Almost eerie this afternoon, reading American Rifleman magazine at Bob's barber shop: decorated to look like an old west sort of a place with old nostalgic gun and ammunition posters and antique guns displayed on hooks. I had been attracted by a picture of a beautifully engraved Benelli shotgun on the cover. I have little interest in owning one at twenty five hundred bucks, but it would be nice to hold and maybe shoot a few clays with such a piece of fine Italian craftsmanship, but I don't have the time or the venue these days.
But then there were the editorials by people such as Wayne LaPierre: mad dog drooling rage about gun grabbers and how gun control is there just to penalize good people for the sins of others. I don't know what that means, but it's Wayne LaPierre. He and the Magazine of the NRA have no other purpose than to outrage, infuriate, inflame and incite and everything seen through the filter of his insanity has the same purpose and one unifying creed: Life is better with guns and owning guns is the one and only measure of freedom. Anything and everything he writes contains the same carefully arranged sequences of inflammatory code words, honed and perfected to manipulate his flock as skillfully as any Preacher on Sunday morning TV, to achieve a transcendental ecstasy of anti-government, anti-Liberal, Anti-Obama paranoia.
Coming home on this stiflingly hot and humid December afternoon, I felt the need of a shower but not because of the weather. I turned on the news and of course there was our latest shooting -- our uninterrupted, obsessive flood of words searching for relevance, desperate to package and reissue those code words to express and stimulate the sentiments of their constituency: high power, high caliber, military style, assault weapon, semi-automatic yada, yada and all the rest. That real modern assault weapons are small caliber and lower power than hunting rifles doesn't matter since the words are not there to inform but to frighten, to enlist and to frame reality to further the mission of each and every disparate group of activists. We'll hear all about checks and shows and magazine size and even "style" before we know who did what to whom why and with which. It can wait until we're done preaching.
Who are the shooters and how many are there and why did they do it? Is there really an increase in gun violence or is there a concentration of focus? What kind of gun control would have helped if these are Jihadis? is a group of three likely to have the same modus and motives as the disturbed and suicidal teenager? We don't know anything as of the time I'm writing it, but we know what to say: gun grabber, gun nut, high caliber, high velocity, armed citizen, gun control, military style, armor piercing waiting period gun show background check registration full metal jacket. It doesn't matter except to Pavlov..
I heard a young woman on TV the other night yelling about the police. "They've got sniper guns! They're using sniper guns.!" They were tear gas launchers, in fact but it doesn't matter, Neither side is talking to anyone but themselves and in a language of their own and no substantive dialog is possible, nor is there even a common language.
And meantime people are dead and bleeding and we don't know who or why or how many.. Meantime the salesmen on all sides are offering their packaged wares. Want facts? have suggestions? Want to know what's happening? Hell no, you gun nut, gun grabber, freedom hater, murderer!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
WHEN “PRO-LIFE” MEANS PRO DEATH
By (O)CT(O)PUS
The title of this post is borrowed from an article originally written in 1998 by Mary Lou Greenberg , who reports on assaults by pro-life extremists. She describes this bomb attack on the All Women Health Care clinic in Birmingham Alabama that killed a security guard and severely injured a nurse:
“As I held in my hand the sharp slivers of glass that were now the only remains of the shattered windows, my eye was drawn to a metal object in the debris. It was a nail, a small, sharp spike two inches long (…) Just as this anti-personnel bomb at the clinic was intended to rip apart bodies, so too was it meant to penetrate people's minds and emotions with a chilling message: If you provide abortions, if you work at clinics or go to them as clients, you will be a target!”This court case, Fargo Women's Health Organization v. Lambs of Christ, tells another aspect of the story. Established in 1981, the clinic offered routine gynecological services including first trimester abortions. For years, anti-abortion protestors held peaceful demonstrations in the vicinity of the clinic but conditions changed in 1991 when protestors stormed the clinic and occupied the building.
In the ensuing months, demonstrators jostled patients at the front door, struck and pushed escorts, confronted patients in the parking lot, vandalized cars, and blocked public roadway access. As a result, the clinic was effectively blockaded, preventing patients and staff from entering or leaving the building. Protestors called these blockades "rescues" and vowed to close the clinic outright.
Away from the clinic, the situation turned nastier when protestors followed staffers to their homes, to stores, even to the airport. For five months, protesters stalked a doctor at her home. Before dawn, “as many as 30 protesters” gathered on the front lawn, shouted, honked car horns, and blocked the driveway to prevent the doctor and her family from leaving. Protestors vandalized the doctor’s property and picketed the school where her daughter attended. Other staffers were similarly harassed; a car full of protestors stalked the daughter of a clinic volunteer.
