Inspired by the Wall Street protests and the smart-ass investment bankers/brokers who apparently thought it would be a good idea to taunt the protestors with this:
… I put together a nice little T-shirt design. I think I’ll go back and re-draw it in ink to sharpen it up, but this is the basic idea. If there’s enough interest, I’ll have some printed up for sale – probable price, $15 + shipping (hey, Made in USA costs more, you know). Feedback in comments would be appreciated.
*Updated above, for great justice, per actor212 & other suggestions. I had originally tried splitting the original text to top & bottom of the image and it didn’t work so well; with this text it does. I actually didn’t have to re-draw it; copying on high contrast did the trick. Appreciate those of you who have weighed in elsewhere saying you’d like one of these – but if you would, please put your name in the hat in the comments along with the size you’d like. AFAIC, there is only one size for t-shirts – XL – but not everyone likes walking around in a big baggy oversized shirt. So if you’d like something different, name your size. I think the XXL and bigger run a couple of dollars extra. I’ve got another design coming later today for those who swoon at the sight of a guillotine.
*Updated again for MOAR FATCAT BANKER HEAD.
*One last update (maybe) – this one is for those who faint away at the sight, sound or thought of the word “guillotine;” you know who you are. What I like about this one is how it echoes a teabagger not-even-veiled threat from one of the rallies where they WEREN’T packing heat.
It’s my favorite anarcho-atheist-commie band, Chumbawamba.
I’ve wanted to post this song for quite some time, but it only showed up on the youtube recently. For whatever reason, youtube has been slow on the Chumbawamba uptake. And then, I saw someone dissing the band over at Sadly, No! with a comment about how it would suck to go to one of their concerts and wait around to hear their “one hit.” That, of course, would be Tubthumping, probably my least favorite of their entire catalog.
Seriously, if you’ve thought of these folks as one-hit wonders, go look at their catalog or pull up the post I did some time back about the limited-release Jesus H. Christ. Compared to these guys, most rock bands are, politically speaking, Young Republicans.
NASA on Friday warned there was still a small chance that remnants of a falling research satellite could end up in parts of the U.S., though scientists weren’t able to predict the precise trajectory or exactly when the space junk would reach the ground.
Scientists believe Friday is the day for a redundant NASA satellite’s plunge back to Earth. (Video: Reuters)
The difficulty of pinpointing where the parts will land highlights broader international concerns about tracking more than 20,000 pieces of orbiting space debris, some no larger than a football. Experts say the debris poses a potential threat to commercial and military satellites, as well as to the international space station.
The anticipated breakup of the defunct, 13,000-pound NASA climate satellite, set to tumble uncontrolled through the atmosphere after 20 years of operation, could result in dozens of pieces hitting the Earth by early Saturday. Most pieces are expected to burn up as they streak through the atmosphere, though experts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have indicated that about two dozen could survive re-entry, with the largest possibly weighing hundreds of pounds.
We’ve been here before, about 30 years ago:
No worries about it hitting the WTC, though…that bit was kind of creepy in retrospect…
Also, too: congratulations to B^4 for having posted our 1000th comment, on the last thread! For your prize, you get … an almost 35-year-old video clip of John Belushi.
I don’t know why, but toe-sucking has touched my life peripherally in a 20-year cycle, starting when I was around 10.
Beth will remember the first incidence. At the time, the whole idea of “toe sucking” had never even occured to me; I was introduced to the concept by my sister, who is 4 years younger than we are. Here’s what happened: one night, back in the days when we still lived across the street from one another, Beth was spending the night at my house. We were in bed, and my mom was in the bathroom doing her nightly ablutions, while my sister, who was notorious for refusing to go to bed at a reasonable hour, was hectoring her from her room. It went something like this: “Momma….momma…momma…momma…” “Kate, go to sleep!” “Momma…momma…momma…momma…” (sounds of teeth brushing) “momma…momma…momma…momma…momma…….YOU SUCK!!!!” (sounds of bare feet slapping wood floors as mom strode quickly from bathroom to Kate’s room…sounds of hand slapping flesh…shrieking…) “YOU SUCK YOUR TOES!!! I MEANT YOU SUCK YOUR TOES!!!” (sounds of me & Beth trying to control laughter so it won’t be heard).
