Pay Attention!
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."--
Elie WieselI wanted to mention a couple of news items, and I'm going to try to be brief. Last night was the Academy Awards. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the word Iraq was mentioned once, just as it was not mentioned once during Bush's innaugural address. There was a brief, not-so-subtle reference to Iraq in Chris Rock's opening monologue, but he only spoke figuratively, using an analogy involving the Gap and Bananna Republic. And there were also a few general references to "Our men and women in uniform," but not specifically to Iraq, where they continue to die for a war started under false pretenses.
As of today, over 1,500 American soldiers have died in Iraq.
I'm not saying the ceremony should have been more political, because it doesn't seem to help much when Hollywood gets involved. But in case anyone hasn't noticed, things are not getting much better over there, despite the fact that they had a democratic election. I would think it might be worth mentioning the word Iraq at least once, considering that we started a war there. Making general references to "Our men and women in uniform around the world" doesn't recognize the enormity of what has happened and what continues to happen in Iraq. Iraq is the elephant in the room everywhere in American life, but no one wants to look at it.
Lest I be accused of caring only about American's who died in Iraq, allow me to mention
this story, about yet another suicide bombing in Iraq, where over 125 people have died (some reports claim that over 300 people died). We have no idea of how many Iraqi civilians have died because of Bush's war, but the estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Ask those dead Iraqis how they feel about the new, democratically elected government. Or ask Iraqis how they feel about the American invasion after the impending and almost inevitable civil war.
We've become so numb to all the deaths in Iraq that we don't even pay attention. Today's attack is hardly being covered in the news, just as the yesterday's attacks were hardly covered, or the attacks on the
day before yesterday, etc. And even if they covered it adequately, would the people of America listen, or would they just tune it out as usual? Most people would rather hear about Salma Hayek's dress at the Oscars than about the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dead in Iraq. It was a beautiful fucking dress, mind you, but people need to pay attention to important things as well.
Okay, I'm done ranting for now.
Duck!
On the Brigher Side...
Okay, I just lost an entire post. That really burns me up. Especially since I just posted a nice, positive piece to contrast the dark one below. It looks like it's all darkness today. At any rate, here is a lovely picture I was attempting to insert when I accidentally navigated away from blogger and lost about 600 words:
The post I lost was a wonderful work of shining brilliance,
but it is lost forever.
To sum up, I had a wonderfully terrifying dream, I need to go to Hawaii at some point in this life, and, oh yes, I'm psychic. After I lost what I spent a half hour writing (Curses!), I am now out of time and am heading out for the night.
Good night all.
Awww...Cute Little Puppy
I just adopted a cute little puppy. His name is Java (after coffee, to which I am addicted, and not to the programming language, in which case Javascript would be more appropriate), and he resides on the right margin of my blog. Please feed him if you will, but there is sound too, so watch out if you're at work (I found out the hard way when a barking noise attracted attention to me while I was doing something other than work).
I saw it on
Heidi's blog, then on
Lohans's, and I just had to have one.
On Those Who Took the Hemlock Root, or Morbid Post of the Year (seriously, I promise I won't write anything this depressing for a long, long time)
I Like a Look of Agony, By Emily Dickinson
I like a look of agony,
Because I know it ’s true;
Men do not sham convulsion,
Nor simulate a throe.
The eyes glaze once, and that is death.
Impossible to feign
The beads upon the forehead
By homely anguish strung.
Resume, By Dorothy Parker
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live."Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of ''the rat race'' is not yet final."----Hunter S. Thompson(Other good Thompson quotes can be found here.)
Okay, as promised, here is my post on suicide, inspired by the death of Hunter S. Thompson. I said I would dedicate a post to it this week, and now I feel obligated to do so, even though I don't really feel like it anymore. It isn't an easy thing to talk about.
