“How can our kids say no when the adults around them are saying yes?” asked Aimee Hendle, a spokeswoman for Californians for Drug Free Youth.
Yes the rhetoric is heating up in California, where an initiative to legalize marijuana has been placed on the ballot. Does making something legal that was once illegal make it all better?
How about all those people sitting in jails for mere possession, will they be released? What about all the law enforcement people and companies that profit from terrorizing pot heads? Will this make it illegal to not hire someone because they tested positive for marijuana in a drug test?
But what about the children?
Ironically, a world away, as right wingers fear the release of the killer weed into the mainstream of public altered consciousness, NATO has rejected Russia's call to spray the poppy fields of Afghanistan. And not even all of the poppy fields, merely twenty five percent. So what does that say to the paranoiacs of California who think the cultivation of pot is really bad when their tax dollars are going to support the cultivation of the opium poppy?
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Still No Change
The Obama administration, brought to power by claims of change, has proven that things have changed, only for the worse. Case in point: Cindy Sheehan, arrested in Saturday's antiwar march marking the seven year anniversary of the illegal US invasion of Iraq may be tried for her campaign. Huh? What? Even the Cheney/Bush administration was smart enough to know that trying a mother grieving over the loss of her son in a pointless unending war would make her a martyr, President Obama was supposed to be smarter than that.
Let's see, teabaggers can protest all they want, hurl invectives and slurs at members of Congress, and they go unpunished. But make a point about the senseless cost of war, and well, it's off to the hoosegow with you.
Of course this was the same Obama campaign that promised talks with Iran without any preconditions Now we have increased calls by members of the administration as well as members of congress for tougher sanctions against Iran. You know, sanctions like we had had with Iraq. And like Iraq, the propaganda has started against Iran. Now we have the US army claiming that Taliban fighters are training in Iran. Never mind that Shi'ite Iran and Sunni Taliban can't even agree on how to run a theocracy, the important point is that the military now has an excuse for it's poor performance in the never ending war in Afghanistan and the corporate media has a new scare to wave at the television watchers.
Let's see, teabaggers can protest all they want, hurl invectives and slurs at members of Congress, and they go unpunished. But make a point about the senseless cost of war, and well, it's off to the hoosegow with you.
Of course this was the same Obama campaign that promised talks with Iran without any preconditions Now we have increased calls by members of the administration as well as members of congress for tougher sanctions against Iran. You know, sanctions like we had had with Iraq. And like Iraq, the propaganda has started against Iran. Now we have the US army claiming that Taliban fighters are training in Iran. Never mind that Shi'ite Iran and Sunni Taliban can't even agree on how to run a theocracy, the important point is that the military now has an excuse for it's poor performance in the never ending war in Afghanistan and the corporate media has a new scare to wave at the television watchers.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Who Are These Clowns And Why Do We Deign It To Pay Them $165,000 A Year
Whether you think the US is a democracy or a republic, the truth is it's neither, we no longer have any form of representative government at all.
Exhibit A, the "health care reform". While most Americans support fixing our health care system, offering a medicare buy in and a public option, what we are getting is the individual mandate, a law designed to line the pockets of the health insurance industry. Capitalism sucks bad enough, but when you force uninsured citizens to buy a product from a private concern rather than a government entity, you have taken another step towards the corpocracy.
