Category: Politics

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GET A FUCKING CLUE AMERICA!

This society is increasingly becoming what can only be characterized as nothing less than a Theocracy.

Our politicians are pandering to this small group of venomous, treasonous, despicable people, at the exclusion of more mainstream centrist positions.

Venomous due to the vitriol spewing from their mouths in a never ending stream.

Treasonous because they seek to create exceptions in the constitution and bill of rights that exclude specific groups.

Despicable because they seek to hide the true nature of freedom from many today, and all of our children and grand children tomorrow.

And while many of you sit thinking “I’m not a Woman, Single, or Gay, this doesn’t matter to me”

SingleBoot2 hiRez

This Theocracy isn’t just about oppressing one group of people. This group is about oppressing everyone with differing beliefs.

Take a very good hard look at the recent spate of proposed reproductive controls. Women were in the NOT TOO distant past considered chattel. If just a few of these reproductive controls gain ground due to religious fervor, then we could easily be on the slippery slope to “the good ‘ol days again“

What happens when for religious reasons your company refuses to allow your insurance company to pay for birth control?Your wife ends up pregnant at least once every 18 months.

How about refusing to rent to you because you’re not a member of their church in good standing? “Oh, you’re going to have to rent from the Lutheran down the road a piece”

Removing anti-discrimination protection only works if every single member of a community is treated equally AND enjoys equal protection under existing law.

We know that isn’t the norm. Differing ethnicities, genders, cultures and sexual orientations fought to put anti-discrimination law on the books BECAUSE they didn’t enjoy equal protection.

A womans right to choose. A womans right to vote. African Americans right to marry. A single womans right to rent or own property. A gay persons right to live un-molested. All these rights came about because someone fought to codify them in law. Technically these rights existed already but abuse and narrowing definitions of the Class that enjoyed these freedoms forced legal precedents that resulted in law that specifically and unequivocally said for example; “A Woman may VOTE.”

Right now a brutal, cruel Theocracy is trying to undermine the freedoms that we all are entitled to.

Kansas and Arizona are two states where this Theocracy is winning

Few people ever think about how discriminatory laws might be used to affect them until they find themselves out of a job because their boss saw a picture of their 3rd boyfriend or girlfriend in a month on Facebook.

How about being fired because your girlfriend tweets “God, he was such a gentle lover, despite his large size, I sooo want to sleep with him again.“

Guess what? You’ve both sinned in the eyes of the High Minded religious wonders.

You’ve committed Adultery! The Taliban in Afghanistan will stone a woman for that. That’s after all, the Old Testament punishment right? “The wages of sin is death“

The point I’m belaboring is this:

When you allow “Moral” judgements from Religion to dictate the law of the land. You’ve destroyed everything that the founding fathers sought to create.

It wasn’t freedom of religion… It was freedom FROM Religion if that is your choice.

Thanks to Michael in Norfolk for the priceless image of the boot with Uncle Sam.

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LA City Council Socialist Resolution

The LA City Council has recently demonstrated just how little they understand the freedoms insured by The Constitution and Bill of Rights.

This time they’ve decided not only what hate or sexist speech is but that somehow they can implement socialist controls on the local public airwaves. Unfortunately this dumbass resolution was voted on, and approved.

In One “Man on the street” interview a young lady said that this resolution is to “HELP” the radio station be “better”. I found her characterization interesting because of its similarity to dictators “Helping” people understand by placing them in re-education camps.

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This resolution is in reality targeted at a specific radio station in the Los Angeles region. KFI 640 AM.

Further, this resolution is aimed at Radio Hosts Jon and Ken. These guys are controversial and in the past month or two have drawn criticism for expressing their opinions about current events in particular about Whitney Houston. (Based on the coroner’s report saying that Ms. Houston had Cocaine in her system It appears they were actually right.)

Personally I think John & Ken are idiots. Some of the stuff they’ve said offended me on a number of subjects and as a result I don’t listen to their moronic show or their opinions. That being said, I have to defend their right to free speech and their rights to be idiots for entertainment purposes.

The LA City Councils response is a direct threat to the right to free speech.

Instead of seeking to squelch opinions that they disagree with, the LA City Council should be protecting the right to free speech.

The concerned council members should be appearing on radio shows to present the opposing view. After all they have the right to be heard too.

The Council members sponsoring this resolution are all African American. They are Bernard Parks, Jan Perry, and Herb Wesson Jr.

