Shuh-ZAYM!

Gomer for President

Have you ever noticed that the people who comment on blogs are often funnier or more insightful than the bloggers themselves? Case in point: today a NY Times blog discussed the Rev. (and presidential hopeful) Mike Huckabee's claim yesterday that President Obama "grew up in Kenya." The comments, as you can imagine, rightfully mocked the good reverend's feigned ignorance of Obama's biography. I picked 3 I thought were especially good. I couldn't stop laughing after I read the last one - and still can't! Enjoy!

nmetro

Longmont, Colorado

March 1st, 2011

4:11 pm

Let's see, President Obama has been in office for 25 months. He ran through a 12 months campaign, and there was three months between the 2008 election and when he took office. So, there was at least 15 months for the various authorities who guide elections to determine President Obama's place of birth; which was Honolulu, Hawaii. His birth announcement was published in two Honolulu newspapers at the time. And according to at least teh 14th Amendment to the US Constitution makes him a citizen by birth. Regardless of the fact, that both his parents were citizens of the United States at the time.

So, now 40 months after President Obama started seeking office of president of the United States, we have Mike Huckabee questioning the birth location of President Obama seems to show the ignorance of Mr. Huckebee. Ignorance in the Us Constitution foremost and ignorance of the facts that have already been proven many months ago.

As far as where President Obama was raised, well how about Kansas and Indonesia. Not Kenya, though Mr. Huckabee gets points for getting the "K" right, just that he is off by about 4000 miles.

In the end, why would anyone elect such an ignorant person to elected office; let alone governor of a state or even to the office of president of the United States? The problem with all of this is about 25% of the US population actually believes that a sitting President was not born in the United States. Even though he was properly vetted to make sure of his citizen status nearly four years ago. It goes to show that the dumbing down of America continues in its full fury.

Bob

Portland, OR

March 1st, 2011

7:41 pm

This is the result of a 'faith-based' world that has been imposed on America since Raygun. Facts don't matter. Proof isn't need. Data is irrelevant. What you believe is all that counts. Birthers believe that Obama isn't a valid president so, in their minds he never will be. Evangelicals believe in the literal Bible, and so it is Truth. Never mind scientific reality, Evolution isn't real, Global warming isn't real. Obama grew up in Kenya (even though he didn't visit until he was in hi 20's) is just another delusion they cling to.

decker

WA

March 1st, 2011

10:52 pm

Until I read this, this character was just another abysmal political hack among many who made his share of background noise,

Now, huckleberry has been promoted to dunce, and that is the status that will remain until his Christian burial.

[See original NY Times blog post at http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/huckabee-questions-obama-birth-certificate-claims-he-was-raised-in-kenya/?scp=2&sq=huckabee&st=cse]



When Life Imitates Art

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110301/ap_on_re_us/us_hummingbird_drone

SAN DIEGO – You'll never look at hummingbirds the same again.

The Pentagon has poured millions of dollars into the development of tiny drones inspired by biology, each equipped with video and audio equipment that can record sights and sounds.

They could be used to spy, but also to locate people inside earthquake-crumpled buildings and detect hazardous chemical leaks.

The smaller, the better.

Besides the hummingbird, engineers in the growing unmanned aircraft industry are working on drones that look like insects and the helicopter-like maple leaf seed.

Question: does this make anyone feel safer? It definitely does not make me feel safer. The room for abuse is huge, and I'm afraid the temptation to abuse this technology would be too great for states - or even individuals possessing the means - to resist. Anyone remember the spider robots from Minority Report (2002)?

http://movieclips.com/Vpwa-minority-report-movie-spider-robots/

I think that Americans are being conditioned to equate "security" with the very absence of security. They are - we are - spending tens of billions dollars more (rather than less) every year on "defense." So much that in fact the US spends more on its military than the military expenditures of the entire rest of the world combined: around a trillion dollars if you include our nuclear budget. Stuff like these hummingbird robots. Not cheap. Not necessary (particularly in a time of economic need). But the money for such programs is always abundant. No matter how the rest of America is doing economically. So - to paraphrase MLK - every time a bomb drops in Afghanistan, it explodes in our cities, leaving a great many of our citizens destitute, unemployed, desperate. Without hope.

That's the real crime here.

And how do you even begin to fight that?

I'm Only . . . Human?

You know what I find depressing as hell? It's aging celebrities that undergo a thousand surgical procedures in order to "look young." Newsflash: you don't look young - you look like a cyborg. You look scary. You look desperate. But the one thing you definitely don't look is young.

What the alternative? The alternative is to age gracefully. It doesn't take a hell of a lot of money (unlike plastic surgery), but it does take a little bit of effort. What it requires most of all is exercise. 30-60 min. a day is all. Not only is this healthy for you internally, it's healthy for you externally. You feel better . . . and you look better. One of my Karate teachers is a 55 year old woman. She looks fantastic. Not that I ever think I will achieve her level of fitness, but she can do pushups on her fingertips. Totally revolutionized my own perception of  what it meant to grow older.