Exhibit B, war with Iran. Most Americans don't want us to undertake another military confrontation, we haven't made any progress with the two we're already mired in. War with Iran will costs us more money, more lives, and more at the gas pump. Last time gas prices topped $4.00 a gallon, the economy went into a tailspin, another period of high gas prices and you might as well start stocking up on pencils to sell on Wall Street. Aha, you say, but we're not at war with Iran yet. Yet, of course, being the operative word in that statement. Because, you see, next week is the Aip[ac conference and this year, the lobby has built its annual conference, and its entire lobbying agenda around the issue of Iran. I know, I know, Iran actually hasn't done anything wrong, per se, but that didn't stop the US from invading Iraq, so what makes you think Iran will be any different. Well, you say, the Democratic party was given control of congress and the White House by progressives Americans opposed to the ongoing wars. And since that time, the party has done absolutely nothing to end either quagmire. In fact President Obama has even crossed the border of Afghanistan into Pakistan (well not, President Obama himself, of course), so you could even say he has increased the Pax Americana of the Bush administration. And with that in mind, there's no reason he wouldn't continue that Bush administration policy of the US military as the world's police force by bombing Iran for doing something that is well with in it's rights as both a sovereign nation as well as a signee to the NNPT.
So there you have it, two pieces of evidence that our representatives don't represent us at all. Instead, we have a bunch of jokers who sole purpose in life seems to be to grow fat off the public tit (ever see a skinny senior congressperson?) while doing the work of everybody save their constituency. It's become the new American dream.
Exhibit A, the "health care reform". While most Americans support fixing our health care system, offering a medicare buy in and a public option, what we are getting is the individual mandate, a law designed to line the pockets of the health insurance industry. Capitalism sucks bad enough, but when you force uninsured citizens to buy a product from a private concern rather than a government entity, you have taken another step towards the corpocracy.
Exhibit B, war with Iran. Most Americans don't want us to undertake another military confrontation, we haven't made any progress with the two we're already mired in. War with Iran will costs us more money, more lives, and more at the gas pump. Last time gas prices topped $4.00 a gallon, the economy went into a tailspin, another period of high gas prices and you might as well start stocking up on pencils to sell on Wall Street. Aha, you say, but we're not at war with Iran yet. Yet, of course, being the operative word in that statement. Because, you see, next week is the Aip[ac conference and this year, the lobby has built its annual conference, and its entire lobbying agenda around the issue of Iran. I know, I know, Iran actually hasn't done anything wrong, per se, but that didn't stop the US from invading Iraq, so what makes you think Iran will be any different. Well, you say, the Democratic party was given control of congress and the White House by progressives Americans opposed to the ongoing wars. And since that time, the party has done absolutely nothing to end either quagmire. In fact President Obama has even crossed the border of Afghanistan into Pakistan (well not, President Obama himself, of course), so you could even say he has increased the Pax Americana of the Bush administration. And with that in mind, there's no reason he wouldn't continue that Bush administration policy of the US military as the world's police force by bombing Iran for doing something that is well with in it's rights as both a sovereign nation as well as a signee to the NNPT.
So there you have it, two pieces of evidence that our representatives don't represent us at all. Instead, we have a bunch of jokers who sole purpose in life seems to be to grow fat off the public tit (ever see a skinny senior congressperson?) while doing the work of everybody save their constituency. It's become the new American dream.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Country Has Been Divided For A While Now, You Were Just Too Busy Jacking Off To Commander Codpiece To Notice
Let it be said that although I voted for Barack Obama, I have to this date not been happy with his performance thus far. He has spent too much time looking for a "bipartisan" solution instead of doing what needs to be done. The opposition party has left him out to dry because they only know how to create more problems and not solve them. The problems now facing this country were not brought in by President Obama when he took office, they were there already before he was even elected.
The health care crisis has been going on for twenty years, much of it with Republican control of Congress, and they have done nothing because they don't understand that it's not the quality of car offered by the finest doctors in the world, it's the inaccessibility for millions of Americans due to lack of insurance, or, for those with insurance, the inability to receive the care they need because their providers have denied it to them after taking their money.
In fact, if you named every problem facing the US and it can be directly traced back to the previous administration and it's inability to govern. President Obama is just the person who has to be the adult and fix these problems while the robber barons and banksters sit on their pile of money counting every dime they have ripped off from the US taxpayers.
