We live in bewildering times. As the Jefferson Airplane sang, logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead.
I first became politically aware as the Civil Rights movement took center stage on the national scene. The forces of reaction took shelter behind a lot of arguments, but I can’t recall that any of them had the nerve to complain that proposed civil rights laws constituted discrimination against people who sincerely believed in the inferiority of black people.
But we’ve made great semantic progress since then. As John Lennon (channeling Harry Nillson) said, “everything is the opposite of what it is, isn’t it?” and this is nowhere more true than in the culture of victimhood embraced by the right wing. Latest case in point:
A Republican legislator in Illinois levied charges of discrimination against a measure to permit same-sex marriage that was approved Thursday by the state Senate.
Illinois state Sen. Kyle McCarter ® took to his Facebook page to argue that the bill passed by the Democratic-controlled chamber was an injustice against “those who hold the sincerely held religious belief” that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Yet another of those right wing pronouncements that leave you awestruck. One is tempted to rebut it, and then one must pause. Anyone who needs an explanation for why this is absurd is too far lost to reason already.
This was one of my favorite Gary Larson Far Side Cartoons:
Of course, back in those innocent days, no one could have expected that there really would be rich rewards for saving the Princess, much less that the military would be awarding medals to men and women who bravely rain death and destruction upon the innocent and guilty alike from thousands of miles away. But apparently, nothing is too good for the men and women who struggle into their PJs every day to man their keyboards and clutch their mice in order to protect us from school children, wedding parties and the occasional actual terrorist:
They fight the war from computer consoles and video screens.
But the troops that launch the drone strikes and direct the cyberattacks that can kill or disable an enemy may never set foot in the combat zone. Now their battlefield contributions may be recognized.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Wednesday that for the first time the Pentagon is creating a medal that can be awarded to troops who have a direct impact on combat operations, but do it from afar.
The medal will be below the silver star, but above the bronze, meaning a keyboard hero rates higher than someone who has seen actual combat. But that kind of stuff is so 20th century. No need to get your hands dirty, or actually see the results of your actions, to be a hero these days.
So, the laugh’s on those of us who laughed with Gary Larson, and also on those of us who used to make fun of those other keyboard commandos who valiantly cheered from behind in support of the Iraq War, and the other military misadventures that it was so easy for the right wing blogosphere to support. Why nowadays, even they can contribute, so long as they can wield a mouse.
We Democrats can take special pride in knowing that it was a Democratically controlled Department of Defense that recognized the unique contribution, the special sacrifices, and the extraordinary bravery it takes to anonymously kill and maim. Who says we don’t support the troops?
All of us, at least those of us that are politically engaged, from time to time wonder just how we got on a particular email list. So it was with me today, when, in very timely fashion, I got an email from the slurper touting his new proposal to destroy public schools. Of course, he doesn’t present it that way. It’s all about school choice: funneling public money to private schools. Nonetheless, that’s what it is, and there’s really no point in proving the obvious.
What struck me was the list of endorsers for his attack on public schools. Besides the almost inevitable Jeb Bush there’s a virtual laundry list of ethnic front groups:
Julio Fuentes, President of Hispanic Council For Reform and Educational Options
Kenneth Campbell, President of the Black Alliance For Educational Options
Rabbi David Zwiebel, Esq., Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America
Kevin P. Chavous, former D.C. City Councilman and current Executive Counsel for the American Federation For Children
See boys and girls, this must be all hunky dory, because look, they’ve got well rewarded colored folks and Jews to endorse it. These astroturf organizations with the names-with-which-you-cannot-take-issue (though certainly they could have snuck the word “family” in there somewhere) are a specialty of Republicans. It would be interesting to know if the ploy still works. Democrats, of course, never do this, nor do they call bullshit on the people who do. That would be so impolite and besides, they are scared to death that they might scare away the one voter in a thousand who might support such organizations and also consider voting for a Democrat.
I suspect that it’s not as easy these days to gain instant cred by making up a compelling name and lining up some token endorsers. It’s an old game and people have grown somewhat inured to it. At least that’s my hope, but it would be nice if the Dems would fight fire with fire once in a while.
Some may wonder how the simple act of “resigning” can be a god defying act, but such people don’t understand the religious nuances involved here.
Let’s rehearse the facts.
The Pope is elected for life.
Although the Pope is “elected” by a bunch of pedophile protecting cardinals, they are actually only a conduit for God, whose choice is channeled through them. Ipso facto, the Pope is chosen by God.
God knows the rules. The Pope is elected for life, and he damn well better serve out his term. If God didn’t want a senile geriatric running one of the world’s largest religious corporations, then he’d impose term limits. Besides, God is omniscient, meaning that he knows when he picks them that they’ll do for their entire term. (And don’t ask me why, if God can see the future, he’d pick a guy who is going to resign. The answer to that is far too complex to develop in a blog post).
The betting here in this secular backwater is that someone has something on Ratzi, though I can’t imagine what could be any worse than what we already know about the former Nazi pedophile enabling and yet judgmental guy. His reasons for retiring are the papal equivalent of wanting to spend more time with his family.
