Sunday, October 31
Thursday, October 28
Wednesday, October 27
Juan Williams Is Right, by Michael Moore
Michael you've outdone yourself! Your 'Stickittodamaniosis' rocks on!!!
Dear Juan,
Sorry to hear you got fired by National Public Radio for saying on Fox that you get nervous when you see Muslims on a plane with you. It was dumb to say such a thing, but I don't think saying one dumb thing should be a firing offense. (I do think that an NPR journalist who accepts money from Fox News for his work a regular commentator should be a firing offense, but that's another story.)
But there's more to this—and some important things that everyone is missing.
For instance, what you said about Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani immigrant who wanted to bomb Times Square. When he was being sentenced this month, he claimed, according to you, that his attempted attack was just “the first drop of blood.” We can't let political correctness blind us to this, you explained.
I guess Shahzad made a big impression on you, because after being fired you went back on Fox and told them, “You can't ignore the fact of what has even recently been said in court with regard to this is ‘the first drop of blood in a Muslim war in America.’”
Sadly for you (and this is also why you shouldn't be working for a real news organization like NPR), Shahzad never said that. If you were a real journalist, you would have quoted him accurately. What he actually said was that he was the “first droplet of the flood,” not blood. But I know how easy it is to mishear things when scary Muslims are talking. And I guess it's not a huge difference anyway.
What really matters is that you're 100 percent right: We shouldn't let political correctness stop us from paying close attention to what people like Shahzad say. The problem is, you just haven't taken it far enough.
So Juan, I'm asking you to join me on a crusade—whoops, scratch that, let's call it a “mission”—to publicize these statements by Faisal Shahzad as widely as possible. Because most of the media hasn’t spent much time on what he had to say.
We shouldn’t let political correctness stop us from paying close attention to what people like Faisal Shahzad say. The problem is, you just haven’t taken it far enough.
Here's what he said at his recent sentencing (after talking about being a droplet in a flood):
“[Saladin] liberated Muslim lands ... And that's what we Muslims are trying do, because you're occupying Iraq and Afghanistan... So, the past nine years the war with Muslims has achieved nothing for the U.S., except for it has waken up the Muslims for Islam. We are only Muslims trying to defend our people, honor, and land. But if you call us terrorists for doing that, then we are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing until you leave our land and people at peace.”
And this is what Shahzad said when he pleaded guilty back in June:
• Roja Heydarpour: Not All Terrorists Are Stupid, Juan
• Howard Kurtz: NPR's Juan Williams Disaster“I want to plead guilty, and I'm going to plead guilty 100 times over, because until the hour the U.S. pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and stops killing the Muslims, and stops reporting the Muslims to its government, we will be attacking U.S., and I plead guilty to that.”
Then there’s email that Shahzad sent to a friend in 2006:
“Everyone knows the current situation of Muslim World... Friends with peaceful protest! Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed? And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows? In Palestine, Afghan, Iraq, Chechnya and elsewhere.”
And then there's what Shahzad was telling friends and relatives even before that.
Shahzad had long been critical of American foreign policy. “He was always very upset about the fabrication of the W.M.D. [sic] stunt to attack Iraq and killing non-combatants such as the sons and grandson of Saddam Hussein,” said a close relative. In 2003, Shahzad had been copied on a Google Groups email message bearing photographs of Guantánamo Bay detainees, handcuffed and crouching, below the words “Shame on you, Bush. Shame on You.”
So what do you say, Juan? Now that you have a new $2 million contract with Fox, let me come on air with you for some in-depth discussions about the terrorists’ real motivations. We can’t let another day go by in which the PC brigade stops us from telling the truth: Terrorists aren't trying to kill us because they hate our freedom. They're killing us because we’re in their countries killing them.
Yours,
Michael Moore
P.S. If you want to understand suicide bombings, be sure to read Robert Pape’s new book that studied every instance of it for the past 30 years, Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It. It's been used by many groups of many religions, not just Arabs and not just Muslims. And almost all such terrorism has one motivation in common: occupation by foreign militaries.
P.P.S. Here’s something else that I’d sincerely love to talk about with you: What do you think when you see rich middle-aged white men talking on TV about how they get nervous around African Americans on the street? And then explain that we can’t let political correctness stop us from talking about black-on-white crime?
Does it drive you crazy that they say this, without even being conscious of the history of far greater violence by white people toward blacks? And do you maybe understand now how those middle-aged white guys get it so wrong?
UPDATE: Juan, you probably remember in 1986 when the Washington Post Magazine ran a Richard Cohen column defending jewelry store owners who wouldn’t buzz in young black men. It caused such a big controversy that the New Republic ran a bunch of responses to it, including one by you. You might find it interesting to go back and read what you wrote then—for instance, “Racism is a lazy man's substitute for using good judgment ... Common sense becomes racism when skin color becomes a formula for figuring out who is a danger to me.”
In an open letter to the ex-NPR commentator, Michael Moore argues that Williams may have spoken clumsily, but one aspect of his message was spot-on: Political correctness about terrorists must end.
Dear Juan,
Sorry to hear you got fired by National Public Radio for saying on Fox that you get nervous when you see Muslims on a plane with you. It was dumb to say such a thing, but I don't think saying one dumb thing should be a firing offense. (I do think that an NPR journalist who accepts money from Fox News for his work a regular commentator should be a firing offense, but that's another story.)
But there's more to this—and some important things that everyone is missing.
For instance, what you said about Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani immigrant who wanted to bomb Times Square. When he was being sentenced this month, he claimed, according to you, that his attempted attack was just “the first drop of blood.” We can't let political correctness blind us to this, you explained.
I guess Shahzad made a big impression on you, because after being fired you went back on Fox and told them, “You can't ignore the fact of what has even recently been said in court with regard to this is ‘the first drop of blood in a Muslim war in America.’”
Sadly for you (and this is also why you shouldn't be working for a real news organization like NPR), Shahzad never said that. If you were a real journalist, you would have quoted him accurately. What he actually said was that he was the “first droplet of the flood,” not blood. But I know how easy it is to mishear things when scary Muslims are talking. And I guess it's not a huge difference anyway.
What really matters is that you're 100 percent right: We shouldn't let political correctness stop us from paying close attention to what people like Shahzad say. The problem is, you just haven't taken it far enough.
So Juan, I'm asking you to join me on a crusade—whoops, scratch that, let's call it a “mission”—to publicize these statements by Faisal Shahzad as widely as possible. Because most of the media hasn’t spent much time on what he had to say.
We shouldn’t let political correctness stop us from paying close attention to what people like Faisal Shahzad say. The problem is, you just haven’t taken it far enough.
Here's what he said at his recent sentencing (after talking about being a droplet in a flood):
“[Saladin] liberated Muslim lands ... And that's what we Muslims are trying do, because you're occupying Iraq and Afghanistan... So, the past nine years the war with Muslims has achieved nothing for the U.S., except for it has waken up the Muslims for Islam. We are only Muslims trying to defend our people, honor, and land. But if you call us terrorists for doing that, then we are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing until you leave our land and people at peace.”
And this is what Shahzad said when he pleaded guilty back in June:
• Roja Heydarpour: Not All Terrorists Are Stupid, Juan
• Howard Kurtz: NPR's Juan Williams Disaster“I want to plead guilty, and I'm going to plead guilty 100 times over, because until the hour the U.S. pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and stops killing the Muslims, and stops reporting the Muslims to its government, we will be attacking U.S., and I plead guilty to that.”
Then there’s email that Shahzad sent to a friend in 2006:
“Everyone knows the current situation of Muslim World... Friends with peaceful protest! Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed? And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows? In Palestine, Afghan, Iraq, Chechnya and elsewhere.”
And then there's what Shahzad was telling friends and relatives even before that.
Shahzad had long been critical of American foreign policy. “He was always very upset about the fabrication of the W.M.D. [sic] stunt to attack Iraq and killing non-combatants such as the sons and grandson of Saddam Hussein,” said a close relative. In 2003, Shahzad had been copied on a Google Groups email message bearing photographs of Guantánamo Bay detainees, handcuffed and crouching, below the words “Shame on you, Bush. Shame on You.”
So what do you say, Juan? Now that you have a new $2 million contract with Fox, let me come on air with you for some in-depth discussions about the terrorists’ real motivations. We can’t let another day go by in which the PC brigade stops us from telling the truth: Terrorists aren't trying to kill us because they hate our freedom. They're killing us because we’re in their countries killing them.
Yours,
Michael Moore
P.S. If you want to understand suicide bombings, be sure to read Robert Pape’s new book that studied every instance of it for the past 30 years, Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It. It's been used by many groups of many religions, not just Arabs and not just Muslims. And almost all such terrorism has one motivation in common: occupation by foreign militaries.
P.P.S. Here’s something else that I’d sincerely love to talk about with you: What do you think when you see rich middle-aged white men talking on TV about how they get nervous around African Americans on the street? And then explain that we can’t let political correctness stop us from talking about black-on-white crime?
Does it drive you crazy that they say this, without even being conscious of the history of far greater violence by white people toward blacks? And do you maybe understand now how those middle-aged white guys get it so wrong?
UPDATE: Juan, you probably remember in 1986 when the Washington Post Magazine ran a Richard Cohen column defending jewelry store owners who wouldn’t buzz in young black men. It caused such a big controversy that the New Republic ran a bunch of responses to it, including one by you. You might find it interesting to go back and read what you wrote then—for instance, “Racism is a lazy man's substitute for using good judgment ... Common sense becomes racism when skin color becomes a formula for figuring out who is a danger to me.”
