lot of money to trash your opponents with lies and pandering and meandering waffle while your countrymen have no jobs, can't make ends meet and live out of their cars after being laid off. I mean, it must really burn their biscuits to see so many dirty poor people while they drive to work in their Mercedes and BMWs.

Every single word these political "mavericks" utter makes me hate them even more. In another age, it would have been peasants with pitch forks. Now? It's just a bunch of whiney emo kids complaining that their iPod won't hold a charge and so they can't poke their friends on Facebook or harvest their tomatoes in Farmville.

You know, they waste so much money on nothing. And there are people starving to death, and all they can do is poke sticks at each other. I wish that these stupid fucks would find some deserted island to go to so they could leave the rest of us the hell alone. They could leave all the money they had nothing better to do with anyway to charity, and go drown in their sea of stupidity, hatred, and ignorance.

Well, That's Retarded...

Or as they'd say in Boston, "re-tah-ded". But I digress. WTF is wrong with Palin anyway? I know that uneducated morons tend to have a poor grasp on the English language, but no one in their right mind who wasn't a complete asshole would refer to a child as being retarded. That would be mean. Retarded, the way it is used in the English language now, simply means stupid. NTM, I heard that Palin called her own child that. Whether that is true or not, I could give a rat's ass.

Really? This is all these fuckers have to complain about? People are starving to death, dying over nothing, people in Haiti have lost everything, and all the Palin-ites can do is complain because someone used a word. Fuck 'em, they can take their retarded grasp of the English language, their PC (while simultaneously decrying PC) shit and shove it up their lily white arses.