So, Hunter blew his brains out. He went out the same way that
Hemingway did. Perhaps there is a connection there, something about great writers and depression. I've heard people make the argument that he was too big of a man to sit by and watch himself deteriorate. I always respected Hunter for taking on authority with a voice that no one else could. His gonzo writing style inspired me when I was a rebellious teenager. The way he died changes my opinion of him, and I wish it weren't so.
Suicide leaves such a feeling of emptiness. All death does, but it is different when someone dies at their own hands. It's a murder for which there can be no justice. No one is held to account, as the killer is also the victim. It is an angry sort of mourning, and it is hard to reconcile under any circumstances.
I don't believe in attempted suicide. If you're serious about it, you make damn sure you get it right the first time. A man who puts a gun to his head leaves little room for error (though I've heard horror stories of people surviving even those attempts.)
My first memory of it was when my neighbor, Mrs. Mac, killed herself when I was about 10 years old. I used to deliver newspapers to her. She liked her paper placed inside her storm door, so it wouldn't get wet or blown away in the wind. If I failed to do so, there were inevitably be a complaint lodged with the route manager. She ran her car in her garage with the door and windows closed, until she asphyxiated and expired.
I remember being a child, terrified of what I knew of death, trying to understand why someone would want to die. Being raised Roman Catholic, I wondered if she would go to heaven. I asked my mother, and she didn't seem to want to answer. This led to many other questions, like whether or not I would go to heaven, or if my dead kitty cat Katie went to heaven. It was something no one would talk about, but which wouldn't go away. Here it is, almost twenty years later, and still I can't look at her house without thinking about that day.
My next memory of suicide came soon afterwards, when I was still a child. Tom W. , one of my older brother's best friends had been doing a lot of drugs--cocaine if I remember correctly. He and my brother must have been sixteen or seventeen years old. Tom was from a wealthy, well-known family in town, and one would have thought that Tom would have gone to an Ivy League school and would have been wealthy and successful himself. His father was chief of the fire department.
Tom must have had many problems with his family, because one day he parked his car on the banks of the Connecticut River. He sat there with a can of gasoline and set himself on fire, until he burned to death. I heard that his father, chief of the fire department, was one of the first people to show up. I can't even imagine the horror of showing up to put out a fire and discovering your own car with the charred remains of your son in it. Seeing what his death did do his family, as well as my brother, had a big effect on me.
There have been others in my life who have ended it all, but I will only relate one more story. Anthony P. was a friend of mine in my early childhood. We were on the swim team together, as well as baseball, soccer, and probably other teams that I'm not thinking of. His father was a justice of the peace who performed the marriage ceremony for one of my older brothers. He was always very intelligent, and did well in school. One day when I was seventeen years old he had sex with my girlfriend at the time, and I resented him ever after for that (I never blamed him so much as her though, for she was a psychotic, slutty whore).
After high school I lost touch with most of my childhood friends, including Anthony and the crowd that he hung out with. I heard after he died that he got into a really bad car accident and was left with a brain injury which made it hard for him to function on his own. I've known a couple of other people who suffered brain injuries, and the effects can be very strange. For example, I worked with someone whose son had a brain injury, and he couldn't drive because when he would take turns he couldn't figure out how to straighten out the car, so he would just keep turning until the car drove off the road. But in other ways the kid would be totally normal, so it was very strange indeed.
Anthony's inability to function must have been very hard for him. One day he filled a suitcase up with bricks, and he rented an expensive suite on the 80th floor of the casino hotel. He used most of the bricks to barricade the door shut, and he used the remaining ones to smash out the window. I heard that he was on the phone with his father as he defenestrated himself. That hurts me more than anything, because his dad is just about the nicest guy you'd ever meet. Still, after he died I couldn't stop thinking about how my girlfriend had cheated on me with him. I felt bad that I was still thinking of that in light of the tragedy, but I couldn't help it.
I guess I'll leave it there. What else could I say? Who am I to judge someone for being driven to such ends?
