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MguyXXVI 
"X marks the spot"
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 Posted - 01/20/2009 : 06:03:11
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The word tampon is French. It derives from �tampion,� the name for the hardened mud and mucus mixture that hibernating bears stick up their bums to prevent being devoured from the inside by industrious ant colonies and other parasites during the relative defenselessness of hibernation.
8 (2008). I wish that eight years ago � before this inexplicable moral and ethical slumber that fell over the U.S. � I should have taken all of my money and my values and shoved it up my own ass with a little spit and mud to prevent this horrible, hollowed-out feeling of devastation that lingers from these last parasitic eight years.
Asleep At The Wheel On The Road To Nowhere (2004). Slow and methodical, bit-by-bit the Bush administration and its policies crawled into all of our asses. They feasted on our civil rights, our relative peace, and our financial well-being, carrying them out in tiny bundles 25 times the magnitude of what it seemed they were taking. All while we slept. At least that's what it seems like, because the devastation felt worldwide under the industrious feet of those greedy little minions has been a nightmare, set against the staid halls of our elected representatives - who did nothing to stop it.
Blame It On Fidel! (2006). At first I blamed Ralph Nader. He took small but significant percentages of votes in the 2000 election in Ohio and Florida that cost Al Gore the election. Then I blamed Al Gore. He followed on the heels of a very popular president and allowed his own ego to stand between capitalizing on the Teflon president�s proven appeal. Then I blamed the Democrats. They blew a ton of good will with complacency, and they fielded another candidate whose charisma mirrored the somnambulence of the sleeping millions he was supposed to rescue. Then I blamed the Republicans. Hell, they�re Republicans: they deserve to be blamed for putting up such a dangerous nitwit as a candidate.
It's Not Your Fault You're Stupid (2006). But in the end, the fault lies 100% with me. I fell asleep. I didn�t do more not only to defeat Bush in 2000, but also in 2004. It was my fault. I should have spent every waking moment screaming at the top of my lungs to anyone who could hear, simply relating the facts about the open thievery and deception that characterized the Bush administration. I should have organized an armed rebellion, a coup � anything! I should have done more than simply grumble to myself and shake my head, like some sporadic apnea during a fitful dream.
Curious George (2006). Good bye George Bush. I hope that I am awake, and that this isn�t some terrible dream of promise within a continuing nightmare.
Awake (2007). And if I�m awake, I hope I never sleep again. |
Edited by - MguyXXVI on 01/20/2009 07:55:34 |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 06:41:38
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Um... does that mean you are a Democrat?
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 07:35:18
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Okay, can I ask you guys over there in the USA a question?
Thanks!
Why, on Gods green earth, after all the lies, blunders and corruption, didn't anyone think to impeach this idiot? Certainly the US Army having 4000+ deaths and countless injured in Iraq is a hellofa lot better reason to impeach a president than that tiny little fib about an affair that hurt only three people, all of whom are still alive and well and suffering only embarassment, NO?
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Edited by - ChocolateLady on 01/20/2009 07:36:16 |
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MguyXXVI
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 07:56:54
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Shhhhhhhh!!!!!
(We were sleeping.)  |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:16:27
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Okay, can I ask you guys over there in the USA a question?
Thanks!
Why, on Gods green earth, after all the lies, blunders and corruption, didn't anyone think to impeach this idiot? Certainly the US Army having 4000+ deaths and countless injured in Iraq is a hellofa lot better reason to impeach a president than that tiny little fib about an affair that hurt only three people, all of whom are still alive and well and suffering only embarassment, NO?
...because in the America of the Moral Majority a blowjob is a worse crime than lies, deceit, electronic stalking, voter fraud, financial malfeasance, self-righteousness and believing God was on his side?
Which reminds me of a point in a biography of Abraham Lincoln that I read. Lincoln noted the oddity that both sides in the Civil War truly and profoundly believed that God was on their side. He pondered the irony of soldiers on both sides of the battlefield praying that God help further the cause. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:18:25
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quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
Shhhhhhhh!!!!!
(We were sleeping.)
Apparently it is an epidemic of mononucleosis brought about from kissing Dubya's butt!