Anyway, that was my introduction to the whole concept of “toe-sucking.” It wasn’t until some 15 or 20 years later that I learned that it could also be a sexual fetish, and again, I didn’t ask to know this; it was foist upon me. By this time, I was living in Little Rock and the town was abuzz with tales of the Conway Toe-Sucker, an unfortunate young man with an uncontrollable passion for feet. He struck at Baptist Hospital at the time a friend of mine was in for surgery; she and her roommate almost burst their stitches laughing at their jokes about how he was going to jump out and get them while they did their doctor-ordered hallway walks. Some months later, I met the actual Baptist Hospital toe-suck victim quite by accident, when she joined a group of my friends for dinner at a restaurant. By this time, the Toe Sucker had been convicted and this woman had testified at his trial.
I, of course, was full of questions. I asked her how it had come about that this guy was actually able to, you know, get her toes in his mouth. At this, her husband said in a shocked tone, “he had your TOES in his MOUTH?” in the same tone of voice you expect to hear someone say ”you SLEPT with him?” Meanwhile, I’m thinking, dude, you’re MARRIED to her, shouldn’t you KNOW about this already?
Anyway, she said that what had happened was that she was in her office when a nice-looking guy had come in and started talking to her; he sat down and then started complimenting her shoes, saying that he used to be a shoe salesman (this was in Al Bundy’s heyday, so…I’m not sure why she didn’t find this ridiculous), and asking if he could take a closer look at them. He put one of her feet in his lap, took off the shoe and…started sucking her toes. When she reacted with alarm, he jumped up and ran out of the office.
After hearing her story, I said, “ok, I understand that it’s kind of icky to have some stranger’s mouth on your foot but…that seems relatively harmless, so why the deal with the trial and sentencing?” She said that he had approached a woman at the Little Rock airport and told her he wanted to cut her feet off and take them home with him. So the court thing had, it turned out, been completely necessary. She went on then about how she just couldn’t understand why this guy was doing this; she said he was good-looking and had a beautiful wife and a couple of kids so it just didn’t make sense that he was running around trying to suck all these women’s toes. I waited a beat, then said, “maybe he just needed to get some STRANGE TOE.” Which, of course, brought down the table.
A couple of years later, I learned that another friend of a friend had been approached by the Toe Sucker; in this case, he struck when she was at a convenience store getting back into her car. He came up and started complimenting her shoes and was crouched by the side of her open car door as she was sitting in the car, and had just gotten around to fondling her feet when she said, “what in the hell are you doing?” This scared him off. Valerie had a much better sense of humor about the whole thing; according to her, it was her own fault for “enticing” him, since as she noted she was wearing open-toed shoes and had just polished her toenails.
That was the last I ever heard of the Toe Sucker until…today. The story has even made the Reuters network - I cannot tell you how PROUD I am, once again, to live here. This is almost as good as the time the WWF announced they would not return to Little Rock because of the fans’ lack of manners and respect. HOW REDNECK does your town have to be for the WWF to refuse to come there? Anyway, I’m pretty sure the current toe-sucking suspect has to be the same guy because…what are the odds?
The other reason I love all things Conway Toe-Sucker related is that it always reminds me of the Baltimore Foot-Stomper from Polyester:
I got a phone call earlier this evening, from…wait for it…COMCAST.
The purpose of said phone call was so that the Comcast employee could helpfully inform me that, with a payment of only $23 and some odd, I could “avoid interruption of service.”
That would be the service that I informed not one, but TWO of their employees by phone on August 9th that I no longer wanted. It would be the same service I cancelled, again, IN WRITING, on August 20th. The conversation went something like this:
Comcast Dude: “If you’ll pay $23 and some odd right now, you can avoid interruption of service.”
Me: “Interrupt the fucking service all you like; I cancelled it over a month ago.”
Comcast Dude: “There’s nothing on the account about that.”
Me: “Well, THERE’S a bigfuckingsurprise. I only told two of your employees on the phone and wrote a letter a week and a half later.”
Comcast Dude: “Well, did they do such and such to disconnect?”
Me: “I have no fucking idea, but you know, that’s really not my problem. I sent in my final payment with the letter. If Comcast is only just now getting around to “interrupting the service,” then they were providing a service that wasn’t being used and that they were told wasn’t being used…I’m not paying another penny.”
Comcast Dude: “I’m going to give you a number to call for customer ser…”
Me: “Forget it. I’m not wasting another minute of my time to cancel a service I’ve already cancelled THREE FUCKING TIMES. It’s not MY fault that Comcast hires incompetent employees who ignore what customers tell them, or that the company ignores cancellations in the hope that they can continue to charge people for services they don’t want. I’m certainly not going to pay for incomptence or dishonesty on the part of Comcast or its employees. Goodbye.”
