kuniform

I was going to stop posting these things, and for awhile, because of graduate school finals, I had stopped. Soon, however, I’ll be posting more hopeful messages. Focussing on the partisan politics going on in Washington, and the efforts of lobbyists, Skull’n’Bones cabals, space aliens, or the religious right makes you live life through the feverish eyes of those whackos. So, though I thank Joshua Micah Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.com for providing links to fine stories like these tracking the corruption, I can’t help but feel they are only going to be useful to historians. They can point back to articles like these (once they rediscover electricity in the year 2719) and say, this is when the American Empire really began to lose the vestiges of a republic.

Instead of reading these future post mortem missives of the reality based community about the fanatics, I am going to begin looking for items which are non-partisan but helpful and which people can do everyday. I’m sure there’s a metric ton of these types of sites out there already, but that is true for right/left wing vitriolic blogs as well.

Also, maybe the issue for the internet/blogosphere political movment and/or the Democrats to solve is this: what are the core issues around which they can attract voters regardless of party.

In other words, is there a contract with America that the blogosphere can produce and then ask officials running for election to endorse, regardless of party? Maybe this is a way to focus moderates or other voters based on a set of some very straight-forward agenda items. I’ll be eventually opening this up to comments, once I can de-cruft the movable type spammage floodgates.

I think the general ‘why’ question of attempting to disentangle myself from corporate economics is obvious, at least to those on the left. And I’m sure those in the anti-globalization movement would look at me and consider me a corporate spending fascist.

I am trying to strike a balance of freedom, empowerment, and sustainability, both of the environment and of my effort. I don’t want to try to be a birkenstock wearin’ super-green eco vegetarian for 1 week, and then give up when it’s too tough. So, little by little. Yeah, I’m a meat-eater, and probably do a ton of other things ‘wrong’ in the eyes of the enlightened, but I bet I will get more support than distain from ‘em in my efforts. At least, I hope so.

So, to my friends on the insular God-fearing judgemental evangelical front, please stop worrying about the rapture and building the temple. Think instead about the fact that polar bears will be gone by 2100, and how your mutual fund dollars support this economy. Why not invest in something like this instead? Or in Al Gore’s new fund? Oh, yeah.. because he sighs when idiots tell lies near him during presidential debates. Sorry.

A Pravda columnist’s article excoriating the U.S. religious right. An incredible read. Lots of Russian hyperbole, but if you stick with him until the end, you will see it’s not hyperbole, it’s pure, unadulterated pain. I stole the link from AndrewSullivan.com.

Also, for bonus points, read how the unelected powers behind the power are weighing in on moderate Republican Senator Arlen Specter’s assertion of free will.

Dr. Dobson, please take your bigotted views off national TV and put them on a sandwich board. That way you can put it over your shoulders like a cross, and carry it up and down the street like all the other “the world is gonna end tomorrow” wackos.

God bless you, and me. I despair for my soul that I am such a small man that I experience visceral hate at the thought of a man with a smaller, meaner soul, like you.

Though I can’t speak for the Democrats in their debates over whether to go further left, right or center, I can speak for myself. And my self is sayin’ to me one thing: go left, young man. And it’s not sayin’ it in terms of taggin’ some graffiti or handin’ out socialist newspapers during rush hour, that’s for youngsters, and it’s valuable in its way.

I’m fighting with the dollar. This is not a new revelation, that in a ‘free’ market you vote with your bucks, but it’s with more conviction that I am settling into it. If the same folks who want to vote for getting fucked by W and company’s neo-fascist agenda are gonna support ‘em by buyin’ their Old Navy crap on credit while suckin’ on a Coke bottle teat, go right ahead. Don’t forget to stop at McDonald’s afterwards, and feed the beast within as you slop the corporate beast, too.

Me, I’m not puttin’ my pennies into it. I am one person, and it does nothing to the market, but it does nothing for me but improve my health, support my local businesses and lessen the amount of time I will have to work. More on this later, mayhap.

You know, I went to Wisconsin and got out the vote for Kerry so crap like this wouldn’t happen: “Members of Grantsburg’s school board believed that a state law governing the teaching of evolution was too restrictive. The science curriculum “should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory,” said Joni Burgin, superintendent of the district…”

It’s a slippery slope, and when you begin skiing down it blindfolded, you will do yourself and your felllow skiers some damage. By the way, I’m not tryin’ to sound all cool saying I got out the vote in Wisconsin.

A) It’s a lot less than many did on both sides, especially on the conservative side, since they just came out and kicked our asses (‘cept in Wisconsin, thank you).

B) No one should have had to get out the vote, just monitor the elections. We all should have done it, and given Kerry the most, instead of the second most votes, ever, disenfranchisement bitching aside.

How’s that other big news story, the war in Iraq (not on terror), going? Swell, for the insurgents, who, if you put this story together with the several out there about the insurgency infiltrating the Iraqi Army equals an insurgency intelligence victory. You can do the math yourself on the cost of bribing a Captain versus the CIA, but the score is 1-0 al Qaeda on Saturday.

Have a great weekend, wherever you are, Mrs. Calabash.