Oh, that torture thing just won't go away.
Dick "the dick" Cheney is going all over the place (North Dakota! He really wants all 156 people who still live there on his side.) (Yes, I know more than 156 people live in North Dakota. There are probably several hundred in Fargo, alone. Really alone.)
Though he doesn't mention this specifically, he's still maintaining that waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times led to important information. More than if they'd only tortured him, say, 97 times. Must be one tough somabitch to last 183 waterboardings before spilling his guts.
Me, I would have implicated my sister, nephews and nieces and minister and best friends after, oh, maybe fifty or so.
More likely three or so.
And Abu Zubayduh, 83 times.
Ol' Khalid and Abu are not exemplarary human beings by any measure—unless you think planning the deaths of thousands is exemplarary. But is what we have been doing really the way we want to act as Americans? And as the Conservatives maintain, a "Christian" nation. Christian indeed.
I guess it's a good thing for those money-changers in the temple that Jesus didn't know about waterboarding, or they would really have been in for a world of hurt.
Which, incidentally, brings me to Dan Choi, an Iraq vet, West Point graduate Arabic speaking soldier and platoon leader, who is being kicked out of the Army Nat'l. Guard because he spoke up about being gay. Maybe no one asked, but he told.
Gasp.
The man clearly has the qualifications needed to be one of the best soldiers and officers that can be, yet he is being kicked out for being open about his sexual identity. We have so many Arabic speaking soldiers I guess we can lose a few.
Quote of the day, yesterday, from Jon Stewart, speaking of how Dan Choi, one of 54 Arabic speaking gay service people, was kicked out of the service—"It was okay to waterboard someone over 80 times but God forbid the guy who could understand what that prick was saying should have a boyfriend."
What else?—the Pope went to the middle east to promote peace. Still waiting to see if it worked. I suspect he's found out that no matter what you do there you're doing something wrong. What a mess that place is, and the West has had a big hand in contributing to mess, with it's colonialism and anti-Semitism (which extended to all Semites, not just the Jewish ones.) Jerusalem— three major religions have a claim on the place and none of them want to let the others have any. I'd like to clear everyone out and turn it over to the Buddhists. Or maybe level it and let the Disney people build a theme park on the site. It would be the first time in centuries the place brought happiness to people.
Shallow happiness, but still…
Speaking of religion, NOT. "Angels and Demons" is in the theaters. I haven't seen it yet. I like what A.O. Scott said in the New York Times about "The Da Vinci Code" offending his faith—in the English language. I'm not the only one who thinks Dan Brown is an execrable writer. I only read the "Code" all the way thru to see how he was going to wrap up that mess he started, wincing on every page at the quality (not) of his writing. Anyway Scott said he enjoyed "Angels and Demons" more because he hadn't read the book. Still, it isn't that good, except as mindless entertainment.
But so much of our manufactured life is mindless entertainment.
Whoops. Started to inflict some pop-philosophy on you there. Sorry.
Guess it's time to log off.
Go be useful somewhere.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
I'm collecting stuff
Stuff like this quote from George Carlin: "The best thing about getting old is you're not responsible for remembering things anymore."
Works for me.
Also took this screen shot from the Rachel Maddow Show:
"the Dick" Cheney as Darth Vader.
An old joke by now but ever relevant.
This guy is something else. He is definitely the supreme example of someone who never will admit, or even consider, that he was, and is, wrong.
He seems to be taking his traveling Medicine Show around the country to friendly venues anywhere, (North Dakota?) where he might find some sympathetic response.
Waterboarding? Well, we only did it a little bit (183 times in one month to one guy).
And Obama is making the country less safe by not being the hard ass we were.
I mean, he's acting like a real American, with values and all that weak-kneed stuff.
Mr. Silence is now "Mr. Can't Shut Up." Go back to your underground bunker, Dick, we don't need you. Even Repubicans don't need you—you just remind everyone of the terrible botch-up your administration was.
Not that the Obama administration has been an unbridled joy—there is the problem of those pesky military tribunals, among others—but it is a model of probity and sanity in comparison to the recent past. And besides, we don't really want anyone to be perfect.