Tuesday, October 26
From NPR - Britain’s Cuts: Daring or Daft? Britain announced an austerity package that has stunned even the most hard-nosed American deficit hawks.
NPR's On Point did a fantastic job covering Britain's MASSIVE 20% CUT ACROSS THE BOARD.
Austerity or Bust! I give them a high five for giving it a try.
I can't even begin to understand the world of economics. I try by reading as many articles that my frozen shoulder will let me mouse around for. All I ever really needed to know about economics, I learned from The Dark Wraith. I'm sure many of you have seen his classroom video lectures. I've also hung at Mises, The Daily Reckoning, and currently, Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture.
Austrian, Keynesian, Chicago, whatever. I'm sure these SOUND economic theories have a lot of merit amongst the more educated but I only know simple math. As a realtor, my calculations only involve P & I. So my opinion here is not based on "knowledge", like Mr. Krugman's, just feeeelings.
I've got to side with the austerity package here folks. I think we've come to a point in our economic history were models don't work anymore. How can they when the ones running the show are not playing by the rules?
If you have time, take a listen to George Osborne, Britain's Finance Minister (that's all I know about him), speaking to Parliament last week. I like what I hear:
..."It is a hard road but it leads to a better future - (groan groan). We are going to bring the years of ever rising borrowing to an end. We are going to insure, like every solvent household in the country, that what we buy we can afford... (Orgasmic Groans!) and that the bills we incur we have the income to meet. And that we do not saddle our children with the interest on the interest on the interest of the debts that we were not prepared ourselves to pay. "
The whole segment is really a great listen. This one-armed blogger was grateful to put the mouse down for a while.
Here's the rest of the line up:
I sure hope the Dark Wraith stops by to spread some of his merrymaking
Austerity or Bust! I give them a high five for giving it a try.
I can't even begin to understand the world of economics. I try by reading as many articles that my frozen shoulder will let me mouse around for. All I ever really needed to know about economics, I learned from The Dark Wraith. I'm sure many of you have seen his classroom video lectures. I've also hung at Mises, The Daily Reckoning, and currently, Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture.
Austrian, Keynesian, Chicago, whatever. I'm sure these SOUND economic theories have a lot of merit amongst the more educated but I only know simple math. As a realtor, my calculations only involve P & I. So my opinion here is not based on "knowledge", like Mr. Krugman's, just feeeelings.
I've got to side with the austerity package here folks. I think we've come to a point in our economic history were models don't work anymore. How can they when the ones running the show are not playing by the rules?
If you have time, take a listen to George Osborne, Britain's Finance Minister (that's all I know about him), speaking to Parliament last week. I like what I hear:
..."It is a hard road but it leads to a better future - (groan groan). We are going to bring the years of ever rising borrowing to an end. We are going to insure, like every solvent household in the country, that what we buy we can afford... (Orgasmic Groans!) and that the bills we incur we have the income to meet. And that we do not saddle our children with the interest on the interest on the interest of the debts that we were not prepared ourselves to pay. "
The whole segment is really a great listen. This one-armed blogger was grateful to put the mouse down for a while.
Here's the rest of the line up:
Alex Barker, economics correspondent for the Financial Times.
Lord Robert Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, director of the Moscow School of Political Studies, and a trustee of the Manhattan Institute. He is active in the British House of Lords. He is the preeminent biographer of John Maynard Keynes, having published a three-volume work, now condensed into a single volume: “John Maynard Keynes, 1883 to 1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman.” His latest book is “Keynes: The Return of the Master.”
Tim Besley, professor of economics and political science at the London School of Economics. From September 2006 to August 2009, he served as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast and associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York. He’s also a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. His new book is “The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris.”
Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization focused on fiscal responsibility.
I sure hope the Dark Wraith stops by to spread some of his merrymaking
THE GREAT AMERICAN BANK ROBBERY
Here is a video from June '09 (OVER A YEAR AGO???) pretty much explaining exactly what is finally coming out about "mortgate" (good one - eh?). There are quite a few blogs and videos on the intertubes now that explain what these bankers are doing and what they are getting away with. (You know -- all the bullshit we had already figured out ourselves here at blondesense through the years.)
DESCRIPTION
6/11/09 -- William K. Black, the former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board who investigated the Savings and Loan disaster of the 1980s, discusses the latest scandal in which a single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than was lost during the entire Savings and Loan crisis. He will examine the political failure behind this economic disaster, in which not only massive fraud has taken place, but a vast transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class continues as the federal government bails out the seemingly reckless, if not the criminal. Black teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and is the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. (Run Time: 1 hour, 38 min.)
(link)
8/12/10 -- William K. Black on The Keiser Report
gotta luv those youtube comments:We are in the "Let them eat cake" phase...heading towards the "Off with their heads" phase.
If you're too busy today and want a fantastic 2 minute take:
Felix Salmon Explains Why Lawsuits Are Flying At Banks Who Turned Crap Into Triple AAA (Mortgage Mess TV)
sources
Felix Salmon
The Daily Bail
WRH has a great BANKERS GONE WILD post up with lots of good linkage
I gotta wonder what false flag attack The Masters Of The Universe will cook up this time to attempt to hide this shit storm.
DESCRIPTION
6/11/09 -- William K. Black, the former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board who investigated the Savings and Loan disaster of the 1980s, discusses the latest scandal in which a single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than was lost during the entire Savings and Loan crisis. He will examine the political failure behind this economic disaster, in which not only massive fraud has taken place, but a vast transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class continues as the federal government bails out the seemingly reckless, if not the criminal. Black teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and is the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. (Run Time: 1 hour, 38 min.)
(link)
8/12/10 -- William K. Black on The Keiser Report
gotta luv those youtube comments:We are in the "Let them eat cake" phase...heading towards the "Off with their heads" phase.
If you're too busy today and want a fantastic 2 minute take:
Felix Salmon Explains Why Lawsuits Are Flying At Banks Who Turned Crap Into Triple AAA (Mortgage Mess TV)
sources
Felix Salmon
The Daily Bail
WRH has a great BANKERS GONE WILD post up with lots of good linkage
I gotta wonder what false flag attack The Masters Of The Universe will cook up this time to attempt to hide this shit storm.
Monday, October 25
Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle, by Minstrel Boy
Has anybody heard from Minstrel Boy lately? I think he showed up on
the facebook account I set up. I think it's him -- I've lost track of real names and blogger names. Too weird -- I've been trying to find him because I wanted to post one of his famous recipes. I am going to attempt this treat for halloween.
He put this up over at bigbrassblog last NO it can't be 4 years agohalloween:
Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
by: Minstrel Boy
This one goes out to Spudsy who wrote a great Question of the Day over to Shake's about his pumpkin obsession.
Usually I save this one for Thanksgiving, where it has replaced pumpkin pie as the traditional family favorite, but since I'm going to be in a totally obsessive work mode all next week (the question of the day was about obsessions and I copped to being obsessed with my work in music), blogging will be light and I thought I would offer up something to amuse you all.
So, without further ado. . .Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
The first thing you must do is to make a gingerbread. This is an extra spicy version that has flavor enough to stand up to the other flavors that will be flying around the room.
Ingredients for the Gingerbread:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup apple juice
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
Butter and flour a 10" Springform pan. Heat oven to 350°.
Stir together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt in a container. (I use a plastic measuring pitcher because it comes in handy later)
In a large bowl, mix sugar with oil, juice, molasses, eggs, and fresh ginger in a large bowl. Mix in crystallized ginger. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Then bake for an hour. Cool this for ten minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely. (You could actually even stop right here and serve this warm with some whipped cream or a nice little Creme Anglais but resist my friends resist this is only going to get better)
Pumpkin Custard Ingredients
3 cups half-and-half
6 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups puréed pumpkin, or about 1 1/2 cans
Scald the half & half in a heavy saucepan (by scalding we mean to take it right up to the edge of boiling then remove it from the heat). In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in pumpkin and warm half-and-half. When it is smooth and thoroughly mixed put it into a buttered baking dish which you then set into a larger baking dish. Fill the larger dish with hot water to about 1" below the rim of the custard dish. This is called a Bain Marie and will ensure that your custard bakes evenly all the way through. Bake this at 325° for 50 minutes and start to check it. You want a set, firm custard and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Cool and refrigerate overnight.
To assemble your trifle get your trifle bowl out (visuals are important with this, so don't be a barbarian, get a trifle bowl) and make sure it is sparkling clean.
Whip one quart heavy cream with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and set aside.
You will also want about 1/2 cup of gingersnap crumbs.
Spoon 1/2 of the Pumpkin Custard into the bowl and layer 1/2 of the gingerbread over that and 1/2 of the whipped cream over that. Do it again. Top the final layer of whipped cream with the gingersnap crumbs (optional for you folks that aren't into the whole sobriety thing is to also drizzle the gingerbread layer with a little Grand Marnier or a nice Calvados, not drench you libertine, drizzle).
When you make your entrance with this, remember, be gracious in accepting your accolades. You never have to tell them how easy it was. I never will.
the facebook account I set up. I think it's him -- I've lost track of real names and blogger names. Too weird -- I've been trying to find him because I wanted to post one of his famous recipes. I am going to attempt this treat for halloween.
