Sean Murphy about Why Do I Care About Other's Religions? 23.05.08 In the face of everything
you've written how do you
define and prove unconditional
love? That seems to me to be
central [...]
vjack about Time to get a Tattoo? 21.05.08 I've thought about Dawkins'
scarlet A, but virtually no
non-atheists would even know
what it meant.
JTankers about The Large Hadron Collider 05.05.08 I very much enjoyed Brian's
very inspiring presentation.
I too would be inspired except
for one small detail that he
[...]
Kevin about I'm a Motivator! 05.05.08 This will be bigger than
goatse
Timothy Foreman about The Gumption Trap 03.05.08 That's a possibility. I was
also wondering if one of the
floats was bad. I'll look into
it this weekend.
P. J. O'Rourke explains American Politics to the Europeans in his "Letter to Our European Friends" posted at the Cato Institute.
The difference between American parties is actually simple. Democrats are in favor of higher taxes to pay for greater spending, while Republicans are in favor of greater spending, for which the taxpayers will pay. In foreign policy, Republicans intend to pursue the war in Iraq but to do so with a minimal number of troops on the ground. This is not to be confused with the disastrous Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld policy of using a minimal number of troops on the ground to pursue the war in Iraq. Democrats intend to end the war, but they don't know when. Democrats are making the "high school sex promise": I'll pull out in time, honest!
...
Think of America's politicians as the Seven Dwarves. They're all short — short on ethics, short on experience, short on common sense, short on something. But we keep thinking that one of these dwarves is going to save our snow white butt.
Early voting in Texas started on Tuesday. The genius of early voting is that it’s convenient. You can usually vote at any polling place in your county, instead of having to make sure you’re going to the right one. Which makes it simple to vote during your lunch hour or at the grocery store on the way home from work, etc. Great idea, right? I think so. I’ve always enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, it appears that the system is rigged so that convenient polling places are only available to some people, which changes the demographics of who actually votes. Surprise surprise, one of the targets of such abuse is a historically black university outside of Houston called Prairie View A&M. Their county is only providing two voting machines, and they are located away from the university, so voting is convenient for townies, but not the students. The students, who have been victimized by this sort of disenfranchisement tactic before, decided to stage a protest.
The rest of the story gives me great hope for this country.
****Warning**** Adult content (swearing) in this post ****Warning****
There was a thread about impeachment today on one of the mailing lists I run and one of the comments really pushed my button. So I fired off this vitriol (and swear word) laced reply:
> Too bad you decided not to impeach him.
Hey, I didn't "decide not to impeach him" my motherfucking cocksucking spineless toadying representatives did.
I sent those motherfuckers emails and told them to impeach. I signed petitions telling those cocksuckers to impeach.
And did it do any goddamn good? Fuck no!
And can I, personally, start impeachment hearings? Fuck no!
Can you tell I'm pissed off? I sure hope I don't have to be pissed off all the time at the next president, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
And if McCain ends up the next president you can watch the news for me. I'm sure I'll have a stroke driving in my car and screaming at the goddamn cocksucking motherfuckers on the radio.
Fuck it, I'm moving to Mars.
One of the other list members (thanks Magwa!) thought it would be fun to replace all the swear words and this is what he came up with:
Hey, I didn't "decide not to impeach him" my maternal-procreating male chicken oral pressure-intake(ing) ( adv.) and expelling spineless toadying representatives did.
I sent those maternal fertilizers (adj.) emails and told them to impeach. I signed petitions telling those Foghorn Leghorn orifice pleasurers to impeach.
And did it do any dog-gone (adj.) good? Sexual Intercourse no!
And can I, personally, start impeachment hearings? Sexual Intercourse no!
Can you tell I'm urinated (adj. or v.) off? I sure hope I don't have to be catheterized (v.) all the time at the next president, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
And if McCain ends up the next president you can watch the news for me. I'm sure I'll have a stroke driving in my car and screaming at the dog-darn (adj.) Sanders-munching, implanters of seed into those whom have been previously pregnant (ed.) on the radio.
