Tea Baggers, Terrorists and the Mob Mentality

Glenn Greenwald ran a post about how readily people accept what they are told, especially by our leaders. Essentially, the government claims that it can now kill anyone, even Americans overseas, by deeming them terrorists with out any due process. That whole "constitution" thing went out with the Patriot Act. And that people who may have opposed it's usage by the previous administration have no problem with President Obama making similar declarations. Much the same way the charges of socialist and communist are leveled at an obvious corporatist like our president by those on the right because they feel uncomfortable being led by someone with a darker skin tone, despite any empirical evidence.
On the right, the same thing is happening to the Tea Party movement. What began as a Libertarian anti tax movement in Chicago in 2008 has mushroomed and metamorphosed into a another arm of the Republican Party, being told to embrace the policies of that party or risk losing support from the movement itself. And while some (read the comments) may resist, the mob mentality will eventually grab hold and the GOP knows it can count on the support of those who while not ideologically aligned with Sarah Palin, will feel she is a better choice than another term of President Obama. For obvious and previously stated reasons.
It's the same mentality that has changed a championship game between the AFL and the NFL (now both the NFC and AFC arms of the NFL) 45 years ago into what is quickly becoming the national holiday. In these times of green thinking, how many of these plastic party supplies will end up rotting in a landfill? While some people will watch to root on their favorite team, more people will watch the Super Bowl for the ads than the game, which in a time of DVRs, is quite a trick on the part of advertisers. And a sign of sickness infecting the mob mentality, turning most of a nation into drunken drooling zombies, turning their memories into advertisements, their minds into pliable mush for the coming corporate state.

It Took A Judge To Decide This

Some people will swallow anything. Like the Rockman said, "You see what you want to see, and you hear what you want to hear. You dig?"
Taking self delusion to an extreme, a consumer in California had somehow come to believe that a sugar coated breakfast cereal aimed at young children was actually nutritious because it offered something known as "crunchberries", and that said "crunchberries" were in fact a real fruit found in nature. Shocked to find out that, no, those said berries were never real fruit, just artificially fruit flavored pieces of gluten and corn meal, she decided to sue the makers of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries. Next they'll tell us Jean LaFoote was not only not a real pirate, but was an animated character voiced by an actor who was known to wear shoes. Or that Smedley the elephant died from hardened arteries due to downing too much Peanut Butter Crunch.
Sorry, but Crunch Berries contain as much fruit (and sugar) as those plastic gallon jugs of orange drink on the bottom of shopping carts of single moms at Save-A-Lot on the first Tuesday of the month. That someone decided to sue the makers of Cap'n Crunch shows that this person,is either stupid, stoned, gullible, looking to make a quick buck from a nuisance lawsuit, or any combination thereof.
Sanity stepped in when a judge threw the lawsuit out, but now we know for sure: "crunchberries" are not real fruit. And, I assume, soon there will be a disclaimer on every box reminding us of it.

Goodbye, Rollo

Friday evenings are the best. Tired from working all week, I scramble to make some dinner while the kids watch syndicated reruns on the local Fox affiliate (except King of the Hill and Everybody Loves Raymond, two shows we find it hard to stomach, especially while we're eating.) Between 5:00 and 8:00 they frequently run the Alltell commercials featuring spokesman Chad as he squares off against four nerds representing the other cellular phone providers.
I think it was Wilbur who questioned why the other guys didn't have names, and unable to come up with a response, we decided to correct this injustice by christening them with names of our own choosing. The ringleader became Dexter, his right hand man was named Jenkins, the quiet guy was named Martin and finally, the chubby feller in the yellow shirt was christened Rollo. And all through the series of commercials featuring these characters, we cheered for the nerds, always rooting for the underdog.
Now a new commercial has appeared, with the actor who portrayed Rollo gone, replaced by someone who kind of resembled him. Did Rollo leave because he wanted more money? Is he branching out into fast food commercials? Will we see him as a nebbishly nerdy neighbor on some future sitcom? We don't know, but we will miss Rollo, and salute him and wish him luck where ever his career takes him. Goodbye, Rollo.
Of course, now we must name the new guy, and the first suggestion? Paolo.

Maybe