Happy Halloween

Today is Sunday, 31 October 2010.

Let’s hope we don’t experience a flashback to 7 November 1972.

That day, I was hoping against hope that a majority of American voters wouldn’t be so wicked and/or deluded as to vote for Republicanism and Nixon, Richard M., for President.

In my heart, I knew the odds were the cause was lost.

Alas: a majority was so wicked and/or deluded, and so the murder machines ground on in Vietnam, etc.

Don’t let history repeat. Vote Democratic, and against Republican wickedness.

Six Feet Under

Today is Saturday, 30 October 2010.

Noted Oklahoma sex-pervert and U.S. Senator, Tom “Kinky” Coburn, is again ringing the tocsin.

Some will object to the sex-pervert designation. However, Coburn is a zealous homophobic bigot: case closed.

And what toxin … er … tocsin, is Coburn ringing this time?

Federal Programs to Die For – American tax dollars sent six feet under is the titillating title for his latest “oversight” report, which report purports to expose more than $1 billion mistakenly sent to deceased Americans for items such as wheelchairs, farm subsidies, prescriptions, shoes, and air conditioning, over the past decade.

Yes, over $100 million a year for the dead.

Perhaps, were Tom to pull his head out of his K. Street heterosex commune kinkiness for a moment, he’d realize that, in a Federal budget, or, for that matter, a corporate budget, of more than three trillion dollars a year, there must inevitably be inefficiency and waste, which can never be, in a world populated by fallible human beings, entirely eliminated.

We should also remind Tom that a billion dollars is a mere 3.33% of the $3 trillion he’s avidly supported spending on manufacturing dead Americans and Iraqis in the failing Republican/Teabagger Partei attempt to conquer Iraq.

Perhaps that’s merely an oversight on Tom’s part, but I doubt it.

You see, Tom is fiercely opposed to tax-and-spend policies, although taxing and spending is the very essence of what governments do. Tom is an advocate of borrow-and-spend, big-time.

Like any good Republican, Tom believes in spending now, and letting future generations tax themselves to pay for it.

When Tom is conveniently six feet under, and laughing from the grave.

On Tuesday next, my fellow Oklahomans, vote to send Tom to the junkyard.
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Some time back, a reader asked for my thoughts about the K. street “frat house for Jesus” commune. I finally found my copy of The New Yorker article on same, and will try to re-read it this weekend, and opine.

Who Fails to Learn from History...

Today is Friday, 29 October 2010.

I noted a few days ago the anniversary of “Black Thursday” in 1929. Today is the anniversary in the same year of “Black Tuesday”, when stock prices crashed again, and the Republican Great Depression began.

Given that addled American voters may, on Tuesday next, reward Republican-Teabagger candidates for the failed economic policies of their party, it’s meet to recall a recent poster which features the visage of a smirking W. Bush, with the text, “I screwed you all, but thanks for blaming the Black guy”.
____________________________________________

On this date in 1897, was born Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda. Marx wrote, “Hegel once remarked that all great world-historical facts and personalities occur, as it were, twice. Hegel neglected to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Perhaps this explains Glenn Blech.

Doubleplusungood

Today is Tuesday, 26 October 2010.

On this date in 2001, “President” George W. Bush signed into faux-law the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”, or “USA PATRIOT Act of 2001”. Familiarly known as the “Patriot Act”, it is an unnatural act.

It may be cited in legal documents as the “George Orwell Memorial Newspeak-Is-Alive-and-Well Act of 2001”.

Skepticism regarding the Patriot Act is crimethink.

Thoughtcrime is life.

Angle Preaches National-Socialism

Today is Monday, 25 October 2010.

I recently noted that Sharron Angle, the Republican-Teabagger candidate for U.S. Senate, while a Nevada state legislator, had voted to make it easier for child molesters to volunteer in public schools.

In addition to being soft on pedophilia, it now seems that Angle is also an anti-capitalist pseudo-socialist, a sort of national-socialist, if you will.

Angle is running TV ads attacking Senator Harry Reid for “living large in the D.C. Ritz-Carlton”, and as “another multimillionaire trying to make ends meet”. (While in Washington, Reid stays in a one-bedroom apartment of less than 2,000 square feet at the Ritz-Carlton. A neighbor is Carly Fiorina, Republican-Teabagger candidate for Senate from California.)

