“Threats spur increased security for lawmakers : At least 10 House Democrats are offered stepped-up attention in the wake of last weekend's health-care vote, after death threats and vandalism.” Washington Post, 3/24/2010.
That’s the sort of headline we are seeing this week. These are the times that try a dino’s soul, times in which overly temperate utterance seems downright inappropriate and nothing short of a full-on, predatory battle-roar would be appropriate. So let me say the following in response:
To those (and only those) who are responsible for this sort of thing and who agree with what they’re doing – you are thugs. Note that I’m not saying you are “like” thugs or “acting like” thugs. The time is past for weak similes. I’m saying that you ARE thugs – criminal thugs, in the case of the malefactors referenced above.
It has become obvious that your goal is simply to make rational, respectable people give up on America’s civic culture. And you know what? That was exactly the aim of the organized Brownshirts and semi-organized rabble Hitler used back in the 1920s during his rise to power – to frighten and dispirit the populace by throwing bricks through windows, tossing ethnic and other slurs, making death threats, etc. I suppose next you’ll move on to administering beatings in alleys and burning books that you can’t read anyway. You are the very stuff, the raw material, of the American Nazism that could come to pass if we should fail to sustain the republic. Proud of yourselves, trash? You went around painting little Charlie Chaplin mustaches on Barack Obama’s portrait last summer, labeling the reforms “fascism,” and so forth. That’s the most manifest case of projection one can imagine – you’re the fascists here in the States, not President Obama, and the fact that you don’t understand it only proves that you are either bottomlessly stupid or outright insane.
Perhaps like many others in the liberal, centrist, and thoughtful-conservative blogging community, I used to give you the benefit of the doubt, and supposed that you were just confused and perhaps a bit dull-witted, but in my view there is no further room for doubt: you are violent, irrational flotsam and your sole objective is not to protect your own liberties but instead to destroy the republic any way you can. Why? Because you can’t stand freedom – you don’t have the courage; you can’t stand debate – you don’t have the brains; you can’t stand living in a country where the majority of people think it’s wise to help others in a time of need – you don’t have the heart. Again I say, ye are vile thugs. Set it down for a certainty that you are the nation’s disgrace and that I (and, I can hope, all decent people here in America and elsewhere in the world) hold you in unmitigated contempt.
Oh, and no matter what you do, the health-care bill is going into effect within the next few days. Choke on that fact. At least now you’ll be able to get some health care without “choking” being labeled a pre-existing condition, you dumb, illiterate, violent, childish, knuckle-dragging anti-American degenerate mother*uckers. I know you for what you are, and I don’t believe you will get your authoritarian dystopia in which conditions are so vile, so abject, that the low likes of you can become the norm. America isn’t perfect, but it’s better than that – better, that is, than YOU. I believe that the normal, the caring, the civic-spirited, and the patriotic (I don’t mean only “liberal” by any of those terms) will prevail, and that they won’t do it with your weapons of choice, either – bricks, guns, bombs, filthy-threat-laden calls in the dead of night, or physical intimidation. No, the most powerful things good people have on their side are justice and right, along with a firm desire to see them done in the proper ways. Decency and humaneness are IDEALS, and we all know that you can’t kill an ideal, however hard you may try. You’re wasting your time with those bricks and phone calls, morons. First learn how to spell: it’s “extremism,” not “exremism,” you stupid *UCK!
Finally, if you look in the mirror and don’t like that little Charlie Chaplin mustache you see materializing there (is that a mustache which you see before you, or a mustache of the mind?) , I would gladly welcome you into the sphere of normality and civilization – better late than never. I’m sure it will be so new for you there, you’ll feel just like a kid in a candy store.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
See something? Say something!
We've all seen the signs of what looks like the beginning of a new wave of far-right terrorism -- the Tiller murder, the Austin plane attack, and so on. With the outbreak of vandalism and threats following the passage of HCR, and the more-hysterical-than-ever rhetoric on much of the right, the danger of terrorism or violence directed against the political leadership and institutions of this country seems more serious than ever.