It could be argued that they are pushing their agenda because of an offensive comment that John and Ken made about Whitney Houston. (Yes I believe that the comment was offensive and disrespectful to the deceased and her family)

Bernardparks

Herbwesson

I think Rush Limbaugh got named as part of the resolution in a poorly veiled attempt to legitimize what would otherwise have been seen as simply African Americans in power leaping to “St. Whitneys” defense.

It was well known Whitney Houston had a very long history battling substance abuse.

Sadly this is often the price performers pay for their fame. This is an unfortunate reality and Ms. Houston had been addicted to crack, among other things for many years.

John & Ken characterized her as a crack “HO” on-air after her death. In my opinion the “HO” remark was uncalled for, unnecessary, and certainly unkind to Ms. Houstons family and friends.

However the other comments attributed to John & Ken aren’t necessarily out of line. They referred to Ms Houston as “cracked out for 20 years.” One of the pair then said, “Then you find out she’s dead and it’s like, really, it took this long?‘” Yes their comments are insensitive but not untrue.

I doubt seriously that anyone would be upset if something similar is said about Keith Richards when he dies.

It is interesting to note that John & Ken had characterized Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, & Paris Hilton in far more graphic terms and the good people in the LA City Council said nothing. Rush Limbaugh said seriously nasty things about Sandra Fluke and the LA City Council still said nothing.

It wasn’t until Whitney Houston was called a bad name, that the LA City Council became indignant.

New 2011 head shot

People vote with their wallets. This has been made abundantly clear by advertisers withdrawing their support from Rush Limbaugh.

Using legal mechanisms and maneuvering as the City Council has done is dangerous.

This misuse of legal force represents the continued erosion of the basic freedoms we are supposed to hold sacred.

 

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I am sick to death of the hate

Why the fuck is it so difficult for the average Joe to wrap their paramecium brain around the concept that Gay people are strong?

Lets think about this shall we?

Gay people, once they realize they are in fact Gay have to overcome fear, persecution, and outright hatred, just so they can live their lives honestly and honorably.

If they are married when they realize they’re gay. They face legal and financial ruin.

In some states they may be forbidden from seeing their children.

In other states they face discrimination in business and housing that is sanctioned by the state. See the recent rulings in Kansas.

Gay people become “HALF CITIZENS” simply by admitting they are gay and yet still have to pay the FULL measure of TAXES.

Gay people still have to face the ridicule that is sanctioned, and in some cases demanded by the rules of the society.

It’s OK to publicly joke about gay people.

Apology after apology notwithstanding, public figures still get away with joking about gay people. Public figures do this in ways that would never be countenanced by the society if the joke was about Black, Latin or any other group of people.

Would Carson Daly have even THOUGHT about saying something like “The Jet Blue Pilot is lucky the passengers of that plane weren’t Black, if they were he’d have been robbed and killed instead of just subdued.” NOPE! Why?

Because it is unacceptable! Well folks it’s just as unacceptable to say gay people are cowards.

Even after dealing with the shit listed above… You still have to find a comfortable place within the gay community.

The Gay community is a place where youth is worshipped and in many cases age is isolating. This community actively seeks to homogenize it’s members.

I’ve met gay men that won’t admit in public things like;

They like sports

They can fix a car

They don’t identify with pride parades.

They’re Republicans (There are Personals ads that commonly say no republicans)

They own or like shooting guns

They like hunting

They’re religious

It takes more than a bit of courage to be gay, admit you’re gay, and build a decent life in spite of the obstacles set before you.

So before you make a stupid comment about gay people being cowards. Stop for just a moment and consider, could you take the heat every fucking day of your life?

 

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A fun Cartoon from 1948

A friend sent me this cartoon this morning.

It’s done in the classic animation style of the late 1940s. In all honesty it is a propaganda film that serves to do a little education about our system of government.

Propaganda has become a dirty word, but all propaganda isn’t necessarily by definition evil.

This cartoon reflects the sexism of the time (Sorry Ladies).  It also speaks of “Church” on Sunday, I’ve always though of “Church” as an inclusive term denoting worship of your particular deity, not just a Christian activity.

I mention this because some of the folks commenting on the youtube site took Church to mean just the Christian flavor. It’s strange  how very narrow and focused our perceptions are now days.

Here without further ado is a blast from the past.