So when Michael "Savage" Weiner says President Obama ripped the country in half in only one year, I would have to disagree. No, it was the people such as Michael Weiner, the Glenn Becks and their ilk who decided that they didn't like having a black and Democratic president in the White House that have ripped this country apart.
President Obama didn't create the huge deficit, it was there when he got there and people like Michael Weiner cheered on the previous administration as they poured money down the outhouse in wars of choice such as Iraq. Michael Weiner cheered as former President Bush mismanaged the war in Afghanistan, dragging that conflict out longer than any other war we have been involved in. Where were the Michael savages and Glenn Becks and other tea baggers when those cesspools were opened up for our tax dollars to be poured endlessly into?
The reality is, the country has been ripped apart for some time now. It's been nearly seven years now that President Bush unilaterally violated international law and invaded a sovereign nation with no just cause. There were lots of protests, the "liberal" media chose to ignore them, and the "free speech zones" created by the criminal-in-chief insured he'd never become aware of them, neither would you, Mr. Weiner, or the American people. No, the right was living in a fantasy world were everybody had better stand behind the president in a time of war, and conveniently forgot it once the new president represented the two things that scare you more than getting on a plane full of Muslims.
So now, the only thing you can blame on President Obama is the fact that he opened your eyes to a country so polarized that each side has created it's own separate reality, where truth is subjective and lies are acceptable if they help to prop up your insane belief system.
The health care crisis has been going on for twenty years, much of it with Republican control of Congress, and they have done nothing because they don't understand that it's not the quality of car offered by the finest doctors in the world, it's the inaccessibility for millions of Americans due to lack of insurance, or, for those with insurance, the inability to receive the care they need because their providers have denied it to them after taking their money.
In fact, if you named every problem facing the US and it can be directly traced back to the previous administration and it's inability to govern. President Obama is just the person who has to be the adult and fix these problems while the robber barons and banksters sit on their pile of money counting every dime they have ripped off from the US taxpayers.
So when Michael "Savage" Weiner says President Obama ripped the country in half in only one year, I would have to disagree. No, it was the people such as Michael Weiner, the Glenn Becks and their ilk who decided that they didn't like having a black and Democratic president in the White House that have ripped this country apart.
President Obama didn't create the huge deficit, it was there when he got there and people like Michael Weiner cheered on the previous administration as they poured money down the outhouse in wars of choice such as Iraq. Michael Weiner cheered as former President Bush mismanaged the war in Afghanistan, dragging that conflict out longer than any other war we have been involved in. Where were the Michael savages and Glenn Becks and other tea baggers when those cesspools were opened up for our tax dollars to be poured endlessly into?
The reality is, the country has been ripped apart for some time now. It's been nearly seven years now that President Bush unilaterally violated international law and invaded a sovereign nation with no just cause. There were lots of protests, the "liberal" media chose to ignore them, and the "free speech zones" created by the criminal-in-chief insured he'd never become aware of them, neither would you, Mr. Weiner, or the American people. No, the right was living in a fantasy world were everybody had better stand behind the president in a time of war, and conveniently forgot it once the new president represented the two things that scare you more than getting on a plane full of Muslims.
So now, the only thing you can blame on President Obama is the fact that he opened your eyes to a country so polarized that each side has created it's own separate reality, where truth is subjective and lies are acceptable if they help to prop up your insane belief system.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Just When You Think He Couldn't Get Any Stupider, Glenn Beck Proves You Wrong
Welcome to the New McCarthyism. Paranoid personality disorder Glenn Beck sees anti-Americanism everywhere. He rants and rants against voices that are disparate and different from his own, people who haven't had it as easy as himself.
And sometimes, he has to go back, way back, almost twenty five years, before he can find something for himself to get himself into a tizzy over.
Case in point: Bruce Springsteen's song, 'Born In The USA', is anti American. No fucking shit. Well, it's not as anti-American as much as it is critical of a system that creates endless wars, inescapable debt, corporate prisons and no hope for working people. And it's the same song that twenty five years ago the sainted Ronald Reagan wanted to use as his campaign theme song. And now he just listened to the lyrics? Good thing he's not in charge of Homeland Security.