Given that Reid has earned his millions by the sweat of his brow, does Angle argue that Reid has no right to spend his own money as he sees fit? Precisely what Big Government regulatory mechanism would Angle propose, to insure that Reid spends his own money according to Angle’s dictates?

This is typical of the vicious hypocrisy rampant in Teabaggerism. Capitalism is, by nature, an engine for the manufacture of moneyed elites, and yet Teabaggers are anti-elitist, though only presumably so long as they themselves are unmoneyed.

No word yet if Angle has taken a vow of poverty, or, if elected, she will live at Motel 6.

For What It's Worth

Today is Sunday, 24 October 2010.

In these final days before the election, it behooves us to recall that this date in 1929 was “Black Thursday”, when the first Great Stock Exchange Crash occurred, followed by “Black Monday” and “Black Tuesday”, which together signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.

For more than eight years, the economic policies of Republican presidents had ruled the roost, and look where it got us.

If need be, hold your nose, but vote Democratic.

“It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look what’s goin’ down…”

When Reagan Murdered Marines

Today is Saturday, 23 October 2010.

For reasons not understood by moi, Friday’s column was posted in line behind Thursday’s. Hmmm.

On this date in 1983, a truck bomb blew up the barracks of the U.S. Marine expeditionary force in Beirut. Oh, that Reagan, that Man of Steel with the Superman hair, always 1,000% behind the troops.

Yes, as in WW2, when Ronnie Reagan pulled strings and groveled before his studio head, to make sure his military “service” was making movies, Reagan always stood FAR behind the troops.

The Reagan regime sent the Marines to Lebanon, ostensibly as “peacekeepers”, but in fact to intervene on behalf of right-wing factions in the civil war. However, to keep up the farce, the sentries on duty that day were required to carry their ammunition in their pockets, not their rifles, and so had no opportunity to stop the truck bomber.

The Reagan regime cooly and callously set up 241 Marines to be slaughtered.

All you who voted for Reagan, and all you who oh-so-adore-and revere Reagan and the Reagan “Revolution” to this day: the blood of those Marines, and a few millions of others, is on your heads also.

Have a nice day. Semper fi.

Another Bigot Heard From

Today is Thursday, 21 October 2010.

So Juan Williams is canned by NPR, and will Tom more on Fox as a token pseudo-liberal. And all because he said a few words, poor man.

“I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

(How often is a bigoted statement preceded by, “I’m not a bigot, some of my best friends are [ ], but…”)

How would Williams feel if a whitey journalist spewed: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. But when my wife and I are walking down the street, I got to tell you, if I see males in Black skin and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Black, I get worried. I get nervous. Everyone knows Black males want to rape white women.”

Especially Black males like Williams, who Tom in straight white male Republican garb, trying to pass and conceal their rapist intentions, yes?

Given the history of Blacks in the USA/USE, shouldn’t Williams be far more apprehensive, when he sees white people identifying themselves first and foremost as "Christians", since the slavers were devout "Christians"?

Last year, previously Tomming on The O’Heily Factor, Williams referred to Michelle Obama as "Stokely Carmichael in a dress". Unless Williams has entirely taken leave of his senses, to the point that he should be put under legal guardianship and hospitalized for his own protection, he knows full well that the politics of Michelle Obama have very little, if anything, in common with those of Stokely Carmichael.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Williams is calling Michelle Obama a bull-dyke lesbian, which, in his perverted ethos, is a bad thing. Williams obviously is a homophobe who has a problem with women who aren’t his doormat and sex object.

Fox continues to prove it has nothing to do with legitimate journalism: it's the mouthpiece of far-right bigotry.

Remove Clarence Thomas

Today is Friday, 22 October 2010.

I don’t wish to speculate on what pathologies in the relationship of the Thomas Twins led Virginia recently to phone Anita Hill and demand an apology on behalf of Clarence. Mental illness? Substance abuse? Self-flagellation? Embarrassing Clarence?

Suffice it to say: what has been clear for many years, nay, for those open to fact and truth, since the beginning, is that Clarence Thomas sexually harassed and abused many women, including Anita Hill, and thus was unqualified for any kind of public service employment, let alone appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States. (If one has any doubts, read the article cited below.)