Something to think about in this election year.

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The SCAM of Gas Prices or HOW to SCREW the Economy

Gas pump

Oh goody!

Gas prices jumped a nickel over the weekend. This rise happened in spite of the fact that the price per barrel of oil dropped by $1.43.

Hey wait a minute, weren’t we told in the last month that gas prices were going up because of the instant linkage between the barrel price and refined price? Shouldn’t the gas prices FALL as quickly when the barrel price drops?

You’d think that… BUT you’d be wrong!

Now, the gas prices are continuing to rise in anticipation that there will be a supply glitch as the refineries switch from Winter to Summer grades. (WHAT???) I know that supposedly the formulation is different depending on season. I’m not sure that I believe it. I’m more convinced that this is another excuse for the oil industry to drive up prices and increase their profits.

Remember some of the other excuses we’ve heard recently?

Oil prices are going up because of tension with Iran, last year it was tensions with the Iraq, the year before that it was tensions because of Chinas sudden prosperity and their burgeoning oil demand, the year before that it was blah blah, before that blah blady blah.

There’s always some almost plausible reason, if you’re not looking too closely…

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The point is, if you really look at it there is NO good reason, no quantitative, no REAL reason for the volatility in oil prices. Each year the prices go up due to some trumped up crisis NEVER returning to their (Pre-crisis) price. Yet somehow each year the oil companies post record profits.

You know that oil is shipped right? So that means orders have to placed at least a month if not two before it’s needed. What happens when oil is delivered to ports but the demand isn’t as high as anticipated? YOU STORE IT!

It makes no sense to turn the ships around or to offload only a portion of the shipment you’ve ordered unless you can sell that partial shipment somewhere else.

We’ve had a remarkably warm Winter in this country this year. That means that fuel use is down, certainly heating oil and probably electric usage.

Why then are fuel costs going up? Didn’t we stockpile the surplus oil?

This shouldn’t be read as me being anti profit. I’m a capitalist through and through, but there is such a thing as Usury rates and there are laws against that kind of exploitation. The oil companies are not a monopoly, but their prices are obviously fixed. It’s time to bring all the oil companies up on anti-trust charges and let THE PEOPLE not Congress sit in judgement. Maybe then we’d see justice done.

Has it occurred to you that $5 or $6 a gallon gasoline is actually good for the Republican party? So is high unemployment caused by high energy prices.

Why? Think about this… There is a long standing history of collusion between the Captains of industry and politicians.

Now think about high energy prices suppressing the economy making the people restless and how that effect could turn the Presidential race and any congressional seats up for grabs in favor of the Republican party.

Once a candidate preferred by industry is elected, the energy prices go down, employment goes up and it looks like the American people “Made the right choice for the country…” when in fact they made the right choice for industry.

Even if the Democratic party carries the day… Industry still profits, and can slowly lower the energy costs, stimulate the economy and wait another 4 years for a chance to put an “Industry Friendly” President in office.

As I’ve said before, I’m not… or rather I wasn’t a big conspiracy kind of guy.

0302 Newt Gingrich super tuesday gas pump vote full 600

Honestly, I think most politicians are too stupid to carry off a conspiracy and they sure as hell couldn’t keep their mouths shut about it. BUT I can’t help wondering if the politicians are puppets of industry.

I could see industry moving behind the scenes. I could see politicians being compartmentalized, each knowing only enough to carry out their assigned job.

I’ve begun to think this way in part because politics makes no sense.

The majority of Americans couldn’t care less about Gay rights, marriage, or what have you. The majority of Americans don’t care that a woman has access to abortion or to birth control. A large portion of America while being people of faith aren’t willing to shove their faith down the throats of others. Yet all these issues are talking points for politicians.

WHY?

We have far more pressing issues that need to be addressed.

The only explanation I can think of for trotting out the same old tired issues again and again is that our government is trying to put on a Roman Circus.

In that context… all the sudden politics makes sense… It’s a “Reality” show!

“This week on real politics, will Rick Santorum insult the transexuals in Ohio and be glitter-bombed? Find out TONITE at 7!“

Makes a lot more sense that way doesn’t it?

When you think about it this way, you kinda have no choice but to get really cynical about the whole process.

For me, the icing on the cake is the volatility in oil pricing.

Which leads to only one conclusion… it doesn’t matter WHO is in office, they’re all the bitches of one industry or another.