Similar incidents spawned more litigation. In another noteworthy case, Bray V. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, several abortion clinics sued in District Court. In hindering women as a class from seeking an abortion, they argued, anti-abortion protesters had violated their equal protection rights. Although a District Court ruled in favor of the clinics, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling in a 5 to 4 decision that defied logic:
“Opposition to abortion cannot reasonably be presumed to reflect gender-based intent, Justice Scalia wrote [my bold], because there are common and respectable reasons for opposing abortion other than a derogatory view of women.”In other words, a protestor’s right to free speech trumps a woman’s right to free and unfettered access to reproductive health services. In Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo v. Williams, Joshua Wilson describes the "ideological dilemma" when two legal concepts come into conflict forcing both sides of the argument to decide which rights deserve priority over others. For pro-choice liberals, the strategy is to protect abortion rights by limiting disruptive demonstrations near reproductive health facilities. For pro-life conservatives, their strategy is the reverse: To obstruct access to abortions by expanding their traditionally narrow views regarding freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Depending upon on the issue, it seems, civil liberties are in the eyes of the beholder.
On January 13, 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Bray V. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic. Two months later, on March 10, 1993 to be exact, Dr. David Gunn was murdered by an anti-abortion extremist in Pensacola Florida :
David Gunn, 47, was shot three times in the back after he got out of his car at the Pensacola Women's Medical Services clinic, according to Pensacola police (…)Eight months later, on August 19, 1993, a pro-life extremist shot Dr. George Tiller in both arms. It was the first attempt on his life and the first of many threats throughout his career. Not only did Dr. Tiller survive the attack, he returned to the clinic the next day to administer to his patients.
Last summer in Montgomery, Ala., an old-fashioned "wanted" poster of Gunn was distributed at a rally for Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry, AP said. The poster included a picture of Gunn, his home phone number and other identifying information.
In response to a pattern of arson, bombings, murder, and intimidation at abortion clinics, the U.S. Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) on May 26, 1994. More than a dozen states followed suit by imposing buffer zones around clinics and homes, prohibiting threats to personnel, banning telephone harassment, and imposing noise regulations. On March 17, 1997, the case of Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo v. Williams reached the U.S. Supreme Court. This time, the Justices voted 6-3 to uphold the buffer zones.
Despite legislative initiatives to date to stop the violence, there have been:
These are not the actions of a mere handful of lone extremists within the pro-life movement. These statistics imply the existence of a pervasive and organized network of accomplices working underground and nationwide. Scott Roeder, the man charged with the murder of Dr. George Tiller, agrees. From his jail cell last week, Roeder said: "I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal ..."
Meanwhile, what about our vaunted rights of free speech and free assembly? How can we claim these civil liberties as hallmarks of freedom when thousands of reproductive health professionals and their clients are forced to endure bullying, harassment, intimidation, and threats of personal injury every day? Which is worse: The threat of international terrorism from abroad, or the threat of pro-life terrorism at home that can strike at any moment.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
You Are What You Eat
Whew, it's over - the 120 mile drive in a storm on a road full of drunks, the overcooked turkey, the heartburn. Don't get me wrong, I have little enough family left and I don't mind seeing them, but there's nothing casual or relaxed about Thanksgiving and if you're like me, needing to avoid salt and too many calories, it's hard to come away from the table feeling good.
But all this for a somewhat insulting myth about "pilgrims," fleeing tolerance in Holland and what good and brave folks they were - even the indentured servants not much different from slaves. And sure, those kindly Massachusetts residents who welcomed the great unwashed of Europe and their clouds of deadly viruses and bacteria -- and Bibles, of course. I just don't think we need a celebration of European conquest and exploitation and religious aggression. Frankly it means nothing to me at all as a celebration of anything worth celebrating.
But that doesn't stop me from making it feel worthwhile by inserting my own meaning. I made it a point to eat as much gluten as possible and of course I processed the hell out of everything I could find. There's very little local or seasonal here at this time of year, but I avoided it when I could. Gimme some of that fructose packed, canned Cranberry sauce and the pumpkin bread I baked sure as hell used canned pumpkins from someplace far, far away.
It's a bold statement about holy foods hipsterism, you see -- the attitude of superiority behind righteous Christians wresting a pristine continent with violence, disease and self righteousness from its owners. If I could have gotten away with a frozen Turkey TV dinner or maybe some turkey jerky I would have, but there's no stopping the juggernaut of commerce and no stopping the annual retail cycle. You have to feel thankful for any token resistance you can manage.
But all this for a somewhat insulting myth about "pilgrims," fleeing tolerance in Holland and what good and brave folks they were - even the indentured servants not much different from slaves. And sure, those kindly Massachusetts residents who welcomed the great unwashed of Europe and their clouds of deadly viruses and bacteria -- and Bibles, of course. I just don't think we need a celebration of European conquest and exploitation and religious aggression. Frankly it means nothing to me at all as a celebration of anything worth celebrating.