If you see or hear anything that suggets a serious threat, report it. The Secret Service and the FBI are helped in their work by an alert public. You could save a life, or many.
Link to FBI contact information
Link to Secret Service field office phone numbers
If you see or hear anything that suggets a serious threat, report it. The Secret Service and the FBI are helped in their work by an alert public. You could save a life, or many.
Link to FBI contact information
Link to Secret Service field office phone numbers
land of the Prison, home of the Coward
Yes, our personal freedom has been irrevocably damaged by a weak attempt to control swashbuckling Insurance company practices and there's nothing ahead but free fall into the pit of Socialism - or Fascism if your paranoia runs better in that direction. I can't get through an hour without hearing the whining about "Obamacare" and "American values."
Of course there's little fear that the attempt to make it legal for a suspect to be held forever without trial will jeopardize our "freedom" at all. There's not too much concern that proof of innocence can't overturn a death sentence either. Freedom you see, is a personal, even solipsistic thing and like personal income, we Libertarians don't want to share it or spread it around. I need to be free to do anything, free from any responsibility to the country, but you can rot in hell, for all I care. Some call that Libertarian, some conservative, but either attempt is like pasting a label to Teflon - it won't stick. What it really is, is panic and what it's really not is justice. Yes, I know, if your one of those Glennbecky sorts, you'll insist that justice itself is one of many gates to hell and the corridor to Communism, but if you're one of those, you belong there anyway.
But here's an example or two: Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate's Armed Services, Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, wants to talk us into legislation that allows a "terrorism suspect" to be held forever without charges and without counsel. That's right, I said suspect. What's a suspect? it's whatever some justice department apparatchik or some informant or unnamed source says it is.
And that doesn't scare you; not like filling out a census form, not like keeping your insurance from being canceled the day after they find that tumor because you had an unreported toothache in 1972. None the less, we want limited government, but only as concerns us, not them. A life sentence for suspicion is
They aren't worth taking a risk for in Texas; just ask Troy Davis, sentenced to die for a brutal triple murder in a trial so flawed it makes my hair stand on end. One of the victims, for instance, had complained of abuse and threats from a third party, who was not even interviewed by police. Ten years ago David Protess, at The Innocence Project at Northwestern University, whose group has exonerated 17 condemned prisoners using DNA evidence the court never saw, re-examined the case with his students and concluded Skinner is innocent. Texas won't reconsider a conviction based on new evidence. In Texas, innocence is no defense and Texas, for all it's guns and bravado is so terrified of Davis that they're willing to kill him and the hell with reasonable doubt. Fortunately, the Supreme court isn't from Texas and has granted a stay, just an hour before the execution
Sure, we want limited government, but with unlimited power to do whatever feels expedient and damn the very idea of social justice and screw anyone who ever thought the USA was worth fighting for. Don't you understand we're afraid?
Of course there's little fear that the attempt to make it legal for a suspect to be held forever without trial will jeopardize our "freedom" at all. There's not too much concern that proof of innocence can't overturn a death sentence either. Freedom you see, is a personal, even solipsistic thing and like personal income, we Libertarians don't want to share it or spread it around. I need to be free to do anything, free from any responsibility to the country, but you can rot in hell, for all I care. Some call that Libertarian, some conservative, but either attempt is like pasting a label to Teflon - it won't stick. What it really is, is panic and what it's really not is justice. Yes, I know, if your one of those Glennbecky sorts, you'll insist that justice itself is one of many gates to hell and the corridor to Communism, but if you're one of those, you belong there anyway.
But here's an example or two: Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate's Armed Services, Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, wants to talk us into legislation that allows a "terrorism suspect" to be held forever without charges and without counsel. That's right, I said suspect. What's a suspect? it's whatever some justice department apparatchik or some informant or unnamed source says it is.
