'Nother climate change video

From Potholer54.
Part 5.

(Parts 1-4 here)


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Politics 7.

The Presidents.

I was gonna do a whole big thing of ranking every single president...but man...did that prove to be fucking tedious....

It would have been as eye-glazing to read as it was to research, trust me.

So, I'll boil it down this way.



For good ones, you can't do too bad sticking to the ones on Mt. Rushmore, and the coins.


For bad ones...

Well, Andrew Jackson was a genocidal monster, and having him on the $20 bill is exactly like having Hitler there.

Dubya Bush was/is a loser, his puppet-masters were the demons.

Nixon, weasel fuck. Especially that second term where he went batshit.

Harding and Hoover were fools at best.

And eh...the rest of the "bad", ones were either petty little bigots, ineffectual, or tragic in some way.

Which you could pretty much lay on all the forgettable ones in the middle to varying degrees.

And that's a long stretch, those mediocre presidents.
Which is why researching was so tedious, the rankings got repetitive.

So.....averaged out, really not a bad overall record, considering what there was to vote for, and how dopey the public generally is.
It really could've been worse.

As for the new guy.....eh, get back to me in 3 years....

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Happy Thanksgiving!

What am I thankful for...???


Um...well, that I'm not one of those people eating thanksgiving dinner at a soup kitchen I guess.

...and I guess the soup kitchen folks are thankful that they're not fucking dead.

...and I guess the dead are thankful their problems are all over.

So...it's all relative.....

*A cold pall starts to settle over the audience*

Um....

FUCKINGTURKEY!!!!!!








There we go, back to the happy.....

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Politics 6.

Anarchy.

Yeah, right.

Fuck you.

Same goes for anything starting with "anarcho...", and same goes for anything that could conceivably lead to anything "anarcho...", cloaked in thinly veiled double-speak.

Fuck.
You. Read More......

Politics 5.

Patriotism.

Please.... Read More......

Politics 4.

Foreign policy!

Horrible.

Blood soaked horror movie.

This is where it all goes to shit, and gets flat out evil.

Nevermind Sarah Palin, and her dumb fuckin' book, what about the shit that goes on abroad, y'know?

Do I have to go into the history?
You people went to school.
Even the watered down cutened up history they gave us all in public school couldn't make America's doings as a superpower look pretty.

But....no one's really pure....and you ain't gotta be a superpower.

Fucking France left us the mess in Vietnam.

...wait...fucking FRANCE??

How did they get way over in fucking Vietnam, that ain't even on the way to anywhere close to them...

France...keerist....

Course, then there's Britain's lovely track record.

No wonder America wanted to be isolationist for so long.

Only way to keep the blood off your hands.

But, the politician class is always inevitably contaminated with those that thirst for that blood.

So....it's amazing we kept out of things for so long.

I heard some goon sputter once "America is a force for good in the world".

Well....the phraseology is some starry-eyed bullshit...but even dissecting the sentiment...I don't know...

I really don't fucking know....

How anyone can look at the tally of all around global misbehavior, and sees hope, ideals, optimism,...that sort of mind is an alien planet with a sulphur atmosphere to me.

But...sometimes, a dictator gets toppled as a seeming accidental side effect of our "protecting our interests".

Course, how many dictators did we prop up in the first place?

That kind of zeroes out the scoreboard for me.

I've never heard a rationalization that didn't make me even more nauseous.

Never had the circuits that could run the whole "do evil to do good", equation without getting gobbledygook out the other end.

I'm willing to be open to the possibility that it's a failing on my part.
I've been condescended to as if it were.
Maybe if someone could walk me through it.

I look at horror, and I still see horror.

Maybe it's me.

Maybe it's me.

Could be....

Hope in the face of what a mess this world is in....I'm having trouble with it...have for a long time.

Whatever the "America is a force for good in the world", people are smoking, it makes them seem pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Maybe if they handed me a toke?

Hmm?

No?

Okay.

Again, maybe it's me.

Maybe it's me.

Or, maybe not.

Maybe, just maybe, it's really them.

Maybe it's more bullshit.

Maybe it's more of the whole fear-based "we need bullshit", okey-doke that only serves a minority of self appointed elites.

Nah.

I'm sure it's all holy, and noble, and I'm just a spoiled brat.

And I'm sure it'll all be explained to me why.

If not in my lifetime, then in Heaven.

Surely.

I just have to have faith, and be patriotic.

Then I'll be happy with things the way they are.

Surely.


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Politics 3.

The right and the left.

We'll never be free of this little tussle for as long as I live....*sigh*....

Wheeelp, ya take a commie, water him/her down, ya got a socialist, water 'em down some more, ya got your average lefty.

Same for the right...'cept ya start with Ghengis Khan, and use a lot more water until you hit a rational conservative. :P

Keep watering until either solution is chemically pure, you got your genuine moderates.

