Last week I made one of my semi-regular trips to Du Page County to buy smokes. The taxes in DuPage, though high enough, are less ridiculous than Cook County where I live nor as obscene as the city of Chicago. I noticed a change in the lay-out of the store and asked the clerk why they had remodeled.
There was a new law, he sighed. "We had to. No more self-service with cigarettes". He went on to explain that the powers that be were concerned about easy access to cigarettes for children but noted that they were allowed to have cigars on display in the store. Like kids wouldn't steal and smoke cigars? Whoever passed the law seemed more concerned with minors stealing smokes than the store owner but, likely, the intent of the law was "out of sight/out of mind". For years now it has been illegal for minors to purchase cigarettes. You would think that were enough. I did not determine if it were a new state law I hadn't heard about but I suspect it was a local ordinance. Illinois, like most states, has a cigarette based economy. This is what our politicians learn while they are in prison: WOO BUDDY- PEOPLE WILL PAY A LOT FOR SMOKES WHEN THEY ARE HARD TO COME BY! The taxes suck but I've heard prison stories and I fear what else they might want from us...
Now, every time the republicans lose an election, they start talking about the evils of 'big government' and how we need 'small government'. The problem is they whine about this at the Federal level. No doubt our Federal government can blow some money on $500 hammers, $1000 toilet seats and wars with countries NOT directly related to 9/11 but, they can also print money whenever they need it so, taxes (though complicated) ain't that bad of a deal. Where government needs to get smaller is at the level where it's already smaller, your state and local idiots. These losers can't print their own money like the feds but they sure can print up ordinances and laws that can be exchanged for money! The Trib this morning (they STILL hate teachers, by the way) noted that a lot of municipalities are getting into the impound business. There is big money in cars. The confiscation of cars, I mean. It turns out that people need them and are willing to pay big bucks to get them back so a lot of towns have made it easier to have their employees gather and hold vehicles for ransom by passing new laws to make it so. It was cute and fun when it was designed to take Corvettes away from drug dealers but, now it's taking away grandma's Buick more often than that.
It's your state and local legislators digging into your pockets far more than the federals. Regardless of which party you worship THEY ALL LOVE TAXES! They just want YOU to pay them rather than their high-rolling friends who can pay but make political donations instead. Cigarettes are the prime example as they are a 'sin tax'. Oh, fuck them smokers- make 'em pay! But, then the states (feds too) discover new things like, say, sodapop leading to obesity. There sure are a lot of fat people. The decent thing to do (knowing that it won't change a thing) is to tax those people who choose to drink Cokes, get fat and walk on county roads (damaging them) to pay to get their impounded cars out hock. It's a two-fer-one deal. The state gets revenue and the fat people get punished like they should because they're porkers. Fuck them fatties!
Do I need to remind you that..."first they came for the trade unionists but, I was not a trade unionist..."?
Republicans (usually not in office) always say: "If I ran my business like the Federal government...yada yada... I'd be OUT of business in no time!"
Disingenuous hyperbole. It shouldn't be but, it is. Every state, county, town, city, village is supposed to have a budget. How about maybe trying to meet that budget? Perhaps, set realistic goals to make meeting that budget easier? Maybe try to do things right rather than print up laws to garner new tax revenue because you can't do things right. And if you can't meet your budget and manage the tax revenue, invade the neighboring town. At least be pro-active...
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Then What?
I guess it's slowly sinking in amongst the rightwingers that socialism has been a part of our government since the Great Depression when Social Security was created and into Medicare and the like. They are also realizing that social services including police and fire protection reek of socialism as well. And, of course, socialism is the same thing as communism, nazism and fascism so, all these things are bad. You just can't have a system with an "ism" after it. Muslimism comes to mind. Islamism. Capitalism- that one's OK. Forget about that one. God clearly intended that to be our only "ism" when he guided the hands of the Founders as they forged the Constituition, clearly meaning that the 2nd amendment was the important, all encompassing (everything else is just filler) part of the paperwork.
