"It's just a ride."

The words and wisdom of Bill Hicks:

.

Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern made a speech to a group of about 50 people recently in which she says that the "Homosexual Agenda" is a bigger threat to America than radical Islam and terrorism.

First, here are the woman's words. The visuals in this are a little cheesy, although well-intentioned, but the speech is the important thing.



Now... As a gay man, I'll admit my biases against Representative Kern's point of view. However, also as a gay man, and as an American citizen, and as a thinking man, I cannot sit back and say nothing and do nothing about this person's noxious ideas.

First of all, both "Terrorism" and the "Homosexual Agenda" are wildly exaggerated ideas designed to distract you, the American public, from bigger issues in our society. Yes, “we” were attacked and 3000 people died on September 11, 2001. Since that time, the Republican Party has used this event to encourage fear in the American public, and in turn has used that fear to get away with a whole host of illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral acts. The American public was ladled with hysterical fear of an exaggerated threat of terrorism with the express purpose of stopping rational and reasonable dissent against what their government has been doing for the past seven years. Each time a despicable deed came to light, the Bush Administration would issue another “terror alert.”



Whenever this tactic of using racism and fearmongering didn't do the trick and keep the American public distracted enough, the next target was the gays. To hear Republicans tell it, those parts of the fabric of the American life those mysterious Terrorists don't manage to tear apart, the Gays will. Supposedly, the gays are all united, have a single agenda, and that agenda is to tear apart the country by tearing apart all our notions of morality and social order. Republicans want you to believe there is an insidious plot out there called the "Homosexual Agenda," and that plot involves, as Representative Kern says in her speech, infiltrating American schools to brainwash your children.

Folks, have you heard of a psychological term called projection?

From Wikipedia:

In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions to others. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the ego recognize them. The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud, and for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Freudian Projection."

There is an insidious agenda in this country. A certain group of people seeks to infiltrate our government as deeply as it can. A certain group of people wants to use the American government as a means to spread theocratic fascism across our nation. A certain group of people wants to get “activist” judges in place to use our court system to remake our society in an undemocratic way. A certain group of people wants to get into our schools to brainwash our children. A certain group of people wants to post its sacred texts in our public spaces and keep everyone else's out. A certain group of people wants to limit your freedom of religion. A certain group of people wants to limit your freedom of speech. A certain group of people wants to destroy another group's relationships and families. A certain group of people wants to remake the social order in our country to suit its own world view and its members own egos. A certain group of people hates certain other groups so badly, it wants those others dead, no matter that explicit instructions to the contrary are contained in the religion it claims to defend.

“The Other” is a centuries-old tactic of ruling classes. It gets used because it works. Especially in modern societies.

Folks, have you heard of a sociological term called anomie?

Again from Wikipedia:

Anomie, in contemporary English, means a condition of malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values. When applied to a government or society, anomie implies a social unrest or chaos.

We live in a society that has changed rapidly and radically over the course of its existence. I would argue that that was the point of establishing our country in the first place: Liberty, and the possibilities it holds for the rapid transformation of both society and the individual for the better. However, with rapid transformation comes a societal and cultural confusion regarding standards and values. When circumstances change rapidly, it is hard to know what is a relevant moral standard and what is obsolete superstition.

Some people solve this dilemma by keeping an open mind and consciously evaluating the choices before them and the situations that present themselves. Others cling to their belief systems, and hold so tight they refuse to listen to anyone else. The pace of change in our society increases exponentially. The further along we go, the faster change happens. That can be frightening. The natural tendency of the human being and of groups of human beings is to find something or someone to blame this fright on.

To keep from being overwhelmed by the changes that swirl around us, one must keep an open mind and develop a reasoned sense of morality that is based on thought and analysis. Doing so is hard work, and in itself can be a frightening proposition. It means evaluating everything you believe in, questioning, sorting, rearranging what you think you know and who you think you are on a constant basis. This is tricky for anyone, but especially for those who are accustomed to following religious leaders and scriptures. (Mind you, I have nothing against religion, in and of itself. What I have a problem with is when people get so hung up on the words in their sacred texts that they miss the ideas contained in those texts. Trouble arises when people can't see the forest [ideas] for the trees [words].) It's much easier to simply follow what you read in a book or to be guided by someone who calls himself or herself a spiritual leader than to dig inside yourself and analyze who you are and what you believe.