I mean, when was the last time that you heard someone use the word "retarded" in the context that Palin is screaming about? Maybe fifty years ago? Fucking retards >.<

~~~
Wow. I went complete Boston-ite slash New Yorker in this post LOL

For those of you who have never lived in the northeastern United States, the words "retarded" and "fuck" are adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs, and sometimes even prepositional phrases. XD

Putting Religion First

On my way home tonight, I saw a bumper sticker that said:

Catholic
Conservative
American
In that order.

And I thought, really? You put your religion before your country? (And on top of that they put their political ideology before it too, but that's a whole other post). I suppose that is the way people do it. And I also think that makes them a traitor. Either you defend the Constitution or you don't. If your religion gets in the way of defending the Constitution, then you're not an American. It can't come third. It's either first, or not at all. Christianity is diametrically opposed to secular democracy, which is what the Constitution lays out for us. There is no religion in the Constitution. The only mention of religion is in Article 6, and that is to ensure that no religion is required to hold office or serve the United States.

"...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

I suppose when you believe the big lie, that the writings of semi-nomadic pastorlists, who thought the stars were permanently pasted into the night sky, are the words of "god" and that everyone who doesn't believe what [fill in the sect here] espouses is going to hell, that would make you betray your own country, and if it came down to it, your own countrymen because they're not like you in that they are a different religion, or no religion at all.

Article six was a huge step forward in our civilization. Prior to it, in most places, you had to be the religion of the ruling party to vote (if you could vote), to hold office, or in some instances, to even live in said place. In the colonies here, prior to the Revolutionary War, there were laws that required people to be a certain religion to participate in the operation of the colony. That is the reason why Roger Williams left Massachusetts to found Rhode Island. They ran him out because he wanted a voice in his own governance without having to convert to the official state religion.

I just don't get these people. And it's late... I'm sure I'm rambling now...

OMG! Teh Gayz are Serving! in the UK anyway...

Over at JoeMyGod you can read the discussion about how Peter Spriggs is an asshat. He claims that 1.) if gays serve openly in the military they will go on rape sprees, that 2.) if they serve tons of straight people will resign in protest and that 3.) homosexuality should be outlawed and gays imprisoned. If you read my post from the other day, he's not alone. Unfortunately.

What this is about though, is that gays serve openly in the UK and have for ten years now. And their fundies had the same arguments as ours are having now, and everything they said, never materialized.

Large-scale resignations from the UK armed forces were widely expected in some quarters, when the ban on gays was lifted - but in practice they did not materialise.

At least one British army brigadier publicly resigned in protest, citing "strongly held moral and military convictions" but most observers were surprised at how smoothly the new law - which was forced on the UK government by the European Court of Human Rights - was implemented...

British Security Minister Lord Alan West, a former head of the Royal Navy, told the Associated Press in July 2009 that allowing gays to serve openly was "much better".

"For countries that don't do that - I don't believe it's got anything to do with how efficient or capable their forces will be. It's to do with prejudices, I'm afraid," he said.

I find it appalling that we, America, are supposed to be the land of the free, a place where everyone is equal and has civil rights and equal protection under the law, and yet the Europeans right now have surpassed us in civil liberties by leaps and bounds. For godsake, Portugal has allowed gay marriage. Conservative, Catholic Portugal! Of all places. And we're the United States, and we're a bunch of fucking asshats over here apparently. I suppose that's what happens when you found a country with Puritans. Their descendants are uptight assholes who have to meddle in their neighbor's business to make sure they're doing what some deity or other wants.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --CS Lewis

What's a Matter with US?

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy." --Thomas Frank

I read this article over at the BBC, and I have to tell you, they hit on something there. No one cares about facts. They only care about how things make them "feel." It's why people elect idiots to office, who serve not the people who elected them, but Corporate masters. It's why they blame Obama for the mess we're in, and why they blame him for not waving a magic wand to get us out of it. I suppose that Obama should have studied a bit harder at Hogwarts, because he just isn't all that good at magically cleaning up two decades of Republican mismanagement in a year.

Last time I checked, large, complex civilizations don't just turn on a dime. You can think of our civilization as a really big aircraft carrier. You don't just whip it right around like it's a Lamborghini or something. It's not possible.

People are stupid. They don't care about facts, or logic, or what is real, or what it actually takes to accomplish something. All they care about is listening to pundits and talking heads shriek about things that make them "feel" like they have some kind of power over the situation and that validate any emotions they might have about it. Because, when it comes to humanity, facts are never important and neither is the truth.

Queue the Cattle Cars

Props to JoeMyGod for this one...

"If you believe that what drug abusers need is to go into an effective detox program, then we should likewise put active homosexuals through an effective reparative therapy program.
The bottom line here is that, biblically, those "who practice homosexuality" should come under the purview of the law just as much as those who take people captive in order to sell them into slavery." --Bryan Fischer (emphasis mine)

And to think my last post was on Anne Frank and the suppression of literature in our public schools. Today, I read that yet another ignorant demagogue wants to send homosexuals to prison for reparative therapy. Is the fact that the Nazis called for the same thing lost on these idiots? Apparently, or they wouldn't spout such nonsense.

My next question is, who the hell do these people think they are? Bryan Fischer is unequivocally calling for a theocracy, openly and without any sort of shame. Subject to Biblical Law as Civil Law?! In these United States? Bryan Fischer, if you read this, YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF! And so can the rest of the fuck-tards who follow his thinking.

I daresay that I haven't been quite so angry and simultaneously annoyed over anything in a long time. I suppose it should come as no surprise. Oh sure, you read this sort of thing all the time from some crackpot troll on message boards, or blogs. But this guy is on the radio, people actually listen to him, he has a platform, and what he is advocating is an overthrow of our democratic system. Our Constitution doesn't allow the sending of people to prison for thought crimes, or crimes against a religion. If Bryan Fischer wants theocracy, he can go live in fucking Saudi Arabia. I keep telling these ignorant bastards that, but they don't get it. Probably because they have the critical thinking skills of a slug. And that's an insult to slugs!

If you think this doesn't affect you because you're not gay or you don't know anyone who is, remember that in Germany, lots of people thought that what was happening didn't affect them because they weren't Jewish, until it was too late.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.
                --Martin Niemöller

I've probably said it before, but I'll say it again, in the Middle Ages people were subject to civilian law for religious "crimes" which were what we would now call thought-crimes. We're talking like Orwell's 1984 here. Orwell wasn't writing solely about the future, he was drawing on the past. People could be dragged in before the Inquisition, in what amounted to a kangaroo court, convicted of heresy after interrogation, (see: torture) for not *believing* what they were told they should believe by the Church. They were then, in what amounts to a mockery of morality and justice, "relaxed" or turned over to the secular authorities for punishment. This meant burning at the stake in most times and places, though later it might amount to hanging.

Make no mistake, this is exactly what people like Bryan Fischer want. They want to be able to kill people for not conforming to their version of Christianity. They will never say it outright, not until they're in a position to carry it out, but they're getting bolder and bolder all the time. When we're to the point that they're willing to openly push for incarcerating people for not believing as they do, we're on a dark and dangerous path as a country. We can't let the demagogues drag us back into the Dark Ages...

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
                --Justice William O. Douglas

They'd Really Rather Burn the Books Instead

Some dipshit parent got mad that The Diary of Anne Frank has explicit material in it, and school officials in Virginia caved to it. And you wonder why American children are some of the lowest ranking in the Industrialized world. Our education system here is a joke.

If these "Christian" (and I use that term loosely) don't want their children to learn anything, they should home-school them. And hide the Bible from them while they're at it, because the Bible is about a hundred times more illicit and graphic than The Diary of Anne Frank. Of course the dipshit parent has probably never read either.

So there you have it. This is the exact same reason why an entire nation of people went along with the Nazis and allowed millions to die in death camps. Because they were stupid and uneducated chattel.

"Rudy and the Big Lie"

Sounds like it could be the title of a blockbuster movie huh?

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*Sigh* It really makes Goebbels look like an amateur.

Oh, and Rudy here is a frickin' mathematician, 6 days is less than 10. Really? I would have never known that.





Just keep saying it.* The chattel will love you for it.

*"it" being 9/11