Thanks, Idiot, Now Go Be Snarky Somewhere Else (And Check Your Facts)

That annoying squeaky voice. That smug self-satisfied delivery. That errant speech pattern. The complete disconnection from the truth. No, I'm not talking about Glenn Beck, but Sarah Palin who said at the "Restoring Honor" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, activists must honor King's legacy by paying tribute to the men and women who protect America in uniform.
Huh? That don't make no sense!
You see, Dr. King opposed the Viet Nam War, as well as imperialistic US military action that diverted money and attention from domestic programs created to aid the poor blacks. Civil rights and antiwar are King's true legacy, not the celebration of the neocons imperialistic aim to inflict US based global hegemony.
In fact, it was that opposition to capitalism that led to his assassination by a conspiracy that included agencies of the US government. But Palin would never read that in the history books of the corporate idiocracy. Those tell us Dr. King was a great man, without detailing too much what he was really about, since economic, social and racial equality makes some people nervous.
And since were on the subject, how are our 'men and women who protect America in uniform' (shouldn't that be 'our men and women in uniform who protect America'?) restoring honor to our country? Neither the 34,000 civilians deaths inAfghanistan nor the 1,366,350 civilian deaths in Iraq were any sort of threat to our country. And their deaths have done nothing to 'restore America's honor', in fact, it's just the opposite. And how are they any different than the 'honor killings' alleged to by professional Islamophobe Pamela Geller?
Restoring America's Honor and honoring Dr. King's legacy would be easy. All it would take is a slight shift in our foreign policy. But getting a couple of thousand television watchers off their couch is a good start.

I Thought America Won It's Independence From High Prices

It's about time we faced up to the fact that the United States is a corporate idiocracy. Large multi-nationals beam mind numbing drivel into our homes featuring meta-celebrities in voyeuristic situations and call it reality. We are rapidly becoming a nation of slack-jawed mouth breathing window lickers who haven't read a book since they got out of school and couldn't locate Afghanistan on a map, let alone give a clear concise reason why we need to spend another $33 billion there.
How do I know? More than twenty five percent of Americans couldn't tell you from whom we won our independence. So where does these mentally challenged people emanate from? I mean, they can't all come from the Tea party, as they only comprise 18% of the population, but it is nearly as many Americans who think that Sarah Palin resigned as governor because it was the right thing to do for Alaska (which in a way, it was).
To some, the dumbing down of the United States isn't happening quick enough. There's only so many episodes of Jersey Shore that you can get people to watch. So to help ease this country into a more acceptable moronic state, Glenn Beck has plans for an university ('magic underpants' not included). This exclusive chance to be taught revisionist history by avowed theocrats is available exclusively to subscribers of Beck's Insider Extreme, a website devoted to fleecing the sheep to line Glenn Beck's pockets. Once you pass this course, Glenn Beck doesn't promise you'll get a job from it, only that you'll be as confused politically as he is, just what you need when you're working your new job, wrangling shopping carts in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
(Cross posted at American Insurgency)

Praying To Your Red, White And Blue Security Blanket

  Fox News, which we all have known for years, is neither fair balanced. Or truthful either. Basically it exists to reinforce right wing talking points while stirring up the base about non-existent issues.
Recently, the network, in it's effort to rile up the corporate idiocracy, incorrectly claimed a school refused to let students say the pledge of allegiance. Without going into much detail about how the pledge was written by a Christian Socialist, the recitation of the pledge is one of the  forms of brainwashing foisted upon children at the earliest age . Essentially a prayer to a piece of cloth, it is however considered important to the weak and feeble minded people who think it actually means something.
Following the erroneous report by Fox News, the school began receiving offensive hateful and potentially criminal messages from Fox News viewers. Because nothing makes one more patriotic than threatening a school board.
The whole controversy began when an initiative from the leader of the Republican Youth called for the pledge to be recited at every school. Because nothing says freedom more than being forced to mouth empty words to a piece of cloth. The student, Sean Harrington, gave an impassioned speech to the board spewing right wing cliches and talking points such as 'freedom isn't free' and other such drivel. All was in vain, though, as board members deadlocked on whether or not to pass the proposal. The school principal offered a compromise, wherein all who wished could join the principal in the school lobby before the start of each day and recite the pledge, which Harrington rejected.