But that doesn't stop me from making it feel worthwhile by inserting my own meaning. I made it a point to eat as much gluten as possible and of course I processed the hell out of everything I could find. There's very little local or seasonal here at this time of year, but I avoided it when I could. Gimme some of that fructose packed, canned Cranberry sauce and the pumpkin bread I baked sure as hell used canned pumpkins from someplace far, far away.
It's a bold statement about holy foods hipsterism, you see -- the attitude of superiority behind righteous Christians wresting a pristine continent with violence, disease and self righteousness from its owners. If I could have gotten away with a frozen Turkey TV dinner or maybe some turkey jerky I would have, but there's no stopping the juggernaut of commerce and no stopping the annual retail cycle. You have to feel thankful for any token resistance you can manage.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
My Way or the Highway - Both Roads Lead Nowhere
Guns are dangerous. I think we can agree on that, but the danger is relative and the danger is situational and site specific. Ask anyone who lives 40 miles outside of Talkeetna, Alaska what you take with you when you walk out to the outhouse on a Spring morning and the answer will probably include a caution as to the minimum caliber of the weapon. Things are different in Brooklyn, of course. The plumbing is mostly indoors.
Who what and where always factor in the equation and no matter how we like to scoff at the idea that people kill people, it's true. As long as there are people, there will be murder, criminal recklessness and crimes involving weapons and as long as people die at other people's hands the fear will persist and not in proportion to the actual danger but more to the needs of activists. Reality is no more apparent or objective now then it ever was and our time is a time of propaganda, commercially cultivated outrage and hysteria.
It's de regeur to talk about or demand sensible gun control but specifics too often ignore the lessons of experience. The most carefully vetted people sometimes do horrible things: take the Chicago cop who shot a man 16 times, apparently for reasons more to do with his failure to comply with demands than to the threat level. What simple and sensible precautionary measures, what checks and registries will prevent such abuse of public trust? Are the things we're urged to do effective in solving problems or are they more about elevating anger and the fortunes of certain activists? Time will tell, but we're not likely to notice.
What about a march for justice that punishes and alienates and infuriates the innocent but can have no effect on justice, the mechanism of which has already charged the offending officer with Murder One? Is it that it's not a riot or a lynch mob if we do it? Does interfering with justice serve justice? Who is encouraging us even to ask, and who is called a racist for not following some group with all the answers? What horrible crimes do we ignore every day because no organization's agenda is served?
And then there's the guy who shoots up a Planned Parenthood office? Is the Evangelical Crusade, so effective in convincing people that all abortion is murder and the killing of doctors and nurses a moral obligation part of the equation, or is it just guns and the lack of sensible controls? Will background checks or gun registration have any effect on screening out some Good, God fearing Christian on a Crusade he passionately believes to be moral? The cop he murdered - should we fry that pig's bacon? Is there some grotesque contradiction between our dogmas and civilization's needs?
Is there some grave sickness in our culture or rather the cluster of conflicting cultures we call America? We can't talk about that easily lest someone accuse us of "blaming the victim" even when we're all victims.
The passion for justice is as powerful as it is relative and that passion is as likely to advocate murder, to bypass a functioning Justice System as it is to favor emotional justice or revenge. With all the quasi-demonic howling that dominates the American dialog, who is actually seeking a better world and who is merely pushing a vain dogma? Who is singling out a single factor as the only important one? Who is trying to limit possibilities, to shout down reasoned debate in the dominance game of narrow causes and powerful organizations?
Guns are dangerous. Passions are dangerous, marching mobs are dangerous, simplistic rhetoric and moral conviction are dangerous -- people are dangerous because we recognize no community of interest. When it comes to a better Country, it's always my way or the highway you Communist, Racist, Fascist, Muslim -- you White, Black, Hispanic, Christian Atheist Liberal bastard!
Who what and where always factor in the equation and no matter how we like to scoff at the idea that people kill people, it's true. As long as there are people, there will be murder, criminal recklessness and crimes involving weapons and as long as people die at other people's hands the fear will persist and not in proportion to the actual danger but more to the needs of activists. Reality is no more apparent or objective now then it ever was and our time is a time of propaganda, commercially cultivated outrage and hysteria.
It's de regeur to talk about or demand sensible gun control but specifics too often ignore the lessons of experience. The most carefully vetted people sometimes do horrible things: take the Chicago cop who shot a man 16 times, apparently for reasons more to do with his failure to comply with demands than to the threat level. What simple and sensible precautionary measures, what checks and registries will prevent such abuse of public trust? Are the things we're urged to do effective in solving problems or are they more about elevating anger and the fortunes of certain activists? Time will tell, but we're not likely to notice.