Your lefties tend to go Democrat, your righties tend to go Republican.

Your moderates could go either way.

Or, neither way.
Hence our low voter turnout.

Then you've got your fake moderates who ain't fooling anyone, they're an elephant/donkey in sheeps' clothing.
That shit's fucking irritating.

And then you got your conserva-dems, and I dunno how that works.

Libera-pubs don't seem to exist.

These things go in cycles, but for right now, in late 2009, the Repubs are having a little bit of a batshit infestation.

We're all hoping they iron that out.

So, there's your two factions that like to knock heads together in our little two party system here in the states.

Britain has a similar deal going on, but they have the spectrum divided up into more parties.

Matter of fact, I think the U.S. is the only one who does it this way with the whole stupid "red vs blue", shit.

Oh, yeah, and of course, through the respective kaleidoscope lenses of ideology, your righties tend to see all lefties as commies, and your lefties tend to see all righties as fascists.

Yeah, that kinda thing is always good for a political discourse.....

Course, doesn't help that some of 'em are commies and fascists.....

And then to top the whole 3 ring circus off, you've got that politicians as a class of people have more than their fair share of sociopathic habitual liars.

But, as I laid out in part 1, this tends to be inevitable.

So, it's really all a big fat depressing mess, really.

But...as I laid out before, the alternatives are worse.

Some people will try to tell you there's no real difference between Repubs/Dems....and that's a big fat load.

Watch the health care debate mess, they're practically pulling hair.
And then look at how ignorant some of the individuals involved are.
People that stupid can't pull of a staged conspiracy.
That's real disagreement.

The ones who say there's no difference are typically your Libertarians, who say the Reps/Dems are both stealing your money, and curtailing your liberty, but from different directions.

Well, that's some cute rhetoric, but I invite these folks to spend some time in an African village outrunning warlords out to hack a limb off, then get back to me about this whole "losing our liberty!!", shit.

As for "stealing your money",...well, I point back to, it's all imaginary, you get in your paycheck what you get.
"Tax cuts", aren't gonna do a goddamned thing, they'll just take it out of you some other way.

This "money out of my pocket!!", delusion is more entitled (yes, entitled, you heard me) western white boy shit.

So yeah, this whole "so and so is a Nazi out to shit in my dinner!! Arrggh!", because someone gave a dopey speech, or signed a bad bill, these are the fears and gripes of a soft people, and only a free people can get so soft.

But, that's no bad thing.
That's what freedom is for.
The alternative is outrunning warlords.
Fuck that shit.
Our ancestors didn't want to live that way anymore.

Fuck that "Red Dawn", macho romanticizing of toil and violence horseshit.

And speaking of that, have you ever seen how goddamned fat John Milius is?
Well, there ya go.
Case closed.

So, in the end, all the bitching by the right about the left, all the bitching by the left about the right, it's really a symptom of well...liberty working.

And I include my own bitching in all of that.

But, I sort of covered that from another direction.

I mean, hey, you think I'd get away with all my writings on religion in Saudi Arabia?

....still....despite all of that, politicians ARE still awful....

But, they always have been, and we still muddle through as a people somehow, because here we are.

So, my advice, just don't sweat 'em.
And take the advice your parents and/or grandparents told ya, don't discuss religion, or politics at the dinner table.
Else it just ends up as well, the cartoon at the start of this damned ramble.
And if someone tries to foist their politics on ya at the dinner table, remember this old chestnut.

So, ideology shoveled away like he dung it is, all that's left that really matters are issues, and all that matters as far as that goes, is policy.

And just know this.

You'll never get exactly what you want, and probably not even close to what you want.
Especially if the other party from yours is in power.
And probably not even if your party has the power.

So, don't invest your hopes in politics, and politicians.

That's yet another path to mental illness.

And, also know this.

Despite no one getting exactly what they want....again, somehow, we've muddled through pretty well as a people.

So...maybe people are just fucking crazy.

Oh, right, they are.

But, that's what this messed up imperfect system attempts to manage.

Enjoy the show.

And again, try not to sweat it, or you'll end up like me on election nights.

Well, okay, maybe that's not so bad, any sane person was glad those elections were over.

But, any other time, y'know....

Politics, it divides us, but it really shouldn't.

I mean, look at that...barnyard vs circus animals??

Chrissakes....


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Politics 2.5.

Comma-nizzum!!!!!!




Okay, gotta take a little side trip here.
If I bothered to deconstruct Randism, might as well do the other side of the coin....

Laurie probably won't like this entry....

Well, I tend to piss everyone of eventually....sorry....

Well, the question always comes to my mind, why oh why, has the ideal Commie utopia never happened?

Always, always, always, a dictatorial craphole with a dictatorial crapfuck running it.
Your Chavezes, your Castros, your Lenins, etc, etc....