God knows what I'd do with my time if I didn't have someone in the Government to bitch about…
Besides, as a rule we humans don't really go for perfection all that much. It's one reason we keep God (and Jesus and Buddha and Allah and the rest of that deity crowd) at arm's length. To emulate them we'd have to give up too much. Being perfect is hard work—I'm here to tell you. It's a struggle every day, and I don't get no sympathy.
Now I got myself all depressed. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep.
Works for me.
Also took this screen shot from the Rachel Maddow Show:
"the Dick" Cheney as Darth Vader.
An old joke by now but ever relevant.
This guy is something else. He is definitely the supreme example of someone who never will admit, or even consider, that he was, and is, wrong.
He seems to be taking his traveling Medicine Show around the country to friendly venues anywhere, (North Dakota?) where he might find some sympathetic response.
Waterboarding? Well, we only did it a little bit (183 times in one month to one guy).
And Obama is making the country less safe by not being the hard ass we were.
I mean, he's acting like a real American, with values and all that weak-kneed stuff.
Mr. Silence is now "Mr. Can't Shut Up." Go back to your underground bunker, Dick, we don't need you. Even Repubicans don't need you—you just remind everyone of the terrible botch-up your administration was.
Not that the Obama administration has been an unbridled joy—there is the problem of those pesky military tribunals, among others—but it is a model of probity and sanity in comparison to the recent past. And besides, we don't really want anyone to be perfect.
God knows what I'd do with my time if I didn't have someone in the Government to bitch about…
Besides, as a rule we humans don't really go for perfection all that much. It's one reason we keep God (and Jesus and Buddha and Allah and the rest of that deity crowd) at arm's length. To emulate them we'd have to give up too much. Being perfect is hard work—I'm here to tell you. It's a struggle every day, and I don't get no sympathy.
Now I got myself all depressed. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep.
Friday, May 8, 2009
I'm mad as hell and I'm gonna secede!
The Repubicans are SUCH sore losers. Can you believe it? Now a poll shows that 24% think their state would be better off not being part of America.
Geez.
Just when you think you've seen the nadir of stupidity already, something new comes up. Surely the variety of stupidities in this world is inexhaustible. Secede? What are they thinking? We went through this already about a hundred and fifty years ago.
I'm getting (non-drug induced) flashbacks to the sixties when many of my age group left the country rather than go to Vietnam. Of course they were facing going to risk their lives for something in which they did not believe. Still, they left, and I wish they hadn't.
But these disaffected Republicans aren't being asked to do anything any more onerous than living in a country where the President is from another party—something many of us have been doing for the last eight years, without thinking about secession.
I live in Massachusetts, a state which is essentially the epitome of and the very touchstone of the liberal way of thought, the Holy Grail home of left-leaning socialist commie knee-jerkers (ever have your knee jerked? It's painful), the veritable Elysian Fields of liberalism—and we never said we wanted to leave the US of A. Not 24% of us anyway.
But hey, you can always find malcontents if you look hard enough.
No, we didn't want to cut and run like those lily-livered Repubicans. Leave the country? Secede? Not in our DNA.
We wanted to stay and PLAN OUR REVENGE! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
And now we have it.
It's imperfect,but it is here.
We still have to get Obama off this "don't look back" thing he's got going. I know he thinks it's somehow more honorable to not go after his predecessor and minions for war crimes and general malfeasance, but he's wrong. We need some closure here, and it won't come from letting "the Dick" Cheney run his mouth in his strip-mall office.
As long as I'm on a roll here—did you know this was the "National Day of Prayer?"
Somewhere along the line the idea of separation for state and church got muddled. Our forefathers, those guys the Repubicans and conservative "Christians" like to bring up all the time, definitely wanted to KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE RELIGION BUSINESS.
Most of them were Deists, which means they believed in a God who may have set the ball rolling but was staying out of the way as we tried to avoid getting run over by said ball.
They didn't want anyone forcing anyone else to believe in a certain vision of God or a certain church, or a certain way of avoiding that ball of inexorable history.
But there are always people who don't get it. There are people who live in fear of going to hell if they don't do things just right, believe in the right way, and also do their best to make others believe the same way they do. And some of them don't have any problems throwing insults into their demands.