“There has to be some type of statute -- and he’s been clear on that -- for indefinite detention,” said Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop. An accused person is "too dangerous to release; but we also aren’t going to try them in either a military or a civilian court. So there has to be a system for that, and that’s why Senator Graham is looking for a legal framework."Too bad there's no longer any framework to determine whether someone is actually dangerous, is a terrorist or even what terrorism is under such legislation, but never mind -- the government just knows and we're comfortable with that. Limited justice and limited freedom you see, is limited government.
And that doesn't scare you; not like filling out a census form, not like keeping your insurance from being canceled the day after they find that tumor because you had an unreported toothache in 1972. None the less, we want limited government, but only as concerns us, not them. A life sentence for suspicion is
"un-American and violates our commitment to due process and the rule of law,"says the ACLU, as you'd expect from those Commies. Don't they understand we're afraid? Don't they understand that American values aren't worth taking a risk for?
They aren't worth taking a risk for in Texas; just ask Troy Davis, sentenced to die for a brutal triple murder in a trial so flawed it makes my hair stand on end. One of the victims, for instance, had complained of abuse and threats from a third party, who was not even interviewed by police. Ten years ago David Protess, at The Innocence Project at Northwestern University, whose group has exonerated 17 condemned prisoners using DNA evidence the court never saw, re-examined the case with his students and concluded Skinner is innocent. Texas won't reconsider a conviction based on new evidence. In Texas, innocence is no defense and Texas, for all it's guns and bravado is so terrified of Davis that they're willing to kill him and the hell with reasonable doubt. Fortunately, the Supreme court isn't from Texas and has granted a stay, just an hour before the execution
Sure, we want limited government, but with unlimited power to do whatever feels expedient and damn the very idea of social justice and screw anyone who ever thought the USA was worth fighting for. Don't you understand we're afraid?
HOW TO INCITE INSURRECTION AND SPIN THE TALE ON THE DONKEY
“I hope Obama fails,” spoke Rush Limbaugh four days before the inauguration of President Obama. “We want to promote failure, we want to promote incompetence …”
These words spoken by a radio hack gave the Grand Obstructionist Party what it needed most: A strategy to hijack the election by sabotaging our new President. Within months, the GOP unleashed a barrage of daily attacks (source):
The climate of intimidation and fear exploited by the GOP is pervasive and pernicious. Earlier this evening, I read this comment at the Huffington Post:
These words spoken by a radio hack gave the Grand Obstructionist Party what it needed most: A strategy to hijack the election by sabotaging our new President. Within months, the GOP unleashed a barrage of daily attacks (source):
First, it started with the Birthers, those who sought to undermine the legitimacy of a newly elected President with fabricated conspiracy theories about the authenticity of his birth certificate and the legality of his presidency.One year and four months later, the Grand Obstructionist Party has brought us to the brink. The party of ‘NO’ is blaming tea party rage on Democrats while ignoring the fact that former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey organized the tea party movement as an Astroturf event, which the GOP exploits at every opportunity ... and the party of ‘NO’ is refusing to be held accountable for what it unleashed. Here is a snapshot of incidents within the past week alone:
Next came the Tea Baggers, followed by the town hall hooligans, followed by gun-toting thugs at presidential rallies, followed by GOP Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst of “Liar!” before a special session of Congress, followed by GOP Congresswomen Michelle Bachmann calling for armed resistance against Obama’s legislative agenda, followed by GOP Congressman Trent Franks threatening a Birther lawsuit against Obama and calling him an “enemy of humanity,” followed by GOP Governor Rick Perry calling for Texas to secede from the union, followed by Newsmax columnist John Perry dreaming of a military coup against President Obama, followed by a FaceBook poll asking: “Should Obama be killed?”
For months, we have heard the repeating rhythms of Obama the Communist, Obama the Socialist, Obama the Islamofascist, Obama the Jihadist … and the steady and relentless drumbeats of a GOP run amuck driving us towards civil disorder and insurrection.