Dirty Old Man
Well, I don't have a whole lot to tallk about at the moment, so I'll just give a quick update about my love life. Some of you may remember me doing a good deal of whining last week about lingering feelings for the ex-girlfriend, but I'm feeling much better now. I think that episode was precipitated by Valentine's Day and by her going on a first date with someone new. I was feeling really depressed, but I'm starting to get over it.
I actually just started talking to someone, but she is really young for me (21 years old). She seems to be pretty mature for her age, so I'm thinking we could make it work. Would I be a dirty old man for dating a girl seven and a half years younger than me? I don't know what to think. I know it feels good to be talking to someone new, and she seems like a good girl. I'd like to hear what my readers would think about that.
Other than that I don't have much to say. I suppose it's a good thing, because when I'm ranting about politics or whatever it's usually because I'm pissed off about something. I would appreciate any comments or advice on the age issue, as I'm trying to figure out if I should go forward with this.
I shall return later if possible.
Quick News Bytes
I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but there is a lot in the news to talk about.
There is now proof that
President Bush smoked pot. Anyone who is surprised by this is helplessly naive. I don't care that he smoked weed, but I do care that he is one of the hypocritical politicians who push anti-drug policies that put people in jail for years, even though they themselves did the same thing. I will say that I don't think it was right for that guy to secretly tape him. Far be it from me to ever say anything in Bush's defence, but I consider it a serious invasion of privacy to tape someone without their knowledge. It was just as wrong when Linda Tripp
secretly recorded Monica Lewinsky talking about her affair with President Clinton. You see, unlike GOPigs, I'm not a hypocrite.
Also, as I mentioned last night,
Hunter S. Thompson killed himself yesterday with a gunshot to the head. I'll be devoting an entire post to it one day this week, so I'm not going to say much here. I'm sure he had some serious problems, and perhaps was suffering from mental illness, but I still think suicide is just about the most cowardly thing a person can do. I don't know if there is an afterlife, or reincarnation, or what, but I know that no matter what happens after you die, you will end up in a lesser place if you take your own life.
Here is a disturbing story which illustrates why you should never let you girlfriend tie your up to have sex, most especially after an argument. I mean, holy shit, as if it wasn't bad enough that she cut his dick off, but then she flushed it down the toilet. That's just heartless.
Here is another penis related story from a South African publication. I don't know what the hell that guy was thinking.
Okay, no time to ellaborate at the moment. Hopefully I'll be back later with some more commentary.
Hunter S. Thompson, Rest in Peace
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."--Hunter S. Thompson
Shit. Hunter killed himself.
Here is a news report. I'm a little shocked, so I'm not in the mood at the moment, but at some point this week I'll offer some thoughts on suicide and I'll relate some stories of people I have known who took the easy way out.
Sunday Morning Ranting
I just began to read
this article on cnn.com, and I didn't get beyond the second paragraph before my jaw dropped. There was this quote from President Bush: "We do not accept a false caricature that divides the Western world between an idealistic United States and a cynical Europe. America and Europe are the pillars of the free world." (UPDATE: the cnn.com link above is for a story which has been updated several times. The quote no longer appears in the article.)
Do you see what he just did there? Since CNN won't actually take a critical look at anything Bush says, I'll take a stab at it. Most of the world does not see the U.S. as idealistic, but rather as hypocritical and bullying. If anything, Europe is seen as being more idealistic for actually believing that nations should work together to solve the problems of the world.
Bush is in Europe to attempt to bring nations together to put pressure on Iran and Syria, but only because he angered so many in Europe for taking unilateral action against Iraq. Now U.S. forces are so bogged down there that unilateralism is no longer an option (I realize that other nations were involved in the invasion of Iraq, but there was never a real coalition, as Bush would have you believe).