This leads into something else I believe is another root of the general problem. Gay people, by the very virtue of the fact that there is something about us that is out of the ordinary, have a head start on this soul searching. We have already been forced to do some of this self-evaluation because being and accepting who we are in our own selves requires it. It is highly likely that there is some kind of subconscious envy on the part of these social conservatives, a jealousy of the ability to self-analyze that gay people must develop simply to recognize, against overwhelming societal forces to the contrary, that they are gay in the first place.

Meanwhile, as these Republicans and so-called Christians go about blaming their fear on others, they spread the very types of hatred and abuse and societal destruction that they accuse others of. It seems to me that gay people should be afraid of these folks, not the other way around. It seems to me that gay people are under siege at the hands of so-called Christians and Republicans, not the other way around.

I haven't heard any gay people calling for a constitutional amendment outlawing the Republican Party or Christianity. I have heard plenty of Republicans and so-called Christians calling for amendments outlawing gay relationships and for laws intruding into the homes and bedrooms and lives of gay people.

I haven't heard many gay people saying that Republicanism or Christianity are cancers in American society. I have heard plenty of Republicans and so-called Christians say that homosexuality is a social disorder to be wiped out.

I haven't seen many news stories about Republicans or so-called Christians being beaten and/or killed simply for their political or religious affiliations. I have seen plenty of news stories about gay people being brutalized and even killed simply for being gay.

Who is threatening who here?

why knot

So if this is the case, as any thinking person knew long ago, then why are we there?

Oh, that's right.

Let's not lose sight of things. It was never about security. It was avarice. They've never cared if any of us or all of us live or die. The whole country could be blown to bits and they wouldn't care as long as the money kept rolling in. And it always rolls in, one way or another, one scheme or another, one crook or another.

He'll try to distract you and she'll try to distract you, but they were in on it. Voted for it and everything.

They'll talk about cleaning things up around here and over there in DC. They'll pick up any stray phrase and throw it at you. Found rhetorical objects. Finding their own voices by stealing the voices of others. They can't craft a sincere message. How do they expect to run a goverment? Lead a society? Steer a culture?


Experience don't mean dick if it's experience in fucking up and fucking us.

Plans don't mean shit if they're only superficially different from the ones were already following.


We're done.


We're ready for more.

KTGT: Sounds from the Great Twitch

Michelle Obama and I

At a recent rally for her husband's presidential campaign, Michelle Obama said that she was proud of her country for the first time in her life. Now, because they're not very good at debate or crafting an argument, Republicans love to take things out of context. And taken out of context, I'm sure Mrs. Obama's remark sounded horrible to the faux-patriot crowd.

Let's face it, though. Anyone with five brain cells in their head would understand what the woman meant. She expressed what a lot of us know already. We don't get to hear it out loud very often, though; much less from of the mouth of the next First Lady of the United States. Those of us under the age of 50 have no recollection of a leader worth looking up to.

Lyndon Johnson? Richard Nixon? Gerald Ford? Jimmy Carter? Ronald Reagan? Two George Bushes and a Bill Clinton?

None.

Michelle Obama expressed an opinion, one that many of us hold. We've never had anyone make us proud.

We can see a corner, though, and we know we're about to turn it. And it is amazing. We grew up hearing stories about men like John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. We've been through enough hacks and swindlers, though, to know that those legends are probably just that. Legends. The real Kennedy and Roosevelt and Lincoln were not the men described in our grade school social studies books. But the cultural narratives that those men became did much more for us than the men themselves.

We heard those stories, and read the words those men spoke, and they stayed with us. The contrast between their fabled idealism and the world around us couldn't have been sharper. We looked at Vietnam and we looked at Iraq. We looked at Watergate and we looked at Whitewater. We looked at economic hardship and we looked at arms races. We looked at the Iran Hostage Crisis and we looked at the Iran-Contra scandal and we looked at attempts to scare people into accepting a new Iran War. We looked as religion was perverted into cultural weaponry and we looked as a sense of common purpose faded in favor of sink-or-swim mentality.

We've seen a lot of shitty presidents go to the White House and proceed to make a big collective ass of our entire nation. Some aspired to the poetic rhetoric of our national legends. Punk wannabes like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. Those two silver-tongued devils sure could give a good speech, but devil was always the key word. Their oratory mostly served to cheapen other people's ideas and sentiments by using them as diversions to obscure the evils they committed in plain sight. Others, knowing they couldn't rely on rhetoric alone, decided instead to commit their foul crimes in rapid succession in hopes the public couldn't keep up. This is the strategy of men like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Don't bother to try and hide the outrages and treasons. No! Commit overwhelming amounts of crime and the public will simply tune out. Nixon wasn't so successful at this, but he was the first intrepid explorer in this dark terrain. Reagan was next, and while he managed to survive, he caught a great deal of hell at times. George W. Bush now has less than a year in office, and it seems he will succeed at the experiment in hypercriminality at levels Dick and Ronny never imagined.