It's all part of the ongoing class war where the haves criticize the have-nots for not being happy with the crumbs they are being offered. Everything Beck rails against, health care reform, social and economic justice, are all the concerns of the people who work hard and are compensated poorly for their sweat. All so a useless corporate shill like Beck can interpret twenty-five year old rock music written by musicians opposed to the repressive agenda of the corporatocracy.
And sometimes, he has to go back, way back, almost twenty five years, before he can find something for himself to get himself into a tizzy over.
Case in point: Bruce Springsteen's song, 'Born In The USA', is anti American. No fucking shit. Well, it's not as anti-American as much as it is critical of a system that creates endless wars, inescapable debt, corporate prisons and no hope for working people. And it's the same song that twenty five years ago the sainted Ronald Reagan wanted to use as his campaign theme song. And now he just listened to the lyrics? Good thing he's not in charge of Homeland Security.
It's all part of the ongoing class war where the haves criticize the have-nots for not being happy with the crumbs they are being offered. Everything Beck rails against, health care reform, social and economic justice, are all the concerns of the people who work hard and are compensated poorly for their sweat. All so a useless corporate shill like Beck can interpret twenty-five year old rock music written by musicians opposed to the repressive agenda of the corporatocracy.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Philosophical Disparity Between Glenn Beck And Reality
Today at work, I was told by a customer that if I did not offer a fish entree tomorrow, I was going to Hell.
Sure, I thought, right after I visit the Merry Old Land of Oz.
For centuries the church has been a source of brainwashing of it's followers, from "don't eat meat on Friday during Lent" to "don't vote for a homosexual baby killer Democrat". It's worked because, as George Carlin once said, once you get people to believe in an invisible man in the sky, you can get them to believe anything. As long as it's approved by by Glenn Beck.
So if your church begins to preach the teachings of Jesus Christ, you know love thy neighbors, and all that crap that Christians rarely take to heart, "run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!". (Don't worry, Glenn. Your magic underwear will protect you from thoughts of social and economic justice.)
Now we see the rights plans laid bare: they oppose justice in any form. The social programming language of capitalist authoritarianism seeks to activate personal greed, intellectual insecurity and visceral racism as motivators of guided popular political reaction. So even though the basis for Christianity is kindness and sharing, if your pastor mentions social or economic justice, he's a commie. Or a Nazi. All you really need to know, beyond the philosophical disparity between the two, is Glenn Beck has done the thinking for you, and has decided that they're both really bad. And besides, those people who call for economic and social justice are, you know, those people. And if those people are in your church, better run as fast as you can, because there is no difference between, say, the Lutherans and the Baptists. Really.
Sure, I thought, right after I visit the Merry Old Land of Oz.
For centuries the church has been a source of brainwashing of it's followers, from "don't eat meat on Friday during Lent" to "don't vote for a homosexual baby killer Democrat". It's worked because, as George Carlin once said, once you get people to believe in an invisible man in the sky, you can get them to believe anything. As long as it's approved by by Glenn Beck.
So if your church begins to preach the teachings of Jesus Christ, you know love thy neighbors, and all that crap that Christians rarely take to heart, "run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!". (Don't worry, Glenn. Your magic underwear will protect you from thoughts of social and economic justice.)
Now we see the rights plans laid bare: they oppose justice in any form. The social programming language of capitalist authoritarianism seeks to activate personal greed, intellectual insecurity and visceral racism as motivators of guided popular political reaction. So even though the basis for Christianity is kindness and sharing, if your pastor mentions social or economic justice, he's a commie. Or a Nazi. All you really need to know, beyond the philosophical disparity between the two, is Glenn Beck has done the thinking for you, and has decided that they're both really bad. And besides, those people who call for economic and social justice are, you know, those people. And if those people are in your church, better run as fast as you can, because there is no difference between, say, the Lutherans and the Baptists. Really.