What about a march for justice that punishes and alienates and infuriates the innocent but can have no effect on justice, the mechanism of which has already charged the offending officer with Murder One? Is it that it's not a riot or a lynch mob if we do it? Does interfering with justice serve justice? Who is encouraging us even to ask, and who is called a racist for not following some group with all the answers? What horrible crimes do we ignore every day because no organization's agenda is served?
And then there's the guy who shoots up a Planned Parenthood office? Is the Evangelical Crusade, so effective in convincing people that all abortion is murder and the killing of doctors and nurses a moral obligation part of the equation, or is it just guns and the lack of sensible controls? Will background checks or gun registration have any effect on screening out some Good, God fearing Christian on a Crusade he passionately believes to be moral? The cop he murdered - should we fry that pig's bacon? Is there some grotesque contradiction between our dogmas and civilization's needs?
Is there some grave sickness in our culture or rather the cluster of conflicting cultures we call America? We can't talk about that easily lest someone accuse us of "blaming the victim" even when we're all victims.
The passion for justice is as powerful as it is relative and that passion is as likely to advocate murder, to bypass a functioning Justice System as it is to favor emotional justice or revenge. With all the quasi-demonic howling that dominates the American dialog, who is actually seeking a better world and who is merely pushing a vain dogma? Who is singling out a single factor as the only important one? Who is trying to limit possibilities, to shout down reasoned debate in the dominance game of narrow causes and powerful organizations?
Guns are dangerous. Passions are dangerous, marching mobs are dangerous, simplistic rhetoric and moral conviction are dangerous -- people are dangerous because we recognize no community of interest. When it comes to a better Country, it's always my way or the highway you Communist, Racist, Fascist, Muslim -- you White, Black, Hispanic, Christian Atheist Liberal bastard!
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Happy Thanksgiving.
Hey, remember when Barack Obama was accused of "paling around with terrorists?" Apparently that's one of the many things that are OK when Republicans do it. Ted Cruz - you know that Canadian born son of a Castro Communist has been praising a leader of an anti-abortion group responsible for several murders and of planting bombs. Troy Newman recently deported from Australia as an unwelcome extremist is a great leader says Candidate Cruz -- the kind of guy we need more of in the US.
Of course Fox News has long been a major fan of Vladimir Putin, the crooked and probably homicidal Russian Dictator who has no problem conquering and annexing sovereign nations when he can get away with it. He's also the kind of leader we need, or so they keep saying. It's just really hard to see the radical right, by which I mean the mainstream Republican party and their propaganda organizations as anything but dangerous and indeed murderous terrorists.
On Thanksgiving day we have as much if not more to be disgusted with than we have to be thankful for. For my part I'm grateful that we have an opportunity to reject the kind of ancient evil that has brought us mass murder, tyranny of the worst kind and has undermined liberty, justice and anything resembling humanist values for most of history, posing as good, posing as Godly while cursing the very things we were supposed to be thankful for.
Of course Fox News has long been a major fan of Vladimir Putin, the crooked and probably homicidal Russian Dictator who has no problem conquering and annexing sovereign nations when he can get away with it. He's also the kind of leader we need, or so they keep saying. It's just really hard to see the radical right, by which I mean the mainstream Republican party and their propaganda organizations as anything but dangerous and indeed murderous terrorists.
On Thanksgiving day we have as much if not more to be disgusted with than we have to be thankful for. For my part I'm grateful that we have an opportunity to reject the kind of ancient evil that has brought us mass murder, tyranny of the worst kind and has undermined liberty, justice and anything resembling humanist values for most of history, posing as good, posing as Godly while cursing the very things we were supposed to be thankful for.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Baby on Board, Part 2
Sensitivity, it's the latest thing, hipper than Selfie sticks and Yoga pants -- but wait, can a truly sensitive, aware and totally hip person wear them? I wouldn't bet on it, at least not on a University campus where everyone's skin is more sensitive than a Canadian after a long day on a Florida beach.
A yoga class at the University of Ottawa has run into trouble, even though you'd think otherwise, it being a class designed to benefit disabled students. Yoga you see belongs to a victimized culture, one that has like countless others
Now I know better than to predict by extrapolation, but this isn't an isolated thing. Everyone on campus at least is searching for protection from something, Everyone assumes the right never to feel uncomfortable, a right never to feel a lack of warm, cuddly and maternal protection from the slings and arrows of freedom of the press, freedom of speech and apparently freedom of religion -- and yes, Yoga is a religion and as such no one should espouse any teachings from it if they're not victims of British colonialism. No, don't ask me to explain because then I'd have to explain a lot of Liberal Shibboleths that make just as little sense. Just accept that the copyright on truth belongs to the victims and aren't we all?