Is it any wonder some of us have that not-so-proud feeling?

I don't know about you, but Michelle Obama put it exactly how I feel. I've never been all that proud of my country. Now, that might not have been exactly what she meant. The Obama campaign is trying to say that Mrs. Obama meant this is the first time she has been proud of her country's political process, not the first time she's been proud of her country. .

Well, that's not what I mean.

Barack Obama could be full of shit, for all I know. Maybe it is all just hot air. I hear him speak, and I watch him move, and I'm 99% convinced he's sincere. But he could be a walking fucking Rorschach test, and I wouldn't be the first one to say it, I know. Maybe those of us who like him do just see what we want to see. But even if Mr. Obama Goes to Washington is a big fairy tale like Bill Clinton says, enough of the public seems to buy it that they might just get it together long enough to make some kind of improvement around here.

But nevermind that. Michelle Obama and I are proud of our country for the first time in our lives.

To which Cindy McCain retorts, "I have, and always will be, proud of my country" Well, bully for that bitch. Some of us obviously have higher standards than she does.

When her husband wins this November, I'd like to see Michelle Obama slap the shit out of Cindy McCain and her skinny little bleached-blonde-and-Botoxed ass, live on television.

Oh, but wait. John McCain already kind of did it for her. See, Johnny turns out to be a dirty old man. He's cheating on his wife. Michelle Obama's patriotism is about to be the least of Cindy McCain's concerns. Her life is about to get a whole lot less fun. In a very public way.

Less fun for her, anyway. Not for us. Hell, this could just be the tip of the iceberg. Remember Bill Clinton. Senator McCain could be like him. This Vicki Iseman broad is vaguely homely, after all. What kind of depravity could Ol' Twitchy be up to? While Obama aims to be in rhetorical league with JFK, McCain obviously aims to emulate the Last Political Hero in a completely different way. Maybe we should be campaigning for McCain after all. Think of the hearings! You never know. It could make the Starr Report look like a children's storybook by the time Johnny Boy is done.

In reality, we are witness to a poetically just end to the Republican Revolution. They spent six years of their majority trying to tear Bill Clinton down. Ultimately, they were unable to nail him for anything but nailing homely young women. The GOP then spent the next seven years resuming the all-out capitalist scumfuckfest that slowed an almost imperceptible bit during the Clinton years. As soon as those planes hit those towers, Republicans cranked the scumfuckery machine up to 11. Plans that would make Richard Nixon blush suddenly came out of secret inside pockets of briefcases all over the D.C. area. It was time for global war for fun and profits, and they used Turrism and Ay-rabs as the excuse. And when that didn't work, there was always The Homos. And when that didn't work, there was that old classic, The Wetbacks.

And, oh, the hypocrisy. To know what Republicans have been up to, all you ever needed to do is listen to what they accused everyone else of. These folks make projection an artform. They say someone is giving aid to terrorists? The Republicans are giving aid to terrorists. They say they oppose teaching Darwinism in school? The Republicans are practicing Darwinism in their social attitudes. They say their opponents are against decency, morality, and “family values?” The Republicans enact policies that are indecent, amoral, and destructive to families. The list could go on long enough to give me carpal tunnel.

Republicans, take a look around you. Your karma is maxed out. And God willing, John McCain just became the final nail in Reagan's gilded coffin.

And when old Ronnie is finally laid to rest, Michelle Obama and I can be left in peace being proud of our new president.

Nixon's the one!

RESURRECT NIXON FOR PRESIDENT '08

See you next Tuesday

Today, Jane Fonda said "cunt" live on national television.

Hillary Clinton doesn't care about black people

Let's get one thing clear. It was never my intention to have this thing be All Hildo, All the Time.

I've been into politics for a long time. I remember soundbites from the 1988 election. I was ten years old then. Being a lifelong political junkie, the past several years were painful to live through. National politics was dominated by an axis of corporate scum, redneck fascists, and pseudo-Christian Nazis, all united under the banner of the Republican Party. The period between September 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina was one of the darkest political periods in modern American history. And in the midst of it, it seemed like the darkness might never end. The With-Us-or-Against-Us mentality was rampant. And frightening. Everywhere, logic and reason and compassion had been replaced with... flags. Flags everywhere, on everything.