Here ends my tale.
I would feel a little bit bad about being so rude to someone on the phone if not for the fact that…he works for Comcast, so I know that, had I asked him to make sure the service was cancelled, I would get more calls demanding payment.
Bonus surrealism points for that veiled threat…”interruption of service.” Yeah, motherfucker, that shit’s got me shaking in my boots! As if “interruption of service” isn’t the reason you dumbasses lost the fucking account in the first place.
Sheesh.
As I noted in my last Comcast-themed post…next stop, city franchise authority! I’ve no doubt that’s where this will ultimately end; these dumbfucks don’t know when to stop, so next it will be a referral to a collection agency and it will end only when I go down to the city and raise holy hell, taking with me the notice of cancellation I gave them in writing along with the delivery confirmation slip that proves they got it.
Worst. Company. In. America.
Extra bonus points: cue “Comcast Mark” in comments in 5…4…3…2…
So, today’s the anniversary of 9/11, the day we will Never Forget™, and here is how I’m going to commemorate it: by not thinking about it at all, as soon as I finish this piece.
Seriously, it was a bad and traumatic thing at the time, but what grew out of it was even worse. I can still recall my first three thoughts on that morning 10 years ago, which were: 1) Oh my god, those poor people, 2) Sweet christ, you mean we’re going to have to deal with this with that buffoon in office (said buffoon was at that moment fleeing willy-nilly cross-country, in a display of strong & resolute leadership), and 3) Fuck, now I’m gonna have to hear that Lee Greenwood piece of shit played in heavy rotation 24/7 for at least the next 6 months.
Those were my actual thoughts; I’ve never pretended to be a better person than I am.
My discomfort grew in the days, weeks, and months following. I vividly recall being told to “go shopping” for the good of the nation; the false assurances of the then-head of the EPA, who told all the Ground Zero cleanup workers who are now either dead or struggling with chronic illnesses that there was nothing to worry about; and the shameless manipulation of illogical people’s fears, ala duct tape and plastic sheeting. I feared for my sanity, but only because it seemed it might be impossible to remain sane in a country where insanity was the order of the day.
I recall wondering why it was that we were so eager to make sure that surviving families of those killed at the WTC were “compensated” with millions of dollars each, when our normal reaction (public-policy-wise, as a nation) is to tell those who lose a family member to an ordinary cause like an auto accident or illness to “tough it out” and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
Don’t get me wrong: I know the citizens of New York, and families who lost loved ones in the attacks, were deeply traumatized. My point is that we could say the same of anyone who loses a loved one to any cause. For them, our response is to cut Social Security survivor benefits and Medicaid.
And as the months unfolded, I watched in horror, though not much surprise, as the natural inclinations of the American public revealed themselves in a lust for blood, whether it was that of the guilty parties or not. (We saw another manifestation of this at the Republican debate last week, when Rick Perry was loudly cheered by the crowd for being the killingest governor of them all. Never mind that the evidence is strong that at least one of those he killed was innocent…which makes him a murderer. We love those types in this country.)
Now, 10 years later, those who overreacted with misdirected aggression continue to insist that if they were wrong, it was “for the right reasons,” and those of us who pointed out at the time that they were wrong and about to drag us into a huge and costly mistake are still not to be taken seriously, because who can trust a bunch of pacifist hippies, hurr-hurr-hurr, amirite? And the nation’s downwards spiral continues.
No, there’s nothing – aside from the memory of those lost – of value to remember here. Just as we don’t typically commemorate the onset of an illness that leads to death, so we should also turn away from maudlin remembrances of an event that put the nation on the road to oblivion.
Because, in some very important ways it did, and we’ve made the choice over and over and over again since then not to deviate from that path.
So, ignore the horseshit you’ll hear from media outlets hoping to score a ratings boost with talk about how the events of that day 10 years ago “united” us. It didn’t unite us in any way that would do anyone any good. If you want to see the event that tells the story of what America has really become, you have to look at early September 2005, when as thousands of our poorest and most helpless citizens were clinging to life in a flooded ruin of a city, our media spent the first few days – while grandmothers were still drowning in their attics - fretting about how some people were losing stuff to looters. And that was before the “blame the victims” rightwing media swung into full gear and we were treated to endless blather about how pointing out the obvious, that federal relief was a fucking joke, was “playing the blame game.”
If you want to see what this country REALLY is, look there. In the absence of some foreign other to blame, we lost no time turning the victims into the villains. That’s who we really are. And that’s nothing to celebrate.