The climate of intimidation and fear exploited by the GOP is pervasive and pernicious. Earlier this evening, I read this comment at the Huffington Post:
Many of you have seen the video I did with my husband the Gulf War vet on the medical situation we found ourselves in. What I didn't say is that the two founding members of the Coffee Party are now living away from their home and going under assumed names since they have had their home address and phone numbers posted on right-wing sites ... in a addition to receiving death threats.Out of curiosity, I visited the website of Fox News to read their version of these events. It wasn’t their spin on the story that caught my attention, but these readers’ comments:
pantherhunter - Will you stand, will you fight (...) the only way to deter Social___ism [sic] is by force (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 9:00 PM).Outrageous and shocking! In the interest of fairness and balance, not all comments at the website of Fox News were as inflammatory as the above. There was also this:
lightningtom00 - The only good politicians is [sic] one 6 feet under (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 8:44 PM).
golf67 - bring on the civil war, ive [sic] got my guns and my church (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 8:40 PM).
e5dra5 - The only way America can be what it's meant to be is to be rid of the Dems entirely (…) ONE VOTE, ONE PARTY (REPUBLICAN), ONE AMERICA (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 7:55 PM).
leftiswrong - These traitors to the constitution have committed a severe crime (…) Time for the populace to push back. If somebody dies in the process, oh well...... (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 7:37 PM).
irocthisgt67 - I do beleive [sic] that violence may need to be used to get these scum bags out of our country (...) Death to them all (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 4:48 PM).
yellowduke - Perhaps if a dozen or so of the threats were carried out their hearing may improve. Dust a dozen of them (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 6:17 PM).
bobloblaw - Good job Fox. You give right-wing nut jobs a platform to spread lies and hate. Then when things like this happen you get a story and say I told you so. The FBI should investigate not only these nuts. They should also start taking a good look at Beck and company (Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 5:04 PM).Yes, by all means, investigate Glenn Beck; but don't forget Dick Armey, Minority Leader John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, and the other GOP skinheads who have exploited hatred and violence for political gain and brought us to the edge of anarchy. And do it now before there is blood in the streets.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Dawn of the Palin
Oh God no - please don't let Sarah Palin have a TV show where she takes us around Alaska while entertaining us with her faux folksy youbetchaisms. Variety posted yesterday that the Discovery Channel will be paying a million dollars per episode for the rights to Sarah Palin's Alaska and if it airs, I'm going to have to boycott my favorite family of TV channels.
I wonder if we'll be treated to action shots of wolf strafing, holy rolling, turkey slaughtering, Russian Island watching and witch hunting with Pastor Muthee. All in rougue style, of course.
I wonder if we'll be treated to action shots of wolf strafing, holy rolling, turkey slaughtering, Russian Island watching and witch hunting with Pastor Muthee. All in rougue style, of course.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Ann Coulter -- Liberal
I've been told for decades that the culture of victimhood is a Liberal thing; that the lazy slackers of America simply pretend to be victims when they could simply get a job instead of mooching the "hard earned" dollars of hard working Americans.
I think I agree and that's why when Ann Coulter stunk up Ottawa today by claiming she's the victim of hate crimes by a University of Ottawa today. You see, the university’s vice-president of academic affairs and provost François Houle sent her an e-mail encouraging her to brush up on what’s considered acceptable in Canada whose laws about free speech may be unfamiliar to her. You have to admit that's just as egregious as lynchings, firebombings, painting swastikas on Synagogues and dragging some gay kid to death behind a truck. It's hate speech if I ever heard it and according to time honored righty dogma, claiming to be a victim makes Ann a liberal.
Yes, cautioning someone whose actions have bordered on the criminal to be careful while in Canada is a hate crime if ever there was one and it's just like a liberal to ask for special rights for a minority group: psychotic blond transvestites. I think it's fitting to quote one of her most often used phrases, because it says it all: "Liberals go wah -- they go wah, wah,wah."
And nobody gives a shit.