There are degrees of sexual harassment, and that perpetrated by Clarence Thomas is among the worst. He repeatedly used his government position to pressure female subordinates to date him, and I’m certain “date” wasn’t all that was on his porn-teeming mind. Such use of power to extort sexual acts is a species of attempted rape.

Shame forever resides on Ronald Reagan, who failed to withdraw the nomination of a sex criminal to the Supreme Court. Shame forever resides on the 41 Republicans and 11 Democrats who voted to put a sex criminal on the Supreme Court. But then, what’s a few abused bitches, when one has the opportunity to replace Mr. Justice Thurgood Marshall with a far-right oreo, whose originalist interpretation of the Constitution would, if actually put into practice, result in his own enslavement?


Abusing bitches, far-right originalism, and irony. Priceless.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/clarence-thomas-s-wife-dialed-the-wrong-number-commentary-by-ann-woolner.html

Never Mind the Candidates...

Today is Wednesday, 20 October 2010.

“In a New York Times/CBS News Poll last month, fewer than one in 10 respondents knew that the Obama administration had lowered taxes for most Americans. Half of those polled said they thought that their taxes had stayed the same, a third thought that their taxes had gone up, and about a tenth said they did not know.” *

Easy to see why less than 10% of Americans knew about the tax cut. After all, it took place in the long ago of last year, when human consciousness had barely evolved from the primordial ooze, affected a miniscule 95% of working families, and received merely significant notice in the media.

I suspect one would discover similar polling results if the question were, “During the last two decades of The Cold War, which American president was responsible for beginning the increase of military spending so substantially, that many analysts believe it was a significant factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union?”

Ronald “Mr. Mourning in America” Reagan, the Great Hawk and Communicator, yes? No: that pusillanimous peacenik and master of malaise, Jimmy Carter.

Another recent poll in this country found that atheists were more likely to be better informed about religious beliefs that people who claimed devoutly to believe.

One of the foundations of Teabaggery is that taxes can be slashed while government services swell: creation ex nihilo.

Democracy is not a referendum of the ignorant and misinformed. There can be no democracy in a society in which a majority of the electorate is either grossly ignorant or drastically misinformed.

Never mind the candidates: the electorate is largely unqualified.
______________________________________

* The New York Times, 19 October 2010.

"Poem Found... "

Today is Tuesday, 19 October 2010.

“Poem Found in The New York Times of 18 October 2010”

I.

“The poem is meant to be
A network
Rather than a single rope
Of thought.”

- Ali Ahmad Said Esber (Adonis)

II.

“He
Is
A special guy
And a guy who really loves
To play the game.

I think a lot of people like it a lot.

This kid loves it,
From being
In the locker room
To practice
To the games
To the night before the games.

He’s a great teammate.”

- Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano, regarding defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, paralyzed from the neck down, in last Saturday’s game

III.

“Every artist is an exile
Within
His own language.”

- Ali Ahmad Said Esber (Adonis)

IV.

“Eric’s spirits were as good
As you can expect.”

- Greg Schiano

V.

“Poetry cannot be made to fit
Either religion or ideology.

It offers that knowledge which is
Explosive and surprising.”

- Ali Ahmad Said Esber (Adonis)

Angle Is No Angel

Today is Monday, 18 October 2010.

Now comes Sharron “Right” Angle, candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada on the Republican-Teabagger Partei ticket.

When Angle was a state legislator, she voted against a law requiring school districts to conduct background checks on potential volunteers. Too Big Government, Nanny State intrusiony.

So what, if the occasional pedophile slipped by? Molestation is apparently the price children must pay for a “free” society.

This repugnant (Repugnican?) position alone ethically disqualifies Angle for any position of authority or responsibility.

For Rachel

Today is Sunday, 17 October 2010.

My friend Rachel has a bad earache. So, let's send some tunes her way.

Ian and Sylvia:



Neil:


Mr. Cash:

Sauce for the goose...

Today is Thursday, 14 October 2010.

On this date began the Great Missile Crisis of 1962.

The name upon which I've settled, for what's commonly labled "The Cuban Missile Crisis".