Well, it’s official now: the GOP has the obligatory dumb Texan candidate for the presidency; this one gets bonus points for conspicuously aping the last dumb Texan to run in both diction and physical gesture.
In keeping with my long tradition of trying to help out GOP candidates whenever possible, I’ve put together a few bumperstickers for Mr. Perry:
One that asks, “remember how you felt 4 years ago?”
One to remind people that Perry’s hair is an entity unto itself – and probably a smarter and more competent one than Perry
Another one to remind people of our recent brush with disaster
Expect relentless media fellating of the Texas goober’s record on “job creation”; absent, of course, any mention of the fact that all the jobs created were of the minimum wage variety. If’n it’s good enough for them heartlanders, by gum, it’s good enough for the rest of us! Also expect to hear no mention of the fact that, for all of Perry’s appeals for divine intervention to end his state’s drought/improve our economy/etc., the Almighty has turned a cold shoulder. Yeah, that’s right – God hates Rick Perry, and He’ll hate the rest of us too if we make him president.
As the saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. While navigating through this Republican-created debt ceiling “crisis”, we find this satisfying example of how our medieval forebears dealt with the political intransigence of the College of Cardinals in selecting a new pope:
They tore the roof off the sucker
Palazzo dei Papi
Located in the attractive Piazza San Lorenzo, the Palazzo dei Papi or Palazzo Papale (Papal Palace) is a striking reminder of this town’s former importance. Built between 1255 and 1267 to house the popes who had sought refuge in Viterbo, its most striking feature is an elegant seven-arched loggia. The small courtyard behind these interlocking arches is also pretty, with a lion-bedecked fountain and views out towards the city walls.
One of the best stories about the Viterbo popes is of an election for the papacy in 1268. 18 cardinals dutifully assembled in the bishop’s palace, but after a year and a half they still hadn’t managed to choose between candidates. The Viterbesi, exasperated, locked the cardinals in their conclave (the word comes from the Latin ‘with key’), reduced them to bread and water rations and even removed the roof of the palace. Eventually the cardinals made their decision, but it had taken nearly three years – the longest ever conclave.
It seems worth a try – just peel back the roof of the House and let them all sit in there and bake until they’re ready to do something. I’d like to embellish the plan, though, with the option to throw poop on them through the open roof.
I orginally posted this last year for Independence Day, but after reviewing it and deciding there wasn’t anything I would say differently now, decided to put it back at the top of the page again for the holiday – particularly in view of the fact that some still need reminding what it is that constitutes not only a nation, but love of it (see next post down). I hope your 4th is a happy one!
So it’s July 4th again, our nation’s birthday. A day for dressing up in tail coats, breeches, stockings, wigs and tri-corner hats and screeching about how the founders would have totally given BP a free pass to do as they please, no backsies, if you’re of a certain persuasion; a day for drinking beer, cooking on the grill, and setting off illegal fireworks if you’re most of us. The point being that “independence day” means different things to different people, just as the words “freedom” and “liberty” and “patriotism” do.
Results of a survey released just this week showed that 26% of Americans surveyed didn’t know exactly who it was that we declared independence from way back in 1776. Among the responses: France, Spain, Mexico, Japan, and China. Which brings to mind the rhetorical question asked by the Jules character in Pulp Fiction, played by Samuel L. Jackson: “English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?” It seems that anyone who can answer that question should have an inkling as to which country was our parent nation. I’m tempted to think that the 26% who answered “don’t know” or named one of these other nations were just fucking with the pollsters; then I’m reminded that George W. Bush left office with a 28% approval rating, a similar number believe our president was born in Kenya because “someone on the internet said so”, and a not-insignificant portion of the population believes that humans and dinosaurs co-existed on the earth at the same time and The Flintstones was a documentary. The sad fact is that something between 1/4 and 1/3 of our population are the hard-core stupid/insane, which continually depresses me though it shouldn’t, since the inescapable mathematical fact is that one half of all people are of below-average intelligence.
Besides, I feel I should give a little credit to the folks who responded with “China”, particularly if they are young – how are they supposed to know that we weren’t always owned by the Chinese?
