One vote is a mandate, three million is a landslide.
Tax cuts for the rich which do little for growth but damage the economy long-term are good.
Janet Jackson’s nipple is bad. No, it is the most horrifying vision ever inflicted upon the American public.
Abu Ghraib was fraternity-style hazing perpetrated by a handful of bad apples.
Gay marriage is the most important issue of the decade.
The humiliation of the United States across the globe is of no consequence.
The United States is proud to be the only nation in the civilized world without universal health care.
Slashing the hot sands of Iraq is a great way to hone the rapier that is the US military.
God made Adam out of clay and Eve out of Adam’s rib and no goddamned textbook is going to tell my kid different.
Billions of dollars for a system that will never work to defend against missiles is a good investment. Billions of dollars to check more containers is not.
Pot sends you to prison. Oxycontin keeps you on the air.
Stomping all over the last completely untouched part of the United States, the Artic National Wildlife Reserve, to extract less than one year’s oil consumption rather than improving efficiency, is a no-brainer.
Texan lawmakers putting up a fight for democracy are ridiculous and in no way something the National Democratic Party should defend, and the use of State troopers and Federal assets in their pursuit is entirely appropriate.
Lying about adultery in the Oval Office will get you impeached. Lying about the great issues of the day will get you (re-)elected.
Obviously the best way to protect our forests and the air we breathe is to let the companies involved regulate themselves.
The United States is proud to stand with other upstanding conservative nations like Iran, Libya and Sudan against reproductive and sexual rights.
It is entirely reasonable for companies that make voting machines to keep their software secret while promising to deliver Ohio to the ruling party. They are also entirely within their rights to fight against adding what every single ATM around the world has: a printer.
When Russia reduced Grozny to rubble that was entirely different from the US reducing Falluja to rubble.
Getting your family and their friends to keep you out of Vietnam and every mess you ever made is clever and courageous. Actually fighting there is stupid and spineless.
Your right to go to a mall while packing is sacrosanct. Your right to free speech at the same mall is trespassing on private property.
A tiny clump of cells has more rights than a fully grown adult.
Senate traditions that protect the minority party and are centuries old have no place in the 21st century.
Claiming you are `born again’ and not going to church gets you more cred than being a lifelong Catholic who does go to church.
Vilifying, scapegoating and destroying the people who point out the truth is a much better way of defending yourself than disputing the facts.
Helping your friends and campaign contributors by awarding them no-bid contracts worth billions is the Christian thing to do and nobody will hold you accountable when additional billions go missing and vital work does not get done.
Nothing succeeds like monumental failure.
This is getting long and I am nowhere near finished. The United States has been a bit un-sane for quite a while now, true, but the last four years are down-the-rabbit-hole surreal and most people seem not to have noticed. Even if our prized exit-polls were absolutely right, that still means that 48% of the voters think that this administration has been `politics as usual’ which is like saying Genghis Khan was `warfare as usual’.
Remember, Genghis took no prisoners. They will not offer quarter. We should not either. It is time to get serious. Raise the stakes, think outside the box, start getting people out of this insidious reality tunnel and prepare for civil disobedience. Things are not normal and we are fast approaching the point of no return (if it is not behind us).
This had been posted at dkos once upon a time but it is gone now down the memory hole, so in honor of Western Easter I thought of reposting it.
This will be my last use of recycled material. I may post things on Kos that I’ve posted here but not vice-versa.
Happy Easter all you in the West. Ours is in about a month.
I’m just freaked out that when I voted above I found out it was a landslide! Make that unanimous! (I wish they WERE inmates.)
The good news: We’re no more fucked than humans have been at other seeming nadirs in our history. Really. It just feels that way.
Okay, I’m trying to convince MYSELF, too — not just you.
: )
Did you read my In a parallel universe near you? A tiny glitch in a software program condemned us to this.
You are of course right. It has been weirder and stupider and more lethal at other times. However, we can least afford it right now. We have a limited amount of time to save the planet and these idiots (not just the Bushies) are making us lose valuable time and sanity.