He put this up over at bigbrassblog last NO it can't be 4 years agohalloween:
Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
by: Minstrel Boy
This one goes out to Spudsy who wrote a great Question of the Day over to Shake's about his pumpkin obsession.
Usually I save this one for Thanksgiving, where it has replaced pumpkin pie as the traditional family favorite, but since I'm going to be in a totally obsessive work mode all next week (the question of the day was about obsessions and I copped to being obsessed with my work in music), blogging will be light and I thought I would offer up something to amuse you all.
So, without further ado. . .Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
The first thing you must do is to make a gingerbread. This is an extra spicy version that has flavor enough to stand up to the other flavors that will be flying around the room.
Ingredients for the Gingerbread:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup apple juice
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
Butter and flour a 10" Springform pan. Heat oven to 350°.
Stir together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt in a container. (I use a plastic measuring pitcher because it comes in handy later)
In a large bowl, mix sugar with oil, juice, molasses, eggs, and fresh ginger in a large bowl. Mix in crystallized ginger. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Then bake for an hour. Cool this for ten minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely. (You could actually even stop right here and serve this warm with some whipped cream or a nice little Creme Anglais but resist my friends resist this is only going to get better)
Pumpkin Custard Ingredients
3 cups half-and-half
6 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups puréed pumpkin, or about 1 1/2 cans
Scald the half & half in a heavy saucepan (by scalding we mean to take it right up to the edge of boiling then remove it from the heat). In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in pumpkin and warm half-and-half. When it is smooth and thoroughly mixed put it into a buttered baking dish which you then set into a larger baking dish. Fill the larger dish with hot water to about 1" below the rim of the custard dish. This is called a Bain Marie and will ensure that your custard bakes evenly all the way through. Bake this at 325° for 50 minutes and start to check it. You want a set, firm custard and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Cool and refrigerate overnight.
To assemble your trifle get your trifle bowl out (visuals are important with this, so don't be a barbarian, get a trifle bowl) and make sure it is sparkling clean.
Whip one quart heavy cream with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and set aside.
You will also want about 1/2 cup of gingersnap crumbs.
Spoon 1/2 of the Pumpkin Custard into the bowl and layer 1/2 of the gingerbread over that and 1/2 of the whipped cream over that. Do it again. Top the final layer of whipped cream with the gingersnap crumbs (optional for you folks that aren't into the whole sobriety thing is to also drizzle the gingerbread layer with a little Grand Marnier or a nice Calvados, not drench you libertine, drizzle).
When you make your entrance with this, remember, be gracious in accepting your accolades. You never have to tell them how easy it was. I never will.
FACEBOOK: Do I Or Don't I?
The Unexpurgated Bible #42
"Go ye into all the world, and make friends on Facebook.
He who accepts your friend request shall be saved;
he who doesn't shall be damned."
by Fearguth @ bildungblog
(Great site!)
I can't believe I'm even contemplating this. I've fought my kids about "social networking" since myspace. I lost.
I still ridicule them pretty regularly about facebook though. It's just one of those pet peeves I guess. Maybe it's because I'm a long time blogger and don't understand. Are they similar?
The only reason I am thinking about this is because I'm trying to sell tickets to a fundraising dance for the Music Department. It was suggested that I put the word out on my facebook page. I was surprised how many of the over 50 crowd is "on the facebook"
Is it really a good place to network? I guess I can see how it would be.
I can't bear to ask my kids for assistance in setting this up. I may need your help.
I've heard it can be very addicting and I've got quite an addictive personality. Any tips on how to avoid being totally sucked in?
I suppose I could just take it down in a few weeks after the dance if I found myself to caught up.
Who knows, maybe it will be on to twitter next!
Maybe I'll attempt the Articles of Confederation (21st Century Edition) in tweets...
or maybe I'll just keep them as written -- There was no president or executive agencies or judiciary. There was no tax base. There was no way to pay off state and national debts from the war years.
Hmmmm......
Sunday, October 24
Saturday, October 23
I think I'm sophisticated 'cause I'm livin' my life like a good homo sapien...
A question for any genetics experts out there.
We recently heard from his self-coronated, exalted majesty that:
On his radio show today, Beck wondered how many people in the country believe in evolution, and said he doesn't: "I don't think we came from monkeys. I think that's ridiculous. I haven't seen a half-monkey, half-person yet." "If I get to the other side and God's like, 'You know what, yep, you were a monkey once,' I'll be shocked, but I'll be cool with it," he said.
(First off, He's presuming he's going to meet with a divine being after living such a pious life)
Here's the question:
If a man is born with 6 fingers on each hand and should meet and marry a woman who also has six fingers on each hand, what kind of odds would allow for their offspring to be born with 6 fingers on each hand?
And if they were born thusly and met and married others with similar attributes would their progeny become the "norm" in succeeding generations?
Would that not be "evolution?"
For Glenn.
We recently heard from his self-coronated, exalted majesty that:
On his radio show today, Beck wondered how many people in the country believe in evolution, and said he doesn't: "I don't think we came from monkeys. I think that's ridiculous. I haven't seen a half-monkey, half-person yet." "If I get to the other side and God's like, 'You know what, yep, you were a monkey once,' I'll be shocked, but I'll be cool with it," he said.
(First off, He's presuming he's going to meet with a divine being after living such a pious life)
Here's the question:
If a man is born with 6 fingers on each hand and should meet and marry a woman who also has six fingers on each hand, what kind of odds would allow for their offspring to be born with 6 fingers on each hand?
And if they were born thusly and met and married others with similar attributes would their progeny become the "norm" in succeeding generations?
Would that not be "evolution?"
For Glenn.
Friday, October 22
Obligatory Friday Sex Post
Mechanical Sex Edition.
No, ladies and gents, I'm not speaking of the use of machinery when having sex (although I have seen more than a few examples, but that's a tale for another time).
I ran across an article that describes a new type of medical condition called Sexsomnia. Apparently, this condition involves mainly men who fall asleep, but suddenly have rough, 'mechanical' sex with their partners, with no regard for their comfort. And according to the study in the article, it runs in families through the male line.
Interesting, no?
No, ladies and gents, I'm not speaking of the use of machinery when having sex (although I have seen more than a few examples, but that's a tale for another time).
I ran across an article that describes a new type of medical condition called Sexsomnia. Apparently, this condition involves mainly men who fall asleep, but suddenly have rough, 'mechanical' sex with their partners, with no regard for their comfort. And according to the study in the article, it runs in families through the male line.
Interesting, no?
Thursday, October 21
In Our "Well, Duh" Department
Harmeen Jones is a thirty-two year old man who makes his living as a TV news technician. He is also an African-American, a fact that shall figure prominently in the following narrative.
Needing employment (and who doesn't?), he started working part-time for a major TV network in 2005, and began working full-time in 2007.
But no longer.
Mr. Jones alleges in a recent $5 million lawsuit that he endured racist and sexist and offensive comments during his years on the job, and got fired from his job after he complained that a coworker was a racist.
His employer?
FOX News, at their hindquarters in New York City.
Mr. Jones should have known way back in 2005 that statements like "This is what happens when you mess with white people's health care" are pretty much the norm there, and if they'll let Falafel Boy Bill O'Reilly flourish there, it's pretty much open season.
Needing employment (and who doesn't?), he started working part-time for a major TV network in 2005, and began working full-time in 2007.
But no longer.
Mr. Jones alleges in a recent $5 million lawsuit that he endured racist and sexist and offensive comments during his years on the job, and got fired from his job after he complained that a coworker was a racist.
His employer?
FOX News, at their hindquarters in New York City.
Mr. Jones should have known way back in 2005 that statements like "This is what happens when you mess with white people's health care" are pretty much the norm there, and if they'll let Falafel Boy Bill O'Reilly flourish there, it's pretty much open season.
Tuesday, October 19
Stupid West (Palin), meet even stupider East (O'Donnell)
Is it possible that someone running for office in this country, a 40 year old (virgin, she says), could actually be stupider than Sarah Palin? This moron makes you wonder at the intelligence of those who claim to be tea baggers. Are all you tea bigots as bright as O'Donnell?No wonder you support Republicans and hate yourselves.
I guess that explains a lot!
AMENDMENT 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, or petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O’Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons’ position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.
Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn’t belong in our public schools."
"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O’Donnell asked him.
When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O’Donnell asked: "You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?"
Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.
Many of the students where dumbfounded that someone could be so incredibly stupid.
Sunday, October 17
When the Kingdom of Moronica is overthrown, Moe (hailstone) Howard becomes dictator
I happened to catch this oldie but goodie on AMC this morning.
Comedy at its finest!!
enjoy...
Comedy at its finest!!
enjoy...
Sunday Sermon from HARVEY WASSERMAN- America's Founders Were Deistic Liberal Humanists Whose Core Beliefs the Likes of Glenn Beck Hate
a guest commentary for BUZZFLASH
This is a Greco-Roman nation, gathered in a Hodenosaunee longhouse.
As they wrap themselves in the Constitution they mean to shred, that is the self-evident Truth the Tea/GOP Party ultimately cannot face.
Our legal godfathers--the ones Glenn Beck loves to conjure--were Deistic liberal humanists whose core beliefs he hates.
They dumped that tea because they despised the corporation that owned it and the idea of empire it (and today's corporate-military right) stood for.
The very first phrase of this nation's defining document, the Bill of Rights, says:
"Judaeo-Christian? Not a chance."