Impale it sexually and fervently, I'm moving to Mars.
This is an awesome rant from The Portly Dyke over at Shakesville!
That's it. I've had it. For the past decade or so, I've been assaulted by the whims of homophobic, sexist, racist, xenophobic, ethnocentric right-wingers.
I've heard them say absolutely outrageous crap, I've read their deluded rants, I've watched their insane, unethical, and fabricated "news" stories, and I've waved them off with a "Yeah, those are some crazy fuckers".
No more.
I've lived long enough now to watch the political pendulum swing a few times, so I knew that sooner or later, the pendulum would swing back from this radical pull to the right -- at times, I even thought: "Fine. Go on. Get crazy with it!"-- knowing that for every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action.
I don't know exactly what happened today, but, for me, this is that time. Reaction day has arrived.
If fundamentalist Xtians (I use this term consciously because I do not believe that anyone who espouses hatred, judgment, killing, etc. is actually a Christian -- any "real" Christians out there? -- you can consider yourself not included in this rant) -- if fundy Xtians have the freedom to claim that LGBT people are "less than", or sinful, or destructive, or threatening -- if Republican sock-puppets can claim that the media is owned and controlled by the "radical Left", and justify torture, and unlawful imprisonment, and wars predicated on lies -- if xenophobic, racist right-wingers can claim that illegal immigrants are over-running our country and ruining it -- if no less an august body than the presidential administration of the USA can dodge and weave and flout the rule of law -- and all of these people can do this while claiming that they are "protecting" my country somehow -- then I can speak, too.
...
From this moment forward, every time I hear some crap like:
1. Homosexuals are dangerous and want to subvert your kids to their lifestyle, OR
2. Women are already equal to men (and even have privilege over men), OR
3. Racism doesn't exist any more and isn't really a problem, OR
4. The media is controlled by the Radical Left, OR
5. Water-boarding isn't torture, and even if it is, sometimes torture is necessary,
6. OR, OR, OR . . . . .
I'm going to say: "No. That is factually incorrect, and I believe that you know that it's factually incorrect."
The only thing I can add to this is "Right fucking on!"
But look now what we have lost. Now when a bad guy crosses our threshhold, America becomes a pants-piddling mess.
Iran's president speaks at a great American university. That university's president, in the act of introducing his lecture, whines like a baby bereft of his pacifier that his guest is a big meany poopy-head. City Council members, too, and a rabbi, make like ten-year-olds, giving their press conference in front of a sign with his face struck through and the legend "Go To Hell." Up in Albany, Democratic leader Sheldon Silver treat the students of this great university like ten years olds, threatening to defund Columbia University lest censors like himself prove unable to shut the poor children's ears to difficult speech. (What, was he worried they'd be convinced, join the jihad?) Then a Republican presidential candidate chimes in—bye, bye, federalism!—saying Washington should starve the school of funds, too. American diplomats used to have the gumption to spar face to face with dreaded foreign leaders. Now they go on cable TV and whine about what a "travesty" it would have been to visit a site which properly should belong to the world. Hundreds of foreign nationals died in the World Trade Center on 9/11 (maybe even some of the Iranian!). Yet we have to systematically repress that—as if our national ego would crack like fine crystal if we were forced to acknowledge the mingling of American blood with that of mere foreigners.
This is a wonderful article about what America was, and what it has become. And it makes me sad. There is more, go read it.
Comments
23.05.08
In the face of everything you've written how do you define and prove unconditional love? That seems to me to be central [...]
21.05.08
I've thought about Dawkins' scarlet A, but virtually no non-atheists would even know what it meant.
05.05.08
I very much enjoyed Brian's very inspiring presentation. I too would be inspired except for one small detail that he [...]
05.05.08
This will be bigger than goatse
03.05.08
That's a possibility. I was also wondering if one of the floats was bad. I'll look into it this weekend.