Monday, March 08, 2010
Endless War In A Service Economy
Growing up, my Grandfather had a cabin in Northern Michigan, on an inland lake, a log cabin he had built himself. On one corner of his property was a trailer, a two-wheeled trailer, with the axle in the center and some sort of railing around it, used for hauling wood from the forest, or garbage to the dump. When it was parked, and empty, one end stuck up in the air while the other touched the ground, much the way a see-saw looks when nobody's riding it. As children, we would stand at the lower end of the trailer and run up towards the high end, until that fell with a crash, and we were on the low end again, which caused us to laugh.
It's kind of like our political system. While at the edges, there are those who are doggedly right or left, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democratic, the bulk of American voters run from on side to the other. After several years of Bush cutting taxes and increasing spending started to put a damper on things, voters, the same voters who had voted Bush and Republican previously, ran to high end of the trailer, hoping that the Democrats would change things. Like they had promised. And while the system sank deeper into the shit, those on the right cynically asked "How's all that hope and change working out for ya? To which I reply, about as well as your cynicism and stagnation are working out for you, but I digress.
But as voters run from one side to the other, nobody seems to notice they're not getting anywhere. Things aren't getting better. There getting worse. The party we have chosen as leaders have decided they don't want to do anything that isn't bi-partisan. I guess they don't want to take the blame if things go wrong. The other party is offering nothing new, the same old tax-cuts-and increased-spending solution.
Our time is coming soon. Our schools are running out of funding. Our states are falling deeper into debt. Some can't even pay your income tax refund. Our politicians, both parties, have traded our future for endless war in a service economy. A lot of them are walking away this year, with a pension and a lifetime of free medical care. Most of them into a lobbying position with some mega-corporation that hasn't stolen enough from us. And what will we do about it?
Run to the higher end of the trailer, of course.
It's kind of like our political system. While at the edges, there are those who are doggedly right or left, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democratic, the bulk of American voters run from on side to the other. After several years of Bush cutting taxes and increasing spending started to put a damper on things, voters, the same voters who had voted Bush and Republican previously, ran to high end of the trailer, hoping that the Democrats would change things. Like they had promised. And while the system sank deeper into the shit, those on the right cynically asked "How's all that hope and change working out for ya? To which I reply, about as well as your cynicism and stagnation are working out for you, but I digress.
But as voters run from one side to the other, nobody seems to notice they're not getting anywhere. Things aren't getting better. There getting worse. The party we have chosen as leaders have decided they don't want to do anything that isn't bi-partisan. I guess they don't want to take the blame if things go wrong. The other party is offering nothing new, the same old tax-cuts-and increased-spending solution.
Our time is coming soon. Our schools are running out of funding. Our states are falling deeper into debt. Some can't even pay your income tax refund. Our politicians, both parties, have traded our future for endless war in a service economy. A lot of them are walking away this year, with a pension and a lifetime of free medical care. Most of them into a lobbying position with some mega-corporation that hasn't stolen enough from us. And what will we do about it?
Run to the higher end of the trailer, of course.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Tne Unbrainwashed 2010 Academy Awards Pick For Best Picture
I have a general disdain for awards shows. I don't care what celebrities are wearing to draw attention to themselves and away from more deserving entities. I'm not big on production numbers nor the comedy stylings of Bruce Vilanch. I don't really care which actor or actress wins a statuette.
That being said, this is a prediction of what I think will win the best picture award, but what I think SHOULD win the best picture. I say this because I know that the academy voters have passed on nominated movies such as Fargo and Pulp Fiction to give the best picture to lesser, weaker, stupider movies.
And, this year, with the academy nominating ten pictures instead of the usual five, I feel very good that I have actually seen over half the nominated films. Most years, I'm lucky to see one.
