Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Holy crap, its been a while
I forgot I even had this thing. Soooooooo much has changed, including the site layout. But hey, I still like my graphics so suck it.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
How to help Katrina victims
The posts of pictures and names is all very supportive but what victims need is help. There are tons of websites springing up with information on how to help disaster victims. Please donate money, beds, time - anything that you can do. Every tiny little bit helps.
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.hurricanehousing.org/
http://katrinadisasteraid.com
http://www.feedthechildren.org/
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/donations/index.asp
http://www.ob.org/
This is a partial list. More can be found here [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050829/ap_on_re_us/katrina_on_the_web] and here [http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm]
Please help the victims of this disaster by passing this along and by giving aid to any of these charities. Even a little goes a long way.
Thank you and please repost this. You can just copy and paste the code in the text box to ensure the HTML will work so others can pass it on!
- E
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.hurricanehousing.org/
http://katrinadisasteraid.com
http://www.feedthechildren.org/
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/donations/index.asp
http://www.ob.org/
This is a partial list. More can be found here [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050829/ap_on_re_us/katrina_on_the_web] and here [http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm]
Please help the victims of this disaster by passing this along and by giving aid to any of these charities. Even a little goes a long way.
Thank you and please repost this. You can just copy and paste the code in the text box to ensure the HTML will work so others can pass it on!
- E
Medics may start picking who will live and die
A nurse told him that medical teams may, at some point, have to "black tag" patients -- decide which ones have a better chance of survival so the medical team's limited resources aren't consumed on lost causes.
- From CNN
That is disgusting. It has been FIVE DAYS. Where is our government? Medics should not be forced to black tag anyone!
- From CNN
That is disgusting. It has been FIVE DAYS. Where is our government? Medics should not be forced to black tag anyone!
The generosity of Average Americans - you should be ashamed, politicans!
Football-crazy towns embrace evacuees
From CNN
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (AP) -- In football-crazy towns like this one, the confrontation has loomed all week: Would Katrina evacuees be sent packing again, this time by college football fans in town for opening weekend?
The answer has been a resounding no.
Football fans around the Southeast are giving up their prepaid rooms and even tickets to storm victims -- opting to stay home and watch the game on TV.
"We were very concerned," said Jerry Hymel, who took refuge with his wife in Tuscaloosa after leaving New Orleans a week ago. His hotel warned evacuees that they might have to make way for football fans who had made reservations months ago.
"Now, we can't say enough about the hospitality here."
In Mississippi the Attorney General's office told hotel managers that under emergency conditions, they could not force out hurricane evacuees.
In Tallahassee, Florida, where the biggest game of the weekend -- Miami-Florida State -- is scheduled for Monday, rooms opened up as fans canceled plans to attend the game, primarily because of the gas shortage.
In Tuscaloosa, where "Roll Tide" signs dot area businesses, the conflict surfaced early in the week. The Tuscaloosa News reported that New Orleans resident Camp Morrison was steaming, as he moved out of a hotel Wednesday.
"I think it's abysmal that evacuees are flushed out because of a football game," he said.
At both Alabama and Mississippi State, the schools urged fans to give up their hotel rooms, and local leaders worked with hotels to make sure there would be enough space.
Many fans not only gave up rooms but offered to pay for the evacuees to use them, said Robert Ratliff, executive director of the local convention and visitors bureau.
"This is far more important than football. I think everybody here knows that," said Ratliff, adding that he donated his four tickets to Saturday's game to evacuees.
Florence resident Billy Ray Moore, an Alabama booster, has been coming here on football weekends for decades. But he didn't hesitate to give up his room and stay home for the game.
"We had people who lost everything they had," he said. "What I did was minor."
Some 1,100 evacuees are in Tuscaloosa hotels, Ratliff said, and another 500 are being housed on campus, with others in shelters or taken in by local churches. More are expected as the evacuation continues.
"We're going to do this every football weekend all season if we have to," said Brian Hass, general manager of the Jameson Inn, where local officials and radio station representatives dropped off donated food, water, clothes and other items to evacuees Friday.
Mississippi State offered free tickets to evacuees for Saturday's home opener with Murray State.
"Everyone understands that these people have nothing and that they have nowhere else to go," said Arma delaCruz Salazar, vice president of tourism for the Greater Starkville Development Partnership. "So we want to help them and let this be their home for as long as it takes."
From CNN
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (AP) -- In football-crazy towns like this one, the confrontation has loomed all week: Would Katrina evacuees be sent packing again, this time by college football fans in town for opening weekend?
The answer has been a resounding no.
Football fans around the Southeast are giving up their prepaid rooms and even tickets to storm victims -- opting to stay home and watch the game on TV.
"We were very concerned," said Jerry Hymel, who took refuge with his wife in Tuscaloosa after leaving New Orleans a week ago. His hotel warned evacuees that they might have to make way for football fans who had made reservations months ago.
"Now, we can't say enough about the hospitality here."
In Mississippi the Attorney General's office told hotel managers that under emergency conditions, they could not force out hurricane evacuees.
In Tallahassee, Florida, where the biggest game of the weekend -- Miami-Florida State -- is scheduled for Monday, rooms opened up as fans canceled plans to attend the game, primarily because of the gas shortage.