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Sal[Au]pian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:25:10
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| I can never decide which was worse -- the fraud in 2000 or the fact that people voted him back in in 2004. |
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Sal[Au]pian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:30:56
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quote:
Originally posted by wildheartlivie
Which reminds me of a point in a biography of Abraham Lincoln that I read. Lincoln noted the oddity that both sides in the Civil War truly and profoundly believed that God was on their side. He pondered the irony of soldiers on both sides of the battlefield praying that God help further the cause.
It's amazing that anyone can choose to believe in a Christian God (or most other gods) and think that He supports any war. It goes against the whole point. |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 10:19:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
quote:
Originally posted by wildheartlivie
Which reminds me of a point in a biography of Abraham Lincoln that I read. Lincoln noted the oddity that both sides in the Civil War truly and profoundly believed that God was on their side. He pondered the irony of soldiers on both sides of the battlefield praying that God help further the cause.
It's amazing that anyone can choose to believe in a Christian God (or most other gods) and think that He supports any war. It goes against the whole point.
I think this was part of what shook Lincoln's faith. He ultimately had doubts about God. I have always known Lincoln was a great man - after all, they taught us that in school - but I really didn't know how deeply he thought, and felt, until I read a couple biographies which weren't gussied up grade school versions.
I had a client who was severely disabled from epilepsy - it took a great toll on his intelligence over a 15 year period - but he had attended the school they had where I worked when he was young. He would come up to you and ask for a penny and when you gave it to him, he'd ask "Do you know who this is???" We'd say Abraham Lincoln (who is on the penny). He'd then say "Do you know what they did to him??? They shooted him!!!" You'd ask who shot him and he'd answer "John Wills Bruce. And then he ran to the garage and they hang-ged him!!" It was a story that stayed with him although he couldn't remember our names. How much more involved all of it was than that. I was astounded by the subterfuge that went on prior to Lincoln's assassination.
In any case, as Craig Ferguson would say "It's a great in America, folks."
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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 10:24:21
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quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
Shhhhhhhh!!!!!
(We were sleeping.)
Alas! What a dead sleep  Over on this side of the water, we were screaming ... WAKE UP, DUNDERHEADS!!
Now don't get me wrong, the new guy is a refreshing change in that he's intelligent and proves a person can be erudite without sacrificing accessibility. And he can pronounce nuclear! But. I say it here and you can check back in four years: Nothing radical will change. Not in quintessential policy either domestically or with the rest of the world. Except that he will approach all this with a more analytical understanding.
He has already reneged on Guantanamo closure. Which means someone has told him something with authority to change his mind. And why don't the rest of us get to know what that is.
And please don't tell me about a War on Terrorism. You simply cannot believe that meaningless phrase. As I said when I first heard it - it's like saying you're at War with Dust. And I'm sure our Northern Irish friends thank their lucky stars that Bush wasn't running British IRA policy, or every time there was a mainland attack the military would carpetbomb the Republic and occupy Northern Ireland to smoke out Bin Laden --- uhm I mean Gerry Adams.
The lasting 'crime' of the past 8 years is the jolting shove to the ultra-right, when the country was already dangerously planted on the borders.
So, whatever the noobie wants to do already seems like commie-leftie ploys even to MOR peeps.
The best change will be the exit of Cheney, who can rival Attila the Hun.
I'm glad Obama's in, because the thought of McCain/Palin makes me puke. What's deceptive about Obama's campaign language is - and let's not forget he's a lawyer - the abstract, sometimes ambiguous expression of goals. It isn't quite but it's in the same ball park as Mom and Apple Pie. Because he knows the political machine ain't that easy to operate and he can't afford to alienate anyone. And if even I have heard the appalling racist and facist comments on US talk-shows, blogs and forums - surely Obama must know such  s are more than a handful.
So Americans do what they always do -- get all excited when the name on the door changes. Then slam the door when they realize they've got the same old/same old. And as the rest of the world looks on in horror until they awaken again, until they admit they were sleeping. PS - the UK sure has slipped into the US vortex and perhaps the Obama era will allow them to crawl back out.
We have the most amazing opportunity at the moment to have a public debate about the unthinkable. To just ask questions without them being dismissed by those with a vested interest in keeping them unasked.