Cheers Maryscott. Good to see you again (you are feeling better, I hope) and happy Easter.
You know, I agree with everything you’ve said. I wonder if we can pull ourselves out of this muck and mire. I hope so at least.
One thing I’ve never understood. Maybe this would be one of those PastorDan questions.
If you read Genesis, there are TWO versions of the creation of Adam and Eve. The one you cited, where Eve came next. But the first version says,
“And God created him in his image: male and female he created them.”
In other words, Adam and Eve were made at the same time and male and female are both sides of God. So why the FUCK do we only ever hear the other version?
Perhaps because from that other great quotation from Alice through the Looking Glass, the conversation with Humpty Dumpty:
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more or less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master–that’s all.’
maintains that Eve was merely the third wife God created for Adam. One of them was Lilith and I’m afraid I disremember who the other one was.
For that matter, why do we never hear about Mary Magdalene being close to Jesus and one of his apostles.
Did the Church deliberately squash stories that elevated women? Do bears defecate in forested areas?
Maureen Dowd is great today.
And yes, that is the question: “which is to be master.”
it takes more than two hands to handle a whopper like this..LMAO, and I’m damned glad you said it,,,some of it, and realize it’s too damned long to list it all, and I don’t have near enough Bailey’s for my coffee, or enough roll’n papers to get through it all today ; )
you took the words and the breathe outta me, KUDOS.
(however I’m sure there’s more to rant)
somedays, I just gotta walk out in the woods, to keep from go’n over the edge.
It never ends, though I was surprised by how well this diary held up nearly four months later. Their modus operandi does not change, though it may be getting a bit stale even for the hoi poiloi.
Thank you for the kind words.
Fortunately, I walk Zinnia in the woods every day, which restores a small amount of sanity, enough to get by on.
now that’s one contented friend there. KUDOS
You’ve hit upon a phenomenon I’ve taken to calling “Permanent Opposites Day.” I don’t know if you played this game as a kid, but I remember my kids declaring a day to be Opposites Day where no meant yes, you wore your socks on your hands, dessert came before dinner and so on.
Now the United States seems to be in a permanent version of Opposites Day, where black is white, wrong is right, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. And the truly bizarre thing is, many of us seem to just go along about our daily business, oblivious to the fact that the world has been turned upside down, nations that were our friends now hold us in disdain, torture is acceptable and tolerance isn’t, Social Security is in trouble and Haliburton isn’t, and the President of the United States not only isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he isn’t even the sharpest spoon in the silverware drawer.
Before things are going to get better the people of this country are going to have to wake up and realize they’ve been used, abused and thrown in the ditch. I don’t know what it’s going to take to make this happen, but I’m afraid it won’t happen soon enough.
You are a man of your word. I admire that! : )
He (Shrub) ‘isn’t the sharpest spoon in the silverware drawer.’ Verry nice.
It used to be said of the Russians that they are sheep who turn into wolves every five hundred years. I wonder what our frequency is.
Thanks for the comment.
As these people continue to be the height of absurdity it’s only too appropriate to view them through the glass, darkly. We all know that when the circus comes to town the clowns come along. This time though they can’t be hidden arear the elephants. Perhaps we can hope that the man behind the curtain will no longer be ignored also. Does he really have no clothes?
Before this week any action against the regime could be dismissed, and easily vilified, by the RWCM and the public would buy it: they don’t know what we know. But hah, they’ve been given a glimpse and thanks to wingnut arrogance we are in a better position to be heard.
Civil disobedience in the wake of this disaster? I don’t know, but I do know in my heart of hearts we may have to go down that road, and soon.
that’s my motto. I liked your other opening too,
“We don’t realize it, but to a large extent we have internalized the following:
Winning is more important that being right.
Perception is more important than reality.
Up is down and black is white.”
When I get too happy, I like to visit the Students for an Orwellian Society
Really a fun read, but keep sharp objects locked up and eat lots of chocolate as a counterbalance. Because, as the SOS says, “2005 is 21 years too late!”