In Tuscaloosa, where "Roll Tide" signs dot area businesses, the conflict surfaced early in the week. The Tuscaloosa News reported that New Orleans resident Camp Morrison was steaming, as he moved out of a hotel Wednesday.
"I think it's abysmal that evacuees are flushed out because of a football game," he said.
At both Alabama and Mississippi State, the schools urged fans to give up their hotel rooms, and local leaders worked with hotels to make sure there would be enough space.
Many fans not only gave up rooms but offered to pay for the evacuees to use them, said Robert Ratliff, executive director of the local convention and visitors bureau.
"This is far more important than football. I think everybody here knows that," said Ratliff, adding that he donated his four tickets to Saturday's game to evacuees.
Florence resident Billy Ray Moore, an Alabama booster, has been coming here on football weekends for decades. But he didn't hesitate to give up his room and stay home for the game.
"We had people who lost everything they had," he said. "What I did was minor."
Some 1,100 evacuees are in Tuscaloosa hotels, Ratliff said, and another 500 are being housed on campus, with others in shelters or taken in by local churches. More are expected as the evacuation continues.
"We're going to do this every football weekend all season if we have to," said Brian Hass, general manager of the Jameson Inn, where local officials and radio station representatives dropped off donated food, water, clothes and other items to evacuees Friday.
Mississippi State offered free tickets to evacuees for Saturday's home opener with Murray State.
"Everyone understands that these people have nothing and that they have nowhere else to go," said Arma delaCruz Salazar, vice president of tourism for the Greater Starkville Development Partnership. "So we want to help them and let this be their home for as long as it takes."
Kayne's Controversial Comments
I'm not going to give an opinion - just pass on the link: http://www.pixelmd.com/kanye.html
Halliburton gets contract to repair damage from Hurricane
02 Sep 2005
Halliburton gets contract to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina (HalliburtonWatch.org)
The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi. In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR.
Halliburton gets contract to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina (HalliburtonWatch.org)
The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi. In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR.
The big disconnect about New Orleans
from CNN.com
The big disconnect on New Orleans
The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version
Friday, September 2, 2005; Posted: 5:17 p.m. EDT (21:17 GMT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday, with statements by some federal officials in contradiction with grittier, more desperate views from the streets. By late Friday response to those stranded in the city was more visible.
But the conflicting views on Thursday came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others. Here's what they had to say:
Conditions in the Convention Center
Uncollected corpses
Hospital evacuations
Violence and civil unrest
The federal response:
Security
The big disconnect on New Orleans
The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version
Friday, September 2, 2005; Posted: 5:17 p.m. EDT (21:17 GMT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday, with statements by some federal officials in contradiction with grittier, more desperate views from the streets. By late Friday response to those stranded in the city was more visible.
But the conflicting views on Thursday came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others. Here's what they had to say:
Conditions in the Convention Center
- FEMA chief Brown: We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need.
- Mayor Nagin: The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people.
- CNN Producer Kim Segal: It was chaos. There was nobody there, nobody in charge. And there was nobody giving even water. The children, you should see them, they're all just in tears. There are sick people. We saw... people who are dying in front of you.
- Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you've got about 3,000 people here in this -- in the Convention Center right now. They're hungry. Don't have any food. We were told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdome or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, was no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure.
Uncollected corpses
- Brown: That's not been reported to me, so I'm not going to comment. Until I actually get a report from my teams that say, "We have bodies located here or there," I'm just not going to speculate.
- Segal: We saw one body. A person is in a wheelchair and someone had pushed (her) off to the side and draped just like a blanket over this person in the wheelchair. And then there is another body next to that. There were others they were willing to show us.
- Evacuee Cooper: They had a couple of policemen out here, sir, about six or seven policemen told me directly, when I went to tell them, hey, man, you got bodies in there. You got two old ladies that just passed, just had died, people dragging the bodies into little corners. One guy -- that's how I found out. The guy had actually, hey, man, anybody sleeping over here? I'm like, no. He dragged two bodies in there. Now you just -- I just found out there was a lady and an old man, the lady went to nudge him. He's dead.
Hospital evacuations
- Brown: I've just learned today that we ... are in the process of completing the evacuations of the hospitals, that those are going very well.
- CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's gruesome. I guess that is the best word for it. If you think about a hospital, for example, the morgue is in the basement, and the basement is completely flooded. So you can just imagine the scene down there. But when patients die in the hospital, there is no place to put them, so they're in the stairwells. It is one of the most unbelievable situations I've seen as a doctor, certainly as a journalist as well. There is no electricity. There is no water. There's over 200 patients still here remaining. ...We found our way in through a chopper and had to land at a landing strip and then take a boat. And it is exactly ... where the boat was traveling where the snipers opened fire yesterday, halting all the evacuations.
- Dr. Matthew Bellew, Charity Hospital: We still have 200 patients in this hospital, many of them needing care that they just can't get. The conditions are such that it's very dangerous for the patients. Just about all the patients in our services had fevers. Our toilets are overflowing. They are filled with stool and urine. And the smell, if you can imagine, is so bad, you know, many of us had gagging and some people even threw up. It's pretty rough.
Violence and civil unrest
- Brown: I've had no reports of unrest, if the connotation of the word unrest means that people are beginning to riot, or you know, they're banging on walls and screaming and hollering or burning tires or whatever. I've had no reports of that.
