|
Unbelievable bullshit
Man I had about fifty things I wanted to write about, and then I read this bullshit... NSA Website puts federally prohibited tracking cookies on U.S. citizens' computers.Check out this response, "... agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake." No. The didn't 'make a mistake'. They committed treason against the citizens of the U.S. What the NSA has done is a high crime. 'Nuff said. No, wait, not enough said. Enough will be said when every single higher staff member of the NSA is either behind bars or slumped in a chair after a state sanctioned lethal injection. Then, maybe, enough will be said about what happens to shit heads who abuse their power and turn on the citizenry.
Even more on the War on Christmas
The Onion weighed in on the War... Activist Judge Cancels Christmas. It's subtle. My favorite part? "In support of Reinhardt's ruling, Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Jew, introduced legislation that would mandate the registration of every Christian in the United States and subject their houses to random searches to ensure they are not celebrating Christmas."
Heh... a Jew.
More on the War on Christmas
Air America's Sam Seder and conservative blowhard, Bob Knight were on CNN Today debating the much balleyhooed War on Christmas. The beginning is funny, but watch/read it to the end. It's a classic piece of conservative showmanship. Crooks and Liars has the video.
Atrios has a transcript. Here's a bit of the funny... SEDER: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it's almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
And, the not-so-funny... KNIGHT: Maria Trapp wrote the story of the Trapp singers that's in "The Sound of Music," and she said she sent her kids to school after the Nazis took over. And they came home and said mama, we can't say the word Christmas anymore. It's now winter holiday.
I think that ought to disturb people... Yes, I think that ought to disturb people too. God bless us, every one.
Jesus Soup
So any liberal keeping up with the latest assault on the left wing is probably aware of the ‘war on Christmas’ that we’re apparently pursuing. Despite the pagan beginnings of this Yuletide season hallmark, not to mention its recent secular face, the fact is that Christmas is in some way related to Jesus, and that means it must die. And, frankly, they’re right. I’m sick to death of Christianity. I’m fed up with God and Jesus, and I really think it’s about time they were struck from social memory. Egyptian like, I want every reference to this hot headed, irrational deity and his patsy little boy stamped out of cultural memory. And if that means striking down anything so much as tainted with his presence, then so be it. Do I want to take the word ‘God’ off the U.S. dollar? Hell no, I want all current denominations collected, burned and redesigned. After all, even if we removed the phrase, “In God We Trust,” the memory of it would linger on every time someone glanced at a dollar bill. Do I want the Pledge of Allegiance altered to omit mention of the lord? No, of course not. Who would ever? I want it scrapped and written over. I want all references to it summarily confiscated. I want those found with the sheet music herded into camps. I want that cocksucker Dwight D. Eisenhower’s corpse yanked up and hurled into a tar pit. I want Christmas to be moved back to the 21st and for family’s to sacrifice herd animals to mother earth on that day. I want the cross, as a symbol, to be removed from social use. I want the damned letter ‘x’ eradicated, Marvel comics be damned. There’s nothing it does you can’t do with a k, g and s anyway. Easter we can get rid of altogether. You have May Day, that’s e-fucking-nough. Even, alas Mardi Gras would have to go, since it pertains directly to that ridiculous Catholic lent self torture shit. But what I will not tolerate, the slander I shall not endure, is this idiot claim that, in our very noble and justified attempts to scour any and all sources of vile Christianity from our land, that somehow we’re out to destroy Narnia! Narnia, blessed kingdom ruled by most noble Aslan the lion, this isn’t Christian! I take us all back to The Last Battle, where we see, in what amounts to the afterlife, a lifelong enemy of Aslan’s, or so it would seem, a man who worshipped another god and hated Aslan in his heart, thinking Aslan to be the enemy of good. But he was a good person in his heart, and did great services in the name of good, all the while claiming to do it for Tash, a dark god, and not Aslan, the good god. So this individual finally meets Aslan in the afterlife, right? And he thinks, and I quote, “Surely this is the hour of death for The Lion will know that I served Tash all my days and not him.” And if he had encountered Jesus, he would have been right. But Aslan spoke to him and said, “…no service which is vile may be done [unto] me, and no service which is not vile can be done [unto Tash]. Therefore, if any man swear by Tash, and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted.” Now I ask you, when was the last time you saw a Christian care more about the deed done than the god named? Sure, Lewis was a Christian, but Narnia itself is deist, at best. So a good liberal would never advocate destroying these incredible children’s classics. We would merely suggest reattributing them to a more worthy author.
The Onion stumbles onto something...
