Archive for category This Blog
Gallup Poll: ‘Enthusiasm Gap’ Now 25 Points
Posted by Richard Warnick in 2010 Elections, Democracy, Democrats, Disaster, Elections, National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans, This Blog on September 2, 2010
Also, Republicans lead on the “generic ballot” by an unprecedented 10 points.
Source: Gallup.com
The last Gallup weekly generic ballot average before Labor Day underscores the fast-evolving conventional wisdom that the GOP is poised to make significant gains in this fall’s midterm congressional elections. Gallup’s generic ballot has historically proven an excellent predictor of the national vote for Congress, and the national vote in turn is an excellent predictor of House seats won and lost. Republicans’ presumed turnout advantage, combined with their current 10-point registered-voter lead, suggests the potential for a major “wave” election in which the Republicans gain a large number of seats from the Democrats and in the process take back control of the House.
Glenn Greenwald has a roundup of some of the reasons why. In general, we have a Democratic administration and Congress that steadfastly refuses to implement progressive policies. They are even plotting to roll back Social Security and Medicare.
Experiencing the Mythic (part one)
Posted by Glenden Brown in American History, American People, This Blog on September 2, 2010
Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech has rightfully taken on mythic status in American history. In the process of becoming mythic, it has been stripped of much of its depth and content. Most people will know one or two lines, and I’d wager most Americans can conjure in their heads echoes of King’s voice as as he intoned “I have a dream . . .” The full text can be found here. It’s not accidental that so many of the people interviewed over the weekend at Whitestock talked about the myth of King, the myth of American unity. The entire event is a prime example of the ways in which some people experience myth.
As human creatures we experience the mythic – it is part of how we live and relate to one another. We hear and trade stories of the past which both shape and express our understanding of the world. As for example, I think every school child in America has heard the story about George Washington and the cherry tree. It’s part of our American myhthos. These myths serve mutliple purposes and are believed partly because they are consonant with who how we perceive their subjects but they also serve as moral instruction for us – want to be president you must be great from birth, you must be honest, humble . . . blah, blah blah. Not for nothing, this tendency actually creates problems – if the leaders of the past were such great men, then our leaders today cannot possibly measure up.
In the 1960s, the US produced three mythic leaders – John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. All three men were originally seen as liberal icons but they have moved into mainstream American mythology, they belong to all of us. JFK and RFK seem to embody the same myth – the great leader cut down before his time of greatness, the myth of great hopes dashed. For MLK the myth is different – his assassination seems to not figure much into the myth around him, rather he is remembered for the phrase “I have a dream” and a generalized perception that he wanted to unite all Americans. Generally when we think of these figures, we think of them as “good guys.” Conservatives have dedicated a huge amount of time and effort to create a similar mythology around Ronald Reagan. They have been partly successful – among conservatives Reagan is regarded as one of the greatest presidents ever; the mainstream has yet to agree to that consensus (although Reagan is regarded generally positively); actual historians are less sanguine. It’s probably ancillary but I think it’s interesting that Reagan’s greatness arises from the perception of his foreign policy successes while the Democratic leaders are regarded positively for their domestic policies. Read the rest of this entry »
Glenn Beck’s Most Articulate Supporters
Posted by Glenden Brown in American People, Bigotry, Glenn Beck, This Blog on August 31, 2010
Exactly how are these boy-raping barbarians worth the life of a single American soldier?
Posted by Glenden Brown in This Blog on August 31, 2010
I blogged before about the dancing boys of Afghanistan and quite frankly I’m still pissed off about it.
All of this was so disconcerting that the Defense Department hired Cardinalli, a social scientist, to examine this mystery. Her report, “Pashtun Sexuality,” startled not even one Afghan. But Western forces were shocked – and repulsed.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means “boy player.” The men like to boast about it.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2010/08/28/INF21F2Q9H.DTL#ixzz0yDg3yy8W
So let’s review: American soldiers are dying in Afghanistan so Afghani men can rape boys. What a bunch of ignorant, ass-backwards, retrograde, worthless pieces of crap. Course while they’re raping boys at night they’re stoning gay folks during the day and while they’re at it, treating their women like crap. If they want to live in a Medieval wonderland maybe we should let them enjoy the full effect. And when they’re dying of preventable diseases or can’t get antibiotics and their arms and legs are rotting off, maybe then someone could say to them, “This wouldn’t be happening if you’d like to join the modern world. Maybe you could stop raping children while you’re at it.”
Minnie Lopez and the Flying Boob
Posted by Glenden Brown in This Blog on August 31, 2010
For your entertainment.
Minnie Lopez was a coworker. Dynamic, funny, all of five feet tall. She had worked, for some time, in an expensive salon. Well one night, she and her coworkers were invited out to a party at a club. They arrived and realized the club was in fact a rather extensive gay bar. Well one of her straight coworkers was unclear on the concept.