"I was really heartbroken," Harrington said of the deadlocked vote. "It's hard to think that something so traditional in American society was turned down. ... It tells me that we've basically cast aside what our country is founded on."

Um, I think Mr. Harrington needs to retake American History 101, because the pledge wasn't even written until 1892. Our country was founded on the Constitution, which prohibits the establishment of a religion, which is what the idolatry based Americanism he wants to force upon all his fellow students sounds like to me. And as far as being 'something so traditional in American society', one must remember that it wasn't even until the forties that it became compulsory for students to recite it. So it's not that much of a long standing tradition.
So basically, what we have, is a school board being terrorized by right wing fanatics because some arrested developmental Republican still needs his red, white, and blue security blanket. Boy, is he in for a shock when he walks out into the real world.

Don't Cut Into My Racket

"To include these other groups diminishes their memory.......These people are not in the same category as Jewish people..."-Assemblyman Dov Hikind
Is he referring to the Armenian Genocide? No, he's discussing the inclusion of Gays, Gypsies and Jehovah's Witnesses in a Brooklyn Holocaust Memorial. (Why Brooklyn needs a Holocaust Memorial isn't even being discussed). Sure, the Holocaust(TM) was horrible for millions of European Jews, but, like 9/11, the Holocaust has been very good for Israel.
It has allowed them to invade Syria and seize the Golan Heights. It has been the reason for numerous military incursions into Lebanon by the IDF. It has even been used as a justification for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as threats against Iran by the Israeli government.
And as for the fears that inclusion of other groups sought out for persecution by the Hitler regime might lead to people forgetting about the horrible suffering inflicted upon the Jews, that ain't gonna happen. Television shows, movies and books appear every couple of months to retell the story of the Holocaust, even if some of those stories turn out to be complete hoaxes.
All over the planet, at any given time, one group of people is trying to eradicate another. Iraq, Darfur, Cambodia, Gaza, Armenia, the list goes on, and now, Assemblyman Hilkind, you are being just as bad by trying to eradicate others who suffered alongside your people from the list of victims of the terrible Nazi death machine.

One Person's Hate Crime Is Another's Belief System

Christopher Columbus discovered America. We all know that. We know it because we were taught that in school. Our parents were taught it, and their parents, and most likely, our children are being taught that as well, so it must be right, right?
Wrong.
Long before Columbus, before Leif Erickson and the Vikings, there were people living here, indigenous people who had built great civilizations, such as the Mayans, and yet, in our Euro-centric education system, those people are not credited with their discovery.
Suppose you began to question this idea. You set up a Facebook page dedicated to questioning the truth, but some people urge the owners of Facebook to remove your group from it's site. What's the big deal? It's not like you put up a page dedicated to killing all native Americans or anything. And yet, although you are not harming anyone with your belief system, you are guilty of a "thought crime" because your ideas, as ludicrous as they may be to some, and repellent to others, they are mere thoughts, that, right or wrong, sane or bull goose fucking looney, are your thoughts.
Once they can make one idea, an intangible thought a crime, then they can start adding more. Lots of people believe things that are wrong in my opinion, Christianity, Elvis is alive, the moon landings were faked, or that American Idol is the best show in the history of television. Yet, No one Demands these thoughts become hate crimes. I certainly don't. In this crazy mixed up world, people certainly have the right to believe what they will, because, they're really not hurting anyone but their own credibility.
Columbus never set out to discover America, he was merely seeking a new trade route to India by proving the world is round. He was half successful. But even with revisionist history, people will believe what they want to, in the face of undeniable facts. There are still people who believe the world is flat after all.