This is a general notice to all the internet goons out there who might someday trip across my little abode. I really don’t mind if you come into my comments section and insult me. The Bee can give as good as she gets, and then some. You don’t even have to trust me on that one, just try me. However, be forewarned: If you do not run spell-check and if you do not proofread your own comment so you can keep your insult from falling on its own face and making you look even more like the village idiot, you will be deleted. If you want to insult me, have at it. But at least have the common courtesy to spell it correctly, because when you say “dead up your ass”, it just sounds…well, insufferably stupid. I do not suffer stupid people well at all.
Thanks a bunch, and have a nice day! 
Tags: goons, stupid people, village idiots
This week’s potluck will be short because the Bee has been busier than a one-armed drywaller – my apologies for the short table this week.
WTF?? #1. You Mean Sarah Palin ISN’T an Average Joe Sixpack or whatever it is she calls regular people? Well, color me discombobulated, bewildered and perplexed! Ok, she never was, she’s a media creation, kind of like Britney Spears, only meaner and trashier. Just read about the bling she managed to snag at a recent Swag party right on the heels of her…how shall I put this kindly…UTTERLY ATROCIOUS showing on the Tonight Show. This truly was the Beverly Hillbillies in full free-stuff feeding frenzy action. Wish I could have been there to see that sight.
WTF?? #2. Personal reflection on the degradation of the quality of frozen foods. I really used to like the frozen Pepperidge Farms cakes. I haven’t had one in years. Food Lion had a BOGO sale, so I figured, what the hey, let’s get a cake! Well, the taste and texture are NOTHING like I remember. In short, it sucks. It occurs to me, this is the final warning sign. The fates have it in for us. Our hubris has reached critical mass, and when Pepperidge Farms craps out on their frozen cakes, then we can rest assured that it is indeed true: America is Doomed.
WTF?? #3. Crime and Punishment and Toyota. In 2006, Koua Fong Lee was driving his Camry when he slammed into another car at 70 mph. Three occupants of the other car were killed in that crash. Lee, a refugee from Laos, was convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced by a jury to 8 years in prison. The jury didn’t believe him when he said the accelerator stuck and he couldn’t stop the car. Now, his story seems plausible given that Toyota has had to admit it has serious engineering problems with its cars. Toyota has only recalled the Camry back to model year 2007, though. Mr. Lee’s was a 1996. Lee’s attorneys have requested an inspection of the car in light of recent recalls. The Bee hopes that justice will be served here, and that if Mr. Lee’s accident was the result of faulty car design, that he be released.
And, for the last course,
SMF: Jetpacks!! For Sale!! A New Zealand aircraft company makes a jetpack that will go 60mph, and take you 30 miles on a tank of fuel. The Bee wants one. Seriously. Now, where did I leave that $75 grand in pocket change lying around…
Tags: frozen cakes, Koua Fong Lee, Palin swag party, pepperidge farms, toyota
1. Sarah Palin Writing Second Book. In order to write a second book, she would first have to have written a first book.
2. John Boehner Skeptical of Deficit Commission As if he had nothing at all to do with the skyrocketing of the deficit under George W. Bush. Where was Boehner during Georgie’s Reign of Error? Oh, yeah – he was in the House of Representatives, worshipping at the altar of Big Business Payoffs, Bush II style.
3. Mitt Romney: President Obama Fuels Anti-Americanism I hope he’s talking about those wacky teabaggers. Because if he’s not, magic-undie wearing mormons in glass houses probably shouldn’t throw rocks. Really, if he thinks he has a snowball’s chance in hell of the talibangelicals voting him into the white house in 2012, he should spend some more time thinking about that, because I know the evangelical mindset from personal experience, and I could tell Mittens: ain’t gonna happen, dude.
4. Mitch McConnell is a One-Man Party of No NO! Really? You mean, he tried to keep the republicans from releasing their totally f’ed up, but hilarious, alternative to President Obama’s budget last year? Mooch really has been Mr. No, although in an interview he said:
McConnell then quoted Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Taft, whose portrait hangs in his conference room. “He was famous for saying, ‘The business of the opposition is to oppose.’ I disagree with that. … I want the country to succeed.”