The Communism that's been inflicted on the real world, not too impressed, I have to say.

The Communism on paper straight from Marx....I'm thinking it's like the Christian Heaven, don't wait for it to happen.

Not until the replicators come, anyway....

But when's that gonna be?
The year Squajillion?

Something that won't work 'til the year Squajillion, I ain't holding my breath on in my lifetime.

Hey, someone prove me wrong.

I mean, I'm on record, I loathe the miserable hateful punishing torturing bullcrap that comes from a class based society as much as anyone possibly can.

If some magical political thinker could poof all that horror away, and along with it, take the Tabasco soaked broken glass out of my head, don't you think I'd dive at that relief like Rush Limbaugh to a bottle of Oxy?

So, why aren't I ramming Marx into my hungry gullet with tear soaked muffled grunts of pleasure?

Hmm? Ask yourself that.

Clearly, I'm a bit skeptical.

I think history has given me reason to be.

Anyway, IMHO, the ultimate reason it's been a flop in the world,...people just don't want it.

You can call 'em stupid, you can call 'em indoctrinated, you can blame it on sabotage by nasty corporate and CIA fucks, and their puppet dictators, you can point a lot of fingers in a lot of places, but, ultimately, whomever's, or whatever's to blame, in the big pulled-all-the-way-back taking-it-all-in picture, it still all boils down to humanity ain't ready for it.

Which brings me back to the fuggin' replicators.

So, yeah, I'm a scoffer at modern day stabs at such a system, and like with Randism, I see no place for myself in that little utopia.

I see myself as roadkill in everyone's utopia, frankly.

Shit, I see myself as roadkill in this fuggin' world.

Course, as diseased as this society is, it's someone's fuckin utopia, innit?

So, yeah, there's my chunk on Communism.

I consider myself a dreamer, but even I can't pull this one off....

Maybe it's me, maybe I'm the grouch....

Maybe.

Who the fuck knows?

All I know is the thing that calls itself Communism that I've seen with my eyeballs ain't so hot.

I'll lump it in with cold fusion until I see a successful experiment.

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Politics 2.

Okay, so democracy has its faults, but compared to the alternatives....


What else is on offer?

Fascist dictatorship?

Randroid-y rule by Übermensch-ian corporate oligarchs?

Communism?

Yeah...no thanks...

Funny....there really hasn't been any good new political thought since the enlightenment.

I mean, yeah, things are better since then, the abolishment of slavery, civil rights, etc, but...that was all stuff floating around the memesphere even back then, I'm talking whole cloth new ideas.

That's all they came up with folks, collectivism, the radical individualist reaction to that, and....that's it.

What's the other political force out there?
"Social conservatism".
Bible shit.
That ain't new.

So, these are the ideas we've got to play with, folks.

Centuries of great minds furiously straining at the boundaries of their skulls, and this is what our species has to show for it.

And people wonder why the world is in rough shape.

And people wonder why politics sours my stomach exactly as much as religion....

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Politics.

Okay, it's like this.


The politics of a civilization typically go through three stages of development based on how those in power acquire their power.

Bloodshed, bloodline, and lies.

Maybe there's a stage after that more beautiful and enlightened, but we've never seen it.

As a civilized western democracy, we're at stage three.

We seem to get stuck a stage three, and I think I know why.

Goes back to my old rant about people fantasizing about voting for someone like themselves.

It's a delusion, folks, wake up.

You got no right to bitch about the cloud of lies so long as you've got this delusion going on at the same time.

You want these people to resemble you?
Are you fucking nuts?
Do you know how many fucking people there are in this country?

You don't want a human to represent you, you want a shapeshifter.

And then wonder why these people fucking lie.

You hold a gun at their head to do so.

Everything wrong with democracy follows from that.

Now, I know that if I was magic-poofed into the president of the U.S.A, I'd run things like The Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

Except without the luck powers.

I have no illusions about this, and I therefore have no fantasy projections onto these fucking people they shuffle around for us to vote for.

But, like with religion, you can't snap people out of this little myth, either through calm reasoning, or yelling at them, so....we're stuck.

The ways out of the lie stage, is for people to drop the fantasy, and then you might get some more damned honesty, OR for people to drop the fantasy by getting off their asses, and running for office.

Don't look for it to happen, democracy is a spectator sport for most people.

So, while that remains the case, lies and liars it must be.

Well...that gets me to the next phase.

People demand their politicians lie to them, and then they have the nerve to get sick of the lies.
Eventually, they have no other way to vent this pent up frustration after awhile, but getting dangerous.

Sometimes, this causes a revolution.

Then the cycle repeats.

So, maybe there is no fourth thing to escape it, maybe we're doomed to a loop.

Bloodshed, bloodline, lies, bloodshed, bloodline, lies........

But, if this is the case, and politicians know this, is it any wonder their lies get slimier, and their schemes get more insidious, and back-room?