I think I agree and that's why when Ann Coulter stunk up Ottawa today by claiming she's the victim of hate crimes by a University of Ottawa today. You see, the university’s vice-president of academic affairs and provost François Houle sent her an e-mail encouraging her to brush up on what’s considered acceptable in Canada whose laws about free speech may be unfamiliar to her. You have to admit that's just as egregious as lynchings, firebombings, painting swastikas on Synagogues and dragging some gay kid to death behind a truck. It's hate speech if I ever heard it and according to time honored righty dogma, claiming to be a victim makes Ann a liberal.
"You will realize that Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges.”said the e-mail and who could disagree that its message is in every way a conservative one: Learn the law and obey it. Ann is a Liberal, no doubt about it and even though the e-mail was obviously inspired by her previous performance in London, Ontario, it's a hate crime directed at consrvatives and what could be more liberal than that? At the University of Western Ontario, she attacked gay rights activists, the mainstream media, Barack Obama's administration and told a Muslim student to "take a camel" as an alternative to flying. Republicans have all been highly critical of any American criticizing the president or the government while abroad -- any Liberal American, that is -- so I'm expecting we'll hear them all chime in soon.
Yes, cautioning someone whose actions have bordered on the criminal to be careful while in Canada is a hate crime if ever there was one and it's just like a liberal to ask for special rights for a minority group: psychotic blond transvestites. I think it's fitting to quote one of her most often used phrases, because it says it all: "Liberals go wah -- they go wah, wah,wah."
And nobody gives a shit.
A Saurischean Special Comment, Quasi KO-Style: Analysis of the Current Moment
These days, the Republican Party isn’t abiding by the Jeffersonian principles of individual liberty and limited government; instead, it’s peddling a degenerate version of those principles, reduced to a simple-minded hatred of government and, indeed, of anything that hints at willingness to help anybody in any way. I’d say these types have the soul of a stone, but that would be insulting to stones.
Of course, their hatred of “big government” doesn’t translate to an equally fervent dislike for “big business.” That’s because they are economic fascists, men and women who believe in a close partnership between the State and huge corporate entities that have anything but the best interests of ordinary people in mind. What they want to do, to put the matter straightforwardly, is not reduce the role of government in our lives and thereby open up the field for greater liberty, creativity, and happiness; no, they want to deliver us crude to the powerful jaws of the aforementioned corporate entities, who will, I presume, gnaw on us until we become a fine paste useful for something or other, and therefore vendible.
The passage of the health-care-access bill, such as it is (with all its flaws and limitations), still amounts to a repudiation of the above-mentioned outlook on life and politics, so to that extent it is indeed dangerous to those who currently control the Republican Party. This legislation will force the major insurers towards acting like responsible citizens and honest merchants, both of which concepts are anathema to the proponents of “HELL No You Can’t.” They are to the true market practice and philosophy what ill-garmented, STD-ridden, alley-based rapists are to the Art of Love, and they have well deserved your and my disgust and contempt.
Failure to craft some kind of humane arrangement regarding health-care access was the last thing that separated us from the Euro-democracies (those SOCIALISTS!), and now, by all the big insurers’ most cherished pre-existing conditions and reasons to rescise, we have advanced some way towards closing the gap. The sinking-in of that realization is just now driving the less respectable among il partito conservatore the other half of cracked that they already were. There are even a few would-be pogrom-instigators, apparently, throwing bricks through congressional office windows, calling the honorable Jim Clyburn and other African Americans in the House the you-know-what word, and our dear demo-brother Barney Frank – well, never mind what they’re calling him. You’re not old enough to know what they’re calling him…. Pretty soon the rabble will be a-jumpin’ up and down, burning copies of Tom Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia.