The grassroots farmers that made the Revolution were free-thinking hemp growers. Their favorite scribe, Tom Paine, was the son of a Quaker whose Age of Reason assaulted the church with unsurpassed fury. Today's Tea/GOP would have it burned.
Our greatest genius, Ben Franklin, was a proud and joyous sexual adventurer. His very presence today would induce howls of (envious) outrage from the religious right.
It was Franklin who most loved Native America. He introduced himself to the French as "an American savage." He stamped the Hodenosaunee (Iroquois) gifts of personal freedom and a democratic confederation into the soul of the new nation.
More formally, our tradition of direct voting, still alive in many New England towns, where the Revolution was born, was conceived in Athens, 508 BC. The Republic ("if you can keep it," as Franklin warned) came from Rome, 509 BC.
The federal structure adopted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, was---with Franklin's mentoring---based on the Iroquois Confederacy. That union was born at latest 1540 AD. It sustained a functioning democracy for at least 250 years, still longer than the US has been in existence.
The matriarchal Hodenosaunee were defined by a love of nature and communal land stewardship. Open dialog was as easily accepted as abortion and homosexuality. Along with so many other lethal diseases, Original Sin was an unwanted import.
It is the humanistic liberalism of America's Founders that STILL enrages today's neo-Puritan Tea/GOP. The Jefferson they love to claim fathered at least five children with his slave Sally Hemings, thirty years his junior. Some were conceived while he lived "alone" in the White House.
He and Franklin and Madison and Paine had no time for the Christian faith. It's by their intelligent design that Jesus appears nowhere in the Constitution. Their liberal Deism said a Creator got the universe going, installed the laws of nature, endowed humans with free will (and inalienable rights), then left.
Franklin's disdain for church services spices his autobiography. Jefferson clipped all references to a divinity for Jesus out of his personal Bible. Paine's Age of Reason still enrages the official church. Madison's First Amendment enshrines disdain for an official religion. Unitarianism in all its liberal diversity was shared by presidents two through six, including two Adamses, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.
Their system of checks and balances was based on the Socratic proposition that with the freedom to dialog, human reason will prevail. Thus the First Amendment's very first phrase exalts freedom from Religion, ie separation of church and state, a phrase coined by Jefferson, demanded by the new nation as a whole.
Like virtually all other American farmers, Washington and Jefferson raised serious quantities of hemp, and made good money from it. Franklin owned a paper mill that ran on it. All may well have smoked its psycho-active cousin, now known as marijuana. If you told them the nation they founded would make this versatile herb illegal, they would laugh at you.
They'd be equally horrified to hear the Foxist Tea/GOP claiming them as icons in a sectarian crusade for repression and empire.
Today's religious right is an unholy fusion of theocratic authoritarianism---which our Founders hated above all---and corporate tyranny, whose tea they pitched in Boston harbor.
Along with George III, there's nothing they loathed more than the anti-human hypocrisy we hear from the Foxist Legion.
Likewise, Beck, Pailn, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and their ilk would have shrieked with rage at the actual Franklin and Paine, Jefferson and Madison, not to mention the populist farmers and sailors, workers and women who fought and died for the Revolution we all Revere (yes, him too!).
So next time those Tea/GOP phonies gaze off in the distance to claim kinship with the Founders, remind everyone you know who really did win that Revolution and write that Bill of Rights.
Those hemp-growing, tree-hugging, corporate-hating deistic free loving and free thinking present-at-the-creation Americans believed above all that the Truth would keep us free.
Now more than ever, it's our patriotic duty to prove them right.
HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at www.harveywasserman.com, along with PASSIONS OF THE POTSMOKING PATRIOTS by "Thomas Paine."
mass con't below with bag o' douche beck
This is a Greco-Roman nation, gathered in a Hodenosaunee longhouse.
As they wrap themselves in the Constitution they mean to shred, that is the self-evident Truth the Tea/GOP Party ultimately cannot face.
Our legal godfathers--the ones Glenn Beck loves to conjure--were Deistic liberal humanists whose core beliefs he hates.
They dumped that tea because they despised the corporation that owned it and the idea of empire it (and today's corporate-military right) stood for.
The very first phrase of this nation's defining document, the Bill of Rights, says:
"Judaeo-Christian? Not a chance."
The grassroots farmers that made the Revolution were free-thinking hemp growers. Their favorite scribe, Tom Paine, was the son of a Quaker whose Age of Reason assaulted the church with unsurpassed fury. Today's Tea/GOP would have it burned.
Our greatest genius, Ben Franklin, was a proud and joyous sexual adventurer. His very presence today would induce howls of (envious) outrage from the religious right.
It was Franklin who most loved Native America. He introduced himself to the French as "an American savage." He stamped the Hodenosaunee (Iroquois) gifts of personal freedom and a democratic confederation into the soul of the new nation.
More formally, our tradition of direct voting, still alive in many New England towns, where the Revolution was born, was conceived in Athens, 508 BC. The Republic ("if you can keep it," as Franklin warned) came from Rome, 509 BC.
The federal structure adopted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, was---with Franklin's mentoring---based on the Iroquois Confederacy. That union was born at latest 1540 AD. It sustained a functioning democracy for at least 250 years, still longer than the US has been in existence.
The matriarchal Hodenosaunee were defined by a love of nature and communal land stewardship. Open dialog was as easily accepted as abortion and homosexuality. Along with so many other lethal diseases, Original Sin was an unwanted import.
It is the humanistic liberalism of America's Founders that STILL enrages today's neo-Puritan Tea/GOP. The Jefferson they love to claim fathered at least five children with his slave Sally Hemings, thirty years his junior. Some were conceived while he lived "alone" in the White House.
He and Franklin and Madison and Paine had no time for the Christian faith. It's by their intelligent design that Jesus appears nowhere in the Constitution. Their liberal Deism said a Creator got the universe going, installed the laws of nature, endowed humans with free will (and inalienable rights), then left.
Franklin's disdain for church services spices his autobiography. Jefferson clipped all references to a divinity for Jesus out of his personal Bible. Paine's Age of Reason still enrages the official church. Madison's First Amendment enshrines disdain for an official religion. Unitarianism in all its liberal diversity was shared by presidents two through six, including two Adamses, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.
Their system of checks and balances was based on the Socratic proposition that with the freedom to dialog, human reason will prevail. Thus the First Amendment's very first phrase exalts freedom from Religion, ie separation of church and state, a phrase coined by Jefferson, demanded by the new nation as a whole.
Like virtually all other American farmers, Washington and Jefferson raised serious quantities of hemp, and made good money from it. Franklin owned a paper mill that ran on it. All may well have smoked its psycho-active cousin, now known as marijuana. If you told them the nation they founded would make this versatile herb illegal, they would laugh at you.
They'd be equally horrified to hear the Foxist Tea/GOP claiming them as icons in a sectarian crusade for repression and empire.
Today's religious right is an unholy fusion of theocratic authoritarianism---which our Founders hated above all---and corporate tyranny, whose tea they pitched in Boston harbor.
Along with George III, there's nothing they loathed more than the anti-human hypocrisy we hear from the Foxist Legion.
Likewise, Beck, Pailn, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and their ilk would have shrieked with rage at the actual Franklin and Paine, Jefferson and Madison, not to mention the populist farmers and sailors, workers and women who fought and died for the Revolution we all Revere (yes, him too!).
So next time those Tea/GOP phonies gaze off in the distance to claim kinship with the Founders, remind everyone you know who really did win that Revolution and write that Bill of Rights.
Those hemp-growing, tree-hugging, corporate-hating deistic free loving and free thinking present-at-the-creation Americans believed above all that the Truth would keep us free.
Now more than ever, it's our patriotic duty to prove them right.
HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at www.harveywasserman.com, along with PASSIONS OF THE POTSMOKING PATRIOTS by "Thomas Paine."
mass con't below with bag o' douche beck
BAG O' DOUCHE BECK is out of control. This douche bottle has gone full throttle and needs to be PULLED OFF THE AIR NOW
mass con't... (communion)
Grab a BIG goblet of wine, and if your harvest is ready, you may also want to spark one up, as it will keep you from harming your computer.
From his website "the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" (not linked for obvious reasons)
FIRST PARAGRAPH you asshole -- "free exercise thereof"
I love annie leonard's "stuff" series and think it is a fantastic, MUST SEE for every child (and adult). I'm glad my former CCD (compulsive catholic disorder) teacher moms are using this in class.
OK
sit back and watch this bloviating piece of...
GET HIM OFF THE ALTER PLEASE. NO MORE THREATS
Tides Foundation CEO To Fox News Advertisers: Drop Glenn Beck Or Have Blood On Your Hands
Please pass Wasserman's post and these videos around. It is now our responsibility as citizens to help our friends and family who cannot find the off switch on their remote.
If you absolutely can't stomach beck, here's a summary of the show that I found over at
icecap:
Beisner was a guest with Beck along with WallBuilders President David Barton to discuss how the Green movement infiltrates churches, targeting children and youth especially. Conversation focused on Sunday school and group study curriculum produced by a group calling itself GreenFaith, supported by the Tides Foundation, a liberal organization closely linked with financier George Soros, who has also supported the efforts of Jim Wallis and Sojourners to promote Leftist notions of social justice, wealth redistribution, and wealth equalization.