- CNN's Chris Lawrence: From here and from talking to the police officers, they're losing control of the city. We're now standing on the roof of one of the police stations. The police officers came by and told us in very, very strong terms it wasn't safe to be out on the street.
The federal response:
- Brown: Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well.
- Homeland Security Director Chertoff: Now, of course, a critical element of what we're doing is the process of evacuation and securing New Orleans and other areas that are afflicted. And here the Department of Defense has performed magnificently, as has the National Guard, in bringing enormous resources and capabilities to bear in the areas that are suffering.
- Crowd chanting outside the Convention Center: We want help.
- Nagin: They don't have a clue what's going on down there.
- Phyllis Petrich, a tourist stranded at the Ritz-Carlton: They are invisible. We have no idea where they are. We hear bits and pieces that the National Guard is around, but where? We have not seen them. We have not seen FEMA officials. We have seen no one.
Security
- Brown: I actually think the security is pretty darn good. There's some really bad people out there that are causing some problems, and it seems to me that every time a bad person wants to scream of cause a problem, there's somebody there with a camera to stick it in their face.
- Chertoff: In addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today. One thousand four hundred additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day: 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day.
- Nagin: I continue to hear that troops are on the way, but we are still protecting the city with only 1,500 New Orleans police officers, an additional 300 law enforcement personnel, 250 National Guard troops, and other military personnel who are primarily focused on evacuation.
- Lawrence: The police are very, very tense right now. They're literally riding around, full assault weapons, full tactical gear, in pickup trucks. Five, six, seven, eight officers. It is a very tense situation here.
Their own damn fault
Their Own Damn Fault
by Bradford Plumer
Jim Henley discovers that FEMA "wargamed" a hurricane strike in southern Louisiana this past July. Among the findings was that a hurricane would "leave 300,000 people trapped in New Orleans, many of whom would not have private transportation for evacuation." By now it's been discussed ad nauseum why many people couldn't just up and leave the city when the evacuation order came round: not everyone has private transportation, it was the end of the month and many poor people were out of savings, where would they go in any case, what if the hurricane changed course and they were docked for missing work, etc., etc. Nevertheless, Michael Brown, the head of FEMA, still insists on blaming those who "chose not to evacuate" New Orleans. Despite the fact that his own agency knew full well this would happen. Unbelievable. Meanwhile, former Sen. John Edwards looks at the possible bright side and thinks that, at the very least, the New Orleans disaster may actually get people to realize that the poor aren't just like everyone else, only lazy and irresponsible.
*****************************
And since I know quite a few of you might misunderstand that... Sen. Edwards is saying the people think the poor are just lazy and irresponsible and should have the means to alter their situation. Maybe this disaster will cause Americans to realize the poverty crisis in this nation and that the poor, in fact, have little way of changing their station in life and need asistance and education to do so.
So where has our president been?
"Hurricane party" takes on new meaning
Let's not forget that Bush was whooping it up at a San Diego resort while Katrina turned the Gulf States into a living hell.
By Diane E. Dees
Though we are experiencing one of the worst hurricanes in the nation's history, this waterfront scene looks peaceful, elegant, and intact. That is because the Hotel del Coronado is in San Diego, far away from Katrina's devastating winds. It is also where George W. Bush spent last night, while thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama fled in snail-like traffic, searched for loved ones, swam through the streets, or hung out of attic windows, yelling for help.
While levees burst, a major New Orleans bridge came apart, buildings were swallowed by floodwaters, and looters took over the city, the National Guard was nowhere to be seen. To patch one of the levees, 3,000 sandbags were to have been dropped by Blackhawk helicopters, but they never arrived.
Though reading The Pet Goat while the country was under attack may have made Bush look inept, partying at an oceanside resort while Americans are losing their homes, their sources of income, and their lives is, at the very least, an example of shockingly poor taste, not to mention an abandonment of leadership. New Orleans is in a state of absolute chaos, despite the presence of a competent mayor and a competent governor. Hurricane Katrina has created a national disaster. Bush has done everything in his power to prevent the restoration of Louisiana's coast, and he has severely cut funding for hurricane protection. It is no surprise that he doesn't want to look Governor Blanco in the eye. But whooping it up at a resort while Gulf Coast states endure a living hell is a new low.
Our President's totally assholish reponse to the disaster
"The good news is—and it's hard for some to see it now—that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house—he's lost his entire house—there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter.)
—President George W. Bush, September 2, 2005
Read the full transcript here
Once again - there are people DYING OF DEHYDRATION all over the Gulf Coast! Yes, it's a little hard to see right now because we're still FOCUSED ON THE CRISIS. Maybe, just maybe, you could climb your ass on some rubble outside the Astrodome and tell the people that we'll rebuild their housing projects in oh... five years or so but not to worry because they'll be just as nice as before... see what sort of response you get to that, Georgie Porgie.
—President George W. Bush, September 2, 2005
Read the full transcript here
Once again - there are people DYING OF DEHYDRATION all over the Gulf Coast! Yes, it's a little hard to see right now because we're still FOCUSED ON THE CRISIS. Maybe, just maybe, you could climb your ass on some rubble outside the Astrodome and tell the people that we'll rebuild their housing projects in oh... five years or so but not to worry because they'll be just as nice as before... see what sort of response you get to that, Georgie Porgie.