What’s a damn liberal or indeed any sane person (among whom there are, of course, still many who call themselves conservatori), to do in such shameful times? Well, by no means should we backpeddle: the rogues I’ve been outlining above invariably take kindness for weakness. They do it so insistently that, to some extent, it begins to ring true: to be overly kind and understanding with these people is to be weak, and as Milton’s “Divil” says, “to be weak is miserable / Doing or Suffering.” Enunciate and clarify your principles, and if you’re a liberal legislator, fight civilly but firmly for what you believe in. Don’t apologize for having won an election a little more than a year ago, and don’t apologize for supposing that the purpose of government is to help guide ourselves towards a better and more humane existence, and better relations with our fellows. The remaining true conservatives are quite right that we can and should do most of that work on our own, as individuals and freely associating communities; but where there’s a problem that doesn’t seem to be resolvable or ameliorable that way, government at some level, from the local to the federal, can legitimately become part of the response.
What’s needed here, at least on the intellectual plane, is a balance between the Founders’ “rational distrust” of government and the Aristotelian idea that the purpose of government is to assist us in our efforts to achieve the good life. Achieving the balance is never easy, and the penalty for continued failure will almost surely be the loss of our right to self-determination as citizens.
Finally, with regard to the prospects of the Republican party, a party inaugurated by a man as fine as Lincoln has its reserves; there are better angels within its nature, mystic chords to be struck within its memory. On those, at least, I’ll not give up, even if few members among the current batch in the House and Senate do their side of the aisle any credit.
Of course, their hatred of “big government” doesn’t translate to an equally fervent dislike for “big business.” That’s because they are economic fascists, men and women who believe in a close partnership between the State and huge corporate entities that have anything but the best interests of ordinary people in mind. What they want to do, to put the matter straightforwardly, is not reduce the role of government in our lives and thereby open up the field for greater liberty, creativity, and happiness; no, they want to deliver us crude to the powerful jaws of the aforementioned corporate entities, who will, I presume, gnaw on us until we become a fine paste useful for something or other, and therefore vendible.
The passage of the health-care-access bill, such as it is (with all its flaws and limitations), still amounts to a repudiation of the above-mentioned outlook on life and politics, so to that extent it is indeed dangerous to those who currently control the Republican Party. This legislation will force the major insurers towards acting like responsible citizens and honest merchants, both of which concepts are anathema to the proponents of “HELL No You Can’t.” They are to the true market practice and philosophy what ill-garmented, STD-ridden, alley-based rapists are to the Art of Love, and they have well deserved your and my disgust and contempt.
Failure to craft some kind of humane arrangement regarding health-care access was the last thing that separated us from the Euro-democracies (those SOCIALISTS!), and now, by all the big insurers’ most cherished pre-existing conditions and reasons to rescise, we have advanced some way towards closing the gap. The sinking-in of that realization is just now driving the less respectable among il partito conservatore the other half of cracked that they already were. There are even a few would-be pogrom-instigators, apparently, throwing bricks through congressional office windows, calling the honorable Jim Clyburn and other African Americans in the House the you-know-what word, and our dear demo-brother Barney Frank – well, never mind what they’re calling him. You’re not old enough to know what they’re calling him…. Pretty soon the rabble will be a-jumpin’ up and down, burning copies of Tom Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia.
What’s a damn liberal or indeed any sane person (among whom there are, of course, still many who call themselves conservatori), to do in such shameful times? Well, by no means should we backpeddle: the rogues I’ve been outlining above invariably take kindness for weakness. They do it so insistently that, to some extent, it begins to ring true: to be overly kind and understanding with these people is to be weak, and as Milton’s “Divil” says, “to be weak is miserable / Doing or Suffering.” Enunciate and clarify your principles, and if you’re a liberal legislator, fight civilly but firmly for what you believe in. Don’t apologize for having won an election a little more than a year ago, and don’t apologize for supposing that the purpose of government is to help guide ourselves towards a better and more humane existence, and better relations with our fellows. The remaining true conservatives are quite right that we can and should do most of that work on our own, as individuals and freely associating communities; but where there’s a problem that doesn’t seem to be resolvable or ameliorable that way, government at some level, from the local to the federal, can legitimately become part of the response.
