Justify your rage
The dust from the great 9-12 rallies of 2009 is still settling, as evidenced by the ongoing media coverage, blog coverage, discussion board coverage and all other sorts of inescapable coverage. And even though I've watched these people, and read the talking points and seen the websites and posts, I confess that I still do not understand. Maybe it's the incredibly disjointed expressions of discontent that come off as impotent "we hate Obama!" rage, although I suspect it has more to do with the fact that I am fairly rational, and not a xenophobic moron. Either way, I would love to understand.
All I am seeing is a completely irrational disconnect from reality, and if anyone reads this and can correct that perception please by all means, enlighten me.
I am hearing that the government is too invasive, from people who cheered for the Patriot Act. From people who applauded as Bush granted himself the power to declare martial law. From people who clapped when the term "enemy combatants" was created and it was written in to law that the president could declare at will that you were one and had no legal rights. But now is the threat to our privacy and civil rights?
I am hearing the government is spending too much money, from people who loved trillion dollar preventive war. I suspect that Bush could have unveiled a spending bill double the stimulus package back in October 2001 and as long as it was 90% military and "defense" these same so-called fiscal conservatives would have lauded it as a bold and necessary step for the future of our country.
I am hearing that we must question our leaders and all that they do from the people who less than a decade ago called the same thing un-American at best, treasonous at worst. Joe Wilson just got $1 million dollars from people who would have called for a Democratic congressman's head if he had cried out "You lie!" at Bush in 2002. And I do not mean that as a figure of speech-they would have been searching eBay for a guillotine.
I am watching the people who raged against the anti-war demonstrators of the Bush years now calling the anti-President demonstrators of the Obama months great America-loving patriots.
And I have to say, at the end of the day all I am really hearing are a whole lot of crazy rants and borderline racism. I am seeing nonsensical portrayals of Barack Obama as the Joker (what exactly does that have to do with Socialism again?). I am hearing the same batshit insane rants that I heard during the campaign about shadowy Muslim takeovers and unsubstantiated ravings from people who do not actually know what Marxism is. So please, someone...anyone. Negate the above listed hypocrisies and cognitive dissonance, and for the love of God, justify your rage.
T-Shirt Hell
I came across this site of "Christian" t-shirts today kind of randomly, and it is so bad I felt I had to share it. Even if the slogans weren't for the most part ignorant, devoid of insight and completely unfunny, the actual design work is so shitty it would not matter. Calling it amateurish is an insult to amateur graphics designers everywhere. It's like a someone vomited up bible clip-art on Cafe Press. The site concentrates heavily on "pro-life" propaganda, which is a shame because their site should have been aborted.
I won't even bother with snarky comments on individual t-shirts, or even arguing the overall abortion is murder theme they have going on. I would be here way too long. The reality is I am writing this entire post just to make one observation:
If gluttony is a deadly sin, why are all of their shirts available in sizes up to XXXXXL? Just saying.
And no, I am not exaggerating. 5XL.
Support Our (like-minded) Troops
This is not in any way, shape, or form intended to be an insult to America's military men and women. I am just currently pondering the belief of the neo-conservative Right that we must support our troops, but only so long as they are neo-conservatives themselves and agree with the mindless pundits and profiteers hawking ribbon magnets and other such bullshit. Funny how those magnets never read "Support Our Troops As Long As They Agree With Us".
I was just engaging in some "friendly" debate with a few opposite-minded individuals on an electronic forum (a.k.a. arguing like a moron, with other morons, on the internet) about....well, this that and the other thing. And while looking up some information on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I found out he is a former Marine. I didn't know that, and was somewhat surprised by this information.
And it got me thinking again about how the Republican/neocon/far-right crowd betray themselves repeatedly with their faux pro-troop stance. They are the ones who shout loudest and longest about supporting the military, yet over and over again they turn on the people who have actually served the country without hesitation. All because these brave men and women, past and present soldiers, have the brazen audacity to not agree with them. And then they have the nerve to accuse the people they are smearing of being the betrayers. They want to support the troops so long as they shut their goddamn mouths and agree with the President* and the second this doesn't happen they just lose their fucking minds. I like to think I am a rather compassionate, empathetic person but I cannot even begin to contort my worldview in such a way that this resembles a reasonable mindset...thank god.
So for your consideration, here is a short segment of a much longer list of people, each with more extensive military experience than Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Coulter, Hannity, Malkin and Beck combined, all of whom have been brutally trashed and smeared by the "pro-troop" right-wingers because they are too anti-war or too pro-Obama or some other asinine reason that you and I cannot comprehend because we aren't really really dumb. If you know of any I am missing (and I know there are many) please let me know.
- Brigadier General Larry Gillespie
- Major General Scott Gration
- Admiral Don Guter
- Lieutenant John Kerry
- Brigadier General David McGinnis
- General Merrill McPeak
- Captain John Murtha
- Admiral John B. Nathman
- General Colin Powell
- Major General Hugh Robinson
- General Eric Shinsecki
- Admiral Robert Williamson
- Major General Ralph Wooten
- Private First Class Jeremiah Wright
*Republican only, because disobeying a Democratic President is, of course, a sign of true Patriotism™ and deserves our utmost respect.
Jesus, Protect Me from Your Followers
or...why I, and others like me, have so much beef with so many Christians.
The folks on the right talk so often and loudly about Jesus, and claim him as their own. It's impossible these days in America to separate religion and politics. So lets talk about that guy that got nailed to a tree that the Republicans claim to love so much.
Two things to note, first of which is the obvious: I am not religious. I have a love for Buddhist and Taoist philosophy and writings but I would be lying if I called myself one. I was raised Lutheran, which is Catholicism with less bullshit and less Mary. I drifted away from that pretty young though. Too many questions that could not be answered, too much doubt, too much emptiness, too much hollow.
Second, I am basing all that follows on the belief that religion is not something you do for an hour a week. It’s not something you dabble in. Sitting in church doesn’t make you a Christian, just like sitting in a garage doesn’t make you a car. It is what you believe, to the core. The guiding principles of your life. Christianity is defined so differently by so many people, but when you strip away all of the bullshit, the ceremonial trappings and inter-sect squabbles, at the heart of it all the point is to follow Christ’s teachings and example as best you can. To try to be the light of peace that he was. All the rest is just trim.
And right there is my beef. So many (most?) on the Right just use their religion to justify how they already feel, to rationalize their prejudice and hate. And so Jesus becomes a reason to discriminate, to hate gays and Muslims, to wage war...to do all manner of things that he was blatantly against. I don’t like the Vatican much, but damn it was nice to see the pope call the Iraq war for what it was.
If you think Christ’s highest priorities, were he alive today, would be eradicating Muslims, stopping abortions, and keeping gays from getting married, you really need to evaluate your priorities. Maybe he would care about those things, maybe not. But I am damn sure that ethnic cleansing in third world countries, the thousands of innocents dying in Iraq, the destruction of the environment, the greed and avarice and sickening chasm between the haves and the have-nots all across the world would all be much bigger blips on his radar.
So why doesn’t the party who claims Jesus as their own, who brings up religion the most often and proclaims it the loudest, care more about those things? If you claim Christianity as your religion, why isn’t helping people, all people your priority; your highest priority, as it was for Jesus? I don’t see the most vocal Christians calling to help those who need. I see them calling for more suffering. More war. More weapons. More death. More torture. More oppression.
...why?
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