Well a leggy and attractive woman began chatting him up, he being quite drunk, began responding. They were talking, touching. Minnie, a few feet away, started laughing; she was sober enough to know a drag queen when she saw one.
Straight guy was massaging the leggy woman’s breast. Being a drag queen, it was a fake breast. At point, he fondled it too hard. It popped out. Without even batting an eye, the drag queen caught the flying boob and stuffed it back into her bra. Drunk straight guy said, “What was that?”
Drag queen: My breast.
Drunk straight guy: Huh?
Drag queen: That was my breast. But it’s back in place now.
Drunk Straight guy: Huh? How . . .
Drag Queen, pulling her breast back out of her bra: See, my breast.
Drunk straight guy: You’re a dude?
Drag queen: Not in these heels I’m not!
Minnie Lopez and the flying boob, everyone!
Glenn Beck is the Justin Bieber of American Public Discourse
Posted by Glenden Brown in Activist groups, American People, Conservative, Conservative Sell-Outs, Glenn Beck, This Blog on August 30, 2010
Ezra Klein once shrewdly described Dick Armey this way: “He’s like a stupid person’s idea of what a thoughtful person sounds like.” Tweaking his sentence, I would say that Glenn Beck is a stupid person’s idea of what an ethical public figure sounds like. (Just like Justin Bieber is a tweener’s idea of what a good singer sounds like.)
I forced myself to listen to Glenn Beck’s speechifying at Whitestock this past weekend. Beck’s entire shtick is based on presenting a character who is earnest and earnestly distressed by what he perceives as the harmful direction of the nation he loves; everything about his style – his relatively unassuming attire, his sincere sounding delivery, even the addition of his slightly professorial eyeglasses is designed to create the impression of an honest, trustworthy figure. Even in his interview with fellow Fox news propaganadist Chris Wallace, Beck portrayed himself as a humble, trustworthy, ethical man, someone who is just so pained by what he sees going wrong in America. (Here’s a link to part of that interview.) Watch Beck’s body language throughout the interview, listen to what he says. He has created a persona that is (at least superficially) very humble and almost achinginly earnest: Read the rest of this entry »
How Do You Define ‘Non-Political’?
Posted by Richard Warnick in Activist groups, Bigotry, Conservative, Free Speech, Glenn Beck, National Politics, Sarah Palin, Tea Bag Party, This Blog on August 29, 2010
Yesterday’s Beck-a-thon at the Lincoln Memorial was billed unconvincingly as a “non-political” event, and “not a Tea Party rally” in order to circumvent National Park Service rules. But somebody forgot to tell the participants to leave their right-wing partisanship at home. Which is OK by me because, you know, free speech is as American as apple pie.
h/t Scott Keyes at Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, Gawker, and Associated Press.
Incidentally, if anyone is serious about restoring the honor of America then how about calling for prosecutions of torturers and torture conspirators — as required by the U.N. Convention Against Torture?
More info: BuzzFeed: The Best Anti-Glenn Beck Signs At The Glenn Beck Rally
‘Take Back Utah’ Redux
Posted by Richard Warnick in Activist groups, Conservative, Environment, Gary Herbert, Jason Chaffetz, Mike Lee, Public Lands, Rob Bishop, This Blog, Utah Politics, Wilderness on August 28, 2010
Congressional candidate Morgan Philpot speaking at “Take Back Utah” rally
Maybe “Sagebrush Rebellion II” is losing momentum. At 1:00 pm, I counted no more than 300 people at the second “Take Back Utah” rally today at the State Capitol. The Salt Lake Tribune said there were 5,200 participants in an earlier ATV parade up State Street, but nearly all of them were gone by the time the politicians showed up to speak.
The complaint seemed to be how terribly unfair it is that Utah is blessed with millions of acres of uninhabitable but breathtakingly beautiful public lands. Governor Gary Herbert was the keynote speaker, complaining that there aren’t enough places to ride ATVs in Utah. Rep. Rob Bishop alleged that the Obama administration is plotting to proclaim more national monuments. A video from Rep. Jason Chaffetz seconded that suspicion. Congressional candidate Morgan Philpot also spoke briefly.
Lobbyist Don Peay told us of his preference to get rid of wild wolves in the West, before they eat all the game animals that hunters want to shoot (that’s his theory, anyway).
There were more speakers, but they all offered variations on the same theme: the federal government should not protect land but give it away — to state governments, to ranchers, to the mining industry, to the petroleum industry, to the timber industry, and to irresponsible off-roaders. That’s taking Utah back, all right — to the 19th Century.
More info:
Salt Lake Tribune: Thousands of off-road enthusiasts ride to the Capitol
Deseret News: 5,000 rally to ‘Take Back’ Utah’s public lands
KSL-TV: Thousands of outdoor enthusiasts set out to ‘Take Back Utah’
Related One Utah posts:
Back in the Sagebrush Again (August 8, 2009)
The Sagebrush Rebels Are Back Again (July 28, 2009)
Do planes need a kids-only section? Yes, it’s called the ground.
