Archive for the ‘Splenetics’ Category
Iraq War or Lesbians?
The Pavlovian right-wing reaction to the news that Mary Cheney and Heather Poe are having a child — that Ms. Cheney is pregnant — is predictable, but I thought this was a dangerously slippery slope to head down: "They're deliberately bringing a child into the world without a father, leaving a great gaping hole. Father […]
Presidential Destiny: The Sequel
Nearly two years ago, while wondering why in the world any electorate would actually elect the second president Bush to a second term (all the while wondering whether we'd ever know whether he was actually elected by a majority of votes cast) I wrote* I suspect that the current president's [i.e., G.W.Bush's] destiny is to […]
A Tiny, Partisan Moment
A few days back, maybe last week, I was at my favorite luncheon spot: Taco Bell. Like most fast-food places these days, they have a wee labyrinth on the approach to their cash register (oops! I mean point-of-sale terminal, of course) to guide the single queue that forms in order to order. The labyrinthine area, […]
A Short Announcement
Since the local retailers seem convinced that the Holiday Season is upon us, I'm trying to decide which would irritate fundamentalists more as I fire my salvos in the war on you-know-what: calling it the "Holiday Season" or calling it "Xmas". I might go with the latter since great numbers of otherwise sensible people (in […]
One-Third of Americans
Sometime recently I remember hearing the results of a poll that said that about a third of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks. Another poll — or perhaps it was the same one — revealed that about a third of Americans believe that George W Bush and the US government itself […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
The Nose on Her Face
Blast it all! Avedon Carol said it before I got around to it: I am so sick of hearing some "liberal" Senator telling us that something that was as plain as the nose on my face (and mine of all noses!) is just becoming clear, now that it's too late. Like Ted Kennedy, explaining away […]
In: All, Current Events, Splenetics
Fight Fundamentalism Here!
I was just reading this story* about how the White House now admits that our valient troops in Iraq are no longer fighting at the front of the global war on terrorism — instead, it seems that they are now "trying to suppress religious violence" — when I remembered that I had thought up a […]
Talk Show Host Rejects Homophobia
Not that this furthers our understanding any of incomprehensible "gay Republicans", but it is good to know that homophobia is not always treated as just another opinion in the name of "journalistic balance": [In North Carolina, KZL radio's “Murphy in the Morning Show"] host Jack Murphy stated [to a notoriously homophobic Republican guest], “To compare […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Gore: "Renegade Rightwing Extremists"
The following excerpts are from an interview* that Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian [UK] had with Al Gore, who had just given a speech at the Guardian's "Hay Festival". "I am Al Gore and I used to be the next president of the United States of America," he says, opening the routine. When that gets […]
Estate-Tax Repeal Would Line a Few "Lucky" Pockets
Here is another interesting bit of analysis, described in an announcement (given below in its entirety) from Representative Henry Waxman's office, that connects a few dots: New Report Reveals Estate Tax Repeal Would Give Over $200 Million Windfall to Oil Company Executives May 30, 2006 — Next week the Senate is scheduled to consider legislation […]
Speaker of Truth vs Facilitator of Intolerance
I'm just as amused as any good-hearted liberal at the news of John McCain's being booed when he delivered the commencement address at New York's New School. As promised, this was reportedly the same speech he gave at Jerry Falwell's Liberty "University", generally seen as a transparent attempt to pander to extremist religious power — […]
Payback & Return on Investment
Avedon Carol with two pieces of insight,* in one post no less, right next to each other! I wonder what really happened when he [George W Bush] was in the TANG [Texas Air National Guard] that makes him hate the Guard so much. I mean, he sure seems to have it in for them. I […]
The Bash Mary Cheney Amendment
What I've been reading about today was the "movement" for the national constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality for gay people. It's all very odd and mixed-messag-y. I mean, we homos were the wedge issue in 2004, but now illegal aliens and big fences with sharp points are suddenly du jour, while "values voters" (pace […]
Who Ya Gonna Call?
To recap some events: The Bush administration assures us in the breaking "domestic wiretapping" scandal — later and more accurately dubbed "domestic spying" — that they're only out to get the bad guys and they're only listening to limited phone conversations that have at least one terminus outside the US. The Administration lied. We now […]
Sensitive Issues
I'm confused. It's this whole Mary-Cheney's-A-Lesbian-But-Don't-Dare-Call-Her-That thing. Apparently John Kerry was a "son of a bitch" for saying that Mary Cheney is a lesbian during the presidential campaign in 2004. I guess it's because Repulicans have a well-known aversion to the truth. Good thing he didn't call Mary's dad a "Dick". Oh, and I love […]
Have you Heard the One About the Digital Plumbers?
What an amusing set of spy-story dominoes John Aravosis set up and knocked over on his AMERICAblog this morning: At 12:42 am: "AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth giving the NSA the phone records of tens of millions of innocent Americans. Program goes far beyond what Bush claimed." — USAToday reports that the "limited" spying on domestic […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Pete Wentz: Truth-Sayer
I have to admit that I am not a Pete Wentz fan, because until today I had never heard of him nor the band for which he plays bass, called "Fall Out Boy". However, I'm feeling very supportive thanks to an MTV story* about some good things Mr. Wentz said and the hysterical reaction of […]
"Noble" Lies
This was an unexpected but perceptive analysis of neocon philosophy from my current reading:* Platonic elitism, unfortunately, is not merely a matter of ancient history; it is still drastically afflicting the human race even in the twenty-first century. The architects of American foreign policy who carried out the imperialist assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq are […]
Class Warfare, Bit by Bit
How odd. I just read a fascinating article by Blake Fleetwood ("A Nation of Frequent Flyer Junkies–25th Anniversary", The Huffington Post, 2 May 2006) about frequent-flyer awards programs. His thesis, which seems all correct and in order to me, is that these programs have created a hidden, two-class system in air travel, working to build […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Splenetics
Condoms Please!
Laura Barcella wrote* about another irritating skirmish in the war against conservative extremists and their encroaching prudery — they just seem to keep getting sillier and pettier and ever-more exasperating, don't they? The war on safe sex in America just keeps heating up – to conservative Bushies' delight. As Suz Redfearn in the Washington Post […]