The reichwingers are the most hands-on m-effers this side of the Founding Fathers. These guys can do it all! They can protect the country (with their guns) so, no need for a standing Army. These guns also trickle down to police work. No need for cops if everyone has a gun. Immigration? Guns can handle that too... I don't know how they intend to build roads or put out fires with guns but, I'm sure they're working on it.
The Chicago Tribune, a conservative newspaper here in town, is against Illinois teachers having pensions. Four percent of the teachers in Illinois make $100k per year. 96% do not. I'm not sure where the Tribune went to school but, 4% is a lot less than 96%. So, the vast majority, DO NOT make $100k. Until earler this year, the Tribune was in the baseball business and they seemed to have no problem with 25 of their employees getting paid millions to play baseball (with the best pension in the world this side of AIG maybe) and only working 6 months out of the year. Lazy ass teachers work nine months out of the year and none have them can hit for power. I guess the rub is that ticket, hot dog and beer sales paid the Cub players while taxes- from you and me- pay the light-hitting teachers. So, naturally, save money by eliminating the fat cat teachers and doing away with their pensions.
I'll say this about communists: Though they methods are harsh, they know the value of educators. That is why they kill them when they enter a village. They know that to succeed in their quest for domination, they must first kill the intellectuals- anyone who may use thought and logic against them and influence others. It's crude but effective. The Trib though, would rather starve them out. Take away the carrot of a pension, the chance at making a good, honest living educating our sons and daughters and you save millions in pension money and hundreds of dollars in bullets. This from the folks who brought Milton Bradley to the city.
I'm not sure what their remedy is for teachers and their fat salaries. Teachers, firemen, cops DO NOT make enough money. To offer them less and NO retirement, is absurd. What sort of teacher might your children get if light factory work paid better? Shouldn't you care? Shouldn't the Worlds Greatest Newspaper (WGN) care? Why are they trying to out-crazy the wingnuts? To me, this is as absurd as the wingers who call for armed insurrection because we have a colored president.
Your average republican these days sounds more like an anarchist than the bearded hippie living in a commune ever could have. It's one thing to listen to the tired rhetoric of the need for "smaller government" everytime they lose an election (note that government was anything but small during eight years of Bush or Reagan...) but, they seem to be taking it a bit too far these days as they lean so far right they are falling over the gun nuts living in the woods of Idaho and Michigan. They really expect that all 300+ million of us can survive on our own just like the Founding Fathers allegedly intended? Simply eliminate social services, welfare, Social Security, unemployment, Corporate taxes (they are people too, now) and we individuals will either make it or we won't? Then what?
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Despite a Civil war and a sad record of race relations in our past, this might be the worst chapter in our history.
Then what?
The reichwingers are the most hands-on m-effers this side of the Founding Fathers. These guys can do it all! They can protect the country (with their guns) so, no need for a standing Army. These guns also trickle down to police work. No need for cops if everyone has a gun. Immigration? Guns can handle that too... I don't know how they intend to build roads or put out fires with guns but, I'm sure they're working on it.
The Chicago Tribune, a conservative newspaper here in town, is against Illinois teachers having pensions. Four percent of the teachers in Illinois make $100k per year. 96% do not. I'm not sure where the Tribune went to school but, 4% is a lot less than 96%. So, the vast majority, DO NOT make $100k. Until earler this year, the Tribune was in the baseball business and they seemed to have no problem with 25 of their employees getting paid millions to play baseball (with the best pension in the world this side of AIG maybe) and only working 6 months out of the year. Lazy ass teachers work nine months out of the year and none have them can hit for power. I guess the rub is that ticket, hot dog and beer sales paid the Cub players while taxes- from you and me- pay the light-hitting teachers. So, naturally, save money by eliminating the fat cat teachers and doing away with their pensions.
I'll say this about communists: Though they methods are harsh, they know the value of educators. That is why they kill them when they enter a village. They know that to succeed in their quest for domination, they must first kill the intellectuals- anyone who may use thought and logic against them and influence others. It's crude but effective. The Trib though, would rather starve them out. Take away the carrot of a pension, the chance at making a good, honest living educating our sons and daughters and you save millions in pension money and hundreds of dollars in bullets. This from the folks who brought Milton Bradley to the city.