After years of saying "fuck you" to the world, he is now trying to say that the problem is that people think we're too idealistic and that Europe is cynical. And now it’s time for Europe to get on board and bail us out in Iraq and join us in attacking Iran and Syria. He tries to make it look like he's taking the higher ground by claiming to disagree with that statement, but he and his followers truly believe that the U.S. is idealistic and that Europe is cynical. Bush uses idealistic language such as talk about bringing freedom to the world, but then they have policies that seem to endorse such things as torture.
It's the same thing that Fox News does when they say something like "
there are those who say that John Kerry is a metrosexual communist flip flopper." They make a statement which they believe and then try to divert people's attention so it appears that a lot of people believe it.
Bush does that shit all the time, and the media doesn't call him out on it. If a reporter asks him how he feels about the 100,000+ Iraqis who died because of his unjustified invasion, he'll say, "There are people out there who don't think Iraqi's aren't strong enough, or don't want democracy. Well I think everyone in the world wants freedom and democracy."
And the mainstream media doesn't call him out on it. The idea of a liberal media is a myth. I encourage everyone to stop paying attention to the CNN's, the Fox's, and the MSNBC's (BBC is okay, for now). They cannot be trusted. They helped the Bush regime to sell the war in Iraq and they have helped spread the fear that Bush needs to continue doing whatever he wants to do.
Something You've Never Seen
Holy crap. Warning: this link is a little disturbing (it's on MSNBC, so it isn't that bad).
Here it is. I think it speaks for itself. I'll leave it at that.
Many thanks to Mary for emailing me the link.
Just a Quote for Today
"Have you even been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...
You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like "maybe we should just be friends" or "how very perceptive" turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
Rose Walker in Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman
One from the "Holy Crap That's Creepy" Files
Wow, I just heard a teaser for a news report and I had to Google it.
Here is an old story from the BBC. Apparently there is a company who will take ashes from the cremated remains of a loved one and turn it into a diamond. What would you ladies out there think if your boyfriend proposed with a diamond made from the ashes of his dead mother? Can you say, Oedipus Complex gone waaaaay to far???
Here is where you freaks can get one of your own, made from one of your own.
Faux Journalism
I haven't touched on this subject in any of my recent political rants, but I feel the need to at least mention it, since the mainstream media isn't covering it for the most part.
Americablog broke the story and bloggers are keeping the story alive. In addition to
bribing "reporters" with taxpayer money to pitch administration policies and disguise it as real news, the White House has also allowed a fake journalist daily access to press conferences.
"Jeff Gannon", whose real name is James Guckert, was allowed into the White House to insert softball questions, propaganda, and GOPig editorial comments into press conferences whenever the questions started getting difficult.
Oh yeah, and he was also given access to a
classified CIA memo which disclosed the identity of an undercover agent. This memo was released by a traitor in the Bush administration who was retaliating against a diplomat (who was the husband of the outed agent) for opposing the invasion of Iraq.
I'll let you all read up on Guckertgate on your own, but to summarize, he created a fake news website which really just reprints White House press releases, and was somehow allowed into press conferences despite that fact that it was easily discovered that he had no legitimate credentials, was running gay prositution web sites, owes over $20,000 dollars in back taxes, and the plot keeps thickening. There is no way that he would have been allowed into the White House, in shooting distance of the president, without someone in the White House approving it.
The blatant propaganda efforts of the White House should scare the hell out of every American. If the Bush administration was honest, and if their policies had honorable intentions, they wouldn't have to rely on deception to sell their policies. It's bad enough that they have Fox (Faux) News to shill their policies for them, but at least you know in advance that they are biased.
Here is the Daily Show's coverage of it from last night. Everyone should watch it, it is freakin' hysterical, or at least it would be if it weren't so disturbing.
Okay, I'm done for now. I'll probably return later with something different.
How Cool is This?
Let me just say once again that I have way too much time on my hands. I just found
this site, and you'll notice if you click your mouse anywhere on this page (after it has loaded completely) that a colorful display appears. The code can be obtained by clicking on "cursor effects" on the left. I'm thinking it'll be a cool effect to have since I tend to include a lot of links. (NOTE: the effect may not work with Netscape. In fact, it may only work with Explorer, but I'm not sure. If any geeks out there know more about Javascript than I do, please feel free to share your knowledge with me. I'm new at this.)