Now if I can't practice yoga because India was a British colony over 60 years ago, I certainly can't espouse anything I like about Christianity because Christians have been persecuted victims, at least to hear them tell it. So sorry, I can no longer celebrate Christmas. I can't even be a thug because Thugee is an Indian religion. I can't be a Pundit for the same reason. I can't carry a 20 dollar bill because Andrew Jackson was a racist and I can't tolerate a building at Princeton named for Woodrow Wilson because he was also a racist and I'd just feel uncomfortable, you know, attending that racist school. If anything makes me uncomfortable, I have the right to be protected from it, don't I? In this safest and most comfortable world?
I have a right to demand the press doesn't cover my protests. I have a right to demand satisfaction if I hear lyrics that make me uncomfortable on a jukebox or radio. No that isn't hyperbole, it's a true story nor am I indulging in unfair reductio. This thing started out absurd -- as absurd as the presumed right to be protected from the unpleasantness of the truth, of history or other people's version of the truth. It's kind of the the ugly stepchild of Stand Your Ground laws because if your interpretation, your methodology, your opinion varies from mine, I have the right to attack you with all the authority victimhood confers.
Ridiculous? Of course but, the momentum is large and we have a whole lot of pretend Liberals who will support such claims to inviolable protective custody -- so, as the saying goes, if you can't lick 'em, join 'em. Here's my manifesto: I don't want to see any Churches or Crosses or hear any talk of "Christ." Too many people have been victims of Christian aggression and persecution. I have the right to be protected from words like "old" and "Senior" for obvious reasons. That goes for many other epithets as well, It makes me feel marginalized. What about the names of States and Cities taken, like the land itself, from indigenous peoples? Indiana? That's racist! Washington? He was a RACIST!
I demand racist signatures be deleted from any and all US documents and laws including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.. I demand that the US flag be removed and banned since it's flown over so many atrocious acts and conditions. I demand that the Ten Commandments and any references to Hebrew prophets and practices be removed from all churches and writings and from Sunday schools: cultural genocide, actual genocide, oppression and diasporas, don't you know. The racist teachings of Martin Luther must be banned and Catholic Churches of all sorts make me feel uncomfortable and have to go. You might want to get a snack or something, This is going to be a very long list.
But really, you have to agree on my inherent right to suppress, to expunge, to ban, to inhibit and deny any and all things, all records, all personages, all artifacts, all opinions and certainly all of history if it in any way lowers my self esteem and makes me feel uncomfortable, don't I? I have a right to be protected!
A yoga class at the University of Ottawa has run into trouble, even though you'd think otherwise, it being a class designed to benefit disabled students. Yoga you see belongs to a victimized culture, one that has like countless others
"experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy,"
Now I know better than to predict by extrapolation, but this isn't an isolated thing. Everyone on campus at least is searching for protection from something, Everyone assumes the right never to feel uncomfortable, a right never to feel a lack of warm, cuddly and maternal protection from the slings and arrows of freedom of the press, freedom of speech and apparently freedom of religion -- and yes, Yoga is a religion and as such no one should espouse any teachings from it if they're not victims of British colonialism. No, don't ask me to explain because then I'd have to explain a lot of Liberal Shibboleths that make just as little sense. Just accept that the copyright on truth belongs to the victims and aren't we all?
Now if I can't practice yoga because India was a British colony over 60 years ago, I certainly can't espouse anything I like about Christianity because Christians have been persecuted victims, at least to hear them tell it. So sorry, I can no longer celebrate Christmas. I can't even be a thug because Thugee is an Indian religion. I can't be a Pundit for the same reason. I can't carry a 20 dollar bill because Andrew Jackson was a racist and I can't tolerate a building at Princeton named for Woodrow Wilson because he was also a racist and I'd just feel uncomfortable, you know, attending that racist school. If anything makes me uncomfortable, I have the right to be protected from it, don't I? In this safest and most comfortable world?
I have a right to demand the press doesn't cover my protests. I have a right to demand satisfaction if I hear lyrics that make me uncomfortable on a jukebox or radio. No that isn't hyperbole, it's a true story nor am I indulging in unfair reductio. This thing started out absurd -- as absurd as the presumed right to be protected from the unpleasantness of the truth, of history or other people's version of the truth. It's kind of the the ugly stepchild of Stand Your Ground laws because if your interpretation, your methodology, your opinion varies from mine, I have the right to attack you with all the authority victimhood confers.