In today's Onion... Voice Of God Revealed To Be Cheney On Intercom. Telephone logs recorded by the National Security Agency and obtained by Congress as part of an ongoing investigation suggest that the vice president may have used the Oval Office intercom system to address President Bush at crucial moments, giving categorical directives in a voice the president believed to be that of God. ... In a transcript of an intercom exchange recorded in March 2002, a voice positively identified as the vice president's identifies himself as "the Lord thy God" and promotes the invasion of Iraq, as well as the use of torture in prisoner interrogations.
It would be funnier if it weren't such a plausible story.
The funniest man in Washington
The semantics of intelligent design
From James Wollcott, a good read about the thought process behind intelligent design. Here's the big finish... On a more vulgar level, I think the same dynamic is at play in the entire "War on Christmas" sham perpetrated by Fox News and rightwing talkshow hosts. They rant on and on about how Christianity is the kick-toy of the Hollywood left and snobby liberals and the ACLU, how Nativity displays are being vandalized by Nation readers disguised as wild raccoons, pound the anchor desk to demand prayer be restored to public schools. And yet how religiously observant are most of these blowhards? How often does Rush Limbaugh attend services? Or does he spend every Sunday on the golf course? Would John Gibson or O'Reilly mouth off to any of their Jewish friends (assuming they've accumulated some over the years), "Look, pal, I have no problem with Hanukah, just remember this is a Christian country, we're the majority, the majority makes the rules, what we say goes, so don't get bent out of shape when someone wishes you a Merry Christmas--and tell George Soros that goes double for him"? It's easy to swagger in front of a microphone, and I suspect most conservative demagogues practice a strange form of hypocrisy: talking shit in public that they would be wary to do in private. (Most hypocrites do the opposite, talking trash one on one that they would never say over the sanctity of the airwaves.)
The trouble with freedom
The AP ran this story about the Iraqi veep's dispute with our president's assessment of the training of Iraqi security forces. Apparently this guy didn't get the memo about it being a puppet government. The training of Iraqi security forces has suffered a big "setback" in the last six months, with the army and other forces being increasingly used to settle scores and make other political gains, Iraqi Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer said Monday.
Al-Yawer disputed contentions by U.S. officials, including President Bush, that the training of security forces was gathering speed, resulting in more professional troops. ... But al-Yawer said recent allegations that Interior Ministry security forces -- dominated by Shiites -- have tortured Sunni detainees were evidence that many forces are increasingly politicized and sectarian. Some of the recently trained Iraqi forces focus on settling scores and other political goals rather than maintaining security, he said.
In addition, some Iraqi military commanders have been dismissed for political reasons, rather than judged on merit, he said.
He said the army -- also dominated by Shiites -- is conducting raids against villages and towns in Sunni and mixed areas of Iraq, rather than targeting specific insurgents -- a tactic he said reminded many Sunnis of Saddam Hussein-era raids.
"Saddam used to raid villages," using security forces, he said. "This is not the way to do it."
Al-Yawer also expressed grave concern that Iraqi army units might use intimidation to try to keep Sunni voters from the polls during the country's crucial Dec. 15 general election.
Oh... cool. Is that all?
Condi to Europeans: Don't bite the hand that beats you
More amusing items in the NY Times. Condi offers Europeans the homespun wisdom for which this administration has become famous... if you don't have anything nice to say then the terrorists have already won. Or something like that... Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chastised Europe leaders today, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped "save European lives."
New Day!
I just got moved into my fine new quarters over near Hollywood in Los Angeles. The internet is connected (if a little shaky) and the world political scene is as hot as ever. I'm hoping everyone has already heard about the events taking place in Colorado surrounding the refusal of one Deborah Davis to show identification. Simply put, a U.S. citizen, under no suspicious of doing wrong, riding public transport that required no ID to board, was arrested for refusing to show ID at a cursory check. To quote Davis, "It's wrong," she said Monday. "It's not even security. It's just a lesson in compliance - the big guys pushing the little guys around." Some of you may not be aware that, prior to 9/11, you had every right in the world to refuse to show ID to any law enforcement officer, provided you weren't under investigation or suspicion. Of course, post Patriot Act and with a little help from a police state USSC, this has changed. The Feds now have the legal right, if they wish, to pursue legal action against this woman, despite the fact that she's right, their demand to see ID in conventional situations like this amounts to quite literally nothing at all except a 'respect the state' attitude. Now, I want to then draw your attention to this little article.I'd like to think I've spelled it all out for you. Cops aren't perfect. In fact, more than a few recent studies have suggested that these days the US has, by and large, the very LAST people we'd want upholding a 'free state'. What we have these days are bullies and nimrods, and any move to encourage blind obsequiance to them stretches beyond the boarders of fascism right into the realm of insanity.
|
