Thursday, August 11, 2011

Queen of the Damned

And, in few words, I dare say; that of all the Studies of men, nothing may be sooner obtain'd, than this vicious abundance of Phrase, this trick of Metaphors, this volubility of Tongue, which makes so great a noise in the World. But I spend words in vain; for the evil is now so inveterate, that it is hard to know whom to blame, or where to begin to reform.

(Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal Society, 1667)

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When I got my copy of Newsweek yesterday; the cover showing Michelle Bachmann looking upward as though reading a celestial teleprompter, I fired off a letter similar to the one I wrote when Sarah Palin became the cover girl not long ago. "Indecency or obscenity can be difficult to define" I said, "but I recognize it when I see it."

Somehow, her supporters saw it differently, condemning the wide-eyed lunatic pose as having been selected by the "liberals" to make her look crazy, but scanning the web for other photos, I found it hard to find one where she doesn't look like a two year old who has just, to her great surprise, soiled her diaper -- but that of course, is only my opinion. No offense to incontinent toddlers is intended.

Her stance on "the evils of Government" as the headline blares, is harder to see as being other than obscene unless it's the indecent dishonesty behind her rhetoric that pushes your particular buttons.

I have to wonder: if Democracy is so inherently bad, what kind of government would she then prefer? If Government itself is the enemy of freedom, who or what could be the ally? I have to wonder if the government is really broken or is she trying to break it to prove her point?

Making big noises in Kansas about an oppressive government that makes tyrannical rules about what kind of light bulbs to use and destroys our freedom by inspecting meat, she certainly begs the question of why she nonetheless promotes a "faith based" government that tells us what kind of sex we can have and with whom; promotes poisoning the well if someone can get rich doing it, which encourages us to pray rather than to fix our problems and to be a nation of individuals who owe nothing to anyone.

Then there's also the question of the deceit involved in taking government subsidies under false pretenses and using one of them illegally to fund prayer sessions in the guise of psychotherapy. Really, if we can't call her crazy, what other excuse can we make for her? Ignorant? Malicious? Greedy?

It's a two tier government she dreams about, with one set of rules for 98% of us that exist to preserve and increase the capital and the power of Corporations, Plutocrats and Theocrats. Of course no one with any understanding of Capitalism and what makes it expand would recommend policies that shrink the numbers of people whose spending makes Capitalism work while the one-percenters send capital and jobs abroad, but what made you think the Teabaggers are Capitalists in the first place? The kind of Randian, take the money and run Utopia these people claim to envision is Feudal as well as futile and self-destructive. The rabble-rousing and specious rhetoric smells more of the Brown Shirts and Bolsheviks than Tom Paine or Tom Jefferson.

Of course those who follow the Tea Party Queen like the mice of Hamlin, should be intelligent enough to realize that not only do we not have an oppressive, confiscatory tax situation, but that very low marginal rates inevitably produce bubbles and busts as they did in the 1920's and at the end of the last decade. They should recall that the years of low debt and high prosperity were the years of high marginal tax rates. They should be smart enough to see that all that extra cash in already deep pockets does not create US jobs, but inflates the market and makes hedge funds flourish - but only for a while. They should be, but they're either too ignorant or too stupefied by the pied pipers of the radical right. But like the Shadow, Bachmann knows what rage lies in the hearts of men. Unlike the Shadow, she's hell bent on making a buck for her backers out of it.

11 comments:

  1. I find it ironic that the same people who invoked freedom of speech rights when posting photos of our president depicted as a monkey and with a noose around his neck are now anxious to supress a photo of Michelle Bachmann looking like, well - herself.

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  2. We need a word that is a step up from hypocrisy, but perhaps we'll have to settle for criminal duplicity.

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  3. Anyone here experiencing difficulty in posting comments?

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  4. "Really, if we can't call her crazy, what other excuse can we make for her? Ignorant? Malicious? Greedy?"

