Sunday, May 30, 2004

 
I wanted to share this.

From Atrios, a letter from the mother of a gay kid:

As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people can be.

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.

I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.

He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

It's long, but you ought to read it.

There's very, very few followers of Christ in this country. Plenty of "Christians", but very few people who got the point of what Christ was supposed to have been teachin'.
posted by Tim 7:23 PM

 
If there was ever any doubt...

That Bush is an emotionally immature, spoiled little boy of a man, this ought to confirm it for you:

A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, a spokesman confirmed on Sunday.

Time magazine, which first disclosed the gun's location, said military officials had it mounted after it was seized from Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit last year, and soldiers involved in the capture gave it to Bush.

The magazine quoted a visitor who had been shown the gun, which is kept in a small study off the Oval Office where Bush displays memorabilia. It is the same room where former President Bill Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky.

Bush shows Saddam's gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.

"He really liked showing it off," Time quoted a visitor as saying. "He was really proud of it."

White House spokesman Jim Morrell said, "The president was proud of the performance and bravery of our armed forces and was honored to receive it on behalf of the troops involved in the operation."

First of all, what the fuck is this: It is the same room where former President Bill Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky. ?

How the hell is that related in any way to the story?

Anyway, so what we got is a president who's never worked an honest day in his life, never had to pay any dues, has had his whole life on training wheels thanks to his familial connections, who was AWOL from his daddy-appointed stint in the national gaurd... keeping the gun of a tin-pot dictator like war booty, pulling it out to brag about it to friends.

Bush is a fucking pussy. He's got no right to prance around on an aircraft carrier like he's a warrior and he's got no right to pretend he's led anything, and to pretend he's conquered anyone. He's a mediocre, emotionally stunted, petty little man sitting on top a virtual junta and he's got the balls to go to these war colleges and pretend he's a soldier, he's got the gall to say shit like "bring 'em on", thinking he's making some sort of brave sacrifice.

Good god I can't stand him. He's a child. A fucking child. He's got zero class, and sometimes that's why I think he's the perfect president for this fucked up country.

I have no doubt members of the 101st fighting keyboarders think this is the coolest thing ever, think it's real macho for the prez to have war booty in his office.

We're so doomed.


posted by Tim 4:06 PM

Saturday, May 29, 2004

 
God...

Gallery Owner Attacked for Iraq Abuse Art

A San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison — a black eye delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to a painting that depicts U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners.

...
Guy Colwell's painting, titled "Abuse," depicts three U.S. soldiers leering at a group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a blindfolded woman.

...
Two days after the painting went up in a front window, someone threw eggs and dumped trash on the doorstep. Haigh said she did not think to connect it to the events at Baghdad's notorious prison until people started leaving nasty messages and threats on her business answering machine.

"I think you need to get your gallery out of this neighborhood before you get hurt," one caller said.

She removed the painting from the window, but the gallery's troubles received news coverage and the criticism continued. The answering machine recorded new calls from people accusing her of being a coward for moving the artwork.

Last weekend, Haigh said a man walked into the gallery, pretended to scrutinize the painting for a moment, then marched up to her desk and spat in her face.

On Thursday, someone knocked on the door of the gallery, then punched Haigh in the face when she stepped outside.

People suck.

You know, I think the US is doomed. Really. I can easily imagine this country being some sort of fascist democracy in 25 years or so. You know, democracy in name only and fascist for all intents and purposes. People like the person who spit on her or the person who punched her would be quite happy to live in a country that more or less repressed everyone unlike themselves-- intolerant "patriots" with SUVs and big-screen TVs on credit. The religious right explicitly wants to live in a theocratic (fascist) state. Folks who hang out at little green footballs or free republic would be perfectly fine if "liberals" were round up and imprisoned or what-not.

The right has pretty much lost all perspective. People who demand their country be accountable to its people and people be acountable to its laws are seen as "traitors". If you understand the US is a nation of laws, not men, you're going to be considered a traitor to these folks, really.

There's not much further to go for this country to completely and irrevocably lose its essence. And all of this, all of it is being done in the name of the US, in the name of the constitution, in the name of freedom. People just don't get it.

We had it. We had it for quite a while. We're going to lose it. Europe is probably going to contain the world's only viable democracies in 20 years or so because they've been through the cycle already. We sort of invented liberal, secular democracy, we're gonna be the first the completely trash it too.

