Amid All the Eulogies, a Sobering History

Tags

GOP, History, Mandela, racism, South Africa

Nelson Mandela, died a couple of days ago, and the airways have been filled with tributes and analysis of his impact on the political landscape. Indeed Mandela stands forth with a handful of others of the 20th century whom we can look up to as real fighters for freedom and justice. His name is equal to that of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Caesar Chavez, Lech Waleza in the pantheon of people we adjudge as heroes.

Mandela started as a peaceful revolutionary and democratic socialist in South Africa. The massacre at Sharpeville was said to have radicalized him and led to a more militant Mandela and a upturn violent activities. He co-founded the MK in 1961, becoming ultimately the ANC’s armed wing. He sought help from Casto and other Communist states in his struggle to help his people. After his conviction in 1964 for treason and his incarceration, he developed the present philosophy for which he is noted, and upon his release from prison in 1990.

He went on to become the president of the country in 1994, and today South Africa stands as a model of reconciliation between black and white citizens. Of course that doesn’t mean that all is well there by any means, but Mandela set the tone of forgiveness which allowed the country to move forward instead of devolving into a bloody war.

But most all of this is common knowledge. Today, the US, like countries around the world, are paying tribute to this freedom fighter. Yet it was not so very long ago that things were quite different here as regards this individual.

It is clear that there was no real desire in this country to come to Mandela and Black Africans in general initially. As was true in the 60’s as regards the Vietnam war, the impetus for change came from university campuses across the nation, as students challenged their schools financial investment in the rich industries of South Africa. Local governments in some cases followed suit.

Finally a coalition of Democrats and liberal and moderate Republicans passed a comprehensive bill called the Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986. The near-god of the Right, Ronald Reagan, promptly vetoed it. Back it went to the Congress, where people like Jessie Helms claimed that Mandela was nothing more than an ungodly communist aligned with the Soviet Union. In fact old Jessie led a filibuster against the law.

Other well-known Republicans who voted no to over-riding the presidential veto. Among them were: Phil Gramm, Joe Barton, Dick Cheney, Ralph Hall and Howard Coble and Hal Rodgers. Rodgers, Barton, and Coble  had the gall to commemorate Mandela after his death, making no mention of the fact that they had tried to stop the imposition of sanctions against South Africa to end apartheid and his very imprisonment. Present members of the senate who voted against the bill are: Thad Cochran, Orrin Hatch, and Chuck Grassley.

For the first and only time in the 20th century, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans over-rode the President’s veto and the bill became law. The rest is history.

No doubt before long, the tea party will “adopt” Mandela as one of their own, much as they have laughingly tried to do with Martin Luther King, Jr.

But we remember that the Republicans again, in very large numbers were on the wrong side of history back in 1986. Cheney of course says his vote was proper and that Mandela has “mellowed” since then.

Indeed, some Democrats were as well. Mandela was not taken off the “terrorist watch list” until 2008.

Some “modern” wannabe leaders are finding the going a bit tough in praising Nelson Mandela. Ted Cruz gave the obligatory tribute and was vilified for it by his cadre of insanely crazy followers.   It’s best we don’t forget that either.

 

Sins of the Fathers

Tags

History, racism, teabaggers

Many years ago I was sitting in a college cafeteria at a table with an older woman who I shared a class with. She was German, and a good twenty years my senior. She had come to this country some years after the end of the war.

I asked her what it had been like living in Germany during the war years under Hitler. She responded, “we knew nothing of any of that political stuff. We were merely trying to survive, spending our days looking for food.” She changed the subject.

Little did I know in my naiveté that this was the “answer” all Germans who lived in Germany during the war years would automatically reply with. It was the mantra of “I didn’t know about all that awful stuff done to the Jews. Don’t blame me.”

Why do I bring up this story in a post about racism? Because we are still in our own mantras regarding race in America, at least some of us are.

If you talk to people on the far right,  what was once denoted as the “moral majority”, and today is surely the Tea Party, more or less, you almost invariably get this: “There is no racism in America today. Everyone has equal rights under the law. I have never personally done anything to a black person. That’s behind us. I don’t have any share of what was done ‘back then’. The only reason black people keep bringing it up is because they want to get something for free. I judge a person by the content of their character like King said we should. He was a REPUBLICAN too, or did you forget that? And it was Republicans who freed the slaves. It was the DEMOCRATS who didn’t want civil rights.”