The latter is far too narrow. The Soviet deployment of missiles (and, for those of you joining us with the program already in progress, they had nuclear warheads on board) was in belated response to the deployment, by the USA/USE, several years before, of missiles, in the UK, Italy, and Turkey, aimed at the USSR, and as next-door to them, as we felt Cuba was to us/US.

(Moral of the story. Put a gun to someone's head, don't be sur-prised, sur-prised, sur-prised, when they put one to yours. What a way to live!)

On this date, a U-2 spy plane overflew Cuba. Next day, the photos it took were evaluated as showing sites at which missile launch installations were in progress of creation.

Here's a quaint bit of performance art, from a popular TV show of three years later:



A lesson of the Crisis: sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander.

In Memory: Matthew Shepard, and...

Today is Tuesday, 12 October 2010.

Matthew Shepard, died this date in 1998, assassinated by homophobia.

And too many more.

Careful what you say...

Coming Out

Today is Monday, 11 October 2010.

Today is National Coming Out Day.

What decency demands, is a society in which one no more needs to “come out” as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered, than one needs to “come out” as human.

Everyone must come out of irrationality, bigotry, and hate. Everyone must come out from murderous fantasies of gods who are murderous bigots.

Everyone must understand and reject: that when one fears and hates The Different, The Other, one has separated oneself from decency and humanity, and no one should harm themselves in that way. Parents and those who consider themselves “moral” authorities and leaders shouldn’t teach such filth to others, particularly children.

It’s one thing to hold such bigotry in the recesses of one’s heart, and disfigure one's self. It is morally reprehensible to teach such bigotry. Acting on such bigotry should be met with the full force of law.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered equality now!

Across the Universe

Today is Saturday, 9 October 2010.

Thanks to those such as the National Handgun Murder Association (NRA) ... oops ... National Rifle Association (NRA), John Lennon isn't alive today to see his 70th birthday.

Surely, a small price to pay.

Yet Another Message

Today is Thursday, 7 October 2010.

Seems that Carl Paladino, Republican/Teabagger candidate for governor of New York, can’t keep it in ... er ... can't keep his foot out of his mouth.

In a campaign ad today, Paladino said: "For weeks the media has badgered me about affairs because unlike a career politician, I was honest enough to acknowledge that she was my daughter [from an affair]."

(After concealing same from his wife for nine years!)

Paladino, who has accused Democratic candidate Andrew Cuomo of affairs, claiming to have proof, then admitting he has none, added: "Does the media ask Andrew such questions? Andrew's prowess is legendary!"

Should the Republican/Teabagger Dream Team for 2012 be Carl “The Italian Stallion” Paladino and Christine “I Am Not a Witch” O’Donnell?

Discuss among yourselves.

I Also Approved This Message

Today is Wednesday, 6 October 2010.

Had I the disposable income, herewith the script for the ad with which I would flood the New York airwaves, between now and Election Day.

INTRO

Grainy snapshot of video of woman being raped by a horse, crucial part obscured, with soundtrack of "Theme from Mr. Ed".

THEN, with stills of Carl Paladino:

ANNOUNCER 1: Did you know that Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for governor of New York, enjoys forwarding to friends, videos of women being raped by horses?

Does Carl Palamino … sorry, Paladino …Republican candidate for governor of New York, find it “sexually” arousing, to watch videos of women being raped by horses?

That is, does Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for governor of New York, find violence against women to be “sexually” arousing?

Or a good laugh?

What’s Carl thinking, when he looks at your daughter, wife, mother, or grandmother?

[In voice of Mr. Ed, like”Wil-bur!”]

Car-uhl!

ANNOUNCER 2: Paid for by Citizens to Protect Women From Carl Paladino, Republican Candidate for Governor of New York.

HH: I’m HH, Chair of Citizens to Protect Women From Carl Paladino, Republican Candidate for Governor of New York, and I approved this message.

[Sound effect: Whinney.]

FADE TO BLACK
______________________________________

Paladino’s defense is that he merely forwarded “funny” e-mails, also including ones designed to brighten the hearts of Klansmen everywhere, without ever looking at them. Who would believe such a lie from a ten-year-old?

The truth is: the vast majority of Republicans who voted in the New York primary determined that their inchoate anger against “politicians” far outweighed the immorality of a candidate who believes that violence against women is comedy, not crime.

I’m not surprised, just disgusted, outraged, and ashamed for them.