There's another effect I tried to use which makes a trail behind the mouse, but I found that it was taking forever for the page to load when I included it. Plus, it can be a little obnoxious to include too many tricks like that. See
Little Boy for an example of Javascript overkill. At first I thought Little Boy was a CIA agent (or Iranian agent??) who got his name from one of the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, but now I think he might actually be a kid in Iran. He was going around posting the same comment in people's blogs all over the world, complimenting their blogs (and mine) and inviting people to come to his. He posted the same comment in broken English, regardless of what language the site was in. It seems to have worked because tons of people came and commented in his blog. His site is sketchy as hell, at any rate.
It Am the American Way
Jesus Christ people.
Here is another tale from Bizarro World. The Bush administration is fighting a court battle against members of the United States military who were tortured by Saddam Hussein's regime. The soldiers were awarded around a billion dollars, which is a bit much, but Bush's lawyers are fighting to keep them from receiving any compensation at all, not even a reduced settlement. That's right, Bush is fighting tooth and nail against U.S. soldiers who were tortured. I thought he supports the troops. WTF??? Perhaps they're worried that they might have to pay out billions of dollars to all the victims of American torture.
In other news, the senate voted in favor of the "Class Action Fairness Act", which is really fair to companies that will have less of a chance of being held accountable for conducting business in ways that kills people, makes them sick, or otherwise ruins their lives. Thank god we have congress to protect corporations who kill people. This was passed in the wake of
several indictments for employees of W.R. Grace, who (allegedly) knowingly deceived workers about the dangers posed not only to them, but to everyone in town, where thousands have fallen ill and hundreds have died as a direct result of exposure to asbestos released into the air by the company. (
Here is another good article, and
here is Molly Ivins's take on it). Umm...Senators...Fuck You All!!!
I'm exhausted and need to get to bed, but here is
one more story from Bizarro World. Bush's new budget assumes that congress will make his tax cuts for rich pigs permanent while cutting funding for children of low income families, food stamps, the police, farmers, and oh so much more. What the fuck is wrong with people who think Bush is looking out for them? Unless you make over $150,000 a year, you are on the losing end. And even if you make more than that, you lose because society loses. We all lose with Bush.
That's it for now. I'm all fired up but I need to go to sleep. Maybe I'll dream of a world that makes sense.
Depressed Already
I knew I'd be really depressed tomorrow, what with it being Valentine's Day and me being single, but I'm already in a pretty bad state. Those of you who've been following this blog for a few months know that I had my heart broken in a bad way last year, and I've been struggling to get over her ever since. There have been times when I've felt completely over her, but it never seems to last. We still spend a lot of time together and talk almost every day, which I think has made it even more difficult to get over her.
She is just so beautiful in every way. I could stare into her deep brown eyes for hours on end. And of course, her body is perfect. But it isn't just her physical beauty that has captivated me so. I love everything about her--the sound of her voice, the way she laughs, the way she's so caring and sensitive that even a dumb TV show can make her cry. I would be happy if I could spend my life trying to make her happy. But for some reason, I'm not good enough for her.
I was doing fine with just being her friend, but last night she went on a date and I really freaked out. I don't think I can keep hanging out with her as "just a friend" while she dates other guys. It would be torture for me. I don't know what to do, but part of me thinks that if I don't hang out with her for a while, maybe she'll miss me and come to realize that she does love me too. I don't know, maybe it's just hopeless.
Say What?!?
Holy crap. I was just reading through the news and I came across
this story, which includes Donald Rumsfeld quoting George Orwell. "Radical Islamists do not seek an armistice with the civilized world. They will not negotiate a separate peace. Rather they seek to impose the totalitarian rule George Orwell described as 'a
boot stomping on a human face -- forever'," Rumsfeld said. Poor Orwell is rolling in his grave right now.