My, such a collection of truths, half-truths and outright lies.

Racism is just not the province of those who did the actual acts that we judge as evil. And that brings us to Germany and what we can learn from a country that has intimately struggled with the evils of Nazism and all that that entailed. Germany has had to come to grips with those that bear the burden of actual guilt–Nazi and Nazi sympathizers–plus the millions who chose to look the other way, and pretend that they “didn’t know.”

Germany has had to work through the difference between actual guilt and responsibility. And it continues, no doubt to struggle. It has passed through the stages of children who must face and confront their parents and elders direct guilt, and how that impacts them as the next generation. The next generation must then confront how well that was attended to, what more and how to structure the country going forward.

Certain elements (the far right) wish to avoid all that. To be sure, it is in large part not motivated by an intellectual determination that “that was not my fault”. It is, I would argue, more motivated by the desire to eliminate all sorts of programs that they imagine costs them tax monies. It certainly motivates their desire to eliminate affirmative action which they see as impinging upon their ability to get the plum jobs that would otherwise come their way were it not for the “less qualified black” that steps in front of them, demanding the job to “atone for the past”.

That is as they see it, or choose to see it. Affirmative action is quite something else, but that’s another story.

There is a certain irony in their argument that guilt dies with the operative generation. Given that most of them are card-carrying members of the fundamentalist religious right as well, it is ironic indeed. If indeed the bible is the ACTUAL word of God, then of course, they seem to have neglected those times when “God” told them that the sins of the fathers would be visited upon up to the third or fourth generation. (If you propose that that all ended with Jesus, who fulfilled the “old testament”, then perchance you can quit citing Leviticus for the proposition that God hates gays!)

There is in fact a thing called “collective responsibility” and it is something not so easily swept away with cries of “not my problem.”

If we are Americans and that means something, then surely our responsibility for wrongs done in the past that have proven to have a lasting impact on a great number of others, does not end and did not end with those who wielded the whips, raped the house servants, denied the vote, and threw the hangman’s noose over the tree.

And we, or they (the hard right) do think that being American means something. They dare not deny that as they scream about how exceptional we are, and how God is specially favored toward us as that beacon on the hill. No you can’t have it both ways here. In for a penny, in for a pound.

To say that everyone has equal rights, is a nice legalistic phrase, holding almost no truth of course. Not when a Rand Paul, championing his white, right-wing version of libertarianism says he’s not quite sure that the individual business owner doesn’t have the right to serve whom he pleases, meaning that all those diner sit-ins would have been illegal in his world.

What exactly constitutes discharging one’s responsibilities for the past is of course the rub. We can and should argue about that. Germany certainly has. But Germany, lo these many years later, erected the Holocaust memorial, smack dab in the center of the city, reminding every one of what responsibility means.

More inspiring may be the “Stumbling stones” placed in towns and cities throughout Germany by the artist Gunter Demning. These paving stones, with the names and dates of deportation of Jews, placed in the pavement in front of the places they lived, are stark, and gut-wrenching.

Do we have anything comparable to this in the US to remind us of our past? Toward the slaves? Toward the Native Americans, victimized by white genocide? Toward the Japanese?

Our list might indeed by very long.

Does a watching of the TV-movie mini-series Roots, amount to a proper “confrontation” with our past?

It seems accurate to conclude that we avoid really confronting our past in the ways that might lead to deep reflection, and thus result in actions that might be aimed at insuring that such never happens again.

Philosopher Stanley Clavell tells us:

if we are to acknowledge, and not merely know, the extent of our nation’s crimes, some degree of traumatisation must take place. Facts are insufficient, and numbers often make them worse.

We wish to “move on”. We wish to bury our heads in “it wasn’t me” mentality, because it conflicts with our current agenda. It’s not “productive” we are told. Ironically, the mere mention of race by our very own president, elicits cries of “I hate him because he has divided us by race”.  How acutely warped a remark, let alone the idea that someone actually believes it. It is testimony to the fact that deeply imbedded within the psyche of so many remains such seeded “other” hatred, that a African-American man cannot mention the word race without screams  of “cease and desist” and worse, “he’s only half-black”. What that means is almost too frightening to imagine, and not a single person who has said it that I have confronted has been willing to tell me what they mean by that.

We are and remain a deeply racist society. That discomfort for many, and outright hatred by some extends to all the “not white” among us, whether they be Native American, Hispanic, Black, Asian. It extends to gays, and yes, still women who have the temerity to stand up and demand the right to determine their own physical future. To deny it is merely to announce something ugly within yourself.