You really do get the government you deserve, folks.

Spare me the self-righteousness.

Unless you're against bullshit in all its forms.

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Religion, final arguments.

Yeah, I've dissected it from every angle, but by way of consolidation, one more pass at this, and then I think I'm done.


Religion....

I'd have way less of a problem with it if....

....there weren't an exalted class of legally bulletproof weirdo clerics with an invincible head honcho who exploited their power for the most repulsive human behavior there is, the victimization of children.

....said class of people didn't think their opinions were so intrinsically special they could arrogantly wave away any criticism, and act like horrified little victims when that criticism heedlessly plows ahead.

....religion didn't arrogantly assume it had such a special place in our culture, that claiming it for oneself, sincerely or not, gave one a special pass to use the levers of the media to spew the most morally disgusting smegma there is (1, 2), and then totally get away with it, as if they had merely asserted something as non-controversial as "kittens are cute!".

....it wasn't used as a tool to stir up violent feelings in people.

....it hadn't invented a whole dopey code language to conceal either its wicked ideas, or flat out lack of ideas.

...if it didn't feature among it's tenets bigotry to gays, suppression of women, bad ideas like "chosen people", "holy lands", and all the other ways it's used over the centuries of making people second class, therefore creating conflict.

....it stayed the FUCK out of politics.

...if it didn't continually attack science.

....and, if it didn't employ fear based superstitions as the means to accomplish all of the above.

Basically, if it weren't a fucking industry.

If it weren't a fucking racket.

Then rational people wouldn't be in the cultural position of having to have these "hey, you stupid atheists! What about THIS?!", type of arguments.

And then those arguments wouldn't be so damned repetitive, I wouldn't have felt compelled to devote so many damned rants, a critical thinking section, and a Dicky-pedia to save having to write the same shit another thousand times.

If it weren't a racket, if it didn't do all that awful lousy crap, I'd have way less of a problem with it, really.

Then, it'd be a private matter, it'd be well, a spirituality.

Course, I'm a scoffer for that too, because I find the supernatural to be a nonsense concept.

But whatever.
Like I said ages ago in another rant, you can believe whatever you want, it's when you try to persuade another human being that criticism and debate comes into play.

And any religion worth the respect it demands, ought to be able to withstand that.

I don't see many religions doing that.

Spirituality...maybe....

But then...I also get on "spirituality", that requires the same obedience, donations, buying junky paraphernalia, etc, etc, as religion.

Then it becomes a racket all over again.
And when things become a fucking racket, all the shit I outlined above happens all over again.

If religion could calm down to a spirituality, and that spirituality didn't have the eye on the prize of being another racket, if they could make a religion/spirituality that pulled that off, that was actually good for people, you really wouldn't hear me bitch at all.

But look at the world we're in.

The world we're in, is the one where it's a very easy case to make that religion was the worst tragedy to befall mankind.

It's a topic that bums me right the fuck out.
S'why I wanted to write this clearing-house rant to link to to save time.

Next up...politics...

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Ben Stein: a horrid little man.

Yhep, that's right, that Ben Stein, the Clear Eyes guy.


Bad enough he was the star of that repulsive little creationist diatribe "Expelled", or that he's a crappy economist who didn't see the collapse coming, but still gets invited on cable news for his pearls of wisdom, now he's shat forth a new rant on CBS.

If you guessed it was him getting on the "natural disasters and crime are because we kicked Jesus out of schools", bandwagon, well, you hit the bulls-eye.

My friend Philip beautifully dissects this latest bit of slimy bullshittery here.

(Click here for sequel horrid)

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Mad for decades.

Added MAD for decades to the reading/viewing list.

Shoulda done that after "inner space 20", but eh, I got around to it eventually.

Satire, it's good for the brain, kiddies.

Feast. Read More......

Self esteem.

Ah, now we get to the heart of my little motivational speaking engagement...



So, lotta rhetoric in America surrounding pride, confidence, & accomplishment, a lot of it even booby trapped to undermine yours.

When you see that brand of undermining abusive crap coming out of the nasty animals out there, just repeat this handy little mantra.

It's a famous quote, from one Frederick Kreuger to one Zsa Zsa Gabor on the Dick Cavett show.

Goes like this....

WHO GIVES A FUCK WHAT YOU THINK?!?!?!?!?!


I've always found it useful.

May you find it useful as well.
And may it bring happiness and peace to your travails.

My little contribution to a more hopeful world.

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Pride.

What a mess we make of this one, eh?

Well, let's get out the wrenches, and open the hood....


Well, we've got pride in accomplishment, and I'll get into that later....

Then we've got ethnic pride, national pride, rural pride, religious pride, y'know, all the kinds that come from an accident of birth, I beat that to death in meaningless slogans.

Then there's that American ego kind of pride that comes from being rich, or even chasing being rich, the kind Ayn Rand and others think is so great.

