First we have the near-smiting of Rudy in the Republican debate. I think its funny that just this week the Tom Ridge Pavilion was hit by lightning... no one hurt. I'm not a big believer of these kinds of things but it saddens me to know that Falwell isn't here to help us draw conclusions.
"The people of the Czech Republic don't have to choose between being a friend of the United States or a friend with Russia," Bush said in his stop at this former Soviet satellite. "You can be both. We don't believe in a zero-sum world."
We don't, huh? Cause I thought people were either for us, or against us. I thought we were either for our troops in the way you impose or against them. Must be nice to be the Decider. In the zero-sum world.
What I want to know is: why aren't we more concerned about the transport of nuclear waste in the region? Why aren't we concerned about who can get their hands on this material, who the highest bidders might be? While we spend our billions on misguided folly, we have gaping holes in our security in the hands of a joke agency.
A suggestion was made at The Peace Train to post a "tribute" of sorts on our individual blogs, to essentially honor the efforts of Cindy Sheehan and to talk about her efforts, her questions, and her conclusions. It is not necessary for anyone to be all things to all people in order to be appreciated. I happen to personally think she has been courageous. But even if I didn't, I would giver her credit for her years of dedicated activism. The smear tactics don't change the substance of who she has been. They have tried to diminish her personally because they fail in the debate. At one blog, they even stooped to writing about how Code Pink women are not attractive. (um, mirrors, assholes?) Yeah, thats some quality discourse! Change the subject much????
I think her decision is unfortunate, but who could blame her for wanting to go back to her home and live her life? She has been attacked for everything, from her health to accusations of exploiting her own son's tragic death. She has become a participant in a debate frought with partisan bullshit and apologist post-rationalizations. And yet, through all of the chatter, has anyone REALLY answered her question? What is the noble cause? Sum it up, folks! Cut to the chase, let's hear it. Freedom? Well thats like saying the cause is Happiness. It is subjective, and supposedly we are a nation of people that value autonomy over the imposition of what is "best". We do not like being told what is best for our families, do we? These people want local control of schools, state sovereignty, right? But they support one nation deciding another is "wired wrong" and should be destroyed and rebuilt to code?
If we say "to keep America safe"- why cant people really identify how we are accomplishing that when we are doing exactly what terror groups hoped we would do- increase anti-American sentiments? Our occupation has increased their recruitment gains, not weakened them. We know that we can't fight terror by "hunting them down". We know that we can't run from sanctuary to sanctuary smoking them out of their caves, we know that without the hearts and minds of their communities, these sanctuaries will again become friendly to those that hate us.
We know that we are stretching our military too thin, rendering us unprepared for a REAL threat. The fact that amateurs attacked the freakin Pentagon and civilians had to bring down the plane over Pennsylvania instead of military intervention shows that regardless of what you think about that day- there are some REAL problems that remain unfixed. We are not prepared for emergencies, and spending is out of control.
They say we want America to be weak, pussy. I say that strength hardly comes from being driven by fools into the ground.
Is this the noble cause? To become distracted, weakened, partisan-fixated, resource hungry, broke, hated, distrusted, violated- while chickenhawks talk about a war most of them would never fight in? No wonder Cindy Sheehan is disgusted, wondering what the hell is going on, wondering what the "new" congress is doing, wondering what the point is. WHAT IS THE POINT?
Maybe if critics of the anti-war movement could stop mocking Sheryl Crow a second and TALK SUBSTANCE they might have some real answers and could perhaps actually answer her question. We're still waiting.
So it's a time out for Opithony, following the Imus fallout. This time, it was XM following rape jokes made during an Opie and Anthony show. The dumbass duo apologized but it's pretty hard to believe that they regret their actions when they characterized the Imus firing as "ruining a career" when he was just trying to "entertain" people. I'm sure they would say that they too were just "entertaining" people. Imus chose to say what he said, how is he a victim? Seems he should suck it up now and deal...just like they tell the people offended all the time. Suck it up, deal with it! Free speech.
Sure, its a free speech issue. And I'm not against free speech. But people that are tired of it have the right to turn it off and companies have the right to cancel their ads and the stations have the right to draw a line. Don't they? It's my free speech to say I dont like rape humor. It seems like anytime people feel offended, they are accused of being PC freaks. Being offended makes a person a tight ass with "issues". But yet, people like to talk about declining moral values and the big loss of respect and the way that "kids today" don't appreciate or acknowlege the value of people. The remedy must be prayer, but certainly not a frank discussion about how it feels to be a belittled victim of a violent crime. Now I understand that humor is a tricky thing, and I myself have participated in or laughed at things that perhaps crossed a line for other people. All lines are different. But at some point, we need to reject some of this because it seems like the Stern copycats of the world are just trying to out-shock each other now. Publicity is money, and they know it. These brats need Super Nanny.
Today I was told that this makes me a hypocrite because I talk about freedom and yet-don't like people that laugh at rape. Well... I don't love robbers or polluters. So? I reserve the right to say I dislike whatever the hell I want to dislike. I am not saying that people can't make their own choices, I am just saying that I am tired of it already. If you make shitty food, your restaurant will close. If your humor is lazy- same concept. Shut up and use the time to think of something original beyond orgasmic cats and belch-a-thons.