Do read History and Guilt in Aeon. This site is simply amazing. Some of the best articles I’ve seen in a long while. If you read it you will see how much I drew from this for this post. Read it!

Dismantling My Racist Car, One Rust Spot at a Time

Tags

GOP, racism, tea party

That’s how I see my own journey of eradicating racism within myself.

Me? A racist? Me who rails against the bigots of the world, admitting that I too have my racist moments?

Sure I do. We all do. No matter how we deny it, we all do. We are the product of our genes, and our experiences. Nobody is raised by a racist, in a racist environment who isn’t spattered by the mud my friend.

Sure, I’ve wiped off all the mud I can see, but what about that which I can’t? You know, the spot on the back of my knee, or in the small of the back?

That’s why I continue to twist and turn with mirror in hand trying to view my body from all points, searching out but another unexpected spot to furiously remove.

This Trayvon thing has started a dialogue again about race and you can be sure that some awful things are being said. The Right continues to profess that we live in a “post-racial” world and that “everyone has equal opportunity and has for decades.” African-American voices continue to remind us that they are still having “the talk” with their sons about how to get along with white authority to avoid a bullet in the back. There is obviously a bit of disconnect here.

The hard Right is most assuredly wrong. Racism is not a thing of the past. And I’m not sure they even mean that. I think they really mean that as long as the “official” system is not racist in doling out whatever largess it possesses, then that is the end of things. People are going to be people and what they believe is really of no business to anybody. Randy Paul seems to be of this persuasion as he so clearly announced some time ago when he suggested that he wasn’t quite sure that it was right to tell a business owner who he could serve. In other words, the diner sit-ins were wrong, as were a good portion of the civil rights bills of the 60’s.

That seems to be the crux of it for the Tea People types. Institutional racism is wrong, but personal racism is really nobody’s business.

Except that isn’t a very darn good way to move along as a society I don’t think.

Tea Folk amuse me mostly. They are decidedly ignorant to a greater degree than a goodly portion of the rest of the politically aware. I’m not sure they are really against institutional racism at all but they know it’s impolitic to say so. They stand up their cardboard cut out of Martin Luther King and use him as their standard-bearer, “judge not by the color of my skin, but by the content of my character.” Except it seems that most Tea Folk find the character of most Black folk, well, questionable would be a kind word.

“The race-baiting industry saw an opportunity to further the racist careers of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the Black Panthers, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, et al, who then swept down on the Florida community refusing to admit that the 17-year-old dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe Trayvon Martin was at all responsible for his bad decisions and standard modus operendi of always taking the violent route,” wrote Nugent. (Ted Nugent writing in Rare)

Add to this their adherence to the likes of Allen West, Alan Keyes, Herman Cain, E. W. Jackson,  Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson et al. These famous Black Republicans are clung to by the Reactionary Right as their proof positive that they aren’t racist. These fine gentlemen are sure to please for they never play the race card, that euphemistic term for anyone Black who dares to suggest that racial profiling had anything to do with anything.The likes of the above never do that. Instead they nod vigorously that they got where they are by hard work and hard work alone, and that all African-Americans (oops, insert Black, cause the Tea Folk don’t like that term African-American) can too if they just try. All those Black folks for vote Democratic they wisely agree, only do so because they remain “plantation” Negroes, all the while they put on the best show imaginable of the Uncle Tom shuffle.
It’s not just African-Americans of course. Hispanics fall into this wonderful category too. Phyllis Schafly is among the growing number of right-wing nuts who are arguing that there is no point to trying to appeal to the Hispanic crowd because, after all, “they don’t share our American values” anyway.
These are not racist remarks they tell us, but simply facts, as if by so defining them, the statements become the truth they so urgently need them to be. For white people the supposed reward is lower taxes. I guess. I mean they are so adamant that there is NO MORE RACISM, that that can only be the reason, that and the fact that Junior can’t get into Podunk U because of the “quota system that let’s them in when they aren’t even qualified.”
My assumption is that without the qualifier of “racism” the Hard Right can argue more comfortably that people should starve to death, carry their cancer-ridden bodies to the nearest gutter to die in, and live out in tents behind the county dump, because to fund the poor is just “enabling”. It all becomes more easy to suggest that people are just lazy if they aren’t the victim of overt racism right?
“>One might need a panel of psychiatrists to plumb the depths of self-loathing and or selfish opportunism that drives the likes of an Allen West, but we know they are doing “well” in their chosen job of protecting the racism of the Crazy Right. They are no better than the aging Black judge I practiced in front of who calmly and with genteel perfect syntax ordered the young black men who came before her to prison sentences that effectively gutted their lives. “Miss Judge,” they would moan, “I can’t do no fifty years!” She would smile softly through her perfectly lipsticked mouth and utter in a soothing voice, “well, do the best you can” as her deputies hauled away the teenager befuddled by what has befallen him.
Indeed Ted Nugent has similar sage advice to African-Americans:

“racism against blacks was gone by the time I started touring the nation in the late [19]60s” and by the 1970s, “nothing of consequence existed to deter or compromise a black American’s dream if they got an alarm clock, if they set it, if they took good care of themselves, they remained clean and sober, if they spoke clearly, and they demanded excellence of themselves and provided excellence to their employers.”

In other words, ACT WHITE! We expect such drivel from the likes of a Ted Nugent. We expect more from the likes of a Ben Carson.

Those of us who think of ourselves as “not racist” aren’t overtly, yet we are still the product as I said of a life time of experiences. Only those who are from other ethnic groups can tell us when we stray into the area of “assuming that all of them” think or act that way. We bump up against our assumptions about how we think people should behave or think all the time. And we don’t always realize that it is stereotypical at times. How many times have I had the benefit of well-meaning friends who have quietly taken me aside and told me that I’m making an assumption about them that isn’t necessarily true.

And I honestly didn’t know, much as I sometimes hear white folks say things that I now know are racially coded that I’m very sure they don’t.

We’re all on a learning curve.

And therefore it is right and good and essential that African-Americans keep pointing those things out to us at every juncture, when we speak based upon an assumption about them. They aren’t playing a race card, they are helping us to see  the world a bit clearer. If we want to truly eradicate racism in this country and in this world, we have to first be AWARE that what we think or say is objectionable and why.

Trayvon Martin has given us a legacy, one that allows us to see ourselves anew as well as how we relate to the greater world around us. For a young man, he has had a big impact on the world. We can be grateful for that.

You might want to visit this site: www.theracecardproject.com They are doing a thing where they ask people to state their views on race in six words. It’s rather wonderful. Do visit.

The Stupid Chronicles April 27, 2013

Tags

conspiracies, crap I learned, gay rights, homophobia, Humor, racism, terrorism

Look closely at the picture attached here. This is the face of lunacy. You now know exactly what to look for when you casually saunter down the street. When you see lunacy, run!

This man’s name is James Tracy. No not Dick Tracy. He bears not brain-sharing with the great detective of comics. No James is one of those rare nuts who actually somehow made it through grad school and got a degree, and purports to teach our youth.

If you have a child enrolled in Florida Atlantic, I’d suggest you shut off the funds now, and get your kid immediately.

James is certifiable. James “teaches” (I use the term loosely of course) communications and, get this, conspiracy theory. James is a conspiracy. A conspiracy to appear like a normal human being.

James believes the Boston Marathon bombing was “staged”. For all the world, to him, it looks like a pre-organized drill.

In short, the event closely resembles a mass-casualty drill, which for training purposes are designed to be as lifelike as possible. Since it is mediated, however, and primarily experienced from afar through the careful assemblage of words, images, and the official pronouncements and commentary of celebrity journalists, it has the semblance of being for all practical purposes “real.”
….

With the above in mind, photographic evidence of the event suggests the possibility of play actors getting into position after the detonation of what may in fact have been a smoke bomb or similarly benign explosive.

And goody of all goodies there is a video!

And you can read more of Tracy’s insanity at his own blog.

New Hampshire makes another appearance in the crazy parade with an entry from their state legislature. Stella Trembley, oh STELLLLLLA, what have you done now?

Stella no doubt in communication with Mr. Tracy, has her own theories about the Boston Marathon bombing.

Stella pays attention to that great witless Beck, so she posted this on Beck’s site:

Just as you said would happen. Top Down, Bottom UP. The Boston Marathon was a Black Ops “terrorist” attack. One suspect killed, the other one will be too before they even have a chance to speak. Drones and now “terrorist” attacks by our own Government. Sad day, but a “wake up” to all of us. First there was a “suspect” then there wasnt. Infowars broke the story and they knew they had been “found out”.
http://youtu.be/axQtAFtmtVA

Yes, I’m sure that Stella believes that George Bush ordered the 9/11 tragedy as well.