The Democrats caved on just about everything back then. Disagreeing with Republicans was de facto treason. It became such a habit that Democrats still capitulate to this day, even after the country put them in charge.

And why not? For the past two decades, the Democratic Party has been dominated by hacks who thought the only way to beat Republicans was to steal their ideas. Bill Clinton got Democrats out of the habit of thinking for themselves. Bubba won against the Reagan Revolution with a lot of conservative ideas like welfare “reform” and a “balanced” budget. Who needs ideas when you've got polls and political maneuvering?

So when the time for thinking came, the Democrats were so out of practice that they were unable to stop Bush from having all kinds of capitalist-scumfuck fun. Worthless Democrats let President Fratmonkey divert attention away from his do-nothing presidency by frightening 300 million people into silent obedience. They sat on their hands as he installed an oil man as president of Afghanistan then got up and applauded as he launched a second war for absolutely no reason.

Later, when our so-called Public Servants looked into the cameras and said, “There's just no way we could have known,” anyone with three brain cells promptly put a foot through their television in anger. We knew and we didn't have access to classified intelligence reports and other little goodies our elected officials do.

Over the past few decades, it has largely been the Ronald Reagan era. Just as the decades before that were the Franklin Roosevelt era. And whether it was Reagan himself in the Oval Office, or either of the Bushes, or Bill Clinton, it has been Ronnie Raygun's Dance Party all the same. The hosts have changed from time to time, but the show and the songs have remained the same.

But it has been the Baby Boomer presidents who have been the unfairest of them all. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. These men have wormed their way out of and through things that their predecessors never dreamed of. It has been 15 non-stop years of blatant crime and sugar-coated lies, and someone was always getting fucked. This is rule by the Me Generation. Look what it's gotten us.

A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for more of the same. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.

But enough of that and back to the present.

You might have thought I was being a might tongue-in-cheek in saying that Hillary Clinton is about to lose her goddamn mind. Well, today she took her first step toward the precipice. Hildo went and said that Obama won every single one of this past weekend's contests because of “activists” and blacks, and those groups don't matter anyway.

What the fuck has happened to the Clintons? As I've said, they are masters of co-opting ideas. Now ClintonCo seem to have added ambivalence toward the darkies to their list of Republican treasures. Bubba got Hildo in trouble a few weeks ago for an unprompted comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson. The implied statement? Them negroes shore do stick together. The former president might as well have said Obama is nappy-headed. Now Hillary says she doesn't care about black people. Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with these two?

So I now must amend the story of what will happen with Hillary in Denver when she loses the nomination.

When Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, she will have to be dragged out of Denver kicking and screaming. But not before she rushes the stage and screams about knives in her back. "How could you? How could you do this to me? After all I've done for you?"

As Hildo is dragged from the stage foaming at the mouth, Bill Clinton will lurch around wildly, repeatedly screaming “That fucking nigger!!!” Attempts will be made to restrain him, but he will break free, jumping off the stage and into the crowd. He'll make to run, but will be stopped in his tracks by the sight of a vaguely homely and slightly chubby young female delegate in his path. As he lunges at her, dripping tongue dangling from his mouth, hands outstretched toward her breasts, the former president will be tackled by Howard Dean, who will order Bubba dragged from the convention hall in disgrace.

Hildo will wiggle free and make a break for it in the midst of the confusion. She'll yell, “You won't have Hillary Clinton to kick around anymore!” as she makes for the exit; slithering away to hide and sulk and wait for 2016.

Hildo is about to lose her goddamn mind

Let's pick right up from where we left off yesterday. Madam Senator Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, D-NY. That little Lyndon Johnson in an Oscar de la Renta pantsuit is about to get heavy and weird. She's lost four out of four in two days. In the midst of it, she fired her campaign manager. This is surely a prelude to the coming freakout.

There will be another crying episode in the next couple of days. It has worked twice, and surely Terry McAuliffe is whispering just that in her ear tonight. Clinton is offended at the misogynistic implications of an MSNBC talking head accusing her of pimping out her daughter. She has no trouble with the stereotypes about women when they can be used to her political advantage. Squeeze out a few tears to get sympathy and people will vote for you because, aww, women are so ganged up on all the time by mean old tyrannical men like... Barack Obama?