McConnell then quoted Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Taft, whose portrait hangs in his conference room. “He was famous for saying, ‘The business of the opposition is to oppose.’ I disagree with that. … I want the country to succeed.”
No, he doesn’t, and as we’re all well aware, even when the President pushes Republican nonsense on the country, Mooch and his ilk will turn around and say “nooooo, that’s socialism!”
Oh, that Politico, occasionally they come up with something useful. Such as this last little tidbit.
The Republican National Committee put out its “fundraising Presentation”, and guess how they’re going to raise money this year? Come’on, 3 guesses, and a star-studded hooker-a-thon on the steps of the MGM Grand in Vegas doesn’t count. You, back there in the back row – the short guy in a Herb Tarlac leisure suit with the 6 foot 52 year old blonde amazon. You guessed right!! They’re going to try to SCARE PEOPLE! That’s right, their fundraising scheme is to push the fear factor of that black guy in the white house and his socialist cronies in Acorn and how they’re going to take over the world, one community organizing gig at a time!!! AAAAAIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHH!
Never would have seen that coming. Nevvvvvver in a milllllllion gajillllllion years. No Siree, total surprise, that right there was.
As cross-posted at Mad Mike’s America
Tags: Boehner, McConnell, Palin, Politico, Republican Fundraising Strategy
Howdy-do, friends. First let me say, thanks for all the kind words during my “guilt” dilemma this past week – you can’t know how much your kindness and support meant to me. Second, let me say, I’m over the guilt, and I went out and bought myself a new(used) pickup that didn’t break the bank, so I’m feeling pretty good about life right now. Thus, I will be keeping the WTF?? to a minimum on the buffet table today, because…well, the WTF?? mood isn’t totally on me this week.
WTF?? 1. Anti-Choice Crowd Tries To Make the Abortion (non)Debate a Racial Thing. It seems they don’t have enough African-American support in the Anti-Choice crowd. That could be because the anti-choice crowd tends to be overwhelmingly republican, and the Republican Party tends to be overwhelmingly white. Some of the republicans have a really nasty habit of being raving bigots. So, yeah, I can see why they wouldn’t be able to make much inroads with blacks given what else they claim to “stand” for, for example killing off social safety-net programs and gutting public education, just to name a couple of really heinous political trends they subscribe to. Georgia Right To Life has hired a black woman as its minority outreach director. She goes around to black colleges and churches in Georgia telling everyone that abortion is a method to commit genocide on the black race. The group put up billboards saying “black children are an endangered species.” I agree, they are. But for far more insidious reasons than abortion – in fact, abortion is just a symptom of the real problems that black americans face. Their children overwhelmingly living in poverty. Poverty breeds ignorance, and ignorance breeds unwanted pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies sometimes lead to abortions. Sometimes. “Black children are an endangered species” is just a smokescreen for an anti-choice group that doesn’t care what means it utilizes to its ends. But back to poverty – it also breeds drug abuse, and I personally think that the single most damning action taken against the black community since the end of slavery is the so-called War on Drugs. It has been anything but. The War on Drugs has become a war on the poor, with prisons full of men and women serving sentences for being addicts and for getting caught carrying minute amounts of illegal drugs, while there doesn’t seem to have been much, if any, progress made on eradicating the drug trade itself or in even hindering the upper echelons of the drug traders. So who has that war been on? Poor people, trapped in empty cities after the great White Flight of the 70’s and 80’s. Empty cities with no jobs, where destitution, depression and desolation are the ingredients of a typical day and those three D’s make it almost surprising if everyone involved is NOT addicted to one illicit drug or another. So I don’t know who Georgia Right to Life is trying to kid. I’m sure they believe that what they are doing is good and just – but in the end, their efforts are, like most of the anti-choice crowd’s efforts, pointless and futile. Until the poverty issues are actively addressed, black women living in that poverty will continue to NEED to have abortions. Until that poverty-driven need is reduced, then the actual number of abortions obtained by black women cannot be reduced. Georgia Right to Life would better serve its community by providing fewer billboards and more pregnancy-prevention services to the people it claims it wants to help. But they don’t really want to do that either, do they? It all stinks of a “have my cake and eat it too” mentality, mixed with a little Marie Antoinette.