Note as well that the YouTube link she gave on her comment is from none other than career nut Alex Jones.

We did mention that Ms. Stella is a Republican didn’t we? No? Well you knew that anyway didn’t you?

One thing you can be sure of, the stupids are well, really really stupid. That’s why they are so endearing, when they are not annoying gnats in need of swatting.

Such is the case of Representative Tom Shaw, who resides at the Iowa State House, where he plays tiddlywinks most of the day long until it’s time for his chocolate milk and nap break.

Tommy is still mighty angry at the justices of the Iowa Supreme Court, who several years ago had the temerity to actually follow the constitution and declare Iowa’s refusal to allow gays to marry, well, unconstitutional.

Tommy figured out a neat plan to punish the four remaining justices (three were defeated for re-election after a tissue of lies campaign forged by one VanderPlatts and his homophobic friends).

Tommy has offered up a bill directed just at these four justices, cutting their salaries from $163, 200, to just $25,000.

Tommy thinks it’s constitutional.

Tommy is of course an idiot.

Tommy can usually be spotted at the capital building in Des Moines, being led around by his thinking-brain dog Charles.

Tommy also wears Depends and poops in them regularly, so people learn to take a wide berth when seeing him.

From Iowa, we move a bit north and east to my original neck of the woods–Michigan.

Here we find Gloria Platko, a Democrat up in Buena Vista County. She doesn’t seem particularly fond of township supervisor Dwayne Parker, whom she referred to with the “N” word.

She also adjectived that word with “arrogant”.

Gloria, poor dear, was unaware that she was being taped when she made the remarks.

She regrets them of course. NOW.

She assures us she is no racist, because in that time-honored defense, “she’s eaten Thanksgiving dinner at the homes of blacks before.”

She said she probably should have used the word ignoramus.

Sorry, Gloria, that word is taken. You have that dubious distinction of owning the word.

Give back your salary.

It’s always a good bet that Donald Trump can make a stupid list.

The first question or observation one makes about The Donald, is how could stupid make that much money?

Donald doesn’t like Jon Stewart much.

That would be obvious, since Stewart, like all good thinking people tends to point out Donald’s numerous stupid moments.

Donald has another major flaw other than being stupid. He’s very thin-skinned and fights back, hate to use the phrase, but it fits, “like a girl.”

You know what I mean, all snotty and so forth.

So to “get back” at Stewart for being, well, really brilliant at what he does, Trump said,

I am smarter than Jon Stewart will ever be because he is so stupid and because his real name is not even Jon Stewart. It’s something much more Jewish-y. So, ha! Also: he is overrated.

He tweeted it too.

So there, Jon Stewart: It’s all out now. You’re a JEW!, or Jewish-y at least. Take that!

Trumpet head remains, as always,  an idiot.

Oh Gosh, that was a joke Donald, don’t sue me!

Related articles

• N.H. State Rep. Stella Tremblay – “What am I going to apologize for? Asking questions?” (willyloman.wordpress.com)
• Boston Marathon Bombing Conspiracy: Attack Was U.S. False Flag, Says Florida Professor (latinospost.com)

The Stupid Chronicles for April 20, 2013

Tags

2nd Amendment, Arkansas, crap I learned, gay rights, green energy, Humor, immigration, Iowa, Louis Gohmert, Maine, racism, Stupid Chronicles, Texas

Oh don’t mind me, I’m just acting like a Hispanic. Yes dear Louis the Lunatic tops our list today. But it was a close call I tell ya. Louis never fails to deliver the one two punch of stupid all wrapped up in crazy nearly every week. We sometimes wonder if Louis has a bank of writers who dream up his lines, but on reflection that would surely tip the balance and throw civilization into a retrograde orbit.

Louis dear Louis has a gem for us today. Let me put it thusly. Louis viewed Rodin’s the Thinker, and opined, “why is that dude taking a shit in public?”

Louis doesn’t have a pet rock, he’s the pet rock’s pet.

Louis knows his terrorists and he is here to tell you what he has learned. Islamic terrorist organizations are busy helping their Arab folks “act Hispanic” so they can cross the border from Mexico into America. (added joy: there is a video!)

Yes you heard it here.