I Approved This Message

Today is Tuesday, 5 October 2010.

Damn, but if Christine O’Donnell’s first campaign ad isn’t one of the oddest pieces of s**t I’ve ever seen:



Herewith, a modest submission of possible future ads.

# 2: "I'm not a Hare Krishna who worships monkeys, pigs, and cows, because I like meatballs too much, 'cause I'm just like you. I’m Christine O’Donnell, and I approved this message. Have a nice day."

# 3: "I'm you, not in some weird, demonic-possession, we're-all-in-Satan-and-he's-in-us-cult kind of way, but in the good, wholesome, all-American, I-believe-that-masturbation-is-adultery-and-that-the-government-spends-too-much-money-on-AIDS kind of way. So, I'm you. I’m Christine O’Donnell, and I approved this message. Bite me."

# 4: "I'm you. Unless you're a Christ-hating f****t or Mormon, of course. Or a Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, s***k, k**e, or n****r. Then I'm not you, because I'm whiter than Jesus. And not a k**e, as he unfortunately was. I’m Christine O’Donnell, and I approved this message. Eat my shorts."

I'm not a witch, warlock, or even Satan himself. I'm not perfect, but close enough for government work. We all make mistakes, but I've never voted Republican, and thereby killed millions of people in Indochina, Nicaragua, Honduras, Indonesia, El Salvador, and so on.

I’m HH, and I approved this message.

Vote Democratic, early, and often.

Holy Babble

Today is Friday, 1 October 2010.

As noted yesterday, “Christian” Biblical literalists claim, and claim to believe, that the Bible was dictated directly by deity, and is therefore literally and infallibly true in every component, and is therefore absolutely and completely binding in its entirety on them and all humanity.

Yet, I’ve never encountered, in person or in media, a “Christian” Biblical literalist who was anything but an absolute hypocrite in this regard.

For each one, there are large chunks of the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, which are, in the term of the late, lamented Nixonite Ron Zeigler, “inoperative”. For example: “And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you”. Leviticus 11.7 (RSV) And yet it has been my experience that bacon cheeseburgers are consumed among “Christian” Biblical literalists at more-or-less the same rate as among those who don’t hold the same view of the Bible.

The literalists argue that this and similar passages are no longer binding, in the time after the birth of Jesus. And yet, they can point to no Biblical passage stating this, and must fall back on, to paraphrase the language of footnotes, “Private communication from the Author”.

There is a popular term of derision, used by “Christian” Biblical literalists for “Christians” who don’t share that view: “cafeteria Christians”, those who pick and choose what they like from Scripture, as if from a buffet. Ironically, they describe themselves to a “T”.

In Memory: Tyler Clementi and...

Today is Thursday, 30 September 2010.

The proximate origins of homophobia in the USA/USE lie fundamentally in the teaching and preaching of many “Christian” churches. It is most frequently derived from Leviticus 20.13: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them”. (RSV)

Those who invoke this passage to condemn homosexuality do so in the context of a Bible which they claim, and claim to believe, is literally and infallibly true and binding upon them and upon all humanity. However, this passage does not merely condemn homosexuality in principle: it also imposes on the believer the positive obligation to execute all practicing homosexuals. Yet, almost none of those who cite this passage to justify their homophobia obey the clear and binding obligation to execute practicing homosexuals.

When challenged on this point, they dissemble: “Oh, it’s not the law of the land”. However, according to them, it is The Law of God, whom they profess to believe is Master of the Universe, and whose Will overrules that of nations.

Such persons are hypocrites, who use the Bible to justify their bigotry, their bullying, and their violence, while refusing to obey the obligation they claim the Bible places upon them, and thereby demonstrating that they believe in none of it. Their homophobia probably has its ultimate origin in the same thing which probably caused it in the bigot or bigots who wrote the passage in Leviticus: irrational fear of The Other, and evil socialization.

I’m not yet at the point of advocating the criminalization of all hate speech, whether against homosexuals, Jews, Blacks, the developmentally challenged, etc., but the concept raises an interesting question. If such hate could be preached only from within prison walls, how many bigots would have the courage of their “convictions”?

It’s up to each and all of us, in season and out, by word and deed, to oppose true perversion: bigotry, bullying, and hate.