    I'd call her Tweedledum, and the half-term governor of Alaska, Tweedledee.

    The battle between them is over which of them is the more inane and which of them can rattle their tongues louder. And in light of what Rep. Doug Lamebrain (R-CO)said, we can guess who the "crow" is that scared them.

    Tweedledum and Tweedledee
    Agreed to have a battle;
    For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
    Had spoiled her nice new rattle.
    Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
    As black as a tar-barrel;
    Which frightened our heroes so,
    They quite forgot their quarrel.

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  5. If: “Government itself is the enemy of freedom …

    … then why the hell would anyone who suffers from migraine headaches want to turn herself into the enema and covet the position of commander-in-thief presiding over incontinent malcontents?

    I kind of feel sorry for her in a way. In the dog-eat-dog world of the T-Pee Party, here is what Robert Stein calls the GOP’s Palin Parasite:

    Parasites are usually smaller than the hosts they feed off but, in this Republican pre-primary season, actual candidates are being afflicted with a giant publicity-sucking organism that attaches itself to their campaigns and draws away attention.

    After driving her bus tour into New Hampshire to overshadow Mitt Romney when he was making his presidential announcement, Sarah Palin is revving up the engines again to move into Iowa this weekend and rain on the parades of Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul et al …


    As your old Octopus always says: “With friends like that who needs enemas?”

    A great rant, Captain. One of your best.

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  6. I just heard that Michelle Bachmann petitioned the government for money 16 times. Capt. Fogg is right; hypocricy is too mild a word for her. A dishonest, deceitful witch might fit better.

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  7. Every adjective used here certainly describes the witch. I would like to add the predominant one in my mind...charlatan.

    Best post yet, Captain Fogg!

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  8. Like most Tea Party persons, Bachmann does not see a contradiction in taking of government money. It is only graft and evil when others do it. Like most Tea Party she believes she's a self-made superhero who has never used a government program.

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  9. 'Tis true that those who like to see themselves a self-made, need to deny that they owe anything to the country that might have made that self-creation possible. Indeed most SMMs are touchy on the subject and like to say that nobody ever gave them anything; nobody ever helped them and so they owe nothing to anyone including the country they are hystericaly patriotic about. which leads me to think that the Teababies feel sorry for themselves.

    Any suggestion of rationality, or logical consistency or objectivity by these folks is strictly unintentional.

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  10. I think Dickens had the 'Baggery figured out way back when. Isn't Mr. Gradgrind's associate Josiah Bounderby from Hard Times the perfect prototypical Tea Party man? You know -- he's the character who's always pointing out to everyone that he started from less than scratch and is no gentleman. No sir, nobody ever lent HIM a helping hand! He grew up in the gutter, etc. Which, it turns out later in the novel, he most certainly didn't. I suppose a lot of our modern Tea Partiers believe they're the ultimate self-made individuals, too.

    You know, if someone were to set up a society that allowed people to opt out of paying for social programs so long as they signed a binding, irrevocable oath never to ask for anything from "the government" at any level under any circumstances, that would be an interesting experiment. In other words, they would be free to indulge the fantasy of self-madeness, but if they got sick or needed assistance in any other vital way, society's response would be to wave the oath in their faces and sneer, "Sorry -- eat s*** and die." How many people who have arrived at years of discretion would sign such an oath and live in an unkind, uncouth world like that? Yet you'd think our dear brothers and sisters the teabaggers had all signed it in blood even as they collect their Social Security checks.

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  11. We could use a bleeding heart Liberal like Dickens again, to paraphrase Archie Bunker.

    I think of Merrylegs, the dog from that novel, who is beaten bloody and still licks his master's face.

    It's hard not to be as pessimistic as Dickens seems to have been about the misery inherent in a dogma driven, heartless society. If I weren't a pessimist myself, even if I depend upon it as a defense, I'd point out that conditions did improve somewhat, but if they do again in our empire, I don't think I'll live to see it.

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