It can be based around accomplishment, but that whole "unworthy heir", problem can decompose the whole deal down to that unearned accident of birth shit pretty fucking easily.

And then there's the whole problem of what society says is an accomplishment.

Some think it's your Donald Trumps, some thinks it's your Mozarts, still others think it's your reality TV show stars.

No one can seem to agree, but at the same time, your Randroids and other types of conservatives, seem to think there is an objective standard.

It's usually, if not always, variations on the whole fucking "Social Darwinism", mess.

Then you've got the whole problem with pride going too far, and warping into arrogance.

Then from that, you get that sick type of entitled privileged greed of the upper classes, and the head-games they play on the general populace.

And it doesn't take long for that to turn into,...well, the sort of mess we see on the news lately.

Then there's the whole problem of how all that arrogance gets tangled up with confidence, and becomes twisted by assholes into a synonym for confidence.

"I'm not an asshole, I'm just confident!", you actually hear that from some people.

Well, yeah, assholes certainly think highly of themselves, but it doesn't mean thinking highly of oneself privileges one to be an asshole.

But yeah, that philosophical contortion is right where your Trumps and Cheny's crawl out from.

And then wonder why we're so fucked as a nation.

Well, as with accomplishment, I say, keep it fucking simple.

If you set a task, and get it done, even if it's just raking the fucking leaves, it's accomplishment at it's core level.

Be proud of yourself, go right ahead, life is rough, take what you can get.

The alternative, is to be down on yourself for not having a reality show or some bullshit, and that leads to well....warping into Balloon Boy's Dad.

If you want to chase bigger things than raking leaves, fine, chase your dream, but don't forget, or denigrate the small shit either.

Keep perspective.

I think that's what happens to these fevered egos, they literally lose perspective, and see themselves in a funhouse mirror.

Course, people lacking confidence see themselves in the opposite mirror.

And often times, the former will often lay out that negative mirror for the latter to step in front of.

That's America's other sick little game.

The "I'm not an asshole, I'm confident", types like to twist that game around into the more reasonable sounding "competition".

Bullshit.

Being an undermining asshole is being an undermining asshole.

But, that's the "values", you'll get off the Donald Trump reality show.
Big surprise there.

And that sub-culture (a powerful minority, but a sub-culture nonetheless) is the representation of that one-size-fits-all "THE American Dream", the media and pundits like to puke all over your dinner.

And all of that comes full circle back to my stated mission for the confidence rant.
Be yourself, believe in yourself, be proud of who you are, and don't worry about who you're not.

Because in the final tally, the arguments against it are such total shit, and put forward by well, strutting pricks.

And that strutting prickery is that "American way", they try to shovel onto you along with that "American dream".

Don't sweat either, it's just more ways dreamt up to undermine and undervalue your happiness.

Y'know, to "motivate", you.

Into the head chopping room.

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Anyway, why I mentioned....

...the fuggin' Pope, and the reaction to religious criticism in general, is this.

There was a wonderful debate with Christopher Hitchens, and Stephen Fry where the sex abuse scandals, and the AIDS crisis in Africa, and their attitudes towards gays all came up, and it was sort of waved away in exactly the manner I described.

The Catholic debaters ( John Onaiyekan, Ann Widdecombe) played victim, and/or were like "oh, this again".

Click the link, you'll see.

(Thanks to Max for posting these on his excellent blog)

Well, one good thing, the audience didn't fall for it, lot of minds seemed to be changed at the end.
So, while a lot of people fall for bullshit, there is cause for hope. Read More......

The Fuggin' Pope.

All right, I'm having trouble with this particular logic train....


Nobody rational or moral digs child molestation, nobody digs that the Catholic church is riddled with scandal when it comes to child molestation, and nobody likes the conspiracy of silence, coverup, and moving offenders around surrounding the whole sex abuse mess.

But the pope gets a hands off, even with people outraged by this.

Not just from the religionists, which one would expect, but even some faith-iests get their dander up too.

Even though the coverup goes all the way up to him.
This episode of "Bullshit", nails it home.



Now okay, in any other context, be it say, a political or business leader, if they were covering up for a ring of pedophiles, wouldn't they been seen as scumbags?

Wouldn't it be easy to outright call a spade a spade, and say "what a scumbag"?

Make the guy a pope, give him a silly hat, and then he's off limits.

Say "the pope is a scumbag", and even though most people know why you say so, and even deep down agree a little, they still get pissed.

And then there's the matter of Bush giving this scumbag immunity.

It's like the spiritual version of "too big to fail".

I can't fathom why anyone who supposedly values liberty and justice could wave away what's going on here.

But they do.

And they'd rather get pissed at you for bringing it up, and shout "religious intolerance!", than listen to your points.

It's quite unsettling.