The Bush administration has written the book on
Newspeak. Just to name a few examples: the
Clear Skies initiative which allows for more pollution, the
Healthy Forests initiative which eliminates the forests, the Patriot Act which elliminates the freedoms that patriotic Americans are supposed to hold dear, starting wars to create peace, saving Social Security by destroying it. . .I could go on and on, but we'd be here forever.
"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'."----1984, Chapter 1
That's it for now. I'll probably be back later, since I'm down at the parents house and don't have much else to do.
Waaaaaay Too Much Time on My Hands
I really have to find myself a job that keeps me more busy than my current one. I mentioned this in a comment below, but I thought I would post it here for anyone that missed it. I was surfing around the other day on various political blogs, as I'm known to do, and I came across a particularly ignorant one by a GOPig from Texas (and before we start bashing Texas, let's remember that there are some good people there too, not just rightwing nutjobs----though there are plenty of them).
Normally I would have just moved on and not commented, but I must have been in a mood that day. I started leaving anonymous comments in an attempt to fan the flames. He ended up deleting my comments and changing his settings so anonymous comments are no longer allowed. Since I wasn't done flaming him yet, I decided to set up a new profile for the express purpose of harassing rightwing (particularly the religious right) bloggers. The new profile I've created is a perfect illustration of how much time I have on my hands.
Here it is.
If anyone has any suggestions for other humorous things I could add to the profile, I would love to hear them.
(I'll be back later, I hope, with a political rant that I've been postponing all week).
Happy New Year!
I was just on Google and noticed that they had some extra graphics on there in honor of the Chinese New Year. So, it is now the year of the rooster. (By the way, I don't want to hear any "cock" jokes out of anyone. Grow up people!) I was born in the year of the dragon, which I think everyone can admit is the coolest of them all.
I had the craziest dream last night. I was in a university book store looking for books and trying to sign up for some courses I was going to be taking. The store was packed and everyone there was getting irritable. I went up to ask an older man which course I should take, and he told me to take his course and which books to get (I can't remember the course name or the books). As it turns out, he was
Noam Chomsky, only in my dream he looked like
Ralph Nader, complete with his post-stroke shakiness. Very strange indeed.
All of sudden the crowd in the store started getting unruly, and people were pushing each other. It felt like my experience in Manhattan on
New Years Eve when I thought I was going to get trampled. I turned around and screamed "STOP FUCKING PUSHING ME!!!" at a small child who was standing behind me. His mother gave me a horrified look, and then I woke up. I think I may have actually yelled those words in my sleep, which would certainly have freaked out my roommate. Oh well.
Okay, that's it for now. I may be back later with a political rant.
This is Why You Hide the Keys
I was just reading
this story about a four-year-old who drove to the store and back in the middle of the night.
When I was four my family went on a camping trip with a pop-up trailer camper. When we got to the camping area, my father parked on top of a large hill and began to unhitch the trailer. I was sitting in the van in the drivers seat playing race car driver (playing with the steering wheel, making race car noises, etc.). All of a sudden I grabbed the shifter and pulled downward, putting the van into neutral. The van started rolling backwards with the trailer still attached and almost ran over my father, who made an unsucessful attempt to stop the van. The van started rolling towards a ravine when someone else must have jumped in to save me (I was too young to remember, and I forget how the story goes). Luckily no one got hurt--most especially me--but it became known as the day I almost killed my father.
Shrove Tuesday
Well, today is Mardis Gras, or Fat Tuesday, for whatever that's worth. I suppose it's a good reason to get drunk tonight. I just learned that it's also known as
Shrove Tuesday in Ireland and the U.K., so apparently it's a good reason to eat pancakes as well. I wonder if
I.H.O.P. serves liquor. . .