I think there's a moral level to this, as well. I think we older people have to set a standard for the young. And if we spend tens of thousands of dollars in the service of our own vanity, what message does this convey to the young? Moreover, plastic surgeons are MDs. There are people all over our country who are in serious need of medical care. What does it say about us as a country when so many millions have no access to health care at all while the rest of us seek out doctors not because we need them to heal us but because we want the doctors to help us feel less insecure about our looks?

It's time we began acting like grown-ups. We can begin by looking like grown-ups.

And loving ourselves for it.

The "Tea Party," Part 1

Useful Idiots

You're probably familiar with the term "useful idiots" but for the uninitiated, it's a term - usually ascribed to Lenin - for people who consider themselves allies of political movement but are secretly held in contempt by that movement. And so it is with the Tea Party.

Ask a Teabagger sometime why he considers the Obama presidency - which is all of 2 years old - to be "tyranny." You're likely to hear one (or a combination) of the following.

A) "The country's broke! I want a balanced budget. Spending is out of control."

B) "There are too many government programs." 

C) "He's going to take our guns!" 

D) "He (Obama) is a Muslim!"

E) "He's not an American, wasn't born here, and so his presidency is unconstitutional!" 

You know, we all want a balanced budget. But tell me this: where were these "Tea Partiers" from 2001-2008? Not in the street - that much is for sure. Bush started 2 wars that show no sign of ending anytime soon. To fund these wars (wars of choice I might add), he had to ask Congress for "emergency appropriations" when it became clear that these glorious military campaigns the US had supposedly won at lightning speed had not been won at all. These spending bills were typically in the  100 billion dollar range. As if this weren't enough, Bush did not even allocate any money for these wars in the budgets he submitted to Congress. How much did Congress give him? Every. Penny. He ever. Asked for.

So much for congressional oversight.

And where was the Tea Party? Here: I'll tell you where they were:

[cue sound of crickets]

Hear that? That's what there was: silence. There was no Tea Party. Which leads an intelligent person to ask: Why the sudden genuine, heartfelt, non-partisan opposition to government spending? The answer is that the Tea Party "movement" has nothing to do with opposition to government spending. It has to do with the idea of getting the Republicans back in power. That's generally not the way the Teabaggers see it - but I guarantee you it's the way the Republican leadership - which had fucked up on an unprecedented scale - sees it.

Above all else - above the welfare of the citizens of this country - the Republican leadership wants to see Obama fail. They've made no secret of it. As Mitch McConnell told the National Journal last year: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." So they tell the useful idiots that "spending is out of control." The useful idiots go out on the street. Maybe vote, ushering fanatics into power who proceed to defund everything. The current economic situation gets even worse. Obama gets blamed. And there you go: 2 years after leading the country to war economic ruin, they're back in power. Meanwhile the same idiot who is out on the street carrying a misspelled sign just voted into office people who are going to aggravate his economic misery, slashing those programs on which he actually depends: defunding the schools his kids attend, moving to privatize or otherwise abolish the Social Security he's going to need on when he's retires, cutting VA benefits that provide assistance for the soldiers he claims to support, slashing the (modest) stimulus funding that had provided so many jobs in his state. And so on.

Useful idiots . . .

[to be continued]

Born in the USA

Welcome to the Present . . .

Have you ever asked yourself: Are most people actually zombies? No, of course you  haven't. Because zombies don't exist. Having said that, 80-85% of all people in the US have a LOT in common with zombies (to the extent that one can have a LOT in common . . . with a zombie). Consider:

1) Zombies are not particularly attractive. Been to Wal-Mart lately?

2) Zombies are consumers. They do little else than consume.

3) Zombies are not very good at thinking independently. They pretty much follow what they see the mass of other zombies doing. 'Nuff said.

4) Zombies have an terrible diet that is lacking in green vegetables . . . lacking in green anything, actually. Been to Wal-Mart, lately?

5) Zombies are easily fooled. Hell, with a little bit of forethought you can fool zombies into doing things that are actually hurt their cause.

6) And you can get them to fall for the same trick again and again. Zombies are not known for learning from their mistakes.

7) Zombies are very inconsiderate. They will take a chunk out of your neck . . . with nary an Excuse me or Sorry about that to be heard.

8) Zombies are only interested in their own individual welfare. They could give a shit about other zombies  (even when it would benefit them individually to do so - ironic, huh?).

9) Zombies have no appreciation for the arts.

10) Zombies have ugly teeth don't care what they smell like.

On a completely different note . . . been to Wal-Mart lately?