I'm not sure what their remedy is for teachers and their fat salaries. Teachers, firemen, cops DO NOT make enough money. To offer them less and NO retirement, is absurd. What sort of teacher might your children get if light factory work paid better? Shouldn't you care? Shouldn't the Worlds Greatest Newspaper (WGN) care? Why are they trying to out-crazy the wingnuts? To me, this is as absurd as the wingers who call for armed insurrection because we have a colored president.
Your average republican these days sounds more like an anarchist than the bearded hippie living in a commune ever could have. It's one thing to listen to the tired rhetoric of the need for "smaller government" everytime they lose an election (note that government was anything but small during eight years of Bush or Reagan...) but, they seem to be taking it a bit too far these days as they lean so far right they are falling over the gun nuts living in the woods of Idaho and Michigan. They really expect that all 300+ million of us can survive on our own just like the Founding Fathers allegedly intended? Simply eliminate social services, welfare, Social Security, unemployment, Corporate taxes (they are people too, now) and we individuals will either make it or we won't? Then what?
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Despite a Civil war and a sad record of race relations in our past, this might be the worst chapter in our history.
Then what?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Convert or Die!
November is shaping up to be a busy month what with the elections, the threatened revolution should the tea party not get it's way and the ensuing christian jihad against godless democrats whether the tea baggers win or lose. The World Series should be wrapping up about that first week too. Whoever wins, I hope they go back to a 154 game schedule and an October 1st start for the series.
I've been in yet another gun-related thread where baggers are promising revolution and final solution-like elimination of democrats, right here in the good ol' USA. can you believe that? Well, what USED to be the good ol' USA. Evidently this country has completely fallen apart since Barack Obama first thought of running for president. And, it wasn't just him (AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE HE'S COLORED!) Tea party historians have traced the ills of America all the way back to Jimmy Carter with most of the blame for EVERYTHING squarely on the shoulders of Wiliam Jefferson Clinton. How George W Bush was able to hold the country together after the debacle that was THAT man is amazing. Surely, Dick Cheney must have helped.
Obama has only been in office less than two years and in this time we have been over-run by democratic-voting illegal aliens, Secret Islamic agendas and healthcare, which was rammed down republican throats in a tea-bag like manner. Yada-fucking-yada...
The baggers are spoiling for a fight. They are coming out from under rocks everywhere, locked and loaded and looking to take back the America that has been taken away from them by Obama and the socialist/Islamic/democrats. Yada-fucking-yada...
My country is still here. Guess what? So is yours. Despite this recession, life has gone on pretty much as usual just as it has in the five decades of my time here on earth, in this country. The baggers see it differently. They talk of their rights being systematically stripped away daily, by Obama. However, when you try to pin them down to the loss of specific rights, all they have is healthcare. Well, NOW they have healthcare. Prior to this monumental achievement by Obama, they only had the right to be denied health coverage by insurance company scumbags who could find a way to determine ANYTHING to be a "pre-existing condition". Yep, they did lose the "right" to be screwed by an insurance company, something our founding fathers clearly covered in the second amendment or, perhaps, the Old Testament.
Too much has been made about the glory of our founding fathers. Their words are as open to interpretation as the Bible is. This disturbs me because, depending upon who is doing the interpretation, someone might want me to live in peace or die at the point of their fully automatic assault rifle. Just like some people think that all we need for laws are the 10 Commandments, some others think we only need that and parts of the Constituition and the Bill of rights. I've heard of "cafeteria Catholics". We also have cafeteria constitutionalists. Well, that's just as the founding fathers intended it to be, I guess. Why else would they have been so purposefully vague? The gun-nuts, for example, think the 2nd trumps all other amendments (if they acknowledge that there ARE others, that is). Even the Bible contradicts itself with those ten commandments when it later says one must stone one's neighbor to death should he be found working on the Sabbath. Jesus, was that book written by lawyers or what? No, I'm a modern Ferrerman and I won't live my life based on the vague musings of men from 300 or 2000 years past. I'll accept that our laws are based upon those words but, until someone invents a time machine and puts me back in the day, I won't be chunking rocks at neighbor Bill because he's weeding his garden.