House Speaker Hastert said we shouldn't rebuild New Orleans
It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans. "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Illinois. - from here.
Once again, fuck you, dude. Now is NOT the time to say such things. Its insensitive and inflammitory. The focus should be on saving the people who are there. Charlotte and Chicago burned, San Fran and LA shook to dust and we rebuilt. New York had fcking planes smashed into it. Yes, the devastation in New Orleans is worse but now is NOT the time to make any sort of remarks or even be assessing it as an option. Figure out ho to get the living out of there! Then count the dead, the figure out how or if to rebuild!
Can you imagine someone saying we shouldn't rebuild the Twin Towers after 9/11? New Orleans is the same sort of figurehead for this disaster. You don't take potshots at it in the midst of it. Get your lazy ass back to congress and help these people.
I really, really hope people remember what our government is doing in response to this distaster. (An overwhelming nothing.) On all sides of the political spectrum, there is no support of these people, only reproach and condemnation. I think the lot of them - repulican and democrat, liberal and conservative, should be put in jail. Where is FEMA? Where is the National Guard? Police officers have stopped showing up to work, losing over 20% of the force in some parishes! What is the 10.5 billion dollar aid pakage going to do? Nothing until we help get people out of the city! It's going into Friday, for fuck's sake! Where is our government?
I cannot believe this.
Once again, fuck you, dude. Now is NOT the time to say such things. Its insensitive and inflammitory. The focus should be on saving the people who are there. Charlotte and Chicago burned, San Fran and LA shook to dust and we rebuilt. New York had fcking planes smashed into it. Yes, the devastation in New Orleans is worse but now is NOT the time to make any sort of remarks or even be assessing it as an option. Figure out ho to get the living out of there! Then count the dead, the figure out how or if to rebuild!
Can you imagine someone saying we shouldn't rebuild the Twin Towers after 9/11? New Orleans is the same sort of figurehead for this disaster. You don't take potshots at it in the midst of it. Get your lazy ass back to congress and help these people.
I really, really hope people remember what our government is doing in response to this distaster. (An overwhelming nothing.) On all sides of the political spectrum, there is no support of these people, only reproach and condemnation. I think the lot of them - repulican and democrat, liberal and conservative, should be put in jail. Where is FEMA? Where is the National Guard? Police officers have stopped showing up to work, losing over 20% of the force in some parishes! What is the 10.5 billion dollar aid pakage going to do? Nothing until we help get people out of the city! It's going into Friday, for fuck's sake! Where is our government?
I cannot believe this.
Fuck you, Michael Brown
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates. "I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.
From CNN.
Fuck you, dude. You want to know why they didn't leave? Because they were too poor to get out. Most of these people didn't have cars, didn't have money to put themselves up in a hotel. They didn't leave because you promised them shelter in the Dome. They didn't leave because your goddamn agency issues critical warnings every other week. Cry wolf isn't just a shitty movie coming out.
So fuck you, dude. Maybe people should have dealt with the poverty issues in New Orleans and America's other cities so people had a means to get out. Maybe instead of condemning the people who are there in press conferences, you should be directing your UTTERLY INEFFECTUAL group to hep the people who are trapped there, for whatever reason. Don't get on TV and tell them it is their fault. It is YOUR fault that they situation has detoriated to this extent. So go do your goddamn job and leave the comdemnations to the pundits.
Fascist.
From CNN.
Fuck you, dude. You want to know why they didn't leave? Because they were too poor to get out. Most of these people didn't have cars, didn't have money to put themselves up in a hotel. They didn't leave because you promised them shelter in the Dome. They didn't leave because your goddamn agency issues critical warnings every other week. Cry wolf isn't just a shitty movie coming out.
So fuck you, dude. Maybe people should have dealt with the poverty issues in New Orleans and America's other cities so people had a means to get out. Maybe instead of condemning the people who are there in press conferences, you should be directing your UTTERLY INEFFECTUAL group to hep the people who are trapped there, for whatever reason. Don't get on TV and tell them it is their fault. It is YOUR fault that they situation has detoriated to this extent. So go do your goddamn job and leave the comdemnations to the pundits.
Fascist.
Fuck you, capitalist pig dogs!
In this article about Katrina's effect on our nation, I was shocked to read this senance: "Yet, the most affected states -- Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- account for less that 3 percent of overall U.S. gross domestic product."
Yeah, they don't contribute. Fuck 'em!
Hurry up and launch that rocket at Mars, NASA, I'm ready to leave.
Yeah, they don't contribute. Fuck 'em!
Hurry up and launch that rocket at Mars, NASA, I'm ready to leave.
I am sick to death of useless knowledge.
“I’d be more apathetic if I wasn’t so lethargic.”
I’ve felt so… lost today. Powerless. Hopeless. My New Orleans is drowning along with all my idealism… which sounds so tritely poetic that it says nothing at all.
I’ve decided that being intelligent and informed blows. The more I read, the more I watch the news, the more hopeless I feel. I am in the middle of a book called What’s the Matter with Kansas? [How the Conversatives won the Heart of America]. And it’s a great book, it really is, but it makes me feel more utterly at a loss to deal with the problems of the world than ever.