Then on top of that, one has to suffer this weird cultural bias in the media of treating this figure with unearned respect.
"Oooo, The Fuggin' Pope released a CD!".

*Typical montage of pictures of fancy churches, The Fuggin' Pope's puss, and candle-waving masses, all contrast-lit to have a heavenly glow*

Why is this on my fuggin' TV?

Why?

It's like if I had to hear about John Wayne Gacey's paintings, or Charles Manson getting back together with the Beach Boys, yet no one in the room is lacing it with the proper sense of irony.

I can't figure out how anyone possibly processes this culture on it's face value, taking everyone in authority at their word, and not ending up completely mentally ill.

I really can't.

Seems to me the clashing cognitive dissonance would reduce one's brains to pulp in a matter of minutes.

Well, anyway, there's the whole deal on The Fuggin' Pope.
Another area where people's reasoning breaks down.
And all it seems to take is a magic hat.
Damned confusing.

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Ho boy...

The last post got me thinking about all the fearpolitik since...fuck, 9/11 really.

I ranted my rant on the teabaggers, a couple actually, and how the militia nuts and fascoids inevitably have blended into their midst.
Batshit yahoos always do.


During the Bush years, The Left had Ward Churchill.
But, thankfully, most people knew he was batshit.
People are generally good like that.

He coined the term "little Eichman's", that got beaten to death in a South Park episode, case you needed a memory jog.

And the bullshit swings back and forth ideologically.

And I try, I try really hard to keep my anger both in check, and aimed at the right people.
Ahem...

I really get frustrated, I admit, but...I have to keep reminding myself, yes, nasty people exploit these events, exploit people's fears and prejudices, but, a lot of these people, misguided as they are, mean well.
They've just been sold a bill of goods.

I ranted long and hard before about how Americans keep getting sold this big fat bill of goods.

And they keep fucking falling for it, and I try not to get angry at them for falling for it.

Now, I'm no expert on health care, I've stayed out of this whole mess as best I could, I know from personal experience the current system is a mess, but I have my skepticism about other systems, but....it just speaks volumes to me that the side of the status quo is employing such bullshit, dishonest, cynical, shit-stirring, astro-turf, fear-mongering tactics.

It's all very frustrating to see my country be susceptible to crap like this.

It's hard not be angry, it's hard not hate people rather than their behaviors, and it's hard not to lose hope.

But, a small core of genuine mean-minded sociopaths excepted, most of these people are victims themselves.

Not of what they think they are, but victims nonetheless.

And that applies to a lot of things.

Lotta bullshit, and not everyone is expert at navigating it all.

Gotta try to forgive people for that.
I struggle with that, I admit.

Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.
Keep that in mind when I'm railing away, and tilting at windmills, folks.
It'll save a lot of indignation.
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Oh yeah, almost forgot...

...can you believe it's been a damned year since the presidential elections?



Wow, that just flew the fuck by.

Well, so how have we fared?
Well, we've gone from the fear mongering of the campaign, to the fear mongering surrounding health care.

Wonder what new flavor of fear we'll have next year.

Oh, such fun..... Read More......

Hope.

Yeah, Obama beat this one to death as a slogan, but let's really look at this.

Hope....yeah, given all the bullshit we have to dig out from under, hope is really hard to hold on to sometimes....

It really is enough to make one despair.

But, when you really look at despair, pretty much all forms of it are some variation on "we're doomed!", and that statement right there says that you think you know how it all will end.

Well, the good news, is no one knows how it all will end.
Only psychics claim that with certainty, and they're totally full of shit.

As Yogi Berra said "it ain't over til it's over".

And just look at all the doom-saying we made it out the other end of.
And when we did, the doom turned out to be an illusion.

All the "duck and cover", shit from The Cold War is a prime example.

And speaking of The Cold War, it was a gloomy conventional wisdom back in the 80's that the Berlin Wall was going to be up for decades to come.

Well, look now, we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of its fall.

Hope?
Hell yeah, we've got plenty of elbow room for it.
Not just in the big picture, but each and every one of us.

When hope is hard to come by, just think of all the other things that seemed hopeless.
Shit, pretty much every big decision anyone had to make when you think about it.

Okay, some people are doomed, some people's lots are hopeless.
Lotta awful shit going on.
Lotta awful shit has gone on.
I'm not claiming that a sunny outlook alone is going to save a death camp internee.

But, by the same token, despair sure isn't gonna help, all despair adds to misery is despair itself.

Despair didn't bring that wall down.
And it is down, isn't it?

Hope.
It's a tricky thing, but it should be erred on the side of whenever possible.
And short of the moment of your murderer sliding the knife in, I'm at a loss to come up with too many practical moments where it's not possible.

Shit, look at all those little kids with terminal cancer that manage to come at life all chirpy.

Hope.
I think it's a good thing, I think it should be subscribed to.
I think we have plenty of evidence for it.