I mean a serious debate about why the tenets of a corrupt financial situation should be rescued - and by our own money. Talking about something doesn't mean it must happen. It means we'd show some courage with ideas. I'll wait and see whether Obama's abstracts encourage thoughts of another way. Another way than killing. Another way than making sure the foul inequities that demean the majority for the pampered sake of the few at least come into question.
I had to assess a property website the other day for its use of photography. It specialized in huge - I mean HUGE houses in stunning California beachside settings. I think the cheapest was about 20 million dollars and they went up and up and up from there. A quarter of a billion bucks for a house?!
Do I begrudge folks living nicely as they gaze at the sea? No I don't. What angers me is that no politician ever makes plain the connection between military budgets that depend on fomenting wars and conflicts - and the impoverishment of the majority in order to marginalize them politically and socially - and the mass corruption of financial institutions that pollutes so far and wide.
Perhaps Pres Shrub couldn't see the connections, but his puppeteers could. Surely Obama and Co. see the connections. For now I understand his priority is to unify a splintered and wounded nation. Let's see whether that process leaves him enough time to ask the dangerous, provocative questions.
Otherwise, he can preach Hope but nothing much will Change. I hope he can do it, I really do. I'd like to feel something other than shame for being American.
Obama's election is a good start. But it's just a start.
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Sal[Au]pian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 10:32:05
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quote:
Originally posted by wildheartlivie
We'd say Abraham Lincoln (who is on the penny).
Yup, I know that from Bedtime Stories and I know from Slumdog Millionaire that Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill (actually, I might have known that already as gangstas talk about Benjamins, don't they?).  Anyway, yes, he does always seem like an intriguing and thoughtful person, even if my understanding of his death is muddled by National Treasure. Not that I would encourage anyone to believe in God, but it's interesting that it affected his belief in Him rather than in (the justness of) war, though as wars go it's hard to object to that one.
So, who knows how successful this presidency will be, but I do believe that Obama will try very hard and make much better decisions than Bush. He'll also clearly be more popular than Bush internationally, which will be as important as anything he actively does. |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 11:25:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
quote:
Originally posted by wildheartlivie
We'd say Abraham Lincoln (who is on the penny).
Yup, I know that from Bedtime Stories and I know from Slumdog Millionaire that Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill (actually, I might have known that already as gangstas talk about Benjamins, don't they?). Anyway, yes, he does always seem like an intriguing and thoughtful person, even if my understanding of his death is muddled by National Treasure. Not that I would encourage anyone to believe in God, but it's interesting that it affected his belief in Him rather than in (the justness of) war, though as wars go it's hard to object to that one.
So, who knows how successful this presidency will be, but I do believe that Obama will try very hard and make much better decisions than Bush. He'll also clearly be more popular than Bush internationally, which will be as important as anything he actively does.
The Civil War was about so much more than slavery, although that was ultimately a happy consequence from it (well, from most perspectives, I suppose). I can't recall National Treasure 2 now, but the reality was that to begin, Booth & Co. weren't planning to assassinate Lincoln, but to kidnap him to bargain for the release of Confederate prisoners of war in March 1865. When that fell through, the plan the next month was then to assassinate a number of high ranking people, including failed attempts on Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward (who was recovering from severe injuries received in a carriage accident). The man who tried to kill him actually got into Seward's house and attacked him there; his name was Lewis Powell, who was kind of a good looking young guy. They wanted to throw the US government into chaos. That failed, too.
The four who were ultimately executed were hung hanged for conspiracy, quite quickly, considering. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865 and the conspirators were hung on July 31 the same year. Booth, of course, was killed during the hunt for him. They also wanted to hang Dr. Samuel Mudd for conspiracy, as he was thought to be involved in the planning. That couldn't be proved, only that he treated Booth's broken leg. He spent somet time at Fort Jefferson, which was being used to house Union Army deserters. Fort Jefferson covered all one of the islands in the Dry Tortugas off Key West, Florida. Mudd cared for yellow fever victims a couple years later and was then pardoned by Andrew Johnson a couple years after that. Despite that, his name fairly remained Mudd.