How do I combat the “backlash myth”? This very myth takes people under incredible economic strain and deceives them into voting for the very people and policies that create such circumstances. These demagogues peddle their “culture war” bullshit to Middle America and sell them this sense of self-righteous victimization. “You too can have all the outspoken indignation of racial minorities [i.e. Black People or The-Word-You-Can’t-Say]! Just tune into FOX News and we’ll tell you how!” This lie of oppression and coercion and liberal media is all-consuming. And for me to even fight against it just feeds in to exactly what they already believe. So I sit here vituperating against it and the “great beating heart of America” gets infuriated because I just used a word they don’t know, thus solidifying their opinions that I am just trying to look down my nose at them. Reading books is no a crime – something you do at those “fancy east coast liberal homosexual training camps” that were formerly known as colleges.
Yes, I am a blue-blood, blue-stater, born and fucking raised. But I don’t take my Volvo-driving, latte-drinking hippie commie bullshit and try to legislate it. (And for your fucking information, David Brooks and all you anti-American bastards at the Atlantic, I drive a fucking Toyota and I hate coffee.) I don’t remember when this was a free country, G.Gordon Liddy [you murderous felon], and neither do you. Being able to chop down trees and cart about a gun isn’t freedom. Freedom is not having a government that ignores the interests of its own people and sells them down the river to corporations. Freedom is being able to not say “under god” in school. And let me make it fucking clear, Rush Limbaugh, that so long as there are pop quizzes there will always be prayer in schools. But it should not be legislated. Pray all you want – just don’t force me to.
But every word I am saying is just making this backlash bullshit worse. This myth that “liberals lie because they are liberals”, that “liberals are out to destroy the country… because they are liberals”… this faceless, pointless, directionless double-think ideology that just pollutes our society never mind the facts. The Republicans control EVERY FACET of our government yet things are getting worse every day on all sides. They don’t WANT gay rights to be abolished; they don’t WANT abortion to become illegal. The money is not in the cure, it’s in the prevention – so to speak. These fascist bastards pick issues of great sociological import that they and their followers admit are issues that will never be changed…
But the Neo-cons weren’t even prepared for their own success, oh no. Now we’re installing an anti-abortion con man onto the Supreme Court. What will you do when your millstone of cultural dissent and electoral passion becomes… oh fuck it, we all know that they will still keep voting for you bastards. And there is nothing any of our intellectual class can do. We’re not the ruling class – if that particular backlash myth were true all you useless pundit bastards would be fanning me on a beach somewhere and feeding me grapes. Technically, I am in the same class as most of the people who are voting right-right-righteous-right. Class is an ECONOMIC DISTINCTION! George W is not in your ‘class’ because Karl Rove advised him to wear flannel and drink beers. He is from one of America’s wealthiest, most-landed, most-politically and financially well-to-do families.
But I’ve strayed from what I was getting at – I can’t just march on down to Kansas or wherever and strike up a conversation in a bar about how laissez-faire economic policies and a ridiculous and unfounded faith in the inherent goodness and godliness of the Free Market have devastated the “Red” states. I can’t discuss the rise of the Neo-cons as a faction disillusioned Ex-Stalinist Commies who became Capitalist cheerleaders and pig-dogs, running rampant through the Republican party. I can’t explain how the Right has systematically campaigned on a platform of “for the little guy” while they systematically fucked them over and sold them out to the corporate machine over and over and over and over and…
It’s not that I can’t. I can. I can expound on this subject ad naseum.
But you won’t let me because I use sentences like “I can expound on this subject ad naseum.”
So back to my original bitch, which was my feeling of utter despair and powerlessness. How do I (and we) bring our nation back together? Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not un-American or anti-Red State. I love this nation with all my heart (part of which is bleeding for the Gulf Coast right now and the rest is bleeding for us all). I love every bit of it, down to the trailer parks and ghettos. My love of my country has caused me to study the words of our forefathers, to volunteer at charitable events… ah, fuck it, I could self-aggrandize here, but I won’t. I’m not better than anyone and that is not at all what I am trying to say.
What I am trying to say is the rampant xenophobia and hatred that we show not only the world but our fellow countrymen outright scares me. Yes, people have a right to protect their children from ‘subversive’ influences – be it music, television, or what-have-you. But that is your role as a parent. I have a right to demand my MTV and watch my movies about boys kissing just as you have your right to prevent your kids from seeing it. No one is holding a gun to their head, please don’t hold one to mine.
I look around and I see a war we can’t win, gas prices soaring ever higher, a housing bubble that is going to burst, a national disaster, an ideological civil-war, growing intolerance and ignorance… and I don’t know what to do to help my country anymore. I just don’t know what to do.
This is what keeps me up at night – not fears about terrorism or my job or monsters in my closet. What keeps me up at night is this desperate, heart-wrenching pain… this focusless longing for peace and unity within my country. I never wanted to live through a war. I never wanted people I didn’t know to die for me. I never wanted people to feel like I was trying to force any way of life on them. I just want my freedom to live my life my way and you to live yours. The only time the government should interfere is when those ideas are harmful to one-another. (Hear the anarchist in me coming out, yes? I should join the neo-cons… they are trying to abolish government altogether. You think I’m kidding. Check out the Project for the New American Centuries website sometime.)