Now, the Christian jihad, scheduled for November. Have they decided exactly which form of Christianity we must follow come November? Last time I checked, Baptists are not fond of Catholics and everybody hates the Mormons and thinks that the Amish are cute and harmless. I'm pretty sure all of these are Christ-based religions so, which one will rule here in America? I guess the plan is that, once the godless democrats are killed, (Ok- Jews and Muslims too) the Christians left will settle things on the battlefield. and THEN we can get back to the business of getting America back to the 17th century as the founding fathers intended because, ya know, that was the time they were living in. Not a one of them was Nostra-fucking-damas, who, by the way, saw this Obama guy coming a long time ago...
I've been in yet another gun-related thread where baggers are promising revolution and final solution-like elimination of democrats, right here in the good ol' USA. can you believe that? Well, what USED to be the good ol' USA. Evidently this country has completely fallen apart since Barack Obama first thought of running for president. And, it wasn't just him (AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE HE'S COLORED!) Tea party historians have traced the ills of America all the way back to Jimmy Carter with most of the blame for EVERYTHING squarely on the shoulders of Wiliam Jefferson Clinton. How George W Bush was able to hold the country together after the debacle that was THAT man is amazing. Surely, Dick Cheney must have helped.
Obama has only been in office less than two years and in this time we have been over-run by democratic-voting illegal aliens, Secret Islamic agendas and healthcare, which was rammed down republican throats in a tea-bag like manner. Yada-fucking-yada...
The baggers are spoiling for a fight. They are coming out from under rocks everywhere, locked and loaded and looking to take back the America that has been taken away from them by Obama and the socialist/Islamic/democrats. Yada-fucking-yada...
My country is still here. Guess what? So is yours. Despite this recession, life has gone on pretty much as usual just as it has in the five decades of my time here on earth, in this country. The baggers see it differently. They talk of their rights being systematically stripped away daily, by Obama. However, when you try to pin them down to the loss of specific rights, all they have is healthcare. Well, NOW they have healthcare. Prior to this monumental achievement by Obama, they only had the right to be denied health coverage by insurance company scumbags who could find a way to determine ANYTHING to be a "pre-existing condition". Yep, they did lose the "right" to be screwed by an insurance company, something our founding fathers clearly covered in the second amendment or, perhaps, the Old Testament.
Too much has been made about the glory of our founding fathers. Their words are as open to interpretation as the Bible is. This disturbs me because, depending upon who is doing the interpretation, someone might want me to live in peace or die at the point of their fully automatic assault rifle. Just like some people think that all we need for laws are the 10 Commandments, some others think we only need that and parts of the Constituition and the Bill of rights. I've heard of "cafeteria Catholics". We also have cafeteria constitutionalists. Well, that's just as the founding fathers intended it to be, I guess. Why else would they have been so purposefully vague? The gun-nuts, for example, think the 2nd trumps all other amendments (if they acknowledge that there ARE others, that is). Even the Bible contradicts itself with those ten commandments when it later says one must stone one's neighbor to death should he be found working on the Sabbath. Jesus, was that book written by lawyers or what? No, I'm a modern Ferrerman and I won't live my life based on the vague musings of men from 300 or 2000 years past. I'll accept that our laws are based upon those words but, until someone invents a time machine and puts me back in the day, I won't be chunking rocks at neighbor Bill because he's weeding his garden.
Now, the Christian jihad, scheduled for November. Have they decided exactly which form of Christianity we must follow come November? Last time I checked, Baptists are not fond of Catholics and everybody hates the Mormons and thinks that the Amish are cute and harmless. I'm pretty sure all of these are Christ-based religions so, which one will rule here in America? I guess the plan is that, once the godless democrats are killed, (Ok- Jews and Muslims too) the Christians left will settle things on the battlefield. and THEN we can get back to the business of getting America back to the 17th century as the founding fathers intended because, ya know, that was the time they were living in. Not a one of them was Nostra-fucking-damas, who, by the way, saw this Obama guy coming a long time ago...