But back to the topic at hand: “freedom,” “liberty,” and “patriotism” – what do they mean? IMHO, these words have been so shamelessly co-opted to mean “shut up, that’s why!” that for many of us, they have very little meaning at all. For all the saccharine sentiment behind America’s Redneck National Anthem:
…it’s essentially a song completely empty of meaning. I mean, the guy’s “proud to be an American” because “at least I know I’m free.” But “free” from what? Soviet-style repression? We’re not alone in being “free” from that. At the same time, we’re notably less free from corporate predation and economic security than the citizens of many of those faggy elitist “socialist” European democracies. Then there’s the line about how he “won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me.” Well, I haven’t forgotten the brave men of the Revolution, or 1812, or the Civil War, or WWII either, but let’s face it: many more men have died in service to this country’s imperialism than have because of any existential threat we faced. I do not denigrate their service; when they were called to duty, they answered the call – but those making the call have all too often had less-than-pure motives. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make you a better or more patriotic American; it makes you a more dangerous one, more likely to go along with wasting other men’s lives needlessly.
And then there’s that whole concept of “freedom”, which more and more these days I’m thinking comports most closely with the meaning assigned it by Kris Kristofferson, as famously sung by Janis Joplin:
…”freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Because, let’s face it, we’ve lost a lot over these past 50 years. The concepts of fair play, of fair pay for an honest day’s work, of protecting the little guy against the abuses of corporate giants. The people of this country, even those who show up in Revolutionary-style drag to protest against protections for themselves, have lost an awful lot during my lifetime, and there’s no sign that the tide has turned or will turn on that any time soon.
Which brings us to the concept of “patriotism,” which I believe is the crux of the issue here.
There are a lot of people running around in this country who believe that Lee Greenwood’s blather about God blessing the USA sending a shiver down their spine, singing the national anthem loudly, screaming out the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, or slapping a flag on their car antenna proves they’re “patriots”. It’s all about the symbols for them. But symbols do not a nation make; nations are made up of people united in a common cause or destiny. “Patriotism” has nothing to do with attachment to a particular piece of real estate or a fetish for a flag or other symbol, and everything to do with caring about your fellow citizens. If they aren’t strong and healthy, then neither is the nation. You’d think that the Lee Greenwood lovers would know this; the church-going folk have no excuse for not being aware of this concept of “nation” because as their Bible makes quite clear, the nation of Israel was comprised of the people, not the land they lived on. They remained the “nation of Israel” through bondage in Egypt, through the Babylonian conquest, through Roman domination and through the diaspora. That’s what a nation is – a connection to a group of people, not fealty to a scrap of cloth of a certain design or a patch of land.
And that’s what we’ve lost, if indeed we ever had it. Those who most loudly proclaim their “patriotism” these days are those who are also most likely to bitch and moan about how it’s unfair that their fellow citizens should enjoy the same rights and privileges they enjoy, about how their “freedom” is being encroached upon when they are asked to pay their fair share of what it costs to live in a civilized society, about how in a truly “free” nation it would be every man for himself – never seeing the contradiction inherent in that belief, that there is no need for a “nation” if we adopt the mantra of every man for himself. It’s what defines Sarah Palin, Our Lady of Perpetual Butthurt, as an anti-patriot, every time she opens her mouth and a whole lot of stupid about the “real America” falls out.
Lincoln famously noted that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” That holds as true today as it did in his time, as it has in all times. You cannot simultaneously “love your nation” while hating most of the people who comprise it. Over these past 20 or 30 years, we have as a nation been increasingly encouraged by those who lay claim to “leadership” to hate one another over differences of race, religion, and political viewpoint. Those who have encouraged this schism have all too often wrapped themselves in the flag and proclaimed that their view is the patriotic one – which means by definition, any who disagree are unpatriotic. I would submit that, like all others, they have an agenda – but that agenda is not “what’s best for the nation,” because no one who wants what’s best for the nation would seek to turn citizen against citizen over these types of differences. That way leads to nothing but hatred and strife and ultimately, dissolution of the nation itself. It is the exact opposite of patriotism or love of nation.
You cannot be a “patriot” while hating your fellow citizens.
So however you choose to enjoy this Independence Day, whether it be in colonial drag whilst waving a placard proclaiming that our president is a Hitler-Stalin usurper, or whether it be on the back patio grilling for family and friends, I wish you a happy one, and for those who need it, a deeper understanding of what it means to “love your country.” Take a day off from the butthurt and ponder on what it really means to be a part of a nation. You can get back to hating everyone in it tomorrow.
Step aside, Jimmy Carter…your many misdeeds, including all those houses you’ve built for Habitat for Humanity and the almost-completed initiative to eradicate the horrifying scourge of the guinea worm have been overshadowed by the malevolent designs of our current president.