Ridiculous? Of course but, the momentum is large and we have a whole lot of pretend Liberals who will support such claims to inviolable protective custody -- so, as the saying goes, if you can't lick 'em, join 'em. Here's my manifesto: I don't want to see any Churches or Crosses or hear any talk of "Christ." Too many people have been victims of Christian aggression and persecution. I have the right to be protected from words like "old" and "Senior" for obvious reasons. That goes for many other epithets as well, It makes me feel marginalized. What about the names of States and Cities taken, like the land itself, from indigenous peoples? Indiana? That's racist! Washington? He was a RACIST!
I demand racist signatures be deleted from any and all US documents and laws including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.. I demand that the US flag be removed and banned since it's flown over so many atrocious acts and conditions. I demand that the Ten Commandments and any references to Hebrew prophets and practices be removed from all churches and writings and from Sunday schools: cultural genocide, actual genocide, oppression and diasporas, don't you know. The racist teachings of Martin Luther must be banned and Catholic Churches of all sorts make me feel uncomfortable and have to go. You might want to get a snack or something, This is going to be a very long list.
But really, you have to agree on my inherent right to suppress, to expunge, to ban, to inhibit and deny any and all things, all records, all personages, all artifacts, all opinions and certainly all of history if it in any way lowers my self esteem and makes me feel uncomfortable, don't I? I have a right to be protected!
Monday, November 23, 2015
Donald Trump and Another Fictitious Claim...
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth
Donald Trump, perhaps one of the least honest bloviating blowhards in the 2016 republican presidential fields adds to his list of fear mongering lies. His recent claim that thousands and thousands of Muslin in Jersey City cheered on 911 when the World Trade Center came down is a flat out lie.
All of us are aware that Islamic jihadist in the middle east cheered when the WTC collapsed, but there is absolutely no truth to the statement made by Trump. The Donald is playing the politics of fear as he appeals to the low intelligence and low information people who flock to hear his BS. For the Donald it is not about truth, it never gas been. Rather it all abut the Art of the Deal and winning, no matter what it takes.
Donald Trump lacks the ethical standards the howler monkeys claim Obama lacks. Yet when Mr. Lying Trump spews his BS the low intelligence and low information folks not only look the other way they swear he's telling the truth and hi poll numbers climb a bit more.
The Donald has shown he lacks the ethical and moral standards to lead our nation. As the democratic party machinery and H.R. Clinton consider the possibility of facing Trump in the general they must be salivating at the prospects.
Finding myself thinking of an acronym to describe The Donald's character it took all of one second, POS.
Find the complete article and video BELOW THE FOLD.
Via: Memeorandum
Purveyor of Truth
Donald Trump, perhaps one of the least honest bloviating blowhards in the 2016 republican presidential fields adds to his list of fear mongering lies. His recent claim that thousands and thousands of Muslin in Jersey City cheered on 911 when the World Trade Center came down is a flat out lie.
All of us are aware that Islamic jihadist in the middle east cheered when the WTC collapsed, but there is absolutely no truth to the statement made by Trump. The Donald is playing the politics of fear as he appeals to the low intelligence and low information people who flock to hear his BS. For the Donald it is not about truth, it never gas been. Rather it all abut the Art of the Deal and winning, no matter what it takes.
Donald Trump lacks the ethical standards the howler monkeys claim Obama lacks. Yet when Mr. Lying Trump spews his BS the low intelligence and low information folks not only look the other way they swear he's telling the truth and hi poll numbers climb a bit more.
The Donald has shown he lacks the ethical and moral standards to lead our nation. As the democratic party machinery and H.R. Clinton consider the possibility of facing Trump in the general they must be salivating at the prospects.
Finding myself thinking of an acronym to describe The Donald's character it took all of one second, POS.
From The Washington Post
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You raised some eyebrows yesterday with comments you made at your latest rally. I want to show them, relating to 9/11.
STEPHANOPOULOS: “You know, the police say that didn’t happen and all those rumors have been on the Internet for some time. So did you misspeak yesterday?”
TRUMP: “It did happen. I saw it.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “You saw that…”
TRUMP: It was on television. I saw it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: “…with your own eyes?”
TRUMP: “George, it did happen.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “Police say it didn’t happen.”
TRUMP: “There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “As I said, the police have said it didn’t happen.”
— Exchange on ABC’s “This Week,” Nov. 22, 2015
This column has been updated.
This exchange demonstrates the folly of trying to fact-check Donald Trump. Even when confronted with contrary information — “police say it didn’t happen” — he insists that with his own eyes he saw “thousands and thousands” of cheering Arabs in New Jersey celebrating as the World Trade Center collapsed during the Sept. 11 attacks.
Trump has already earned more Four-Pinocchio ratings than any other candidate this year. He is about to earn another one.