Beck, Barton, and Beisner discussed the ways in which GreenFaith’s curriculum, “Let There Be . . . Stuff?” promoted unbiblical ideas as if they were Biblical, such as saying, “When we drink, we owe a debt to the earth’s great waters” - not, as Christians would say, to God who made the great waters. “We opened our hearts to creation,” Beisner quoted the curriculum saying - not to Jesus Christ.
Beisner pointed out that the curriculum seeks to frighten young people by alarmist claims that the “stuff” we produce and consume is “poisoning us,” despite the fact that the vast majority of things produced aren’t poisonous, those that are poisonous are safe when properly used, and the steady increases in human health and life expectancy over the 250 years since the start of the Industrial Revolution indicate that the benefits of industrialization and production outweigh the risks to humanity.
Barton explained how environmentalism reverses the priorities of the Biblical, Judeo-Christian hierarchy of creation. While the Bible presents a hierarchy starting with inanimate Earth and rising through plants, fish, birds, and animals to man as the highest of God’s creatures, with the others intended to serve humanity as well as display God’s glorious power and wisdom, environmentalism puts man at the bottom and works its way up to Earth, the preservation of which becomes the highest priority.
In response to Beck’s asking why the Greens were so vigorously targeting churches and synagogues, Barton and Beisner pointed out that conservative, Bible-based religious groups have consistently been the most skeptical American population segment of Progressivism in general and of environmentalist claims of crises and catastrophes in particular. As a result, the Left has recognized the importance of getting more conservative religious groups to endorse its ideas and policies.
Beisner explained that Resisting the Green Dragon provides a Biblically faithful alternative to the often pagan, New Age, Eastern pantheist, or secular atheist views of the Green movement.
The lecture series is now available and can be ordered here, where visitors can also sign up for a free 12-minute preview video.
Grab a BIG goblet of wine, and if your harvest is ready, you may also want to spark one up, as it will keep you from harming your computer.
From his website "the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" (not linked for obvious reasons)
Remember "the Story of Stuff"? It was a cartoon that the progressives put together to convince our kids that America is evil
and that we're destroying the planet...it's now taught in 5,000 schools nation wide. Well-now, they are using that same 'Story of Stuff' message and heading into our churches and synagogues with a spin-off production called "Let There Be Stuff?" it is a curriculum that in their words will help kids 'explore their relationship between their consumption their faith, and the health of the planet".
FIRST PARAGRAPH you asshole -- "free exercise thereof"
I love annie leonard's "stuff" series and think it is a fantastic, MUST SEE for every child (and adult). I'm glad my former CCD (compulsive catholic disorder) teacher moms are using this in class.
OK
sit back and watch this bloviating piece of...
GET HIM OFF THE ALTER PLEASE. NO MORE THREATS
Tides Foundation CEO To Fox News Advertisers: Drop Glenn Beck Or Have Blood On Your Hands
Please pass Wasserman's post and these videos around. It is now our responsibility as citizens to help our friends and family who cannot find the off switch on their remote.
If you absolutely can't stomach beck, here's a summary of the show that I found over at
icecap:
Beisner was a guest with Beck along with WallBuilders President David Barton to discuss how the Green movement infiltrates churches, targeting children and youth especially. Conversation focused on Sunday school and group study curriculum produced by a group calling itself GreenFaith, supported by the Tides Foundation, a liberal organization closely linked with financier George Soros, who has also supported the efforts of Jim Wallis and Sojourners to promote Leftist notions of social justice, wealth redistribution, and wealth equalization.
Beck, Barton, and Beisner discussed the ways in which GreenFaith’s curriculum, “Let There Be . . . Stuff?” promoted unbiblical ideas as if they were Biblical, such as saying, “When we drink, we owe a debt to the earth’s great waters” - not, as Christians would say, to God who made the great waters. “We opened our hearts to creation,” Beisner quoted the curriculum saying - not to Jesus Christ.
Beisner pointed out that the curriculum seeks to frighten young people by alarmist claims that the “stuff” we produce and consume is “poisoning us,” despite the fact that the vast majority of things produced aren’t poisonous, those that are poisonous are safe when properly used, and the steady increases in human health and life expectancy over the 250 years since the start of the Industrial Revolution indicate that the benefits of industrialization and production outweigh the risks to humanity.
Barton explained how environmentalism reverses the priorities of the Biblical, Judeo-Christian hierarchy of creation. While the Bible presents a hierarchy starting with inanimate Earth and rising through plants, fish, birds, and animals to man as the highest of God’s creatures, with the others intended to serve humanity as well as display God’s glorious power and wisdom, environmentalism puts man at the bottom and works its way up to Earth, the preservation of which becomes the highest priority.
In response to Beck’s asking why the Greens were so vigorously targeting churches and synagogues, Barton and Beisner pointed out that conservative, Bible-based religious groups have consistently been the most skeptical American population segment of Progressivism in general and of environmentalist claims of crises and catastrophes in particular. As a result, the Left has recognized the importance of getting more conservative religious groups to endorse its ideas and policies.
Beisner explained that Resisting the Green Dragon provides a Biblically faithful alternative to the often pagan, New Age, Eastern pantheist, or secular atheist views of the Green movement.
The lecture series is now available and can be ordered here, where visitors can also sign up for a free 12-minute preview video.
Saturday, October 16
Friday, October 15
Forget about gold!
I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret and a great, make that super great investment tip. It’s a secret I’ve learned from an economics professor who has had the uncanny ability to correctly predict the disasters we’ve faced for the last 6 years and his insights and writings have enabled me to make this bit of financial advice available to you for free.
Now, normally you’d pay big bucks to some Wall Street Broker or Financial Advisor for this kind of tip, but here it is for free:
Forget about gold! Forget about oil investments. Even forget about buying up land with water under it. Take all your money out of your banks, liquidate your 401Ks (if you have anything left in them), cash in any CDs and insurance policies, sell your new gas guzzler and buy a 1986 Corolla, sell your house and live with your parents or kids, take every penny you have or can get and invest, buy or steal every bit of stock in the companies that make Vaseline and Preparation H!
The return on just those two over the next 10 years will put you in the 36% tax bracket while you sip Grand Marnier (served by brown people) off the French Riviera on the deck of your yacht as you stuff your face with the most expensive cheese money can buy.
Why?
It seems the banks we bailed out are delaying the foreclosure stint so they will “appear” to lose money (they say they're doing everything the can. Does that sound familiar? Eh, Barry?), then since every politician knows those same banks are too big to fail, Congress and our “chains we can believe in” president will bail them out again! Simple, no?
You don’t have to be an economist to see what they’re doing.
You don’t have to be a math wizard to understand that if they spend more than they claim to take in, they could fail.
So. Banks give out huge bonuses (from the bailout they’ve already gotten from the taxpayers), stop lending to people and small business and sit on the money until the stock they owned drops low enough to buy it back at a huge profit, waste time telling America they're doing everything you can to help (someone!), then since their 1980s Reagan matured accountants, lawyers and financial usurers have made sure the books are as intelligible as a 25 inning score sheet, they'll cry to Congress for more money to bail them poor boys out.
The only problem they might face is not with the Republicans but whether the Democrats in Congress will prostrate themselves for the banks again.
Oh, they’ll use the same excuses they used the last time, because the public is even stupider this time and Congress knows it. And the politicians will do it with a smile this time instead of the feigned shock just like the last time.
Get ready to kick in even more of your tax dollars than you did last time and tighten your belts, save your pennies or whatever other cliché will be the phrase du jour. Oh, and Kleenex and toilet paper (but please don't squeeze the Charmin!) might not be a bad investment either.
Gold? Don’t make me laugh! A mere pittance. Sitting on cold, shiny metal can cause abnormal growths in certain areas and it really doesn't clean as well or provide healing or physical relief.
But if you invested in the stocks I mentioned, you should be sitting pretty, so to speak, while the rest of the country can’t get enough Vaseline and Preparation H!
…unless you think parts of your anatomy are already calloused enough to ignore the "coming" intrusions.
"Re-educate?" Who's the Goddamned Marxist Now?
I was reading, as is my wont, and I ran across this little snippet of bovine fecal material belched from the gaping maw of Ron Johnson, the GOP candidate for Senate from Wisconsin (courtesy Politico):
A plea to Jon Stewart...HELP -- EVERYBODY IS TOO BUSY
I was so excited to hear about the rally being televised. I realized I had too much mommy stuff to take care of and couldn't afford another fun trip to The Mall. Well, actually I could have made the trip happen, but as I stated in this Seventy-Percent Solution Post when Jon first announced the rally, I didn't want it to be considered a direct response to glenn beck's rally. I wanted to see ALL CITIZENS taking turns at sharing solutions. NO MORE SIDES. No more jokes. We need to really get serious.
Then when I started to see that some locations across the country were planning satellite rallies I thought, ok now I'm going to get some local discussion going and test the waters. I'm just one person here -- famous last words. All I need is ONE other person to start. Then WE just need a third and voila, we have a crowd!