Avatar-This movie was groundbreaking in the visual effects department. But a Snickers bar on a silver platter is still a Snickers bar. Besides the predictability of the plot line and the stock cliche characters, it wasn't even that good of a story. I don't think it will win, and I don't think it should, either.
The Blind Side-This is one of those weepy feel-good movies. Usually they win, because Hollywood likes being manipulated as much as the rest of the people. I haven't seen it, because I'm not a fan of sports movies or Sandra Bullock. And I don't think it should win.
District 9-I liked this picture. It's visual effects could and plot line should have taught James Cameron that money and technology isn't everything. But as much as I liked it, I don't think it was the best picture I've seen this year. Or last year.
An Education-Another British period piece costume drama. Usually these win. I haven't seen it. And even if it does pull an upset, I don't think I ever would.
The Hurt Locker-I'm not too fond of propaganda pieces. At least Katherine Bigelow's ex-husband had the sense to make the occupying force the bad guys and the insurgency the good guys. It was a compelling piece of work, still, not the best film I saw last year.
Inglorious Basterds-Quentin Tarantino has made a lot of good movies. Some of them have been nominated for Oscars and lost to lesser films. I found this film to have too many slow and dull parts for me. Still, if it pulled an upset, I wouldn't be.
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire-Boy, there's mouthful in a title. Couldn't just call it Push or Precious, could they? There are some movies I wouldn't mind seeing win, just to insure that the Sandra Bullock movie doesn't. I haven't seen this one, but if it does win, I might feel compelled to check it out at sometime, but a lot of it seems like what I live around everyday.
A Serious Man-The Coen Brothers. Someday, this will rank up there with their other cult classics like Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and my all time favorite Miller's Crossing. (No Country For Old Men being somewhat of an anomaly as it's based on outside work)Still, as big of a Coen Bros fan as I am, I cannot say this was the best picture I saw that was produced last year.
UP-The people at Pixar know what they're doing. They have yet to make a truly awful movie, which is made more amazing since they have become part of Disney. This is almost a shoo-in to win Best Animated Feature, but really, most of Avatar is as computer generated as this movie, but this has a better storyline. It has the best score of any of the movies I've seen, and it has the most heart. It's not maudlin like some Sandra Bullock weeper, it's not as manipulative either. In short, it is the best picture that I saw last year, and if this were a perfect world (and if it were, I'm sure I would find some minuscule fault with it), Up would win the Oscar for best picture.
Up In The Air-The only movie on this list that I haven't seen, but, win or lose, would still wish to, it seems like a movie I might enjoy. The trailer looked good, but so did the trailer for The Men Who Stare At Goats, which I did see, but did not get nominated for an award. And it's theme of corporate downsizing is timely as well. As sure as I am of it being a good movie, I am sure that UP is better.
So there you are. I'm sure many people will disagree with about UP, but, hey, that's why we have a comments section. What are your picks? Or do you care less about this than I?
That being said, this is a prediction of what I think will win the best picture award, but what I think SHOULD win the best picture. I say this because I know that the academy voters have passed on nominated movies such as Fargo and Pulp Fiction to give the best picture to lesser, weaker, stupider movies.
And, this year, with the academy nominating ten pictures instead of the usual five, I feel very good that I have actually seen over half the nominated films. Most years, I'm lucky to see one.
Avatar-This movie was groundbreaking in the visual effects department. But a Snickers bar on a silver platter is still a Snickers bar. Besides the predictability of the plot line and the stock cliche characters, it wasn't even that good of a story. I don't think it will win, and I don't think it should, either.
The Blind Side-This is one of those weepy feel-good movies. Usually they win, because Hollywood likes being manipulated as much as the rest of the people. I haven't seen it, because I'm not a fan of sports movies or Sandra Bullock. And I don't think it should win.
District 9-I liked this picture. It's visual effects could and plot line should have taught James Cameron that money and technology isn't everything. But as much as I liked it, I don't think it was the best picture I've seen this year. Or last year.