Find the complete article and video BELOW THE FOLD.
Via: Memeorandum
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Sizing Up Trump
By (O)CT(O)PUS
Donald's the man who can grab any bull by the horns and run with it. There's no teapot in a tempest he can't handle. Donald's the MAN! In Trump, we trust.
When other candidates were grasping at straws that broke the camel’s back, only Donald came out like a horse on fire. You can always count on him to drive off the bridge when we come to it, and burn that bridge when we cross it.
Donald will watch terrorists like a hawk and catch them cold turkey with their pants down. But just in case it’s deja-vu all over again, he’ll line up all foreigners in alphabetical order by size, then make them clean hotel rooms and wash your underwear.
If terrorists cut the water supply, he’ll never let any celebrity well run dry. He’ll bring on a flood of cats and dogs in droves like gangbusters wearing combat galoshes. Better to light a candle in the dark than to curse the clowns who screw in light-bulbs.
Donald Trump will defeat all enemies with snowballs from Hell raining hot air down the mountain with a full head of steam. He will drive our ship of state across the road where chickens come home to roost and never let ISIS or any crisis mushroom into a can of worms. If the shoe fits, it’s probably on the wrong foot.
Never again will we be stuck between a rock and a frying pan, and no more beating around the Bushes! He will turn every outhouse into a White House and make America grrr8 again!
The Donald always has an ace up his hole and hits the wall running.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Aux Etats Sunni
(Note: This article was originally posted on August 31, 2014 - almost a year and half ago. Please note the play on words: Aux Etats Uni is French for the “United States;” Aux Etats Sunni is a reference to “Sunni States” — almost an acronym for ISIS. Both are pronounced exactly the same.)By (O)CT(O)PUS
Let us recall this quote from the film classic, Lawrence of Arabia:
“So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be
a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel …”
Arabs or Americans? Sometimes I wonder which of the two are the little people, the silly people. If anything, Americans are a meddlesome people - provincial, opinionated, and arrogant; yet exceptionally ignorant of Middle Eastern culture and history.
How many Americans recall the coup that overthrew Mohammed Moseddegh, the first democratically elected leader of Iran? In 1953, our own CIA aided and abetted the British in toppling a nascent democracy over access to Persian oil. “A cruel and imperialistic country” stealing from a “needy and naked people” were the words spoken by Mosaddegh at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. These words have informed Middle Eastern attitudes for more than half a century.
Does terrorism represent the face of Islam? Not according to the highest religious authority of Saudi Arabia, who said: “Extremist and militant ideas and terrorism which spread decay on Earth, destroying human civilisation, are not in any way part of Islam, but are enemy number one of Islam, and Muslims are their first victims” (The Grand Mufti Sheik Abdulaziz Al al-Sheik).
Not according to the highest religious authority of Egypt, who said: “An extremist and bloody group such as this poses a danger to Islam and Muslims, tarnishing its image as well as shedding blood and spreading corruption” (The Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam).
Not according to the Egyptian military, which overthrew the government of Mohamed Morsi and bans the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. Nor the monarchy of Saudi Arabia, which banished al-Qaeda, whose affiliated groups now operate in remote regions of Yemen and North Africa. Yet, how many Americans pay attention?
Consider the impact of successive Western interventions in the Middle East over time starting with European colonialism. Shall we forget vainglorious wars over spheres of power and influence -- and access to Middle Eastern oil. As colonial empires crumbled in the aftermath of WWI, European powers gave little thought to the historical schism between the Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam. Britain drew borders around rival ethnic enclaves and formed artificial nation states - thus creating a recipe for future volatility.
Failing to take these historical antecedents into account, America blundered into an occupation of Iraq that worsened an already unstable situation. In short order, the American regency of Paul Bremer swept away a long established order. Regime change brought in a new Shiite government that promptly disenfranchised and persecuted the Sunnis. Thus began a cycle of sectarian conflict and civil war – rife with insurgencies, ethnic militias, car bombings, kidnappings, massacres, and more. The American misadventure triggered a chain reaction leading directly to the rise of ISIS.
A war-weary American public says: “No more boots on the ground.” Neo-conservatives in Congress demand military action.
Iraqi President al-Maliki oppresses the Sunnis and creates a window of opportunity for ISIS. Republicans blame the crisis on the president.
Al-Malady refuses to sign a Residual Force Agreement; Republicans blame the president.
Our military says ISIS cannot be defeated without a Syrian incursion. Last year, a GOP dominated Congress failed to reach a military authorization agreement.Follow the trail of duplicity amongst our allies in the region: ISIS trades Syrian oil for money and arms with our NATO ally, Turkey. Our military maintains vital strategic strike capabilities at al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. Yet, the wealthy citizens of Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE underwrite radical jihadi groups throughout the Middle East -- from al-Qaeda to ISIS.