One Wendy Wright of the (so-called) "Concerned Women for America," said tha Barack Obama should have done more to commemorate this day even tho he himself "may have problems believing in the Christian faith."
What an asshat. Bringing up surreptitiously the "Obama is a secret Muslim" slander.
So much for Christian charity.
I have more but it's getting late.
Goodnight, you two, or three.
Geez.
Just when you think you've seen the nadir of stupidity already, something new comes up. Surely the variety of stupidities in this world is inexhaustible. Secede? What are they thinking? We went through this already about a hundred and fifty years ago.
I'm getting (non-drug induced) flashbacks to the sixties when many of my age group left the country rather than go to Vietnam. Of course they were facing going to risk their lives for something in which they did not believe. Still, they left, and I wish they hadn't.
But these disaffected Republicans aren't being asked to do anything any more onerous than living in a country where the President is from another party—something many of us have been doing for the last eight years, without thinking about secession.
I live in Massachusetts, a state which is essentially the epitome of and the very touchstone of the liberal way of thought, the Holy Grail home of left-leaning socialist commie knee-jerkers (ever have your knee jerked? It's painful), the veritable Elysian Fields of liberalism—and we never said we wanted to leave the US of A. Not 24% of us anyway.
But hey, you can always find malcontents if you look hard enough.
No, we didn't want to cut and run like those lily-livered Repubicans. Leave the country? Secede? Not in our DNA.
We wanted to stay and PLAN OUR REVENGE! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
And now we have it.
It's imperfect,but it is here.
We still have to get Obama off this "don't look back" thing he's got going. I know he thinks it's somehow more honorable to not go after his predecessor and minions for war crimes and general malfeasance, but he's wrong. We need some closure here, and it won't come from letting "the Dick" Cheney run his mouth in his strip-mall office.
As long as I'm on a roll here—did you know this was the "National Day of Prayer?"
Somewhere along the line the idea of separation for state and church got muddled. Our forefathers, those guys the Repubicans and conservative "Christians" like to bring up all the time, definitely wanted to KEEP THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE RELIGION BUSINESS.
Most of them were Deists, which means they believed in a God who may have set the ball rolling but was staying out of the way as we tried to avoid getting run over by said ball.
They didn't want anyone forcing anyone else to believe in a certain vision of God or a certain church, or a certain way of avoiding that ball of inexorable history.
But there are always people who don't get it. There are people who live in fear of going to hell if they don't do things just right, believe in the right way, and also do their best to make others believe the same way they do. And some of them don't have any problems throwing insults into their demands.
One Wendy Wright of the (so-called) "Concerned Women for America," said tha Barack Obama should have done more to commemorate this day even tho he himself "may have problems believing in the Christian faith."
What an asshat. Bringing up surreptitiously the "Obama is a secret Muslim" slander.
So much for Christian charity.
I have more but it's getting late.
Goodnight, you two, or three.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Aren't Repubicans fun?
Ah life—so many occasions for humor.
The so-called "moderate" Republicans had a pizza party in one of their efforts to try to become "more relevant." I hear the pizza, at least, was good. The "National Council for a New America"
led by Jeb "brother of U-No-Hu" Bush, George "Haircut" Romney, and Eric "Mad Dog" Cantor.
New America indeed.
A pizza party. How the mighty have fallen.
And this is the wing of the Repubican party (for some reason I keep leaving off the "L") which considers itself moderate and a hope for the future.
Now i really don't have a jones against Jeb Bush, supposedly the smarter brother, or Eric Cantor (just doing his job, ma'am) or even, well, maybe a little bit, against George Romney. He does have an impressive haircut.
But these guys are going nowhere with people like Mitch McConnell running the Repubican side of the Senate. He is leading the defense of the corporations who are evading taxes by setting up phony headquarters in the places like the Cayman Islands. He says any action to force these scofflaws to pay taxes is "a significant tax increase on companies."
He means actually making them pay what they owe is an increase?
Well, we can't expect much better from McConnell. He is a lying s.o.b. who is whoring for the business interests of this country. You can see it in his face at news conferences. He may actually believe what he says, but the untruths are eating him away inside anyway.