WTF?? #2. STFU, Olympia Snowe. Olympia Snowe has her feathers ruffled . Why? Evidently because President Obama didn’t personally send her an engraved invitation to the healthcare summit and then pick her up besuited in his best tux with the limo, a bottle of bubbly and a big old bouquet of roses waiting on the curb. Ok, drama queen, STFU already. If you want to go, f’ing go. If you don’t, f’ing dont. Why wait for an engraved invitation? And who gives a rats skinny behind if you have a standing invitation or not?
OY! On to Strikes My Fancy!
SMF #1. I Really Like This Weiner Guy. I’m sure most or all of you have already seen this video of Anthony Weiner giving the republicans What For last Wednesday. If you have, here it is if you want to see him call republicans Wholly Owned Subsidiaries of the Health Insurance Industry. If you have not seen it, take 5 minutes, and watch this skinny little New York scrapper give’em’hell on the chamber floor.
SMF #2. Did You Know Tires Have a Shelf Life? ABC News finally reported on something we all need to know. When buying tires, check the expiration date. Walmart was caught selling 12 year old tires as new, and that can have deadly consequences when you’re on the highway. Follow the link, read the short piece, and watch the video to learn how to tell how old the tires you are about to buy really are. Good stuff to know.
So, folks, check those tire codes before you buy them, and send Lil’Anthony Weiner a shout out for telling it like it is on the Chamber Floor.
Until we meet again…
Tags: african americans, Anthony Weiner, anti-choice, DOT, genocide, Georgia right to life, pro-choice, tires
I just have to tell you, my friends, before I bust a gasket. I currently work for a bank servicing homebuilder lines of credit. Well, I got headhunted a couple of weeks ago, got the final offer today and on April 5 I’m going to work for another bank – better pay, more opportunity for advancement, etc etc etc. It’s a community bank in the truest sense of the word, too.
I’m excited. I feel better about going to work for a local bank. It’s not so easy to give hurting customers a hard time when you know them personally. It’s harder to slam down the iron fist of non-accruals and charge-offs and foreclosure when there is a face to go with that beleaguered voice on the other end saying “look, my company isn’t doing so well, can you work something out with me and help me work through this project?”
I dunno how it happened, how I managed to be in the right place at the right time when the headhunter started calling around my office looking for someone who does just exactly what I do, but on a bigger scale.
I have to give notice at my current job tomorrow…that’s not going to be easy. I’ve been there for 6 years, and I work with a loan officer who, I’ve been told by third-parties, “thinks the world of me.” I feel like a bit of a traitor, but the opportunities with her are severely limited because it’s a regional satellite office for a just-a-bit-too-big-to-be-a-community-bank in another state. I’m not content being her personal assistant for the next 10 years until she retires, and the lack of potential has been really getting me down lately. I’ve always been a bit ambitious, and I’ve felt like I am spinning wheels at the current job.
Sometimes, the universe comes together and you either get smacked, or gently patted. I got patted today.
Now I really hope that jobs bill keeps some other people from getting smacked too badly. I actually feel a little guilty – so many are out of work, and here I am with a current job and moving on to a better one. But, then, I suppose I’m still opening up a position myself by leaving my current digs, so there’s that.
The question is: How the hell did this happen? In this economy? My skills are in real estate. In REAL ESTATE??? In the worst real estate market in 70 years?? The universe has a sick sense of humor, but I’m happy to say this time, I’m not the punchline.
I feel like an ass. No I don’t. Oh, OK, I do, a little.
I’m not the only one with good tidings, though. My Good Blogger Buddy Teeluck is about to be published – take a little visit to Shock and Awe and say congrats, if you haven’t already, won’tcha?
I have a short table this week, friends, and I’m keeping the WTF?? down to a minimum, for reasons that will become clear soon enough.
WTF?? #1. Medicaid enrollment surges In the year ending June 2009, 3 million joined, most for the first time. At that time, 46.8 million were enrolled, and the enrollments didn’t slow down in the 2nd half of 2009. Not one bit.
The analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy and research organization, found that in three-fifths of the jurisdictions, including Maryland and the District, people rushed into the safety net for health coverage at more than twice the rate as the year before.
With jobs lost, benefits a distant memory, and private healthcare insurance completely out of reach of most “average americans,” Medicaid, food stamps and other government assistance are the last resort for a strapped economy.
WTF?? #2. States Cutting Medicaid Why? Because they’re f-ing broke, that’s why. Here in Virginia, our new republican Governor McDonnell will do anything rather than raise taxes, because that’s what republicans do. If they need to raise taxes, they would rather gut every single social/educational program in the state, rather than oh, let’s see, release prisoners from State jails whose crimes are minor drug infractions, which could probably save us a big old bunch of cash, because that would look “weak on crime.” So what does he cut? Medicaid, education, etc. etc. ad nauseum. The Nevada governor, in order to close his state’s budget gap, wants end Medicaid coverage of adult day care, eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures, and, for a savings of $829,304, to reduce the number of diapers provided monthly to incontinent adults (to 186 from 300). To save less than 1mm a year, while facing a state budget gap of nearly a trillion, he wants to make sure that poor seniors in adult facilities in the state of Nevada don’t get their diapers changed 10 times a day, but 6. I call that torture. Many states are looking to cut payments to doctors and hospitals, which is leading to a shortage of doctors who will treat Medicaid patients at all.
What do the 2 above stories boil down to? The Medicaid system in an atrocious economic downturn is unsustainable. When it was passed in 1965, the population of the US was less than 200 million. Today, it is more than 300 million. In 1965, the poverty rate was running at around 34 million. In 2008, the estimate was around 38 million and growing. A difference of probably 5 million, from when Medicaid was first conceived in 1965 to today, 45 years later. The main difference today, though, is that healthcare is about 1,000 times more expensive than it was in 1965. What the two stories above boil down to is this: The only reasonable alternative is a single-payer system. Unfortunately, I do not believe that will happen in my lifetime, because I believe that every political arm of this country is too owned and beholden to large corporate interests, and the healthcare industry is chock full of large corporate interests. In short, the suffering of those at the bottom of the ladder will only get worse, and there will only be more at the bottom of that ladder as time goes on and Congress and White House and the country fritter away any opportunities at substantive improvements in the interests of partisan squabbling, of which I accuse myself to some degree, but accuse the republicans of even more.
Let’s move on to some Strikes My Fancy, shall we?
SMF #1. Not All Corporations are Bad. Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods turned 81 this past week. He had a big party. At the party, he announced to his 209 employees that he was turning his company over to them. The company, despite numerous buy-out offers, will now be owned by employees with 3 years tenure. Stock will be held in an ESOP, in which stock is not sold, but is held in the vested retirement plan for the future benefit of the employees. In 2004, company revenues were estimated to be around $24 million. Since then, the company has seen growth of 20 – 30% per year. How did Bob manage to grow his company as such an astounding rate? Loyalty to one’s employees fosters loyalty from those employees. Bob treated them well, and it paid off for everyone involved. Happy Birthday, Bob.
SMF #2. This Guy Is The Real Hero. Teabaggers might call the guy who flew his plane into a Texas Federal Building a hero , but I call him a big fat suicidal bomber yellow-dog cowardly murderer. Robin de Haven, on the other hand, is a real hero in that terrible story. Mr. De Haven is a 28 year old Iraq war vet. When he saw the smoke, he jumped into action. He pulled his extension ladder off of his work truck and helped rescue people from the building. In the words of most true heros, De Haven said: I don’t feel like a hero. I was just trying to help. Huzzah, Mr. De Haven!
SMF #3. What A Great Kid! Warning, you might experience a bit of eye leakage when you see what this 3 year old did:
If you ever wonder where I find the above SMF’s, I get it the easy way. I subscribe to the Good News Network. It is a subscription fee service, but it has been worth every penny over the past year. When the you-know-what gets deep, I run to Good News for a bit, and find something to make me remember that the world is not all pain and suffering and that there are good people out there. Non-disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the site – I am just a subscriber.