I guess I'm being maudlin, but I have no faith in this country any more. I live around stupid people. Really fucking stupid people. Uneducated, ignorant, paranoid, stupid people. More and more and more as the gap between rich and poor widens it seems the bottom half of this country just gets dumber and dumber, the 20 or 30% above that get more and more resentful of the bottom half and more and more "conservative", and the top 20% or whatever just more and more entrenched.

I don't think it's something we can pull out of.

I work in the securities industry and all I see are wealthy people helping other wealthy people get more wealthy. Are poor people helping other poor people get... anything?

We've failed as a society, the right has won. The bottom half is filled with ignorant, stupid poor people because that's what the last 30 years have been producing with no serious commitment to education, infrastructure, urban planning, or representative democracy. This country has slowly been reformed to be a country ripe for the wealthy to exploit and get more wealthy. The day the SS tax was created as a regressive tax and income taxes slashed was the first nail in the coffin. Now we have a large portion of the populace thinking a "flat" tax is more "fair" and "easier" (note to idiots who believe this- it's very easy to figure out your tax rate, and wealthy people can make money with money, the income tax isn't shit to them even when it's up to 70%), and that non-earned income shouldn't be taxed at all!

That's insane! We have people with 5 million dollar accounts where I work and they don't pay a goddamned dime on any of it. They buy a bunch of munis, for example, and they don't pay a cent of tax, they get (right now) a 5% return courtesy of tax-payers, and all that cash they just put into more munis and get more money from taxpayers... it grows and grows and grows and they never pay a single cent in taxes!!

You're paying for their wealth! You! You "libertarian" asshole who thinks absolute self-interest only benefits the world. You "conservative" with a small business who thinks poor black people are getting your tax money. They aren't! Rich people are! And while you do all your hard working and feel like some sort of fucking uber mensch because you're "creating wealth" while everyone else just consumes... you're working your ass off so some millionaire can collect all those ad valorem taxes you've been paying.

Shit, man. If you'd pull your ass out and support national health care, education spending, and commitment to infrastructure and community development annd high fucking taxes for wealthy people who DON'T NEED ANYONE'S HELP, the playing field would start to level. Regular people wouldn't be so burdened with the cost of living and could eat out a little more often in your shitty restaurant. Kids would come out of school a little smarter and maybe they could work the cash register. Your neighborhood would improve and maybe it wouldn't be such a dive location any longer...

Shit. I don't believe in the power of this nation's history and laws any more. Nope.

posted by Tim 6:50 PM

Thursday, May 27, 2004

 
On the Judy theme...

I find it real interesting that the complete, utter and entire rationale for war has been proven, beyond a doubt, to be complete bullshit... and the fucking war isn't even over yet. I mean, it's not surprising, being that plenty of people knew the entire rationale for the war was complete bullshit before the war even started... it's just interesting that there is no longer any pretense that the justifications had any merit among people who aren't complete cunts.

That is to say, even though it doesn't get much press, it's already an open secret it was all complete bullshit and Cheney, Bush, Wolfowitz, Powell, Rice, Bolton, Feith, Negroponte, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the gang are all utter cretins who will not hesitate to lie out their ass 24/7. I mean, all you got to do is read the WaPost, and/or the NY Times, and the WSJ and you'll be confronted, somewhat intermittently, with irrefutable evidence that they're all a bunch of lying fucks.

Man, has it ever been that quick? Did it take a few years for it to become clear Reagan and Bush and Feith and Negroponte and Poindexter were all a bunch of shit faced liars?

Interesting. Not that it matters. This country is full of fucking idiots. I mean, support for the Prez in the 40's? Jebus people, wake the fuck up already. That should be in the teens at best.


posted by Tim 5:33 PM

 
How's that?

Judith Miller, the ugly, kool-aid drinking whore of Ahmed Chalabi (it's not mean if it's accurate) had this to say about her shitty stories filled with shitty bullshit shittyness in the New York Times that helped get this country's idiotfolk all up in their stupids and supporting of the war:

"You know what," she offered angrily. "I was proved fucking right. That's what happened. People who disagreed with me were saying, 'There she goes again.' But I was proved fucking right."

You know I looked around at her old articles and nowhere did I see her write:

"I'm a fucking hack piece of shit."

So I can't really say I know what she's talking about.


posted by Tim 5:26 PM

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

 
Infant Obsession

Fifteen babies.

Michelle Duggar's family says that the mother is all smiles after delivering her 15th child.

Both the baby and mother were doing well, although Michelle was feeling some discomfort because the birth was her second by Caesarean section, said father and former state legislator Jim Bob Duggar's mother, Mary Duggar.