I immediately thought about the Mark Twain House here in Hartford. I love everything about that place. Hubby and I bought our first condo right across the street (I swear it was the day before the start of the last real estate fiasco in the late 80's) -- Great memories!! We stuck it out there as long as possible, eagerly awaiting the light rail system that was supposed to have passed right by our unit, taking us to a thriving downtown! Insurance Capitol of the World! Home of the Hartford Whalers!!!!! Good times ahead... Our unit "appreciated in value" 20k in less than 6 months (we only paid 40). The rest is history. After our insurance company finally dropped us from so many broken glass claims on our cars parked in the streets, and I didn't want to hide out at the Mark Twain House with a baby carriage, we decided to move. We ended up not being able to dump the condo because of the rapidly declining prices. We couldn't afford to do a short sale. Our only option out of there was bankruptcy. We just couldn't start out like that. We would have to try to rent it. (Gee, how convenient they changed the bankruptcy laws just in time for this latest real estate blow up.) Then we found out since is was a first time buyer financed deal, we weren't allowed to rent it. Sorry I'm getting side tracked here but as a former realtor, this whole mortgage thing is beyond crisis. (great comments here also) These banks really made a mess of things. Focus Jersey, focus. Sorry
Anyway, yesterday I jumped on the Mark Twain House website and wrote a quick email to some random names on their list of employees and board of trustees. I knew their calendar of events was full that day, but why not try:
--------------------------------------end email
Someone actually responded today!! I was thrilled. A really nice, fairly long, and very sincere response. But........
they are too busy and I completely understand (I still think we could pull something together via satellite, video, whatever...) The one who responded to me actually would have gone to washington with some friends but is too busy working at the house that day. All events aside, the bottom line was that as an employee, they could not act as arbiter on my behalf.
Bottom, bottom line: Although it is not specifically a republican or democrat event, the fact that the rally is a fairly direct response to glenn beck’s rally would potentially put the museum in some people’s eyes as choosing sides. Too bad. THIS IS PRECISELY what needs to stop. We are ALL the busy majority and are smart enough to know that "they" are both sides of the same coin. Bear with me here folks, my train is veering again...You must must MUST read this post over at my favorite financial blog, Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture The Left/Right Paradigm is Over: It's You Vs. Corporations. All of the comments that follow are a must read also (yours truly made a few). We need to stop debating about all of the different points of view out there and FOCUS ON FACTS VERSUS LIES and not the illusion. (I threw in a few Gordon Gekko quotes from WS1) I just read this one today from WS2: "Someone reminded me I once said "Greed is good". Now it seems it's legal. Because everyone is drinking the same Kool Aid. "
damn right!
We are way too diverse now in so many ways beyond race. It seems that everything that was so simple has now become too complicated as a result of this diversity. Everyone has their own way/idea of doing things. We all must first accept this fact and then put it to the side for a decade or two. THEN we start fixing the broken things that affect us all as guests on this planet (I think that's what the government tries to do?///)
DEMOCRACY IS MESSY - get over it.
OH - and don't forget -- the corporations are now considered "people" so in reality, it's we the people versus we the people. You Emerging Adults are inheriting a big mess. You can't get caught up in picking sides. You need to break these destructive cycles and just start fixing things.
I'm now off to bother some of my kid's professors at our local university. Maybe they will host a satellite rally that day, followed by a group of serious students/professors/members of the community participating in a civilized (one person talking at a time) discussion. Give everyone a shot at 60 seconds to share a thought that might be an example of a "sane idea" to fix one of the many problems facing us today. I'm sure some Film/Media majors could help out? And when everybody leaves, KEEP THE DISCUSSION GOING. Tape it and send it to Comedy Central.
I am begging Jon Stewart to then air submitted videos from around the country that offer real solutions, not points of view, from regular folk who are too busy, too poor, and too unconnected to become a politician in order to "serve the public." (Ha! good one - eh?) Stewart's the only one who might let our voices be heard.
I just read Colbert failed to get proper permits, had to partner with Stewart and it's the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear!
This is really morphing. Let's make sure it keeps going.
Maybe they could show our clips of real, attainable solutions with Stewart, and then Colbert could rip them all apart on his show with the fear angle.
Well, that's all for now folks. I've got to go send some emails.
Any suggestions on how I might get someone in Jon Stewart's office to read this?
Then when I started to see that some locations across the country were planning satellite rallies I thought, ok now I'm going to get some local discussion going and test the waters. I'm just one person here -- famous last words. All I need is ONE other person to start. Then WE just need a third and voila, we have a crowd!
I immediately thought about the Mark Twain House here in Hartford. I love everything about that place. Hubby and I bought our first condo right across the street (I swear it was the day before the start of the last real estate fiasco in the late 80's) -- Great memories!! We stuck it out there as long as possible, eagerly awaiting the light rail system that was supposed to have passed right by our unit, taking us to a thriving downtown! Insurance Capitol of the World! Home of the Hartford Whalers!!!!! Good times ahead... Our unit "appreciated in value" 20k in less than 6 months (we only paid 40). The rest is history. After our insurance company finally dropped us from so many broken glass claims on our cars parked in the streets, and I didn't want to hide out at the Mark Twain House with a baby carriage, we decided to move. We ended up not being able to dump the condo because of the rapidly declining prices. We couldn't afford to do a short sale. Our only option out of there was bankruptcy. We just couldn't start out like that. We would have to try to rent it. (Gee, how convenient they changed the bankruptcy laws just in time for this latest real estate blow up.) Then we found out since is was a first time buyer financed deal, we weren't allowed to rent it. Sorry I'm getting side tracked here but as a former realtor, this whole mortgage thing is beyond crisis. (great comments here also) These banks really made a mess of things. Focus Jersey, focus. Sorry
Anyway, yesterday I jumped on the Mark Twain House website and wrote a quick email to some random names on their list of employees and board of trustees. I knew their calendar of events was full that day, but why not try:
Good Morning,
I am hoping someone in your organization might be aware of the upcoming Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive on 10/30/10? I can't think of a better place to raise awareness of this event than at the Mark Twain House. Is there any chance at all that we could participate in this rally?
It's probably too late to put together a "peaceful gathering" and you never know who's going to show up. Any chance a small group of Mark Twain worshipers could gather inside and possibly get some "satellite coverage" so we could participate in this event? I truly believe this rally/march could be the start of a REAL grassroots movement. A call and an invitation for people to respectfully disagree, and to learn how to have rational reasonable discussions rather than just being so angry and combative all the time. I am hopeful that it isn't just a good time had by all, but a true call to the busy majority who are ALL fed up with
what is happening around us, regardless of our political beliefs.
Most of the problems that we the people are now currently facing are fixable by we the people. After all, we the people are the ones who created (or willfully ignored) our current state of affairs. We CAN fix things. We don't need to take sides to do so. The politi$ian$ (?elected officials??) and cable networks are so busy running their 24/7 non-stop political campaigning it's no wonder we can't agree on anything, much less get anything done.
Let's just at least take it local. It's where everything matters at the moment.
Perhaps someone on your Board of Directors knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who could get MARK TWAIN (via Hartford, CT) to open up, or make an appearance at the rally?
(where's Hal?)
"So you see, the quality of humor is not a personal or a national monopoly. It's as free as
salvation, and, I am afraid, far more widely distributed. But it has its value, I think. The hard and
sordid things of life are too hard and too sordid and too cruel for us to know and touch them
year after year without some mitigating influence, some kindly veil to draw over them, from time
to time, to blur the craggy outlines, and make the thorns less sharp and the cruelties less
malignant."
Mr Mark Twain
"Humor is the good natured side of a truth."
Mr. Mark Twain.
It looks like a group of people in St. Louis are organizing a satellite rally on the steps in front of the arch. It appears they are going all out though. Organizers are raising money, booking acts, etc.
Ours is a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, especially all the way in Washington D.C., who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs) — not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence… we couldn’t. That’s sort of the point.
If we can't open up the area to a few hundred people on 10/30/10, maybe we could stage a round table discussion inside (period dress of course). Film a 60 second PSA focusing on real issues and real concerns (ok, maybe a little humor) and send it to Comedy Central -- you never know! Maybe those Connecticut filmmakers Noah Cooper and Michal Trzaska could help us out. I see they will be there that same afternoon participating in Mark Twain & the Army of Darkness (oh what a great shot of irony to go along with that great sense of humor!). If we can't book an "event", there's got to be some way we could squeeze in a quick video shoot of a crowd in front of the Twain House rallying to restore a little sanity.
Any chance we could pull something together?
"When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained."
~Mark Twain
--------------------------------------end email
Someone actually responded today!! I was thrilled. A really nice, fairly long, and very sincere response. But........
they are too busy and I completely understand (I still think we could pull something together via satellite, video, whatever...) The one who responded to me actually would have gone to washington with some friends but is too busy working at the house that day. All events aside, the bottom line was that as an employee, they could not act as arbiter on my behalf.
Bottom, bottom line: Although it is not specifically a republican or democrat event, the fact that the rally is a fairly direct response to glenn beck’s rally would potentially put the museum in some people’s eyes as choosing sides. Too bad. THIS IS PRECISELY what needs to stop. We are ALL the busy majority and are smart enough to know that "they" are both sides of the same coin. Bear with me here folks, my train is veering again...You must must MUST read this post over at my favorite financial blog, Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture The Left/Right Paradigm is Over: It's You Vs. Corporations. All of the comments that follow are a must read also (yours truly made a few). We need to stop debating about all of the different points of view out there and FOCUS ON FACTS VERSUS LIES and not the illusion. (I threw in a few Gordon Gekko quotes from WS1) I just read this one today from WS2: "Someone reminded me I once said "Greed is good". Now it seems it's legal. Because everyone is drinking the same Kool Aid. "
damn right!