That’s it for this Sunday Potluck, folks. I hope the WTF??’s made your toes curl, and the SMF’s straightened them back out again. Until later in the week, I’ll leave you with the words of Jerry Reed: Keep your foot hard on the peddle…son, never mind them brakes let it all hang out cause we’ve got a run to make.
Tags: Bob's Red Mill, ESOP, haiti, Kaiser Family Foundation, McDonnell, Medicaid, Nevada, prosthetic limbs, Robin De Haven, State budget shortfalls, Virginia
Yesterday, the republican-styled continuation of the 1960 Sharon Statement entitled The Mount Vernon Statement was released. This, my friends, will bring the republicans back to their…ahem…deserved place as the Elite Monarchy – in their own fantasy worlds, at least.
The Sharon Statement was conceived in the beginning of another undeservedly maligned Presidency. John Kennedy faced a similar division of opinion that Obama faces today, although he did not face that division so much within his own party as Obama does. However, opinions seemed to fall into two categories as regards Kennedy – he was either hated or loved. The Sharon Statement gave voice to republican ideals: government that served ONLY to protect the country and wage war, free-market voodoo economics and that age-old bugaboo, the question of State’s rights.
The Mount Vernon Statement runs in the same vein as 1960’s Sharon Statement. The only things missing are quite damning, and those are the quaint notions of free market economy and communism. I find it intriguing that the words “free market economy” never appear in the Mount Vernon Statement, although it certainly alludes to the same economic practices which led to massive deregulation and the largest economic meltdown, on a global scale, since the Great Depression.
I also find it intriguing that it stops short of calling the rallying cry against the impending socialism we have been seeing on teabagger protest signs for the past year.
The republicans are distraught at the harm being done to our country. The Mount Vernon Statement, as of today, boasts 18,500 signatures. I don’t call that a revolution. I call that…well, a bit pathetic, actually.
So let’s take a look at a handful of the people whose names appear prominently just below the Statement:
Edwin Meese: Reagan’s Attorney General from 1985 – 1988, Meese had his share of scandals. Meese was then-California Governor Reagan’s Chief of Staff in 1969. In 1969, a student protest at Berkley turned deadly when against the City’s advice, Meese helped turn the situation into a bloodbath – law enforcement killed one protester, wounded hundreds of others and the National Guard ended up occupying People’s Park for 2 weeks. For the student’s pains, Meese was named an “Outstanding Young Man of California” by the California Junior Chamber of Commerce. Meese would follow Reagan all the way to the White House, where he would become the U.S. Attorney General during Reagan’s second term. He would be strongly implicated in Iran-Contra. He had good company: almost-jailbirds Oliver North and John Poindexter. Reagan and Bush I conveniently pardoned every single person indicted during that heinous example of all that “small government” the Mount Vernon Statement commends. The liberal blogosphere wonders why it seems that there will never be indictments handed down for war crimes by the Bush Administration – look back to Iran-Contra, it really tells you all you need to know.
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women For America, which touts as its 6 core principles everything from hatred of gays to war-mongering. They also support reform of public education by returning authority to parents. Anytime I hear bible-beating harpies lamenting public education, my right eye twitches. I wouldn’t let these sick bitches within 500 feet of Lil’Bee, because that kind of corruption is exactly what I feel I should protect my daughter from. You see, when they talk of reforming public education, they talk of destroying it. Nothing more. Their kind don’t want your kids educated, because if your kids are not educated, it will be easier for their kids to tear down the country when they grow up.
Edwin Feulner, Jr., President of The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think-tank. They like the idea of healthcare reform, as long as it idolizes and lies prostrate at the altar of free-market ideology, and has none of that “socialist” regulation about it. They believe that Policy makers should take decisive steps to move today’s bureaucracy driven, heavily regulated third-party payment system to a new patient-centered system of consumer choice and real free-market competition. Heavily regulated? In which parallel universe? One of the main problems with healthcare is that there is no regulation where it matters the most – on the money side.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. The Family Research Council was founded by James Dobson of “Focus on the Family” fame. What you may not know is that Dobson was such a stark-raving maniac, that he wrote self-described parenting books which advocated spanking 6 month olds for crying too much. The bastard should have been in jail 30 years ago. Perkins is a branch off of that bastard-tree, as well. The Family Research Council talks a big game about religious freedom, but what they really mean is freedom for everyone else to believe and worship exactly…exactly…as they do, with no deviations. In other words, they talk a lot about freedom for their own twisted beliefs, and everyone else is going to hell anyway, to so hell with them.