At any rate, I thought I would post something non-political, since I've been ranting so often lately. My regular blog commenters seem to go silent when I go on these rants, so maybe it turns people off. However, I don't really care. It's my blog, and if I want to rant and rave against the government, then that's exactly what I'll do. So there.
I added the Mr. X photo to my profile, which I find rather humorous. I haven't been able to figure out how to use Hello to put a real picture in there, but I think the Homer picture is way more appropriate anyways. I'm a hardcore Simpsons geek, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I've seen just about every episode at least twenty times, and they still make me laugh every time. The episode that the picture is from has to do with Homer creating a muck-raking internet site, so I think it suits this blog nicely.
By they way, if there are any other Simpsons geeks reading this, Comic Book Guy now has a name! The other night he revealed that his name is Jeff Albertson. Kind of a stupid name, but I'm sure the writers had some sort of reason behind it.
(above image borrowed from
here. That attribution should cover my fair use. If not, meh.)
...that's it for now. more later...
American Fascism
Coverage of the Super Bowl began last night with a patriotic segment featuring various people reading lines from the entire Declaration of Independence. I thought it was kind of odd, since we were about to watch a football game, which didn't really have anything to do with our separation from the king of England. Then I figured out that it must have had something to do with the significance of Philadelphia and New England in the American Revolution (for those who don't know, that's where the two teams playing in the Super Bowl were from). That makes sense I guess, but it was clear that wasn't the only reason. I've noticed that every major sporting event seems to begin with some sort of propaganda lately.
There were a couple of people reading from the Declaration who didn't seem to fit with the others (mostly sports figures) who were reading. One person was a representative from the group "Focus on the Family," whose leader, Dr. James Dobson, made headlines recently by warning of the homosexual agenda being promoted by SpongeBob Squarepants. I suspect that he was inserted there as part of a propaganda campaign by the religious right, who want to focus on the use of the words "created" and "creator" in the Declaration as a justification for turning America into a theocracy. They ignore everything else that the founding fathers (who were products of the Enlightenment) had to say about the necessity to separate church and state.
As I was pondering why they might want to insert a propaganda piece just before the big game, I began to think about the dangers of extreme American nationalism. I'm all for patriotism, mind you, but maniacal nationalism can only lead to bad things. We saw it happen with the Nazis, the Italian fascists, and the Stalinists in Russia. Nationalism has a bad habit of leading to imperialism, which by definition leads to war and bloodshed. There is a certain nationalism taking hold in certain segments of America, and it is quite troubling.
Here is a must read article on the potential for fascism in America. This article is from the American Conservative magazine, and the title should tell you which side of the political spectrum they are on. Maybe there are some conservatives capable of being reasonable. hmmm...
One point that the article makes is that the neo-conservatives are willing to destroy democracy at home in order to spread it abroad. They extol the virtues of freedom and democracy, yet at home they do everything they can to stifle dissent and limit freedoms (ever hear of the Patriot Act?). Bush gives speeches at taxpayer-funded events and issues blacklists to prevent any democrats or others who disagree with him from attending.
There are even people out there who feel that people like me should be put in jail for expressing my views about the Bush administration. I am of the opinion that dissent is the greatest expression of patriotism in America. Anyone who feels that people who disagree with the government should be silenced is a traitor and deserves to be executed. Okay, so that's a bit extreme, but it's exactly the kind of thing these rightwing nutjobs would say about me for speaking out against Bush.
To close, a quote from President Teddy Roosevelt (who, might I add, was a Republican):
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star",
May 7, 1918
Spreading the Disease
I was just reading
this column by Ellen Goodman which I can really identify with after being somewhat ill for the last few days. I went to work despite having a fever and being so wiped out that I had to leave early two days in a row. I started working in my present position a short time ago. I still have temporary status, so if I call in sick, I don't get paid.
I basically have to decide if I'm willing to pay hundreds of dollars to stay home in bed. I rarely get sick enough to have to stay home, but it shouldn't come down to economics if I have something that could get the whole office ill.