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Good Ol' Days
Everyone wants the good old days back but no one can agree on exactly which good old days we should get back. The tea-baggers want 1776 back- just with fully automatic weapons this time around. Glenn Beck wants the early sixties back- just with fully automatic weapons and the gold standard, this time around. And maybe no hippies... Lots of people in the threads want their country back but, except for the gun nuts with their Patriot fantasies of hunting game and injuns with AR15's, few get specific.
I like the early 60's but I don't like Glenn Beck. When my avatar photo was taken was a pretty good time to be a kid. I was six then and beginning my Wonder Years. I remember a line from that show describing it as a time when a kid could go out to play without winding up on a milk carton. It was a good, reasonably safe time to be a kid. We played, all day long. We had to as there were no XBOX's, computers or MTV. We rode bikes without helmets!
I think everyone wants their childhood back. Whatever era/decade was their childhood, they want it back with all of it's youthful simplicity. Personally, I'd also want back the 70's and eighties back but only because of baseball. I do long for the time when you could show up at Wrigley on game day and get bleacher seats. I used to go to ten- twenty games a year. On the 4th of July, I turned down FREE boxes. Nothing is free when it comes to baseball these days. Thirty dollars to park, $6.50 for a beer... you drop a yard before the fifth inning even with free tickets. Neverminding that it's another awful year, I have NEVER had a bad time at Wrigley. Even if it rained or the Cubs got blown out, it is still my field of dreams.
No person and no country ever gets a do-over. The baggers and other far-righters want "their" country back. They think that killing or voting out our president will bring *their* country back. Just a bullet or a ballot will magically transform America back to what it once was- whatever it once was- in the minds of so many bitter, deluded people.
As-fucking-if!
In the smoke-screen that is the bagger agenda, EVERYTHING Obama does is wrong and leading the country down the road to ruin. But, you look at what they say about him and his intentions and you see what they want. It's funny but sad to hear republican women talk lovingly of the patriot days. They wouldn't have been allowed to even vote back then but here they are serving as elected officials. A black man or woman back then was counted as 3/5ths of a human being. Slavery was legal and indentured servitude was a path to freedom for white folks whom rich whites just couldn't bring themselves to buy and sell on the slave block but just had to own anyway.
Corporations weren't citizens back then but they are now. Our Supremes said so this year. The baggers say Obama wants to take over the country and give it to NATO to complete their near century old plan of one world, one country. The baggers want corporations to run the world instead whether they realize this or not. They don't think corporations should pay taxes because they provide jobs for people willing to work. They fear that their corporate tax money might be used to support poor people who don't want to work. Only the middle class should pay taxes and support poor people. Well, that's the way it always seemed to have worked and no poor man ever gave anyone a job ya know. They want to eliminate welfare and similar programs but they don't seem to have a plan for poor people other than to force them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps by taking away socialist democratic programs. They'll start working as soon as they get hungry enough...
I think they have a plan. When they STILL talk about Obama's FEMA camps and the private army he is certainly building... I think they are tipping their hand to their own plan for America. When republican women like that c-word Engle (?) promise "a 2nd amendment solution" if they don't get their way in November of this year as they want, I'd have to say that she and they are calling for armed insurrection. Gee, does it get anymore patriotic than that? Let's stop this colored president from enslaving us and we'll turn the tables on his followers by enslaving THEM! THAT, will show THEM!
Remember in the 60's when someone said "The revolution will be televised"? It has corporate sponsorship now. It will be your blood, my blood and our childrens blood but, when the smoke clears, everyone who wants a job will have one. We might even have a small government that people seem to want so badly every four to eight years or so but, just for show. A capitalist revolution! Corporations of the world unite!
Josef Stalin said: "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic".
We all know how his Accounting Department did things. They wrapped themselves in patriotism too. If you're looking for America or longing for your youth, you won't find it on a milk carton. Neither will you find it in the street with a gun in your hand.