How can the enemy of your enemy be your friend when you can no longer distinguish enemies from friends?
Meanwhile, partisans in Congress criticize the President over an honest admission: “We don't have a strategy yet” for dealing with the 'existential threat' of ISIS. Perhaps the time is long overdue to rethink the complexities, duplicities and past failures -- to avoid another national repetition compulsion -- before we blunder yet again into another Middle Eastern abyss.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
I give up
I know the election is still a long way off, but maybe it's not too soon to give up on the idea of Democracy in America. The ISIL assault on Paris seems to have benefited the Idiot Trump, as though we needed to be reminded that a simple-minded barrage of simple minded bravado is always popular whenever we're reminded that we're not the undisputed masters of the Universe. Keep 'em out, Throw them out, build a wall and bomb them to dust 'cause we're all about "freedom."
In fact just when I was beginning to think this hair-Club horror was about to make the country snap out of it's boozy delirium and come to it's alleged senses, a new Bloomberg Poll seems to remind us that Republican dementia progresses apace. Trump is seen as the one best able to deal with the kind of terrorists the French efficiently rounded up and killed in a couple of days, Trump with his total lack of experience or knowledge in any distantly related matter. Perhaps the public subscribes to the Maoist notion that one learns from doing and education is meaningless. Perhaps the public doesn't like to be reminded that things are never simple and easy to deal with and it takes more than a massively ignorant blowhard to blow away our problems. Perhaps stupid people are just more confident in stupid people, I don't know. I give up.
Anyway the wimpy, effeminate, quiche eating, French, Nancy Boy we mocked not long ago for telling us Saddam didn't have nukes or the ability to make or deliver them, doesn't seem so cowardly now, does he - or as inept as we are.
But it's not all Trump, apparently the idiots think Carson has a better personality for the job although most of us have still to discern one at all behind the deadpan and the weird emotionless tone of voice he uses to tell us lies and complain it's our fault when he's shown to be more ignorant that anyone who has ever run for public office.
No, I think it's time to give up. We're not a viable nation, forever snatching disaster from the jaws of success, ever unable to tell a charlatan, a phony, an incompetent from a leader. This guy lacks the experience because he was only a Senator and a Harvard Law graduate - but these guys who have never held office? Mavericks! The guy who tells an assailant not to shoot him but shoot the other guy? How brave under fire! The guy who inherited a real estate business and couldn't pass a citizenship test? Presidential! He will just fire our enemies!
Forgetabout it. There's only so long you can support a family member who keeps screwing up. If the world were a family, America would be living in the attic and fed through a slot in the door. I'm tired of it.. I want to go live in one of those hollow pyramids before we start putting people in boxcars and behind walls and nuking Canada. There's nothing left to save here.
In fact just when I was beginning to think this hair-Club horror was about to make the country snap out of it's boozy delirium and come to it's alleged senses, a new Bloomberg Poll seems to remind us that Republican dementia progresses apace. Trump is seen as the one best able to deal with the kind of terrorists the French efficiently rounded up and killed in a couple of days, Trump with his total lack of experience or knowledge in any distantly related matter. Perhaps the public subscribes to the Maoist notion that one learns from doing and education is meaningless. Perhaps the public doesn't like to be reminded that things are never simple and easy to deal with and it takes more than a massively ignorant blowhard to blow away our problems. Perhaps stupid people are just more confident in stupid people, I don't know. I give up.
Anyway the wimpy, effeminate, quiche eating, French, Nancy Boy we mocked not long ago for telling us Saddam didn't have nukes or the ability to make or deliver them, doesn't seem so cowardly now, does he - or as inept as we are.
But it's not all Trump, apparently the idiots think Carson has a better personality for the job although most of us have still to discern one at all behind the deadpan and the weird emotionless tone of voice he uses to tell us lies and complain it's our fault when he's shown to be more ignorant that anyone who has ever run for public office.
No, I think it's time to give up. We're not a viable nation, forever snatching disaster from the jaws of success, ever unable to tell a charlatan, a phony, an incompetent from a leader. This guy lacks the experience because he was only a Senator and a Harvard Law graduate - but these guys who have never held office? Mavericks! The guy who tells an assailant not to shoot him but shoot the other guy? How brave under fire! The guy who inherited a real estate business and couldn't pass a citizenship test? Presidential! He will just fire our enemies!
Forgetabout it. There's only so long you can support a family member who keeps screwing up. If the world were a family, America would be living in the attic and fed through a slot in the door. I'm tired of it.. I want to go live in one of those hollow pyramids before we start putting people in boxcars and behind walls and nuking Canada. There's nothing left to save here.
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