All this knowledge hurts because it is impotent. I can know every single detail about the culture wars and the history of the Middle Eastern Crisis and the 9/11 commission reports and it doesn’t change a goddamn thing about the misery that is palpable in my country to this very day. It just make me feel like it is getting worse, that this worsening is inevitable. And I know that is the seeping, creeping whoredom of the backlash culture but I CAN’T HELP IT!
I don’t know what to do anymore, I just don’t and I can’t take it. I can’t watch CNN, I can’t read books, I can’t rant out my thoughts and get anything coherent anymore. It just all hurts.
Every second of every day. And it is every one of us.
What the fuck can we do?
This was not the rant I intended but it is the rant that I got.
I’ve felt so… lost today. Powerless. Hopeless. My New Orleans is drowning along with all my idealism… which sounds so tritely poetic that it says nothing at all.
I’ve decided that being intelligent and informed blows. The more I read, the more I watch the news, the more hopeless I feel. I am in the middle of a book called What’s the Matter with Kansas? [How the Conversatives won the Heart of America]. And it’s a great book, it really is, but it makes me feel more utterly at a loss to deal with the problems of the world than ever.
How do I combat the “backlash myth”? This very myth takes people under incredible economic strain and deceives them into voting for the very people and policies that create such circumstances. These demagogues peddle their “culture war” bullshit to Middle America and sell them this sense of self-righteous victimization. “You too can have all the outspoken indignation of racial minorities [i.e. Black People or The-Word-You-Can’t-Say]! Just tune into FOX News and we’ll tell you how!” This lie of oppression and coercion and liberal media is all-consuming. And for me to even fight against it just feeds in to exactly what they already believe. So I sit here vituperating against it and the “great beating heart of America” gets infuriated because I just used a word they don’t know, thus solidifying their opinions that I am just trying to look down my nose at them. Reading books is no a crime – something you do at those “fancy east coast liberal homosexual training camps” that were formerly known as colleges.
Yes, I am a blue-blood, blue-stater, born and fucking raised. But I don’t take my Volvo-driving, latte-drinking hippie commie bullshit and try to legislate it. (And for your fucking information, David Brooks and all you anti-American bastards at the Atlantic, I drive a fucking Toyota and I hate coffee.) I don’t remember when this was a free country, G.Gordon Liddy [you murderous felon], and neither do you. Being able to chop down trees and cart about a gun isn’t freedom. Freedom is not having a government that ignores the interests of its own people and sells them down the river to corporations. Freedom is being able to not say “under god” in school. And let me make it fucking clear, Rush Limbaugh, that so long as there are pop quizzes there will always be prayer in schools. But it should not be legislated. Pray all you want – just don’t force me to.
But every word I am saying is just making this backlash bullshit worse. This myth that “liberals lie because they are liberals”, that “liberals are out to destroy the country… because they are liberals”… this faceless, pointless, directionless double-think ideology that just pollutes our society never mind the facts. The Republicans control EVERY FACET of our government yet things are getting worse every day on all sides. They don’t WANT gay rights to be abolished; they don’t WANT abortion to become illegal. The money is not in the cure, it’s in the prevention – so to speak. These fascist bastards pick issues of great sociological import that they and their followers admit are issues that will never be changed…
But the Neo-cons weren’t even prepared for their own success, oh no. Now we’re installing an anti-abortion con man onto the Supreme Court. What will you do when your millstone of cultural dissent and electoral passion becomes… oh fuck it, we all know that they will still keep voting for you bastards. And there is nothing any of our intellectual class can do. We’re not the ruling class – if that particular backlash myth were true all you useless pundit bastards would be fanning me on a beach somewhere and feeding me grapes. Technically, I am in the same class as most of the people who are voting right-right-righteous-right. Class is an ECONOMIC DISTINCTION! George W is not in your ‘class’ because Karl Rove advised him to wear flannel and drink beers. He is from one of America’s wealthiest, most-landed, most-politically and financially well-to-do families.
But I’ve strayed from what I was getting at – I can’t just march on down to Kansas or wherever and strike up a conversation in a bar about how laissez-faire economic policies and a ridiculous and unfounded faith in the inherent goodness and godliness of the Free Market have devastated the “Red” states. I can’t discuss the rise of the Neo-cons as a faction disillusioned Ex-Stalinist Commies who became Capitalist cheerleaders and pig-dogs, running rampant through the Republican party. I can’t explain how the Right has systematically campaigned on a platform of “for the little guy” while they systematically fucked them over and sold them out to the corporate machine over and over and over and over and…
It’s not that I can’t. I can. I can expound on this subject ad naseum.
But you won’t let me because I use sentences like “I can expound on this subject ad naseum.”
So back to my original bitch, which was my feeling of utter despair and powerlessness. How do I (and we) bring our nation back together? Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not un-American or anti-Red State. I love this nation with all my heart (part of which is bleeding for the Gulf Coast right now and the rest is bleeding for us all). I love every bit of it, down to the trailer parks and ghettos. My love of my country has caused me to study the words of our forefathers, to volunteer at charitable events… ah, fuck it, I could self-aggrandize here, but I won’t. I’m not better than anyone and that is not at all what I am trying to say.