I like the early 60's but I don't like Glenn Beck. When my avatar photo was taken was a pretty good time to be a kid. I was six then and beginning my Wonder Years. I remember a line from that show describing it as a time when a kid could go out to play without winding up on a milk carton. It was a good, reasonably safe time to be a kid. We played, all day long. We had to as there were no XBOX's, computers or MTV. We rode bikes without helmets!
I think everyone wants their childhood back. Whatever era/decade was their childhood, they want it back with all of it's youthful simplicity. Personally, I'd also want back the 70's and eighties back but only because of baseball. I do long for the time when you could show up at Wrigley on game day and get bleacher seats. I used to go to ten- twenty games a year. On the 4th of July, I turned down FREE boxes. Nothing is free when it comes to baseball these days. Thirty dollars to park, $6.50 for a beer... you drop a yard before the fifth inning even with free tickets. Neverminding that it's another awful year, I have NEVER had a bad time at Wrigley. Even if it rained or the Cubs got blown out, it is still my field of dreams.
No person and no country ever gets a do-over. The baggers and other far-righters want "their" country back. They think that killing or voting out our president will bring *their* country back. Just a bullet or a ballot will magically transform America back to what it once was- whatever it once was- in the minds of so many bitter, deluded people.
As-fucking-if!
In the smoke-screen that is the bagger agenda, EVERYTHING Obama does is wrong and leading the country down the road to ruin. But, you look at what they say about him and his intentions and you see what they want. It's funny but sad to hear republican women talk lovingly of the patriot days. They wouldn't have been allowed to even vote back then but here they are serving as elected officials. A black man or woman back then was counted as 3/5ths of a human being. Slavery was legal and indentured servitude was a path to freedom for white folks whom rich whites just couldn't bring themselves to buy and sell on the slave block but just had to own anyway.
Corporations weren't citizens back then but they are now. Our Supremes said so this year. The baggers say Obama wants to take over the country and give it to NATO to complete their near century old plan of one world, one country. The baggers want corporations to run the world instead whether they realize this or not. They don't think corporations should pay taxes because they provide jobs for people willing to work. They fear that their corporate tax money might be used to support poor people who don't want to work. Only the middle class should pay taxes and support poor people. Well, that's the way it always seemed to have worked and no poor man ever gave anyone a job ya know. They want to eliminate welfare and similar programs but they don't seem to have a plan for poor people other than to force them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps by taking away socialist democratic programs. They'll start working as soon as they get hungry enough...
I think they have a plan. When they STILL talk about Obama's FEMA camps and the private army he is certainly building... I think they are tipping their hand to their own plan for America. When republican women like that c-word Engle (?) promise "a 2nd amendment solution" if they don't get their way in November of this year as they want, I'd have to say that she and they are calling for armed insurrection. Gee, does it get anymore patriotic than that? Let's stop this colored president from enslaving us and we'll turn the tables on his followers by enslaving THEM! THAT, will show THEM!
Remember in the 60's when someone said "The revolution will be televised"? It has corporate sponsorship now. It will be your blood, my blood and our childrens blood but, when the smoke clears, everyone who wants a job will have one. We might even have a small government that people seem to want so badly every four to eight years or so but, just for show. A capitalist revolution! Corporations of the world unite!
Josef Stalin said: "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic".