I'm sure an ornery cuss could make a counter-argument.
Heck, I know one who has.
Wasn't impressed.

Perhaps someone will do better.
But it seems to me, that someone would have to be motivated, and despair is exactly the sort of thing that would curtail motivation.
Not many people all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed over the whole pro-despair argument.
No one stable anyway.
I haven't seen one.

But hey, I live in hope. ;)
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AAUGH!

The Slap Chop remix parody has been turned into an official Slap Chop ad!!



Damn you, you crafty advertising bastards!!

(Crafty advertising bastards)
HUUAAAW HAW HAW HAW HAAAWWWW!!!!

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Location blogging #14.

Okay, the wait is over, and I'm all gadgeted up, so back to the navel gazing on what my summer meant.


Whelp, in entry 1, I was gloomily predicting a voyage of the damned through a " tableau of American defeat".

Hmm...all in how one looks at it, I guess.

All throughout, I griped about old places I loved that are gone now, but...they're not really gone...

Bookland was replaced with Borders, Laverdiere's is replaced by Rite Aid/CVS, and comic shops, and the old Wal-Mart is fucking dead, and its horrible mean redneck employees scattered to the four corners of the planet.

And Bookland still exists out in Saco as Nonesuch Books, so there's that.

And Rich's is reincarnated as Big Lots, and the old Biddeford theater never really died.

So, what's gone?
What have I lost?

An old toy store? I'm an adult, I don't need toys anymore.

Oh, well, yes I do. :P

So, okay, the world I thought I'd lost has just rearranged, and morphed, but it's all still there.

And all the people and places I thought were destroyed, what represented "defeat", have just shifted around, and/or gone online.

So, why am I a hermit anymore?

....right...people...

People and their bullshit.

But....how much bullshit do people I contact in daily life really give me?

None, really.

People walking about mind their own business, and people in service jobs tend to be cheery and helpful no matter how rednecky the shop.

So...the only really insufferable criminal redneck pricks I encountered....were on night crews.
Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart.
And ironically, I did night crew to avoid people, to avoid the sort of sociopathy I ended up putting up with anyway.
So...okay, no more night crews.

So, who else gives me shit?
WF, mostly.
Okay, stop going there.
I'm a hermit cuz of assholes, and the assholes in my life are all on a message board that I go to while I'm indoors avoiding people.

Okay, bam, 'nother problem solved.

So, where else is the bullshit coming from?
Okay, our dopey media culture.
But, I found one surefire antidote to that.

So, bam, another problem gone.

And with my remote, and when I get the Dingoo, I'll have to put up with what's shoveled at me even less.

So, what's left?
Phantoms in my head.
Fuck 'em.

And that's one big thing I rediscovered, the "fuck 'em", attitude I learned in the 80's, and didn't used to doubt.
Gotta get back on that wagon, and stay on it.

That "fuck em", attitude was the lens I wrote the last 2 rants in.
(Confidence, accomplishment)

Gotta practice what I preach about defeating fear, and the bullshit that comes from it.

Okay, so what's left?
Any boogeymen?
Whelp...yuppies, I bitched about them a bit (here, here, n' here).
What is a yuppie anyway?
People with money who don't share my tastes?
Big deal.
Get over it, Mikey.
What's the worst a yuppie does? Get snotty about me being white trash once in a blue moon?
Fuck 'em.
It's because they're an asshole as an individual, not because of their bank account.
And how often does that shit even happen?
Can't even remember the last time.
Fuck it.
Shit, lotta my online friends are of that "yuppie class", whatever that even is, so...meh.
Another mental illusion.
Like all teenagers being in a gang.

Paranoid insecurity, I cop to it.

Fine, awareness is the first step.

Gotta let that stupid shit go.

Gotta embrace the world again.

Gotta carve out a damned life somehow.

Well,...I took on the world out there in the location blogs.

Except....in-town Portland....

*Shiver*

(Flash to Portland with a big black cloud monster with red eyes floating over it and laughing)

*Gulp*.....


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Accomplishment.

Okay, my thoughts on this whole deal...


A guy clears a bunch of logs from a downed tree out of his back yard.

When he's done, between exhausted breaths, he says "well, there, at least I got that accomplished".

Another guy at a desk, stamps a pile of papers on his desk, shoves some of them into envelopes, and once the stack has moved to one side of his desk to the other, he says the exact same thing "there, got that accomplished".

Life is full of its little accomplishments.

And we all have them.

Yet something about American society causes some to raise the bar so only things like, say, Trump's phallic buildings count as "accomplishment".

And the raising and lowering of the bar seems to be not only relative, but situational.

It's the kind of cognitive dissonance you only get in a competitive culture.
And it seems to be only a sub-culture.
And it seems to be only a man thing.

And this subculture also seems to buy into "THE American Dream".