Uh, right.

The burning question on my mind tonight, kiddies, is will C-in-C Hildo cry when she's dropping enough depleted uranium and white phosphorus on Iran to turn their whole population into a bunch of jabbering retards?

Hildo likes to present herself as a squeaky clean hall monitor, but she is a liar and possibly a crook. At the very least she is an intellectually dishonest and opportunistic hypocrite. Put simply: a politician. She is a relic, but unfortunately, she doesn't realize it. A corner has been turned. George W. Bush ruined it for the rest of them. She comes from an era that is coming to a close. The era of politics for politics sake.

At least I hope we are witnessing the end of that era. Right now, even the hope of it is something to cling to. Anyone under 40 in this country has known nothing in national politics except Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, two George Bushes, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Decades of nastiness. A severe lack of even a basic sense of decency, ethics, and morality. Absolute power corrupting absolutely. Hope ground under the heel of wingtips and cowboy boots. The words of idealism and optimism and thoughtfulness perverted into empty rhetoric.

Get ready for the coming freakout. I said it yesterday and I'll keep saying it. Hillary Clinton is about to lose her goddamn mind. Just you watch.

Hillary Clinton foaming at the mouth

I've been wanting to get back to political writing. It seems the day I finally see a person I think should be president win my state's caucuses by a landslide would be a good day to start. So here you go:

Barack Obama beat the shit out of Hillary Clinton today. Whooped her ass. Landslides in Nebraska and Washington state. OOF! POW! A solid win in Louisiana. ZANG! Of the Democrats, Obama owns the headlines on the Internet tonight. He will surely own the print ones tomorrow.

That is, of course, except for those regarding the little tiff between Senator Hillary Clinton and MSNBC's David Shuster. The Shuster affair is a horrible but enlightening little peek at what President Clinton might be like.

Not content with an apology, Clinton wants Shuster fired, and she's not coming back on the network until he's gone. (Does anyone not know the whole story by now?) She could just be above it, but instead, she holds onto it. She must see him fired. I'm sure the Hildebeest thinks it makes her look like she's tough and won't take any shit from anyone. Strength in the face of those who would dare insult her.

Hildo is not happy that Shuster said she's been pimping out her daughter. Chelsea's been making calls to try and bolster her mother's support among Demcratic superdelegates. Hillary Clinton has been pimping out her daughter. Superdelegate lobbying. Calls to midmorning talk show hostesses? All those campaign appearances?

But that doesn't matter. This is the George W. Bush / Bill Clinton school of politics. When people accuse you of something, don't deny it. Scream that you are offended. Call them evil. Don't bother denying it, because then people might see that it's actually true. Stay away from the real issue. Use some rhetorical smoke and mirrors to redirect the public consciousness.

This is the type of world Hillary Clinton and her ilk want to live in. Free speech be damned. If you offend me, you have committed a crime. The proof? I'm offended. This is the same type of stupidity Hildo showed us when denouncing Grand Theft Auto. Fuck the First Amendment. If I don't like it, there oughtta be a law.

When Hillary Clinton is finally wearing the pants in this country, things will be different. Yes. America will be declared a No Fun Zone. You'll be sent to camps to be reeducated. While there, you will be given your new RF ID chip. Your monthly tithing to the insurance industry will be automatically withdrawn from your paycheck. Anyone with a sense of humor will be deported to Guantanamo.

There really isn't anything to worry about, though. The further the nominating process goes, the more people like her opponent and the less they like her. And if she wants to continue to waste her time on a little punk like David Shuster and the pathetic third-rate excuse for a news network that employs him, fine. She can have a little bitch fight with Shuster while Senator Obama keeps speaking to issues and stirring up a movement. She can fuck herself right out of the presidency and it won't cost me a second of sleep. It's been a tight race, and it's getting tighter. If she takes her eye off the prize, if for even just a few seconds, she'll find herself squeezed right out.

After what was essentially a tie just a few days ago, Obama has stomped Clinton in three states in one day. She will start to get nasty soon. In a couple weeks, she'll be like a cornered dog, lashing out at anyone who dares to get near her. If she loses the nomination, she will have to be dragged out of Denver kicking and screaming and foaming at the mouth. But not before she rushes the stage and screams about knives in her back.

"How could you? How could you do this to me? After all I've done for you? You won't have Hillary Clinton to kick around anymore!"

I for one, can't wait to see it. In this age of YouTube, I'll be able to watch it over and over and over again, howling with delight each time.