...
Home briefly from the hospital later Monday, Jim Bob, 38, sounded a bit tired but happy. He said his wife and new son were doing fine. He said he leaves the decision up to Michelle on whether to have more children.

"I have always left it up to Michelle because she's actually the one that carries them and does all the labor," he said. "But we both love children. Even yesterday, she said she would like to have some more."

Michelle, 37, probably will be in Washington Regional Medical Center for three or four days, said her mother-in-law, who is taking care of the 14 other children.

Michelle, who home schools her children and is helping to build the family's new home in Tontitown from the ground up, started having her babies when she was 21, four years after she and Jim Bob married. He is a real estate businessman and a former state representative.

Their children include two sets of twins, and the parents have stuck to the letter "J" for their names. There is Joshua, 16; Jana and John-David, 14; Jill, 13; Jessa, 11; Jinger, 10; Joseph, 9; Josiah, 7; Joy-Anna, 6; Jeremiah and Jedidiah, 5; Jason, 4; James, 2; and Justin, 1.

Married at 17.

15 babies in 16 years.

Arkansas.

Home schooling.

Please, as a representative of the witty and urbane, I ask you to seek some help. You have an unhealthy obsession.

The last thing the world needs is more home-schooled hicks primed for 10 to 15 babies of their own.

Stop with the babies already, 'K?


posted by Tim 8:53 AM

Thursday, May 20, 2004

 
Bizarro world...

What kind of fucking country do we live in? Man, people have lost their fucking minds. Listen to this crap:

Iraqis are ready to "take the training wheels off" and assume political power from the U.S.-led coalition, President Bush (news - web sites) said Thursday as his administration began to roll out a rough plan for the June 30 transition of authority.
...
"This has been a rough couple of months for the president, particularly on the issues of Iraq, and I think he was here to remind folks that we do have a policy and this policy is going to be tough," said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "Things, as I think he commented, are very likely to get worse before they get better."

We do have a policy and this policy is going to be tough.

And, uh... what's the policy?

In remarks released by the White House on Thursday, Bush called the handover "a complete passage of sovereignty." He did not mention in the interview with Al Zaman newspaper, conducted Tuesday, that troops from the United States and other countries will be in Iraq indefinitely.

OK. First off- that's a complete fucking lie, (scroll down to "Hersh is the greatest..." the article was in the WSJ) and the president, being the president, knows that.

Back to the incompetence:

Offering a rough outline Thursday, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was getting closer to designating the people who will serve in the new government. Brahimi has been working with Iraqis and with Robert Blackwill, an aide to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), to come up with acceptable names.

"We hope that when he (Brahimi) brings forward this slate of officers, we can quickly move that slate to the Security Council, to Secretary-General (Kofi) Annan, for all of us to take a look at and examine the quality of these individuals," Powell said.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said simply that Brahimi's candidates would be the people who take the reins of government. "I expect they will be the caretaker government," he said.

"The people he puts forward, we believe will be good representatives of an interim caretaker government until such time the Iraqis can hold free, fair and open elections" in January, McClellan said.

On Capitol Hill, Bush said he was "clearing through the muck" of criticism from Democrats who charge he went into Iraq with no strategy and still has none.

So no one is really working from any sort of policy, you just have some ideas and last minute decisions floating around and everyone's on a different page in different books in seperate rooms...

This is the coop dee gracie:

Several lawmakers said Bush reiterated his determination to stick to a June 30 transfer date.

"He talked about 'time to take the training wheels off,'" said Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio. "The Iraqi people have been in training, and now it's time for them to take the bike and go forward."

You're a congresswoman, Deborah? You fucking idiot.

He spoke in simple platitudes that play well in my district and that I, a sufferer of sever headupass disease, can grasp as well.

Fucking GOP.

It's over "conservatives". McCain was your last thread of cred and your fucking dumbass speaker of the house threw that out the window:

Hastert: "If you want to see the sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda. There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it. And, at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong."

Fucking GOP.

Man, if you sat down and really took the last 30 years apart you'd have a perfect example of the process of sub-cultural radicalization. The GOP is a radicalized group. So-called "conservatives" that still regard Bush as basically unerring are a radicalized group. There's a fine fucking line between someone who dismisses Abu Ghraib as on the level of good ol' American porn and person blowing themself up in a bus.

A fine fucking line.


posted by Tim 8:59 PM

Thursday, May 13, 2004

 
Doc update

I took a day off work this week to edit the doc. It's coming along... but man, what a pain in the butt. I have no idea if it will be worth watching outside of friends and family once done.


posted by Tim 6:29 PM