We all know how his Accounting Department did things. They wrapped themselves in patriotism too. If you're looking for America or longing for your youth, you won't find it on a milk carton. Neither will you find it in the street with a gun in your hand.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Patriot Dreams
Yet another 4th of July has passed and still no American Revolution II. PEOPLE: WE HAVE A COLORED PRESIDENT!! He's Muslim! Don't forget what his Christian minister said about America either. He's going to take away all our rights as citizens and give them to illegal aliens- the ones that voted him into office, I might add, with the help of ACORN. He shoved Health Care Reform down our throats as if he were Johnny Holmes himself and we were eager, young starlets (or FOXNEWS chicks...) and somehow got that to pass even though, clearly, John Boehner did NOT want it. Where's the "reaching across the aisle" we were promised? We don't even get a reach around from this guy! Or do we? I'm 53 years old and I STILL don't know what that means! I think it's dirty though! And, as if God weren't already pissed enough at New Orleans and all it's faggotry and BLACK PEOPLE, isn't it just a little bit ironic that an oil rig malfunctions just a week after this Obama guy decides that oh, yeah, NOW it's okay to "DRILL BABY, DRILL"?? And where did he get THAT idea?? How much more of this are we expected to take? Third world countries are laughing at us! We're like the Chicago Cubs with the big payroll and 13 games out in July. Don't get me started on the crazy Mexican, Zambrano, yelling at the washed up first baseman in the dugout. I mean it. (Anybody else notice that he "blows up" right before the Cubs road trip to ARIZONA? Well, not RIGHT before- a few weeks later- but, it all happened under Obama's watch and well, is he a citizen? Zamrano, I mean...)
I'm just playing, of course, but, some of these thoughts did run through my head the night of the 4th as I sat in the back yard listening to and seeing what I could see of the fireworks in my otherwise quiet, suburban neighborhood. Having lived in Memphis, I know from gunshots. I pondered the snap, crakle, pop and ocassional BOOMS and I was very glad that I live in a country where such noise is a harmless celebration of history rather than a daily occurence of politically emotional mayhem. I felt sad- ever so briefly- for the assholes I post with on the internet who have been braying and praying for an American revolution since Obama ran for the presidency. They are a small but noisy minority but all seem to want America's air to be filled with gunsmoke as if it were Beirut on a Tuesday. This nation has never had a revolution as the result of a presidential election. Why start now? Violence is how third world countries handle political discord and, except for our founding and a later dispute in the family about slavery, either side usually agrees to disagree after a loss. Our two party system changes presidential hands every four to eight years or so, just rub dirt in it, take a four year lap and try harder next election. That's the American way! At least it used to be...
I make fun of these 'tards in the threads because they see themselves as uber-patriots who feel as if the only way out is violent, bloody revolution, The only way out of "what" exactly, no one really knows for sure. They are all over the place with accusations about our president and they really, really get pissed if you point out that he's a black man and suggest that maybe, just maybe, they might be racist assholes instead of uber-patriots. So, it just couldn't be that so, it must be socialized healthcare which everyone knows communist countries like France, England and Canada have...
Sigh. For me, the 4th was a beautiful night in the greatest country in the world. For some, it was a missed opportunity of insurrection and mayhem.
Patriots my ass!
I'm just playing, of course, but, some of these thoughts did run through my head the night of the 4th as I sat in the back yard listening to and seeing what I could see of the fireworks in my otherwise quiet, suburban neighborhood. Having lived in Memphis, I know from gunshots. I pondered the snap, crakle, pop and ocassional BOOMS and I was very glad that I live in a country where such noise is a harmless celebration of history rather than a daily occurence of politically emotional mayhem. I felt sad- ever so briefly- for the assholes I post with on the internet who have been braying and praying for an American revolution since Obama ran for the presidency. They are a small but noisy minority but all seem to want America's air to be filled with gunsmoke as if it were Beirut on a Tuesday. This nation has never had a revolution as the result of a presidential election. Why start now? Violence is how third world countries handle political discord and, except for our founding and a later dispute in the family about slavery, either side usually agrees to disagree after a loss. Our two party system changes presidential hands every four to eight years or so, just rub dirt in it, take a four year lap and try harder next election. That's the American way! At least it used to be...
I make fun of these 'tards in the threads because they see themselves as uber-patriots who feel as if the only way out is violent, bloody revolution, The only way out of "what" exactly, no one really knows for sure. They are all over the place with accusations about our president and they really, really get pissed if you point out that he's a black man and suggest that maybe, just maybe, they might be racist assholes instead of uber-patriots. So, it just couldn't be that so, it must be socialized healthcare which everyone knows communist countries like France, England and Canada have...
Sigh. For me, the 4th was a beautiful night in the greatest country in the world. For some, it was a missed opportunity of insurrection and mayhem.
Patriots my ass!
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