What really gets me, is, that after seeing photos of the Cayman Islands and the seven-mile-long beach, etc., I can't figure out why companies don't actually set up their headquarters there. I mean, really, a tropical island where you can live and work without the pain of winter in Chicago, Boston, New York, or any season in Houston, Texas—and these asshats just use it for a post-office box address?
Gimmee a break.
I guaranteee you, if I were CEO of a company that made enough money that it needed to set up a phony address in the Cayman Islands to pay taxes, I damn well would turn it into a legitimate address. Really. Beaches, tropical weather, distance from all the a-holes who want to make life difficult for you—WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
Go figure.
And if anyone wonders why I dare call McConnell a lying s.o.b.—
first—I don't think he can risk defending himself in a court of law
second—who am I for him to care about
third—man, if he went after me wouldn't it be a boost for my blog?
I mean, now, my only readers are a comic book artist, a crazy poetess in the Berkshires, and an obsessive-compulsive-disorder computer geek in the Albany area—maybe.
There may be a Lesbian minister in the mix somewhere.
These people read me once in a while.
Sometimes.
On occasion.
Like the way I blog.
I have aspirations for the big time. Also, I never say anything I don't believe, unless it's clearly in humor.
And I am ready to sell out. Procter and Gamble, Toyota, Hersheys—give me a call. My people (i.e. me) are ready to talk to your people.
Good night all.
Aren't you sorry you weren't doing something more productive?
The so-called "moderate" Republicans had a pizza party in one of their efforts to try to become "more relevant." I hear the pizza, at least, was good. The "National Council for a New America"
led by Jeb "brother of U-No-Hu" Bush, George "Haircut" Romney, and Eric "Mad Dog" Cantor.
New America indeed.
A pizza party. How the mighty have fallen.
And this is the wing of the Repubican party (for some reason I keep leaving off the "L") which considers itself moderate and a hope for the future.
Now i really don't have a jones against Jeb Bush, supposedly the smarter brother, or Eric Cantor (just doing his job, ma'am) or even, well, maybe a little bit, against George Romney. He does have an impressive haircut.
But these guys are going nowhere with people like Mitch McConnell running the Repubican side of the Senate. He is leading the defense of the corporations who are evading taxes by setting up phony headquarters in the places like the Cayman Islands. He says any action to force these scofflaws to pay taxes is "a significant tax increase on companies."
He means actually making them pay what they owe is an increase?
Well, we can't expect much better from McConnell. He is a lying s.o.b. who is whoring for the business interests of this country. You can see it in his face at news conferences. He may actually believe what he says, but the untruths are eating him away inside anyway.
What really gets me, is, that after seeing photos of the Cayman Islands and the seven-mile-long beach, etc., I can't figure out why companies don't actually set up their headquarters there. I mean, really, a tropical island where you can live and work without the pain of winter in Chicago, Boston, New York, or any season in Houston, Texas—and these asshats just use it for a post-office box address?
Gimmee a break.
I guaranteee you, if I were CEO of a company that made enough money that it needed to set up a phony address in the Cayman Islands to pay taxes, I damn well would turn it into a legitimate address. Really. Beaches, tropical weather, distance from all the a-holes who want to make life difficult for you—WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
Go figure.
And if anyone wonders why I dare call McConnell a lying s.o.b.—
first—I don't think he can risk defending himself in a court of law
second—who am I for him to care about
third—man, if he went after me wouldn't it be a boost for my blog?
I mean, now, my only readers are a comic book artist, a crazy poetess in the Berkshires, and an obsessive-compulsive-disorder computer geek in the Albany area—maybe.
There may be a Lesbian minister in the mix somewhere.
These people read me once in a while.
Sometimes.
On occasion.
Like the way I blog.
I have aspirations for the big time. Also, I never say anything I don't believe, unless it's clearly in humor.
And I am ready to sell out. Procter and Gamble, Toyota, Hersheys—give me a call. My people (i.e. me) are ready to talk to your people.
Good night all.
Aren't you sorry you weren't doing something more productive?
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