Can I kick it? No, you can't.

Czar chasm

50-70000 people showed up in Washington DC Saturday to protest...something. Everything! A few snippets:

The remarkable thing here, is that there is very little of this which has been taken out of context. It's easy to make people look stupid via editing, but the interviewer was really only asking them why they were so upset about the things that their signs claimed that they were upset about. Again, I'm not really wild about the debt and deficit being where they are, but when the economy is where it is, this is the only recourse. You don't have to be happy about it, but it'd be nice if you could veer close enough to reality for a moment to at least acknowledge a couple of things:

Barack Obama isn't responsible for cratering the economy.

Things would be a damn sight worse if the stimulus bill had not passed.

Thus, here we are in a very strange moment, where we have the chance to make some real improvements in the way this country operates, and there are people, even those who would benefit, who are opposed to it because televised multi-millionaires have told them they ought to be. I will not go so far as to refer to them as "oligarhs."

Oligarchs, maybe. Plutocrats? Definitely.

I try very hard to see issues and events from all sides, because I have no use for political parties, and no ideology has a lock on good answers or common sense. So, I watch these events, and I wait for the moment where someone says something that makes me think, "Okay, I can agree with you in principle on some of that." But there's just so much WHARRGARBL, that it's nearly impossible to latch on to something that doesn't make you feel lobotomized.

Honestly, I'm to the point anymore where I'm halfway in your corner if you can just say what's bugging you without screaming or starting to cry. The right has turned into the left, all emotion and no brains, just angry, scared, and making everything about everything all the time, which is a classic liberal mistake.

For example, the anti-war protests. You're against the war? Great, march make signs, show the colors. But when the left turns out, PETA shows up, NORML is there, Greenpeace blows in, looking to roll severely obese marchers back into the nearest body of water.

But the right has guzzled down that particular gallon of left-wing stupid. These people who showed up in DC Saturday were angry about health care, that Obama is African, that we have officials called Czars, higher taxes, that Obama is a Muslim, ACORN, the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, to support Joe Wilson, a civilian corps of volunteers to do work in the US, the new combo philosophy of Communist Fascism, that Jesus isn't president, Barney Frank, to take the country back, mandatory abortions for all females over 11, that the country has been mostly destroyed, that "Barack Obama" means "anti-christ" in Hebrew, and just dozens of other really sensible, well-thought out reasons to be upset without needing to admit that the president is colored and that ain't America.

I know that this isn't all about racism, there are legitimate political and philosophical reasons to dislike what the president is doing. But most of this is about racism.

This again

I was in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, and had very little inclination to do any writing. Upon my return, I discover yet another statue of the Virgin Mary has been crying. Well, I know how she feels.

This time around, the statue has red liquid that appears to have dripped out of it's eye. There are many reasons why this bothers me.

1) People actually seem to believe that a statue made out of rock is able to emit liquid.

2) That it is, in fact, a miracle.

3) That it is not quite obviously a hoax.

But what should scare the "believers" the most, is that, if they are right, the Virgin Mary is CRYING BLOOD. This is not a religious event. This is a horror movie. Make your own joke about the Catholic Church, I'm not your joke-monkey.

Believe it or not, I'm not a religious person. Still, I should think that if one of the statues I worship (graven images anyone?) started oozing blood, I would have to consider this to be a very bad sign.

Catholicism is a fun religion in general, especially as seen from afar. I'm not going to take this opportunity to rail away at the pedophilia, although it's certainly horrible. It's just interesting, what with the pageantry, the costumes, the gold, statues, and superstitious hand motions. It's a hoot.

But the crying statue thing has to stop. Between this type of crap, and seeing Jesus on underpasses, tortillas, you name it, one has to question the sanity of anyone who would believe that this is how Jesus would choose to appear to his people. Of course, the church will not allow the ooze to be tested, so this "miracle" is safe. No need for science! We'll Intelligent Design the answers out of it, for sure!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Monday, November 28, 2005