What’s needed here, at least on the intellectual plane, is a balance between the Founders’ “rational distrust” of government and the Aristotelian idea that the purpose of government is to assist us in our efforts to achieve the good life. Achieving the balance is never easy, and the penalty for continued failure will almost surely be the loss of our right to self-determination as citizens.
Finally, with regard to the prospects of the Republican party, a party inaugurated by a man as fine as Lincoln has its reserves; there are better angels within its nature, mystic chords to be struck within its memory. On those, at least, I’ll not give up, even if few members among the current batch in the House and Senate do their side of the aisle any credit.
Monday, March 22, 2010
THE HISTORICAL (HYSTERICAL) MOMENT
In the words of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: " The bill is passed."
Here is President Obama's email message (minus the DONATE button) that arrived in my email box moments after the vote:
Yes – 219
No – 212
Here is President Obama's email message (minus the DONATE button) that arrived in my email box moments after the vote:
For the first time in our nation's history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform. America waited a hundred years and fought for decades to reach this moment. Tonight, thanks to you, we are finally here.The result is imperfect; we did not get everything we wanted; and the process has been contentious and ugly. Nevertheless, President Obama accomplished what no other president has done in a 100 years. Without doubt, tonight is a historic moment.
Consider the staggering scope of what you have just accomplished:
Because of you, every American will finally be guaranteed high quality, affordable health care coverage.
Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever.
And we'll finally start reducing the cost of care -- creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.
But the victory that matters most tonight goes beyond the laws and far past the numbers.
It is the peace of mind enjoyed by every American, no longer one injury or illness away from catastrophe.
It is the workers and entrepreneurs who are now freed to pursue their slice of the American dream without fear of losing coverage or facing a crippling bill.
And it is the immeasurable joy of families in every part of this great nation, living happier, healthier lives together because they can finally receive the vital care they need.
This is what change looks like.
My gratitude tonight is profound. I am thankful for those in past generations whose heroic efforts brought this great goal within reach for our times. I am thankful for the members of Congress whose months of effort and brave votes made it possible to take this final step. But most of all, I am thankful for you.
This day is not the end of this journey. Much hard work remains, and we have a solemn responsibility to do it right. But we can face that work together with the confidence of those who have moved mountains.
Our journey began three years ago, driven by a shared belief that fundamental change is indeed still possible. We have worked hard together every day since to deliver on that belief.
We have shared moments of tremendous hope, and we've faced setbacks and doubt. We have all been forced to ask if our politics had simply become too polarized and too short-sighted to meet the pressing challenges of our time. This struggle became a test of whether the American people could still rally together when the cause was right -- and actually create the change we believe in.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Absalom
- But, oh! for Absalom,--
- For his estranged, misguided Absalom,--
-Nathaniel Parker Willis-
What could be more fun that spending a sunny 73 degree Saturday at the County Fairgrounds with hundreds of fellow Hams, looking at equipment, attending seminars on ionospheric science and space weather and browsing the flea market? Perhaps a day free of Obama Derangement Syndrome; a day without having to hear that the roads are so bad in Chicago because "that's where Obama's from." I'd like to be able to discuss APRS without hearing that "Obama turned off Loran-C in order to make us all helpless so that the USSR will have an easier time taking over and making us all Communists. Obama, O-BAHma, OOOOH-Baaaaahma; the braying of asses in the Florida sun.
I'm tired of hearing that Shirtless Joe from Snakeshit Junction doesn't feel safe from Pelosi and the Gummint Gungrabbers with only 10,000 rounds of .223 in his house in the swamp or that "if taxes get any higher we're gonna have to have another revolution." Joe's actually getting a tax break this year, but I guess he's worried to distraction about how Warren Buffet is going to like the extra 2%. He never said a peep about the three trillion dollar war because he supported the troops. He'll never in his life make enough to approach that bracket.