We are way too diverse now in so many ways beyond race. It seems that everything that was so simple has now become too complicated as a result of this diversity. Everyone has their own way/idea of doing things. We all must first accept this fact and then put it to the side for a decade or two. THEN we start fixing the broken things that affect us all as guests on this planet (I think that's what the government tries to do?///)
DEMOCRACY IS MESSY - get over it.
OH - and don't forget -- the corporations are now considered "people" so in reality, it's we the people versus we the people. You Emerging Adults are inheriting a big mess. You can't get caught up in picking sides. You need to break these destructive cycles and just start fixing things.
I'm now off to bother some of my kid's professors at our local university. Maybe they will host a satellite rally that day, followed by a group of serious students/professors/members of the community participating in a civilized (one person talking at a time) discussion. Give everyone a shot at 60 seconds to share a thought that might be an example of a "sane idea" to fix one of the many problems facing us today. I'm sure some Film/Media majors could help out? And when everybody leaves, KEEP THE DISCUSSION GOING. Tape it and send it to Comedy Central.
I am begging Jon Stewart to then air submitted videos from around the country that offer real solutions, not points of view, from regular folk who are too busy, too poor, and too unconnected to become a politician in order to "serve the public." (Ha! good one - eh?) Stewart's the only one who might let our voices be heard.
I just read Colbert failed to get proper permits, had to partner with Stewart and it's the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear!
This is really morphing. Let's make sure it keeps going.
Maybe they could show our clips of real, attainable solutions with Stewart, and then Colbert could rip them all apart on his show with the fear angle.
Well, that's all for now folks. I've got to go send some emails.
Any suggestions on how I might get someone in Jon Stewart's office to read this?
Tuesday, October 12
Employment Alert!
Island to be staffed exclusively by blondes
A travel company has announced plans to open a holiday resort in the Maldives staffed exclusively by young blonde women in an attempt to break the stereotype that "blonde women are less intelligent".(sic)
A travel company has announced plans to open a holiday resort in the Maldives staffed exclusively by young blonde women in an attempt to break the stereotype that "blonde women are less intelligent".(sic)
Monday, October 11
Nietzsche Would Have Loved Limbaugh
A couple days ago, the globulous fraud Rush Limbaugh, the homophobe who had Elton John sing at his wedding (I expect a divorce within a year), slobbered the following into his microphone (hat tip to John Amato at Crooks and Liars, where he listens to Rush so you don't have to):
"... some people are born lazy. Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be slaves. Some people are born to put up with somebody else making every decision for them."
Okay. This is, by the way, what Rush truly believes. He's not an entertainer or rodeo clown like Beck, he's not a fame-whore like Coulter, and he's never held a political post like Dead Fetus (p)Rick Santorum. He's sincere in his beliefs, and makes no bones about what he spews out onto the airwaves he's abused since the early days of Clinton.
Now, while Rush was vomiting on his mike, another story surfaced, about Christian missionaries who espouse a somewhat different view of Christ's message. These are Christian warriors, who aren't afraid to break boards or bricks or (dare I say it? Dare, dare!) heads in the Name-o-Jeezus. No more "love thy neighbor" claptrap, no more "turn the other cheek" bullshit. Beat your enemies to death in the name of the God of Love.
We've seen this before, and that caused me furiously to think.
And Freddy Nietzsche popped up and said "Hi."
You see, Nietzsche espoused what he called a Master Morality, a kind of take-no-prisoners, hardheaded approach. Master Morality, according to Freddy, values pride, strength, and nobility. Of course, there's also the inverse of the Master Morality, the Slave Morality - which values things like kindness, humility and sympathy.
Nietzsche believed, as I'm sure Rush does (though he may only realize it subconsciously), that Christianity is Slave Morality, and the concentration of Christianity on the "feminine" values of humility, kindness, charity and love for one's fellow man had actually served to hold Humanity back, depriving people of the morality that their wills yearn to embrace in order to advance.
Not content to stick to his bed (from which he eventually went mad and died), Freddy took aim at the rising tide of democracy in his era, claiming that it was slavish and weak. He saw Christianity and Democracy as essentially emasculating humanity by making everyone equal - in this case, equally slaves.
Interestingly enough, a cult grew up in A Certain Nation in central Europe called "Positive Christianity." It proposed to make Christianity Nietzschean by purging it of the slavish influences (and surprisingly, Positive Christian doctrine said that these influences were Jewish, imagine that) that had "corrupted" it since the year 800 AD. And, equally interestingly, this sect used the Sun Cross as a symbol.
Now, where have we seen that before?
Oh, yeah ...
Here.
"... some people are born lazy. Some people are born victims. Some people are just born to be slaves. Some people are born to put up with somebody else making every decision for them."
Okay. This is, by the way, what Rush truly believes. He's not an entertainer or rodeo clown like Beck, he's not a fame-whore like Coulter, and he's never held a political post like Dead Fetus (p)Rick Santorum. He's sincere in his beliefs, and makes no bones about what he spews out onto the airwaves he's abused since the early days of Clinton.
Now, while Rush was vomiting on his mike, another story surfaced, about Christian missionaries who espouse a somewhat different view of Christ's message. These are Christian warriors, who aren't afraid to break boards or bricks or (dare I say it? Dare, dare!) heads in the Name-o-Jeezus. No more "love thy neighbor" claptrap, no more "turn the other cheek" bullshit. Beat your enemies to death in the name of the God of Love.
We've seen this before, and that caused me furiously to think.
And Freddy Nietzsche popped up and said "Hi."
You see, Nietzsche espoused what he called a Master Morality, a kind of take-no-prisoners, hardheaded approach. Master Morality, according to Freddy, values pride, strength, and nobility. Of course, there's also the inverse of the Master Morality, the Slave Morality - which values things like kindness, humility and sympathy.
Nietzsche believed, as I'm sure Rush does (though he may only realize it subconsciously), that Christianity is Slave Morality, and the concentration of Christianity on the "feminine" values of humility, kindness, charity and love for one's fellow man had actually served to hold Humanity back, depriving people of the morality that their wills yearn to embrace in order to advance.
Not content to stick to his bed (from which he eventually went mad and died), Freddy took aim at the rising tide of democracy in his era, claiming that it was slavish and weak. He saw Christianity and Democracy as essentially emasculating humanity by making everyone equal - in this case, equally slaves.
Interestingly enough, a cult grew up in A Certain Nation in central Europe called "Positive Christianity." It proposed to make Christianity Nietzschean by purging it of the slavish influences (and surprisingly, Positive Christian doctrine said that these influences were Jewish, imagine that) that had "corrupted" it since the year 800 AD. And, equally interestingly, this sect used the Sun Cross as a symbol.
Now, where have we seen that before?
Oh, yeah ...
Here.
Friends Don't Let Friends Listen to Glenn Beck
Because it can do terrible things to susceptible minds.
There's Something Happening Here
And what is, is actually fairly clear.
The picture below is cropped from a recent issue of The Atlantic, and the little red arrow points to Rich Iott, a Republican who's running for US Congress from Ohio's 9th District. One of Mr. Iott's hobbies is historical re-enactments, and he and a bunch of his buddies enjoy dressing up as members of the Waffen SS 'Wiking' Division.
I have nothing against war re-enactors (apart from a desire to have them use live ammunition on each other - let's be real here, folks!) but dressing up and playing as members of the SS? According to the original Nuremberg War Crimes Trials papers, the Schutzstaffeln or SS was declared to be a criminal organization. Wearing the uniform or possessing memorabilia is a crime punishable by prison time in Germany and Austria.
And THIS wants to be a US Congressman?
It should come as no surprise whatever that Iott's also a darling of the Tea Party set.
And, hey! Here's a fun fact or two to kick off Monday!
The symbol of the SS Division Wiking (which was a 'foreign' division, made up of Danes, Norwegians, Belgians as well as Germans) is this:
This is known as a Sun Wheel or Sun Cross.
It's also a symbol of the ultranationalist, white supremacist Christian Identity movement.
Surprised?
The picture below is cropped from a recent issue of The Atlantic, and the little red arrow points to Rich Iott, a Republican who's running for US Congress from Ohio's 9th District. One of Mr. Iott's hobbies is historical re-enactments, and he and a bunch of his buddies enjoy dressing up as members of the Waffen SS 'Wiking' Division.
I have nothing against war re-enactors (apart from a desire to have them use live ammunition on each other - let's be real here, folks!) but dressing up and playing as members of the SS? According to the original Nuremberg War Crimes Trials papers, the Schutzstaffeln or SS was declared to be a criminal organization. Wearing the uniform or possessing memorabilia is a crime punishable by prison time in Germany and Austria.
And THIS wants to be a US Congressman?
It should come as no surprise whatever that Iott's also a darling of the Tea Party set.
And, hey! Here's a fun fact or two to kick off Monday!
The symbol of the SS Division Wiking (which was a 'foreign' division, made up of Danes, Norwegians, Belgians as well as Germans) is this:
This is known as a Sun Wheel or Sun Cross.It's also a symbol of the ultranationalist, white supremacist Christian Identity movement.
Surprised?
From the comments at Cryptogon:
"What Americans need to face is this: As a function of the existing populations of each, we are building new prisons at a faster rate than new schools. I believe this is a message being intentionally sent to Americans. History will show the human rights violations of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany as minor compared to those of the United State of America."
The quote can be found at ‘Dying Communities See Salvation in New Prisons’.