As I did the last time a papal vacancy arose (in the time honored fashion, by a respectable death) I do want to announce my continued availability for the post. Technically, I’m still a Catholic, given that baptism left an indelible mark on my soul. I’ve got some great ideas for the Church going forward. Now that my views have evolved on gay marriage, I’m all for married priests.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney’s highlighting an inaccuracy in Steven Spielberg’s hit movie, “Lincoln,” is generating Washington buzz and Hollywood blowback, drawing the mild-mannered Connecticut congressman into the world of Oscar intrigue.
With the start of final Oscar voting Friday, an amused Courtney is being asked if his fact-checking was intended to defend a slighted predecessor, Augustus Brandegee of New London, or help a more recent benefactor, Ben Affleck.
Affleck’s “Argo,” an account of the Iranian hostage crisis that takes its own liberties with the facts, is in competition for Best Picture with Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” Conspiracy theorists take note: Affleck campaigned for Courtney in 2006.
Now it can be told, in a CTBlue exclusive, for we have gained access to Joe’s
diary.
Dear Diary:
Went to see Lincoln today. Good flick, but during the roll call scene I think I struck gold. According to the movie, Connecticut’s representatives voted against the 13th Amendment. I’m pretty sure that’s not so, not that I care, but I’m getting my campaign staff to look into it. Right away it struck me that this was a golden opportunity to do Ben Affleck a favor. Here’s the plan. I make a polite complaint about the inaccuracy, and ask that that error be corrected when the movie comes out on DVD. The thing will snowball, causing all those Oscar voters to swing their votes to Affleck’s picture. It’s the only possible outcome and of course it came to me in a flash. The beauty of it is that no one would ever suspect that I intended that result all along, because, on its face, you’d have to be a member of the tin foil hat brigade to rise to that level of paranoia and that’s just not the kind of thing that’s done in this country, where our media is always careful to avoid enabling rumor mongers and conspiracy theorists. My plan is to play on the media’s integrity. It would never give the time of day to anyone who exposed my real intentions. This plan can’t fail.
Thanks to MB for suggesting The Troggs, whose lead singer, Reg Presley, just died. Got to keep those dying rockers coming, as they provide great fodder for this feature.
Unfortunately, I can't use the video he suggested, as it won't play on my iPad, and given the frequent storm caused interruptions in our electrical service, we've disconnected our computers for the duration. Anyway, here they are doing a somewhat subdued version of their signature song, Wild Thing.
I’m a fan of TPM, but an article like this cannot pass without criticism:
Trust in Fox News has fallen to a new low in the four-year history of Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling’s survey of TV news. The latest survey, released Wednesday, found that 41 percent of respondents trust the network, while 46 percent do not. In 2010, 49 percent trusted Fox, and 37 percent did not. But respondents also chose Fox News as the most trustworthy TV news outlet when given a list of the organizations PPP surveyed, beating out ABC, CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, MSNBC, NBC and PBS. Thirty-four percent of respondents chose Fox News as the most trustworthy out of that list.
To the innumerate, the results seem contradictory. In fact, it is only what any reasonably intelligent person would expect.
The 34% of the population that chose Fox as the most trustworthy is the Republican base. One would expect each and every one of them to select the network that tells them what they want to hear. The rational among us split our votes amongst a host of contenders, with, I would hazard to guess, many pulling a response more or less at random out of their nether regions. Indeed, one would expect that as the level of Fox distrust grows among the nation as a whole, the degree to which the true believers harden their position will increase. The questions, as posed, do not measure the same thing, and to the extent the article implies there is a contradiction, it does the casual reader a disservice.
We learn from this morning’s Day that Amazon will be building a “customer fulfillment center” here in the Nutmeg State, and will have to begin collecting sales taxes on in state purchases in November. Amazon, of course, has been in the forefront of the lobbying effort to keep states from collecting sales taxes on internet sales. Let’s look into the future, as Amazon approaches its goal of same day delivery throughout most of the nation.
That will require customer fulfillment centers in almost every state, subjecting Amazon to state sales taxes everywhere. Look for Amazon to have a change of heart, and support efforts to require its far smaller competitors to remit sales taxes to all states, rather than only to those states in which they have a physical presence. This is actually good public policy, but at that point it will be used by Amazon as a cudgel to destroy its smaller competitors.
Okay, I didn’t read far enough when I pecked the preceding out this morning. I see one of the folks the Day interviewed made the same prediction:
Pomp also said he thought Amazon would become a champion for a federal law on sales tax collection now that it will be collecting sales tax while other online retailers without a physical presence are not.
Obama is damned by the right wing for claiming to shoot skeet, something they absolutely refuse to believe he does, not that it matters. They accuse him of violating our liberties because he made an incremental change in the law that might enable more people to afford still overpriced health care. They would love to impeach him for these things, Benghazi, and his alleged Kenyan birth.
Yet, they remain strangely quiet about the fact that he is truly a threat to real republican values (small “r” there). A republican form of government can’t coexist with a chief executive who claims the power of life or death over any citizen he chooses to kill. Obama has assumed that power to himself, and has managed to get his Justice Department to imitate John Yoo and give his assumption of power its imprimatur. Yet, oddly, only a stray liberal here or there appears to care about this unprecedented assumption of power. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows. They have apparently concluded that their base will lustily cheer every ginned up attack they can make against Obama, except a fact based attack on him for killing anyone he chooses to label a terrorist.