Although Louis had no opinion of who caused the Boston Marathon bombings at the time he said this, he was pretty darn sure that a fence is the way to go. After all, Israel’s suicide bombings stopped when they built their fence, he offered, unaware that that is not at all true. A good guess is always good enough for Louis.

Compatriot idiot Steve King (R-IA) nodded in agreement and said that the immigration reform bill should be held up, because surely this bombing was caused (he thinks) by some student on a visa.

Louis offered no ideas about how one “acts” Hispanic. Several racist theories comes to mind, but Louis stopped short of asking people to be on the watch for the “typical” Hispanic behaviors. He did whisper that a dead giveaway that you were dealing with a “pretend” Hispanic was to offer him a jalapeño pepper and see if he cries out in anguish and calls for water after taking a bite.

Texas takes our number two spot as well, which isn’t a big surprise–it’s a big state with big idiots in it.

This is Ms. Ester Irene Stokes. She’s a school teacher in Texas. Or was, or confound it, she probably got herself a medal now.

Anyway, she was accused of fondling one of her female students. Now Ms. Stokes is 61 and the child in question was seven. So that is very bad stuff.

So Ms. Stokes tells police and anyone else who will listen that she is not guilty.

You probably assumed that didn’t ya?

Yes, well she has a rather unique defense.

She says that she is such a racist that she can barely stand to touch those little black girls in her class. The mere touch of their hands gives her the heebie jeebies and sends her off to wash off that black skin feel. I mean she actually cringes when the little nappy heads try to hug here, which must happen once every ice age at least.

There have been no responses by the school in question as to whether Ms. Stokes was still employed. What ya wanna make a bet she won’t have any trouble finding another job in some parts of the country at least.

No doubt that face will be forever seared in your brain.

Third on our hit parade for the week is Maine’s governor Paul LaPage.

Now Paulie has come to our attention before as you can note from some of his best work at the right.

But he kinda ran out of material for a little while. After the last couple of days though, I think he’s back in fighting form.

The Bangor News seems to have a particularly low opinion in the Guv, suggesting that he “makes things up” a lot.

Well, Paul is at it again. Paul doesn’t like wind power. He thinks it’s somehow un-American, being all cheap and non-polluting and such. Oil and Gas don’t like air power and that’s enough for big Paul.

So Paul said, “Now, to add insult to injury, The University of Maine, Presque Isle – anybody here been up there to see that damn windmill in the back yard? Guess what, if it’s not blowing wind outside and they have somebody visiting the campus, they have a little electric motor that turns the blades. I’m serious. They have an electric motor so that they can show people wind power works. Unbelievable. And that’s the government that you have here in the state of Maine.”

Of course, no such thing is true. The University says there is no “little motor”.

All this would be funny, and it is, but the answer to Paulie’s nonsense is that he’s touched in the head. Read crazy as a loon. Read, coming up on Louis’s shoulder and threatening to pass.

Paulie intends to run for re-election. He predicts that the teacher’s unions better watch out, cuz he’s coming for them. And his new idol? Well that ever-favorite of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.

“I will guarantee you that you will see the most vicious education campaign ads that you’ve ever seen in your life next year, because I am going to be the next Scott Walker in this country, because I am challenging the status quo.”

No, Paulie is challenging the all-time low IQ in the USA. I am putting my bets he will win.

Fourth is a new face for us, GOP House Representative from Iowa, Dennis Guth.

Guth is one of those self-styled experts on the issue of homosexuality.

Guth first focused on the media and accused them of making that homosexual lifestyle seem good and nice, when we all know it’s really yucky.

See, Guth says, homosexuals are like “second-hand” smoke, they cause harm to those around them who are normal. They cause health risks to his family he says, by their increased invitation to transmittable sexual diseases. He opines that there are “more medical tests required” before you can give blood or birth. He thinks they are connected but forgot to say how.

Other than that, Guth was unable to explain why their diseases would “harm” his family, unless of course one posits that either he or members of his family regularly engage the services of willing homosexuals for ummm, sex.

Guth is an idiot, and his Democratic colleague told him so.

Our fifth and last entry for the week comes from good old Arkansas, a state that often shows us the butt end of humanity.

Nate Bell, is (you guessed it) a REPUBLICAN state rep from good old Ar-KANSAS, who is a protector of the 2nd Amendment, which he neither understands, nor defends with anything other than yippie-ki-yo-ki-yay blather.