I'm tired of the daily delivery of e-mail lies about health care reform and how everything from the Postal Service to the Pentagon is not only dysfunctional, but Maoist, Trotzkyite, Marxist COMMINISM! I'm fed up with hearing about Obaaaaaaaaaaaahma's plan to import and support illegal aliens at public expense, make Capitalism illegal, turn the schools into brainwashing centers and do away with private property.
Two years ago I watched my mother die, her brain eaten away by disease until she was unrecognizable and recognized no one, and I feel the same way watching my country turn into a pit of bloody, barking dogs tearing themselves apart. Unwilling to be governed and unwilling to participate in government, demanding the lawless freedom of the wild animal and total protection from all harm and all at no cost we howl at the moon. Suspicious and angry of everything and everyone; we're not the patriots who founded a secular, democratic republic and we don't even remember our real history as we brag endlessly about freedom.
No, Jesus was mocked, abused and scorned once again in the streets of Ohio as he's so often been and by the same kind of people -- whether it was in Salem or Selma or Jerusalem or Birmingham, and nobody cares. We brag endlessly and lie constantly about "Christian" values none the less; force Christian oaths on ourselves and demand the tyranny of
What does one do, powerless to stop the mortal decay of our closest kin, whether it's a mother, a father, a son or a country, yet unable to bear the sight of it?
- . . . misguided Absalom,--
- The proud bright being who had burst away
- In all his princely beauty to defy
- The heart that cherished him--for him he poured
- In agony that would not be controlled.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Lost In Translation
Word from Hollywood via NPR:
There's a backup plan: If U.S. movie audiences don't buy tickets to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in Swedish, Hollywood is already gearing up for an English-language remake.IOW, if Americans don't like the original then Hollywood will bowdlerize it. And since Dragon Tattoo is not going to open in my local cinema, this will very likely happen. There's nothing "liberal" about the destruction of culture by translation. I can already see where Hollywood can go wrong just by watching the trailer.
My favorite semester at college was spent in International Studies 120 and 220, Culture Through Cinema I and II. The professor was very, very good at teaching the signs and signals we needed to really appreciate a film like Nobody Loves Me. It was because of Dr. Adler that I was able to appreciate the best moments in Seven Samurai for the very first time and actually understood the cultural existentialism of Lost In Translation.
Which is the operative phrase, because all of this is destroyed when Hollywood translates. Their version of Dragon Tattoo will inevitably disappoint me after seeing the original with subtitles. As our good friend Dr. Joseph Suglia put it to me in an email today:
Films such as Takashi Miike's One Missed Call, Open Your Eyes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc. irritate the American entertainment industry. There is only one thing to do: neutralize the irritation by homogenizing everything in those films that is heterogeneous, familiarizing everything within them that is strange. That is the purpose of a "remake": to domesticate the foreign.And how. City of Angels seems incredibly pretentious when you've seen Wings of Desire. There is a segment of America that is aware of books it has not read but chooses to read them after seeing the movie to avoid disappointment. Having worked in bookstores and spent far too much time in libraries, I cannot count the number of times I have heard this said.
Hollywood is quite aware of this. My local cinemaplex will not be showing the Swedish version of this movie. As usual, I must travel at least an hour, probably three, to witness it in an actual theatre. This is because Hollywood obeys Barnum's dictum of lowest common denominator: no one in Tinseltown ever went broke underestimating taste. Art is inevitably made artifice. Characters are recast as comic relief. A fart joke must be inserted.
And there must always be more violence.
I maintain that Inglourious Basterds is a meta-narrative about this very phenomenon. It isn't about the Holocaust of World War II, but the cinematic holocaust of Hollywood. Language is indivisible from culture; when Hollywood translates, it adopts spectacle to give the masses blood. What makes me say all this is the amazing passage I found at the beginning of Steig Larrssen's novel:
The policeman was a hardened veteran...He had been involved in nine murder or manslaughter cases.Nine. In a long career of urban policing.
This is one way America stays stupid about the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)