An Education-Another British period piece costume drama. Usually these win. I haven't seen it. And even if it does pull an upset, I don't think I ever would.
The Hurt Locker-I'm not too fond of propaganda pieces. At least Katherine Bigelow's ex-husband had the sense to make the occupying force the bad guys and the insurgency the good guys. It was a compelling piece of work, still, not the best film I saw last year.
Inglorious Basterds-Quentin Tarantino has made a lot of good movies. Some of them have been nominated for Oscars and lost to lesser films. I found this film to have too many slow and dull parts for me. Still, if it pulled an upset, I wouldn't be.
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire-Boy, there's mouthful in a title. Couldn't just call it Push or Precious, could they? There are some movies I wouldn't mind seeing win, just to insure that the Sandra Bullock movie doesn't. I haven't seen this one, but if it does win, I might feel compelled to check it out at sometime, but a lot of it seems like what I live around everyday.
A Serious Man-The Coen Brothers. Someday, this will rank up there with their other cult classics like Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and my all time favorite Miller's Crossing. (No Country For Old Men being somewhat of an anomaly as it's based on outside work)Still, as big of a Coen Bros fan as I am, I cannot say this was the best picture I saw that was produced last year.
UP-The people at Pixar know what they're doing. They have yet to make a truly awful movie, which is made more amazing since they have become part of Disney. This is almost a shoo-in to win Best Animated Feature, but really, most of Avatar is as computer generated as this movie, but this has a better storyline. It has the best score of any of the movies I've seen, and it has the most heart. It's not maudlin like some Sandra Bullock weeper, it's not as manipulative either. In short, it is the best picture that I saw last year, and if this were a perfect world (and if it were, I'm sure I would find some minuscule fault with it), Up would win the Oscar for best picture.
Up In The Air-The only movie on this list that I haven't seen, but, win or lose, would still wish to, it seems like a movie I might enjoy. The trailer looked good, but so did the trailer for The Men Who Stare At Goats, which I did see, but did not get nominated for an award. And it's theme of corporate downsizing is timely as well. As sure as I am of it being a good movie, I am sure that UP is better.
So there you are. I'm sure many people will disagree with about UP, but, hey, that's why we have a comments section. What are your picks? Or do you care less about this than I?
The New American Terrorist or Keep Your Bible Out Of My Ass Unless You Want To Get Shit On It
In the days following 9/11, the country was together like never before in history. United We Stand stickers decorated vehicles from the lowliest rusting Honda to the mightiest gas sucking Hummer. We were as one.
We were united against a common enemy, terrorists who would use violence and intimidation against civilians in order to impose their limited religious views on them. These people hated us, we were told, because we were free.
Welcome to Amarillo.
In Amarillo, there's a new brand of terrorists, cowards who bully people who have chosen to enjoy the freedoms granted to them by the (once) greatest country that has ever existed. Under the guise of Christian Patriotism they harass and intimidate those with whom they do not agree. Gays. "Swingers". Environmentalists. Liberals. People who celebrate Halloween. Pornography shops.
Yes, the people of Amarillo are being terrorized by Repent Amarillo, a self proclaimed "Army of God" who enjoy dressing up like soldiers and using intimidation tactics against their fellow Americans, instead of becoming real soldiers and fighting America's real enemies, the Muslim heathens who attacked us on 9/11. Or, if they didn't attack us, practice a form of the religion of those that did. They have become even more evil than Liz Cheney, if that's possible.
And so now a country once united has become divided into hate groups: people who use their bible as reinforcement for their phobic beliefs of groups they do not understand, people who love to drop bombs on people with belief systems different than theirs but don't want to pay the taxes to fund the bombings, and the the Republican Party. They have destroyed this country much better than alQaeda could have ever dreamed of doing.
We were united against a common enemy, terrorists who would use violence and intimidation against civilians in order to impose their limited religious views on them. These people hated us, we were told, because we were free.