Well, inside that fun face is a very human and very empathetic individual. So as soon as he heard about the manhunt going on in Boston and its environs, wondered via Twitter:

I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a high-capacity magazine?

I mean how sympathetic can a guy be?

I mean really?

Nate withdrew the Tweet once it was pointed out to him that he was being a total douche. Of course it was up long enough for a long list of people to tell him that.

Good luck Nate on re-election.

And if you have not run into these videos (YouTube has several by the same guy), then sit back and for a couple of minutes, just chortle your little heart out. Dry up your tears at the above and replace with belly laughs.

Related articles

• LePage Spins Windmill Conspiracy Theory (thetippingpoint.bangordailynews.com)
• Outrage as Rep. Gohmert says radical islamists being trained to act Hispanic (nbclatino.com)

 

Can You Stand the Excitement?

Tags

Congress, gay rights, genetically modified foods, GOP, life in the foothills, New Mexico, North Korea, racism

It’s been another long week. It’s been a productive one. All the usual stuff and lots of home improvement stuff going on.

We have the fence around the front nearly done. The guy will be back this weekend to finish off the last side with the gate. He’ll weld on site. And then paint and we will be done.

Ernest, our great handy man is going to tile the “front porch”. He’s looking for some tiling to make some patterns with. Turquoise is our favorite color, or mine at least.

The Contrarian finished two L-shaped flower boxes to rim the walk leading to the front door. And he plans two more, a long box underneath the bedroom window which will be a about 6 feet in length and a triangle one that will sit in the corner of the fencing. It’s a nice beginning to our jazzing up the front. We actually like to sit out there, and Diego will soon be able to keep track of everyone in the neighborhood without wandering down to see “how everybody’s doing.”

In the back, I have a few more planters to do. The flowers are lined up and ready to go. We’ve got our vegetables and plenty of top soil to fill the planters. That’s tomorrow’s job. We’re planning one more long planter for the back south wall yet.

All in all, we’ve been adding a lot to the place. Ernest has another couple french doors that we may just cut down and install as long windows to frame out the patio area. That would leave it enclosed on three sides and open just at the end. That makes at very cozy, while we can open two of the french doors and get additional breezes when needed. A flat screen will be put in the corner, and we should be having ourselves basically another room to enjoy.

I signed up at Santa Rosa yesterday. Such a forlorn little church, but the new one, should it ever be finished, will be wonderful. It’s styled as an old adobe mission church. They were well on the way to finishing when the economic bottom fell out of the economy, and bank loans dried up. It’s been on hold for a few years now. Hopefully our new bishop will see fit to steer some funding toward finishing the building. I don’t know a lot about parish financing, but I think each is required to stand on its own feet financially. The people there are so warm and loving, that I cannot but think that good things will happen.

Just to keep you up on things. The 5/2 “diet” plan, of fasting two days and eating normally is working very well. I barely notice the fasting days, starting and ending at 1 pm on Tuesday-Wednesday, an Thursday-Friday. I’ve lost five pounds over the first month, which is slow, but steady, and like I said, I barely notice I’m “dieting”. I’m looking at this as the normal way for me to eat and live from now on. I know Larry had done fabulously well on his vegetarian diet. I salute his bravery and commitment.

Hey if you see that little twit, Kim Jong Un around anywhere, grab him. What that kid needs is a good spanking. Did anybody ever tell him that you can’t sabre rattle without a sabre? Or is he simply seeking to declare war on American for the foreign aid once defeated? 🙂

If you want to know what is so very wrong with Congress, you need look no further than Senator Roy Blunt. He’s the (in the hip pocket of agribusiness) jackass who with the help of Monsanto, added a rider to an unrelated bill, which protects Monsanto from being sued over it’s genetically altered foods. Monsanto of course contributes big to Blunt’s war chest. The rider is specific to Monsanto. Blunt added it “anonymously” as Senators are allowed to do, but word finally got out that he was the culprit. Blunt is known as one of the worst “bought and paid for” politicians around and was a favorite of criminal Tom DeLay during his House years.

You know, I sometimes wonder if Republicans think of anything else but butt sex and bestiality. I mean Louis Gollllly Gohmert said that opening the door to marriage equality would lead to “animal love.” As Jon Stewart put it, “do they really think that people are going around thinking. . . .”God that goat looks good, but dang, it’s illegal!”. Now the Attorney General of Virginia and probably candidate for governor, Ken Cuccinelli,  is just not gonna let the state sodomy law go down the tubes without a fight. He’s petitioning the Federal court to reconsider its conclusion that the law was unconstitutional on its face. I mean dude, do you have nothing better to do? I’m beginning to think that Republicans are some sick mothers.