Posted by Glenden Brown in Mental health, People Are Nuts, Society, This Blog on August 25, 2010
From an article in USAToday:
Nearly 60% of more than 2,000 travelers polled by Skyscanner, a fare-comparison website, say they want airlines to create such a section. In addition, nearly 20% said they’d prefer child-free flights. [snip]
Skyscanner spokeswoman Mary Porter says results of the unscientific poll are not surprising. A previous poll found that young children are the “most annoying” factor on flights. “I can still remember that feeling of dread when you found yourself seated next to a baby on a long flight,” Porter says.
It’s bad enough being trapped in a tin can soaring through the sky at 500 miles an hour without having to listen to your kid screech and scream and carry on the entire time. Keep your screaming, misbehaved bundle of joy at home and spare the rest of us. Either that or sedate the little monster before you put it on the plane.
Of course it’s not all kids and it’s not all parents and that’s the problem. I’ve been on flights where some parent is doing everything they can to calm down their distressed and hysterical child; they give them a bottle, they give them snacks, they hold them, they comfort them and still the child shrieks and shrieks and shrieks; seeing a parent who actually is trying to do something about it you can suffer through it – you suck it up and deal. I’ve been on flights where some drooling moron obviously doesn’t give a shit that their kid is emitting an ear-splitting shriek that probably has dogs on the ground barking in response. A while back, I was on a flight with a woman who plopped in her ass in her seat and slept while her child shrieked at the top its lungs until I literally thought blood was coming out of my ears. I was ready to toss both the woman and her monstrous offspring out the plane at 30,000 feet. Someone actually cheered when the child STFU for a minute. The flight attendant finally had to wake the mother and tell her to do something – and the mother was rude to the FA about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Fox “news” is inspiringly stupid!
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), Capitalism, Disaster, Fox Lies, Hypocrisy, Mental health, People Are Nuts, This Blog on August 24, 2010
LATWTTGALI, (laughing all the way to the grave and loving it.)
Watch this:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Parent Company Trap | ||||
|
||||
What’s Wrong with 20-Somethings? Nothing a Decent Economy Wouldn’t Cure
Posted by Glenden Brown in American History, American People, Economy, This Blog on August 23, 2010
I haven’t been inspired lately, sorry for the silence.
I saw this long article at the NY Times bemoaning the terrible 20-somethings in our society who are all lazy and living with mom and delaying adulthood. In the last few months, I’ve heard an increasing chorus of adults in their 30s and 40s bemoaning the awfulness of the next generation; I just can’t share that dyspeptic view. Every birth cohort has to mature in its own way, shaped by the influences they experience as children, teens and young adults. And the trends these adults are bemoaning were being actively bemoaned when we were in our twenties.
Even by the grotesque standards of the 80s and 90s, higher education has become ridiculously expensive and student loan programs far more stringent. I finished grad school with fifty grand in debt; I know people who finished college with that then went on to grad school and ended up with a hundred plus thousand in debt, married to people with similar debt loads. A year at the U these days is about ten grand without housing (non resident tuition is significantly more). Very few young people have ten thousand dollars a year just laying around. That means student loans; even if they’re working, chances are good they won’t be earning enough to pay everything, that means increasing credit card debt. Upon graduating, the jobs just aren’t there – that means living on credit or with mom and dad.
The Times’ article wails: Read the rest of this entry »
69% of Americans: Let Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich Expire on Schedule
Posted by Richard Warnick in American People, Bush Administration, Deficit, Economic Exploitation, Economy, Federal Budget, National Politics, This Blog, congress on August 21, 2010
Via Raw Story: A new CNN/Opinion Research poll released on Friday indicates that a whopping 69 percent of Americans want the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire at the end of this year. Eighty-one percent favor extending them for the middle class.
CNN/Opinion Research poll (PDF):
As you may know, the tax cuts passed into law when George W. Bush was president are set to expire this year. Unless a new bill is passed, federal income tax rates will rise to the level they were at when those cuts were enacted. Which of the following statements comes closest to your view:
31% -Those tax cuts should continue for all Americans regardless of how much money they make
51% – Those tax cuts should continue for families that make less than 250 thousand dollars a year, but taxes should rise to the previous level for families who make more than that amount
18% – Taxes should rise to the previous level for all Americans regardless of how much money they make
To avoid ballooning deficits, all the Bush tax cuts will have to be allowed to expire when we recover from Bush’s Great Recession. The Congressional Budget Office calculates that extending the tax cuts for all but the rich would likely boost economic growth in the short-run but could hamper it over the next decade as the deficit would rise to 8 percent of GDP by 2020.
Related One Utah post:
How Long Are We Going to Keep Blaming President Bush for the Results of His Bad Policies? (June 28)
UPDATE: Mitch McConnell’s Con: Cut Social Security to Enable Tax Cuts to the Rich
killed
wounded
Recent Comments