The Mount Vernon Statement is so vague as to be nearly meaningless. At best, it is a re-hash of the Sharon Statement. At worst, it is a poorly designed Wordpress blog that blusters and dances around ideology, but falls short of actually naming any of its true desires – total deregulation in the financial spheres, abolition of the tax code, eradication of public education utter disregard of freedom of (and from) religion. The modus operandi is the same old song and dance: malicious and willful mangling of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to serve their own shortsighted and greed-driven agenda. Twisted language to ensconce in the minds of their followers the notion that the Republican Party is the party of freedom. The Mount Vernon Statement says that it seeks to promote a flourishing society of republican self-government.
“Republican self-government.” Less astute observers, mainly the republican “base,” don’t even know the difference between a “republican self-government” and a “self-governed republic”, which was what the Founders really had in mind.
The republican party has always disgusted me, because the good people I’ve known in my life have not typically been republican. I have known one or two good people who were also republican. When they belong to a party that takes the criminal, the fanatical and the outright tyrannical and puts them forward as outstanding citizens, it makes me want to puke. When they put forward “mission statements” that consist of nothing more than insinuations at extreme religious fanaticism and economic mindlessness, I want to put my head through the wall. Why?
Because at the end of the day, self-imposed stupidity cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be talked to, it cannot be made to see the light. In the end, we can only hope to drown it out in our own shouts of outrage and disgust, and hope that someone who might still be on the fence hears us instead of them.
Tags: Concerned Women for America, Edwin Meese, Focus on the Family, Heritage Foundation, Kennedy, Mount Vernon Statement, Reagan, republican criminals, Sharon Statement, Tony Perkins, Wendy Wright
Sometimes, I read something in the MSM that is so obtuse that it makes me feel embarrassed for the news organization. Like this article from the New York Times questioning the motives of politicians who either start out on cable news shows (read: Fox) or leave politics to become talking heads, only to threaten to return to politics later on (think Palindrome). What disgusts me about the MSM is the way it passes itself off as news. This isn’t news, this is just telling us what we already know – that cable news is a gigantic scam, and has been for years. It’s a bully-pulpit for every idiot who dreams of having power over the country one day. They get paid to campaign on cable news — like we never figured that out. The question is what took the NYT so long to figure it out?
To viewers, it seems to be an endless televised political campaign
Yeah, it does. DUH!
The benefit to the viewers is less clear. Some experts say the arrangements can cloud the objectivity of the news organizations.
Hey, NYT: Ya think??
Cross-posted on MadMikesAmerica uptown
Tags: cable news, duh!, New York Times, politicians
The buffet is served, and most of it is full of bitter pills, I’m sorry to say.
WTF?? #1. Don’t they know implants aren’t the work of the anti-christ, they are the work of the alien invasion! Virginia has its fair share of nutters, as I mentioned in an earlier post this week. Now, we’ve got legislation on our state table to ban the forcible implant of microchips into the citizens of the Commonwealth by their employers and by that socialist heathen commie anti-christ up there in the white house. It’s a little embarrassing to know that a state delegate (did I mention he’s republican? Are you surprised?) thinks this is actually a concern right now, when the state is facing a pretty big budget shortfall and we’ve got a slash and burn republican in the governor’s seat. Now, I understand there has been some limited talk about how microchips, not unlike those used in dogs and cats in the case of loss or theft of the pet, might be useful in Alzheimer’s patients and whatnot. What I haven’t heard about, and I like to think of myself as pretty news-savvy, is the microchip being used in humans against their will. Some state legislators called it “legislating the apocalypse.” The sooner we as a species do away with that whole “apocalypse” thing, the better off we’ll all be, and the Bee won’t be irritated into a swarm by her state legislators losing their minds over stuff they saw on the X-Files.