'Nuff said.
The quote can be found at ‘Dying Communities See Salvation in New Prisons’.
'Nuff said.
Friday, October 8
From the comments at Cryptogon:
They haven’t yet been quite blatant enough to state the equation that
(dog+pony)*(smoke+mirrors)= Our Glorious Democracy
It's located in a blog post entitled:
Obama “Town Hall Meeting” Casting Call.
(dog+pony)*(smoke+mirrors)= Our Glorious Democracy
It's located in a blog post entitled:
Obama “Town Hall Meeting” Casting Call.
Wednesday, October 6
Tuesday, October 5
And they're worried in D.C. about school lunches...
...and our kids getting fat yet they won't do a damn thing about the way business is killing us with what passes for "food" these days.
Maybe a "vegetable" diet of Ketchup ain't so bad after all, eh Ronnie?
From Huffington Post.
The photo has been extensively passed around today, and for good reason: it's a peak into the rarely-seen world of mechanically separated meat, or Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR).
Maybe a "vegetable" diet of Ketchup ain't so bad after all, eh Ronnie?
From Huffington Post.
The photo has been extensively passed around today, and for good reason: it's a peak into the rarely-seen world of mechanically separated meat, or Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR).
Someone figured out in the 1960s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve. The paste you see in the picture above is the result.
Michael Kindt continues:
There's more: because it's crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.The resulting paste goes on to become the main ingredient in many of America's favorite mass-produced and processed meat-like foods and snacks: bologna, hot dogs, salami, pepperoni, Slim Jim-like jerkys, and of course the ever-polarizing Chicken McNugget, where the paste from the photo above was likely destined.
But, hey, at least it tastes good, right?High five, America!
Monday, October 4
What goes around...
Do any of you remember the Willie Horton ad from the Bush-the-First campaign in 1988? Do any of you remember the question Bernard Shaw asked Michael Dukakis during the September 1988 debate? Let me refresh your memory.
Shaw is widely known for the question he posed to Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Michael Dukakis at his second Presidential debate with George H. W. Bush during the 1988 election, which Shaw was moderating. Knowing that Dukakis opposed the death penalty, Shaw asked Dukakis if he would support an irrevocable death penalty for a man who hypothetically raped and murdered Dukakis's wife.
However, Shaw seems to have different views more recently ( Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw is upset with what he sees in broadcast journalism, particularly what he’s viewing on CNN and Fox News Channel). Nevertheless, damage was done and one simple, however nasty, pointed question by a moderator might just have made a huge difference in an election.
Fast Forwarding to today:
Maybe you've heard some of these radical Tea Bigots, Angle, Rand, Miller etc. and even Evangelical quite Right of Center Republicans like Graham and Robertson stating their opposition to abortion for ANY reason, including rape and incest. They claim there's no reason a woman raped by anyone including her father or brother can have an abortion.
With the racist, stupefyingly unrelenting hatred of these Tea Bigots and Evangelical Republicans toward almost any Democrat and especially Obama, perhaps the next time you are confronted by one, they could answer a question sort of in the vein of that of Bernard Shaw's:
"If your daughter were raped by Reverend Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart, Markos Moulitsas, George Soros, Hugo Chaves, Vladimir Putin, bin Laden or especially your mortal enemy, Barack Obama, would you let your daughter carry the baby to term or would you let her have an abortion?"
Post your answer here, Tea Bigots.
Lee Atwater would be so proud!
Shaw is widely known for the question he posed to Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Michael Dukakis at his second Presidential debate with George H. W. Bush during the 1988 election, which Shaw was moderating. Knowing that Dukakis opposed the death penalty, Shaw asked Dukakis if he would support an irrevocable death penalty for a man who hypothetically raped and murdered Dukakis's wife.
However, Shaw seems to have different views more recently ( Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw is upset with what he sees in broadcast journalism, particularly what he’s viewing on CNN and Fox News Channel). Nevertheless, damage was done and one simple, however nasty, pointed question by a moderator might just have made a huge difference in an election.
Fast Forwarding to today:
Maybe you've heard some of these radical Tea Bigots, Angle, Rand, Miller etc. and even Evangelical quite Right of Center Republicans like Graham and Robertson stating their opposition to abortion for ANY reason, including rape and incest. They claim there's no reason a woman raped by anyone including her father or brother can have an abortion.
With the racist, stupefyingly unrelenting hatred of these Tea Bigots and Evangelical Republicans toward almost any Democrat and especially Obama, perhaps the next time you are confronted by one, they could answer a question sort of in the vein of that of Bernard Shaw's:
"If your daughter were raped by Reverend Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart, Markos Moulitsas, George Soros, Hugo Chaves, Vladimir Putin, bin Laden or especially your mortal enemy, Barack Obama, would you let your daughter carry the baby to term or would you let her have an abortion?"
Post your answer here, Tea Bigots.
Lee Atwater would be so proud!
Friday, October 1
Jon Stewart Interviews George Carlin
This interview was from George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy (1997)
I'm sure you all miss Carlin as much as I do.
Oh Noes! What WILL we do, what will we do?
Thank the Coal and Atomic Power Gods that GE is looking out for us. Never mind rates are going up here in Pa. by 35% across the board in 2011; never mind that possession of an incandescent light bulb after January 1, 2011 will get you renditioned to Lower Slobovia and tortured until you love Big Brother.
We ran out of wood to burn...well, it wasn't as efficient as coal but more importantly, those in power at the time (the late 1800s) realized if ALL the trees went away, how would they wipe their asses? So they switched to coal.
In the 50s when we could see through the coal dust and air pollution, we tried to tell the SAPs (Stupid American Public) A-tomic Power was the {radiation} wave of the future, that is until Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Now, most of the SAPs forgot about that and the power companies are taking a page from the Republican Fear Mongering Guide, (2004, 2010 ed. copyright in perpetuity) - and trying to scare the proles stupid (stupider?)with new ads aimed at the less informed, you know, those who watch Fox and the MSM.
So how do we answer GE's frightening question posed in an ad on various blogs (this one was on Americablog.com)? Maybe with a question or two of our own.
Our Questions (in no particular order) to their ad:
Dear G.E.,
What happens when storms knock down power lines for days and weeks at a time?
What happens when hurricanes destroy entire city grids?
When ice storms topple power poles, how long do customers need to freeze before you can save them?
Should an earthquake happen in Kaly-for-nee-a, will the power lines all stay up?
And when you raise your rates so high that seniors and low income families can't pay their monthly tithe, what then? Do you shut their power off...even on sunny days?
Well, if the sun don't shine, or the wind don't blow and the streams dry up for a while, those who have invested in wind, hydro, solar or other alternative energy solutions will probably not go out to get a Boehner Tan. But we'll think about you, the money we're saving and the profits you're collecting from those you've scared literally to death's door.
Maybe a better question should be:
What if the sun shines and wind blows and water flows enough to make G.E. and power companies obsolete? Scary thought, eh, hosers?
Imagination! Where excessive profits begin!
We ran out of wood to burn...well, it wasn't as efficient as coal but more importantly, those in power at the time (the late 1800s) realized if ALL the trees went away, how would they wipe their asses? So they switched to coal.
In the 50s when we could see through the coal dust and air pollution, we tried to tell the SAPs (Stupid American Public) A-tomic Power was the {radiation} wave of the future, that is until Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Now, most of the SAPs forgot about that and the power companies are taking a page from the Republican Fear Mongering Guide, (2004, 2010 ed. copyright in perpetuity) - and trying to scare the proles stupid (stupider?)with new ads aimed at the less informed, you know, those who watch Fox and the MSM.
So how do we answer GE's frightening question posed in an ad on various blogs (this one was on Americablog.com)? Maybe with a question or two of our own.
Our Questions (in no particular order) to their ad:
Dear G.E.,
What happens when storms knock down power lines for days and weeks at a time?
What happens when hurricanes destroy entire city grids?
When ice storms topple power poles, how long do customers need to freeze before you can save them?
Should an earthquake happen in Kaly-for-nee-a, will the power lines all stay up?
And when you raise your rates so high that seniors and low income families can't pay their monthly tithe, what then? Do you shut their power off...even on sunny days?
Well, if the sun don't shine, or the wind don't blow and the streams dry up for a while, those who have invested in wind, hydro, solar or other alternative energy solutions will probably not go out to get a Boehner Tan. But we'll think about you, the money we're saving and the profits you're collecting from those you've scared literally to death's door.
Maybe a better question should be:
What if the sun shines and wind blows and water flows enough to make G.E. and power companies obsolete? Scary thought, eh, hosers?
Imagination! Where excessive profits begin!
Hold on tight...
Hey Brooke...
It's all we got!
It's all we got!
Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see your ship go sailing
When you feel your heart is breaking
Hold on tight to your dream.
It's a long time to be gone
Time just rolls on and on
When you need a shoulder to cry on
When you get so sick of trying
Just hold on tight to your dream
When you get so down that you can't get up
And you want so much but you're all out of luck
When you're so downhearted and misunderstood
Just over & over & over you could
Accroches-toi à ton rêve
Accroches-toi à ton rêve
Quand tu vois ton bateau partir
Quand tu sents -- ton coeur se briser
Accroches-toi à ton rêve.
Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see the shadows falling
When you hear that cold wind calling
Hold on tight to your dream.
Oh, yeah
Hold on tight to your dream
Yeah, hold on tight...
To your dream.
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