What I am trying to say is the rampant xenophobia and hatred that we show not only the world but our fellow countrymen outright scares me. Yes, people have a right to protect their children from ‘subversive’ influences – be it music, television, or what-have-you. But that is your role as a parent. I have a right to demand my MTV and watch my movies about boys kissing just as you have your right to prevent your kids from seeing it. No one is holding a gun to their head, please don’t hold one to mine.
I look around and I see a war we can’t win, gas prices soaring ever higher, a housing bubble that is going to burst, a national disaster, an ideological civil-war, growing intolerance and ignorance… and I don’t know what to do to help my country anymore. I just don’t know what to do.
This is what keeps me up at night – not fears about terrorism or my job or monsters in my closet. What keeps me up at night is this desperate, heart-wrenching pain… this focusless longing for peace and unity within my country. I never wanted to live through a war. I never wanted people I didn’t know to die for me. I never wanted people to feel like I was trying to force any way of life on them. I just want my freedom to live my life my way and you to live yours. The only time the government should interfere is when those ideas are harmful to one-another. (Hear the anarchist in me coming out, yes? I should join the neo-cons… they are trying to abolish government altogether. You think I’m kidding. Check out the Project for the New American Centuries website sometime.)
All this knowledge hurts because it is impotent. I can know every single detail about the culture wars and the history of the Middle Eastern Crisis and the 9/11 commission reports and it doesn’t change a goddamn thing about the misery that is palpable in my country to this very day. It just make me feel like it is getting worse, that this worsening is inevitable. And I know that is the seeping, creeping whoredom of the backlash culture but I CAN’T HELP IT!
I don’t know what to do anymore, I just don’t and I can’t take it. I can’t watch CNN, I can’t read books, I can’t rant out my thoughts and get anything coherent anymore. It just all hurts.
Every second of every day. And it is every one of us.
What the fuck can we do?
This was not the rant I intended but it is the rant that I got.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Evil Schmeevil
I have decided that being a Super Villain is acceptable. Evil Overlord is, of course, the over-arching goal. But I'll be pleased with just Super Villain status for at least a decade or so.
And just so I don't get any of the stupid "do that mean ur a terr-rist?" comments, let me clarify - a Super Villain has elaborate and implausible plans to take over the world (like my plan to put prozac in the nation’s milk supply and make everyone docile and also possibly lactose intolerant) that get close to succeeding then fail spectacularly without any damage aside from some dead minions and some minor explosions. These elaborate plan-to-failure sequences must be carried out on at least a bi-monthly if not weekly basis. That is a Super Villain. (A regular villain gets a less demanding schedule but fewer minions and a smaller budget for important things like fortresses inside hollowed out volcanoes and such. They usually have to become a subsidiary of said Super Villain just to make ends meet. Can you imagine the A/C bill for a hollowed out volcano?)
An Evil Overlord is a Super Villain whose plot for world domination was actually possible. An Evil Overlord is concerned with keeping their iron rule over humanity comfortably crushing while occasionally taking time out to entertain one's self with amusing displays such as making the Hero and his Best Friend fight to the death or having elaborate Olympic-like games in which a lot of people fight to the death or playing a chess match to the death but making sure you cheat so you always win or having a large feast in the middle of a famine and maybe making some serf’s fight to the death while you eat your meringue. Additionally, an Evil Overlord must always obey the rules of the Evil Overlord List, whereas a Super Villain must always break the rules and monolog, monolog, monolog.
And while I am on the subject, when I create my slow-moving and easily-escapable death machine for any wayward heroes, I will work on a new design. Instead of one of the slowly shrinking rooms with the big metal spikes, I'll create a slowly shrinking room with big clear plexi-glass spikes (on one side, at least) so I can sit and watch. Because there is nothing more aggravating to heroes when you watch their impending doom from a lay-z-boy whilst stuffing your face with popcorn.
I wonder if I took out an ad in the classifieds for minions, would I get a response? I need to work on that nefarious lair bit so I have a place to put all my minions... that would be neat
And just so I don't get any of the stupid "do that mean ur a terr-rist?" comments, let me clarify - a Super Villain has elaborate and implausible plans to take over the world (like my plan to put prozac in the nation’s milk supply and make everyone docile and also possibly lactose intolerant) that get close to succeeding then fail spectacularly without any damage aside from some dead minions and some minor explosions. These elaborate plan-to-failure sequences must be carried out on at least a bi-monthly if not weekly basis. That is a Super Villain. (A regular villain gets a less demanding schedule but fewer minions and a smaller budget for important things like fortresses inside hollowed out volcanoes and such. They usually have to become a subsidiary of said Super Villain just to make ends meet. Can you imagine the A/C bill for a hollowed out volcano?)
An Evil Overlord is a Super Villain whose plot for world domination was actually possible. An Evil Overlord is concerned with keeping their iron rule over humanity comfortably crushing while occasionally taking time out to entertain one's self with amusing displays such as making the Hero and his Best Friend fight to the death or having elaborate Olympic-like games in which a lot of people fight to the death or playing a chess match to the death but making sure you cheat so you always win or having a large feast in the middle of a famine and maybe making some serf’s fight to the death while you eat your meringue. Additionally, an Evil Overlord must always obey the rules of the Evil Overlord List, whereas a Super Villain must always break the rules and monolog, monolog, monolog.