WTF?? #2. Record snowfalls in Virginia and most of the eastern seaboard puts paid to global warming. Most of you are aware that I work with a group of teabaggers. I’m not sure what it is about the building I work in, but I can’t sling a dead cat without hitting a teabagger. I suspect that statistically, my building has a strong gravitational field that attracts crazy and half-dumb – like a black hole. The conversation in the smoking area the other day was “Damn, I’m sick of this snow! But it kind of makes that global warming stuff look stupid, doesn’t it? Helllllo, snow, cold. Where’s the warming?” Me: “Global warming actually predicts exactly what we are seeing – highly erratic weather patterns.” Teabagger: “Well, where’s the warming?? It’s supposed to be warmer.” I see this type of exchange as a ringing indictment of the American educational system in general. We are all doomed.
WTF?? #3. Mission Accomplished. A couple of years ago, I was surfing YouTube, and ran across videos of dogs being slaughtered and skinned in China. I do not recommend viewing these videos, because the brutality they portray is truly gut-wrenching. Today, the the Grand-Bees came down to visit Lil’Bee. We went out for lunch, and they wanted to stop at Sam’s Club, where I still have a membership (yeah, I know, smack my hand, but they have really good prices on laundry detergent, and the Bee’s on a budget). We ran across a bin full of “real Australian and New Zealand sheepskin” throw rugs. That’s what it said on the label. Well, these didn’t feel like sheep’s wool. In fact, they felt more like dog. Samoyed, to be specific. Granny Bee turned the label over. It said “made in China.” Feeling like I might hurl that lunch all over that dyed-white “Sheepskin,” I blurted out “OMG, it’s dog fur! I saw a video of dogs being slaughtered in China for the cheap fur trade!” The woman who was also eyeballing those “sheepskin” rugs closely blanched, and with a horrified look backed away, wiping her hands on her pants. That’s 2 “sheepskin” rugs that Sam’s didn’t sell today. Mission Accomplished. I”ll save my ruminations on why there should be a difference between real sheepskin and dog-fur rugs for another post.
On that note, let’s segue into the Strikes My Fancy, shall we?
SMF #1. Bet you can’t beat this Valentine’s Day present. When Bruce Andersland decided to make his wife a Valentine, he did it big, and was it full of shit. Really. He got out his tractor and manure-spreader, and made a half-mile wide valentine in manure for his wife in the snowy field across the street. He really did a good job, too – it looks great from the air. I call that love.
SMF #2. Fine Frog Hair. A while ago, and with a tip o’ my hat to my good buddy No Nonsense, I ran across a blog by Fine Frog Hair. If you haven’t visited, you should – FineFrog writes sometimes funny, sometimes ironic and sometimes wrenching poetry about current events. Enjoy With Apologies to Poe.