(Oops, sorry for history lesson. Everyone take out a piece of paper for a pop quiz now.) |
Edited by - w22dheartlivie on 01/20/2009 23:17:25 |
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BiggerBoat 
"Pass me the harpoon"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 11:30:54
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quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
Shhhhhhhh!!!!!
(We were sleeping.)
Go back to bed America. |
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Sal[Au]pian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 12:04:08
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Thanks for the history lesson, w.h.l. (That sounds sarcastic but I mean it straightforwardly.) I didn't know that it was to be a kidnapping originally.
B.B., sorry, I missed your post before as you made it while I was writing my much less interesting one. Yes, I agree with the core of all you've said, even though I still feel relatively positive as mentioned above. I did not know his position on Guantanamo, but had already taken for granted that it would be kept. It would be very hard (politically rather than practically) to shut it down now that it is there. Also, the low-level terrorists/innocents who went in there are now torture-hardened and so releasing them en masse would be very problematic, although I still think it should be done. I don't necessarily think there's any secret evidence in favour of keeping it, and hope and to some degree expect that the numbers there will lessen and the situation be made closer to legal. Cannot agree more about the ridiculous term War on Terror. As you point out, it is not a war as a whole. There are specific wars going on with specific people (one of which is not supposed to be due to terrorism anyway). Secondly, as you allude, it is terrorism, not 'terror'! It angers me that so much of the media (virtually all of it, as far as I can tell) goes along with that nomenclature that was invented purely to terrorise people. So it's more of a War of Terror on the populace (of all sides, in fact) than one against it. However, I think the perception of a leader makes as much difference as anything else. If people feel positively about them (and as a result the country), they act more positively in their lives. Without wanting to endorse "Yes we can" too much (because (i) it is so vague and banal and (ii) it makes me think of Bob the Builder), they have more of a can-do attitude. This happened with Cool Britannia and all that, although perhaps that has added to our problems now. Obama is not going to make Americans feel great in the current climate, but if he gives them any sense of hope and stability then they are more likely to spend. Us too.
On banks and house prices and bailouts, I try to understand the situation as well as I can but I am fundamentally not interested in economics (else I would have studied it and been part of the problem while making myself well off however much I might now be whining about having been made redundant with a massive pay-off). My natural inclination is that I don't like rotten institutions being bailed out (partly because they should be punished and partly because they will not learn to mend their ways), but overall I trust that it is essential to keep the economy afloat. It's especially irksome that we are having to nationalise banks of all things, after privatising so many sectors that we would have been better to keep and with the constant threat of the same being done to remaining ones. It's similarly grating that talk of helping people is always couched in terms of families and mortgages. What about single people and others who could not afford a mortgage in the first place and so have been struggling on paying more in rent than they would have had to do buying? (I realise that in very recent times, mortgages probably have been higher than rent in many cases but that hasn't been for so long.) Frankly I just hope that the unsaleability of homes expands the rental stock and lowers rents. |
Edited by - Sal[Au]pian on 01/20/2009 12:23:52 |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 12:20:45
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
What about single people and others who could not afford a mortgage in the first place and so have been struggling on paying more in rent than they would have had to do buying?
And the people answered "Amen!" |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 01/20/2009 : 12:25:52
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Um... I think it would be even more accurate if you called it the "War on Terrorists" since that's the only thing against which you actually can wage a war.
As for Obama, one thing is perfectly clear. Not since JFK has America had a president that can inspire that much belief in him when he speaks. Clinton had his moments, but he did sound slightly stilted at times (I thought about using the word "stiff" but that would evoke in all your dirty minds that whole Monica business, and well, you know, who really gives a shit about that today, anyway?). But Obama - he sounds naturally inspired in what he's saying and that he truly believes what he's telling us. Mind you, that has its plusses and minuses, and while nostalgia keeps JFK as a favourite US President in most people's minds, reality actually shows he didn't do a hellofa lot while he was in office*.
So, all things considered - let's hope that there's actually some positive action behind the fascinating words and velvet voice of #44.
(*Not that he had all that much time, but still...)
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Edited by - ChocolateLady on 01/20/2009 12:26:40 |
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RIP - The George W. Bush Era