And while I am on the subject, when I create my slow-moving and easily-escapable death machine for any wayward heroes, I will work on a new design. Instead of one of the slowly shrinking rooms with the big metal spikes, I'll create a slowly shrinking room with big clear plexi-glass spikes (on one side, at least) so I can sit and watch. Because there is nothing more aggravating to heroes when you watch their impending doom from a lay-z-boy whilst stuffing your face with popcorn.
I wonder if I took out an ad in the classifieds for minions, would I get a response? I need to work on that nefarious lair bit so I have a place to put all my minions... that would be neat
Friday, June 03, 2005
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Friday, May 06, 2005
Believe it or not...
... I remembered my book and movies of the month post... although I can't remember what I all I read again. C'est la vie...
Yay, I sort of remembered... but I don't really remember what all I read though...
Books
- Sandman: A Game of You by Neil 'God Among Men' Gaiman: Once again, just get them all. Do it. Now.
- Watchmen by Alan Moore: Darth Ninja gave this to me and I was astounded. It's amazingly written and very clever... very human. I was really impressed, almost to the level of Neil himself. Another solid "just buy it."
I swear I read more, but as half of everything I own is out on loan, I can't check my shelves for reference.
Movies:
I did go on a movie and tv show kick this month. Gotta take advantage of Netflix...
Equillibrium: Just finished it. Someone has obviously read up on their dystopian fiction... decent plot, great action sequences... not as profound as I had hoped it to be but still a really good flick.
Kung Fu Hustle: If you're one of those American's who doesn't get Kung Fu movies, don't bother. It has a lot of elements that some people would think were cheesy (like the blind musicians who create weapons with music) but if you're into the Kung Fu genre and one of those people who can accept some of the absurdities that come with it, it's fucking brilliant. The imagry, the mixing of classic Eastern and Western film imagry... I loved it. It's not funny, per say, just really good.
America's Next Top Model (Cycle One): Eat me, the girls are super hot and don't wear a lot of clothing. Fuck off.
How to get ahead in Advertising: One of the best movies ever made. Buy it. It's hillarious.
The Incredibles: Pixar does it again!!!!
Shrek 2): AS we know, I hated Shrek 1... but 2 was hillarious. I want da kitty... rent it, it's worth it. YOu don't really need to see 1 to get it.
The People vs. Larry Flynt: If you haven't seen this already, you must leave the house now and get it. Even Courtney Love is good in it and that is saying something.
sex, lies, and videotape: Fucking totally overrated. It was good and everything... decent, really, but not "one of the greatest indie films of all time!" If it's on cable and you have nothing better to do, it's worth the watch, but don't bother renting it... there are other, way more interesting movies out there.
Comic book villians: Horrible, just horrible. Don't watch it. You'll get your hopes up because it has a good cast and it's about comic books but it's just inspid and contrived.
Da Ali G Show (Season One): I think the show is hillarious, just by virtue of who he gets on. It's not for everyone but I think everyone should try at least one episode.
Chicago: I finally sat down and watched it.... yup, its great.
Yay, I sort of remembered... but I don't really remember what all I read though...
Books
- Sandman: A Game of You by Neil 'God Among Men' Gaiman: Once again, just get them all. Do it. Now.
- Watchmen by Alan Moore: Darth Ninja gave this to me and I was astounded. It's amazingly written and very clever... very human. I was really impressed, almost to the level of Neil himself. Another solid "just buy it."
I swear I read more, but as half of everything I own is out on loan, I can't check my shelves for reference.
Movies:
I did go on a movie and tv show kick this month. Gotta take advantage of Netflix...
Equillibrium: Just finished it. Someone has obviously read up on their dystopian fiction... decent plot, great action sequences... not as profound as I had hoped it to be but still a really good flick.
Kung Fu Hustle: If you're one of those American's who doesn't get Kung Fu movies, don't bother. It has a lot of elements that some people would think were cheesy (like the blind musicians who create weapons with music) but if you're into the Kung Fu genre and one of those people who can accept some of the absurdities that come with it, it's fucking brilliant. The imagry, the mixing of classic Eastern and Western film imagry... I loved it. It's not funny, per say, just really good.
America's Next Top Model (Cycle One): Eat me, the girls are super hot and don't wear a lot of clothing. Fuck off.
How to get ahead in Advertising: One of the best movies ever made. Buy it. It's hillarious.
The Incredibles: Pixar does it again!!!!
Shrek 2): AS we know, I hated Shrek 1... but 2 was hillarious. I want da kitty... rent it, it's worth it. YOu don't really need to see 1 to get it.
The People vs. Larry Flynt: If you haven't seen this already, you must leave the house now and get it. Even Courtney Love is good in it and that is saying something.
sex, lies, and videotape: Fucking totally overrated. It was good and everything... decent, really, but not "one of the greatest indie films of all time!" If it's on cable and you have nothing better to do, it's worth the watch, but don't bother renting it... there are other, way more interesting movies out there.
Comic book villians: Horrible, just horrible. Don't watch it. You'll get your hopes up because it has a good cast and it's about comic books but it's just inspid and contrived.
Da Ali G Show (Season One): I think the show is hillarious, just by virtue of who he gets on. It's not for everyone but I think everyone should try at least one episode.
Chicago: I finally sat down and watched it.... yup, its great.
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