SMF #3. Avatar. I just saw Avatar. Ok, I saw it on DVD, don’t ask and I won’t have to lie about how I got it. What a wonderful movie. Beautifully made, truly a candyland for the eyes. I won’t go into detail, in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet. I don’t like to be a spoiler. I will say this, though. I would like to say I don’t understand why some of the right wing pitched fits about it and why they didn’t like the movie and why they felt the need to turn it into a “conservative” v “liberal” discussion. I’d love to say I just don’t get it. However, I must be true to myself – I do understand why they didn’t like the message, and that reason is an underlying guilt. Guilt can bring out some truly rotten negativity in a person. While their guilt may be on a subconscious level, it exists. They see themselves in the bad guys, and it makes them feel badly about themselves. Instead of acknowledging their guilt, and trying to change it, they feed on it as if their guilt were a valid reason to perpetuate ideological division. I think that a lot of the everyday people to the right of the spectrum know good and well what humans have done to the planet over the past 100+ years of spewing every toxin possible in to the ground, water and air, and I think deep down they know this is a series of events that might well spell the death of every large mammal on the planet, including ourselves. They have so much emotional baggage invested in their denial, though, that they might be beyond all return. We are adaptable creatures, amazingly adaptable creatures, but we have our limits. Those limits might be reached within some of our lifetimes. Sometimes I wish I were born 30 or 40 years earlier, but it is what it is. We are trapped on this planet, and there is no alternative – if we have pushed the ecosystem to the limit, there may be no going back, and our adaptability as a species will be in serious question within the next couple of decades. So far, I am not terribly hopeful that our petty, greedy and shortsighted species can right itself or the wrongs it has committed thus far. There are no other planets for us to colonize or conquer, and we have not way of getting there if there were. We are destined to live our our petty, greedy and shortsighted little lives right here on the earth, for better or worse. In the wee hours of the morning, my hope is a faded relic. With at least half of this country, and half the rest of the world denying the simple fact that the climate has changed already and will continue to do so and the countries that do acknowledge it playing at small-fry con games rather than truly facing it head on, my hope for our species’ survival in the long-term is faint, at best. That saddens me, because as a species, we are capable of more. We are capable of better. But at the end of the day, we always make such bad choices. They don’t like the movie because on some level it threatens to make them face their fears, for once, rather than denying that the cause of the fears are very real, very pertinent and must be addressed yesterday. These fears should have been addressed 50 years ago, and they could have been thoroughly addressed 30 years ago. But bad choices were made – from energy usage to divisive politics, from teetering educational standards to outright public denial of the problems humanity faces, bad choices were indeed made. Choices that have already proven deadly to many other species – and will eventually prove deadly to our own, as well.
What Mr. Bee has to say about Avatar tonight:
Howdy! I frequent a site called Political Forum where somone started a thread a couple weeks back called Is Avatar an Anti-American Movie?.
Incidentally, this explains why Mrs. Bee and I don’t cross paths that much in the blogosphere. I prefer the head-to-head debate of a forum whereas she prefers the soapbox of a blog.
I’m sure you’re all aware of the outcries from conservatives about Avatar, so I’m sure there are threads and blogs and posts like this littering the cyber-political world. This stuck in the back of my mind and I didn’t know why until tonight when I finally saw the movie. So I went to my political site and crafted a post and, with your indulgence, am now cross-posting it here.
Avatar got a certain faction riled up because of how the corporation was portrayed badly. Avatar was a James Cameron film. If you remember, Aliens also had its version of the corporate scum. But I recall no right-wing backlash when that film came out. Too many people have become hyper-sensitized by trivialities, on all sides. This can only be a sign of decreasing intellectual depth, an increase in shallowness and pettiness, in the American psyche.
Let us also ask the question about why this right-wing, capitalistic, libertarian, free-market faction got upset. It’s because they identify with the corporate scum. They may not even be aware of it on a conscious level, the guilt that such portrayals awaken in the darkest recesses of their myopic, provincial mentalities.
Avatar, and all films like it of any merit, are intended to be a wake up call. The protesters protest because they think they’re awake and resent being reminded that they’re dreaming. All good art is an intervention. And the last person to get on board with an intervention is the target of it…which is why an intervention was staged in the first place, for without the predictable resistance to acknowledge a failure and the earnest intent to change, there would never be a need for interventions. But alas people are creatures of habit, hardheaded, conservative, even when the path we’re on, so comforting in its familiarity though it has nothing more than this going for it (”the evil that we know” as Mrs Bee pointed out), leads to destruction.
Thus sprach Mr. Bee
Good night, and good luck.
We all know the republican leadership (cough cough) in Congress are some of the worst liars, biggest hypocrites and all around crookeder-than-a-dog’s-hind-leg crappers in the world. They truly are the party of NONONONONONO OBAMA BAD! We all know they tend to talk about what a “waste” and “boondoggle” and how “pork laden” it was, and they voted against it. We all know of one or two examples where the bastards who voted against it, and trash on a daily basis, had no qualms about having their photo-ops with big fake “lottery” (stimulus) checks to jumpstart projects in their own districts. But rarely, oh so rarely, do we see them all laid out in a big fat bastard lineup, and Rachel Maddow does this for us.
Watch.
Come on, let’s send this one viral.
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