Goodman makes a really good point about the fact that most waiters and waitresses don't have sick days in America. Kinda scary, isn't it? Most don't have health insurance either. I know I'd rather not have sick people handling and breathing on my food.
At any rate, I'm gradually starting to feel better. I drove down to Connecticut for the weekend to see the family, but I'll probably be heading home late tonight. It's 51°F right now, and it feels like summer since it's been so cold. I think I'll take a walk...
Senator Lieberman, You Are a Piece of Shit
Well, as expected, the Senate
confirmed Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Our government has put it's stamp of approval on torture. So much for human rights. That the Brownshirt Republicans approved of him is no surprise, but it is just shameful that six Democrats voted yes as well.
Most disturbing of all (at least to me, having been born in Connecticut), is
Senator Joseph Lieberman. (
Here is a lovely picture of Bush kissing him. Does that tell you anthing?) Why doesnt' he just join the Republican party? The Democratic party does not need a pussy like Joseph Lieberman. It was bad enough when he was just pushing the pro-censorship agenda, but now he's pro-torture as well.
I don't mean to keep harping on the torture thing, but the subject keeps coming up. If our government says it's okay to use
waterboarding, savage beatings, humiliation,
sticking lit cigarettes in the ears of prisoners, isolation to the point of inflicting permanent psychological trauma, using
sexual humiliation techniques such as having a female interrogator smear allegedly fake menses on faces, etc., then it will be okay for others to do it to our soldiers when they are captured.
Joseph Lieberman approves of torture, and yet he
claims that video games and movies are destroying the moral fiber of America. Fuck You Senator Lieberman.
There are some rightwing GOPigs out there who will say, "These liberals don't have anything to say when these terrorists bomb and behead innocent people, but they'll defend the ragheads." (and yes, they do talk like that). Nobody is defending the terrorists (except for maybe other terrorists), and besides that, two wrongs don't make a right. It's a matter of credibility. How can we claim to promote freedom and liberty and at the same time embrace the tactics of tyrants and despots?
...that's it for now. i'll be back later with more, and maybe to edit this piece a little...
Kill Your Television
It's been a few days since my last post, but I think I should be posting daily again now. Work has been stressful and busy, and I haven't even had any time after hours to work on my resume like I had planned to. I'm starting to get caught up on everything though.
I tried to watch the state of the union speech last night, but I only lasted about ten minutes before I defenestrated my television in a fit of rage. It smashed into a million pieces on the ground below, but it still wasn't enough to satisfy me. I then proceeded to go outside, douse the pieces with gasoline, and set the pile on fire. Still seething with furious anger, I drew my pistol and began firing rapidly at the flaming mass of melting plastic. After emptying three clips, I finally started to feel a little bit better.
Okay, so that didn't really happen. What did happen is that I attempted to watch it at Mary's house, and she got so fed up with me yelling at the television that she changed the channel after about ten minutes. I was yelling, "Liar!" and "Bullshit!" over and over, with various cursing in between. After she changed the channel she said she didn't want to listen to him because it upsets her to hear him, and she was sick of listening to me. I got mad and told her that the reason Bush has been able to get away with murder (quite literally) is because people like her always change the channel.
So I don't feel qualified to offer any significant comment on his speech. I will say, however, that his fear mongering over Social Security is total bullshit. He is attempting to use the language of crisis to scare people into supporting a risky scheme that will only serve to pump money into Wall Street and will in all likelihood leave millions of senior citizens in poverty. This has nothing to do with saving Social Security, and everything to do with giving money to Wall Street to increase the profits of the already wealthy. This is corporate welfare.
Bush has no credibility on anything, and nothing he says should be taken at face value. If anyone reading this still has faith in anything that comes out of Bush's mouth, I have a lovely house in a quaint little city called Fallujah that I would like to sell to you. Just send $10,000 via PayPal to Skrambled@gmail.com, and I promise I'll mail the deed to you. What's the matter, don't you believe me?