But absent what this contradicting dissonant sub-culture thinks, what IS accomplishment, actually?

Is there a consistent definition that can frame, say, the Corporate Warrior as the Übermensch, and the guy in the trailer home as a lower form of life, possibly even fit for passionless extermination like stepping on a bug?

Mmmm, not really....

At least Merriam Webster doesn't think so.

I've thought of this a lot, because it's a word I've seen abused a lot.

A lot of words get abused though.

"Patriotic", "heroism", "miracle", maybe humanity's most annoying problems don't stem from actual attitudes, but from vocabulary.

Maybe the self-help gurus are right, and it really is all a matter of communication.

Here's one little narrative in our popular culture that breaks down rather quickly due to the concepts not being communicated properly.

Raising a family is considered an accomplishment.

Being a deadbeat dad, who's essentially a sperm donor, isn't.

Being an actual sperm donor at a clinic isn't.

BUT, going to a high-end clinic, as a single mom, to get high-end sperm based on a detailed questionnaire for desirable traits, from a pool of accomplished men, is seen as some sort of positive stride.

An accomplishment?

If it is, why isn't the donor's donation?

And if it is, why not the random shlub off the street?
Maybe he's got brilliant sperm, and doesn't even know it.

What transforms it from a negative to a positive?
The act of "measurement", with the questionnaire?

The sperm-daddy still isn't there for his biological children either way.

Maybe it's the "accomplishments", of the sperm daddy.

But then we get into the whole situational cultural mess with that.

How about reality television families?

You got your "Jon & Kate Plus 8", and all the soap opera surrounding those fools.

Then you got your Duggers from "18 and counting".

The Gosselins, no one thinks they're heroes.

The Duggers,...well, not heroes, but they don't have a fucked up marriage, and their little family unit sticks together.

...despite that they're a more than a bit on the creepy-culty side.

So, you have to be there for your kids, no drama, no being a donor and running off, but you can be a donor if you're "accomplished", and can do well on a questionnaire.

Okay, what if you're a good dad, but a shitty husband?

Jon Gosselin fits that mold.

But so too does Donald Trump.

The latter gets more leeway because he's rich.

Being rich trumps "pardon the pun", everything.

...unless you have brown skin, a funny sounding language, and kill people, then you're a damned Arab oil baron.

Well, the killing people thing doesn't seem to be such a big deal, cuz Cheny, and his sidekick Bush did that for 8 years, and a lot of Red-Staters thought that was just jim-dandy.

So, being rich and WHITE trumps everything.

So, be white, rich, christian, (or feign piety in this particular faith), squeeze out some babies that look like you, don't have family drama on a public stage, and don't screw up your kids so they end up on a stripper pole.

...unless you're the Hiltons, and you spawn Paris onto the planet, then money once again trumps everything.

So just be stinking rich.

Do what it takes to get stinking rich.

Even if it's criminal.
Outrun the fuzz long enough, get rich enough, and you can buy your way out of what your crimes were.

Banking, and the arms industry seem pretty bulletproof.

So, be successful in business, especially businesses that kill people, and you can have a messed up family, messed up kids, hypocritical morals, do whatever you want.
Fuck family values, those are for the middle class.

But if you're middles class, then you've got to keep your nose clean, your checkbook balanced, and a Bible at the ready.

And your reward for this is urinating on the lower middle class, and working poor.

And if you're lower middle class, or working poor, and raise a family, and the kids turn out all right, none of them end up on the needle, or the pipe, or the stripper pole, no one gets to call it an accomplishment but you, because the upper-middle, and upper classes are too busy urinating on you to care.

And wonder why people get desperate to chase fame and wealth with lame stunts like the Balloon Boy family...

Course, Balloon Boy's family is messed up, and the dad's a fucking idiot.
But, he's not rich.

So, be an idiot, but a rich idiot, and if you're chasing wealth to be a rich idiot, succeed.

....and that's America's little bit of accumulated wisdom on the accomplishment of raising families.

So what about business accomplishment?

Well, again, the rule seems to be succeed.
Lie, cheat, steal, kill, just get away with it.
And if you don't get away with it, get away with it with lots of money.

Well, it's a cynical morality, but an internally consistent one.
But, it's not the one this culture sells.
America wants to be "shrewd", but idealistic at the same time.

And that's where all the dissonance, and contradictory language seeps in.

And then wonder why all the mis-communication occurs.

Me, I'd rather keep it simple.
You get something done, it's an accomplishment.
I accomplished this blog, I accomplished my stories, I accomplished some yard work, and some fixit work.

Anything above that is an accomplishment of varying big-itude.

It's been working so far, me and my friends can congratulate each other, and there's never any cynical or competitive undercurrent.

Rest of America, feel free to adopt this perspective.
Maybe you'll find it handy.

Or don't.
We'll see how the culture unfolds over the next 10 years or so.

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