If any of you have ever heard of Wilcox County High School, well you are doing better than me. You have no doubt heard of those Japanese soldiers who have lived for 60 years on South Pacific islands, never knowing that WWII ended? Well, At Wilcox County High, they never heard of the civil rights movement. That’s in Georgia of you weren’t aware?

Seems that the school holds and HAS ALWAYS held two proms. . . .one integrated, and the other “whites only”. And it’s just not in name only either. In 2012, a biracial student was turned away by police for trying to attend the Whitie prom. The school has no intention of changing things either.

There is no longer any racism in America. Let’s make that very clear.

See ya Saturday–It’s the FINAL FOUR! GO ANYBODY BUT MICHIGAN CUZ I HATE THAT SCHOOL!

Related articles

• Sen. Roy Blunt: Monsanto’s Congressional Judas (amresolution.com)
• Surprised? Monsanto Openly Wrote Own Monsanto Protection Act (12160.info)
• Top Senator Apologizes for Monsanto Protection Act (blacklistednews.com)

Oh Good Gracious, She Just Ruined the Whole Show!

Tags

GOP, Michelle Obama, racism, right-wing awards, right-wing loons, teabaggers

The moment her face appeared, I gasped, “oh the crazy Right will be having a field day tomorrow about this!”

The “this” was Michelle Obama’s surprise appearance at the end of the Oscars to announce the best picture award. You’d have thought she was having a private meeting with the widow of Osama Bin Laden to hear the hue and cry from the reactionaries.

“She’s being petty and small” cavorting with all those Hollywood types, raged Jennifer Rubin. I mean really! Can’t they EVER leave America alone to its fun without intruding?

Forget that the crazy element that comprises the Republican right these days hates Hollywood which begs the question why they were watching in the first place.

Breitbart always the class act, called her appearance “obscene” for reasons only they could understand.

Of course they forget as they always do, that both Bushes, Laura and George W. made appearances at the Oscars themselves.

But oh lawdy, when Michelle does it, it’s “grasping.” And of course, it ain’t about race, or nuthin’ like that. No, it’s never about that.

∞

Alternet does a great job of coming up with its own Oscar picks this year. For saying and doing really dumb things all the while trying to appear normal–as in corporate executives and others of their ilk. The list of quotes is rather telling–*hint*–they don’t really give a rat’s behind about us regular folks. It’s always about them.

Here are just a few to whet your appetite:

Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin scored big-time, landing Mark Zuckerberg as a roommate at Harvard, using American resources to score billions in income, and then revoking his citizenship to avoid paying any taxes

Chicago Tribune: “Western-style private enterprise..will lead the world out of the mess it led the world into.”

PRO-LIFE GOWN:  Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) said “All life should be cherished and protected. We are pro-life.” It was later learned that he had encouraged both his lover and his wife to get abortions.

Billionaire Kenneth Griffin: The wealthy “have an insufficient influence” on politics today.

Rick Santorum: “Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.”

CEO Ilana Weinstein about Wall Street bonus cutbacks: “It’s a disaster.”

Senator James Inhofe: “The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.”

Nutrition classes being taught by Coca Cola and Hershey’s

Now go and read the rest of them!

∞

Make note of this man. If you see him, call authorities. He’s slipped out of the home again and is running loose. It’s hard to understand how he does with, not having a brain and all, but he does.

His name?

Steve Lavin. He’s an elected official. Yes, the good people of Montana abandoned their brains at the voting booth and sent him to the State House.

Once there, Steve introduced legislation that would allow corporations to. .  . .wait for it . . . .VOTE!

And I guess, if a “person” can vote, well I guess they can run for office, right?

If you see a brain rolling down the road, stop and pick it up.

It’s either Steve’s or some other Montana voter who thought he’d be a good person to help run the state.

I don’t know which is sadder.

I really don’t.

∞

I just want you to know ahead of time. These people are not racist. They surely tell you they are not. The head of the Montana Tea Party posted this on her Facebook page or on her blog, “Cowgirl Blog”. Don’t bother trying to find it, she’s apparently shut it down. You ask why? Oh, because she thinks this is humorous:

Yeah, no racism here, move along.

∞

Well now sleep on that and meet me tomorrow.