This least of God's creatures will soon be extinct, thanks to the evil machinations of Jimmy Carter
President Obama, in a an attempt to show gays & lesbians once and for all how much he hates them, yesterday held an event at the White House to ridicule and demean LGBT Pride Month. Taunting the assembled activists by refusing to make an unequivocal statement in support of legalizing gay marriage nationwide, the president went on to enumerate his many offenses against the gay community - and how they do add up. There’s the hate crimes law, named after Matthew Sheppard to diminish and exculpate the suffering he endured at the hands of homophobic bigots. There’s the executive order Obama issued prohibiting any hospital accepting Medicaid or Medicare funds from keeping gay partners from the bedsides of ill loved ones. Then there’s the end of the HIV travel ban and the first-ever national strategy for fighting HIV/AIDS. Last but not least, there are the biggest slaps to the face to the LGBT community – the repeal of DADT and his refusal to order the Justice Department to vigorously defend DOMA.
Clearly, the man is hell-bent on the destruction of our gay and lesbian friends, and must be stopped. Just watch this clip, and note the hatred emanating from his every pore:
We have no choice but to primary his black ass if he does not give in to our demands to say what we must hear if we are to believe his intentions are anything other than sinister.
I am reminded of this
Ok, enough sarcasm.
My ass is chapped a bright red today thanks to being lectured on my lack of “morality” and my “bigotry” and my desire to ”blame gays and lesbians” for any electoral loss the president may suffer in 2012 if he comes out in full-throated support for same-sex marriage legalization. I was given quite the dressing down on how “principles are paramount” and how, apparently, the principles an individual subscribes to can best be gauged by their words rather than their actions. And you know – it REALLY pissed me off.
There’s a faction on the left that doesn’t know how to disagree with people who share their goals, without impugning their motives or morals, when they have a difference of opinion on how best to reach those goals. Because this discussion took place on someone else’s blog, I restrained myself from responding in kind, instead just asking in the hypothetical, “would it be FAIR for me to assert that YOU are actively trying to derail marriage equality in states like mine for the next several decades with your demands that the president’s words are more important than his actions, and that if he doesn’t say what you want to hear, then he shouldn’t be re-elected?” Because the simple fact is, same-sex marriage is not going to be legal for a long time to come in places like Arkansas, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, etc. if we don’t secure a majority on the Supreme Court. You just aren’t going to get a referendum passed in a state that 7 years ago amended its constitution to outlaw gay marriage with a 75% majority vote. You also aren’t going to get a law through a legislature in a state where opposition is running that high. The only way equality is going to come to these states any time soon is through a friendly court. And the only way we’re going to get a friendly court is with a second term for President Obama.
So if your insistence is that ONLY a statement of support by the president will suffice, and said statement leads to 1% or 2% of the voters in a place like OH, IN, VA, CO, NC deciding to vote against you or stay home on election day, causing you to lose the state and, as a result, the election, you can kiss the Supreme Court goodbye for the next decade at least - and any chance for marriage equality in most of the red states along with it. And for what gain? So you can feel good, or be reassured that your “principles” are being upheld? Because there’s no gain in the gamble if you win it, but there’s a hell of a lot to lose if you don’t.
Perhaps the social climate where some of these folks live is so different that they can’t conceive of an election turning on this one issue. I’d advise them to think back to 2004, when the Republicans used anti-gay marriage referenda in a number of states to drive turnout and drag their already-a-loser-of-a-president over the finish line. Demanding that Obama make a supportive statement – right now, this instant - is the same thing as demanding that he hand the Republicans everything they need to get out the vote. If you’re sitting in the northeast or on the west coast, maybe that’s not that big of a deal to you, because it’s not impossible where you live that your state will address this issue on its own within the next several years, should Republicans re-take the White House. But it’s a very big deal to your comrades in places where that’s not an option. Their right to equality comes before your desire to hear pretty words. This is not the hill upon which anyone should choose to die. Suck it up, and stop being such assholes to people who are on your side.
P.S. There was one amusing point in the conversation, which came when I demanded that one of the purists tell me HOW she planned to get marriage equality passed in Texas if we lost the election, and with it, the court. Her plan? Obama should do “arm-twisting” like LBJ did on the Civil Rights Act. Yes, that’s right – the plan B was for Obama to go twist the arms of a bunch of reactionary yahoos elected to office by teabaggers, and…voila!!…they would all get on board. Even though opposition is running at 70% or more in their states. It’s almost like a twist on the Underpants Gnomes formula:
Step 1: Twist arms!!!
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Victory!!!
It would be funny if the rights of real people weren’t at stake.
BDay
lytanorman
jennofark