Welcome to Amarillo.
In Amarillo, there's a new brand of terrorists, cowards who bully people who have chosen to enjoy the freedoms granted to them by the (once) greatest country that has ever existed. Under the guise of Christian Patriotism they harass and intimidate those with whom they do not agree. Gays. "Swingers". Environmentalists. Liberals. People who celebrate Halloween. Pornography shops.
Yes, the people of Amarillo are being terrorized by Repent Amarillo, a self proclaimed "Army of God" who enjoy dressing up like soldiers and using intimidation tactics against their fellow Americans, instead of becoming real soldiers and fighting America's real enemies, the Muslim heathens who attacked us on 9/11. Or, if they didn't attack us, practice a form of the religion of those that did. They have become even more evil than Liz Cheney, if that's possible.
And so now a country once united has become divided into hate groups: people who use their bible as reinforcement for their phobic beliefs of groups they do not understand, people who love to drop bombs on people with belief systems different than theirs but don't want to pay the taxes to fund the bombings, and the the Republican Party. They have destroyed this country much better than alQaeda could have ever dreamed of doing.
Friday, March 05, 2010
The Moron Parent Nanny State Strikes Again!
I'll admit to being a fan of The Office. One of my favorite episodes is when Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) attends an improv class, and every skit he's involved in ends up with him pointing his finger like a gun and "shooting" his class mates, until, out of frustration, his teacher tells him he can no longer use his "gun" in class.
So it was with some amusement that I read about a kindergartner suspended making a gun with his hand. At first, I thought, how ridiculous. Little boys have been doing this for years, and it's not like his finger is going to go off and accidentally shoot some one. It's just another example of the overprotective politically correct nanny state taking it out on some poor little boy. But then I read more:
Jammer's mother, Erin Jammer, received a warning about it Friday, and spoke with him about it.Here's where the problem for me begins. The school contacted little Mason's mother about this and she did nothing to stop the problem. You see, I'm all for pretend gun ownership, but when you start pointing your finger gun at other people, that's when other people's right to not have a finger gun pointed at them becomes more important. And if your child's school contacts you about a problem with your son at school, it's your responsibility to act like a parent and make sure the problem is solved.
I pity poor Mason Jammer. He's not going to go far in life because his parents have refused to engage him at an early age and teach him the qualities that make a good human being. Instead, they have left it up to the already overburdened public school system so they can spend more time watching Judge Judy, playing on Farmville or any number of things that WT do when they should be imparting what little if any wisdom they have to their offspring. If you have any questions why are country is so fucked up, look no farther than Erin Jammer and her inability to raise a decent human being.
So it was with some amusement that I read about a kindergartner suspended making a gun with his hand. At first, I thought, how ridiculous. Little boys have been doing this for years, and it's not like his finger is going to go off and accidentally shoot some one. It's just another example of the overprotective politically correct nanny state taking it out on some poor little boy. But then I read more:
School officials allege Mason had displayed this kind of behavior for several months, despite numerous warnings."
Jammer's mother, Erin Jammer, received a warning about it Friday, and spoke with him about it.Here's where the problem for me begins. The school contacted little Mason's mother about this and she did nothing to stop the problem. You see, I'm all for pretend gun ownership, but when you start pointing your finger gun at other people, that's when other people's right to not have a finger gun pointed at them becomes more important. And if your child's school contacts you about a problem with your son at school, it's your responsibility to act like a parent and make sure the problem is solved.
I pity poor Mason Jammer. He's not going to go far in life because his parents have refused to engage him at an early age and teach him the qualities that make a good human being. Instead, they have left it up to the already overburdened public school system so they can spend more time watching Judge Judy, playing on Farmville or any number of things that WT do when they should be imparting what little if any wisdom they have to their offspring. If you have any questions why are country is so fucked up, look no farther than Erin Jammer and her inability to raise a decent human being.
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